Stand Up For Truth
London – Oslo – Stockholm – Berlin speaking tour
June 1-7, 2015
Thomas Drake * Daniel Ellsberg * Jesselyn Radack * Coleen Rowley * Norman Solomon
Thomas Drake is a former senior executive at the National Security Agency where he blew the whistle on massive multi-billion dollar fraud, waste and the widespread violations of the rights of citizens through secret mass surveillance programs after 9/11. As retaliation and reprisal, the Obama administration indicted Drake in 2010 as the first whistleblower since Daniel Ellsberg charged with espionage, and Drake faced 35 years in prison, turning him into an Enemy of the State for his oath to defend the Constitution. In 2011, the government’s case against him collapsed and he went free in a plea deal. He is the recipient of the 2011 Ridenhour Truth Telling Prize, and a joint recipient with Jesselyn Radack of the 2011 Sam Adams Associates Integrity in Intelligence Award and the 2012 Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award. He is now dedicated to the defense of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Daniel Ellsberg is a former U.S. military analyst who served in Vietnam, worked at the RAND Corporation, and then risked decades in prison to release the top-secret Pentagon Papers to The New York Times and other newspapers in 1971 — thereby adding impetus to the movement to end the Vietnam War. Although Ellsberg faced espionage and other felony charges, the case against him was dismissed because of egregious misconduct by the Nixon administration. Ellsberg has been a strong supporter of modern-day NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and convicted Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning. In 2006, Ellsberg received the Right Livelihood Award (the “alternative Nobel Prize”). In 2012 he became a co-founder of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, and in 2014 he became the founding member of the ExposeFacts advisory board.
Jesselyn Radack is the director of National Security & Human Rights at the Government Accountability Project (GAP), the leading U.S. whistleblower organization. Her program focuses specifically on secrecy, surveillance, torture and discrimination. She has been at the forefront of defending against the government’s unprecedented “war on whistleblowers,” which has also implicated journalists. Among her clients, she represents seven national security and intelligence community employees who have been investigated, charged or prosecuted under the Espionage Act for allegedly mishandling classified information, including Edward Snowden, Thomas Drake, and John Kiriakou. She also represents clients bringing whistleblower retaliation complaints in federal court and various administrative bodies. Previously, she served on the DC Bar Legal Ethics Committee and worked at the Justice Department for seven years, first as a trial attorney and later as a legal ethics advisor. Radack is author of TRAITOR: The Whistleblower & the “American Taliban”. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Guardian, The Nation, Salon, and numerous academic law reviews. Radack received the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence Award in 2011. She was named one of Foreign Policy magazine’s “Leading Global Thinkers of 2013,” and is a 2014 Woodrow Wilson Fellow.
Coleen Rowley, an attorney and former FBI special agent and division counsel whose May 2002 memo to the FBI Director exposed some of the agency’s pre-9/11 failures, was one of three whistleblowers named as Time magazine’s “Persons of the Year” in 2002. In February 2003, Rowley again wrote to the FBI Director questioning him and other Bush administration officials about the reliability of supposed evidence being used to justify the impending U.S invasion of Iraq. Under sharp criticism for her comments, Rowley stepped down from her legal position to go back to being an FBI Special Agent. She retired from the FBI in 2004 after 24 years with the agency.
Norman Solomon is the executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy and the coordinator of ExposeFacts. He is the author of a dozen books on media and public policy, including War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death. A former associate of the Center for Investigative Reporting, he is a longtime associate of the media watchdog group Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR). Solomon wrote the syndicated weekly “Media Beat” column for 17 years. His op-ed articles about news media and politics have appeared in most of the major newspapers in the United States. He is co-founder and coordinator of RootsAction.org, an online action group with more than half a million active supporters.
http://standupfortruth.org/english
Stand Up For Truth
An International Week to Support Whistleblowing
June 1-7, 2015
Democracy needs truth-telling.
People in many countries will create Stand Up For Truth activities during the week of June 1-7, 2015 -- to move toward a culture of openness and truth as well as security for those who take the risk of disclosing information that authorities want to keep hidden.
Democracy is based on informed consent of the governed. This is not possible when crucial (and sometimes illegal) government policies remain hidden from the public. Whistleblowing is essential for bringing such policies into the light: exposing key information related to human rights violations, corporate malfeasance, the environment, civil liberties and war.
We must stand up for a free press, individual privacy, governmental and corporate transparency, due process and rule of law as we seek to reveal official information that the public has a right to know. Persecution of whistleblowers and journalists is illegitimate and should be opposed as such.
While undemocratic authority thrives on secrecy, we should bring whistleblowing to the forefront of public consciousness -- in a process that widely encourages the release of documentation of governmental and corporate actions that cannot withstand the light of day.
Please initiate Stand Up For Truth activities where you live. StandUpForTruth.org
Initiating Organizations: ExposeFacts; Freedom of the Press Foundation; International Modern Media Institute; Networkers SouthNorth; RootsAction.org
Initiating Supporter: Daniel Ellsberg
http://standupfortruth.org/norwegian
Stå opp for sannheten
[Norwegian]
Stå opp for sannheten
Internasjonal uke for å styrke varslere 1-7 juni 2015
Demokratiet trenger folk som tør å si sannheten
I uken 1-7 juni 2015 vil deltakere fra mange land aksjonere under mottoet ”Stå opp for sannheten.” Vi arbeider for å styrke åpenhet og sannhet i samfunnslivet, og å sikre trygghet for mennesker som velger å stå frem offentlig med viktige informasjon som myndigheter og maktinstitusjoner ønsker å holde skjult.
