Mr Wijat's friend Magic Rabbit 
http://www.easterlingentertainment.netA few words about Wikipediaexposed.org
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take great pleasure in bringing to public spotlight important information, facts and opinions that would be of benefit to people on planet earth to know about and openly discuss that other non independent and controlled mainstream media outlets and websites will not provide to the world. We understand that everyone has an independent expression of who they are and what is important to them. Our goal is to give an international public forum for the unique personality of every individual who feel the need to have their important information, facts and opinions publicly exposed to the world.
Wikipedia
A Tool Of The Ruling Elite
ON CONTACT
Helen writes for RT
And is on Twitter @Bellocirapture23
http://www.helenofdestroy.com/
RT America: Published on Oct 20, 2018
On the latest episode of On Contact, investigative journalist Helen Buyniski exposes
Jimmy Wales' egalitarian Wikipedia as yet another tool of the ruling elite. More from Helen here: http://helenofdestroy.com/index.php/4...
Find RT America in your area: http://rt.com/where-to-watch/
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Category: News & Politics
ON CONTACT: Wikipedia – A Tool Of The Ruling Elite
Two Clintons -41 years - $3 Billion
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/clinton-money/??noredirect=on
A Washington Post investigation reveals how Bill and Hillary Clinton have methodically cultivated donors over 40 years,
from Little Rock to Washington and then across the globe. Their fundraising methods have created a new blueprint for politicians and their donors.
The Clintons have raised $3 billion in support of their political and philanthropic efforts over four decades. Nearly all the funds went to support six federal campaigns and their family foundation.
By Matea Gold, Tom Hamburger and Anu Narayanswamy - Published on Nov. 19, 2015
LITTLE ROCK — Over four decades of public life, Bill and Hillary Clinton have built an unrivaled global network
of donors while pioneering fundraising techniques that have transformed modern politics
and paved the way for them to potentially become the first husband and wife to win the White House.
The grand total raised for all of their political campaigns and
their family’s charitable foundation reaches at least $3 billion, according to a Washington Post investigation.
Their fundraising haul, which began with $178,000 that Bill Clinton raised for his long-shot 1974 congressional bid, is on track to expand substantially with Hillary Clinton’s 2016 White House run, which has already drawn $110 million in support.
The Post identified donations from roughly 336,000 individuals, corporations, unions and foreign governments in support of their political or philanthropic endeavors — a list that includes top patrons such as Steven Spielberg and George Soros, as well as lesser-known backers who have given smaller amounts dozens of times. Not included in the count are an untold number of small donors whose names are not identified in campaign finance reports but together have given millions to the Clintons over the years.
The majority of the money — $2 billion — has gone to the Clinton Foundation, one of the world’s fastest-growing charities, which supports health, education and economic development initiatives around the globe. A handful of elite givers have contributed more than $25 million to the foundation, including Canadian mining magnate Frank Giustra,who is among the wealthy foreign donors who have given tens of millions.
Separately, donors have given $1 billion to support the Clintons’ political races and legal defense fund, making capped contributions to their campaigns and writing six-figure checks to the Democratic National Committee and allied super PACs.
The Post investigation found that many top Clinton patrons supported them in multiple ways, helping finance their political causes, their legal needs, their philanthropy and their personal bank accounts. In some cases, companies connected to their donors hired the Clintons as paid speakers, helping them collect more than $150 million on the lecture circuit in the past 15 years.
The couple’s biggest individual political benefactors are Univision chairman Haim Saban and his wife, Cheryl, who have made 39 contributions totaling $2.4 million to support the Clintons’ races since 1992. The Sabans have also donated at least $10 million to the foundation.
The Clintons kept big contributors in their orbit for decades by methodically wooing competing interest groups — toggling between their liberal base and powerful constituencies, according to donors, friends and aides who have known the couple since their Arkansas days.
They made historic inroads on Wall Street, pulling in at least $69 million in political contributions from the employees and PACs of banks, insurance companies, and securities and investment firms. Wealthy hedge fund managers S. Donald Sussman and David E. Shaware among their top campaign supporters, having given more than $1 million each.
The Clintons’ ties to the financial sector strained their bonds with the left, particularly organized labor. But unions repeatedly shook off their disappointment, giving at least $21 million to support their races. The public employees union AFSCME has been their top labor backer, giving nearly $1.7 million for their campaigns.
The Clintons’ fundraising operation — $3 billion amassed by one couple, working in tandem for more than four decades — has no equal.
By comparison, three generations of the Bush family, America’s other contemporaneous political dynasty, have raised about $2.4 billion for their state and federal campaigns and half a dozen charitable foundations, according to a Post tally of their fundraising from 1988 through 2015 — even though the family has collectively held the presidency longer than the Clintons.
Investigative journalist Helen Buyniski.."..".. Wikipedia is meant to function with unpaid volunteers who become create and edit Wikipedia web pages about different subjects and people ...over the years the editor user base built up to a peak of around 100,000 volunteer unpaid editors in around 2007 and then gradually started to decline ... the volunteer unpaid editors would then create a Wikipedia Web Page and all put their input into editing a Wikipedia Web Page until there was a general consensus reality as to what the facts of the person or subject matter was on the particular topic of the Wikipedia Web Page was ... then as these things start to calcify ... the hierarchy of Wikipedia takes place and control ... so now Wikipedia is not completely egalitarian ... there are administrators ...a sort of Wikipedia Supreme Court ... the Arbitration committee which obviously ends up with various factions vying for power ...by 2007 Wikipedia become the Utopia of Rules ...to use a phrase..."..
RT America’s Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Chris Hedges..." ... Wikipedia say they have around 100,000 volunteer editors ...congressmen ... business people become extremely concerned about what is on their Wikipedia page…”
RT America’s Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Chris Hedges..." A report on Wikipedia stated stated that editors found hundreds of what you call "Sock Puppets" linked to one company... Wiki PR which explained that it employed not only of the garden variety by also professional administrative editors capable of deleting and freezing pages .. Wiki PR claimed over 12,000 clients from household names Viocom to Priceline to minor firms .. whose pages were repeatedly deleted for not meeting Wikipedia's notability standards ... "
Sock Puppets
Investigative journalist Helen Buyniski.... " Sock Puppets are basically fake accounts that are all run by one person but pretend to be multiple people ... in Wikipedia if there is a disagreement you want to have other people to come in and take your side ... because in that way there is some sort of democratic element to it... but the Wiki Pr Scandal was because they were openly advertising there services on this website and finally it emerged that they were advertising on their website but they were not advertising who they were on Wikipedia ...so ... the fact that they had corralled admin people in Wikipedia to help them edit and delete websites ... the admin people in Wikipedia are meant to be more trust worthy ... these business es are concerned because when you Google their business name and their Wikipedia entry turns up and nobody wants to look bad.. "
RT America’s Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Chris Hedges..... "you were right about the USA Government interfered in Wikipedia ... a tracing program called Wiki Scanner discovered that computers at CIA headquarters did edits to entries on the US invasion of Iraq and the biographies on the former CIA Head William Colby and former US Presidents Ronald Regan and Richard Nixon .. also an FBI computer was also used the edit the Wikipedia page on Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility.... e-voting machine-vendor Diebold deleted 15 paragraphs from a Wikipedia article on e-voting machine-vendor Diebold, excising an entire section critical of the company's machines.... while the Vatican and the British Labour Party were also prolific in editing Wikipedia pages ... since the intelligence agencies have had to try and camouflage their edits or outsource their edits or outsource them to third parties"...
Investigative journalist Helen Buyniski.." it was pretty easy to do that ...just get some guy to front for them ... they were being so obvious about it.. well as its anonymous ... anyone can do it... lets just edit from our work computer .... that's like really bad upset …”
RT America’s Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Chris Hedges..... "... so you have a huge network of entities outside Wikipedia ... constantly revising and editing Wikipedia and one of the things that you point out in your article is that often the prime target of these edits are those critical of capitalism, imperialism, such as George Galloway ...and there have been all sorts of fake entities as somebody presenting themselves as Philip Cross who made 14 edits to my own Wikipedia page ... but goes after figures such as George Galloway and Jeremy Corbyn ... if it is a single person ... who knows... made hundreds of thousands of edits ... 130,000 edits to more than 30,000 pages and all of them ... are about defaming critics ... "
George Galloway is a British politician, broadcaster and writer. Between 1987 and 2015, with a gap in 2010–12, he represented four constituencies as a Member of Parliament, elected as a candidate for the Labour Party and later the Respect Party.
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn is a British politician serving as Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition since 2015. Corbyn was first elected Member of Parliament for Islington North in 1983. Ideologically, he identifies himself as a democratic socialist.
Investigative journalist Helen Buyniski.." ... this is one of these obsessive types ... he will make a tiny little change and if it is left alone he will edit it a little bit more ... this is obviously the sign on an extremely obsessive person ...or a team that is working in concern ... I mean .... if you look at the amount of time editing .. it is the equivalent of a full time job and then some ... so I find it difficult to believe it is a single person ... but there is definitely a political double standard ..I mean people like Philip Cross are allowed to go after the left wing... the progressives ... the anti capitalists ...anti imperialists ..."
RT America’s Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Chris Hedges.. "... so as you point out while they are defaming those figures ... there's very clear intent ... on he part of the managers of Wikipedia to prop up other figures such as Hillary Clinton ... "
Investigative journalist Helen Buyniski.." ... yes Hillary Clinton was the beneficiary of the most obvious Wikipedia PR Campaign that was coming straight from the top .. they hired the Clinton Foundation's PR Firm .. the Manasion Group ... yeh ... Wiki Media the non profit arm of the Wikipedia ... they made around $75 million last year on revenue .. in the form of donations .. it used to be donations form users ,.. now its donations from users and large corporations and governments ... like the government of Kasistan ... they'll take money form anybody ... you pay the money and you get the right desired coverage ... its no surprise if you look at the list of companies that have donated to Wikipedia ..they have pretty nice Wikipedia pages .. you are not going to find any Philip Cross us there mucking up their nice material up on their Wikipedia Pages .."
RT America’s Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Chris Hedges.. "... what about the Hilary Clinton page compared with the Donald Trump page..."
Investigative journalist Helen Buyniski.."... well if you look at the Hillary Clinton Wikipedia Page compared to the Donald Trump Wikipedia Page .. there will be all sorts of unsighted and unsourced allegations against Donald Trump that he said something racist about this and that ... yo will see a whole page devoted to the Russiangate Conspiracy .... whereas with Hillary Clinton... her Wikipedia Page is so sanitised ... i think its much shorter ..."
RT America’s Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Chris Hedges.. "... you as an outsider cannot make any changes..."
Investigative journalist Helen Buyniski.."... yes it is protected ... there are varying levels it is protected .. ... otherwise there would be users coming into regularly trying to set the record straight and edit the Hillary Clinton Wikipedia Page ... there was definitely a user who regularly came in and changed any edits made on the Hillary Clinton Wikipedia Page .. such as edits stating that the Clinton Foundation had taken off with a lot of money from Haiti ... non of these edits were allowed to remain on Wikipedia during election season ... nothing negative such as the emails scandal surrounding Hillary Clinton .... was allowed to remain during election season ... I don't know the full level of protection .... there seems to be varying levels of protection .... there are protected pages and ever more highly protected pages .. there is no doubt that Hillary Clinton has definitely got Secret Service Protection of her Wikipedia Page ..."
RT America’s Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Chris Hedges.. ... "..The New York Police Department white wash dozens of Wikipedia entries in March 2015 when Wiki Scanner Technology linked hundreds of edits to computers at the NYPD... what were they doing?..."
Investigative journalist Helen Buyniski.."... oh they were all covering up all sorts of NYPD scandals ... of which there are many ..."
RT America’s Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Chris Hedges.. ... " .... including the death of Eric Garner .. the Satan Island man that was cocked to death.."
Investigative journalist Helen Buyniski.."... yeh ... for supposedly selling untaxed cigarettes ... he wasn't even selling untaxed cigarettes ...which was left out of most accounts of the story ... that they they tried to make out other victims of the NYPD were much more threatening than they are ... "
RT America’s Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Chris Hedges.. ... "... Sean Bell ..."
Sean Bell was shot in the New York City borough of Queens, New York, United States, on November 25, 2006
Investigative journalist Helen Buyniski.."... yeh... they tried to remove the entry on Shawn Bell.. .. Paul Cello .. he's not notable ... it has to be noteable if is going to be in Wikipedia ...I think a guy leaving his bachelor party riddled with 50 bullets if pretty notable .. but ... I don;t know ... I'm not the NYPD .... they modified the entry to make it sound like a much more reasonable procedure than it really was ... the other ones are allowed ti make the changes until somebody catches them ... then there is a big scandal.."
RT America’s Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Chris Hedges ... "... look at Jeremy Corbin... describe Jeremy Corbin's and the Labour Party ..."
Investigative journalist Helen Buyniski..".. this is one of the insidious ones ... it is not like they are outright lying about the guy ... but there is a question of the undue weight they give to different materials..... part is about his political party and his political achievements ..ans then the bottom half is all the allegations of his comments of anti-semitism and the labour party .. it just like making this guy out to be Adolf Hitler .... you know ... you guys need to write about something else .... "
RT America’s Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Chris Hedges.. ... " from you conclusion Wikipedia is pretty amicable to these kinds of changes... "
Investigative journalist Helen Buyniski.."... oh yeh ... there is definitely a double standard ... as you said ... they go after the anti capitalists ... the anti imperialist ones...
RT America’s Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Chris Hedges ... "... I want to talk about Wales ... the head of Wikipedia .. tell me a little bit about him.."
Investigative journalist Helen Buyniski..".. well Jimmy Wales got his start on the Internet running a Porn Search Engine...Bomis or Bommis? .. I'm not sure how to pronounce it .. then there was this side project of an encyclopedia .. but it was too expensive and took too long to create the information to put onto the website... as it was not making any money .. then they came up with the idea of outsourcing the edits... but then he realised that he could not run adds on it and thus did not want to work for him ...if he was going to put adds on there which was meant to be an depository of knowledge ...he quickly turned Wikipedia into a non profit ... and since found a way to cash in that way ...."
RT America’s Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Chris Hedges ... ".. well the people writing the pages .... number one they are anonymous ... number two ... they often have no background of the subjects they are writing about ... "
Investigative journalist Helen Buyniski ".. there is actually an antipathy against experts ... which is one of the reasons why the two co-founders split ... Jimmy Wales tried to white wash the other co-founder out of history ..this guy Larry Sanger who ... Wikipedia really was his pet project ... who didn't like the whole anti-elitism of the thing ... he said the trolls came in and took over and this is what the story of Wikipedia has been ever since ...the trolls came in and took over ... so its like ..."
RT America’s Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Chris Hedges .... " .. you quote ... is it ..'Kings Indian'..the user name ... this person writes ... 'would anyone accept a newsroom where anonymous contributions with undisclosed conflicts of interest argue about things? Where expertise is irrelevant? Where contributors' work is unpaid? There is no editor or copy editor, and no one takes responsibility for the final product?' .... "
Investigative journalist Helen Buyniski..".. and that's what you've got with Wikipedia ... it's treated with this sacred information source .. Google uses it as a fact check .. so does YouTube and ... FaceBook was going to use it for a while and know their using snopes.com (The definitive Internet reference source for urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation) ... which is just as bad ... yeh its the first thing you see when you Google you're name ... if you're a notable person .. if you Google a company ... or you Google anything ...so ... Wikipedia are the Sacred arbiter of knowledge ... its terrifying when you look at who's doing the editing ... "
RT America’s Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Chris Hedges.. ... " you argue that those who have close personal relationships with Jimmy Wales ... such as Tony Blair ... or one can assume Hillary Clinton ... from her Wikipedia Page ... are edited in such a way to take out anything that is remotely negative against them .... talk about Tony Blair for instance ... I didn't know this but Tony Blair's financial wealth is 37 homes, ten houses an 27 flats ... worth £27 million pound plus millions of pounds distributed through a network ... I don't know this ... I suppose that is what you get for selling out the Labour Party ... and shoving the Iraq War down our throat ... working as public relations on behalf of dictators in Kuwait ... in Egypt and everywhere else ..."
Investigative journalist Helen Buyniski..".. yep .. and Jimmy Wales doesn't really want anybody to know about that ... so Jimmy Wales will through temper tantrums if someone mentions that when the Kazakhstan Scandal broke that Wikipedia had ..."
RT America’s Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Chris Hedges.. ... "... please explain as this is a kind of window of how it works... "
Investigative journalist Helen Buyniski.."... also Wiki Media ... the non profit arm of Wikipedia was funding someone affiliated with the government of Kazakhstan to basically to basically beef up and expand the Kazakhstan the Wikipedia page ... because they have Wikipedia for most of the world's languages at this point .. and they tried to make out that this was an independent Wikipedia Organisation in Kazakhstan ... when the guy used to work for the State TV Station ... the guy that runs Kazakhstan Wikipedia ... Wiki- Billiom ... I believe its called ... and its funded by the Kazakhstan Sovereign Wealth Fund ... so this guy is so tied in with the dictators of Kasistan ...its not even funny ... but Jimmy Wales goes ... 'no its independent ... I have nothing to do with Kazakhstan ... this is an outrage ... and of course this was the same time that Tony Blair was consulting .. made $13 million dollars consulting PR for Kazakhstan and so its very incestuous ... and the fact that Jimmy Wales tries to pretend that this is not in any way objectionable morally is hard to swallow .."
RT America’s Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Chris Hedges.. ... " ... what do the pages look like? ..."
.. investigative journalist Helen Buyniski.."... its basically the official line of everything from the Government of Kazakhstan and they basically took entries from the Kazakhstan State Encyclopaedia and put them into Wikipedia ... well why would you want people to write their own? ....."
RT America’s Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Chris Hedges.. ... " in 2011 ... this was the year that Wikipedia's founder was named Wikipedian of the Year ... being the same year 14 police massacred 14 protesters during an Oil Field Strike that turned into a riot ... and the government declares a state of emergency and restricts access to journalists ...."
Investigative journalist Helen Buyniski.."... yep... so the only information you are going to get out of Kazakhstan is by reading the Wikipedia page on Kazakhstan ... something tells me that this massace wasn't going to be on the Kazakhstan Wikipedia page ... "
RT America’s Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Chris Hedges.. ... " ...what has this done to our system of information ... I'm surprised as somebody who has watched ... i do not go onto my Wikipedia site too much ... but when I go on there ... there are always trolls that have written in garbage ... often falsehoods ... or an you say ... it maybe nominally sourced falsehoods ...what is this doing to our system of information...?.."
Investigative journalist Helen Buyniski ..." well its just ...its the fact that people take this as value is really degrading the meaning of the concept of truth ... for one thing ... because it has become this consensus thing ... where anybody who has an axe to grind and get in there and ruin somebody's reputation .. and sometimes you try to fix that lie they have told about you and it is impossible and you can't get your page taken down ... they pride themselves in not taking people's pages down ... "
RT America’s Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Chris Hedges.. ... " also it is about which publications they consider credible and those which they don't...
Investigative journalist Helen Buyniski.."... that too ...."
RT America’s Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Chris Hedges.. ... " ... so Mother Jones of the Nation are not considered credible sources ... basically any source outside of the mainstream ... "
Investigative journalist Helen Buyniski..".. so any alternative media are not allowed ... so..."
RT America’s Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Chris Hedges.. ... " ... what about Fox News?.."
Investigative journalist Helen Buyniski..".. Fox News was only made 10 years ago which is primarily an advertising network... and now its pretending to be respectable...but this is now considered to be mainstream media ...so..."
RT America’s Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Chris Hedges.. ... " ... how effective do you think its been in terms of altering public perception .."
Investigative journalist Helen Buyniski..".. I unfortunately think its been quite effective ... because if somebody isn't very well versed in this topic ... like say progressive and leftist politics ... and they go to Google somebody's name ...or they look them up on Wikipedia ... and that is what they will see .. and they don't really know ... because they are only interested in these things on a surface level ... they don't know to question .. I mean .."
RT America’s Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Chris Hedges.. ... "... they also don't know the biases of the people editing the Wikipededia Page .... because they are anonymous ... we don't know who they are .... "
Investigative journalist Helen Buyniski.."... you can see there is a page for edit history where you can at least see the editor's username and you can at least see the editor/user's other edits are but ... most people do not have time or the inclination to do that ... there are obviously some ideology motivated actors ... which only just work on a certain thing... which is supposed to be against the rules ... but one again the rules only apply to some people ... "
RT America’s Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Chris Hedges.. ... " you say there is not way to tell whether the editor is an editor or malicious actor ... in 2007 a prolific Wikipedia editor who claimed to be a graduate professor with degrees in theology and in Canon Law ... is revealed to be a 24 year old college drop out ... Ryan Jordan who contributed 16,000 Wikipedia entries during his time on the site rose to become a member of the Wikipedia Arbitration Committee ... Wikipedia's Supreme Court before he was unmasked .... it is a simple matter for powerful groups like pharmaceutical Industry and the CIA to infiltrate Wikipedia and liable their enemies ... people like Gary Null, John Pilger ... Seymour Hersh and Glen Greenwald who have a history of shinning the spotlight on the corruption and criminality of our institutions ... how better to silence them than to assassinate their Character ..."
Glenn Edward Greenwald (born March 6, 1967) is an American attorney, journalist, and author, best known for his role in a series of reports published by The Guardian newspaper beginning in June 2013, detailing the United States and British global surveillance programs, and based on classified documents disclosed
https://theintercept.com/staff/glenn-greenwald/
Glenn Greenwald is one of three co-founding editors of The Intercept. He is a journalist, constitutional lawyer, and author of four New York Times best-selling books on politics and law. His most recent book, “No Place to Hide,” is about the U.S. surveillance state and his experiences reporting on the Snowden documents around the world. Prior to co-founding The Intercept, Glenn’s column was featured in the Guardian and Salon. He was the debut winner, along with Amy Goodman, of the Park Center I.F. Stone Award for Independent Journalism in 2008, and also received the 2010 Online Journalism Award for his investigative work on the abusive detention conditions of Chelsea Manning. For his 2013 NSA reporting, he received the George Polk Award for National Security Reporting; the Gannett Foundation Award for investigative journalism and the Gannett Foundation Watchdog Journalism Award; the Esso Premio for Excellence in Investigative Reporting in Brazil (he was the first non-Brazilian to win), and the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Pioneer Award. Along with Laura Poitras, Foreign Policy magazine named him one of the top 100 Global Thinkers for 2013. The NSA reporting he led for the Guardian was awarded the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for public service.
Gary Michael Null (born 1945) is an American talk radio host and author who advocates for alternative medicine and naturopathy..Gary takes on the real issues that the mainstream media is afraid to tackle. Tune in to find out the latest about health news, healing, politics, and the economy.
https://thegarynullshow.podbean.com/
Investigative journalist Helen Buyniski.."... yep .. just try and get your page taken down .. there's a function so you can have an alert set ..so that even if they do succeed in sending in other editors to change their pages or try to remove their pages to eradicate the libels against them on Wikipedia .. they can just have their Ruling Class representatives come right back in and change it back .. so its a losing game until it becomes much more obvious to the world at large that Wikipedia is a website that should have any credibility at all ... then ... I mean ... it would be one thing if Wikipedia was just considered to be a bias source ... like sort of a trash rag ... like the bathroom wall .... I like to call it ... but Wikipedia is not ... Wikipedia is considered the holy oracle of truth, and its really anything but ... "
RT America’s Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Chris Hedges.. ... " ... well ... as many writers will tell you ... I do events where people get up and read to my horror... will just get up as an introduction and read a section of my Wikipedia Page ... "
Investigative journalist Helen Buyniski.."... .. its intellectual laziness basically ... well you don't want to dig to find the real information so you just go to this sort of feeding trowel of lazy trolls ... and dreg up what you get there and then I mean..."
RT America’s Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Chris Hedges.. ... " ... well its part of the whole salt on scholarship ... on research ... on verifiable fact ... its just one more mechanism by which ... public discourse is contaminated ..."
Investigative journalist Helen Buyniski..".. very much so ... there's the whole thing about if you're not paying for something in the Internet ... then your the product ... so this just creates this replicable sort of brainwashed entity ... its not even brainwash .. there is not even that much work that goes into it ... but its just like empty ... your need for a higher level of knowledge is not there ..."
RT America’s Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Chris Hedges.. ... " ... well this is what happens when society severs itself from a print based culture ..."
.Investigative journalist Helen Buyniski.."... unfortunately that's true .."
That was an interview with investigative journalist Helen Buyniski ... her work can be found on
www.helenofdestroy.com
Helen of desTroy live on INN World Report w/Tom Kiely - 2 Apr 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tiqg2ZCORyQ
Helen of Destroy: Published on Apr 15, 2019
Talking with INN World Report's Tom Kiely about the future (or lack thereof) of the free internet post-Article 13, the ignominious demise of Russiagate, the weaponization of climate change, & the perils of attempting to defy the Second Law of Thermodynamics. (go to www.helenofdestroy.com for more)
PRISM has been largely forgotten in the wake of more recent NSA/CIA scandals
PRISM has been largely forgotten in the wake of more recent NSA/CIA scandals, but at the time of its exposure, Facebook and Google were in the process of creating secure portals to allow the NSA to more easily access their data, and it’s absurd to think they halted that project because of a silly leak. The Snowden revelations managed to change precisely nothing about how Americans interact with the security state, except to erode the expectation of privacy we once had. A browser plugin, back doored to the NSA, tracking one’s un-American activities, is the setup for the worst kind of Minority-Report-esque pre-crime detention. And thanks to the same National Defense Authorization Act that allowed the Pentagon to turn its venerable propaganda apparatus on American citizens, the security state can detain us indefinitely without a warrant should the mood strike - even mow us down like dogs in our homes if it doesn’t like our web history.
NewsGuard itself is supposedly staffed by “real journalists” as opposed to the algorithm that protects us from conspiracy theories on YouTube, and it has already been exposed as hopelessly corrupt. Those in the mainstream media who’ve heard of NewsGuard were perplexed by its rating of Fox News as “trustworthy,” believing a right-leaning network could not possibly rate the coveted green checkmark. All was made clear when Fox broadcast a puff piece hailing NewsGuard as the “killer app” that would save journalism - a clip NewsGuard immediately added to the list of "endorsements" on their website. You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.
This corruption became even clearer when NewsGuard was persuaded to change its “untrustworthy” rating of the Daily Mail, the British tabloid which was also the first mainstream news source to be declared untrustworthy by just a handful of editors on Wikipedia. The Mail, for all its flaws - and there are many - has more traffic than any other online news outlet (not counting aggregators like Drudge). When an anonymous Mail editor wrote a polite point by point refutation and sent it to NewsGuard, their rating was changed to green, ensuring the Mail would not publish a scathing attack on the noble censor - which could have smothered it in its cradle - while also making the plugin look eminently reasonable (see, they do change their ratings if they’re wrong!). Everybody wins! MintPress, of course, tried the same thing months ago, only to be ignored and vilified.
Breitbart, miffed after being slighted by the NewsGuard team despite their diligent cheerleading for every neocon regime-change operation, compiled a telling list of proven hoaxes the extension has approved. More than anything else, the list highlights the obvious perils of a blacklist - scare stories like the Washington Post’s infamous “Russia hacked Vermont utilities” are never properly retracted because they’re designed to percolate in the reader’s subconscious so the next time they read about Russian malfeasance they’re more favorably inclined toward the idea. Facts are stupid things that merely get in the way of a good narrative. In the same way, a story published on Breitbart or RT - even if it came from ur-Reliable Source the Associated Press - gets the scarlet shield of shame through guilt by association. NewsGuard is laughably, irredeemably flawed, and no intelligent person would ever download it.
Helen of desTroy live on INN World Report w/Tom Kiely - 2 Apr 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tiqg2ZCORyQ
Helen of Destroy: Published on Apr 15, 2019
Talking with INN World Report's Tom Kiely about the future (or lack thereof) of the free internet post-Article 13, the ignominious demise of Russiagate, the weaponization of climate change, & the perils of attempting to defy the Second Law of Thermodynamics. (go to helenofdestroy.com for more)
Category: People & Blogs
Keith Duran
The UK has passed a law giving up to 15 year jail sentence for viewing "terrorist" websites. Next they will declare Wikileaks a "terrorist" organization. Happy (belated) 70th Birthday to NATO! Now Go Home, You've Outlived Your Purpose
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUSA2mGJLRU
Helen of Destroy: Published on Apr 9, 2019
NATO was founded 70 years ago to "contain" communism as embodied in the Soviet Union. This means it has lived nearly 30 years past its expiration date. Without an enemy to keep it in check, NATO has metastasized in a way that would turn any cancerous tumor green with envy, growing with leaps and bounds even as its raison d'être faded into memory. It now contains more than twice as many countries as it did when formed, some of which abut Russia's borders, and seems to exist for the sole purpose of provoking Russia - and extorting tribute payments from its component countries, with a hint that something nasty could befall them should they fail to cough up 2% of GDP. Anyone who smirks at this suggestion need only research Operation Gladio - the real mission NATO covered for, which continues to this day. Any countries that got out of line - leaning a little too far to the left, say, or (in more recent years) calling out the war crimes of one particular non-NATO US ally - might suddenly find themselves victim of a terror attack (spoiler alert: there's no "might" here - it never fails). "That's a nice country you got dere - would be a shame if anything happened to it..." related: https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-its-... if you like this video, please SHARE it & SUBSCRIBE. YouTube is actively suppressing this channel - watch view counts go backwards before your very eyes - & if we leave it up to them no one will ever see this material. wouldn't want that on your conscience, would you?! at least share it to jab a pointy stick in the Polyphemus-eye of Google. because if they hate me enough to sit on my channel i'm clearly doing something right. also subscribe on bitchute for the inevitable day this channel is memory-holed: helenofdestroy. & for MOAR, MOAR, ALWAYS MOAR go to helenofdestroy.com
Category: People & Blogs
False Flag Weekly News 8 March 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUzCcMy3AnA
Helen of Destroy: Published on Mar 31, 2019
(this is a mirror of my first guest appearance on Kevin Barrett's False Flag Weekly News. NoLiesRadio lost its YouTube channel after telling too much truth, so the only place their videos are currently available is Vimeo, which no one uses. original description follows:) False Flag Weekly News is a weekly investigative news program that covers extremely controversial subjects. We want to remind our viewers that “Questioning” of Official Government or Mainstream Media Stories Is Not Hate Speech, nor is it Fake News, it is Free Speech that is protected by the 1st Amendment to the US Constitution. Supreme Court unanimously reaffirms: There is no ‘hate speech’ exception to the First Amendment washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2017/06/19/supreme-court-unanimously-reaffirms-there-is-no-hate-speech-exception-to-the-first-amendment/ The False Flag Weekly News anchored by Dr. Kevin Barrett and Prof. Tony Hall looks behind the headlines and main stream media stories to get at what’s really going on in the world. From violations of international law to initiating WWIII, you don’t want to miss what they and their guests have to say about the stories behind the stories. Today's Guest Host: Helen Buyniski Click here for today's news story links: noliesradio.org/archives/163051
Category: People & Blogs
Published on Apr 12, 2019
Conservative author Jerome Corsi reacts to the arrest of Julian Assange saying the Wikileaks founder is being unjustly prosecuted.
Assange arrest shows Moreno is ‘CIA asset,’
turning Ecuador into ‘vassal’ – former FM
21 Apr, 2019
https://www.rt.com/news/457170-patino-ecuador-moreno-vassal-cia/
Julian Assange and Ricardo Patino meet at Ecuador's embassy in central London on June 16, 2013.
Ecuador turns to Interpol to arrest former foreign minister & Assange supporter Patino
The decision of Ecuador’s government to terminate Julian Assange’s asylum is “savagery” and has heavily damaged the dignity of the county, which caved in to the US as if it was its “vassal,” former FM Ricardo Patino told RT.
The former official, who is a vocal supporter of the WikiLeaks co-founder, believes the arrest of Assange has greatly damaged the image of Ecuador, its constitution, as well as the international law as a whole.
“This is an insult to the dignity of our country, it is lawlessness – to allow the British police to enter our embassy and pull out the person we gave asylum to. And according to our constitution and international agreements it is forbidden to extradite him, this is called the principle of non-refoulement,” Patino told RT Spanish in an exclusive interview.
Aside from that, he said Assange still holds Ecuadorian citizenship (currently “suspended” by the government). The country’s laws explicitly prohibit handing over its citizens to be persecuted under foreign laws, Patino noted. The amount of violations is “savagery from a legal point of view,” and Patino says it has clearly shown the country’s president – Lenin Moreno – surrendered to the US “as a vassal.”
Patino then accused the incumbent president of being a puppet of the CIA, tasked with destroying the legacy of his socialist predecessors.
“All that Moreno does is an attempt to completely destroy what we have built. Undoubtedly, it was planned and it was planned with the CIA involvement. He is not smart enough to come up with something like this, so it is staged by the US Embassy,” Patino claimed, adding that a CIA representative frequents presidential and government meetings, telling Ecuadorian leadership what to do.
Ecuador Detains a Friend of Assange. Critics Say It’s Guilt by Association.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/21/world/americas/ecuador-ola-bini-assange.html
An anti-government protest in Quito that was prompted in part by
Ecuador’s decision to no longer protect the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
By José María León Cabrera
April 21, 2019
Leer en español
QUITO, Ecuador — Just hours after the British police dragged the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange out of the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, the police in Ecuador made an arrest they suggested was related and involved the nation’s security.
