Reykjavík Grapevine - 19.07.2013, Side 22

22The Reykjavík Grapevine

200o
300o
400o
1000 m
500 m
The hottest spot
this summer!
The Landsvirkjun visitor centers are open every day all
summer from 10 - 17:
Krafla Geothermal Station: Geothermal exhibition.
Búrfell Hydro Power Station: Interactive energy exhibition.
Fljótsdalur Hydro Power Station: Visitor center and guided
tours around the Kárahnjúkar dam.
If you are traveling in the North of Iceland, a visit to the
geothermal area at Krafla is an ideal place to learn about
a pioneering project transforming geothermal energy into
electricity. The visitor center is open every day with an
exhibit and fresh brewed coffee.

2000 m
1500 m
500o
More information at www.landsvirkjun.com/visitus
Landsvirkjun, The National Power Company
searched.
The U.S.C.E.D.V. claims that
there are “specific and articulable
facts” that Smári and Herbert’s
Gmail account information is rel-
evant to a criminal investigation,
but the men haven’t been given any
specific facts. Of course, they know
the reason they’ve been investi-
gated is because of their respec-
tive connections to WikiLeaks and
Julian Assange, though neither are
active volunteers. Regardless, it’s
the principles of the matter that re-
main problematic. The investigation
“appears to have been conducted
not for the purpose of attributing
criminal behaviour to those guilty
of conducting said war crimes and
violations of fundamental human
rights, but to punish those who per-
formed the public service of making
the world aware of them,” Smári and
Herbert wrote in a joint blog post
entitled “The Dragnet at the Edge of
Forever”.
Alexa O’Brien has been closely
reporting on Bradley Manning’s
trial as well as the investigation
into WikiLeaks. On her website she
published a document of every
search warrant under seal by the
U.S.C.E.D.V. between May 3, 2010
(the month Bradley Manning was
arrested) and April 11, 2013, as well
as another list of electronic court
orders under seal. She states that
between May and December 2010
there were 456 search warrants
under seal, 756 search warrants in
2011, and 292 between January and
April 11, 2013. “The 700 number
comes from Alexa O'Brien,” Smári
wrote when I asked for clarity on
the matter, “but she has pointed to
a court docket referring to the file
numbers of all of the files pertain-
ing to a certain case, and mine and
Herbert's files were included in that
docket.” Though not necessarily
surprising, it is significant that the
personal information of around 700
people may have been searched
as an element for building a case
against one Julian Assange. Smári
and I talked about the possibility of
that number of people being under
investigation. He told me, “I don’t
care about my personal case, but
I’m concerned about civil liberties in
the larger investigation. You have to
ask, what is probable cause?”
I called Iceland’s Ministry of For-
eign Affairs on July 1, the day Ed-
ward Snowden applied for asylum,
to ask for Foreign Minister Gunnar
Bragi Sveinsson’s response to the
news about Smári and Herbert.
The Icelandic government was very
quiet about the incident. The music
that played when I was put on hold
was poppy with rhythmic, echo-
ing claps. It seemed horribly out of
place. But in hindsight, it wasn’t. It
complemented the already bizarre
nature of the call. To ask the Foreign
Minister what he thought about citi-
zens of my country spying on citi-
zens of his country. The music cut
off and the press officer answered.
She told me to email her. I did, and
asked if the next day would work for
a phone conversation if the Minister
couldn’t be reached then. “I suspect
that tomorrow is almost impossible
due to the Ban Ki-moon visit. But I
will check.” Of course, Ban Ki-moon.
The United Nations secretary gen-
eral came to Iceland for an official
visit on July 2. While in Iceland, Ban
Ki-moon spoke out on the Snowden
case, saying that he considers it to
be misuse, adding that: “Access can
be for the greater good, but some-
times it creates bigger problems
through misuse by individuals.”
I asked if anyone else in the For-
eign Ministry would be available for
a statement. “Neither the Minister
nor anyone else at the ministry will
be commenting on this particular
issue, However, the Minister made
some general comments in parlia-
ment on allegations of spying, which
may be of some use,” she said, and
attached a link of written copy from
a Parliament session that appeared
to have taken place that morning,
where MP Árni Þór Sigurðsson (Left-
Green Movement) made an enquiry
about American intelligence in Eu-
rope.
It is “a serious matter, if it’s true
that governments, whoever they
are, are spying on their most de-
voted allies and I feel it needs ex-
plaining,” said Gunnar Bragi Sveins-
son, “at least whether it’s true or
not. As far as I know, it’s not quite
clear whether news of this matter
are entirely true but it seems that
some sort of operation against al-
lies in Europe and the EU was go-
ing on and obviously, that worries
us. The European Commission has
demanded answers from the United
States and we will follow closely
how the matter unfolds. But we have
already, just so you know, criticised
US authorities here in Iceland, that
is, we contacted their embassy in
Reykjavík and have also, through
our embassy in Washington, made
comments on and requested, or at
least stated that it must be unfor-
tunate and even unthinkable if US
authorities have been operating like
that in Iceland, and that they should
respond to that. So we’ve sent to
ball to their court. But of course we
should absolutely not be so naïve as
to think that if governments are spy-
ing on other countries, in Europe or
elsewhere, that we’re exempt from
that.”
I called Pirate Party MP Birgitta
Jónsdóttir on July 9. She had a bit
of a cough, there was a summer
cold going around. On the last day
of parliament, only days earlier on
July 4, Edward Snowden applied for
Icelandic citizenship and the MPs
were “running around like a head-
less chicken” trying to address all
the controversial issues always
crammed into the last day, Birgitta
told me. In 2011, Birgitta found out
that information from her Twitter
account was disclosed as part of
the US grand jury investigation into
WikiLeaks. She’s credited as “co-
producer” of “Collateral Murder.”
“They are fishing. It was a mas-
sive fishing expedition, and in my
opinion they went too far,” Birgitta
sighed, “and you know, they’re try-
ing to figure out if I knew anything
about Manning in advance, which I
didn’t. It was as much of a surprise
to me as anybody else—that he was
who he was. I was really shocked,
because he’s just slightly older than
my older son.” I asked if she thought
these recent events would at all
change relations between Iceland
and the US. “I don’t think so. I don’t
think this current government cares.
At least, they’ve not shown any sort
of attempt to put their foot down. I
talked about these issues with one
Member of Parliament and he said,
and many of them actually said, not
only him, that we should be grateful
that they are interested in snoop-
ing on Icelanders, because we’re so
small.”
At one point in our conversation, Bir-
gitta paused and took a deep breath,
“My name has been mentioned in
the [Bradley Manning] trial, by the
way, a few times. Because appar-
ently he searched for my name, and
yeah so, I am—I don’t, I just, I have
no idea how this is going to end ac-
tually.”
Continued from page 20