Article: Iceland and Birgitta Jonsdottir, the Tip of the Spear against Global Orwellian Kleptocracy

Following, after some more biographical information on Birgitta to bring you up to speed on this important woman, is Amy Goodman's interview with her.

BIRGITTA'S BIO :

Birgitta JÃ �nsdÃ �ttir, a fiery Aries, a suitable metaphor for her life, and now a member of Althing, the Icelandic parliament, has long been an artist, activist and Hell-raiser in Iceland when not shaking things up globally. Born in Reykjavik, Birgitta relentlessly, over time, developed multiple talents in the fields of poetry, visual art, music, writing, editing and publishing as well as becoming an Internet pioneer, world-traveler and political activist. She had her first poetry collection Frostdinglar (Icicles), published when she was in her early twenties, also becoming more and more vocal as a politically focused artist to the point where she was organizing "Art against war", a protest movement by Icelandic artists and poets against the war in Iraq.

To quote from Wikileaks, she "also set up the first Icelandic online art gallery in 1996 for the Apple Shop in Iceland. Birgitta has participated in several international projects related to writing and activism including "Poets Against the War", "Dialogue among Nations through Poetry", and "Poets for Human Rights". She also edited and published the two international books, The World Healing Book and The Book of Hope , which contains writings by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Rita Dove, Dalai Lama, Rabbi Michael Lerner, John Kinsella, and Sigur RÃ �s. Birgitta is a founder of Beyond Borders Press and Radical Creations. Birgitta is a part of International Network of Parliamentarians' for Tibet (INPaT)" (source)

Because of her strong Internet background, she also became "an active volunteer for Wikileaks and had an important role in the making of the Collateral Murder video. She is also part of the movement to make Iceland a haven for press freedom and is the chief sponsor of the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative.

On 18 June 2010 she told ABC News' Brian Ross that Wikileaks will be releasing a leaked video of a US airstrike in Afghanistan "hopefully very soon".

On 7 January 2011, Birgitta announced on her Twitter page that she had been notified by Twitter that it had been served by the United States Department of Justice with a subpoena demanding information "about all my tweets and more since November 1st 2009." According to Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com:

The information demanded by the DOJ is sweeping in scope. It includes all mailing addresses and billing information known for the user, all connection records and session times, all IP addresses used to access Twitter, all known email accounts, as well as the "means and source of payment," including banking records and credit cards. It seeks all of that information for the period beginning November 1, 2009, through the present. (source)

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Birgitta is also famous for helping to rally the people of Iceland against the depredations of the International Bankers (Banksters) who were bankrupting Iceland through their sleazy derivatives and other Ponzi schemes while simultaneously demanding Icelanders pay for the gambling debts these unconscionable financial vampires incurred. Happily for Iceland, these efforts were largely rebuffed, the bankers were checkmated and Iceland is now on the slow road to financial recovery, sadder but wiser.

Birgitta's main website is: http://this.is/birgitta/ (click on the cartoon) and her English blog is: http://joyb.blogspot.com/

You can also access the E-Poet bio on Birgitta, where you can read up on her literary accomplishments and even access recordings of some of her poetry and spoken-word/musical works by clicking HERE.

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And now, the Democracy Now interview with Amy Goodman:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Rush Transcript:

Rush Transcript This transcript is available free of charge. However, donations help us provide closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing on our TV broadcast. Thank you for your generous contribution.
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AMY GOODMAN: We turn now to the latest in the Obama administration's crackdown on the whistleblower group WikiLeaks. Last week, it was revealed the Justice Department has subpoenaed the internet company Twitter for personal information from several people linked to WikiLeaks, including its founder, Julian Assange.

The subpoena asks Twitter for all records and correspondence relating to their accounts, including apparently private direct messages sent through Twitter. The subpoena was issued on December 14th, but Twitter was under a gag order until last week. It's unclear if Facebook or any other internet companies have received similar subpoenas.

The subpoena asks for the complete account information of five people: Julian Assange; Bradley Manning, the Army intelligence specialist who was arrested in May on suspicion of leaking classified material to WikiLeaks and remains in solitary confinement for over seven months; WikiLeaks' two computer programmers; and Birgitta JÃ �nsdÃ �ttir, a member of the Icelandic parliament. She collaborated with WikiLeaks, including on its release of classified U.S. military video footage of the deadly helicopter attack on Iraqi civilians that took place on July 12th, 2007.

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