But in the days since, the arrest has drawn a wave of protest from human rights activists and digital security advocates who say there is no evidence yet of a crime — only that of guilt by association.
The man arrested, Ola Bini, a Swedish cybersecurity expert and digital privacy advocate, was detained April 11 on charges that he had attacked computer systems in the country.
As evidence, prosecutors pointed to the laptops, iPads, iPods, encrypted USB sticks and credit cards they found when they searched Mr. Bini’s home and possessions. They noted that Mr. Bini traveled often and had spent more than $230,000 in internet services over the past five years.
Ecuador’s officials particularly cited Mr. Bini’s contacts with Mr. Assange, who faces extradition to the United States on charges of conspiring to hack an American government computer to obtain national security information.
Last week, President Lenin Moreno of Ecuador said that Mr. Bini was one of “many hackers” who had visited Mr. Assange at the country’s embassy in London, where the WikiLeaks founder had sought refuge. “Probably to receive instructions,” Mr. Moreno added.
But as news of the detention has spread, human rights and digital security advocates have begun to question the grounds for the detention, arguing that Mr. Bini, 36, worked to prevent illegal access to private information.
Ola Bini, right, a Swedish programmer and digital privacy advocate, with his father last year in Brazil.CreditGörel Bini Gustafsson 
Amnesty International and Article 19, an organization that defends free speech, have raised concerns about the arrest.
Mr. Bini “is a highly respected expert in digital security and cryptography and is recognized for major contributions in the field,” Article 19 said in a statement. David Kaye, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, said that nothing revealed so far connects Mr. Bini to any crime.
Danny O’Brien, the international director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said Mr. Bini’s work had helped build a safer internet. The evidence that Ecuadorean authorities presented was simply “the sort of equipment you have when you work in those sort of projects,” he said.
“People contributing their free time to protect internet users have their skills and their lifestyle used against them,” Mr. O’Brien said, a point of recurring concern among human rights advocates.
Mr. Bini was arrested at the international airport in Quito, Ecuador’s capital, on his way to Japan to take part in a martial arts program, said his girlfriend, Sofia Celi. Later, government officials went on television to applaud the arrest — and mention his visits to Mr. Assange.
The minister of interior, María Paula Romo, said the government was trying to prevent Ecuador from turning into a center for digital “espionage and piracy.” Ms. Romo said she could not comment on the evidence against Mr. Bini, but she, too, noted that he had visited Mr. Assange at the Ecuadorean Embassy “at least a dozen times.”
Mr. Bini’s lawyers say the detention is unlawful. They say he was denied access to lawyers for 17 hours, was not informed of the charges against him, and was not offered a translator, as required by local laws. His lawyers said they have been harassed and threatened by the police.
Mr. Bini, who was not granted bail, will remain in custody for 90 days while Ecuadorean prosecutors build a case against him.
Mr. Bini’s father, Dag Gustafsson, and his lawyer, Carlos Soria, during a news conference in Quito.
Mr. Bini moved to Ecuador in 2013, when he was working as a consultant for ThoughtWorks, a technology company based in Chicago. The Ecuadorean government had contracted with the company to consult on a new law governing software development.
He had joined the company around 2008, and when ThoughtWorks started offering cybersecurity consultancies, Mr. Bini focused on that area, said Ronaldo Ferraz, who was ThoughtWorks’ manager for Latin America and Africa at the time and oversaw Mr. Bini’s work.
He said that Mr. Bini was being accused of doing “the very same things he protected people against” and that the idea of Mr. Bini’s illegally accessing private information “runs contrary to everything he believes.”
Two weeks after Mr. Bini’s arrival in Ecuador, he gave an address titled “Ecuador as a Privacy Paradise” at a technology event hosted by a state university, during which he expressed concern about governments’ use of technology to monitor citizens.
After his arrest, Mr. Bini’s parents flew to Ecuador and gave a news conference denying their son was involved in wrongdoing and saying that his friendship with Mr. Assange was not enough to incriminate him.
Mr. Bini’s girlfriend, Ms. Celi, is a coder herself and has written academic papers with him on cryptography. She said there seemed to be a lack of understanding about the work Mr. Bini did, and what “cryptographic and privacy-preserving tools actually mean.”
Published on Apr 12, 2019
"I don't agree with all the things Jullian Assange used to do, but the main point is that his human rights were being violated," Ecuador's former president Rafael Correa tells François Picard after the arrest of the WikiLeaks founder in London. Correa spoke to us from Brussels. Subscribe to France 24 now: http://f24.my/youtubeEN
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http://f24.my/YTliveEN François Picard interviews Rafael Correa, the President of Ecuador at the time that Assange was granted asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy, about the recent arrest of Assange after Ecuador's president withdrew his asylum.
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Rafael Correa the former president of Ecuador was then asked … “…if it had been in your tenure as president of Ecuador … that this kind of allegation had been published … while your hosting Julian Assange .. would have you reacted the same way …”
Rafael Correa the former president of Ecuador then replied… “not at all .. we had problems with Julian Assange .., during the last presidential election in the United States I was president of Ecuador …”
The reporter then asked… “you cut off his internet access in October 2016 for a short while …?”
Rafael Correa the former president of Ecuador then replied … “.. yes … yes … we cut of Julian Assange’s Internet Access for as short time we believed Julian Assange was interfering with the US Presidential Election … we didn’t agree with that … but after that Julian Assange still continued living in the Ecuador Embassy … you can punish .. you can limit the activities of the refugee … but you can not expel Julian Assange, the refugee from the embassy … “..
The reporter then asked… “… from the reports provided Julian Assange was not the easiest guest to deal with and have living in the Ecuador Embassy for many stated reasons ..”.
Rafael Correa the former president of Ecuador then replied … “.. well we have to see .. these seem to be lies … but this is irrelevant … you do not grant asylum to someone who is a human being … he’s nice… or he’s disgusting …. because he’s handsome … he’s fat … no … we granted asylum to Julian Assange’s because his human rights were in danger … and these conditions continue until now … and the fundamental basement principle of the institution of Asylum …. is not to return the refugee to people requiring his … yet … that is exactly what the Ecuadorian Government has now done …. so … it is something incredable .. it is not possible to justify something lake this …”
The reporter then asked… “ the Foreign Policy Magazine in 2016 stated that WikiLeaks had sat on documents published in relation to Russia’s role in the Ukraine …. do you think that WikiLeaks is one sided?..”
Rafael Correa the former president of Ecuador then replied … “.. perhaps .. I do not care about that … we did not grant Asylum to Julian Assange because WikiLeaks and Julian Assange is doing a good job … he is doing a bad job … or because we like Julian Assange … I don’t know Assange … I have never met Assange … we decided to grant political asylum to Julian Assange inside the international legal framework … because we observed and we realised that Julian Assange’s human rights were in danger … because Julian Assange did not have the opportunity for a fair process in the United States … some people in the United States wanted to pursuit him … to judge him with a law including a penalty … that penalty is against human rights … its against the international convention of human rights …it is for these reasons that we decided to grant Julian Assange political asylum … not because he liked Julian Assange .. not because we agree with him … there are a lot of things that I do not agree with Julian Assange over what Julian Assange used to do … but the main point … the important point was that the Julian Assange’s human rights were in danger … Julian Assange was condemed from the beginning of the government of Lenin Moreno ….”..
The reporter then asked… “ … WikiLeaks data dumps helped sway an American Election on way ….is it something that you think about …?”
Rafael Correa the former president of Ecuador then replied … “.. yes… yes … of course … for that reason we warned Julian Assange … and he didn’t pay attention and we cut the Internet Service until the US Election had already taken place … and after that we returned the Internet Service to Julian Assange …. you want to punish Julian Assange for that … no no … Julian Assange was under the protection of the Ecuador State …. it was our duty to protect Julian Assange’s basic rights … if you want to punish WikiLeaks … you can sue Wikileaks … you can start some type of legal process against Wikileaks … but I do not know how to relate that to the political asylum of Julian Assange …. what do you mean? …. because of the actions of WikiLeaks you have to expel Julian Assange from the Ecuador Embassy … that doesn’t make sense …”
The reporter then asked… “ .. you don’t think that you were being manipulated by Russia in this case…?”
Rafael Correa the former president of Ecuador then replied … “..I don’t know … if you know something let me know please ….”..
The reporter then asked… “ … what is your reaction to what Donald Trump said about WikiLeaks and the arrest of Julian Assange….?!”
Rafael Correa the former president of Ecuador then replied … “… I did not listed to what Donald Trump said about WikiLeaks and the arrest of Julian Assange..”
The reporter then said … “..Donald Trump said WikiLeaks and Julian Assange are not really his thing…”
Rafael Correa the former president of Ecuador then replied … “.. what reaction can I have … I do not care what Donald Trump says of what he doesn’t say ....”
The reporter then asked … “… where is going to go in Ecuador now with this investigation …. the INA Papers Leak ..?”
Rafael Correa the former president of Ecuador then replied … “..this is a huge scandal … there is no escape for Moreno … he’s gonna be in jail soon … and because of that … and because of revenge … Moreno wanted to crush Julian Assange … Moreno wants to crush me … he wants to crush everybody that he hates …. but this is too big a scandal … we discovered his secret bank account … in a tax haven … where Moreno has money laundering … so you should be very worried about that … be very concerned about that … the whole planet must request to open this bank account ….” ..
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/597pvk/edward-snowden-assange-arrest-mueller-report
Edward Snowden
When Edward Snowden was stranded in a Russian airport, before the government of Vladimir Putin granted him asylum, he turned to WikiLeaks and their lawyers for help. Since then, Snowden has inevitably been linked to WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange.
Naturally, when Snowden sat down with CYBER host Ben Makuch, we asked him what he thought about Assange’s case. For Snowden, the story about Assange’s arrest should focus more on Ecuador’s motivations, and the fact that Assange is being held to a different standard than president Donald Trump. The former NSA analyst mentioned the fact that Ecuador got $4.2 billion in funds from the International Monetary Fund in early March as a sign the country was getting closer to the West, and in turn more inclined to give up Assange.
“Journalists who have been covering the story haven’t really been looking at that, because Julian as an individual is such a tragically flawed figure,” Snowden said.
Snowden also criticized people who changed their minds about Assange after the 2016 election.
“A lot of Americans now hate Julian,” he said. “Even though the sort of people who are on the center to the left part of the spectrum had been singing his praises during the Bush administration, now they’re on the other side because of his unfortunate political choices in the 2016 elections.”
Yet, Snowden defended Assange’s journalism work in the lead up to the 2016 elections, arguing the leaked emails, which major media companies covered, showed that the Democratic Party tried to favor Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders. That, Snowden said, “had profound public interest.”
As Motherboard reported last week, the Department of Justice says that it isn’t positive that Assange helped whistleblower Chelsea Manning crack a password hash in order to obtain cables related to the Iraq War, but that he’s being charged with that crime anyway. Snowden juxtaposed his treatment with that of Trump’s treatment in Robert Mueller’s report.
“Mueller says it didn’t actually result in obstruction because the people that Trump ordered to do this simply ignored him,” Snowden said. “The DOJ’s defense of not charging Trump is look he tried to commit a crime but he failed to actually do this. And at the same time they’re charging Julian Assange under precisely the opposite theory. Where they say ‘Look, Julian may not have actually cracked a password—we don’t have any evidence that he did, we’re not even going to try to prove that he did, we’re going to say that the agreement to try is enough.”
“So this is a real question of a two-tiered system of justice. Where if you’re the president and you try to commit a crime, you can skate,” he added. “Why is it that journalists are being held to a higher standard of behavior than the president of the United States?”
Finally, Snowden attacked the Department of Justice for charging Assange with conspiracy to crack a password, “a pretty low level infraction relative to the things Assange has been accused of in his life.”
Listen to CYBER, Motherboard’s new weekly podcast about hacking and cybersecurity
Got a tip? You can contact this reporter securely on Signal at +1 917 257 1382, OTR chat at lorenzofb@jabber.ccc.de, or email lorenzofb@motherboard.tv
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA
Alexandria Division
United States of America
V.
Julian Paul Assange
Defendant
Under Seal
Criminal No. 1:18cr///
Count 1: Conspiracy to Commit Computer Intrusion (18 U.S.C. ** 371, 1030(a)(1), 1030(a), 1030(2)(B)(ii)
Filed in Open Court March 6th 2018
March 2018 Term - at Alexandria, Virginia
Indictment
THE GRAND JURU CHARGES THAT:
GENERAL ALLEGATIONS
At times to this Indictment:
1, Chelsea Manning, formerly known as Bradley Manning, was an intelligence analyst in the United States Army, who was deployed to Forward Operating base Hammer in Iraq.
2. Manning held a “Top Secret” security clearance, and signed a classified information nondisclosure, acknowledging that the unauthorized disclosure or retention or negligent handling of classified information could cause irreparable injury to the United States or be used to the advantage of a foreign nation.
3. Executive Order No. 13526 and its predecessor order define the classification levels assigned to classified information. Under the Executive Order, information may be classified as “Secret” if its unauthorized disclosure reasonably could be expected to cause serious damage to the national security. Further, under the Executive Order, classified information can generally only be disclosed to persons who have been granted an appropriate level of United States government security clearance and posses a need to know the classified information in connection to their official duties.
4. Julian Assange was the funder and leader of the WikiLeaks website. The WikiLeaks website publicly solicited submissions of classified, censored, and other restricted information.
5. Assange, who did not possess a security clearance or need to know, was not authorized to receive classified information of the United States.
6. Between in or around January 2010 and May 2010, Manning downloaded four, nearly complete databases from departments and agencies of the United States. These databases contained approximately 900,000 Afghanistan war-related significant activity reports, 400,000 Iraq war-related significant activities reports, 800 Guantanamo Bay Detainee assessment briefs, and 250,000 U.S. Department of State cables. Many of these records were classified pursuant to Executive Order No. 13526 or its predecessor orders. Manning provided the records to agents of WikiLeaks so that WikiLeaks could publicly disclose them on its website. WikiLeaks publicly released the vast majority of the classified records on its website in 2010 and 2011.
7. On or about March 8, 2010, Assange agreed to assist Manning in cracking a password stored on United States Department of Defence computers connected to the Secret Internet Protocol Network, a United States Government Network used for classified documents and communications, as designated according to Executive Order No. 13526 or its predecessor.
8. Manning, who had access to the computers in connection with her duties as am intelligence analyst, was also using the computers to download classified records to transmit to WikiLeaks. ARmy regulations prohibited Manning from attempting to bypass or circumvent security mechanisms on Government-provided information systems and from sharing personal accounts and authenticators, such as passwords.
9. The portion of the password manning gave to Assange to crack was stored as a “hash value” in a computer file that was accessible only by users with administrative-level privileges. Manning did not have administrative-level privileges, and used special software, namely a Linux operating system, to access the computer file and obtain the portion of the password provided to Assange.
10. Cracking the password would have allowed Manning to log onto computers under a username that did not belong to her. Such a measure would have made it more difficult for investigators to identify Manning as the source of disclosure of classified information.
11. Prior to the formation of the password-cracking agreement, manning had already provided WikiLeaks with hubndreds of thousands of classified records that she downloaded from departments and agencies of the United States, including the Afghanistan war-related significant activity reports and Iraq war-related significant activities reports.
12. At the time he entered into this agreement, Assange knew that Manning was providing WikiLeaks with classified records containing national defense information of the United States, Assange was knowingly receiving such classified records from Manning for the purpose of publicly disclosing them on the WikiLeaks website.
13. For example, on March 7, 2010, manning and Assange discussed the value of the Guantanamo Bay detainee briefs, and on March 8, 2010, before entering the password cracking-agreement, Manning told Assange that share was “throwing everything (she had) on JTF GTMO at (Assange) now.” Manning also said “after this upload, that’s all I really have got left”. To which Assange replied, “curious eyes never run dry in my experience.” Following this, between march 28, 2019, and April 9, 2010, manning used a United States Department of Defense computer to download the U.S. Department of State cabled that WikiLeaks later released publicly.
14. The general allegations set forth in paragraph 1 through 13 are re-alleged and incorporated into this Count as though fully set forth therein.
15. Beginning on or about March 2, 2010, and continuing thereafter until on or aboutr March 10, 2010, that exact date being unknown to the Grand Jury, both dates being approximate and inclusive, in an offense begun and committed outside of the jurisdiction of any particular State or district of the United States, the defendant, JULIAN PAUL ASSANGE< who will be first brought to the Eastern District of Virginia, did knowingly and internationally combine, conspire, an offense against the United States, to wit:
(A) to knowingly access a computer, without authorization and exceeding authorized access, to obtain information that has been determined by the United States Government pursuant to an Executive order and statute to require protection against unauthorized disclosure for reasons of national defence and foreign relations, namely, documents relating to the national defense classified up to the “Secret” level, reason to believe that such information so obtained could be used to the injury of the United States and the advantage of any foreign nation, and to willfully communicate, deliver, transmit, and cause to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted the same, to any person not entitled to receive it, and willfully retain the same and fail to delivery it to the officer or employee entitled to receive it; and
(B) To internationally access a computer, without authorization and exceeding authorized access, to obtain information from a department and agency of the United States in furtherance of a criminal act in violation of the laws of the United States, that is, a violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 371, 1030(a)(1), 1030(a)(2), 10330(c) (2) (B) (ii).
PURPOSE AND OBJECT OF THE CONSPIRACY
16. The primary purpose of the conspiracy was to facilitate Manning’s acquisition and transmission of classified information related to the national defense of the United States so that WikiLeaks could publicly disseminate the information on its website.#
MANNERS AND MEANS OF THE CONSPIRACY
17. Assange and his co-conspirators used the following ways, manner and means, among others, to carry out this purpose:
18. It was part of the conspiracy that Assange and Manning used the “Jabber” online chat service to collaborate on acquisition and dissemination of the classified records, and to enter into the agreement to crack the password stored on United State Department of Defense computers connected to the Secret Internet Protocol Network.
19. It was part of the conspiracy that Assange and Manning took measures to conceal Manning as the source of the disclosure of classified records to WikiLeaks, including by removing usernames from the disclosed information and deleting chat logs between Assange and Manning.
20. It was part of the conspiracy that Assange encouraged Manning to provide information and records from departments and agencies of the United States.
21. It was part of the conspiracy that Assange and Manning used a special folder on a cloud drop box of WikiLeaks to transmit classified records containing information related to the national defense of the United States.
ACTS IN FURTHERANCE OF THE CONSPIRACY
22. In order to further the goals and purposes of the conspiracy, Assange and his co-conspirators committed overt acts, including, but not limited to, the following:
23. On or about March2, 2010, manning copied a Linux operating system to a CD, to allow Manning to access a United State Department of Defense computer file that was accessible only to users with administrative-level privileges.
24. On or about March 8, 2010, manning provided Assange with part of a password stored on United States Department of Defense computers connected to the Secret Internet Protocol Network.
25. Pm or about march 10, 2010, Assange requested more information from Manning related to the password. Assange indicated that he had been trying to crack the password by stating that he had “no luck so far.”
3/6/18
Date
A TRUE BILL
FOREPERSON
Tracy Doherty-McCormick
Acting United States Attorney
The Threat to the media posed by Trump's prosecution of Julian Assange
JulianAssange_USA_Inditement_1-7_Pages (1).pdf
0.7 MB
Published on Nov 2, 2018
Pain relief medication is easily available over the counter in many countries.
Our documentary investigates the big business of painkillers. [Online until: 02.12.2018]
Millions of consumers in Germany and France are well provided for with cheap, fast-acting, over the counter painkillers without any significant side effects -- diclofenac, ibuprofen, aspirin and paracetamol. At least, that’s how it looks. But the pharmaceutical industry influences politicians and doctors and cover up fatal risks, as this investigative documentary shows.
More than 150 million packs of over-the-counter painkillers are sold in Germany and France every year.
But patients are rarely given enough information about what they are taking. Over the counter pain relief worth more than half a billion euros are sold annually. The investigative journalists behind the US website "Dollars for Docs" are following the money.
In the documentary, Pulitzer Prize-winner Tracy Weber explains how they come by the data of US doctors who receive money from the pharmaceutical industry, in the form of lecture fees, consulting fees or vacation trips.
Some physicians earn as much as a million dollars a year in addition to their normal practice.
Questions about the independence of these physicians have now led to a new law in the US that requires doctors to disclose the funds they receive from industry. Featuring both critics and advocates of the practice, the documentary looks at how physicians are involved in the pharmaceutical industry. Meanwhile, Waldtraut Eicke’s case shows just how fatal faith in analgesics can be.
Years of analgesic use has made her a dialysis patient. Her kidneys no longer work - known in the jargon as "analgesic kidneys.” _______
DW Documentary gives you knowledge beyond the headlines. Watch high-class documentaries from German broadcasters and international production companies. Meet intriguing people, travel to distant lands, get a look behind the complexities of daily life and build a deeper understanding of current affairs and global events. Subscribe and explore the world around you with DW Documentary. Subscribe to DW Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW39...
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Published on Jun 23, 2017
Can money and power ever make us happy? How much is enough? Our constant desire for more is part of our human nature.
Some call it a useful dowry of evolution, others a fault in the human genetic make-up:
The old mortal sin Greed seems to be more ubiquitous than ever.
Why can't people ever get enough, where is this self-indulgence leading - and are there any ways out of this vicious circle of gratification?
"People like to have a lot of stuff because it makes them the feeling of living forever,"
says American social psychologist Sheldon Solomon, who believes today's materialism and consumerism
will have disastrous consequences. Anyone who fails to satisfy his or her desires in this age of the Ego is deemed a loser.
But with more than 7 billion people on the Earth, the ramifications of this excessive consumption of resources are already clear.
Isn’t the deplorable state of our planet proof enough that "The Greed Program,"
which has made us crave possessions, status and power, is coming to an end?
Or is the frenzied search for more and more still an indispensable part of our nature?
We set off to look for the essence of greed. And we tell the stories of people who -
whether as perpetrators or victims or even just as willing consumers - have become accomplices in a sea change in values.
Check out our web special: http://www.dw.com/en/tv/greed/s-32898 _______
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Assange is seen in videos frantically boxing with an imaginary sparring partner
47-year-old then paces around a tiny kitchen as he guzzles from a drink carton
48-WikiLeaks co-founder also waves both his arms as if he is conducting orchestra
Assange was dragged unceremoniously out of Ecuador's embassy on April 11
By VIVEK CHAUDHARY IN ALICANTE FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 12:17, 19 April 2019
The erratic behaviour of Julian Assange during his self-imposed exile has been dramatically captured in videos and documents obtained by MailOnline.
Assange's seven-year stay in Ecuador's embassy in central London resulted in a bizarre existence, making him an eccentric Robinson Crusoe type figure who resorted to desperate means to keep himself occupied.
The newly-emerged videos show Assange, 47, with fists clenched and his arms pumped as he frantically boxes with an imaginary sparring partner.
Julian Assange has his fists clenched and his arms pumped as he frantically boxes with an imaginary sparring partner at the Ecuadorian embassy in London
He then paces around a tiny kitchen as he guzzles from a drink carton and walks in and out of an adjoining larder.
In another video, the WikiLeaks co-founder vehemently waves both his arms as if he is conducting a symphony orchestra in his spartan kitchen, walks aimlessly into an adjoining larder and then reappears only to turn around and return once again.
Assange's shabby appearance and peculiar conduct is a far cry from the fresh faced, energetic man who defied some of the world´s most powerful nations through his controversial WikiLeaks work.
He first took refuge and claimed asylum in Ecuador´s London embassy in June 2012 to escape Swedish authorities from extraditing him for a case of rape and sexual assault.
Julian Assange then paces around a tiny kitchen as he guzzles from a drink carton and walks in and out of an adjoining larder
Assange resorted to desperate means to keep himself occupied inside the London embassy
He feared that once in Sweden, America would eventually extradite and prosecute him for a series of high profile Pentagon leaks, which the country claimed threatened its national security.
Another video graphically underlines the high price Assange has paid for his solitary defiance.
He slept in a small bedroom, that was once an office and had use of a narrow, austere kitchen.
The images show Assange standing beside a decrepit mini electric stove, preparing to cook something while bouncing up and down on the spot, his trousers falling below his waist, revealing the top of his backside.
Documents obtained by MailOnline also show that Ecuadorian officials vehemently complained about his personal etiquette during his stay in their embassy.
One document accuses Assange of smearing excrement around the light switch on the wall of the men's toilet and the edge of the toilet seat.
+1
A document addressed directly to Assange and dated March 30, 2015 refers to a complaint that he had left bottles filled with urine in the embassy's communal kitchen after the country´s ambassador was alerted by staff
Assange is pictured being arrested and led out of the Ecuadorian Embassy on April 11
Written in Spanish by one of the embassy's security officials and accompanied by photographs, it notes: 'I am reporting that on the night of Friday September 28, when the security guard went to use the men's toilet he was shocked to find stains on the toilet seat and the light switch smeared with excrement.
'It should be indicated that apart from the security guard there were no other visitors and the only person who used the toilet was Mr Asange. The security guard had to clean the dirty area before he could use the toilet.'
Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno and other officials from the South American country have accused Assange of smearing excrement on the walls of the embassy and of maintaining poor hygiene, which they insist contributed to their decision to withdraw his asylum status earlier this month.
When Ecuador announced its decision, Mr Moreno tweeted that it was because Assange 'repeated violations to international conventions and daily-life protocols.'
+10
This letter states in Spanish: 'Dear Ambassador, I am reporting that on the night of Friday 28 September, when the security guard went to use the men's toilet he was shocked to find stains on the toilet seat and the light swtich smeared with excrement. It should be indicated that apart from the security guard there were no other visitors and the only person who used the toilet was Mr Asange. The security guard had to clean the dirty areas before he could use the toilet'
+10
Assange gives a thumbs up as he arrives at Westminster Magistrates' Court on April 11
Another document, addressed directly to Assange and dated March 30, 2015 refers to a complaint that he had left bottles filled with urine in the embassy´s communal kitchen after the country´s ambassador was alerted by staff.
It warns: 'As per his (the ambassador's) instructions I am writing you a letter to state that this constitutes an inappropriate behaviour that has generated a sanitation and hygiene risk for all Embassy Staff, and that it must not be repeated.'
The country´s Interior Minister Maria Paula Romo also claimed that Assange´s mental and physical health had deteriorated during his stay in the embassy and the he also began acting aggressively towards his hosts.
She added that he had been 'allowed to do things like put faeces on the walls of the embassy and other behaviours of that nature.'
Assange's lawyer Jenifer Robinson has accused Ecuador of making up the allegations about his personal behaviour and that he was also spying on the country.
+10
The Ecuadorian Embassy in London is pictured on April 11 after Assange was arrested by police
+
1Assange is pictured making a statement from the Ecuadorian embassy on May 19, 2017
She said: 'I think the first thing to say is Ecuador has been making some pretty outrageous allegations over the past few days to justify what was an unlawful and extraordinary act in allowing British police to come inside an embassy.'
Following Ecuador's withdrawal of asylum status, a disheveled Assange, supporting a fuzzy, unruly beard and unkempt hair, was dragged unceremoniously out of the nation's embassy by eight policemen to a waiting police van as he ranted about Donald Trump and screamed 'the UK has no civility.'
He appeared before Westminster Magistrate's Court where he was found guilty of failing to surrender to the court and now faces a possible 12 month prison sentence.
Assange is also preparing to battle extradition to the United States over an allegation that he had conspired with former army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to break into a classified government computer.
If he is sent to the US, it will disappoint his celebrity supporters such as Pamela Anderson and Yoko Ono who have visited him and campaigned on his behalf.
Published on Jan 30, 2016
Stephanie Flanders examines one of the most revolutionary and controversial thinkers of all.
Karl Marx's ideas left an indelible stamp on the lives of billions of people and the world we live in today.
As the global financial crisis continues on its destructive path, some are starting to wonder if he was right.
Marx argued that capitalism is inherently unfair and therefore doomed to collapse, so it should be got rid of altogether.
Today as the gap between rich and poor continues to cause tension,
his ideas are once again being taken seriously at the heart of global business.
Stephanie travels from Marx's birthplace to a former communist regime detention centre in Berlin and separates his economic analysis from what was carried out in his name. She asks what answers does Marx provide to the mess we are all in today.
September 8th, 2010
by ABC News
http://www.flarenetwork.org/learn/asia_and_pacific/article/australia_bikies_triads_officials_linked_in_drug_smuggling_ring.htm
One of the nation's biggest investigations into organised crime has exposed an international drug importation syndicate with links to the Comancheros outlaw bikie gang, Chinese triads and corrupt Australian officials
The two-year Operation Hoffman has uncovered how multi-million-dollar crime syndicates are operating like multinational enterprises, evading police by drawing on local and overseas resources and the latest technology.
It has led to major ecstasy, heroin and crystal methamphetamine drug busts across Australia, the biggest-ever drug bust on the Pacific island group of Tonga, and the discovery in May last year of a bikie armoury in Sydney - including automatic weapons and imitation police equipment.
Those arrested include alleged drug runners with links to Chinese triads and the Perth president of the Comancheros, Steven Milenkovski.
Despite Hoffman severely damaging the bikie group, the Comancheros have continued establishing a foothold in Melbourne under the control of local club controller Amad 'Jay' Malkhoun, a convicted heroin trafficker with interests in several Melbourne strip clubs
Operation Hoffman, a landmark multi-agency investigation led by the Australian Crime Commission, has also revealed the deep links between drug importers and rogue Australian maritime workers.
A joint ABC Four Corners and The Age investigation into organised crime can also reveal that:
The two-year Operation Hoffman has uncovered how multi-million-dollar crime syndicates are operating like multinational enterprises, evading police by drawing on local and overseas resources and the latest technology.
It has led to major ecstasy, heroin and crystal methamphetamine drug busts across Australia, the biggest-ever drug bust on the Pacific island group of Tonga, and the discovery in May last year of a bikie armoury in Sydney - including automatic weapons and imitation police equipment.
Those arrested include alleged drug runners with links to Chinese triads and the Perth president of the Comancheros, Steven Milenkovski.
Despite Hoffman severely damaging the bikie group, the Comancheros have continued establishing a foothold in Melbourne under the control of local club controller Amad 'Jay' Malkhoun, a convicted heroin trafficker with interests in several Melbourne strip clubs.
One of Hoffman's key targets is Hakan Ayik, 32, from Sydney, who is understood to have worked as the local manager of an international drug syndicate with strong links to the triads and which used domestic criminal networks, including outlaw bikie clubs, as distributors and to provide muscle.
NSW police intelligence describes Ayik as a ''very serious money maker'' who ''generates a lot of money'' for the Comancheros and has multiple links to waterfront workers. Operation Hoffman ended earlier this month after NSW police issued an arrest warrant for Ayik for drug trafficking. It is believed he is now on the run.
The crime syndicate targeted by Hoffman also has links to allegedly corrupt NSW police analyst Terry Gregoriou, who was charged last December for allegedly leaking police files to the Comancheros via an intermediary.
The syndicate has also cultivated contacts with figures with access to the NSW prison system - including a serving prison officer - to pass money and messages to jailed crime figures.
Operation Hoffman's success lies in the cooperative efforts of traditionally mistrustful state and federal policing agencies, including NSW police, the NSW Crime Commission, the Australian Federal Police and anti-money laundering agency Austrac.
However, a senior law enforcement insider has revealed to Four Corners that despite its success, inadequate resourcing meant Operation Hoffman was unable to reach its full potential.
He said the criminal network it targeted "will reform very, very quickly". The insider said the ACC needed far more investigators to run major inquiries targeting the movement of illicit funds offshore, crucial to Operation Hoffman.
Under-resourced
The consensus among senior police is that the ACC is badly under-resourced given the size and reach, here and abroad, of Australia's new breed of technologically savvy and well-resourced underworld figures.
Federal Labor Senator Steve Hutchins, who is briefed by senior police as chairman of the ACC parliamentary committee, told Four Corners that major drug seizures had not affected the supply or price of drugs, which indicated Australia was clearly "not winning that war [against drug trafficking]".
Victorian Police Chief Commissioner Simon Overland said that drug data supported the view that policing agencies were only "making a small number of seizures in the total volume of drugs'' that enter the country.
This view is backed by former NSW police assistant commissioner Clive Small and the former head of Victoria's Purana gangland murder taskforce, Jim O'Brien.
"You'd have to be kidding yourself if you thought you were getting any more than probably 10 or 15 per cent off the street," Mr O'Brien said.
Senator Hutchins also called for reforms to combat organised crime on the waterfront because corruption in the sector was aiding the importation of drugs.
"The law enforcement agencies have been exposing what's been going on [on the waterfront] ... it's whether or not we as politicians are prepared to give them the weapons ... they need to combat it," he said.
Senior police sources have said the Federal Government's wharf security regime is a failure. The launching of a state and federal policing taskforce to combat organised crime on the wharves in NSW has been slowed due to inter-agency talks. It is set to be fully operational in the next fortnight.The other frightening thing is that there believed form research undertaken that there is a strong link between Freemasonry and the Triads, and that Freemasons who want a murder carried out, who do not want to get their hands dirty, will use the Triads to do this work. After all, many senior Freemasons are senior judges, magistrates, barristers, police, politicians and so-called respectable businessmen who would never want to risk their reputations and/or the reputation of Freemasonry being links to a murder investigation, so their Triad connection is ideal. The Triads are already report in WikiPedia and other major reliable news and information organizations as being involved with illegal activities such as illegal gambling, loan sharking, money laundering, murder, heroin and opium, arms trafficking, prostitution, people smuggling, extortion, counterfeiting and, to a lesser extent, home invasion robberies.. etc, so another murder allegation against the Triads would bee seen as the Triads just going about their normal business activities.
