From stuartnlevy at gmail.com Thu Feb 1 14:34:13 2024 From: stuartnlevy at gmail.com (Stuart Levy) Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2024 08:34:13 -0600 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Fwd: CALL TODAY: Reinstate UNRWA humanitarian aid now In-Reply-To: <3F.9F.17703.7469BB56@ha.mta2vrest.cc.prd.sparkpost> References: <3F.9F.17703.7469BB56@ha.mta2vrest.cc.prd.sparkpost> Message-ID: Peaceable people, Here is a call to action from the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights: press our government to reinstate funding to UNRWA. -------- Forwarded Message -------- Keep taking action for Palestine! Dear Stuart, On our latest Phone Zap, so many activists came out to ZAP the phone lines that *we SHUT DOWN the voicemail box for Assistant Secretary Michele Sison?s office* for International Organization Affairs in the State Department. *Keep the momentum going. *Protest in the streets, and drive as many calls as possible to send a strong message for Palestinian human rights. *Call Congress and the State Department now! Demand they reinstate critically needed humanitarian funding to UNRWA and call for a PERMANENT CEASEFIRE. * *CLICK TO CALL YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS NOW* Stuart, when the International Court of Justice ruled last week that Israel is plausibly committing genocide, Biden responded by committing another horrific act of genocide. He removed vital humanitarian funding to UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East). He?s fueling the gravest of war crimes by starving Palestinian refugees in Gaza to death and blocking a ceasefire at the UN. *Voice your outrage now! Call all your elected officials, and then email and tweet at them too. * *CLICK TO CALL CONGRESS NOW* *CLICK TO EMAIL CONGRESS NOW* *CLICK TO TWEET THE STATE DEPARTMENT NOW* Thank you for taking action with me to demand a permanent ceasefire and stop the genocide. Onward to liberation, *CELINE QUSSINY* National Field Organizer *P.S. Missed the Phone Zap? Watch the recording on YouTube. * *DONATE* Facebook Twitter Instagram TikTok US Campaign for Palestinian Rights PO Box 3609 Washington, DC 20027 United States If you believe you received this message in error or wish to no longer receive email from us, please unsubscribe . -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jbn at forestfield.org Sat Feb 3 16:22:16 2024 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Sat, 3 Feb 2024 10:22:16 -0600 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Recommended Russiagate/Vault 7 viewing: Greenwald, WikiLeaks, Kiriakou Message-ID: <5b8dc55f-fa03-48d2-8bff-563638d56a90@forestfield.org> Glenn Greenwald's latest: RUSSIAGATE: The Fraud, Its Consequences, the Ongoing Damage, & Those Who Caused It?With Aaron Mat? https://rumble.com/v4azhqc-system-update-show-222.html John Kiriakou's show "The Whistleblowers" https://rumble.com/v4b3035-the-whistleblowers-revealing-australian-war-crimes.html Other "The Whistleblowers" episodes https://rumble.com/search/all?q=the%20whistleblowers%20rt WikiLeaks' Twitter post about Joshua Schulte's 40-year punishment in federal court https://x.com/wikileaks/status/1753169687318282266 > BREAKING: Alleged WikiLeaks Vault 7 whistleblower Joshua Schulte given a 40 year > sentence in a New York federal court today > > Watch: Inside the CIA's plot to assassinate Julian Assange The Vault 7 revelations > led to a plot by the CIA to assassinate the publisher Julian Assange The video on this post is also worth watching. John Kiriakou's article "A Whistleblower?s Agony" about Joshua Schulte's imprisonment and torture https://scheerpost.com/2022/06/15/john-kiriakou-a-whistleblowers-agony/ (Vectorportal, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons) > A C.I.A. whistleblower languishes awaiting trial in a federal prison under > inhumane conditions and almost nobody is paying attention. > > Joshua Schulte is a former C.I.A. hacker, one of those computer geniuses whose job > it is to work his way into the computer systems of our country?s enemies in > support of some of the most highly-classified operations the C.I.A. carries out. > > The government believes that Schulte was a malcontent who released to WikiLeaks in > 2017 the equivalent of 2 billion pages of top secret C.I.A. data with code names > like Brutal Kangaroo, AngerQuake and McNugget. > > These programs, collectively known as Vault 7, were custom-made techniques used to > compromise Wifi networks, hack into Skype, defeat anti-virus software and even > hack into smart TVs and the guidance systems in cars. They were the C.I.A.?s > modern-day crown jewels. One