“Tell you what. Let’s give this kid access to our most sensitive data. Sure. Why not? Everything. That stuff we keep behind 986 walls? … Read More
Edward Snowden: American Hero or Traitor? (Video)
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Assange says NSA leaker Snowden ‘hero’, was in contact with him
“What [Snowden] has revealed is what I have been speaking about for years, that the [US] National Security Agency and its allies have been involved in a mass interception program of Google, Facebook, the various telecommunications data…,” Assange stated in an interview with Australian news program Lateline on ABC. Snowden, 29, is behind one of the biggest leaks in US political history. He revealed to The Guardian top-secret documents including those about the US National Security Agency’s (NSA) massive spy tool, the PRISM. It gave US intelligence agencies access to data servers maintained by some of the country’s biggest internet companies – and therefore an ability to spy on Americans’ emails, video chats, search history, and so on. Assange – who has been holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in the UK and is running for a seat in the Australian senate later this year – approved of Snowden’s actions calling him “a hero who has informed the public about one of the most serious events of the decade, which is the creeping formulation of a mass surveillance state”. He added that the WikiLeaks political party shares a similar stance on warrantless spying, seeing it as “unacceptable.” “We run the danger here of the West more broadly drifting into a state where there are two systems. There’s one law for the average person and there’s another law if you’re inside the national intelligence complex,” he said. “You can intercept whoever you want, you’re completely unaccountable for your actions, there’s no judicial review.” Assange believes that neither Australians, nor Americans find such an approach acceptable. “Snowden clearly didn’t find that acceptable and he was even someone in the system,” he observed. Assange also admitted that he had an “indirect communication” with Snowden’s people. However, he refused to disclose any further details. “Let’s look at the case and let’s look at what he’s revealed,” Assange said. Last week, commenting on the NSA scandal, the WikiLeaks founder slammed the US government spying scheme as a “calamitous collapse in the rule of law.” The disclosure of the two massive secret US surveillance programs – the PRISM and also a program under which a division of telecommunications provider Verizon was ordered to hand over records to the NSA – caused huge public uproar. American intelligence confirmed that they collect the private messages of millions of Internet users, but insist that the mass surveillance only targeted “non-US persons outside the US”. President Barack Obama said last Friday that the NSA program is justified as it allows agents to identify “leads with respect to folks who might engage in terrorism” and noted that one “can’t have 100 per cent security and also then have 100 per cent privacy.” However, American tech giants – Google and FaceBook – continued to deny that they knew about the PRISM program. … Read More
Is Climate Change Action Doomed?
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Buy Starbucks, Attack God
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Britain celebrates 60th anniversary of Queen’s Coronation
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The Archbishop of Canterbury has paid tribute to the devotion, duty and self-sacrifice of Queen Elizabeth II as the British monarch and the nation celebrate the 60th anniversary of her coronation.
Outside Westminster Abbey crowds gathered to join in the festivities, an expression of her enduring appeal.
“We came last year, we came the year before, and we love anything like this, so we’ve come again,” said one woman from Lancashire.
An American tourist paid tribute to Queen and country: “Just thank you for all your service. You’re very very loved across the pond as well, and we are really excited to get a glimpse of you because it’s part of history.”
The crowds also have one eye on the future. “We’re hoping the new baby will be a girl because this Queen has done such a good job, so we’re hoping we’ll get another girl, but a boy would be good as well,” said one young royal admirer.
Euronews correspondent in London, Ali May, summed up the atmosphere: “Sixty years after her coronation there is a great deal of affection towards the Queen outside Westminster Abbey. There is also great excitement about the soon-to-be new addition to the Royal Family, and perhaps a glimpse of the royal bump.”
More about: Anniversary, Ceremony, Monarchy, Queen Elizabeth II, United Kingdom
Copyright © 2013 euronews
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‘Punitive’ trial awaits Manning: ‘US government now wants to put him away for life’
On Monday the whistleblower will stand trial for the largest intelligence leak in United States history in Fort Meade, Maryland. The trial is expected to continue for up to three months. Manning was arrested in Iraq in May 2010, accused of transmitting digital materials connected with US military operations abroad. Once detained he pleaded guilty to the charge of handing over information to WikiLeaks. He has been held in custody since. The investigation into his case has been ongoing for three years as he may be facing life in prison if the prosecutors prove his links with Al Qaeda on which they insist and get Manning convicted of “aiding the enemy.” The Private’s detention conditions have sparked international concern. December last year judge Army Col. Denise Lind accepted terms that would allow Manning to plead guilty to lesser than the presented 22 charges. Following Manning’s guilt plea to 10 charges, the judge ruled that any sentence should be reduced by 112 days because of the detention conditions, which were named by the UN Special Rapporteur on torture “cruel, inhuman and degrading.” Demonstrations have been taking place across the US and all over the world in support of Bradley Manning, the US army private who revealed sensitive information to the whistle blowing website WikiLeaks. RT: Manning finally faces trial on Monday – three years after he was arrested in 2010. Why has it taken so long? Michael Ratner: There was a huge number of documents involved in this case, half a million that they had to go through. Two of the big reasons are that some of the pretrial was devoted to how he was kept in custody , the torture, the cruel treatment and actually he got some reduction in the ultimate sentence because of that. Another part of the pretrial was when he pleaded guilty to charges that could get him 20 years. It was one of the most moving days I spent in court. He gave his political reasons, why he wanted the American people to know about the crimes of their own government in Iraq and Iran and all around the world. What’s going on now I think sadly is the punitive phase of the trial. He has pleaded guilty for 20 years, the US government now wants to put him away for life. RT: Some praise Manning as a courageous whistleblower – others condemn him as a traitor who risked lives. How would you describe him? MR: One of the questions you get all the time is while he was a soldier, he broke his duty, all of this stuff. The problem for me is that no one is looking at the accountability of my own government for the crimes it committed. They are only focusing on ‘yes Bradley’ – ‘no, Bradley’. I support Bradley Manning, I support what he did, I support the revelation of criminality of my own government and accountability for my own government. Why don’t they look at the torture centers they’ve set up in Iraq? Why don’t they look at the illegal drones they are using all over the world? That’s the accountability we’ve got to have. We shouldn’t be taking one soldier and trying to put him in jail forever, but revealing the secrets, criminality and hypocrisy of the US. RT: During one of the hearings Manning described some harsh details about his confinement conditions – being stripped naked at night for example. How can the US account for such treatment? MR: They can’t account for that kind of treatment. I was there that day, I cried during that trial. Bradley Manning was very dignified, smart, dealt with it. They can’t. It was torture by all means you want to say. They did this to him in the face of the public. It was only the protest of the public really that eventually brought that to an end. It’s outrageous. … Read More
