Wikileaks
Viva WikiLeaks! SiCKO Was Not Banned in Cuba
Yesterday WikiLeaks did an amazing thing and released a classified State Department cable that dealt, in part, with me and my film, 'Sicko.' It is a stunning look at the Orwellian nature of how bureaucrats for the State spin their lies and try to recreate reality (I assume to placate their bosses and tell them what they want to hear).
Does an Al Qaeda Anthrax Operative Own New York Pharmacies
Journalism vs. WikiLeaks
David Corn has a piece today about a Pakistani businessman who owns several pharmacies in New York City and has been fingered by a Guantanamo detainee as a "possible al-Qaida anthrax operative." So is he? Nobody knows. Maybe the Gitmo detainee was just making stuff up. Maybe it's already been exhaustively investigated and the guy has been cleared. Or maybe he really did have al-Qaeda ties at one time. The Pakistani guy can't be reached, and there's no evidence one way or the other about this aside from the detainee report, so it's impossible to say.
WikiLeaks’ Afghanistan Bombshell
WikiLeaks is making headlines again with the release of an enormous trove of secret US military documents from Afghanistan. The Afghan War Diary, as WikiLeaks has dubbed it, was first given to the New York Times, The Guardian, and Der Spiegel, which have vetted, analyzed, and packaged the 92,000 documents into what amounts to the biggest story about the war since Osama bin Laden slipped away
Eight BIG PROBLEMS with the “case” against Assange
Now that Andrew Kreig, of the Justice Integrity Project, has confirmed Karl Rove s role as an advisor to the Swedish government in its prosecution of Julian Assange on sexual misconduct charges, it is important that we note the many glaring aberrations in the handling of Assange s case by the authorities in Sweden.
US withholding key documents
The US government has reacted strongly to Bradley Manning's alleged disclosure of recent diplomatic cables via WikiLeaks. We have heard State Department officials make their good case that indiscriminate leaks of contemporary communications - however much they contribute to public understanding of foreign policy - can undermine diplomacy and endanger human lives. But what we haven't heard is that the Department has been withholding from the public historical documents that bear strongly on two ongoing foreign policy crises.
Why Assange lost
Julian Assange’s Love Emails to a 19-Year-Old Reveal Important Lessons in Dating
Gawker has obtained a series of emails supposedly from Julian Assange to a 19-year-old girl he met in a bar in Melbourne back in 2004, when he was 33. If these are to be believed as true, even then, prior to the foundation of WikiLeaks, he had a singular flair for getting at whatever undisclosed information he wanted (in this case, the girl's phone number).
Swedish attorneys weigh in on Assange case
THE RAPE AND MOLESTATION charges against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, which led to an arrest warrant in his name on Friday and its mysterious withdrawal on Saturday (I wrote about it here), continue to perplex Swedish society. The case is far from over, since Assange remains under investigation for molestation and has retained the services of the prominent Swedish lawyer and crime novelist Leif Silbersky.
Swedes question rape accusations against Wikileaks founder
WHAT A SHOCK TO the global antiwar movement: Yesterday, the Swedish chief prosecutor announced that Julian Assange, founder of the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks, which had recently leaked more than 91,000 classified documents to the press, had been accused of rape and molestation, and that a warrant had been issued for his arrest.
More on How Physicians Became Torture Doctors for CIA
A good amount of documentation on the involvement of psychologists in the torture and abuse of detainees or 'terror suspects.' And, a new study provides even more revelations on the involvement of physicians making it increasingly clear that medical professionals put limits on ethical standards they were expected to follow in order to help the CIA interrogate detainees.
WikiLeaks causes Singapore Officials to be Cautious with U.S Diplomats
Jennifer Robinson Scandal: Was the Wikileaks Lawyer Detained For Political Reasons
An illegitimate immigration incident involving Jennifer Robinson, the Australian lawyer for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, occurred at London's Heathrow Airport late on April 18. Jennifer Robinson was informed that she could not board a plane to Australia until she was cleared by the Australian High Commission. Using Twitter, she informed her followers: "Just delayed from checking in at LHR because I'm apparently 'inhibited' - requiring approval from Australia House to travel." Robinson added that an immigration security guard told her: "You must have done something controversial because we have to phone the embassy."
