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Posts Tagged Global

War and Peace: Global Leaders Who Betrayed the Humanity by Mahboob A. Khawaja, PhD.

\“The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.”Albert Einstein

How to Mirror the on-going Injustice and Insanity against Besieged Mankind?

Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in international affairs-global security, peace and conflict resolution with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including the latest: One Humanity and the Remaking of Global Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution. Lambert Academic Publications, Germany, 12/2019.

Global institutions of peace, security and conflict resolution are managed by people who lack basic understanding of mankind, its role and vitality in global affairs, protection of human rights and aspirations for a sustainable future-making. When a formidable action is needed to prevent violation of human rights, security and even essential needs of survival, they bent on issuing phony statements and refer to international law of humanitarian rights (which does not exist or nobody cares about), and show faces of solidarity for leading humanity in painful crises. They are deceptive as they breathe incompetence, greed, egoistic name and fame and betray humanity. There is much evil and less goodness in the 21st century global affairs – amassed collection of unthinkable junk history. Flamboyant expressions of besieged mankind that defies ignorance and hallmarks of modern civilized people.

There are seeds of unimaginable and destructive Western cultural absolutism that could destroy the sense of time and rational consciousness of living history. The on-going war in Ukraine, violations of human rights, colored prejudice and indigenous killings in North America, social and moral injustice and continuous warfare – all echo degradation of human values and soul, exhibit intellectual discard, universal unhappiness, horrors, societal chaos and socio-economic miseries of innumerable multitude.

The politically wise and elected failed to foresee the formidable challenges coming from the 99% oppressed mankind across from global frontiers. Most political leaders would claim intellectual integrity but where else false proclamations go unnoticed of human sufferings, pains and socioeconomic devastation cannot be assumed to be the strategies of kindness in the struggle for sustainable political change and systematic reformation of terror and injustice.

We witness that human tragedy between Russia-Ukraine, across Western Europe, North American streets, the Middle East and elsewhere while human conscience is still intact. Politicians tend to opt for convenient compromise deforming political truth as transient and pliable but truth is always ONE, not many, and this is what most contemporary leaders failed to comprehend. We, the People of the globe must learn from living history and think of navigational change or else it is a self-generated dehumanization curve – an evidence of a tragic human abnormality across all the functional domains, from thinking to actions. To safeguard our future, We, the People of global Conscience must evolve a compass of credibility to check those who are exercising political power and are entrusted with people’s confidence for peace, societal harmony and workable conflict resolutions.

The UNO – in Search of Reinventing another Universal Organization

The UNO was supposed to safeguard mankind from the “scourge of war”, but the UN Security Council- a progressive hope after WW2 is really a debating club for time killing exercises and a manipulative global political powerhouse. The Five self-appointed permanent members compete in fear of the others and sustainability propaganda to discuss the current issues. They are not interested in stopping the savagery of killings between Ukraine and Russia, going on for almost year and half, appalling human rights violation and dehumanization of the people of Palestine under Israeli occupation, freedom fighters in Kashmir against the Indian military control, million of Rohinga people ethnic displacement from Myanmar, and destabilization of Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya and so on. There is nothing good coming out of the Security Council as a main hub of global peace, security and conflict management. The eloquent speakers tend to march on people’s passion for peace and harmony with artful sophistry and captivating eloquence of words without meaning and prompt action to protect humanity.

The Western news media networks propel portraits of human degradation, historic injustice and socio-economic vices as if political deception and prejudice were new things to political thinkers and rulers. How could we rethink to change the centuries old dreadful human apparatus of brimstone, tormenting social inequalities and torture inflicted by the contemporary so called working democratic systems of political governance? The UNO and its inept leadership has no plan to safeguard mankind from the coming of a Third World War.

Extreme ideologies undermine Peace and Human Unity for Sustainable Future

Those who grab political power by extreme ideologies and hateful manipulation are men of political intrigue assuming power through exploitation of fellow human beings and impose their absurdity on human consciousness striving for survival. Indian PM Narendra Modi recently visited the US to uplift his dubious public image as a leader. He spoke of peace and terrorism when he is actively engaged in oppressing the minorities across India -Sikh, Hindu, Muslims, Christians, violations of women rights and rape and waging a prolonged war against the people of Kashmir. Truth is One and the same unchanging as it was many centuries earlier.

