Wikileaks question

He would like the Australian Government to give his father more assistance, but acknowledges that it is not likely to do so. In fact, he says, he is surprised his father is still alive: “I am very surprised that the governments haven’t actually done what some of the journalists have been recommending, which is to just assassinate him.”

He is clearly proud of what his father is doing and believes his father should be remembered for what he calls groundbreaking work for the greater good.


“I think he’s been doing an excellent job,” Daniel says.

In my opinion and in the opinions of an increasing number of people around the world, Julian Assange IS a hero. Heroes are not perfect people. But they do possess qualities that most of the rest of us do not. They are single-minded and courageous to a greater degree than most people. They take the lead while others hesitate. They take action when others won't. They risk a lot that most of us are not willing to risk. It is what they do and are willing to risk to get it done, that singles them out from the rest of us.

Today I read the comments on a Guardian article about Julian Assange. A vast majority of them were grateful that finally someone has come along and is willing to do what the world's media will not. Many asked how they could help him, some offering skills and even their homes, in different parts of the world, if he needs a place to stay.

There were hundreds of recommendations on each comment, with over a thousand comments from people all over the world. The U.S. is not looking for Osama Bin Laden who killed 3,000 people. They are looking for Julian Assange who has killed no one and broken no laws. What are they thinking? They should pray that nothing happens to this man in case they might be blamed. He IS a hero but we would not have needed him if we had a free press. Our government killed freedom of the press, as have other governments. All Assange has done is to step into the void.

Evading a shutdown, WikiLeaks mobilizes Twitter supporters
Posted By Blake Hounshell Sunday, December 5, 2010 - 1:58 AM
http://wikileaks.foreignpolicy.com/

In a bid to stay one step ahead of the governments, companies, freelance hackers trying to shut down its operations, WikiLeaks mobilized its vast base of online support Saturday by asking its Twitter followers to create copies of its growing archive of hundreds of classified State Department cables.

By late afternoon Eastern time, more than 200 had answered the call, setting up "mirror" sites, many of them with the name "wikileaks" appended to their Web addresses. They organized themselves organically using the Twitter hashtag #imwikileaks, in a virtual show of solidarity reminiscent of the movie V is for Vendetta. In that 2005 film, a Guy-Fawkes masked vigilantee inspires thousands of Londoners to march on the Parliament similarly disguised -- while it blows up in front of their eyes. Presumably, many of these people believe they are facing the same sort of tyranny that V, the film's protagonist, fought against.

Critics of WikiLeaks have called on the Obama administration to shut down the site, but now it's clear that doing so would be a difficult task indeed. The New Yorker's recent profile of Julian Assange, the organization's mysterious founder and front man, said that "a government or company that wanted to remove content from WikiLeaks would have to practically dismantle the Internet itself." WikiLeaks has also posted a massive, heavily encrypted "insurance" file on The Pirate Bay, a sympathetic website, which presumably contains also 250,000-plus cables and would be released into the wild if anything happens to Assange.

As my FP colleague Evgeny Morozov warns, aggressive action like arresting or killing Assange could spawn the rise of a vast, permanent network of radicalized hackers "systematically challenging those in power – governments and companies alike – just for the sake of undermining 'the system'." That could prove an extremely dangerous threat to the global economy and diplomatic sphere.

Evgeny offers the sensible suggestion that governments try to steer WikiLeaks into a more productive direction. "It is a choice between WikiLeaks becoming a new Red Brigades, or a new Transparency International," he writes, arguing that a responsible version of the organization could pose more of a challenge to closed regimes than to the West. "Handled correctly, the state that will benefit most from a nerdy network of 21st-century Che Guevaras is America itself."

The most important truth that Assange has revealed is not contained in in the documents he has leaked.

Edited on Sat Dec-04-10 12:01 PM by tblue37

By leaking those documents, which are generally about information that we, as a supposedly free society in which the "people" have sovereignty, have a right to know, Assange has done only the precise job the Founding Fathers wanted the free press to do. Rememeber that according the the Founding Fathers, a free press is absolutely essential to the ability of a people to prevent its government from becoming a tyranny.

Think about the way that our government has turned all of its considerable power to hunting down a man who has merely revealed the truth, while refusing even to inconvenience those who have committed war crimes, and think about the way our government has pressured other countries' governments into helping to persecute Assange. Many people probably have been dramatically enlightened by the government's unconscionable reaction to WikiLeaks and persecution of Assange.

Not only has Assange exposed the tyrannical authoritarian mindset at the core of our government, but he has also proven without a doubt that our so-called free press is actually in collusion with the government it is supposed to stand as watchdog over.

