WikiLeaks cables: Saudis proposed Arab force to invade Lebanon
Foreign minister wanted US, Nato and UN backing for offensive to end Iranian-backed Hezbollah's siege of government
Welcome to planet surveillance
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the Federal Bureau of Irony
The United States is pleased to announce that it will host UNESCO's World Press Freedom Day event in 2011 ... The United States places technology and innovation at the forefront of its diplomatic and development efforts. New media has empowered citizens around the world to report on their circumstances, express opinions on world events, and exchange information in environments sometimes hostile to such exercises of individuals' right to freedom of expression. At the same time, we are concerned about the determination of some governments to censor and silence individuals, and to restrict the free flow of information.
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/12/07/us-to-host-world-pre.html#comments -
Assange Case: Evidence Destroyed Over and Over Again
http://rixstep.com/1/20101001,01.shtml
One of the women who filed charges against Julian Assange is Anna Ardin. She stood in the elections to the community council for the social democrats and she is a public person who should be examined. So I'll publish her name.
Anna Ardin is christian, feminist, social democrat, animal rights activist, and opponent of abortion on the left political scene. She's previously been in charge of equality issues for the student union of Uppsala University - a job she won an award for. Today she works for the Brotherhood Movement and 'burns for peace and justice... for a just, open society of solidarity'. On her own blog she describes herself:
'A political scientist, communicator, entrepreneur, and freelance writer with special knowledge within faith and politics, gender equality issues, feminism, and Latin America.'
On Saturday 14 August at 14:00 she wrote the following on her Twitter account.
'Julian wants to go to a crayfish party, anyone have a couple of available seats tonight or tomorrow? #fb'
Early on the morning of Sunday 15 August (02:00) she writes again at Twitter.
'Sitting outdoors at 02:00 and hardly freezing with the world's coolest smartest people, it's amazing! #fb'
When Anna Ardin files a police complaint against Julian Assange on 20 August these tweets are removed. Why? As far as I can tell, it's not common for victims of crime to delete blogs, clean up their cellphones, and try to get witnesses to attest to things that aren't true. Why is it so important to remove these particular tweets?
If you know that the 'reported molestation' takes place on the night towards 14 August, then it all becomes easier to understand. The tweets actually indicate that Anna really liked Julian and that there had been no molestation 24 hours earlier. You can't divine in the tweets that Anna Ardin thinks Julian has a 'warped view of womanhood and can't take no for an answer'. The tweets are more an attempt by Ardin to shine in the brilliance of Julian Assange. Why else would she publish them on the Internet? The tweets don't match Anna's story given to the police on 20 August. So she simply deletes them. -
I am Julian Assange.
I want information so that I can hold my government accountable. If my country acts improperly and in my name, I want the proof. I want to know if there actually is no evidence proving weapons of mass destruction. I want to know if America is working with Israel to overthrow Iran's leadership. I want data that has not been spun by reporters that work for publishers and broadcasters with political and business goals that conflict with the facts. I want to know.
I believe that governments are out of control and citizens have a decreasing belief that they can influence decisions. WikiLeaks and the Internet are empowering individuals and groups with information. Julian Assange and Bradley Manning are the first two faces and voices in a crowd that will soon be too big to control. Their arrests and charges and even prosecution will only spawn a broader resistance against war and deception and corruption. The Internet is now the reporter. This is the way the world is. I do not want to hear that there will always be wars and spying and death. I want information to prevent them and to build peace.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-moore/i-am-julian-assange_b_793583.html
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- The Guardian, Wednesday 8 December 2010 Jemima Khan speaking outside Westminster magistrates court. She offered at least £20,000 towards Julian Assange's bail. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA The already curious case of Julian Assange took another bizarre twist yesterday when the court learned that a raggle-taggle of "household names" were prepared to stake their reputation in his case, offering sureties to the court with a total value of £180,000. Despite claiming not to know Assange, the film-maker Ken Loach and the socialite and charity fundraiser Jemima Khan stood before Westminster magistrates and offered big sums towards Assange's bail, though bail was later refused. Offering £20,000, Loach said he did not know Assange other than by reputation, but added: "I think the work he has done has been a public service. I think we are entitled to know the dealings of those that govern us." Khan offered a further £20,000, "or more if need be". In a statement later, she said: "I make no judgment of Julian Assange as an individual as I have never met him. I am offering my support to him as I believe in the universal right to freedom of information and our right to be told the truth." http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/08/julian-assange-celebrity-supporters
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Julian Assange Becomes the US's Public Enemy No. 1
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,733154-3,00.html
(article contain news rehash, bla bla german news. but it's Spiegel. so it matters. bland.)
see cool map here for more interesting stuff:
http://www.spiegel.de/flash/flash-24861.html -
Report: Wikileaks cables show Texas company "helped pimp little boys to stoned Afghan cops"
In the Houston Press, an extensive blog post untangling an alarming story from the state department cables: "another horrific taxpayer-funded sex scandal for DynCorp, the private security contractor tasked with training the Afghan police," and apparent proof that the company procured male children for bacha bazi ("boy-play") parties.
