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| Author: | Madeline [ 29 Nov 10, 14:47 ] |
| Post subject: | Wikileaks |
John Kampfner: Wikileaks shows up our media for their docility at the feet of authority Independent |
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| Author: | Madeline [ 29 Nov 10, 17:46 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Wikileaks |
US embassy cables: The job of the media is not to protect the powerful from embarrassment It is for governments – not journalists – to guard public secrets, and there is no national jeopardy in WikiLeaks' revelations Guardian |
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| Author: | Madeline [ 30 Nov 10, 11:35 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Wikileaks |
Robert Fisk: Now we know. America really doesn't care about injustice in the Middle East. Independent I came to the latest uproarious US diplomatic history with the deepest cynicism. And yesterday, in the dust of post-election Cairo – the Egyptian parliamentary poll was as usual a mixture of farce and fraud, which is at least better than shock and awe – I ploughed through so many thousands of American diplomatic reports with something approaching utter hopelessness. After all, they do quote President Hosni Mubarak as saying that "you can forget about democracy," don't they? It's not that US diplomats don't understand the Middle East; it's just that they've lost all sight of injustice. Vast amounts of diplomatic literature prove that the mainstay of Washington's Middle East policy is alignment with Israel, that its principal aim is to encourage the Arabs to join the American-Israeli alliance against Iran, that the compass point of US policy over years and years is the need to tame/bully/crush/oppress/ ultimately destroy the power of Iran. There is virtually no talk (so far, at least) of illegal Jewish colonial settlements on the West Bank, of Israeli "outposts", of extremist Israeli "settlers" whose homes now smallpox the occupied Palestinian West Bank – of the vast illegal system of land theft which lies at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian war. And incredibly, all kinds of worthy US diplomats grovel and kneel before Israel's demands – many of them apparently fervent supporters of Israel – as Mossad bosses and Israel military intelligence agents read their wish-list to their benefactors. There's a wonderful moment in the cables when the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, explains to a US congressional delegation on 28 April last year that "a Palestinian state must be demilitarised, without control of its airspace and electro-magnetic field [sic], and without the power to enter into treaties or control its border". Well goodbye, then, to the "viable" (ergo Lord Blair of Isfahan) Palestinian state we all supposedly want. And the US Congress lads and ladies appear to have said nothing. Instead, in The New York Times, we read through the Wikileaks files for the best quote. Here is Saudi King Abdullah, via his ambassador in Washington (a dab hand with the press), sayingthat Abdullah believes America must "cut of the head of this snake" – the snake being Iran or Ahmadinejad or Iranian nuclear facilities, or whatever. But the Saudis are always threatening to cut off the head of their latest snakes. In 1982, Yasser Arafat said he would cut off Israel's left arm after its invasion of Lebanon, and then the Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin said he would cut off Arafat's right arm. And I suppose that when it is revealed to us – as, alas, it is in these Wikileaks papers – that unsuitable applicants for US visas are called by American diplomats "visa vipers", we can only conclude that snakes are much in demand. The problem is that for decades, Middle East potentates have been threatening to chop off the heads of snakes, serpents, rats and Iranian insects – the latter a favourite of Saddam Hussein who used US-supplied "insecticide" to destroy them, as we all know – while Israeli leaders have called Palestinians "cockroaches" (Rafael Eitan), "crocodiles" (Ehud Barak) and "three-legged beasts" (Begin). Tears of laughter, I have to admit, began to run down my face when I read the po-faced US diplomatic report from Bahrain that King Hamad – or "His Supreme Highness King Hamad" as he insists on being called, in his Sunni dictatorship with a Shia majority and a kingdom slightly larger than the Isle of Wight – had announced that the danger of letting the Iranian nuclear programme go on was "greater than the danger of stopping it". That wonderful Palestinian journalist Marwan Bishara was right when he said at the weekend that these US diplomatic papers were of more interest to anthropologists than political scientists; for they are a record of a deviant way of thinking about the Middle East. If King Abdullah (the crumbling Saudi version, as opposed to the Plucky Little Jordanian King version) really called Ahmadinejad Hitler and Sarkozy's adviser called Iran "a fascist state", it shows only that the US State Department is still obsessed with the Second World War. I loved the stunning report of a visitor to the US embassy in Ankara who told diplomats that Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was dying of leukemia. Not because the poor old boy is a cancer victim – he is