More Wikileaking

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Fri, 2010-12-03 12:57

Catchfire

More Wikileaking

Continued from here.

WikiLeaks founder calls for Flanagan charge

Quote:
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says a former senior adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper should be charged with incitement to commit murder for calling for Assange's assassination.

Assange was asked during a live Q&A Friday on the website of the Guardian newspaper about Tom Flanagan's comments earlier this week.

"It is correct that Mr. Flanagan and the others seriously making these statements should be charged with incitement to commit murder," Assange replied.

Fri, 2010-12-03 17:47

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

[url=http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/12/03/dan-gardner-why-should-as... Gardner[/url], Ottawa Citizen, asks [b]"Why should Assange be punished when Bush goes free?"[/b]

Quote:
Critics now call the Republicans the "party of torture" for good reason. Almost two-thirds of Republican voters think torture is "often" or "sometimes" justified, while only 14% think it's always wrong. Dick Cheney's claim that the near-drowning of prisoners is acceptable because it isn't torture is now dogma among leading Republicans.

Then along comes George W. Bush with a memoir and the boast that "damn right" he authorized waterboarding. "It is hard to overstate the enormity of this admission," wrote Boris Johnson, the Conservative mayor of London. Waterboarding is torture. Torture is a major crime. Bush freely admitted it. And the Convention Against Torture requires authorities everywhere to investigate and prosecute "wherever there is reasonable ground to believe that an act of torture has been committed."

Which they refuse to do. And most people are fine with that.

Now, contrast this with Julian Assange. One can certainly argue that Assange is an irresponsible zealot. One can also argue that there should be a law forbidding what he did this week. But there isn't. What Assange did wasn't a crime.

And a lot of people want the U.S. government to murder him.

Sat, 2010-12-04 00:19

NDPP

Out of the Diplomatic Bag - by William Bowles

http://williambowles.info/2010/12/02/out-of-the-diplomatic-bag-by-willia...

"The thing is, as has been pointed out elsewhere, what is revealed in these cables is not earth shattering, nor a surprise, the world's archives are full of the same, billions of them in fact. What makes these different of course is that they're not history in the academic sense of the word, nor do they fit well with the public face of the state as echoed through our complicit corporate/state media in selling the lie that our political class are responsible, rational and ethical individuals operating to further the public good.

The reality is that for the most part our leaders are obviously sociopaths, mass murderers, theives and liars. We know this because they've been found out and found out the same way WikiLeaks exposed the workings of a crumbing, psychotic empire, by gaining access to the information that they have kept to themselves for fear of exposure concerning their real intentions and activities...

But it's too late, the cat is well and truly out of the bag, things will never be the same again. We know the emperor wears no clothes..."

WikiLeaks and the Spanish Prosecutors - by Fran Shor

http://www.counterpunch.org/shor12032010.html

"It seems like we are citizens, or at least a small province, of an empire of the United States'. With this bitterly poignant and perceptive remark, Javier Couso, the brother of the Spanish cameraman killed by a US tank attack on April 8, 2003 in Baghdad encapsulated his anger at the complicity of Spanish legal officials who aided the government's efforts to suppress the family's lawsuit against 3 US soldiers.."

Sat, 2010-12-04 00:32

NDPP

M. Spector wrote:

[url=http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/12/03/dan-gardner-why-should-as... Gardner[/url], Ottawa Citizen, asks [b]"Why should Assange be punished when Bush goes free?"[/b]

NDPP

There were several attempts to apprehend George Bush for his crimes, including in Canada. Lawyers Against War (LAW) canvassed all MPs prior to Bush's visit to Calgary, his first as a private citizen. Canada's law already provides, indeed demands, that any 'credibly suspected' unindicted war criminal shall either be refused entry to Canada or apprehended pending trial for the alleged offences. There was no positive response from any parliamentarians according to L.A.W. Jack Layton's office did respond, baldly telling L.A.W they would entertain 'no further correspondence on the issue'. The other was the citizen's arrest attempt of Bush by John Splitting the Sky Hill. There was little support for either initiative at the time. Ditto when UofC invited Condi Rice to be guest of honour at their Gala. Neither CFS or any academic organization protested this obscene war criminal presiding over a 'Gala' at a Canadian University. Canadians, it seems, know which side their bread is buttered on.

Sat, 2010-12-04 00:53

NDPP

US Mercenary Firms Hired Afghan 'Dancing Boys': Wikileaks

http://www.legitgov.org/US-mercenary-firms-hired-Afghan-dancing-boys-Wik...

"A scandal involving foreign contractors employed to train Afghan policemen who took drugs and paid for young 'dancing boys' to entertain them in northern Afghanistan caused such panic that the interior minister begged the US embassy to try and 'quash' the story...Two Afghan policemen and 9 other Afghans were arrested as part of investigations into a crime described by Atnar as 'purchasing a service from a child'."

Sat, 2010-12-04 10:32

Boom Boom

Thank God for JA and WL is all I can say.

