***From Out In The 1950s Night- Marilyn Monroe’s Some Like It Hot

 

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman

DVD Review

Some Like It Hot, starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, directed by Billy Wilder

Let’s say a couple of guys, a couple of musicians, a couple of work-a-day musicians trying to rub two coins together, trying to cover rom rent and keep one step ahead of the repo man, one a sexy sax player and the other a hipster bass player (although aren’t all bass players hipsters and I am just being redundant here), working for dimes and donuts in a 1920s speakeasy band witness, quite by accident, the infamous Chicago gangster night of the long knives Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre. And the pair were still alive after the event, at least for a while until those gangsters got hip, to tell about it (although being work-a-day guys and wise they wouldn’t dream of putting the figure on those dastardly gangsters). Yah, still alive at least for a while until the other shoe drops.  

Let’s suppose those guys, and we can give them names, Joe and Bill, although let’s be a little free and easy with the use of those names since as we move on in the suppose world those names will vanish, wanted to stay alive long enough to play sexy sax and hip bass another day. Well what could they do? What would you do? What could they do in a 1950s black and white Billy Wilder film and not make the audience too uneasy. Simple, nothing to it, just have our  pair join an all- girl band, a popular nighttime feature back in the 1920s, and get the hell, way the hell out of Chicago on the fastest train out, fastest train out to sunny Miami. And thus are Joe and Bill strictly for professional reasons, and for life reasons too now that I think about those hoods who have certain unfinished business with our boys (girls?),   transformed from two working guys to two working girls (no, not that kind, really working, okay). And that transformation is not some trumped up over the top Mae West /Judy Garland drag queen thing down like you might have seen in the hip Village or North Beach Frisco scene but merely to transform handsome Tony Curtis into beautiful Tony Curtis and good-looking Jack Lemmon into fetching Jack Lemmon.    

Let’s say too that among those girl band members there was this blonde, maybe even a blonde goddess, Marilyn Monroe, this blonde singer, built, full-figured as was the desired look, desired man look back then, kind of Podunk dumb as was also desired man look as well, swaying back and forth making one, or both, guys “forget” they were girls. Now like with all blondes a story came with it. Seems she had seen the seamy side of life, had been kicked around a little by guys, sax players in particular, and so what she was looking for was some “do right” guy. And it would not hurt, although she would be the first to tell you she was no gold digger, if that right guy had a few million (a lot of dough back then although just walking around money now) stashed away for a rainy day. Like I say a story came with her.

Let’s also say we know a few things when all the dust settles.  We know Tony is not going to finish out his life as some over the top drag queen in the Village, not after he saw that full-figured blonde swaying her hips. We know that those big bad gangsters who wind up following the trail of our guys down to Miami are strictly RIP, or will be. And we know that once you get to the core of this film, one in an endlessly long line of a boy meets girl stories, that Tony and Marilyn are slated for heavenly, if poor, bliss. And Jack, well see the film for that, but this film may have been well before its time in suggesting some same-sex marriage proposition as valid, even if for laughs. Oh yah, and we also know this film was a great vehicle for Tony, Jack and Marilyn to strut their stuff. Kudos Billy.     

 

 

 

 

Free Bradley Manning!- Hands Off Edward Snowden!

China.org.cn, June 14, 2013

Whistleblower welcome in China

By Xu Peixi

Last week, a bright idealistic young man named Edward Snowden almost single-handedly opened the lid on the U.S. National Security Agency's PRISM program, a program which marks the bleakest moment yet in the history of the Internet due to its scope, exact country of origin and implications.

[By Gou Ben/China.org.cn]

In terms of scope, major transnational service providers ranging from Google to Apple are involved in allowing the NSA to access their customers' data for the purposes of "surveillance." Nearly all types of services ranging from email to VoIP have come within the program's scope and it originates in a country which dominates the world's Internet resources – a fact which is acknowledged in the information leaked by Snowden clearly states: "Much of the world's communications flow through the U.S." and the information is accessible. The case indicates that through outsourcing and contracting, Big Brother is breaching the fundamental rights of citizens by getting unfettered access to their most personal communications.

