WikiLeaks Grand Jury Witness David House Refuses to Testify, Invokes Fifth Amendment

[Hissyspit]

Source: AFP

WikiLeaks grand jury witness David House refuses to testify, invokes Fifth Amendment
Published on June 15th, 2011
Written by: Agence France-Presse

WASHINGTON — A friend of Bradley Manning, the American soldier accused of leaking classified files to WikiLeaks, said he declined to answer questions at a grand jury hearing.

- snip -

But House said that during the closed-door hearing he invoked the constitution’s Fifth Amendment, which protects him from self-incrimination, offering only his name and address and refusing to answer the prosecutors other questions.

“The show trial that is now under way in Alexandria, Virginia has the potential to set a dangerous precedent for regulating the media,” House said in a statement issued by Manning’s support network.

“Using Nixonian fear tactics that were honed during the Pentagon Papers investigation, the DoJ (Department of Justice) is attempting to dismantle a major media organization — WikiLeaks — and indict its editor, Julian Assange,” he said. “The DoJ’s ever-widening net has now come to encompass academics, students, and journalists in the Cambridge (Boston) area,” he said.

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/06/15/wikileaks-grand-jury-witness-david-house-refuses-to-testify-invokes-fifth-amendment/

[WhiteTara]

1. Brave Man. n/t

[SoapBox]

2. Ditto...Brave MAN. n/t

[struggle4progress]

3. Well, that changes the appearance of House's stories. Maybe the government

wasn't "harassing" House because of "his support for Manning," for example. And maybe the government had some legitimate reason to seize House's laptop

[struggle4progress]

4. ... House said he was not asked any questions about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The Justice

Department, House said, "is very frantically trying to link Bradley Manning and Julian Assange, and they're casting a very wide net" ...
WikiLeaks Grand Jury Witness Refuses To Testify
by The Associated Press
ALEXANDRIA, Va. June 15, 2011, 07:04 pm ET
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=137208321

[defendandprotect]

5. Any question but that the national security state has to be dismantled -- ???

[struggle4progress]

6. ... "The show trial that is now under way in Alexandria, Virginia, has the potential to set

a dangerous precedent for regulating the media," House said in a statement issued by Manning's support network. "Using Nixonian fear tactics that were honed during the Pentagon Papers investigation, the DoJ is attempting to dismantle a major media organisation - WikiLeaks - and indict its editor, Julian Assange," he said. "The DoJ's ever-widening net has now come to encompass academics, students and journalists in the Cambridge area," he said ...
US WikiLeaks witness refuses to testify
June 16, 2011 - 11:49AM
AFP
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/us-wikileaks-witness-refuses-to-testify-20110616-1g4ke.html

[annm4peace]

7. AWESOME !!!!!!!!!!!

:woohoo: :applause: :woohoo: :applause: :yourock: :applause: :woohoo: :applause:

WE NEED TO SUPPORT DAVID HOUSE. Say prayers, send positive thoughts, burn candles, burn sage, send money, and make calls.

Call AG Eric Holder and tell him to end the Grand Jury of Wikileaks.

Call U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder at [phone] or call him directly at 202-514-2001



The grand jury subpoenas are part of the fishing expedition targeting these committed activists and organizers. The use of grand juries to conduct sweeping investigations dates back to the Nixon administration’s attack on the social movements in the 1970s. The grand jury is neither fair nor even handed, no matter who is in charge.

A grand jury is a panel of jurors who hear evidence from a prosecutor and decide whether or not to charge someone with a crime. The grand jury can subpoena pretty much anyone they want and ask about anything, and people can be jailed for contempt if they do not answer questions. The jurors are hand-picked by prosecutors with no screen for bias. All evidence is presented by a prosecutor in a cloak of secrecy. The prosecutor has no responsibility to present evidence that favors those being investigated. Grand jury witnesses have no right to have a lawyer in the room to object to how the prosecutor is conducting the proceedings.

The grand jury has been used as a tool of political repression against many movements for social change in this country. From the pre-civil war abolitionist movement to the Civil Rights movements, the movement against the war in Vietnam, the American Indian Movement, the Central America solidarity movement, the Puerto Rican Independence movement, animal rights and environmental movements, there have have been many targets of political repression and grand jury inquisition

[CubicleGuy]

8. So, the next step will be...

... to offer him complete immunity in exchange for his testimony. Through that little bit of legal chicanery, he no longer can invoke the Fifth Amendment, because they won't be able to nail him for anything he might say. But if he still refuses to testify, they can decide to do just about any old thing they want to make his life miserable.

[annm4peace]

9. You are right. He might face 15 years in prison for not speaking

That is why it is so important people call in to holder and their Reps and Senators.

If were to speak, they could us any of the info against him or anyhow else they ask him about. If they give him immunity then they can ask him about anyone and you never know how it will be twisted.

We the people have to end these Grand Jury witch hunts.

Here are some images you can use for posters, buttons or on postcards you can send to eric holder.

http://stopfbi.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/midwest_witch_hunt-buttons2-25_01.pdf

[msanthrope]

25. Can you cite that legal claim? What statute are you saying House will be charged with?nt

[struggle4progress]

26. It's your theory that people can refuse to testify, even under immunity, because "you never know how

it will be twisted"?

As a legal principle, that would have an astonishing and far-reaching effect!

Q. Did you witness the Defendent Moriarty dismembering Mr. Holmes with a chainsaw?
A. Well, youse see, I'd really rather not say, because of that I am unsure how youse might twist my words!

[ooglymoogly]

30. +1...Liberty bonds is a brillient idea. Just need as many eyballs

on this as possible.

