The People's Record

How the US turned three pacifists into ‘multiple felony saboteurs’
May 20, 2013

In just ten months, the United States managed to transform an 82 year-old Catholic nun and two pacifists from non-violent anti-nuclear peace protesters accused of misdemeanor trespassing into federal felons convicted of violent crimes of terrorism.  Now in jail awaiting sentencing for their acts at an Oak Ridge, TN nuclear weapons production facility, their story should chill every person concerned about dissent in the US.

Here is how it happened.

In the early morning hours of Saturday June 28, 2012, long-time peace activists Sr. Megan Rice, 82, Greg Boertje-Obed, 57, and Michael Walli, 63, cut through the chain link fence surrounding the Oak Ridge Y-12 nuclear weapons production facility and trespassed onto the property.  Y-12, called the Fort Knox of the nuclear weapons industry, stores hundreds of metric tons of highly enriched uranium and works on every single one of the thousands of nuclear weapons maintained by the U.S.

Describing themselves as the Transform Now Plowshares, the three came as non-violent protestors to symbolically disarm the weapons. They carried bibles, written statements, peace banners, spray paint, flower, candles, small baby bottles of blood, bread, hammers with biblical verses on them and wire cutters. Their intent was to follow the words of Isaiah 2:4: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”

Sr. Megan Rice has been a Catholic sister of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus for over sixty years.  Greg Boertje-Obed, a married carpenter who has a college age daughter, is an Army veteran and lives at a Catholic Worker house in Duluth Minnesota.  Michael Walli, a two-term Vietnam veteran turned peacemaker, lives at the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker house in Washington DC.

In the dark, the three activists cut through a boundary fence which had signs stating “No Trespassing.”  The signs indicate that unauthorized entry, a misdemeanor, is punishable by up to 1 year in prison and a $100,000 fine.

No security arrived to confront them.

So the three climbed up a hill through heavy brush, crossed a road, and kept going until they saw the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility (HEUMF) surrounded by three fences, lit up by blazing lights.

Still no security.

So they cut through the three fences, hung up their peace banners, and spray-painted peace slogans on the HEUMF.  Still no security arrived.  They began praying and sang songs like “Down by the Riverside” and “Peace is Flowing Like a River.”

When security finally arrived at about 4:30 am, the three surrendered peacefully, were arrested, and jailed.

The next Monday July 30, Rice, Boertje-Obed, and Walli were arraigned and charged with federal trespassing, a misdemeanor charge which carries a penalty of up to one year in jail.  Frank Munger, an award-winning journalist with the Knoxville News Sentinel, was the first to publicly wonder, “If unarmed protesters dressed in dark clothing could reach the plant’s core during the cover of dark, it raised questions about the plant’s security against more menacing intruders.”

On Wednesday August 1, all nuclear operations at Y-12 were ordered to be put on hold in order for the plant to focus on security.  The “security stand-down” was ordered by security contractor in charge of Y-12, B&W Y-12 (a joint venture of the Babcock and Wilcox Company and Bechtel National Inc.) and supported by the National Nuclear Security Administration.

On Thursday August 2, Rice, Boertje-Obed, and Walli appeared in court for a pretrial bail hearing.  The government asked that all three be detained.  One prosecutor called them a potential “danger to the community” and asked that all three be kept in jail until their trial.  The US Magistrate allowed them to be released.

Sr. Megan Rice walked out of the jail and promptly admitted to gathered media that the three had indeed gone onto the property and taken action in protest of nuclear weapons.  “But we had to — we were doing it because we had to reveal the truth of the criminality which is there, that’s our obligation,” Rice said. She also challenged the entire nuclear weapons industry: “We have the power, and the love, and the strength and the courage to end it and transform the whole project, for which has been expended more than 7.2 trillion dollars,” she said “The truth will heal us and heal our planet, heal our diseases, which result from the disharmony of our planet caused by the worst weapons in the history of mankind, which should not exist.  For this we give our lives — for the truth about the terrible existence of these weapons.”

Full story

If politics be the language of hate…the age of the petition
Submission (by Evelyn Roberts)
May 17, 2013

Is activism the language of love? Do individuals standing up & making their voice heard, expressing an opinion, sharing thoughts & images on social media, signing petitions from the comfort of their computer chair, etc. make a difference to the world? Does caring enough do enough, or should we be out there “strutting our stuff” as well?