Sat, 2010-12-04 10:52

dhizzo

Boom Boom wrote:

Thank God for JA and WL is all I can say.

+1 on that

Sat, 2010-12-04 12:46

Catchfire

Paypal cuts Wikileaks access for donations

Quote:
PayPal said its payment service cannot be used for activities "that encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct others to engage in illegal activity".

Wikileaks' latest releases - of US diplomatic cables - has caused considerable embarrassment to the US and its allies, correspondents say.

It has been forced to change its web address after sustained cyber attacks.

In a statement, US-based PayPal said donations could no longer be made to Wikileaks because of "a violation of the PayPal Acceptable Use Policy"

Earlier, the company providing Wikileaks with its domain name, EveryDNS.net, cut off service because the domain wikileaks.org had become the target of "multiple distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks".

Sat, 2010-12-04 13:23

pogge

You can reach the main [i]WikiLeaks[/i] site at: http://213.251.145.96/

That's the IP address of the server and using that link bypasses the DNS system. That may not work forever either, but it works for now.

Sat, 2010-12-04 13:47

#10

Cueball

I think the more serious issue concerns whether or not the leaked material can be vetted and prepared without Assange. So far they have only released 1000 or so of a 1/4 million cables, and I imagine the process is slow. I also imagine that if we are having trouble getting wikileaks online, there are similar efforts to keep Assange off-line with his colleagues.

I don't know how things will shape up if he is arrested and taken off to Sweden.

Sat, 2010-12-04 14:08

#11

Boom Boom

Making the rounds on Facebook: WikiLeaks cables reveal how US manipulated climate accord

Sun, 2010-12-05 01:23

#12

NDPP

Police Complaint Filed After Tom Flanagan Calls for Assassination of WikiLeaks' Julian Assange

http://www.straight.com/article-362941/vancouver/lawyer-files-criminal-f...

"Vancouver lawyer Gail Davidson filed a written complaint today (Dec 4) with Vancouver police and the RCMP against Prime Minister Stephen Harper's former campaign manager, Tom Flanagan. Davidson alleged that on a Nov 30 CBC television broadcast, Flanagan 'counselled and/or incited the assassination of Julian Assange contrary to the Criminal Code of Canada."

Killing WikiLeaks and Making Collaborators of Us All - by Arthur Silber

http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2010/12/killing-wikileaks-and-makin...

"First Amazon forbade WikiLeaks the use of its servers. Now PayPal' has permanently restricted the account used by WIkiLeaks'. WikiLeaks won't be able to receive any donations via PayPal in future...

The corporatist-authoritarian State is designed to force all of us to become its collaborators. If you wish to survive in such a State, you either collaborate or your life becomes increasingly difficult. In the most extreme case, your non-cooperation means you will die.."

Mon, 2010-12-06 17:37

#13

Fidel

[url=http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=64803][color=blue]Wikileaks suggests 9/11 pre-planned[/color][/url] Pakistan Observer

[url=http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/dec2010/geor-d06.shtml][color=blue]Wik... exposes US cover-up of Georgian attack on South Ossetia[/color][/url] WSWS

Mon, 2010-12-06 18:29

#14

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

Fidel wrote:

[url=http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=64803][color=blue]Wikileaks suggests 9/11 pre-planned[/color][/url] Pakistan Observer

Wikileaks suggests nothing of the sort.

Wikileaks "reveals" that the USA was planning a propaganda campaign against Osama bin Laden in 1999. We knew this already. The campaign was in fact already in full swing before 2001. It has nothing whatsoever to do with 9/11.

Do get back to us when Wikileaks publishes secret diplomatic cables in which plans for 9/11 are [b]actually mentioned[/b].

Mon, 2010-12-06 18:53

#15

Cueball

Look Fidel, Colin Powell was setting up the invasion of Afghanistan prior to 9/11, and the evidence is all part of the public record already. In June of 2001, the Indian ambassador met with Colin Powell in Washington to lay out the general plan for the invasion of Afghanistan to put the Northern Alliance in power. This was all published in Janes magazine.

This particular snippet adds nothing to this story that is not already known.

Mon, 2010-12-06 18:54

#16

Fidel

M. Spector wrote:

Fidel wrote:

[url=http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=64803][color=blue]Wikileaks suggests 9/11 pre-planned[/color][/url] Pakistan Observer

Wikileaks suggests nothing of the sort.

Wikileaks "reveals" that the USA was planning a propaganda campaign against Osama bin Laden in 1999. We knew this already. The campaign was in fact already in full swing before 2001. It has nothing whatsoever to do with 9/11.

Do get back to us when Wikileaks publishes secret diplomatic cables in which plans for 9/11 are [b]actually mentioned[/b].

Oh come on! WikiLeaks shows that Saudi royals are a significant source of funding for al-CIA'duh. Which two countries were the largest sources of funding for the mujahideen in the 1980s? Are you trying to say that the US taxpayers suddenly stopped funding right wing extremists in Afghanistan and Pakistan at some point? That onus of proof is not with you or me. The onus of proof lies with those people who are still funding the madrassah system in Central Asia and who are aiding and abetting the Taliban covertly and even admittedly today.

