Sunday, June 24, 2018

The Injustice of Reality Winner’s Year in Jail

The Injustice of Reality Winner’s Year in Jail

One year ago, FBI agents arrived at the door of a young woman named Reality Winner. Winner, an Air Force veteran and contractor at the National Security Agency facility in Augusta, Georgia, was accused of leaking a top-secret NSA document describing a Russian hacking operation targeting the U.S. voting system. At the time, President Donald Trump was loudly denouncing claims of Russian hacking as “fake news,” and he had just fired FBI Director James Comey because he wanted to end the investigation into “this Russia thing with Trump and Russia.” The document that Winner is accused of leaking was the subject of an article, published by The Intercept two days after her arrest, detailing the Russian hacking attempt on the cusp of the 2016 election. Winner was interrogated and jailed, charged under the Espionage Act, and denied bail. She remains in jail today.
In a piece published by The Intercept on Sunday, the one-year anniversary of Winner’s arrest, Peter Maass compares the punitive treatment of Winner, whose alleged leak alerted the public to the hacking effort, to that of Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager, who is suspected of colluding with Russians and is facing charges of conspiracy, money laundering, bank fraud, and lying to federal investigators — and who received the government’s blessing to spend his recent Christmas holiday at his 10-room Hamptons mansion.
Over the past year, The Intercept has been following legal developments in Winner’s case, which has faced setbacks after multiple court rulings have restricted her attorneys’ ability to defend her. (The Intercept’s parent company, First Look Media, has contributed to her legal defense through its Press Freedom Defense Fund.) Throughout, the fanatical secrecy of the government has been a tremendous hurdle.
As James Risen recently argued, it is becoming increasingly clear that the leaking of the NSA report was a vital public service. A May report by the Senate Intelligence Committee noted that state election officials learned about the Russian hacking “from the press or from the public Committee hearing on June 21, 2017.” The Intercept story ran less than three weeks before that hearing.
There’s still a lot we don’t know, however, about exactly what local election officials knew about the attacks on their systems, and when they knew it. The Intercept has been investigating. Sam Biddle filed his first report on this on Friday — and there is more to come.

If you can, please make a donation to support Reality Winner’s defense. All donations made on this page will be directed to the Press Freedom Defense Fund for Reality Winner.
Betsy Reed 
Editor-in-Chief
Whatever You Think of the Trump-Russia Investigation, Whistleblower Reality Winner Deserves Your Support
Trevor Timm
Hardly anyone from the center to the left supports the former NSA contractor, but they all should.
Reality Winner Has Been in Jail for a Year. Her Prosecution Is Unfair and Unprecedented.
Peter Maass
Winner is accused of leaking a classified NSA document that helped alert Americans to Russian hacking attacks against the U.S. voting system.
Here’s the Email Russian Hackers Used to Try to Break Into State Voting Systems
Sam Biddle
The simplicity of the email, which included a malicious election software manual, is part of the playbook of an advanced attacker, an expert said.

More Intercept Coverage

First Look to Support Defense of Reality Winner in Espionage Act Prosecution
Betsy Reed
The Press Freedom Defense Fund opposes prosecution of journalistic sources under the Espionage Act, and The Intercept concludes its review of reporting practices.
Top-Secret NSA Report Details Russian Hacking Effort Days Before 2016 Election
Matthew Cole, Richard Esposito, Sam Biddle, Ryan Grim
A top-secret National Security Agency report details a monthslong Russian hacking effort against the U.S. election infrastructure. 
Judge Denies Bail for Reality Winner, Accepting Prosecutor’s Dubious Allegations
Trevor Timm
The judge took many of the prosecution’s charges about Reality Winner’s views at face value — portending a tough road ahead at trial.
Senate Report Strongly Implies Russian Hacking Story Was a Public Service — but Whistleblower Reality Winner Remains in Jail 
James Risen
Other outlets reported on Russian intrusion into the U.S. elections system, but The Intercept’s story relied on a leaked document.
The Government Is Trying to Make It Impossible for Reality Winner to Defend Herself in Court
Trevor Timm
The government is imposing secrecy rules that tie the defense team’s hands.
How the Interrogation of Reality Winner Reveals the Deceptive Tactics of “Exceedingly Friendly” FBI Agents
Peter Maass
FBI agents chatted about their love of dogs and their workout routines to entice Winner to talk during a disputed interrogation at her home.
Reality Winner Was Not Told She Had the Right to Remain Silent
Trevor Timm
Lawyers for Reality Winner, the ex-NSA contractor accused of leaking a top-secret document published by The Intercept, want her alleged confession thrown out.
James Comey’s Memos Reveal the Reasons Donald Trump Wants to Find Leakers and Put Reporters in Jail
James Risen
There is a big difference between the kind of leaks Trump usually decries on Twitter and the kind that lead to criminal prosecutions.
The Reality Winner Prosecution Relies on Secrecy and Fearmongering
Trevor Timm
The former NSA contractor’s bail appeal shows how the government is treating her unlike almost anyone ever charged under the Espionage Act.

Join us in supporting Reality Winner. All donations made here will be directed to the Press Freedom Defense Fund in support of her defense.