Contrary to the historic India under Mughal Empire where ethnic diversities lived in harmony, we are seeing contemporary India denying equal human rights and freedom – a framework of extreme Hinduism ideology. The masses of Kashmir seek their rights to freedom, not forced captivity. How strange for over seventy years, corrupt Pakistani politicians never thought of an international conference on Kashmir? Pakistanis are abhorrent to critical thinking and criticism for political change. The one track military minds dominate the Pakistani so called political landscape and people are struggling to restore a sense of normalcy and lost credibility to nation’s survival. Unless there is a navigational change away from the military dictatorship to restore democracy, Pakistanis could end-up losing their national freedom.

Could Ukraine and Russia meet at a conference table for an immediate ceasefire and peace making? NATO and the EU are not working in a logical framework to have a dialogue with Russia or to stop the killings and displacement of civilians across Ukraine. Would America and Israel determine the future of the war torn Middle East? Several oil producing Arab leaders are complicit in failure of finding a peaceful resolution of Palestine – be it the East Jerusalem or the annexation of the West Bank. These puppets are mindless beings not living with the Arab people but in palaces under the CIA management. Israeli and Palestinian both live in mutual fear and moral and intellectual decadence. Had they believed in Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Mohammad and their teachings as Prophets of God- all trying to unite mankind before God, they should have reached a peace deal.

The PLO lacks intelligent and effective leadership to counteract Netanyahu whereas the Israeli’s problem rests with the right wing extreme leadership devoid of peace, morality and human equality. PM Netanyahu glued to the extreme right wing parties planning to annex the West Bank of Palestine into Israeli territory. The settlement goes on and wicked leaders simply call it against international law. As if Palestinians were not human beings but just digits and numbers. One would have hoped that thinking Israeli politicians will safeguard their own freedom and security and work out a peaceful settlement between the two nations. None of them could live in peace and harmony unless human rights, freedom and justice are respected by all the parties.

Could the Global Leaders Learn to be People-oriented, Effective and Peacemakers?

Despite many political and strategic odds, one cannot blame the Western industrialized nations for ignorance, human prejudice and sociol-economic disparities. Why has nobody else challenged the racial inequality and moral injustice? What did the Arabs or Muslims contribute to the changing pattern of global political affairs? Global humanity is a mix of all cultures and civilizations. The Arab-Muslim world failed to produce any leader of vision and intellectual integrity for the changing and complex global affairs of the 21st century. When Arabs leaders had proactive vision and intellect and human values, they articulated a unique civilization tolerant of diversity and varied cultural ethnicity in Andalucía (Spain) and built upon the unity of faith to nurture peaceful co-existence and human development. If you list the historic scientific, educational and technological discoveries and contributions of Muslim scholars, they are countless.

Do you know any other scientists or scholars whose textbooks were used continuously for five centuries in European medical schools? Or their scientific work translated into Latin, French, Deutch, English and other languages spoken across the world. Husain Abdullah Bu Ali Sina – Ibne–Sina (Avicenna – “Canon of Medicine” and “Book of Healing”), and Zakria Al-Razi (Russ), 10th century scientists and scholars. The Europeans changed their names to Avicenna and Russ so that nobody would recognize them as Muslim scholars. It is noted that Ibne Sina (Avicenna) alone discovered and authenticated 36 pharmaceutical formulas being used to this day. Marai Rosa Menocal (A Golden Reign of Tolerance: The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain, 2003), explains: The lessons of history, like the lessons of religion, sometime neglect examples of tolerance. A thousand years ago on the Iberian Peninsula, an enlightened vision of Islam had created the most advanced culture in Europe….In Cordoba, the library housed some 400,000 volumes at a time when the largest library in Latin Christendom probably held no more than 400.

Despite the sketchy illusions of freedom, democracy, human rights, liberty and justice, we are encroached, stuffed and at terrible risk of annihilation more accidental and by error of judgment than planned scheme of things by Man against Man. Often the extreme Western political propaganda inflamed hatred against colored and indigenous people, Islam and blames Muslims as being “terrorists.” David Floyd’s voice continues to echo – “I cannot breathe…I cannot breathe” across the global human consciousness. Often false propaganda, deception and prejudice are combined in a trajectory of plans to sell weapons and console the egoistic Arab leaders as allies of the Western military alliance. This political delusion is full of inherent inconsistencies. Gary Wills (What the Qur’an Meant and What It Matters. Viking, NY, 2017), a leading American scholar explains the reality in his new book:

Our enemy in this war is far less localizes than it was in World War 2 or the Cold War. Terror is a tool, not a country. Declaring a war on it is less like normal warfare, country versus country, there is No VE Day or VJ Day in such wars… living with fear is corrosive…the less we know about the reality of Islam, the more we will fight shadows and false emanations from our apprehension. Ignorance is the natural ally of fear. It is time for us to learn about the real Islam beginning with its source book – The Qur’an.

Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in international affairs-global security, peace and conflict resolution with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including the latest: One Humanity and the Remaking of Global Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution. Lambert Academic Publications, Germany, 12/2019.

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COAS General Qamar Javed Bajwa Makes It to the List of Worlds’ Most Powerful by Ishaal Zehra

COAS General Qamar Javed Bajwa Makes It to the List of Worlds’ Most Powerful – What it means to be in the Forbes’ annual ranking of The World’s Most Powerful People

Ishaal Zehra

 

 

 

There are nearly 7.5 billion humans on planet Earth, but the chosen 75 men and women make the world turn, claims the Forbes Magazine. Forbes’ annual ranking of The World’s Most Powerful People identifies one person out of every 100 million whose actions, as per their analysis, mean the most. Apparently, Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff, General Qamar Javed Bajwa is included in those 75 people who have made up to the list, by superseding his slice of 100 million people in the world and double of this figure in Pakistan.

His designated crown ‘selected few most powerful persons’ for his efforts in begetting peace in the U.S. ally state by fighting away the terrorist groups present in the area, in addition to managing a complex relationship with India on its eastern border. Two years into his tenure as the head of the world’s sixth largest Army, Qamar Javed Bajwa has established himself as a mediator. The rift between India and Pakistan is improving, partly thanks to his efforts.

To compile the ranking of The World’s Most Powerful People, the magazine considered hundreds of candidates from various walks of life and measured their power along four dimensions. First, it was checked whether the candidate has power over lots of people. Next, the financial resources controlled by each person was assessed. Then, their power in multiple spheres was calculated. Forbes maintains that there are only 75 slots on the list, so being powerful in just one area is often not enough. Hence their picks project their influence in myriad ways. Lastly, they made sure that the candidates actively used their power.

To calculate the final rankings, a panel of Forbes editors ranked all of the candidates in each of these four dimensions of power, and those individual rankings were averaged into a composite score.

 

 

 

 

General Bajwa is a newcomer to the list along with 16 others on the list this year, including Mohammed Bin Salman Al Saud – the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, who is thought to be the fulcrum around which the Middle Eastern geopolitics moves for the next generation. Other new members include Jerome H. Powell – chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, Darren Woods – CEO of Exxon Mobil, Moon Jae-in – President of South Korea and Robert Mueller – Special Counsel for the U.S. Department of Justice.

General Qamar Javed Bajwa was appointed as the 10th Chief of Army Staff of Pakistan by the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in December 2016.

He was commissioned on 24 October 1980 in 16 Baloch Regiment, which has produced three out of the sixteen army chiefs in the past — General Yahya, General Aslam Baig and General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani.

General. Bajwa is a graduate of National Defence University, Islamabad, Canadian Forces Command and Staff College, (Toronto) Canada, Naval Post Graduate University, Monterey (California) in the USA. He has also served as an instructor at School of Infantry and Tactics, Quetta and Command and Staff College, Quetta and NDU, Islamabad.

Prior to being appointed as the Chief of Army Staff of Pakistan Army, General Bajwa served as the Inspector General Training and Evaluation from 2015–16 and as a field commander of the X Corps from 2013 to 2015 which is responsible for the area along the Line of Control. In addition, he also served as a peacekeeper in the UN mission in Congo as a Brigadier and served as the brigade commander in 2007. Forbes also cited former Chief of Indian Army Staff General Bikram Singh’s annotations regarding the Pakistani Chief. In fact, General Bajwa has served in Congo under General Bikram Singh who was all praises for Bajwa’s performance.

The Chief of Pakistan Army Staff has vast experience in the military field, especially in significant areas such as Baltistan and Kashmir. His approach towards Pakistan’s arch rivals and neighbours India remains passive yet firm which makes him a composed General ready to act with a clear mind rather than being impulsive. He has remained professional and away from politics throughout his term in the army which also adds to his qualities as a true military general.

This year’s list comes at a time of rapid and profound change and represents our best guess about who will matter in the year to come. Forbes magazine placed Chinese President Xi Jinping at the top of the list while placing Russia’s Vladimir Putin as the second most powerful man of 2018. Reducing the US President Donald Trump to number three position in the list of most powerful personality. The German Chancellor Angela Merkel was ranked fourth in the list, making her the most powerful woman in the world.

