Andy Stepanian

Yesterday I joined Icelandic Parliamentarian Birgitta Jonsdottir...

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 12:44:30 -0400

Yesterday I joined Icelandic Parliamentarian Birgitta Jonsdottir & Marc Lamont Hill on Huffpost Live for a discussion of the “I Stand With Edward Snowden” efforts. I was enthused to find out last night that #IStandWithEdwardSnowden was the top trending tag on twitter (in the USA) yesterday afternoon.

You can share the segment HERE

You can learn more about the #IStandWithEdwardSnowden efforts HERE

New Yorkers Declare “I Stand With Edward Snowden”: Hundreds...

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 06:34:00 -0400

New Yorkers Declare “I Stand With Edward Snowden”: Hundreds Rally For NSA Whistleblower at NYC’s Union Square (Today 6/10/2013 at 12pm EST)

[NEW YORK, NY] At 12:00pm EST activists, journalists and concerned New Yorkers will assemble at New York’s Union Square for a rally in solidarity with National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower, Edward Snowden. Snowden, a contractor at Booz Allen Hamilton and the source behind The Guardian’s near-weeklong stretch of blockbuster scoops highlighting PRISM and similar pervasive surveillance programs under the authority of the NSA, has become a household name overnight. Similarly, this revelation has created a groundswell of concern for Snowden’s welfare, who is currently seeking refuge in Hong Kong and may in the near future require political asylum from a criminal investigation opened yesterday, 6/9/2013, by the US Department of Justice (DOJ). The call to “Stand With Edward Snowden”, which was issued online shortly after journalists Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald published Snowden’s video testimonial, is the first of what is expected to be many events spanning multiple cities, in support of the NSA whistleblower.

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Insh’Allah

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 02:25:05 -0400

Insh’Allah

Loud Words call for Even Louder Actions: Activists Gathering for...

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 10:01:00 -0400

Loud Words call for Even Louder Actions: Activists Gathering for Left Forum will March on Metropolitan Correctional Center in Solidarity w/ Jeremy Hammond

[New York, NY] As Friday night’s plenary at the Left Forum at NYC’s Pace University comes to a close activists will gather outside at 9:15pm for a march to the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) to protest the unjust and politically motivated detentions of activists Jeremy Hammond & Gerald Koch, and to create a boisterous show solidarity for all political prisoners housed at the MCC.

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sapphrikah: a-tropical-elf: I was googling the original name...

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 01:58:06 -0400

sapphrikah:

a-tropical-elf:

I was googling the original name of the African continent #1984 #assatashakur

Guys, the NYC Department of Education blocks students from learning about Assata Shakur.

experimentonyourself: <3

Sat, 01 Jun 2013 03:10:26 -0400

experimentonyourself:

<3

PLEASE REBLOG & SIGN THE PETITION BELOW I cried while...

Wed, 29 May 2013 18:08:05 -0400

PLEASE REBLOG & SIGN THE PETITION BELOW

I cried while editing this video in support of jailed activist Jeremy Hammond. Please consider sharing it with your followers, as well as signing the petition to Judge Preska asking for a lenient sentence for Jeremy’s selfless acts.

You can sign the petition at Change.org HERE

I am also attaching Jeremy Hammond’s public statement on why he plead guilty yesterday…

May 28, 2013

Today I pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. This was a very difficult decision. I hope this statement will explain my reasoning. I believe in the power of the truth. In keeping with that, I do not want to hide what I did or to shy away from my actions. This non-cooperating plea agreement frees me to tell the world what I did and why, without exposing any tactics or information to the government and without jeopardizing the lives and well-being of other activists on and offline.

During the past 15 months I have been relatively quiet about the specifics of my case as I worked with my lawyers to review the discovery and figure out the best legal strategy. There were numerous problems with the government’s case, including the credibility of FBI informant Hector Monsegur. However, because prosecutors stacked the charges with inflated damages figures, I was looking at a sentencing guideline range of over 30 years if I lost at trial. I have wonderful lawyers and an amazing community of people on the outside who support me. None of that changes the fact that I was likely to lose at trial. But, even if I was found not guilty at trial, the government claimed that there were eight other outstanding indictments against me from jurisdictions scattered throughout the country. If I had won this trial I would likely have been shipped across the country to face new but similar charges in a different district. The process might have repeated indefinitely. Ultimately I decided that the most practical route was to accept this plea with a maximum of a ten year sentence and immunity from prosecution in every federal court.

