Yoko Ono Lennon awards Julian Assange with "Courage Award for the Arts 2013"

On Sunday in New York City, Yoko Ono Lennon presented the Courage Award for the Arts 2013 to Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, who accepted the award in absentia. 

 Daniel Ellsberg, Michael Ratner, Yoko Ono Lennon, Baltasar Garzón and Ricardo Patiño at the
2013 Courage Awards for the Arts presentation to Julian Assange.

The award was created by Ono to recognize artists who have demonstrated independent thought and have resisted commercial and political pressure in their work.

In presenting the apt award to Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, in absentia, at a ceremony at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, Ono said: "Our public officials have forgotten that they are ultimately accountable to the people who put them in office; that the information they keep in secrecy belongs to all of us. Julian Assange took a courageous step by rightfully returning what belongs to the public domain. For that reason, I believe we need to stand behind him."

Due to being holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, waiting for the UK to grant him safe passage out of the country, Assange was unable to attend. However, Assange's lawyers, Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights and Honorable Judge Baltasar Garzón Real, represented him at the ceremony.

Ratner delivered Assange's speech, which can be read at the end of this article, dedicating this award to the staff of WikiLeaks. The speech references both Bradley Manning and Aaron Swartz, who recently committed suicide rather than face the possibility of 30 years in prison for downloading academic articles.

Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño was also present and stated, “Julian gives us all an example: the powerful cannot hide information to dominate states and destroy democracies.” 

Daniel Ellsberg, a champion for Bradley Manning, also attended the award ceremony, saying, “Julian Assange richly deserves this award. I hope that this award will give the Nobel Committee the courage to award Bradley Manning and Julian Assange the Nobel Peace Prize.” 

  
Julian Assange's speech made in absentia: 

First of all, I want to thank Yoko Ono Lennon for her courage and spirit in granting me this award. A fine woman whose many actions define her. The test for all of us.

People often ask me how I keep going.

They ask as if my work was some kind of burden to me.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

There is no greater pleasure than fighting for your principles.

There is no greater pleasure than in fighting for those who have risked all to share your vision.

And there is no greater pleasure than seeing those who you admire, in turn, move to fight for you.

And while the embassy that shelters me is still surrounded by armed police, my voice is free.

Within the constraints of the UK surveillance operation outside, I am free to see my staff and my friends.

Many have fought and continue to fight to permit this basic liberty and I am grateful to them.

I want to thank the Ecuadorean people.

I want to thank President Rafael Correa and Foreign Minister Patiño for their courageous and unyielding support.

Their stance strengthens not just my rights but the rights of political refugees everywhere. Support them.

I dedicate this award to our courageous sources, supporters and to my staff.

Through their courage and wit they are revealing the true nature of our global human civilisation. This is how we may reform it. Elevate it - and make it just, beyond its humble origins.

Their courage in documenting war crimes, gross human rights violations, and the corruption of our societies is unequaled.

I want to thank all our anonymous volunteers and all those volunteers from Anonymous. You are unseen in your work but your work is far from unseen.

But I want to specifically name some.

Volunteer Aaron Swartz, aged 26. Political activist, hounded to death right here in New York last month as part of the broader political crackdown against our ideals.

Alleged source, now political prisoner, Bradley Manning. Bradley is now two weeks away from 1000 days in prison. The longest pre-trial detention in US military history.

Alleged source, now political prisoner, Jeremy Hammond, detained without trial, right here in New York, for the last 336 days as of today.

Volunteer and alleged source, now political prisoner, Gottfrid Svartholm, detained in Sweden for almost five months.

WikiLeaks banking blockade protesters Christopher Weatherhead, aged 22, and Ashley Rhodes, aged 28. Sentenced in the UK last week to 18 months and 7 months in prison respectively.

And I want to thank my lawyers Baltasar Garzón and Michael Ratner who are representing me here today, as they do every day.

They together with our other lawyers in the US, Europe, Africa, Australia, and Ecuador are part of the fight to make sure that our rights are respected and WikiLeaks can continue its mission.