 

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Pakistan ranks 172 in the World in Internet Download Speed Index

 

 

 

Pakistan ranks 172 in the World in Internet Download Speed Index

 
 
Household Download Index
 

cyberspace
Based on millions of recent test results from Speedtest.net, this index compares and ranks consumer download speeds around the globe. The value is the rolling mean throughput in Mbps over the past 30 days where the mean distance between the client and the server is less than 300 miles.
 
 

ALL COUNTRIES

Graph Period:
May 31, 2011 – Nov 29, 2013

 

1
Hong Kong70.78 Mbps
2
Singapore53.42 Mbps
3
Romania52.48 Mbps
4
South Korea47.71 Mbps
5
Sweden43.02 Mbps
6
Macau40.94 Mbps
7
Japan40.93 Mbps
8
Lithuania40.90 Mbps
9
Andorra39.70 Mbps
10
Netherlands38.67 Mbps
11
Taiwan37.73 Mbps
12
Latvia37.52 Mbps
13
Denmark35.20 Mbps
14
Switzerland34.87 Mbps
15
Iceland34.51 Mbps
16
Luxembourg33.37 Mbps
17
18
Bulgaria29.06 Mbps
19
Belgium28.01 Mbps
20
Norway26.82 Mbps
21
Finland26.22 Mbps
22
France24.79 Mbps
23
Portugal24.15 Mbps
24
United Kingdom23.69 Mbps
25
Czech Republic23.28 Mbps
26
Germany23.25 Mbps
27
Liechtenstein23.10 Mbps
28
Estonia23.08 Mbps
29
Hungary22.91 Mbps
30
Uruguay21.78 Mbps
31
Ukraine20.84 Mbps
32
United States20.72 Mbps
33
Malta20.31 Mbps
34
Russia20.19 Mbps
35
Austria20.08 Mbps
36
Slovakia19.51 Mbps
37
Spain19.06 Mbps
38
Canada18.95 Mbps
39
Israel18.83 Mbps
40
Aland Islands18.55 Mbps
41
Ireland17.38 Mbps
42
New Zealand17.02 Mbps
43
Mauritius16.34 Mbps
44
China16.31 Mbps
45
Poland16.24 Mbps
46
47
Slovenia14.72 Mbps
48
Monaco14.34 Mbps
49
Australia14.30 Mbps
50
Georgia14.08 Mbps
51
Kazakstan14.03 Mbps
52
Mongolia13.88 Mbps
53
Isle of Man13.76 Mbps
54
Jersey13.74 Mbps
55
56
Thailand13.21 Mbps
57
Vietnam12.84 Mbps
58
Chile12.74 Mbps
59
Tajikistan11.82 Mbps
60
Faroe Islands11.71 Mbps
61
Aruba11.45 Mbps
62
Mexico11.44 Mbps
63
Curacao11.43 Mbps
64
Macedonia11.23 Mbps
65
66
Madagascar10.72 Mbps
67
Cayman Islands10.54 Mbps
68
Armenia10.19 Mbps
69
Saudi Arabia10.15 Mbps
70
Guernsey10.08 Mbps
71
Namibia9.93 Mbps
72
Turkey9.52 Mbps
73
Kyrgyzstan9.37 Mbps
74
Brazil9.28 Mbps
75
Puerto Rico9.20 Mbps
76
Bahamas9.16 Mbps
77
Qatar9.01 Mbps
79
Grenada8.65 Mbps
80
Belarus8.45 Mbps
81
Guam8.18 Mbps
82
Cyprus8.17 Mbps
83
Serbia8.03 Mbps
84
Greece8.00 Mbps
85
Lesotho7.54 Mbps
86
Bahrain7.30 Mbps
87
San Marino7.28 Mbps
88
Rwanda7.17 Mbps
89
Kuwait7.11 Mbps
91
Italy7.01 Mbps
92
Reunion6.92 Mbps
93
Senegal6.80 Mbps
94
Gibraltar6.76 Mbps
96
New Caledonia6.70 Mbps
97
Bermuda6.69 Mbps
98
Croatia6.67 Mbps
99
DR Congo6.47 Mbps
100
Montenegro6.32 Mbps
101
Mali6.18 Mbps
102
Albania5.94 Mbps
103
Cape Verde5.91 Mbps
104
Ecuador5.87 Mbps
106
Colombia5.85 Mbps
107
Barbados5.74 Mbps
108
109
Panama5.64 Mbps
110
Fiji5.55 Mbps
111
Saint Lucia5.47 Mbps
112
Jamaica5.45 Mbps
113
Argentina5.41 Mbps
114
Nigeria5.22 Mbps
115
Oman5.19 Mbps
116
117
Greenland5.13 Mbps
118
Malaysia4.94 Mbps
119
Ghana4.80 Mbps
120
Azerbaijan4.79 Mbps
121
Laos4.78 Mbps
122
Cambodia4.71 Mbps
123
Zimbabwe4.66 Mbps
124
Nepal4.63 Mbps
125
Bhutan4.53 Mbps
127
Martinique4.35 Mbps
128
Morocco4.31 Mbps
129
Nicaragua4.29 Mbps
130
Tanzania4.22 Mbps
131
India4.21 Mbps
132
Haiti4.17 Mbps
133
Myanmar4.15 Mbps
134
South Africa4.14 Mbps
135
136
Uganda4.04 Mbps
137
Kenya4.00 Mbps
140
Libya3.80 Mbps
141
Peru3.79 Mbps
142
Honduras3.78 Mbps
143
Paraguay3.72 Mbps
144
Mauritania3.71 Mbps
145
Iraq3.69 Mbps
146
Angola3.52 Mbps
147
Guadeloupe3.46 Mbps
148
149
Belize3.38 Mbps
150
Costa Rica3.33 Mbps
151
Indonesia3.33 Mbps
152
Gabon3.31 Mbps
153
Seychelles3.30 Mbps
154
Suriname3.25 Mbps
155
Maldives3.21 Mbps
156
Anguilla3.15 Mbps
157
Guatemala3.15 Mbps
158
Zambia3.13 Mbps
159
Mozambique3.11 Mbps
160
Jordan2.95 Mbps
161
Tunisia2.93 Mbps
162
163
Philippines2.90 Mbps
164
165
El Salvador2.84 Mbps
166
Lebanon2.73 Mbps
167
Bangladesh2.69 Mbps
168
Dominica2.68 Mbps
169
170
Uzbekistan2.53 Mbps
172
 Pakistan2.31 Mbps
173
174
Egypt2.17 Mbps
175
Botswana2.14 Mbps
176
Swaziland2.14 Mbps
177
Venezuela2.10 Mbps
178
Sudan1.84 Mbps
179
Bolivia1.73 Mbps
180
Algeria1.54 Mbps
181
Gambia1.50 Mbps
182
183
Benin1.31 Mbps
184
Malawi1.16 Mbps
185
Afghanistan1.13 Mbps
186
Burkina Faso0.89 Mbps

