CIA Whistleblower Jeffrey Sterling Released from Wrongful Imprisonment

Former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling, left, leaves the Alexandria Federal Courthouse on Jan. 26 with his wife Holly, center, and attorney Barry Pollack, after being convicted on all nine counts he faced of leaking classified information to a reporter. [image: Kevin Wolf/AP]

America notoriously honors its worst – persecutes, punishes and at times murders its best.

Sterling was wrongfully charged and convicted of seven counts under the long ago outdated 1917 Espionage Act for unproved allegations of providing classified information to then-NYT journalist James Risen – material used in his book, titled “State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration.”

The book discussed an unidentified firsthand account of CIA extraordinary rendition, torture and other abuses – flagrant violations of international, constitutional and US statute laws, no one at Langley ever held accountable for criminality.

Sterling was wrongfully accused of providing classified information about so-called Operation Merlin, a top-secret CIA operation, targeting Iran’s nuclear program – known to have no military component.

At trial, the DOJ failed to prove charges against him beyond a reasonable doubt – the highest standard of proof required for conviction in US judicial proceedings, especially in criminal cases.

Without it, defendants should be exonerated – not usually the case when Washington wants convictions, Sterling and other US whistleblowers wrongfully convicted like Lynne Stewart and many other notable figures.

In Jeffery Sterling’s case, the Justice Department presented unacceptable circumstantial evidence alone a fair tribunal would have rejected as inadequate to prove guilt.

Former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark once said “(o)ur jails are filled with saints” – individuals imprisoned for political reasons, not criminality.

Obama waged war on whistleblowers, targeting more than all his predecessors combined.

Sterling was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison. He was treated abusively, including largely denying him vital medical treatment for a heart condition.

The little he got was inadequate, punishing him for allegedly revealing CIA wrongdoing, acting courageously and honorably.

He endured episodes of atrial fibrillation experienced prior to imprisonment, requiring hospitalization and expert care.

Describing his symptoms, he said they felt like “a sudden very hard heartbeat with a sort of pause that emulates your entire body, breathing, moving, etc. being suddenly halted (along with) sharp (chest) pain,” lightheadedness and shortness of breath.

Prison authorities disgracefully claimed he feigned illness, Sterling saying “(t)here has been more effort to refute me than there has been to actually provide any care.”

Proper cardiological examination in prison could have easily diagnosed his condition and prescribed needed treatment.

Medical care in US prisons is notoriously abysmal.

Internationally recognized human rights lawyer Lynne Stewart was imprisoned for defending the wrong clients Washington wanted convicted.

Obama wanted her dead. She was denied proper medical care for breast cancer, progressing to life threatening stage four because vital surgery was delayed for 18 months.

Cancer spread to her lymph nodes, shoulder, bones and lungs. She was dying when granted a compassionate release and freed on December 31, 2013.

Doctors gave her six months to live. Though seriously ill, she survived until March 7, 2017. I met with her months before her death at age-77, a shadow of the woman I knew earlier physically, her courageous spirit resolute for justice to the end.

Lots more like her and Sterling are needed. He joined the CIA for patriotic reasons. The agency “turned on him and (wrongfully) made him into a criminal,” said wrongfully imprisoned Langley whistleblower John Kiriakou.

Last month, Sterling was released to a halfway house after serving 30 months of his three-and-a-half-year sentence – mostly, not entirely free.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) hailed his release, saying “(h)is conviction was a breach of First Amendment protections. Simply being in contact with a journalist does not amount to espionage and should not incur imprisonment.”

His wife Holly explained “(w)e maintain hope that we can begin the arduous journey of rebuilding our life that the government vehemently destroyed. Jeffrey’s legacy is now branded with the scarlet letter of being a supposed traitor to his country – the country he still loves.”

Trump disgracefully believes whistleblowers should be prosecuted and imprisoned. Last November, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said his office has 27 ongoing investigations of allegedly leaked classified information.

Last year, former NSA intelligence specialist Reality Leigh Winner was charged with “removing classified material from a government facility and mailing it to a news outlet” while working for military contractor Pluribus International Corporation.

Sterling’s conviction was based on communications with James Risen. The DOJ failed to prove disclosure of classified information – nothing about he and Risen discussed.

Instead of dismissing the case for lack of credible evidence, Judge Leonie Brinkema accepted what she called “very powerful circumstantial evidence.”

It failed to prove Sterling’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Instead of exoneration, he was wrongfully convicted – how US injustice works against individuals Washington wants convicted and imprisoned.

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CIA Involved in Child Trafficking?

Former CIA agent/counterintelligence operative turned whistleblower John Kiriakou exposed agency wrongdoing in his book titled “Reluctant Spy: My Secret Life in the CIA’s War on Terror.”

The Obama administration indicted him “for allegedly illegally disclosing national defense information to individuals not authorized to receive it.”

He was the first CIA officer to be imprisoned for revealing classified information, serving from February 28, 2013 – February 3, 2015 for exposing government wrongdoing.

According to TopSecretWriters.com, he accused the CIA of child trafficking, supplying children to wealthy pedophiles globally in exchange for information the agency sought.

Trafficked children were never seen again. In a video clip, Kiriakou explained “(y)our job as a CIA agent is to break the laws of the country you are serving.

“That’s your job: Your job is to commit espionage, which in most countries is a death penalty crime.”

“Your job is to convince people to commit treason for you because they like you so much or they like the money that you’re giving them so much.”

“So, because it’s the nature of your job to break the law, they’re the rules that are written for you to carry out that job.”

Kiriakou’s latest accusation followed earlier ones. He was involved in capturing alleged Al Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah. He took no part in torture and other abusive interrogation practices.

CIA operations flagrantly violate rule of law principles. It operates like a global Mafia hit squad. Throughout its existence, it’s been involved in drugs trafficking – documented by Alfred McCoy’s book titled “The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade.”

Journalist Gary Webb’s expose of CIA involvement in Nicaraguan drugs trafficking, supporting the contras, dealing with Los Angeles crack dealers, made him a target for vicious vilification – hounding him out of his profession into deep depression, either committing suicide or succumbing to foul play.

In books and articles, Peter Dale Scott explained “(s)ince at least 1950 there has been a global CIA-drug connection operating more or less continuously” to this day.

“The global drug connection is not just a lateral connection between CIA field operatives and their drug-trafficking contacts.”