In WikiLeaks case, Bradley Manning seeks dismissal of 10 charges
An Army private charged in a massive leak of U.S. government secrets to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks is seeking dismissal of 10 of the 22 counts he faces. Pfc. Bradley Manning's civilian defense lawyer posted the motions on his website Wednesday night. A military judge will hear oral arguments at a pretrial hearing starting June 6 at Fort Meade, Md. Manning contends eight of the counts are unconstitutionally vague. He claims two other charges fail to state a prosecutable offense.
Crowley slams Defense on Manning
Bloggers: Edward Snowden leaked NSA documents show U.S., Israel created Islamic State
So it s no surprise to see Snowden s name attached to the increasingly popular idea that America and Israel created ISIS. On July 16, Bahrain s Gulf Daily News reported that "Edward Snowden has revealed that the British and American intelligence and the Mossad (Israel s intelligence agency) worked together to create the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)."
From Judith Miller to Julian Assange
WikiLeaks Says Russia May Trade Snowden for Better Relations with U.S.
Despite speculation by WikiLeaks the former NSA employee will be traded for better relations with the United States as the crisis in Ukraine escalates by the day, Bloomberg reports the extension is expected to be approved because, according Vladimir Volokh, the head of advisory council of migration service, Snowden is "still in danger."
In Gitmo Opinion, Two Versions of Reality
On Sunday night, a number of news outlets and WikiLeaks published a trove of classified documents [1] on detainees at Guantanamo Bay. ProPublica has been reporting on Gitmo [2] and the issues surrounding indefinite detention for more than two years. In October 2010, Dafna Linzer revealed how the Obama administration censored one federal judge's Gitmo decision [3] that had questioned the government's evidence against a detainee.
US subpoenas Twitter, seeking information on WikiLeaks’ 635,561 followers
A Dutch investigative journalist blasted the US Department of Justice for requesting information on everyone following WikiLeaks' Twitter account and everyone they follow. Which would include Raw Story. The US Department of Justice subpoenaed the social networking site Twitter in December in connection with an ongoing criminal investigation of the secrets outlet.
U.N. torture sleuth urges end to long solitary terms
Federal Wikileaks paranoia block’s judge’s email
The U.S. government doesn t want any federal employees reading Wikileaks, so they ve installed filters that automatically block any emails containing the organization s name. Now that s just plain stupid, and for a whole lot of reasons. But it s even more stupid when you block emails from a judge handling a case about. . .Wikileaks.
FBI approved Stratfor leaks to Wikileaks
Assange in Sweden The Police Protocol (Translated)
Sofia Wil n and Anna Ardin arrived at the Klara police station in downtown Stockholm on Friday afternoon 20 August 2010. There are varying stories even from the girls themselves about what they were up to. Thanks to a breach of office by prosecutor Maria H ljebo Kjellstrand, the bizarre story was a world sensation only a few hours later. The chief claimant broke down when she heard her former lover was arrested in absentia and hunted on the streets of Stockholm. It's not known if she ever completed her interrogation, had it read back, or approved it.
WikiLeaks Statement on Daniel Domscheit-Berg and OpenLeaks
Five days short of a year ago, on 25 August 2010, WikiLeaks suspended former employee 'Daniel Domscheit-Berg'. Over the last 11 months, we have tried to negotiate the return of various materials taken by Mr Domscheit-Berg, including internal communications and over 3000 unpublished private whistleblower communications to WikiLeaks. Mr Domscheit-Berg has repeatedly attempted to blackmail WikiLeaks by threatening to make available, to forces that oppose WikiLeaks, these private communications and to which Mr Domscheit-Berg is not a party.