The story boils down to this: this company, headquartered in DC with Texas offices, helped pimp out little boys as sex slaves to stoned cops in Afghanistan:
For Pashtuns in the South of Afghanistan, there is no shame in having a little boy lover; on the contrary, it is a matter of pride. Those who can afford the most attractive boy are the players in their world, the OG's of places like Kandahar and Khost. On the Frontline video, ridiculously macho warrior guys brag about their young boyfriends utterly without shame.
So perhaps in the evil world of Realpolitik, in which there is apparently no moral compass US private contractors won't smash to smithereens, it made sense for DynCorp to drug up some Pashtun police recruits and turn them loose on a bunch of little boys. But according to the leaked document, Atmar, the Afghani interior minister, was terrified this story would catch a reporter's ear.
He urged the US State Department to shut down a reporter he heard was snooping around, and was horrified that a rumored videotape of the party might surface. He predicted that any story about the party would "endanger lives." He said that his government had arrested two Afghan police and nine Afghan civilians on charges of "purchasing a service from a child" in connection with the party, but that he was worried about the image of their "foreign mentors," by which he apparently meant DynCorp. American diplomats told him to chill. They apparently had a better handle on our media than Atmar, because when a report of the party finally did emerge, it was neutered to the point of near-falsehood.
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Don't forget Guardian veery cool, continuous live update! (thank gawd we have functioning reporter in London)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2010/dec/07/wikileaks-us-embassy-cables-live-updates9.40am: We are hanging on every word of Mark Stephens at the moment. This is what he told PA on his way to work:
I haven't even seen the warrant yet. We have got 10 days to do this and a lot of complex schedules to organise.
I am sure it will be announced when it happens. I have not yet spoken to the police.
Stephens declined to say where Assange is and where he expected to be arrested and interviewed.
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9.55am: The cyber war over WikiLeaks appears to be escalating, with supporters of the site reportedly taking revenge against the Swiss bank that froze Assange's assets.
Operation Payback is now threatening to go after PayPal after claiming credit for shutting down the website of the Swiss bank PostFinance, Raw Story claims.
The site of the bank is currently unavailable.
On its Twitter account the group said: "PAYPAL.COM IS DOWN! AND YES WE ARE FIRING NOW!!! KEEP FIRING!"
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omg, lololol....
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40561853Australia says U.S, not WikiLeaks founder, responsible for leaks
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Accuser in WikiLeaks saga has ties to Cuban dissidents
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/12/08/1962779/accuser-in-wikileaks-saga-has.html
(story checks out apparently. miami herald has cuban connection)
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/assange-rape-accuser-cia-ties/ -
Dear Interpol:
As a longtime feminist activist, I have been overjoyed to discover your new commitment to engaging in global manhunts to arrest and prosecute men who behave like narcissistic jerks to women they are dating.
I see that Julian Assange is accused of having consensual sex with two women, in one case using a condom that broke. I understand, from the alleged victims' complaints to the media, that Assange is also accused of texting and tweeting in the taxi on the way to one of the women's apartments while on a date, and, disgustingly enough, 'reading stories about himself online' in the cab.Both alleged victims are also upset that he began dating a second woman while still being in a relationship with the first. (Of course, as a feminist, I am also pleased that the alleged victims are using feminist-inspired rhetoric and law to assuage what appears to be personal injured feelings. That's what our brave suffragette foremothers intended!).
Thank you again, Interpol. I know you will now prioritize the global manhunt for 1.3 million guys I have heard similar complaints about personally in the US alone -- there is an entire fraternity at the University of Texas you need to arrest immediately. I also have firsthand information that John Smith in Providence, Rhode Island, went to a stag party -- with strippers! -- that his girlfriend wanted him to skip, and that Mark Levinson in Corvallis, Oregon, did not notice that his girlfriend got a really cute new haircut -- even though it was THREE INCHES SHORTER.Terrorists. Go get 'em, Interpol!
