Hedges: Jeremy Hammond Exposed State's Plan to Criminalize Democratic Dissent

[BelgianMadCow]

Christopher Hedges, on the sentencing of Jeremy Hammond (who hacked Stratfor), says there will be no free press without figures like Hammond and Manning

HEDGES: Well, not when they shred the Constitution and violate our most basic right to privacy. Not only that, remember that we now know from this information they are actively working to criminalize democratic dissent. That's a crime. It should be a crime. And whatever crime Jeremy Hammond committed is nothing, pales in comparison to the crimes that are being committed by the state. That's the point. The same thing with Chelsea Manning. Whatever crime Chelsea Manning may have committed, it is nothing compared to the war crimes in the fraud and the lies that are being perpetrated by the corporate state.

And I think that's the point, that when you shut down the possibility of a free press, when there is no judicial or legislative oversight--and there isn't anymore--then the abuse of power becomes rife, especially when you build walls of secrecy. And the last best hope are these people who can break down those walls and make public that information which we have a right to know. We have a right to know that the government is criminalizing our forms of protest and attempting to treat us as if we were terrorists.

JAY: And the state then has an absolute right to secrecy, and it has an absolute right to make sure no one else has any secrecy.

HEDGES: If it's totalitarian. And that's what corporate totalitarianism, which is a species of totalitarianism, is about.

[Dustlawyer]

1. K&R!!! This shite is getting out of hand!

Americans need to wake up b/c very soon we won't have any "Freedoms" left for terrorists to hate us for!

[loudsue]

7. Some of us realize that it is already way too late.

Bush Sr. started it, Clinton helped, Bush Jr./Cheney/Rumsfeld (PNAC) took the big leap, and Obama has continued the push. This isn't new. It was too late on 9/11/01.

[L0oniX]

2. This country is a terrorist state. It was only a matter of time before it attacks its own.

[mtasselin]

3. khrushchev

Khrushchev said America was going to be destroyed from within and it is happening as we speak. The American people do not seem to care, or they will when it effects them, but guess what it will be to late.

[fasttense]

4. America is now a corporate totalitarian country, much like Communist China.

We have political prisoners, who once having served their jail time for descent, are put on house arrest to keep them from protesting any further. Our police, FBI, and NSA are used against us citizens to put down dissent and prevent free speech.

Obama goes after protesters and whistle blowers like they are bomb throwing terrorists. He never disturbs the cozy beds of the Teabagger variety of protester and is willing to sell out the American people much like any RepubliCON.

Once he passes the TPP, there will be NO going back to democracy.

[idwiyo]

5. k&r Thank you for posting this.

[dotymed]

6. This will be Obama's legacy.

"CORPORATE TOTALITARIANISM."

We have so many "Obama's accomplishments" people on this site that it makes me sad (and mad) that they don't (maybe they do) realize that President Obama has done more to criminalize our rights than any President in memory. That includes Reagan. He de-regulated finance and many treasonous acts (Iran-Contra, etc.. ) but he would have been prosecuted if he dared to completely incorporate America at that time. He did weaken the Unions dramatically also. That would be necessary for what is happening now.
The corporate plan must be done incrementally (like TPPS) or we will try to stop it too soon.

It will soon be too late to stop this coup.

[marmar]

8. k/r

[drynberg]

9. HOPE AND CHANGE...KEEP HOPING THINGS WILL CHANGE, KEEP MOVING, NOTHING TO SEE HERE

We have been conned by the smiling face, as he launched a thousand ships (clones) and kept on smiling...I told my wife on 9/11/01 that "There will be Hell to pay", and the bill is due...hear the knocking?

[99th_Monkey]

10. k & r nt

[BelgianMadCow]

11. Update: "The US can lock up hackers, but it can't crush their spirit" from the Guardian

Why is the US sending some of its best young minds to jail? On Friday Jeremy Hammond, a 28-year-old digital activist from Chicago, will learn how many years he is to serve for participating in the 2011 hack of the private security firm Stratfor. "I believe in the power of the truth," said Hammond, pleading guilty to helping liberate millions of emails from the company, which is paid by large corporations to spy on activists around the world. "I did this because I believe people have a right to know what governments and corporations are doing behind closed doors. I did what I believe is right."

Like the others who took part in the Stratfor hack, Hammond wasn't out for money, and he didn't get any. Nonetheless, he has spent the past 18 months in prison, including extended periods in solitary confinement, and now faces a 10-year prison sentence. Hammond is the latest target of a global witchhunt against hackers, whistleblowers and anyone who seeks to release private information in the public interest.

The witchhunt is being led by the US government, but its targets are international: Lauri Love, an activist from Suffolk, was arrested in Britain last month and may face extradition on charges of hacking into US government networks and a possible decade in a US jail. The legislation used to single out and lock up these people is the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, a flexible law that allows US courts to impose almost indefinite sentences against any crime committed with a computer, down to simple violation of terms of service.

In practice, by some staggering coincidence, the digital crimes that get prosecuted are those that happen to make governments and large corporations look foolish. Financial damage is the main thrust of the prosecutors' claim against Hammond and his fellow LulzSec members, but it isn't really the money that matters. Hammond is being asked to pay back just $250,000; by comparison, you would have to embezzle tens of millions of dollars to get an equivalent sentence for corporate fraud in the same Manhattan courtroom.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/14/us-lock-up-hackers-jeremy-hammond

[markpkessinger]

12. K&$ n/t!