As the case unfolds, there are many things to worry about. How do we make sense of the fact that the market and the state colluded in the abuse of private information via what represents the backbone of many modern day infrastructures? How do we rationalize the character of Snowden and his fellow whistleblowers? How do we understand the one-sided cyber attack accusations the U.S. has poured upon China in the past few months? To what degree have foreign users of these Internet services fallen victim to this project? Among all these suspicions, let us clarify two types of American personality.

First of all, Snowden's case offers us a rare chance to reexamine the integrity of American politicians and the management of American-dominant Internet companies, and it appears that while many of these individuals verbally attack other nations and people in the name of freedom and democracy, they ignore America's worsening internal situation. In an eloquent speech on Internet freedom, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that if Internet companies can't act as "responsible stewards of their own personal information," then they would lose customers and their survival would be threatened. In the same speech, she also urged U.S. media companies to take a proactive role in challenging foreign governments' demands for censorship and surveillance.

Clinton was certainly under the impression that her own government was above reproach on these matters, when every piece of evidence, whether in hindsight or not, suggests the opposite. We must also remember that Clinton's Internet freedom speech was addressing Google's grand withdrawal from China; so, following the logical thread of her speech, it is surely now time for Google to take responsibility for leaking data and information to the NSA and withdraw from the U.S. market. David Drummond, Google's senior vice president and chief legal officer, justified Google's withdrawal from China by citing state "surveillance" and the "fact" that the Gmail accounts of dozens of human rights activists were being "routinely accessed by third parties". If Google wants to be consistent with its past pronouncements, the PRISM program gives the Internet giant much more cause for action.

We can see, therefore, that when American politicians and businessmen make accusatory remarks, their eyes are firmly fixed on foreign countries and they turn a blind eye to their own misdeeds. This clearly calls into question the integrity of these rich, powerful and influential figures and gives the definite impression that the U.S. bases its own legitimacy not on good domestic governance but on stigmatizing foreign practices.

Perhaps the most confusing issue revolves around the hypocrisy of those who preach about Internet freedom abroad while they stifle it at home. The Fudan University students who listened intently to President Obama's speech about Internet freedom and censorship at a town hall-style meeting in Shanghai in 2009 certainly took his remarks seriously. How must they be feeling now that it is obvious that President Obama himself does not believe his own Internet rhetoric? In the same vein, many like-minded young Chinese once presented flowers to Google's Beijing headquarters to pay tribute to its "brave" and outspoken challenge to perceived state surveillance by the Chinese government. How must they be feeling in light of Google's involvement in PRISM and with the knowledge that Google's action against China is only part of its commercial strategy? An increasing number of Chinese people will come to understand that the democratization of domestic Chinese media is entirely different from that which happens abroad.

Second, let us look at another kind of American personality. How can we understand and explain Snowden and similar figures? These young idealists, including the Washington Post's Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein who helped to bring down President Nixon in the Watergate affair, Wiki leaks' Julian Assange and American soldier Bradley Manning, among others, can be categorized as the "bright feathers" of our time, to borrow some words from the popular American movie The Shawshank Redemption. Plus, they all embody the courage to fight against the system, which the film also celebrates. The 25-year old Manning is now a prisoner, having been arrested in May 2010 in Iraq on suspicion of having passed classified material to WikiLeaks. Assange has been confined in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for nearly a year. Snowden is on the run in Hong Kong. While human rights activists from developing countries (defined by Western apparatus for sure) are often blessed with a choice of hiding places, we are now seeing the dilemma of Western dissidents. For this reason China, despite the fact that it does not have a good reputation as far as Internet governance is concerned, should move boldly and grant Snowden asylum.