CARLY CRAWFORD- HERALD SUN-JANUARY 22, 2014
AN Asian triad is moving to infiltrate Australian horse racing, sparking an unprecedented investigation by racing authorities.
The Herald Sun can reveal a suspected senior figure, active within Hong Kong's notoriously violent crime gangs, has invested heavily in thoroughbred racing in Australia.
He owns a local horse stud and has connections to some of the biggest-name horses in Australian racing, including a Melbourne Cup runner.
Law enforcement and integrity figures believe the crime boss is a triad money launderer. Racing Integrity Commissioner Sal Perna confirmed he would investigate the man's activities with assistance from the Australian Crime Commission.
"We have received information about this matter and disclosed it to the ACC for assessment," Mr Perna said.
The Herald Sun cannot identify the figure or his assets for legal reasons.
The suspected triad figure is known to global integrity authorities as a key player in a powerful Hong Kong triad.
Hong Kong's dominant triads are the Sun Yee On and 14K.
A wealthy and apparently legitimate businessman, the figure heads a global manufacturing empire.
His business interests span a range of other fields, including mining, property, resources and horse racing.
He heads an international organisation that has secured ownership of a horse stud in Australia and has purchased a number of horses, according to industry figures. The stud acquired by his firm is home to some of the finest thoroughbred bloodlines in Australia. In a statement to the Herald Sun, Hong Kong police declined to publicly identify any triad members, but said: "Some individual members or persons claiming to have triad affiliations are occasionally found involving in criminal activities overseas or cross-boundary."
Triad-related crime accounts for about three per cent of all crime in Hong Kong, police said. The alleged triad figure heads a big investment firm that is listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange. Its business interests extend to Macau, the United Kingdom, China and Australia.
It does business out of a tropical tax haven.
The triad figure is listed as a director of a public company in Australia whose business relates to thoroughbreds. The Sun Yee On is Hong Kong's biggest, richest and best organised triad. It has tens of thousands of members and deals in nightclub standover, illegal gambling, drugs and extortion. According to officials from the Hong Kong Police Organised Crime and Triad Bureau, the Sun Yee On remains ¬active. Some of its members are alleged to have Communist Party links and dozens have been arrested for slashing to death members of rival gangs. Triad 14K is known for loansharking, illegal gambling and the brutal public executions of its rivals.
http://www.fas.org/irp/world/australia/docs/ncaaoc2.html
(return to table of contents)
3.1 The words 'Asian', 'organised' and 'crime' each require a brief comment in order to explain the scope of the remainder of this discussion paper.
3.3 The Report of the Review of Commonwealth Law Enforcement Arrangements recommended that the NCA have 'a strategic and/or coordination role' in respect of eleven matters, three of which were 'Chinese Triad Societies', 'Vietnamese organised crime groups', and 'Yakuza groups' (para. 7.50(4)). The Government has accepted this recommendation.
3.4 The Committee recognises that the vast majority of the ethnic communities referred to are not involved in organised, or indeed any, criminal activity. In using ethnicity as a defining factor, the Committee is following the well-established practice of law enforcement agencies both in Australia and overseas. In the view of these agencies, the particular criminal organisations use membership of the relevant ethnic group as a key factor in determining who is allowed to participate, especially at the more senior levels or in taking the major roles in particular crimes. Ethnic group membership is sometimes seen as a key factor enabling ethnic-group organised crime to be more successful than other groups. note#4 It is a matter for debate, however, whether the ethnic factor is sometimes overstated in the context of 'Asian organised crime' in Australia.
3.5 Russian organised crime has attracted a great deal of media interest since the break-up of the Soviet Union. However, it is not covered in this discussion paper, mainly because it is not conventionally considered as 'Asian'. Moreover, there is, it seems, little evidence that it has established any Australian presence so far. Only one significant case appears to have been reported, the one in 1993 by the Australian Federal Police (AFP): note#5
In January 1993, the AFP provided ACS [Australian Customs Service] with information which led to the targeting of Russian ships visiting Melbourne. As a result, a Russian seaman was arrested as he left the dock area in possession of 5.5kg of heroin and l50g of cannabis resin. Further inquiries resulted in the arrest of two alleged principals in Melbourne. This operation was the culmination of several years investigation and resulted in the identification of alleged syndicate members in the former Soviet Union and Australia. AFP members have travelled to Russia and as a result liaison has been established with the Russian police authorities.
3.6 However, by omitting consideration of Russian organised crime from this discussion paper, the Committee is not taking issue with the view that Australian agencies must remain alert to the real possibility that Russian-based criminal groups may target Australia. The Committee notes that the Report of the Review of Commonwealth Law Enforcement Arrangements recommended that the NCA have 'a strategic and/or coordination role' in respect of, amongst other groups, 'Eastern Block Organised Crime Groups', and that the Government has accepted this recommendation
3.7 Although geographically part of Asia, the Lebanon is not normally considered 'Asian' in the context of discussion of Asian organised crime. Hence, the Committee's discussion paper does not cover the activities of organised Lebanese criminal groups in Australia, although the Committee notes that such groups have for many years been involved in drug trafficking into Australia. note#6
3.8 Organised crime groups of ethnic Koreans reportedly exist in the United States, note#7 but there is nothing that the Committee is aware of to suggest they have established any presence in Australia.
3.9 The question of how best to define the term 'organised crime' has caused much debate over the years. note#8 For the purposes of this discussion paper, the Committee does not consider it necessary to enter into this debate or to define organised crime in any rigorous way. The following definition used by the NCA will serve: 'For the purpose of describing the broader criminal environment, the NCA defines organised crime as a systematic and continuing conspiracy to commit serious offences'. note#9
3.10 The Committee recognises, however, that an important issue in assessing the threat from, and the impact of, Asian organised crime in Australia is the degree to which it is organised. One of the suggestions made in this discussion paper is that Asian organised crime, as it impacts on Australia at least, is considerably less organised than might be thought from an uncritical reading of media reports. The Committee considers that the following observation made in 1989 by Dr Grant Wardlaw is pertinent in this context:
It seems that one problem we have is that we may often confuse criminal organisation or sophistication with organised crime. As society becomes more complex and as technologies open the way to new crimes or more sophisticated or larger scale ways of committing old ones, so the nature of crime is changing with the result that it is, almost by definition, becoming more organised. Looked at this way, most major crime will eventually become organised crime. Surely this is not what we mean when we speak of organised crime though, and use its existence to justify the creation of new investigative agencies and the legislating of new powers? Nevertheless, it seems to me that many of the cases, particularly in the drug trafficking field, which are cited as evidence of the grip of organised crime are evidence of nothing more than organisation and (rarely) sophistication. To be sure, this constitutes a serious law enforcement problem, but one which does not carry the sinister implications of being 'organised crime'. note#10
4.1 The attention of Australian law enforcement agencies has focused on Chinese organised criminal activity in relation to a wide range of matters, including drug importation and distribution, illegal gambling, illegal prostitution, extortion, immigration malpractice and money laundering. A relatively new area in which organised ethnic-Chinese are believed to be prominent is sophisticated credit card fraud. note#11 There appears to be no solid evidence of significant organised, ethnic-Chinese, street gang activity, although it is difficult to be sure as there are many media reports that refer simply to 'Asian' gangs. note#12
4.2 The priority interest of Australian agencies has been in relation to organised, ethnic-Chinese, involvement in heroin trafficking into Australia from south-east Asia.
4.3 A 1991 assessment for the Commonwealth Government stated:
In terms of what might be termed 'mainstream' importation of heroin to meet Australian market demand, the principal source region (in terms of regularity of supply) is South-East Asia. This statement is not intended to diminish the importance and threat from other regions; a significant amount of heroin is known to be sourced from South-West Asia and the Middle East (even though seizure results indicate that these areas are responsible for 5 to 10 per cent of overall supply, some enforcement authorities estimate that the real order of magnitude is much higher than this). The assertion concerning South-East Asia as the principal source of heroin supply is persuasively based on both the consistent intelligence reporting on criminal activities and in the investigative outcomes of successful seizures of heroin. note#13
4.4 Others agree on the importance of south-east Asia as a source of the heroin arriving in Australia. The Report of the New South Wales Crime Commission for the year ended 30 June 1993, for example, stated on page 16 that 'the large importations mainly originate in China and South East Asia'. More recently, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) stated: 'Some 80% of the heroin seized in Australia can be sourced to the Golden Triangle' note#14 - that is, to the area in south-east Asia where Burma, Thailand and Laos meet.
4.5 Australian law enforcement agencies believe that ethnic Chinese have been for many years, and still are, the major organisers of heroin imports into Australia. A 1988 media report cited the National Crime Authority's Chinese liaison officer as saying that the Chinese had been linked to every major seizure of heroin in the previous two financial years, totalling 63 kg, and that an estimated 96 per cent of those cargoes seized had been triad-related. note#15
4.6 A 1991 assessment stated: 'The AFP and others estimate that Chinese crime groups are responsible for the importation of perhaps 80 per cent of all heroin being imported into Australia'. note#16 According to a media report based on a leaked 1992 national intelligence assessment, 85 to 90 per cent of heroin imports into Australia were organised by Chinese organised crime groups. note#17 The NSW Crime Commission reported in 1993: 'Essentially, heroin importation is largely controlled by persons of Chinese origin in Australia and overseas'. note#18 The AFP said in 1994 that:
Stability in the price of heroin and its quality in Australia indicate the importation of heroin into Australia is well organised and dominated by Chinese Organised Crime groups. Heroin is routed through Bangkok, the Malay Peninsula, Hong Kong and the People's Republic of China. note#19
Some groups are concentrated at certain levels. Thus it has been observed that the highest stratum is often occupied by persons of Chinese origin who tend to be responsible for the introduction of much heroin to Australia and conduct the largest bulk transactions. It is unusual to find persons of Chinese origin in a supply stratum involving small quantities. The pattern is less consistent with other groups which will buy bulk locally and also engage in importation. Their associates within a group may occupy a range of levels in the supply chain and they will deal with groups which dominate particular levels such as the Chinese groups. note#20
4.8 A 1991 intelligence assessment stated:
One feature of heroin trafficking arrangements in Australia that reinforces the notion of an accommodation between operators, is that the majority of the importation efforts of the Chinese criminal groups is geared towards supplying other, non-Chinese, groups for their own distribution networks. The Chinese operate what is largely a heroin wholesale business, with little evidence of their further involvement downstream into retail distribution. note#21
4.9 In much popular discussion, Chinese organised crime is treated as synonymous with the triad societies, although the importance of the connection between the two is a matter for some debate. The following description of the triads is taken in edited form from a 1992 report of a United States Senate subcommittee: note#22
Modern triads trace their history to secret political societies formed in China during the 17th Century to overthrow the Ching Dynasty and to restore the Ming Dynasty to power. The term 'triad', later coined by British authorities in Hong Kong, is based on the triangular symbol found on flags and banners of the early secret societies. The symbol represents the three essential elements of heaven, earth, and man.
Because the early triads were attempting to topple the ruling elements of the day, and had, in fact, been persecuted in the past they developed secret forms of identification and communication. Triads today remain obsessively secretive and closed criminal fraternities. The triads also developed highly ritualized initiation ceremonies meant to instill a strong sense of secrecy, and more importantly, loyalty to other triad members. ...
The existence of triads is most extensively documented in Hong Kong, where the number of triad members is estimated to be in the tens of thousands, and to a lesser extent in Taiwan. ...
Triad societies all display some degree of hierarchy, and a typical triad has members organized by rank. Each rank carries a title and a numerical value, based on triad ritual. The leader of a triad is known as the 'Dragon Head,' and carries the rank '489'. Other 'office bearer' positions also exist, including '438', which is the second highest rank in a triad, and may be held by several different officials. ... other triad members are known as ordinary members or soldiers, and hold the rank of '49'. The relationships among individual triad members are based on ties between 'Dai-Lo's' (big brothers) and 'Sai-Lo's' (little brothers), where the Sai-Lo's give loyalty, support and sometimes money to their Dai-Lo, in exchange for protection and advice.
Although hierarchical in nature, triads tend not to be strictly controlled from the top, in contrast to more familiar crime groups such as La Cosa Nostra. Instead, triad members frequently branch out into their own criminal enterprises. While the triad leadership does not always initiate and direct the activities of all the triad members, triads clearly serve as international networking associations that facilitate such activity. Moreover, monetary profits from criminal activity of triad members often flow to the top in indirect ways, such as through gifts. ...
As one member of the Hong Kong-based 14K triad testified:
"I was not required to pay any percentage of profits to the 14K leadership. Triads do not work that way. Triad members do favors for each other, provide introductions and assistance to each other, engage in criminal schemes with one another, but triads generally do not have the kind of strictly disciplined organizational structure that other criminal groups like the Italian mafia have. For example, a triad member would not necessarily be required to get permission from the dragonhead of his particular triad in order to engage in a particular criminal undertaking - even if the particular deal involved an outsider or even a member of another triad. On the other hand, on the occasion of traditional Chinese holidays such as Chinese New Year, triad members traditionally give gifts to their 'big brother' or 'uncles' who often are office bearers in the triads."
Further testimony regarding relationships among Chinese crime groups came from Johnny Kon, a convicted heroin smuggler and triad member. He noted the importance of the Chinese concept of 'Guan Shi' in facilitating criminal relationships:
"Members of the Big Circle get power from 'Guan Shi' which is a relationship among people. Through such relationships, Big Circle members can call on triad members or other Big Circle members for help."
Triad membership is thus a valuable asset to the new international criminal. Triad membership facilitates criminal activities in a manner similar to the way membership in business associations facilitates the activities of a legitimate businessman. Thus, even though triads, as organizations, may not control a wide range of criminal activity, it is important for law enforcement officials to understand, investigate, and develop intelligence about triad organizations, because individual triad members are invariably involved in a wide range of criminal activity.
Although the criminal activities of triad members can be thought of as constituting both domestic and international activities, even domestic activities such as illegal gambling, extortion, and prostitution often have an international element. For example, prostitutes are imported or smuggled, sometimes against their will, over national borders, while proceeds from illegal domestic activities such as gambling are often laundered internationally. International activities include narcotics trafficking, money laundering, counterfeiting currency and credit cards, and alien smuggling. ...
The RHKP [Royal Hong Kong Police] estimate that there are currently about 50 triad societies in Hong Kong, with about 15 of those being very active. While it is very difficult to determine the exact number of triad members in Hong Kong, most authorities agree that there are at least 80,000. Some triads are thought to have as little as 100 members while Hong Kong's largest triad, the Sun Yee On, is believed to have at least 25,000 members.
After the Sun Yee On, the next largest triads are the Wo Group, including the Wo Hop To and at least nine other subgroups, which have over 20,000 Hong Kong members. The 14K Triad, including over 30 subgroups, is also believed to have over 20,000 Hong Kong members. The fourth largest group is the Luen Group with approximately 8,000 Hong Kong members. The Tung Group is thought to have approximately 3,000 Hong Kong members. All of these groups also have substantial overseas membership. Other triads exist with smaller membership. ...
The Big Circle Gang, which is sometimes referred to as a 'Mainland-based triad' is a relatively new group. This group initially consisted primarily of former Red Army Guards who left China for Hong Kong. Big Circle Gang members are particularly violent, specializing in armed robberies of jewelry stores in Hong Kong as well as in heroin trafficking. The Big Circle Gang is not technically a triad, but most Big Circle Gang members are also members of various triad societies. Johnny Kon, a former Big Circle associate and convicted heroin smuggler, testified that he helped organize a group of Big Circle Gang members into a tightly organized and disciplined group known as the Flaming Eagles which expanded from jewelry store robberies in Hong Kong to a world wide heroin distribution network. All of Kon's Big Circle associates were also members of other triads. ...
The main law enforcement body in Taiwan, the National Police Administration (NPA), recognizes two major Taiwan-based triads. The best known and largest of the two is the United Bamboo Gang, also known as the Chu Lien Pang. The second group is the Four Seas Gang, also known as Sei Hoi.
The United Bamboo Gang has an estimated membership of over 20,000. ... The Four Seas Gang has an estimated membership of over 5,000.
4.10 The Director of the United States Central Intelligence Agency told a United States Senate committee in April 1994:
These triads are fluid associations of criminals and quasi-legitimate businessmen based on contact networks and cultural, geographic and linguistic ties. ... The triads play an important role in worldwide heroin trafficking by facilitating transport and by providing a network of contacts for triad affiliated smugglers. They play a particularly important role in moving heroin through transshipment hubs, such as Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore, due to their influence over transportation unions and over shipping companies. note#23
4.11 Criminal triad societies of a sort are said to exist in Australia, even if they lack some of the characteristics of the traditional Hong Kong triad societies. The National Crime Authority's then Chairperson, Justice Stewart, said in 1988:
Broadly speaking, the Authority's investigations confirm earlier assessments that Chinese criminal elements in Australia have formed criminal associations, modelled to some extent on the traditional Chinese Triad secret societies such as exist in Hong Kong, Taiwan and elsewhere in Asia. These groups involve themselves in a wide range of criminal activities such as drug importation and distribution, extortion, fraud and money laundering.
There is no real evidence that these associations follow Triad initiation ceremonies or other rituals, or adopt a strict internal hierarchy. There is evidence however that members of well known Triad societies are resident in Australia and overseas members visit here from time to time for illegal purposes.
The power of individuals in these Australian Triad groups seems to be based on accumulated wealth, connections or demonstrated capacity for criminal enterprise rather than on traditional Triad power bases. Many of these people move with comparative ease between Australia, Hong Kong and elsewhere in South East Asia. note#24
4.12 In 1988, Mr Peter Lamb, at the time an AFP Assistant Commissioner, said that there were 'between three and ten' triad societies then operating in Australia.note#25 Media reports in 1988 claimed that Australian triad societies had perhaps 2,000 members. note#26 A 1989 report claimed that the 14K triad 'is well organised and well entrenched in Sydney, with offshoots in Melbourne'. note#27 In June 1991 a former NCA officer, Mr Carmel Chow, said: 'We are looking at maybe half a dozen triad groups in Sydney. We are talking about the Sun Yee On, the 14K, the Wo Yee Tong, the Big Circle. So really, we have half a dozen gangs now operating in Sydney.' note#28
4.13 The buyer of a 1988 importation into Sydney of 31 kg of heroin was (John) Chai Nam Yung, who was sentenced in March 1991 to 24 years' imprisonment for his part in the deal. He was described as the head of the Australian branch of the Wo Yee Tong triad, as well as being the owner of an illegal Sydney gambling club.note#29 A media follow-up story on the case said that 'Police sources here estimate that no more than half-a-dozen of these triad cells are operating in Australia, with an estimated membership of between 2000 and 3000' and that 'the majority of triad activity is centred on Sydney'. note#30 A 1992 internal report by the Asian division of the Victoria Police reportedly stated that there were known to be triads based in Melbourne and referred to members from triad groups such as the 14K, Sun Yee On, Wo Yee Tong and Wo Shing Wo. note#31
4.14 A 1992 United States report stated that the Sun Yee On triad has 'a presence' in several countries including Australia, the Wo Hop To triad 'has been tied to criminal activity' in Australia, and the Big Circle Gang 'has gained a foothold' in Australia. note#32 More recent reports from United States sources state that the 14K triad group and the Sun Yee On triad have a foothold in Australia. note#33 In September 1994, a member of the Victoria Police Asian crime squad told a court that the Sun Yee On triad had become more active in Melbourne in the previous year. note#34
4.15 The February 1994 Report of the Review of Commonwealth Law Enforcement Arrangements stated (para. 4.49):
Within Australia, it is apparent that several Triad societies do exist. As in Hong Kong, they provide a local pool of contacts for criminal ventures. Moreover, Australian residents who were Triad members in Hong Kong or other foreign countries have immediate access to a range of colleagues overseas who may be prepared to assist with criminal activities. There have been claims that certain Triad groups in Australia have operated as organisations when establishing gambling and protection rackets, but it is also possible that the criminals concerned were using a Triad's name for their own benefit and were acting outside the organisation.
4.16 As noted in paragraph 2.8 above, as long as people believe in the existence of powerful triad groups, they will be reluctant to resist the demands of those claiming to be triad members, or to inform police of their activities. This provides an incentive for ethnic-Chinese criminals to claim triad membership, however spurious the claim may be or however powerless and unorganised the triad in question may really be. note#35 Thus claims by criminals to be triad members cannot be taken at face value. Equally, assertions that criminal triads exist in Australia as powerful, well-organised, functioning entities must be treated sceptically insofar as the assertions are based on statements from criminals claiming membership in such organisations.
4.17 In 1988, the leaders of a non-criminal triad, the Melbourne-based Mun Ji Dong (MJD), which began life on the Victorian goldfields in the middle of the last century, presented their view on possible criminal triad presence in Australia. note#36
MJD members said law enforcement agencies were on the wrong track if they were working on the 'Chinese Mafia network' theory that international criminal Triads had established themselves in Australia and controlled a comprehensive range of criminal activities.
The MJD said there appeared little evidence that these crime Triads had established themselves here. A more realistic scenario was that some Chinese crime syndicates had individuals on the fringes of the Australian Chinese community, working as contacts for the importation of illicit narcotics and Asian prostitutes.
However, these people appeared to be low-profile operators without established criminal Triad power bases. 'I think we'd have spotted them (established Triad crime gangs) if they were around, but we haven't seen anything to suggest they've established themselves here,' said Mr Edmond Louey, a vice-secretary of the MJD.
Mr Louey said there were indications that some petty Asian criminals claimed 'heavy' Triad affiliations to intimidate victims.
MJD members dismissed suggestions that criminal Triads controlled illegal gambling: Chinese casinos in Melbourne and Sydney were operated by individuals.
4.18 There has in recent years apparently been some difference of opinion among law enforcement agencies in Australia and overseas about how important triads are to understanding and tackling Chinese organised criminal activity. The Chairperson of the National Crime Authority, Mr Tom Sherman told the Committee in 1992:
You get your two schools of thought, really. There is one school of thought that says the Triads are very important, and there is another school of thought that seems to be equally well informed that says that they are not so important. I suspect that, like all things, the truth lies somewhere in between.note#37
4.19 The National Crime Authority's General Manager, Operations, Mr Peter Lamb, made a similar point in a media interview in 1993: note#38
Asked if there was an organised Asian crime system in Australia, Mr Lamb said: 'I don't think anyone who has worked against organised crime would deny that.' But Mr Lamb said that was not to say groups like the Yakuza and Triads had cemented an illegal operation in Australia. The NCA's intelligence shows that some criminal groups in Australia have Triad members. But as Mr Lamb said: 'Whether that equates to the Triads being the real force behind the crime is another matter.'
4.20 As far as the Committee can discern, there is an increasing tendency to play down the relevance of triad links. It is not clear from the material available to the Committee to what extent this tendency is due to a better understanding of Chinese organised criminal activity, and to what extent it might reflect a shift in the way that activity is being conducted. There are suggestions that the more traditional, triad-oriented, way in which those criminal activities were once organised is increasingly being replaced by a more entrepreneurial, ad hoc, and multi-ethnic approach.
4.21 From a United States' perspective, the 1992 United States Senate subcommittee report previously referred to stated:
... neither triads, tongs nor gangs appear to be currently involved, as organizations, in heroin trafficking. While members of these groups frequently utilize their membership to benefit their heroin trafficking enterprises, the groups themselves are not typically part of the heroin smuggling.
... In fact, it is relatively easy for triad members to form criminal associations with members of other triads or with outsiders. note#39
4.22 An overview of the south-east Asian heroin trade was given to that subcommittee by a witness from the Central Intelligence Agency. He also stressed the fragmented, ad hoc organisation that was involved.
The main point is that Southeast Asian heroin trade is highly segmented with many independent organizations conspiring to supply the United States and other consuming countries. As heroin moves through the trafficking chain, control of the shipment is transferred several times:
In the initial phase, producers and refiners in Burma, Thailand and Laos obtain raw opium from farmers and refine it into heroin. Some three-quarters of the region's heroin refining capacity is concentrated just inside Burma.
In the second stage, international brokers in the region arrange the sale, consolidation and movement of large heroin shipments from refineries in Burma through Thailand to transshipment points elsewhere in Asia. note#40
Next, wholesale buyers, in places like Hong Kong and Singapore, purchase heroin from the brokers and move shipments to the United States for resale. The buyers are frequently connected with Chinese or other international organized crime groups.
Finally, retail distribution networks in the United States and Western Europe sell the product on the streets. They often have business connections with the Asian organized crime groups who dominate the wholesale business.
We believe that each heroin shipment has unique features. Processing, financing and transport operations are tailored according to the resources and requirements of the producers and the wholesale buyers. A single heroin shipment may involve multiple transactions between different brokers. note#41
4.23 A 1991 internal review of the NCA's Chinese organised crime reference (Iliad) stated:
Investigations under the Iliad Reference have, however, provided significant collateral for the proposition that Triad organisations in Australia are not central to the heroin trade, but are one element of the Chinese criminal environment in which criminal entrepreneurs undertake a variety of activities, including heroin importation. note#42
4.24 The Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence provided a 'national strategic assessment' in May 1992 called Chinese Organised Crime in Australia. The NCA informed the Committee that:
The ABCI Report considered a range of criminal activities including heroin importation and distribution, prostitution, illegal gambling, violence and money laundering. It also discussed Triad activities and questioned the importance of Triads to an understanding of COC [Chinese Organised Crime] activities in Australia. note#43
4.25 A 1993 paper by two Australian criminologists argued: 'Our ethnically Chinese criminals are just ethnic Chinese criminals; they can be organised in the corporate or enterprise sense but Triad membership or otherwise appears something of an irrelevance'. note#44 Another criminologist, Ian Dobinson, offered a similar view of the role of the triads in ethnic-Chinese organised heroin trafficking. He noted that '...law enforcement in Hong Kong appears to hold the view that small groups are involved and that there are no significant triad links'. note#45 He also argued that:
This is not to suggest that Chinese heroin groups are not 'organized'. Rather, it is to argue that they are not organized in the sense of large hierarchical syndicates inexorably linked to various triads. The significance of these groups in relation to their contribution to heroin availability cannot be denied, but Chinese involvement may be simply a reflection of a criminal counterpart to the legitimate economic dominance of ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia.note#46
4.26 The prevalent view, therefore, appears to the Committee to be that whatever criminal triads exist in Australia do not operate as branches that are subject to control from some overseas headquarters. Indeed, it may be overstating things to regard them as enduring entities at all. In recent years in Australia, loosely-organised, syndicates appear to have been the predominant form in which Chinese organised crime has manifested itself. Some syndicate members may belong to a particular triad, others may belong to different triads, and some syndicate members may not have any triad connections.
4.27 The impetus for engaging in a particular criminal activity seems to come from the individuals rather than a triad. Syndicates form for particular purposes in very flexible ways and may dissolve once the immediate purpose, such as a major heroin importation, has been achieved. Alternatively they may re-form with altered membership for another purpose. Individuals may claim to be members of one triad at one time, and a different triad on a later occasion. The strength of a particular triad may be perceived to increase as particular successful criminals use it to facilitate their activities, and may rapidly decline if these criminals are arrested, retire or shift to another triad. In other words, this view suggests that Australian triads have little enduring strength, continuity of power, or inherent organisation.
4.28 In describing the role of Chinese in 'major and organised crime in Australia', the February 1994 Report of the Review of Commonwealth Law Enforcement Arrangements, focused on the triads, note#47 although it did note that not all organised criminal activity undertaken by people from Chinese backgrounds could be attributed to the triad societies. note#48 In listing the criminal groups and activities upon which it thought the National Crime Authority should focus, the Review Report listed 'Chinese Triad Societies' rather than using an expression such as 'Chinese organised crime groups'. note#49
4.29 Too much, perhaps, should not be read into the expression used. Nonetheless, the Committee found this approach by the Review somewhat puzzling, given the preponderant view (set out above) that concentration on triad societies and membership in them is of only limited value in understand and tackling ethnic-Chinese organised criminal activity. It is interesting to contrast the Review's approach with an April 1994 statement by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation setting out the main international organised crime/drug enterprises that it regards as a major threat to United States society. On Asian organised crime, the statement does not refer to triad societies at all, but defines the groups as follows:
Asian Criminal Enterprises - the groups which pose the greatest threats are:
- Chinese criminal enterprises, such as criminally-influenced Tongs and their affiliated street gangs, which control illegal gambling, loansharking, and extortion activities in many Asian communities.
- Multi-ethnic Asian drug trafficking groups which smuggle Southeast·Asian heroin into the United States.
- Independent Asian gangs with international, national, or regional influence, including violent Chinese and Vietnamese gangs that are transient in nature.note#50
4.30 Justice Stewart told the Committee in 1988 that the NCA had not been able, due to lack of resources, to look at Chinese organised crime in any depth outside Sydney. However, it had evidence which strongly supported the conclusion that Chinese organised crime was just as entrenched in Melbourne as it was in Sydney, and that there was a strong Western Australian connection too. He suggested that wherever there was a Chinese community there would be some organised extortion. note#51
4.31 The South Australian Police Commissioner, Mr David Hunt, said in September 1994 that there was no direct evidence of triad activity in South Australia, although the number of Chinese prostitutes in Chinese-owned massage parlours had increased. note#52
4.32 In relation to the geographical scope of drug trafficking, an intelligence assessment in 1991 stated that:
Intelligence reports suggest strongly that, for most consignments of heroin, Sydney is the main destination point, with importation taking place either in Sydney itself or, on occasion, in other gateway airports for subsequent movement within the domestic transportation system across the country to Sydney. Border interdiction results from law enforcement operations show, likewise, a higher level of detections in Sydney than at any other port in Australia. note#53
4.33 Of the 33.667 kg of heroin seized at the Customs barrier in 1993, just over half (17.576 kg) was seized in NSW. note#54 Data for total seizures (ie. at the barrier and elsewhere in Australia) for 1993 also show the dominance of Sydney: of the 115.8 kg of heroin seized, 90 kg was seized in New South Wales. note#55To the extent that ethnic-Chinese groups dominate the import of heroin, this gives some measure of the distribution of their activities, although the figures fluctuate from year to year. Thus a single seizure of 71.6 kg in Sydney in 1993 accounts for nearly 80 per cent of the total seized in NSW during 1993. A single importation of over 120 kg that was seized in Darwin in September 1994 will similarly have a distorting effect on the 1994 figures.
4.34 In addition, point of seizure is, of course, not necessarily a reliable guide to where the importer is based. In September 1994 an operation involving the AFP and other agencies resulted in the seizure of 37.5 kg of heroin in Perth and another 11 kg in Adelaide. note#56 According to media reports, police believed the heroin originated in the Golden Triangle. It had been imported into Australia on a bulk-carrier through the port of Geraldton by Chinese seamen recruited in southern China and Hong Kong. Police thought that the entire shipment was destined for Sydney and was organised by a Sydney-based group with links to Hong Kong and Canada. Those arrested included Chinese nationals resident in Australia, Hong Kong nationals and Chinese-Canadians.
4.35 The observation was made above (para. 4.7) that much of the heroin importation by Chinese criminal groups is directed towards supplying other, non-Chinese, groups for their own distribution networks. As an illustration, a former Queensland Criminal Justice Commission officer was reported in February 1994 as having said that Chinese heroin importers were the source for an ethnic-Romanian drug distribution network on Australia's eastern seaboard. note#57
4.36 The Western Australia Police Deputy Commissioner, Mr Les Ayton, was recently reported as saying: 'An emerging threat is the cooperation that is developing between Chinese and Italian organised groups (that are) complementing each other with their knowledge of importation practices and distribution networks'. note#58However, the Committee is not aware of other evidence for the emergence of this threat.
4.37 The extent of organised criminal connections between Vietnamese, Vietnamese-born Chinese (Sino-Vietnamese) and other Chinese is unclear. In 1988, Justice Stewart told the Committee that there was some evidence that Chinese organised criminals were using ethnic-Vietnamese as 'foot-soldiers'. note#59 There is more recent evidence that suggests that the Vietnamese are no longer so ready to adopt subordinate roles.
4.38 Deputy Commissioner Ayton recently said: 'Vietnamese criminals, initially, were used by Chinese organised crime for use as couriers and as part of the distribution network. There is good intelligence and anecdotal evidence that the Vietnamese (criminals) are now emerging as major importers of heroin.' note#60 Mr Ayton also said that Vietnamese criminals were acting in concert with Chinese criminals in serious and widespread credit card fraud. He said counterfeit credit cards were being manufactured in Hong Kong and were readily available in Australia to organised crime groups.
4.39 The Australian Federal Police Annual Report 1992-93, p. 57 noted: 'A national intelligence project into Chinese organised crime continued. Research in Sydney has been widened to focus on the Vietnamese and Sino-Vietnamese gangs engaged in heroin trafficking and money laundering.' The NCA's most recent annual report states that NCA investigations in Melbourne had 'identified a Sino-Vietnamese group involved in heroin importation, distribution and other offences'.note#61
4.40 A January 1994 media report referred to the activities of the Criminal Justice Commission and stated:
It is suspected that members of the Vietnamese community may have criminal links to members of the Chinese community in Brisbane. Because of the increasingly noticeable criminal activities of the ethnic Chinese from Vietnam as well as native Vietnamese, a CJC intelligence project has been launched to embrace total Asian crime in Queensland ... note#62
4.41 On the other hand, another recent media report cited an unnamed 'senior Perth academic' as saying that the Vietnamese and Chinese had been fighting for dominance in the Perth heroin market. note#63 The report said in the previous two years the wholesale price of heroin in Perth had dropped from $15,000 an ounce to about $8,000 while the strength (purity) on offer had doubled. Police considered it was plausible to attribute this to the effect of the competition.
