Julian Assange: Modern day hero, or unaccountable knave?

Janus232 · Post by **Janus232** » 10-26-2010 02:47 AM

Leak This! Wiki Spooks and the World of Stieg Larsson Audio feed - 1:06:03
http://wfmu.org/listen.m3u?show=37827&archive=64456

Sweden’s Pirate Party announces will host new Wikileaks servers
"We see more opportunities down the road in cooperating with the Pirate Party” JPA
http://techtoday.dreamvision-soft.com/blog/?tag=host

SquidInk · Post by **SquidInk** » 10-26-2010 10:08 AM

"In an age of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."
- G. Orwell

...we live in an age of "universal deceit," when it is hard to trust anything someone in the national security world tells you. From the very moment that the Iraq War was conceived, for example, top U.S. officials deployed a vast array of disinformation and deceit -- supposedly based on top-secret intelligence information -- to convince the American public that Saddam Hussein posed a mortal threat to U.S. national security. Nor were they the first leaders to lie to the American public. And the lies continued well in to the war, as former Washington Post Baghdad bureau chief Ellen Knickmayer makes clear here. (H/T to Glenn Greenwald, whose own posts on this topic are well worth reading).

As Eric Alterman and John Mearsheimer have both documented, it is clear from the historical record that all governments lie for a wide variety of reasons. But unless you're willing to believe that the people in charge are always right and that their lies are therefore justified (and if you think that, you haven't been paying attention), you ought to be in favor of any mechanism that brought more facts to light.

It is also increasingly clear that the U.S. taxpayer is funding a vast array of clandestine activities of which they are only dimly aware, and whose value they have been asked to take almost entirely on faith. If some of these activities are misguided, then not only will we get stuck with the bill, but we are paying for activities that could be making us less secure.

Furthermore, if we have no idea what our government (or that growing army of private contractors) are really up to, then Americans won't understand why other countries may not like us very much. If we don't know about all the bad stuff we're doing, we'll think they hate us for "what we are" instead of "what we do." As I've noted before, Arab or Muslim hostility to the United States really shouldn't be a mystery, given the policies that the United States has adopted towards many of these societies over the past several decades. Do you really expect Iraqis to be grateful that the U.S. invaded their country and set off a civil war in which hundreds of thousands died and millions became refugees? - source

SETIsLady · Post by **SETIsLady** » 10-26-2010 10:10 AM

He is getting ready to release files on Russia and China, will be interesting to see the reaction to that.

SquidInk · Post by **SquidInk** » 11-25-2010 11:08 AM

The U.S. government has notified Ottawa that the WikiLeaks website is preparing to release sensitive U.S. diplomatic files that could damage U.S. relations with allies around the world.

U.S. officials say the documents may contain accounts of compromising conversations with political dissidents and friendly politicians and could result in the expulsion of U.S. diplomats from foreign postings.

- source

Assuming WikiLeaks is what it appears to be and not some enormous psy-op, I have one question: what could be so bad that US Diplomats face possible expulsion?

I wonder if our tendency to meddle endlessly in the affairs of other nations is not strictly limited to the "Axis of Evil"...

SquidInk · Post by **SquidInk** » 11-29-2010 10:49 PM

What is amazing about these WikiLeaks leaks is what's not contained in them. What's not contained in them is anything of real interest.

A limited hangout, or partial hangout, is a public relations or propaganda technique that involves the release of previously hidden information in order to prevent a greater exposure of more important details. It takes the form of deception, misdirection, or coverup often associated with intelligence agencies involving a release or "mea culpa" type of confession of only part of a set of previously hidden sensitive information, that establishes credibility for the one releasing the information who by the very act of confession appears to be "coming clean" and acting with integrity; but in actuality, by withholding key facts, is protecting a deeper operation and those who could be exposed if the whole truth came out. In effect, if an array of offenses or misdeeds is suspected, this confession admits to a lesser offense while covering up the greater ones.

A limited hangout typically is a response to lower the pressure felt from inquisitive investigators pursuing clues that threaten to expose everything, and the disclosure is often combined with red herrings or propaganda elements that lead to false trails, distractions, or ideological disinformation; thus allowing covert or criminal elements to continue in their improper activities.

