James Risen is not just a phenomenal reporter, he is also an extremely courageous and honorable American patriot. His case is a very disturbing one, and it has justifiably received a great deal of national attention. In a nutshell, the Obama Administration is threatening the pulitzer prize winning journalist with prison unless he reveals the source behind one of his stories. This is something no journalist worth his salt would ever do, but the fact our own government would resort to threats of incarceration in order to instill fear in the press to prevent it from doing its job is quite telling and extremely dangerous.
Mr. Risen understands this danger more than just about anyone else, which is why he has previously stated he is prepared to go to jail in order to defend the First Amendment from Obama, who he calls “the greatest enemy to press freedom in a generation.”
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I’ve covered Risen’s struggle in the past, so if you care to get caught up check out:
Battle Royale on Piers Morgan: Glenn Greenwald, James Risen and Jeffrey Toobin
Now the Guardian gets us up to speed on his latest thoughts:
The New York Times reporter James Risen, who faces jail over his refusal to reveal a source and testify against a former CIA agent accused of leaking secrets, has called President Barack Obama “the greatest enemy of press freedom in a generation”.
Speaking to his colleague Maureen Dowd, Risen accused the president of aggressively pursuing journalists, including himself, who report sensitive stories that reflect poorly on the US government.
Obama and Holder said journalists should not be arrested or harassed for doing their jobs and covering “a story that needs to be told”. In May, Holder said of the Sterling case: “No reporter who is doing his job is going to go to jail.” Risen, however, could be behind bars within weeks.
Dowd asked Risen how the Obama administration could use the Espionage Act to imprison reporters and whistleblowers while not acting on the acknowledged use of torture by the CIA on terrorism suspects and the same agency spying on the US Senate.
“It’s hypocritical,” Risen said. “A lot of people still think this is some kind of game or signal or spin. They don’t want to believe that Obama wants to crack down on the press and whistleblowers. But he does. He’s the greatest enemy to press freedom in a generation.”
Last week, groups campaigning for press freedom handed a petition with more than 100,000 signatures to the Justice Department, urging it to drop the case against Risen.
“It’s surreal to be caught up in a news story instead of writing about one,” he told Dowd.
America in 2014: Cops murder with impunity, banksters steal with impunity, reporters threatened with jail.
In Liberty,
Michael Krieger
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I am not surprised. We need legislation to stop over half a century of the abusive application of the state secrets privilege and related doctrine, act, executive order, regulation and related policy abuses. For starters we need Senator Pat Leahy’s USA FREEDOM Act passed.
No, we don’t need legislation.
You are born free, and you can’t help but be free, but if you buy into the need for ‘legislation’ then you are handing them your freedom out of pure ignorance; government doesn’t grant rights, it is their job to protect them from other citizens.
Learn better:
http://www.abelard.org/e-f-russell.php
If you buy into the “we don’t need legislation” then its the law of nature and a “dog eat dog world.” Not wonder the pedophile gang stalking branch of the tax payer funded intelligence gathering careerism types are never prosecuted.
Wrong.
Are you familiar with Gandhi?
All learning is in relationship. Boundaries are a relational journey and provide a paradox of universal limitlessness. Pay attention to where the profit of you actions go and discern where you want the profit to go. On some terms live like a poor person otherwise we become slaves to the profiteers.
So … no?
His story proves you were wrong.
The paradoxical intention is not my way, because I just find it may be traumatizing/retramatizing mixed in with dishonesty, however I see that at times it makes for an interesting story line or take off point. Similarly, some occults follow the inversion or contrarian principle. Here again this is not my way however at times it does make for an interesting process.
What are you talking about?
We need legislation to stop over half a century of the abusive application of the state secrets privilege and related doctrine, act, executive order, regulation and related policy abuses. For starters we need Senator Pat Leahy’s USA FREEDOM Act passed.
Repeating the conclusion, but without addressing the refutation which disproved your claim qualifies as *denial,* and indicates that you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Put another way; how will MORE legislation help when the problems are 1) crappy legislation already passed in a crisis atmosphere and 2) politicians ignoring the laws already on the books?
Answer: it won’t.
Find your raw energy and channel it into a socially acceptable mode. Find someone to process with or a method of processing. Of course, like everything else, this includes a sense of morality without being a righteous moralizer.
You didn’t answer the question, almost certainly because you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Rather than present impotent demands to cover for your useless ignorance, I recommend you mimic a genius and stfu when you have nothing.
These are to a large part not demands. They are knowings/common sense/tenants/truisms/canons. While they are individual pieces they are to be taken/utilized as part of wholeness. They are from experience.
Consider spirituality as not a life focused on personal pleasure. Possibly a specific tradition that includes joining others to work for the common good. Of course they say all is, “illusion and vanity.”
Useless platitudes and sentiments aren’t a form of knowledge.
Look it up.
Meanwhile, because you don’t know what you’re talking about, even your platitudes are useless.
Did I stutter?
You get to address the specifics, like the question you blew off, or you’re bullshitting and should therefore do yourself a favor and stfu. If you don’t like the evaluation based on your vapid bullshit, tough shit. You get to earn a better one by presenting something valid, or accept the one you did get.
Welcome to Western Civilization.
Sounds like “Mother EST” and the mighty Frontier.
Worthiness is a big issue both within the self and outside the self. I am worthy. You are worthy.
Wow, you presented another vapid platitude.
(Hint; “Worthy” begs the question, “of what”?)
We both are worthy of mental health.
There is some truth to the saying that mental health can be defined to a degree as being able to separate time, place and person.