Four Questions to Answer if Assange is to be Extradited
WikiLeaks Stratfor Emails A Secret Indictment Against Julian Assange
On January 26, 2011, Fred Burton, the vice president of Stratfor, a leading private intelligence firm which bills itself as a kind of shadow CIA, sent an excited email to his colleagues. "Text Not for Pub," he wrote. "We" -meaning the U.S. government - "have a sealed indictment on Assange. Pls protect."
Jailer: Bradley Manning needed to tell me he wanted out of solitary
How Bradley Manning’s fate will be decided
If Manning is ultimately found guilty, how does the sentencing work? If there is a jury, the jury will do sentencing. Remember, he can waive the jury. But he can t waive only on sentencing; he would have to waive it on guilt-or-innocence and sentencing together. If he waives the jury, the judge will decide both guilt or innocence and determine the sentence. If Manning goes with a jury, the sentence is determined by the jury. And anything in excess of 10 years has to be decided by a three-fourths vote. If it were a capital case - which it s not - there would have to be 12 members of the jury and they would have to be unanimous.
Left and right, Congress resists the Stop Online Piracy Act – Stop Online Piracy Act
Where SOPA aims to empower the Justice Department to go after websites that allegedly infringe on copyright, and doing it on the Internet s domain name layer, OPEN goes another route: strictly limiting the bill to foreign sites, setting up the International Trade Commission as the enforcer, and focusing on a "follow the money" approach, as in using digital payment systems as the choke points on targeted sites, a mechanism that has worked to thwart the WikiLeaks movement.
Manning is charged with aiding terrorists
Why we should protect those accused of rape
What do David Copperfield, Michael Flatley, the Duke lacrosse team, the four Hofstra students, Rene Angelil (Celine Dion s manager-husband), Rick Pitino, Kobe Bryant, KBR/Halliburton and Julian Assange have in common? All were accused off rape, and will, in all likelihood, be remembered for that association, regardless of what ultimately happens (Assange's case is ongoing; none of the cases have led to a conviction). It is time for a modest reform in rape jurisprudence; the accused should be granted anonymity unless and until found guilty.
Guantanamo Files: The essential primer
The leaked campaign to attack WikiLeaks and its supporters
Last week, Aaron Barr, a top executive at computer security firm HB Gary, boasted to the Financial Times that his firm had infiltrated and begun to expose Anonymous, the group of pro-WikiLeaks hackers that had launched cyber attacks on companies terminating services to the whistleblowing site (such as Paypal, MasterCard, Visa, Amazon and others). In retaliation, Anonymous hacked into the email accounts of HB Gary, published 50,000 of their emails online, and also hacked Barr's Twitter and other online accounts.
Swiss ‘Wikileaks’ banker guilty of coercion
Publisher confirms Julian Assange book deal
Publisher Alfred A. Knopf Inc. has confirmed striking a book deal with Julian Assange that the WikiLeaks founder says could be worth more than $1 million. A spokesman for the New York publishing house says that "a principle agreement is in place" and that Assange is due to hand in a manuscript sometime in 2011. The book's publication date is yet to be determined.
Joe Biden v. Joe Biden on WikiLeaks
WikiLeaks and Julian Assange are the new Iraqi WMDs because the government and establishment media are jointly manufacturing and disseminating an endless stream of fear-mongering falsehoods designed to depict them as scary villains threatening the security of The American People and who must therefore be stopped at any cost.
U.S. bombs Yemen in secret
One of the most interesting items in the trove of diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks confirms that the Obama Administration has secretly launched missile attacks on suspected terrorists in Yemen, strikes that have reportedly killed dozens of civilians. The government of Yemen takes responsibility for the attacks.
The Intellectual Cowardice of Bradley Manning’s Critics
After imprisoning Private First Class Bradley Manning for eighteen months, the U.S. Army last week finally began the preliminary stage of his court-martial proceeding, and that initial process ended on Thursday. Manning faces over 30 charges; the most serious "aiding the enemy" carries a death sentence (though prosecutors are requesting "only" life in prison for the 24-year-old soldier).
