Saturday 27th of April 2024
Home » Blogs » Gus Leonisky's blog

the US war on truth…...

A C.I.A. whistleblower languishes awaiting trial in a federal prison under inhumane conditions and almost nobody is paying attention. 

Joshua Schulte is a former C.I.A. hacker, one of those computer geniuses whose job it is to work his way into the computer systems of our country’s enemies in support of some of the most highly-classified operations the C.I.A. carries out. 

The government believes that Schulte was a malcontent who released to WikiLeaks in 2017 the equivalent of 2 billion pages of top secret C.I.A. data with code names like Brutal Kangaroo, AngerQuake and McNugget. 

These programs, collectively known as Vault 7, were custom-made techniques used to compromise Wifi networks, hack into Skype, defeat anti-virus software and even hack into smart TVs and the guidance systems in cars.  They were the C.I.A.’s modern-day crown jewels.  One senior C.I.A. officer likened the revelations to “a modern-day Pearl Harbor.”

 

By John Kiriakou / Consortium News

 

The C.I.A. accused Schulte of stealing the data in 2016 and of sending it to WikiLeaks in 2017.  He was eventually charged with 13 felonies, mostly related to the Espionage Act.  He was later charged with a number of additional felonies related to child pornography, accusations that he has adamantly denied. 

Schulte went to trial in New York in early 2020 with the Justice Department accusing him of “the single biggest leak of classified national defense information in the history of the C.I.A.” 

After four weeks of testimony and six days of jury deliberation, he was found guilty of contempt of court and making a false statement, both minor charges for which federal sentencing guidelines call for imprisonment of zero-to-six months.  The jury deadlocked on all other counts, and the judge declared a mistrial.  Schulte remains in prison awaiting retrial.  He has been incarcerated since October 2018.

 

Treated Differently 

Schulte is not treated like other prisoners in the facility where he is being held, New York City’s Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC).  When he goes to court, for example, he is required to wear shackles around his ankles and chains around his waist to which his handcuffed hands are attached. His hands are then enclosed in a steel box that is itself locked separately. 

In the Justice Department’s classified conference room, where he is required to meet his attorneys, he is chained to an eye bolt in the floor, just as the C.I.A. restrains Al-Qaeda prisoners during their interrogations.  He is not permitted to use the restroom during these visits.  His guards give him a plastic bag at the start of the meetings, and if he has to go to the bathroom, he must urinate and defecate in the bag.

Schulte’s day-to-day existence is far more difficult.  First, he has been subject to “Special Administrative Measures” (SAMs) since his arrest.  He is in solitary confinement in a cage in a small concrete box the size of a standard parking space 24 hours a day.  He is allowed two showers a week and is not permitted to use the phone or email.  He is not permitted to watch television or to listen to the radio.  He is not permitted to have visitors other than his attorneys.  He is not permitted to make purchases from the commissary.

 

How to Complain

There is a mechanism within the federal Bureau of Prisons by which to complain about these conditions.  A prisoner must first fill out a form BP-8 ½, which goes to the person you are accusing of violating your rights, saying, “Hey, you violated my rights.”  The response, of course, will be “No I didn’t.” 

You then have 14 days to file a Form BP-9, which goes to the warden.  The warden, not surprisingly, almost always supports his staff member.  You then have 60 days to file a Form BP-10, which goes to the Bureau of Prisons regional office.  Once the prisoner loses there, which is almost guaranteed, he can file a Form BP-11, which goes to the Bureau of Prisons headquarters in Washington.  No prisoner ever wins at BOP headquarters.

There are also ways in which the prisoner is routinely stymied in an attempt to file a complaint.  The filing of every form is time-sensitive, so the warden and others will withhold their responses, backdate them and then send the responses at a point when the prisoner only has a day or two to respond.  Since it’s not possible to get it done in time, it’s dismissed as “not responsive in a timely fashion.” 

The prisoner has no recourse because the federal courts have ruled that a prisoner must exhaust the “administrative complaint process” before going to the courts.  But if the complaint is dismissed by the BOP as “not responsive” because of time, he’s out of luck.

