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WikiLeaks trial to be closed for some testimony: US judge

Dan De Luce, Agence France-Presse — Tue, 21 May 2013 14:23:24 -0700

Pfc. Bradley E. Manning is escorted from a hearing, on February 28, 2013 in Fort Meade, Maryland. Some testimony in the espionage trial of a US soldier who passed secret files to WikiLeaks will be held behind closed doors to safeguard classified informati

Some testimony in the espionage trial of a US soldier who passed secret files to WikiLeaks will be held behind closed doors to safeguard classified information, a US judge ruled Tuesday.

Evidence from 24 witnesses, including some US ambassadors, will be given in closed session as requested by prosecutors in the court-martial of army private Bradley Manning, which is due to start June 3.

The decision by Colonel Denise Lind, the military judge presiding over the case, is sure to spark renewed criticism from civil liberties groups who say the Manning case has been shrouded in excessive secrecy.

And it also comes as President Barack Obama's administration has come under fire for its crackdown on whistleblowers and the press, including for seizing journalists' phone and email records as part of its probes into leaks.

Critics note that, since taking office, Obama has invoked the Espionage Act, passed in 1917 to punish those who aid US enemies, six times -- twice as many times as all previous presidents since the law was passed combined.

At the final pre-trial hearing before the trial begins next month, Lind said she weighed Manning's right to a public trial against government concerns that sensitive information could be inadvertently revealed.

She concluded the only way to protect information deemed vital to US national interests was to close the courtroom to the public while issuing a censored transcript of the proceedings at a later date.

The judge added that the criteria for closing the courtroom needed to be "narrowly tailored" and that she would closely monitor the issue.

Manning, 25, has admitted to passing on a trove of secret government documents and diplomatic cables to the WikiLeaks website and faces charges he aided Al-Qaeda through his document dump.

If convicted on all charges, Manning faces life in prison.

But on Tuesday, US prosecutors accepted the defendant's guilty plea to a lesser offense in one of 22 counts in the case.

The offense was related to a State Department cable from the US embassy in Reykjavik, Iceland, which Manning has admitted to leaking.

Prosecutor Major Ashden Fein did not explain why the government chose not to pursue the greater offense, which had alleged Manning violated federal computer fraud laws and abetted US adversaries.

The move scales back the potential maximum sentence Manning faces to 154 years from 162 years, officials said.

Manning is offering to plead guilty to 10 of the less serious charges against him, which could see him sentenced to 20 years.

US authorities have painted Manning's massive leak as endangering lives and undermining American diplomacy.

But Manning's defense lawyer has sought to portray his client as a truth-teller seeking to shed light on US policies and secret decision-making.

He also has suggested the leaks did not help US adversaries nor cause undue harm to American interests.

But the judge warned Tuesday that when lawyers discuss the leaked diplomatic cables she would not allow the court-martial proceedings to turn into a wide-ranging debate on US foreign policy.

She voiced concern the trial could "devolve into many trials regarding international politics in many regions of the world" and that argument on the contents of cables had to be "brief, limited and focused."

Part of the government's case against Manning asserts that Al-Qaeda's late former leader, Osama bin Laden, requested a deputy retrieve documents online that Manning had leaked to WikiLeaks.

A Navy SEAL who participated in the raid that killed Bin Laden at his Pakistani compound had been expected to testify in the trial.

But Tuesday's proceedings indicated that the commando's testimony may not be necessary and will be reflected in documents submitted by the prosecution, officials said.

Obama does not want journalists prosecuted: spokesman

, Agence France-Presse — Tue, 21 May 2013 12:45:03 -0700

US President Barack Obama speaks at the White House in Washington, DC, May 21, 2013. Obama does not want journalists prosecuted for doing their jobs, his spokesman said Tuesday, amid a furor over a Fox News reporter caught up in a Justice Department leak

President Barack Obama does not want journalists prosecuted for doing their jobs, his spokesman said Tuesday, amid a furor over a Fox News reporter caught up in a Justice Department leak probe.

The plight of reporter James Rosen had further riled Washington journalists already angered by the department's seizure of phone records of the Associated Press in a different investigation into national security leaks.

