The Wikileaks Question

[Cosmic Cowbell]

Not sure where to throw this out but...

The Creepy, Lovesick Emails of Julian Assange - Gawker

Assange and Asian Teenage Stalkers - Gawker

More smears or a pattern developing?

How does this effect thoughts on the charges brought by Swedish prosecutors in the public mind?

[Plutonia]

How does this effect thoughts on the charges brought by Swedish prosecutors in the public mind?

I'm sure that first on the agenda is to make JA appear either compromised or compromise-able (SOP = sexual blackmail?) to discourage any more whistle-blowers from joining the fray.

If you had information of wrong-doing that you felt a moral duty to make public at great risk to yourself, would you send it to a depraved slut?

[barracuda]

I let them know what we have...

Minor point here: I had always understood this gesture to mean "You and I share a secret with each other", or, more generally, "I've got a secret".

[JackRiddler]

.

A Justice Department prosecution strategy seems to be emerging, which I wish to call by its proper name:

Torture Manning to Flip on Assange

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 62639.html

from The Independent & The Independent on Sunday

Freed on bail – but US steps up efforts to charge Assange with conspiracy

Accused soldier offered plea bargain if he names WikiLeaks founder

By Kim Sengupta and David Usborne in New York

Friday, 17 December 2010


US authorities have stepped up their efforts to prosecute Julian Assange by offering Bradley Manning, the American soldier allegedly responsible for leaking hundreds of thousands of government documents, the possibility of a plea bargain if he names the Wiki-Leaks founder as a fellow conspirator.


The development follows claims by Mr Assange's supporters that a grand jury has been secretly empanelled in northern Virginia to consider indicting the WikiLeaks chief. But the US Justice Department has refused to comment on any grand jury activity.

As Mr Assange arrived last night at the East Anglia mansion after his release from a London prison on bail, he said he considered the threat of US legal action to be "extremely serious" even though "they have yet to be confirmed". He told Sky News: "We have heard today from one of my US lawyers that there may be a US indictment for espionage for me coming from a secret grand jury investigation. "There are obviously serious attempts to take down the content by taking us down as an organisation and taking me down as an individual."

Related articles
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American officials view persuading Pte Manning to give evidence that Mr Assange encouraged him to disseminate classified Pentagon and State Department files as crucial to any prospect of extraditing him for a successful prosecution. To facilitate that, Pte Manning may be moved from military to civilian custody, they say. Since being charged in July with disseminating a US military video showing a 2007 attack by Apache helicopters that killed 17 people in Iraq including two Reuters employees, the soldier has been held at the Quantico Marine Base in Virginia. But members of his support network insist that he has not co-operated with the authorities since his arrest in May.

The Justice Department views the chances of a prosecution as far slimmer if Mr Assange was merely the passive recipient of information. But Adrian Lamo, a former hacker who had been in contact with Pte Manning and eventually turned him in to the government, is said to have told the FBI that Mr Assange had given the young soldier an encrypted internet conferencing service as he was downloading government files and a dedicated server for uploading them to WikiLeaks. The US Attorney General, Eric Holder, said this week that he had "authorised significant steps" in the investigation into the leaks without going into details. However, US diplomats say that while the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 can be used against Pte Manning, extending it to Mr Assange would come up against the formidable defence of free speech and media freedom enshrined in the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

If Mr Assange is indicted under the Espionage or Computer Fraud acts when there is no evidence that he instigated Pte Manning's activities, it could follow that the New York Times, which disseminated the information in the US, could also face prosecution – something officials say the Justice Department simply would not countenance.

WikiLeaks appears to be aware of the danger if it is proved to be involved in a conspiracy to leak material. It has deleted from its website the claim that "Submitting confidential material to Wiki-Leaks is safe, easy and protected by law". The site now says: "Submitting documents to our journalists is protected by law in better democracies." It also now says: "WikiLeaks accepts a range of material, but we do not solicit it." Furthermore, it no longer says it welcomes "classified" material.

At a first hearing on the WikiLeaks affair by the House Judiciary Committee in Washington, John Conyers, a leading Democrat, cautioned against a rush towards prosecuting Mr Assange. He said: "Many feel that the WikiLeaks publication was offensive. But being unpopular is not a crime and publishing offensive information is not, either. And the repeated calls from politicians, journalists and other so-called experts crying out for criminal prosecutions or other extreme measures make me very uncomfortable."