9/11 actually began in July of 1979. It's a 30 year-old conspiracy. Some of the cables indicate the same US animosity with Russia exists today that existed in Zbigniew "Mackinder wannabe" Brzezinski's time in the sun. 9/11 was an inside job as surely as Gulf of Tonkin and Pearl Harbor were intelligence operations as was operation Himmler in 1939. Let it happen-made it happen on purpose no real difference. War criminals should be arraigned on charges of false flag and prosecuted by a World Court same as the Nazis were for disturbing the peace. If operation mongoose was on the table in Kennedy's day, then why would similar plans for hijacking passenger planes and using them to kill Americans and blaming a false enemy for it not be on the Pentagon capitalists' table in 2001?

Evidence of previous guilt is not evidence of innocence in 2001.

Mon, 2010-12-06 18:59

#17

Fidel

Cueball wrote:

Look Fidel, Colin Powell was setting up the invasion of Afghanistan prior to 9/11,

So using this logic, why, then, did the Nazis feel the need to perpetrate [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Himmler]operation Himmler[/url] in 1939?

Surely the German people and soldiers would have gone right along with Hitler's defensive war against Poland for humanitarian reasons?

I mean, why have a big trial at Nuremberg to report to the world how a false flag operation led to the start of WW II? It was all for nothing according to Cueball.

Mon, 2010-12-06 19:02

#18

Cueball

Motive does not prove guilt.

The point I am making is simple. There is already plenty of evidence that the USA was moving toward invasion of Afghanistan, in one form or another, pror to 9/11. This tidbit from Wikileaks is just another piece of the already existing evidence.

Mon, 2010-12-06 19:12

#19

Fidel

Oh there are plenty of whistleblowers today. They beat Assange to the punch by several years.

There was plenty of evidence for operation barbarossa beforehand, too. Plenty of evidence within three weeks of the signing of Molotov-Ribbentrop II that the Nazis had no intention of abiding by the agreement.

They weren't even original about it on 9/11. Hitler and the SS were the biggest liars of the last century.

Prescott Bush's grandson is the biggest liar of this one thus far.

They ripped off Himmler's SS on 9/11.

Mon, 2010-12-06 19:22

#20

Cueball

I am not talking about "whistle blowers" I am talking about open meetings, and press reports of the era.

Mon, 2010-12-06 19:59

#21

wage zombie

Not sure if this has been posted elsewhere, here's Julian Assange and Daniel Schmitt discussing plans for Wikileaks in Dec 2009. Includes discussion of Iceland as a friendly offshore publication country.

The list of Wikileaks Mirrors is getting pretty long. It would be extremely difficult for the money powers to take Wikileaks offline.

Mon, 2010-12-06 20:00

#22

Fidel

The most significant difference between SS intel operation Himmler and the US Military-CIA's operation 9/11 is that there was a war crimes trial at Nuremberg that revealed the false flag nature of the pre-emptive attack on Poland.

Both of those inside jobs resulted in justification for military attacks on and marching into sovereign countries.

They can plan things all they want, but both the Nazis and the Bushlers needed justification for it. The Bushlers did not receive UN authorization but attacked anyway even though the USA was in no imminent danger of follow up attacks from al-CIA'duh.

Neither Afghanistan nor Iraq had anything to do with 9/11.

Elvis bin Laden is a myth. EBL and all of the anticommunist right wing extremist jihadis are their very own creations since July of 1979 and ongoing today.

WikiLeaks confirms that the CIA-Saudi operation Cyclone is ongoing. And actually, WikiLeaks cables are confirming what the 9/11 whistleblowers have said all along about US-Saudi funding of right wing extremism in Central Asia still happening today.

Cueball wrote:
There is already plenty of evidence that the USA was moving toward invasion of Afghanistan, in one form or another, pror to 9/11.

So what you're saying is that like Hitler and the SS were not really fearful of Polish attacks on Germany in 1939, the Bushlers and Liberal Democrats were never really fearful of al-CIA'duh, the invisible army of darkness. They were going to attack Afghanistan anyway just like the Nazis were planning to violate Molotov-Ribbentrop II and launch a pre-emptive defensive and even humanitarian war on Poland. And that's why Cheney and Rumsfeld are still running around giving speeches to the elite in North America and telling them Saddam had WMD and that the war on terror is for real when it isn't. The premise for the phony war is false. Thank you for emphasizing what 9/11 truthers have said all along.

Mon, 2010-12-06 22:17

#23

Catchfire

Facebook: We're Not Kicking Wikileaks Off Our Site

Quote:
ReadWriteWeb's question, by email: "Does Facebook have a statement on the Wikileaks account there? Will it be allowed to continue publishing, despite government calls to stop doing business with the organization? Is Facebook considering shutting down the account?"