senior C.I.A. officer likened the revelations to ?a > modern-day Pearl Harbor.? > > The C.I.A. accused Schulte of stealing the data in 2016 and of sending it to > WikiLeaks in 2017. He was eventually charged with 13 felonies, mostly related to > the Espionage Act. He was later charged with a number of additional felonies > related to child pornography, accusations that he has adamantly denied. > > Schulte went to trial in New York in early 2020 with the Justice Department > accusing him of ?the single biggest leak of classified national defense > information in the history of the C.I.A.? > > After four weeks of testimony and six days of jury deliberation, he was found > guilty of contempt of court and making a false statement, both minor charges for > which federal sentencing guidelines call for imprisonment of zero-to-six months. > The jury deadlocked on all other counts, and the judge declared a mistrial. > Schulte remains in prison awaiting retrial. He has been incarcerated since > October 2018. > > Treated Differently > > Schulte is not treated like other prisoners in the facility where he is being > held, New York City?s Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC). When he goes to > court, for example, he is required to wear shackles around his ankles and chains > around his waist to which his handcuffed hands are attached. His hands are then > enclosed in a steel box that is itself locked separately. > > In the Justice Department?s classified conference room, where he is required to > meet his attorneys, he is chained to an eye bolt in the floor, just as the C.I.A. > restrains Al-Qaeda prisoners during their interrogations. He is not permitted to > use the restroom during these visits. His guards give him a plastic bag at the > start of the meetings, and if he has to go to the bathroom, he must urinate and > defecate in the bag. > > Schulte?s day-to-day existence is far more difficult. First, he has been subject > to ?Special Administrative Measures? (SAMs) since his arrest. He is in solitary > confinement in a cage in a small concrete box the size of a standard parking space > 24 hours a day. He is allowed two showers a week and is not permitted to use the > phone or email. He is not permitted to watch television or to listen to the > radio. He is not permitted to have visitors other than his attorneys. He is not > permitted to make purchases from the commissary. > > How to Complain > > There is a mechanism within the federal Bureau of Prisons by which to complain > about these conditions. A prisoner must first fill out a form BP-8 ?, which goes > to the person you are accusing of violating your rights, saying, ?Hey, you > violated my rights.? The response, of course, will be ?No I didn?t.? > > You then have 14 days to file a Form BP-9, which goes to the warden. The warden, > not surprisingly, almost always supports his staff member. You then have 60 days > to file a Form BP-10, which goes to the Bureau of Prisons regional office. Once > the prisoner loses there, which is almost guaranteed, he can file a Form BP-11, > which goes to the Bureau of Prisons headquarters in Washington. No prisoner ever > wins at BOP headquarters. > > There are also ways in which the prisoner is routinely stymied in an attempt to > file a complaint. The filing of every form is time-sensitive, so the warden and > others will withhold their responses, backdate them and then send the responses at > a point when the prisoner only has a day or two to respond. Since it?s not > possible to get it done in time, it?s dismissed as ?not responsive in a timely > fashion.? > > The prisoner has no recourse because the federal courts have ruled that a prisoner > must exhaust the ?administrative complaint process? before going to the courts. > But if the complaint is dismissed by the BOP as ?not responsive? because of time, > he?s out of luck. > > Schulte isn?t complaining just about the heavy-handed circumstances of his > incarceration. He?s complaining about what his attorneys argue amounts to cruel > and unusual punishment, perhaps torture. They noted in a recent lawsuit against > the Bureau of Prisons that Schulte is: > > ?locked in a cage in a concrete box the size of a parking space with purposefully > obstructed views of outside, the cages are filthy and infested with rodents, > rodent droppings, cockroaches and mold; there is no heating or air conditioning in > the cages, there is no functioning plumbing, the lights burn brightly 24 hours per > day, and the inmates are denied normal visitation, access to books and legal > material, medical care, and dental care. All attorney-client privilege is also > void as the