Victor Marchetti wrote: "A 'limited hangout' is spy jargon for a favorite and frequently used gimmick of the clandestine professionals. When their veil of secrecy is shredded and they can no longer rely on a phony cover story to misinform the public, they resort to admitting - sometimes even volunteering - some of the truth while still managing to withhold the key and damaging facts in the case. The public, however, is usually so intrigued by the new information that it never thinks to pursue the matter further." - source

SETIsLady · Post by **SETIsLady** » 12-02-2010 11:38 AM

SquidInk and Janus232 whats your take on all of this ? I have been trying to follow it and refer to this often, because you post up the stuff that isn't being really touched on by our MSM.

SquidInk · Post by **SquidInk** » 12-02-2010 03:38 PM

SETIsLady wrote: SquidInk and Janus232 whats your take on all of this ? I have been trying to follow it and refer to this often, because you post up the stuff that isn't being really touched on by our MSM.

Here's what I "know":

* Ecuador (leftist totalitarian state) has offered assylum/immunuty and total freedom of the press to Assange

* Interpol (international police working for the free west) as issued a warrant for the arrest of Assange [how long before the warrant is modified to read " dead or alive"]

* The American "right" as called for the website to be destroyed, the documents to be re-hidden, & they have called for Assange's execution - on the basis that he (an Australian) has committed "treason" - not for stealing classified documents, but simply exposing weaknesses in military security, & making "state secrets" available for the people to view

* Amazon.com has knuckled under, and censored WikiLeaks by disallowing it's use of Amazon "cloud" servers

Opinion: Assange himself has written several essays describing why he doing what he is doing - and frankly, his motivation makes more sense than that of his opposition, in many respects.

Googling any one of these bullet points will lead you to the sources of the stories.

* this entire post was written assuming that WikiLeaks is what it appears to be, and not a conspiracy of some kind

Janus232 · Post by **Janus232** » 12-02-2010 04:33 PM

There are amazingly wonderful plants in Ecuador, Interpol is a Nazi organization, The US is a playground for Fascist ideology..... I have been to the Amazon, and hope it will still be there in the years out ahead... Assange is in the UK, not in hiding, the UK police & intelligence services have his phone number and address - There is no death penalty in the UK - Nothing released in the cables is important - Who gives a f u c k about what a politician, any politician thinks or says...

SETIsLady · Post by **SETIsLady** » 12-02-2010 06:35 PM

Sooooooo this is the extent of the "rape" charge...

Lawyer: Sweden investigating Assange for sex without condom

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/swed ... ut-condom/

If this is true that his lawyer is correct Swedens justice system is a joke. You would think they could come up with something better than this to shut him up.

SquidInk · Post by **SquidInk** » 12-03-2010 03:34 PM

(Reuters) - The French government is examining how it could ban website WikiLeaks from being hosted on servers in France, according to a letter written by Industry Minister Eric Besson and seen by Reuters on Friday.

The letter addressed to ministry officials said WikiLeaks, which has infuriated Washington by releasing some 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables, had been partly hosted by French company OVH since U.S. host Amazon stopped supporting it on Thursday. - source

Hilarious.

It's amusing to observe no-nothing politicians as they try to outflank these guys. What they fail to realize is that the information has been zipped and distributed via the torrentweb. No one server is "hosting the information", they are hosting a landing page.

We all know that WikiLeaks is not endangering anyone - governments do that. But that's why governments hate WikiLeaks - because WikiLeaks is capable of exposing this truth & many others.

So these .gov types are quickly coming down to two choices - they will operate with the knowledge that everything they do will be randomly (and unpredictably) knowable by everybody, or they will be forced to unplug the entire internet and go totalitarian. That choice will need to be made very quickly.

I'm beginning to see the value in these "diplomatic" docs. The conspiracy can no longer exist if the conspirators cannot trust one another. The information may not seem like much to us, but to them - these secrets are sacred.

Well, in the old Soviet Bloc they censored printing presses, copiers and typewriters - so the people used pens, ink, and the ever-ready "sneaker net" to network their resistance.

Revolutions are funny that way.