WH forces P.J. Crowley to resign for condemning abuse of Manning
Amnesty calls for protests over Bradley Manning’s treatment
Shifting editorial standards
More facts emerge about the leaked smear campaigns
Obama officials caught deceiving about WikiLeaks
Whenever the U.S. Government wants to demonize a person or group in order to justify attacks on them, it follows the same playbook: it manufactures falsehoods about them, baselessly warns that they pose Grave Dangers and are severely harming our National Security, peppers all that with personality smears to render the targeted individuals repellent on a personal level, and feeds it all to the establishment American media, which then dutifully amplifies and mindlessly disseminates it all.
Applying U.S. principles on Internet freedom
Government-created climate of fear
The merger of journalists and government officials
Kevin Poulsen and Kim Zetter of Wired reported that a 22-year-old U.S. Army Private in Iraq, Bradley Manning, had been detained after he "boasted" in an Internet chat -- with convicted computer hacker Adrian Lamo -- of leaking to WikiLeaks the now famous Apache Helicopter attack video, a yet-to-be-published video of a civilian-killing air attack in Afghanistan, and "hundreds of thousands of classified State Department records."
The worsening journalistic disgrace at Wired
What WikiLeaks revealed to the world in 2010
Throughout this year I've devoted substantial attention to WikiLeaks, particularly in the last four weeks as calls for its destruction intensified. To understand why I've done so, and to see what motivates the increasing devotion of the U.S. Government and those influenced by it to destroying that organization, it's well worth reviewing exactly what WikiLeaks exposed to the world just in the last year: the breadth of the corruption, deceit, brutality and criminality on the part of the world's most powerful factions.
Getting to Assange through Manning
In The New York Times this morning, Charlie Savage describes the latest thinking from the DOJ about how to criminally prosecute WikiLeaks and Julian Assange. Federal investigators are "are looking for evidence of any collusion" between WikiLeaks and Bradley Manning -- "trying to find out whether Mr. Assange encouraged or even helped" the Army Private leak the documents -- and then "charge him as a conspirator in the leak, not just as a passive recipient of the documents who then published them." To achieve this, it is particularly important to "persuade Private Manning to testify against Mr. Assange." I want to make two points about this.
The strange and consequential case of Bradley Manning, Adrian Lamo and WikiLeaks
Post-WikiLeaks Network Monitoring Takes Shape
The heightened surveillance of classified government information networks that was a predictable response to the unauthorized disclosures published by WikiLeaks is becoming more clearly discernible. "USSTRATCOM/USCYBERCOM is monitoring use of the SIPRNet and now has a mechanism for reporting certain anomalous behaviors for appropriate remediation," said Thomas A. Ferguson, Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Intelligence) and Teresa Takai, DoD Chief Information Officer.
Wikileaks Fails ‘Due Diligence’ Review
But calling WikiLeaks a whistleblower site does not accurately reflect the character of the project. It also does not explain why others who are engaged in open government, anti-corruption and whistleblower protection activities are wary of WikiLeaks or disdainful of it. And it does not provide any clue why the Knight Foundation, the preeminent foundation funder of innovative First Amendment and free press initiatives, might have rejected WikiLeaks request for financial support, as it recently did.
Why the WikiLeaks cables won’t bring down governments.
By now, I think we have learned that Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has vast ambitions. Among them is the end of American government as we know it. On his Web site, he describes the leaked U.S. diplomatic cables in dramatic and sinister terms, evoking the lost ideals of George Washington and claiming that they demonstrate a profound gap between "the US's public persona and what it says behind closed doors." Alas, the cables don't live up to that promise. On the contrary as others have noted they show that U.S. diplomats pursue pretty much the same goals in private as they do in public, albeit using more caustic language.[more ...]
