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Courage fundraiser for Chelsea Manning’s legal appeal

On the day that heroic WikiLeaks whistleblower Chelsea Manning walks free from Fort Leavenworth, Courage is partnering with Reporters Without Borders and the Wau Holland Foundation to kickstart a much needed fundraiser for her legal appeal.

President Barack Obama’s decision to commute Manning’s sentence rather than grant her a pardon leaves the precedent of her 2013 Espionage Act conviction for whistleblowing fully intact. The ramifications of Chelsea’s 35-year sentence take on new significance under a US administration that has made unprecedented threats against media freedom.

Chelsea’s legal appeal will have wide-ranging, long-lasting implications for the future of whistleblowing and journalism in the US and beyond. In recognition of this, Reporters without Borders and the Wau Holland Foundation have joined with Courage to start the fundraiser with an initial 20,000 Euro. Members of the public can donate below.

Nathan Fuller, a campaigner with Courage who attended and reported on Chelsea’s court martial, said:

I have spent the last several years of my life working toward this day, and I’m so grateful that it has finally come. It’s so important that we follow through, and not rest on this victory. There’s no chance of President Trump reforming the draconian Espionage Act that was used against Chelsea and other whistleblowers. But it’s a near certainty that we’ll see more leak prosecutions, and soon. Chelsea’s appeal is our only hope of challenging this bad law and improving the situation for the whistleblowers Trump will prosecute in the future. It’s also our best chance of enabling Edward Snowden to come home.

Chelsea Manning’s attorney, Nancy Hollander, said:

Chelsea’s release today is a tremendous victory after a long, hard-fought battle. We are overjoyed at her release from prison. But the battle continues: her legal appeal remains an incredibly important effort to challenge her unfair trial. Chelsea should never have been charged with violations of the Espionage Act, or held in solitary confinement for almost one year, under conditions tantamount to torture. Please continue to support her as we fight in her appeal to clear her name.

Manning, who was convicted in 2013, had her 35 year sentence commuted by President Barack Obama in one of his last acts in office. She will be released today, 17 May, having served almost 7 years of a 35 year sentence.

Chelsea’s appeal began after her trial in 2013. Her defence team filed its application to the Army Court of Criminal Appeals last year and the government is now due to respond. The process will continue through 2017 and if unsuccessful, it will continue to higher levels, possibly to include the US Supreme Court.

Update: We are excited to announce that CodePink, a women-led grassroots activist organisation, has contributed $6,000 to Chelsea Manning’s appeal fund, bringing our organisational total above 25,000 Euro. CodePink has long supported Chelsea Manning, appearing at her trial and speaking out about the crimes she exposed, and now they’ve stepped up to strengthen Chelsea’s vital appeal.

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News

Open letter to Donald Trump: drop charges and investigation against WikiLeaks

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Courage News Julian Assange News

WikiLeaks is Courage’s newest beneficiary

Courage announces publishing organisation WikiLeaks as its newest beneficiary. The announcement follows reports that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) is now preparing charges against WikiLeaks members, in particular its founding editor Julian Assange.

The DOJ has been running an unprecedented and wide-ranging investigation into WikiLeaks for its publishing and sourcing work since 2010. It has involved paid informers, illegal interrogations in Europe and secret search warrants. Recently CIA Director Mike Pompeo called WikiLeaks a “hostile intelligence service”.

Offences cited through the investigation, and allegedly in the charges, include conspiracy, espionage and theft of government property. Recent reports cite Cablegate, the Iraq and Afghan War Logs and Vault 7 publications as well as WikiLeaks’ work in getting NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden asylum, as key to the investigation.

This is about more than one publisher. It is about press freedom more broadly and the steady erosion of the First Amendment in the United States. The Obama Administration prosecuted more whistleblowers than all presidents before combined, and ran the longest investigation into a publisher ever in the US with its WikiLeaks Grand Jury. It has continued to the point where Trump’s Department of Justice has stated that charging WikiLeaks Editor, Julian Assange, is now a “priority”.