Now that I have pleaded guilty it is a relief to be able to say that I did work with Anonymous to hack Stratfor, among other websites. Those others included military and police equipment suppliers, private intelligence and information security firms, and law enforcement agencies. I did this because I believe people have a right to know what governments and corporations are doing behind closed doors. I did what I believe is right.

I have already spent 15 months in prison. For several weeks of that time I have been held in solitary confinement. I have been denied visits and phone calls with my family and friends. This plea agreement spares me, my family, and my community a repeat of this grinding process.

I would like to thank all of my friends and supporters for their amazing and ongoing gestures of solidarity. Today I am glad to shoulder the responsibility for my actions and to move one step closer to daylight.

Jeremy Hammond

Photo

Tue, 28 May 2013 19:08:59 -0400

Jeremy Hammond's Statement Regarding His Guilty Plea to the Hack of Stratfor

Tue, 28 May 2013 13:25:00 -0400

Jeremy Hammond's Statement Regarding His Guilty Plea to the Hack of Stratfor:

In federal court this morning, Internet activist Jeremy Hammond pleaded guilty to publicizing internal emails from the private intelligence firm Stratfor through Wikileaks.

Finishing edits on #FreeJeremy video and crying like a child.

Mon, 27 May 2013 15:23:29 -0400

Finishing edits on #FreeJeremy video and crying like a child.

Will the Military Exploit Transphobia in Trial of Pfc. Manning? (Annotated Transcript of "We Steal Secrets" by Alex Gibney)

Sat, 25 May 2013 22:03:00 -0400

Will the Military Exploit Transphobia in Trial of Pfc. Manning? (Annotated Transcript of "We Steal Secrets" by Alex Gibney):

On June 3rd, will the military and aligned media (like the “We Steal Secrets” producers) will exploit transphobia to… 1.) further marginalize Bradley Manning 2.) Attempt to depoliticize his actions as little more than a tantrum by a “confused” soldier who wanted to lash out against the hazing he was receiving?

At the link above is a drop on the “We Steal Secrets” transcript (with notes from allies in green) some of it is real eye opening. Attached below is an excerpt that falls in line with the point I was trying to make above.

Jihrleah Showman:
There was never even a possibility that anyone could assume that he had a female personality.

Alex Gibney:
You mean that he wanted to become a woman?

Jihrleah Showman:
Well, we knew that he was at least considering hormone therapy, but no one cared. It wasn’t like ok, he’s going to have to start showering with the females. Literally, nobody cared.

Jason Edwards:
He would call me and cry – very loud, sobbing like a child – just in a state of utter loss, and he kept saying: “I won’t make it, I can’t make it, I can’t do this.” I constantly asked him – do you have someone, do you have anyone to talk to that’s there, that you can see on a daily basis? And he assured me that he did not.

Narration by Alex Gibney:
Manning did reach out for help at least once in an email to his master sargeant. Manning attached to the email a picture of himself dressed as a woman. Several weeks later around dinner time, Manning was discovered lying on the ground. With a knife, he had scrawled on a chair the words “I want”. Later that same evening, Manning tried to go back to work.

Jihrleah Showman:
I was off shift and I had to come in to find something that he should have been able to find, and he was pacing back and forth saying smart comments to me, and I blatantly said: “Manning, how about you fix your shit before you try to fix mine?” And he screamed and punched me in the face, while I was sitting down. My adrenalin immediately hit overload. I stood up, pushed my chair back. He continued to try to fight me but I put him in, you know, what UFC would call ‘guillotine’ and, you know, pulled him on the floor and laid on top of him and pinned his arms, you know, beside his head. At that time, I can’t believe that he’d mess with me. I literally had 15-inch biceps. I was the last person he probably should have punched.

My superiors decided that it was just escalating too much and that he had to be removed and have his weapon taken away from him. At that point he never came back in the office. He had to go work with the first sargeant in the mailroom.
Note: The chronology is manipulated to frame Manning. Here Gibney tries to diminish Manning’s alleged ethical motivations and frame him as acting out of petty personal revenge. However prosecution documents state just the opposite—Manning’s alleged submissions to WikiLeaks are alleged by the prosecution to have already occurred by the time of the incident described.

Narration by Alex Gibney:
In the mailroom, Manning still had an internet connection to military networks. His gun had been taken away but he still had access to millions of classified documents.

It’s brilliant how Medea Benjamin of Code Pink’s...

Sat, 25 May 2013 21:11:54 -0400

It’s brilliant how Medea Benjamin of Code Pink’s speak-out for the Guantanamo Bay hunger strikers is in the official white house transcripts.

"We swear by the Almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you until you leave us alone. We must..."

