One cyberactivist\u2019s federal case wrapped up this week, and another\u2019s is set to begin. While these two young men, Jeremy Hammond and Bradley Manning, are the two who were charged, it is the growing menace of government and corporate secrecy that should be on trial.<\/p>\n
Hammond was facing more than 30 years in prison, charged with hacking into the computers of a private security and intelligence firm called Strategic Forecasting, or Stratfor, when he agreed to a plea agreement of one count of computer hacking. Stratfor traffics in \u201cgeopolitical intelligence, economic, political and military forecasting,\u201d according to its website. Yet, after Hammond and others released 5 million emails from Stratfor\u2019s servers to WikiLeaks, it became clear that the firm engages in widespread spying on activists on behalf of corporations. Coca-Cola hired Stratfor to spy on the group PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Dow Chemical hired Stratfor to spy on the activists who were exposing Dow\u2019s role in the cyanide chemical disaster in Bhopal, India, in 1984 that killed an estimated 8,000 and injured thousands more.<\/p>\n
Hammond is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 6. His lawyers have asked for time served\u201415 months, some of which was in solitary confinement. He faces 10 years.<\/p>\n
Bradley Manning, meanwhile, will finally have his day in military court at Fort Meade, Md. He faces a slew of charges related to the largest leak of classified information in U.S. history. Manning pled guilty to mishandling the information, and acknowledged uploading hundreds of thousands of documents to the WikiLeaks website. But he denies the most serious charge, still pending, of \u201caiding the enemy.\u201d Prosecutors are seeking life in prison; however, if Manning is found guilty, the judge could still impose the death penalty.<\/p>\n
Bradley Manning and Jeremy Hammond are among the highest profile in a series of cases that the Obama administration has been pursuing against whistle-blowers and journalists. Attorney Michael Ratner, president emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights, and an attorney for WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, said in front of the courthouse after Hammond\u2019s court appearance, \u201cThis is part of the sledgehammer of what the government is doing to people who expose corporate secrets, government secrets, and really the secrets of an empire.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manning explained his actions and his motivation in a detailed statement in his pretrial proceedings. He said, \u201cI believed that if the general public, especially the American public, had access to the information … it could spark a domestic debate on the role of the military and our foreign policy in general.\u201d The first public release by WikiLeaks of the material provided by Manning was the video (titled by WikiLeaks) \u201cCollateral Murder.\u201d The grainy video, taken from an attack helicopter, shows the cold killing of a dozen men on the ground in Baghdad on July 12, 2007. Two of those killed by the U.S. Apache helicopter gunship were employees of the Reuters news agency, cameraman Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and his driver, Saeed Chmagh, a father of four.<\/p>\n
After their violent, senseless deaths, Reuters sought answers and filed Freedom of Information requests for material relating to the attack, which were denied. Manning saw the video when stationed in Iraq, and researched the background of the attack. He saved the video file. He explained in court, \u201cI planned on providing this to the Reuters office in London to assist them in preventing events such as this in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hammond and Manning, facing years in prison, have in common their connection to WikiLeaks and its founder, Assange. Assange is wanted for questioning in Sweden about allegations of sexual misconduct\u2014he has not been charged. After losing a fight against extradition in Britain, he was granted political asylum by the government of Ecuador, and has remained in Ecuador\u2019s embassy in London since last June. It was a leaked Stratfor email that referenced a U.S. indictment against Assange, reading: \u201cNot for Pub\u2014We have a sealed indictment on Assange. Pls protect.\u201d<\/p>\n
This all happens amidst recent revelations about the Obama administration\u2019s extraordinary invasion of journalists\u2019 privacy and the right to protect sources. The Associated Press revealed that the Justice Department had secretly obtained two months of telephone records of its reporters and editors in an effort to discover the source of a leak about a foiled bomb plot. Fox News\u2019 chief Washington correspondent, James Rosen, may actually be charged in a criminal conspiracy for allegedly receiving classified information from a source about North Korea.<\/p>\n
President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have used the Espionage Act six times to prosecute whistle-blowers\u2014more than all previous presidents combined. Obama\u2019s assault on journalism and his relentless war on whistle-blowers are serious threats to fundamental democratic principles on which this nation was founded.<\/p>\n
The job of journalists is to hold those in power accountable. Our job is to be the fourth estate, not \u201cfor the state.\u201d Let us be.<\/p>\n
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Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.<\/i><\/p>\n
Amy Goodman is the host of \u201cDemocracy Now!,\u201d a daily international TV\/radio news hour airing on more than 1,000 stations in North America. She is the co-author of \u201cThe Silenced Majority,\u201d a New York Times best-seller.<\/i><\/p>\n
\u00a9 2013 Amy Goodman. Distributed by King Features Syndicate<\/i><\/p>\n