The Queen has paid a half-hour visit to Kensington Palace to meet her new great-grandson, the son of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
The new parents left St Mary's Hospital in west London on Tuesday evening and spent the night at Kensington Palace. They are now at Catherine's family home in Bucklebury, Berkshire.
The name of the third in line to the throne is due to be announced soon.
Other visitors to the palace included Prince Harry and Pippa Middleton.
After a morning of visitors, the duke and duchess were seen leaving Kensington Palace with their newborn at 13:00 BST.
The BBC's royal correspondent Luisa Baldini said there had been wide speculation that the couple would head to the maternal grandparents' home but it was not known how long they would stay.
Catherine is very close to her parents, Carole and Michael, and Prince William has previously said how comfortable he feels around them, she said.
"The house is large and private enough for the duke and duchess to bond with their newborn son," she added.
'Very special'
The Queen visited without her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, as he continues to recover from abdominal surgery.
She made the short journey from Buckingham Palace in a dark green Bentley.
Continue reading the main story
The private meeting comes as the monarch prepares to leave for Balmoral in Scotland on Friday, where she has her traditional summer break.
At a reception at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday evening, the Queen said she was "thrilled" at the arrival of her third great-grandchild.
Louise Butt, a guest at the event for the Queen's Award for Enterprise, said the monarch had also described the baby as a "big boy" and had said that "the first born is very special".
There has been no word yet from the duke, who is expected to take about two months to convalesce following exploratory abdominal surgery last month.
The Queen - who also has two great-granddaughters - was not the first to meet the royal baby prince.
The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall, and Catherine's parents, Carole and Michael Middleton, paid visits to the hospital on Tuesday afternoon.
Later that day, Catherine's sister Pippa Middleton, accompanied by boyfriend Nico Jackson, went to Kensington Palace to meet her day-old nephew.
Kensington Palace said Prince Harry had also visited, but did not say when.
Prince Charles said the baby was "marvellous" while Mrs Middleton said he was "absolutely beautiful".
Prince William was at the hospital for the birth at 16:24 BST on Monday, and stayed with his wife and son, who weighed 8lb 6oz (3.8kg), overnight.
They left at 19:15 BST on Tuesday - just under 27 hours after the baby's arrival.
The couple described becoming parents as "very emotional".
A Kensington Palace spokesman said on Wednesday it was "now private and quiet time for them to get to know their son".
George?
Although the couple have yet to decide on a name it is known that the newest royal will be known as HRH Prince (name) of Cambridge.
George is the bookmakers' favourite for the first name of the prince, who is destined to be king one day. James and Alexander are among other names on a short price.
Asked by the BBC's royal correspondent Peter Hunt if the baby had already been named George, Prince William replied: "Wait and see, Peter, wait and see."
Royal fans waited seven days before the name of a newborn Prince William was announced in 1982, and there was a wait of a month following the Prince Charles's birth in 1948.
All births in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, regardless of parentage, must be registered within 42 days at the hospital before leaving or a register office.
Alleged victims ... Anna Ardin, left, and Sofia Wilen.
A reader emailed me to tell me that Julian Assange’s second rape accuser is named Sofia Wilén. She’s the “Woman B” in this article, the stalkerish groupie who slept with Assange but got mad at him after he turned out to be an inattentive geek. There are a bunch of articles confirming Wilén’s involvement in the case, including her friendship with Assange’s other accuser, the psychotic feminist Anna Ardin:
STOCKHOLM/MELBOURNE (Rixstep) — The charges against Julian Assange were indeed trumped up. Anna Ardin and Sofia Wilén planned it all. They went to the police station asking for advice, knowing the police would turn it into an accusation of rape. They’re also the ones who leaked the story to the tabloid Expressen.
This was revealed in a letter written by Assange’s Australian barrister to the website Crikey.
A bit of a recap first.
Anna Ardin and Sofia Wilén approached the Klara police station in Stockholm on the afternoon of Friday 20 August 2010 to ask questions of the police, purportedly about forcing someone to submit to STD/HIV tests.