Others, notably Joe Lieberman in the Senate and Peter King in the House of Representatives have pushed for new legislation to facilitate the prosecution of Mr Assange in the event that existing law proves insufficient. "Assange and his associates... have not only damaged US national security... but also placed at risk countless lives, including those of our intelligence sources," said Mr King.

.

[justdrew]

Minor point here: I had always understood this gesture to mean "You and I share a secret with each other", or, more generally, "I've got a secret".

the three picture set looked like "I C U" to me, but the other explanation was slightly possible too.

[vanlose kid]

:thumbsup

Interpret as you will. Screw that... Thanks, Plutonia.

Even if someone produced a video of Donald Rumsfeld roasting some chestnuts — and a nun! — over an open fire (and then eating her liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti), the front men for this greedy, unprincipled pugnocracy would probably try to impress upon us all the importance of "looking forward, not backward."

I'm not so sure. Just because we can't imagine information damning enough to scare Hillary and co, doesn't mean they can't.

I'm just feeling really, really stupid, because I saw one of those pictures (the first) and I thought, "Why are they showing him scratching his nose? It must be to cut him down some more." But when you see the rest there's no doubt that he's signalling! We can't know what, but it's a brilliant find, Plutonia, and your interpretation is plausible and suggested by the body language. Thanks for spotting it. Is this elsewhere on the Web? Are we actually breaking stories on this thread?

.

saw that while following the first bail hearing live blog on the grauniad, dec. 14:

11.43am: Here's a fantastic new picture of Assange tapping his nose from inside that prison van.

The Daily Mail is appalled (again):

Assange even pokes fun at the establishment from his prison van as he prepares for court.

With a telling tap of the finger, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange gives the impression that he knows what's going on even when being transported in a prison van.

The 39-year-old Australian was photographed in the back of the vehicle while being ferried to City of Westminster magistrates court from his Wandsworth prison cell. [from the DMail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ision.html]

He might just be scratching his eye.

concurred with that reading then, do so now.

also, re his visit to the rejkavijk embassy, if he has what he gives the impression of having (and i'm of the opinion manning only leaked the august afghan files (70,000 or so?)), plus the fact that US operatives and their Icelandic sidekicks were playing cat and mouse with WL personnel including JA during Project B (Collateral Murder) then showing up at the embassy seems the exact type of crazy move JA would pull.

"I know that you know that I know..."

it fits.

*

edit to add link, etc.

*

[chump]

Waki up!

I venture to say that most keystrokes conducted on a computer for at least the last five years have been stored - somewhere. Please tell me if I'm wrong. That database would stretch in every direction; a vast and intricate, multi-layered intelligence network available to anyone who knows how to get in. With a security clearance, or not, someone could have access to the particulars of our lives. Imagine the abundance of records that exist for each and every one of us. From the day we're born, there are hierarchies of handlers layered throughout our society, keeping tabs on everybody; and although there is never a shortgage of agents, informers or whatever, to physically check on... whomever, digital surveillance is just so easy.

We call it the World Wide Web because we're stuck in it! The web pages we visit, the news we read, our friends, our buying habits, videos, where we go and what we say - perhaps even our most private thoughts are all there. All that information keeps coming in, and it's filed, collated, corroborated, and layered into the closest thing to an "akashic record" that money can buy. It is all there - in the record. If someone is really interested, and can afford it, there's real time tracking, listening in on the cellphone, computer, or cable box; CCTV, satellites, X-rays, microwaves: You can watch, ride along, or maybe even get into somebody's head! What more could you want? Big Brother is here.

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but has anyone but the leakers been prosecuted for anything as a result of these leaks? Bravo to those who are trying to show us, but we only get to see so much. If Wiki was responsible for "Climategate", I am impressed with that. Carbon Credits could well be a fact of life by now. But then what? Those emails are still out there, but the media has steered us away from the really good stuff. We won't be learning much of anything on the TV news.

