RT.COM DISPATCH

Assange writes open letter to Hollande, Paris rules out asylum

François Hollande: Another notorious non-left leftist.

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he French government is under the command of Washington, Alain Corvez, former adviser to French Interior Ministry, told RT following news that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange had been rapidly denied asylum by the Elysee Palace.

Julian Assange, the whistleblowing activist who has been living in the Ecuador Embassy in London for over three years, had written an open letter to France’s President Hollande, implying he would like to get political asylum in France. However, Paris quickly rejected the request.

RT spoke with Alain Corvez for his opinion on the decision and what it means for US-French relations.

RT: Julian Assange wrote a letter requesting asylum, which was published in Le Monde, but France’s rejection came very swiftly. Is there a reason for that?

RT: Would their response have been different had Assange chosen a different method of appealing to France?

AC: No, I think the answer would not have been different because it’s the will of the French government to refuse asylum to Julian Assange. I’m sure you know that our Minister of Justice some time ago was asked by journalists about this request by Assange. They asked her [Christiane Taubira] if Assange asked for asylum, what would you do? She said it was perfectly possible that we would answer positively to the request if this request was forthcoming. On a legal point, it was quite possible to accept this [request for] asylum. But I think the government was aware that this request could come and that’s why the answer was so quick – I think one hour after receiving the letter from Julian Assange.

RT: Do you think the revelations of NSA spying have damaged US-French relations?

AC: I think the NSA revelations had a big impact on French public opinion, but all the governments of the European Union – not the people, but the governments – are under the command of the United States. We understood the reaction of the French government would try its best to diminish the importance of these spying revelations. All the press in France was ordered not to emphasize the information that the Americans were spying on our three previous presidents. I think there is more and more a big gap between French opinion and the French government. But it’s the same in other European countries. I can tell you that… all the information that comes from different European countries is the same.

Look what is happening in Greece. The public opinion is manipulated by the media, by the press, because the press is in the hands of international finance.

Everything is done to avoid a quarrel, a fight, between the American government and the French government. It’s a shame for France to react as it did when we learned about this spying.

 

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT

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CREDIT: Reuters / Dado Ruvic

 A DISPATCH FROM RT.COM

[dropcap]Google’s [/dropcap]willingness to surrender the private emails of WikiLeaks staffers to the United States government amounts to an “attack on journalism,” a representative for the whistleblower group says.

Kristinn Hrafnsson, an Icelandic journalist who joined WikiLeaks as the group’s spokesman in 2010, said he’s “appalled” that Google gave up his personal correspondence and other sensitive details to the US government in compliance with a search warrant served to the tech giant, apparently in an effort to bring charges against the anti-secrecy organization and its editor, Julian Assange.

“I believe this is an attack on me. As a journalist for now almost 30 years, I think this is an attack on journalism,” Hrafnsson said Monday at a press conference in Geneva, Switzerland.

○ Left: Kristinn Hrafnsson, an Icelandic journalist who joined WikiLeaks as the group’s spokesman in 2010. | ○ Right: WikiLeaks’ Investigations editor Sarah Harrison.

Earlier that day, WikiLeaks announced that the Google accounts registered to three staffers – Hrafnsson, investigations editor Sarah Harrison and senior editor Joseph Farrell – had been the subject of federal search warrants served to the tech giant in March 2012.

READ MORE: WikiLeaks ‘astonished and disturbed’: Google gave its major staff data to US govt

According to Hrafnsson, the warrants compelled Google to give up the contents of the WikiLeaks staffers’ Gmail accounts, including deleted messages, draft emails, photo attachments and information about the IP addresses where those accounts had logged on from.

“I’m a little surprised to learn that Google keeps emails I have deleted,” Hrafnsson said. “That is what I read out of the documents.”

Michael Ratner, the US lawyer for WikiLeaks and Assange, said Monday that “essentially everything associated with the accounts of these three journalists” was seized by the government after Google was served in March 2012 and therefore ordered to give up all account data preceding that date by early April.

“The warrants acted like a huge vacuum cleaner,” he said. “It’s shocking that the US would do that to a journalist organization and to journalists working in that organization.”

WikiLeaks was not made aware of the search warrants until two-and-a-half years later on December 23, 2014, however, and, as of this week, the organization is publicly demanding answers from Google and the government.

Had Google been made aware of the warrants at the time, the group may have been able to fight back, according to Ratner.