Courage’s chief demand is for the US to close the Grand Jury investigation into WikiLeaks and to drop any charges against any WikiLeaks staff. Courage’s campaign for WikiLeaks is launched on a new site, IamWikiLeaks.org, along with information on the continuing work of WikiLeaks and the actions taken against it. You can follow @CourageWL on Twitter for updates. Courage needs your help to fund WikiLeaks’ team of lawyers in multiple jurisdictions: https://iamwikileaks.org/donate

This is the first time Courage has taken on an organisation, as opposed to an individual, as a beneficiary. We are working to ensure the protection of all WikiLeaks staff, including Julian Assange, Joseph Farrell, Sarah Harrison and Kristinn Hrafnsson.

Because she is now a beneficiary, Sarah Harrison will be stepping down from her role as Acting Director of Courage and the Trustees will take on high-level managing decisions.

Julian Assange continues to be arbitrarily detained in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he has asylum due to the US threats against him.

Courage Trustee and journalist John Pilger said:

In standing up for WikiLeaks, we are defending courage — the courage of those who say ‘no’ to the perennial bullies seeking a divine power over human affairs. Founded and led by Julian Assange, WikiLeaks has provided people all over the world with an armory of truth about wars and politics and the aims of violent, unaccountable power. This is real journalism and a principle of freedom so fundamental that its defeat would mean the conquest of all of us.

Fellow Trustee and human rights lawyer Renata Avila said:

What we are defending here is larger than Wikileaks: we are defending the ability of journalists and citizens, regardless of their nationality, to hold accountable the most powerful government in the World by exposing its secrets, uncovering wrongdoing, and keeping us all informed. The fight for press freedom is more urgent than ever. Will your voice be silenced? Or will you join us to tell them, THIS ENDS NOW.

WikiLeaks members have several lawyers in many different countries and jurisdictions, and Courage needs your help to fund them: https://iamwikileaks.org/donate

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News

Courage marks World Press Freedom Day

Wednesday 3 May marks World Press Freedom Day, amid a growing consensus that press freedoms are at risk internationally. Since 1993, the UNESCO-initiatied event has been used to draw attention to threats to free expression. The past year journalists have found themselves at severe risk in many countries, with the situation in Turkey, Syria and Azerbaijan being particularly acute. 

Continue reading “Courage marks World Press Freedom Day”
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News

Appeals court upholds LuxLeaks whistleblower convictions

Updated with quotes from the ruling below

A Luxembourg appeals court has upheld the convictions but reduced the sentences of two former PwC employees who blew the whistle on rampant tax evasion. In 2014, it was revealed that Antoine Deltour and Raphael Halet passed confidential tax rulings, documenting widespread multinational tax avoidance, to journalists. The ICIJ published the documents as LuxLeaks, in a release that directly implicated the president of the European Commission Jean Claude Juncker. Just this week, EU Competition Commisioner Margrethe Vestage has confirmed that the disclosures were justified.

Deltour and Halet were convicted of theft and breaking secrecy laws, and Deltour was given a 12-months suspended prison sentence. Edouard Perrin, a journalist involved in the initial wave of disclosures, was one of the original defendants alongside the whistleblowers, but he was acquitted. All three rulings were appealed, and today an appeals court has confirmed the convictions but reduced Deltour’s suspended sentence to six months.

The appeal ruling was swiftly condemned by a number of MEPs:

In a statement released by his support network, Deltour responded: This disappointing judgment constitutes an additional argument for going ahead with recent European initiatives towards whistleblowers’ protection”.

As the support network explains, the decision “presents a disturbing contradiction: it recognizes the whistleblower’s role and the public interest of the revelations but anyhow concludes on a condemnation. Once again, private financial interests seem to take priority over the collective interest and the rights for information. This sentence postpones the expected change of era in Europe regarding tax issues, whistleblowers’ protection and the right of information.”

The appeals court has missed an opportunity to right an obvious wrong. This ruling should give new impetus to the movement to institute whistleblower protections on an EU level. The European Commission is currently running a public consultation, with a closing date on 29 May 2017.

Antoine’s support group notes, “Deltour will go through the arguments presented in the written judgment before deciding whether or not to go to a possible appeal to the Court of Cassation.”

