Defending Rights & Dissent

Washington DC! Join us Thursday for a new documentary & panel discussion on the Occupy movement that mobilized millions to take to the streets for a better world

FREE TO ATTEND! October 23rd, 7pm @ips-dc.org w/ @arunguptareporter.bsky.social,@chipgibbons.bsky.social, Omar Ocampo, & Margaret Flowers

"It is the responsibility of the State Department to advocate for American journalists."

With @penamerica.bsky.social, @freedom.press & more, we wrote to Sec. Rubio over the Americans and others who Israel illegally abducted from the Global Sumud Flotilla

www.rightsanddissent.org/news/rights-...

Eyewitness to Gaza’s Death Traps: A conversation with Anthony Aguilar | Busboys and Poets As part of its ongoing genocide in Gaza, Israel has deliberately pursued a policy of starvation. After blocking reputable aid providers like the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), Israel,...

Washington DC! Join us Thursday at Brookland @busboysandpoets.bsky.social for a talk with Gaza Humanitarian Foundation whistleblower Anthony Aguilar.

Free to attend -- RSVP now!

www.busboysandpoets.com/events/th-ev...

Stop Trump's aggression in the Caribbean now Tell your Senator: Support the War Powers bill to rein Trump in now

Stop Trump's illegal aggression in the Caribbean, support Senate War Powers Resolution today

secure.rightsanddissent.org/a/stop-trump...

A powerful, insightful, and disturbing interview Chip Gibbons from #ProtectTheProtest coalition member @rightsdissent.bsky.social on last week's executive order.

Use this tool from @rightsdissent.bsky.social to tell the State Department to demand Israel release these activists and journalists.

secure.rightsanddissent.org/a/state-dept...

Read the latest from @dropsitenews.com on Israel's illegal interception of Global Sumud Flotilla boats, below 👇

Then tell @statedeptus.bsky.social that Israel must release Drop Site journalist Alex Colston and the rest of those abducted immediately: secure.rightsanddissent.org/a/state-dept...

War Powers Watch: Trump and Venezuela YouTube video by Defending Rights & Dissent

War Powers Watch: Trump and Venezuela

Constitutional law expert @chipgibbons.bsky.social reviews the legal issues around Trump's extrajudicial killing of 11 individuals in a speedboat in the Caribbean

www.youtube.com/live/XKy8QBs...

NEWS: Judge to drop the RICO charges against all 61 Cop City protesters accused of racketeering!

These charges were always an absurd affront to the First Amendment and should never have been looming over these activists' heads for so long.

apnews.com/article/atla...

Thank you Senator Paul for your speaking out.

Our Constitution and our principles are clear.

The President cannot order someone dead because he suspects they committed crime.

And extrajudicial executions are a war crime.

Free to Speak Bill of Rights Protest is the voice of the people. Wherever injustice arises, the people come together to raise their voices in protest. This right to dissent is at the heart of our democracy. From the civil rights movement to Vietnam War protests to Black Lives Matter, protest bends the arc towards justice.

Do you know about the Free to Speak Bill of Rights & Resource Hub?

We helped build this collaborative tool with @rightsdissent.bsky.social + @greenpeaceusa.bsky.social to share resources that strengthen organizing, defend free speech and keep our coalitions grounded in shared values. Check it out!

📣Urge your reps to support the Land of the Free Act and repeal a pernicious provision, invoked by the Trump admin., to arrest and attempt to deport legal residents for exercising their right to free speech, including targeting Rümeysa Öztürk for co-authoring an op-ed.

Via @rightsdissent.bsky.social

Great post from @hrdag.org about protecting our rights by protecting our data

Livestream: Gaza Humanitarian Foundation whistleblower speaks to Defending Rights & Dissent

LIVESTREAM: Register now to see our conversation with Gaza Humanitarian Foundation Whistleblower Anthony Aguilar, August 12 at 3:30pm.

Aguilar saw first-hand how the GHF 'aid' sites became "death traps" for starving Palestinians in Gaza. secure.rightsanddissent.org/a/livestream...

DHS Distributed “Situational Awareness Bulletin” About Film How To Blow Up A Pipeline An investigation by Defending Rights & Dissent has revealed that the Department of Homeland Security distributed a “situational awareness bulletin” in advance of the release of the film How To …

NEW: As part of a separate FOIA investigation, we have discovered that the DHS distributed a “Situational Awareness Bulletin” about the 2022 film "How to Blow Up a Pipeline"

Read @chipgibbons.bsky.social for more on the discovery: www.rightsanddissent.org/news/dhs-dis...

The people have a right to transparency and a functioning Congress. We don’t know what’s in the Epstein files, but depriving the people of a functioning legislature in order to hide these secrets is outrageous.

BREAKING: Defending Rights & Dissent Lawsuit Uncovers FBI Surveillance of Journalists and Peace Activists at Left Forum

@chipgibbons.bsky.social breaks down our discovery that 2 FBI agents secretly attended a panel on WikiLeaks at the 2018 conference www.rightsanddissent.org/news/defendi...

Ex-Columbia Student Wins Ruling Blocking Deportation, for Now A federal judge said the US can’t immediately deport Mahmoud Khalil, blocking the Trump administration’s attempts to get another court to give it permission to ship the former Columbia University grad...

The Trump administration's attempted deportation is unconstitutional. It is outrageous an immigration judge was still moving along with removal proceedings in spite of a federal judge's injunction.

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Video: Chip Gibbons joins Majority Report on Trump’s war on free speech Defending Rights & Dissent Policy Director Chip Gibbons appeared on the popular political talk show The Majority Report today for a live discussion about the Trump administration’s crackdown on…

VIDEO: Our policy director @chipgibbons.bsky.social joined
@majorityreport.bsky.social yesterday and spoke with
@emmavigeland.bsky.social about Mahmoud Khalil and the history of U.S. crackdowns on political dissent

www.rightsanddissent.org/news/video-c...

Federal agencies can't limit requests for government information about third parties this way.

If CBP doesn't want to release information about its communications with these organizations, it shouldn't communicate with them.

Defending Rights & Dissent in June:

🔹Investigating Our Govt's Role in Gaza “killing fields”
🔹Filed amicus brief supporting Khalil et al's case against Columbia
🔹War on Iran, CIA analyst sentenced, 'No Kings' rallies, GTMO expansion, CBS settlement & more

www.rightsanddissent.org/news/newslet...

This is a blatant misstatement of FOIA law -- individuals, not “businesses” have privacy rights.

Who is CBP protecting?

BREAKING: In response to our FOIA request about the government’s collusion with private blacklisting organizations like Canary Mission, Betar, and the ADL, CBP
is claiming it cannot release files mentioning a “business” unless the business consents on their letterhead.

This revelation came from a late night filing by the US Attorney's Office in response to our ongoing lawsuit Defending Rights & Dissent v. FBI.

We are currently in court defending your right to know about the FBI's role in the press freedom case of the century.

BREAKING: The FBI likely has 28,240 pages of files on Wikileaks founder and journalist Julian Assange, excluding any files from the Mueller Investigation.

We have a right to know the extent of our government's involvement in the killing of unarmed, starving Palestinians just trying to access food in Gaza.

Read our full press release here: www.rightsanddissent.org/news/defendi...

The second requests all State Department, Department of Defense, and (the now-defunct) United States Agency for International Development contracts with the group or its subcontractors for services performed in the Gaza Strip

The first FOIA request seeks internal State Department reports and communications about the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, as well as the U.S. government’s communications with Israel about the organization.

THREAD: With Palestinians being killed at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid sites, we filed two FOIA requests last week to expose our government's complicity in Israel's killing fields in Gaza.