Today is the start of a series of rallies being held world wide in support of Julian Assange and Wikileaks. Assange's next scheduled hearing is on January 11. The details of Sweden's extradition request and the EU arrest warrant should be heard at that time. Currently, Twitter and possibly other social media have been subpoenaed for information about Wikileaks volunteers and supporters. Information on upcoming rallies is posted here, campaigns and petitions here.
Rallies today:
It was December 14 when Twitter first received the sealed order to turn over information on several of its users. Twitter could simply have provided the information requested, instead of acting, on January 5, to have the order unsealed. The unsealing of the subpoena allowed the Twitter users in question to become aware of the situation, and it allowed them an opportunity to dispute the order--an opportunity they would not otherwise have had.
The question arises as to why Twitter made this decision and the answer may lie in a recent interview, in which Twitter CEO Dick Costolo expresses his distaste for censorship and rights violations:
In general, he hates government mandates to keep things quiet. And he hates that a woman in China was punished for retweeting something. He reiterates Twitter’s desire to connect people with useful information. “We’re going to lash out at things that prevent us from doing that, as aggressively as we can.” The proof is that we’re banned in China. “We’re not going to sacrifice what we’re trying to do to.”
Mr. Costolo is likely referring to Google's recent decision to reenter the Chinese search market despite China's firm stance on content filtering. As Google CFO Patrick Pichette told The Times:
“China has 1.2 billion people. For Google to say, ‘We’re going to live on our mission but not serve 1.2 billion people’ — it just doesn’t work.” (Source)
Questions of integrity arise, of course, but it is an open question whether Google's presence in China would hinder or improve access to information for its users. "As one example, Pichette cites the fact that [without Google] there wouldn’t be a single result for 'Nobel Peace Prize' anywhere on the current search engines in China." (Source)
The battle against censorship tends to go hand in hand with the constant fight to preserve individual privacy and it is clear that neither can be won without the other. If social networking sites do not take steps to ensure individual privacy, users will not have much incentive to tweet, blog or tag themselves in a public photo. It took some time to acknowledge the repercussions of sharing personal information online, but user awareness is increasing, as is evidenced by a recent poll showing that 60% of Facebook users consider leaving the network over concern for their privacy. So perhaps Twitter's recent gesture in the direction of user privacy serves as a model not only for integrity, but for good business, too.
A month ago, on the 7th of December, a week after Peter King made his controversial Wikileaks Is Terrorism" comments, I posted this rather lengthy article to my blog, and linked to it from WL Central, documenting both King's hypocrisy and the possible motives he might have for taking such a radical line against Wikileaks in particular. Lately, the same story has been getting more coverage. emptywheel posted a story of much the same content on Sunday 2nd of January, and a post on Salon outlined the background to King's past with the IRA. We thought it would be timely to republish the story in full on WL Central, since it brings certain aspects of the story into focus that still have not received an airing.
2010-12-07
Extremist opposition to Wikileaks by American career politicians may not be entirely out of a stated concern for American national security. A credible argument can be made that, instead, some political self-interest might be involved
[R]ead George Bush's favorite philosopher: there's a famous definition in the Gospels of the hypocrite, and the hypocrite is a person who refuses to apply to himself the standards he applies to others. By that standard the entire commentary and discussion of the so-called 'war on terror' is pure hypocrisy, and virtually without exception... It's ugly, but it's standard.
The Seattle Times reports that "hundreds of human-rights activists, foreign government officials and businesspeople" were relocated by the U.S. State Department yesterday out of fear that their identities may be compromised in the leaked cables that have yet to appear. They have apparently "moved a handful to safer locations".
The New York Times and The Boston Globe are also reporting this news.
