Statement from Edward Snowden in Moscow

Monday July 1, 21:40 UTC

One week ago I left Hong Kong after it became clear that my freedom and safety were under threat for revealing the truth. My continued liberty has been owed to the efforts of friends new and old, family, and others who I have never met and probably never will. I trusted them with my life and they returned that trust with a faith in me for which I will always be thankful.

On Thursday, President Obama declared before the world that he would not permit any diplomatic “wheeling and dealing” over my case. Yet now it is being reported that after promising not to do so, the President ordered his Vice President to pressure the leaders of nations from which I have requested protection to deny my asylum petitions.

This kind of deception from a world leader is not justice, and neither is the extralegal penalty of exile. These are the old, bad tools of political aggression. Their purpose is to frighten, not me, but those who would come after me.

For decades the United States of America have been one of the strongest defenders of the human right to seek asylum. Sadly, this right, laid out and voted for by the U.S. in Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is now being rejected by the current government of my country. The Obama administration has now adopted the strategy of using citizenship as a weapon. Although I am convicted of nothing, it has unilaterally revoked my passport, leaving me a stateless person. Without any judicial order, the administration now seeks to stop me exercising a basic right. A right that belongs to everybody. The right to seek asylum.

In the end the Obama administration is not afraid of whistleblowers like me, Bradley Manning or Thomas Drake. We are stateless, imprisoned, or powerless. No, the Obama administration is afraid of you. It is afraid of an informed, angry public demanding the constitutional government it was promised — and it should be.

I am unbowed in my convictions and impressed at the efforts taken by so many.

Edward Joseph Snowden

Monday 1st July 2013
wikileaks.org/Statement-from-Edward-Snowden-in.html

CISPA – Global Unlimited Censorship

CISPA, standing for Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, has passed the House of Representatives with a few amendments since it’s last edition. Although this is a United States internal issue, it’s a privacy issue that will ultimately affect the whole word and the whole internet.

The whole deal about what CISPA actually is, what powers it triggers to private companies and how it affects internet security can be found here, so I will just lay some highlights on the topic for your consideration.

“Under CISPA, what can I do if a company improperly hands over private information to the government?

Almost nothing. Even if the company violates your privacy beyond what CISPA would permit, the government does not have to notify the user whose information was improperly handed over—the government only notifies the company.[…]”

Meaning there are no longer legal boundaries for personal privacy. All your personal information will be put out there for whatever use companies see fit. CISPA actually will provide legal immunity to companies as they use your personal information.

“[CISPA] It is written so broadly that it allows companies to hand over large swaths of personal information to the government with no judicial oversight—effectively creating a “cybersecurity” loophole in all existing privacy laws.”

CISPA is not for the people, it is, in fact, against the people and the global free speech community that is the internet. It was created to bridge over the laws that were first written by our past leaders for our protection.

“What government agencies can look at my private information?

Under CISPA, companies can hand “cyber threat information” to any government agency with or without limitations on what agency can receive the information.”

Unlimited, unsupervised, global censorship. The end of the freedom of speech. And that may just be the beginning.

CISPA may be the first attempt at a world very much the same as the one depicted in the book “1984” by George Orwell. A world censored and oppressed by a small elite who manipulates and unscrupulously enslaves the masses without any regards to human rights or personal freedom. Note that this is already happening in the big media. Internet is our only source of global communication and freedom. Protect the Internet at all cost.

If you live in the United States and want to campaign against CISPA, use this link.