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

— 

 
 

Reference

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New Press Freedom Group is Launched to Block US Government Attacks

topsecretPublished on Monday, December 17, 2012 by The Guardian

New Press Freedom Group is Launched to Block US Government Attacks

Nothing is more vital than enabling true transparency and adversarial journalism, and preventing further assaults on them

Several weeks ago, I wrote about the steps taken by the US government to pressure large corporations to choke off the finances and other means of support for WikiLeaks in retaliation for the group’s exposure of substantial government deceit, wrongdoing and illegality. Because WikiLeaks has never been charged with, let alone convicted of, any crime, I wrote: “that the US government largely succeeded in using extra-legal and extra-judicial means to cripple an adverse journalistic outlet is a truly consequential episode.” At the end of that column, I disclosed that I had been involved in discussions “regarding the formation of a new organization designed to support independent journalists and groups such as WikiLeaks under attack by the US and other governments.”

(Photograph: Alamy)

That group has now been formed and, this morning, was formally launched. Its name is Freedom of the Press Foundation. Its website is here and its Twitter account, which will be quite active, is @FreedomOfPress.

I’m very excited to have participated in its formation and will serve as an unpaid member of the Board of Directors, along with the heroic whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, 2012 McArthur-fellowship-receipient and Oscar-nominated documentarian Laura Poitras, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation John Perry Barlow, the actor and civil liberties advocate John Cusack, BoingBoing co-founder Xeni Jardin, and several other passionate free press and transparency activists. Numerous articles have been written today about its launch, including from the New York Times’ media reporter David Carr, theGuardian’s Dan GillmorForbes’ Andy GreenbergHuffington Post’s media reporter Michael CalderoneFDL’s Kevin Gosztola, and board member Josh Stearns.

