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Courage team members participate in Reddit AMA

Courage trustee Julian Assange, acting director Sarah Harrison, and advisory board members Renata Avila, who is an internet rights lawyer, and Andy Müller-Maguhn, on the board of the Wau Holland Foundation, which collects donations for Snowden and Hammond on Courage’s behalf, participated in a Reddit Ask Me Anything session yesterday.

The AMA followed President Obama’s latest Executive Order, which authorises sanctions against ‘cyber-enabled activities’ and which journalists and supporters worry could affect those donating to WikiLeaks and Courage. In response to the order, issued 1 April 2015, Reddit supporters initiated a surge in bitcoin donations to Edward Snowden’s defence fund.

Overall, supporters have given 3.68 BTC to Courage, with 1.07 coming since the EO, and 1604 to Snowden’s fund. Supporters have given Snowden 24 BTC since the EO alone, through 236 separate donations, with the largest being nearly 8.5 BTC – worth $2000.

Questions covered Courage’s various beneficiaries, its goals and the participants’ outlook for addressing secrecy, the crackdown on whistleblowers and countering propaganda.

Harrison spoke about the ultimate effects of Snowden’s whistleblowing:

The long term effects of Snowden’s actions remain to be seen. What I hope is that the public around the world will stand up for their rights and demand change, and their governments will listen to them. I think a lot rests with users understanding the threats and protecting themselves against them.

I think the rest of Edward’s life will forever be complex, as it will for all that have stood up to the most powerful and speak the truth: Jeremy Hammond, Chelsea Manning, Barrett Brown, Julian Assange and many others. However, he has been granted asylum which offers immediate protection. I hope that in the future more countries stand up to protect him, and all those that have worked for the public’s right to know.

Harrison responded to those who say whistleblowers are “traitors” who “support the enemy”:

This propaganda happens a lot. What is very important here is to explain that throughout the whole of the Manning trial the US government was desperate to prove that some “harm” had come. In fact if could prove none. What did happen, is that the US troops began to withdraw from Iraq. What has happened since Snowden’s revelations is that citizens around the world began to protect their communications. And still not one reported “harm”. In fact we still get bombs by known person’s of suspect. It is a matter of US interests the government is protecting, not US security.

Avila discussed how people in under-developed countries can raise awareness regarding whistleblowers and privacy:

Coming from a similar country, I will say that those are precisely the countries where advocates for the right to truth and access to information in hands of the powerful are crucial. You need to directly connect it as follows: the less the people know about their governments, the more opaque they are, the more they colude with corporations and divert their actions and increase the problems distracting funds to their pockets.

Assange explained why Courage is supporting Matt DeHart:

Matt DeHart has been the subject of significant abuse by the FBI, but the case is very important legally as it involves an interplay between asylum, crypto-extradition, deportation, anonymous, WikiLeaks, espionage and pariah charges. You can read more about Matt’s case here: https://staging.couragefound.org/2015/03/matt-dehart-named-as-third-courage-beneficiary/

Assange and Müller-Maguhn also discussed systemic problems.

You can see all of Harrison’s, Assange’s, Avila’s and Müller-Maguhn’s responses, and you can review the full Reddit AMA here.

Finally, M_Cetera has compiled an easy-to-read collection of all the Courage team members’ responses here.

Support the Courage Foundation and its beneficiaries here:

Edward Snowden defence fund

Bitcoin: 1snowqQP5VmZgU47i5AWwz9fsgHQg94Fa

Jeremy Hammond defence fund

Bitcoin: 1JeremyESb2k6pQTpGKAfQrCuYcAAcwWqr

Matt DeHart defence fund

Bitcoin: 1DEharT171Hgc8vQs1TJvEotVcHz7QLSQg

Courage Foundation

Bitcoin: 1courAa6zrLRM43t8p98baSx6inPxhigc

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Journalist Chris Hedges joins Courage Advisory Board

The Courage Foundation’s Advisory Board, already comprising whistleblowers, tech experts, scholars, and activists, continues to grow. Earlier this week we announced Slavoj Žižek joined our board, and today we are excited to welcome Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges aboard.

Hedges, a former war correspondent for the New York Times, now writes a column for Truthdig, where he covers various topics surrounding threats to our civil liberties and champions those fighting against those threats.

In a debate about Edward Snowden’s actions, Hedges said, “If there are no Snowdens, if there are no Mannings, if there are no Assanges, there will be no free press.”

In February, Hedges wrote ‘Edward Snowden’s Moral Courage,’ a speech praising the NSA whistleblower’s conscientious efforts, and expanding on why we need whistleblowers if we want a free press:

There is no free press without the ability of the reporters to protect the confidentiality of those who have the moral courage to make public the abuse of power. Those few individuals inside government who dared to speak out about the system of mass surveillance have been charged as spies or hounded into exile. An omnipresent surveillance state—and I covered the East German Stasi state—creates a climate of paranoia and fear. It makes democratic dissent impossible. Any state that has the ability to inflict full-spectrum dominance on its citizens is not a free state.

In 2013, Hedges lauded Courage beneficiary Jeremy Hammond for exposing the state’s plan to criminalise democratic dissent. He attended and reported on Hammond’s sentencing, which he called “draconian.”

Earlier that year, Hedges attended and reported on Chelsea Manning’s trial, and wrote in solidarity of the US Army whistleblower here and condemned the “judicial lynching” of Manning here.

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Courage joins ‘Necessary and Appropriate Principles’ week

np-logo-2The Courage Foundation is proud to announce our support and involvement with the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Necessary and Proportionate Week of Action, leading up to the first year anniversary of the 13 Necessary and Proportionate Principles, which were first launched at the 24th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on 20 September 2013. The full text of the principles is here.