Yours gratefully,
Naomi Wolf
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/naomi-wolf/interpol-the-worlds-datin_b_793033.html?ref=tw
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A Wikileaks document briefly posted by The Guardian Monday appears to give an official number for the U.S. nuclear weapons deployed in Europe: 180.
http://www.fas.org/blog/ssp/2010/12/tacnukes.php -
W & A: The Swedish women allegating of #Assange's sexual impropriety are both #WikiLeaks volunteers http://j.mp/-r49
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4channers Go After PayPal, Swiss Bank in Defense of Wikileaks
4channers Go After PayPal, Swiss Bank in Defense of Wikileaks4chan-affiliated hacker group Anonymous has declared war on enemies of secret-sharing site Wikileaks. Internet war! Their first targets: PayPal, which won't facilitate donations to Wikileaks, and PostFinance, the Swiss bank that froze founder Julian Assange's accounts. So far, they're one-for-two.
http://gawker.com/5708896/4channers-go-after-paypal-swiss-bank-in-defense-of-wikileaks -
Adbuster!
Suddenly we’re at a pivotal moment. Wikileaks is exposing the corruption among the global power elites on a level never seen before. They realize that this is an existential threat to them and are starting to apply the full weight of the CIA, Espionage Act, etc., to nip this thing in the bud. Don’t let them get away with it! An opportunity like this comes once in a lifetime. So let’s seize it! Let’s all become whistle blowers, let’s all start talking truth to power and, over the next few months, change forever the way the world does business.
http://www.adbusters.org/blogs/adbusters-blog/wikileaks.html
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The Web will eat itself over WikiLeaks
We are at war, and I don't mean the literal kind. It's the first all-out cyber war, not between nations but between factions: those who agree with what WikiLeaks is trying to do, and those who oppose them.
Nearly everybody is picking sides. Amazon's hosting service ditched WikiLeaks after a day, presumably as a result of pressure from Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman. EveryDNS did the same, citing its inability to cope with DDoS attacks launched by "hacktivists" opposed to the leaks. PayPal, Visa, and MasterCard have refused to handle payments for donations to WikiLeaks -- at least in part due to pressure from the U.S. State Department.
[ Check out a few samples of Cringely's long history covering WikiLeaks: WikiLeaks: A terrorist's best friend?. | WikiLeaks launches Web War III | Spies, WikiLeaks, and hackers, oh my! | For a humorous take on the tech industry's shenanigans, subscribe to Robert X. Cringely's Notes from the Underground newsletter. ]
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/120810-the-web-will-eat-itself.html
Naturally, some antileakers are reciprocating with attacks on one of Anonymous's own sites, taking it offline. It's a shootin' war, and no one knows where it will lead or when it will end. You'd best keep your head low.I realize there are other events taking place in Tech Land these days. Google, for example, seems determined to roll out a new operating system every damned day -- Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Chrome, and so on. But I can't stop thinking about WikiLeaks.
Why? Because this is the single most important story to hit the Internet ever. It dwarfs the Drudge Report's Monica Lewinsky scoop, the Twitter anti-Tehran uprising, and even the Pam Anderson sex video. Never before has a small band of whatever-you-want-to-call-thems taken on every major nation simultaneously, twisting them into knots. But thanks to the distributed nature of the Net, they have -- and I suspect they won't be the last.
Also: Journalism as we knew it is over. No more trade-offs between revealing some things while keeping other information private, of choosing between the necessary secrets governments must keep and the public's right to know -- it's now a free-for-all.
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New York Times Co. v. United States, 403 U.S. 713 (1971) [google.com]
The unanimous opinion itself is very short; essentially, designating documents as secret and punishing anyone who publishes them is a 'prior restraint' and presumed unconstitutional.
We granted certiorari in these cases in which the United States seeks to enjoin the New York Times and the Washington Post from publishing the contents of a classified study entitled "History of U. S. Decision-Making Process on Viet Nam Policy." Post, pp. 942, 943.
"Any system of prior restraints of expression comes to this Court bearing a heavy presumption against its constitutional validity." Bantam Books, Inc. v. Sullivan, 372 U. S. 58, 70 (1963) [google.com]; see also Near v. Minnesota, 283 U. S. 697 (1931) [google.com]. The Government "thus carries a heavy burden of showing justification for the imposition of such a restraint." Organization for a Better Austin v. Keefe, 402 U. S. 415, 419 (1971) [google.com]. The District Court for the Southern District of New York in the New York Times case and the District Court for the District of Columbia and the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in the Washington Post case held that the Government had not met that burden. We agree.