not – but because this is the same old nonsense we've been peddled about the Middle East's recalcitrant leaders for so many years. I remember the days when American or British "diplomatic sources" insisted that Gaddafi was dying of cancer, that Khomeini was dying of cancer (long before he died), that Khomeini was already dead of cancer – again, long before he died – that the Palestinian contract killer Abu Nidal was dying of cancer, 20 years before he was murdered by Saddam. Even in Northern Ireland, Britain's half-baked spooks told us that the Protestant Vanguard leader William Craig was dying of cancer. And of course, he lived on, like the awful Gaddafi, whose Ukrainian nurse is described by the Americans as "voluptuous". Of course she is. Aren't all blonde dames "voluptuous" in such descriptions? One of the most interesting reflections – dutifully ignored by most of the pro-Wikileaks papers yesterday – came in a cable on a meeting between a US Senate delegation and President Bashar Assad of Syria earlier this year. America, Assad told his guests, possessed "a huge information apparatus" but lacked the ability to analyse this information successfully. "While we lack your intelligence abilities," he says in rather sinister fashion, "we succeed in fighting extremists because we have better analysts ... in the US you like to shoot [terrorists]. Suffocating their networks is far more effective." Iran, he concluded, was the most important country in the region, followed by Turkey and – number three – Syria itself. Poor old Israel didn't get a look in. Of course President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan is "driven by paranoia" – so is everyone in that land, including most of Nato and especially theUnited States – and naturally the President of Yemen pretends to his own people that he is killing al-Qa'ida representatives when we all know it's General David Petraeus's warriors who are the culprits. Muslim leaders have constantly been claiming American military prowess against other Muslims as their own work. Of course, we must not be too cynical. I loved the American diplomatic report (from Cairo, of course, not from Tel Aviv) which said that Netanyahu was "elegant and charming ... but never keeps his promises". But doesn't that apply to half the Arab leaders as well? And then we come to the dank and frightening reporting of a meeting between Andrew Shapiro, "Assistant Secretary of State for the US Political-Military Bureau", meeting with Israel's spooks almost exactly a year ago. Israel was unable to protect its Cessna Caravan and Raven unmanned pilotless drones over southern Lebanon, admits Mossad. (Hezbollah will be obliged for this nugget.) An Israeli "J5" Colonel Shimon Arad waffles on upon the dangers of "Hezbollahstan" and Hamastan" and the "internal political deadlock" in Lebanon – there wasn't then, but there is now – and about Lebanon as a "volatile military arena" and the country's "susceptibility to outside influences, including Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia". And, of course – though Colonel Arad doesn't mention this – American influence and Israeli influence and French influence and British influence and Turkish influence. Shapiro "cited the need to provide an alternative to Hezbollah" – the Costa Rican police force, perhaps? – and suggested that the Lebanese army would come to the defence of Hezbollah (unlikely, in the circumstances). There's a priceless denial of the UN Goldstone report on the Gaza atrocities of 2008-09 by reserve Major General Amos Gilad, who says that the document's criticisms of Israel are "baseless" because the Israeli military made 300,000 phone calls to houses in Gaza ahead of strikes ... to prevent civilian casualties". Poor old Shapiro seems to have reacted in silence. That would be a phone call to a fifth of the entire Palestinian population of Gaza, kids, babies and all. And even then they killed 1,300 Palestinians, most of them civilians. Of course the Palestinian Authority of the bland Mahmoud Abbas didn't want to take over this killing field after the Israelis had won – another offer made by Israel with US knowledge – because Israel didn't win. It didn't even find its missing soldier in the tunnels of Gaza. There's a symbolic moment when Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan of Abu Dhabi – not to be compared to the "distant and uncharismatic personage" of his brother Khalifa – worries about Iran in front of the US ambassador Richard Olsen who then suggests that he has "a strategic view of the region that is curiously close to the Israeli one". But of course he does. Line them up. They will pray in their golden mosques, these kings and emirs and generals, buying more and more American weapons to protect themselves from the "Hitler" of Tehran – better, I suppose, than the 2003 Hitler of the Tigris or the 1956 Mussolini of the Nile – and entreat God that they will be saved by the might of America and Israel. I can't wait for the next episode in this fantasy. |
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| Author: | Madeline [ 01 Dec 10, 22:18 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Wikileaks |
WikiLeaks website pulled by Amazon after US homeland security pressure Site hosting leaked US embassy cables is ousted from American servers as senator calls for boycott of WikiLeaks by companies Guardian |
