Category: News
The latest news from Courage Foundation
The whistleblower turns 29 as she awaits Obama’s response to clemency request
Imprisoned whistleblower Chelsea Manning turns 29 today, her seventh birthday in prison, just days after a White House petition calling on President Obama to grant her time served has reached 100,000 signers, forcing the White House to respond.
Chelsea’s year has been marked by prison punishment, outrage at her treatment and widespread support for her freedom and proper medical care for her gender dysphoria. Chelsea attempted to commit suicide earlier this year, feeling her fight for adequate treatment was futile. In response, rather than providing Chelsea with what she desperately needs, Fort Leavenworth punished Chelsea with solitary confinement for the attempt. When that punishment was enforced without warning, Chelsea made a second attempt on her life.
Since then, Chelsea has been resilient and inspiring, reinvigorating her dual fights, for rights for trans prisoners and for her freedom. She has written eloquently throughout 2016 for a Medium column on her progress and feelings. On her medical care battle, she wrote,
The bottom-line is this: I need help and I am still not getting it. I am living through a cycle of anxiety, anger, hopelessness, loss, and depression. I cannot focus. I cannot sleep. I attempted to take my own life. When the USDB placed me in solitary confinement as punishment for the attempted suicide, I tried it again because the feeling of hopelessness was so immense. This has served as a reminder to me that any lack of treatment can kill me, so I must keep fighting a battle that I wish every day would just end.
In May, Chelsea’s legal team has launched an appeal with the Army Court of Criminal Appeals, protesting the “grossly unjust” 35-year prison sentence. In November, the team petitioned President Obama for clemency, asking for her to be released on six years of time served.
Asking for clemency, Chelsea wrote,
I have served a sufficiently long sentence. I am not asking for a pardon of my conviction. I understand that the various collateral consequences of the court-martial conviction will stay on my record forever. The sole relief I am asking for is to be released from military prison after serving six years of confinement as a person who did not intend to harm the interests of the United States or harm any service members.
I am merely asking for a first chance to live my life outside the USDB as the person I was born to be.
This month, the White House petition for Chelsea’s clemency topped 100,000 signatures, which means the Obama Administration must respond to the request. Her freedom is long overdue.
Celebrations of Chelsea’s birthday are taking place around the world: connect with fellow supporters near you.
Write Chelsea a birthday card: here’s more information on how to write.
Today, investigative journalist Barrett Brown has been released from FCI Three Rivers to a halfway house outside Dallas, earlier than initially scheduled. His parents picked him up from the federal prison to drive him six hours to his new residence. Brown’s release comes with several post-imprisonment restrictions, including a “computer and internet monitoring program”, a ban on firearms, and forced drug tests and participation in a drug treatment programme. It is as yet unknown how long Barrett will spend at the halfway house.
WikiLeaks is celebrating Barrett’s release from prison by publishing a searchable archive of more than 60,000 HBGary emails, which Barrett’s Project PM was investigating before he was arrested. In 2011, Project PM reported on Romas/COIN, a secret surveillance programme. Barrett announced the report at the Guardian: “For at least two years, the U.S. has been conducting a secretive and immensely sophisticated campaign of mass surveillance and data mining against the Arab world, allowing the intelligence community to monitor the habits, conversations, and activity of millions of individuals at once.”
You can search through the emails by keyword or category here: https://www.wikileaks.org/hbgary-emails/
Barrett has been an acerbic, invaluable investigative journalist for years. He’s written books on the modern creationist movement and the failure of elite media figures. He’s written dozens of articles on contemporary politics and the shadowy world of private and cyber intelligence. He even produced some of the best writing on his own trial and sentence.
Rather than stay quiet as surely the government hoped he would, Barrett continued his work in prison, with a column for D Magazine and then for the Intercept. He reviewed books, reported on life in solitary confinement, and exposed the systematic malfeasance of Bureau of Prison officials. Barrett has been honoured with a National Magazine Award and a New York Press Club journalism award for his column.
This vital work is one of many reasons why the world is a better place with Barrett out of prison. We need his journalism more than ever, and what better way to honour his (relative) freedom than with source documents from a shady private firm that once outlined plans to demonise and take down supporters of WikiLeaks.
On Twitter, we’re commemorating Barrett’s release with links of our favorite pieces and quotes that Project PM and Barrett were involved in. Join us with the tag #BBFree
The legal team for Chelsea Manning, imprisoned WikiLeaks whistleblower, has petitioned US President Barack Obama to reduce her prison sentence to time served. Chelsea has already spent six years in confinement, longer than any other US leaker in history. In 2013, she was sentenced to 35 years in prison after being convicted on several counts under the Espionage Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
In a statement accompanying the clemency petition, Chelsea wrote,
I am not asking for a pardon of my conviction. I understand that the various collateral consequences of the court-martial conviction will stay on my record forever. The sole relief I am asking for is to be released from military prison after serving six years of confinement as a person who did not intend to harm the interests of the United States or harm any service members.