Facebook's response, from Andrew Noyes, the company's D.C. based Manager of Public Policy Communications: "The Wikileaks Facebook Page does not violate our content standards nor have we encountered any material posted on the page that violates our policies."

That's notably different from what Twitter told us today. Twitter passed around a press statement this morning stating that it is not censoring Wikileaks from its "trending topics" section, but when we asked point blank about whether it will permit the Wikileaks account to remain online or whether it will be shut down, Twitter's Matt Graves told ReadWriteWeb, "We've got no additional comment beyond the statement."

Don't expect this to be the last that's heard from either company on this matter.

Mon, 2010-12-06 22:24

#24

Catchfire

Please keep 9/11 comments out of this thread. This thread is about Wikileaks.

Julian Assange to be questioned by Scotland Yard

Quote:
Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, is expected to appear in a UK court today after his lawyers said he would meet police to discuss a European arrest warrant from Sweden relating to alleged sexual assaults.

As the legal net continued to close around the whistleblowers' website and the US attorney general, Eric Holder, said he had authorised "a number of things to be done" to combat the organisation, Assange appeared to be reconciling himself to a lengthy personal court battle to avoid extradition to Sweden.

Jennifer Robinson, a solicitor with Finers Stephens Innocent, which represents the Australian freedom of information campaigner, told the Guardian: "We have a received an arrest warrant [related to claims in Sweden]. We are negotiating a meeting with police."

Another lawyer representing Assange, Mark Stephens, added: "He has not been charged with anything. We are in the process of making arrangements to meet the police by consent, in order to facilitate the taking of that question and answer that is needed. It's about time we got to the end of the day and we got some truth, justice and rule of law."

skdadl, who knows more than anyone I know about Julian Assange and Wikileaks, suspects this is an attempt to get Assange to the US via Sweden.

Courage, Julian.

Mon, 2010-12-06 22:57

#25

Real News

Quote:
[B]Cable: EU President Told US Afghan War Unwinnable[/B]

[B]Told US Envoy Troops Are Only Staying 'Out of Deference' to the US[/B]

by Jason Ditz, December 05, 2010

A newly released WikiLeaks cable describing a late 2009 meeting with European Union President Van Rompuy had the EU chief warning that "no one believes in Afghanistan any more."

President Van Rompuy Van Rompuy, whose comments came in the wake of President Obama's December escalation announcement, said the European nations in NATO were only going along with the war out of deference to the United States and added that by the end of 2010 he thought nations would start to bail out.

Though the comments point to a general pessimism about the Afghan War (even ahead of the record 2010 death toll) Van Rompuy's prognostication leaves something to be desired, as a Lisbon Summit last month secured the continuation of the war in Afghanistan through at least 2014, though again, comments suggested few actually believe the war will be won even then.

Van Rompuy also predicted his native Belgium would leave if they had a single combat death. So far there have been no Belgian combat deaths, with the only Belgian soldier who died in Afghanistan having died of meningitis.

http://news.antiwar.com/2010/12/05/cable-eu-president-told-us-afghan-war...

Mon, 2010-12-06 23:40

#26

N.Beltov

Fidel wrote:

[url=http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/dec2010/geor-d06.shtml][color=blue]Wik... exposes US cover-up of Georgian attack on South Ossetia[/color][/url] WSWS

This is more interesting than the other link. Here's a quote:

Quote:
The extent to which Washington was forewarned or even complicit in the attack on South Ossetia ordered by Saakashvili remains unknown, though WikiLeaks has only issued a fraction of the State Department documents in its possession. A Russian magazine has claimed it has information indicating that many of the leaked US State Department files still to be released relate to the 2008 Russia-Georgia war.

It would be a very, very serious matter if it could be shown that the US militarist regime was COMPLICIT in the attack on South Ossetia. There were already reports, at the time, of Ukrainian troops taking part in the Georgian slaughter in Tskinvali, South Ossetia. Direct US participation is a different matter.

I can't help but think that the Russians could do as much with the information remaining secret as with publicizing it. Any objective observer at the time could see that the US regime put Saakashvili up to the attack.

It's more a question of what's more embarrassing or what could provoke public outrage against the US regime. And I can't help but think that public outrage IN THE USA might be the most useful thing. Selecting WHAT to leak is maybe more complicated than it at first appears.

Tue, 2010-12-07 00:14

#27

Cueball

Catchfire wrote:

skdadl, who knows more than anyone I know about Julian Assange and Wikileaks, suspects this is an attempt to get Assange to the US via Sweden.

Courage, Julian.

Oh yeah, and what new information does she have to support this view?

Quote:
But in Washington, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said he has authorized "significant" actions related to a criminal investigation of WikiLeaks.

"National security of the United States has been put at risk," Holder said. "The lives of people who work for the American people have been put at risk. The American people themselves have been put at risk by these actions that I believe are arrogant, misguided and ultimately not helpful in any way. We are doing everything that we can."

Holder declined to answer questions about the possibility that the U.S. government could shut down WikiLeaks, saying he does not want to talk about capabilities and techniques at the government's disposal. Nor would he say whether the actions involved search warrants, requests under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which authorizes wiretaps or other means, describing them only as "significant."

