by Rachel Allshiny

Working on prisoner support is one of the most exhausting, transformative, frustrating, vital, tedious, rewarding, messy, wonderful things I have ever done.

When someone is in prison, every moment is a crisis. Even when a specific problem or situation is resolved, there remains an overwhelming survival mentality, which affects those inside and their supporters alike. I move from crisis to crisis every day; meanwhile the prisoners I am not actively engaged in supporting at any given minute hover in my peripheral vision, imploring they not be forgotten. None are ever forgotten, of course, but the need to prioritize presents me with difficult decisions about how to use my time and resources daily.

In the past few weeks, most of my efforts have been dedicated to helping Mark Neiweem, also known as Migs, of the NATO 5. Quick refresher: five activists were arrested days before the NATO summit in Chicago last year and subsequently charged with terrorism. Three remain incarcerated at Cook County Jail, awaiting trial. One accepted a non-cooperating plea agreement and served a sentence of four months in a boot camp for non-violent offenders. He was recently repatriated to his native Poland. The fifth is Mark, who also accepted a non-cooperating plea and is serving two concurrent three-year sentences. With credit for time served and time off for good behavior, he expects parole in November. You can read his comments on his decision to change his plea and his grim experience at Cook County Jail here.

Mark entered his new plea in April. He was immediately transferred to Stateville, where he stayed for one month under barely tolerable living conditions. He was then moved to the medium security unit at Pontiac Correctional Center in Pontiac, IL. This was by far his best housing situation, although it feels strange to put it that way. Prison is always a miserable experience, but there are relative levels to misery.

I got my first letter from Mark when he was still at Cook County Jail exactly one year ago today – the same day I attempted to visit him for the first time. His tone was friendly, engaging, and funny, but he also came across as angry, frustrated, and obviously in pain. In one line that still haunts me, he suggested that they should execute him and let the other four guys walk. When we tried to see him that day, we discovered he had just been hospitalized after being severely beaten by guards. His hospitalization was followed by five weeks in solitary confinement, where he stayed without visits until after his visible wounds healed.

During those five weeks, I made it my personal mission to make sure he always had mail and someone he could call. I wrote and told him that five guys went in, and I would not rest until all five walked out. Ever since, it has been my utmost priority to make sure the shadowy powers-that-be know we are paying attention to what happens to him. As the good Doctor would say, he is protected.

As it happens, we’ve also become good friends. I very much look forward to the day when I can spend time with him that’s not regulated by the Illinois Department of Corrections.

After his conviction and move to Pontiac, I noticed a significant positive shift in Mark’s attitude. I attribute this change to the resolution of his case, having a release date in sight, and having escaped the hellhole that is Cook County Jail. His medium security designation meant he merited “contact visits” where he was able to hug his mom and some friends, myself included, for the first time in over a year. He began making concrete plans for the future and became determined to use his remaining time to educate himself in preparation for release. He requested books, signed up for the prison’s GED class, and began attending Narcotics Anonymous meetings. He mentioned in his letters that some of the prisoners knew why he was there and tried to engage him in conversation about it, but that he had no interest in discussing the past. His sights were set on the front door and he was doing everything possible to get a strong new start on his life.

Imagine my concern and disappointment, then, when I drove down with a friend to visit him in July and discovered that he had been moved to solitary confinement in the maximum security unit. We were still able to see him, thankfully, but it was a no-contact visit. We spoke to him through a sheet of plexiglass and watched as he twisted around, trying to find a comfortable position to sit with his arms shackled behind his back to the base of his stool. He told us he had not been able to contact anyone about his transfer to solitary because he was no longer allowed to use the phone and his property had been seized, which meant he did not have his list of mailing addresses. At that time he had not been charged with any misconduct but was “under investigation,” which meant they could hold him in solitary for at least 30 days.

Despite the circumstances, it was a great visit. He looked healthier and stronger than ever, if a bit scruffy from lack of access to shaves and haircuts. He was funny and thoughtful as usual and clearly determined not to give in to these heavy-handed tactics. He expressed concern over not completing his GED class and the setback in his plans to prepare for release. It wasn’t the most relaxed or pleasant visit, but definitely one of the more important ones.

Cue an endless number of urgent phone calls. We stood in the prison parking lot, phones poised, reaching out to lawyers, his family, and other activists as a thunderstorm brewed in the distance. It was very dramatic, or maybe that was the adrenaline speaking. During the 100-mile drive home, we held an early strategizing session. After the lawyers made their official requests, we launched a call-in campaign, flooding IDOC Director Godinez and Governor Quinn’s offices with demands for accountability. They responded by moving him to a smaller, more restrictive cell within solitary, behind a solid steel door. At one point I found myself sitting on the dirty sidewalk outside CPD District 001 at midnight, waiting for anti-ALEC protesters to be released, typing up actions and campaigns to at least get Mark some mail and pictures, at his request. It’s a glamorous life.

Ultimately, Mark was charged on two counts – possessing “unauthorized” anarchist symbols and possessing “unauthorized” anarchist literature, both of which were deemed an imminent threat to the facility. We are still awaiting a decision on these charges. Assuming they are upheld, he could be moved farther downstate, away from his support system, or lose his time off for good behavior. Or both.

