Around 8pmest every night
UPDATE: 8:45 About 150 protested prison conditions for Bradley Manning today right at Quanitco
Press conference at Frontline with Rudolf Elmer and Julian Assange. A must watch!!(It's long, over an hour so I will include it in future basic links):
Elmer clarified his position as a banker who "has the right" to prevent further "damage to society" by taking steps to inform the public of ongoing unethical activities. He expressed his gratitude to Wikileaks, which he described as a tool that allowed him to tell the people what he thinks "society has a right to know."
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Julian Assange also made a brief statement in which he emphasized that the press conference should not be focused on Wikileaks. When asked about Wikileaks, he replied, "this is not my news conference, this is Mr. Elmer's news conference. I am here to support him... he has important things to say."
When asked how long it would be before the data would be released, he replied that it could be weeks or longer, depending on the amount of "stuff" on the CDs, and on various other circumstances. The material will be treated in the same manner as all leaked materials are treated.
The question arose as to "Why Wikileaks?" Why would the data not be released to the press, instead?
Assange stated that sources must be protected. To this end, Wikileaks is a sound choice because the organization has developed expertise in scientific journalism, which also serves to "keep the press honest":
"Good journalists write honestly, but we all know that there are opportunists that twist and distort and hype up material, and as a result, distort the historical record on which all our political decisions are made. So primary sources must be available at the same time that news stories are available."
As we have seen with 2 rec'd diaries here in Informationthread 39 and in bink's diary Swiss Banker Gives Wikileaks Records of World's Richest many people here care about this particuclar hand over of info.
Here is a "teaser" about a doc coming out about Rudolf Elmer:
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Via Atrios :
LEAVE RICH CRIMINALS ALOOOOONE
I'm sure the Very Serious People response to anti-rich people leaks to wikileaks will be the same as their response to leaks embarrassing powerful people in governments. It's just wrong to hold powerful people accountable for anything.
Look forward people!
Bradley Manning and the Rule of Law
The case of Private Bradley Manning raises legal issues about his pre-trial detention, freedom of speech and the press, as well as proving his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Putting aside Manning's guilt or innocence, if Bradley Manning saw the Afghan and Iraq war diaries as well as the diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks, what should he have done? And, what should be the proper response of government to their publication?
A high point in the application of the rule of law to war came in the Nuremberg trials, where leaders in Germany were held accountable for World War II atrocities. Justice Robert Jackson, who served as the chief prosecutor in the Nuremberg trials while on leave from the U.S. Supreme Court, said "If certain acts of violation of treaties are crimes, they are crimes whether the United States does them or whether Germany does them, and we are not prepared to lay down a rule of criminal conduct against others which we would not be willing to have invoked against us."
One of the key outcomes of the Nuremberg trials was that people who commit war crimes or crimes against humanity will be held accountable even if they were following orders. This is known as Nuremberg Principle IV which states: "The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him." The Nuremberg principles were enshrined in a series of treaties.
How do the Nuremberg Principles and other laws of war apply to Bradley Manning?
What is a person who does not want to participate in war crimes or hiding war crimes supposed to do when he sees evidence of them? If Manning hid the evidence would he not be complicit in the crimes he was covering up and potentially liable as a co-conspirator? These were questions that Bradley Manning allegedly wrestled with. According to unverified chat logs Manning, talking with Adrian Lamo on email, asks: "Hypothetical question, if you had free reign over classified networks for long periods of time... say, 8-9 months... and you saw incredible things, awful things... things that belonged in the public domain, and not on some server stored in a dark room in Washington DC... what would you do?"
In Iraq, Manning was ordered "to round up and hand over Iraqi civilians to America's new Iraqi allies, who he could see were then torturing them with electrical drills and other implements." Manning questioned the orders he was being given to help round up Iraqis and brought his concerns to the chain of command. He pointed to a specific instance where 15 detainees were arrested and tortured for printing "anti-Iraqi literature." He found that the paper in question was merely a scholarly critique of corruption in the government, asking "Where did the money go?" He brought this to his commander, who told him to "shut up" and keep working to find more detainees. Manning realized he "was actively involved in something that i was completely against..."
He wrestled with the question of what to do. According to the unverified chat logs with Lamo, Manning said that he hoped the publication of the documents and videos would spur "worldwide discussion, debates, and reform." He went on to say, "I want people to see the truth... regardless of who they are... because without information, you cannot make informed decisions as a public." The command structure would not listen, so Manning went beyond them to the people who are supposed to control the military in our democratic republic. He wanted Americans to know the truth.
What U.S. Diplomacy Can Learn from Tunisia
I have visited the country a few times as well as many other Arab/Muslim countries (Syria, Lebanon, Morocco, Egypt, Palestinian territories). Most Muslim nations have rulers for life and it's nice to see that for once, a corrupt dictator who has been in power since 1987 was thrown out, not by U.S. military intervention but by popular rebellion. And as this article explains it took American diplomats and Wikileaks efforts to reveal what many Tunisians suspected and that is the extent of the government's corruption and abuse to help ignite the overthrow. Now the paradox here is obvious. The U.S. spends hundreds of billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of human lives are lost in a bloody military intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq with very little success in establishing grassroots change. And instead, U.S. diplomats telling a detailed story about corruption in Tunisia and a group of determined journalists at Wikileaks and Bradley Manning help accomplish what a decade of military intervention in the Middle East could not: a popular uprising against corruption and dictatorship. Yes, the realities of Afghanistan, Iraq and Tunisia are different and most credit goes to the Tunisian people themselves. Yet, as this New York Times article explains, many in the Arab/Muslim world are watching Tunisia and wondering how long will they put up with their own "Ben Alis". Especially in nearby Egypt.