Of course there is nothing like plagiarism and if you are going to plagiarize, you may as well start off with a classic quote and completely dismantle it until there is but a hint of the original flavor…apologies to Will Shakespeare if he is reading this from the astral plane, but he has triggered a train of thought that needed following.

The dichotomy of today’s world
We seem to live in a world fueled by hate; but from where many of us stand, this destructive rhetoric seems to emanate almost entirely from governments around the globe, with a good seasoning of extremist groups to complement the basic recipe. This is one side of a yawning chasm, while on the other are the millions of human beings who, as individuals and groups, have managed to outgrow the confines of regarding life in terms of geographical and political boundaries, social, religious and cultural differences; and have taken the time and effort to educate themselves in a language spoken by a common humanity. The world is in schism between these two forces and you could be forgiven for wondering whether activism has any chance of overcoming the corruption and self-interest of politics and big business.

In a global society where individuals are waking up to the illusion and are choosing to open their minds, explore, learn and then take action based on their new understanding, the ‘Age of the Petition’ has arrived big time. It isn’t so very long since people who either could not or would not step outside their front door to support the cause for positive change were somewhat derisively referred to as “armchair activists”; their contribution to any meaningful outcome overlooked. Education has changed enormously over the last few decades and we are no longer the parochial society that we were. With so much information at our fingertips, the explorer’s playground of the internet at our disposal, where we can see in intricate detail locations we have never visited, walk down streets we will never see, learning has become an expanding universe.

Activism is no big deal
As a more enlightened fraternity in today’s world, we recognize that all action, no matter how small, makes a difference. The evidence is all around us – not in mainstream media, which for the most part attempts (or is directed) to ignore the voice of the people – but in the vast hinterland of dialogue taking place on the internet. It could be perceived that activism 30 years ago was limited to what were then considered rather eccentric minority groups of people, who chained themselves to trees or camped outside military bases in protest. Today, we all have a responsibility to do our part in raising the profile of issues which affect the planet, the global community and ultimately ourselves, as individuals. Online petitions are an enormously important step into activism for many people and make a real difference. Because the threshold of engagement is easy to achieve, it encourages the individual to cross it. We might be tempted to consider that petition activism has no measurable effect, but even in those instances where petitions do not have a major impact, they can promote awareness of issues, act to alert mainstream media to stories they should be leading on (or at least giving space to) or catalyze fundraising efforts to address crises and injustice happening anywhere around the world. Raising the profile of any issue, whether it be human or animal rights or environmental, undoubtedly has a positive impact.

Every signature on every petition is another voice joining the throng to make our views known to those elected representatives, who are supposedly administering on our behalves, but seem more commonly to be following their own agenda. Not only are petitions a gentle invitation into an arena of action to change our environment and society for the better, but independent research has shown that individuals who sign a petition linked to a non-profit were 7 times more likely to donate to that organization. In addition, this simple first step to becoming responsible world citizens invariably leads to taking other action as we become more aware and motivated to participate further. Sign on you crazy cubic zirconia!

First of all, dismissing info-activism as ‘just sharing pictures’ is so early 2000s. I’m only a little bit kidding. Because in all seriousness, in the age of digital information, spreading awareness by sharing images & information actually is important. And as much as older generations (who must not be paying attention to rapidly changing cultural shifts in how information is digested or who simply don’t understand the opportunities that creates) like to foolishly repeat the dismissive notion that anything done on the internet isn’t really doing anything ‘real’, that simply isn’t the case. Virtual space is where many of the meaningful social dialogues in our society are now happening. Whether that’s a good or a bad thing, if you care about the future of society, you have an obligation to participate in and affect that space.

That’s why these campaigns work so hard to get people to take quality photographs & to edit photos and maintain pages for the campaigns. The images are taken, made & posted so that we (the world/internet) will share them. It affects turn out to direct actions, it magnifies the impact, etc. Awareness is the whole point of these actions, so instead of the action only being seen by three people driving by that day (plus the workers at the construction site,) thousands will get to see what a few have done in these actions. It affects national consciousness and conversations around the world. It’s important. And every day as more people turn to the internet over TV, and turn to the internet for news over print media, it becomes more important, more relevant, more essential. Virtual spaces are not going away. They are increasingly relevant and increasingly helpful for sharing visual information, and that will continue to be the case for the foreseeable future. Affecting the consciousness, being vigilant in making sure that the left is more involved than others, is important for shaping our society and the possibilities of our society going forward.