Meanwhile, every moment is a crisis. I walk around with the awareness that his fate is balanced precariously, and there is only so much I can do to help. I send him photos taken in shaded parks along Lake Michigan, where I like to sit and write. He sends me funny drawings to let me know how much he appreciates my support.

This week, I went to visit him again.

I drove down in a borrowed car, pumping donated funds into the gas tank. I brought three books for him:

• On Writing by Stephen King because I am gently encouraging him to write about his experience;

• Packing for Mars by Mary Roach because it’s funny and informative and deals with confinement in small spaces as a means of exploring the vast depths of inner and outer space;

• and City of Thieves by David Benioff because if I sent him on a life-or-death mission to find a dozen eggs in war-torn Russia, I know he would deliver.

I was braced for trouble getting in to see him but it all went smoothly at the gate. In the waiting room I met a woman from the southwest suburbs of Chicago, there to see her brother. We traded war stories about visiting different facilities, always carefully avoiding the question of why we had to in the first place. Prison etiquette.

Finally, I was called to see Mark. He was behind plexiglass again, arms shackled behind his back again. You wouldn’t know it from the grin on his face, though. He looked too skinny and he still hadn’t gotten to cut his hair or shave, so he was starting to resemble the caveman drawings of himself that often adorn his letters to me. It was great to see him, no matter what.

We got business out of the way. He had a productive legal visit the week before. He still didn’t know his fate, but told me he is committed to resisting whatever they have in store for him. He said he was not interested in passively accepting their aggressive tactics, especially since he doesn’t believe acquiescence will result in better treatment. He has clarity of purpose about both his own situation and how it fits into the larger context of the system that keeps him unwavering in his resolve. As his mom told me on the phone recently, “They’re trying to break him, but they won’t. He’s a tough nut to crack.” He still spoke of his plans for the future, but they were more abstract.

He asked about other defendants’ well-being and for general news updates. I felt bad; it seemed like most of what I had to share was bad news. I told him about a contested space in Chicago that had been used as a community center for the past three years – until it was destroyed overnight with no warning. His response? “That sounds like a prime spot to occupy.” I shook my head and told him there was nothing left to occupy anymore; it’s just a pile of rubble now. He smiled. “So, it’s a pile of rubble now. Turn it into an organic garden.”

That wasn’t the response I expected, but it was the response I needed. I am constantly fighting burnout and every pile of rubble looks like a loss, highlighting the futility of our efforts to create sustainable change. He found the hope and possibility for a new beginning that was buried in this one. I didn’t tell him at the time, but hopefully he will read this and recognize that he could not have suggested that a year ago. He’s come a very long way.

I told him about the Netflix show Orange Is The New Black, and how people keep telling me I should really watch it because of my involvement in prisoner support work. I have been watching it, and see both its merits and its flaws, but it is slow going. I spend so much of my day worrying about prisoners and their perpetual moments of crisis that it is hard to sit back in my downtime and watch a TV show about it. Even harder to laugh. He compared people telling me to watch the show to prisoners who never miss an episode of Cops, or love detective shows that glorify the police force, without a deeper understanding of how it compounds their own oppression.

He wants to teach people about how the state uses incarceration to drain our power and resources and ability to resist. He wants every activist to know about the prison industrial complex, not just in theory or from a TV show, but from experiencing it alongside somebody trapped in the system. At least until they are all free.

He also expressed an interest in environmental activism as his next endeavor. When I mentioned some of the ongoing struggles against the KXL pipeline and fracking, he looked sad. “I’m missing so much in here,” he explained. I promised him we wouldn’t fix the whole world without him, but would leave something for him to work on when he got out. He’s holding us to that promise.

(This part of the conversation reminded me of my visit to Brian Church, also of the NATO 5, two days earlier. Brian was trained as an EMT but will never be able to work in that field again due to these charges. He very much wants to volunteer as a street medic to help people rising up against dictatorships in other countries – if he can work out a way to travel – who often end up badly injured. His desire to use his own skills to help other people was palpable, even with his own fate still undecided.)

At one point, Mark went off into an earnest and passionate political discourse, talking about how ridiculous he finds the concept of asking elected officials to honor rights we already have. If they really represented us, he theorized, we wouldn’t have to ask them to be on our side and protect our innate freedoms. “You can’t ask for permission to be free,” he told me. “You just have to start being free.” He interrupted himself with a sheepish smile. “I’ve been reading a lot,” he apologized. I looked at him, wearing “more chains than the Ghost of Christmas Past” (as he once described it to me), and I knew that he was free. They have imprisoned his body but his soul is soaring above it all, and he will prevail.

Every moment of prisoner support work is a crisis. But here’s the secret I saved til the end: every moment is also a precious gift. I have friends I haven’t talked to in months because I’m secure in the knowledge that I can text them at any time. My time interacting directly with prisoners, however, is measured and cut into segments that are never quite large enough. We don’t waste our moments together. Each and every one is important.

Before I had to leave, I asked Mark if we could do anything more for him right now. He is getting his mail again, very slowly, presumably after being read and documented by the prison. It is his only link to the outside world, and he asked people to continue writing and sending him photos. You can learn more about how to do that here.