Update

The Luxembourg Court of Appeals’ ruling is now online (French). Notably, the court discusses the defendants’ invocation of Article 10 of the European Convention, which protects freedom of expression. However, as the ruling notes, the whistleblowers “do not intend to invoke Article 10 of the Convention as a cause of justification, but instead, ask the Court of Appeal to ascertain whether the infringement their right to freedom of expression, in particular their right to impart information, or is not necessary in a democratic society.”

Importantly, the court acknowledges that the LuxLeaks release was in the “general interest.” The court writes, “This essential freedom [of expression], enshrined by a supranational text, can not be defeated by internal national rules. Thus, in the context of a debate on an issue of general interest on tax avoidance, tax exemption and tax evasion, freedom of expression of the whistleblower may, if necessary and under certain conditions prevail and be used as a fact justifying the violation of national law.”

Deltour’s support team remarks, “For the first time, a European national judge recognizes the legitimacy of violating the professional secrecy for the general interest. It is an unquestionable moral victory.”

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News

End persecution of Zambian journalist Dr M’membe

The Courage Foundation calls for an immediate end to all legal and political persecution against Zambian journalist Dr. Fred M’membe, his lawyer and his family.

While he was giving a lecture in Jamaica, Dr M’membe’s home in Zambia was raided and his wife, Mutinta Mazoka M’membe, was arrested, detained for two nights and then released on bail. She’s due to face charges in court on 3 March.

Police are pursuing Dr M’membe on allegations that he is interfering with the liquidation of his former newspaper, The Post. Mutinta launched a new paper, The Mast, in response to the government’s crackdown on The Post, and authorities have attempted to prevent printing of The Mast. An arrest warrant has also been issued for Dr M’membe’s lawyer, Nchima Nchito.

In a statement responding to these developments, Dr M’membe said,

The liquidation of The Post is supposed to be a civil issue. The use of the police, intelligence officers and the entire state machinery, including State House, is unwarranted. It is impunity of the highest order.

Dr M’membe is a fierce advocate of freedom of the press in Zambia. He was honoured with the International Freedom of the Press Award in 1995 and has a long record as an investigative journalist. The Zambia government’s persecution, the raid on his home and legal threats to him and his lawyer constitute a clear attempt to silence his important voice.

Courage Trustee Renata Avila said:

This raid is only the latest in a long string of attacks on press freedoms in Zambia. Dr M’membe has been hounded for speaking out for journalistic rights, and Zambian authorities should be ashamed. These trumped-up charges must be dropped at once.

Courage demands that the Government of Zambia ceases this persecution immediately so Dr M’membe can safely return home.

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Legislation News

Britain eyes up its own Espionage Act

The United Kingdom already has some of the strictest rules on official secrecy in the world. As Ian Cobain details in his recent book The History Thieves, Britain’s strong secrecy culture has ben used to keep information about colonial policy and foreign policy, and even entire military campaigns from the British public. Large archives held by UK government departments in contravention of public records laws, containing some information that is centuries-old, have come to light in the past few years.

Continue reading “Britain eyes up its own Espionage Act”
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Chelsea Manning Courage News News

Courage Trustees on Chelsea Manning’s commutation

Reacting to the news that President Obama commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning, Courage Trustee Vivienne Westwood said:

Let’s dance and sing and scream and shout, Chelsea Manning is let out!

Courage Trustee John Pilger said:

Barack Obama, no doubt in the spirit of cynicism and opportunism that has characterised his presidency, has released Chelsea Manning – whom he declared guilty even before Chelsea’s travesty of a trial was over. This is wonderful news and justice for Chelsea, a hero of our times. Now Julian Assange, whose struggle for justice is also a universal struggle, should be set free unconditionally.

Courage Trustee Renata Avila said:

When Chelsea Manning was arrested, I tried to activate the Interamerican System of Human Rights for her protection. The response was a timid statement, only in December 2010, and only when her revelations were under unprecedented extrajudicial censorship. The regional human rights protections failed. Likewise, neither Amnesty International nor Human Rights Watch would advocate for her and the other people subject to political persecution and a secret grand jury for years.