Furthermore, the fact that so many politicians, office hodlers, and "journalists" are actually calling for the extrajudicial murder of this man is a much more damaging revelation about how the US conducts business than the revelation that some diplomats have mocked government leaders of other countries.

The reaction of the US government and its lapdog press is the most important and damaging truth revealed thus far by WikiLeaks!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11921080

5 December 2010 Last updated at 08:12 ET

Wikileaks' Julian Assange to fight Swedish allegations

Wikileaks' Julian Assange to fight Swedish allegations Mr Assange has dismissed allegations against him as a smear campaign

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange will fight attempts to take him to Sweden to face rape allegations, his lawyer said.


Mark Stephens told the BBC that legal moves against his client seem(ed) to be a "political stunt" by a state that allowed US rendition flights.

He warned Wikileaks could release more secrets in a bid to protect itself.

A Swedish arrest warrant for Mr Assange was issued on Thursday. It comes amid the phased Wikileaks release of some 250,000 US diplomatic secret messages.

The warrant to interview the journalist - thought currently to be in the UK - concerns alleged sexual crimes during a visit to Sweden in August.

But Mr Stephens told the BBC's Andrew Marr that the entire case against Mr Assange had been dropped by Sweden's chief prosecutor in September.

He said it was only "after the intervention of a Swedish politician" that a new prosecutor in Gothenburg - not Stockholm, where his client and two women had been - began a new case.

It resulted in the current warrants, and an Interpol notice being issued. His client denies the allegations.

Mr Stephens said: "It does seem to be a political stunt.

Julian Assange
Born Queensland, Australia, 1971
Convicted in early 1990s in Australia of computer hacking and fined
Co-wrote influential hacking and media book Underground
Created Wikileaks in 2006 as web-based "dead letterbox" for whistle-blowers
Arrest warrant issued in Sweden for questioning over alleged sexual crimes, which he denies



"A warrant was issued on Thursday by reports. We've asked for it. We've been ignored at this point."

He said he and his Swedish legal adviser had been trying to contact prosecutors since August and his client had tried to meet prosecutors to "restore his good name".

"He's only wanted for interview, why not have that interview by consent, rather than this show trial?" he added.

Mr Stephens warned that the organisation held further secret material which it regarded as a "thermo-nuclear device" to be released if it needs to protect itself.

Wikileaks is currently working through the publication of more than 250,000 US diplomatic cables, whose release has embarrassed the United States.


Lawyer Mark Stephens says pursuing Julian Assange over sex crime allegations is a political stunt
It has condemned the disclosures - including indiscreet descriptions of world leaders and instructions to spy at the UN - as an attack on the world community.

Asked by Andrew Marr if Mr Assange, who is in hiding, was in fear of his life, Mr Stephens said: "It's interesting to note people as high up the American tree as Sarah Palin have called for him to be hunted down by American special forces and assassinated.

"We've seen a number of suggestions that he should be assassinated, again from credible sources around the world.

"This is all about a man who is a journalist. He received, unbidden, an electronic brown envelope that journalists receive.

"This particular journalist has put it out. What they are doing is criminalising him, criminalising journalistic activity.

He said any attempt to take Mr Assange to Sweden could be a precursor to taking him on to the US, adding: "I'm really rather worried by the political motivations that appear to be behind this.

"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)."

Assange's Attorney: "I Feel As If I'm In A Surreal Swedish Movie Being Threatened By Bizarre Trolls"
Edited on Fri Dec-03-10 01:42 PM by Turborama
Assange's Interpol Warrant Is for Having Sex Without a Condom

When Interpol issued an arrest warrant earlier this week for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, the international police agency charged him with "sex crimes" but didn't specify the offense any further, prompting rumors that he had been accused of rape. He hadn't. "It turns out," Washington's Blog reports, that "it was for violating an obscure Swedish law against having sex without a condom."

During a business trip to Stockholm last August, Assange had unprotected sex with two women (a bizarre and painfully detailed account is available on the Daily Mail's Web site) who upon realizing that they had both slept with him—and that he had blown them both off—jointly approached police about his refusal to take an STD test. At the time, Assange's Swedish lawyer confirmed that "the principal concern the women had about Assange's behavior … related to his lack of interest in using condoms and his refusal to undergo testing, at the women's request, for sexually transmitted disease." (Assange actually did use a condom with one of the women, but it broke.)

