Truth Is National Security

By Jeffrey Sterling : 22 August 21

Last month marked another notch on the weapon that is the Espionage Act, as it continues to be misused by the Department of Justice. Drone whistleblower Daniel Hale was sentenced to spend 45 months in federal prison. Once again, so-called justice in this country will subject a person of truth to the desolate confines of prison, not because of the rule of law and justice, but out of a continuing desire to retaliate against those who dare stand up for truth and accountability in our government.

UK court allows expanded US appeal for Assange extradition

Committee to Protect Journalists

Washington, D.C., August 12, 2021 — In response to Britain’s High Court decision yesterday to allow the United States government to expand its appeal to extradite Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement:

Drone Whistleblower Daniel Hale Is a Truth-Teller in a Time of Systemic Deceit and Lethal Secrecy

Hale should be pardoned and released, and the government should pay him restitution.

By Jeremy Scahill – The Intercept

In Pre-Sentencing Letter, Drone Whistleblower Daniel Hale Says Crisis of Conscience Motivated Leak

By Brett Wilkins — CommonDreams.org

“I came to believe that the policy of drone assassination was being used to mislead the public that it keeps us safe… I began to speak out, believing my participation in the drone program to have been deeply wrong.”

“Committing the Truth”: Whistleblower Daniel Hale to Be Sentenced for Drone Program Leaks

Democracy Now!

At a sentencing hearing Tuesday, whistleblower Daniel Hale faces at least nine years in prison for leaking classified information about the U.S. drone and targeted assassination program. During his time in the Air Force from 2009 to 2013, Hale worked with the National Security Agency and the Joint Special Operations Task Force at the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, where he helped identify targets for assassination. He later worked as a contractor for the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. In March, Hale pleaded guilty to one count of violating the World War I-era Espionage Act for leaking documents exposing the drone program. “This has been an odyssey that has occupied most of the better part of his adult life for basically committing the truth,” says Jesselyn Radack, an attorney for Daniel Hale. “The U.S. has never contested any of Daniel’s disclosures,” Radack adds. We also speak with Noor Mir, Daniel Hale’s close friend and part of his support team, who describes him as a compassionate person willing to make sacrifices to do the right thing. “I know that when he’s out, he will remain committed to ending suffering in all forms,” Mir says.

Secrecy, Repression, and The Espionage Act Century: Carey Shenkman

Primary Sources Podcast

Passed during World War I, the Espionage Act was President Woodrow Wilson’s “firm hand of repression” that he used to silence antiwar voices.

Snowden, Surveillance and Whistleblowing: Unlearned Lessons and Unfinished Business

By Patrick G. Eddington – RightsAndDissent.org

It’s been the better part of a decade since NSA contractor-turned-whistleblower Edward Snowden first revealed massive U.S. government surveillance of our phone communications. The additional disclosures that followed led to no meaningful public Congressional hearings into Snowden’s revelations; a cynical, totally ineffectual law that didn’t actually stop much, if any, of the mass telephone surveillance; and lots of attacks on the whistleblower himself—not just from his former government employers, but from multiple House and Senate members, as well as some in the press.

Peace-washing: Is a network of major donors neutralizing activism in the peace movement?

With Democrats in power (for now), powerful funders may be trying to tame or silence progressive peace activists

By Dave Lindorff : Salon.com

Reporting for this article was funded by a grant from the ExposeFacts program of the Institute for Public Accuracy.

During the four years of the Trump administration, resistance and even revolutionary talk were in the air as organizations with names like The Resistance and Our Revolution brought together liberals, Democrats of all stripes and Sandernistas, all opposed to President Donald Trump and to Trumpism in all its manifestations.

Drone Whistleblower Daniel Hale Jailed Ahead of Sentencing

It’s unclear precisely why Hale was arrested, and court documents show that his lawyers objected.

Alex Emmons – The Intercept

Daniel Hale, a former Air Force intelligence analyst who pleaded guilty to sharing classified documents about drone strikes with a reporter, has been arrested ahead of his sentencing in July.

Whistleblowers: Plenary Panel with Daniel Ellsberg and Edward Snowden, moderated by Amy Goodman

An historic conversation between Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg and National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, moderated by the award-winning journalist and host of Democracy Now! Amy Goodman.