After all, what the American and British authorities have done to figures such as Snowden represents a challenge to the common sense of the global public. These people are too brilliant to be caged. Their feathers are too bright. For the surfacing evils that have been done and continue to be committed by the state-market alliance in the digital age, Snowden and those like him represent the hope and possibility that counter measures exist to combat these evils. Unfortunately, those who proclaim to the world "don't be evil" are themselves willing cooperators in the whole game and their profit-driven nature has led them to play a major role in this evil. If intelligence work can be contracted or outsourced this way, anything can.

This is the reason why we appreciate and salute the efforts of Snowden et al, who have gambled their career, family, personal freedom, and even their life to let the global public know what the most powerful force in the world is doing with perhaps the central infrastructure of our age; to make the public aware that this force is acting in an unconstitutional manner and entirely contrary to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. To further understand the likes of Snowden, let us end with a narrative by the character Red from the Shawshank Redemption as he rationalizes the escape of his friend Andy: "Some birds are not meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright. And when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up does rejoice."

The author is a columnist with China.org.cn.

Free Lynne Stewart Now-Let Grandma Go Home!

THE PEACE THRU JUSTICE FOUNDATION

11006 Veirs Mill Rd, STE L-15, PMB 298

Silver Spring, MD. 20902

SHA'BAAN 1434 A.H.

(June 17, 2013)

Assalaamu Alaikum (Greetings of Peace):

While in the Carolina's I received the following message from Ralph Poynter, the committed husband of activist attorney Lynne Stewart. Ralph was appealing for support of a very important and time-sensitive initiative on behalf of his wife.

In a message dated 6/12/2013 10:40:08 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, ralph.poynter@yahoo.com writes:

Greetings Mauri' Saalakhan:

Now that Lynne has fulfilled all the requirements for compassionate release, her papers sit on some bureaucrats desk in Washington. Therefore, I will be in front of the White House , Monday, June 17th from morning til nite, with literature regarding her case and calling for the removal of Obama.

Please ask those who can and will to give me whatever time they can to stand with me.

Ralph Poynter 917-853-9759

ps kindly call me with your suggestions on this matter

Any honest and self-respecting person who knows Lynne Stewart, should feel compelled to do whatever he or she can to help alleviate the suffering of this courageous grand-mother warrior (who suffers from 4th stage cancer while politically imprisoned).

I have just returned home (with a lot on my plate), and expect to depart for California on Wednesday, insha'Allah. I nevertheless plan to join Ralph Poynter in front of the white house tomorrow morning, June 18th (God willing); and I hope that others receiving this notice (who are capable of doing so) will plan to join us as well. I believe he is planning to maintain this daily vigil until our sister in struggle is released. May that day come soon! - MS

