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Fire Walk With Me

(38,893 posts)
Sun Mar 3, 2013, 12:21 AM Mar 2013

The New Political Prisoners: Leakers, Hackers and Activists

#OpEmpowerHumans ‏@OpEmpowerHumans

Rolling Stone :: The New Political Prisoners: Leakers, Hackers and Activists @ladydragon13 @kevskewl http://fb.me/2407c7DrG

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/lists/the-new-political-prisoners-leakers-hackers-and-activists-20130301

On February 28th, Army private first class Bradley Manning pleaded not guilty to the charge of aiding the enemy for leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents to Wikileaks in 2010. After more than 1,000 days in prison, Manning may be America's most famous political prisoner – but he's far from the only one. From environmentalists to hackers to whistleblowers, the U.S. government has made a policy of charging and convicting a wide range of activists across the country. To the FBI, an information transparency activist like the late Aaron Swartz is apparently more dangerous than the men who ruined the nation's economy, and an environmentally-minded economics student poses a greater threat than the oil companies polluting America's natural resources. The government insists that such harsh penalties are necessary to protect national security – but as hacker Jeremy Hammond said in a recent letter from prison, this misleading rhetoric ultimately "enables the politically motivated prosecution of anyone who voices dissent."

(Profiles at the link.)

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The New Political Prisoners: Leakers, Hackers and Activists (Original Post) Fire Walk With Me Mar 2013 OP
And it continues unabated -- indeed, accelerates -- in the midst of, ahem, "change" villager Mar 2013 #1
today's criminals against humanity do not want to be held accountable, oddly enough nt msongs Mar 2013 #2
Not sure if I heard of Tim DeChristopher before, Joe Shlabotnik Mar 2013 #3
Using that Google/DU-specific search box up there will turn up numerous threads starroute Mar 2013 #4
Wow! It's tough to keep up. Thanks for that link! nt bananas Mar 2013 #6
K & R ! nt 99th_Monkey Mar 2013 #5

Joe Shlabotnik

(5,604 posts)
3. Not sure if I heard of Tim DeChristopher before,
Sun Mar 3, 2013, 12:54 AM
Mar 2013

but I gotta admit, his story made me chuckle. File buying 22,000 acres as a tactic in the "it seemed like a good idea at the time" file.

starroute

(12,977 posts)
4. Using that Google/DU-specific search box up there will turn up numerous threads
Sun Mar 3, 2013, 01:33 AM
Mar 2013

This one was about a particularly outrageous incident, when an unidentified congressperson had him thrown into solitary for no particular reason:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/101484588

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