Thu, 23 May 2013 12:37:00 -0400

“We swear by the Almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you until you leave us alone. We must fight them as they fight us, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth… I apologize that women had to witness this today, but in our land our women have to see the same. You people will never be safe. Remove your government. They don’t care about you. Do you think David Cameron’s going to get caught in the street when we start busting our guns? Do you think the politicians are going to die? No, it’s going to be the average guy, like you.”

- Woolwich Murderer

Will we look back at this horrific incident as the canary in the coal mine? …A sign that western foreign policy is so toxic that horror like yesterday’s attack becomes a normalized reflex?

“Make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do...

Thu, 23 May 2013 04:00:26 -0400

“Make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt. So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservation, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun. If you want to get more out of life, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy. But once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty.”

and it goes on-and-on…

Fri, 17 May 2013 21:39:03 -0400

and it goes on-and-on…

SHOW SOLIDARITY, PLEASE REBLOG! Sentencing of UK Lulzsec...

Thu, 16 May 2013 15:22:00 -0400

SHOW SOLIDARITY, PLEASE REBLOG!

Sentencing of UK Lulzsec Hacktivists Highlights Disparity in Sentence Guidelines as US Activist Jeremy Hammond Still Faces 42 Years in Federal Prison

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[New York, NY & London, UK] Three English co-defendants who plead guilty to being members of the Lulzsec hacktivist group were today sentenced by a UK court. Ryan Acroyd, the most technically experienced of the three, received the longest sentence - he will spend 15 months in prison.

By contrast, their American co-defendant Jeremy Hammond has already spent 14 months awaiting trial in a federal case that carries charges that could result in up to 42 years of prison time – a virtual life sentence for the 28 year old. Hammond has been denied bail or
access to family members.

“It’s a disturbing commentary on the U.S. criminal justice system that Jeremy Hammond, a young activist who is an asset to his community, will spend longer in pre-trial detention for his alleged participation in these online protests than any of his international codefendants will when they have fully served their sentences,” said National Lawyers Guild Executive Director Heidi Boghosian.

The three online activists, Ryan Ackroyd and Jake Davis will be imprisoned for 15 months, and one year, respectively – al-Bassam will not see jail time, but will have to complete 300 hours of community service.

The U.K.’s sentencing structure allows people convicted of crimes to serve out the second half of their sentences on “licence,” the equivalent of the United States’ parole, meaning that Ackroyd’s and Davis’ 30 month and two year sentences will result in the prison times mentioned above. The three have been free on bail since their arrests in March 2012. Two Irish Internet activists accused of participating in LulzSec have gone free without charge in Ireland, which does not have an extradition treaty with the U.S.

The acts the English activists plead guilty to—gaining access to and disseminating information from corporate and government websites—mirror the charges facing Hammond. Hammond is accused of publicizing internal emails of the private spying agency Stratfor through the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks. The emails contained many revelations, including Stratfor’s spying on Bhopal activists at the behest of Dow Chemical and monitoring Occupy Wall Street for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

United States attorneys charged Hammond with five felony counts, including three under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). Each of the CFAA counts carries a ten-year maximum prison sentence. Written in 1984 and long criticized for being outdated and vague, the CFAA has seen increasing use against information activists in an effort to criminalize everything from the sharing of links to violating terms of service agreements. The most highly publicized CFAA case involved 26 year-old information activist Aaron Swartz, who was threatened with decades in prison for downloading freely available documents from the academic database JSTOR. Swartz took his own life earlier this year.

“Jeremy is a gifted person who cares deeply about the world,” said Hammond’s twin brother, Jason Hammond. “My family is shocked at the treatment he has received by the Department of Justice. Jeremy is accused of committing a non-violent crime yet we are forbidden from seeing him or speaking to him on the phone, he has been denied bail and he’s facing what amounts to a life sentence.”

For more information on Jeremy Hammond please visit http://FreeJeremy.net. Press requests should be directed to Abi Hassen of the Jeremy Hammond Support Committee at Press@FreeJeremy.net.

Back when book jackets meant something.

Thu, 16 May 2013 11:43:45 -0400

Back when book jackets meant something.

They used white crayons to draw it, and afterwards they placed...

Wed, 15 May 2013 01:57:58 -0400

They used white crayons to draw it, and afterwards they placed ink.

“You can’t evict an idea whose time has come”...

Fri, 10 May 2013 01:19:27 -0400

“You can’t evict an idea whose time has come” — guerrilla projection on the side of Cooper Union as #FreeCooper students continue their sit-in at president’s office.

Some OG shit.

Thu, 09 May 2013 23:54:51 -0400

Some OG shit.