4.42 Law enforcement agencies have a legitimate concern that their task will be made more difficult if different groups of organised criminals work together - if for example, the triads form alliances with Italian or Vietnamese organised crime groups. The inconclusive reports that this may be occurring are, however, open to more than one interpretation. They may be no more than a reflection of the view set out above - that much that might be attributed to triad activity is more accurately seen as the work of temporary syndicates and networking by individuals. In the context of this view, alliances with non-triad groups are just further evidence of the opportunistic and ad hoc nature of those who use the triad label.
4.43 Some years ago concerns began to be expressed that the return of Hong Kong to the control of the People's Republic of China in 1997 would lead to an exodus of triad members. It was feared that those leaving would try to establish themselves in criminal activities in countries such as Australia, note#64 although this view was not unanimous. note#65 However, the February 1994 Report of the Review of Commonwealth Law Enforcement Arrangements (para. 4.50) presented a different view:
While there had been concern that there would be an exodus of Triad members from Hong Kong to Australia in the lead up to 1997, it now seems probable that the Triads have already established themselves in southern China and that they are mostly unconcerned about the return to PRC rule.
4.44 It seems that the economic boom in China, especially the part nearest Hong Kong, combined with greater economic freedom in China, have presented attractive opportunities for Hong Kong-based organised criminals. There are media reports of increased triad activity in China, especially in the coastal areas, and in November 1994 China's Justice Minister said that the re-emergence of the triads in China was posing a serious threat to its social stability. note#66
(continue to start of section 5)
(return to table of contents)
4. See for example United States Senate, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations of the Committee on Foreign Relations, Recent Developments in Transnational Crime Affecting U.S. Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy, Hearings, 21 April 1994 (US Gov. Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1994), p. 123 where Bill Olson, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Narcotics and a Fellow at the National Strategy Centre set out what he regarded as five major characteristics of international organised crime:
... Fifth, such groups are generally ethnically based. This is a particular advantage when groups begin to operate beyond their original homes or in multi-ethnic societies. By relying on a closed community of people who speak the same language and have cultural clues about identity that outsiders cannot penetrate easily, such groups developed added protection against penetration by law enforcement.
5. Australian Federal Police, Annual Report 1992-93, p. 58. See also "Police follow drug trail to Russia", Canberra Times, 24 July 1993, p. 16.
6. See Review of Commonwealth Law Enforcement Arrangements, February 1994, AGPS, Canberra, paras. 4.56 - 4.59 for a brief description. See also "Australia the main target for Lebanese drug exports", Australian, 29 March 1994 (reporting claim by Lebanese Interior Ministry referring to cannabis and cocaine, as well as heroin).
7. See for example the evidence of the United States Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division, Robert S. Mueller, before the US Senate, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Governmental Affairs, Asian Organized Crime, Hearing, 6 November 1991 (US Gov. Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1992), p. 167:
Let me speak for a moment about the Asian organized crime problem in this country. It, in essence, consists of 4 major groups: first, Chinese organized crime, including triads, criminally-influenced tongs, and street gangs; second, the Japanese criminal society known as the Boryokudan, or "Yakuza"; third, Vietnamese organized crime, which largely consists of street gangs; and, lastly, Korean gangs, some of which are closely associated with the Boryokudan.
8. For two recent contributions see: P. Dickie and P. Wilson, "Defining Organised Crime: An Operational Perspective", Current Issues in Criminal Justice, vol. 4, no. 3, March 1993, p. 215; and D. Greaves and S. Pinto, "Redefining Organised Crime: Commentary on a Recent Paper by Phil Dickie and Paul Wilson", Current Issues in Criminal Justice, vol. 5, no. 2, November 1993, p. 218.
9. National Crime Authority, Corporate Plan July 1993 - June 1996, AGPS, Canberra, 1993, p. 22.
10. G. Wardlaw, "Conceptual Frameworks of Organised Crime Useful Tools or Academic Irrelevancies?", paper delivered at the Australian Institute of Criminology's Organised Crime Conference, Canberra, 5-7 September 1989, p. 4.
11. See for example, para. 4.38 below and "Triads strike on gold cards", Sunday Mail (Brisbane), 23 October 1994, p. 34. See also United States Senate, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Governmental Affairs, The New International Criminal and Asian Organized Crime, Report, December 1992 (US Gov. Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1993), pp. 44-45 (footnote omitted):
Losses resulting from counterfeit credit card activity have risen dramatically over the past few years. Technological innovations during the mid-1980's managed to stem a previous spurt of counterfeiting, but the criminal sophistication of Chinese criminal groups based in Hong Kong has led to a notable resurgence of credit card counterfeiting in the past few years. Hong Kong-based counterfeiting rings were responsible for as much as 40 percent of the total worldwide counterfeit credit card losses of about $200 million in 1991. While much of the actual counterfeiting is done in such locales as Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia, the counterfeit cards are now being used in Europe, Australia, and North America as well.
12. See para. 5.12 below in the context of discussion of Vietnamese street gangs.
13. G. Wardlaw, D. McDowell and J. Schmidt, Australia's Illegal Drug Problem: A Strategic Intelligence Assessment, (A paper prepared by The Criminal Environment Assessment Unit), April 1991, Attorney-General's Department, Canberra, para. 5.11.
14. Australian Federal Police, "Australia's Relations with Thailand: An AFP Perspective", September 1994 (a submission from the AFP to the Foreign Affairs Sub-Committee of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade), p. 4.
15. "Chinese Triads behind '86 pc of heroin seized'", Australian, 13 July 1988, p. 3. Note that the headline uses the figure 86% while the body of the story uses 96%.
16. G. Wardlaw, D. McDowell and J. Schmidt, Australia's Illegal Drug Problem: A Strategic Intelligence Assessment, (A paper prepared by The Criminal Environment Assessment Unit), April 1991, Attorney-General's Department, Canberra, para. 5.35.
17. "Asian crime gangs lead heroin imports", The Weekend Australian, 20-21 November 1993, p. 3
18. New South Wales, Report of the New South Wales Crime Commission for the year ended 30 June 1993, p. 16.
19. Australian Federal Police, "Australia's Relations with Thailand: An AFP Perspective", September 1994 (a submission from the AFP to the Foreign Affairs Sub-Committee of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade), p. 4.
20. New South Wales, Report of the Crime Commission for the year ended 30 June 1992, para. 2.76.
21. G. Wardlaw, D. McDowell and J. Schmidt, Australia's Illegal Drug Problem: A Strategic Intelligence Assessment, (A paper prepared by The Criminal Environment Assessment Unit), April 1991, Attorney-General's Department, Canberra, para. 5.40.
22. United States Senate, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Governmental Affairs, The New International Criminal and Asian Organized Crime, Report, December 1992 (US Gov. Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1993), pp. 3-6, 10-11.
23. United States Senate, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations of the Committee on Foreign Relations, Recent Developments in Transnational Crime Affecting U.S. Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy, Hearings, 20 April 1994 (US Gov. Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1994), p. 7.
24. Text of a public statement, 22 June 1988, reproduced in the NCA's Annual Report 1987-88, p. 66.
25. ABC TV, 7.30 Report, 24 October 1988 (transcript, p. 5).
26. For example, see "Chinese Triads behind '86 pc of heroin seized'", Australian, 13 July 1988, p. 3; "The story of a Chinese mafia", Melbourne Herald, 23 August 1988, p. 13; "The day of the Triads: Hong Kong's gangs move in on Australia", Newsweek, 8 November 1988.
27. "Big Circle Gang a maverick group", The Age, 13 May 1989, p. 4.
28. Channel Nine, Sixty Minutes, 23 June 1991 (transcript, p. 2).
29. "How Australian cops snared the triad's diplomat couriers", Sydney Morning Herald, 11 May 1991, p. 45; "The Asian Connection" The Bulletin, 2 April 1991, p. 86.
30. "The Asian Connection" The Bulletin, 2 April 1991, pp. 86, 87.
31. "Police report predicts rise in Asian crime", The Age, 10 August 1992, p. 1.
32. United States Senate, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Governmental Affairs, The New International Criminal and Asian Organized Crime, Report, December 1992 (US Gov. Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1993), pp. 9, 10, 11.
33. "Triads linked to Australia", West Australian, 7 September 1994, p. 7 citing "FBI documents".
34. "Police tell of triad push", Herald Sun, 14 September 1994, p. 10.
35. See for example R.J. Kelly, Ko-Lin Chin and J.A. Fagan, "The dragon breathes fire: Chinese organized crime in New York City", Crime, Law and Social Change, vol. 19, 1993, p. 258: "By emulating Triad initiation rites and internalizing Triad norms and values, they [gang members] can claim a certain traditional legitimacy within their communities. This folkloric benediction elevates them above the kind of simple street thug and enables them to instill a level of fear that no other ethnic gangs can match."
36. "Cut out the theatrics, 'good' Triad tells police", Australian, 19 November 1988, p. 4.
37. Parliamentary Joint Committee on the National Crime Authority, in camera Hansard, 27 November 1992, p. 87.
38. "Terror as Asian gangs rule the streets", Sun-Herald, 30 May 1993, pp. 12-13.
39. United States Senate, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Governmental Affairs, The New International Criminal and Asian Organized Crime, Report, December 1992 (US Gov. Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1993), p. 29.
40. More recent reports suggest that there has been a significant shift in the trafficking route, with only about half the heroin traffic passing through Thailand, with a significant proportion now going through China: "Pusher With A Cause", Far Eastern Economic Review, 20 January 1994, p. 26.
41. United States Senate, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Governmental Affairs, Asian Organized Crime: The New International Criminal, Hearing, 4 August 1992 (US Gov. Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1992), pp. 67-68 (Evidence of D. Cohen, Associate Deputy Director for Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency).
42. NCA, Shamrock Report, April 1991 quoted in a paper by the NCA Intelligence Branch, Progress Report to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on the National Crime Authority on the Chinese Organised Crime National Initiative, December 1992, para. 11.
44. P. Dickie and P. Wilson, "Defining Organised Crime: An Operational Perspective", Current Issues in Criminal Justice, vol. 4, no. 3, March 1993, p. 222.
45. I. Dobinson, "Pinning a Tail on the Dragon: The Chinese and the International Heroin Trade", Crime & Delinquency, vol. 39, no. 3, July 1993, p. 374.
50. United States Senate, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations of the Committee on Foreign Relations, Recent Developments in Transnational Crime Affecting U.S. Law Enforcement and Foreign Relations, Hearings, 20 April 1994 (US Gov. Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1994), p. 81 (prepared statement, incorporated in the transcript, of James Frier, Deputy Assistant Director, Criminal Division, FBI). The statement also lists yakuza gangs and eurasian gangs (ie. from the former Soviet Union). Later in the statement (p. 83) the term "multi-ethnic Asian drug trafficking organizations" is expanded:
These groups are often comprised of Chinese, Thai and other Asian criminals, who frequently use their current or past membership in Triads, criminally-influenced Tongs, or gangs to facilitate their activities. These loosely organized groups are global in nature and scope, and are involved in the production, transportation, distribution, and money laundering aspects of international heroin trafficking.
51. Parliamentary Joint Committee on the National Crime Authority, in camera Hansard, 3 June 1988, p. 578.
52. "Fear of gang ties to prostitution", Advertiser, 22 September 1994, p. 9.
53. G. Wardlaw, D. McDowell and J. Schmidt, Australia's Illegal Drug Problem: A Strategic Intelligence Assessment, (A paper prepared by The Criminal Environment Assessment Unit), April 1991, Attorney-General's Department, Canberra, para. 5.27.
54. See Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence, Australian Drug Intelligence Assessment 1993, p. 35.
56. See "Arrests, drug seizure have hurt gang: police", West Australian, 24 September 1994, p. 31; "WA gateway for heroin", Sunday Times, 25 September 1994, pp. 1, 2; and "Massive hauls of high-grade heroin", Sunday Mail (Brisbane), 25 September 1994, pp. 12-13. A report subsequent to completion of this discussion paper indicated that the heroin was originally destined for Canada, and a last-minute change of destination by the ship resulted in the heroin coming to Australia: "Heroin trio face life in jail", West Australian, 10 December 1994, p. 6.
57. "Chinese import drug, Romanians control it", Sunday Mail (Brisbane), 13 February 1994, p. 13.
58. "Triads linked to Australia", West Australian, 7 September 1994, p. 4.
59. Parliamentary Joint Committee on the National Crime Authority, in camera Hansard, 3 June 1988, p. 578.
60. "Triads linked to Australia", West Australian, 7 September 1994, p. 4.
61. NCA, Annual Report 1993-94, p. 30.
62. "CJC probes ethnic links to cocaine, heroin", The Weekend Australian, 1-2 January 1994, p. 3.
63. "Cheap Asian heroin blamed for deaths", West Australian, 8 September 1994, p. 10.
64. See for example, NCA, Annual Report 1987-88, p. 66 (report of 22 June 1988 public statement by the NCA's Chairperson, Justice D. Stewart); M. Booth,The Triads, Grafton Books, London, 1990, pp. 137-38, 148-49; "Police report predicts rise in Asian crime", The Age, 10 August 1992, p. 1.
65. See for example, United States Senate, Committee on the Judiciary and the Caucus on International Narcotics Control, U.S. International Drug Policy - Asian Gangs, Heroin and the Drug Trade, Joint Hearing, 21 August 1990, p. 16 (statement of R.M. Bryant, FBI):
One theory puts forth the idea that the triads will basically leave Hong Kong and come to other countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia, whatever. The second theory held by the Royal Hong Kong Police is that they will remain in Hong Kong and exist under the People's Republic of China.
66. "Crackdown urged on rising organised crime", South China Morning Post 29 November 1994, p. 16. See also "Criminals know no boundaries", Sydney Morning Herald, 15 September 1994, p. 15:
Senior criminal intelligence officers in the Hong Kong police believe that the biggest of the Triad gangs, the Sun Yee On, which is thought to have more than 30,000 members in the British colony, now has a stranglehold on the government of Guangdong Province [in mainland China] which boasts one of the world's fastest growing economies.
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Aldios Hitler- Father of Adolph Hitler and Son of a Rothschild
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
The authors' wake up each morning quite surprised they are still breathing.
The Spymaster has worked in a background of undeclared hostilities over many years. He has gone undercover amongst Nazis, Communists, Marxists and some of the most vicious gangs of criminals in New Zealand. Several times other people have been killed in his place in cases of mistaken identity. The Spymaster has been arrested more times than he can remember and by more outfits than he can remember. He has been on both sides of enforcement operations. He has an in-depth knowledge of offenders in New Zealand and is often sought out by people in high places. Former Prime Minister Rob Muldoon once said of him: "If St Peter ever made a mistake and let you into heaven, there'd be a fistfight in the first five minutes".
Greg Hallett trained in various psychological models in parallel with his architecture degree and training. He travelled widely behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War, hitchhiking on planes, making bunks out of airmail bags, to party and report between cities. His contacts in Eastern Europe led to deep penetration of the Soviet State, how it functioned and how it was to colonise the West. It was these qualifications that led him to buy buildings in Moscow immediately after the Berlin Wall fell. This led to interviews with the KGB and their revelations about the planned sex-communism and deconstruction of Westerners. What they had planned for the West happened in the West. Equally all modern history can be dated back to 1945. What Hitler planned for the world happened to the world over the next sixty years.
When Hallett teamed up with the Spymaster they found they had many of the insights and historical answers to many of the controversies of Europe from WWII to the Cold War and the present . . . not completely disregarding aspects of the future.
In listening to each other's stories they noticed a lot of common ground and have attempted to lay this bare.
"Take of it what you will. We don't expect you to reject sixty years of official history overnight, but we do expect you to view it with new-found suspicion."
"Any serious attempt at the truth creates controversy and we expect Hitler Was A British Agent
to be considered as the most expedient option of creating war."
The Spymaster says that he will often go on operations and end up in entirely the wrong place with the wrong people at the wrong time, but always much wiser. Through such coincidences, history is often more explicable to the ordinary man than a lot of complicated analysis. We found "filling-in-the-gaps analysis" to be a primary cause of ill-informed history. As such, Hallett and the Spymaster have teamed up to give you riveting insights into how the enemies of war are created and how enemies work together to prolong and expand wars.
The authoritative and unique insider's look at Hitler outlines his missing year, his British psychological training and financial support, his British-linked minders, and the British sabotage of the Hitler assassination attempts. It outlines in great detail, Operation WINNIE THE POOH, Hitler's escape out of Berlin on 2 May 1945, who he flew with, what planes he caught, their serial numbers, where he flew to, who greeted him, where he spent the remainder of his life and what he eventually died of.
WWII has passed its 60-year suppression rule.
Despite this, information coming out about WWII is still controlled as it reflects on how the current wars are carried out.
File theft is such common practise it is a forerunner to any elevation.
Two Intelligence agencies have regularly stolen Hitler was a British Agent and "it has been read at the highest levels" during the final phases of writing. As quickly as it was written it was stolen, and in August 2005 word got back that they would let it out. This came with further inside information and at least one historical act.
STOMPING ON OLD CHESTNUTS
This is a whole new and unique look at all the old chestnuts surrounding Adolf Hitler's rise to power. The author uses the personal assistance of a Spymaster in marshalling much new material surrounding Hitler's origins, his sexuality, and his British Training, long hidden by a conspiracy of British and American political leaders. He takes an in depth look at the British Royal Family and finds them wanting, full of spies, perverts, and morons, with the morons being the least dangerous.
He delves into the James Bond myths and finds the true James Bond was a lot younger and more homicidal than anyone had previously thought. He interview James Bond III on one of the last 'hits' on Adolf Hitler, well after his official death.
He also provides a new take on the mystery surrounding Rudolph Hess. An amazing thought-provoking study from the already detail history of Hess. State secrets abound on nearly every page.
Greg Hallett: "I interviewed the KGB in Moscow in December 1989 at a point when they were open, due to lack of pay. At the time you could buy information for the price of a meal. This led to some psychological information being supplied which led to international contacts and meeting with a Spymaster. The Spymaster and other intelligence operatives have been briefing me for the past three years resulting in ten books. This is book five of ten (and just to confuse you) there are four books in this immediate series."
Hitler was a British Agent covers Hitler's incestuous parentage, his training in Britain, his sex with men, his bizarre sexual habits with women, including fake suicides and murders made to look like suicides. It delves into Hitler's psychiatric condition and how, during his missing year, he was manipulated by 'deconstruction' to perform as a British Agent, that is, an agent for the British war machine.
The book covers Hess and doppelgänger Hess' simultaneous flight to Britain, Anthony Blunt's conception by a royal, Wallis Simpson's sexual practises with King Edward VIII and how she leaked British secrets to Hitler.
Hitler was a British Agent covers Operation JAMES BOND to remove Martin Bormann out of Berlin and exposes for the first time Operation WINNIE THE POOH to remove Hitler out of Berlin. It reveals that the origins of the Cold War were in the hunt for the missing Hitler from 1 May 1945 and this became the excuse for surveillance in virtually every country in the world. Hitler was a British Agent leaves an air that everything that happens now, happens because of 1945.
In the 18 chapters it covers the masterful deceptions of war, the creation of war, the training of top level double agents, the repeated faking of their deaths and their escapes, making this book something of an illusion-buster with applications to the analysis of war now and formulas for the time in between wars. The book explains how the 'real' history applies to the 'real' present.
Many intelligence officers were interviewed in writing this book and they have given the low-down on what really happened in the many wars from 1936. In some cases, they, or their fathers, were the main players in the vignettes. These personal histories date back to the Spanish Civil War with George Orwell and redefine the origins of Animal Farm.
Hitler Was A British Agent is full of Intelligence jokes.
On 2 July 2008 Greg Hallett lodged a Notice of General Appeal citing Helen Clark's attempted murders and murder.
Please note if any of the videos do not play on this page please go to
where they will be active
http://usaweekendnews.com/CIA_Sell_Drugs_MediaLies.html
Reporting News the Main Media Refuses to Touch…
Ex C.I.A. agent breaks it down for american media and public on CNN. Shows documentation on drug dealing money laundering C.I.A.
This man, Michael Ruppert is telling the truth!!! I have done some more research on the topics he speaks of and our nation will be in peril if we do not elect Ron Paul. Ron Paul will lead this country to success and offer our citizens more freedom.
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?147215-The-CIA-selling-drugs
Related posts:
http://www.livevideo.com/video/CD44598ABA2941F294F5CE4CC03F8200/cia-selling-drugs-in-south-cen.aspx
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| Geographic activities | |
| Transnational activities | |
| Divisions |
The U.S. military invasion of Panama after which dictator Manuel Noriega was captured.
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| Allegiance | United States |
|---|---|
| Service/branch | United States Army |
| Years of service | 1944 – 1946 |
| Unit | 513th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 17th Airborne Division |
| Battles/wars | World War II *Battle of the Bulge *Operation Varsity |
| Awards | Bronze Star World War II Victory Medal |
Were the Bronfmans involved?
 Two important lessons to learn from the 9/11 attack:
1) The 9/11 "truth seekers" who get publicity or promotion are protecting the Zionists; they are trying to deceive, control, and manipulate. The JFK assassination seems to be exactly the same. Virtually all of the JFK "researchers" who get publicity are Zionist Deniers. Ignore the primary JFK investigators
If there are any honest researchers in the JFK assassination, they are certainly in the same situation as Bollyn and Hufschmid; namely, they are ignored by most of the JFK investigators.
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| Mark Lane, a Jewish lawyer who works with the American Free Press, has written books about the Kennedy assassination, and he was involved in the legal cases of other suspicious events.
However, the evidence suggests that Mark Lane is actually a Zionist who pretends to protect the Goyim:
• Bollyn-MarkLane.html • AmericanDeceptionPress.html |
 I love Goyim” |
| Who might have been shooting at JFK?
Mary Moorman took a photograph of Kennedy as he drove by. A news reporter named Featherstone was extremely concerned about this photograph, and he took it from her. (If you have my book, Painful Questions, an Analysis of the September 11 Attack, you can find a description of this on page 143 under the title America's Free Press is a Disgrace)
If you realize that the Zionists are dominating the media, you must consider that Featherstone realized that Mary Moorman was in a location to get a photo of very critical evidence that would expose the Kennedy assassination as a scam. Apparently, it did not contain any damaging evidence, so he eventually returned it to her.
The photograph does not have much detail. The center portion of her photo is below, and a higher resolution, full size version is here.
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| In the upper right corner of the Moorman photo, standing on the light-colored concrete wall, are Abraham Zapruder and a woman who is holding him steady as he films the assassination.
As I imply in my book, Zapruder wanted the woman to hold him steady because he was concerned that the numerous loud gunshots would cause him to tremble.
A PDF file of the 2 chapters on Kennedy are here:
Hufschmid-Kennedy-chapters-only.pdf (these chapters are actually my initial reaction to the Warren report, not an analysis of the JFK killing): The Americans consider that day to be a tragedy, but to the Zionists it was just another successful event in the development of Israel and their takeover of the USA.
They wanted it documented for their historical records. Zapruder was equivalent to those five dancing Israelis who were documenting the event of September 11.
Info about the dancing Israelis: Bollyn-dancing-Israelis.html A higher quality photograph of the same scene taken by a different photographer a few seconds earlier than the Mary Moormon photo is in a book by Robert Groden:
www.jfkmurder.com/home.html The important section of his photo is below:
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| Zapruder and the women are in the upper right corner, but in this photograph are two figures which appear to be men wearing hats standing behind the concrete wall.
Robert Groden's book has a photo (below) of a man reenacting the scene to show how the men would stand behind the concrete wall. This also shows that they had a nice view of the street.
 |
| Zapruder was standing close to these two men, and as he moved the camera to follow Kennedy down the street, it appears that one of the men can be seen in some of the frames.
At the bottom of frame # 413 of Zapruder's film, there appears to be a man with a hat among the vegetation (green arrow):
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| Robert Groden's book has a photo taken from Zapruder's position to help us understand frame # 413. By comparing the light poles and the signs on the light poles, you can see that the vegetation has been trimmed. Below is a close-up, and below that is a wide shot. |
| The witnesses to the assassination describe lots of gunshots, which implies there was more than one shooter.
Also, in my chapters on Kennedy in my book, I point out that most of the witnesses were certain that the shots were coming from this area, and that the witnesses said police were looking for bullet shells in that area.
It would appear that one or both of the two men behind the concrete wall may have been shooters. But who were they?
I cannot verify the following speculations. I put them out in the hope so that other people will come forward with information to verify or disprove them.
Was Lee Harvey Oswald in Mexico?
The official story says that Lee Harvey Oswald visited the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City.
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This man is supposed to be Oswald at the Soviet Embassy in Mexico. |
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| Robert Groden's book about Oswald has the photograph below of Jack Ruby's Carousel Club. |
| On the right side -- a close-up is below -- some people think the man #1 is Clyde Forshaw, the nephew of Jack Forshaw, and that he is worried about the photographer taking his photo.
Man #2 is Jack Ruby (yellow box shows Ruby in a similar position for comparison), and #3 is the Oswald double, not the Oswald who was arrested for the killing.
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| If the accusations are true that these two men are Clyde and Jack Forshaw from Toronto, that means some of the main assassins were brought in from Toronto, not France, Russia, or the CIA.
By the way, some people think Clyde was the man who shot officer Tippit.
Furthermore, since the Forshaws supposedly work for organized crime, not government agencies, then everybody who blames the assassination on the American government is either mistaken or deliberately lying.
Which of the many thousands of theories on JFK are correct? We may never know, but learn from 9/11: be suspicious of the people who are getting promotion as JFK investigators.
The mysterious plane crash of JFK Jr.
If the Toronto connection is correct, then we may have an explanation of what happened to JFK Jr.'s airplane.
On July 12, JFK Jr. flew his private plane to the small Buttonville Airport outside of Toronto to meet with officials of Magna International Inc., including vice-president Keith Stein and Belinda Stronach, daughter of the company's founder, Frank Stronach.
www.cbc.ca/world/story/1999/07/19/pilot990719.html |
Frank Stronach supposedly arrived in America with no money. Today he is a billionaire in auto parts and horseracing. |
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Some newspapers were wondering about the relationship between Bill Clinton and Frank Stronach's daughter Belinda, such as this. She also denied other relationships, such as thiswith hockey player Tie Domi.
Why would an American president associate with billionaire families who have such suspicious friends and behavior?
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| The gambling businesses have always attracted organized crime, so we should consider the possibility that Stronach is involved in a crime network.
If Stronach's company is involved in organized crime, why would Kennedy fly to Toronto to meet with them? The official story is that Stronach was considering investing in Kennedy's magazine, which was not profitable.
Four days later, as he was flying his little airplane from the Essex County Airport in Fairfield, New Jersey back to his home city, the airplane crashed into the ocean. There are accusations that the tail of the plane broke off, although the official story is that Kennedy was a lousy pilot, at least compared to the pros, such as Hani Hanjour, who crashed into the Pentagon.
Here is the speculation I need help verifying:
• Frank Stronach and Keith Stein are involved in organized crime, and at a very high level. If this scenario is true, who would have hired the Forshaws? We many never know, but we should consider that the Bronfmans are one of the key decision makers. The Bronfman family is from Canada, and they initially became rich from their Seagram Company, which sells liquor.
The Bronfmans worked with Meyer Lansky and lots of other Jewish criminals, such as Arnold Rothstein, who owned gambling casinos in New York.
 By the way, some people believe Rothstein has a relative, Murray, who changed his name to "Sumner Redstone" to hide the connection. We are foolishly allowing a member of this criminal gang to influence our view of the world.Joe Kennedy was also involved in the sale of alcohol, but he was a rival with the Bronfman and Lansky gang.
Now consider that the rumors are true that John and Robert Kennedy:
• did not want to be part of organized crime; actually, they wanted to arrest the criminals. Even if only some of these rumors are true, you can see that there would be thousands of Zionists and other criminals who would want to kill the Kennedys. The Bronfman family rules over a large Zionist criminal enterprise. Toronto seems to be a center for organized crime, and not just Jewish gangs, but Italian, Vietnamese, and who knows how many others.
The Bronfmans have had decades of experience with crime, so they are easily capable of arranging complex murders. They also control a lot of politicians, such as the McCain family, and their Zionist friends in the media will help cover up their crimes.
They always “Blame the Gooooys!”
Most of the 9/11 truth seekers and Kennedy investigators blame the Goyim.... the Goy in the CIA, the Goy in the Pentagon, the Goy in the New World Order.
Over and over and over, it's always the same story. “The Goy did it!”
But the evidence shows that it's the Zionists in the Pentagon, the Zionists in the FBI, the Zionists in the media, the Zionists in the government.
We are suckers, fools, jerks, and losers if we continue to allow these Zionists to instigate wars, blow up levees in New Orleans, and fabricate Holocaust stories. Are the police or citizens ever going to get fed up with organized crime?
If the citizens would stop going to horse races, strip clubs, and movie theaters, and if they would stop buying newspapers, magazines, and drugs, they could drive these criminal gangs into financial difficulty, and then maybe the hired assassins would turn on their masters.
Investigate Toronto's crime network
Toronto has a lot of wealth
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Red Ice Creations did an interesting interview recently with Sophia Stewart: The true mother of the Matrix.
I'm happy to report a fresh new podcast on the horizon that is shaping up to be something original and different.
Jan Irvin at Gnostic Media has created another great show with hisrecent conversation/interview with psychedelic researcher and author Dr James Fadiman.
I've been drawn to the work of John Bedini and the amazing results he's achieved with magnetic pendulums and motors. With any luck I'll have some real world results to share in the coming months in my attempt to learn more about this mysterious power and how I can put it to use on our little farm here as an energy source for my new deer deterrent contraption.
from Robert Groden's book about Oswald. 
story. This was an energetic and enthusiastic young man Henrik had interviewed relating to some fascinating insight he had concerning the upcoming London Olympics and its strange logo. The story ends with the tragedy of Rik's suicide, which was followed by reports that the conditions around his death were suspicious. It's the kind of situation a big corporation would have exploited by implying all sorts of unsavory speculation with the motivation being to entice the listener to subscribe to hear the whole story. Red Ice did nothing of the kind. They made the subscriber portion of Rik Clay's interview available for free, which was a move that won me over and proved from where I'm standing that their intentions are pure and their honor is intact. Rest in peace, Rik.
REPTOIDS and the GREYS feed on your FEAR. Square houses, triangle roof tops, enable them to SUCK out your LIFE FORCE.
-BELLIAL LYING MEDIA still spinning the PsyWar - Wake UP! bellbullshit http://7thfire.biz/bellbullshit.htm
TREASONOUS INVADERS and DANGEROUS MURDERERS and RAPISTS. ...GET OFF OUR LAND! 
Join us for an excellent three part live program with Michael Tsarion, author of The Irish Origins of Civilization. We discuss the chronology of tyranny, timelines, the rise of empires around the world and we look back into history to discover the roots of tyranny and dictators. We begin the first segment to talk about the origins, the psychology of Akhenaton, the dragon court, Akhenaton as Moses, the origins of Monotheism, Freud, Solar Cultism, Amenism & Atenism, Egypt, the Bible, biblical characters as Pharaohs of Egypt, Sol Invictus, Zoroastrianism, Mithraism and much more. We begin the second segment to talk about the Exodus & the Hyksos. We then move on to discuss the Invasion of Atonism in Britain & Ireland. We talk about theKnights Templar and the Masons. We end the second segment to specifically look into the timelines, the dates of rise and fall of Empires, movements and invasions. In our final and third "bonus" segment we dive deeper into the Druidic and Irish symbolism that are prominent throughout the world today. We look at some of the symbols of Politics, Science, Christianity, Royalty, America, Nazi Germany, the UN and much more. Do not miss this program!