Instead, they've spun this incredible script about the most brilliant albino since Andy Warhol; possessed with the ability to expose everything. Is he the hero or the villain? This story is full of international intrique, gravitas, twist and turns; and in traditional Hollywood fashion - seductive Swedish blondes (Thank goodness that he wasn't gay), 9 days in a dungeon in London, and now to a posh 600 acre retreat. I can't wait to see what happens next. It comes off like fiction, but I don't know...

On the face of it, he shouldn't have been locked up at all! Solitary confinement! For not wearing a condum!? Why did he go back to London? I love the way the media jumped all over the rape misnomer. If Assange is for real, I'm rooting for him big time. I hope that he's got it figured out and has plenty of help. I'd almost like to help him myself, but (Damnit Jim!) He needs a hacker, not a hack! Too much help and it's hard to keep a secret. Hmm. I wonder if there might be some blackmail (hackmail?) going on? What is the endgame here?

Wiki should be more than a limited hangout. If somebodies' using all those resources to keep an eye on us, it's only fair that they can be used on them. We're paying for it! What do they have to hide? Sunshine could be a great disinfectant - especially where public policy is concerned. Right or wrong, the information is there! Every day, computers and people are sifting through it. Oooh... Lisbeth Salander, hacking away.

But who is going to report it. Who is going to report what really makes the world go around? The Internet!? Damn, that's what I like about this place: So many diverse, well informed viewpoints mixed in with some real pearls. Even though this forum has gone wiki, believe it or not, I somehow seem to reach a better understanding of the topic at hand. Thank you all. This is why the Internet should be here. I hope that the government isn't able to use wiki as an excuse to take it away.

This wituation seems bound to get wicked. Should we wish him wuck?

[vanlose kid]

The empire stands accused
(Taken from CubaDebate)

JULIAN Assange, a man known only to a very few in the world some months ago, is demonstrating that the most powerful empire to have existed in history can be challenged.

The daring challenge did not come from a rival superpower; from a state with more than 100 nuclear weapons; from a country with millions of inhabitants; from a group of nations with vast natural resources which the United States could not do without; or from a revolutionary doctrine capable of shaking to its foundations the empire based on plunder and exploitation of the world.

He was just a person barely mentioned in the media. Although he is now famous, little is known about him, apart from the highly publicized accusation of having sexual relations with two women, without taking due precautions in these times of HIV. A book on his origins, his education, or his philosophical and political ideas has not as yet been written.

Moreover, the motivations which led him to the resounding blow that he delivered to the empire remain unknown. All that is known is that morally, he has brought it to its knees.

The AFP news agency reported today that the "creator of WikiLeaks is to remain in prison despite obtaining his release on bail [...] but he must remain behind bars until the appeal filed by Sweden, the country applying for his extradition for alleged sexual crimes, is resolved."

"…the attorney representing the Swedish state, [...] has announced her intention of appealing the decision to release him."

"…Judge Riddle established as conditions for the bond of $380,000, his use of an electronic bracelet and complying with a curfew."

The same cable noted that, in the event of his release, "… [Assange] must reside in a property belonging to Vaughan Smith, his friend and president of the Frontline Club, the London journalists club where WikiLeaks established its headquarters a few weeks ago…"

Assange stated, "My convictions are unfaltering. I remain true to the ideals I have expressed. If anything this process has increased my determination that they are true and correct…"

The valiant and brilliant U.S. filmmaker Michael Moore publicly offered the assistance of his website, his servers, his domain names and anything else he could do to "…keep WikiLeaks alive and thriving as it continues its work to expose the crimes that were concocted in secret and carried out in our name and with our tax dollars …"

Assange, Moore affirmed, "is under such vicious attack [...] because they have outed and embarrassed those who have covered up the truth."

"…And regardless of Assange's guilt or innocence [...] this man has the right to have bail posted and to defend himself. [... ] I have joined with filmmakers Ken Loach and John Pilger and writer Jemima Khan in putting up the bail money."

Moore’s contribution amounted to $20,000.

The United States government barrage against WikiLeaks has been so brutal that, according to ABC News/Washington Post surveys, two out of every three U.S. citizens want Assange to be taken before the U.S. courts for having disclosed the documents. On the other hand, nobody has dared to challenge the truths that they contain.