With such courage, tenacity, love, and support from our friends, silencing WikiLeaks remains and will continue to remain a fantasy.

We will continue our fight to document the world, understand its institutions, and hold our civilization to a higher standard.

Julian Assange
Ecuadorean Embassy
London
3rd February 2013

-- 
To the source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/342803
 
Other recent Julian Assange News:  
Julian Assange will run for Australian Senate in 2013  
Assange: WikiLeaks film 'The Fifth Estate' a ‘propaganda attack’

Aaron Swartz, computer activist & reddit co-owner has committed suicide

26-year-old computer activist, co-owner of reddit and co-author of the widely-used RSS 1.0 specification, Aaron H. Swartz, committed suicide in New York City on Friday.

This is according to a comment by Michael Wolf, Swartz's uncle, to The Tech.

Confirmation was received from Swartz's attorney, Elliot R. Peters by email: “The tragic and heartbreaking information you received is, regrettably, true.”

At the age of 14, Swartz co-authored the now widely-used RSS 1.0 specification. 

26-year-old Swartz is famous for allegedly downloading documents from the JSTOR online journal archive with the intent to distribute them and was indicted in July 2011. Swartz reportedly pleaded not guilty to this and was released on US$100,000 unsecured bail.  If charged he would have faced a potential prison term of 35 years and a fine up to US$1 million.

After this, he moved to Brooklyn, New York, where he obtained employment with the Avaaz Foundation, which is a non-profit “global web movement to bring people-powered politics to decision-making everywhere.” 

Swartz is one of three co-owners of the popular social news site reddit, and also completed a fellowship at Harvard’s Ethics Center Lab on Institutional Corruption.

In 2010, Swartz founded DemandProgress.org, which "works to win progressive policy changes for ordinary people through organizing, and grassroots lobbying. In particular, we tend to focus on issues of civil liberties, civil rights, and government reform." The group was active recently with a campaign against the Internet censorship bills SOPA/PIPA, and now has over a million members.

Swartz also developed the website theinfo.org which provides free access to public records. He has also been widely cited for his landmark analysis of Wikipedia, Who Writes Wikipedia? Swartz further worked with web inventor, Tim Berners-Lee, at MIT, where he helped develop and popularize standards for sharing data on the Web. 

CNET reports that a friend of Swartz, Cory Doctorow, said today that Swartz had battled depression for several years. 

"To the world: we have all lost someone today who had more work to do, and who made the world a better place when he did it," Doctorow wrote.

Read more: http://digitaljournal.com/article/341136

Occupy Sandy organizer Diego Ibañez in Far Rockaway

In the video we meet an Occupy Sandy Relief organizer, Diego Ibañez, and learn more about the group's incredible efforts in the Rockaways area.

The efforts of Occupy Sandy Relief, part of Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement, continue in the Rockaways. In the interview, Ibañez talks about how the group is organizing themselves and that they have recently moved into the premises of a business that lost everything to the hurricane. While the owner is devastated, as he only started the business a few days before the hurricane struck, he is more than happy to help with rescue and rehabilitation efforts.

Ibañez explains that while some of the volunteers had experience with Hurricane Katrina, for the most part the members of Occupy Sandy Relief are thankful for their experiences in Zucotti Park, which set them up perfectly for organizing, community building, helping and feeding a crowd of people affected by the storm.

He compared the situation to that of the Chilean students, who were not taken seriously when protesting, but how those students helped during the earthquake in Chile, because they had the infrastructure in place, just as OWS does right now. 

At 7 pm every evening, they have a community meeting with local residents, in an effort to establish a place for people to go for more than just their basic needs. Ibañez says how many local residents are becoming organizers themselves and are becoming committed to helping in their neighborhood. He says that many have said that it is so sad that they have waited until a moment like this to actually create a community and become involved with each other.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/336619#ixzz2BuSlsjzh

Occupy Sandy Relief: Rockaway devastation and recovery (video)

Occupy Wall Street and the Occupy Sandy Relief projects are still continuing in New York. Rockaway residents reflect, recover and rebuild the community after Hurricane Sandy brings destruction and chaos to the beachfront neighborhood. 