The New York Times reports that Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, former military commissions chief prosecutor Morris Davis and Intercept journalist Glenn Greenwald submitted letters of support for Manning’s clemency.
Chelsea’s legal team, in a letter introducing the petition, emphasized Manning’s intention to “rais[e] public awareness about issues she found concerning, including the impact of war on innocent civilians.”
President Obama has overseen a broad crackdown on whistleblowers, using the Espionage Act to prosecute leakers more than twice as often as all previous presidents combined and initiating an ‘Insider Threat’ programme to root out potential disclosures ahead of time.
However, Obama has used his power of clemency to reduce the sentences of 774 inmates. Just last month, Obama granted clemency to 102 more prisoners, bringing 2016’s total to 590.
Granting clemency to Chelsea Manning, a heroic truth teller who exposed scores of atrocities and abuses despite knowing she was putting her life on the line, and who has inspired people across the globe with her courageous battle for trans rights in prison, is Obama’s final opportunity to begin to reverse his legacy on whistleblowers.
It would also be a chance to signal the proper way to treat truthtellers before the presidency of Donald Trump, who assumes the office on 20 January 2017. While Trump made opportunestic use of WikiLeaks’ 2016 disclosures of DNC emails, it’s unclear how whistleblowers will fare under a Trump administration.
Trump has yet to name his full cabinet but has floated names for various positions. For Attorney General, Trump could choose Chris Christie or Jeff Sessions, right-wing Republicans. For Secretary of State, Trump is considering, among others, John Bolton and Rudolph Giuliani. Exactly how these officials execute Trump’s worldview is yet to be seen, but we expect an even harder fight for transparency, accountability and protection for whistleblowers in the years to come.
Courage has come a long way since our launch in summer 2014. Back then, Edward Snowden was our sole beneficiary. Today in addition, to running Edward Snowden’s official public defence fund we do the same for six others — Jeremy Hammond, Barrett Brown, Matt DeHart, Lauri Love, Chelsea Manning and Emin Huseynov.
Courage’s work makes an appreciable difference in those cases we support — to our beneficiaries’ personal safety, to the visibility of their cases and in securing wide access to the information they have brought to public attention. The importance of our work is being increasingly recognised.
We could never have come this far without the support of our founding board of trustees: WikiLeaks editor in chief Julian Assange, Article 19 legal director Barbora Bukovska and dearly missed CIJ head Gavin MacFadyen.
Courage’s trustees oversee our budget, approve new beneficiaries and provide strategic direction to the organisation. With Gavin’s passing, a new board of trustees has been appointed to see us through the coming years.
Meet Courage’s new board of trustees:
Vivienne Westwood
Dame Vivienne Westwood is a world-renowned British fashion designer and political activist, who co-created punk in the 70s and elevated street style to the level of high fashion. A highly influential cultural figure for five decades, Vivienne Westwood has used her platform to campaign on political issues, bringing much needed attention to campaigns for civil liberties, human rights and climate change. In 2013, during Chelsea Manning’s trial, Dame Vivienne dedicated one of her collections to the WikiLeaks whistleblower and wore a badge with Manning’s image and the word TRUTH to the Met Ball. She was awarded an OBE in 1992.
John Pilger
A journalist since the 1960s, Australian-born John Pilger is renowned as a foreign and war correspondent in the UK, as well as a documentary filmmaker. He has won an Emmy and BAFTA Academy Awards for epic films covering Cambodia, East Timor, Palestine and Latin America. In December 2010, Pilger pledged and organised bail support to Julian Assange and featured him in his film, “The War You Don’t See.” In 2009, he was awarded the Sydney Peace Prize, for “courage as a foreign and war correspondent in enabling the voices of the powerless to be heard,” and for “commitment to peace with justice by exposing and holding governments to account for human rights abuses and for fearless challenges to censorship in any form.” He lives in London.
Renata Avila
Renata Avila is a human rights lawyer specialising in Intellectual Property and Technology. She worked as one of the lawyers representing the Guatemalan Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Rigoberta Menchu and more recently, Julian Assange and Wikileaks. Involved in Internet and Human Rights research since 2006, Renata worked with the Web Inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee and more than 125 organizations from the global south, in an effort to uphold human rights in the digital age. She serves as a Board Member of Creative Commons and is an active advisory member for the the Municipality of Barcelona’s BITS initiative, aiming at reducing surveillance and empowering citizens with privacy tools. She is currently writing a book on Digital Colonialism.