[chervilant]

37. Wow...

Shades of Joe McCarthy...

[msanthrope]

23. Probably not. They have House's computer. They don't need him to testify as to what's

I suspect this is the parade of witnesses before the issuing of target letters and indictments.

It's a tough call. But House's computer makes a better witness than he will.

[DeSwiss]

31. Actually, all he has to do then is lie like hell. n/t

[msanthrope]

35. Federal crime to lie to a grand jury. nt

[DeSwiss]

38. How will they know he's lying?

Answer: They won't. He's pretty much all they got.

[buckrogers1965]

10. Are you now or have you ever been

a member of wikileaks?

All you have to do is name a few of your friends that were communists, err, I mean part of wikileaks and all will be forgiven.

[robinlynne]

20. yep. you nailed it.

[villager]

11. Glad to see so much "change" at the DOJ!

Man, the power is really in the hands of the people, who can "choose" in each election, eh?

[davidwparker]

17. +1

[ooglymoogly]

32. Yes and the change has turned this government from very dangerous to dangerously horrific.

Both 0. and H. are Nazi's in snakes skin clothing stamped with a dishonest "D"; both being far right of a borderline Nazi like Nixon; who was a main player on the wrong side, in the infamous witch hunt McCarthy hearings, designed to knock off democrats and liberals, i.e. socialists, which necessarily means communists, at least to fascist capitalists.

Same m.o., same reasons, same innate dishonesty and cheating. All synthesized from the same formula

(dino's+bluedogs+pugs+thugs at the top=pure evil;

they are the four horsemen of the apocalypse and they are afoot in this regime and are careening this country into disaster; flirting with the blackness of the abyss for this country; finishing the job for lunatic bastards like Herr. B. et al.

[msanthrope]

34. President Obama is not a nazi. Godwin fail.

David House had been afforded due process, like any other American.

[Taverner]

46. Will you shut up about Godwin

Saying Godwin every time someone says 'Nazi' adds nothing to the conversation

[boppers]

41. How many relatives of yours did Obama murder in death camps?

A round number would be good enough. I lost around 300 to the Nazi's. 0 to Obama.

[ooglymoogly]

42. Ever heard of Manning and what that admitted persecution and torture entails and for what?

Ever heard of Assange and what his persecution entails and for what?

Ever heard of the powers to assasinate anyone on earth without evidence or trial that this president claims is his right as president.

I could go on a few pages about our broken and trashed constitution, but hey its just not worth the effort.

For some folks a fairytale works much better and I don't have any fairytales to tell right now.

[boppers]

43. fairy *tale*.

Not tail.

Neither Manning nor Assange has been murdered, so their treatment is no more than a millionth (at most) of what the Nazi's did.

[ooglymoogly]

44. got it....

If the murderous drones are any indicator, and the innocent folks being killed, I contend it is just to early in the movement toward fascism for the true believers to comprehend. Some of us were living during the Nazi build up in Germany and watched the true believers herald in fascism into their midst. It did not happen all at once; it happened in increments under heavy propaganda and I believe we are moving much faster toward that goal of an Oligarchic slave nation than did Germany.

For me it is understandable that the Europeans understand this better than the folks of this country.

Hitler started by changing the laws to make his criminal acts legal and that is what the past two administrations have been doing in spades.

[tiny elvis]

49. first they came for the afghanis

but what did the afghanis ever do for me?

[buckrogers1965]

50. You do realize how many civilians our soldiers are killing in the middle east right?

It is over 100,000 by the most conservative possible count. Some people say over a million. Not to mention millions of displaced people.

[Overseas]

12. K&R!

[krabigirl]

13. K&R

[Hissyspit]

14. Kick nt

[Bragi]

15. K&R

[fascisthunter]

16. this country becomes less free everyday

[lordsummerisle]

18. K&R! n/t

[libmom74]

19. I don't know if I can stand 4 more years

of this kind "Change". We need to draft a real progressive/democrat to primary Obama.

[KansDem]

21. The Fifth...what?

Oh, that...wasn't that deemed a "God-damned piece of paper?"

[VeryConfused]

22. "dismantle a major media organization — WikiLeaks"

:spray: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Kaleko]

29. No wonder you are VeryConfused.

So much rolling-on-the-floor-laughing-your-ass-off will addle even an otherwise normal brain.

[Canuckistanian]

24. K&R

Hang in there, David....

[Major Hogwash]

27. Bet they didn't see that coming. By the way, where the hell is Rumsfeld or Cheney?

How come they're not imprisoned yet?

[Nossida]

28. Bravo,

Or you could just use the famous,
'I can't recall' defense of Bush/Cheney
and their boot-licking sycophants.

The Valerie Plame farce set the standard,
so why not use it?

[90-percent]

33. Call in the experts

"The Justice Department, House said, "is very frantically trying to link Bradley Manning and Julian Assange, and they're casting a very wide net" ...


The Justice Department should hire Douglas Feith and Condi Rice and Dick Cheney to "fix the intelligence" the Justice Department needs in it's fishing hunt.

-90% Jimmy

[russspeakeasy]

36. Good for him. Don't say a damn thing.

Wikileaks is a heroic organization.

[bahrbearian]

39. "I don't recall" is a good way to get out of testifying

[MasonJar]

40. The DOJ under the Obama administration is paltry. They go after Manning

but not the Bush war criminals or the persecutors of Don Siegelman.

[Lint Head]

45. This may be a major turning point.

[man4allcats]

47. K&R!!!

Missed the 24 hr rec limit, but kudos to the courage in the statement of David House!

:headbang: :headbang: :headbang:

[defendandprotect]

48. K/R -- Takes lot of courage to stand this strong -- !!