CNN

Tue, 2010-12-07 00:19

#28

Cueball

Quote:
PARIS - A French judge declined to force web provider OVH to shut down the WikiLeaks site, OVH said on Monday, after the government called for the whistleblower website to be kicked out of France.

The legal challenge came after French Industry Minister Eric Besson called for WikiLeaks to be banned from French servers after the site took refuge there on Thursday, having been expelled from the United States.

A court in the northern city of Lille had rejected a first complaint by OVH arguing that it was incomplete.

A new complaint was made Monday calling on judges in Lille and Paris to rule whether or the not the site was legal, said OVH in an email to AFP.

The Lille court again rejected it, while the Paris court said the case needed further arguments.

French web host need not shut down WikiLeaks site: judge

Tue, 2010-12-07 02:01

#29

NDPP

Indecent Exposure: WikiLeaks Hounded for Showing Power Its True Face - by Chris Floyd

http://www.chris-floyd.com/articles/1-latest-news/2059-indecent-exposure...

WikiLeaks: Should Sensitive Diplomatic Files Be Released

http://www.cbc.ca/news/pointofview/2010/12/wikileaks-should-sensitive-di...

Take the Survey:

"Should Wikileaks publish sensitive diplomatic files?"

Tue, 2010-12-07 07:28

#30

Unionist

[url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11937110]Julian Assange arrested in London[/url]

Tue, 2010-12-07 07:50

#31

Unionist

[What the heck is wrong with babble this morning? Denial of service? Are we harbouring Julian Assange or something? Couldn't post about Assange's arrest for the longest time...]

Tue, 2010-12-07 07:53

#32

Cueball

Unionist wrote:

[What the heck is wrong with babble this morning? Denial of service? Are we harbouring Julian Assange or something? Couldn't post about Assange's arrest for the longest time...]

I am kind of curious when Rabble.ca is going to move its service from the US. The recent evens make it seem even less secure than it was before. I don't know if it makes sense to store peoples data on servers that are vulnerable to seizure by the American national security establishment. Joe Lieberman need only make a phone call apparently.

Tue, 2010-12-07 07:55

#33

Fidel

Catchfire wrote:

Please keep 9/11 comments out of this thread. This thread is about Wikileaks.

You do realize that conspiracy theories of all kinds are proliferating around the world now as a result of Wikileaks? Wikileaks is conspiracy theory central. If it wasn't for government secrecy and non-transparency to the public, there would be no need for wikileaks or conspiracy theories to shine light on the cloak and dagger diplomacy and state sponsored terrorism in general.

Tue, 2010-12-07 08:07

#34

Fidel

It doesn't matter. Even if the server was in Canada, we all access web sites in the US or are routed overseas by long haul data pipes emanating from the US anyway. NSA and CIA spooks are data mining stuff from around the world not just the US and Canada. Our stooges couldn't stop them even if they wanted to. They don't.

Tue, 2010-12-07 08:13

#35

ElizaQ

The information being released is interesting.

What I'm finding more interesting though is attempts to get it off the air. I think it's safe to assume that the US admin and many other powers that be are working extremely hard in all sorts of official and unofficial avenues to shut er down. It's a cyber civil war so to speak. I'm seeing it as almost a test of just how powerful and controlled the internet is at this time and whether they're successful or not will have long term ramifications for the world wide web as a whole.

Tue, 2010-12-07 08:16

#36

Unionist

I hope this isn't what was slowing down rabble this morning!

[url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11935539]Wikileaks defended by hacktivists[/url]

Quote:

A group called Anonymous has hit sites that have refused to do business with the controversial whistle-blowing site with a series of distributed denial-of-service attacks.

It mirrors similar attacks aimed at the Wikileaks site.

Targets include the Swiss bank that froze founder Julian Assange's assets and PayPal which has stopped processing donations to Wikileaks.

Anonymous is a loose-knit group of hacktivists, with links to the notorious message board 4chan.

Tue, 2010-12-07 08:38

#37

Fidel

N.Beltov wrote:
I can't help but think that the Russians could do as much with the information remaining secret as with publicizing it. Any objective observer at the time could see that the US regime put Saakashvili up to the attack.

It's more a question of what's more embarrassing or what could provoke public outrage against the US regime. And I can't help but think that public outrage IN THE USA might be the most useful thing. Selecting WHAT to leak is maybe more complicated than it at first appears.

Yes it should be obvious to most people who were born before 1980 or so. Ossetia was typical of cold war maneuvering. They incite a country's leaders to pick a fight with the bear, and then the US doesn't supply the military backup they promised the pipsqueak nation from the beginning.

Meanwhile, SCO and BRIC countries have been working to drop the US dollar as a common trade currency between those countries. This is of great concern for the US and its ability to finance the military expansions and hundreds of bases around the world. The dominant revenue is not so dominant anymore. I think the aggression and US military buildups around BRIC and SCO nations are all about projecting US power as usual. But now it's just a show of military power minus the economic might and influence associated with it in 1980. A vicious empire is on the wane.