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1901546&cid=34488372
http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/12/08/1437205/MasterCard-Hit-By-WikiLeaks-Payback-Attacks
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WikiLeaks Emerging as Hydra-Like Web Entity That`s Hard to Kill
With each passing day it’s getting harder to shut WeakiLeaks down, according to technology experts. “The harder you hit them, the bigger they get,” wrote James Cowie, CTO at Internet monitoring firm Renesys.
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/WikiLeaks-Emerging-as-HydraLike-Web-Entity-Thats-Hard-to-Kill-744023/WikiLeaks nearly immune to takedown, says researcher
After DDOS attacks and the loss of its domain name, the WikiLeaks whistleblower site is as potent as ever
In addition to such moves, close to 1000 mirror sites serving up WikiLaks content have popped up around the globe over the last few days, he said."Within a couple days, the WikiLeaks web content has been spread across enough independent parts of the Internet's DNS and routing space that they are, for all intents and purposes, now immune to takedown by any single legal authority," Cowie wrote in his blog. "If pressure were applied, one imagines that the geographic diversity would simply double, and double again."
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Please wait while #Wikileaks installs your new world government [.. ] 1% complete #cablegate #OperationPayback #imwikileaks
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The 24-hour Athenian democracy
I am talking to members of a group called “Anonymous”, using a web-based collaborative text-editing service. It is the first such interview for all of us, and their answers begin to collide on the page. One member comes from Norway; another shows surprise, then offers that she is from New Zealand. Another writes that group members come from Nepal and Eastern Russia. They all speak through pseudonyms, but I don't even know which psuedonym comes from what country because shortly after I read these answers, someone who calls himself “Tux” erases them all and writes
We are Everywhere. We are everyone. We are Anonymous.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2010/12/more_wikileaks
This is all that a denial-of-service attack can do: register protest. It is not cyberwar. It is a propaganda coup. And it's limited to a limited set of websites: vulnerable, but important. Or, as an anon put it while discussing targets yesterday,Paypal and visa are unbeatable, so do is Everydns, and interpol will rape all of us, Postfinance is the most able to suffer our rage, who the **** is lieverman?
He's just a senator. Almost became vice-president, once. It was years ago.
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The following statement was released today, signed by Daniel Ellsberg, Frank Grevil, Katharine Gun, David MacMichael, Ray McGovern, Craig Murray, Coleen Rowley and Larry Wilkerson; all are associated with Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence.
http://wlcentral.org/node/552The media: again, the media is key. No one has said it better than Monseñor Romero of El Salvador, who just before he was assassinated 25 years ago warned, "The corruption of the press is part of our sad reality, and it reveals the complicity of the oligarchy." Sadly, that is also true of the media situation in America today.
The big question is not whether Americans can "handle the truth." We believe they can. The challenge is to make the truth available to them in a straightforward way so they can draw their own conclusions -- an uphill battle given the dominance of the mainstream media, most of which have mounted a hateful campaign to discredit Assange and WikiLeaks.
So far, the question of whether Americans can "handle the truth" has been an academic rather than an experience-based one, because Americans have had very little access to the truth. Now, however, with the WikiLeaks disclosures, they do. Indeed, the classified messages from the Army and the State Department released by WikiLeaks are, quite literally, "ground truth."
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/07/wikileaks-saudi-arab-invasion-lebanonSaudi Arabia proposed creating an Arab force backed by US and Nato air and sea power to intervene in Lebanon two years ago and destroy Iranian-backed Hezbollah, according to a US diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks.
The plan would have sparked a proxy battle between the US and its allies against Iran, fought in one of the most volatile regions of the world.
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Andrew Wilkie lashes Gillard for 'trashing freedom of speech' over WikiLeaks
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/andrew-wilkie-lashes-gillard-for-trashing-freedom-of-speech-over-wikileaks/story-fn59niix-1225968229482
KEY independent MP and former whistleblower Andrew Wilkie has accused Julia Gillard of trashing freedom of speech and ignoring Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's right to be presumed innocent.
As the fallout from the WikiLeaks revelations continues, the Tasmanian federal crossbencher also said today the Prime Minister had shown contempt for the principles of the rule of law, sovereignty and freedom of speech.
Diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks to Fairfax newspapers revealed that Labor powerbroker Mark Arbib provided inside information to the US embassy in Canberra on the ALP and the Australian government.
Ms Gillard had initially described the WikiLeaks website as "illegal" but has subsequently toned down her language, describing the release of thousands of confidential embassy cables as "grossly irresponsible".