When I hit the halfway point on my way back to Chicago, I suddenly started crying. I didn’t want to leave him behind, but I had reached the point of no return and had to keep pushing forward. I remembered a final bit of wisdom he had left me with: “It may feel like you’re on the ropes a lot, but at least you’re still in the fight.”

When every moment is a crisis, every moment is also an opportunity to resist and push forward. This is my work and my calling, but you can be a part of it to whatever extent you are comfortable. Choose one person on the #OpPenPal mailing list and send them a letter or postcard that will make them smile. If you live in the area of one of these cases, reach out and ask what court support and jail visit needs are, and if you can tag along with a veteran your first time. Donations to defense funds are always appreciated, and if all else fails, sharing links and information with your family and friends helps get the word out.

“Solidarity is our best weapon, and it works.” – Mark Neiweem, Open Communiqué

Rachel Allshiny served as librarian and press liaison for Occupy Chicago and co-founded OpPenPal in February 2013.

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Love In A Time Of Mass Incarceration

by Blogbot

This Thursday July 18th on SuicideGirls Radio hosts Nicole Powers and Juturna Suicide, and guest co-host-in-residence Dell Cameron, will be joined in-studio by investigative journalist, truth seeker and news junkie Jason Leopold, who has reported extensively on Guantanamo Bay.

166 prisoners remain in indefinite limbo at the US military outpost, despite the fact that 86 of them have technically been cleared for release. Currently 81 are on hunger strike, with 45 of those being force fed – a horrific procedure which was graphically illustrated recently by Yasiin Bey a.k.a. Mos Def who volunteered to undergo it for a video produced by the human rights organization Reprieve UK [see above].

Despite campaigning on the promise of closing Guantanamo, conditions at the facility under Obama are worse than ever. A recent letter from Younous Chekkouri, an inmate who has been behind bars for more than 11 years, revealed that sexual abuse is commonly used as a deterrent to stop Guantanamo prisoners contacting their lawyers, family and friends (a claim that has been backed up by other inmates – see report below), and a FOIA request filed by Leopold exposed the fact that the Obama administration is aware that guards are routinely violating the military’s own Standard Operating Procedures.

Leopold has visited Guantanamo twice and therefore has a rare insight into what day-to-day life is like there. In an article entitled A Guantanamo Tour, which was published by Al Jazeera in January of this year, he reports:

Each cell has a bed, a metal sink and a metal toilet, leaving a functional living space little more than half the size of an average horse stall. Prisoners are allowed a Koran, as well as books and magazines to while away the years.

During a walk-through of an empty cellblock in Camp 5, we were led into the “media room,” about the size of a cell, where a dirty reclining chair faced a television set. At the foot of the recliner were leg shackles and next to the television set was a force-feeding kit, a grim reminder of the prolonged and widespread hunger strike that brought me here looking for answers.

All of the cells had surveillance cameras attached to the ceiling. Prison garb – white for compliant prisoners and orange for those who misbehave – was neatly laid out on a thin mattress pad along with toiletries provided to the inmates: toothbrush, toothpaste and soap.

Camp 5 is maximum security, holding the most troublesome prisoners in isolation 22 hours a day, with two hours out of their cells for showers and “recreation.”

Prisoners at Camp 6, on the other hand, were once allowed to leave their cells and mingle freely with other prisoners in a communal living arrangement where they shared meals, a recreation yard and gym privileges. There once was free access to satellite television, video games, DVDs, books and a wide range of comfort items.

That all changed two months into the hunger strike, when tensions flared and violence erupted, culminating in an April 13 pre-dawn raid by the guards. Since that time, occupants of Camp 6 have been confined to their cells in isolation, the same as residents of Camp 5. They are wakened as early as 3 a.m. for their two hours of recreation time.

The crackdown has done little to enhance relations between captors and captives, some of whom have spent more than a decade occupying this peculiar state of 8-by-10 limbo – untried, uncharged and with little hope of resolution.

Suicide attempts – some successful – have been documented among prisoners over the years. Now it seems the unprecedented hunger strike – a form of slow and deliberate mass suicide – is the only means of control at their disposal.

You can listen – and watch – SuicideGirls Radio live on Thursday nights from 6 til 8 PM at our new state-of-the-art all digital home: TradioV.com/LA.

You’ll also be able to listen to our podcasts via Stitcher – download the app now!

If you have questions for the SG Radio crew or our guests, you can call in during the live broadcast at: 1-855-TRV-inLA (1-855-878-4652)

For updates on all things SG Radio-related, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

About Jason Leopold | @JasonLeopold
Jason Leopold is an investigative reporter covering Guantanamo, counterterrorism, national security, human rights, open government and civil liberties issues. He’s been called a “FOIA Terrorist” by federal employees for his aggressive use of the Freedom of Information Act, which included suing the FBI and forcing the agency to changes its policies.

He’s the author of the national bestseller, News Junkie, and an investigative report, From Hopeful to Immigrant to FBI Informant: The Inside Story of the Other Abu Zubaidah, which was published in the form of an ebook. Leopold’s investigative reporting highlights includes “Revised Guantanamo Force-Feed Policy Exposed,” a story based on a military document he exclusively obtained, and “Sold Into ‘A Piece of Hell’: A Death of Innocence at Gitmo,” about the suspicious death in September 2012 of prisoner Adnan Latif. A radio documentary about Leopold’s life, based on his book News Junkie, was broadcast by the award-winning podcast, Love + Radio and featured on NPR.