Guy Fawkes Mask: How Anonymous hacker group created a powerful visual brand
The loosely affiliated and ever-changing band of individuals who call themselves Anonymous, have been variously described as hackers, hacktivists, free-expression zealots, Internet troublemakers, and assorted combinations thereof. By all accounts the group has no clear hierarchy or leadership, or even any internal agreement about what exactly it is. And yet, as you ve encountered news and speculation about Anonymous maybe from reports about coordinated denial-of-service attacks on financial institutions that stopped doing business with WikiLeaks last year, or the group s more recent association with Occupy Wall Street - you may also have noticed its memorable logo: a suited figure with a question mark where his head should be, set against a U.N.-style globe. You ve also likely seen the visual symbol that s made
Floyd Abrams whizzes on WikiLeaks and Julian Assange
Did an imposter steal Floyd Abrams' identity and use it to sell an op-ed in today's Wall Street Journal? That's the only explanation I can come up with after reading the First Amendment litigator's wacky battering of WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange ("Why WikiLeaks Is Unlike the Pentagon Papers").
How Republicans are using WikiLeaks to indulge their spy-thriller fantasies
It took no time at all for the Justice and State departments to issue condemnations of WikiLeaks for the release of 250,000-odd diplomatic cables. The first tranche of cables started rolling out on Sunday afternoon. The government's angry denunciations of the leaks started in the evening. And then came Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., the incoming chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, calling for the government to go further: He wanted WikiLeaks to be designated a terrorist organization and hunted to the ends of the earth.
What the WikiLeaks documents tell us about the practice of foreign policy.
The main thing about the latest trove of secret WikiLeaks documents is this: It exists, it's out there for the world to see, and it would be regardless of whether the editors of the New York Times, Le Monde, the Guardian, Der Spiegel, and El Pa s chose to print the news (and much of this trove is newsworthy) or shut their eyes. So let's pretend for a moment that WikiLeaks' founder, Julian Assange, was motivated not by a messianic, anti-American, cyberanarchistic glee ("I enjoy crushing bastards," he once told an interviewer) but by a desire to show us how the world really works.
The leaked cables make it impossible for Hillary Clinton to continue as secretary of state.
A U.S. diplomat must possess patience, poise, and tact. He must also be attentive to cultural differences, a good observer, and proficient in several languages. When called upon, he must use his skills as a negotiator in the national interest. And, as the latest dump of WikiLeaks tells us, if the dip works for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, he must also be prepared to spy on his fellow diplomats.
I love WikiLeaks for restoring distrust in our most important institutions
International scandals such as the one precipitated by this week's WikiLeaks cable dump serve us by illustrating how our governments work. Better than any civics textbook, revisionist history, political speech, bumper sticker, or five-part investigative series, an international scandal unmasks presidents and kings, military commanders and buck privates, cabinet secretaries and diplomats, corporate leaders and bankers, and arms-makers and arms-merchants as the bunglers, liars, and double-dealers they are.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been accused of sex by surprise.
Julian Assange's lawyer told AOL News on Thursday that the WikiLeaks founder has been charged with "sex by surprise" in Sweden. Though the lawyer says he doesn't know what "sex by surprise" means, the Swedish prosecution office announced that they are charging Assange with "rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion." These charges allegedly stem from consensual sexual encounters with two separate women that became nonconsensual at some point during the act. If this had happened in the United States, could Assange have been charged with a crime?
WikiLeaks and Glenn Beck show that journalism is becoming more influential – but also more reductive.
In the past year, journalism, which in the West sees itself as beset by decline, has vastly increased its power. Three large developments have made the implicit, yet huge, claim that journalism, our way of knowing what is happening in our complex world, is essentially a matter of competing high-decibel political dispute and total transparency.
How two Bulgarian journalists created a copycat site that actually worked.
In December 2010, BalkanLeaks had come online, with a slogan across its masthead: "The Balkans aren t keeping secrets anymore."When I checked out the site, I saw that it used the well-tested anonymity software called Tor for submissions, a rare sign of security smarts among the new crop of copycats. But otherwise it resembled all the other obscure and leakless WikiLeaks wannabes from Brussels to Jakarta.