We are going to examine freemasonry, the roots, masonry and the connection to Judaism, symbolism, the Royal connections and the question of hierarchy. We'll look into: Catholic Orders and Fraternities, Holarchy versus Hierarchy, Imperialism Old and New, Colonization, The Rule of Psychopaths, Origin of the Jews, the Gaonim, the Sadducees, Zadokites, Essenes, Cistercians, Templars, Teutons, the etymology of the name David, the Dividers, Masonic Symbolism, the Twins, the Tree of Life Symbol. Further ahead in the series we'll discuss corruption and masonry and also the fascinating ripper case and the connection to masonry
MOONday 05 07 2012 =17=8 LONDON LIES, WASHINGTON WARS, ROMA's BLOOD SACRIFICES and ZIONs NEW WORLD ORDER
An ionospheric heater / A research tool / A military test bed
Do the Research. http://merlintm.eth7.com/haarp.html // http://www.bariumblues.com/haarp1.htm // http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Article/086839-2011-03-31-japans-earthquake-natural-or-engineered.htm // http://www.thelivingmoon.com/45jack_files/03files/HAARP_Project_Vandalism_In_The_Sky.html// http://www.davidicke.com/headlines/65051-geometric-modulation-increasing-the-power-of-haarp // http://rezn8d.net/2012/01/04/haarp-the-worlds-sexiest-energy-weapon/ // http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7561 // http://www.polar.umd.edu/haarp/haarp.html ///http://usahitman.com/madrid-haarp/ // http://prof77.wordpress.com/wtf/strange-satellite-image-downloaded-from-austrailian-weather-site/ //http://www.esotericonline.net/forum/topics/haarp
German Journalist Exposes Al Jazeera // HUMANS into ROBOTS with Chem Trails, Smart Meters, HAARP, Reproducing in CANDIDA // BAKING SODA Kills CANCER,1of2 Matches NC Dr 30years ago. He Cure his CANCER 5 days // How To Make Baking Soda Molasses Cancer Protocol Solutions // Cancer is finally cured in Canada but Big Pharma has no interest, watch it 'till the end! // Cancer the Forbidden Cures - Full Documentary // Secrets in Plain Sight 1-23 (Full video) /// Annunaki - Don't Watch this Film 480p semi-HD original version //
Emerald Isle to Egypt and back again full circle. Along the way we are introduced to the Druids and also to their destroyers, the Atonists. We discover the origins of the world's most powerful secret societies and the New World Order they labor to create. We discover secret facts about the royal dynasties of Britain and Europe, the Empire of Rome, and about Masonic influence in America. Featuring over 560 illustrations, and rare source material, this DVD series dramatically revolutionizes our view of history and explains what can be done to combat the tyrannical forces that have long conspired to undermine truth, freedom and justice. Also see http://www.michaeltsarion.com
SATURNday MAYDAY 05 05 2012 (5)= tonight. 555 SUPER MOON ! PRAY IT FORWARD
- According to media magnate and permanent Bilderberg member Conrad Black, the ban on reporters "makes discussion more intimate and candid. There are no massive indiscretions, but the exchanges can be quite heated." This is a polite way of saying that members can secretly speak their minds about whatever grandiose schemes of world conquest they envision themselves as having the divine right to exec ute, without fearing that their words will ever be heard by the public. "It was from Bilderberg that our company's eventual vocation as an international newspaper organization arose." This tactic is very similar to the Non-Attribution Rule used at Council on Foreign Relations meetings, which prevents statements made by attendees from being reported in the media. Many media CEOs, news anchors and influential members of the press fill seats in the CFR
- 30th May - 2nd June, CIBC Leadership Centre, Toronto, Canada http://www.bilderberg.org/bildlist.htm
The network today - After thousands of years of evolution, the reptilian network is now a vast and often unf athomable web of interconnecting secret societies, banks, businesses, political parties, secu rity agencies, media owners, and so on. But its basic structure and Agenda remains very simple.
Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy and the United States. These are the spiders in the web with the City of London, ‘New Troy’, the most important. From this centre the Global Agenda and policies are administered and their ‘branch managers’ introduce those policies in each country. So if it suits the Global Agenda to crash the US dollar, the Mexican peso, the South African rand, or the Far East stock-markets, the branch managers in those areas will take the action necessary to do that. http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/biggestsecret/biggestsecretbook/biggestsecret13.htm
2012 Predictions and future possible SUDDEN DEATHS - Death and Health Watch Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Swarzenhagger, Annette Funicello, Penny Marshall, Hillary Clinton, Doris Day, Dario Franchaetti, Clint Eastwood, Willie Nelson, Paul Tracey, Brittany Spears, Latoya Jackson, John Walsh, Steven Harper, Burt Reynolds, David Hasselhoff (The Hoff), Bernard Madoff, Ex-President Mubarak of Egypt, Rupert Murdoch, Mickey Rooney, Phyllis Diller, Carol Channing, Lauren Bacall, Loretta Lynn, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Billy Graham, Jerry Lewis, Kirk Douglas, Joanne Woodward, Debbie Reynolds, Barak Obama, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Dick Clark, Nelson Mandela, Larry King, Jimmy Carter, Barbara Bush, The Duke of Edinborough, Shirley Temple, Bob Barker, Keith Richards, Barry Manilow, Jackie Stallone, Charles Manson, Nancy Reagan, Ryan Seacrest, Leaders in Syria and Iran, Lindsay Lohan, Charlie Sheen, Bill Clinton, Howie Mandel, Hugh Hefner, Danny Glover, Betty White, Prime Minister of Australia, Woody Allen, Daniel Craig, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sharon Osborne, Michelle Williams, Heidi Montague, Dick Cheney, John Travolta, George Bush Sr., Regis Philbin, Robin Williams, Natalie Portman, George Bush Jr., Taylor Swift, Tony Bennett, David Letterman, Justin Beiber, Ru Paul, Selina Gomez, Tippi Hendren, Melanie Griffith, Mick Jagger, Ed Asner, Sean Coombs (Puff Diddy), Karl Lagerfield, Michael Douglas, Kreskin, Donald Trump, Cloris Leachman, Queen Elizabeth, Chaz Bono, Madonna, Pink, Harry Belafonte, Mary Tyler Moore, Princess Fergie, Shia La Bouef, Alice Cooper, Carol Burnett, Steven Tyler, Mark Anthony, Gordon Lightfoot, Avril Lavigne, Prime Minister of England, Chris Angel (Mindfreak), Ronnie Hawkins, 
Alex Trebek, Jay Leno, Paul McCartney, Anderson Cooper, Robert Evans, Barbara Streisand, Sir Richard Branson, Prince William, Prince Harry, Nicole Richie, Simon Cowell, David Copperfield, Desi Arnaz Jr., Ralph Lauren, and Ernest Borgnine.
ripping the PRIESTS APART LIMB BY LIMB on VATICAN HILL. ( Priests= POLITICIANS + PASTORS funded by $$$SIN and SATAN ) .
Prince WILL I AM arthur Pendragon and his SCARLET COUSIN KATE celebrate HITLER's and THEIR WEDDING ANNIVERSARY 04 29 2011
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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange outside Beccles
police station in Suffolk, which he has to visit every day as one of the
terms of his bail. Photograph: Paul Hackett/Reuters
WikiLeaks founder says it would be 'politically impossible' for Britain to extradite him to the US
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 23 December 2010
Julian Assange said today that it would be "politically impossible" for Britain to extradite him to the United States, and that the final word on his fate if he were charged with espionage would rest with David Cameron.
In an interview with the Guardian in Ellingham Hall, the Norfolk country mansion where he is living under virtual house arrest, the founder of WikiLeaks said it would be difficult for the prime minister to hand him over to the Americans if there was strong support for him from the British people.
"It's all a matter of politics. We can presume there will be an attempt to influence UK political opinion, and to influence the perception of our standing as a moral actor," he said.
Assange is currently fighting extradition to Sweden. He strongly denies allegations of sexual misconduct with two Swedish women. But he believes the biggest threat to his freedom and to WikiLeaks, his whistleblowing website, emanates from a wrathful United States.
There is no evidence of any imminent US move to indict him. But according to Assange, the Obama administration is "trying to strike a plea deal" with Bradley Manning, the 23-year-old intelligence officer and alleged source of the more than a quarter of a million US diplomatic cables embarrassingly leaked last month. The US attorney general, Eric Holder, wants to indict Assange as a co-conspirator and is also examining "computer hacking statutes and support for terrorism", Assange claims.
Sitting in front of a log fire, his Apple MacBook Pro perched on his lap, Assange said his recent nine-day spell in Wandsworth jail had prepared him for the possibility that he might spend a long period in prison if indicted by the US. He said the prospect of solitary confinement was no longer an "intellectual abstraction" but a reality. The high court bailed him to Norfolk last Thursday, with his extradition hearing scheduled for 6-7 February.
He said: "Solitary confinement is very difficult. But I know that provided there is some opportunity for correspondence I can withstand it. I'm mentally robust. Of course it would mean the end of my life in the conventional sense."
If the US succeeded in removing him from the UK or Sweden, Assange said there was a "high chance" of him being killed "Jack Ruby-style" in the US prison system.
Since moving to Ellingham Hall, a Georgian country house and organic farm owned by his friend and supporter Vaughan Smith, Assange has given numerous media interviews. But he said he was fed up with the press and described an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme – in which John Humphrys grilled him on how many people he had slept with – as "awful".
Assange also took issue with a lengthy report in Saturday's Guardian setting out the prosecution allegations against him in Sweden. Assange acknowledged that the Guardian had a right to publish the material, dealing with his alleged encounters with the women. But he said it had been "sub-selected" and not placed properly in context. Swedish prosecutors have demanded that he return to Sweden to face further questions about the allegations.
Assange also said WikiLeaks did not have enough money to pay its legal bills, even though "a lot of generous lawyers have donated their time to us". He said legal costs for WikiLeaks and his own defence were approaching £500,000. The decisions by Visa, MasterCard and PayPal to stop processing donations to WikiLeaks – apparently following US pressure – had robbed the website of a "war chest" of around €500,000, he complained. This would have been enough to fund WikiLeaks' publishing operations for six months. At its peak the organisation was receiving €100,000 a day, he said.
According to publishing sources, however, Assange can take cheer from the fact that he has secured a seven-figure advance for a book about WikiLeaks and his life story. The sources suggest he is likely to receive £250,000 himself, allowing him to pay off some of his debts and to settle his personal defence fund, currently "paralysed". The book is to be published in the spring by Knopf in the US and Canongate in the UK, the sources suggest.
Assange – who has to wear his electronic tag in the bath, and report every day to Beccles police station – confessed he has no idea where he will be in a year's time. He described the next chapter in his life as "not yet predictable.
"Legally the UK has the right to not extradite for political crimes. Espionage is the classic case of political crimes. It is at the discretion of the UK government as to whether to apply to that exception."
He argued that Cameron and Nick Clegg were in a stronger position than the previous, Labour government to resist his extradition by Washington. "There is a new government, which wants to show it hasn't yet been co-opted by the US," he said, claiming that the security services – British and Australian – had a history of spying on and unduly influencing Labour politicians.
Many WikiLeaks supporters have now gone home for Christmas, leaving Assange with a scaled-down team over the holiday period, on an estate where the pheasant and grouse greatly outnumber the humans.
His immediate plan, he said, was to rest after a gruelling couple of months and then to continue with the staged global release of redacted US state department cables in the new year. Physically, he appeared somewhat wrung out, although very much composed and in good spirits.
Assange defended one of WikiLeaks' collaborators, Israel Shamir, following claims Shamir passed sensitive cables to Belarus's dictator, Alexander Lukashenko. Lukashenko has arrested 600 opposition supporters and journalists since Sunday's presidential election. The whereabouts and fate of several of the president's high-profile opponents are unknown.
Of Shamir, Assange said: "WikiLeaks works with hundreds of journalists from different regions of the world. All are required to sign non-disclosure agreements and are generally only given limited review access to material relating to their region. We have no reason to believe these rumours in relation to Belarus are true."
Over the past month the Guardian has published more than 200 articles based on the trove of US diplomatic dispatches obtained by WikiLeaks, and 739 of the cables themselves. All cables published by the Guardian and the four other international news organisations who had exclusive early access to the material have been carefully redacted to protect sources who could be placed in danger, and the redacted versions have been passed to WikiLeaks.
WikiLeaks now plans to begin sharing the cables with a wider group of regional news organisations. Julian Assange says all future cables released by WikiLeaks will either be redacted by other partner news organisations, or by WikiLeaks itself. The Guardian and its partners in the project, the New York Times, Der Spiegel, El Pais and Le Monde, will continue to share redactions with WikiLeaks for any cables they publish in future.
WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange says there is a "high chance" he would be killed in a US jail if he were to be extradited from Britain on espionage charges.
The Australian is on bail in Britain fighting a bid by Sweden to extradite him over sex assault claims, but Washington is believed to be considering how to indict him over the leaking of thousands of US diplomatic cables.
Assange told The Guardian it would be "politically impossible" for Britain to send him across the Atlantic, adding that the government of Prime Minister David Cameron would want to show it had not been "co-opted" by Washington.
"Legally the UK has the right to not extradite for political crimes. Espionage is the classic case of political crimes. It is at the discretion of the UK government as to whether to apply to that exception," he said.
He said US authorities were "trying to strike a plea deal" with Bradley Manning, the US army soldier suspected of providing WikiLeaks with the cables.
Assange added that if the United States succeeded in getting him extradited from Britain or Sweden, then there was a "high chance" of him being killed "Jack Ruby-style" in an American prison.
Ruby, a nightclub owner, shot dead Lee Harvey Oswald at a police station in Dallas, Texas days after Oswald was arrested for the assassination of US President John F Kennedy in 1963.
Ruby's alleged links to organised crime sparked conspiracy theories about his involvement in an overall plot surrounding the assassination of Kennedy.
Assange has previously said that he and other WikiLeaks staff have received death threats since the website began to release a cache of about 250,000 secret US State Department cables in November.
The 39-year-old has been staying at a friend's country mansion in eastern England since his release from jail last week on strict bail conditions that include reporting to police daily and wearing an electronic tag.
A court in London is due to hold a full hearing on the Swedish extradition request starting February 7.
http://news.smh.com.au/AFP
WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange says there is a "high chance" he would be killed in a US jail if he were to be extradited from Britain on espionage charges.
The Australian is on bail in Britain fighting a bid by Sweden to extradite him over sex assault claims, but Washington is believed to be considering how to indict him over the leaking of thousands of US diplomatic cables.
Assange told The Guardian it would be "politically impossible" for Britain to send him across the Atlantic, adding that the government of Prime Minister David Cameron would want to show it had not been "co-opted" by Washington.
"Legally the UK has the right to not extradite for political crimes. Espionage is the classic case of political crimes. It is at the discretion of the UK government as to whether to apply to that exception," he said.
He said US authorities were "trying to strike a plea deal" with Bradley Manning, the US army soldier suspected of providing WikiLeaks with the cables.
Assange added that if the United States succeeded in getting him extradited from Britain or Sweden, then there was a "high chance" of him being killed "Jack Ruby-style" in an American prison.
Ruby, a nightclub owner, shot dead Lee Harvey Oswald at a police station in Dallas, Texas days after Oswald was arrested for the assassination of US President John F Kennedy in 1963.
Ruby's alleged links to organised crime sparked conspiracy theories about his involvement in an overall plot surrounding the assassination of Kennedy.
Assange has previously said that he and other WikiLeaks staff have received death threats since the website began to release a cache of about 250,000 secret US State Department cables in November.
The 39-year-old has been staying at a friend's country mansion in eastern England since his release from jail last week on strict bail conditions that include reporting to police daily and wearing an electronic tag.
A court in London is due to hold a full hearing on the Swedish extradition request starting February 7.
AFP
WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange says there is a "high chance" he would be killed in a US jail if he were to be extradited from Britain on espionage charges.
The Australian is on bail in Britain fighting a bid by Sweden to extradite him over sex assault claims, but Washington is believed to be considering how to indict him over the leaking of thousands of US diplomatic cables.
Assange told The Guardian it would be "politically impossible" for Britain to send him across the Atlantic, adding that the government of Prime Minister David Cameron would want to show it had not been "co-opted" by Washington.
"Legally the UK has the right to not extradite for political crimes. Espionage is the classic case of political crimes. It is at the discretion of the UK government as to whether to apply to that exception," he said.
He said US authorities were "trying to strike a plea deal" with Bradley Manning, the US army soldier suspected of providing WikiLeaks with the cables.
Assange added that if the United States succeeded in getting him extradited from Britain or Sweden, then there was a "high chance" of him being killed "Jack Ruby-style" in an American prison.
Ruby, a nightclub owner, shot dead Lee Harvey Oswald at a police station in Dallas, Texas days after Oswald was arrested for the assassination of US President John F Kennedy in 1963.
Ruby's alleged links to organised crime sparked conspiracy theories about his involvement in an overall plot surrounding the assassination of Kennedy.
Assange has previously said that he and other WikiLeaks staff have received death threats since the website began to release a cache of about 250,000 secret US State Department cables in November.
The 39-year-old has been staying at a friend's country mansion in eastern England since his release from jail last week on strict bail conditions that include reporting to police daily and wearing an electronic tag.
A court in London is due to hold a full hearing on the Swedish extradition request starting February 7.
WikiLeaks
is an international new media non-profit organisation that publishes submissions of private, secret, and classified media from anonymous news sources andnews leaks. Its website, launched in 2006, is run by The Sunshine Press.[4] Within a year of its launch, the site claimed its database had grown to more than 1.2 million documents.[8] The organisation has described itself as having been founded by Chinesedissidents, as well as journalists, mathematicians, and start-up company technologists from the United States, Taiwan, Europe, Australia, and South Africa.[4] Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist, is generally described as its director.[9]
WikiLeaks has received praise as well as criticism. The organization won a number of awards, including The Economist's 2008 New Media Award.[10] In June 2009, WikiLeaks and Julian Assange won Amnesty International's UK Media Award, in the category "New Media", for the 2008 publication of "Kenya: The Cry of Blood – Extra Judicial Killings and Disappearances",[11] a report by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights about police killings in Kenya.[12] In May 2010, New York City's Daily News listed WikiLeaks as first in a ranking of "websites that could totally change the news".[13] Julian Assange was named the Readers' Choice for TIME's Person of the Year for 2010.[14] Several U.S. government officials have criticized WikiLeaks for exposing state secrets, harming national security, and compromising international diplomacy.[15][16][17][18][19] Human rights organizations such as Amnesty International criticized WikiLeaks for not adequately redacting the names of civilians working with the U.S. military.[20] Some journalists have criticized the lack of editorial discretion when releasing thousands of documents at once and without sufficient analysis.[21] Negative public reactions in the United States have characterized the organization as irresponsible, immoral, and illegal.[22][23][24]
In April 2010, WikiLeaks posted video from a 2007 incident in which Iraqi civilians and journalists were killed by US forces, on a website called Collateral Murder. In July of the same year, WikiLeaks released Afghan War Diary, a compilation of more than 76,900 documents about the War in Afghanistan not previously available for public review.[25] In October 2010, the group released a package of almost 400,000 documents called the Iraq War Logs in coordination with major commercial media organisations. In November 2010, WikiLeaks began releasing U.S. State department diplomatic cables.
WikiLeaks was originally launched as a user-editable wiki site, but has progressively moved towards a more traditional publication model, and no longer accepts either user comments or edits. The site is available on multiple servers and different domain names following a number of denial-of-service attacks and its severance from different Domain Name System(DNS) providers.[26][27]\\
The wikileaks.org domain name was registered on 4 October 2006.
[5] The website was unveiled, and published its first document in December 2006.[28][29] The site claims to have been "founded by Chinese dissidents, journalists, mathematicians and start-up company technologists, from the US, Taiwan, Europe, Australia and South Africa".[4]The creators of WikiLeaks have not been formally identified.[30] It has been represented in public since January 2007 by Julian Assangeand others. Assange describes himself as a member of WikiLeaks' advisory board.[31] News reports in The Australian have called Assange the "founder of WikiLeaks".[32] According to Wired magazine, a volunteer said that Assange described himself in a private conversation as "the heart and soul of this organisation, its founder, philosopher, spokesperson, original coder, organiser, financier, and all the rest".[33] As of June 2009, the site had over 1,200 registered volunteers[4] and listed an advisory board comprising Assange,Phillip Adams, Wang Dan, C. J. Hinke, Ben Laurie, Tashi Namgyal Khamsitsang, Xiao Qiang, Chico Whitaker and Wang Youcai.[34]Despite appearing on the list, when contacted by Mother Jones magazine in 2010, Khamsitsang said that while he received an e-mail from WikiLeaks, he had never agreed to be an advisor.[35]
WikiLeaks states that its "primary interest is in exposing oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, but we also expect to be of assistance to people of all regions who wish to reveal unethical behaviour in their governments and corporations."[4][36]
In January 2007, the website stated that it had over 1.2 million leaked documents that it was preparing to publish.[37] An article in The New Yorker said:
One of the WikiLeaks activists owned a server that was being used as a node for the Tor network. Millions of secret transmissions passed through it. The activist noticed that hackers from China were using the network to gather foreign governments’ information, and began to record this traffic. Only a small fraction has ever been posted on WikiLeaks, but the initial tranche served as the site’s foundation, and Assange was able to say, "[w]e have received over one million documents from thirteen countries."[29][38]
Assange responded to the suggestion that eavesdropping on Chinese hackers played a crucial part in the early days of WikiLeaks by saying "the imputation is incorrect. The facts concern a 2006 investigation into Chinese espionage one of our contacts were involved in. Somewhere between none and handful of those documents were ever released on WikiLeaks. Non-government targets of the Chinese espionage, such as Tibetan associations were informed (by us)".[39] The group has subsequently released a number of other significant documents which have become front-page news items, ranging from documentation of equipment expenditures and holdings in theAfghanistan war to corruption in Kenya.[40]
The organisation's stated goal is to ensure that whistleblowers and journalists are not jailed for emailing sensitive or classified documents, as happened to Chinese journalist Shi Tao, who was sentenced to 10 years in 2005 after publicising an email from Chinese officials about the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.[41]
The project has drawn comparisons to Daniel Ellsberg's leaking of the Pentagon Papers in 1971.[42] In the United States, the leaking of some documents may be legally protected. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the Constitution guarantees anonymity, at least in the area of political discourse.[42] Author and journalist Whitley Strieber has spoken about the benefits of the WikiLeaks project, noting that "Leaking a government document can mean jail, but jail sentences for this can be fairly short. However, there are many places where it means long incarceration or even death, such as China and parts of Africa and the Middle East."[43]
On 24 December 2009, WikiLeaks announced that it was experiencing a shortage of funds[44] and suspended all access to its website except for a form to submit new material.[45] Material that was previously published was no longer available, although some could still be accessed on unofficial mirrors.[46][47] WikiLeaks stated on its website that it would resume full operation once the operational costs were covered.[45] WikiLeaks saw this as a kind of strike "to ensure that everyone who is involved stops normal work and actually spends time raising revenue".[48] While the organisation initially planned for funds to be secured by 6 January 2010,[49] it was not until 3 February 2010 that WikiLeaks announced that its minimum fundraising goal had been achieved.[50]
On 22 January 2010, PayPal suspended WikiLeaks' donation account and froze its assets. WikiLeaks said that this had happened before, and was done for "no obvious reason".[51] The account was restored on 25 January 2010.[52] On 18 May 2010, WikiLeaks announced that its website and archive were back up.[53]
As of June 2010, WikiLeaks was a finalist for a grant of more than half a million dollars from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation,[29] but did not make the cut.[54] WikiLeaks commented, "WikiLeaks was highest rated project in the Knight challenge, strongly recommended to the board but gets no funding. Go figure”. WikiLeaks said that the Knight foundation announced the award to "'12 Grantees who will impact future of news' – but not WikiLeaks" and questioned whether Knight foundation was "really looking for impact".[54] A spokesman of the Knight Foundation disputed parts of WikiLeaks' statement, saying "WikiLeaks was not recommended by Knight staff to the board."[55] However, he declined to say whether WikiLeaks was the project rated highest by the Knight advisory panel, which consists of non-staffers, among them journalist Jennifer 8. Lee, who has done PR work for WikiLeaks with the press and on social networking sites.[55]
On 17 July, Jacob Appelbaum spoke on behalf of WikiLeaks at the 2010 Hackers on Planet Earth conference in New York City, replacing Assange because of the presence of federal agents at the conference.[56][57] He announced that the WikiLeaks submission system was again up and running, after it had been temporarily suspended.[56][58] Assange was a surprise speaker at a TED conferenceon 19 July 2010 in Oxford, and confirmed that the site had begun accepting submissions again.[59]
Upon returning to the US from the Netherlands, on 29 July, Appelbaum was detained for three hours at the airport by US agents, according to anonymous sources.[60] The sources told Cnet that Appelbaum's bag was searched, receipts from his bag were photocopied, his laptop was inspected, although in what manner was unclear.[60] Appelbaum reportedly refused to answer questions without a lawyer present, and was not allowed to make a phone call. His three mobile phones were reportedly taken and not returned.[60]On 31 July, he spoke at a Defcon conference and mentioned his phone being "seized". After speaking, he was approached by two FBIagents and questioned.[60]
Assange is quoted as acknowledging that his practice of posting largely unfiltered classified information online could one day lead the Web site to have "blood on our hands."[61]
In 2010, at least a dozen key supporters of WikiLeaks have left the website.[62]
According to a January 2010 interview, the WikiLeaks team then consisted of five people working full-time and about 800 people who worked occasionally, none of whom were compensated.[48] WikiLeaks has no official headquarters. The expenses per year are about €200,000, mainly for servers and bureaucracy, but would reach €600,000 if work currently done by volunteers were paid for.[48]WikiLeaks does not pay for lawyers, as hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal support have been donated by media organisations such as the Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, and the National Newspaper Publishers Association.[48] Its only revenue stream is donations, but WikiLeaks is planning to add an auction model to sell early access to documents.[48] According to the Wau Holland Foundation, WikiLeaks receives no money for personnel costs, only for hardware, travelling and bandwidth.[63] An article in TechEYE.net wrote
As a charity accountable under German law, donations for WikiLeaks can be made to the foundation. Funds are held in escrow and are given to WikiLeaks after the whistleblower website files an application containing a statement with proof of payment. The foundation does not pay any sort of salary nor give any renumeration [sic] to WikiLeaks' personnel, corroborating the statement of the site's former German representative Daniel Schmitt (real name Daniel Domscheit-Berg)[64] on national television that all personnel works voluntarily, even its speakers.[63]
Within WikiLeaks, there has been public disagreement between founder and spokesperson Julian Assange and Daniel Domscheit-Berg, the site's former German representative who was suspended by Assange. Domscheit-Berg announced on 28 September 2010 that he was leaving the organisation due to internal conflicts over management of the site.[65][66][64]
WikiLeaks describes itself as "an uncensorable system for untraceable mass document leaking".[67] WikiLeaks is hosted by PRQ, a Sweden-based company providing "highly secure, no-questions-asked hosting services". PRQ is said to have "almost no information about its clientele and maintains few if any of its own logs".[68] The servers are spread around the world with the central server located in Sweden.[69] Julian Assange has said that the servers are located in Sweden (and the other countries) "specifically because those nations offer legal protection to the disclosures made on the site". He talks about the Swedish constitution, which gives the information providers total legal protection.[69] It is forbidden according to Swedish law for any administrative authority to make inquiries about the sources of any type of newspaper.[70] These laws, and the hosting by PRQ, make it difficult to take WikiLeaks offline. Furthermore, "Wikileaks maintains its own servers at undisclosed locations, keeps no logs and uses military-grade encryption to protect sources and other confidential information." Such arrangements have been called "bulletproof hosting."[68][71]
On 17 August 2010, it was announced that the Swedish Pirate Party will be hosting and managing many of WikiLeaks' new servers. The party donates servers and bandwidth to WikiLeaks without charge. Technicians of the party will make sure that the servers are maintained and working.[72][73]
Some servers are hosted in an underground nuclear bunker in Stockholm.[74][75]
After the site became the target of a denial-of-service attack from a hacker on its old servers, WikiLeaks moved its site to Amazon's servers.[76] Later, however, the website was "ousted"[76] from the Amazon servers, without a public statement from the company.[citation needed] WikiLeaks then decided to install itself on the servers of OVH in France.[77] After criticism from the French government, the company sought two court rulings about the legality of hosting WikiLeaks. While the court in Lille immediately declined to force OVH to shut down the WikiLeaks site, the court in Paris stated it would need more time to examine the highly technical issue.[76][78]
WikiLeaks is based on several software packages, including
MediaWiki, Freenet, Tor, and PGP.[79] WikiLeaks strongly encouraged postings via Tor because of the strong privacy needs of its users.[80]On 4 November 2010, Julian Assange told Swiss public television TSR that he is seriously considering seeking political asylum in neutral Switzerland and setting up a WikiLeaks foundation in the country to move the operation there.[81][82] According to Assange, Switzerland and Iceland are the only countries where WikiLeaks would feel safe to operate.[83][84]
WikiLeaks is dependent on public donations since it is a non-profit organisation. Its main financing methods include conventional bank transfers and online payment systems. Wau Holland Foundation, one of the WikiLeaks' main funding channels, stated that they have received more than €900,000 (US$1.2 million) in public donations between October 2009 and December 2010, out of which €370,000 has been passed on to WikiLeaks. Hendrik Fulda, vice president of the Wau Holland Foundation, mentioned that the donations throughPayPal was twice[vague] as through normal banks, before PayPal's decision to suspend WikiLeaks' account. He also noted that donations were never as strong as when WikiLeaks started publishing leaked diplomatic cables.[85][86]
WikiLeaks had been using EveryDNS's services, which led to DDoS attacks on the host.[clarification needed] The attacks affected the quality of service at EveryDNS, so the company withdrew their service from WikiLeaks. Pro-WikiLeaks supporters retaliated by launching a DDoS attack against EveryDNS. Due to mistakes in the blogosphere, some supporters accidentally mistook EasyDNS for EveryDNS and attacked it. The attacks caused both EveryDNS and EasyDNS to experience outages. Afterwards EasyDNS decided to provide WikiLeaks its name server service.[87]
Despite using the name "WikiLeaks", the website is no longer wiki-based as of December 2010. Also, despite some popular confusion[88] due to both having the term "wiki" in their names, WikiLeaks and Wikipedia have no affiliation with each other;[89][90] i.e. "wiki" is not a brand name. Wikia, a for-profit corporation loosely affiliated with the Wikimedia Foundation, did however purchase several Wikileaks-related domain names (including "wikileaks.com" and "wikileaks.net") as a "protective brand measure" in 2007.[91]
The "about" page originally read:[92]
To the user, WikiLeaks will look very much like Wikipedia. Anybody can post to it, anybody can edit it. No technical knowledge is required. Leakers can post documents anonymously and untraceably. Users can publicly discuss documents and analyze their credibility and veracity. Users can discuss interpretations and context and collaboratively formulate collective publications. Users can read and write explanatory articles on leaks along with background material and context. The political relevance of documents and their verisimilitude will be revealed by a cast of thousands.
However, WikiLeaks established an editorial policy that accepted only documents that were "of political, diplomatic, historical or ethical interest" (and excluded "material that is already publicly available").[93] This coincided with early criticism that having no editorial policy would drive out good material with spam and promote "automated or indiscriminate publication of confidential records."[94] It is no longer possible for anybody to post to it or edit it, as the original FAQ promised. Instead, submissions are regulated by an internal review process and some are published, while documents not fitting the editorial criteria are rejected by anonymous WikiLeaks reviewers. By 2008, the revised FAQ stated that "Anybody can post comments to it. [...] Users can publicly discuss documents and analyse their credibility and veracity."[95] After the 2010 relaunch, posting new comments to leaks was no longer possible.[96]
WikiLeaks states that it has never released a misattributed document. Documents are assessed before release. In response to concerns about the possibility of misleading or fraudulent leaks, WikiLeaks has stated that misleading leaks "are already well-placed in the mainstream media. WikiLeaks is of no additional assistance."[97] The FAQ states that: "The simplest and most effective countermeasure is a worldwide community of informed users and editors who can scrutinise and discuss leaked documents."[98]
According to statements by Assange in 2010, submitted documents are vetted by a group of five reviewers, with expertise in different fields such as language or programming, who also investigate the background of the leaker if his or her identity is known.[99] In that group, Assange has the final decision about the assessment of a document.[99]
The legal status of WikiLeaks is complex. Assange considers WikiLeaks a whistleblower protection intermediary. Rather than leaking directly to the press, and fearing exposure and retribution, whistleblowers can leak to WikiLeaks, which then leaks to the press for them.[100] Its servers are located throughout Europe and are accessible from any uncensored web connection. The group located its headquarters in Sweden because it has one of the world’s strongest shield laws to protect confidential source-journalist relationships.[101][102] WikiLeaks has stated that they "do not solicit any information".[101] However, Assange used his speech during the Hack In The Box conference in Malaysia to ask the crowd of hackers and security researchers to help find documents on its "Most Wanted Leaks of 2009" list.[103]
The U.S. Justice Department opened a criminal probe of Wikileaks and founder Julian Assange shortly after the leak of diplomatic cables began.[104][105] Attorney General Eric Holder affirmed the probe was “not saber-rattling”, but was "an active, ongoing criminal investigation."[105] The The Washington Post reported that the department was considering charges under the Espionage Act, a move which former prosecutors characterised as "difficult" because of First Amendment protections for the press.[104][106] Several Supreme Court cases have previously established that the American constitution protects the re-publication of illegally gained information provided the publishers did not themselves break any laws in acquiring it.[107] Federal prosecutors have also considered prosecuting Assange for trafficking in stolen government property, but since the diplomatic cables are intellectual rather than physical property, that approach also faces hurdles.[108] Any prosecution of Assange would require extraditing him to the United States, a step made more complicated and potentially delayed by any preceding extradition to Sweden.[109] One of Assange's lawyers, however, says they are fighting extradition to Sweden because it might lead to his extradition to the United States.[110] Assange's attorney, Mark Stephens, has "heard from Swedish authorities there has been a secretly empaneled grand jury in Alexandria [Virginia]" meeting to consider criminal charges in the WikiLeaks case.[111]
In Australia, the government and the Australian Federal Police have not stated what Australian laws may have been broken by WikiLeaks, but Julia Gillard has stated that the foundation of Wikileaks and the stealing of classified documents from the US administration is illegal in foreign countries.[112] Gillard later clarified her statement as referring to "the original theft of the material by a junior US serviceman rather than any action by Mr Assange."[113] Spencer Zifcak, President of Liberty Victoria, an Australian civil liberties group, notes that with no charge, and no trial completed, it is inappropriate to state that WikiLeaks is guilty of illegal activities.[114]
On threats by various governments toward Assange, legal expert Ben Saul argues that founder Julian Assange is the target of a global smear campaign to demonise him as a criminal or as a terrorist, without any legal basis.[115]
On 29 July 2010, WikiLeaks added a 1.4 GB "Insurance File" to the Afghan War Diary page. The file is AES encrypted and has been speculated to serve as insurance in case the WikiLeaks website or its spokesman Julian Assange are incapacitated, upon which thepassphrase could be published, similar to the concept of a dead man's switch.[116][117] Following the first few days' release of the US diplomatic cables starting 28 November 2010, the US television broadcaster CBS predicted that "If anything happens to Assange or the website, a key will go out to unlock the files. There would then be no way to stop the information from spreading like wildfire because so many people already have copies."[118] CBS correspondent Declan McCullagh stated, "What most folks are speculating is that the insurance file contains unreleased information that would be especially embarrassing to the US government if it were released."[118]
According to The Times, WikiLeaks and its members have complained about continuing harassment and surveillance by law enforcement and intelligence organisations, including extended detention, seizure of computers, veiled threats, “covert following and hidden photography.”[119] Two lawyers for Julian Assange in the United Kingdom told The Guardian that they believed they were being watched by the security services after the US cables leak.[120]
The home of Theodor Reppe, registrant of the German WikiLeaks domain name, wikileaks.de, was raided on 24 March 2009 after WikiLeaks released the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) censorship blacklist.[121] The site was not affected.[122][123]
Wikileaks's website claims that the government of the People's Republic of China has attempted to block all traffic to web sites with "wikileaks" in the URL since 2007, but that this can be bypassed through encrypted connections or by using one of Wikileaks's many covert URLs.[124]
On 16 March 2009, the Australian Communications and Media Authority added WikiLeaks to their proposed blacklist of sites that will be blocked for all Australians if the mandatory internet filtering censorship scheme is implemented as planned.[125][126] The blacklisting was removed 30 November 2010.[127]
The Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation (CRES) is currently censoring the website WikiLeaks in Thailand[128] and more than 40,000 other webpages[129] because of the emergency decree in Thailand imposed as a result of political instabilities (Emergency decree declared beginning of April 2010[130]).