“We don’t know if Google tried to litigate it or not, but that’s one of our requests,” Ratner said, adding that in a previous, similar situation, Twitter tried to fend off government requests for user data.

“Google claims there was a gag order in order to prohibit them from telling our clients,” Ratner added. “But the question is: did Google litigate that gag order so it could tell its subscribers, or did it simply let the government suck up all of its subscriber information? We need to know that.”

Hrafnsson and Harrison acknowledged Monday that they have not used their Google accounts for any internal matters concerning WikiLeaks since joining the group, but the spokesperson said his inbox contained upwards of 35,000 emails when it was seized, and Ratner believes the total trove also includes privileged attorney-client correspondence sent between journalists and their counsel.

According to Ratner, the warrants against Hrafnsson, Harrison and Farrell “were done on the basis that the US asserted that the emails and other material from these journalists contained evidence in violation of the Espionage Act, conspiracy to commit espionage, violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and other federal laws,” and comes in the midst of a federal investigation into the organization that was launched in 2010.

“In other words, somehow the US was putting together a conspiracy charge or espionage and perhaps more against WikiLeaks and the journalists associated,” Ratner said.

“This case shows the direction and the will and the breakdown of the legal process with the US government when it comes to WikiLeaks,” added Harrison, who made headlines in 2013 after she accompanied former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden from Hong Kong to Russia. Snowden, the 31-year-old former systems administrator now wanted in the US for espionage and theft, has since rallied for enhanced protections for journalists and sources.

“Laws are made to protect national security, not people working within national security agencies,” Hrafnsson said on Monday.

As tech firms are routinely caught cooperating with governments, though, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the communications of foreign journalists – be they in the national security realm or otherwise – are in danger of falling prey to federally-sanctioned eavesdropping.

“You cannot rely on any communications, either working with your sources of leaks or anybody, and assume it is secure unless it is heavily encrypted. Emails, chats, et cetera,” Hrafnsson said during Monday’s event in Geneva. “But this runs deeper than that. The implication is also that if you are working on a story that is deemed as unfavorable to the superpower on the other side of the Atlantic, you might be branded a terrorist. They might wave the Espionage Act of 1917…and other legal mechanisms to try to silence you. That is the real implication to all journalists.”

“This is yet another illustration of how far down the slippery slope our country has fallen,” said Ladar Levison, an online entrepreneur who shut down his email service, Lavabit, in 2013 after he was asked by the government to compromise the entire system for the sake of eavesdropping on a single customer who is largely presumed to be Snowden.

READ MORE: Spooked off the Net: Owner of Lavabit email blames US surveillance for closure

“It’s clear that surveillance capabilities intended for the pursuit of criminals have been used for a purely political purpose. How many times must evil be allowed to collaborate with time and corrupt a noble intent? If we allow these tools to exist, and be used in secret, then regardless of promises to the contrary, they will be used to further a malicious end,” Levison told RT’s Andrew Blake.

The latest revelations concerning the seized Google accounts also ring similar to an incident in which Herbert Snorrason and Smári McCarthy, two Icelanders both known publicly as one-time associates of WikiLeaks, learned only in June 2013 that their Google accounts had long been compromised by the US government pursuant to an investigation into the group. An American volunteer for WikiLeaks, Jacob Appelbaum, has previously seen his personal Twitter account, Google account and records from his Internet Service Provider seized by the US government, as well.

READ MORE: US government seizes Gmail of WikiLeaks volunteer

Chelsea Manning, the 27-year-old US Army private who provided WikiLeaks with classified military documents in 2009 and 2010, is currently serving a 35-year prison sentence for her role with the website. Chicago hacktivist Jeremy Hammond, 30, of Chicago, is serving a decade for his part in stealing private data from an intelligence firm that was later published by WikiLeaks. And last week, writer Barrett Brown, 33, was dealt a 5.5 year sentence, in part for aiding Hammond after the hack occurred.

On Monday, Ratner said a federal probe into WikiLeaks and Assange was still open, per a government admission, as of last May. Assange, 43, has resided within the Ecuadorian embassy in London for over two years awaiting safe passage to South America, where he has been granted asylum. The WikiLeaks editor has not been charged with a crime, but is wanted for questioning regarding allegations of sexual misconduct in Sweden.

“Google’s willingness to surrender the private emails of WikiLeaks staffers to the United States government amounts to an “attack on journalism,” a representative for the whistleblower group says.