Direct action is extremely important, for obvious reasons. If you specifically want to get involved with direct actions regarding the keystone XL pipeline, the states that have the pipeline are probably your only option. If you have a free weekend and the capacity to travel, they relatively often have campaign events calling for participants to arrive for a series of coordinated actions over a weekend. Gracie & I were recently able to go to a blockade in East Texas; we were there for three days. See the above map for ideas of where you might be able to travel to get involved with some pipeline resistance. If there isn’t a campaign related to your nearest pipeline, you can organize with others to build one. You really can. No, really. You can. You can use this blog for help finding like minds if you decide to go in that direction.

But there are many other direct action campaigns in Portland, Oregon that you can get involved with. Here a few starting resources for finding environmental organizations in your area that you could potentially get involved with:

• Get in the action with Portland Rising Tide
• West Coast Environmental Law: Tar sands, tankers & pipelines
• Portland environmental & animal activism

FBI billboards not about Assata Shakur; it’s about repressing the black community
May 5, 2013

Following the ludicrous announcement that the Obama administration has placed Assata Shakur on its “most wanted terrorist list”, the FBI has erected billboards in Newark, New Jersey announcing its recently increased $2 million dollar reward. However, any critically thinking person knows that these billboards are not about capturing Assata Shakur but sending a message to the rest of us. Interestingly, perhaps just a coincidence or not, Newark, New Jersey is the place where a theater co-owned by Shaquille O’Neil, recently reneged on an agreement to show a popular independent film about the life of another former member of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Is Assata Shakur in New Jersey? No, she is not and the FBI and the Obama administration know exactly where she is, in Cuba where she has lived since being granted political asylum by its government in 1979 after escaping from prison.

This is not about Assata Shakur, it is about sending a message to the Black community and those that live within it who stand up to police violence, oppression and murder of residents, one of the very reasons for the formation of the Black Panthers. It is about the political repression of those who advocate on the behalf of the many political prisons being held by the United States government often in torturous conditions. It is about sending a message to anyone who would take up arms in defense of life, liberty and true freedom in a country that is home to the largest prison population in the world which the federal government and various corporations use as slave labor. It is about sending a message to those that would dare stand up and point out that the US government is the most violent entity on the planet and one that commits acts of terrorism against non-white people and nations on behalf of maintaining the American imperialist status-quo.

Why else would the U.S. government seek to name Assata Shakur as a domestic terrorist after all these decades? We are talking about a woman who was shot twice while attempting to give herself up to police who were co-operating with Federal authorities to target and assassinate or otherwise eliminate members of the Black Liberation movement just as they had done and admitted in a civil lawsuit to doing to Martin Luther King Jr.

The FBI and its corporate media wing fail to report the details of the sham case built against Assata Shakur after failing to win convictions on other trump up charges. The corporate media is failing to point out that a police officer, a state witness against Assata Shakur for the murder of another police officer, has recanted his testimony and admitted to lying on the stand. Medical personnel stated that because of nerves severed by a bullet, Assata Shakur would have been physically prevented from firing a weapon and it was also stated that her wounds indicate her hands were raised when she was shot consistent with her claim that she was giving herself up.

Just as Assata Shakur has pointed out that COINTELPRO utilized and received full cooperation from the corporate media to demonize and alienate freedom fighters from the people who supported them, corporate media today is still fulfilling that role. The concept of a free and independent press in America has always been a fraud and it remains so today.

Source

Read more about Assata Shakur & find a link to her autobiography here.

Topless Tunisian activist Amina Tyler: ‘Femen have insulted all Muslims everywhere and it’s not acceptable’
April 10, 2013

A Tunisian activist, who was threatened with death by stoning for baring her breasts online, has broken her silence to condemn the “topless jihad” that was organised in support of her. Amina Tyler posted images of herself with the words “Fuck your morals” written across her chest to the Femen-Tunisia Facebook page, earning calls for her death from a local preacher who feared her act “could bring about an epidemic”.

Women’s movement Femen, which celebrated its fifth birthday on Wednesday, responded by organizing bare-breasted rallies across the world, touting them as a cry against the “lethal hatred of Islamists – inhuman beasts for whom killing a woman is more natural than recognising her right to do as she pleases with her own body.”