Tue, 2010-12-07 09:13

#38

ElizaQ

Unionist wrote:

I hope this isn't what was slowing down rabble this morning!

[url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11935539]Wikileaks defended by hacktivists[/url]

Quote:

A group called Anonymous has hit sites that have refused to do business with the controversial whistle-blowing site with a series of distributed denial-of-service attacks.

It mirrors similar attacks aimed at the Wikileaks site.

Targets include the Swiss bank that froze founder Julian Assange's assets and PayPal which has stopped processing donations to Wikileaks.

Anonymous is a loose-knit group of hacktivists, with links to the notorious message board 4chan.

Not surprised at all that these folks have gotten involved. I would have been surprised if they didn't.

I expect there's already movie scripts being written too. Some sort of cyber political drama thriller.

Tue, 2010-12-07 10:32

#39

Caissa

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was denied bail in a British court on Tuesday and will remain behind bars until his next appearance on Dec. 14.

Tue, 2010-12-07 12:17

#40

Fidel

Julie should have asked OBL to rent him a room in one of the many big-giant Dr No type concrete bunker complexes at Tora Bora Rumsfeld was on about, or something. They'd never find him there. "snort-snicker-snort"

Tue, 2010-12-07 12:22

#41

Merowe

Deeply disturbing and perhaps, a critical misstep on the part of the much-persecuted Mr.Assange. I assumed he had a very good team advising him so I don't understand how they can ALL of missed the obvious concern that once in custody his subsequent transfer - to the United States and not Sweden - becomes that much more likely. Why didn't he take up Ecuador's offer of asylum? If Sweden will bend to the American state in initiating the prosecution, why would they suddenly grow a spine when pressed to render the man himself?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2010/dec/07/wikileaks-us-embassy-cab...

In concert with the international campaign to suppress wikileaks involving both corporate and state actors, Mr.Assange's continuing freedom was the only guarantee of its continued vigour. Now that he is under restraint they will start to work on breaking him and defanging the final threat, the password-protected 'databomb' sitting on thousands of harddrives around the planet. Wikileaks will fade to a titillating memory as the planet lurches another step down the path of totalitarianism.

Well. I damned well hope not. Letters to the corporate slime at Visa, Amazon etc, for a start.

Tue, 2010-12-07 14:12

#42

wage zombie

Merowe wrote:

Now that he is under restraint they will start to work on breaking him and defanging the final threat, the password-protected 'databomb' sitting on thousands of harddrives around the planet. Wikileaks will fade to a titillating memory as the planet lurches another step down the path of totalitarianism.

From what I have heard of the 'databomb' they've rigged it up so that Assange needs to "check in" every so often, and if he doesn't, then the password goes out. It was set up in this way because they thought it would guarantee him some net access.

I think Wikileaks can run without his active involvement. I guess he figured this was better for Wikileaks than being on the run.

Tue, 2010-12-07 15:02

#43

Catchfire

How the U.S. can now extradite Assange

Quote:
Now that Julian Assange is in custody of British authorities on a warrant for alleged sex crimes in Sweden, Obama administration officials may well be working behind the scenes to secure his extradition to the United States, an international criminal law expert tells Salon.

Assange has not been charged with a crime in the United States -- though it's possible that there is an arrest warrant or indictment under seal. The Obama Justice Department has repeatedly suggested that it is going after Assange, though officials have not said what law they believe Assange has broken (and experts say that making any case against him could prove difficult).

Attorney Douglas McNabb, who specializes in federal criminal defense and international extradition cases, says that extradition requests can also be made under seal. And he has had clients who have been the subject of Interpol Red Notices -- the international call for arrest that Sweden used to pursue Assange last week -- that have not been released publicly. So it's possible that the U.S. is already using these avenues.

Tue, 2010-12-07 15:04

#44

Catchfire

Glen Greenwald (again): Anti-WikiLeaks lies and propaganda - from TNR, Lauer, Feinstein and more

Quote:
In The New Republic today, Todd Gitlin writes an entire anti-WikiLeaks column that is based on an absolute factual falsehood. Anyone listening to most media accounts would believe that WikiLeaks has indiscriminately published all 250,000 of the diplomatic cables it possesses, and Gitlin -- in the course of denouncing Julian Assange -- bolsters this falsehood: "Wikileaks’s huge data dump, including the names of agents and recent diplomatic cables, is indiscriminate" and Assange is "fighting for a world of total transparency."

The reality is the exact opposite -- literally -- of what Gitlin told TNR readers. WikiLeaks has posted to its website only 960 of the 251,297 diplomatic cables it has. Almost every one of these cables was first published by one of its newspaper partners which are disclosing them (The Guardian, the NYT, El Pais, Le Monde, Der Speigel, etc.). Moreover, the cables posted by WikiLeaks were not only first published by these newspapers, but contain the redactions applied by those papers to protect innocent people and otherwise minimize harm.