Susan Benn
After being a textile designer in Scotland, a publisher in London and New York and a photographer on assignments around the world, Susan Benn founded Performing Arts Labs (PAL Labs), to bring together leading international talents across the arts, sciences, education and cultural policy. At PAL Labs participants brought radical ideas to develop challenging new work together. Benn is currently Senior Advisor to the Centre for Investigative Journalism at Goldsmiths University, a Director of The Mind Reels Company, Founder and International Advisor for the Southasian Children’s Cinema Forum and Chairman of StrongBack, London’s new Caribbean theatre company.
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RIP Gavin MacFadyen, 1940-2016
We will keep up the fight
Courage founding Trustee and Centre for Investigative Journalism founder and director Gavin MacFadyen has passed away at the age of 76, after a few months of illness.
Gavin devoted his life to independent, investigative journalism, exposing truths, challenging power and championing truthtellers at every turn. Gavin championed the rights and principles of the persecuted, even when it was controversial to do so. He supported WikiLeaks when it was targeted by US prosecutors and he cofounded Courage, to assist those most in danger for shining a light on the powerful.
Gavin has been a vital journalistic voice for decades: In the 70s, he began producing documentaries covering a wide range of subjects, from the CIA and Watergate to the Iraqi arms trade. He was a journalism professor at Goldsmith’s University of London. In 2003, MacFadyen co-founded the Centre for Investigative Journalism, focused on teaching and advancing hard-hitting, in-depth reporting. The Centre is asking those who knew him to email GavinTributes@tcij.org “with your thoughts, stories, anecdotes, photos, videos, interviews, and anything else about Gavin that you want to share. Help us celebrate this wonderful, unique, and inspirational human being.”
Courage’s Sarah Harrison, who worked with Gavin at CIJ before she joined WikiLeaks and Courage was founded, said:
As cofounder of Courage, cofounder of the Centre for Investigative Journalism, whistleblower advocate and staunch defender of WikiLeaks, Gavin more than anyone else has been the custodian of British journalism’s conscience over the past 15 years. Gavin believed in revealing the truth and confronting the powerful every chance he got, regardless of received opinion. He stood with those fighting injustice, rather than reporting on them from a distance, dropping feigned objectivity to join battles for human rights.
As a mentor and ally, Gavin is irreplaceable. However he has founded an invaluable tradition at the Centre for Investigative Journalism, paving the way for a generation of journalists to carry out his values, and he has helped support the bravest few making contributions to the public record in founding Courage. We would not be who we are without him, and we will miss him dearly.
At our double feature event in Berlin last night, Courage announced NSA whistleblower William Binney as the newest member of our Advisory Board. Binney is a former Technical Director of the NSA who resigned on 31 October 2001 after 30 years with the agency. Binney then blew the whistle on the NSA’s wasteful, abusive surveillance programme Trailblazer when the NSA chose to use Trailblazer instead of ThinThread, a less expensive alternative programme that Binney helped produce and protected citizens’ privacy.
Since blowing the whistle, Binney has been an outspoken expert on and critic of NSA surveillance. On 3 July 2014, Binney testified to the German Bundestag’s NSA commission, describing the NSA’s indiscriminate surveillance as a totalitarian effort to control populations at large. In 2015, Binney was given the Sam Adams Award for “shining light into the darkest of corners of secret government and corporate power.” At the award ceremony, Edward Snowden said, “Without Bill Binney, there would be no Edward Snowden.”
Binney is supporting several legal challenges to US surveillance. Elliott Schuchardt, a Pittsburgh lawyer, is suing the US government, claiming that the NSA’s broad sweep violates his Fourth Amendment Rights. After several setbacks, Schuchardt learned just this month that the Third Circuit has ruled that he has standing to challenge the NSA.
Joining fellow NSA whistleblowers Thomas A. Drake and J. Kirk Wiebe, Binney provided evidence for the EFF’s lawsuit in the Ninth Circuit, Jewel v. NSA, in which the EFF is suing the NSA on behalf of AT&T customers to end dragnet surveillance.
Binney is also supporting former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson in suing the NSA over mass surveillance of his city during the 2002 Olympic Winter Games.
Binney is the subject of Friedrich Moser’s documentary A Good American, which we screened after Oliver Stone’s SNOWDEN. Stone has called Moser’s film “powerful” and a “prequel” to his movie.
Just today, Binney joined fellow protestors in demonstrating against Germany’s proposed surveillance law to be voted on tomorrow. Binney spoke out against it as the group delivered petitions against the bill:
Former #NSA officer Williams says ‘surveillance is a failure’ and not protecting from ‘any terrorists’. #BNDgesetz pic.twitter.com/LWUnW1ZqH0
— Nan Tin Htwe (@htwenge) October 20, 2016