(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
On this year's announcement day, June 16, an international signature campaign will be launched in support of Edvard Snowden, without risk of extradition to the US, being able to come to Norway to receive the Ossietzky Prize from the Norwegian PEN. Lisa Ling and Cian Wesmoreland are themselves whistleblowers and inspired by Edward Snowden. They are among the many who support the international invitation to mobilize signatures under the topic SnowdentoOslo, and attending the launch at Literature House to explain why.
Lisa Ling and Cian Westmoreland both have military backgrounds and have reported abuse of power and illegalities in the military-industrial complex.
Lisa Ling is one of three announcers featured in Sonia Kennebeck's award-winning documentary on drones, National Bird. Here she explains the global consequences of drone warfare. She has 20 years of military background as a professional soldier and reservist. Her area of responsibility was information management and military intelligence, and she served, among other things, in the 48th Intelligence Squadrone at Beale Air Force Base during the period 2007 – 2009. She describes a system that is beyond political and democratic control. After a visit to Afghanistan, where she herself saw the consequences of the drone war for the civilian population, she decided to stand out as an alert. Her conclusion is that the so-called war on terror is in itself terror against innocent civilians.
Cian Westmoreland was heavily inspired by Snowden when he decided to stand out as an alert. He was a decorated soldier with extensive experience of military information retrieval at US bases in South Korea, Germany and Afghanistan during the period 2006 – 2010. Cian's mission was to coordinate information to be used in air strikes in Afghanistan. He was awarded two awards for providing information that would have helped to kill 200 enemy soldiers in Afghanistan. He was denied insight into the impact of these attacks on the civilian population – but became aware of the extent of civilian losses after the UNAMA report in 2009 documented 259 civilian victims following attacks by the multinational force in Afghanistan.
Cian ended his military career and went on a hike from Germany to Thailand, traveling in areas where he himself could see the result of the so-called war on terror.
After the hike, Cian began studying international politics at Vesalius College in Belgium. When he got to watch the video Collateral Murder leaked via Wikileaks, he realized that the war he had been a part of was a systematic breach of the Geneva Convention. He spoke during a lecture and broke the duty of secrecy as he began to talk about his own experiences. He then organized a screening of the award-winning Norwegian documentary Drones, which is produced by Tone Scheie. He then decided to take the full step and become a public announcer. Along with three other announcers, he has given interviews in The Guardian, Democracy Now and US television channel NBC.
Both Lisa Ling and Cia Westmoreland is inspired by Edward Snowden, and will continue to Germany and the UK and then all the way to Australia to talk about how massive data collection and intelligence is being used in ways that have devastating consequences for innocent civilians in the so-called global war on terror.
Ottosen is a professor at Oslo / Akershus University College