The U.S. State Department might instead have taken a more economical route and assisted in the redaction of names when contacted by Wikileaks prior to the release of The Afghan War Logs, or when asked to do the same for the Cablegate release. Previously, "Administration officials said they were not aware of anyone who has been attacked or imprisoned as a direct result of information in the 2,700 cables that have been made public to date by WikiLeaks." (Source)
It might have been safer for any potential victims to have been relocated silently and outside the glare of the mainstream media.
Israel Shamir, the subject of some controversy in a recent Guardian piece has published an interesting article at Counterpunch, which not only tries to address many of the concerns raised in the Guardian, but takes the battle to the Guardian, and takes up the cause of Wikileaks quite forcefully.
The piece is very interesting, for a number of reasons. It provides new developments in the Shamir-Wikileaks story. Shamir claims to have no official or professional relationship with Wikileaks. He also points out a pre-publication page on Amazon that may or may not indicate that the Guardian is preparing a book on Wikileaks called "The Rise and Fall of Wikileaks." Shamir alleges that the Guardian is engaged in a smear campaign against Assange in anticipation of this "fall."
Certainly, over the last week, we at WL Central have had the opportunity to catch The Guardian falling short of what one might expect of an exemplary journalistic publication. Nick Davies was seen to propagate a straightforward falsehood when he alleged that Julian Assange had been using the Wikileaks Twitter account to smear the alleged victims of his alleged crimes. And on Monday the Guardian published an article by James Richardson which accused Wikileaks of potentially fatal negligence in the clearance for publication of a cable from Harare, when it was in fact the Guardian that cleared this cable.
Der Spiegel: Amerikaner lästern über Chaos-Konzern Gazprom (Americans gossiped about Gazprom chaotic corporation)
"Gazprom sollte Russland wieder zur Supermacht machen, Manager träumten vom "wertvollsten Unternehmen der Welt". Doch Geheimberichte aus Moskaus US-Botschaft zeichnen ein anderes Bild: Die Amerikaner halten den Megakonzern für chaotisch organisiert - und korrupt. (Gazprom should make of Russia a superpower again, or so dreamed the manager of the "world most valuable business". Though secret reports by the American embassy in Moscow showed a different image: the Americans accused the mega-corporation of being chaotic and corruptly organized.)"
Der Spiegel: US-Diplomaten wollten EU für Genmais-Blockade bestrafen (American diplomats wanted to punish the EU for commercial blocking of genetically modified sweetcorn)
"Die von WikiLeaks enthüllten Botschaftsdepeschen zeigen, wie die USA die Gentechnik in Europa vorantreiben wollten: Ein US-Botschafter in Europa verlangte von Washington, genmaisblockierende EU-Staaten unter Druck zu setzen - und die "schlimmsten Übeltäter" zu bestrafen. (The secret diplomatic cables exposed by Wikileaks show how the United States wanted to push forward the genetic engineering in Europe. An American diplomat in Europe requested from Washington to establish a commercial blocking against the States of the EU in order to punish the "worst offenders".)"
Le Monde: WikiLeaks : les Etats-Unis n'avaient pas cru possible un coup d'Etat au Honduras (The United States did not believe a coup in Honduras was possible)
The nature of the Internet makes detailed, concise, well thought out arguments almost impossible. The fluidity, the ebb and flow of information all conspire against the well thought out essay. In the past weeks, months even, there has been numerous attempts by myself and others to boil down the main arguments, the main points to be made, to try and shine some light into the encroaching darkness. While some have made a good go of it, placing cap-stones on some of the more pressing issues; others have failed miserably. I am forced to concede, alas, I am in the "fail" category.
I can hardly count the numerous "beginnings" of essays; which, in my heart of hearts I felt, were Surly to illuminate and keep the darkness at bay. However, it seems, new information, new spins on old information come flooding; torrents of rumors, facts and fallacies kaleidoscope round; peculate and illustrate most macabre.
This will not happen now.
newsinenglish.no has been providing English coverage of the Norwegian Aftenposten stories. Aftenposten (Evening Post) is reported to have received the full complement of Cablegate documents, by unknown means. Nina Berglund's coverage at NewsInEnglish.no provides an overview of many of the Aftenposten stories thus far, and supplies some context as to how those stories are received in the Norwegian media.