Details of the plan drawn up by the WikiLeaks strategists are not known. It is known that Assange distributed a significant volume of communications to five major media transnationals, which currently possess the monopoly of much of the information, some of them as extremely mercenary, reactionary and pro-fascist as the Spanish PRISA and the German Der Spiegel, which are utilizing news items to attack the most revolutionary countries.

World opinion will continue closely following everything that happens in the context of WikiLeaks.

Responsibility for being able to know the truth, or not, about the cynical politics of the United States and its allies will fall squarely on the right-wing Swedish government and the bellicose NATO mafia, who so like to invoke the freedom of the press and human rights.

Ideas can be more powerful than nuclear weapons.



Fidel Castro Ruz
December 14, 2010
9:34 p.m.

Translated by Granma International ·

http://www.granma.cu/ingles/reflections ... tions.html

*

[JackRiddler]

http://www.cnbc.com/id/40717933

WikiLeaks Is Being 'Attacked' By Banks: Founder Assange

Posted By: Michelle Lodge | CNBC.com Writer
CNBC.com
| 17 Dec 2010 | 11:33 AM ET

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange told CNBC Friday that he’s being “attacked” by banks in Dubai, Switzerland, the US and the UK.

Assange did not specify what he meant by "attacked."

WikiLeaks reiterated its plans to release information about banks in January, although Assange didn’t specify which "leaks" the website would address. Friday's statement to CNBC marks the first time Assange has mentioned banks in Dubai.


Assange added that it is the "normal business" of WikiLeaks to publish information about banks. He also said that WikiLeaks has a cache of some 250,000 documents and that the site has released fewer than 2,000.

“We have been attacked, primarily, not by government, primarily, in fact, not by the US government, but by banks—banks from Dubai, banks from Switzerland, banks from the United States, banks from the UK, so, yes, of course, we are continuing to release material about banks,” said Assange, who is out on bail from a Swedish court in relation to sexual assault charges.

In October of 2009, when Assange announced that WikiLeaks had copious documents about the Bank of America , the stock took a hit.

© 2010 CNBC.com

URL: http://www.cnbc.com/id/40717933/
.
© 2010 CNBC.com

hmmmmmmm...

[JackRiddler]

Wikileaks did not commit a crime, House Judiciary chairman says

By Sahil Kapur
Thursday, December 16th, 2010 -- 1:14 pm


The chairman of the House judiciary committee defended Wikileaks on Thursday, arguing that the controversial actions of the anti-secrecy outlet are protected under free speech.

Speaking at a hearing to explore whether Wikileaks violated the Espionage Act -- which the Obama administration is targeting its editor-in-chief for -- Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) said that "America was founded on the belief that speech is sacrosanct" and dismissed calls for censorship of media outlets publishing leaked documents.

"As an initial matter, there is no doubt that WikiLeaks is very unpopular right now. Many feel that the WikiLeaks publication was offensive," Conyers said, according to prepared remarks. "But being unpopular is not a crime, and publishing offensive information is not either. And the repeated calls from politicians, journalists, and other so-called experts crying out for criminal prosecutions or other extreme measures make me very uncomfortable."

The Obama administration and members of Congress from both parties have called for the prosecution of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange after the unauthorized leak of State Department cables, portraying him as a threat to national security.

But legal experts have pointed out the extraordinary difficulties in legally targeting the anti-secrecy outlet, and warned that doing so would set a dangerous precedent in which newspapers could be prosecuted for revealing unflattering information about the government.
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"And so whatever you think about this controversy, it is clear that prosecuting Wikileaks would raise the most fundamental questions about freedom of speech, about who is a journalist, and about what the public can know about the actions of its own government," Conyers said.

The crime Wikileaks would be charged with involves obtaining classified government information and disseminating it to the public, which journalists have done in the past without being prosecuted. In a parallel example, the leak of the Pentagon Papers -- passed to the New York Times by government whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg -- was upheld as constitutional by the Supreme Court in the 1971 case New York Times Co. v. United States.

Calls for prosecuting Wikileaks have picked up steam in Washington, and a majority of the US public deems the leak of diplomatic cables harmful to public interest and supports legal action against Assange, according to an ABC News-Washington Post poll released Tuesday.

