This is getting serious. We've just had the first assassination attempt on an Avaaz campaigner.
He'd received text messages that threatened him and even his family, but it wasn't the first time. Then, while driving home along winding mountain roads, he noticed something wrong with his car and took it in for service. The mechanic was shocked to find that screws on all four of the car's wheels were either removed or loosened! There's no way he'd have survived one of those mountain turns at speed. It was sheer luck that it was discovered in time.
I've gotten threatening messages and hacks, but nothing like our campaigners who live under constant threat. Let's stand behind these brave people who speak our community's truth to power.
The threats will get worse as we become larger and more effective, taking on some of the most entrenched and powerful players on the planet. That's why Avaaz needs to triple-reinforce our security systems, including legal counsel to stand ready for emergencies, media support to raise the alarm if people are threatened, better encryption and the resources to move staff to a safe location when the pressure gets to be too much.
Click below to quickly scale up the protection Avaaz needs -- pledges will only be processed if we raise enough to fully fund our security plan to safeguard our staff:
The campaign we're running right now to Egypt -- opposing the mass execution of hundreds of people -- has been hugely powerful, reaching the highest levels of the government. Wissam had permission to enter Egypt and had a meeting scheduled with the Grand Mufti Allam -- who has the power to immediately reject the mass killings. This is why we came under attack -- Wissam says the 2 generals who interrogated him knew everything about Avaaz, our campaign, and his own life and travel. The government was clearly watching us closely.
And as soon as Wissam was sent home, news outlets around the world from the Washington Post to Al-Arabiya picked up the story immediately, putting more pressure on the Egyptian government to act to protect human rights.
But we know the threats will get worse as we get more effective. Our people-powered campaigning has taken on the world's worst actors head-on, in ways that genuinely hurt them -- from the Syrian and Russian regimes to Rupert Murdoch, Big Oil and organized crime. The Syrian dictatorship even called our campaigner 'the most dangerous man in the world'.
We're not backing down, and our team is focused on winning our campaign in Egypt -- but we also need to keep the team and the movement safe. We don’t know if Wissam would be free now if we hadn't had such broad legal, media and diplomatic pressure lined up -- and I want to make sure we always have what we need to respond to emergencies like these. With all of our small pledges added up now, we can:
- Build industrial-scale security and hire top hackers and technologists, so that no attack can stop us campaigning.
- Increase the physical security of our most vulnerable staff and action teams in places like Lebanon, Russia and Uganda.
- Have lawyers ready to leap into action to ensure we have the legal and diplomatic support needed when our team is under threat.
- Build a direct-response media team, which brings global attention to such incidents right away and ensures that the voices of the people aren’t silenced.
- Take a range of other actions to improve the security of our team and our members, such as installing home security systems and arranging transport when threats are imminent.
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With hope and gratitude,
Ricken and the Avaaz team
MORE INFORMATION:
Egypt: Stop the Mass Execution (Avaaz)
http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_
Egypt deports man lobbying against mass death sentences (Reuters)
http://www.reuters.com/
Egypt Bars Lebanese Man over Death Sentence Petition (Almanar)
http://www.almanar.com.lb/
Egypt bars Lebanese activist over death sentence petition (AlArabiya)
http://english.alarabiya.net/
Hundreds of Egyptians Sentenced to Death in Killing of a Police Officer (NY Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/
Avaaz.org is a 35-million-person global campaign network that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people shape global decision-making. ("Avaaz" means "voice" or "song" in many languages.) Avaaz members live in every nation of the world; our team is spread across 18 countries on 6 continents and operates in 17 languages. Learn about some of Avaaz's biggest campaigns here, or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.
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