Highlights From WikiLeaks : Views and News from Norway:
NewsInEnglish.no : Wikileaks has turned into a torrent
An overview of assorted stories in Aftenposten:
- French officials accused of industrial espionage in Europe.
- German intelligence agents developing spy satellites with US
- Sri Lanka reportedly involved in illegal weapons purchases during war with LTTE
Le Monde: WikiLeaks : l'espionnage économique de Paris dérange ses alliés européens (Paris' economic espionage disturbs French allies)
"La France, plus encore que la Chine et la Russie, serait le pays le plus actif en matière d'espionnage industriel chez ses alliés européens, rapporte mardi 4 janvier le journal norvégien Aftenposten sur la foi de télégrammes diplomatiques obtenus par WikiLeaks. (France, even more than China and Russia, is the most active country in the matter of industrial espionage on their European allies, reported tuesday January 4th the Norwegian paper Aftenposten based on the source of diplomatic cables obtained by Wikileaks.)"
Herald Sun: France heads industrial espionage: WikiLeaks cables
"France is the country that conducts the most industrial espionage on other European countries, even ahead of China and Russia, said leaked US diplomatic cables quoted today by Norway's Aftenposten."
Toronto Star: Canada’s soccer team played under match-fixing suspect: WikiLeaks
"Figuring prominently is a 2009 friendly match between Canada and Macedonia, which was refereed by a Bulgarian official under suspicion for match-fixing. At issue was an investigation into the actions of referee Anton Genov, who officiated the Canada-Macedonia match in December of 2009 in the former Yugoslavian republic."
Aftenposten: Norge godtok rakett-shield all in 2007 skjold alt i 2007
Some technical details on the idea of creating a secure, distributed architecture for the Wikileaks site without the need for hosting providers and hardware servers:
The idea is simple - each participant can download and run a small program which runs a web server and serves the files and information from the site. Thus anyone who wishes to participate and to help WikiLeaks may install a small software that would not take up a lot of resources.
Read the article by Delian Delchev and join the discussion on Balkanleaks.eu: https://www.balkanleaks.eu/diw.html
Der Spiegel: USA und Deutschland planen Späher im All (USA and Germany plan to spy on everybody)
"Die USA und Deutschland denken gemeinsam über die Entwicklung von neuen Satelliten nach, die auch für Spionage genutzt werden könnten. Das geht aus Depeschen der US-Botschaft in Berlin hervor. Laut den WikiLeaks-Dokumenten gibt es dabei Widerstand aus Frankreich. (The United States and Germany are considering together the development of new satellites that could also be used for spionage purposes, according with the cables from the American embassy in Berlin. The Wikileaks documents include a strong opposition [to this issue] by France.)"
The Guardian: WikiLeaks: US targets EU over GM crops
"US embassy cable recommends drawing up list of countries for 'retaliation' over opposition to genetic modification.
The US embassy in Paris advised Washington to start a military-style trade war against any European Union country which opposed genetically modified (GM) crops, newly released WikiLeaks cables show."
Le Monde: Washington et Berlin développent des satellites espions, affirme WikiLeaks (Washington and Berlin develop spy satellites, affirms Wikileaks)
"Les Etats-Unis et l'Allemagne développent conjointement et secrètement, sous couvert d'activités commerciales, de nouveaux satellites espions malgré de vives oppositions françaises, selon des câbles diplomatiques obtenus par WikiLeaks et publiés lundi par le journal norvégien Aftenposten. (The United States and Germany develop together and in secrecy, under the cover of commercial activities, new spy satellites despite a strong French opposition, according to the diplomatic cables obtained by Wikileaks and published last Monday by the norwegian paper Aftenposten.)"