Tue, 2010-12-07 16:01

#45

al-Qa'bong

So, is anyone remembering Pearl Harbour right now?

Tue, 2010-12-07 17:34

#46

A_J

N.Beltov wrote:

Fidel wrote:

[url=http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/dec2010/geor-d06.shtml][color=blue]Wik... exposes US cover-up of Georgian attack on South Ossetia[/color][/url] WSWS

This is more interesting than the other link. Here's a quote:

Quote:
The extent to which Washington was forewarned or even complicit in the attack on South Ossetia ordered by Saakashvili remains unknown, though WikiLeaks has only issued a fraction of the State Department documents in its possession. A Russian magazine has claimed it has information indicating that many of the leaked US State Department files still to be released relate to the 2008 Russia-Georgia war.

It would be a very, very serious matter if it could be shown that the US militarist regime was COMPLICIT in the attack on South Ossetia. There were already reports, at the time, of Ukrainian troops taking part in the Georgian slaughter in Tskinvali, South Ossetia. Direct US participation is a different matter.

I can't help but think that the Russians could do as much with the information remaining secret as with publicizing it. Any objective observer at the time could see that the US regime put Saakashvili up to the attack.

It's more a question of what's more embarrassing or what could provoke public outrage against the US regime. And I can't help but think that public outrage IN THE USA might be the most useful thing. Selecting WHAT to leak is maybe more complicated than it at first appears.

Of course, the cables out of Tbilisi also have this to say about Russia:

20 July, 2007 - Russian Active Measures in Georgia

Quote:

Direct Military Attack:

Probably the most notorious recent incident was the missile attack on Georgian positions in the Upper Kodori Gorge on the night of May 11-12, 2007. As documented by a UN-led joint investigation, the attack included one or more helicopters that apparently fired a missile into the headquarters of the Georgian-backed “Government-in-Exile” of Abkhazia, as well as ground-fired missiles that struck near other targets in the area. UN investigators have told us privately that they agree with the Georgians that only Russia could have launched the attack, noting that while the final written report does not directly assign blame, “any reasonable person” would conclude from it that Russia was responsible . . .

. . .

Murders and Attempted Murders:

On February 1, 2005 a bomb exploded in a car at the police station in Gori, the largest Georgian city close to South Ossetia, killing three Georgian police officers. Following an investigation, Georgian Minister of Internal Affairs Merabishvili said publicly that the bombing was masterminded by Russian military intelligence (GRU) officer Anatoly Sinitsyn, leader of the GRU team that was subsequently broken up in the September 2006 spy arrests.

On June 8, 2006, neighbors approached a suspicious man loitering around the home of Koba Davitashvili, a leading opposition politician. The man fired two shots from a gun equipped with a silencer, slightly wounding one of the neighbors, and fled. He left behind a small bag that included a newspaper photo of Davitashvili and Russian cell phone company SIM cards. Following a Georgian investigation, Minister of Internal Affairs Merabishvili publicly identified the suspect as Giorgi Kurtaev, a Russian citizen who had been monitoring Davitashvili for several weeks, with one interruption for travel back to Russia. Following the June 8 incident Kurtaev fled again to Russia, from where Georgian officials unsuccessfully sought to extradite him.

. . .

Sabotage:

On January 22, 2006, near-simultaneous explosions in the Russian region of North Ossetia ripped into natural gas pipelines running from Russia into Georgia. Later that day, an explosion in the Karacheyevo-Cherkessia republic in Russia knocked out a high-voltage line supplying Georgia with electricity. The attacks immediately plunged Georgia into a major energy crisis, with virtually no ability to heat homes in the coldest part of winter.

. . .

In September 2006, the Georgian government arrested 29 activists of Igor Giorgadze’s Justice Party on charges of planning an explosion outside the headquarters of the ruling National Movement, intended to be the prelude to a coup . . . His Justice Party has never been popular in Georgia, and it was widely believed that the party was funded almost exclusively from Russia.

. . .

Support for Separatists:

The Russian government has provided direct, if at times thinly veiled, support to the separatist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, without informing or obtaining the consent of the Georgian government. In South Ossetia, many de facto cabinet ministers and advisors to Kokoity are Russian officials -- in most cases believed to be FSB - serving a rotation in South Ossetia before returning to work in Russia. It is widely understood that Russia is paying, in full or in part, the salaries of police and other civil servants in South Ossetia - and that Russia recently increased these payments as a disincentive for South Ossetian officials to defect to the Georgian-backed temporary administrative unit of Dmitry Sanakoyev. The South Ossetians have reportedly received arms and equipment from Russia, including GRAD missiles, on various occasions, including during recent tensions.

. . .

Support for Minority Extremists:

Georgian officials in Tbilisi and Akhalkalaki, as well as local community leaders and political activists, have confirmed that the Russian government has funded radical ethnic-Armenian nationalists in Samtskhe-Javakheti in a bid to destabilize this mutli-ethnic, politically fragile region.

. . .

