Courage Foundation

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The Courage Foundation is an international organisation based in Germany, the UK and the US that supports whistleblowers and journalists by fundraising for their legal defence. [1]

Contents

Founded on August 9, 2013, as the Journalistic Source Protection Defence Fund by Gavin MacFadyen, Barbora Bukovska and Julian Assange [2] [3] it later rebranded in June 2014. [4]

WikiLeaks section editor Sarah Harrison served as acting director from 2014 [5] until April 2017, when WikiLeaks became a Courage beneficiary and Naomi Colvin began serving as director. [6] Colvin served as director until 2018. [7] The trustees include Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, former NSA executive Thomas Drake, former MI5 British intelligence officer and whistleblower Annie Machon, Vice President of the Wau Holland Foundation Andy Müller-Maguhn, Guatemala human rights lawyer Renata Ávila, and some members of Pussy Riot. [8]

The Courage Foundation supports Julian Assange and WikiLeaks. The Courage Foundation supported Edward Snowden (NSA whistleblower), Jeremy Hammond (Stratfor hacktivist), Matt DeHart, [9] Lauri Love and Chelsea Manning.

The Courage trustees are Susan Benn, and John Pilger. [3] Renata Ávila was a trustee before retiring in April 2018 [3] [10] and Dame Vivienne Westwood was a trustee before she died. [3]

In October 2019, a former Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) employee later identified as Brendan Whelan presented his dissent with the OPCW's findings about the investigation of the Douma chemical attack. Members of the Courage Foundation who attended included Kristinn Hrafnsson, Jose Bustani, Helmut Lohre and Gunter Meyer. [11] [12] Courage Foundation published the Statement of Concern at the same time as "Berlin Group 21", [13] [14] [15] which was allegedly created as a front for the Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media. [15] [16] Whelan later leaked OPCW documents to WikiLeaks. [16] [17]

In November 2022, the Courage Foundation's website went offline. [18] [19]

Beneficiary conflict

In 2018, three of the trustees decided to remove Barrett Brown from the Courage Foundation's beneficiary list over "nasty adversarial remarks" he had made about Julian Assange, and a decision was made to prioritise the case of Wikileaks over all other beneficiaries. Courage trustee Susan Benn told Brown that Courage would no longer help him, writing in an email that "You have made a number of hostile and denigrating statements about other Courage beneficiaries who are facing grave legal and personal risks. Courage expects solidarity and mutual aid from its beneficiaries, especially when those among you face extreme uncertainty and danger." [10] [20] [7]

In response, Courage Foundation Director Naomi Colvin quit in protest and Brown alleged that he had only been given about $3,500 out of the total $14,000 that had been donated to Courage for him. [10] [20] [7] [21] Renata Ávila called Brown's comments "disloyal and unacceptable." [10]

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References

  1. ↑ "FAQs | Courage Foundation". September 25, 2019. Archived from the original on September 25, 2019. Retrieved February 20, 2023.
  2. ↑ "FAQs | Courage Foundation". Archived from the original on July 26, 2022. Retrieved March 24, 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Courage announces new board of trustees - Courage Foundation". couragefound.org. Archived from the original on May 17, 2022. Retrieved August 4, 2017.
  4. ↑ Frediani, Carola (February 11, 2014). "Snowden and the War On Whistleblowers: An Interview With Annie Machon". Archived from the original on November 28, 2020. Retrieved July 22, 2015.
  5. ↑ "Launch of Courage and Snowden Campaign in Berlin, Wednesday 11th June". Courage Foundation. June 9, 2014. Archived from the original on February 21, 2020. Retrieved February 21, 2020.
  6. ↑ "Courage announces new director Naomi Colvin". Courage Foundation. April 4, 2018. Archived from the original on February 21, 2020. Retrieved February 21, 2020.
  7. 1 2 3 Corfield, Gareth. "Whistleblower org chief quits over Assange critic boot demand". www.theregister.com. Retrieved March 20, 2022.
  8. ↑ Addley, Esther (November 18, 2014). "Pussy Riot members join whistleblower foundation backed by Julian Assange" . Retrieved July 22, 2015.
  9. ↑ Raincoaster (March 3, 2015). "Matt DeHart is Named Beneficiary of the Courage Foundation" . Retrieved July 22, 2015.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Avila, Renata (January 27, 2019). "Clarifying a statement about Courage Foundation and WikiLeaks". Medium. Retrieved January 2, 2023.
  11. ↑ Whitaker, Brian (February 15, 2023). "A Notorious Syria Conspiracy Theory Is Definitively Debunked". New Lines Magazine. Retrieved February 20, 2023.
  12. ↑ Team, Bellingcat Investigation (October 26, 2020). "Unpublished OPCW Douma Correspondence Casts Further Doubt on Claims of 'Doctored' Report". bellingcat. Retrieved February 20, 2023.
  13. ↑ "Statement of Concern: The OPCW investigation of alleged chemical weapons use in Douma, Syria | Courage Foundation". April 10, 2021. Archived from the original on April 10, 2021. Retrieved February 20, 2023.
  14. ↑ "Additional Background Information (provided by the Berlin Group 21) Regarding the OPCW FFM Investigation of the Alleged Chemical Attack in Douma, April 7, 2018 | Courage Foundation". April 10, 2021. Archived from the original on April 10, 2021. Retrieved February 20, 2023.
  15. 1 2 Waters, Nick (May 14, 2021). "Berlin Group 21, 'Ivan's' Emails and Chemical Weapons Conspiracy Theories". bellingcat. Retrieved February 20, 2023.
  16. 1 2 Weiss, Michael; Goldsmith, Jett (April 20, 2021). "How an Email Sting Operation Unearthed a pro-Assad Conspiracy—and Russia's Role In It". New Lines Magazine. Retrieved February 20, 2023.
  17. ↑ Goldsmith, Michael Weiss,Jett (April 20, 2021). "Syria Chemical-Attack Deniers Admit Links to WikiLeaks and Russia". The Daily Beast. Retrieved February 20, 2023.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  18. ↑ "WikiLeaks' Website Is Falling Apart". Gizmodo. November 22, 2022. Retrieved November 23, 2022.
  19. ↑ Thalen, Mikael (November 22, 2022). "Millions of documents disappear from WikiLeaks as site completely breaks down". The Daily Dot. Retrieved November 23, 2022.
  20. 1 2 Ackerman, Spencer (August 13, 2018). "Julian Assange Went After a Former Ally. It Backfired Epically". The Daily Beast. Retrieved January 2, 2023.
  21. ↑ Colvin, Naomi (August 13, 2018). "Rather unfortunately, I have been obliged to resign from Courage. An explanation". Medium. Retrieved March 20, 2022.
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