NEWSFREEDOM OF SPEECH

Thomas Jefferson once stated, “If there’s something wrong, those who have the ability to take action have the responsibility to take action.” Unfortunately, most of us are not fully acquainted with our abilities and this state of amnesia forces us into the realms of fearfulness, complacency, unwillingness, and utter hopelessness. We are blind to our true, awesome potential because there is this constant sense of seclusion and divide instilled in us by our environment. And it’s true. When we’re alone, it’s naturally difficult … but when united, we can move mountains and earlier this month, we did!

Background:

Tomorrow, December 1st, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be the first American Secretary of State to visit the Southeast Asian nation of Burma in 50 years. Her visit is a way for the United States to assess the sincerity of the Burmese military regime’s commitment to human rights and democracy -- including democratic elections and the release of Nobel Peace Laureate and pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi.

However, human rights activists want to be sure that Secretary Clinton will properly take advantage of this incredible opportunity and address the human rights violations that Burma is so widely known for.  Specifically, a Buddhist monk and Burmese political refugee named U Pyinya Zawta launched a campaign on Change.org calling on Secretary Clinton to push publicly for the unconditional release of all of Burma's political prisoners, including the venerable U Gambira, insist on an end to hostilities in Burma, and insist on changes to the 2008 flawed constitution.

High Representative and European Commission Vice President Catherine Ashton formally responds to Saudi women’s Change.org campaigns asking her to support for Saudi women’s right to drive; calls on Saudi Arabia to implement UN anti-discrimination convention.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has called on Saudi Arabia to implement an international women’s rights convention in a letter to Saudi women fighting for the right to drive.

The letter, signed July 6 and received by Saudi Women for Driving on Wednesday, directly calls on Saudi Arabia to implement the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, a rare statement of criticism for such a senior diplomat.

Internationally renowned Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei was released from a Beijing prison late Wednesday night.

The news comes after more than 140,000 people in 175 countries joined an unprecedented Change.org campaign by leading global art institutions - including the Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, London’s Tate Modern and the Association of Art Museum Directors - calling for the artist’s immediate release.

“This campaign has been quite a ride: in less than three months leading global art institutions and artists from all over the world came together to recruit more than 140,000 supporters in 175 countries,” said Ben Rattray, the founder of Change.org. “Their remarkable success led foreign hackers to launch a highly sophisticated cyber-attack on Change.org designed to prevent people around the world from simply voicing their opinion. But despite the challenges, Change.org is about empowering anyone, anywhere to call for action on the issues that matter to them, and it has been an honor to provide a platform for this inspiring campaign.”

In my many recent Daily Kos diaries on the retaliatory prosecution of NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake, many have suggested that Drake

"will have his day in court, and he should let the jury decide at trial if he committed a crime."

These often flippant remarks fail to recognize the years of investigation that precede a criminal indictment, during which the whistleblower must pay attorneys to defend himself. Those costs were so exorbitant for Drake that he is currently being represented by the public defender's office because he qualifies as indigent.

This is not a plea for a legal defense fund. Drake doesn't have one.  All he needs is your support.  Please support him by signing this petition demanding accountability for the Justice Department's malicious and selective prosecution of whistleblower Drake.

Jesselyn Radack is a  former Department of Justice whistleblower. She is currently the homeland security director of the Government Accountability Project, the nation’s leading whistleblower organization.

Former National Security Agency (NSA) senior official Thomas Drake is a whistleblower.   Through legal and proper channels Drake disclosed massive corruption, gross waste and mismanagement to tune of billions of taxpayer dollars, and, worse, widespread illegal domestic surveillance at the NSA.

When president Obama first took office, he applauded whistleblowers as "often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government.”  He said that "such acts of courage and patriotism . . . should be encouraged rather than stifled."

Given these remarks, Thomas Drake is exactly the type of whistleblower that the Obama administration should protect. However, under President Obama’s leadership, the Justice Department has labeled Drake an enemy of the state, and charged him with violating the Espionage Act -- an archaic law intended to prosecute spies, not whistleblowers. Drake’s prosecution is selective and retaliatory.

When Harvard University student Tara Suri heard about the wrongful detention of Mahmoud Jabari, a young Palestinian journalist, 5,500 miles and 7 time zones away, she sprang into action. After gathering more than 1,700 petition signatures here on Change.org and involving allies like the International Press Institute, Mahmoud was freed.

Tara explained to me how it happened:

“I am a part of a global network of about sixty "Global Teen Leaders" through the We Are Family Foundation's Three Dot Dash Program, which is how I met Mahmoud back in 2008; we really consider each other family. One of the Global Teen Leaders had found out from a family member that Mahmoud had been detained and notified the group last Sunday. As soon as I found out, I knew we would all have to mobilize to make things happen, which is why we turned to rallying support through the petition, among other efforts. The week was an emotional rollercoaster in terms of the various pieces of information we received about his detainment.”

There's this thing called the Internet.

It's a global system of interconnected computers of critical importance to infrastructure, trade and the exchange of information. As it grows, governments are increasingly trying to get a handle on it.

Some autocratic regimes try to censor the kind of information passed through the online tubes to their citizens. But in more democratic countries, governments see it as their role try try protect the open, unabated flow of free information... Right?

Wrong.

Three years ago a Thai activist named Daranee Charnchoengsilpakul did something which would change her life forever: she made a speech. Three speeches, in fact.

On January 18, June 7 and June 13, 2008, Daranee stood up at rallies run by the Redshirts United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) and spoke out against government repression.

Daranee, known as "Da Torpedo" for her hard-hitting speeches at political protests, was arrested and tried behind closed doors for insulting the monarchy. Da Torpedo was sentenced to 18 years in prison on August 28, 2009.

We have good news: an appeals court has overturned Da Torpedo's sentencing, and forwarded her case to Thailand's Constitutional Court to rule on whether the prosecution's request to try Da Torpedo behind closed doors was constitutional.