The primary impetus for the formation of this group was to block the US government from ever again being able to attack and suffocate an independent journalistic enterprise the way it did with WikiLeaks. Government pressure and the eager compliance of large financial corporations (such as Visa, Master Card, Bank of America, etc.) has – by design – made it extremely difficult for anyone to donate to WikiLeaks, while many people are simply afraid to directly support the group (for reasons I explained here).

We intend to raise funds ourselves and then distribute it to the beneficiaries we name. The first group of beneficiaries includes WikiLeaks. We can circumvent those extra-legal, totally inappropriate blocks that have been imposed on the group. We can enable people to support WikiLeaks without donating directly to it by donating to this new organization that will then support a group of deserving independent journalism outlets, one of which is WikiLeaks. In sum, we will render impotent the government’s efforts to use its coercive pressure over corporations to suffocate not only WikiLeaks but any other group it may similarly target in the future.

The second purpose is to ensure that truly independent journalistic outlets – devoted to holding the US government and other powerful factions accountable with transparency and real adversarial journalism – are supported to the fullest extent possible. Along those lines, we have selected three other organizations along with WikiLeaks as our initial beneficiaries:

Muckrock News, a truly innovative group devoted to enabling any citizen easily and quickly to file Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) or public records requests with the government, and then “guides the requests through the system so the government does not disregard” them. They also act as a news organization by analyzing and publicizing any newsworthy information they and their users uncover. Currently, “they are conducting a Drone Census of the United States, filing public records requests around the country that ask police agencies if they plan on buying domestic drones for surveillance purposes.”

The UpTake, a Minnesota-based group that uses truly innovative means to break “down walls of power to expose the raw truth by pushing for transparency and access to information.” They use citizen journalism, crowd-sourcing and cutting-edge technology to film and document the bad acts of government agents. I worked next to them when I covered the incredibly excessive federal and local police actions and brutality against protesters at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, and was truly impressed with them then, as I watched all sorts of young activists and older ones use hand-held video cameras and phones to comprehensively cover all sorts of police abuses being ignored by most large journalistic outlets, which were comfortably ensconced inside the convention hall. They’ve expanded their operations substantially since then, have a long list of achievements to tout, and – most excitingly to me – can serve as a template for how to engage in real journalism across the country using citizens and the power of technology.

The National Security Archive, a group founded “by journalists and scholars to check rising government secrecy” and which “combines a unique range of functions: investigative journalism center, research institute on international affairs, library and archive of declassified U.S. documents.” It also “serves as an advocacy organization to defend and expand citizen access to government information”, as exemplified by its having “filed over 40,000 targeted Freedom of Information and declassification requests to more than 200 offices and agencies of the United States.” Anyone who writes about or works on transparency and civil liberties issues (including me) depends on it; due to its efforts, “more than 10 million pages of previously secret U.S. government documents have been made public.”

Each of these groups is innovating real, adversarial journalism. They deserve the support of anyone who believes that rampant government secrecy and a supine establishment media are serious problems. And our new organization needs the support of everyone who finds the ability of the US government to shut off the funding of journalistic groups it dislikes to be threatening and wrong.

By clicking here, you can donate to all four of these groups at once or to any combination of them in whatever amounts you specify. Every two months, we will release a new bundle of deserving groups or individuals devoted to these values of independent, adversarial journalism and in need. You can also donate directly to the Freedom of Press Foundation, which will distribute the funds to the beneficiaries in accordance with our published criteria. All of the details of the group’s operation, mission, and goals are here. Those who lack the resources to donate can help in other ways, listed here.

Secrecy is the linchpin of abuse of power. Few priorities are more important, in my view, than supporting and enabling any efforts to subvert the ability of the US government and other factions to operate in the dark. It’s particularly vital to undercut the US government’s ability to punish and kill groups that succeed in these transparency efforts. Those are the goals to which this new press freedom foundation are devoted, and I hope that anyone who believes these goals are important will find ways to support this effort.

© 2012 The Guardian
Glenn Greenwald

Glenn Greenwald is a columnist on civil liberties and US national security issues for the Guardian. A former constitutional lawyer, he was until 2012 a contributing writer at Salon.  His most recent book is, With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful. His other books include: Great American Hypocrites: Toppling the Big Myths of Republican Politics,  A Tragic Legacy: How a Good vs. Evil Mentality Destroyed the Bush Presidency, and How Would a Patriot Act? Defending American Values from a President Run Amok. He is the recipient of the first annual I.F. Stone Award for Independent Journalism.

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