Kristinn Hrafnsson, an Icelandic journalist who joined ‪#‎WikiLeaks‬ as the group’s spokesman in 2010, said he’s “appalled” that ‪#‎Google‬ gave up his personal correspondence and other sensitive details to the US government in compliance with a search warrant served to the tech giant, apparently in an effort to bring charges against the anti-secrecy organization and its editor, Julian Assange.

“I believe this is an attack on me. As a journalist for now almost 30 years, I think this is an attack on journalism,” Hrafnsson said Monday at a press conference in Geneva, Switzerland.

Earlier that day, WikiLeaks announced that the Google accounts registered to three staffers – Hrafnsson, investigations editor Sarah Harrison and senior editor Joseph Farrell – had been the subject of federal search warrants served to the tech giant in March 2012.

According to Hrafnsson, the warrants compelled Google to give up the contents of the WikiLeaks staffers’ Gmail accounts, including deleted messages, draft emails, photo attachments and information about the IP addresses where those accounts had logged on from.

“I’m a little surprised to learn that Google keeps emails I have deleted,” Hrafnsson said. “That is what I read out of the documents.”

WikiLeaks Tweet:

https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/559738167184871424

Michael Ratner, the US lawyer for WikiLeaks and Assange, said Monday that “essentially everything associated with the accounts of these three journalists” was seized by the government after Google was served in March 2012 and therefore ordered to give up all account data preceding that date by early April.

“The warrants acted like a huge vacuum cleaner,” he said. “It’s shocking that the US would do that to a journalist organization and to journalists working in that organization.”

WikiLeaks was not made aware of the search warrants until two-and-a-half years later on December 23, 2014, however, and, as of this week, the organization is publicly demanding answers from Google and the government.

Had Google been made aware of the warrants at the time, the group may have been able to fight back, according to Ratner.

“We don’t know if Google tried to litigate it or not, but that’s one of our requests,” Ratner said, adding that in a previous, similar situation, Twitter tried to fend off government requests for user data.

“Google claims there was a gag order in order to prohibit them from telling our clients,” Ratner added. “But the question is: did Google litigate that gag order so it could tell its subscribers, or did it simply let the government suck up all of its subscriber information? We need to know that.”

Hrafnsson and Harrison acknowledged Monday that they have not used their Google accounts for any internal matters concerning WikiLeaks since joining the group, but the spokesperson said his inbox contained upwards of 35,000 emails when it was seized, and Ratner believes the total trove also includes privileged attorney-client correspondence sent between journalists and their counsel.

WikiLeaks Tweet:

https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/559736756808196096

http://rt.com/usa/226415-wikileaks-geneva-levison-blake/

▬▬▬
COMMENTS (SAMPLE)

What is $1 a month to support one of the greatest publications on the Left?

Prince Charles doing Saudi ritual dance (Arda) during visit to the kingdom in Februay (2014). [Via Ancho/flickr.]

[dropcap]Critics [/dropcap]are taking Western leaders to task for singing the praises of King Abdullah, the recently deceased 90-year-old monarch of Saudi Arabia, whose regime they claim was marred by countless human rights abuses, warmongering and corruption.

US Secretary of State John Kerry described the late king as “a brave partner in fighting violent extremism who proved just as important as a proponent of peace.”

However, prior to a 2013 law which banned terrorist financing, Saudi Arabia had been described as “the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide,” according to US diplomatic cable leaked by WikiLeaks.

Former US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel called Abdullah “a powerful voice for tolerance, moderation, and peace,” and lauded his dedication to “advancing the lives of his people at home as well as his country’s leadership abroad.”

Another leaked cable revealed that the Saudi King had urged the US to strike Iran in order to destroy its nuclear program. Abdullah was recorded telling America to “cut off the head of the snake,” in a 2008 meeting with General David Petraeus.

The British establishment, meanwhile, remembers the King warmly, going so far as to request that flags around the country be flown at half-mast all day in honor of Abdullah. A government website notes that “local authorities are not bound by this request but may wish to follow it for guidance.”

Prince Charles has also flown to Saudi Arabia to pay his last respects to the late monarch. The Prince of Wales has made frequent visits to the oil-rich kingdom, even participating in a ritual sword dance alongside members of the royal family last year. He is believed to have been a close friend of Abdullah.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said, “I knew him well and admired him greatly. Despite the turmoil of events in the region around him, he remained a stable and sound ally, was a patient and skillful modernizer of his country leading it step by step into the future.”

Critics note that the monarch repeatedly moved to engineer further conflict in the Middle East. For instance, Abdullah had called on the US to provide more backing to the Sunni rebels fighting to overthrow the Assad regime in Syria.