“It is more significantly a global financial complex of hot money uniting prominent business, financial and government, as well as underworld figures,” a sort of “indirect empire (operating alongside) existing government.”

“(G)overnments themselves, and the links they develop with major traffickers, are the key both to the drug-trafficking problem and to its solution.”

The CIA is a sinister, secretive, unaccountable agency, operating extrajudicially. The late Chalmers Johnson said its existence “shorten(s) the life of the American republic.”

Its operations are incompatible with a free society – child and drugs trafficking, assassinations, and involvement in recruiting, arming, funding, training and directing ISIS and other terrorists are some of its many sinister activities.

Former CIA agent/whistleblower Kevin Shipp calls himself a “recovering CIA officer.”

Involvement with the agency creates awareness of its enormous harm to so many worldwide.

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Case against Cliven Bundy declared a mistrial

A federal judge declared a mistrial Wednesday in the case of a Nevada rancher accused of leading an armed standoff against the government in 2014, blaming prosecutors for withholding key evidence from defense lawyers, including records about the conduct of FBI and Bureau of Land Management agents.

Chief U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro in Las Vegas dismissed a jury seated last month for the long-awaited trial of Cliven Bundy, his sons Ryan and Ammon Bundy and self-styled Montana militia leader Ryan Payne.

The decision is the latest in a string of failed prosecutions in Nevada and Oregon against those who have opposed federal control of vast swaths of land in Western states.

Jurors acquitted the two Bundy sons of taking over a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon for more than a month in early 2016 and amid calls for the U.S. government to turn over public land to local control.

In the Nevada case, Navarro faulted federal prosecutors for failing to turn over all evidence to defense attorneys.

“The government is obligated to disclose all evidence that might be favorable” to the defense, the judge said.

The case stemmed from an armed confrontation that capped a decades long dispute over Cliven Bundy’s refusal to pay grazing fees. The 71-year-old rancher says his family has grazed cattle for more than a century in the area and insists public land belongs to states, not the U.S. government.

Government agents began rounding up his cattle. The four on trial were accused of enlisting armed gunmen to force government agents to abandon the effort.

The judge had hinted last week that trouble was afoot. She sent the jury home to review sealed documents following closed-door hearings over complaints about the conduct of FBI and Bureau of Land Management agents during the standoff.

Jurors got a glimpse of the claims when Ryan Bundy, who represented himself, spoke at opening statements about seeing government snipers and surveillance cameras positioned on hilltops surrounding his family home in the days before armed supporters answered his family’s calls for help.

A whistleblower memo by a lead U.S. Bureau of Land Management investigator that was released last week alleges widespread bad judgment, bias and misconduct, as well as “likely policy, ethical and legal violations among senior and supervisory staff” in the days leading up to the standoff.

The memo said agents who planned and oversaw the cattle roundup mocked and displayed clear prejudice against the Bundys, their supporters and Mormons.

The investigator, Larry Wooten, said he was removed from the investigation last February after he complained to the U.S. attorney’s office in Nevada.

The judge freed the Bundy sons and Payne to house arrest during the trial after nearly two years in jail. Cliven Bundy refused the judge’s offer, with his lawyer saying the patriarch was holding out for acquittal.

Read more at FOX News

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Photo: AP

 

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Bundy Trial Meltdown

#TrialOfTheCentury – THERE IS A POSSIBILITY OF THE DEFENSE TEAMS MOTIONS FOR DISMISSAL TO BE GRANTED, WHICH COULD PUT AN END TO THE TRIAL.

by Terry Noonkester

The Bundy Ranch Protest leaders are now on trial in Las Vegas, Nevada.  It has been another busy week for the lawyers.  Judge Navarro excused the jurors from December 11th –  20th because more time was needed to deal with motions by the defense concerning the failure of the prosecution to hand over exculpatory evidence.  Because of this failure, the prosecution has committed at least seven Brady or Giglio violations. These are Fifth Amendment, Due Process violations. The defense team has filed several motions for a dismissal of the case as a remedy.

Late Sunday night and early Monday morning on December 10th-11th, Ammon’s defense team, Dan Hill, Morgan Philpot and Rick Koerber, along with Cliven’s attorney, Bret Whipple, filed a sealed motion to dismiss, to disqualify prosecutors, to unseal materials, and to cease further prosecution.  These were not ruled on during any of the hearings this week and the Government was given until Friday, December 15th to file a supplemental response. The defense team was given until Monday, December 18th at 12 noon to file their supplemental reply.

On Wednesday, December 13th, the Las Vegas Review-Journal and a group of Nevada newspapers filed a motion to unseal trial documents and hearings.  Lawyer Maggie McLetchie, who represents the Review-Journal and Battle Born Media, has spoken-up on the issue of the courts sealed proceedings; “The Bundy case is an important one to the people of Nevada, and the public has a right to know what is happening in the case, and why,”  Review-Journal Managing Editor Glenn Cook said; “Secret justice is no justice at all…The federal system’s preference for closed doors and sealed documents has eroded public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the courts. Openness is the only way taxpayers can be sure they’re not funding a rigged game.”

Ryan Payne

There is a drastic change in the way the third USA v. Cliven Bundy et al trial is being conducted.  The defense team is fighting extremely hard to get evidence from the prosecution that should have been handed over to the defense over a year ago, before the first two trials.  The defense team is trying very hard to get this evidence in front of the present jury.  There has been little courtroom time with the jury in attendance because Judge Navarro does not want the jury to witness this struggle.

The leadership of the Ammon Bundy Defense Team accounts for much of this steadfast determination for a fair trial.  Morgan Philpot from Utah, who had to acquire temporary admission to the Nevada Federal Bar to represent Ammon Bundy in this case, is an important part of this team.  A few weeks ago, Judge Navarro filed an Order to Show Cause, under seal, threatening to revoke Morgan Philpot’s temporary admission.

The defense team stated that; “The judge cited two issues. First, a filing made by Mr. Philpot, a motion to dismiss the case, that was not made under seal. Second, a comment made by Mr. Philpot in the cross-examination of the former head of the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) district office in southern Nevada, Mary Jo Rugwell.”

The defense team explains;  “The motion to dismiss did not actually include any sealed material or discovery documents covered by the Court’s broad protective order and was subsequently ordered sealed by the Court because it referenced facts that come from discovery documents and sealed proceedings. Philpot responded to the judge on this point that the protective order in place did not forbid the public filing, and demonstrated several other instances of other defense attorneys and even the Court taking the same approach as Philpot had in referencing facts, but not quoting from or attaching sealed or protected material.”