WikiLeaks Thoughts
WikiLeaks may be no more or less perfect than other media entities. Freedom of the press and of speech are often messy. But these rights are crucial, enshrined and protected as our most fundamental principles and practices. The First Amendment is there to establish that it is not the job of the media in a democratic society to protect those in power from embarrassment or exposure. Thus, even when we are faced with what may we think of as bad press or speech, we must avoid responding with censorship -- the cure must not be worse than the disease.
Schneier: Snowden’s Leaks Have Actually Made It Easier To Crack Terrorists’ Encrypted Messages
Snowden has made it easier to break the encrypted communications of terrorists and this will help US intelligence efforts. Cryptography is hard, and the odds that a home-brew encryption product is better than a well-studied open-source tool is slight. Last fall, Matt Blaze said to me that he thought that the Snowden documents will usher in a new dark age of cryptography, as people abandon good algorithms and software for snake oil of their own devising. My guess is that this an example of that.
If U.S. Hijacks Assange, What’ll We Do With Him
On December 7, 2010, following an international manhunt, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange surrendered at a London police station. The 39-year-old Australian was hauled into court, promptly denied bail and carted off to jail in a police van. A magistrate stressed this case is not about WikiLeaks, but about whether or not to extradite Assange to Sweden to be interrogated about his sexual conduct. He has not been charged with a crime
Benkler’s Anatomy of the Networked Fourth Estate
Whistleblower says WikiLeaks founder is in danger
Former National Security Agency (NSA) employee says WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is in danger from certain clandestine elements within the US government. ?? "They are extremely angry [at Assange]. According to press reports, there has been a secret Grand Jury and maybe a secret indictment," Thomas Andrews Drake, a known NSA whistleblower, told Russia Today.??
Nigeria: The Cost of Oil
WikiLeaks Says It Dumped the Media, Not the Other Way Around
WikiLeaks is trying to hang onto its dignity following its divorce from several mainstream media outlets by claiming it severed ties with those companies not the other way around. The post-breakup confession comes after the anti-secrecy website's latest leak of e-mails from global security firm Stratfor in which the only major U.S. publications partnering with WikiLeaks included Rolling Stone and McClatchy - a very different roster compared with previous projects in which the secret-leaking website collaborated with international newspaper giants like The New York Times, The Guardian, El Pais and Le Monde.
These Are the Taliban Prisoners Up for Release
The Obama administration is considering the release of five Taliban prisoners to improve peace talks with the Afghan insurgency and now we know who's on the short list. This morning, CNN's Adam Levine and Tim Lister got confirmation from a "knowledgeable source" of the names of the former Taliban leaders up for release from Guantanamo Bay. Thanks to WikiLeaks - and a joint project by The New York Times and NPR - there's a searchable docket with pictures and background details on all the detainees in Guantanamo.
WikiLeaks Cache Reveal Pakistan’s Role in Drone Strikes
A collaboration between WikiLeaks and the Pakistani newspaper Dawn is straining the already tense relations between the U.S. and Pakistan following the secret raid on Osama bin Laden's compound. A trove of previously top secret State Department cables shed new light on Pakistan's role in encouraging U.S. drone strikes in the country.
Stratfor Emails Hacked by Anonymous Reveal Huge Surveillance Program
WikiLeaks documents reportedly reveal the existence of a secret surveillance program "more accurate than modern facial recognition technology," which is being utilized by a clandestine organization made up of a number of former members of U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA and the Pentagon.
Wikileaks Claims Osama Bin Laden Still Alive
In proving to be one of the most useful tools for the Pentagon, Wikileaks resurrects "Bearded Time Lord" Osama Bin Laden and places him as one of the key masters of the resistance to U.S. occupation in Afghanistan. This assertion is made despite the fact that 92% of the population in Afghanistan have never heard of 9/11.
Article 13 and PFC Bradley Manning
PFC Bradley Manning, unlike his civilian counterpart, is afforded no civil remedy for illegal restraint under either the Federal Civil Rights Act or the Federal Tort Claims Act. Similarly, the protection from cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment and Article 55 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) does not generally apply prior to a court-martial. Thus, the only judicial recourse that is available is under Article 13 of the UCMJ.