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Why Globalists Want to Contain Iran


 
 
 

https://www.activistpost.com/2018/06/why-globalists-want-to-contain-iran.html

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Why Globalists Want to Contain Iran

TOPICS: Chris Kanthan Globalist Agenda Iran
JUNE 2, 2018
Forget the hullabaloo about Iran’s nuclear program—Netanyahu and the Neocons have been screaming about the imminent demise of the globe by Iran’s non-existent nukes for more than twenty years. The truth is that Iran is in the crosshairs of globalists for four main geopolitical reasons:
Oil competition
In terms of world’s proven reserves, Iran is #4 in oil and #2 in natural gas. Thus, a free Iran will endanger Saudi Arabia’s role as the leading oil producer.
To give some historical context, the only reason that Saudis are so rich now is that Iran has been virtually isolated by crippling US sanctions since 1979. For decades before that, Iran was #1 in oil production and refining, but everything changed when Saudis colluded with international financiers to create the oil-for-dollar (“petrodollar”) scheme in the 1970s during the dollar crisis. In return, globalists turned Iran into a global pariah. Thus, in 1970, Iran was producing more oil than Saudi Arabia; however, by 1980, the Saudis were producing six times more oil than the Iranians!
 
A resurgent Iran will also mean competition to US oil and shale companies which have been ramping up production since 2011 (when Libya was destroyed!).
Challenge to Israel
Israel wants weak Arab neighbors that it can kick around and grab oil/land from – a prime example being Golan Heights, that has huge oil reserves. There are Israelis who dream of a Greater Israel, which encompasses land from many neighboring countries. Iran is strong and independent; it helped defeat Al Qaeda and ISIS jihadists in Syria; it’s very likely helping anti-Saudi rebels in Yemen; and it arms Hezbollah who can punch Israel in the nose if the latter meddles in Lebanon.
Divide and Rule; Weapons Sales
If everyone in the Middle East got along with one another, there will be no need for US military bases, and Saudi Arabia won’t be binge-buying US/UK weapons. That would be terrible! For the military-industrial complex, the Middle East has been a cash cow for the last two decades. Perpetual wars mean enormous war-profiteering for private contractors and defense corporations.
Then there are geopolitical elites, for whom controlling nations and regions is imperative. For them, divide and rule is an essential strategy. Hence they fuel the Sunni-Shiite, Saudi-Iran, Arab-Persian conflict and keep it just short of a full-fledged war — after all, corporations don’t want their pipelines and refineries to get destroyed. In geopolitics, this playbook is called “controlled chaos.”
 
Eurasian Alliance of Iran-China-Russia
There’s a huge struggle for the control of Eurasia, and Iran is a key piece in that geopolitical chessboard. As long as Iran was isolated and weak, it didn’t matter. But now Iran is getting into all kinds of military and economic alliances with Russia & China — the two countries that have been labeled by the Trump administration as “rival powers” and “revisionist powers” that have heralded an era of “great power competition.”
Iran is also key component of China’s Silk Road (also called Belt and Road Initiative or One Belt, One Road) — freight trains from China have to go through Iran on their way to Africa and the Middle East. Destabilizing Iran means sabotaging China’s Silk Road, and that would be very desirable for globalists.
However, if the Iran-Russia-China coalition survives, it will mean the following for the West:
** Unable to conquer Syria & Lebanon.
** Possible loss of Iraq, since there’s a huge Shiite majority. ‪This, in turn, will lead to the formidable Shiite Crescent — four contiguous nations of Lebanon-Syria-Iraq-Iran. (*Lebanon = Hezbollah, in the minds of Israel/USA)
** Partial loss of Turkey, a pivotal NATO member. Erdogan-US relations are already on the rocks and Turkey is steadily moving into Russia’s orbit. Turkey is buying anti-missile systems (S-400) from Russia, partnering with Putin to build TurkStream pipelines that will bring Russian oil/gas to Europe, getting close to Iran, and planning on joining China’s One Belt, One Road.
** Partial Loss of Qatar as a vassal state. Qatar works hard to please the US/EU establishment and hosts a huge US military base. However, Qatar also shares the world’s largest natural gas field with Iran, which has become even more of a strategic and indispensable ally after the Saudi blockade last year.
** Possible eviction of US military bases from Afghanistan, a country that borders Iran and now wants to join CPEC  —  China-Pakistan Economic Corridor  —  that’s so promising that Pakistan is giving the diplomatic middle finger to Washington, DC.
Basically, the US is on the verge of losing its hegemony in a contiguous string of countries from the Middle East to China. The four leaders who’re actively working on this are the powerbrokers in Russia, Iran, Syria and Lebanon. China is quietly helping in the economic front, while being careful not to militarily challenge the US.
These are the reasons why globalists are fervently trying to topple the current Iranian regime. Neocons such as Bolton are partnering with MEK, a cult-terrorist group that was conveniently deemed innocuous by the US government in 2012, the same year when the US illegally seized $100 billion of Iranian assets and imposed devastating sanctions. Trump pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA) gives the hawks one more chance to crush the Iranian economy through sanctions, which will also force EU companies to pull out of Iran.

Warmongers don’t care much about what happens after a regime change. If Iran is embroiled in a bitter civil war between Islamists & secularists for the next decade, it will just be splendid. The chaos can actually be used to chop up Iran into pieces — Baluchistan on the east, Khuzestan on the south and Kurdistan on the northwest. This will ensure that Iran will never be an influential regional power again. Of course, all this would also mean millions of refugees rushing into Europe and America, but geopolitical machinations are ruthless.

Chris Kanthan is the author of a new book, Deconstructing the Syrian War. Chris lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, has traveled to 35 countries, and writes about world affairs, politics, economy and health. His other book is Deconstructing Monsanto. Follow him on Twitter: @GMOChannel
 
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