Morgan Philpot

“The second issue complained about by the judge came from Philpot’s cross-examination of Rugwell. It was Philpot who got Rugwell to earlier admit that she had obtained, reviewed and relied upon an FBI threat assessment that concluded Cliven Bundy was not a threat and was not likely to respond with physical force or violence. The defense had not been provided with this report, despite previous requests for all threat assessments. The information was important because it undercut the credibility of Ms. Rugwell and of other BLM agents who later used the “threat” posed by Cliven Bundy to justify the paramilitary build up.”

The misrepresentation of this threat assessment by the prosecution was also used to help the prosecution keep the Bundy’s and their supporters incarcerated for nearly two years. That lengthy incarceration influenced several defendants to accept plea agreements.

The defense team explains further that; “At one point, during open court, the trial transcript shows Philpot stated, ‘Your Honor, first and foremost, I’d actually like to move for a recess. We’d like to have the Government produce the behavioral assessment document that she has referenced that was produced by the FBI. It actually appears to be, from her testimony, that it is a real document. We do not have it. We’ve requested it in the past. We would like to have a recess.’ At this point, Philpot was interrupted and told his remark was inappropriate. Judge Navarro specifically stated, ‘Mr. Philpot, do you want me to declare a mistrial? That is completely inappropriate for you to bring that up in front of the jury.’”

“Philpot did not accuse the government directly of withholding information. He referenced the testimony of the government’s witness, a document she discussed, and simply said ‘We do not have it. We’ve requested it in the past.’ He doesn’t say who it was requested from, or why. No argument was made, nothing more was said.”

At the hearing on December 15th, Philpot submitted a detailed response to Judge Navarro’s Order to Show Cause.  Morgan Philpot was not removed from Ammon Bundy’s defense team.  Despite Navarro’s superficially improved show of neutrality in this trial, the attempt to remove Philpot for no legitimate reason shows a deep underlying bias against the Bundy’s and their defense team.  Federal prosecutors have lied directly to the judge, and repeatedly been found to have withheld exculpatory evidence and other required information from the defense, yet the judge has not subjected any of the government attorneys to this kind of threat and possible punishment.

Rep. Matt Shea

Also during the December 15th hearing, Federal Defender Brenda Weksler raised the ‘Wooten material’ in the context of the ongoing and repeated discovery abuses.  Weksler was referring to an email from the BLM agent who was the lead investigator for the Cliven Bundy cattle impoundment of 2014 for almost three years.  A copy of Wooten’s email was made public by Washington State Representative, Matt Shea, in an interview conducted by Shari Dovale of Redoubt News.  Wooten is now regarded as a whistle blower.

Special Agent Wooten had originally sent this email to an Associate Deputy Attorney General, the National Criminal Discovery Coordinator on November 27, 2017.  The email is an 18 page description of the  governmental abuses and subsequent cover-ups in the Bundy case.

Wooten stated; “I am convinced that I was removed to prevent the ethical and proper further disclosure of the severe misconduct, failure to correct and report, and cover-ups by BLM OLES supervision. My supervisor told me that AUSA Steven Myhre “furiously demanded”, that I be removed from the case and mentioned something about us (the BLM, specifically my supervisor) not turning over (or disclosing) discovery related material issues I had with the BLM not following its own enabling statute, and a personal issue they thought I had with former BLM SAC Dan Love.”

Wooten also told of evidence that was removed from his office and safe when he was not present, just before he was removed from the case on February 18th, 2017 and two days after Myhre’s demand.

Since the December 15th hearing was sealed for the portion of the proceeding dealing withthe Wooten email, no one but the prosecution, defense, and court officials can know what was discussed, but no action was taken on the ‘Wooten materials’.

In his email, Wooten accused Dan Love, the former special agent-in-charge at Bundy Ranch, of intentionally ignoring direction from the U.S. Attorney’s Office and his superiors “in order to command the most intrusive, oppressive, large scale and militaristic trespass cattle impound possible.” Daniel Love was described as immune from discipline, though Love was eventually fired from BLM for misconduct in an unrelated case.

Wooten said he learned from other agency supervisors that Special Agent in Charge, Daniel Love had a “Kill Book” as a “trophy,” in which he essentially bragged about “getting three individuals in Utah to commit suicide,” following a joint FBI-BLM investigation into the alleged trafficking of stolen artifacts.  (see Operation Cerberus Action out of Blanding, Utah and the death of Dr. Redd).

Tuesday, December 19th is open for a possible hearing for the judge’s ruling on the prosecution’s Brady and Giglio issues.  There is a possibility of the defense teams motions for dismissal to be granted, which could put an end to the trial.

Prior to Ammon Bundy’s defense team showing up in Las Vegas, there had not been a single victory in the form of a granted motion. That situation has changed dramatically.  Morgan Philpot and Rick Koerber, are relying 100% on donated funds.  They have an informational website at AmmonBundyDefense.com that includes videos and written information on the case, plus a place to donate. The web site sends email updates of their progress to supporters that register.

 
This article is offered to all other media under the Creative Commons License when proper credit is given to Terry Noonkester, The Roseburg Beacon and Redoubt News. 

 

Redoubt News

 

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David Knight Interviews WA Rep. Matt Shea on BLM Whistleblower

12-18-17   RealNews with David Knight – Interview with Matt Shea following up on recent interviews with Shari Dovale of Redoubt News, about the whistleblower, BLM Agent Whooten, and documents related to the Bundy Ranch Trial currently in progress in Las Vegas.

 

12/18/17 Matt Shea with David Knight

12-18-17 RealNews with David Knight – Interview with Matt Shea following up on recent interviews with Shari Dovale of Redoubt News, about the whistleblower, BLM Agent Whooten, and documents related to the Bundy Ranch Trial currently in progress in Las Vegas.

Posted by Redoubt News on Monday, December 18, 2017

 

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ANOTHER SMOKING GUN REGARDING THE BLM – WA Rep. Matt Shea

This time what appears to be a self-admission of flaws within the agency…http://ow.ly/d/786p

Here is an excerpt:

“Critical Vulnerabilities” [in the case]

1. “BLM was heavy handed even cruel in the enforcement of court order.”

2. “BLM lacked law enforcement authority in their case.”

3. “BLM is a poor manager of the resources such as grazing.”