Janus232 · Post by **Janus232** » 12-04-2010 12:27 PM

WikiLeaks: new diplomatic cables contain UFO details, Julian Assange says
"It is worth noting that in yet-to-be-published parts of the cablegate archive there are indeed references to UFOs"
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... sange.html

Raggedyann · Post by **Raggedyann** » 12-05-2010 02:36 AM

The Shameful Attacks on Julian Assange.
__________________________
Julian Assange and Pfc Bradley Manning have done a huge public service by making hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. government documents available on Wikileaks -- and, predictably, no one is grateful. Manning, a former army intelligence analyst in Iraq, faces up to 52 years in prison. He is currently being held in solitary confinement at a military base in Quantico, Virginia, where he is not allowed to see his parents or other outside visitors.

Assange, the organizing brain of Wikileaks, enjoys a higher degree of freedom living as a hunted man in England under the close surveillance of domestic and foreign intelligence agencies -- but probably not for long. Not since President Richard Nixon directed his minions to go after Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg and New York Times reporter Neil Sheehan - "a vicious antiwar type," an enraged Nixon called him on the Watergate tapes -- has a working journalist and his source been subjected to the kind of official intimidation and threats that have been directed at Assange and Manning by high-ranking members of the Obama Administration.

Full article:

http://www.theatlantic.com/internationa ... nge/67440/

If the media is afraid of legal repercussions for reporting activities regarding world affairs, is it any wonder they have been reduced to "entertaining" us by doing nothing but screaming partisan politics at hour after hour?

Janus232 · Post by **Janus232** » 12-05-2010 05:09 AM

When you can't find Wikileaks this link has 100's of mirrors......

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world - WBY 1919

Janus232 · Post by **Janus232** » 12-05-2010 07:14 AM

Mark Stephens, Wikileaks lawyer - speaking on BBC TV this morning -
"It doesn't escape my attention that Sweden was one of those lickspittle states which used its resources and its facilities for rendition flights (US transport of terror suspects around the world for interrogation)"

Further stating that Assange has held back material (an insurance policy) "A thermonuclear device effectively, in the internet age"

Exotic Case - Surreal Swedish Fairytale

Julian Assanges : Why the world needs WikiLeak

SquidInk · Post by **SquidInk** » 12-05-2010 11:24 AM

McConnell: WikiLeaks chief 'a high-tech terrorist'

(AP) – 45 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is calling the founder of the online site WikiLeaks a "high-tech terrorist" for releasing classified material from the U.S. government.

McConnell says that the online release of secret diplomat exchanges has done "enormous damage" to the country and to its relationship with its allies.

McConnell tells NBC's "Meet the Press" that he hopes WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will be prosecuted for the disclosures. And he says that if it's found that Assange hasn't violated the law, then the law should be changed.

Of Assange, McConnell says, "I think the man is a high-tech terrorist." - source

This is my favorite of the day, so far. I especially enjoy the part where "Assange" has done something to annoy the powerful, and the powerful respond by saying, "if we can't legally execute him, then we'll keep changing the 'law' unbtil we can" - THEN WHAT IS THE POINT OF THE LAW? McConnell says nothing about the fact that it was his military that screwed up - now, that is treason, maybe, if you want to use the violent verbiage of the State. McConnell's odd "view" on the matter illustrates a modern failing of our system.

WikiLeaks stole nothing, & leaked nothing. They received information stolen from Mitch McConnell's bloated, inefficient & apparently porous military apparatus. Maybe McConnell's time would be better spent discovering which of his buddy-contractor-contributors was awarded the no-bid contract for network security on the supposedly secured networks where the information originated. Then, he can extort some more money out of them in return for "forgetting" all about this unfortunate incident. You know, he should be doing his job as a disgusting politician.

I've read quite a few extremely compelling arguments supporting the idea that WikiLeaks is far to convenient to be what it appears to be, and is instead a vast psy-op. I actually tend to support this idea, but I'm still baffled at the "response" - even if it's all fictional. The "left" is skeptical of WikiLeaks, and the "right" is simply calling for the public beheading of it's leaders - and they won't let things like "law" stand in the way.

I just hope somebody tells McConnell he can defile & corrupt our system much more efficiently as supreme executive. I hate to see a guy work harder than he needs to, & he would make an fine Unitarian-in-Chief.