In an Elysee Palace statement, France also lauded King Abdullah’s “vision of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.”

Despite limited efforts, characterized by Human Rights Watch (HRW) as “marginal advances that failed to secure the fundamental rights of Saudi citizens to free expression, association, and assembly,” Abdullah was unable to curtail his kingdom’s routine rights’ violations, including public floggings of dissidents and executions for sorcery.

And yet, US Vice President Joe Biden expressed admiration for Abdullah’s “efforts to move his country forward.”

Chancellor Angela Merkel, though more measured in her praise, also voiced appreciation for the absolute monarch’s “cautious modernization of his country.”

Abdullah was widely praised in the West for sponsoring an eponymous coeducational graduate-level university, a breach of the taboo in the only country in the world where women are forbidden from driving.

Standing up for basic human rights can be challenging, if not dangerous in the ultraconservative kingdom. King Abdullah’s four daughters, for example, have been kept locked up by their father for some 13 years for speaking out against the country’s oppression of women.

“What is the crime of 99 percent of women in this country, who are basically suffering under male guardianship? A male guardian can do whatever he wants; he can cut off everything and she is left with nothing,” they told RT in an interview last year.

Despite all this, head of the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde went so far as to praise Abdullah as a “strong advocate for women.”

“In a very discreet way, he was a strong advocate of women. It was very gradual, appropriately so probably for the country. I discussed that issue with him several times and he was a strong believer,”she said.

Last summer, HRW noted a surge in executions in the kingdom. Between August 4 and August 21, the country executed at least 19 people, eight for nonviolent offense, like drug smuggling and sorcery. Convicted criminals are usually beheaded, though those convicted of crimes of morality such as adultery can be stoned to death.

In recent weeks, thousands gathered at Saudi embassies around the globe to protest the ruling against Raif Badawi, a Saudi blogger who was sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in prison for setting up a website that undermined general security and mocked religious figures. The blogger had originally been charged with apostasy, or abandonment of religion, a crime that is punishable with the death penalty.

In spite of this seemingly appalling human rights record and sketchy foreign policy peppered with warmongering, Western leaders are putting up a united front of support for the late monarch.

Many have taken to Twitter to lambast the apparent hypocrisy of these venerating eulogies. Some have even coined the #JeSuisAbdullah hashtag, expressing wry scorn for what they believe to be a tyrant glowingly misremembered because of his country’s strategic importance to its Western allies.

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• william SMITH

  +1

  Just a bunch of shady characters praising one of their dodgy mates. Business as usual…

  about 5 hours agoReply

• peter R

  +3

  I find it rather comical that Abdulla is praised by such “noble” politicians and dignitaries, when, in fact, Abdulla was on par probably with Vlad the Impaler, aka Dracula.

  about 7 hours agoReply

• Brad Robert Daley

  +1

  Amazing how photos speak more truth than empty words.

  about 7 hours agoReply

• Skinny

  +3

  No worries, Now the dead King can start Rotting in H E L L. with the rest of the human right suppressors

  about 7 hours agoReply

• King X

  +5

  Never liked him. A man of immense wealth and power, but took no action to reform his country in the interests of human rights. No respect from me.

  about 8 hours agoReply

• John Connor

  +8

  western politicians are disgusting, they propably dream about the same kind of terrorist despotic regime in their own countries

  about 8 hours agoReply
• • All royal families stick together for protection.

    about 8 hours agoReply

• zorg blue

  +8

  The British installed him after WW2 as a safe bet ,just as they installed all the other banditoes and tin pot dictators in that region, and look what a great idea that was.

  about 9 hours agoReply

What is $1 a month to support one of the greatest publications on the Left?

OpEds

JOHN ROBLES, voiceofrussia.com

The government of the United States of America has crossed a red-line in the sentencing of US Army Private First Class Bradley Manning to 35 years in prison. The government has proven that it has ceased to be legitimate and does not uphold the rule of law. By failing to prosecute those guilty of the war crimes exposed by Mr. Manning the US Government continues to flaunt international laws and norms, as war crimes are a crime against humanity, and it continues to selectively and prejudicially prosecute those who expose egregious illegality while protecting criminals who have committed crimes against all of humanity.