4. “Dan Love had a personal agenda and is immoral (jury appeal).”

Yet, even more reasons that Congress, Secretary Zinke, and the Trump Administration need to launch an investigation.

 

Matt Shea: ANOTHER SMOKING GUN REGARDING THE BLM

Even MORE Breaking News on the BLM from Representative Matt Shea!Documents here: https://redoubtnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Kent-Kleman-Communication_786p.pdf

Posted by Redoubt News on Saturday, December 16, 2017

Documents here: https://redoubtnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Kent-Kleman-Communication_786p.pdf

Redoubt News

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EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Matt Shea Exposes BLM Atrocities

by Shari Dovale

In an exclusive video interview with Redoubt News, Washington State Representative Matt Shea read from a letter he received concerning a BLM whistle blower named Larry Wooten.

Wooten was the lead investigator for the Bureau of Land Management’s investigation into the Bunkerville/Gold Butte operation that went bad for them in April of 2014.

The letter outlines egregious violations and abuses committed by the Bureau of Land Management employees, lead by SAC Dan Love.

These heinous acts were discovered when Wooten was assigned to investigate the Bunkerville Standoff/Gold Butte operation that took place in April 2014.

Wooten was the lead investigator for nearly 3 years, digging into a multitude of issues. He states in the letter:

…the investigation revealed a widespread pattern of bad judgment, lack of discipline, incredible bias, unprofessionalism and misconduct, as well as likely policy, ethical, and legal violations among senior and supervisory staff at the BLM’s Office of Law Enforcement and Security.

He outlined specifics, such as very derogatory name calling, when he described the unprofessional behavior. Additionally, Wooten states that this behavior was committed “often by law enforcement supervisors who are potential witnesses and investigative team supervisors”.

Agent Wooten outlines in detail how Special Agent in Charge (SAC) Dan Love was known for his bad behavior and allowed to get away with it, as he was “the BLM OLES “Directors boy” and they indicated they were going to hide and protect him.”

But, the information that this courageous whistle blower reveals only gets worse from here.

Wooten goes on to outline that SAC Dan Love had what was called a “Kill Book as a trophy and in essence bragged about getting three individuals in Utah to commit suicide (see Operation Cerberus Action out of Blanding, Utah and the death of Dr. Redd).”

The report also describes what appears to be additional people on the BLM hit list, this time, however, Wooten’s own supervisor was an accessory.

My supervisor even took photographs in the secure command post area of the Las Vegas FBI Headquarters and even after he was told that no photographs were allowed, he recklessly emailed out photographs of the “Arrest Tracking Wall” in which Eric Parker and Cliven Bundy had “X’s” through their face and body (indicating prejudice and bias).

The report that Representative Shea shared has multiple pages and is presented here for you to read for yourself.

Wooten Report

Some people might claim this is a disgruntled employee, and I would say they are probably not wrong. However, there are too many specifics included, and too many verifiable facts, to disregard the report. Any person that uncovered these abuses, and was fired for trying to report them, has every right to be disgruntled.

Wooten explains that in “February of 2017, it became clear to me that keeping quite became an unofficial condition of my future employment with the BLM, future awards, promotions, and a good future job reference.”

This report names several BLM agents and employees, but then it goes even further. The US Attorney’s office is also implicated in the cover-up:

When I asked [AUSA (First Assistant and Lead Prosecutor) Steven] Myhre if the former BLM SAC’s statements like “Go out there and kick Cliven Bundy in the mouth (or teeth) and take his cattle” and “I need you to get the troops fired up to go get those cows and not take any crap from anyone” would be exculpatory or if we would have to inform the defense counsel, he said something like “we do now,” or “it is now.”

Wooten took great risk upon himself to report the flagrant and vicious acts committed by these government representatives and the Acting US Attorney, Steven Myhre, had him fired from the investigation.

On February 18, 2017, I was removed from my position as the Case Agent Lead Investigator for the Cliven Bundy/Gold Butte Nevada Case

My supervisor told me that AUSA Steven Myhre “furiously demanded” that I be removed from the case and mentioned something about us (the BLM, specifically my supervisor) not turning over (or disclosing) discovery related material

We have previously reported on the blatant Brady violations the prosecution continues to commit. They have withheld evidence that would have easily exonerated these 19 men. The prosecution knew the Bundy family was not threat, as they have already referred to the “Threat Assessment Report” previously completed. These men should never have been incarcerated at all, let alone kept for nearly 2 years.

The list of exculpatory evidence that has been kept from the defense continues to grow. 2 men, Todd Engel and Greg Burleson, were convicted based on this false information. Will truth win out and their convictions get overturned? If the people are to have any chance of regaining trust in our judicial system, this is what should happen.

What about the men that were pressured to accept plea agreements? If those agreements were based on false evidence the prosecution claimed to have had, or if they did not disclose the true facts of the case, will these men have any recourse to have their pleas overturned?

It is now in the hands of Judge Gloria Navarro. She has spent months catering to the prosecution. She has proven to be no friend of the defense.

However, was she misled in this case, as well? Have her eyes been opened to the truth of the scandalous behavior of the prosecution and their witnesses?

If she wants to make this right, and see justice is served, she needs to resolve these issues immediately. She needs to dismiss this case, unseal the entire case and evidence, and hold Steven Myhre and company accountable for their actions

We thank Rep. Matt Shea for his courage in reporting this corruption. We need more elected officials to speak up on behalf of their constituents.

And we thank Larry Wooten for his bravery in shedding light on this outrage. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke needs to step up and address his situation, as well.

 

Breaking News: Special Report from Washington Representative Matt Shea. The Smoking Gun!

Posted by Redoubt News on Thursday, December 14, 2017

Redoubt News

 

David Knight w Shari Dovale 12-15-17

RealNews with David Knight w Shari Dovale of Redoubt News 12-15-17Discussing the BREAKING NEWS from Rep. Matt Shea concerning the BLM whistleblower.

Posted by Redoubt News on Friday, December 15, 2017

 

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Perdue Farms Releases First Chicken Welfare Report, Says Improvements Being Made

One of the largest chicken producers in the United States, Perdue Farms recently released its first-ever chicken welfare report in July 2017. The company says it has taken important steps to follow through on plans it announced a little over a year ago to change the way it raises and slaughters chickens. [1]

Perdue says in the report that it implemented new breeding methods which allow chickens to grow at a faster rate without causing them harm. The company additionally claimed that it would install stunning systems that minimize stress to the birds as they’re headed to slaughter.