It is interesting though that it took a combination of angry Tunisians, Wikileaks, U.S. diplomacy, a dissident soldier and social media to ignite the rebellion. Most likely if it had been Hillary Clinton alone telling the Tunisian people how corrupt Ben Ali was, it would have backfired. What US fails to see is that change is possible but the most USA can do is move the needle, not "build nations". I think the State Department should learn a lot from Tunisia and rethink Wikileaks, cellular networks, social networks, and the power of the raw truth when dictators lose control of the popular message.
Libya's Gaddaffi pained by Tunisian revolt, blames WikiLeaks
'I am concerned for the people of Tunisia, whose sons are dying each day,' Gaddafi said overnight in a televised statement addressing people in neighbouring Tunisia.
'And for what? In order for someone to become president instead of Ben Ali?' he added.
'I do not know these new people, but we all knew Ben Ali and the transformation that was achieved in Tunisia. Why are you destroying all of that?' he asked.
Gaddafi warned Tunisians against being tricked by 'WikiLeaks which publishes information written by lying ambassadors in order to create chaos.'
Last month, WikiLeaks released a cable sent by the US embassy in Tunis in which Ben Ali's family was described as a 'quasi mafia' due to its 'organised corruption.'
The cable described abuse, corruption, and lack of political freedom in Tunisia under Ben Ali.
Google translate: Bank of America is building a protective wall against Wikileaks
It remains an unknown: How stressful is the material reality? Internal investigations apparently have not confirmed that a hard disk is lost. On the other hand, the politically unpopular Bank of America was already so often in the twilight, that it would surprise if Wikileaks would have nothing of substance in his hand.
The Bank is particularly vulnerable because of the takeover of Countrywide Financial, once the largest and worst subprime company, which is responsible for hundreds of thousands of criminal mortgage. Another target is the purchase of rival Merrill Lynch in the midst of financial crisis, which expired so opaque, that recordings of two parliamentary commissions investigations.
Assange is convinced that the documents will show serious shortcomings and should lead to resignations. The parallels he sees in the Enron case, the corrupt energy company whose crimes prison several top managers and the accounting firm Arthur Anderson case was taken to.
Reacting to leak, Swiss officials accuse US of illegal spying operations
The government of Switzerland said Monday that it was investigating whether the United States had conducted illegal spying operations within its jurisdiction.
The Swiss ministry said that US contacts asked for permission in 2007 to conduct an intelligence operation, but were denied "due to a lack of legal basis."
However, a recently leaked US State Department cable showed that intelligence gathering had been afoot in Iceland, Norway, Denmark and Switzerland without those governments' permissions.
Swiss officials said Monday that they were seeking information on such a program being operated out of the US embassy in Geneva, citing a report by Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten that showed US surveillance in the country as early as Oct. 2005.
The document noted that US officials had taken photos of political rallies and compiled dossiers on people thought to pose risks to embassy security.
Basic Links
Wikileaks cable page
Unofficial Wikileaks information site
Greg Mitchell's amazing Wikileaks blog at The Nation
Aftenposten english Wikileaks torrent - I can't seem to find an updated page for this. Please let me know if you can.
Glenn Greenwald
Wikirebels
@Youtube
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
@Swedish TV
In full
Al Jazeera English discussion
It's about 22mins long and well worth it. Again, here is the exchange that I think is VERY important at about the 10min mark:
When the host asks Baruch Weiss, a former U.S. Government lawyer,
if leaking classified information is a crime in the United States, he says:
"I'm going to say it twice because noone will believe me the first time, but the answer is usually no. No.
There is no statute on the books in the United States that says 'Thou shalt not leak classified information.' There is no statute of that sort. Congress tried to pass one during the Clinton administration and Clinton Vetoed it and for a very good reason. And the good reason is, that in the United States there is a huge over-classification problem. There is a huge amount of material that should not be classified that is."
Julian Assange: A Wanted Man
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Part 3
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Audio of Greenwald interviewing Lamo - Transcript also at Informationthread 20
Robert Meeropol, the son of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg—the only U.S. citizens to be executed under the Espionage Act, in what’s been described as the most controversial death sentence in U.S. history. This week, Meeropol released a widely read statement in support of WikiLeaks called, "My Parents Were Executed Under the Unconstitutional Espionage Act-Here's Why We Must Fight to Protect Julian Assange."
Part 1
Transcript and Part 2 at Informationthread 22
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On Dec 31, Democracy Now! dedicated the full hour today to Wikileaks and Julian Assange. You can find the full transcript at the Democracy Now! link and the Daniel Ellsberg transcript at Informationthread 23
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
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For more on Bradley Manning
Informationthread 11
Informationthread 13
Informationthread 15
Informationthread 28
For more info on DOJ/Twittergate :
Informationthread 37
Informationthread 36
Informationthread 35
Informationthread 34
Informationthread 33
Informationthread 32
Informationthread 31
Democracy Now! Interviews Birgitta Jónsdóttir
Part 1
Part 2
Transcript at Informationthread 36
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The Agenda tv show interviews Birgitta Jonsdottir
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Democracy Now! Dr. Atul Gawande: Solitary Confinement is Torture Transcript at Informationthread 28