This is a lesson for the time to come. We need expedite, efficient, resourceful and above all, free and fearless mechanisms to protect whistleblowers. They are risking their entire life and future. As Chelsea, they risk their lives. They can´t wait. Let´s all work in solidarity for all cases against journalists and whistleblowers to be immediately shut down.

Courage Trustee Susan Benn said:

Chelsea Manning certainly deserves her freedom after facing inhumane cruel treatment in a male prison for almost seven years, all condoned by Obama. This President has issued an unprecedented number of prosecutions of whistleblowers during his time in the White House as well as an extensive ongoing Grand Jury investigation, held in secret, of the activities of Julian Assange. This investigation should now be closed.

 

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Chelsea Manning News

Obama commutes Chelsea Manning’s sentence

After nearly seven years in unjust and abusive confinement, heroic WikiLeaks whistleblower Chelsea Manning will be free on 17 May 2017. President Obama has commuted Chelsea’s sentence, releasing her from prison in five months’ time but leaving her conviction intact.

Continue reading “Obama commutes Chelsea Manning’s sentence”
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Justin Liverman News

Alleged Crackas With Attitude associate Justin Liverman signs plea deal

Justin faces up to five years in prison; sentencing scheduled for 12 May 2017

Justin Liverman, center left, with his legal team
Justin Liverman, center left, with his legal team

Computer science student Justin Liverman, who was arrested by the FBI in September on suspicion of involvement with Crackas with Attitude (CWA), has signed a plea agreement. CWA claimed to have accessed emails from the AOL account of CIA Director John Brennan in late 2015, which were later published by WikiLeaks as the Brennan emails.

Justin is one of five individuals arrested on suspicion of involvement with CWA, and one of two – both US nationals – to face likely charges under the notorious Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

Justin was scheduled for indictment in the Eastern District of Virginia on 28 December 2016. Working with his legal team of Tor Ekeland, Jay Leiderman and Marina Medvin, he instead opted for an agreement in which he pleads guilty to one felony count of conspiracy in return for a reduced sentence. The agreement stipulates that CWA caused 1.5M USD of damage, with $95,000 of that due to Justin.

Justin still faces a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment and likely restitution payments. His sentencing hearing will be held on 12 May at 9AM.

Sarah Harrison, Acting Director of Courage, said

Without CWA, the public would not know that the Director of the CIA did not take adequate precautions around his own security clearance questionnaire. There’s barely any point talking about “cyber attacks” from sophisticated nation state actors when the highest level officials are leaving the front door wide open.

If John Brennan will not face any penalty for his negligence, there’s no good reason why anyone else should do. Justin Liverman’s potential sentence is outrageous given the relative triviality of the Department of Justice’s allegations. Courage’s emergency appeal for Justin will remain open until he no longer needs our assistance.

Tor Ekeland said:
This is yet another instance where the CFAA’s potentially draconian penalties outweigh the actual harm alleged. That the head of the CIA, an agency that undoubtedly hacks the personnel emails of adversaries around the world to blackmail them, failed to use two step authentication is scandalous. The same can be said of the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Service, a national law enforcement database that was allegedly accessed through the same simple social engineering technique. Nothing was really hacked in this case because important government officials and agencies left the door wide open. One hopes that hostile nation state actors didn’t walk through that open door before Justin did.
Jay Leiderman said:
Justin has today admitted to taking part in the relatively newly-minted beneficent tradition of providing information the public must know to WikiLeaks. Crackas With Attitude have shown the world that the heads of the CIA, the National Cyber Command and US Homeland Security are themselves so cyber-insecure that it appears they were cut straight outta incompetence. It’s time for the US to stop snooping on citizens and to get its own house in order.
Marina Medvin said:
Crackers with Attitude, aptly named, cracked entry into our highest ranking government officials’ accounts; easily too. What they also did was “crack” our over-trusting, optimistic perception of the American government. They showed us the need to second-guess our government’s promise of security and trust. I personally believe that significant good will come of this; that our government will implement stronger and more secure data policies – hopefully strong enough to keep kids from reading it and redistributing it.
Courage will continue to support Justin Liverman through his sentencing and beyond. Please contribute to Justin’s emergency appeal to help pay his legal expenses.