Over time, the changes will be rolled out to about 1,500 contract farmers and 5,000 chicken houses, according to company chairman Jim Perdue and senior vice president Bruce Stewart-Brown.

Factory Farms Have a Serious Negative-Image

In recent years, Perdue Farms has had its share of problems. One I can recall off-hand was in 2014, when farmer Craig Watts – a contractor for Perdue at the time – revealed shocking video footage of the filthy, unhealthy, and downright inhumane living conditions suffered by chickens produced for the company.

Watts, who eventually left the chicken farming industry in disgust, went on to release equally disturbing video footage of the horrid living conditions and treatment of chickens produced for Pilgrim’s Pride.

In both videos, over-large chickens are seen crammed together in a filthy warehouse. They have no natural light in to bask in, and the birds must literally trample each other just to get to their feed.

‘Positive Changes are Coming’

Perdue Farms, the 4th-largest poultry producer in the country, is the largest poultry producer to ensure chickens in its supply chain are treated better, according to Humane Society of the U.S. vice president Josh Balk.

The new chicken houses have lots of windows, space for the chickens to move about, even ramps and straw bales for the birds to perch on. [2]

Leah Garces, executive director of Compassion in World Farming, who recently took a tour of Perdue’s vision of the future, said “It’s a big difference.” She added that chickens in the house with natural light are “running around, climbing on things, pecking, perching,” compared with the chickens in the the windowless house, which are “quiet, they’re sitting, they’re not moving.”

Company executives say they’ve seen a substantial difference in the health and quality of the chickens raised in better conditions. Jim Perdue said the company found that when chickens are more active and not left squatting in cramped conditions, the meat is of higher quality, something they learned when they started raising their birds according to organic rules.

Jim said:

“We’re finding that meat from organic chickens is better. More tender. Different color. Activity is the key. [Organic chickens] are more active, they’re running around.”

Any person who has ever eaten organic, humanely-raised meat can attest that there is an elephantine difference in the quality and flavor of organic meat. The superior birds – the organic ones – are better for human health, too.

Source: The Guardian

Even without Perdue Farms’ revelations about the virtues of organic chicken farming, pressure from big corporate customers certainly would have forced the poultry producer to alter its behavior. These customers include food service companies and other institutions, such as Aramark and Compass, both of which have announced that by 2024, they will only purchase chickens from companies that improve the lives of its birds.

The food service companies say they’ll only purchase chickens from companies that raise them according to new animal welfare rules set in place by Global Animal Partnership, an organization originally launched by the grocery chain Whole Foods.

Those rules include:

• Chicken houses will have natural light.

• Chicken producers will use a new slaughtering process that knocks the birds unconscious with gas before they are killed. This will replace electrical stunning, which involves hanging the birds by their feet on a sort of conveyor belt and their heads come into contact with electrically charged water.

More Progress Needs to be Made

Perdue is on the path to meeting the requirements, but there is one hurdle that could be hard for the company to hop over: growing a chicken that can freely move about because it doesn’t fatten up as quickly.

In the secret videos recorded by Craig Watts, hugely fat chickens endeavor to navigate the facilities, balanced on its 2 scrawny legs, only for their legs to give out under the birds’ weight – an image described by Watts as “2 toothpicks sticking out a grape.”

Chickens are raised for breast meat, and for the last, oh, 60 years or so, chicken producers have been on a mission to increase the size of their birds in order to compete. The competition reaches as far down as the farmers themselves, whose pay depends on the amount of meat their birds produce. Chickens have quadrupled in size since the 1950’s, according to a 2014 study in the journal Poultry Science.

Source: Seattle Organic Restaurants

The Global Animal Partnership demands that companies use slower-growing breeds. The animal welfare group hasn’t decided which breeds will meet its standard, but Perdue Farms is studying 6 alternative breeds at a research farm.

Unfortunately, the switch to slower-growing chickens is likely to have a palpable impact on business. And because certain breeds of slower-growing chickens produce less breast meat and bigger legs, buyers can expect to feel the impact, too. They may have to pay more for poultry, or eat more dark meat.

Jim Purdue said:

“This is a big change for our company as well as the industry. Getting everyone aligned is the big challenge. From that aspect, I think things are going well as far as people understanding what we want to look like.” [3]

Sources:

[1] Associated Press

[2] NPR

[3] Organic Authority

The Guardian

Seattle Organic Restaurants

Links to some of Perdue’s Latest Documents:

Commitments to Animal Care 2017 Press Release

Perdue Farms Statement on Meeting Demand for Chicken Welfare Standards

What Others Say About Perdue’s Animal Care Commitments 2017

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About Mike Barrett:
	Mike is the co-founder, editor, and researcher behind Natural Society. Studying the work of top natural health activists, and writing special reports for top 10 alternative health websites, Mike has written hundreds of articles and pages on how to obtain optimum wellness through natural health.

Whistleblower Reveals Why US Chickens Are Washed Down With Chlorine

A whistleblower who once worked for the 2nd largest chicken producer in the U.S. has come forward to tell the world about the birds’ horrible living conditions. He also sheds light on the reason why the overwhelming majority of US chicken producers wash the poultry in chlorine before putting it on the market.

Yes, chlorine. You know, like swimming pools.

According to the whistleblower, ex-North Carolina chicken farmer Craig Watts, tens of thousands of ultra-plump birds are stuffed into oversized warehouses, where they are so fat their legs buckle under their own weight. The chickens, which can reach 9 lbs., are not exposed to natural light and often die before they reach maturity. Many of them are covered in their own feces. [1]

This, the whistleblower claims, is why 97% of American chickens are washed in chlorine after they are slaughtered, though there is no legal requirement to do so.

Watts said:

“The birds are too heavy to stand because they have been bred for breast meat and nothing else, so they spend their lives squatting. It’s like 2 toothpicks sticking out of a grape.

They spend 95% of their time sitting on the litter, a mixture of pine shavings and fecal matter from that flock and prior flocks.”

It gets worse. Watts says the birds’ living conditions are so cramped, they injure one another just moving about the warehouse.

