Daniel Ellsberg, American Hero
Few have contributed as much to resisting the horrors of war and the accompanying undemocratic regime of secrecy as Daniel Ellsberg, who died today at age 92.
60 Article(s) by: Chip Gibbons
Chip Gibbons is policy director of Defending Rights & Dissent. He is the author of the forthcoming The Imperial Bureau: The FBI, Political Surveillance, and the Rise of the U.S. National Security State.
Ten Years Ago, Edward Snowden Blew the Whistle on the US’s Most Secretive Spy Agency
This week 10 years ago, Edward Snowden exposed the National Security Agency’s mass surveillance of Americans. The US government responded with ruthless persecution — just one egregious example in the NSA’s long, sordid history of fiercely guarding its secrecy.
Roger Waters’s Critics Are Smearing Him as Antisemitic Because They Hate His Pro-Palestine Activism
Claims that former Pink Floyd singer Roger Waters deployed antisemitic imagery at recent concerts in Berlin are baseless. The charges are being elevated by media figures and politicians who detest his advocacy for Palestinian liberation.
Rashida Tlaib and the Squad Are Demanding Julian Assange’s Freedom
Lawmakers around the world are again calling on the US to halt its unprecedented prosecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. For the first time, they are being joined by US congressmembers, led by Rashida Tlaib.
WikiLeaks Has Been Persecuted Mercilessly for Revealing the Secrets of US Empire
Since 2007, WikiLeaks has challenged entrenched power to reveal evidence of state crimes, political dirty dealings, and other secrets. Its efforts have provoked severe repression by the US government and its allies.
Secret Documents Have Exposed the CIA’s Julian Assange Obsession
New revelations show that the CIA secretly took control of the security company hired by Ecuador’s government to guard Julian Assange during his exile in London. The agency’s spying on Assange and his visitors constitutes a major breach of civil liberties.
It’s Always the Right Time to Call George W. Bush a War Criminal
If George W. Bush is not going to stand trial for war crimes, he should at the very least stop appearing in public to weigh in on unjustified wars, as he did this week when he accidentally referred to the “wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq.”
Dick Cheney Should Be in Jail, Not Praised as a Hero by Democrats
Dick Cheney is an enemy of democracy in America and a war criminal. His warm reception on the floor of Congress by Democrats yesterday at the January 6 Capitol riot commemoration was shameful and disgusting.
Julian Assange’s Extradition to the United States Would Result in Serious Human Rights Violations
The US government is begging the British High Court to allow Julian Assange to be extradited to the United States. Doing so would be a human rights disaster, given that American prisons violate the most basic human rights of political prisoners like Assange.
The US Considered Kidnapping and Even Assassinating Julian Assange
As the US government fights to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, a bombshell new report has revealed just how far the CIA contemplated going in its war on the Australian journalist. It weighed not just kidnapping but assassinating Assange.
Julian Assange Could Be Extradited to the US
Today’s hearing increased the chance that Julian Assange could be extradited to the United States. Everyone concerned with defending democratic rights should be working to defend Julian Assange.
Daniel Hale Went to Prison for Telling the Truth About US Drone Warfare
Daniel Hale’s revelations about the brutalities of US drone warfare didn’t harm any Americans or make them less safe. But his prosecution for whistleblowing and recent sentencing to nearly four years in prison was a blow against democracy.
50 Years Ago Today, Daniel Ellsberg’s Pentagon Papers Helped End the Vietnam War
The first installment of reporting based on the Pentagon Papers was published half a century ago today in the New York Times. Pentagon whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg risked life imprisonment to expose the lies and brutality that the US war on Vietnam was based on.
Daniel Hale Blew the Whistle on the US’s Illegal Drone Program. He’s a Hero, Not a Criminal.
Former intelligence analyst Daniel Hale is being prosecuted for blowing the whistle on America’s drone program. It’s the latest in the topsy-turvy world of national security whistleblowers, who reveal illegal and immoral conduct by the US military yet face prison time as if they committed the real crimes.
50 Years Ago Today, Activists Burglarized the FBI and Exposed Its Undemocratic Abuses
Fifty years ago today, a group of New Left activists executed a daring burglary of an FBI field office in Pennsylvania, exposing the bureau’s COINTELPRO operations against the Civil Rights Movement, anti-war activists, and socialists. We should remember these activists today as heroes.
Judas and the Black Messiah Actually Does Fred Hampton Justice
Leftists have been burned so many times by Hollywood depictions of radicals. So it’s a welcome surprise when, once in a blue moon, mainstream filmmakers actually do the history of American radicals justice, as in the new film on Fred Hampton and the Black Panthers, Judas and the Black Messiah.
Remember: The FBI Declared War on and Tried to Destroy Martin Luther King
In all the celebrations of Martin Luther King’s life, we tend to forget something very important about our country’s greatest civil rights leader: when he was alive, institutions of the US state, especially the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover, constantly harassed, surveilled, and attempted to destroy King.
The Capitol Riot Was Bad Enough. New Domestic Terrorism Legislation Would Make It Even Worse
The police and national security state need far less power, not more. We should oppose any attempts, by both Democrats and Republicans, to use the Capitol riot to pass new domestic terrorism legislation expanding state surveillance powers.
Pardon Edward Snowden
Edward Snowden performed an immense act of public service to the American people by blowing the whistle on the National Security Agency’s vast, clandestine surveillance programs. President Donald Trump should pardon him.
The US Should Indict American War Criminals, Not Julian Assange
The US is attempting to imprison one of its critics, Julian Assange, by claiming a global right to prosecute any journalist in the world. If that prosecution succeeds, it would be a severe blow not just to press freedom, but to our very right to oppose imperialism and empire.