prison confiscates, opens, and reads all legal mail. The process > imposed is arbitrary and not tailored to any legitimate government interest.? > > The attorneys add that, > > ?No matter what crime an individual is alleged to have committed, the United > States Constitution grants all a presumption of innocence. Indeed, no American > wants to be treated like a caged animal if accused of a crime ? dependent, > deserted, dehumanized, demoralized, and detained.? > > That is exactly what Joshua Schulte is. He?s dependent, deserted, dehumanized, > demoralized, and detained. He hasn?t seen an open window in more than two years. > He hasn?t seen a doctor for his congenital heart defect in that period, either. > He hasn?t seen a dentist. Denying him bail because of a fear that he might reveal > classified information is one thing. Torture is another. > > How does it protect the national security to not allow him to see the sky for > years at a time? How does it protect the national security to not allow him to > see a doctor or dentist? How does forbidding him to read protect the national > security? It doesn?t. It just proves that the United States has no respect for > human rights or for the rule of law. As the meme goes, ?Prove me wrong.? John Kiriakou's articles for Scheerpost https://scheerpost.com/category/contributors/john-kiriakou/ From jbn at forestfield.org Sun Feb 4 19:14:20 2024 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Sun, 4 Feb 2024 13:14:20 -0600 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Recommended Russiagate/Vault 7 viewing: Greenwald, WikiLeaks, Kiriakou In-Reply-To: <5b8dc55f-fa03-48d2-8bff-563638d56a90@forestfield.org> References: <5b8dc55f-fa03-48d2-8bff-563638d56a90@forestfield.org> Message-ID: Relatedly, "Day X" is coming up -- Julian Assange's final appeal hearing with the United Kingdom?s High Court of Justice is scheduled for February 20-21, 2024. https://twitter.com/FreeAssangeNews/status/1753438148548239524 (posted 2 February 2024) is Stella Assange's announcement. Stella Assange is Julian's wife and lawyer. > Day X is here: the last chance in the British courts to stop Julian Assange?s > extradition > > Protest to defend a free press. > > Tuesday 20 February and Wednesday 21 February > > Time: 8.30am Place: Royal Courts of Justice, the Strand, London WC2A 2LL (nearest > tubes Holborn and Temple) > > Click here to register your attendance: > https://actionnetwork.org/events/day-x-is-here-protest-to-defend-press-freedom > > Your donations are greatly appreciated as we prepare for Day X. Click here to > donate to the cause: https://freeassange.org/donate/ > > #FreeAssange2024 @SMaurizi There will be pro-Assange protests around the world and footage of the protests at the court on Stella Assange's YouTube channel -- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7VY_cUCjd9EbiOoO5LuxjA Stella Assange's Twitter posts https://twitter.com/Stella_Assange https://twitter.com/Stella_Assange/status/1753860475610128817 > For the 24h leading up to the start of Julian?s final hearing join us ? Our > Countdown kicks off at 19 Feb 08:30 GMT. Good interviews on this abound online, including: Jimmy Dore show interviews Stella Assange https://rumble.com/v4854i2-julian-assanges-last-chance-to-avoid-extradition-w-stella-assange.html STELLA ASSANGE w/ CHRIS HEDGES (Pullitzer Prize Winner) Reflect On Prison Policy https://rumble.com/v48dakb-stella-assange-w-chris-hedges-pullitzer-prize-winer-reflect-on-prison-polic.html If the US' description of alleged WikiLeaks whistleblower Joshua Schulte sicken you (as any description of torture should), then keep in mind that that's what is in store for Julian Assange if he is extradited to the US. From jbn at forestfield.org Sat Feb 24 23:48:17 2024 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Sat, 24 Feb 2024 17:48:17 -0600 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Excellent John Pilger tribute on John Kiriakou's "The Whistleblowers" show In-Reply-To: <3e80c13b-660f-4553-955a-c50b4c3addb0@forestfield.org> References: <3e80c13b-660f-4553-955a-c50b4c3addb0@forestfield.org> Message-ID: I wrote: > John Pilger, one of the best journalists ever, died in London on 30 December 2023 at > the age of 84. https://rumble.com/v4feeh2-the-whistleblowers-remembering-john-pilger.html is an excellent tribute to John Pilger on John Kiriakou's RT show "The Whistleblowers" which is highly recommendable show in its own right. Kiriakou interviews Consortium News' Joe Lauria mostly on Pilger's critical record of documentary journalism, and Randy Credico on Pilger's support for WikiLeaks & Julian Assange right up to the end of Pilger's life.