“Their flesh would rot, and when you have them crammed in so tight, they will walk over other birds if they want to get to the food or scratch the others and cause a wound. It is awful.” [2]

Watts said he quit the poultry business over the inhumane conditions, some of which was documented in shocking video footage filmed at 2 Pilgrim’s Pride facilities in Hull, Georgia. Chickens can be seen being tossed about by farm workers, and collapsing under their own weight. The owner of the farm can be seen bludgeoning the animals to death with a metal rod.  Chickens are pictured being violently shackled down and punched. [3]

We’ve included the video, but be warned; it is very difficult to watch.

After the Human Society of Georgia exposed the abuse, Pilgrim’s Pride said in a statement:

“Ensuring the well-being of the chickens under our care is an uncompromising commitment at Pilgrim’s.

This isolated incident of of unacceptable behavior does not reflect our approach to animal welfare or the approach of the more than 4,000 family farm partners who interact with our chickens daily.” [1]

America’s chicken farmers are under immense pressure to produce. Nearly all of them are contracted with major corporations like Pilgrim’s Pride, who supply them with chicks, feed, and equipment.

What the farmers can and cannot do depends on the firms’ regulations, and they are paid based on a “tournament system” that pits farmers against one another. The farmer who produces the most meat with the least feed “wins,” while the farmer who produces less will have money deducted from his pay. [3]

The payment system basically encourages farmers to cut corners, resulting in crueler, less hygienic living conditions for the chickens.

According to Jim Sumner, president of the US Poultry & Egg Export Council, US chickens are treated humanely, and chlorine-washing is only done as an added measure of safety which protects against food-borne illnesses.

Sumner said:

“Sometimes these [animal welfare] organizations do not have a thorough understanding of the process or scientific facts.”

But the fact that we have to chlorinate chicken before it can be eaten certainly seems to suggest that the living conditions inside farms may be as unhealthy for humans as they are for the livestock.

A senior policy analyst at the US Center for Food Safety, Jaydee Hanson said:

“These chemicals are basically like the ones we put in our toilets to clean them. The question is, why are chickens so contaminated in the first place?  And the issue is that we are not doing a good job of raising chickens.”

Sources:

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About Julie Fidler:
	Julie Fidler is a freelance writer, legal blogger, and the author of Adventures in Holy Matrimony: For Better or the Absolute Worst. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and two ridiculously spoiled cats. She occasionally pontificates on her blog.

Hanford whistleblower retaliated against, transferred to windowless office

30-year lab veteran forced to take office with no windows after blowing the whistle on a fraudulently hired contractor who cost taxpayers $1.5 million

(INTELLIHUB) — The Department of Energy’s Inspector General has opened an investigation into the allegations that a Pacific Northwest Nation Lab (PNNL) employee of 30-years was transferred to a windowless office after refusing to go along with a cover-up.

30-year veteran lab manager Aleta Busselman claims the lab relocated her and assigned her with no new tasks after she failed to whitewash an incident which had already cost the federal government over $1.5 million in 2016 after a fraudulent contract was negotiated.

Busselman’s managed a team in charge of getting to the bottom of why certain events happen at the plant and said that she thought that the lab would want an “honest” and responsible person to do such to make sure that such events would never happen again. However, her willingness, to tell the truth, ultimately cost her her livelihood.

Busselman’s team concluded that the lab did not have “adequate controls” in place to protect against “fraudulent activities.”

A lab spokesperson said that the woman’s allegations are ‘simply not true.’

Via Intellihub

©2017. INTELLIHUB.COM. All Rights Reserved.

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Shepard Ambellas is an opinion journalist, analyst, and the founder and editor-in-chief of Intellihub News & Politics (Intellihub.com). Shepard is also known for producing Shade: The Motion Picture (2013) and appearing on Travel Channel’s America Declassified (2013). Shepard is a regular contributor to Infowars. Read more from Shep’s World. Follow Shep on Facebook and Twitter.

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Chelsea Manning Speaks Out: Seeing Victims of War As ‘People’ – Not ‘Statistics’ Inspired Leaks

Chelsea Manning, a former Army intelligence analyst who was charged with leaking the largest trove of government secrets in U.S. history, spoke out for the first time this week after spending seven years in prison.

“I accept the responsibility,” Manning said. “No one told me to do this. No one directed me to do this. This is me, it’s on me.”

Manning said she was inspired to turn over the collection of over 700,000 classified documents to WikiLeaks, after watching American soldiers commit atrocities against innocent civilians in the Middle East.

“All of this information—it’s just death, destruction, mayhem, and eventually you just stop—I stopped seeing just statistics and information,” Manning said. “I started seeing people. Counterinsurgents and warfare is not a simple thing. It’s not as simple as ‘good guys vs. bad guys.’ It was a mess.”

ABC Breaking News | Latest News Videos

As a result, Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison—the longest sentence given to any whistleblower in U.S. history. President Obama waited until the end of his presidency to commute the remainder of Manning’s sentence.

One of the videos included in the trove, which Manning said inspired her to turn to WikiLeaks, showed American solders carrying out an aerial attack on unarmed civilians in Baghdad in 2007.

Amnesty International Americas Director Erika Guevara-Rosas noted that while Manning was originally given an extremely long sentence, none of the solders exposed in any of the videos faced justice.

“Instead of punishing the messenger, the U.S. government can send a strong signal to the world that it is serious about investigating the human rights violations exposed by the leaks and bringing all those suspected of criminal responsible to justice in fair trials,” Guevara-Rosas said.

READ MORE:  Obama says his is ‘most transparent administration" ever

As The Free Thought Project has reported, while Manning is out of prison now, she remains on an active duty soldier in the U.S. Army, and has been “placed on voluntary excess leave, rather than discharged—and, as such, could be swiftly and relentlessly punished for the slightest violation, despite technically being considered free.”

Good Cop Leaks Video of Fellow Cop Torturing Handcuffed Man with a Taser — Guess Who’s in Trouble

Balch Springs, TX — Coming just weeks after Balch Springs Police Officer Roy Oliver killed 15-year-old Jordan Edwards, was fired, and later arrested and charged with murder, another scandal has rocked the department. This time, it is torture with a taser.

Body camera footage was mailed to Fox4 News showing a Black man being tased while handcuffed. Thirty-nine-year-old Marco Stephenson was compliant, not resisting at all, and in handcuffs when the torture began.

The leaked body camera footage shows Stephenson with his hands raised above his head as officers approach. Balch Springs PD responded to a 911 call of a man brandishing a weapon.

Stephenson admitted he had a BB gun but denied threatening anyone with it. According to our experts in gang activities, criminals use BB and pellet guns to keep enemies at bay who are unaware the toys are not real.

