WikiLeaks has survived 7 years! Happy Birthday and Many Happy Releases!!

Friday 4th October 2013 – WikiLeaks is 7!

And with vicious, skewed and vindictive ‘justice’ and abuse of power every which way we look, we need them more than ever…

For example on this same day…

HERMAN WALLACE R.I.P.

WikiLeaks turned 7 on the day that Herman Wallace of the Angola 3, terminally ill, confined to bed and unable even to speak, died of the liver cancer which the Louisiana authorities fought to the last to avoid a compassionate release for, having been released from prison after almost 42 years of solitary (yes, 42 YEARS solitary) two days earlier by a federal judge because of an unconstitutional conviction (already twice previously overturned); a decision the State nevertheless tried to appeal again, but were refused leave to. Even so, it was only by dying, that Herman escaped an immediate and unbelievable re-indictment by the DA, Sam D’Aquila, who said, according to Think Progress:

“We [re] indicted [Wallace] yesterday and filed it,”

“We were gonna to have a warrant issued to get him picked up but somebody told me he went ahead and died.”

More comment here on ACLU blog, and full report here on Democracy Now!

NSA AND TOR

And on WikiLeaks 7th birthday, another 7 in our sights, courtesy of whistleblower Edward Snowden, is the 7 years the NSA/GCHQ spies have been attempting to crack the whip on Tor, the crucial privacy software, in order to undermine the anonymity it facilitates. A 7 year old 49 page leaked document revealed on this day (4th October) details the NSA campaign against Tor encrypted network, but also shows that this campaign has so far, despite some results, been largely unsuccessful.

EXTRADITION ANNIVERSARY OF TALHA AHSAN & BABAR AHMAD

A letter from Hamja Ahsan, (Talha Ahsan’s brother and WikiLeaks & Manning supporter), and Liberty’s Shami Chakrabarti, published in the Guardian on this day (4th Ocober), talks of the urgent need (familiar topic to WikiLeaks supporters for obvious reasons) for a

serious overhaul of our rotten extradition system

Which brings us straight back to solitary confinement again, as Talha Ahsan and Babar Ahmad are both in pretrial solitary confinement in the notorious supermax prisons in America.

And, as the valiant all night vigilers at the Ecuadorian Embassy see the 4th Oct through to the 5th Oct, we remember that 5th October 2013 (and that’s a vigil too) is the one year anniversary of the disgusting extraditions from the UK to the US of these two British citizens (with others) who are accused of offences alleged to have taken place in the UK (not the USA, which neither of them have even visited) and yet who both were denied the right to contest charges they deny in British courts, even after being held in British prisons without trial for respectively eight and six years.

Both these cases also feature in a 4th Oct blog post at News Junkie Post by John Goss on incarceration and political prisoners – worth reading.

FRIDAY 4TH OCTOBER 2013 – 7 YEARS OF WIKILEAKS CELEBRATORY VIGIL

In a time, therefore, when it feels like we’re up against a breakdown of the rule of law at the highest level, who can doubt that the mission of WikiLeaks – the goal is justice; the method is transparency – is something to defend and celebrate. Now, more than ever, as we are seeing just how much the internet, a gift to the resistance, also significantly aids the oppression, it is quite clear how pivotal to justice whistleblowers and those who publish them have become.

There’s a round up of ‘this year in WikiLeaks’ and some indication of all that’s been achieved through the year in this post, but here now are some pics from the WikiLeaks 7th Birthday all nighter outside the Ecuadorian Embassy! And there’s more here and also here on demotix, and here on flickr. And on WikiLeaks Supporters Forum here.

Here and here is some bambuser footage.

Happy Birthday, WikiLeaks! Many Happy Releases and LOVE & THANKS from us all