Schulte isn’t complaining just about the heavy-handed circumstances of his incarceration.  He’s complaining about what his attorneys argue amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, perhaps torture.  They noted in a recent lawsuit against the Bureau of Prisons that Schulte is:

“locked in a cage in a concrete box the size of a parking space with purposefully obstructed views of outside, the cages are filthy and infested with rodents, rodent droppings, cockroaches and mold; there is no heating or air conditioning in the cages, there is no functioning plumbing, the lights burn brightly 24 hours per day, and the inmates are denied normal visitation, access to books and legal material, medical care, and dental care.  All attorney-client privilege is also void as the prison confiscates, opens, and reads all legal mail.  The process imposed is arbitrary and not tailored to any legitimate government interest.” 

The attorneys add that,

“No matter what crime an individual is alleged to have committed, the United States Constitution grants all a presumption of innocence.  Indeed, no American wants to be treated like a caged animal if accused of a crime — dependent, deserted, dehumanized, demoralized, and detained.”

That is exactly what Joshua Schulte is.  He’s dependent, deserted, dehumanized, demoralized, and detained.  He hasn’t seen an open window in more than two years.  He hasn’t seen a doctor for his congenital heart defect in that period, either.  He hasn’t seen a dentist.  Denying him bail because of a fear that he might reveal classified information is one thing.  Torture is another. 

How does it protect the national security to not allow him to see the sky for years at a time?  How does it protect the national security to not allow him to see a doctor or dentist?  How does forbidding him to read protect the national security?  It doesn’t.  It just proves that the United States has no respect for human rights or for the rule of law.  As the meme goes, “Prove me wrong.”

 

 

 

READ MORE:

https://scheerpost.com/2022/06/15/john-kiriakou-a-whistleblowers-agony/

 

 

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW..................

the sad case of chelsea…...

Famed intelligence leaker Chelsea Manning, formerly known as Bradley before he identified as female, scolded billionaire Elon Musk for his alleged transphobia while trashing her former friend and ally Glenn Greenwald for cozying up to right-wing pundits.

“Netflix waiting for the war to end to make a movie about a black Ukraine guy [who] falls in love with a transgender soldier,” Musk tweeted at the time.

Manning neither confirmed nor denied being in a relationship with Grimes but said Musk “seemed transphobic.”

‘The one thing I will say is: he around that time definitely seemed transphobic, and rumor or speculation aside, that’s off-limits. I’m going to respond to it. Any transphobia in a transphobic environment is not OK,” said Manning.

Manning also set his sights on his former friend Glenn Greenwald, who he publicly disavowed last year, charging that the floods in New York prompted him to take a stand against former allies.

“Glenn Greenwald, I don’t have $10,000 right now but if I get it I want to send it back to you from a donation you once did. I can’t deal with this anymore. I’m terrified of you and everything you do. you’re greedy, unprincipled, and I’m embarrassed for ever considering you a friend,” Manning tweeted at the time.

“To those he has hurt, I’m sorry I didn’t say anything. I was scared and that’s my fault,” Manning concluded.

Greenwald responded to Chelsea’s tweet by lamenting how indicative it is of leftist hatred toward anyone that disagrees with them. He tweeted:

Friendships that depend on political agreement were never ‘friendships,’ just cynical transactions. When she was in prison trying repeatedly to kill herself, I was one of the only one who visited, spent hours on the phone, raising money for her. No good deed goes unpunished.

Anyway, sometimes people are nice to you as long as you’re of use to them and provide them things they want, then turn on you when you can’t or won’t any longer. As long as you know you gave and defended them with the right motives — as I did — your conscience should clean.

Manning also disavowed Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in that same year, saying that he would have leaked the 750,000 classified and unclassified documents to journalist Ken Klippenstein.

Speaking with the Daily Beast, Manning added that Greenwald has aligned with “dangerous” people.

 

READ MORE:

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/06/13/chelsea-manning-scolds-transphobic-elon-musk-trashes-glenn-greenwald/

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

Glenn Greenwald has not aligned with "dangerous people".... What Glenn has been doing is expose the super-hypocrisy of the Democrats who are as bad now or even worse than the Republicans under Trump... The Democrats and the Republicans are slaves to the warmongering DEEP STATE, and Americans are swindled at every presidential elections... It does not matter who is sitting in the chair of the White House Office... The show is run from below...