Since the event – which inspired the creation of a group of Muslim women fiercely opposed to Femen’s work – Amina has remained out of sight. Amid fears for her life, the 19-year-old was rumoured to be in a psychiatric hospital, while attorney Bochra Bel Haj Hmida insisted Amina was well and with her family.

Now footage of Amina has surfaced on French TV channel Itele, in which the teenager said she does not want to be associated with Femen’s recent actions.

She told CAPA journalist Benoit Chaumant: “I am against [it]. Every[one] will think that I encouraged their actions. They have insulted all Muslims everywhere and it’s not acceptable.”

When asked what she thought of the reaction to her topless photograph, Amina replied: “At the moment I don’t regret what I did. But I do not know what the future holds.”

As to whether she supports Femen “whatever happens”, she says: “Until I’m 80-years-old. Because they are true feminists.”

Chaumant says that for her own safety, Amina hopes to leave Tunisia soon.  “They [her family] believe she is at risk of death – she is at risk of death. So they want to keep her with them, at their house.”

In what was believed to be her last interview before she went underground, Amina told Frederica Tourn she she believed she would be beaten or raped if the Tunisian police found her. But she insisted she was not afraid: “No, nothing they could do would be worse than what already happens here to women, the way women are forced to live every day. “Ever since we are small they tell us to be calm, to behave well, to dress a certain way, everything to find a husband. We must also study to be able to marry, because young guys today want a woman who works.”

As for what the reluctant poster-girl’s comments will mean for Femen – and indeed for Muslim Women Against Femen, this remains to be seen.

Source

Just in case any of you racists out there still believe that your support of Femen’s racism is justified because of Amia Tyler.

Like everyone has already been telling you, the action was racist & insulting & it is really obvious that your condescending, eurocentric bullshit is not reaching out to help, is not being an ally & is not following the lead of the oppressed group & individuals you are pretending to stand for. Instead, it is projecting your European racism on a group of people who do not need you to mock their culture.

Happy Birthday, Dolores Huerta (April 10, 1930 - present)!

Huerta is a labor & civil rights leader who co-founded the United Farm Workers Union in 1972, and directed the groundbreaking, five-year National grape boycott that won the first-ever contract for a grape grower.

She has been a tireless advocate for women’s rights, organizing against the Welfare Reform Act and California’s Prop 209.

She is also a 101 Changemaker: 101 Changemakers: Rebels and Radical Who Changed US History

For more on the Farmworkers movement check out Fields of Resistance by Silvia Giagnoni: http://bit.ly/11TcrPr

All images on The People’s Record Facebook page for sharing there.

“We have suffered unnumbered ills and crimes in the name of the Law of the Land. Our men, women and children have suffered not only the basic brutality of stoop labor, and the most obvious injustices of the system; they have also suffered the desperation of knowing that the system caters to the greed of callous men and not to our needs.

Now we will suffer for the purpose of ending the poverty, the misery, and the injustice, with the hope that our children will not be exploited as we have been. They have imposed hungers on us, and now we hunger for justice.” - César E. Chávez, civil rights activist, farm worker organizer & co-founder of the National Farm Workers Association (March 31, 1927 - April 23, 1993)

Dear educators and allies,

Thank you for being incredible advocates for undocumented youth. As you may know, the NYS Youth Leadership Council is an undocumented youth-led organization built to fight for the rights of undocumented youth. For the past three years, we have been working on advocating for the New York Dream, a bill that would allow undocumented youth to access financial aid for their college education.  One of the key people who can make the New York DREAM Act a reality is Governor Cuomo, who can include the bill in his executive budget which is being finalized next week. Right now, it seems that he is not convinced that including the NY DREAM Act in his budget is the right thing to do, so we need to be united and strong in our demand that he do the right thing and allow young, promising people in NY State to access financial aid.

We believe that the best way to get his attention is by holding a human chain around his midtown New York City office (633 Third Avenue) this Tuesday, March 19, 2013 from 1:00-1:30pm. A human chain is a safe and effective way to show Governor Cuomo that we are united as advocates who believe that all people, regardless of their immigration status, have the right to go to college and realize their full potential. We know that this is very short notice, however there is still time to act to convince Governor Cuomo that this is the right thing to do. Passing the NY DREAM Act would change the lives of thousands of young, promising people in NY who dream of going to college. Please forward this on to your networks.