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| Author: | Madeline [ 01 Dec 10, 22:21 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Wikileaks |
WikiLeaks: Mervyn King is consistently wrong: now his hawkish dogma has been exposed WikiLeaks: We now know the Bank of England governor's central role in pushing an agenda of harsh cuts on successive governments Guardian |
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| Author: | Madeline [ 09 Dec 10, 23:17 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Wikileaks |
Russia calls for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to be given the Nobel Peace Prize as Putin lashes out at America * Kremlin takes a dig at the U.S. over Assange's arrest * Facebook and Twitter delete the accounts of cyber activists * Swoop against 'Operation Payback' follows attacks on credit card giants * 5,000 'hacktivists' believed to be behind electronic onslaught * Dutch authorities arrest 16-year-old boy suspected of involvement |
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| Author: | Madeline [ 14 Dec 10, 13:29 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Wikileaks |
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange slams Visa, MasterCard and PayPal WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has blasted Visa, MasterCard and PayPal from his prison cell for blocking donations to WikiLeaks, as it was claimed he has not been handed any of his mail since he was jailed - including his legal letters. Metro |
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| Author: | Madeline [ 14 Dec 10, 13:42 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Wikileaks |
Cops 'developed' evidence against Madeleine McCann's parents, according to WikiLeaks By Victoria Murphy Daily Mirror British police helped "develop" evidence against Madeleine McCann's parents, according to diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks. The UK's ambassador to Portugal, Alexander Wykeham Ellis, reportedly made the claim to his American counterpart in 2007 - two weeks after Portuguese police named Gerry and Kate McCann as suspects. In a cable to Washington, US Ambassador Al Hoffman wrote: "Ellis admitted that the British police had developed the current evidence against the McCann parents, and he stressed that authorities from both countries were working co-operatively. "He commented that the media frenzy was to be expected and was acceptable as long as government officials keep their comments behind closed doors." Kate and Gerry said their status as suspects was lifted in 2008, proving that they weren't involved in their daughter's disappearance. |
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| Author: | Madeline [ 14 Dec 10, 23:34 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Wikileaks |
Wikileaks founder Assange bailed, but release delayed BBC |
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| Author: | JimD [ 16 Dec 10, 20:29 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Wikileaks |
WikiLeaks' Assange Walks Free As Bail Upheld He spoke outside Westminster Magistrates' Court after being let out, despite an unsuccessful appeal being lodged against the decision. "It's great to smell the fresh air of London again," he said. "Thank you to all the people around the world who had faith in me and have supported my team while I have been away." He also thanked the British justice system and members of the press who had not been "taken in", adding he would "continue my work and continue to protest my innocence". The Australian is wanted for questioning over alleged sex offences committed in Stockholm while he was visiting the city in August. Judge Mr Justice Ouseley rejected arguments that Assange was a flight risk and renewed bail, pending moves to extradite him to Sweden. The country's director of prosecutions said the British decision "does not change the state of the case itself". Sky |
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| Author: | Madeline [ 05 Jan 11, 15:28 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Wikileaks |
WikiLeaks: the latest developments Iran's president 'slapped' by the head of the revolutionary guard, a German CEO blasts French industrial espionage and the latest on WikiLeaks Mahmoud Ahmadinejad leaves the podium after being sworn back in as Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad leaves the podium after being sworn back in as Iranian president on 5 August 2009. Photograph: Behrouz Mehri/AFP/Getty Images 1.10pm: The White House appears keen to take a thorough approach to the post-WikiLeaks security of classified information, including keeping an eye on the "grumpiness" of some US government employees. Following an executive order from Barack Obama on "a uniform system for classifying, safeguarding, and declassifying national security information", its Office of Management and Budget has sent an 11-page self-assessement to the heads of executive departments and agencies (pdf here) covering numerous potential vulnerabilities. Under the heading "Deter, detect, defend against employee unauthorised disclosures" it gets to the "grumpiness" issue, asking the agency heads if they use psychiatrists and sociologists to measure both "relative happiness as a means to gauge trustworthiness" and "despondence