Access to WikiLeaks is currently blocked in the United States Library of Congress.[131] On 3 December 2010 the White House Office of Management and Budget sent a memo forbidding all unauthorised federal government employees and contractors from accessing classified documents publicly available on WikiLeaks and other websites.[132] The U.S. Army, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Justice Department are considering criminally prosecuting WikiLeaks and Assange "on grounds they encouraged the theft of government property",[133] although former prosecutors say doing so would be difficult.[106] According to a report on the Daily Beast website, the Obama administration asked Britain, Germany and Australia among others to also consider bringing criminal charges against Assange for the Afghan war leaks and to help limit Assange's travels across international borders.[134]
After the release of the 2007 airstrikes video and as they prepared to release film of the Granai airstrike, Julian Assange has said that his group of volunteers came under intense surveillance. In an interview and Twitter posts he said that a restaurant in Reykjavík where his group of volunteers met came under surveillance in March; there was "covert following and hidden photography" by police and foreignintelligence services; that an apparent British intelligence agent made thinly veiled threats in a Luxembourg car park; and that one of the volunteers was detained by police for 21 hours. Another volunteer posted that computers were seized, saying "If anything happens to us, you know why ... and you know who is responsible."[119] According to the Columbia Journalism Review, "the Icelandic press took a look at Assange’s charges of being surveilled in Iceland [...] and, at best, have found nothing to substantiate them."[135]
In August 2009, Kaupthing Bank succeeded in obtaining a court order gagging Iceland’s national broadcaster, RÚV, from broadcasting a risk analysis report showing the bank's substantial exposure to debt default risk. This information had been leaked by a whistleblower to WikiLeaks and remained available on the WikiLeaks site; faced with an injunction minutes before broadcast the channel ran with a screen grab of the WikiLeaks site instead of the scheduled piece on the bank. Citizens of Iceland felt outraged that RÚV was prevented from broadcasting news of relevance.[136] Therefore, WikiLeaks has been credited with inspiring the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative, a bill meant to reclaim Iceland's 2007 Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières) ranking as first in the world for free speech. It aims to enact a range of protections for sources, journalists, and publishers.[137][138] Birgitta Jónsdóttir, a former volunteer for WikiLeaks and member of the Icelandic parliament, is the chief sponsor of the proposal.
WikiLeaks claimed in April 2010 that Facebook deleted their fan page, which had 30,000 fans.[139][140][141] However, as of 7 December 2010 the group's Facebook fan page was available and had grown by 100,000 fans daily since 1 December,[142] to more than 1,300,000 fans. It is also the largest growth of the week.[143] Regarding the presence of WikiLeaks on Facebook, Andrew Noyes, the company's D.C. based Manager of Public Policy Communications has stated "the Wikileaks Facebook Page does not violate our content standards nor have we encountered any material posted on the page that violates our policies."[144]
In October 2010, it was reported that Moneybookers, which collected donations for WikiLeaks, had ended its relationship with the site. Moneybookers stated that its decision had been made "to comply with money laundering or other investigations conducted by government authorities, agencies or commissions."[145]
Following the US diplomatic cables leak, which started on 28 November 2010, several companies severed ties with WikiLeaks. After providing 24-hour notification, American owned EveryDNS dropped WikiLeaks from its entries on 2 December 2010, citing DDoS attacks that "threatened the stability of its infrastructure".[26][146] The site's 'info' DNS lookup remained operational at alternative addresses for direct access respectively to the WikiLeaks and Cablegate websites.[147] On the same day, Amazon.com severed its ties with WikiLeaks, to which it was providing infrastructure services, after an intervention by an aide of U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman.[7][148][149]Amazon denied acting under political pressure citing a violation of its terms of service.[150] Citing indirect pressure from the U.S. Government, Tableau Software also dropped WikiLeaks' data from its site for people to use for data visualisation.[151][152]
In the days following, hundreds of (and eventually more than a thousand[153]) mirrors of the WikiLeaks site appeared and the Anonymousgroup of internet activists, called on supporters to attack the websites of companies which do not support WikiLeaks,[154] under the banner of Operation Payback, previously aimed at anti-piracy organisations.[155] AFP reported that attempts to shut down the wikileaks.org address had lead to the site surviving via the so-called Streisand effect, whereby attempts to censor information online leads to it being replicated in many places.[156]
On 3 December, PayPal, the payment processor owned by eBay, permanently cut off the account of the Wau Holland Foundation that had been redirecting donations to WikiLeaks. PayPal alleged that the account violated its "Acceptable Use Policy", specifically that it was used for "activities that encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct others to engage in illegal activity."[157][158] The Vice President of PayPal later stated that they stopped accepting payments after the “State Department told us these were illegal activities. It was straightforward.” Later the same day, he said that his previous statement was incorrect, and that it was in fact based on a letter from the State Department to WikiLeaks.[159] On 8 December 2010, the Wau Holland Foundation released a press statement, saying it has filed a legal action against PayPal for blocking its account used for WikiLeaks payments and for libel due to PayPal's allegations of "illegal activity".[160]
On 6 December, the Swiss bank, PostFinance, announced that it had frozen the assets of Assange that it holds, totalling 31,000 euros. In a statement on their website, they stated that this was because Assange "provided false information regarding his place of residence" when opening the account.[161] WikiLeaks released a statement saying this was due to that Assange, "as a homeless refugee attempting to gain residency in Switzerland, had used his lawyer's address in Geneva for the bank's correspondence".[162] On the same day, MasterCard announced that it "is taking action to ensure that WikiLeaks can no longer accept MasterCard-branded products", adding "MasterCard rules prohibit customers from directly or indirectly engaging in or facilitating any action that is illegal."[163] The next day, Visa Inc. announced it was suspending payments to WikiLeaks, pending "further investigations".[164] In a move of support for WikiLeaks, XIPWIRE established a way to donate to WikiLeaks, and waived their fees.[165] Datacell, the Swiss-based IT company that enabled WikiLeaks to accept credit card donations, announced that it will take legal action against Visa Europe and Mastercard, in order to resume allowing payments to the website.[166]
On 7 December 2010, The Guardian stated that people can still donate to WikiLeaks via Commerzbank Kassel in Germany orLandsbanki in Iceland or by post to a post office box at the University of Melbourne or at the wikileaks.ch domain.[167]
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has highlighted that Visa, Mastercard and Amazon may be 'violating WikiLeaks' [e pluribus unum] right to freedom of expression' by withdrawing their services.[168]
In July 2010 Veterans for Peace president Mike Ferner editorialised on the group's website "neither Wikileaks nor the soldier or soldiers who divulged the documents should be prosecuted for revealing this information. We should give them a medal."[171]
Documentary filmmaker John Pilger wrote an August 2010 editorial in the Australian publication Green Left titled "Wikileaks Must Be Defended." In it, Pilger said WikiLeaks represented the interests of "public accountability" and a new form of journalism at odds with "the dominant section ... devoted merely to taking down what cynical and malign power tells it."[172]
Daniel Ellsberg, the man who released the Pentagon Papers in 1971, has been a frequent defender of WikiLeaks. Following the November 2010 release of U.S. diplomatic cables, Ellsberg rejected criticism that the site was endangering the lives of U.S. military personnel and intelligence assets stating "not one single soldier or informant has been in danger from any of the WikiLeaks releases. That risk has been largely overblown."[169] Ellsberg went on to note that government claims to the contrary were "a script that they roll out every time there's a leak of any sort."[170] Following the US diplomatic cable release, which a number of media reports sought to differentiate from Ellsberg's whistleblowing,[173] Ellsberg claimed, "EVERY attack now made on WikiLeaks and Julian Assange was made against me and the release of the Pentagon Papers at the time."[174]
On 3 December 2010 Republican Congressman of Texas, Ron Paul, spoke out publicly during a Fox Business interview in support of Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange; "In a free society we're supposed to know the truth," Paul said. "In a society where truth becomes treason, then we're in big trouble." Paul went on to state, "Why don't we prosecute The New York Times or anybody that releases this?"[175] In another speech at US House of Representatives Paul again defended WikiLeaks against criticism for revealing the truth and warned the US administration that "lying is not patriotic".[176]
Fellow Republican congressman Connie Mack IV of Florida also praised WikiLeaks, stating that Americans have a right to know the contents of the leaks, “no matter how we acquire that knowledge.”[177]
Australia’s most senior and high-profile media professionals expressed their support for WikiLeaks in a letter to Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard.[178] The letter was initiated by the Walkley Foundation, who present the yearly Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism. The letter was signed by "the ten members of the Walkley Advisory Board as well as editors of major Australian newspapers and news websites and the news directors of the country’s three commercial TV networks and two public broadcasters." Their position (an extract from the letter) is summarized as follows:
“In essence, WikiLeaks, an organisation that aims to expose official secrets, is doing what the media have always done: bringing to light material that governments would prefer to keep secret. It is the media’s duty to responsibly report such material if it comes into their possession. To aggressively attempt to shut WikiLeaks down, to threaten to prosecute those who publish official leaks, and to pressure companies to cease doing commercial business with WikiLeaks, is a serious threat to democracy, which relies on a free and fearless press.”[179]
Following the November 2010 leak of United States diplomatic cables The Atlantic, in a staff editorial, opined "Wikileaks is a powerful new way for reporters and human rights advocates to leverage global information technology systems to break the heavy veil of government and corporate secrecy that is slowly suffocating the American press." Calling legal and physical threats against WikiLeaks volunteers "shameful" the magazine went on to state, "Not since President Richard Nixon directed his minions to go after Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg and New York Times reporter Neil Sheehan ... has a working journalist and his source been subjected to the kind of official intimidation and threats that have been directed at Assange and Manning by high-ranking members of the Obama Administration."[180]
On 4 December 2010, Reporters Without Borders condemned the "blocking, cyber-attacks and political pressure" being directed at WikiLeaks. The organisation is also concerned by some of the extreme comments made by American authorities concerning WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange.[181]
In an article titled "Only WikiLeaks can save US policy" published on the online foreign affairs magazine The Diplomat, former long-time CIA counter-terrorism expert Michael Scheuer said the source of interest in WikiLeaks revelations was in the inherent dishonesty of recent U.S. administrations. "In recent years, the US public has had to hear its leaders repeatedly tell Americans that black was white," Scheuer wrote, referencing the presidencies of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama.[182]
Evan Hughes, editor-in-chief of wired.com published his support for WikiLeaks in an online editorial titled "Why WikiLeaks is Good for America." Despite an often contentious relationship between Wired and WikiLeaks, with the former having being accused by the latter of complicity in the identification and arrest of Bradley Manning, Hughes argued that "WikiLeaks stands to improve our democracy, not weaken it." He went on to note that "The greatest threat we face right now from WikiLeaks is not the information it has spilled and may spill in the future, but the reactionary response to it that’s building in the United States that promises to repudiate the rule of law and our free speech traditions, if left unchecked."[183]
The New York Times reported that over 200 WikiLeaks mirror sites sprang up after some hosting companies cut their services to the company.[184] On 5 December, a group of activists and hackers known as "Anonymous" called upon supporters to attack sites of companies that oppose WikiLeaks as part of Operation Avenge Assange.[185] Paypal has been targeted following their decision to stop processing donations for Wikileaks.[186][187]Gregg Housh, who previously worked on other projects with Anonymous, said that he had noticed an organised attempt taking place to attack companies that have not supported WikiLeaks. In reference to the support being shown for Wikileaks, Mr. Housh said; "The reason is amazingly simple, we all believe that information should be free, and the Internet should be free."[154] On 8 December 2010, Paypal website was victim of a Denial-of-service attack by Anonymous.[188][189][190] Later that day, Paypal announced in their blog that they will release all remaining funds in the account to the foundation that was raising funds for WikiLeaks.[191][192] On the same day, the websites of Visa and Mastercard were attacked by WikiLeaks supporters. By then over 1,200 mirror sites had been set up for hosting content no longer accessible at WikiLeaks.com. Anonymous also issued a fresh statement; "While we don't have much of an affiliation with WikiLeaks, we fight for the same reasons. We want transparency, and we counter censorship...This is why we intend to utilise our resources to raise awareness, attack those against, and support those who are helping lead our world to freedom and democracy."[193]
The Internet Society (ISOC) stated that despite the international concern about the content released by WikiLeaks, "we nevertheless believe it must be subject to the same laws and policies of availability as all Internet sites" and that “free expression should not be restricted by governmental or private controls over computer hardware or software, telecommunications infrastructure, or other essential components of the Internet”. ISOC also called for appropriate action to "pursue and prosecute entities (if any) that acted maliciously to take it [WikiLeaks] off the air” because suppressing communication would merely serve to “undermine the integrity of the global Internet and its operation”.[194]
On 8 December 2010 the international civic organisation Avaaz launched a petition in support of WikiLeaks, which was signed by over 250 thousand people within the first few hours, the total number went up to 600 thousand by 15 December 2010.[195][196][197]
In early December 2010, Noam Chomsky offered his support to protesters across Australia planning to take to the streets in defence of WikiLeaks.[198]
On 14 December 2010, Michael Moore offered $20,000 to help bail Assange out of jail.[199][200]
In 2008, Index on Censorship presented WikiLeaks with their inaugural Economist New Media Award.
In 2009, Amnesty International awarded WikiLeaks their Media Award for exposing "extra judicial killings and disappearances" in Kenya.[201]
Brazil: President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva expressed
his "solidarity" with Julian Assange following Assange's 2010 arrest in
the United Kingdom. Lula went on to state—in reference to WikiLeaks
disclosure of classified US diplomatic cables in November and December
2010—WikiLeaks had "exposed a diplomacy that had appeared unreachable."[202][203] He further criticised the arrest of Julian Assange as "an attack on freedom of expression".[204]
Ecuador: In late November 2010 a representative of the government of Ecuador made
what was, apparently, an unsolicited public offer to Julian Assange to
establish residency in Ecuador. Deputy Foreign Minister Kinto Lucas
stated "we are going to invite him to come to Ecuador so he can freely
present the information he possesses and all the documentation, not just
on the Internet, but in various public forums."[205] Lucas
went on to state his praise for WikiLeaks and Assange calling them
"[people] who are constantly investigating and trying to get light out
of the dark corners of [state] information."[206] The following day, however, president Rafael Correadistanced
his administration from the offer stating that Lucas had been speaking
for himself and not on the government's behalf. Correa then criticised
Assange for "breaking the laws of the United States and leaking this
type of information."[207]
Russia: In December 2010 the office of Russian president Dmitry Medvedev issued
a statement calling on non-governmental organisations to consider
"nominating [Julian] Assange as a Nobel Prize laureate." The
announcement followed commentary by Russian ambassador to NATO Dmitry
Rogozin who stated that Julian Assange's earlier arrest on Swedish
charges demonstrated that there was "no media freedom" in the west.[208]
Venezuela: Hugo Chávez,
president of Venezuela, stated his support for WikiLeaks following the
release of US diplomatic cables in November 2010 that showed the United
States had tried to rally support from regional governments to isolate
Venezuela. "I have to congratulate the people of WikiLeaks for their
bravery and courage," Chávez commented in televised remarks.[209]
United Nations: In December 2010 United Nations Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Opinion and Expression Frank LaRue stated
he agreed with the idea that Julian Assange was a "martyr for free
speech." LaRue went on to say Assange or other WikiLeaks staff should
not face legal accountability for any information they disseminated,
noting that, "if there is a responsibility by leaking information it is
of, exclusively of the person that made the leak and not of the media
that publish it. And this is the way that transparency works and that
corruption has been confronted in many cases."[210] High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay subsequently
voiced concern at the revelation that private companies were being
pressured by states to sever their relationships with WikiLeaks.[211]
WikiLeaks has attracted criticism from a variety of sources.[212]
In 2007 John Young, operator of Cryptome, left his position on the WikiLeaks Board of Directors accusing the group of being a "CIA conduit". Young subsequently retreated from his assertion but has continued to be critical of the site.[213] In a 2010 interview withCNET.com Young accused the group of a lack of transparency regarding their fundraising and financial management. He went on to state his belief that WikiLeaks could not guarantee whistleblowers the anonymity or confidentiality they claimed and that he "would not trust them with information if it had any value, or if it put me at risk or anyone that I cared about at risk."[214]
Citing the leaking of the sorority rituals of Alpha Sigma Tau, Steven Aftergood has opined that WikiLeaks "does not respect the rule of law nor does it honour the rights of individuals." Aftergood went on to state that WikiLeaks engages in unrestrained disclosure of non-governmental secrets without compelling public policy reasons and that many anti-corruption activists were opposed to the site's activities.[215]
In 2010, Amnesty International joined several other human rights groups criticising WikiLeaks for not adequately redacting the names of Afghan civilians working as U.S. military informants from files they had released. Julian Assange responded by offering Amnesty International staff the opportunity to assist in the document vetting process. When Amnesty International appeared to express reservations in accepting the offer, Assange dismissed the group as "people who prefer to do nothing but cover their asses." Other groups that joined Amnesty International in criticising WikiLeaks subsequently noted that, despite their displeasure over the issue of civilian name redaction, they generally appreciated WikiLeaks's work.[216]
In an August 2010 open letter, the non-governmental organisation Reporters Without Borders praised WikiLeaks' past usefulness in exposing "serious violations of human rights and civil liberties" but criticised the group over a perceived absence of editorial control, stating "indiscriminately publishing 92,000 classified reports reflects a real problem of methodology and, therefore, of credibility. Journalistic work involves the selection of information. The argument with which you defend yourself, namely that WikiLeaks is not made up of journalists, is not convincing."[217] The group subsequently clarified their statement as a criticism of WikiLeaks release procedure and not the organisation itself, stating "we reaffirm our support for Wikileaks, its work and its founding principles."[218]
On 30 November 2010, former Canadian government adviser Tom Flanagan, while appearing on the CBC television program "Power & Politics", called for Julian Assange to be killed. "I think Assange should be assassinated," Flanagan stated, before noting to host Evan Solomon, "I'm feeling pretty manly today." Flanagan subsequently retracted his call for the death of Assange while reiterating his opposition to WikiLeaks.[219] Dimitri Soudas, spokesman to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, decried Flanagan's comments and said the former Tory strategist's remarks are "simply not acceptable." Ralph Goodale, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party in the House of Commons, called Flanagan's remarks "clearly contrary to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms."[220]
Russian investigative reporter Andrei Soldatov has criticised WikiLeaks for disclosing documents "without checking of the facts, without putting them in context, and without analysing them.” Soldatov believes WikiLeaks is "filling the gap" left by the decline of investigative journalism with a sensationalist alternative while journalistic support of WikiLeaks is motivated by anger over declining funding and resources for investigative reporting.[221]
Contrary Views. A number of authors contend that Wikileaks, contrary to appearances, is actually a charade or intelligence agency disinformation ploy conducting psychological warfare. They point to the effects on mobilizing public opinion against freedom of information and to allegations in the purported leaks which incriminate targets of US foreign policy, such as Iran. Notable critics in this vein include Michel Chossudovsky[222] and F. William Engdahl.[223]
Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger has said: "Speaking as Wikipedia's co-founder, I consider you enemies of the U.S.—not just the government, but the people." [224]
According to a telephone survey of 1,029 US residents age 18 and older, conducted by the Marist Institute for Public Opinion in December 2010, Americans are overwhelmingly critical of WikiLeaks. The poll found that 70 percent of respondents – particularlyRepublicans and older people – think the leaks are doing more harm than good by allowing America's enemies to see confidential and secret information about U.S. foreign policy. Just 22 percent – especially young liberals – think the leaks are doing more good than harm by making the U.S. government more transparent and accountable. A majority of 59 percent also wants to see the people behind WikiLeaks prosecuted, while 31 percent said the publication of secrets is protected under the First Amendment guarantee of a free press.[225]
Most of the governments and organisations whose files have been leaked by WikiLeaks have been critical of the organisation.
Australia: On 2 December 2010 Prime Minister Julia Gillard made
a statement that she 'absolutely condemns' Wikileaks' actions and that
the release of information on the site was 'grossly irresponsible' and
'illegal.'[226] Wikileaks founder Julian Assange isAustralian and he responded two days later by accusing his prime minister of betraying him as an Australian citizen.[227] However,
on 8 December 2010—after WikiLeaks published U.S. diplomatic cables in
which United States diplomats labelled him a "control freak", former
Australian Prime Minister and current foreign minister Kevin Rudd said
the leak of the US secret cables raised questions about US security.
Rudd said, "The core responsibility, and therefore legal liability, goes
to those individuals responsible for that initial unauthorised
release."[228][229] In an article in The Australian,
Assange claimed, "The Australian attorney-general is doing everything
he can to help a US investigation clearly directed at framing Australian
citizens and shipping them to the US."[230]However, Australian officials later said that Assange has done nothing illegal.[231]
France: The French Industry Minister Éric Besson said
in a letter to the CGIET technology agency, WikiLeaks "violates the
secret of diplomatic relations and puts people protected by diplomatic
secret in danger." Therefore it would be 'unacceptable' that the site
was hosted on servers based in France. The minister asked for measures
to bar WikiLeaks from France.[232]
Iran: The President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,
also criticised WikiLeaks following the release of United States
diplomatic cables. Ahmadinejad claimed that the release of cables
purporting to show concern with Iran by Arab states was a planned leak
by the United States to discredit his government, though he did not
indicate whether he believed WikiLeaks was in collusion with the United
States or was simply an unwitting facilitator.[233]
Philippines:
President Benigno Aquino III comdemned Wikileaks and leaked documents
related to the country, saying that it can lead to massive cases of
miscommunication.[234]
United States: Following the November 2010 release of United States diplomatic cables, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clintondenounced
the group saying, "this disclosure is not just an attack on America's
foreign policy interests, it is an attack on the international
community."[235] Peter King, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee of the United States House of Representatives has
stated his support for listing Wikileaks as a "foreign terrorist
organisation" explaining that "WikiLeaks presents a clear and present
danger to the national security of the United States."[236] In a contrary statement, secretary of Defense Robert Gates has
said that concerns about the disclosures were "over-wrought" in terms
of their likely adverse impact on ordinary diplomatic activities.[237] Philip J. Crowley, United States Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs,
stated on 2 December 2010 that the US State Department does not regard
WikiLeaks as a media organisation. "WikiLeaks is not a media
organization. That is our view." Crowley said and with regard to
Assange;"Well, his – I mean he could be considered a political actor. I
think he’s an anarchist, but he’s not a journalist."[238]Following the initial releases of US diplomatic cables, a number of other sites based on the WikiLeaks model were borne.[241]
WikiLeaks posted its first document in December 2006, a decision to assassinate government officials signed by Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys."[29] In August 2007, The Guardian published a story about corruption by the family of the former Kenyan leader Daniel arap Moibased on information provided via WikiLeaks.[242] In November 2007, a March 2003 copy of Standard Operating Procedures for Camp Delta detailing the protocol of the U.S. Army at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp was released.[243] The document revealed that some prisoners were off-limits to the International Committee of the Red Cross, something that the U.S. military had in the past repeatedly denied.
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STOCKHOLM: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Wednesday the Pentagon has expressed willingness to discuss the online whistleblower’s request for help in reviewing classified documents from the Afghan war and removing information that could harm civilians.
‘‘This week we received contact through our lawyers that the General Counsel’’ of the Pentagon ‘‘says now that they want to discuss the issue,’’ Assange told The Associated Press by telephone.
The Pentagon denied it was willing to collaborate with the group, but acknowledged that it had arranged for a phone call last Sunday between its general counsel and a person claiming to be a lawyer for WikiLeaks.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the lawyer, Timothy Matusheski, was a ‘‘no show’’ for the call.
The Pentagon followed up with a letter to Matusheski on Monday demanding that WikiLeaks return the war files.
‘‘The Defense Department will not negotiate some ‘minimized’ or ‘sanitized’ version of the release by WikiLeaks of additional US government classified documents,’’ wrote Jeh Johnson, the Pentagon’s top lawyer.
Whitman had initially told reporters there had been no ‘‘direct’’ contact between the Defense Department and WikiLeaks. He said he still stands by that assessment, because the phone call between Johnson and Matusheski never took place.
In an interview Wednesday, Matusheski told The Associated Press that he never had a scheduled phone call with Pentagon officials on Sunday. Instead, he said he has had several recent phone conversations with an agent from the US Army’s Criminal Investigation Command, which is investigating the document leak.
The agent, he said, also called him twice on Sunday morning, but never reached him.
Matusheski added that the agent has asked about setting up a meeting between Assange and Defense Department officials, but did not seek to set up a conversation between Matusheski and the Pentagon.
Matusheski said he provides free legal work for Assange as a way of supporting the whistleblower website.
Assange said Wednesday that ‘‘contact has been established’’ but added it was not clear whether and how the US military would assist WikiLeaks.
‘‘It is always positive for parties to talk to each other,’’ Assange said. ‘‘We welcome their engagement.’’
He reiterated that WikiLeaks plans to release its second batch of secret Afghan war documents within ‘‘two weeks to a month.’’
The first files in its ‘‘Afghan War Diary’’ laid bare classified military documents covering the war in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2010. The release angered US officials, energized critics of the Nato-led campaign, and drew the attention of the Taliban, which has promised to use the material to track down people it considers traitors.
Non-governmental organizations, including the Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, have criticized WikiLeaks as being irresponsible.
WikiLeaks describes itself as a public service organization for whistleblowers, journalists and activists.
‘‘We encourage other media and human rights groups who have a genuine concern about reviewing the material to assist us with the difficult and very expensive task of getting a large historical archive into the public’s record,’’ Assange said.
The Australian was in Sweden in part to prepare an application for a publishing certificate that would allow WikiLeaks to take full advantage of the Scandinavian nation’s press freedom laws.
That also means WikiLeaks would have to appoint a publisher that could be held legally responsible for the material. Assange said that person would be ‘‘either me or one of our Swedish people.’’
WikiLeaks routes its material through Sweden and Belgium because of the whistleblower protection offered by laws in those countries. But it also has backup servers in other countries to make sure the site is not shut down, Assange said. —AP
 Pak military and political set up shaken by WikiLeakshttp://www.zeenews.com/print.aspx?aid=672015 Islamabad: Pakistan`s political and military elite have been shaken by damaging disclosures about the country`s foreign policy and internal politics in hundreds of secret US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks, with the media screaming "WikiWreaks havoc" and "WikiLeaks bombs rock Islamabad".
The media described the revelations as a cause for worry and introspection. Virtually all key political personalities, including President Asif Ali Zardari and his arch-rival PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, and all important institutions, including the powerful military, have been touched by the disclosures, which contain detailed readouts of meetings and conversations between US diplomats and Pakistani leaders. Leaked cables are dominating all bulletins and talk shows on TV news channels, with viewers tuning in to lap up all the classified information about the tenuous relations between the government and the military as well as the divisions among the politicians. "WikiWreaks havoc" was the headline in The Express Tribune while the headline on the front page of the Dawn read: "WikiLeaks bombs rock Islamabad". The blunt headline in The News said: "WikiLeaks throws tons of dirt, shame on Pak players". Most of the leading newspapers devoted several pages to extracts from the cables which provide an insight into the negotiations and meetings that have shaped Pakistan`s policies on key issues, including the war on terrorism and relations with India. "Ever since WikiLeaks started releasing US diplomatic cables on Sunday, we continue to discover one thing or another every day. Some new revelations about the power equation in Pakistan are not just interesting but quite revealing," the Daily Times newspaper said in an editorial titled `Mirror, mirror on the wall..." Referring to one cable that quoted Western leaders as saying that Zardari had expressed fears about a threat to his life, the editorial said: "These may be the personal views of President Zardari and cannot be substantiated without proof if plans to assassinate him are indeed afoot but when the President of a country fears for his life, it is time to get worried." Calling for introspection on the revelations made about the Pakistani military`s perceived double role in the war on terror and the fragile democracy in Pakistan, the editorial said army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani is the "most powerful man in the country and has positioned himself as the sole person to negotiate with as far as our foreign interlocutors are concerned. "But it is time that democracy is allowed to take root in the country so that the civil-military relations are put in a proper perspective”. Since WikiLeaks began releasing the cables over the week, information has come to light about hitherto unpublicised fears among the US and Western powers about materials from Pakistan’s nuclear programme falling into the hands of extremists. Some cables show key leaders like Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in an unflattering light. Gilani, who condemns US drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal belt almost daily, is quoted in one cable as saying that he has no problems with the attacks by unmanned spy planes "as long as they get the right people". The debate on the WikiLeaks` disclosures extended to the internet, where Pakistani bloggers and users of social networking websites like Twitter shared information and views on the leaked cables. Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer, a close aide of President Zardari, was among those who joined the debate. "One thing is clear from Wikileaks that elected persons with people`s mandate don`t run Pakistan. Makes elections pointless," Taseer said in a message on Twitter. In another message, he noted that the three traditional A`s of political success in Pakistan were "Allah, Army, America", while the "new 3 A`s of political success in the correct order of priority (are) 1.America 2. Arabs 3.Army". PTI |
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WikiLeaks founder says he is not obliged to return to be questioned over sexual assault allegations
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Burger giant tried to delay US legislation in order to aid lawsuit being fought in Central American country
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US vice-president makes strongest remarks by any White House official over WikiLeaks founder and dipomatic cables
Speaking after release on bail, WikiLeaks founder says he has not been provided with any evidence relating to claims he sexually assaulted two women
Audio (39min 01sec)
Audio (42min 55sec) 20 comments
WikiLeaks founder says he is not obliged to return to be questioned over sexual assault allegations
Jonathan Farley: Don't want people to read your stuff? Easy – send it in code. So why didn't the state department make itself WikiLeaks-proof?
Peter Singer: If citizens are kept in the dark about their government's activities, they cannot hold it to account Here is the last instalment of user-suggested research before the New Year: on a controversial prospective Shell gas pipeline off Ireland; on the extradition of Christopher "Dudas" Coke from Jamaica; and the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
We asked last week what we should look for among the leaked US embassy cables. Here is a further instalment of user-suggested research: on the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver; the response to the Haiti earthquake; and on developments in the Turks and Caicos islands
WikiLeaks founder says he is not obliged to return to be questioned over sexual assault allegations
Jonathan Farley: Don't want people to read your stuff? Easy – send it in code. So why didn't the state department make itself WikiLeaks-proof?
Peter Singer: If citizens are kept in the dark about their government's activities, they cannot hold it to account Here is the last instalment of user-suggested research before the New Year: on a controversial prospective Shell gas pipeline off Ireland; on the extradition of Christopher "Dudas" Coke from Jamaica; and the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
We asked last week what we should look for among the leaked US embassy cables. Here is a further instalment of user-suggested research: on the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver; the response to the Haiti earthquake; and on developments in the Turks and Caicos islands
We explain what Wikileaks embassy cables release includes and how it breaks down - plus you can download the key data for every cable
103 commentsPublished: 11 Sep 08 10:52 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation
On the fifth anniversary of the assassination of foreign minister Anna Lindh, Sweden is reflecting more on the legacy of her work in politics than the tragic circumstances surrounding her death.
TT/The Local (news@thelocal.se/08 656 6518)
http://www.thelocal.se/29724/
Sweden's National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) will review the care former foreign minister Anna Lindh received after she was stabbed in central Stockholm in September 2003.
TT/AFP/The Local (news@thelocal.se)
http://www.thelocal.se/29318/
http://www.thelocal.se/29318/
Karolinska University Hospital has requested an inquiry into the care it gave former foreign minister Anna Lindh after her fatal stabbing in September 2003.