The EFF has a series of articles and campaigns for various subcategories of the week, on secrecy, transparency, public oversight, combating surveillance and whistleblower protections. Join discussion of the week of action on Twitter with the hashtag #privacyisaright

The Courage Foundation is the predominant partner on today’s topic: ‘Integrity of Communications and Systems, Protection on Whistleblowers, Safeguards Against Illegitimate Access and Right to An Effective Remedy,’ advancing the tenet that “strong protection should be afforded to whistleblowers who expose surveillance activities that threaten human rights.” The United States government has cracked down on those who expose wrongdoing more than ever under the Obama Administration, with Chelsea Manning and Jeremy Hammond in prison, Thomas Drake fired and prosecuted under the Espionage Act, and Edward Snowden in Russian asylum, all for revealing important truths in the public interest about what their government does in secret and against our will.

Courage steps in to protect these conscientious people who deserve our support. We fund legal defense teams for truthtellers, keep their cases in the public light, and advocate for the public’s right to know and whistleblower protections generally. Stay tuned for Courage Advisory Board member Sana Saleem’s article: “Why the World Needs More Whistleblowers.”

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Courage News Jeremy Hammond News

Press release: Jeremy Hammond announced as second Courage beneficiary

  • Imprisoned hacktivist media source Jeremy Hammond becomes Courage’s second beneficiary, in addition to Edward Snowden
  • Tax deductible donations to Jeremy’s defence fund can now be made throughout the EU, via the Wau Holland Foundation
  • Jeremy Hammond’s official support site will be relaunched at freejeremy.net, with the current support team still fully involved

Courage, the international organisation dedicated to the protection of truthtellers, has announced that its new beneficiary will be Jeremy Hammond.

Jeremy was sentenced to ten years in prison for being the alleged media source for documents from the private US intelligence firm Strategic Forecasting, Inc. (Stratfor), which included revelations that they had been spying on human rights defenders, for example Bhopal activists and members of PETA, at the behest of corporations and governments.  WikiLeaks published these documents in partnership with 29 media organisations worldwide as the Global Intelligence Files, which are still being used for news stories around the world. Despite hundreds of pleas, including a letter submitted by WikiLeaks from itself and its media partners – “newspapers, TV networks, and magazines with a combined audience of 500 million” – asking for leniency for Jeremy, the maximum possible sentence was given.

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Jeremy Hammond, a political dissident and former member of the hacktivist network Anonymous, was sentenced to a decade in prison after he refused to inform on others and defended his actions in service of the truth and the  public’s right to know. The judge in his case refused to recuse herself despite a glaring conflict of interest: her husband was a former Stratfor client and had his information revealed in the Global Intelligence Files.

Since March 2012, Jeremy has been cut off from his friends and family, and punished with extensive stays in solitary confinement. By hosting his defence fund, Courage will raise donations to enable Jeremy’s defence team to continue advocating on his behalf, monitoring his condition and fighting for his rights while in prison.

Sarah Harrison, Acting Director of Courage and WikiLeaks Investigations Editor, said:

Courage supports and defends truthtellers who take risks and need our help, wherever they are. We traditionally think of whistleblowers as insiders disclosing their employers’ abuses, but those on the outside who work to make public the secret wrongdoing of the powerful are just as vital in the effort to hold them accountable. Thanks to Jeremy, we now know the inner workings of the private intelligence sector which runs much of US intelligence activities including more than 80% of the NSA’s operations. Jeremy has found himself at the sharp end of the US government’s crackdown on the media so it’s important that he knows he has our support.

Grace North, who has been coordinating support efforts for Jeremy Hammond since June 2013, said:

This is an exciting new partnership for those of us who have worked so tirelessly to support Jeremy through this journey. Jeremy believes that one of the most important things a person can do to combat the injustices of the world is to educate themselves and others. Joining with the Courage Foundation is the next step in getting information and education to as wide an audience as possible. The more people we can reach with Jeremy’s message, and with the information Jeremy so bravely sacrificed his freedom to disclose, the more people we can have fighting on the front lines for not only Jeremy’s freedom, but the freedom of humanity.

In addition to hosting the defence fund, Courage will publicly advocate for Jeremy Hammond and build his network of support. A relaunched website at freejeremy.net will keep the public updated on Jeremy’s case, raising awareness about the importance of his revelations and publishing Jeremy’s writing from prison.

Donations to Jeremy’s defence fund can be made at freejeremy.net/donate.
Tax-free donations can be made throughout the EU via the Wau Holland Foundation at http://www.wauland.de/en/projects/07.html#JH

Courage originally began in August 2013 as The Journalistic Source Protection Defence Fund and has run Edward Snowden’s official defence fund since that time. Jeremy Hammond is Courage’s next beneficiary; his official support site is located at https://www.freejeremy.net and the related twitter account at @FreeJeremyNet

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For the Courage launch of Jeremy Hammond becoming a beneficiary, the following people are available for interviews and comment by emailing courage.press@couragefound.org:

Sarah Harrison, Courage’s Acting Director
Renata Avila, Courage Advisory Board Member and human rights lawyer
Kevin Zeese, Courage Advisory Board Member and cofounder of popularresistance.org
Bernd Fix, of the Wau Holland Foundation who now collect EU wide tax deductible donations for Jeremy Hammond
Margaret Ratner Kuntsler, Attorney for Jeremy Hammond
Grace North, Support network coordinator for Jeremy Hammond