Lawyer for Assange Calls Swedish Case ‘Bonkers’
Mark Stephens, a British lawyer working for Julian Assange, said over the weekend that the prosecutor in Sweden who issued an arrest warrant for the WikiLeraks founder had acted unreasonably. He also told the Guardian that he and another lawyer defending Mr. Assange are apparently under surveillance by British authorities.
Threats made to son of wikileaks founder
Jennifer Robinson, one of the lawyers working to defend Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, spoke to Australia's ABC radio on Monday. Ms. Robinson called on authorities to investigate people who have made public calls for Mr. Assange's death and threats against his 20-year-old son. Earlier this year, Mr. Assange's son, Daniel, defended his father on his blog in response to a New York Post article based on comments he had posted on Twitter and Facebook about the charges against his father in Sweden.
WikiLeaks vs. Donald Rumsfeld Whom Do You Believe
WikiLeaks' massive "war logs" release on Iraq last October exposed Rumsfeld in this regard over and over, but were quickly forgotten by mainstream journalists -- even though the material was not "political" or even from the media but rather from U.S. soldiers on the ground. That's one reason I cover them in-depth (along with all the other WIkiLeaks releases and current controversies) in my new book The Age of WikiLeaks.
Bradley Manning and the Tomb of the Well-Known Soldier
Nearly nine months after he was arrested for allegedly leaking classified material, including diplomatic cables, Army Pfc. Bradley Manning was very much in the news this week. His supporters and attorney David Coombs continued to charge that the conditions of his confinement were overly harsh and punitive, while the Pentagon continued to deny that. Amnesty International protested the conditions and so did Rep. Dennis Kucinich, among many others. Coombs revealed that Manning did not, as some had suggested, have dual British citizenship. Manning, he said, was proud to be an American and an American soldier.
Assange Loses Extradition Case in High Court: ‘Retribution’ from USA?
The court essentially found the Swedish public prosecutor in this case was indeed a "judicial authority" and so the European arrest warrant (EAW) issued was valid "This is not the final outcome. What we have here is retribution from the US" longtime WikiLeaks spokesperson Kristinn Hrafnsson told Reuters. The biggest fear for Assange supporters is that the U.S. will more easily extradite him from Sweden (see the Justice for Assange site).
One Year On: The Unmaking of Bradley Manning, Part II
One Year Ago: The Unmaking of Bradley Manning
On February 18, 2010, WikiLeaks posted on its Web site a U.S. State Department diplomatic cable dated January 13, 2010, from the embassy in Reykjavik, Iceland. It was an intriguing, if not earthshaking, document that would later earn the tag "Reykjavik13." In the cable, the U.S. deputy chief of mission, Sam Watson, described private talks with Icelandic leaders over a referendum on whether to repay losses from a bank failure, with the real possibility that Iceland could default in 2011
Journalists Begin, Finally, to Stand Up in Defense of WikiLeaks and Freedom of Information
Michael Moore on Why Posting Bail for Julian Assange is a ‘True Act of Patriotism’
The Case of Julian Assange
Given that US politicians, from Joe Biden to Sarah Palin, have called for Assange's head, it isn't paranoid to suspect that he is being singled out in order to extradite him to the United States. But it could also be that Sweden is following up because prosecutors get mad when world-class celebrities flee the country and then thumb their noses at them cf. Roman Polanski.
WikiLeaks and Hacktivist Culture
According to conventional wisdom, the alleged protagonist is, of course, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and the discussion of him has ranged from Raffi Khatchadourian's June portrait in The New Yorker, which makes Assange sound like a master spy in a John le Carr novel, to Tunku Varadarajan's epic ad hominem bloviation in The Daily Beast: "With his bloodless, sallow face, his lank hair drained of all color, his languorous, very un-Australian limbs, and his aura of blinding pallor that appears to admit no nuance, Assange looks every inch the amoral, uber-nerd villain."