**UPDATE**

ICYMI: Last night’s ‪#‎GITMO‬ To Go Show with investigative journalist, truth seeker and news junkie Jason Leopold, who has reported extensively on Guantanamo Bay.

Video streaming by Ustream

Here’s a link to the CNN “Names & Feces” CNN news/propaganda report Jason mentions during our conversation.

by Blogbot

Video streaming by Ustream

This past Thursday, July 27th, our show was devoted to the topic of Bradley Manning. Host Nicole Powers and guest co-host Dell Cameron (VICE) were joined via Skype by independent journalist Alexa O’Brien, artist and activist Clark Stoeckley (Wikileaks Truck), and RT America reporter Andrew Panda Blake, who have all spent quality time on the Fort Meade base observing the trial.

Alexa O’Brien has been called “a national treasure” by Jesselyn Radack of the Government Accountability Project for her work chronicling the Manning proceedings. Though working outside of the mainstream media, she has provided by far the most extensive coverage of the trial. During our 45 minute conversation, O’Brien talked about the unprecedented treatment Manning is receiving and the alarming precedents with regards to whistleblowers and the freedom of the press that the US government is trying to set with this case:

“Manning is being tried in a court martial, so it’s a military court…But what makes it unusual is here we have a whistleblower, or even if you want to call him a leaker, we have somebody who is a soldier who is being tried for aiding the enemy – without the intent to actually aid the enemy. He gave the information to a media organization, or he published it on the internet, and they’re charging him with aiding the enemy, even though he didn’t have that bad faith motive.

“The other thing that I think is really important about this trial, and unprecedented, is that he has charges against him that have never been used in either a federal court or in a military court. One of them is called “Wanton Publication” – this is where the government is trying to also control large data sets being published…

“It has co-aspects to it…It’s the fact that he leaked it to Wikileaks and the government’s trying to [frame] Wikileaks [as] this evil organization, and not a journalistic one, but it also has to do with the size of the leaks. You and I know that in this day and age, with data modeling and the like, large leaks are completely appropriate for the age this young man grew up in, which is basically the information age.

“But people always talk about aiding the enemy, and they should, but when we even take away the aiding the enemy charge, Manning is charged with 21 other charges that total 149 years if he’s convicted. So here we also see the government using the Espionage Act, which should be used for spies, is addition to aiding the enemy and everything else.”

O’Brien not only talked about the legal and moral aspects of the case, but gave an incredible insight into the character of the key players inside the Fort Meade military courtroom:

“The military prosecutors, they come into court, they talk about Al Qaeda and the enemy, and they talk about harming US soldiers – and there is no actual evidence of any harm, and that will come up later in the sentencing phase. They talk about the US and patriotism, and they’re very aggressive.

“And then you have the defense…

“David Coombs is an amazing defense attorney and he plays this case like a poker player, everything is very close to his chest. He’s not very vocal in the press, in fact Manning has never really talked to the media. He also has shielded his own defense tactics…And here we have him come into court and when David Coombs is actually cross examining he’s really likeable – immediately likeable – so he’s very disarming, but boy, he can really just cut apart witnesses, and he’ll do it with a smile and in a really respectful way. It’s really amazing to watch him.

“And then you have this judge, who is probably two generations older than Manning, and the questions that we have are ‘does she really understand the environment that Manning grew up in and his upbringing in the information age.’”

Our next guest was Clark Stoeckley, who is familiar to many activists as the man responsible for the art installation on wheels that is the Wikileaks Truck. Stoeckley, who comes from a military family, has been supporting Manning – and the truth – by sporting a “truth” T-shirt in court and serving as a courtroom sketch artist:

“I’ve sat in the courtroom in more seats than any other person ever, both in the courtroom, in the press room, in the theater, and the overflow trailer. I’ve tried to get as many different angles of this trial as possible. It’s a trial that I believe should be televised for the world to see…

“We’re going after the sources, and we’re going after those that report this information, rather than focusing on the misdeeds and the corruption of our governments and corporations.”

The illustrations featured in this blog post are all by Stoeckley, and will be collected together into a graphic book, The United States vs. PFC Bradley Manning, featuring quotes from the court transcripts.

In depth coverage of the trial has been noticeable by its absence in the mainstream media, which is why independent journalists like O’Brien and citizen journalists like Stoeckley have been so invaluable. One of the few outlets that has provided consistent coverage of the trial, somewhat ironically for such a historic US case, has been RT a.k.a. Russian Television. Andrew Panda Blake, a reporter for RT, has been covering the Manning beat and joined us for the final half hour of the show. Among other things, he gave us an insight into the incredibly harsh treatment an as-yet-to-be-convicted Manning received at the hands of the US government:

“He was arrested on 8/26 2010 and he was transferred to an 8 by 8 by 8 wire mesh cage in Kuwait, and the only things in the cage were a shelf and a toilet…When he testified a few month ago, he said, ‘I just thought I was going to die in that cage…’

