11.18.13
Gemini version available ♊︎‘Innocent Until Proven Guilty’ Becomes a Thing of the Past
Photo from FreeJeremy.net
Summary: Presumption of innocence and fair trials are no longer respected all that much (Hammond judged/punished by the spouse of a Stratfor client)
WHERE minor offences can lead to disproportionately long jail sentences [1] there is a story about Hammond [2], whose case we alluded to the other day. He helped show how surveillance expanded to the private sector (Stratfor) to be used against protests. We should view surveillance as a weapon [3,4] and the ‘trial’ of Hammond as a mockery of the system (connections between the judge and Stratfor [5]). This trial was as unfair as the witchhunt against Aaron Swartz. Punishment against dissent is getting more harsh, potentially requiring no trial for a prison sentence [6,7]. European citizens should be worried about this because this kind of ‘legal’ system is silently entering the EU [8,9], led by the CIA and other aggressors who defend centres of power. Presumption of innocence is becoming a thing to be remembered and noted only in history lessons. Due to ‘national security’ we are told that presumption of innocence is worth abandoning or superseding in some cases. █
Related/contextual items from the news:
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Sentenced to a Slow Death
If this were happening in any other country, Americans would be aghast. A sentence of life in prison, without the possibility of parole, for trying to sell $10 of marijuana to an undercover officer? For sharing LSD at a Grateful Dead concert? For siphoning gas from a truck? The punishment is so extreme, so irrational, so wildly disproportionate to the crime that it defies explanation.
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Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison, Jeremy Hammond Uses Allocution to Give Consequential Statement Highlighting Global Criminal Exploits by FBI Handlers
Jeremy Hammond, a 28-year-old political activist, was sentenced today to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to participating in the Anonymous hack into the computers of the private intelligence firm Strategic Forecasting (Stratfor). The Ceremonial Courtroom at the Federal Court for the Southern District of New York was filled today with an outpouring of support by journalists, activists and other whistleblowers who see Jeremy Hammond’s actions as a form of civil disobedience, motivated by a desire to protest and expose the secret activities of private intelligence corporations.
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Our Government Has Weaponized the Internet. Here’s How They Did It
If the NSA can hack Petrobras, the Russians can justify attacking Exxon/Mobil. If GCHQ can hack Belgacom to enable covert wiretaps, France can do the same to AT&T. If the Canadians target the Brazilian Ministry of Mines and Energy, the Chinese can target the U.S. Department of the Interior. We now live in a world where, if we are lucky, our attackers may be every country our traffic passes through except our own.
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The Internet Is Now Weaponized, And You Are The Target
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Judge in hacker case is married to a Stratfor client
Jeremy Hammond’s lawyers plan to file a motion this week for Judge Preska’s recusal. Sparrow Media reported that Preska was made aware of the published connection between her husband and Stratfor and that her husband’s Stratfor-related information was published by Wikileaks, but “Preska indicated that this personal connection to the Hammond case ‘would not effect her ability to be impartial’.” A video from last week’s press conference featuring journalists, attorneys and civil liberties advocates is posted below.
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County Action Coming On NDAA Detention?
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and its use of indefinite detention of U.S. citizens has brought liberals and conservatives together across the country. Lane County commissioners Faye Stewart, a conservative, and Pete Sorenson, a progressive, were able to agree on the issue at a recent meeting.
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Will Carl Levin’s Amendments To NDAA Help President Obama Close Guantánamo? – OpEd
Ever since President Obama took office in January 2009, and almost immediately promised to close George W. Bush’s “war on terror” prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, he has faced opposition from Congress. Lawmakers only took four months to begin passing legislation designed to tie his hands, and, in recent years, they have imposed restrictions of increasing severity designed to keep Guantánamo open, and to prevent any more prisoners from being released, for reasons that involve either hysteria, cynical fearmongering or bleak games of political football.
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Court rejects Polish request to keep CIA jail hearing private
The European Court of Human Rights has rejected a request from the Polish government to exclude the press and public from a hearing next month into whether Poland hosted a secret CIA jail on its soil, the court said on Thursday.
The hearing in Strasbourg, scheduled for December 3, will be the first time an open court has heard the allegations that Warsaw allowed the United States to detain and interrogate al Qaeda suspects in a forest in northern Poland.
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Human rights court turns down Polish govt request to keep CIA jail hearing closed
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