2011-09-29 WikiLeaks Notes: Latest News on #Cablegate Releases & #WikiLeaks

This is a "WikiLeaks News Update", a daily news update of stories that are obviously related to WikiLeaks and also freedom of information, transparency, cybersecurity, and freedom of expression. All the times are GMT.

05:00 PM The case of a mentally ill Canadian-Egyptian man, Khaled Samy Abdallah Ismail, mistakenly held in a U.S.-run Afghanistan prison for more than 18 months has been uncovered by WikiLeaks.

11:00 AM US State Department employee Peter Van Buren is currently under investigation after linking to widely-available WikiLeaks content in his personal blog.
Read his testimony: For State Department Employees, Freedom Isn't Free.

07:00 AM Once this Free Bradley Manning petition reaches 5.000 signatures, the White House is due to issue an official response to his indefinite pre-trial detention.
Please take the time to sign it - signature goal has to be reached by the end of the month of October.

Bradley Manning, it was made public this week, is currently nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Julian Assange / WikiLeaks are also among the 241 candidates.

06:45 AM Further information on Julian Assange’s unauthorized memoir has been released by WikiLeaks ; at one point, in a transcribed recorded telephone conversation, Canongate publisher Jamie Byng denies rumors of a secret publication without Julian Assange’s consent in the following terms:

Julian, do not worry. My absolute number one desire is to publish a great book that you are happy with. It is going to be different to the one we contracted for the reasons we discussed.

Caroline Michel, literary agent to Julian Assange, protests the deceitful promotion of the unauthorized memoir in an email to Canongate dated 21 September 2011, also published by WikiLeaks:

"…releasing the manuscript to The Independent with a story which is factually untrue are designed to create the maximum confrontation. (…) There has been no ‘bitter and acrimonious row’ Julian at all times has been courteous. You are feeding the media myth and it is not worthy of comment."

Book sales have been surprisingly low – a mere 644 copies were sold in the first three days - possibly due to boycott encouraged by WikiLeaks.
Both German publisher Kiepenheuer & Witsch (KiWi) and American Knopf have refused to print the book.

06:30 AM A useful 30-page document providing "an overview of WikiLeaks initiated global reform and selected press references" prior to March 2009.

05:00 AM Bangladesh spy agency will possibly incur scrutiny following WikiLeaks release:

According to diplomatic cables released by the whistle blowing website Wikileaks, Bangladesh spy agency Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) meddled in the media.
The cables disclosed how DGFI lied to control coverage of news and broadcasts by private television channels during the military-backed caretaker government during 2007-2008.