While there is a lower class, I am in it; while there is a criminal element, I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free. - Eugene Debs TAKE ACTION NOW! Sign The Petition! Please take a moment to join Pete Seeger, Desmond Tutu, Dick Gregory and thousands of others. Get ten of your friends to sign the petition for compassionate release today. It is devastating, totally unbelievable. Is this in a democracy, the only superpower? I am sad. I will sign. Praying God’s blessing on your efforts. - Desmond Tutu Lynne Stewart should be outa jail. - Pete Seeger Write Lynne today, and visit lynnestewart.org Lynne Stewart 53504-054 CARSWELL FEDERAL MEDICAL CENTER P.O. BOX 27137 Fort Worth TX, 76127 To Donate please send your gift to: Lynne Stewart Organization 1070 Dean St. Brooklyn NY 11216 (for gifts that need to be tax deductible call or email ralph.poynter@yahoo.com) EMERGENCY ALERT: LYNNE STEWART IN GRAVE DANGER The warden of Carswell FCI agreed to forward the compassionate release petition to the DOJ. TWO MONTHS AGO.. LYNNE DIES A LITTLE MORE EACH DAY... WHY THE DELAY The time to increase the heat is now. Dear Friends, 20,000 signatures cant be wrong... Hope you will join me in Wash. D.C. Monday, Jun 17 in front of the White House & the Bureau of Prisons to demand compassionate release for Sister Lynne... Women in Black "took it to the streets" in Wash. D.C. Let's keep the pressure on ...please continue to call for Lynne.....and facebook and twitter these pictures all over the world.... I will remain until Sister Lynne is home... Hope you will join me when you can...... Thank you.. Ralph Poynter--917 853 9759 Lynne Stewart Defense Org. ----- Forwarded Message -----From: Laurie <larbeiter@hotmail.com> To: Ralph Poynter <ralph.poynter@yahoo.com> Sent: Sunday, June 2, 2013 3:01 PM Subject: RELEASE LYNNE WASHINGTON DC Dear Ralph, First spontaneous public action... More to come... Laurie TAKE ACTION NOW! Sign The Petition! Lynne Stewart Must Be Free! Lynne Stewart and her husband Ralph Poynter. Compassion demands that Lynne Stewart be released immediately from prison so she and her family can fight for her life. Lynne Stewart, is political prisoner and a renowned human rights lawyer who is currently serving a ten year sentence at FMC Carswell TX. Please go to lynnestewart.org get active and sign the petition for compassionate release. Lynne Stewart Defense Organization 1070 Dean St. Brooklyn NY 11216 ralph.poynter@yahoo.com Over 20,000 and counting sign the petition! Please add your voice! If you have already signed the petition, please write a letter. They have the power to release Lynne now and must be encouraged to do so. Please write to: Mr. Charles E. Samuels, Jr., Director Federal Bureau of Prisons 320 First Street, NW Washington, DC 20534 Re: Lynne Irene Stewart, #53504-054 Compassionate Release Lynne Stewart Defense Organization 1070 Dean St. Brooklyn NY 11216 ralph.poynter@yahoo.com www.lynnestewart.org 917 853 9759

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There will also be another (no doubt, much larger) demonstration at the same location, organized by the DC area's Ethiopian Muslim community to draw attention to the gross anti-Muslim human rights violations being carried out by the Ethiopian government (see below).

Insha'Allah, I plan to show my support for both efforts.

Protest against the Injustices in Ethiopia
Tuesday June 18, 2013.
Time: 9:00am - 1:00pm.
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
In front of the White House

--

Dear All, Peace Action was one of the few organizations to oppose the invasion of Afghanistan and we have been working ever since to end America's longest war. Last week, the House of Representatives took a big step in bringing all troops home. While considering the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the House passed an amendment that stated in part: [requires] the President to complete the accelerated transition of combat operations from U.S. Armed Forces to the Government of Afghanistan no later than by the end of 2013; the accelerated transition of military and security operations by the end of 2014, including the redeployment of U.S. troops; and to pursue robust negotiations to address Afghanistan’s and the region’s security and stability. Offered by long-time allies Representatives Walter Jones, R-North Carolina; Barbara Lee, D-California, and John Garamendi, D-California, the amendment passed with an overwhelming 305-121 (you can see how your Rep. voted here) Only nine democrats voted against and a majority of Republicans supported this very clear message to the administration to end the war. Your calls, emails and protests over the years have swayed public opinion and pressured the administration and lawmakers to bring this war to a close. Our work opposing the Iraq and Afghanistan wars has made the U.S. Government much more wary of putting boots on the ground. Take Libya and the current situation in Syria as examples. Additionally, other amendments to the NDAA we supported passed such as language making clear that there is no authorization for a war with Iran. Unfortunately, House Republican leaders did not allow amendments that might cut wasteful weapons systems like nuclear weapons. There were a number of amendments that Peace Action took a stance on. You may see the outcomes here. The next step on the NDAA will be when the Senate brings it to the floor sometime in the fall where we expect allies to offer similar Afghanistan language and opportunities to reduce the swelling Pentagon budget. In the next few weeks, the House will take up the "Defense Appropriations" bill where the Congress decides how much to fund projects that it has authorized. We expect amendments to cut unneeded, wasteful weapons systems. Thanks again for your hard work and support. Let's use this Afghanistan victory to help cut wasteful Pentagon spending. Humbly for Peace, Kevin Martin Executive Director Peace Action P.S. We need your support to continue garnering peace victories. Please become a Peace Sustainer today so we can continue creating a peaceful world with a government that uses your taxes on items your values support. Take Action: Build a Stronger Peace Action: Be a Peace Sustainer Please sign our petition if you haven’t already: Tell the President to Escalate the Talk and Not the War CONNECT TO US: Find us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Read our blog Contact us