“‪Manning said he thought he was being treated like an animal. He was there for almost two months, and then they flew him into BWI, that’s the Baltimore Airport, then brought him to Quantico in Northern Virginia. He was held in a Marine brig there in a cell that was 6 foot by 8 foot. He was only allowed out for 20 minutes per day while still in shackles…So he was in there for twenty-three and a half hours a day. He was forced to sleep from 1 PM to 11 PM – naked – and was only allowed to do so when facing his lamp. This was at the most extreme of his conditions, it wasn’t always this terrible. Pretty much the only thing he had in there was a mirror and he would make faces into it – that’s how he’d keep himself entertained…

Blake also gave us the run down of the possible outcomes for the trial, and the worrying precedents it might set:

“The trial is supposed to be all done by the end of the summer. Bradley has already admitted guilt to a handful of lesser crimes that would get him perhaps 20 years in prison. The prosecution said that that wasn’t good enough for them and they want to keep charging forth. They’re still trying to convict him on aiding the enemy, and if he gets convicted on aiding the enemy that could potentially be a life sentence…

“What really infuriates me more tha anything else about this case – aside from the terrible treatment that Private Manning had to endure – people aren’t responding to this case, and they are picking up on it to the degree that they should, but the repercussions that could happen if he’s convicted of aiding the enemy will seriously destroy freedom of the press, and potentially Western democracy. It’s such a blow to journalism and press freedom that the publication and the distribution of this documentation of war crimes warrants a potential death penalty. And it’s not even hyperbole because they have been trying to convict so many people for espionage that have only been exposing really terrible truths that the US government is guilty of and never would have admitted to.

SuicideGirls would like to thank all of our amazing guests for participating in our show – and for contributing to the public record of this historic trial.

by Blogbot

We killed the bill dead. So dead that when members of Congress propose something that even touches the Internet, they give a long speech beforehand about how it is definitely not at all like SOPA. So dead that when you ask Congressional staffers about it, they groan and shake their heads, like it’s all a bad dream they’re trying hard to forget. So dead, that it’s hard to believe this story. Hard to remember how close it all came to actually passing. Hard to remember how it could have been any other way.

But it wasn’t a dream, or a nightmare. It was all very real. And it will happen again. Sure, it will have a different name, and maybe a different excuse, and probably do its damage in a different way. But make no mistake. The enemies of the freedom to connect have not disappeared. The fire in those politicians’ eyes has not been put out.

There are a lot of powerful people who want to clamp down on the Internet. And, to be honest, there aren’t a whole lot who have a vested interest in protecting it. Even some of the biggest Internet companies, to put it frankly, would benefit from a world in which their little competitors could be censored.

We can’t let that happen.

– Aaron Swartz, Hacking Politics

Hacking Politics is a newly released book that chronicles the extraordinary fight against SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act), which culminated in the unprecedented Internet Blackout of January 18th, 2012.

Edited by David Segal and David Moon of Demand Progress, and Patrick Ruffini of Engage and Don’t Censor the Net, the book features essays from those who were on the frontlines of the battle against these draconian pieces of legislation that threatened not only online liberty but the very fabric of the web.

Included in the book are first-hand accounts from Lawrence Lessig (of Harvard Law School), Cory Doctorow (author and editor of BoingBoing), Rep. Zoe Lofgren (a Democratic Congress member since 1995), Mike Masnick (CEO and founder of Techdirt), Kim Dotcom (founder of Megaupload and Mega), Alexis Ohanian (co-founder of Reddit), and Derek Slater ( a Policy Manager on Google’s public policy team), among others. The book also includes two chapters by SG Editor Nicole Powers: an account of SuicideGirls’ involvement in the online protests, and an interview with Julie O’Dwyer, the mother of Richard O’Dwyer, the British student who faced extradition to the US on charges related to copyright infringement. Poignantly, the book also contains essays penned by online activist and Demand Progress co-founder Aaron Swartz, who committed suicide earlier this year after being charged with offenses under the outdated and overbroad CFAA (Computer Fraud and Abuse Act).

Though Swartz couldn’t see a way through his own fight, he and an unlikely coalition of left-leaning progressives, right-leaning tea partiers, non-partisan occupiers, blue chip corporations, underground activists, mainstream press outlets and fringe techno radicals successfully fought the Goliath RIAA and MPAA-funded political machine to defeat PIPA and SOPA.

Hacking Politics was put together to ensure that this epic battle is never forgotten, and to provide a greater understanding of the delicate and extensive behind-the-scenes negotiations that are required to mount such a successful grassroots campaign. Though seemingly spontaneous, the fight against PIPA and SOPA was far from unplanned. Hopefully Hacking Politics will provide not only the blueprint, but the inspiration for similar future online offensives against the onslaught of SOPA and PIPA-like legislation that threatens the freedom of the internet.

Hacking Politics: How Geeks, Progressives, the Tea Party, Gamers, Anarchists and Suits Teamed Up to Defeat SOPA and Save the Internet is available in paperback and as an eBook. For a limited time the eBook edition is available as a pay-what-you-wish download.

by Dustin Slaughter

Oral histories of political movements give us glimpses of the participants who helped shape the world we know today. They often provide raw, personal first-hand accounts of peoples’ struggles. These projects also help to maintain historical truths that are often tainted by government revisionism and lost to cultural amnesia.