Surveying the surrounding devastation in Rockaway, one resident opens the *video with, "The weather reports usually exaggerate. Just in case something catastrophic happens, just to come out and say, hey, you know, we warned you. But this time they were right. They were dead on. If not, it was actually worse than they said."

Other residents share the experience of windows popping out under the stress of the water, living in the dark, with no electricity, no water, no gas. We see residents in the area trying to make repairs, clean up the mess and get back to normal, but it is difficult under the circumstances.

Another resident reflects on his experience and says, "I don't want to die with 85 year old people, trying to make them swim, and deal with them drowning and so on. It just makes you appreciate life, even the wind on my face, which is freezing right now, feels nice."

A lady speaks of her neighbor, "You think of heroes as these big cops and firemen, and believe me they are too, and they always are. But here's someone, who just comes out of the blue, she calls me up when I'm being evacuated and says "What can I do." The day before we had to evacuate she called me to say let me help you to get the stuff off the terrace. She was going from terrace to terrace." 

We are introduced to rescue workers and Occupy Sandy Relief members, bringing food and water to residents who are unable to get out and about. We watch a community barbeque on the go.

One resident says, "You see the people come together more, you see everyone going out of their way to do the right thing. It's interesting, because sometimes you ask yourself, why can't it be done all the time like that."

Another says, "You know, it don't make no sense, that it takes death or a tragedy like this for people to come together and help. You know, and that's the main time you see people coming together to help each other, when its a death or funeral, you know, or tragedy like this." 

* Regrettably, blogger does not bring up the correct YouTube video - you can watch the video here 

NYC marathon runners ignore cancellation, raise money for victims

The ING New York City Marathon was cancelled, due to the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy. 2,000 runners ignored the cancellation and held the "Run Anyway NYC Marathon 2012" to raise money for Sandy's victims.

The 2,000 runners ran approximately 26.2 miles (42.2 km), four times around Central Park – some clockwise, others counterclockwise, some running straight through the park... read more and watch video.

Dogs and cats suffer in the wake of Superstorm Sandy

In the wake of Superstorm Sandy, on top of the devastation to the city and the toll on the people in the area, thousands of pets from New York City and surrounding areas are missing.

While the storm raged, many people were parted from their pets. The Humane Society of the United States reported that around 15 million dogs, 14 million cats and 1.5 million horses were in the path of Hurricane Sandy's wrath. 

In many cases, owners had to part with their pets when they evacuated their homes, while others tried to find accommodation where they could take their pets with them. Often the Humane Society collected pets for safekeeping, while the owners were evacuated to safety. But many were lost during the ordeal. 

Shortly before the storm hit, New York City mayor, Michael Bloomberg announced that all the city shelters were pet friendly and that around 70 pets had already arrived. However, since Sandy passed through, there are thousands of pets desperately in need of shelter, as their homes have been destroyed, or cannot safely be occupied at present.

Hurricane Sandy Lost and Found Pets

Yonkers, NY - found wearing raincoat, male - please call 201-981-3215.

 

There are also many dogs and cats who simply panicked and ran when the storm hit and various lost and found pages are being set up on the Internet, including a Facebook page, Hurricane Sandy Lost and Found Pets. 

Their "about" reads, "Posting photos of lost or found pets in the areas affected by Sandy, as well as posting animal shelters in need and temporary shelters that allow animals. We are animal lovers and advocates trying to help with networking to get animals reunited with their families." 

Their photo feed of lost and found pets can be viewed here. Craigslist is also getting many posts. 

The American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) reports that New York and Long Island shelters became temporary homes to only around 400 animals, which is worrying to many desperate owners that cannot find their pets. 

