[Pnews] Jeremy Hammond Issues Statement Explaining Why He is Resisting the Grand Jury

[Prisoner News]

https://freejeremy.net/2019/10/11/imprisoned-information-activist-jeremy-hammond-issues-statement-explaining-why-he-is-resisting-the-edva-grand-jury/

*Jeremy Hammond Issues Statement Explaining Why He is Resisting the EDVA 
Grand Jury*

*Alexandria, VA — *Imprisoned information activist Jeremy Hammond was 
found in contempt yesterday for refusing to answer 7 questions in front 
of a Federal Grand Jury in the Eastern District of Virginia (EDVA). 
Chelsea Manning was similarly remanded into custody for failure to 
provide testimony before the same Grand Jury. Hammond, who was already 
serving his 7th year of a 10 year Federal Prison sentence after pleading 
guilty for releasing information about the Private Intelligence Firm 
Strategic Forcasting (Stratfor), has issued the following statement 
detailing his reasons for resisting the EDVA’s grand jury:

“As many of you know, I was just a few months from my scheduled release 
from federal prison when I was unexpectedly dragged in chains and planes 
to this raggedy detention center in Alexandria, Virginia. I am outraged 
that the government is threatening additional jail time if I do not 
cooperate with their grand jury investigation. Their draconian 
intimidation tactics could never coerce me into betraying my comrades or 
my principles. In the spirit of resistance and with great contempt for 
their system, I am choosing silence over freedom.

“I am fully prepared for the consequences of my decision just as I have 
been each and every time I was faced with similar choices before. Long 
ago when I realized that government and capitalism were too hopelessly 
corrupt and unjust to be reformed through legal or electoral means, I 
chose to engage in civil disobedience and direct action. I knew then 
that my actions could land me behind bars, yet I fought on anyway; after 
a dozen arrests and even a prior federal prison sentence for hacking, I 
chose once again to use my computer skills to attack the systems of the 
rich and powerful as part of the Anonymous federal case I am doing time 
for today.

“When I pled guilty, I took responsibility for my actions and my actions 
alone. I never agreed to be debriefed or testify in any way, unlike the 
government’s informant Hector Monsegur, aka Sabu, whose reward was one 
year of probation while I received the maximum sentence allowable by 
law. It was a painful choice, but ten years in their dungeons was the 
price I was willing to pay so I could maintain my integrity. I have 
never regretted my choices the entire time I have been incarcerated, and 
having seen and experienced first-hand the abuses and inherent injustice 
of the prison industrial complex, my commitment to revolution and 
abolition has only become more deeply entrenched.

“Now, after seven and a half years of ‘paying my debt to society,’ the 
government seeks to punish me further with this vindictive, 
politically-motivated legal maneuver to delay my release, knowing full 
well that I would never cooperate with their witch hunt. I am opposed to 
all grand juries, but I am opposed to this one in particular because it 
is part of the government’s ongoing war on free speech, journalists, and 
whistleblowers. I am insulted that those in power claim that I have an 
“obligation that every citizen owes his government” to testify. As an 
anarchist, I am not part of their social contract, and do not recognize 
the legitimacy of their laws and courts. Instead, I believe in a Dr. 
Martin Luther King Jr. quote I had taped to the wall of my prison cell 
for years: ‘One has an obligation to disobey unjust laws.’

“It is difficult to view any of this governments’ laws as just when they 
are so selectively enforced, and when the government turns a blind eye 
to its own misconduct, misconduct that is on display every day that 
Trump is in the White House. In my case, the government, through its 
informant, Sabu, instigated numerous hacks, asking me to break into 
governments and companies all over the world. Nearly a decade later, 
this misconduct remains ignored. The NSA continues to surveil everyone 
and launch cyber attacks. Trump and his corrupt cronies continue to hold 
the world hostage to their megalomaniacal imperialist pig whims while 
simultaneously refusing to comply with subpoenas and inquiries into 
their vicious abuses of power. Meanwhile, Chelsea Manning and I are 
doing hard time in this dump for the “crime” of refusing to allow our 
spirits to break, after “serving” our sentences for exposing government 
and corporate corruption.

“This absurd hypocrisy and desperate ruthlessness reveals a crumbling 
legal system, a system that has robbed me of the majority of my adult 
life but could never take my humanity. I will continue to do the right 
thing, no matter how long it takes. I know how to do time, and I will 
never be intimidated by their threats. Ever!! I refuse!!

*“‘Our integrity sells for so little, but it is all we really have. It 
is the very last inch of us, but within that inch, we are free.” – Alan 
Moore, */*V for Vendetta”*/

###

*Additional Information*

Jeremy is being represented by attorneys Susan Kellman, Sarah Kunstler, 
and local counsel Jeffrey D. Zimmerman.  His legal team also includes 
Elisa Y. Lee and Beena Ahmad. For information on how you can support 
Jeremy, and for updates on his case please visit freejeremy.net 
<https://freejeremy.net/> or follow the Jeremy Hammond Defense Committee 
on twitter @freejeremynet <https://twitter.com/freejeremynet>


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