The record has shown that the United States of America has become a rogue authoritarian police state. The global military expansion of NATO, massive economic and political manipulation, the control and manipulation of information (in particular through its operations on the World Wide Web), illegal wars of aggression, all of the illegal actions associated with its “War on Terror” and its wanton disregard for international law and democratically accepted norms point to a state corrupted by absolute power and attempting to annex the entire planet and force all countries to be pliant surrogates. This is also underlined by its war against whistleblowers and journalists.

Mr. Manning is just one individual, but his persecution and unjust torture and confinement, for revealing war crimes, is beyond the pale and must not be allowed to stand. His sentencing proves that the United States Government has become a government unto itself, which refuses to listen to the voice of its own people, and egregiously prosecutes the innocent while protecting the worst kind of criminal known to mankind, namely those who commit crimes during a time of war under the color of their respective flags.

This is a call to the international community, to legal scholars, policy makers, the heads of international bodies, the leaders of all countries the world over (even those who have forsaken their own sovereignty to sheepishly comply with all U.S. demands) and in particular to all countries which are members of the United Nations.
This global call is necessary because the U.S. Government refuses to abide by international laws, as well as its own constitution, and has failed to be an instrument of its own people. It has shown itself to be unable to monitor and control itself and is dangerously and alarmingly growing more and more out of control.

Declaration:
I would propose that the international community demand that the United States of America cease the following practices and form a truly independent body to ascertain that these practices are stopped or are in the process of being remedied and that those responsible are being brought to justice. Until such is thus I propose sanctions to be implemented which are listed later. The United States of America must immediately cease:

1. The illegal profiling, suppression, arrest, detention, repression and brutality against peaceful protestors and the stifling of dissent in all forms. This would include freeing all political prisoners and the payment of restitution.
2. All questionable police, military and security service actions under the color of the “War on Terror” against innocent civilians, journalists and anyone else the state deems to be a threat. As well, the payment of restitution to all parties who have been falsely imprisoned, detained or harassed under terrorism statutes. This would not apply to real terrorists of course.
3. The highly illegal practice of extra judicial execution by drone or in special operations or by any other means that they are being carried out regularly by order of the U.S. president and his agents.
4. The practice of using drones for illegal surveillance, military operations where there is not an equal theater of operations, and for carrying out extra-judicial executions. This would include paying reparations to all of those who have suffered or been adversely affected as a result of the wanton killing of innocents that the U.S. drone war has brought about.
5. The practice of aggressive war under any guise, be it preventive, humanitarian or otherwise. This would include an end to the ability to go to war unilaterally or with the agreement of “allies” and would only allow the United States to go to war in a situation where there is a full United Nations mandate. This includes “secretly” funding, supporting or training warring parties on either side of any international or internal conflict. These practices must be ceased immediately.
6. The internal and now international practice of racial or other profiling by police, military, special services and other government bodies and compensation to those who have been unjustly victimized by such.
7. The practices of racial and other discrimination in, housing, health care, education, politics, banking, freedom of movement and freedom of residence within the United States and its territories.
8. The abolition of corporate donations to political parties and widespread reforms to make elections transparent and democratic. This includes an abolition of the two-party system, fair and equal opportunities for third parties, an end to harassment and even illegal detention of third party candidates and equal access for third parties to election resources including media and government funds.
9. Collecting, storing and using information on the world’s citizens,
international bodies, sovereign countries and international organizations and entities through the internet and by other illegal and secret means.
10. The practice of state sponsored executions and the death penalty, in keeping in line with the highest international norms and standards.
11. Discrimination against and pay repatriations to native American Indians and the ancestors of slaves.
12. All operations at the illegal offshore extra-judicial Guantanamo Bay Cuba detention facility and the freeing and repatriation of all of those held there.
13. The practice of pre-arrest or preventive arrest and detention.
14. The practice of secret arrest and detention and the denial of Habeas Corpus rights to all persons regardless of who they may be.
15. State sponsored racism. This includes segregation, grants, education and all forms of exclusion where race plays a factor. These practices must no longer be decided or regulated by the white minority or the power elites.
16. All practices that unfairly limit or infringe on worker’s rights, pensions, health care, education, housing and all social spheres.
17. All wars and occupations on invaded lands. This includes paying reparations and rebuilding infrastructure in invaded countries. This would go back to the invasion of Yugoslavia.
18. Promoting and attempting to coerce states and peoples to accept and adopt what for them are foreign and unacceptable concepts, such as equating homosexual relations to marriage, and other religious, cultural or social concepts that are endemic to the United States.
19. All war profiteering in countries that have been invaded by the United States or its surrogates. This includes charging countries to rebuild infrastructure which has been destroyed by U.S. aggression. Thus the United States must rebuild what they have destroyed at their own cost. This would also prohibit private U.S. bodies from profiteering in such rebuilding.
20. All operations and actions to subvert and over-throw the government of Syria and to depose its elected head of state.
21. Funding and supporting terrorists and all such destabilizing operations including fomenting revolutions, funding insurgents and overthrowing governments.
22. All persecution of journalists, whistleblowers and truth seekers including Julian Assange, Bradley Manning, Jeremy Hammond, Edward Snowden hacktivists, and all individuals, organizations and countries that have in any way supported them. This includes their immediate release.
23. The practice of illegally kidnapping and renditioning to the United States the citizens of third countries. This would include the freeing of such victims as Victor Bout and Constantin Yaroshenko.
24. Meddling in the internal affairs of sovereign nations and attempting to pressure foreign governments and organizations through any and all means. This includes compensation to all who have suffered because of overzealous U.S. persecution of individuals such as Julian Assange and Edward Snowden.
25. Manipulating, stealing and otherwise unfairly obtaining the resources of sovereign nations, including “all” resources from human to energy.
26. Torture and illegal detention in any way shape or form and in any location in, or outside of U.S. territory, by the U.S. Government and/or its agents be they public, private or foreign.
27. Monopolizing and controlling all international and extra-U.S. segments of the World Wide Web and committing spying and espionage through public worldwide channels.
28. The global expansion of NATO and all unilateral military formations on a worldwide level.
29. Protecting those guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture, aggressive war, illegal detention and extra-judicial executions. This would include their immediate arrest.
30. All practices which lead to the continued imprisonment of native Americans and which contribute to genocide. This includes reparations to native Americans.
31. Obfuscating the events of 9-11. This includes a true and independent international investigation of the events of 9-11-2001.
32. Cease the detention of all persons being held under secret arrest and indefinitely since 9-11. Reports say almost 9,000 people are currently being held.
33. Using terrorism as a pretext to get away with everything under the sun.
34. An immediate closure of the U.S./NATO military base on the territory of Kosovo, Serbia.