The English blew up the Capitol before the 6th of January 2021....

 

 

 

 

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW..............................

the dark soul of the bitch....

It's official. Priti Patel is sending Julian Assange to the gulag of the US Empire. We suspect as she's been threatening for yonks that she's doing this as a warning to journalists who would try to expose the crookery of crooked decrepit corrupt Empires. But she should fear not. The disgraceful profession of journalism in the Western world is 99 per cent made of Empire arse-licking writers — as we are witnessing now with the unconditional support for a false narrative about Ukraine. So the Patel warning is for the few rogue pen-pushers who seek the truth... Few of them left in the English-spewing world. 

 

But what is infuriating is that the damage to the truth is done by a... woman... Yes hypocrisy isn't the exclusive domain of men, but we expect better from these bitches... I was going to write on behalf of god (or the devil) expressing my wishes that the brain of this soul-less bitch slowly disintegrate through her intestine and painfully exits through her cancerous arsehole, but I won't say this and I won't debase myself to a notch above her level. 

 

It is now up to the new Australian government to demand that Assange be brought to Australia first, possibly to face the music about not having paid a parking fine in 1983... It's up to Ms Wong and whoever is now the new Australian AG to tell the US/UK Empire to shove its hydra heads into its shameful black hole... Time for Prince Charles to disown the shameful crown and go Patel hunting figuratively.

 

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW !!!!!

not hard to believe…..

 

Home Secretary Priti Patel approved Julian Assange's extradition to the US earlier in the day, upholding a court's April ruling. The WikiLeaks founder is facing 175 years in prison in the US for having helped leak documents exposing US war crimes and other misconduct.

Former US National Security Agency contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden has criticised the UK's decision to uphold a court ruling to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the US.

On his Twitter feed, the whistleblower called the decision an "appalling symbol" of the degradation of the UK and US governments' commitments to upholding human rights.

He pointed out that the move to extradite Assange to the US, where faces up to 175 years in prison over his activities as a journalist, was protested by every serious press freedoms group.

Hard to believe, but it looks real. Every serious press freedom group in the world has protested this. It is an appalling symbol of how far the British and American governments' commitment to human rights has declined.

 

How can we condemn authoritarian abuses abroad like this? https://t.co/sgvLRgZtEg

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) June 17, 2022

Snowden went on to lambast the hypocrisy of the two countries, questioning how they can condemn abuses against the press in authoritarian countries when they persecute investigative journalist at home.

The whistleblower also dismissed those who tried to downplay his statements by appealing to his decision to hide from US persecution in Russia. He argued that it didn't make his statements any less valid, especially considering the fact that Washington admitted to committing the crimes that he exposed.

"The American whistleblower is tweeting this FROM RUSSIA!" is not the dunk you imagine.

 

Britain is casting an Australian publisher into the oubliette for publishing what even the US admits was true information, and it makes you feel superior? You're hissing into a mirror. https://t.co/4EsVPRm3SA

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) June 17, 2022

The former NSA contractor, who himself unveiled a widely-cast net of cyber espionage organised by the US, was not alone in condemning Patel's decision to uphold the court ruling.

Labour MP Richard Burgon also slammed the move as "disgraceful" and a "blow to press freedom". A lawmaker from Assange's homeland Australia, Andrew Wilkie, further described Patel's decision as an "outrageous betrayal of rule of law, media freedom and human rights".

The decision by the UK Govt to approve extradition of Julian Assange to the US is an outrageous betrayal of rule of law, media freedom and human rights. @AlboMP must pick up the phone now and demand an end to this madness https://t.co/W0fi2lw38p. #FreeAssangeNOW #auspol #politas

— Andrew Wilkie MP (@WilkieMP) June 17, 2022

Assange lost his last appeal against the court's decision on extradition in April 2022, but his team says that it will continue appealing to both the US and UK authorities to free him or avert the move. The US' unrelenting attempts to prosecute him over dumping the Afghan and Iraq wars' logs and Department of State cables have sparked condemnation from journalists and human rights organisations across the globe.

 

READ MORE:

https://sputniknews.com/20220617/hard-to-believe-snowden-slams-degradation-of-human-rights-in-uks-decision-to-extradite-assange-1096414615.html

 

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

 

 

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW...........