Sincerely,

Dominique Hernandez
Field Organizer
P | 646-484-8537

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From Dominique Hernandez <dominique@nysylc.org> at YLC - please pass along to your networks and be in touch with her if you can hard confirm.

Venezuelan indigenous Yukpa leader Sabino Romero assassinated
March 6, 2013 

Indigenous Yupka chief and land rights activist Sabino Romero has been assassinated in an act which has generated public repudiation from social movements and the Venezuelan government alike. A high profile investigation into the killing has been launched.

Romero was a chief of the indigenous Yupka people of the Sierra de Perijá in western Venezuela. He was assassinated on Sunday night as he made his way to vote in an indigenous election, in circumstances which are still unknown.

Romero was a leader in the struggle for ancestral Yupka lands in the Sierra de Perijá, lands held by cattle ranchers, but many of which have been formally granted to the Yupka by the Chavez government.

Last November, Romero travelled to Caracas with some 60 Yupka to demand that the government act against violence on the part of cattle ranchers who were refusing to give up their lands, as well as to protest against government inaction and public media silence over the conflict.

Several Yupka have already been killed in the land rights dispute, including Romero’s own father, and activists say that local judicial impunity has prevented the murderers from being brought to justice.

The Venezuelan government today condemned Romero’s assassination as a “terrible act”, and announced that a high-profile investigation into the killing had already been launched. The government, in a statement, said it suspects that the Yukpa chief was murdered for his role in the land rights conflict with cattle ranchers.

“We can’t get ahead of ourselves on a hypothesis about  this act, which is condemnable and must be repudiated from all points of view, but in general the just struggle for the fair distribution of land is on the table [as a possible motive],” said communication minister Ernesto Villegas.

Indigenous groups and social movements held a protest today outside the Public Attorney’s office in Caracas to demand that those responsible for Romero’s assassination be brought to justice.

Source

Democracy@Work: A Movement toward democratic workplaces
Ricahrd Wolff on raising money to start WSDEs
February 28, 2013

Where would WSDEs obtain the money needed to start and/or later grow their enterprises? Existing WSDEs have answered that question practically in a variety of ways. In addition, we can suggest still other ways that could be established. The problem of raising the money needed to start or grow a workers’ cooperative or self-directed enterprise is solvable. Of course, each WSDE will need to locate and access money resources and not every WSDE’s efforts to do so will be successful. That was always true for capitalist enterprises as well. Financing issues are always enterprise problems, but they are not an insurmountable barrier for transition to a WSDE-based economy.

Here then is a discussion of some ways WSDEs have raised money. One widespread practice is to require each worker in a WSDE to contribute a kind of entry fee in cash that becomes part of the capital of the enterprise. Other known sources for capital are local or regional social institutions (such as municipal or regional governments, religious establishments, non-governmental community centers and organizations, foundations offering grants or loans, trade unions, and political parties). Federal or central governments have also provided such capital. Thus, for example, under Italy’s Marcora Law since 1985, lump sum grants for establishing worker cooperatives may be chosen by unemployed workers (with certain conditions) in lieu of weekly unemployment compensation checks.

As is clear already above, the provision of money to WSDEs can take the form of grants, investments, or loans. Grants refer to provisions of money to WSDEs for which grantors do not expect a cash return. Grantors motivation is support for social transition to a greater number and/or greater social influence of WSDEs. In contrast, investments are motivated by desire for a cash return with or without the additional motivation of support for such a social transition. WSDEs could allow common shares to be purchased by such investors and could pay dividends to their owners. Of course, in a WSDE it would be the workers, in their collective capacity as their own board of directors, who would determine whether to pay a dividend and at what rate. WSDEs could likewise issue preferred shares paying fixed dividends and bonds paying fixed interest rates. WSDEs could also borrow from banks.

By these means, WSDEs would secure financing in ways similar to how capitalist enterprises have been doing so, but with these key and major differences. No matter how money is secured, the internal organization of the WSDE cannot be compromised since its existence and indeed growth is the premise and purpose of securing the money. Thus, if common shares were sold by a WSDE, the purchasers would not have the right that they enjoy in capitalist systems, namely to select by voting who will be on the board of directors of the WSDE. That is because the constituting definition of WSDE is that only the workers and all the workers comprise the enterprise’s decision-making board of directors. In short, providers of money to WSDEs would need to accept the operating principles governing WSDEs.

