Actions in SF, Oakland & San Jose To Demand Dropping Of Charges Against Assange/Snowden

Speak-outs were held at the Congressional offices of Congresswomen Barbara Lee, Zoe Lofgren and the home of Nancy Pelosi on December 10 /11 to call for support for Congressional Resolutions 1175 and 1162 which called for dropping the charges against Julian Assange and Edward Snowden.

A statement was already read by fomer OSHA WPP Investigator and lawyer Darrell Whitman representing Whistleblowers United.
The days of action was initiated by
Bay Action Committee To Free Julian Assange
http://bayaction2freeassange.org
It was endorsed by United Front Committee For A Labor Party
https://foramasslaborparty.wordpress.com

Additional media:
H. RES. 1175 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
https://www.congress.gov/116/bills/hres1175/BILLS-116hres1175ih.xml

IFJ In Defense of Assange "a threat to journalists and journalism around the world"
https://www.ifj.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Urgentmotions_IFJCongress_2019.pdf_170619.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3DElZ6rIh5OgpGVCLtgEuGKvC0toyQPAw0SF2pg9NRy3dGSx1Ln3CWXrk

San Francisco Labor Council 02-11-19 Resolution in Support of the Defense of Whistle Blower & Journalist Julian Assange
https://sflaborcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/02-11-19Resolution-in-Support-of-the-Defense-of-WhistleblowerAssange.pdf

CWA PMWG Guild joins call to stop chasing Assange
http://mediaworkers.org/guild-joins-call-to-stop-chasing-assange/
Press Freedom, Whistleblowers & The Case Of Assange, Manning & Carmody
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0Ps-vxaaSw

MEAA Australia’s Media Workers Union-New Assange charges pose a threat to press freedom
https://www.meaa.org/news/new-assange-charges-pose-a-threat-to-press-freedom/

Julian Assange, Ed Snowden and The War On Whistleblower-Statement By Former OSHA WPP Investigator & Lawyer Darrel Whitman 12/10/20

There is no more important freedom guaranteed by our Constitution than the First Amendment’s freedom to speak truth to power and hear that spoken truth. Ed Snowden’s courageous revelation about the systematic capture and collection of private information by the National Security State ranks alongside Daniel Ellsberg’s revelations of war crimes a half century ago as a singular moment in the long struggle against abuse of power by seemingly unaccountable public officials.

But Ed Snowden could not have spoken his truth without a “truth publisher”, in this case Julian Assange, who has become a revered hero to whistleblowers everywhere. This teamwork is an example of how whistleblowing is much more than merely attempting to report wrongdoing because it requires both someone willing to speak truth and someone willing to report what whistleblowers disclose.

Ed Snowden is a genuine whistleblower because he openly spoke from his own personal knowledge, not from something borrowed from someone else. It is what both qualifies someone as a whistleblower, and also exposes genuine whistleblowers to retaliation.

We are supposed to have protections for whistleblowers – in the case of federal whistleblowers, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel and the system of Inspectors General.
But Ed Snowden’s case, as well as the cases of more than 15,000 other federal whistleblowers now show, that protection is worse than a sham, because the two high profile federal programs designed and funded to protect federal whistleblowers – the U.S. Special Counsel and the Counsel of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, instead have been the principal agents for a war on whistleblowers.

I can say this with great confidence because my group of whistleblowers, who joined together over the last six years to investigate this war on whistleblowers have confirmed there is a vast network of corrupt federal officials who systematically obstruct whistleblower investigations to enrich themselves and preferred others.

The cost of this war can be measured not only in dollars - tens of billions if not trillions of dollars, but also in injuries, damages and the deaths of many in the U.S. and around the world. This unconscionable abuse of power has been widely reported to other federal agencies and to dozens of members of Congress, who have failed to take any action to protect either whistleblowers or the American people.

Thus, protecting Julian Assange and Ed Snowden can only be done by recognizing and ending the broad war on whistleblowers their cases represent. Whistleblowers United, which I represent, has released hundreds of documents to the public by putting them in the public record with the National Archives and Record Administration (NARA), and will soon release new documents showing beyond any doubt that this corrupt network exists, identifying hundreds of corrupt officials and political actors, and describing their criminal activities.

We will then demand that these officials be removed, investigated and prosecuted to hold them accountable for their wrongdoing. That is the only way to end this war and restore faithful truth-tellers and publishers of truth-telling to their rightful place in our society.
For Whistleblowers United,

Dr. Darrell L. Whitman
E-mail: whitmandarrewll45 [at] gmail.com