Le Monde: WikiLeaks : le département d'Etat américain, VRP de Boeing (The American Department of State, commerce representative for Boeing)
"Des diplomates américains sont intervenus à plusieurs reprises pour favoriser la vente d'avions Boeing face au rival européen Airbus, révèlent des télégrammes diplomatiques obtenus par WikiLeaks et publiés par le New York Times lundi. (The American diplomats are addressed again due to their commercial favor for the planes Boeing instead of their European rival Airbus, has been revealed by the diplomatic telegrams obtained by Wikileaks and published by The New York Times last Monday.)"
Asian Sentinel: WikiLeaks Finds Another Malaysian Scandal
"Prominent UMNO stalwart allegedly raped his housemaid in 2007 but wasn't investigated
The latest round of WikiLeaks cables to embarrass Malaysia alleges that a "VVIP" later identified as Rais Yatim, the Information, Communications, and Culture Minister, raped his Indonesian maid in 2007, but got away with it because then-Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi apparently didn't want an embarrassing confrontation with the Indonesian government."
AntiWar.com: Glaspie Memo Leaked: US Dealings With Iraq Ahead of 1990 Invasion of Kuwait Detailed
"One of the crown jewels of secret pre-Gulf War negotiations was unveiled tonight when the notorious Glaspie Memo, or as it is now known 90BAGHDAD423, was released by WikiLeaks
The cable, whose official title was “Saddam’s Message of Friendship to President Bush” details the meeting between US Ambassador April Glaspie and Saddam Hussein on July 25, 1990, just a week before the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait."
International Business Times: WIkileaks: US Pressures German Internet Privacy
"The U.S. Government had doubts that the German Free Democratic Party would be a reliable partner in combating terrorism on the Internet, according to cables made public by Wikileaks, and after the elections some officials felt those doubts were vindicated."
WikiLeaks' release of 09STATE15113 represents a gross failure of due diligence, presenting a list of targets for terrorist operatives, and endangering the lives of US nationals and national security.
Official attacks on WikiLeaks over 2010 have taken a twofold and often contradictory nature.
The present falsehood is the 'smoking gun' in the "sensitive information" argument, in light of the fact that WikiLeaks has an immaculate record in journalistic responsibility thus far. WikiLeaks' release of 09STATE15113 is lately the sole example raised in support of the idea that WikiLeaks endangers national security. It contains a list of sites compiled by the State Department, and designated as "critical to national security." The document is said to provide enemies of the United States with a useful list of targets.
Further to my open letter on those inciting murder upon Julian Assange, this op ed style post again responds to those who say that Julian Assange should be kidnapped, executed, murdered or otherwise be "whacked", to use a favourite Hollywood gangster expression. It is a much expanded variant of the open letter to the inciters at Wikileaks Central.
The CIA and/or US military forces have been invoked by some, as the agents who would carry out such extra curial "services" of which it must be said, such actions both incitement and carrying the incitement out, are undoubtedly unlawful. Doubtless the early December Assange-illegal-posturing Prime Minister of Australia would not officially, take kindly to the latter course of action.
The web roll of inciters or borderline inciters is growing.
Truthout has an article about quickly crumbling legitimacy of US empire written by Francis Shor:
Perhaps the drive to shut down WikiLeaks and prosecute Julian Assange is the last gasp of a dying empire to shore up its fading legitimacy in the world and among its own citizens. Hence, the hyperbolic criticism by US Attorney General Eric Holder that WikiLeaks has put "the lives of people who work for the American people at risk; the American people themselves have been put at risk." As the WikiLeaks publications make clear, the diplomatic corps is just another instrument of the US empire. Indeed, it is the empire itself that is putting its own citizens at risk through the reckless, illegal and immoral actions perpetrated around the globe.