Many providers of money capital to WSDEs have accepted those principled conditions. Indeed, as the example of the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation shows, when WSDEs grow large enough, they can establish and grow their own bank subsidiaries or allied bank enterprises – themselves also WSDEs. Needless to say, banks organized as independent WSDEs or as subsidiaries of non-bank WSDEs will all the more readily facilitate and broaden access to money for further WSDE growth and expansion.

We may also suggest further ways in which money could be raised for WSDEs. If supported by strong political organizations in economies where capitalist enterprises still predominate, financing for WSDEs might become a major political objective of those organizations. For example, during recurring capitalist downturns, high unemployment could be addressed by suggesting a government employment program focused on providing the money (and perhaps also the technical and managerial supports) for WSDEs as the best way to revive employment. Italy’s Marcora Law provides one effective model for doing this. Others might entail building on existing initiatives such as Small Business Administrations , Women’s Business Administrations and Minority-led Business Administrations that exist in various forms in many countries. They enable certain kinds of businesses to get special government supports (grants, below-market-rate loans, technical assistance, preference in government purchasing, and so on) because the growth of those businesses is thought to be a worthwhile social goal. A political movement supporting the growth of WSDEs could ask that they be accorded the same sorts of special government supports for parallel reasons.

An example of such reasons is that the increase of WSDEs would provide all workers with a real freedom of choice. Workers could compare and choose between employment within capitalist enterprises or within WSDEs. In capitalist countries today no such choice exists for the vast majority of workers. Consumers too would have a new choice available to them: they could purchase goods and services from capitalist or from WSDE sources. They could support the organization of production they prefer (much as many can now choose according to country of origin, physical ingredients, and whether “fair trade” has been observed in exchanges prior to the act of purchasing the final product).

Of course, the history of nearly all successful WSDEs shows that self-financing was often important. That is, net revenues of a WSDE were partly used to enable growth of that enterprise and/or provision of money to another WSDE. Where a country or a region had a significant tradition of other kinds of cooperative enterprises (credit unions, purchasing coops, sales coops, ownership coops, and so on), it might well be possible to appeal successfully to them for money provision to establish or grow WSDEs. The grounds for such appeals would be twofold: (1) to extend the cooperative principle governing those other enterprises into the process and organization of production itself, the hallmark of WSDEs, and (2) to thereby strengthen the larger cooperative movement for all its component parts. For example, WSDEs could join or partner with credit unions, while credit unions might find ways to help finance WSDEs premised on such partnerships, etc.

Final thought: establishing WSDEs might also become a policy of new social movements. Partnerships between such movements and WSDEs might well strengthen them both.

Source

Posting this because I’ve been thinking about how best to raise initial funds for a Workers’ Self-Directed Enterprise – I hope to be able to start the process in the next 12-18 months.

The People’s Record News Update: This week in cyber-activism
February 27, 2013

Bahrain bans ‘Anonymous’ Guy Fawkes mask

The Guy Fawkes mask – which has come to represent a universal symbol of protest – has been banned in Bahrain. The move is the latest in a series of measures implemented by the Gulf state to quell a two-year pro-democracy uprising.

A ban on orders of the mask – which was popularized by the 2005 Hollywood adaption of the comic book ‘V for Vendetta’ – has been ordered by the Gulf kingdom’s Industry and Commerce Minister, Hassan Fakhro.

Source

DOJ ‘admits’ to targeting Aaron Swartz over his activism

Aaron Swartz’s past activism and ‘Guerilla Open Access Manifesto’ played a part in his prosecution, sources told US media. Prosecutors pursued him even though he had not yet leaked anything, as his manifesto ‘proved his alleged malicious intent’ in downloading documents on a massive scale says Justice Department representatives.

“Some congressional staffers left the briefing with the impression that prosecutors needed to convict Swartz of a felony that would put him in jail for a short sentence in order to justify bringing the charges in the first place,” Huffington Post reported, citing two aides with knowledge of the briefing.

Swartz’s actions were criminalized by the government just because he was an “effective advocate of policies contrary to their views,” human rights lawyer Scott Horton told Mashable.