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twitter is caught censoring wikileaks trend status.
http://bubbloy.wordpress.com/2010/12/05/twitter-is-censoring-the-discussion-of-wikileaks/
http://getyourleakon.wordpress.com/2010/12/09/sajak-vs-wikileaks/
The answer to this might be obvious, but I don’t quite understand why at 11:46 PM EST, December 9, I was the ONLY one following Wikileaks. Is it really possible that, at the same time, more people are following Pat Sajak and Florence Henderson as the following screen shots from Twitter suggest? If so, then the human race really is screwed. If not, then Twitter really is fudging numbers. Anyone else online around the same time following?
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Caving to pressure from supporters, PayPal releases WikiLeaks’ funds http://t.co/xiAimy3 via @thenextweb #wikileaks #imwikileaks #cablegate
In a reversal of course, PayPal has released funds remaining in an account associated with WikiLeaks according to a post on PayPal’s blog.
http://thenextweb.com/media/2010/12/09/caving-to-pressure-from-supporters-paypal-releases-wikileaks-funds/ -
Consequences? The world finds out who the corrupt criminals are.
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.http://blogs.barrons.com/stockstowatchtoday/2010/12/08/gasparino-bofa-is-worried-about-wikileaks/
Bank of America (BAC) is worried that it is the target of WikiLeaks and has set up a “war room” to handle the possible release of confidential information on Countrywide, mortgage creation and Merrill Lynch, according to a report by Fox Business Network’s Charlie Gasparino.
According to the report, the “war room” is particularly concerned that WikiLeaks will release information on those three topics. One of Gasparino’s sources has apparently seen documents related to the bank.
The bank’s response to Gasparino: “They said there is no indication they are the target of this particular WikiLeak.”
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Lender Processing Services Produced More Bogus Foreclosure Documents Than It ‘Fessed To
Readers may recall that this site broke the story of litigation against Lender Processing Services, the biggest player in foreclosure management on behalf of mortgage servicers. These cases, launched earlier in the fall, accused the company of taking impermissible legal fees. These class action lawsuits were joined by the US bankruptcy trustee for the Northern District of Mississippi, both for herself and on behalf of all US bankruptcy fees, which meant she felt the issues set forth in the case had merit and were serious. In November, an additional class action case was filed against LPS, this time securities litigation, charging the company with making false and misleading statements to investors from July 29, 2009 to October 4, 2010, including “deceptive and improper document execution and preparation related to foreclosure proceedings.”
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http://www.wauland.de/presseerklaerung_accountsperrung.html Google translation.
Press Release of Wau Holland Foundation for the closure of their account with PayPal
The nonprofit foundation Wau Holland has with great surprise learned of the unannounced closure of their PayPal accounts.
Due to this arbitrary decision by the company PayPal, the Foundation currently has no access to donations received in recent days, about 10,000 €, which were donated by donors around the world last Friday and Saturday for the Wikileaks project.
Moreover, the statement published by PayPal that the Wau Holland Foundation supports and promotes "illegal activities" is a slander against which the Foundation has formally denied.
The Foundation has therefore asked a lawyer to initiate action against PayPal. Paypal has been asked to remove this claim from its company blog and restore the unauthorized access to the donation account. WikiLeaks and the Wau Holland Foundation have removed references to the Paypal payment option from their respective websites.
The Wau Holland Foundation will continue to promote projects and activities that meet the objectives of the foundation. These include not only action against voting machines, the support of the TOR anonymizing platform and other projects such as Wikileaks. The Foundation feels this meets the ideals of freedom of the data-philosopher Wau Holland, founder of the Chaos Computer Club, and is committed and supported in accordance with their bylaws: "... global communication, freedom of information and moral courage of electronic media ...".
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8:55 Huge story: Reuters' Mark Hosenball reports just now: "WikiLeaks' next assault on Washington may highlight U.S. government reports on suspected militants held at Guantanamo Bay, which some U.S. officials worry could show certain detainees were freed despite intelligence assessments they were still dangerous." Assange has claimed to have files on every prisoner. "The leaks could be an embarrassment to President Barack Obama's administration, already angered over WikiLeaks document dumps of U.S. State Department cables, as it seeks to fulfill a 2-year-old pledge to close the prison and either release the foreign terrorism suspects or move them elsewhere."
http://www.thenation.com/blog/156906/blogging-wikileaks-wednesday-day-11
http://www.businessinsider.com/julian-assange-may-have-the-files-for-every-single-prisoner-in-guantanamo-2010-12WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, jailed in Britain this week, has told media contacts he has a large cache of U.S. government reports about inmates at the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, known as GITMO, the last of four major tranches of U.S. government documents which WikiLeaks had acquired and at some point would make public.