Tacit confidentiality agreements between historians and interviewees are naturally crucial to the birth of these histories.

So what happens when the Department of Justice and the Police Service of Northern Ireland decide to violate the spirit of a treaty between the United States and the United Kingdom by subpoenaing a confidential collection of taped interviews detailing Northern Ireland’s militant past?

The purity of historical record, as well as fundamental First Amendment issues like freedom of the press, and more specifically source confidentiality, are now under attack by none other than US prosecutor Carmen Ortiz – the same district attorney criticized for what many people called overzealous prosecution that likely led to activist Aaron Swartz committing suicide – and the DOJ, at the behest of Northern Ireland’s police forces. These parties apparently see fit to enflame a tenuous peace in Northern Ireland by tearing open historical wounds through their desire to prosecute former Irish Republican and Loyalist paramilitaries for unsolved crimes.

Beginning three years after the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, heralded by some as the beginning of a new – and peaceful – chapter between the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, journalists Ed Moloney and Anthony McIntyre began tape recording interviews with members of Irish paramilitaries and their Loyalist foes. Their objective was to contribute a better academic understanding of what motivated otherwise ordinary individuals to join the armed conflict, as well as document the turbulent and important history known as The Troubles. They concluded their interviews in 2006 and the Belfast Project is stored today in Boston College’s Burns Library.

The lynchpin of the project was the confidentiality agreement McIntyre and Maloney forged with participants – from both sides of the conflict – some of whom divulged the names of militants. The stories were not to be released without their written consent or until their death.

Fast forward to 2011, when the Department of Justice, by way of a Clinton-era initiative called the US-UK Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT), attempted to force Boston College to release the tapes by recklessly (and improperly, as I’ll address below) subpoenaing these confidential interviews at the behest of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

Authorities claim that Belfast Project interviews will assist in investigating the re-opened case of Jean McConville, who was kidnapped and murdered by the Provisional IRA in 1972. Current Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, among others, have been implicated in the crime. Republican militants admitted their culpability some 20 years later.

Some, like Anthony McIntyre – a writer, historian and former IRA member who was jailed for 18 years in Northern Ireland’s infamous Long Kesh prison and was released in 1996, believe the motivation for the subpoena is more complicated – and sinister – than a mere desire to solve a horrible crime that happened in 1972 however.

“[The justice angle] does not have much traction, given that the PSNI was heavily involved in using law enforcement to break the law and immerse itself as a player in the conflict [during the Troubles],” he tells me through email.

“It is certainly not interested in solving homicides per se. It is interested in the selective solving of some homicides. Hence we have killings involving state agents not being pursued but others involving people opposed to the state pursued.”

The checkered history of Northern Ireland’s security forces supports McIntyre’s suspicion that the subpoena is politically motivated. The former incarnation of the PSNI, from 1922 until 2001, was the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). This law enforcement organization has a storied history of human rights transgressions, as detailed in a number of reports, including one issued in 1991 by Human Rights Watch, which cite a wide range of abuses against Irish nationalists and which also point out numerous instances of RUC collusion with Loyalist paramilitaries.

Most notably, two members of a special anti-terrorist unit within the RUC known as the Special Patrol Group were convicted in 1980 of giving aid to Loyalist forces in the form of transportation, kidnappings, shootings and bombing attacks.

Besides these two Special Patrol Group members, no RUC or PSNI officers have ever been charged with crimes.

But it is what McIntyre calls the “retire and rehire” phenomenon taking place within the RUC-turned-PSNI that gives him the greatest doubt that Good Friday Agreement reforms have changed the police force’s apparent anti-nationalist leanings. A watchdog audit of the PSNI in 2011 found that almost 20% of the over 5,000 RUC officers laid off under reforms were rehired. The report describes the organization’s apparent reversion to its RUC roots as “out of control,” according to the Guardian, which ran the story in October 2011. The push to enter more Irish Catholics into the police force, a key reform from Good Friday, is clearly being rolled back.

And the Boston College subpoena, in light of all this, may very well be a political fishing expedition designed, at least in part, on hunting down old enemies of the British state.

Two plausible scenarios could emerge if the DOJ and PSNI are successful in accessing the Belfast Project interviews: Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams will face prosecution for his alleged involvement in Jean McConville’s murder. Irish nationalist rage would likely spill out into the streets of Belfast.

Conversely, the PSNI may do nothing with the archive. If that happens, McIntyre tells me, “the British government decides it is too politically sensitive – not least for what may be revealed about their own knowledge and activities – to bring forward any criminal prosecution. Loyalist reaction to this will be, predictably, outrage. They will hardly accept, especially given the lengths that the British are going to obtain this material, that it was worthless.”

Clearly, either outcome could set off the tinderbox – and the two journalists who created the project have, since 2011, been consumed with preventing the potential unraveling of Northern Ireland’s peace process.

They’ve also rushed to protect what they correctly perceive as an erosion of journalistic freedoms enshrined by the First Amendment here in the U.S. More on this latter point shortly.

Anthony McIntyre and Ed Maloney began their protracted legal battle with prosecutor Ortiz after Boston College refused to appeal a lower court’s decision that the DOJ’s grab at the archives was legitimate. The two men found support from the ACLU of Massachusetts, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and the Irish American Coalition, all of which added amicus briefs to the case. After two years of overturned appeals, McIntyre and Maloney finally kicked the case up to the Supreme Court – only to have the High Court refuse to hear it last week.

