String auth = "USER:PASS".bytes.encodeBase64().toString()

StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder()
builder.append("issueKey=").append(issue.key)
query = builder.toString()
URL url = new URL(REST_API_URL)

URLConnection connection = url.openConnection()
connection.setRequestMethod("POST")
connection.setDoOutput(true)
connection.setRequestProperty("Content-Type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded;charset=UTF-8");
connection.addRequestProperty("Authorization", "Basic "+auth)
connection.outputStream.write(query.getBytes("UTF-8"))
connection.connect()
connection.getContent()