"He's got the personal files of every prisoner in GITMO," said one person who was in contact with Assange earlier this year.
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Rape: Swedish Penal Code, Chapter 6, sect. 1 http://j.mp/-r13 Other sexual crimes : Chapter 6, sect. 2 & 7. #assange #imwikileaks #cablegate
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Today during the Media Panel at LeWeb ’10 in Paris, France, Weblogs SL’s Julio Alonso said, “This is a turning point for the Internet — it’s not just about WikiLeaks anymore. What happens to WikiLeaks will get applied to others later on.”
“This is the first attempt at censorship of the Internet by all the governments of the planet,” Wikio’s Pierre Chappaz added. “Despite all the attacks, I’m optimistic that the information will survive,” he added.
http://www.mediahunter.com.au/wikileaks-is-this-a-significant-moment-in-history/I think you are right – it’s a turning point – but not just for journalism. It’s a turning point because we are seeing very real public disobedience happening around the world. The online #payback is taking place not just against the governments but also against institutions such as PayPal, Visa and MasterCard who are refusing to process payments supporting the Wikileaks organisation.
Wikileaks is showing the connections not just of individuals but also of the institutions. It’s a fascinating drama writ large on the world’s screens. -
A new bill rocketing through Congress would give the president sweeping powers to police the Web for national-security reasons. Could this be a way to block WikiLeaks?
Is cyberspace about to get censored?
Confronting threats ranging from Chinese superhackers to the release of secret documents on WikiLeaks and other whistleblowing websites, the Obama administration may be on the verge of assuming broad new powers to regulate the Internet on national-security grounds.
The powers are granted to the White House under a bipartisan bill that was introduced in the Senate only last week but is already moving quickly through Congress toward passage. The legislation has generated considerable buzz on tech blogs—but drawn little notice so far by major news organizations.
“The way it seems to be worded, the bill could easily represent a threat to free speech,” said Wayne Crews of the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
The bill would grant President Obama the power to declare a “national cyber-emergency” at his discretion and force private companies tied to the Web, including Internet service providers and search engines, to take action in response—moves that could include limiting or even cutting off their connections to the World Wide Web for up to 30 days.
everybody alert. gonna get very nasty. They are about to do something very illegal.
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Assange accuser may have ceased
co-operating
Anna Ardin, one of the two complainants in the rape and sexual assault case against WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange, has left Sweden, and may have ceased actively co-operating with the Swedish prosecution service and her own lawyer, sources in Sweden told Crikey today.
http://www.crikey.com.au/2010/12/09/rundle-r-pe-case-complainant-has-left-sweden-may-have-ceased-co-operating/Ardin, who also goes by the name Bernardin, has moved to the West Bank in the Palestinian Territories, as part of a Christian outreach group, aimed at bringing reconciliation between Palestinians and Israelis. She has moved to the small town of Yanoun, which sits close to Israel’s security/sequestration wall. Yanoun is constantly besieged by fundamentalist Jewish settlers, and international groups have frequently stationed themselves there.
Attempts by Crikey to contact Ardin by phone, fax, email and twitter were unsuccessful today.
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treason.
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/wikileaks-acts-may-be-criminal-mcclelland-20101209-18r99.html"Certainly to release that sort of information by an officer of the commonwealth, if it were Australian material, would in my view certainly involve criminality," Mr McClelland told a book launch in Sydney.
The legal interpretation came as WikiLeaks supplied Fairfax newspapers with information revealing how Labor powerbroker Mark Arbib gave US officials inside knowledge about former prime minister Kevin Rudd's bid to contain the leadership ambitions of his eventual successor, Julia Gillard.
In October 2009, Senator Arbib told US diplomats Mr Rudd wanted to "ensure that there are viable alternatives to Gillard within the Labor Party to forestall a challenge".
The publication came a day after WikiLeaks released cables suggesting Mr Rudd had been a "control freak" leader.
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Well it would be treason under the laws of most countries to either leak or distribute the leak.
That said, the threat of a leak on WikiLeaks might do something to clean up domestic and international politics that have been trading on backhanders for far too long. -
"Clean up". Now that's a serious LULZ!
I spent half of my electrical engineering career as a Department of Defense contractor. I held both "secret" and "top secret" govt. clearances. I will never reveal what I know. I will take it with me to my grave.
The argument whether Assange/Wikileaks is right is irrelevant. The fact is they have released classified US government documents. This is a serious US Federal offense.
All governments have secret "classified" documents, like it or not. Illegally releasing those type of documents is a crime regardless of their content.