While declining to comment on specific cases, White House spokesman Jay Carney said that Obama was deeply committed to freedom of the press, enshrined in the First Amendment to the US constitution.

"The president believes this deeply -- that the press is allowed to pursue investigative journalism freely. He is a fierce defender of the First Amendment, of press freedom, and will continue to be.

"If you're asking me whether the president believes that journalists should be prosecuted for doing their jobs, the answer is no."

Carney, a former Time magazine reporter, was hammered over Rosen's case in his daily briefing on Monday, and said he had subsequently talked to his boss about the issue to further divine his thoughts.

The Washington Post reported this week that Rosen's emails and phone records and even data from his State Department security badge were surveyed by US government investigators.

There were suggestions he could be named as an "unindicted co-conspirator" in a case against Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, a former State Department official accused of leaking him classified information on North Korea.

The White House has refused to comment on the case in detail or the separate issue of the seizure of AP emails as part of probe into a leak about a CIA operation to thwart a terrorist attack on a US aircraft originating from Yemen.

Prominent journalism organizations and press freedom advocates have warned that the Obama administration, which has taken a hard line against leakers, could be infringing cherished press freedoms with its actions.

Obama argued last week that there was a balance to be struck between press freedoms and the lives of covert US operatives overseas.

"Leaks related to national security can put people at risk," Obama said.

But he said that "we also live in a democracy where a free press, free expression and the open flow of information helps hold me accountable, helps hold our government accountable and helps our democracy function."

He said his administration is working on "finding a way to strike that balance appropriately."

Last week, the White House backed legislation to strengthen journalists' rights to protect sources, in a move seen by many as a way to defuse anger of the AP case.

Snapchat is secretly storing your photos

, Salon — Tue, 21 May 2013 14:47:00 -0700

We all knew it was too good to be true. Snapchat, the photo-texting app designed to delete your pictures soon after they’re received, is supposed to be a completely safe way to send naughty pics to your significant other without consequences.

But for $300 to $500, you could retain any photos a person has sent you. Want your sexy snapchats back? Just call Richard Hickman, of Utah security firm Decipher Forensics, who says he can get back the photos in just six hours.

That’s because the photos remain stored deep inside Android smartphones—in a folder called RECEIVED_IMAGES_SNAPS. Rather than deleting the files, Snapchat actually just turns them into reusable data with a .NOMEDIA extension, which makes the photos invisible to most people. But do a bit of forensic research and voila! The pictures are viewable once again.

The photos can then be passed on to parents, lawyers, revenge-porn sites and the police.

Slave descendants seek equal rights from Cherokee Nation

, Salon — Tue, 21 May 2013 15:15:00 -0700

On an oppressively hot evening last May, David Cornsilk addressed a room of so-called “black Indians” at Gilcrease Hills Baptist Church in northwest Tulsa. He wore a leather-braided bolo tie clasped by an emerald quartz. Though Cornsilk never formally studied law, his voice bellowed with the rhetorical ire of a white-shoed seasoned litigator.

“By a show of hands, how many folks here tonight are Freedmen?” Cornsilk asked into the microphone. Each raised an arm. Visibly dismayed, Cornsilk shook his head. It was a trick question.

“No,” Cornsilk said. “The Freedmen died a long time ago. You are not Freedmen. You are Cherokee, and it is time that you begin to recognize who you are.”

Cornsilk is Cherokee, and a self-taught civil rights advocate and genealogist. He traces his slave-owning ancestors back to their aboriginal lands of Georgia and Tennessee — to a period before the Trail of Tears. Cornsilk is not a Cherokee Freedmen descendant. For nearly two decades, however, Cornsilk fought for the citizenship rights of Freedmen descendants — blacks who descend from slaves once owned by Cherokee and other tribes.