and grumpiness as a means to gauge waning trustworthiness?". • Spain's El País was blocked in Iran following its publication of a cable that said Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was reportedly slapped by the head of the revolutionary guard. The exchange, a protected source told US diplomats, came when the Iranian president took what it calls a "surprisingly liberal posture" in a January 2010 meeting to discuss the next steps on dealing with the opposition protests. Ahmadinejad suggested more personal and social freedoms, including freedom of the press, in order to help diffuse the situation. According to source, Ahmedinejad's statements infuriated Revolutionary Guard Chief of Staff Mohammed Ali Jafari, who exclaimed "You are wrong! (In fact) it is YOU who created this mess! And now you say give more freedom to the press?!" Source said that Jafari then slapped Ahmedinejad in the face, causing an uproar and an immediate call for a break in the meeting, which was never resumed • Norway's Aftenposten was leaked the cables last month and has been publishing. One cable revealed that Berry Smutny, the CEO of Germany's leading satellite manufacturer, had told US diplomats he believed France was responsible for more industrial espionage in Germany than either Russia or China. Smutny frankly said "France is the evil empire stealing technology and Germany knows this", but Germany's decentralized government is not willing to do much about it. Going on at length of his despise of the French, Smutny said French IPR [intellectual property rights] espionage is so bad that the total damage done to the German economy is greater than that inflicted by China or Russia The meeting was part of a well-documented effort to get the US interested in a proposed German network of reconnaissance satellites, despite strong opposition from France. The cables have caused a stir, as the Foreign Policy blog puts it, since Germany's BND spy agency said the satellites "would be operated by a 'commercial entity' created specifically for this purpose, but with tasking managed/controlled/coordinated by BND." DLR, Germany's aerospace agency, has denied this is a spy satellite system; it said the purpose was to "transmit data for public services, for example for crisis management in natural catastrophes." www.haaretz.com - Israel aimed to keep Gaza economy on brink of collapse |
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| Author: | Madeline [ 08 Jan 11, 15:57 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Wikileaks |
DOJ subpoenas Twitter records of several WikiLeaks volunteers By Glenn Greenwald www.salon.com |
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| Author: | Madeline [ 11 Jan 11, 12:48 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Wikileaks |
WikiLeaks founder Assange back in court The founder of secret-spilling website WikiLeaks was back in court today as part of his fight to avoid being extradited to Sweden, where he's wanted on sex crimes allegations. Julian Assange, 39, was driven to London's high-security Belmarsh Magistrates' Court today, accompanied by his lawyer Mark Stephens. The hearing there was expected to be largely procedural — setting the time for a second, full extradition hearing due next month and to manage other aspects of the case. The rape and molestation accusations against Assange stem from his encounter with two women during a trip to Sweden taken over the summer, just as his website was garnering global attention with its huge leaks of classified US material. The Swedish case has divided world opinion. Assange and his supporters say it is being prosecuted for political reasons, something denied by Swedish authorities and Assange's alleged victims, who insist it has nothing to do with WikiLeaks. Assange, wearing a navy suit and a blue tie, posed for photographs outside the court but said nothing before entering the building. Earlier today, his organization released a statement decrying the death threats made against the Australian computer expert, drawing a link between his experience and that of Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head in an Arizona gun massacre which has touched off a nationwide debate over the toxic tone of US political discourse. WikiLeaks said its staff has been subject to "unprecedented violent rhetoric by US prominent media personalities," naming former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin as one of the many pundits and politicians who have called for Assange to be hunted down like a terrorist. American officials are still working on building a case against WikiLeaks, which has released hundreds of thousands of secret US intelligence files on Iraq and Afghanistan, as well Independent |
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| Author: | Madeline [ 13 Jan 11, 18:06 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Wikileaks |
I've got secret files on Murdoch as 'insurance', claims Assange By Ian Burrell, Media Editor Independent |
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| Author: | Madeline [ 16 Jan 11, 16:38 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Wikileaks |
Swiss whistleblower Rudolf Elmer plans to hand over offshore banking secrets of the rich and famous to WikiLeaks Guardian |
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