On the Historical Materialist View of Society

	Workers Vanguard No. 882	8 December 2006

TROTSKY

LENIN

On the Historical Materialist View of Society

(Quote of the Week)

The works of Georgi Plekhanov, founder of Russian Marxism, were crucial in educating Bolshevik leader V.I. Lenin and others of his generation. In polemicizing against both philosophical idealism and revisionist conceptions of Marxism, Plekhanov expounded the materialist view of class society, which is the core of the Marxist worldview.

Man makes history in striving to satisfy his needs. These needs, of course, are originally imposed by nature; but they are later considerably modified quantitatively and qualitatively by the character of the artificial environment. The productive forces at man’s disposal determine all his social relations. First of all, the state of the productive forces determines the relations in which men stand towards each other in the social process of production, that is, their economic relations. These relations naturally give rise to definite interests, which are expressed in law.... The development of productive forces divides society into classes, whose interests are not only different, but in many—and, moreover, essential—aspects are diametrically antagonistic. This antagonism of interests gives rise to conflicts, to a struggle among the social classes. The struggle results in the replacement of the tribal organization by the state organization, the purpose of which is to protect the dominant interests. Lastly, social relations, determined by the given state of productive forces, give rise to common morality, the morality, that is, that guides people in their common, everyday life.

Thus the law, the state system and the morality of any given people are determined directly and immediately by its characteristic economic relations. These economic relations also determine—but indirectly and mediately—all the creations of the mind and imagination: art, science, etc.

—Georgi Plekhanov, The Materialist Conception of History (1897)

The Latest From The "Jobs With Justice Blog"-The Seemingly One-Sided Struggle Continues-It's High Time To Push Back-Push Back Hard-30 For 40 Is The Slogan Of The Day.

Click on the headline to link to the Jobs With Justice Blog for the latest national and international labor news, and of the efforts to counteract the massively one-sided class struggle against the international working class movement.

From the American Left History blog-Wednesday, June 17, 2009

With Unemployment Rising- The Call "30 For 40"- Now More Than Ever- The Transitional Socialist Program

Google To Link To The Full Transitional Program Of The Fourth International Adopted In 1938 As A Fighting Program In The Struggle For Socialism In That Era. Many Of The Points, Including The Headline Point Of 30 Hours Work For 40 Hours Pay To Spread The Work Around Among All Workers, Is As Valid Today As Then.

Guest Commentary

From The Transitional Program Of The Fourth International In 1938- Sliding Scale of Wages and Sliding Scale of Hours

Under the conditions of disintegrating capitalism, the masses continue to live the meagerized life of the oppressed, threatened now more than at any other time with the danger of being cast into the pit of pauperism. They must defend their mouthful of bread, if they cannot increase or better it. There is neither the need nor the opportunity to enumerate here those separate, partial demands which time and again arise on the basis of concrete circumstances – national, local, trade union. But two basic economic afflictions, in which is summarized the increasing absurdity of the capitalist system, that is, unemployment and high prices, demand generalized slogans and methods of struggle.

The Fourth International declares uncompromising war on the politics of the capitalists which, to a considerable degree, like the politics of their agents, the reformists, aims to place the whole burden of militarism, the crisis, the disorganization of the monetary system and all other scourges stemming from capitalism’s death agony upon the backs of the toilers. The Fourth International demands employment and decent living conditions for all.