Welcome to the jungle: The definitive oral history of ’80s metal

, Salon — Tue, 21 May 2013 17:00:00 -0700

While the New Wave of British Heavy Metal was taking over the club scene in the UK and Europe, a batch of bands in and around Los Angeles — triggered by a love for KISS, Van Halen, and glam groups like the New York Dolls and the Sweet — were about to shake Sunset Strip like a 7.0 earthquake. With flashy, androgynous images and brash, solo-saturated songs, the “hair metal” bands were visually compelling and musically engaging. In the beginning, groups like Mötley Crüe and Ratt were almost as heavy as Judas Priest and Dio, the band Ronnie James Dio formed after leaving Black Sabbath. But as the scene gained popularity and a major label feeding frenzy began, many musicians tailored their songs for mainstream radio, retaining some of their heaviness but drawing more emphasis to melody and heart-on-sleeve sensitivity — and sexuality.

I’m not achieving my dreams!

, Salon — Tue, 21 May 2013 17:00:00 -0700

Dear Cary,

I am lying in bed right now sobbing, which I've been doing a lot lately, and writing to get these twisted feelings out of my head and onto paper. I'm graduating college on Saturday ... wow, great, such an accomplishment. Did you read that in a monotone voice twinged with sarcasm? Because that is how I feel about it. Literally, whatever. I had so many hopes for this semester and everything has fallen apart.

I spent six months in 2012 traveling in Central America. Some of it was for school, some of it was because I wanted to throw a middle finger to everyone who has ever told me I couldn't do something. I planned the whole trip on my own, decided my travel itinerary, applied for an internship, and designed my senior thesis so I could do field work abroad on poverty alleviation, (I've had grad students tell me my undergrad senior thesis sounds like a grad level thesis). It was a monumental test of my independence and a challenge to all the fear I feel in my life. I wanted this trip to not be a generic study abroad experience; I wanted to break away, completely on my own and not rely on anyone else.

The most popular Tumblr porn

, Salon — Tue, 21 May 2013 17:00:00 -0700

Yahoo's purchase of Tumblr has some devotees worried that what they love most about the micro-blogging platform -- the GIF porn, obvs -- will disappear. TechCrunch calculated that more than 10 percent of the service's most popular 200,000 sub-domains feature Yahoo-unfriendly adult material. The panic was barely lessened by CEO Marissa Mayer's promise to protect "the richness and breadth of content available on Tumblr." So I decided to take a look at what, exactly, Tumblr-ers have to lose -- by visiting the community's most popular adult blogs, of course. You know me, any excuse to watch porn at work!

Cannes: Directing 101 with James Franco

, Salon — Tue, 21 May 2013 17:01:00 -0700

CANNES, France – James Franco hardly counts as a newcomer to filmmaking, having directed at least six or seven features since 2005. (The ambiguity about the exact number comes with something like “Francophrenia,” a film consisting entirely of his appearances on “General Hospital,” which were edited into a spurious narrative, or “My Own Private River,” an art project that repurposes much of Gus Van Sant’s “My Own Private Idaho.”) But there’s no question that the 21st century Renaissance man’s new adaptation of William Faulkner’s “As I Lay Dying” -- which premiered here on Monday -- marks his debut as a director of serious, art-house-oriented narrative features.

Madoff belongings go on show in Washington museum

, Agence France-Presse — Tue, 21 May 2013 12:27:33 -0700

Financier Bernard Madoff arrives at Manhattan Federal court on March 12, 2009 in New York City. Shamed US financier Bernie Madoff, serving a 150-year prison sentence, is back in the spotlight as the star of an exhibit in a US museum dedicated to gangsters

Shamed US financier Bernie Madoff, serving a 150-year prison sentence, is back in the spotlight as the star of an exhibit in a US museum dedicated to gangsters and serial killers.

A baseball bat engraved with the former mogul's name, a letter in which he seeks forgiveness from his son Andrew and even keys to his old New York office are on display at Washington's National Museum of Crime & Punishment.

In total, some 15 items that once belonged to the famous fraudster or are in some way linked to him, are on view.

The 75-year-old, who once chaired the Nasdaq stock exchange, was found guilty of being behind a massive Ponzi scheme.

He took in billions from thousands of clients over decades, building a reputation as a shrewd investment manager by paying out fake "profits" to some investors by plundering the new cash from others.

But his pyramid fraud collapsed in 2008, wiping out numerous family fortunes. He was arrested in December that year, and pleaded guilty in 2009.