TT/The Local (news@thelocal.se/08 656 6518)
http://www.thelocal.se/28404/
security" class="nodec">Security for Social Democratic leader Mona Sahlin has been tightened due to serious threats against her just over a month before elections, Swedish media reported on Monday.
AFP/The Local (news@thelocal.se)
http://www.thelocal.se/30974/
Sweden was pressured by the United States to increase its commitment in Afghanistan, documents released by WikiLeaks reveal.
TT/The Local/pvs (news@thelocal.se)
http://www.thelocal.se/30970/
A new poll has revealed that if an election were held now, the ruling Alliance would gain a majority in Sweden's parliament, the Riksdag, while support for Sweden's Social Democratic Party continues to slide.
Vivian Tse (news@thelocal.se)
http://www.thelocal.se/30880/
http://www.thelocal.se/30880/
Swedish lawmakers in the country's parliament, the Riksdag, voted on Wednesday to extend the country's military mission in Afghanistan until the end of 2011.
AFP/The Local (news@thelocal.se)
http://www.thelocal.se/tag/
The following articles have been tagged with "Anna_lindh":
Politics: 29 Nov 10
Over 800 secret American documents about relations with Sweden have been released by WikiLeaks, according to Swedish media reports. READ »
National: 19 Nov 10
Sweden’s former Social Democratic government was informed in 2002 about a surveillance programme run by the US embassy in Stockholm, secret documents reveal. READ »
National: 20 Oct 10
Sweden's National Board of Health and Welfare will review the care former foreign minister Anna Lindh received after she was stabbed in central Stockholm in September 2003. READ »
National: 29 Sep 10
Karolinska University Hospital has requested an inquiry into the care it gave former foreign minister Anna Lindh after her fatal stabbing in September 2003. READ »
Politics: 18 Sep 10
With polls set to open in 24 hours rivals Fredrik Reinfeldt and Mona Sahlin are both looking for an electoral victory to cement their leadership status after long political comebacks. READ »
Politics: 16 Aug 10
Security for Social Democratic leader Mona Sahlin has been tightened due to serious threats against her just over a month before elections, Swedish media reported on Monday. READ »
National: 14 Jun 10
BP’s problems are proving to be the toughest test yet in the career of Swedish business’s golden boy Carl-Henric Svanberg, writes James Savage. READ »
Politics: 5 May 10
A memorial square to Anna Lindh, the former Swedish foreign minister murdered in 2003, was inaugurated in Stockholm on Tuesday near where she made her final public appearance. READ »
Politics: 12 Feb 10
Bo Holmberg, the husband of assassinated Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh, has died aged 67. READ »
National: 5 Feb 10
Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt has asked for an explanation from the previous Social Democrat government over Russia's release of toxic waste into Swedish waters in the Baltic Sea. READ »
Society: 4 Feb 10
Southern Swedish newspaper Sydsvenskan has been cleared of libel charges after being sued by the initial suspect in the murder of Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh in 2002. READ »
National: 4 Feb 10
The Russian military is suspected of having dumped chemical weapons and radioactive waste off the Swedish island of Gotland in the beginning of the 1990s. READ »
National: 3 Feb 10
A libel case involving Swedish newspaper Sydsvenskan and the initial suspect in the murder of Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh in 2002 opened in a Malmö court on Wednesday. READ »
National: 30 Dec 09
Swine flu beat out both the June death of Michael Jackson and the Stockholm helicopter heist in September as the top Swedish news story of 2009, according to a new study. READ »
Analysis & Opinion: 7 Jul 09
Anyone who doubts that Sweden is a country characterised by openness and informality should visit Visby during the first week of July, writes Olle Wästberg, Director-General of the Swedish Institute. READ »
Politics: 8 May 09
Two prominent Left Party politicians are calling for Sweden to set up an independent truth commission to look into how Sweden cooperated with the United States during the war on terror. READ »
National: 19 Jan 09
Former justice minister Thomas Bodström and former prime minister Göran Persson have been reported to the Riksdag's constitutional committee after new details emerged over the expulsion of two terror suspects from Sweden to Egypt in 2001. READ »
National: 19 Jan 09
Fresh details have surfaced about the deportation of two terror suspects from Sweden to Egypt in December 2001, including allegations of US pressure and the role of former foreign minister Anna Lindh, following the release a new book on Monday. READ »
National: 10 Nov 08
The investigation into the assassination of Foreign Minister Anna Lindh in 2003 was just as poorly handled in the first 24 hours as the Olof Palme investigation in 1986, according to a former police chief. READ »
Politics: 22 Oct 08
Sweden's former Finance Minister Pär Nuder has criticized the country's security service over its failure to protect assassinated Foreign Minister Anna Lindh. READ »
Politics: 11 Sep 08
On the fifth anniversary of the assassination of foreign minister Anna Lindh, Sweden is reflecting more on the legacy of her work in politics than the tragic circumstances surrounding her death. READ »
Analysis & Opinion: 9 May 08
James Savage looks how Sweden's papers reacted to a controversial acquittal in the case of a man who shot a teenage boy dead in southern Sweden last year. READ »
Analysis & Opinion: 15 Apr 08
Social democratic newspaper editor Eric Sundström hopes Fredrik Reinfeldt at least says something about human rights and the Olympics during the Prime Minister’s visit to China. READ »
Society: 18 Nov 07
Poor security procedures at one of Sweden's top teaching hospitals have led to insufficient control over who accesses patients' medical records. READ »
Politics: 23 Oct 07
Göran Persson has written a book about his ten years as Sweden's prime minister. In it, he explains how he could have won the election if he had only ignored the advice of his finance minister. READ »
National: 29 Sep 07
A man carrying a large hunting knife succeeded in entering the Ministry for Employment before being arrested later in central Stockholm, it has been revealed. READ »
National: 27 Jul 07
Swedish tabloid Expressen is to continue fighting a lawsuit brought against them by the man first suspected of murdering foreign minister Anna Lindh in 2003. "What they did must be a world record for slander," says the man's lawyer. READ »
National: 14 May 07
Mijailo Mijailovic, the man who murdered Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh, has decided to give up on the idea of a transfer to a Serbian prison. "He's in a catch 22 situation," says his lawyer. READ »
National: 6 Feb 07
Mijailo Mijailovic, the man who murdered Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh, has had his application to serve his sentence in his parents' homeland of Serbia refused by authorities in Stockholm. READ »
Politics: 2 Feb 07
Anders Borg has come in for criticism for requesting the government plane to land at the airport nearest his home. "Common practice," says his press secretary. READ »
National: 20 Jan 07
Mijailo Mijailovic wants to serve his sentence for the murder of Anna Lindh in Serbia. But Swedish authorities will not permit a transfer until Serbia decides on the length of his sentence. READ »
Politics: 13 Jan 07
It was the apartment that caused her resignation as justice minister, after she bought it in contravention of government policy. But Laila Freivalds can comfort herself with a profit of 5 million kronor. READ »
Analysis & Opinion: 4 Jan 07
Sweden's Social Democrats are looking for a new leader and Mona Sahlin seems to be the front runner. The Local asked political expert Stig-Björn Ljunggren to help us size up the contenders. READ »
National: 3 Jan 07
Laila Freivalds was forced to step down as justice minister in 2000 when her property dealings ran counter to government policy. Now its payback time. READ »
Society: 3 Jan 07
People convicted of crimes and sentenced to psychiatric care could face tougher restrictions when released, says Sweden's justice minister Beatrice Ask, who wants to make sure patients are followed up. READ »
National: 1 Nov 06
Anna Lindh's killer Mijailo Mijailovic has admitted beating a sleeping fellow prisoner over the head with a metal object ripped from a radiator. But, he claims, he did so because he feared for his life. READ »
Politics: 29 Sep 06
A senior Liberal has called for Mijailo Mijailovic, who killed Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh, to be denied his wish to serve out his sentence in Serbia. READ »
National: 22 Sep 06
Sweden's change of government is reported to have caused delight in the Israeli government, which saw the Social Democrats as extra-critical of the Jewish state. But a Green MP says things won't change much. READ »
Politics: 11 Sep 06
Three years after Sweden's foreign minister Anna Lindh was murdered in a Stockholm department store, ministers pay their tributes at her grave. READ »
Politics: 30 Aug 06
Harvard University has created a new professorship in memory of Anna Lindh, Sweden's murdered foreign minister. The post will be dedicated to global leadership and public policy, the university says. READ »
National: 22 Aug 06
Serbia has indicated that the man who murdered Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh in 2003 could serve his prison sentence in a Serbian jail. Now it's up to the Swedish governement. READ »
National: 3 Aug 06
The man who murdered Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh in 2003 has been charged with assaulting a patient at a psychiatric asylum. READ »
National: 29 Jun 06
Two men have been arrested after shots were fired during the attempted robbery of a jewellery department at the NK store in Stockholm on Thursday. Police say that no injuries have been reported. READ »
Lifestyle: 27 Apr 06
This weekend will see King Carl XVI Gustaf feted by foreign royalty, parliamentarians and thousands of his people. As he celebrates his 60th birthday, Sweden's king can satisfy himself with approval ratings that would make a politician green with envy. READ »
Analysis & Opinion: 21 Mar 06
After a year of unrelenting criticism over her handling of the tsunami disaster and latterly of the Muhammad cartoons, Persson had little choice but to accept Laila Freivalds' resignation. READ »
Lifestyle: 27 Feb 06
It is twenty years since Sweden was shaken by the murder of one of its most controversial politicians. But what impact does the radical, campaigning prime minister Olof Palme have on modern Sweden? READ »
Politics: 14 Feb 06
A note on the door of a cinema where leading feminist Gudrun Schyman was giving a lecture raises fears for her safety. "I see it as a death threat," says Schyman. READ »
Politics: 29 Jan 06
The head of the Social Democrats' youth movement, Anna Sjödin, is accused of assualting a doorman in a bar in Stockholm. She was held overnight by police before being released. READ »
National: 28 Jan 06
Thomas Bodström and his family have been given round-the-clock security after "informants in the underworld" told police there was a threat against Sweden's justice minister, it has been reported. READ »
Society: 19 Oct 05
Details about psychiatric patients are even kept from the prying eyes of Sweden's security police, Säpo. But not for long, perhaps - Säpo needs more power to combat the threat to ministers and royalty, says the government. READ »
National: 8 Oct 05
Mijailo Mijailovic, who last year was found guilty of murdering Sweden's former foreign minister Anna Lindh, is to be transferred out of psychiatric care and back into Stockholm's maximum security prison, Kumla. READ »
National: 21 Sep 05
Mijailo Mijailovic, who murdered Sweden's former foreign minister Anna Lindh in 2003, has brutally attacked another inmate at the secure psychiatric clinic in Sundsvall where he is being treated. READ »
National: 11 Sep 05
SEE ALSO: SIX PEOPLE WERE ARRESTED FOR LINDH MURDER
Mijailo Mijailovic, who killed Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh exactly 2 years ago, has been moved to a psychiatric unit. A doctor decided he was unwell and needed help, the asylum says. READ »
Smörgåsbord: 9 Sep 05
The man in charge of the investigation into Anna Lindh's killing says that six men were arrested over the murder. Until now, only two arrests had been revealed to the public. READ »
Analysis & Opinion: 8 Sep 05
Our Stockholm Syndrome correspondent has a close call on one of the city's blue buses and finds out that Swedes on public transport have a more immediate fear than terrorism. READ »
Society: 12 Aug 05
Swedish prisons may be considered plush by many, but an increasing number of prisoners with foreign backgrounds are trying to get moved abroad. Going back to the Netherlands is popular among people convicted of drugs offences. READ »
Smörgåsbord: 16 Jun 05
READ »
Business & Money: 29 May 05
Un nouveau sondage international effectué auprès de personnes originaires de 10 pays montre que si elles avaient le choix, c’est en Suède qu’elles préféreraient vivre et travailler! Pourtant la Suède n’est pas épargnée par les troubles de toutes natures et comme partout s’ensuit une recherche des personnes responsables... READ »
Lifestyle: 27 May 05
SVT's controversial TV programme on 'extreme feminism' has provoked a week of fierce media debate, with the chairwoman of ROKS, the national women's refuge organisation, portrayed as a man-hating loon. But how much of that was down to selective editing? READ »
National: 24 May 05
A government committee set up to investigate the controversial deportation of two Egyptians accused of terrorist offences is told by Säpo, Sweden's security police, that Anna Lindh gave them the go-ahead to use American help. READ »
National: 24 May 05
Three people are injured as a man, thought to be suffering from psychological problems, runs amok on a rush hour underground train. READ »
Politics: 20 Apr 05
Now it's Pär Nuder's turn in the firing line, as a paper reveals that the finance minister cooked the books to boost public subsidies to the young Social Democrats in the 1980s. Nuder, reported to be Göran Persson's favoured successor, boosted his career by inflating member figures, it is alleged. READ »
National: 6 Apr 05
Against the media's expectations and the experts' recommendations, Ulf Olsson is sentenced to life imprisonment for the rape and murder of 10 year old Helén Nilsson and 26 year old Jannica Ekblad in 1989. READ »
National: 15 Mar 05
The threat to famous people in Sweden posed by stalkers is worse than previously thought. That is the conclusion of a survey carried out by Säpo, the security police, and now they have proposed tougher laws to deal with the problem. READ »
Science & Technology: 14 Mar 05
In the last two years the number of people murdered by mental health patients has become an embarrassment to Sweden. Now, the man appointed by the government to overhaul the system tells The Local that the main obstacle to progress is the politicians themselves. READ »
Politics: 20 Feb 05
Of all the main party leaders, the Swedish public has the greatest confidence in the Moderates' Fredrik Reinfeldt. But prime minister Göran Persson is less popular now than at any time since September 2000. READ »
Politics: 27 Jan 05
Laila Freivalds gets round-the-clock protection from the security police as, following the government's handling of the tsunami catastrophe, she remains the focus of public fury - and a Magnus Uggla song. READ »
Politics: 23 Dec 04
Anna Lindh had no idea about plans for American authorities to deport two Egyptians from Sweden, says the prime minister. READ »
Politics: 14 Dec 04
A police officer tells a hearing that former foreign minister Anna Lindh approved an operation for the CIA to deport two Egyptians back to their homeland. The pair are alleged to have been tortured on their return. READ »
National: 2 Dec 04
It's the end of the legal line for the man who killed foreign minister Anna Lindh in September 2003, as Sweden's top court reverses the Appeal Court's decision and puts Mijailo Mijailovic in prison for life. READ »
National: 12 Nov 04
This page has moved. The collection of articles about the aftermath of the murder of Anna Lindh is now here. READ »
National: 11 Nov 04
As the army announces that 1,000 officers are to lose their jobs, the security police begin to recruit 50 new bodyguards. A military background and officer training might look pretty good on an applicant’s CV. READ »
National: 11 Nov 04
"Mijailo Mijailovic was psychologically ill when he killed Anna Lindh, therefore he can't be sentenced to prison. But now he's better, so he can't be given secure psychiatric treatment either." Hmmm. READ »
Science & Technology: 11 Nov 04
In the week that the Supreme Court reviews the sentence on Anna Lindh's killer, Lysanne Sizoo points out where the Swedish mental health system is breaking down - and offers a creative solution. READ »
National: 20 Oct 04
Linköping is shocked - and afraid - as police hunt the man who killed an eight year old boy and a 56 year old woman on a street in the centre of town on Tuesday morning. READ »
Politics: 19 Oct 04
Keen to pick up supporters wherever they can, it seems the Moderates will let anyone into their party - even if he's armed with a huge hunting knife. Security? What security? READ »
National: 14 Oct 04
A bad week for Sweden's 'celebrity lawyer' Peter Althin - ditched by Anna Lindh's murderer for not visiting enough and upbraided by the Lawyers Association for a conflict of interest in representing three of the Hall Prison escapees. READ »
Smörgåsbord: 24 Sep 04
READ »
Smörgåsbord: 22 Sep 04
READ »
National: 21 Sep 04
Anna Lindh's murderer is no longer a Swedish citizen, it emerges after he is taken to hospital suffering from psychiatric problems. And now a move to Serbia could be on the cards, just as another notorious killer considers coming to Sweden. READ »
National: 15 Sep 04
First he was sentenced to life imprisonment, then to psychiatric care. Now Mijailo Mijailovic could be facing life again for killing Anna Lindh in Stockholm last year. READ »
Smörgåsbord: 8 Sep 04
READ »
Politics: 6 Aug 04
A new pair of scandals for the government this week. One black sheep returns to the ministerial fold after her business fails and Bosse Ringholm forgets to collect some taxes - from the football club where he is the chairman. READ »
National: 23 Jul 04
Mehdi Ghezali speaks out against his American captors and the Swedish government, defends his actions in 2001 - and wants some cash. READ »
National: 23 Jul 04
The royal family's holiday on Öland was disturbed by intruders, said Expressen. No it wasn't, said the palace spokeswoman. Either way, the family has upped the security this year. READ »
National: 9 Jul 04
Mijail Mijailovic is judged by the appeal court to be "seriously disturbed" and will be held in a secure psychiatric hospital instead of prison. READ »
National: 2 Jul 04
Doctors agree that Mijail Mijailovic is mentally disturbed - but the appeal court must decide if that means a secure hospital instead of prison. READ »
National: 24 Jun 04
The trial is taking a four week break but you can't keep a good story down. The mystery buyer of the pastor's house is revealed and his mistress strikes gold while the congregation finally starts singing from the same hymn sheet. READ »
National: 28 May 04
Paedophilia, corruption, weapons and drugs smuggling - you just can't trust the police these days. READ »
National: 14 May 04
After weeks of leaks surely everything that could be said about Knutby has been said? You ain't seen nothin' yet. READ »
Politics: 7 May 04
Police floored rioters, but will proposals for an all-female political party hit the established parties where it hurts? READ »
Politics: 23 Apr 04
A female politician, no security, an unknown assailant - we've been here before. READ »
National: 16 Apr 04
Anna Lindh's murderer wants the verdict reduced to manslaughter while her family is seeking increased compensation. READ »
WIKILEAKS founder Julian Assange's lawyer says he has seen police documents that prove the whistleblower is innocent of rape claims.
Bjrn Hurtig, who is representing Assange in Sweden, said the documents, which form part of the official Swedish investigation, revealed two women had lied about being coerced into having sex with Mr Assange, 39. Assange is being held in Wandsworth prison, London, while fighting extradition to Sweden.
Assange met both women at a seminar in Stockholm last August. After having intercourse with each, at different times, he faced sex charges, which he strenuously denies, that were withdrawn and then reinstated.
In an interview from his Stockholm office, Mr Hurtig said: "From what I have read, it is clear that the women are lying and that they had an agenda when they went to the police, which had nothing to do with a crime having taken place.
"It was, I believe, more about jealousy and disappointment on their part ...
"If I am able to reveal what I know, everyone will realise this is all a charade," he said. MAIL ON SUNDAY
KUALA LUMPUR, Sunday 12 December 2010 (Bernama) -- Singapore's intelligence services as well as its senior minister Lee Kuan Yew believe that opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim "did indeed commit the acts for which he is currently indicted."
This was revealed by WikiLeaks through a release of a US State Department cable issued in November 2008.
The cable was exclusively released to the Australian tabloid, The Sun-Herald, and was widely reported by other Australian newspapers today.
WikiLeaks is a website that publishes anonymous submissions and leaks of sensitive governmental, corporate, organisational, or religious documents, while attempting to preserve the anonymity and untraceability of its contributors.
The US State Department cable that dealt with Anwar's sodomy case, dated November 2008, and was released exclusively to The Sun-Herald by WikiLeaks, had stated:''The Australians said that Singapore's intelligence services and [Singaporean elder statesman] Lee Kuan Yew have told ONA in their exchanges that Opposition leader Anwar 'did indeed commit the acts for which he is currently indicted'.''
In the newspaper report, it said the document stated that the Singaporeans told ONA that they made this assessment on the basis of ''technical intelligence'', which was likely to relate to intercepted communications.
FILED UNDER: Featured, Law & order, Malware
Police in the Netherlands have arrested a second teenager in relation to the pro-WikiLeaks distributed denial-of-service attacks seen earlier this week.
The arrest of the 19-year-old man follows Friday's attacks on websites belonging to Dutch Police and national prosecutor's office, which were themselves widely seen as retaliation against the apprehension the day before of a 16-year-old Dutch boy alleged to have participated in "Anonymous" pro-WikiLeaks attacks against a number of websites, including MasterCard and PayPal.
Prosecutors claim that the 19-year-old, from Hoogezand-Sappemeer, in the north east of the Netherlands, flooded the prosecutor's website with internet traffic:
"From behind his computer, the man used hacker software to flood the website of the prosecutor’s office with as much digital traffic as possible. Investigations by the National Police Services Agency showed that the man, who was active under the internet nickname Awinee, urged other internet users to participate in the attack."
However, it is reported that the DDoS attack software being used did not hide the IP address of the computer involved, making it easy for high-tech crime cops to identify where the attack was coming from.
That's a pretty silly mistake to make if you're going to attack the website of your country's national prosecutor.
Who is "Awinee"? Well, a quick search on Google found a gaming website of a guy who lives in Hoogezand-Sappemeer, is 19 years old, and uses the online nickname "Awinee", going by the real name of Martijn Gonlag:
Find all the current Wikileaks Mirrors and Links here. Helpful, if the main site - wikileaks.org - is down.
Important Wikileaks Links
Julian Assange
Enemy of the State Hero of the People
By Lucy Carne LONDON
SEEDS OF CHANGE: Julian Assange the boy and the thorn in the side of governments, and a rally by his Brisbane supporters this week
In front of an adoring crowd at the Frontline journalist’s club in London last month, Australia Julian Assange explained why he’s risking the wrath of the world’s most powerful governments.
In his face could still be seen traces of the sweet natured, sensitive little boy his Sunshine Coast-based mother has described and, smiling, the Queensland born 39 year old leaned into the microphone.
“They say I enjoy crushing bastards and. Yes, that’s part of my motivation,” Assange said.
“For some reason, the White House finds that offensive.”
Today, the founder if whistle blowing website WikiLeaks and the man on whom the world’s spotlight is focused, sits is a grey tracksuit in one of western Europe’s biggest prsions.
This week he was remanded in custody of rape, sexual assault and unlawful coercion stemming from alleged non-consensual sex without a condom with two women in Sweden.
Assange’s imprisonment, after he handed himself in, was met with relief in the US, where authorities were angered by his website’s release of embarrassing diplomatic cables last week.
The man who kicked the hornets’ nest had been silences they thought.
“I hadn’t heard that but it sounds like good news to me,” US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on being told of Assange’s arrest.
But while Assange grows restless behind bars – he has already complained about the “boring” daytime television and his request to be reunited with his own laptop has been denied – a global groundswell of support has grown.
The strongest act of revenge is coming from a group of ”hacktivists” known as Anomymous, which temporariiy shut down the websites of US and Swedish corporations this week.
The group also froze the websites of credit-card companies Visa and Mastercard,n which had cancelled financial donations to WikiLeaks.
Post Finance – the Swiss bank that froze Assange’s private account – was disabled too, as was the Swedish prosecution office and the Swedish lawyers representing the two women who claim to have been sexually assaulted by Assange.
The Anonymous group’s spokesman, known only as Coldblood, told reports they had not met Assange and were not connected to his organization but felt the need to defend him.
“If we let WikiLeaks fall without a fight then government will think they can just take down any sites they wish or disagree with,” Coldblood said.
In Brisbane on Thursday, some 300 protestors took to the streets in anger at Assange’s imprisonment.
Protests in London were due to be held today.
More than 35,000 people have joined a Facebook group to support Assange, with calls for all members to donate to his legal fund, while around 28,000 Australians have signed a letter to US President BARACK Obama supporting him.
In an open letter published yesterday, prominent supports, including Australia documentary film maker John Pilger, Minty Python member Terry Jones, English actress Miriam Margolyes and author Iain Banks, call for his immediate release from jail
Assange’s unusually harsh imprisonment for allegedly ignoring two women’s requests to use contraception has caused this sudden swell of skepticism and fury.
Many believe it is a flimsy excuse to keep Assange, who was placed on Interpol’s most wanted list, within reach of the US Justice Department so it can prosecute him under the Espionage Act.
Even while he is hailed by the public as a champion of transparency, to the governments of Australia and the US he remains a menace. To them he is not an innocent messenger but an anti-government terrorist who wants to harm the US and governments across the world.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard labeled WikiLeaks’s activities illegal but, despite calls for her to do so, has failed to outline any Australian law that Assange has broken.
Federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland also has stood by his condemnation of Assange, while arch-conservative US politician Sarah Palin called him an anti-American operative with blood on his hands.”
How did the tousled-haired boy in overalls grow up to become an Andy Warhol-esque hero of the people.
“Hr can seem – with his spectral white hair, pa8iled skin, cool eyes, and expansive forehead – like a rail thin being who has rocketed to Earth to deliver humanity some hidden truth,” The New Yorker wrote in June.
Born in Townsville in 1971, Assange has described his childhood as “pretty Tom Sawyer”’ filled with horseriding, building rafts and fishing.
I was, however, far from Idyllic. By the age od 14, his family had moved 37 times, living everywhere from Magnetic Island to Byron Bay. It set the scene for his future nomadic life.
The young boy was home schooled, sporadically educated by university professors and even taught himself in hours spent alone in council libraries.
But his life changed when his mother’s abusive boyfriend tried to gain custody of Assange’s half brother in order to submit him to religious sect The Family.
His mother and her young family “disappeared”, constantly moving, never leaving a trail.
But at the age of 16, in 1987, Assange got a computer and modem and his life was suddenly transformed.
He embraced the random problem-solving and solace if life as a computer hacker.
“We were bright sensitive kinds who didn’t fit the dominant subculture and fiercely castigated those who did as irredeemable boneheads,” he wrote of himself and a teenage friend.
He was arrested in the early 1990’sw for hacking into the computer system of a major Canadian telecommunications company, but avoided a prison sentence of up to 10 years.
A brief spell in hospital for depression soon followed, as well as time spent living rough in the Dandenong Ranges National Park in Victoria and a stint motorcycling across Vietnam.
While working towards a physics degree at the University of Melbourne in 2006, He founded WikiLeaks.
It was a site for anyone wishing to “reveal illegal or immoral behavior in their own governments and corporations” he wrote at the time of the site’s launch.
“ I am the one who9 takes that risk,” he said prophetically, explaining his role at WikiLeaks while addressing the Frontline club last monthly. “As a consequence, I also get a lot of undue credit. I also get all the criticism.”
His original WikiLeaks mandate was to9 “make the news, not be the news”.
But that seems to have backfired, with Assange now a household name around the world.
“Is is weird?” an audience member asked him of his new celebrity status.
“No,” Assange shrugged.” Actually, I find it quite boring.”
Lucy Marne is The Courier-Mail’s European correspondent
Dear Friend,
Sarah Palin wants Julian Assange hunted as a terrorist.1 She's among a swelling chorus of American politicians calling for the arrest - and even the death - of the Australian citizen who runs WikiLeaks. It's a shame that real terrorists, the kind we should be focusing our attention on, don't show up at British Police stations with their lawyers, as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange did yesterday.
Here in Australia, Prime Minister Gillard pre-emptively judged Mr. Assange "illegal," even as the Attorney General confirmed that no Australian nor international crime by WikiLeaks has been identified.2
The death penalty? Judgment before trial? This isn't the kind of justice system we have in Australia. If our Government won't stand up for the rights of Australian citizens, let's do it ourselves.
We're printing ads in The Washington Times and The New York Times with the statement our Government should have made, signed by as many Australians as possible. Will you add your name to the signatories, and invite your friends to join too?
http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/Wikileaks
The statement:Dear President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder:
We, as Australians, condemn calls for violence, including assassination, against Australian citizen and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, or for him to be labeled a terrorist, enemy combatant or be treated outside the ordinary course of justice in any way.
As Thomas Jefferson said, "information is the currency of democracy."3 Publishing leaked information in collaboration with major news outlets, as Wikileaks and Mr. Assange have done, is not a terrorist act.
Australia and the United States are the strongest of allies. Our soldiers serve side by side and we've experienced, and condemned, the consequences of terrorism together. To label WikiLeaks a terrorist organisation is an insult to those Australians and Americans who have lost their lives to acts of terrorism and to terrorist forces.
If WikiLeaks or their staff have broken international or national laws, let that case be heard in a just and fair court of law. At the moment, no such charges have been brought.
We are writing as Australians to say what our Government should have said: that all Australian citizens deserve to be free from persecution, threats of violence and detention without charge, especially from our friend and ally, the United States.
We call upon you to stand up for our shared democratic principles of the presumption of innocence and freedom of information.We're printing this statement in The Washington Times and The New York Times early next week - and the more Australians sign, the more powerful the message will be. Please add your name by clicking below, and forward this message to friends and family:
http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/WikiLeaks
What has started with WikiLeaks being branded as terrorists won't end there.
In fact, just yesterday U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman, Chair of the Senate's Homeland Security Committee, said thatThe New York Times should also be investigated under the U.S. Espionage Act for publishing a number of the diplomatic cables leaked to WikiLeaks.4 We can help stop such plans in their tracks, by showing how they are affecting the image of the US in the eyes of their staunchest friends and allies.
Click here to sign the statement before it's published in The New York Times and Washington Times.
Thanks for being part of this,
The GetUp team
---
1 Beckford, M., 'Sarah Palin: hunt WikiLeaks founder like al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders', The Telegraph, 30 November 2010.
2 Oakes, L., 'Oakes: Gillard gushes over US leaks', Perth Now, 4 December 2010.
3 The quote is widely attributed to Jefferson, but some now dispute whether he actually said it. We know, at least, that he said "knowledge is power," even if Francis Bacon did say it first.
4 Savage, C., 'U.S. prosecuters study WikiLeaks prosecution', The New York Times, 7 December 2010.
Julian Assange from Jail to Masion
Former Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks. Photo: Jacky Ghossein
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Assange gets bail but still locked up (01:12)
British judge grants bail to WikiLeaks founder under strict monitoring conditions, but he remains in jail as Sweden appeals the ruling.
Assange will never receive a fair trial: Hicks
Cameron Atfield
December 15, 2010
Hicks answers the tough questions
Former terrorism suspect David Hicks has come out in support of jailed freedom-of-speech campaigner Julian Assange, saying he feared for Mr Assange's safety should he end up in American hands.
Mr Assange, the founder of the WikiLeaks website, has been returned to London's notorious Wandsworth prison despite winning bail from a British Court.
He will be held there for another 48 hours while Swedish prosecutors, who want to extradite him to Sweden to face allegations of sex crimes, mount a High Court appeal against the decision.
Supporters of Mr Assange, including his lawyer, have claimed the charges are politically motivated after the release of thousands of secret diplomatic cables, causing embarrassment for several governments.
Yesterday, Mr Hicks told Fairfax Radio he was concerned about what might happen to Mr Assange if he was extradited to the United States.
"He will never receive a fair trial," he said.
"We have already established that it's a political decision rather than a legal one. It's important that our governments are held to account for any war crimes they may be involved in and that is why the work of WikiLeaks is so important."
Mr Hicks spent six years at Guantanamo Bay, the US-run prison camp in Cuba, before he returned home to Australia to serve nine months at Adelaide's Yatala jail.
He was convicted by a US military commission of "providing material support for terrorism".
Mr Hicks said he believed future WikiLeaks releases could contain information about his incarceration.
"I will watch with interest in more leaks released because I have heard that they might contain information about my treatment in Guantanamo and the political interference in my case," he said.
"I just hope the Australian government doesn't abandon him like they did to me."
WikiLeaks: Julian Assange sex assault court case branded a 'show trial'
The Swedish authorities are turning the sexual assault case against Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, into a "show trial", his lawyers claimed.
Mark Stephens attacked the decision by the Swedish authorities to appeal against a judge's ruling to grant the 39 year-old Australian bail.
He said their decision was now a "'persecution" rather than a prosecution and was politically motivated.
He accused the authorities of stopping at nothing to have the Wikileaks founder behind bars, a claim they denied.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is refused bail
15 Dec 2010
WikiLeaks: summary of the latest disclosures
15 Dec 2010
Julian Assange: is 'Wikileaker' on a crusade or an ego trip?
15 Dec 2010
Julian Assange: Jemima Khan comes to aid of Wikileaks founder in Swedish extradition fight
15 Dec 2010
Julian Assange: 'don't shoot the messenger'
15 Dec 2010
Julian Assange: 'don't shoot the messenger'
Governments around the world must not "shoot the messenger" by attacking disclosures by WikiLeaks, Julian Assange said on Tuesday.
Julian Assange says his whistle-blowing website deserves protection and has not cost a single life despite the claims of critics
The former computer hacker said his whistle-blowing website deserves protection and has not cost a single life despite the claims of critics.
Writing for The Australian newspaper, Mr Assange quoted its founder, Rupert Murdoch, as once saying the truth will inevitably win over secrecy.
He said: "Nearly a century later, WikiLeaks is also fearlessly publishing facts that need to be made public."
Mr Assange said WikiLeaks has coined "scientific journalism" that allows readers to study the original evidence for themselves.
He added: "Democratic societies need a strong media and WikiLeaks is part of that media. The media helps keep government honest.
"WikiLeaks has revealed some hard truths about the Iraq and Afghan wars, and broken stories about corporate corruption."
The campaigner denied he is anti-war, but said Governments must tell the truth about their reasons for fighting.
He claimed the United States, supported by its "acolytes", has attacked WikiLeaks instead of other media groups because it is "young and small".