"But let us not be hasty, and let us not legislate in a climate of fear or prejudice," Conyers closed, referring to the calls for new laws criminalizing the actions of Wikileaks. "For, in such an atmosphere, it is our constitutional freedoms and our cherished civil rights that are the first to be sacrificed in the false service of our national security."

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/wiki ... e-conyers/

[DrVolin]

the three picture set looked like "I C U" to me

Be seeing you?

[chump]

uh hmmm. good video at that cnbc link.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010 ... ion=justin

WikiLeaks vows to target banks
Posted 3 hours 18 minutes ago

Related Story: WikiLeaks says major bank is its next target WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said his organisation had come under attack from banks as he vowed to release damaging leaks about them.

"We have been attacked, primarily not by government... although things are heating up now, but by banks, banks from Dubai, banks from Switzerland, banks from the US, banks from the UK, so yes of course we are continuing to release material about banks," he told CNBC television.

In an interview published last month by Forbes magazine, Mr Assange, who has released thousands of confidential diplomatic cables, claimed a fresh "megaleak" will target a major US bank "early next year".

Mr Assange said the bank leak would "give a true and representative insight into how banks behave at the executive level in a way that will stimulate investigations and reforms, I presume".

The controversial Australian said that he was ready to unleash tens of thousands of documents that could "take down a bank or two".

The main target is thought to be Bank of America, based on comments last year from Mr Assange.

Mr Assange was arrested and remanded in custody on December 7 in London at the request of Swedish authorities, which want the WikiLeaks founder extradited in order to question him over allegations of sexual offences. He denies any wrongdoing.

Mr Assange was freed on bail after the High Court in London rejected an attempt by British lawyers acting for Sweden to keep him in jail while he fights the extradition attempt, a process that could take months.

- AFP

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6BG3UW20101217

SEC expands mortgage probe: sources

By Matthew Goldstein and Rachelle Younglai

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON | Fri Dec 17, 2010 5:22pm EST

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Securities regulators have broadened their inquiry into the mortgage industry, asking big banks about the early stages of securitizing home loans, two sources familiar with the probe said.

The Securities and Exchange Commission launched the new phase of its investigation by sending out a fresh round of subpoenas last week to big banks including Bank of America Corp, Citigroup Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Wells Fargo & Co, the sources said.

Months ago, the SEC began looking into the banks' foreclosure practices following allegations that mortgage servicers were using shoddy paperwork to evict delinquent borrowers from their homes.

Now the SEC is looking at how the lenders packaged up mortgages for sale to investors, said the sources, who requested anonymity because the probe is not public.

Questions from the SEC include information about the role of so-called "master servicers" -- specialized firms that oversee the selection and maintenance of the large pool of home loans that go into every mortgage-backed bond.

In many cases, Wall Street banks that underwrite mortgage-backed securities either own their own master servicing firms or are closely aligned with one.

The Justice Department, banking regulators and the attorneys general in all 50 U.S. states are also probing potential wrongdoing...

One can only hope.

[The Hacktivist]

Everytime I think of Ted Kaczynski it breaks my heart. Now there, my friends, is a mind controlled puppet, and a brilliant one at that.

I can't say that I agree with you. Or even that I see the case for your view.

I can see the case for his having had a part of his mind broken by trauma sustained in the course of being subjected to mind-control-related experimentation on people who hadn't given their informed consent to it, carried out by scientists who were -- by proxy -- working for the federal government back when he was a student at Harvard.

And I can also see the case for his therefore subsequently having come to regard sending bombs to scientists who did DARPA-type work as an act in furtherance of a vitally necessary political revolution.

I don't see how you figure he was a puppet, though. Seems to me that he was acting in accordance with his convictions.

And you are correct, of course, nobody should be held in the conditions you describe, I lose sleep over it personally.

I'm sorry to hear it. Does this help?



Also...

The cables clearly show the likes of the US saying one thing in private and another in public, Israel is certainly no saint and they have plenty of blood on their hands, but they dont play that game, they are too smart for it because they know sooner or later it will come back and bite you in the ass like it is now re: the US, et. al.

Why is that so hard to understand for some? That has been Israel's policy forever.