A person looks at some of the items from Bernard L. Madoff's estate at the Miami Beach Convention Center on June 2, 2011 in Miami Beach, Florida.

"The general public thinks of crime as a violent crime, but there are many that are not violent, we make sure that in our museum we focus on everything," Janine Vaccarello, the museum's chief operating officer, told AFP.

She said the items were given to the museum by Madoff's son, liquidator Irving Picard or even victims.

The Madoff display case is placed next to a wall dedicated to Frank Abagnale, a con artist made famous by the film "Catch Me If You Can" starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

Vaccarello said Madoff is "by far the largest financial criminal, with thousands of victims and in many countries. He is considered the worst of the worst."

"If it looks too good to be true, it can't be true and don't invest your money," summed up Joe Persichini, the retired assistant director in charge of the FBI's Washington Field Office, at the exhibit's opening.

In US tornado's wake, rain hampers relief effort

Robert Macpherson, Agence France-Presse — Tue, 21 May 2013 15:48:35 -0700

A chair sits against a bare tree next to a destroyed home on May 21, 2013 in Moore, Oklahoma.

Torrential rains hampered rescue and relief efforts Tuesday in this Oklahoma City suburb reeling from one of the worst tornadoes in the United States in the years.

Police roadblocks strictly controlled access to the section of Moore, a residential suburb of 55,000 residents, laid to waste by Monday's mid-afternoon twister, allowing only residents with proper ID to pass.

Even then, one sheriff's deputy told AFP during a break from roadblock duty, the multiple-block area remains very much a danger zone with downed power lines spilling onto rain-sodden streets and yards carpeted with building debris.

Police put the death toll at around 24, with nearly everyone accounted for.

Water shoots from a damaged water heater resting on destroyed home on May 21, 2013 in Moore, Oklahoma.

"It's unreal. It's so visceral," said accountant Roger Graham, 32, as he combed through the ruins of the three-bedroom "normal suburban dwelling" he shared with his wife Kalissa, a school teacher, recovering what he could.

Both were at work in nearby Norman when the tornado struck, escaping personal injury, but upon returning home Tuesday -- after two hours of battling traffic -- the Grahams were as much surprised by what they found as what they lost.

"My house is just a big pile of rubble, yet we found a (ceramic) jar intact," Graham told AFP. He also unearthed a medal from a half-marathon he ran for a memorial to victims of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

On traffic-congested Route 37, along the northern perimeter of the disaster zone, shards of wood, bits of roofing shingles, even a piece of foam cushion were seen littering the curb.

Yellow police tape sits near a damaged Oklahoma Police car outside of a destroyed home on May 21, 2013 in Moore, Oklahoma.

From the southwest, moving in the same direction as Monday's tornado, thunderstorms swept through in the early afternoon, jabbing the prairie with lightning bolts and dumping enough rain to briefly flood some side streets.

Neighborhoods just a few miles (kilometers) to the north reported no water or electricity, despite being clear of the tornado's path. Many stores and restaurants closed early, for lack of utilities or customers.

The scope of Monday's tornado -- which roughly followed the same track as a May 1999 twister that killed 44 people -- was evident to passengers on flights coming into Oklahoma City's Will Rogers World Airport, west of Moore.

On final approach, they could make out the exact spot where the tornado touched down, from which a wide brown swath of upturned earth stretched into the distance, as if a giant had come through with a monster garden tiller.

June Simson embraces her cat Sammi after she found him standing on the rubble of her destroyed home on May 21, 2013 in Moore, Oklahoma.

Graham, who owned his house for five years and looked to his insurance policy to cover his losses, was gratified by an outpouring of support from friends, neighbors and his brother who is putting him up for the time being.

"There's no lack of support out here," he said. "We're just trying to figure out what's next."

While speaking with AFP, Graham's next-door neighbors made their own joyful discovery amid the devastation -- the family cat, which apparently survived the twister only a little worse for wear.

"They thought she was gone," Graham said. "It looks like she's in good shape."

AlterNet.org: Breaking News

WikiLeaks trial to be closed for some testimony: US judge

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