Ahead of sentencing on July 27, drone whistleblower Daniel Hale penned a letter to the judge highlighting his experiences with US drone strikes in Afghanistan and how he "came to violate the Espionage Act."
Hale describes his role in the US military's drone program, when he was deployed to Afghanistan. He tracked down "the geographic location of handset cellphone devices believed to be in the possession of so-called enemy combatants."
Hale recounts first time he witnessed US drone strike.
"I could only look on as I sat by and watched through a computer monitor when a sudden terrifying flurry of Hellfire missiles came crashing down, splattering purple-colored crystal guts on the side of the morning mountain."
"In 2012, a full year after the demise of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, I was a part of killing misguided young men, who were but mere children on the day of 9/11," Hale adds, as he contemplates the graphic violence he continued to observe after that first drone strike.
Hale: "The most harrowing day of my life came months into my deployment to Afghanistan when a routine surveillance mission turned into disaster."
In detail, Hale recalls witnessing a drone strike that injured and killed two children.
In 2013, Yemeni engineer Faisal bin Ali Jaber came to D.C. to share his story of how US drone strike in 2012 killed two of his relatives. Hale attended the CODEPINK Drone Summit, where Jaber spoke.
He remembers watching the carnage that unfolded.
After returning from his deployment in Afghanistan, Hale took a job with a defense contractor and worked at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. He says one moment, where co-workers asked him to join them in watching drone strike footage or "war porn," pushed him to act.
"The truest truism that I’ve come to understand about the nature of war is that war is trauma. I believe that any person either called upon or coerced to participate in war against their fellow man is promised to be exposed to some form of trauma," Hale shares.
Hale could not suppress his conscience any longer.
"Left to decide whether to act, I only could do that which I ought to do before God and my own conscience. The answer came to me, that to stop cycle of violence, I ought to sacrifice my own life and not that of another person."
As Biden winds down US military involvement in Afghanistan, a conflict spanning nearly 20 years, the US Justice Department is seeking the harshest sentence ever for a leak against this conscientious individual, who is an Afghanistan War veteran.
Hale's letter could be viewed as plea for mercy from the judge, but more than anything, it outlines a defense of his actions that the US government and a US court would never have allowed him to present before a jury because there is no public interest defense under Espionage Act
This is the first Espionage Act conviction against a whistleblower under President Joe Biden.
While Biden's Justice Department did not indict Hale, they have spitefully seen this through to the end.
Today is Day 1 of extradition appeal hearing for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at the British High Court of Justice.
His legal team has requested that the court grant Assange a full appeal hearing.
Thread with articles on what Assange's team considers grounds for appeal.
The CIA allegedly plotted to kidnap, poison, or kill Assange. To extradite Assange would undermine his right to life & right to be free from “torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” under European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). thedissenter.org/countdown-day-…
Since the Espionage Act has never been used by US to prosecute a publisher, Assange's attorneys argue extradition is barred. Publishing info was not a “criminal offense under national or international law at the time when it was committed.” thedissenter.org/countdown-to-d…
Video version that includes the clip of David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart erroneously arguing that what Ellsberg did was somehow different from Snowden's whistleblowing. Or that Ellsberg did it the "right way."
Incredibly, while contending that Snowden was an egomaniac, Brooks and Capehart spend the part of the show that is supposed to be a tribute to Daniel Ellsberg focusing on themselves. They make it about their views on Snowden—views they know Ellsberg absolutely didn't share.
Not only was 2022 yet another year with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in prison, but it also was another year in which Committee to Protect Journalists (@pressfreedom) refused to include Assange in their annual jailed journalists index
The United Kingdom, which has kept Assange in Belmarsh prison for over 3.5 years at the behest of the US government, should be light red on this map - just like Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Philippines, Turkmenistan, etc. But CPJ’s leadership can’t bring their organization to do that
The Committee to Protect Journalists’ own methodology suggests Assange qualifies, and should have qualified long ago.
Assange frequently commented on “public affairs” for print, radio, TV, and online.
So why doesn’t CPJ include Assange in their index?
Bah humbug from @SouthwestAir to far too many passengers flying their airline.
This is Midway airport in Chicago, where families with crying children had to deal with the fact that they were lied to by this airline. Because their flights were never going to leave Chicago.
I was booked on an 8:10 PM flight to Denver to visit family for Christmas. The plane was there at the gate, but @SouthwestAir had no pilot. They must’ve known, yet they waited til 15 min before boarding time to cancel the flight.
Apparently, @SouthwestAir is in the middle of major crisis in Denver. They are dealing with a staff shortage that’s so bad that at least one flight from Tampa was turned around and sent back to where it took off.
How many flights to Denver were canceled today due to this crisis?
US Senate investigation confirmed that dozens of women at the Irwin County Detention Center were medically abused by a single ICE doctor, who was hired even though the Justice Department and state of Georgia had sued him thedissenter.org/senate-investi…
Here is Karina Cisneros Preciado at the Senate permanent subcommittee hearing on ICE's medical mistreatment of women. She courageously shared her incarceration story, including when OB-GYN contracted by ICE subjected her to treatment without her consent.
Sen. Ossoff grilled the ICE official who is in charge of oversight for doctors contracted by the agency. His negligence allowed Dr. Mahendra Amin to treat and abuse dozens if not hundreds of women who were in ICE custody at Irwin County Detention Center between 2017-2020.
Rallies in Denver, Minneapolis, Seattle, Tulsa, San Francisco Bay Area, & Washington DC, to support Stella Assange & supporters who formed human chain around UK Parliament to free Assange.
All part of global day of action that has been underway. I'm speaking at the DC rally.