They're coming after our team

Dear friends,

The pressure on a few of my staff at Avaaz is reaching a breaking point: they've received death threats, had their computers and emails hacked, been threatened on television and radio, and one even had his car tampered with! Our campaigner Wissam was detained at the Cairo airport while delivering our call to stop Egypt's largest mass execution in recent history, taken into a windowless room and interrogated for hours -- drilled with chillingly well-informed questions about his personal life, travel, and work with Avaaz!

I've gotten threatening messages and hacks, but nothing compared to the threats these campaigners face. 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 all our staff:

YES, I'LL PLEDGE $2

YES, I'LL PLEDGE $4

YES, I'LL PLEDGE $8

YES, I'LL PLEDGE $16

YES, I'LL PLEDGE $32

To pledge an amount other than the ones listed above, click here.

The campaign we're running to Egypt right now -- 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 moral power to stop the mass killings. This is why we came under attack -- Wissam says the two 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 directly, 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 the campaign in Egypt -- but we also need to keep the team and the movement safe. That's why there was broad legal, media, and diplomatic pressure lined up in case Wissam wasn't freed in Cairo -- 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 technologists, so that no attack can stop us from campaigning.
• Increase the physical security of our most at-risk 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.

Click below to pledge now to help protect Avaaz:

YES, I'LL PLEDGE $2 YES, I'LL PLEDGE $4 YES, I'LL PLEDGE $8 YES, I'LL PLEDGE $16 YES, I'LL PLEDGE $32 To pledge an amount other than the ones listed above, click here.

With 35 million members, we’ve become the largest global civic movement of our kind ever, and our campaigns pose a real threat to brutal regimes and corrupt corporations. Two years ago, our website came under massive attack, threatening our ability to keep campaigning. Our community came together and donated to protect it and now our tech systems are reinforced and fully prepared for almost any kind of cyber-attack. But now they’re coming after a few of our staff. Let's prove that no matter what tactics they use, attacking our movement only makes us stronger.

With hope and gratitude,

Ricken and the Avaaz team


MORE INFORMATION:

Egypt: Stop the Mass Execution (Avaaz)
http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_mass_execution_loc/?fr

Egypt deports man lobbying against mass death sentences (Reuters)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/04/us-egypt-deported-idUSBREA330RY20140404

Egypt Bars Lebanese Man over Death Sentence Petition (Almanar)
http://www.almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?eid=144362&frid=21&seccatid=19&cid=21&fromval=1

Egypt bars Lebanese activist over death sentence petition (AlArabiya)
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/2014/04/04/Egypt-bars-Lebanese-activist-over-death-sentence-petition-.html

Hundreds of Egyptians Sentenced to Death in Killing of a Police Officer (NY Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/25/world/middleeast/529-egyptians-sentenced-to-death-in-killing-of-a-police-officer.html

---

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.

You are getting this message because you signed "http://www.avaaz.org/en/bankers_behind_bars_f" on 2012-07-15 using the email address johnmachaffie@gmail.com.
To ensure that Avaaz messages reach your inbox, please add avaaz@avaaz.org to your address book. To change your email address, language settings, or other personal information, contact us, or simply go here to unsubscribe.

To contact Avaaz, please do not reply to this email. Instead, write to us at www.avaaz.org/en/contact or call us at +1-888-922-8229 (US).