AFP

Deportation Decision Awaits WikiLeaks Founder
New York Times
LONDON — Britain's highest court is to announce Wednesday whether the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, should be deported to Sweden to face allegations of sexual abuses there, the culmination of an 18-month legal battle.
Britain's Supreme Court to rule on WikiLeaks chiefFox News
WikiLeaks boss Assange set for UK day of reckoningAFP

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The Guardian

Britain's Supreme Court to rule on WikiLeaks chief
Fox News
LONDON – Britain's Supreme Court is expected to rule Wednesday on whether to approve the extradition of WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange to Sweden, a potential turning point in the Internet activist's controversial career. Assange, 40, has spent the …
Top UK court to rule on Assange sex case extraditionReuters

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Daily Mail

Indian 'hactivists' set to hold Occupy wall Street-style protests outside …
Daily Mail
The 'OccupyDelhi' protest, planned at India Gate, already has 330 people marked as 'going' on the Facebook page. The hacktivist group is encouraging protesters to don the 'Guy Fawkes' masks, made famous in V for Vendetta. Occupy Wall Street protesters …

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mediabistro.com

Occupy Wall Street Librarians Sue NYC Officials
mediabistro.com
By Jason Boog on May 29, 2012 3:16 PM The Occupy Wall Street movement and OWS librarians have sued New York City in federal court over the destruction of the Occupy Wall Street Library during a late-night raid on Zuccotti Park.
Corrected: Occupy Wall Street sues NYC over confiscated booksChicago Tribune
Occupy Protesters Want Their Books BackCourthouse News Service

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The Guardian

Bradley Manning, America's martyr for open government
The Guardian
… which included a Reuters journalist, released by WikiLeaks in 2010 – that the person possibly responsible for the courageous act of bringing the war crimes exposed in that video into the public domain, where it belonged, would end up in a military …

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The alleged WikiLeaks whistleblower, detained and abused for two years in prison, now on secret trial, defends all our freedoms

Little did I know when I was helping with the preparations for making public the historic leak “Collateral Murder” – the 2007 footage of a US Apache helicopter firing at and killing a group of people claimed to be insurgents, which included a Reuters journalist, released by WikiLeaks in 2010 – that the person possibly responsible for the courageous act of bringing the war crimes exposed in that video into the public domain, where it belonged, would end up in a military prison, even subjected to torture for months. Today marks two years of imprisonment of Private Bradley Manning. Two years out of his 24 years is a long time in military prison. His treatment has been highly controversial, every step of the way.

Following every bit of information available during the first few months of his ordeal made it clear that the US government was going to use Manning as a warning to anyone else who might feel compelled to report on war crimes, or any other crimes they witness from within the system. Blow the whistle, goes the warning, and you will be buried alive by the state, shredded by the same secrecy machine a whistleblower would try to expose.

Because of courage and creativity of activists, Bradley Manning has not been forgotten, even if that was the aim of authorities, and he never shall be forgotten. His case has been largely shunned by most of the mainstream media, especially in the US. This needs to change, because if he is indeed found guilty of being a whistleblower of such magnitude that it shook the entire secrecy machine of our world out of its comfort zone, his acts would need to be honored as an inspiration to change the way governments hide the reality of their actions from the people they are supposed to be serving and informing.

Manning should not be convicted in secret: the media should be given access to the court filings; and the media should be pushing harder for the first amendment of the US constitution to be honored in the Manning case. The state should acknowledge its responsibility towards its citizens and honor the promises of the current president, Barack Obama, of a more transparent state. Let the sunshine in, Mr President: if you have nothing to hide, there is nothing to fear.

Reporter Kevin Gosztola describes the bizarre situation at the Manning trials in his article “Why I am Challenging Secrecy in Bradley Manning’s Court Martial”:

“Reporters have come together multiple times during hearings in the past months to compare notes because we are unable to reference anything after the proceedings for the day are over to verify that what we heard was written down properly. The scene is like one you might see in a high school classroom when students are asking each other if they were able to get down what the teacher said because it might be in an exam.