I am not a legal scholar nor an official and the aforementioned and consequent suggestions are in no way connected to the Russian Government. They are my views and recommendations as a fair minded and concerned citizen of the world and a journalist who has been documenting and attempting to bring to light all of the aforementioned crimes for years now. You may take the above points as food for thought. They are chiefly directed at those able to affect policy or bring about change but if you agree with them I would ask you to spread this document around.

Sanctions:
Until the previous points are remedied or steps are taken by the U.S. to remedy them I propose the following sanctions:

The prohibition by all states to allow U.S. military bases to be based in, or military operations to be carried out of, their countries. This includes allied countries and surrogates including those who are NATO members or members of other military alliances.

A prohibition on all U.S. corporations, persons and entities both public and private from profiteering or taking advantage of resources, rebuilding operations or any other area in which they may obtain gains in any war zone, conflict zone or area that has been the subject to U.S. invasion or internal meddling. Including Iraq, Afghanistan, the former Yugoslavia, Libya, Syria, Iran and all other countries in which the U.S. has had a hand in destabilizing or in destroying the country or its government.

Economic, travel, trade, political, communications and military sanctions as determined by international bodies to be applied justly and fairly against those guilt of the aforementioned affronts to humanity.

Given all of the previous points and the current climate in the United States I would also call on all independent and just countries of the world to change their stance and policies on allowing U.S. citizens to obtain asylum and protection in their countries. Asylum should be granted to all of those seeking rule of law and who are exposing the illegality of the U.S. Government. It should also be granted to any member of the U.S. Government, military, or even special services who refuses to participate in illegality or attempts to expose it or stop it. Journalists, citizens, activists and all others who have suffered at the hands of the U.S. Government or due to the actions of its agents or surrogates should also be protected, including victims of racial, religious and other discrimination. Those whose conscience also leads the to cease to be willing to support the U.S. Government in any way shape or form should also be eligible for asylum if they wish to leave the United States.

The sentencing of Bradley Manning is a sign to all who would dare to expose illegality, it is designed to terrorize anyone who would speak out. I propose we make it a Red Line they have crossed, one which will force us (the world community) to end their illegality.

The views and opinions expressed here are my own. I can be reached robles@ruvr.ru
—John Robles

Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/2013_08_21/Manning-conviction-a-line-the-US-should-not-have-crossed-5820/