This, apparently, is hazy legal territory in Sweden. While the "consent of both women to sex with Assange has been confirmed by prosecutors," as a former attorney wrote in an impassioned op-ed, Assange has been charged with something called "sex by surprise," which reportedly carries a $715 fine. According to Assange's London attorney, Mark Stephens, prosecutors have yet to explain the charges or meet with the WikiLeaks chief to discuss them, which he's agreed to do. "Whatever 'sex by surprise' is, it's only an offense in Sweden—not in the U.K. or the U.S. or even Ibiza," Stephens fumed. "I feel as if I'm in a surreal Swedish movie being threatened by bizarre trolls."

http://slatest.slate.com/id/2276690/

FDL: Assange's "Sex By Surprise" Accuser Worked With US-Funded, CIA-Tied Anti-Castro Group
Edited on Sun Dec-05-10 11:42 AM by Turborama
By: Kirk James Murphy, M.D. Saturday December 4, 2010 9:20 pm

Yesterday Alexander Cockburn reminded us of the news Israel Shamir and Paul Bennett broke at Counterpunch in September. Julian Assange’s chief accuser in Sweden has a significant history of work with anti-Castro groups, at least one of which is US funded and openly supported by a former CIA agent convicted in the mass murder of seventy three Cubans on an airliner he was involved in blowing up.


"Anna Ardin (the official complainant) is often described by the media as a “leftist”. She has ties to the US-financed anti-Castro and anti-communist groups. She published her anti-Castro diatribes (see here and here) in the Swedish-language publication Revista de Asignaturas Cubanas put out by Misceláneas de Cuba. From Oslo, Professor Michael Seltzer points out that this periodical is the product of a well-financed anti-Castro organization in Sweden. He further notes that the group is connected with Union Liberal Cubana led by Carlos Alberto Montaner whose CIA ties were exposed here."


Quelle surprise, no? Shamir and Bennett went on to write about Ardin’s history in Cuba with a US funded group openly supported by a real terrorist: Luis Posada Carriles.


"In Cuba she interacted with the feminist anti-Castro group Las damas de blanco (the Ladies in White). This group receives US government funds and the convicted anti-communist terrorist Luis Posada Carriles is a friend and supporter. Wikipedia quotes Hebe de Bonafini, president of the Argentine Madres de Plaza de Mayo as saying that “the so-called Ladies in White defend the terrorism of the United States.”


Who is Luis Posada Carriles? He’s a mass murderer, and former CIA agent.

Much More:
http://my.firedoglake.com/kirkmurphy/2010/12/04/assanges-chief-accuser-has-her-own-history-with-us-funded-anti-castro-groups-one-of-which-has-cia-ties

. . .

"Small world, isn’t it? Julian Assange is the human face of Wikileaks – the organization that’s enabled whistle-blowers to reveal hideous war crimes and expose much of America’s foreign policy to the world.

He just happens to meet a Swedish woman who just happens to have been publishing her work in a well-funded anti-Castro group that just happens to have links with a group led by a man at least one journalist describes as an agent of the CIA: the violent secret arm of America’s foreign policy.

And she just happens to have been expelled from Cuba, which just happens to be the global symbol of successful defiance of American foreign policy.

And – despite her work in Sweden upholding the human right of gender equity – in Cuba she just happens to end up associating with a group openly supported by an admitted CIA agent who himself committed mass murder when he actively participated in the terrorist bombing of a jetliner carrying a Cuban sports team…an act that was of a piece with America’s secret foreign policy of violent attacks against Cuban state interests.

And now she just happens – after admittedly consensual sex – to have gone to Swedish authorities to report the sex ended without a condom…which just happens to be the pretext for Interpol to issue a “Red Notice” informing the world’s police forces of charges against Julian Assange.

Who just happens to be the man America’s political class – the people who run America’s foreign policy – have been trying to silence. And who happens to be the man some of them have been calling to have murdered.

With a lust for vengeance like that, one could be forgiven for concluding they’ve just happened to have taken a page from Anna’s revenge manual."

PFC Manning, on the other hand, will likely spend the rest of his life in the brig.

Coleen Rowley at 6:51 AM October 18, 2010
A number of people commenting obviously suffer from the delusion that they are better off abdicating their citizen responsiblities to a government leader who will protect them. It's common and comforting to believe that what we don't know won't hurt us. In fact only a small percent of classified government documents actually merit being kept secret. And then only for a certain time, not kept secret in perpetuity. After all was said and done, the prosecutor team could not find anything in the "Pentagon Papers" that qualified as something that should be protected as a secret. But the 7000 pages had just all been stamped "Top Secret" out of laziness.

http://www.salon.com/news/wikileaks/index.html?story=/opinion/greenwald/2010/10/17/wikileaks


It's the same with the thousands of "Afghan War Diary" documents made public by WikiLeaks. The Pentagon has finally admitted that they cannot identify any soldier or Afghan who has been harmed as a result of those documents being made public.

It may be counter-intuitive to many people but secrecy does not, as a rule, protect you. It's quite the opposite! You would be better off to stop putting your head in the sand and inform yourselves to the extent you are able.