Et, to the extent that one reads between the lines when we hear the statement "we neither confirm or deny ...", generally the Israelis don't pull any punches but I would not conclude from that that they don't 'play that game' of duplicity.

In any event, since I'm not convinced that Wikileaks is the real deal due to fact that I would consider that had it really posed as a potential thorn to imperial global ambitions, it would have been either infiltrated and taken over or put out of play long ago. I also take it as a given that CIA, MI6, MOSSAD, and some other intelligence agencies including ASIO, cooperate at some levels regarding potential threats to the world order envisaged by imperial elite, Therefore it follows that to my mind, the Wikileaks question is still an open one, but I trust that if I postulate MOSSAD as a player, it is no more an attack on Israel as it is on Australia, USA, or UK.

I too like it when people say what they mean and mean what they say!

...why does Ben D. appear to be addressing you as "Et"?

I didnt understand the whole ET thing either, is that a poster's name here or something?

[Simulist]

Personally, I agree with The Hacktivist on the matter of Ted Kaczynski. Dr. Kaczynski was a destroyed human being who, tragically, also destroyed others. The entire matter is heartbreaking.

Was he a puppet? I don't know. Perhaps a better metaphor might be a toy broken by monsters.

[seemslikeadream]

This is a good thread.

Pied Piper Julian Assange brooks no dissent in land of WikiLeaks
Billy Kenber and Damian Whitworth From: The Times December 18, 2010 12:00AM

FOR a man who cultivates an image as a lone cyber cowboy, Julian Assange has acquired a lot of new and exotic friends in the past few days.

Perhaps, during his period of "mansion arrest", the famous names who stood surety for Mr Assange and championed him will make their way to Suffolk to get to know him better.

But the likes of Australian journalist Phillip Knightley, flamboyant publisher Felix Dennis and Jemima Khan, who called her hero "the new Jason Bourne", should not go expecting to form a long-term bond with their enigmatic new friend. Mr Assange is a restless, nomadic figure whose extremely robust ego and tendency towards eccentricity appear to be incompatible with smooth-working collaborations.

Mr Assange previously fell out with two of his key WikiLeaks colleagues. Birgitta Jonsdottir, a political activist in Iceland who worked on the leaked video of a US air strike on civilians in Iraq, broke with Mr Assange when she suggested he should step aside as leader until after the Swedish sex inquiry was resolved.


Daniel Domscheit-Berg, a German computer programmer who at one time was second only to Mr Assange in the WikiLeaks hierarchy, was dismayed that the organisation was, as he saw it, taking sides against the US government rather than providing a platform for whistleblowers.

When Mr Domscheit-Berg suggested Mr Assange curtail his activities after the sex allegations, he was suspended. He now regards Mr Assange as a "dictator".

Mr Assange arrived in Britain at the end of June and, apart from his trip to Sweden, has been based largely at the Frontline Club in Paddington, where he has been surrounded by a group of assistants and volunteers, mostly young journalism students, who work 12-15 hour days, seven days a week. According to those who have worked with him, he has become particularly close, at different times, to at least two female students. One journalist said Sarah Harrison, a former City University student, has "been in very close contact and organising his diary and washing his socks".

Oxford University student Isabelle Fraser, who volunteered for WikiLeaks last northern summer, described him as "very likeable, and disarming at times".

"He's also quite sexy, and very confident. He's like the Pied Piper, attracting followers who fawn over him on the internet and, if they're lucky, in person."

David Leigh, a journalist for The Guardian who has been working on the WikiLeaks material, said: "It's a great shame that more medals aren't being pinned up to the chest of the young soldier Bradley Manning, who actually got the data and is the person who is actually paying the price for it, facing 52 years in prison."

Another Guardian journalist, Nick Davies, who initially persuaded Mr Assange to work with the paper, is understood to have fallen out with him so badly that he decided not to be involved with the embassy cable coverage.

There has been tension at The Guardian over the way Mr Assange, who was originally a hacker, now portrays himself as a journalist. One reporter said: "He wasn't a participant in the journalistic process, he was a participant in the technical process."

He said Mr Assange was a "very idiosyncratic character" . . . socially, "he can be very likeable."

The Times