Stephenson was handcuffed and told he was under arrest for threatening the community who’d called 911 to report him. He denied committing any crime but was, by all accounts, compliant with all officer commands.

He spit his toothpick into the grass which seemed to have set off the cops. He got a little mouthy with one of the officers (inaudible) and was immediately tased.

“Don’t pull away! You understand? You understand?” an unidentified sergeant on the video said as he was tasing Stephenson. “Don’t pull away! You get it?! You get it?! Because I ain’t playing with you today! Do you understand?!”

“Yes sir,” answered Stephenson as he again complied with officer commands. Yet the cop kept tasering him — even after he fell to the ground.

READ MORE:  Difference Between a "Black Guy" Breaking into a Car vs. a "White Guy"

The incident apparently raised the eyebrows of fellow officers who promptly reported the incident to the sergeant’s superiors.

According to the Chief of Police for Balch Springs, the incident was reviewed by three different entities; Texas Rangers, Professional Standards and the Dallas County DA’s Public Integrity Unit.

Chief Jonathon Haber said, “We decided together that this was an administrative issue, not a criminal issue.” And since Stephenson didn’t file a complaint, no charges were brought against the officer.

While the department has a vocal supporter on their side, Reverend Ronald Wright, others apparently aren’t happy with the conclusions reached in the internal investigation and they are the ones who leaked the video to the press.

Wright said, “There was some things that were done that could have been kept quiet. But there was some officers that set an example of what all police departments should do.”

Now the chief is looking to see who leaked the video, seemingly more concerned about the Balch Springs PD’s image than with arresting another member of his police force.

Haber described Stephenson’s lengthy criminal record to reporters, citing the number of times he’d been arrested and processed in the jail system. But the video, coupled with the latest killing of an unarmed innocent child, leave more questions than answers.

Why did the department choose to keep someone on its force who’d tased a handcuffed compliant man? Why after whistleblowers turned him in was he not fired? And how and why did three law enforcement agencies arrive at the conclusion no crime had been committed?

READ MORE:  Missouri KKK: We will use ‘lethal force’ against Ferguson protesters

It seems Haber is more interested in finding out who leaked the video to the press and firing that person than he is concerned with protecting the civil rights and liberties of Mr. Stephenson and others like him.

According to Chief Haber, the sergeant in question was reprimanded and put on “no contact with the public” until he completed courses in conflict resolution, anti-bias, and how to respond to mental health calls. All in all, he got away with tasing a handcuffed man without losing one day’s pay.

Something has to change with modern policing methods when officers are not charged for doing things to handcuffed suspects that the public cannot do to each other. Many consider it to be an example of a double standard at work for law enforcement. What would have happened had the taser killed Stephenson? Remember Graham Dyer and Gregory Towns? They weren’t as lucky as Stephenson.

CIA Launches Manhunt for ‘Traitor’ Who Showed the World They Spy on EVERYONE

CBS News first reported a manhunt inside the Central Intelligence Agency in search of the source who provided thousands of top secret documents to Wikileaks, published in its “Vault 7” — which revealed the clandestine agency’s hacking tools and surveillance practices.

“Sources familiar with the investigation say it is looking for an insider — either a CIA employee or contractor — who had physical access to the material,” CBS reported Wednesday evening. “The agency has not said publicly when the material was taken or how it was stolen.

“Much of the material was classified and stored in a highly secure section of the intelligence agency, but sources say hundreds of people would have had access to the material. Investigators are going through those names.”

Investigators surmise the source of the massive leak was either an agent of the CIA or a contractor with the agency — someone with physical access — rather than an outside hacker.

In a statement coinciding with the Vault 7 release, Wikileaks announced,

“The archive appears to have been circulated among former US government hackers and contractors in an unauthorized manner, one of whom has provided WikiLeaks with portions of the archive […]

“In a statement to WikiLeaks the source details policy questions that they say urgently need to be debated in public, including whether the CIA’s hacking capabilities exceed its mandated powers and the problem of public oversight of the agency. The source wishes to initiate a public debate about the security, creation, use, proliferation and democratic control of cyberweapons.”

Unnamed sources from inside the U.S. Intelligence Community told Reuters less than 24 hours after Wikileaks published the first selection of the damning cache of documents the agency had expected their public disclosure since 2016.

Officials from the CIA and FBI quickly reviewed the case and, within one day, initiated a joint investigation of the release — including the internal manhunt in question.

Wikileaks — itself, fraught by rumors of enemy State collusion and political opportunism — was lambasted by CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who also had choice words for the pro-transparency organization’s founder, Julian Assange, in his first public comments since taking that role:

“It is time to call out WikiLeaks for what it really is: A non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia.”

Wikileaks founder and editor Julian Assange — incidentally deemed a “demon” by Pompeo — responded to the wholly unproven accusation, stating,

“In fact, the reason Pompeo is launching this attack is because he understands we are exposing in this series all sorts of illegal actions by the CIA, so he’s trying to get ahead of the publicity curve and create a preemptive defense.”

Former CIA Deputy Director Mike Morell claimed within days of the Vault 7 disclosure it had to be an ‘inside job.’

“This data is not shared outside CIA,” Morell said. “It’s only inside CIA. It’s on CIA’s top secret network, which is not connected to any other network. So, this has to be an inside job.”

Investigators continue to pour over the hundreds of names of hundreds of contractors and agents who would have had physical access to the high-security area, urgently seeking the unknown person or persons who could have managed such a devastating theft of information.

Given the nature and scope of Wikileaks’ trove — estimated of greater impact than spying practices revealed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden — whoever was behind the breach is likely to become a transparency and anti-surveillance folk hero.

Thus far, the CIA has not commented on the ongoing probe — nor on the authenticity of documents in the Wikileaks trove.

Assange, in the same statement released in tandem with Vault 7, noted the content of the cache,

“The disclosure is also exceptional from a political, legal and forensic perspective.”

Whistleblower Confirms NSA Targeted Congress, The Supreme Court, & Trump

“They’re Like The Praetorian Guard”

Mar 25, 2017 6:25 PM

Authored by Chris Menahan via InformationLiberation.com,

NSA whistleblower William Binney told Tucker Carlson on Friday that the NSA is spying on “all the members of the Supreme Court, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Congress, both House and Senate, as well as the White House.”

Binney, who served the NSA for 30 years before blowing the whistle on domestic spying in 2001, told Tucker he firmly believes that Trump was spied on.