“Apparently, the DOJ thought it was a reason to throw the book at Swartz, even if he hadn’t actually made any such works available,” Masnick wrote.

The digital library itself has earlier stated it received confirmation from Swartz “that the content was not and would not be used, copied, transferred, or distributed.”

Amid wide public concern over Swartz’s case, the White House issued a directive expanding access to publicly funded scientific research. Last week’s directive was hailed by Open Access supporters as a major victory in a fight in which Swartz took an active part.

Source

US Internet providers start spy program to stop file-sharing

Starting this week, Internet Service Providers will start throttling connection speeds for customers alleged to be pirating copyright-protected materials.

Months after a controversial “six-strike” program was slated to be rolled out by the biggest ISPs in the United States, the Copyright Alert System (CAS) confirmed on Monday that the initiative has gone live.

Source

Google accused of privacy violations yet again

Google is in hot water once again after application developers have discovered that the Silicon Valley giant is sharing its users’ personal information without obtaining their consent.

Non-profit advocacy group Consumer Watchdog has sent a letter to the United States Federal Trade Commission that implores for the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection to intervene in the latest goof-up courtesy of Google.

Source

The FBI is inside Anonymous: Hacker Sabu has sentencing delayed again for helping the feds

The former LulzSec hacker that turned in his colleagues to the FBI will forego sentencing for another six months while he continues to assist the government in catching supposed computer criminals.

Hector Xavier Monsegur, the man behind the hacker alias “Sabu,” was absent from federal court on Friday despite previously being scheduled to appear for sentencing that morning in regards to the 12 criminal charges he pleaded guilty to in mid-2011.

On Monday, the leaking website Cryptome published a copy [.pdf] of a request from the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York’s in which the court is asked to adjourn Monsegur’s sentencing date until August 23, 2013 “in light of the defendant’s ongoing cooperation with the Government.”

Source

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The People’s Record news update: three important Tibetan self-immolation news stories from the last week
February 25, 2013

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On Tuesday February 20th, 2013: Two Tibetan teenagers killed themselves by self-immolation on Tuesday to protest Chinese rule in Tibet, according to reports on Wednesday by a Tibet advocacy group and Radio Free Asia. The two were among the youngest Tibetans to kill themselves in protest, and the act was a rare instance in which Tibetans committed self-immolation together.

Source

Reported yesterday: A young Tibetan traditional artist was sentenced to two years in jail with hard labor for having photos on his mobilephone of two compatriots who self-immolated in protest against Chinese rule, according to exile sources Saturday.

Ngawang Thupden, 20, was detained in October last year in Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), but relatives learned of the prison sentence for “subversion” only four months later, the sources said, citing contacts in the Himalayan region.

“His relatives and family couldn’t see him at all until he was sent to the Tuelung Shungpa jail near Lhasa,” Tibetan Yeshi Gyaltsen, who lives near India’s hill town of Dharamsala, told RFA’s Tibetan Service.  “The relatives said there weren’t any court proceedings nor were family and relatives informed when he was sentenced,” he said.

According to Yeshi Gyaltsen, the relatives said they saw many other Tibetans, from the TAR’s Chamdo (in Chinese, Changdu) and Nagchu (Naqu) prefectures, serving sentences on unspecified charges at the same prison.

Chinese authorities have been cracking down hard on any efforts by Tibetans to publicize self-immolation protests after steps taken by Beijing to stop the burnings failed.

Some 104 Tibetans have so far set themsleves alight in protests questioning Chinese rule in Tibetan majority areas and calling for the return of Tibet’s spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.

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Today: Reports coming out of Tibet say a Tibetan man set himself on fire Sunday in China’s northwestern Qinghai province.

The 20-year-old man, identified as Phakmo Thondup, set himself ablaze at Ja Khyung Monastery in Haidong Prefecture, allegedly protesting China’s policies in Tibet.

Reports say monks from the monastery took him to a local hospital to be treated for burns. It was not immediately clear if his life was in danger.

A Tibetan with close contacts in the area tells VOA (Tibetan service) that a large contingent of Chinese security forces were dispatched to the Ja Khyung Monastery where the monks are praying for the victim’s life.

More than 100 Tibetans have set themselves on fire in the past three years to protest what they call China’s repression in Tibet.

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