All demokrati er avhengig av støtte i en godt informert befolkning. Dette er ikke mulig når vesentlige (og noen ganger ulovlige) politiske avgjørelser holdes skjult for offentligheten. Varslere (whistleblowers) er avgjørende hvis man ønsker å avsløre dette. Varslere setter lys på menneskerettsbrudd, bedrifters overgrep, miljø, sivile rettigheter og krig.
Vi vil stå opp for en fri presse, individets frihet, åpenhet i politikk og næringsliv, rettssikkerhet, likhet for loven, og åpenhet om informasjoner som offentligheten burde ha tilgang til. Forfølgelse av varslere og journalister er ulovlig og totalt uakseptabelt.
Mens udemokratiske myndigheter trives i skyggen av hemmelighold, vil vi bringe varslere og deres betydning for demokratiet ut og fram i lyset. I aksjonsuken vil vi gjennom forskjellige aksjoner oppmuntre folk til å snakke om og dokumentere saker der myndigheter og selskaper gjør ting som ikke tåler dagens lys.
Ta initiativ til ”Stå opp for sannheten” der du bor! Mer info på StandUpForTruth.org.
Initiativet er tatt av: ExposeFacts; Freedom of the Press Foundation; International Modern Media Institute; Networkers SouthNorth; RootsAction.org
og støttes av: Daniel Ellsberg + en rekke andre som vi ønsker å mobilisere fram mot aksjonsuka
http://standupfortruth.org/swedish
Slå vakt om öppenheten
[Swedish]
Slå vakt om öppenheten
En internationell vecka för "whistleblowing" 1-7 juni 2015
Utan öppenhet, ingen demokrati
I första veckan av juni kommer vi i många land att arrangera "Slå vakt om öppenheten", för att utveckla en kultur av öppenhet såväl som säkerhet för dem som tar en risk att avslöja det, som myndigheter vill hålla dolt. Demokrati vilar på informerat samtycke, men detta är inte möjligt när avgörande politiska beslut (ibland olagliga sådana) hålls dolda för befolkningen. Läckor är avgörande för att avslöja. Vi måste avslöja vital information relaterat till brott mot mänskliga rättigheter, maktmissbruk, miljösynder, medborgerliga fri- och rättigheter och krig. Vi måste stå upp för en fri press, individens integritet, rättsstat och rättssäkerhet. Vi måste avslöja maktens dolda spel och avslöja öppen information som befolkningen har rätt till. Att förfölja journalister och whistleblowers är olagligt och måste bekämpas. Medan odemokratiska auktoriteter frodas i den hemliga världen, för vi fram läckan (the whistleblower) till det främsta ledet av det folkliga medvetandet för att uppmuntra till ett avslöjande av maktens dokument som inte tål dagens ljus.
Initiera "Slå vakt om öppenheten" aktiviteter där du bor. Se www.standupfortruth.org
Initiativtagare: ExposeFacts; Freedom of the Press Foundation; International Modern Media Institute; Networkers SouthNorth; RootsAction.org
Stödmedlem: Daniel Ellsberg
http://standupfortruth.org/german
Aufstehen für die Wahrheit
[German]
Aufstehen für die Wahrheit (Stand Up for Truth)
Internationale Woche zur Unterstützung des "Whistleblowing" (An International Week to Support Whistleblowing)
1-7 Juni 2015
Demokratie braucht Wahrheit zu sagen.
In zahlreichen Ländern werden während der Woche vom 1. bis 07. Juni, 2015 - Aktionen rund um das Thema "Aufstehen für die Wahrheit" organisieren, mit Richtung zu einer Kultur der Offenheit, Wahrheit sowie Sicherheit Sicherheit für diejenigen, die das Risiko der Offenlegung von Informationen auf sich nehmen, die Behörden und Regierung unter Verschluss halten wollen.
Demokratie basiert auf informierter Zustimmung durch diejenigen, die regiert werden. Dies ist nicht möglich, wenn entscheidende (und manchmal auch illegale) Teile der Regierungspolitik vor der Öffentlichkeit verborgen bleiben. Whistleblowing ist von wesentlicher Bedeutung dafür, eine derartige Politik ans Licht zu bringen: das Aufdecken von Schlüsselinformationen, Menschenrechtsverletzungen, strafbaren Handlungen von Unternehmen in Bezug auf Umwelt, die bürgerlichen Freiheiten und Krieg.
Wir müssen uns einsetzen und aufstehen für eine freie Presse, die Privatsphäre des Einzelnen, Regierungs- und Unternehmenstransparenz, faire Verfahren und Rechtsstaatlichkeit, wenn wir uns darum bemühen amtlichen Informationen zu veröffentlichen auf deren Kenntnis die Öffentlichkeit ein Anrecht hat. Die Verfolgung von Informanten und Journalisten ist Unrecht und muß als solches bekämpft werden.
Während eine undemokratische Regierungsform auf dem Boden der Geheimhaltung gedeiht, sollten wir das Whistleblowing in den Vordergrund des öffentlichen Bewusstseins bringen - als Teil eines Prozesses, der in großem Umfang die Herausgabe von Unterlagen über staatliche und wirtschaftliche Handlungen ermutigt, die einer Betrachtung bei Licht nicht standhalten.
Machen Sie mit und organisieren Sie "Stand Up For Truth" Aktionen in Ihrer Region.
StandUpForTruth.org
Initiatoren: ExposeFacts; Freedom of the Press Foundation; International Modern Media Institute; Networkers SouthNorth; RootsAction.org
Ins Leben gerufen von: Daniel Ellsberg, US Ökonom und Whistleblower schon während des Vietnamkrieges ("Pentagon Papiere"). Er ist einer der schärfsten KRitiker des PRISM Programms, zusammen mit Edward Snowden Vorsitzender der "Freedom of the Press Foundation" und bezeichnete die derzeitige US-Informations und Geheimdienstpolitik als "United Stasi of America".
Other languages:
http://standupfortruth.org/languages