Tweet

Kevin Gosztola

11 Sep, 8 tweets, 5 min read

For all of September, The Dissenter will mark 20th anniversary of #September11 with retrospective series on rise of security state that puts whistleblowers front and center. Because these individuals listened to their conscience & implored us to turn away from the dark side.

FBI whistleblower Coleen Rowley accused FBI Headquarters of failing to urgently respond to intelligence ahead of #September11.

Embarrassed, the FBI became a "preventative crime" agency, concocting terrorism plots they could take credit for thwarting.

thedissenter.org/twenty-years-i…

One of most important and best documentaries produced to coincide with the 20th anniversary of #September11.

It reflects how FBI was given immense power and abused it, often by preying on young black and brown men with financial troubles.

For paid subscribers of The Dissenter, this covers anti-immigrant policy adopted by Attorney General John Ashcroft after #September11 to squeeze Arab, Muslim, or South Asian communities.

Around 1,200 were rounded up and detained for months.
thedissenter.org/twenty-years-i…

Attorney General John Ashcroft on October 25, 2001: "Let the terrorists among us be warned: If you overstay your visa, even by one day, we will arrest you. If you violate a local law, you will be put in jail and kept in custody as long as possible." #September11

Former FBI special agent Terry Albury is one of few to challenge racist counterterrorism approach that involves mapping communities and relies on profiling and destroying people who won't be informants.

He was prosecuted under Espionage Act. #September11
thedissenter.org/since-9-11-fbi…

From Janet Reitman's New York Times Magazine profile of Terry Albury, which is a must read.

"There is this mythology surrounding war on terrorism, and FBI, that has given agents the power to ruin the lives of completely innocent people..." #September11 nytimes.com/2021/09/01/mag…

I'll keep adding to this thread as entries in the series are published at The Dissenter.

If you aren't a subscriber, please consider supporting independent journalism that values the contributions of whistleblowers to our society. #September11
thedissenter.outpost.pub/public/promo-s…

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

More from @kgosztola

Kevin Gosztola

@kgosztola

10 Sep

@shadowproofcom

Thanks for validating the independent journalism we do at @shadowproofcom!

https://twitter.com/adfontesmedia/status/1435975562044919808

@shadowproofcom

@shadowproofcom We didn't ask @adfontesmedia to include us in their chart and review our articles for bias and reliability, but they did. Their team gave our posts pretty high scores for reliability. And we don't hide our bias so who cares where they plot us.

One of the posts reviewed is a parody of a Max Boot column that I wrote so I don't know how it could be reliable, and I don't believe bias is all that relevant. (And it's marked so they could've chosen anything else.)

Read 4 tweets

Kevin Gosztola

@kgosztola

11 Aug

The first hearing before the UK High Court of Justice in the US government's appeal in WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's extradition case will start shortly. I'm remotely observing.

Thread for updates on the "preliminary" appeal hearing.

This Assange appeal hearing is not the main appeal hearing. That will come later.

Today's hearing is on the two grounds for appeal that the High Court of Justice declined to grant the US government. Prosecutors will try to persuade the High Court they were wrong.

This hearing for the US will be focused on discrediting Professor Michael Kopelman, an experienced neuropsychiatrist who assessed Assange from May-December 2019.

It will also be about the US's view that the district judge gave too much weight to certain suicide risk evidence.

Read 58 tweets

Kevin Gosztola

@kgosztola

28 Jul

The four remaining Espionage Act charges against drone whistleblower Daniel Hale that US prosecutors refused to drop were dismissed with prejudice by Judge Liam O'Grady. And just about all of the coverage of Hale's sentencing didn't report this remarkable development.

@etuckerAP

It unfortunately wasn't acknowledged in the report from @etuckerAP nor was it in @joshgerstein's coverage. It wasn't in @rachelweinerwp's coverage for Washington Post either. It isn't mentioned in The Intercept's coverage by @rdevro and @MazMHussain. And I missed it initially.

@ChipGibbons89

Only because I interviewed @ChipGibbons89 after sentencing did I learn that the four remaining Espionage Act charges were dismissed. But I wasn't able to attend court proceedings while these other media organizations did have reporters present.

Read 4 tweets

Kevin Gosztola

@kgosztola

27 Jul

Drone whistleblower Daniel Hale will be sentenced within the next hour, and if the US government has its way, he will receive the harshest sentence ever issued against someone for releasing documents without government authorization to the press.

THREAD will follow sentencing

Daniel Hale, who was involved in drone program while in US Air Force and deployed to Afghanistan: "The most disturbing thing about my involvement in drones is the uncertainty if anybody that I was involved in 'kill or capture' was a civilian or not. There's no way of knowing."

@soniakennebeck

US prosecutors say Daniel Hale shared documents with a reporter for "self-aggrandizement," and it was not to inform American citizens. But @soniakennebeck, director of "National Bird" (in which Daniel appeared), wrote a letter to the court that counters this attack.

Read 10 tweets

Kevin Gosztola

@kgosztola

26 Jul

Drone whistleblower Daniel Hale’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for 9 am (ET) on July 27. Notice he will come before the judge and have to wait for plea agreement hearing. Then he and his defense will have a very limited time to address the court.

Daniel Hale will have no time to go past the window given to him. There are four defendants waiting to go before Judge Liam O’Grady at 10 am (ET).

A federal court is about to put its stamp of approval on harshest sentence ever issued against former government employee or contractor responsible for “unauthorized disclosure” of information, and it will likely be one of shortest Espionage Act sentencing hearings

Read 5 tweets

Kevin Gosztola

@kgosztola

23 Jul

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."

I'll go through Hale's letter in this thread.

thedissenter.org/daniel-hale-le…

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."

Read 12 tweets

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Share this page!

Kevin Gosztola

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

More from @kgosztola

Kevin Gosztola

Kevin Gosztola

Kevin Gosztola

Kevin Gosztola

Kevin Gosztola

Kevin Gosztola

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Like this author's thread?