Neither monetary inflation nor stabilization can serve as slogans for the proletariat because these are but two ends of the same stick. Against a bounding rise in prices, which with the approach of war will assume an ever more unbridled character, one can fight only under the slogan of a sliding scale of wages. This means that collective agreements should assure an automatic rise in wages in relation to the increase in price of consumer goods.

Under the menace of its own disintegration, the proletariat cannot permit the transformation of an increasing section of the workers into chronically unemployed paupers, living off the slops of a crumbling society. The right to employment is the only serious right left to the worker in a society based upon exploitation. This right today is left to the worker in a society based upon exploitation. This right today is being shorn from him at every step. Against unemployment, “structural” as well as “conjunctural,” the time is ripe to advance along with the slogan of public works, the slogan of a sliding scale of working hours. Trade unions and other mass organizations should bind the workers and the unemployed together in the solidarity of mutual responsibility. On this basis all the work on hand would then be divided among all existing workers in accordance with how the extent of the working week is defined. The average wage of every worker remains the same as it was under the old working week. Wages, under a strictly guaranteed minimum, would follow the movement of prices. It is impossible to accept any other program for the present catastrophic period.

Property owners and their lawyers will prove the“unrealizability” of these demands. Smaller, especially ruined capitalists, in addition will refer to their account ledgers. The workers categorically denounce such conclusions and references. The question is not one of a “normal”collision between opposing material interests. The question is one of guarding the proletariat from decay, demoralization and ruin. The question is one of life or death of the only creative and progressive class, and by that token of the future of mankind. If capitalism is incapable of satisfying the demands inevitably arising from the calamities generated by itself, then let it perish.“Realizability” or “unrealizability” is in the given instance a question of the relationship of forces, which can be decided only by the struggle. By means of this struggle, no matter what immediate practical successes may be, the workers will best come to understand the necessity of liquidating capitalist slavery.

Guantanamo detainee briefs and the global address list: trial report, day 7

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By Nathan Fuller, Bradley Manning Support Network. June 17, 2013.

PFC Bradley Manning (sketch by Debra Van Poolen – click for source)