“They’re taking in fundamentally the entire fiber network inside the United States and collecting all that data and storing it, in a program they call Stellar Wind,” Binney said.

“That’s the domestic collection of data on US citizens, US citizens to other US citizens,” he said. “Everything we’re doing, phone calls, emails and then financial transactions, credit cards, things like that, all of it.”

Inside NSA there are a set of people who are — and we got this from another NSA whistleblower who witnessed some of this — they’re inside there, they are targeting and looking at all the members of the Supreme Court, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Congress, both House and Senate, as well as the White House,” Binney said.

“And all this data is inside the NSA in a small group where they’re looking at it. The idea is to see what people in power over you are going to — what they think, what they think you should be doing or planning to do to you, your budget, or whatever so you can try to counteract before it actually happens,” he said.

“I mean, that’s just East German,” Tucker responded.

Read more at ZERO HEDGE

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March Madness of Mass Surveillance

(ANTIMEDIA) March has been a quite the month for mass surveillance and the intelligence community.

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On March 1st, the House Intelligence Committee met to discuss the renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the controversial policy that allowed the NSA to capture the contents of communications of Americans, using the ‘targeted’ surveillance of non-Americans abroad to justify it.

A week later, on March 7th, Wikileaks published its latest data set, 8,761 documents from a series of Central Intelligence Agency leaks that Wikileaks dubbed “Vault 7.”

Mainstream news responded sympathetically to the CIA, even promoting the most recent leaks as evidence that Assange has been playing into the hands of the Trump administration. Still others downplayed the leak. “The most striking thing about the WikiLeaks CIA data dump is how little most people cared,” quipped one Quartz headline.

While Vault 7 was a relatively low-level data breach that simply affirmed what many within the digital security world already knew, cyber activists such as Cindy Cohn, Executive Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, were most disturbed by the revelation that the CIA chose to not to inform technology companies of the weaknesses they found in certain software, essentially leaving the American public vulnerable to attacks from outside hackers.

“People need to really turn to the CIA and ask them why—why aren’t they standing with tech companies and with the American people and people around the world to have secure products? That’s where their interest should be,” Cohn said in an interview with Democracy Now.

The leaks compelled former Democratic congressman Dennis Kucinich to write an op-ed for Fox News claiming the U.S. is heading towards a totalitarian state “where private lives do not exist.” In fact, both Kucinich and Senator Rand Paul used President Trump’s claim of being wiretapped by Obama as an opportunity to draw attention to the government’s unwarranted wiretapping of U.S. citizens.

Yet, as Anti-Media has observed, Congress as a whole has been more intent on protecting the government from insider leaks than protecting the public from government surveillance.

Last month, the House passed the Insider Threat and Mitigation Act of 2017, ominously titled H.R. 666, to establish an Insider Threat Program for identifying potential data breaches within the Department of Homeland Security. Strategies outlined in the Act include “workplace monitoring technologies” to identify the so-called “insider threats.”

While the legislation makes use of neutral language, Rep. Peter King (R-NY), the bill’s author, made no attempt to disguise the fact the program is, in fact, a response to leaks from government whistleblowers, namely Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning, who he grouped with Navy Yard gunman Aaron Alexis, who was vetted by the same government contractor that vetted Snowden.

“Unfortunately, Snowden, Manning, and others were able to conduct their traitorous work undetected because the government had at one time vetted and granted them access to secure facilities and information systems,” King told Congress.

“In response to these cases, it is vital that Congress ensure Federal agencies have the tools to detect and disrupt future insider threat situations before damage is done. H.R. 666, in contrast to its unholy numbering, has the important and respectable goal of authorizing and expanding insider threat detection and mitigation efforts at the Department of Homeland Security.”

The term “insider threat” is not just used as a weak euphemism for “whistleblower,” but a broad label applicable to public figures. A U.S. Army powerpoint allegedly obtained by Judicial Watch shows Hillary Clinton listed alongside Manning and Snowden as an “insider threat” to operational security, indicating that the use of the label is not only contentious but highly political.

The concerted effort by the U.S. government to identify and mitigate “insider threats” is part of a larger globalized effort to crack down on government whistleblowers. Last month, the Law Commission in the U.K., an independent advisory body, published a consultation paper that recommended radically increasing prison sentences for whistleblowers and journalists from two years to 14 years and expanding the definition of espionage to include “obtaining sensitive information” regardless of whether that information is shared or not.

The U.K.’s interest in data security “future-proofing” can also be drawn back to Edward Snowden, with grave implications for whistleblowers and journalists abroad, as Jim Killock, Chief Executive of the digital activism organization Open Rights Group, told The Guardian.

“It’s squarely aimed at the Guardian and Edward Snowden. They want to make it a criminal offence for journalists to handle a large volume of documents in the way that journalists did with Snowden. They have even recommended that foreigners be criminalised for this, meaning Snowden would be prosecutable in the UK.”

Snowden himself took to Twitter to criticize the Law Commission paper.

“[The new law aims to]… place leaking and whistleblowing in the same category as spying for foreign powers.“ Snowden tweeted, quoting an op-ed by Shami Chakrabarti.

The focus on mitigating “insider threats” within Western governments is matched by a growing international concern for the threat governmental surveillance activities pose to privacy. A day after the Wikileaks data dump, the U.N. Human Rights Council released a 6-page report focusing on the right to privacy.

The report notably found:

“There is little or no evidence to persuade the SRP of either the efficacy or the proportionality of some of the extremely privacy-intrusive measures that have been introduced by new surveillance laws in France, Germany, the UK and the USA. Like Judge Robart in the recent case on the immigration ban in the USA, the SRP must seek evidence for the proportionality of the measures provided for by laws.”

The SRP also implored the U.S. Congress to amend the Email Privacy Act and make a legislative effort to formally recognize the right to privacy as a fundamental human right.

The tension between privacy and government surveillance is one that runs central to the ongoing debate over the CIA and NSA’s data collection tactics, as well as the potential Homeland Security policy that aims to refocus efforts to target “insider threats.”

There is still a chance for major policy change. Both the Email Privacy Act and the Insider Threat and Mitigation Act of 2017 passed in the House but are still pending approval in Senate. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is set to expire if it is not renewed come December 31st. Still, if the American public has learned anything from Wikileaks, it is that just because it a policy isn’t explicitly legal doesn’t mean it isn’t already happening.

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