With that final blow, every legal avenue is now exhausted.

This leaves only a political redress through a newly-minted Secretary of State John Kerry who, before taking the post this year, served on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In a January 2012 letter to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Kerry expressed concern “about the impact that [the subpoena] may have on the continued success of the Northern Ireland peace process.”

Senator Kerry added: “It is possible that some former parties to the conflict may perceive the effort by the U.K. authorities to obtain this information as contravening the spirit of the Good Friday Accords.”

As noted earlier, the DOJ’s actions most certainly violate the spirit, if not the letter, of the U.S. – U.K. Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty. In a report submitted by Senator Richard Luger in September 2006, Luger states:

“The Senate’s understanding [is] that the purpose of the Treaty is to strengthen law enforcement cooperation between the United States and the United Kingdom by modernizing the extradition process for all serious offenses and that it is not intended to reopen issues addressed in the Belfast Agreement or to impede any further efforts to resolve the conflict in Northern Ireland.”

Kerry and Luger were not alone in their concern.

New York Senator Charles Schumer expressed consternation that the DOJ’s subpoena not only threatened to destroy a fragile peace across the Atlantic, but that it targeted freedom of the press. In a letter sent to both Secretary of State Clinton and Attorney General Eric Holder, Schumer stated:

“There are significant issues of journalistic confidentiality and academic freedom that are called into question as a result of this legal maneuver that make it dubious…I have always been a champion of protecting sensitive source material that is gathered by researchers – journalists and academics alike—and I am concerned that this action presents an infringement on that underpinning of the First Amendment.”

One need only look at the DOJ’s dogged pursuit of activists, such as the late Aaron Swartz, to see how far the Justice Department will go to score wins in court. It is not a stretch to believe they could use subpoenas to violate journalist-source confidentiality in future cases.

With over 100 similar bilateral assistance treaties between the U.S. and other countries in existence today, the threat this subpoena poses may have far-reaching – and unimaginable – consequences for international political movements, freedom of dissent and our own First Amendment.

by Blogbot

This Thursday April 25th on SuicideGirls Radio we’ll be discussing the myriad of problems associated with the antiquated and arcane Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and the dire consequences online activists are facing because of it. Hosts Nicole Powers and Moxi Suicide will be joined in studio by filmmakers Brian Knappenberger (@KnappB) and George Russell (@HollywoodDIT), who are making two very different documentaries that explore the plights of hacktivists ensnared by the CFAA’s very arbitrary web.

Brian’s film, The Internet’s Own Boy, will focus on Aaron Swartz, who committed suicide in January of this year after being relentlessly pursued by prosecutors. George’s film, The Hedgehog & The Hare, is centered around the case of Andrew Auernheimer (a.k.a. Weev), who was recently jailed for three and a half years for little more than embarrassing the fuck out of AT&T.

We’ll also be joined via Skype by Andrew’s attorney, Tor Ekeland (@TorEkelandPC), who is also currently defending former Reuters social media editor Matthew Keys against charges related to hacking. Additionally, infamous and hilarious Twitter personality and friend of Andrew’s Jaime Cochran (@asshurtACKFlags) and human rights activist Sara Jafary (@shokufeyesib), who is helping with jail support for Andrew, will be Skyping in to the show.

You can listen – and watch – the world’s leading naked radio show live on Thursday nights from 6 til 8 PM at our new state-of-the-art all digital home: TradioV.com/LA.

You’ll also be able to listen to our podcasts via Stitcher – download the app now!

If you have questions for the SG Radio crew or our guests, you can call in during the live broadcast at: 1-855-TRV-inLA (1-855-878-4652)

For updates on all things SG Radio-related, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

_About Aaron Swartz Documentary – The Internet’s Own Boy

The new film by Brian Knappenberger, director of We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists, follows internet activist and programming pioneer Aaron Swartz from his teenage emergence on the internet scene and involvement in RSS and Reddit, to his increased interest in political advocacy and the controversial actions he allegedly took in downloading nearly four million academic articles from the online service JSTOR. The film explores Aaron’s arrest, the prosecution’s tactics in bringing the case to trial through the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and the impact a seemingly small hacking gesture had on Aaron’s life and the future of information access on the internet.

Help make this documentary happen by donating to the Kickstarter for The Internet’s Own Boy.

_About The Hedgehog & The Hare – Andrew Auernheimer & the CFAA

After the tragedy of Aaron Swartz and his prosecution under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act gained international attention, filmmakers Krystof Andres and George Russell began to hear about Andrew Auernheimer. Andrew’s CFAA case seemed even worse than Aaron’s from a legal perspective because Andrew had never actually hacked anything: he simply gave publicly available email addresses on an AT&T webpage to a journalist, with the aim of revealing the cavalier attitude which corporations can often take toward protecting customer’s private information. No reasonable person would say Andrew had committed a crime, let alone one that merited three and a half years in federal prison (he was sentenced in March). The Hedgehog & The Hare will tell Andrew’s story and ask the question: why would most of the media and our government get it so wrong?