Assange can hide behind UK and Swedish laws. But if he is extradited to the US, all bets are off. He's not a US citizen but if he gets on US soil, I hope they prosecute him to the full extent of the Federal law. US media, specifically NY Times, should also be included since they are just as guilty.
So, hey SQUASHED. You are obviously all about FULL TRANSPARENCY, so who the Fuck are you? You going to keep hiding behind the internet wall like WikiLeaks and those Fucktards "Anonymous" hackers?
Anyways, cutting and pasting pro WikiLeaks internet articles anonymously is lame and something a ten yr. old could do. They could even add a silly one line comment like you do but it would at least be grammatically correct.
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Merz, the leaking of documents and the publication of leaked documents is probably treason in most countries, I don't think anyone is disputing that, and I noted my agreement above.
However, whilst the American that leaked these documents could be prosecuted for treason or spying, I highly doubt any country will extradite Assange for spying against the US - which is about as bad as he could be prosecuted for as he has not committed treason in Australia as of yet. The extradition treaties tend not to cover spying. The US (and others) may be able to use their political power to get him prosecuted for various things under various countries' laws, but not treason and he is not a citizen. If he is dumb enough to go to the US I imagine he would be locked up for life, but I doubt he plans to do that anytime soon. -
subtitle translation needed.
http://blog.planalto.gov.br/presidente-presta-solidariedade-em-publico-ao-wikileaks/O presidente Lula prestou solidariedade nesta quinta-feira (9/12) ao fundador do Wikileaks, Julian Assange, preso esta semana após seu grupo ter divulgado mensagens produzidas pela diplomacia americana, e criticou a imprensa brasileira por não defender o ativista australiano e a liberdade de expressão. ”O rapaz foi preso e eu não estou vendo nenhum protesto contra a [o cerceamento à] liberdade de expressão. É engraçado, não tem nada”, afirmou o presidente, que fez questão de registar o seu:
Ô, Stuckinha (Ricardo Stuckert, fotógrafo oficial da Presidência), pode colocar no Blog do Planalto o primeiro protesto, então, contra a [o cerceamento à] liberdade de expressão na internet, para a gente poder protestar, porque o rapaz estava apenas colocando aquilo que ele leu. E se ele leu porque alguém escreveu, o culpado não é quem divulgou, o culpado é quem escreveu. Portanto, em vez de culpar quem divulgou, culpe quem escreveu a bobagem, porque senão não teria o escândalo que tem. Então, Wikileaks, minha solidariedade pela divulgação das coisas e meu protesto contra a [o cerceamento à] liberdade de expressão.
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U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay voiced concern on Thursday at reports of pressure being exerted on private companies to halt financial or Internet services for WikiLeaks.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE6B81RO20101209UN rapporteur says Assange shouldn't be prosecuted
ELEANOR HALL: The United Nations representative for freedom of opinion and expression says he is now working on a new report on free speech and the internet.
Frank La Rue says he doesn't think that the United States Government will be able to make a case against Julian Assange. But he warns it would set a very bad example for free speech if it did take action against him.
He spoke to me earlier today from his home in Guatemala City:
Frank La Rue you monitor freedom of expression and attempts to curtail it around the world. Do you agree with supporters of WikiLeaks that its founder Julian Assange is now a martyr for free speech?
FRANK LA RUE: It certainly is. If there is a responsibility by leaking information it is of, exclusively of the person that made the leak and not of the media that publish it. And this is the way that transparency works and that corruption has been confronted in many cases.
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2010/s3089025.htm -
WikiLeaks cables: Shell's grip on Nigerian state revealed
US embassy cables reveal top executive's claims that company 'knows everything' about key decisions in government ministries
The oil giant Shell claimed it had inserted staff into all the main ministries of the Nigerian government, giving it access to politicians' every move in the oil-rich Niger Delta, according to a leaked US diplomatic cable.
The company's top executive in Nigeria told US diplomats that Shell had seconded employees to every relevant department and so knew "everything that was being done in those ministries". She boasted that the Nigerian government had "forgotten" about the extent of Shell's infiltration and was unaware of how much the company knew about its deliberations.
The cache of secret dispatches from Washington's embassies in Africa also revealed that the Anglo-Dutch oil firm swapped intelligence with the US, in one case providing US diplomats with the names of Nigerian politicians it suspected of supporting militant activity, and requesting information from the US on whether the militants had acquired anti-aircraft missiles.
Other cables released tonight reveal:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/dec/08/wikileaks-cables-shell-nigeria-spying
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Oh Amazon. Amazon Web Services stopped hosting the WikiLeaks Cables last week citing that the content was against its Terms of Service.