Branding the website "underdogs", he accused Australia Prime Minister Julia Gillard of "disgraceful pandering" to the Americans.
He said: "The Gillard government is trying to shoot the messenger because it doesn't want the truth revealed, including information about its own diplomatic and political dealings."
Mr Assange highlighted some of the most high-profile revelations made by his website over the last week.
He added: "The swirling storm around WikiLeaks today reinforces the need to defend the right of all media to reveal the truth."
In news
The WikiLeaks bunker
WikiLeaks: 10 greatest scoops
WikiLeaks: do they have a right to privacy?
The key WikiLeaks revelations
Why law is powerless to stop WikiLeaks
WikiLeaks 'will continue releasing documents'
15 Dec 2010
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is driven into Westminster Magistrates Court in London Photo: Stefan Rousseau/PA
WikiLeaks 'will continue releasing documents'
WikiLeaks has pledged to continue releasing confidential documents after Julian Assange, the website's founder and chief, arrived at court for an extradition hearing.
Wednesday 15 December 2010
Richard Edwards and Nick Collins 2:53PM GMT 07 Dec 2010
Mr Assange handed himself over to police in central London on Tuesday morning after a warrant was issued for his arrest on rape charges.
But ahead of his first court appearance a spokesman for the website insisted the arrest would not prevent the planned release of further cables on Tuesday evening.
The spokesman wrote on Twitter: "Today's actions against our editor-in-chief Julian Assange won't affect our operations: we will release more cables tonight as normal."
The 39-year-old Australian was due to appear before a district judge at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court on Tuesday afternoon, where his lawyers were expected to fight extradition proceedings.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "Officers from the Metropolitan Police Extradition Unit have this morning arrested Julian Assange on behalf of the Swedish authorities on suspicion of rape.
"Assange is due to appear at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court today."
Supporters of Assange were told to protest against censorship outside the Horseferry Road court house on several websites.
His arrest came after an Australian newspaper published an editorial written by Assange, in which he urged governments around the world not to "shoot the messenger".
He wrote: "Democratic societies need a strong media and WikiLeaks is part of that media. The media helps keep government honest."
He accused the Australian government and prime minister Julia Gillard of "disgraceful pandering" to the Americans, adding: "The Gillard government is trying to shoot the messenger because it doesn't want the truth revealed, including information about its own diplomatic and political dealings."
Mr Assange has not been seen publicly for 31 days, since an appearance in Geneva, and was believed to have been in hiding in the south-east of England as the latest tranche of WikiLeaks material was released.
A European Arrest Warrant was issued by the Swedish last month but could not be acted upon because it did not contain sufficient information for the British authorities. A spokesman for Marianne Ny, the Swedish prosecutor, said the extra details were sent last week.
Police processed the warrant yesterday and arrangements were made with Mark Stephens, Mr Assange’s British lawyer, for the Wikileaks founder to attend a central London police station.
Mr Stephens said his client was keen to discover what allegations he was facing so he could clear his name.
"It's about time we got to the end of the day and we got some truth, justice and rule of law," he said.
"Julian Assange has been the one in hot pursuit to vindicate himself to clear his good name.
"He has been trying to meet with her (the Swedish prosecutor) to find out what the allegations are he has to face and also the evidence against him, which he still hasn't seen."
The 39-year-old Australian has been under intense pressure since the release of thousands of secret documents in recent weeks.
Kristinn Hrafnsson, spokesman for WikiLeaks, said Mr Assange had been forced to keep a low profile after several threats on his life.
Sweden’s Supreme Court upheld a court order to detain Mr Assange for questioning on suspicion of “rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion” after he appealed against two lower court rulings. He denies the allegations.
His details were also added to Interpol’s most wanted website, alerting police forces around the world.
Mr Stephens said he would fight any bid to extradite his client. He added that Mr Assange “has been trying to meet with the Swedish prosecutor since August this year”.
Mr Assange’s troubles deepened when his Swiss bank account was shut down after it was found he had given a false address. Postfinance, the financial arm of Swiss Post, said: “The Australian citizen provided false information regarding his place of residence during the account opening process.”
Mr Assange had allegedly told Postfinance he lived in Geneva but could offer no proof that he was a Swiss resident.
News of his potential arrest came as WikiLeaks was criticised for publishing details of hundreds of sites around the world that could be targeted in terrorist attacks.
Among the British sites listed are a transatlantic undersea cable landing in Cornwall; naval and motoring engineering firm MacTaggart Scott, based in the small Scottish town of Loanhead; and BAE Systems sites, including one in Preston, Lancashire.
The revelations prompted Sir Peter Ricketts, David Cameron’s national security adviser, to order a review of computer security across all government departments.
Julian Assange: Jemima Khan comes to aid of Wikileaks founder in Swedish extradition fight
Jemima Khan appeared in court to lend her support to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange as he was put behind bars over sexual allegations originating from Sweden.
By Andrew Hough, and Caroline Gammell 07 Dec 2010
Khan, the socialite and charity worker, offered to provide a £20,000 surety to prevent the 39-year-old Australian from being remanded in custody in Britain over the claims.
Swedish officials want him extradited to answer questions over the alleged rape of one woman and molestation of another while he was in Stockholm this summer.
Mr Assange, who was also supported in court by film director Ken Loach and four others, has repeatedly denied the claims.
The 36-year-old former wife of Imran Khan said she would pay “whatever sum was required” to ensure he was granted bail.
However, a district judge at City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court decided he was too much of risk as it emerged that there was no record him ever arriving in Britain.
During Tuesday's hearing he was accompanied by officials from the Australian High Commission after asking for consular assistance.
Outside court, Khan said: “I am not here to make any kind of judgement on the Julian Assange as an individual as I do not know him and I have never met him.
“I am here because I believe in the principle of the human right to freedom of information and our right to be told the truth.”
Mr Assange’s supporters believe his arrest is a political stunt to detract from the revelations being made on a daily basis on the Wikileaks website.
Geoffrey Robertson QC, a prominent Australian human rights barrister who was a defending lawyer at the Brighton Bombing trial in the mid 1980s, has reportedly agreed to act for Mr Assange in future hearings.
The former computer hacker claims he had received several death threats since the secret documents were published and that someone had called for the kidnap of his 20-year-old son in Australia.
Julian Assange in British prison on rape charge
08 Dec 2010
Julian Assange: Extradition case involving Wikileaks founder could last many months
08 Dec 2010
Julian Assange: question of consent
08 Dec 2010
Julian Assange: 'don't shoot the messenger'
07 Dec 2010
The Scarlet Pimpernel of cyberspace
07 Dec 2010
US Attorney General taking 'significant' action
07 Dec 2010
Julian Assange: is 'Wikileaker' on a crusade or an ego trip?
Julian Assange, the man who published the Afghan war files on his Wikileaks website, is unlikely to be chastened by Admiral Mike Mullen’s claims that he might now have “blood on his hands”.
Julian Assange outside court in Melbourne in 1995, where he was later convicted of hacking offences.
Julian Assange, pictured in London this week, relies on donations and the hospitality of wellwishers as he travels the globe.
WikiLeaks: summary of the latest disclosures
The latest round of WikiLeaks releases disclose more detail about the US's relationships with allies and foes across the globe. Here is a round-up of today’s headlines.
Britain
Prince Andrew criticised a variety of governments, including those of Britain and America, as corrupt, stupid and backward in a conversation with a US diplomat.
In his wave of “almost neuralgic patriotism”, the Duke also made the bizarre claim that British geography teachers are the best in the world.
Families of British servicemen killed in Sangin, Afghanistan have reacted furiously after it was claimed WikiLeaks would disclose dismissive remarks by US commanders on British efforts to secure the town.
The Welsh family of Bradley Manning, the US soldier suspected of handing the classified documents to WikiLeaks, have flown to America but been prevented from visiting him in prison.
The internet has been rife with speculation about which former Labour minister was labelled “a bit of a hound dog” with women by an American official.
David Cameron was seen as “lightweight” by Barack Obama after the first meeting between the two leaders, leaked files will show.
Prince Charles does not command the same respect as the Queen, according to a senior Commonwealth official.
International
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, dismissed claims that Arab countries had asked the US to attack his country as a deliberate attempt by the US to destabilise the Middle East.
Released Guantánamo Bay prisoners should have electronic tagging devices implanted so that they can be followed by security officials, the King of Saudi Arabia suggested to a White House official.
Silvio Berlusconi responded to leaked claims by American diplomats that he has a penchant for “wild parties” by claiming he only throws parties in a “proper, dignified and elegant way”.
One of the more unlikely stories to surface from the leaked documents was that of a 77-year-old American dentist who fled Iran on horseback after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
American officials suspect that North Korea has been secretly aiding Iran in its attempts to build nuclear weapons under the auspices of the Chinese government.
Colonel Gaddafi was believed to be very close to a “voluptuous” Ukrainian nurse who followed him everywhere he went, a US cable claimed.
An exile from Iran was living in London when he was targeted in an assassination plot by an Iranian agent, who was later arrested in America.
Hillary Clinton asked US diplomats in Argentina about the mental health of President Cristina Kirchner and questioned whether she was using medication to help her “calm down”.
The White House has told federal agencies to tighten security around the US military computer network following the leaking of classified information.
China would support a unified Korea controlled from Seoul because it believes the North is behaving like a “spoiled child”, documents show.
Sarah Palin has accused Barack Obama of taking insufficient action to prevent the release of the latest batch of WikiLeaks files.
The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, could die within months from terminal cancer, an Iranian informant told American officials.
Angela Merkel is the only leader “man” enough to lead the European Union, according to American cables.
The United Nations has angrily hit back at American “interference” after learning that Hillary Clinton ordered what amounted to an espionage campaign on its senior officials.
Julian Assange
The WikiLeaks founder is in hiding after an international warrant was issued for his arrest on rape allegations.
Assange’s next target will be the banking sector, with one American bank in particular to suffer from his next revelations, which he compared to the Enron scandal.
Assange has accused Barack Obama of attempting to smother the freedom of the press.
A criminal investigation is underway into how the latest batch of documents was made public, and Barack Obama could take legal action against Mr Assange.
Kazakh defence minister 'was openly drunk'
01 Dec 2010
WikiLeaks: Best quotes from Duke of York's Kyrgyzstan breakfast with US ambassador
30 Nov 2010
WikiLeaks: bereaved families' fury at US 'insult' over Afghanistan
30 Nov 2010
WikiLeaks: British and US governments stupid, says Prince Andrew
30 Nov 2010
WikiLeaks: Criminal investigation underway into leak of classified diplomatic documents
30 Nov 2010
WikiLeaks: Hillary Clinton states WikiLeaks release is "an attack"
30 Nov 2010
Julian Assange's alleged dating profile surfaces
December 14, 2010
Julian Assange allegedly used dating website OkCupid, his supposed profile now becoming fodder for media scrutiny around the world.
Intrepid internet users tracked down the disused profile that existed around 2006, revealing insightful information into Assange's personality, if it is to be believed that the information was written by Assange himself.
The WikiLeaks founder reportedly describes himself on the website: "Passionate, and often pig headed activist intellectual seeks siren for love affair, children and occasional criminal conspiracy,"
Prefacing his profile with a "warning", Assange explains: "Want a regular down to earth guy? Keep moving. I am not the droid you are looking for. Save us both while you still can"
When asserting what he likes in a woman, Assange's alleged profile states a woman should be "spirited, erotic, non-conformist. Non-conformity is not the adoption of some pre-existing alternative subculture. I seek innate perceptiveness and spunk"
"I like women from countries that have sustained political turmoil. Western culture seems to forge women who are valueless and inane. OK. Not only women!" he continues.
When describing what he is doing with his life, the profile states "Directing a consuming, dangerous human rights project", not without giving reference to his background in mathematics, neuroscience and philosophy.
According to the profile, Assange would have last used it on New Year's Eve December 2006. It states that he has never used drugs and only drinks socially, and that he spends a lot of time thinking about "Changing the world through passion, inspiration and trickery."
Pheasant dinners, port and brisk walks may be just days away for Julian Assange, whose bail address is to be Ellingham Hall. Photograph: Alban Donohoe
Julian Assange offered bail haven at former soldier's Suffolk manor
Maverick libertarian Vaughan Smith rescued WikiLeaks founder from jail - but then came appeal
His supporters include teenage hackers, freedom of speech activists and a motley group of celebrities. But it was the maverick British establishment that rode to the rescue of Julian Assange, offering to whisk him from dull confinement in Wandsworth jail to a large and comfy manor house in Suffolk.
For once, Assange was not the star at the afternoon bail hearing at Westminster magistrates' court. Dressed in a white shirt and blue suit, he watched the proceedings impassively. Instead the hero was Vaughan Smith, a former army officer, journalist adventurer and rightwing libertarian. For much of the past five months, until his arrest last week, Assange has been living at Smith's Frontline Club in Paddington, west London.
Standing to address district judge Howard Riddle, Geoffrey Robertson QC announced that "Captain Smith" was now ready to put Assange up at his rambling country home, Ellingham Hall, near Bungay in Suffolk – that is, should he be granted bail. The WikiLeaks saga has so far been short of jokes. But Robertson had one ready-made.
It would not be so much "house arrest as manor arrest", he quipped. Not only that, but it was inconceivable Assange would attempt to escape "since darkness descends rather early in that part of Britain". Additionally, Assange was willing to give up his Australian passport and wear an electronic tag. Finally, he wasn't likely to get very far given that "media exposure" had made him "well-known around the world", Robertson said with understatement.
Last week Assange was refused bail after he unwisely gave an Australian postal address as his place of residence. This time his legal team would allow no such mistake.
Robertson, Assange's new barrister, asked Smith to give his own assessment of WikiLeaks' controversial founder, in the light of Sweden's attempts to have him extradited on sex allegations.
"He is a very honourable person, hugely clever, self-deprecatory and warm. Not the kind of things you read about," Smith said loyally. But the clincher came when Robertson asked Smith to explain what precisely Assange's new rustic home would look like. After establishing that Smith was a former Guards officer and one-time captain of the British army's shooting team, the QC asked for details of Smith's family home and organic farm. "It has 10 bedrooms and 600 acres," Smith replied. Better still, there was even a police station. "It's a short distance on a bicycle. I can cycle it in about 15 minutes," Smith explained. "It's about a mile. Perhaps a little bit more." Smith added helpfully: "It's an environment where he would be surrounded. We have members of staff. My parents live in proximity as well. My father was a Queen's Messenger and a colonel in the Grenadier Guards."
On the second floor of the court several celebrity supporters had gathered outside next to the coffee machine and green metal benches – John Pilger, Jemima Khan, Ken Loach, Bianca Jagger, and others. But it turned out they weren't really needed – though their money was. Outside on the pavement, a polyglot scrum of journalists waited impatiently for news.
Judging from his appearance, Assange appeared to be surviving his ordeal in Wandsworth prison pretty well. From inside a glass box for the defendant, he confirmed his identity and address. He also gave a cheery thumbs-up to his team.
Robertson, however, made clear that Assange was having a miserable time of it. His conditions inside Wandsworth were nothing short of living hell, he suggested. "He can't read any newspapers other than the Daily Express. This is the kind of Victorian situation he finds himself in," Robertson lamented. He went on: "Time magazine sent him a magazine with his picture on the cover but all the person would allow him to have was the envelope!"
To no one's great surprise, the judge announced that "bail was going to be granted under certain conditions". These turned out to be not overly onerous: an electronic tag, an afternoon and night curfew and a requirement to report to Bungay police station between 6-8pm every evening. Oh, and £200,000 in cash.
Assange's lawyers asked if it might be possible to hand cheques into the court instead? The magistrate was unimpressed, insisting in these financially troubled times it had to be money up front.
Outside, the tweeted news of Assange's bail brought a loud cheer from the 150 or so people who had gathered opposite the court to cheer on their hero and share their banners and placards with the world.
One read: "Sex crimes! My arse!" Another, "That's just what we need – another innocent man in jail", and a third: "Sweden: muppets of the US." Despite the indignant slogans, the judge's verdict plainly delighted the protesters. Three young activists were so thrilled, in fact, that they broke into an impromptu chorus of We Wish You a Merry Christmas.
Soon afterwards, however, there was confusion as news filtered through that the Swedish prosecutor was to appeal against the bail decision, meaning that Assange has to remain for the time being in jail. But his lawyers appear confident he will be out in time for Christmas.
Pheasant dinners, port and brisk walks around the estate may be only a matter of days away.
If he wins his next bail hearing in the high court, Julian Assange's new home will be a historic rural estate on the borders of Norfolk and Suffolk. For more than three centuries Ellingham Hall, a sprawling and elegant Georgian manor house near the village of Bungay, has belonged to the Smith family.
Its owner today is Vaughan Smith, a friend of Assange, and a strong supporter. Smith has previously given the WikiLeaks founder a home at his Frontline club in Paddington, west London, which includes several flats.
Surrounded by 600 acres of woods and fields, the estate is the perfect retreat. It has 10 bedrooms, a large dining room with a convivial circular table, and portraits of Smith's ancestors hanging on the walls. There is a housekeeper who cooks meals. There is also a well-stocked cellar with wine and port – the decent Quinta Do Infantado.
The estate is usually home to Smith's wife and their two children.
Speaking to the Guardian before today's bail hearing, Smith made clear that Assange and his team will be expected to pay for food and accommodation. Other paying guests have included games sports enthusiasts – the hall boasts a pheasant shoot, with pheasants wandering freely over the grounds. The local Norfolk hunt sometimes clatters through the gardens.
"It's a Georgian house from the 18th century. It's been in my family as Smith for the past 225 years, but before that it belonged to the Johnsons, whom the Smiths married into.
"Some of the buildings are even older. On the walls are paintings of the people who bred me," Smith said. "My grandfather liked shooting and I'm partial to it myself."
The estate is exceptionally isolated. The nearest train station is Diss. From there it is a £27 ride in a taxi. It takes half an hour by car from the hall into Norwich, the nearest city.
The remoteness of the location is likely to afford Assange some privacy, since it is impossible to reach the manor house without trespassing on Smith's land.
According to friends, Assange shows little interest in food, and is invariably late for meals. But Ellingham Hall is also home to a large ecologically conscious organic farm. Smith looks after it himself together with two employees; the organic produce is served at his restaurant at the Frontline Club.
Find all the current Wikileaks Mirrors and Links here. Helpful, if the main site - wikileaks.org - is down.
Important Wikileaks Links
"Could become as important a journalistic tool as the Freedom of Information Act." - Time Magazine
WarLogs.Wikileaks.org is a website which provides an easy way to search through the Iraq and Afghan War Logs, which were made public by Wikileaks on 22nd October 2010. The documents are a set of over 391,000 reports which
cover the war in Iraq from 2004 to 2009 and Afghanistan from 2004 to 2009.
From here, you can browse through all of the documents that have been released, organized by type, category, date, number of casualties, and many other properties. From any document page, clicking on the green underlined text will open
a popup that links to other documents that contain those phrases, making it possible to see important search terms and connections that you might not otherwise notice.
Our hope is that this tool will be helpful to reporters and researchers who are interested in learning more about the US's war in Afghanistan and making sense of this important database. If you wish to support this work, we encourage
you to make a donation to wikileaks.
Source code for this website is freely available on github – we welcome any contributions, improvements or suggestions.
KAF-1BDE -S3 REPORTS: GERONIMO 11 SALUTE AS FOLLOWS: S - 1 CAVE, A CACHE, L - 42 SWB758 778, U UNK, T 0641, E - 1X UXO, 2000RDS 7.62MM....
WHILE CONDUCTING A JOINT CHECKPOINT /%%% MP CO FIRED ON A VEHICLE WHEN THE DRIVER FAILED TO OBEY THE POSTED WARNINGS AND COMMANDS OF THE IPS WHO WERE MANNING THE CHECKPOINT. THE VEHICLE, A %%% SEDAN ...
USSF FINDS CACHE IN VILLAGE OF WALU TANGAY: USSF CONDUCTED A MEET AND GREET IN THE VILLAGE OF WALU TANGAY. USSF MEMBERS WERE APPROACHED BY A LOCAL BOY WHO SPOKE OF A CACHE IN A CAVE ON A NEARBY HILL....
(M) NIGHT LETTERS DISTRIBUTED AROUND HAZARJUFT: THE FOLLOWING IS A TRANSLATED VERSION OF ONE LETTER: ISLAMIC IMARATS OF AFGHANISTAN. FOR THE BRAVE WARLORDS OF AFGHANISTAN, SALAM ALAIKOOM. AS YOU KNO...
KAF-1BDE -S3 REPORTS: SUMMIT 09 B CO ELEMENT SALUTE REPORT AS FOLLOWS: S- 3-4 PAX, A- SMALL ARMS FIRE, L-IVO 42 SWB 3910 1617, U-UNK, T-0415Z, E-AK-47. 0448Z ENEMY ELEMENTS BROKEN CONTACT. 0442Z AIR Q...
KAF-1BDE -S3: SUMMIT 6 REPORTS TIC SALUTE TO FOLLOW: S-18X ACM, A- SMALL ARMS FIRES, L-WB340120, T-1256Z. 1319Z: BDA UPDATE: REPORTING INDICATES POSSIBLY 8X SUSPECTED
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ICDC FROM HQ BN DETAINED A MAN WHO, DESPITE THE CURFEW, WAS ON THE STREET AND OBSERVED %%%....
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AT 0600C HRS, %%% KM NORTH OF BASRAH AT %%%, OP %%% NORTH (SEARCH OPERATION) WAS INITIATED BY %%%. THE FOLLOWING ITEMS WERE FOUND: %%% X MG, %%% AK-, %%% X MAGAZINES, , %%% X %%%.62MM SHORT AMMO,...
Op %%% NORTH (search operation) was initiated by %%%. The following items were found: %%% x MG, %%% AK-, %%% x magazines, , %%% x %%%.62mm short ammo, %%% x %%%.62mm long ammo, %%% x sealed boxes of...
AT %%% HRS, AN IED EXPLODED ON A /-%%% IN PATROL 5KM EAST OF AR RAMADI AT %%%. NO INJURIES OR DAMAGE TO VEHICLES. AFTER SECURING THE SITE, UNIT FOUND DETONATING DEVICE, BLASTING CAPS, AND WIRE BY %%%...
TWO RPGS WERE FIRED AT RAIDER %%% (THE OLD MUNICIPAL BUILDING IN THE %%% DISTRICT). THE RPGS CAME FROM THE SOUTH SIDE OF THE COMPOUND. %%% FLEW OVER THE BASE AND IMPACTED ON THE HIGHWAY. %%% HIT T...
%%% REPORTS THAT -%%% CONDUCTED A CORDON AND SEARCH OF A SUSPECTED WEAPONS , %%%, VIC (%%%) AT 0730C. -%%% SEARCHED THE AREA AND DID NOT FIND ANY CONTRABAND AND DID NOT CAPTURE ANY INDIVIDUALS....
A US convoy truck was found on route . %%% was left by a US convoy and partly stripped. IZ Police did a search in a few neighbouring houses due to suspected looting activities on the truck. This had ...
BCT (-%%%) CONDUCTED A CORDON AND SEARCH AT A RESIDENCE ( %%%) IN ASH %%%. THE OPERATION WAS CONDUCTED BASED ON A REPORT THAT AN INDIVIDUAL WAS STORING %%% IN HIS HOME. THE TARGET WAS NOT HOME; HOWE...
%%% Bde reports that they believe that the %%% back to the UK has gone down, but are unsure of its effects. They are going to investigate throughout their formation. No effects were observed in this H...
J2 reports that he has heard that a fire in the %%% in the UK has knocked out %%%. Imported MND-SE Report Event ID:%%% Number of Rounds: Number of Blinds: Number inside the Wire: : : ...
AT .%%% ON %%% ROAD TRAFFIC ACCIDENT OCCURRED %%% KM NORTH OF BASRAH CITY INVOLVING /%%% IN A LAND %%% DISCOVERY WHICH OVERTURNED, 1X CASUALTY REPORTED WITH BACK INJURIES AND MOVED TO %%% MED CEN...
The RTA occurred at .%%% hrs (NOT AT .%%%) in %%% area involving /%%% in a Land %%% Discovery witch overturned at %%%, recovery on way with %%% providing security. Imported MND-SE Report Ev...
%%% REPORTS THAT -%%% CONDUCTED A RAID VIC ( %%%) AT 0820C. THE TARGET OF THE RAID IS () %%%, A SUSPECTED WEAPONS . -%%% CAPTURED THE TARGET, HIS TWO %%% (NAMES UNKNOWN), AND CONFISCATED VARIOUS ...
AT %%% HRS, %%% REPORTS A %%%-TON TRUCK ENROUTE TO BAGHDAD ROLLED OVER SOUTH OF AR RAMADI VIC . %%% US KIA; %%% US WIA. %%% LITTER URGENT ARE AT %%% CSH (%%% APPEARS SERIOUS WITH %%% TRAUMA, %%% HAS B...
%%% REPORTS THAT - ( %%%/TARGET FOR OPERATION %%% SET IN AD %%%) TURNED HIMSELF INTO TO -%%% FA AT %%%....
%%% REPORTS -%%% AND THE IPS CONDUCTED A JOINT RAID VIC %%% AT 1000C. THE RAID WAS IPS LED AND RESULTED IN 1X INDIVIDUAL CAPTURED, %%%, AND 2X RIFLES, 2X AK-%%%, AND 5X MAGAZINES CONFISCATED....
%%% REPORTS -%%% AND THE %%% CONDUCTED A JOINT RAID VIC WEST OF %%%. THE RAID WAS %%% LED AND RESULTED IN 1X INDIVIDUAL CAPTURED, %%%, AND 2X RIFLES, 2X AK-%%%, AND 5X MAGAZINES CONFISCATED....
Notification of a controlled explosion at %%% Range Imported MND-SE Report Event ID:%%% Number of Rounds: Number of Blinds: Number inside the Wire: : : %%%: Route: : %%%/A IED %%...
TF %%%, during a VCP in AN %%% stopped a car and confiscated %%% x AK-%%% and %%% x possible falls %%%. One male was handed over to local IZP. Imported MND-SE Report Event ID:%%% Number of Roun...
%%% REPORTS THAT /-%%% DISCOVERED A CACHE VIC %%% (SW %%%) AT 1019C. THE CACHE CONSISTED OF 2X 60MM TUBES, 1X RPG LAUNCHER, 1X IMPROVISED ROCKET LAUNCHER (%%%), AND SMALL BAGS OF GRAVEL WITH BLASTING...
%%% REPORTS THAT -%%% DISCOVERED AN IED VIC %%% (AS %%%) AT 1030C. THE IED WAS COMPOSED OF %%% X MORTAR ROUNDS THAT WERE %%%. EOD HAS BEEN NOTIFIED AND IS EN ROUTE. %%% REPORTS THAT THE IED WAS DE...
BCT REPORTS AT %%% HOURS A WALK-IN HUMINT %%% REPORTED AN ATTACK AGAINST THE FPS AT THE %%% FUEL DEPOT VIC %%%. A/-%%% PIR WENT TO INVESTIGATE THE REPORT AND CONFIRMED THE ATTACK OCCURRED. %%% IZ'%%...
%%% REPORTS THAT THE -%%% DISCOVERED AN IED VIC %%% (AS %%%) AT 1042C. THE IED WAS COMPOSED OF 2X 120MM MORTAR ROUNDS AND REMOTE DETONATED. EOD DESTROYED THE IED IN PLACE WITHOUT INCIDENT....
%%% REPORTS THAT THE -%%% DISCOVERED AN IED VIC AS %%%. THE IED WAS COMPOSED OF 2X 120MM MORTAR ROUNDS AND REMOTE DETONATED. EOD DESTROYED THE IED IN PLACE WITHOUT INCIDENT....
Notification of a controlled explosion Imported MND-SE Report Event ID:%%% Number of Rounds: Number of Blinds: Number inside the Wire: : : %%%: Route: : %%%/A IED %%% Type: Loc...
At %%%, an incident took happen when a '%%% cocktail' was used against IZP. Later on %%% x offenders were arrested by local IZP. Imported MND-SE Report Event ID:%%% Number of Rounds: Numbe...
A US convoy truck was found on route . %%% was left by a US convoy and partly stripped. IZ Police did a search in a few neighbouring houses due to suspected looting activities on the truck. This had ...
AT %%% HOURS A/-%%% AR DISCOVERED %%% X 57MM ROUNDS AT %%%. THE UNIT SECURED THE SITE AND THE %%% BCT TOC NOTIFIED EOD AND DIRECTED -%%% CAV TO ESCORT EOD TO THE SITE. AT %%% HOURS, THE ROUND WERE R...
%%% REPORTS THAT THE %%% TRANSPORTATION COMPANY DISCOVERED AN IED VIC %%% (TIKRIT) AT 1130C. THE IED CONSISTED OF 60MM MORTAR ROUND. %%% WAS NOTIFIED AND SENT AN ELEMENT OUT TO SECURE THE SITE....
%%% REPORTS THAT -%%% AT FOB -%%% WAS ATTACKED BY 3X MORTAR ROUNDS VIC %%% (WEST OF %%%) AT 1200C. THE POO WAS IVO %%% AND %%% COUNTER FIRED 6X 155MM ROUND AT 1207C. -%%% RESPONDED WITH A QRF. THERE...
%%% REPORTS THAT A/-%%% CAV WAS CONDUCTING AN AREA RECON AND CONDUCTED A HASTY RAID ON A HOUSE VIC %%% (EAST TIKRIT) AT 1200C. THE RAID RESULTED IN THE CONFISCATION OF 2X 130MM SHELL CASINGS, WIRES A...
%%% REPORTS THAT /-%%% DISCOVERED A WEAPONS CACHE VIC %%% (NE OF TIKRIT) AT 1200C. THE CACHE CONSISTED OF TWO RPG ROUNDS AND TWO RPG LAUNCHERS....
BCT REPORTED THE , %%% DEAD WITH A GUN SHOT WOUND TO THE %%% NEAR %%% POLICE STATION. %%% AT HIS HOUSE AT APPROXIMATELY 312100DEC03. IT WAS REPORTED THAT %%% PERSONNEL TRAVELING IN A BLUE %...
AT %%% HRS, -%%% REPORTS IED DISCOVERED AT (%%% METERS FROM FOB %%%. MERE SOUTH GATE)(11KM SOUTH EAST OF FALLUJAH) , %%%-GAL %%% WITH A HAND GRENADE UNDERNEATH. ROUTE %%% FOB %%%. MERE IS BLOCKED. ...
%%% REPORTS THAT AN A/%%% EN CONVOY WAS ATTACKED BY AN IED VIC %%% (HWY , %%%) AT 1212C. THE LAST VEHICLE IN A %%% VEHICLE CONVOY EN ROUTE -%%% WAS HIT WITH THE IED. THE IED WAS PLACED IN THE MEDIA...
FEMALE %%% EMPLOYEE WAS HIT IN THE RIGHT CHEST BY %%% FIRE AT %%% HOURS OUTSIDE THE DINING FACILITY AT CAMP %%% (VIC %%%). SHE IS IN STABLE CONDITION AS WAS DUE TO BE EVACUATED BY %%% AT %%% HOURS FR...
AT %%% HRS, %%% REPORTED A TENT FIRE VIC %%% (4KM SOUTH OF HABBANIYAH). FOB %%% FIRE DEPARTMENT HAS BEEN DISPATCHED. AT %%% THE FIRE WAS EXTINGUISHED AND 10X TENTS WERE DESTROYED. A DAMAGE ASSESSME...
Update: On July 6, 2010, Private Bradley Manning, a 22 year old intelligence analyst with the United States Army in Baghdad, was charged with disclosing this video (after allegedly speaking to an unfaithful journalist). The whistleblower behind the Pentagon Papers, Daniel Ellsberg, has called Mr. Manning a 'hero'. He is currently imprisoned in Kuwait. The Apache crew and those behind the cover up depicted in the video have yet to be charged. To assist Private Manning, please see bradleymanning.org.
5th April 2010 10:44 EST WikiLeaks has released a classified US military video depicting the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad -- including two Reuters news staff.
Reuters has been trying to obtain the video through the Freedom of Information Act, without success since the time of the attack. The video, shot from an Apache helicopter gun-sight, clearly shows the unprovoked slaying of a wounded Reuters
employee and his rescuers. Two young children involved in the rescue were also seriously wounded.
The military did not reveal how the Reuters staff were killed, and stated that they did not know how the children were injured.
After demands by Reuters, the incident was investigated and the U.S. military concluded that the actions of the soldiers were in accordance with the law of armed conflict and its own "Rules of Engagement".
Consequently, WikiLeaks has released the classified Rules of Engagement for 2006, 2007 and 2008, revealing these rules before, during, and after the killings.
WikiLeaks has released both the original 38 minutes video and a shorter version with an initial analysis. Subtitles have been added to both versions from the radio transmissions.
WikiLeaks obtained this video as well as supporting documents from a number of military whistleblowers. WikiLeaks goes to great lengths to verify the authenticity of the information it receives. We have analyzed the information about this incident from a variety of source material. We have spoken to witnesses and journalists directly involved in the incident.
WikiLeaks wants to ensure that all the leaked information it receives gets the attention it deserves. In this particular case, some of the people killed were journalists that were simply doing their jobs: putting their lives at risk in order to report on war. Iraq is a very dangerous place for journalists: from 2003- 2009, 139 journalists were killed while doing their work.
See http://www.collateralmurder.com/ to view video
http://www.domes.ca/
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