The third week of Bradley Manning’s court martial began with testimony about Guantanamo Bay detainee assessment briefs (DABs) that WikiLeaks released as the GITMO Files, and the Global Address List (GAL) that the government claims Bradley stole. The GAL is a collection of military email addresses. In February, Bradley pled not guilty to illegally obtaining that list.
This morning, after a long recess during which the parties continued to confer privately, we heard only stipulations of agreed-upon expected testimony.
Guantanamo detainee briefs
Prosecutors read testimony from Jeffrey Motes, a senior counterterror analyst at Guantanamo Bay, who led the team that created the DABs and spoke to why they were classified. The DABs include detainees’ background information, details of their capture, their affiliation with terrorist groups, indicators of their threat level, and Motes’ team’s analysis of that threat level. While Motes says that the detainees and their affiliates likely already knew all of that information, they didn’t know the U.S.’s assessment and the extent of its knowledge.
The five briefs that Motes reviewed for the investigation into Bradley’s release, he said, included or mentioned Techniques, Tactics, and Procedures (TTPs) of enemy movements, enemy recruitment activities, and engagements with enemy forces – the disclosure of which, he said, could alter enemy practices.
The government also read stipulation of expected testimony for Rear Admiral David Woods, an Original Classification Authority who reviewed the Guantanamo DABs and, following Executive Order guidelines, determined they were properly classified at the Secret level. Woods also said that when reviewing the DABs, he did not consider “open-source material” in the public realm.
We also heard stipulations for Navy Vice Admiral Robert Harward, who reviewed CENTCOM documents, and former Army NCO Louis Travieso, a Defense Intelligence Agency intelligence analyst at CENTCOM. Travieso conducted a line-by-line review of the charged documents in the Iraq and Afghan war logs, as well as documents from the Farah incident and investigation.
All of this testimony likely goes to whether Bradley had reason to believe he was releasing “closely held” information “relating to the national defense,” a threshold not met by mere classification level alone.
Global Address List background
The government says Bradley Manning did “steal, purloin, or knowingly convert” the GAL in violation of 18 U.S.C. 641, a ten-year offense. It contends Bradley had a list of some 74,000 military email addresses on his unclassified NIPRNet computer, which he used in the supply annex.
The government has pointed to WikiLeaks’ tweet requesting ‘.mil email addresses’ as evidence that Bradley was acting under the Julian Assange’s direction. Forensic expert Mark Johnson testified last week that on the unallocated (deleted) portion of one of Bradley’s computers, he found evidence of a ‘tasker’ in which someone allegedly requested Bradley “exfiltrate” or extract the global address list, and evidence that the list was on his computer and had been deleted, but no specific request for it to be sent to WikiLeaks. He found no evidence on that computer that the list was extracted or transferred.
Afternoon update – GAL Testimony
CWO4 Nixon testified about access to the Global Address List, which he described as a function of the ‘active directory.’ He distinguished between ‘access’ and ‘visibility’ – those with user accounts could search for a name within the Iraq GAL and have access to it, but the list of addresses and names wasn’t visible in full (though it was to those with administrative accounts). Someone logged on to a user account couldn’t simply download the list of addresses for their brigade, s/he would have to manually copy and paste each one individually. He didn’t confirm the government’s earlier number of 74,000 addresses – when he was handed a CD and asked how many addresses were on it, he said about 24,000.
The government read testimony for Special Agent Alfred Williamson, from the Army Criminal Investigations Unit, who forensically examined the supply annex computer that Bradley used but which belonged to Staff Sergeant Peter Bigelow, supply room supervisor. Williamson said user account ‘Bradley.Manning’ searched Google News for ‘WikiLeaks’ and ‘nonjudicial punishment,’ and he found encrypted emails between Bradley and Adrian Lamo. He also said it appeared that Bradley, or someone on his account, was using the ‘Peter.Bigelow’ account, as he viewed Bradley’s gmail account and other personal documents. Williamson found five files related to the GAL, and several ‘blah-named files’ (Bradley said he compressed two documents into a file named Blah.zip), created and deleted on May 13, 2010.
Prosecutors read testimony from Peter Bigelow, confirming that Bigelow allowed Bradley to use his personal computer after he noticed Bradley was checking his Gmail on a NIPRNet (non-Secret, military) computer, and that he didn’t conduct searches for WikiLeaks and didn’t create the ‘Blah’ folder.
GAL value and access
Chief Warrant Officer 4 Armond Rouillard testified about the GAL’s value, which he divided into monetary and cyber-threat categories, the latter of which the Army focuses on. With the GAL email addresses, an adversary could target ‘spearphishing’ campaigns against specific users and gain access to their military computers.
But the defense objected to the government offering Rouillard as an expert on GAL’s monetary value, because Specification 16 of Charge 2 specifically alleges Bradley stole or converted the list “of a value of more than $1,000, in violation of 18 U.S. Code Section 641.”
When pressed, the government withdrew its presentation of Rouillard as an expert on the GAL’s value, and he was instead accepted only as an expert on the GAL itself and cyber-security more generally.
The defense established on cross-examination that there was no directive prohibiting the downloading of the address list.
More stipulations and recesses
The parties are continuing to agree to more and more stipulations of expected testimony, currently working on 17 more behind the scenes. This brings another long recess. Tomorrow at 9:30 AM, they’ll present oral arguments on the admissibility of certain prosecution exhibits. After that, the court will be in recess until Tuesday, when we’ll hear an update on the stipulations, and on Wednesday the government’s case will resume. The parties also agreed that the government will not call any sentencing witnesses earlier than July 8.