Help make this documentary happen by donating to the Kickstarter for The Hedgehog & The Hare.

_About Tor Ekeland

Tor handles business transactions and litigates civil and criminal matters in Federal and New York State courts. His clients include small business owners and creatives who need solutions tailored to their unique circumstances. After starting Tor Ekeland, P.C. in December 2011 he immediately began defending alleged AT&T iPad email hacker Andrew Auernheimer (aka “Weev”) in his federal criminal prosecution for violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. He is currently on the legal team defending former Reuters Social Media editor Matthew Keys.

For more information on Tor and his work visit torekeland.com/.

_About Sara Jafary

Born in the United States and raised in Iran, Sara Jafary returned to America at the age of 16 to go to college. She has always been concerned with social and economical issues. During the aftermath of Iran’s fraudulent election, she participated and helped organize over 50 high profile protests highlighting the plight of the Iranian people. During this time, she witnessed how internet freedom played an integral role in the spread of information and aided in protecting the lives of those who were reporting the atrocities of the Iranian government. Because of this, she started to gather knowledge on how to circumvent surveillance and became proficient in anonymity. During the Occupy Wall Street uprising, she branched out into activism for social justice for all, not just Iran. She considers internet freedom to be the saving grace our generation and something we need to protect at all costs. The speed at which, it provides and spreads knowledge and truth, has turned lying into a very difficult task. Laws such as CFAA, have only been implemented when spreading the truth has been destructive to a powerful entity. Its inherit vagueness allows for a very broad interpretation, which subsequently leads to disproportionate punishments that do not fit the “crime” or non-crime in Andrew Auernheimer’s case. “Andrew sacrificed his freedom to appeal and abolish this law,” says Sara, “the least we can do is to ensure that we are helping him accomplish this task.”

For more on Sara, follow her on Twitter.

**UPDATE**

ICYMI You can view last night’s show – which features a surprise appearance from the legendary Danny Dantalion – at tradiov.com or via the player below.

Video streaming by Ustream

We’re pleased to announce that activist comedian and SG contributor Lee Camp, who made his name bringing laughter to OWS encampments across the nation (and for calling Fox News a “parade of propaganda” and a “festival of ignorance”), has been appointed to the Green Shadow Cabinet.

Here’s an excerpt from an official Green Shadow Cabinet statement which explains how this alternative opposition American government will work:

Dr. Jill Stein and Cheri Honkala, the 2012 Green Party presidential and vice-presidential nominees, marked the beginning of Earth Week by announcing a new Green Shadow Cabinet that will serve as an independent voice in U.S. politics, putting the needs of people and protection of the planet ahead of profits for big corporations. The Cabinet will operate in the tradition of shadow cabinets in other countries, such as the United Kingdom and France, responding to actions of the government in office, and demonstrating that another government is possible. The Green Shadow Cabinet, includes nearly 100 prominent scientists, community and labor leaders, physicians, cultural workers, veterans, and more, and will provide an ongoing opposition and alternative voice to the dysfunctional government in Washington D.C..

And here’s a few words from the Green Shadow Cabinet’s new Secretary of Comedy & Arts…

The Ridiculous Reality of Government Has Surpassed Humor and Satire

by Lee Camp

I’m honored to have been chosen as the Secretary of Comedy and Arts for the Green Shadow Cabinet. However, I must say that I feel I have the hardest job in the entire governmental body — far more difficult than, say, the President or that other guy who makes the President’s decisions. Why do I believe I have the hardest job? Because we live in a country where reality has lapped satire and surpassed humor altogether.

We live in a country where Congress is unwilling or unable to pass any sort of meaningful Wall Street reform immediately following the largest financial crime and collapse, mankind has ever seen. We have a government that passes the STOCK Act to stop government officials from trading on insider knowledge, but then just last week they pass a new bill UNANIMOUSLY that guts the prior one. We have a government that prosecutes whistleblowers far more strenuously than they go after the fraudsters, banksters, and murderers exposed by those whistleblowers. How am I supposed to create comedy when reality is as ridiculous as anything can be?! Only fiction like Catch-22 and 1984 can EVEN BEGIN to describe the reality in which we live.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership is set to be the largest trade deal in history, likely giving international corporations the right to bring legal action against the United States for enforcing our own environmental laws. So we’re passing a trade deal to give other countries the right to tell us what to do on our own land?! How does a comedian go about exaggerating that? We live in a hyperbole! We exist in an inflated dark metaphor that cannot be topped!

On the warfront, the Pentagon, to their credit, realized we were killing too many civilians in Afghanistan. So they came up with a bold new solution. They changed the definition of the word “civilian” to exclude anybody of military age. The military now has the power to change the definition of words?! Up is down. Right is wrong. Inside is out. And it’s my job to mock it?! I can’t mock it — I’m too dizzy!

My point is simply that I’m honored to hold this position at which I can’t possibly succeed. In a world where the reality is comedy, I guess I’m just the anchorman.

Lee Camp is the Secretary of Comedy and Arts for the Green Shadow Cabinet. He is a comedian whose website is www.LeeCamp.net, has web video show YouTube. He has appeared in numerous forums, notably Showtime’s “Green Room with Paul Provenza” and “Countdown w/ Keith Olbermann

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