“Of course, members of the press don’t need to know this information to pass any test. They want to know this information so the public can know what is happening in one of the most significant cases in US history.”

One of Manning’s most visible supporters is the world’s best known whistleblower, Daniel Ellsberg. It is worth remembering what he did and why, and at what level, because there has been much confusion about the parallels between the two. This was clearly demonstrated by President Obama when he said the cases were “not” similar because “Ellsberg’s material wasn’t classified the same way.” The fact of the matter is this: the material disclosed in the Pentagon Papers leaked by Ellsberg was designated “top secret”, the highest secrecy designation under law, whereas the material allegedly leaked by Manning to WikiLeaks was marked “secret” or “classified” – among the lowest-level secrecy designations. Yet Obama himself declared that Manning “broke the law” – months before the pre-trial hearings. It is obvious to anyone who cares to look into the Manning case that he will not get a fair trial if for no other reason than that the head of state has already declared he is guilty.

It is of the utmost importance that we do not cave into the fear the US government is trying to impose against whistleblowers and WikiLeaks. The main lesson in this saga is that governments should be open, be accountable, and understand they are not to govern but to serve those who put their trust in them. The trial, Manning’s treatment, and the lack of accountability of those who have had their crimes exposed by the digital files Manning is accused of leaking, has put the US in the same global category as China, with its authoritarianism, secrecy and fear-mongering.

The land of the free has long gone into a cloak of dark secrets which most people in America would never accept if they knew. If freedom of expression, freedom of speech and freedom of information are taken from the marginalized few, you will never know when you will be next: do nothing and when they come for you, there will be no one left to defend you.

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The Guardian

Wall Street Blew It: The Real Tragedy of the FB IPO
TheStreet.com
With 900 million users, Facebook is the application of the masses, used to connect the 99 Percent and organize the protesters for "Occupy Wall Street," the Chinese dissident community and the Arab Spring. This was a company that everyone thought they …
Why I don't 'Like' this mauling of ZuckerbergSpiked
Confused About Facebook's IPO Flap? Here's What It Means To YouFast Company

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In an interview with the Guardian, Manning’s aunt describes her nephew’s life in jail – and how he’s been able to stay optimistic

Two years into his military confinement for allegedly being the source of the biggest leak of state secrets in US history, Bradley Manning is keeping himself in a relatively positive state of mind, buoyed by trust in his lawyers and the support of close family and backers from around the world.

With a full court-martial scheduled for September, which could result in the US soldier spending the rest of his life in military jail, Manning appears to be in surprisingly good humour. His aunt, who visits him frequently in the military brig, told the Guardian that his mood had improved substantially along with his conditions. “He seems to be in good spirits, and quite optimistic about his case – he’s not letting anything get him down as far as I can tell,” she said.

The intelligence analyst, who was arrested two years ago this week at the Forward Operating Base Hammer outside Baghdad, spends his days reading, exercising or watching television with other military inmates of the brig at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and an institution at an undisclosed location in the Washington area where his aunt visits him.

As told by his aunt, who asked not to be named to avoid media attention, Manning comes across as a quiet, bookish individual with interests in the interface between science and philosophy, as well as world affairs. He has subscriptions to Scientific American, the New Yorker and Vanity Fair and has requested a daily copy of the Washington Post.

He borrows regularly from the relatively well-stocked library at Fort Leavenworth, supplemented by gifts from his aunt who has given him copies of Immanuel Kant and Isaac Newton. On a more popular note, his father Brian Manning has sent him the best-selling Swedish thriller Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, though it’s not clear whether Manning has read it.

“He doesn’t ask for any popular books,” his aunt said.

Manning also follows the news avidly, both internationally and domestically. “When I’m talking to him, he’ll often mention something political that’s going on around the world; he’s definitely keeping up with what’s going on,” said the aunt.

