Tell U.S. and German Governments to End Mass Surveillance and End Killing by Drones

Aktion Freiheit statt Angst calls for support for an International Week to Support Whistleblowing from June 1-7, 2015

Our gratitude goes to Edward Snowden  for his work within the last two years.

Within this week different  civil rights organizations from US and Europe will call for actions. At the end of this week, at June 7th there will be a meeting with Daniel Ellsberg, Thomas Drake, Coleen Rowley, Jesselyn Radack und Norman Solomon in Berlin where the signatures of the petition will be given to the governments of the US and Germany, too.

Content:

• Petition to end mass surveillance and end killing by drones
• Democracy needs truth-telling

Petition

Thanks to courageous whistleblowers, we have been learning about U.S. and German cooperation in mass surveillance and drone killings.

The petition you sign will be presented in Berlin by Daniel Ellsberg, Thomas Drake, Coleen Rowley, Jesselyn Radack, and Norman Solomon on the final day of the June 1-7 Stand Up For Truth week of actions in support of whistleblowers.

As facts have come out, the chief governmental response has been retribution against the whistleblowers and media outlets, including the Associated Press.[1]

But courts have finally begun to push back, striking down some of the illegal bulk data collection[2], and hearing a case challenging Germany's participation in drone wars.[3]

A parliamentary inquiry[4] in Berlin is exposing a decade-long criminal collaboration by U.S. and German spy agencies, spying on other governments, even as the U.S. has spied on Germany as well. Germany is drastically reducing its cooperation with the NSA, pending investigation into the scandal.[5]

Documents[6] have also emerged which show the satellite relay station at the U.S. military base in Ramstein, Germany serves as “the high-tech heart of America’s drone program,” facilitating Reaper and Predator strikes in the Middle East, Afghanistan, and Africa. A lawsuit argues that it is illegal for the German government to allow the Ramstein base to be used for drone murders abroad, especially after the passage of a 2014 resolution in the European Parliament urging European nations to “oppose and ban the practice of extrajudicial targeted killings” and to “ensure that Member States, in conformity with their legal obligations, do not perpetrate unlawful targeted killings or facilitate such killings by other states.”

Drone wars and mass surveillance have  been counterproductive for their announced goals as well as immoral and illegal.[7]

Subscibe to the petition http://act.rootsaction.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=11295

This petition is supported by World Beyond War, Aktion Freiheit statt Angst, The Nation, Koalition des Widerstands, Roots Action, Berlin-gegen-Krieg.de and since now by more than 23.000 people.

The statement of StandUpForTruth.org

Democracy needs truth-telling.

People in many countries will create Stand Up For Truth activities during the week of June 1-7, 2015 -- to move toward a culture of openness and truth as well as security for those who take the risk of disclosing information that authorities want to keep hidden.

Democracy is based on informed consent of the governed. This is not possible when crucial (and sometimes illegal) government policies remain hidden from the public. Whistleblowing is essential for bringing such policies into the light: exposing key information related to human rights violations, corporate malfeasance, the environment, civil liberties and war.

We must stand up for a free press, individual privacy, governmental and corporate transparency, due process and rule of law as we seek to reveal official information that the public has a right to know. Persecution of whistleblowers and journalists is illegitimate and should be opposed as such.

While undemocratic authority thrives on secrecy, we should bring whistleblowing to the forefront of public consciousness -- in a process that widely encourages the release of documentation of governmental and corporate actions that cannot withstand the light of day.

Please initiate Stand Up For Truth activities where you live.
 
StandUpForTruth.org

Initiating Organizations:
ExposeFacts
Freedom of the Press Foundation
International Modern Media Institute
Networkers SouthNorth
RootsAction.org

Initiating Supporter:
Daniel Ellsberg

Planned since now

• Stand Up for Truth speaking tour London, Monday, June 1, 2015 - 18:30
• Chicago event with Bill Binney and Marcy Wheeler, Tuesday, June 2, 2015 - 19:00
• Webcast with Matthew Hoh and David Swanson, Tuesday, June 2, 2015 - 21:00 to 22:00
• Stand Up for Truth speaking tour Oslo, Wednesday, June 3, 2015 - 11:00 to 20:00
• Stand Up For Truth event in Eden Prairie, MN, Wednesday, June 3, 2015 - 19:00 to 20:30
• Webcast with Trevor Timm and Tim Shorrock, Wednesday, June 3, 2015 - 21:00 to 22:00
• Webcast with Sam Husseini and Marjorie Cohn, Thursday, June 4, 2015 - 21:00 to 22:00
• Webcast with William Binney and Kirk Wiebe, Friday, June 5, 2015 - 20:00 to 21:00
• Webcast with Jeff Cohen and Robert McChesney, Friday, June 5, 2015 - 21:00 to 22:00
• Chalkupy to Stand Up For Truth in Los Angeles, Saturday, June 6, 2015 - 13:00 to 16:00
• Webcast with Kevin Gosztola and Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, Saturday, June 6, 2015 - 17:00 to 18:00
• Stand Up for Truth speaking tour Berlin, Sunday, June 7, 2015 (All day)

Links

1. Huffington Post, “AP CEO Gary Pruitt: DOJ Surveillance Broke Rules, Caused Chilling Effect”
2. Guardian: “Of Snowden and the NSA, only one has acted unlawfully – and it’s not Snowden”
3. ECCHR: "Three Yemenis vs Germany: Survivors of a US drone strike file legal action against German government"
4. Deutscher Bundestag: "Untersuchungsausschuss ('NSA')"
5. Guardian: ”Airbus could sue following allegations Germany spied on them for the US”; “German loophole allows BND spy agency to snoop on own people” and “German secret service BND reduces cooperation with NSA” 
6. Intercept: “Germany is the Tell-Tale Heart of America’s Drone War” by  Jeremy Scahill 
7. LobeLog Foreign Policy, “How Assassination Sold Drugs and Promoted Terrorism” and The Intercept,  “U.S. Government Designated Prominent Al Jazeera Journalist as “Member of Al Qaeda” and WarIsACrime.org, "Even the Warriors Say the Wars Make Us Less Safe."

All articles about

• Grundrechte,
  
• Menschenrechte,
• Drohnen,
• Geheimdienste,
• Whistleblowing,
• Edward Snowden,
• NSA,
• Lauschangriff,
• Überwachung,
• Rasterfahndung,
• Zentrale Datenbanken,

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