Tue, 2010-12-07 19:42

#47

N.Beltov

The difference, of course, is that while the Russians are involved in matters relating to their own borders, the US militarist regime and its boot-licking poodles, like the UK and Canada, don't have any busines 5,000 km from their own borders in Iraq, Afghanistan, Georgia, .....................

oR is it oK now for the Russians to supply cuba with nuclear missiles? lol.

Tue, 2010-12-07 23:38

#48

margot66

Fidel wrote:

WikiLeaks exposes US cover-up of Georgian attack on South Ossetia WSWS

This is more interesting than the other link. Here's a quote:
Quote:The extent to which Washington was forewarned or even complicit in the attack on South Ossetia ordered by Saakashvili remains unknown, though WikiLeaks has only issued a fraction of the State Department documents in its possession. A Russian magazine has claimed it has information indicating that many of the leaked US State Department files still to be released relate to the 2008 Russia-Georgia war.

It would be a very, very serious matter if it could be shown that the US militarist regime was COMPLICIT in the attack on South Ossetia.... Any objective observer at the time could see that the US regime put Saakashvili up to the attack.
Adding to Beltov, here's the why, I think, which got largely missed at the time:

As reported July 30, 08,

"Russia takes control of Turkmen (world?) gas

By M K Bhadrakumar

"From the details coming out of Ashgabat in Turkmenistan and Moscow over the weekend, it is apparent that the great game over Caspian energy has taken a dramatic turn. In the geopolitics of energy security, nothing like this has happened before. The United States has suffered a huge defeat in the race for Caspian gas."

details at

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/JG30Ag01.html

"In essence, the two agreements ensure that Russia will keep control over Turkmen gas exports."

That means the gas to go through the "impossible" but "whatever it takes" TAPI pipeline, the one NATO is slaughtering a path for.

The improved (?) news is that there's enough gas there for all plans. But this didn't come out until long after the Georgia crisis.

from: http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/news/ntc84897.htm

"15-10-08

On October 13 and 14 in Ashgabat, the British consultancy company Gaffney, Cline & Associates (GCA) presented the first results of its audit of Turkmen gas reserves. According to its research, the South Yoloten-Osman deposits, situated in the south-east of the country, contain 4 tcm of gas at the low estimate, 6 tcm at the best estimate, and 14 tcm at the high estimate.

The 6 tcm best estimate would make South Yoloten-Osman the fourth or fifth richest gas deposit in the world, according to GCA. That figure substantially exceeds the Russian Shtokman gas field's reserve estimated at 4 tcm. South Yoloten-Osman also outranks by far the Dauletabad gas field, whose reserves of 1.4 tcm were thought to be the largest in Turkmenistan until now."

So the game goes on. Russia can have the Dauletabad, there's more more more in the same region, dances can be done. On bigger and bigger piles of dead civilians in southern Afghanistan.

Wed, 2010-12-08 03:10

#49

NDPP

Goddamned Bastards - by Arthur Silber

http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2010/12/goddamned-bastards.html

"I'm not in the least surprised that the murderous bastards who rule us and much of the rest of the world are so intent upon destroying him and wikiLeaks, as all my writing on WikiLeaks has made clear from the beginning. They perceive all too clearly the very significant threat WikiLeaks represents:

'Tell a truth that discomforts power, that challenges its domination over our lives, our discourse, our very thoughts and you will be destroyed. No institution, public or private will stand with you; the most powerful entities, public and private will be arrayed against you, backed up by violent force. This is where we are now. This is what we are now..'"

Death Squads Versus Democracy: Tom Flanagan's 'Joke' - by Prof Michael Keefer

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=22302

"Canada's standards of public discourse have decayed to the point at which our national broadcaster is not ashamed to carry an open incitement to political murder made by the leading idealogue of the governing party.."

Petition in Support of Julian Assange

http://readersupportednews.org/off-site-news-section/368-wikileaks/4172-...

Wed, 2010-12-08 11:07

#50

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

New search engine for doing word searches on [b]already released[/b] Wikileaks cables:

http://cablesearch.org/

This site is an initiative of the European Centre for Computer Assisted Research Eccar (starts in april 2010) and the Dutch-Flemish association for investigative journalists VVOJ.

It's a tool for investigative reporters who want to harvest cablegate documents and put the material into context.

Wed, 2010-12-08 13:22

#51

NDPP

From Cyberspace to the Streets: International Calls for Protests in Defense of WikiLeaks

http://kasamaproject.org/2010/12/08/international-protests-in-defense-of...

Free Julian Assange! Hands off WikiLeaks!

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/dec2010/pers-d08.shtml

"It is almost certain that the ultimate goal of the shoddy legal frame up is to have Assange extradicted to the United States to be tried as a spy or even as an accomplice of terrorism...

Those leading the campaign against Assange and WIkiLeaks are representatives of a government and ruling establishment that is responsible for decades of criminality carried out behind the backs of the American people - from stolen elections, the illegal wars of aggression, to torture and other acts of international terror.."

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