At face value Manning’s predicament appears serious. He is charged with 22 counts relating to the transfer of some 700,000 secret documents from US secure computers to WikiLeaks.

The charges include aiding the enemy, wrongfully causing intelligence to be published on the internet knowing that it is accessible to the enemy, theft of public records and computer fraud.

Attempts by his lawyers to have many of the counts dismissed have so far failed and the military prosecutors are pursuing the case against him aggressively.

The nadir in his treatment over the past two years came in early 2011 when, over a period of weeks, he was held in isolation at Quantico marine base in Virginia. During that time he was stripped naked at night and forced to stand for hours on end.

He protested about the treatment, which was later classified as a form of torture by the UN special rapporteur. Amnesty International recently cited Manning’s regime at Quantico in its annual human rights report.

Yet the soldier’s treatment has improved dramatically and with it his spirits. He was moved to Fort Leavenworth in April 2011, where he is afforded much more contact with other inmates and more privileges, including exercise on the basketball court.

“The situation in Fort Leavenworth is night and day compared to Quantico,” his aunt said. “He has freedom of movement and access to books and TV.”
The other reason for his relatively cheerful state is that he has total faith in his defence team. “Bradley has tremendous confidence in David Coombs,” she said, referring to his lead civilian lawyer. “He seems pretty optimistic about how things are going and encouraged that the case is now moving along.”

Manning and Coombs speak at least once a week, and spend hours together discussing legal strategy when the soldier is brought to the Washington area ahead of pre-trial hearings in Fort Meade, Maryland. The next hearing will be on 6 June.

Occasionally, Manning expresses discouragement at what he sees as the lack of co-operation he is getting from the US government. This has become a cause of contention with the defence, which has complained in a series of motions lodged with the military court that the army has failed to meet its constitutional obligations to allow Manning a fair trial.

The other explanation for Manning’s relatively bouyant mood is the support he receives from his immediate family in America and Wales where his mother and another aunt live, as well as his support network and concerned individuals around the world. Several public figures spoke about Manning on the second anniversary of his military custody.

Graham Nash, the songwriter with the band Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, said that “this is supposed to be a nation of laws. If so, why are we torturing a man who truly believed that he was doing his duty to his country and to his own soul?”

The Labour MP Ann Clwyd, who has been closely involved with the private’s Welsh family, said: “It is an outrage that Bradley Manning is still being held two years after he was first arrested. He should not be made the scapegoat for the errors of the US military.”

Writing in the Guardian, Birgitta Jonsdottir, a member of Iceland’s parliament who has been a vocal advocate for WikiLeaks, likened the stance of the US government to China’s “oppression, secrecy and fear mongering”.

Similar sentiments are contained in Manning’s bulging mail bag. His aunt said the soldier receives many letters each week from around the world.

He is also very aware how closely the media is watching his case. After his first pre-trial hearing in Fort Meade in December, he remarked: “Gee, I was twiddling with my pen, and the papers wrote about it!”

He feels a little self-conscious about being in the spotlight, but hugely thankful none the less. “He feels good that people haven’t forgotten him,” she said.

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Athens Oracle: WikiLeaks and Anonymous team up
my.hsj.org
WikiLeaks, an online organization that began publishing classified media from anonymous news sources in 2006, may be in league with Anonymous, an international group of online activists, after the WikiLeaks website began posting over five million …

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Live: Richard Cachia Caruana faces Foreign Affairs Committee
Times of Malta
The Opposition has based its claims on a document released by Wikileaks referring to meetings in 2004. But the government says the meetings had nothing to do with PfP and were about ways how Malta could have access to Nato-EU security documents and …
LIVE: Richard Cachia Caruana to testify at Permanent Committee hearingsDI-VE
Labour's 'imperfect' withdrawal from Nato's Partnership allowed reactivationMaltaToday

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