THE HANDSTAND

 DECEMBER2010

 


http://www.avaaz.org/en/wikileaks_petition/97.php

Dear friends,

The massive campaign of intimidation against WikiLeaks is sending a chill through free press advocates everywhere.

Legal experts say WikiLeaks has likely broken no laws. Yet top US politicians have called it a terrorist group and commentators have urged assassination of its staff. The organization has come under massive government and corporate attack, but WikiLeaks is only publishing information provided by a whistleblower. And it has partnered with the world's leading newspapers (NYT, Guardian, Spiegel etc) to carefully vet the information it publishes.

The massive extra-judicial intimidation of WikiLeaks is an attack on democracy. We urgently need a public outcry for freedom of the press and expression. Sign the petition to stop the crackdown and forward this email to everyone -- let's get to 1 million voices and take out full page ads in US newspapers this week!

http://www.avaaz.org/en/wikileaks_petition/97.php

WikiLeaks isn't acting alone -- it's partnered with the top newspapers in the world (New York Times, The Guardian, Der Spiegel, etc) to carefully review 250,000 US diplomatic cables and remove any information that it is irresponsible to publish. Only 800 cables have been published so far. Past WikiLeaks publications have exposed government-backed torture, the murder of innocent civilians in Iraq and Afgha nistan, and corporate corruption.

The US government is currently pursuing all legal avenues it has to stop WikiLeaks from publishing more cables, but the laws of democracies protect freedom of the press. The US and other governments may not like the laws that protect our freedom of expression, but that's exactly why it's so important that we have them, and why only a democratic process can change them.

Reasonable people can disagree on whether WikiLeaks and the leading newspapers it's partnered with are releasing more information than the public should see. Whether the releases undermine diplomatic confidentiality and whether that's a good thing. Whether WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has the personal character of a hero or a villain. But none of this justifies a vicious campaign of intimidation to silence a legal media outlet by governments and corporations. Click below to join the call to stop the crackdown:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/wikileaks_petition/97.php

Ever wonder why the media so rarely gives the full story of what happens behind the scenes? This is why - because when they do, governments can be vicious in their response. And when that happens, it's up to the public to stand up for our democratic rights to a free press and freedom of expression. Never has there been a more vital time for us to do so.

With hope,
Ricken, Emma, Alex, Alice, Maria Paz and the rest of the Avaaz team.

 

 

LETTER FROM FRANK SCOTT

 

whether the petition is enough or not, those who cannot retaliate by jamming  computer sites of the opposition and its servants or  who do not wish to respond violently to a nonviolent attempt at serious social change can do no better than let established power know how many feel the way they do and how strongly they support wikileaks and what resistance there is  to this assault on assange...a petition can help make that clear...

and please let us not forget the  source of most of thse cables and messages, service man  bradley manning who has been in prison for months and faces even more danger than assange...he does not yet have a worldwide network of support , certainly not to the extent of assange... he is a member of the global working class majority which does not have anywhere n ear the clout, financial or intellectual, of the formally educated  professional class minority, a relative elite , including its  small  sector  of anti-establishment people...

given material reality and all its contradictions and denials of  humane sanity ,we are always in danger of being forced all the way through the looking glass and into  a lewis carroll blunder-land of total insanity, and this seems to be one of those times when well meaning people  depart from anything but conspiratorial plots almost beyond comprehension and about as secret as the mysteries of universal founding, and this while the wikileaks episode should make us aware that there is no way - absolutely no way! - to keep secrets anymore, so long as people rise up and demand  that be the case...

meanwhile, i will not hang by my lip waiting to hear about the cable-diplomatic message-communication between mossad-bush-cheney - and mother theresa? - ab out the 9/11 conspiracy plot of all conspiracy plots, still without a whistle blower, still without a leak, still without a confession from a contrite, conscience tortureded villain or scapegoat these many years after hundreds - at the very least! - had to have been involved in and had knowledge of such a fantastic plot to murder thousands of their own people...bradley manning was moved to take his heroic action by seeing and participating in horrors of war he could not tolerate any longer...where is the bradley manning for 9/11? there isn't one, because the fables, myths and conjectures come from people sitting in front of keyboards , video screens or printed pages...experience is the best teacher ...support wikileaks and especally bradley manning...whatever their politics, their practical experience and ours is what counts for more than our theories about them...

will we ever   face material reality  and change it , and not  rely on immaterial co njecture to simply theorize about  it? now is as good a time as ever to start looking at facts and stop creating fiction to account for them ...


fs