In New Jersey, Governor Chris Christie announced on Friday that a rescue hotline has been set up for residents who had to leave their pets behind when evacuating. The number is 1-855-407-4787 and the hotline is open 24 hours a day. There is also a statewide pet hotline available: 1-866-407-4787.

 

There are many moving stories doing the rounds including one in Suffolk County. ASPCA chief Roy Gross told Long Island Press, “We had one couple who just left the shelter, they lost their house and their car, all they had left was each other and their little Pomeranian dog.” 

“They kept thanking us over and over for everything,” he added. 

Gross said that the agency has been staffing Pet Friendly Shelters around the clock since Sandy hit and asked for help: "Our biggest need is for supplies; dog and cat food; blankets; bowls leashes and volunteers," Gross said, adding that volunteers are also needed to help staff the Mobile Animal Hospital (MASH Unit) where dogs and cats are being sheltered. Volunteers will then be trained to staff the shelters in the event of another disaster. 

 

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/336155#ixzz2BFM7tMnJ

Occupy Sandy Relief NYC: OWS helps victims of the superstorm

In the wake of devastation by Superstorm Sandy, OWS is getting involved, using its grassroots strength to help those affected and to organize relief efforts. 

As stated on their home page, "Occupy Wall Street & 350.org have teamed up with Recovers.org – a people-powered disaster relief platform – to help coordinate response to Hurricane Sandy in NYC." 

With around 750,000 New Yorkers without power, large areas of New York City remain under water and at least 18 people have been killed. The OWS volunteers started in the Lower East side and have been moving through New York's five boroughs with members of international environmental organization 350.org and recovers.org, a disaster aid group. 

OWS is using the social media to coordinate its efforts, with the help of local churches and city agencies. Anyone wishing to get involved should tweet using the hashtag #SandyVolunteer. If you need help, tweet using the hashtag #SandyAid. 

There is also a Facebook page to help coordinate efforts as well as a Twitter page. Volunteers are also out on the streets, giving aid where possible and finding those in need, and passing the information on to Recovers.org. 

OWS is calling for people with "experience in or tools for medical and psychological services, electrician work, plumbing, construction, financial or legal services, debris and tree removal, childcare, transportation, senior services or language skills," who can sign up at one of three sites in the Red Hook in Brooklyn, Astoria in Queens and in the Lower East Side in Manhattan.  

A pay portal has been set up for anyone wishing to make financial donations in the recovery efforts. Also drop off points have been established throughout Brooklyn, where people can donate food, water, flashlights, batteries, candles and other necessities.  

Drop off points are as follows:  

Red Hook - Red Hook Initiative, 767 Hicks St  
Park Slope - Residence, 258 15th St, apt #2  
Sunset Park - St. Jacobi Church, 5406 4th Ave  
Williamsburg - Residence, 75 Powers St. #2, 11211  
Bedstuy - Residence, 136 Jefferson Ave, apt 2 11216  
Harlem - Residence, 47 Saint Nicholas Avenue #4d, btw 112 and 113 

In other response news, Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office has suggested the NYC Service be employed, which is a government initiative coordinating volunteer efforts on a year-round basis. 

Bloomberg wrote on Twitter, "We've seen an enormous outpouring of support from people who want to volunteer & contribute." Volunteers will be notified once opportunities become available. 

Bloomberg also praised New York City's first responders, for their "heroic efforts to protect New Yorkers" during the storm. "I can’t say enough about the extraordinary work of our first responders at the FDNY and NYPD, EMS, hospital workers, and more," he said. 

In his speech, Bloomberg says that it will take some time to get things back "on the path to recovery." He admits it could take up to five days to have the city's transportation system running again. He also quoted Governor Andrew Cuomo as saying, "It was as bad as anything I have experienced in New York." 

The American Red Cross is coordinating blood donations, collecting financial donations and seeking volunteers to staff its shelters. The Daily Mail has several striking photographs of the devastation in the city.