Tech Eye reported on an attack on various Zimbabwe government websites by Anonymous in response to censorship of WikiLeaks cables:
Graham Cluley writes from his bog, AKA Naked Security: "Grace Mugabe, wife of Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe, was recently reported to be suing a newspaper for $15 million after it published a WikiLeaks cable that claimed she has benefited from illegal diamond trading."
Now government websites, including the Ministry of Finance, have been hacked and suffered from DDoS attacks. One page displays an outline of a black suit with the message: "We Are Anonymous. All your base are belong to us. We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us..."
A Jan 3, 2011 article in the Sydney Morning Herald also covers the Zimbabwe attacks. Anonymous moved on to the Tunisian government on Jan 2.
New York Times: Diplomats Help Push Sales of Jetliners on the Global Market
"The king of Saudi Arabia wanted the United States to outfit his personal jet with the same high-tech devices as Air Force One. The president of Turkey wanted the Obama administration to let a Turkish astronaut sit in on a NASA space flight. And in Bangladesh, the prime minister pressed the State Department to re-establish landing rights at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York."
El País: América Latina recela de la expansión de China (Latin America mistrusts the Chinese expansion)
"Los cables de la diplomacia estadounidense revelan desconfianza entre los líderes latinoamericanos tras la gira por la región de los dirigentes comunistas chinos Xi Jinping y Hui Liangyu y el aumento de las inversiones del gigante asiático. (The American diplomatic cables reveal mistrust between the Latin American leaders over the increasing investments of the Asian giant after the tour made by the Chinese communist leaders Xi Jinping and Hui Liangyu all over the region.)"
Aftenposten: Amerikansk ambassadør advarte mot Khader (U.S. ambassador in Copenhagen warned three years ago against the Danish politician and writer Naser KHAD and stamped him as too extreme in his attacks on Muslims.)
"We no longer see KHAD as a useful contact to promote Muslim integration in Denmark ... He has been so extreme in his attacks on both Muslims and believers in our programs that we are alienating more Muslims by working with KHAD than by ignoring him, writes the American ambassador."
El País: Pacto fallido entre EE UU y Japón para reducir la caza de ballenas (Failed agreement between the United States and Japan to reduce the whale hunting)
"Tokio solicitó mayor dureza contra los ecologistas 'piratas' que acosan a su flota A. Hillary Clinton estuvo de acuerdo, pero Australia impidió el pacto. (Tokyo asked for a rougher attitude towards the "pirat" ecologists that harass their A fleet. Hillary Clinton agreed, but Australia stopped the agreement.)"
El País: EE UU no dio 'luz verde' a Sadam Husein para que invadiera Kuwait (The United States did not approved Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait)
"El presidente iraquí, desesperado por la ruina del país tras la guerra con Irán. (The Iraqi President, desperate due to the ruin of his country.)"
EL PAÍS editor, JAVIER MORENO, explains the decision to publish the State Department cables, which expose on an unprecedented scale the extent to which Western leaders lie to their electorates. MORENO provides some of the best analysis of Cablegate yet.
From Why EL PAÍS chose to publish the leaks
Cynics will argue that none of what we have learned from WikiLeaks differs from the usual way in which high-level international politics is conducted, and that without diplomatic secrets, the world would be even less manageable and more dangerous for everyone. Political classes on both sides of the Atlantic convey a simple message that is tailored to their advantage: trust us, don't try to reveal our secrets; in exchange, we offer you security.
But just how much security do they really offer in exchange for this moral blackmail? Little or none, since we face the sad paradox that this is the same political elite that was incapable of properly supervising the international financial system, whose implosion triggered the biggest crisis since 1929, ruining entire countries and condemning millions of workers to unemployment and poverty. These are the same people responsible for the deteriorating quality of life of their populations, the uncertain future of the euro, the lack of a viable European project and the global governance crisis that has gripped the world in recent years, and which elites in Washington and Brussels are not oblivious to. I doubt that keeping embassy secrets under wraps is any kind of guarantee of better diplomacy or that such an approach offers us better answers to the problems we face.
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