As first reported on The Next Web, at least one appreciator of irony has now uploaded them to the Kindle store, and you can now buy the otherwise free cables in Amazon Books under the title “WikiLeaks documents expose US foreign policy conspiracies. All cables with tags from 1- 5000.”
From the Amazon blog regarding pulling WikiLeaks from AWS:“For example, our terms of service state that ‘you represent and warrant that you own or otherwise control all of the rights to the content… that use of the content you supply does not violate this policy and will not cause injury to any person or entity.’ It’s clear that WikiLeaks doesn’t own or otherwise control all the rights to this classified content.”
This is about to get really interesting, as Amazon is now profiting off of content that it has very publicly stated was against its TOS.
http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/09/wikileaks-against-amazons-tos-but-for-sale-in-the-kindle-store/
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*chuckle*
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/09/julian-assange-nobel-peace-prize?CMP=twt_guJulian Assange should be awarded Nobel peace prize, suggests Russia
Russia urges Assange nomination in calculated dig at the US over WikiLeaks founder's detention
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Anna Ardin in CUBA.... PICTURE !!!!!!!!
you are fucked now, the entire planet is going to hunt you down. Good idea skipping town after people start figuring out who you are. She is definitely a spy trying to inject herself into wikileak. usaid in cuba? lololol..
Good job assange. hope that was a good lay,
10-1, she is not in palestine, but somewhere else. (wikileaks has people in palestine to check where she is.) Can't recycle her identity there.
La Habana, 7 dic (PL) Detrás de las acusaciones de presunta violación sexual en contra del fundador de Wikileaks, Julian Assange, aparece la colaboradora cubana de la CIA Anna Ardin, vinculada con el terrorista Carlos Alberto Montaner.* Preocupado EE.UU. por filtración de cómo hace inteligencia
* Wikileaks revelará más documentos pese a captura de Assange
* Wikileaks: OTAN urdió plan secreto para Europa del este
Ardin participa en la campaña contra el fundador del sitio web Wikileaks, cuyas revelaciones mantienen despavorido al Departamento estadounidense de Estado, señala el diario Granma.
Tras su salida de Cuba, comenzó a colaborar con los sitios web financiados por la Agencia para del Desarrollo Internacional (USAID por su siglas en inglés) y controlados por la Agencia Central de Inteligencia de Estados Unidos (CIA), revela Granma.
Esta persona sería la demandante oficial de fundador de Wikileaks con su amiga Sofía Wilden, quien fue supuestamente la primera en quejarse del abuso sexual ante la policía de Suecia.
Una de esas páginas web, financiadas por la USAID, con la cual cooperó es Miscelánea de Cuba, propiedad del cubano Alexis Gainza, indica el artículo.
De colaboradora de Gainza y de la inteligencia estadounidense Ardin se metamorfoseó en experta en medios de comunicaciones suecos tales como Dagens Nyheter y SVT, para luego convertirse en figura del gobernante partido Social-Demócrata del país nórdico.
Gainza se vincula también con la alemana Sociedad Internacional para los Derechos Humanos, más conocida por sus siglas en alemán IGFM (Internationale Gesellschaft für Menschenrechte).
Con conocidos lazos con la inteligencia alemana y norteamericana, la IGFM mantuvo en sus filas a ex nazis, como Ludwig Martin, o ex militares, Dieter von Glahn.
El actual portavoz y presidente de la IGFM, Martin Lessenthin, colabora estrechamente con el partido golpista venezolano Primero Justicia, del terrorista Alejandro Peña.
Primero Justicia -subraya Granma- es el socio principal en Venezuela del Instituto Republicano Internacional, organización de extrema derecha subsidiada por la National Endowment for Democracy.
La demanda contra Assange, algo extraña, pero aparentemente conforme a la legislación sueca, consiste en el delito de haber practicado sexo sin condón, y haber tenido dos encuentros amorosos en una misma semana con cada una de las presuntas víctimas.
http://www.prensa-latina.cu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=244857&Itemid=1
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For details on the freedom of the press in your country you can have a look at the Reporters Without Boundaries index. It ranks the US on the fabulous 20th place.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Press_Freedom_Index
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/12/07/lieberman-new-york-t.html
According to The Guardian:
The NYT's Bill Keller sought the administration's approval for publishing the leaks beforehand. Is it editorial to suggest that it would seek to enjoy the control he offered it? Or that he signaled a position of weakness and dependency implicitly vulnerable to Joementum?