Read more and watch videos: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/335860#ixzz2ArshU52o

Obama Supporters Actually Hate Obama's Policies

In a case of sheer irony, Luke Rudkowski of We Are Change got out on the streets in New York City, interviewing Obama supporters in a slightly underhanded way about the NDAA, the Patriot Act, Drone Wars and the "Kill List."

Pretending that Mitt Romney, should he be elected, is threatening to sign a bill called the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), is planning on extending the Patriot Act, saying he would instigate a "Kill List" and planning to use drones in foreign countries, Rudkowski of We Are Change interviews unsuspecting Obama supporters. 

Rudkowski states on the video page that he is not, in any way, supporting or endorsing Romney, but just used these methods to get an honest reaction and opinion from the people interviewed. After each interview, he told the people what he was up to, and the reactions are mixed, and very telling, to say the least. It seems Obama's supporters are unaware of the NDAA, know little about the Patriot Act, and had no idea there was such a thing as a "kill list" and how the US is using drones to kill people, including civilians.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/335520#ixzz2ALYXKmsd

Anti-Jihad ads heading for Washington, DC

In a court ruling, it was decided that anti-Jihad adverts could be displayed in the Washington, DC metro, as has already been done in New York City and San Francisco. 

Washington Metro asked for an injunction against the notorious posters, which were scheduled to appear on trains throughout the city from late September, saying they should be delayed indefinitely in the wake of the recent fallout from the "Innocence of Muslims" film. 

 

They were concerned that these posters might provoke fallout, as with the riots and demonstrations over the film, throughout the Islamic world. 

 

Devised by the controversial American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), the posters read, “In Any War Between the Civilized Man and the Savage, Support the Civilized Man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad.” These ads have already appears in the New York City subways and on buses in San Francisco. 

 

The Washington Metro requested that the date for publication should be moved to November 1, providing there is no “verifiable terrorist threat." However, Judge Rosemary Collyer has ordered that the ads should be displayed by no later than 5 pm on Monday. While the Judge openly described the posters as "hate speech", she said that the message is protected under the First Amendment as "core political speech." She did not accept the argument by the Metro that the ads would incite violence and constituted "a gamble with public safety." 

 

Attorney for the AFDI, Robert Muise, said, “It’s a victory for everyone. It’s a victory for all freedom-loving Americans.” The AFDI had to fight (and win) a similar court battle in New York City to place the ads. 

 

In New York City, counter-ads are being published by the Rabbis for Human Rights - North America, the Sojourners Christian group and the United Methodist Women. Posters published by the United Methodist Women read “Hate speech is not civilized. Support peace in word and deed.” Rabbis for Human Rights plan their ads to read, “In the choice between love and hate, choose love. Help stop bigotry against our Muslim neighbors.” 

 

The Sojourners Christian Group are planning to use the message, “Love your Muslim neighbors.” Timothy King, of the Sojourners Christian Group, said his group will post ten ads on Monday, in close proximity to the controversial anti-Jihad ads. "We are going to go out of our way to make sure Muslims are treated well here, and we hope our fellow Christians will be treated well abroad," King said. 

 

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), are running an ad of their own on every bus displaying the anti-Jihad message. Their ad reads, “SFMTA policy prohibits discrimination based on national origin, religion, and other characteristics and condemns any statements that describe any group as 'savages.'" 

 

Despite all the controversy over the ads, Pamela Geller of the AFDI has no regrets, and says, "There's nothing either hateful or false about my ad.”

"My own ad is not hate speech. It's love speech. It's love of life speech," she told CNN in an e-mail. Speaking of her critics, Geller added, "Their moral myopia is immense. They are confusing resistance to hatred with actual hatred." 

However, many of the posters have already been defaced, or marked with graffiti counter messages. 

Mona Eltahawy, an Egyptian-American anti-Israel activist was recently arrested for vandalizing one of the ads in the NYC Times Square subway station. She reportedly sprayed pink paint on the ad until a passerby, Pamela Hall, intervened to stop the defacement.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/334356