The policemen on duty rang up prosecutor on duty Maria Kjellstrand even before the formal interrogation had begun. Kjellstrand - working with no paperwork at all at this point – issued an ‘APB’ for Assange and had the police search the Stureplan district of Stockholm for Assange, ostensibly to bring him in for questioning (and a tour of Swedish isolation cells).
The formal interrogation of Sofia Wilén was only concluded hours later and the interrogation of Anna Ardin didn’t take place until the day after - by telephone.
As seen from Anna Ardin’s SMS history, Anna Ardin and Sofia Wilén made the whole thing up - and even decided to leak the story to notorious Swedish tabloid Expressen. The story reached Niklas Svensson and others at Expressen at 19:52.
A colleague of Svensson’s rang up Maria Kjellstrand to find out if the story was true - and Kjellstrand, violating the rules of her office, told the reporter that it was.
Wilén is apparently a photographer by trade. This is supposedly the only known picture of her on the Internet:
Spread the word – Julian Assange’s lying rape accusers are Anna Ardin and Sofia Wilén. These women need to be exposed for what they have done.
For more on Anna Ardin, the radical feminist who convinced Wilén to file charges against Assange, see here. For my complete breakdown of the Assange case, see here.
UPDATE: I’m adding some more pictures that my readers have found. Here’s one from Legion, at Unfrozen Caveman’s blog:
Here’s two more from Advocatus Diaboli:
If you have more info, be sure to let me know, either in the comments or in an email.
UPDATE II: Legion has come through with an unpixellated version of the picture from Unfrozen Caveman’s site:
Also check these links from Legion’s blog for more info:
“The Charges Against Julian Assange are Part of a Smear Campaign”
Tags: Advocatus Diaboli, Anna Ardin, Crikey, Expressen, Julian Assange, Legion, Maria Kjellstrand, Niklas Svensson, Sofia Wilén, Stockholm, Sweden, Unfrozen Caveman, WikileaksThis entry was posted on Saturday, December 4th, 2010 at 5:24 pm and is filed under Feminism, Men's Rights, Sexuality. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
CIA’s WikiLeaks Task Force: WTF, Indeed
By Spencer Ackerman December 22, 2010 | 9:33 am | Categories: Info War
It can set up mirrored sites. It can bounce from server to server. But whatever impact WikiLeaks continues to have on the U.S. government after dumping tens of thousands of military reports and diplomatic cables, the CIA’s WikiLeaks Task Force is watching, studying, learning. It’s literally a WTF operation.
Actually, what makes it a WTF operation isn’t just the task force’s acronym. It’s the WTF’s mandate: not to launch any subterfuge against the radical disclosure entity — that would be a job for NSA, most likely, or maybe Saturday Night Live — but rather to study its disclosure’s impact on the CIA’s ability to recruit snitches and retain the trust of spy agencies worldwide.
According to the Washington Post’s Greg Miller, it takes an entire task force to determine that CIA came out of the WikiLeaks saga with minimal exposure. While WikiLeaks appeared to show CIA operations in Iraq, its biggest-hyped disclosure was a boring piece of analysis on homegrown terrorism. The Pentagon and the State Department can only wish they had such limited breaches.
Score one for the CIA’s distaste for sharing information. It didn’t participate in the government-wide SIPRNet secret internet that allowed an Army private like Bradley Manning to allegedly put hundreds of thousands of State Department cables on a Lady Gaga CD. While the Defense Department is rushing to ban thumb drives, an ex-CIA official tells Miller that if he ever put a thumb drive into his work computer, “there would probably be a little trap door under my chair.” For all the carping about CIA’s reluctance to share information from earnest think-tankers and angry congressional panels, here’s an enormous information-security upside.
That’s partially the result of an institutional culture of secrecy. But CIA’s also had a lot of early experience with cyber-insecurity. In 1995, then-Director John Deutch put classified information on his home computer, which his AOL account left vulnerable to cookies, malware or phishing – though a CIA inquiry found no harm was done. More seriously, in what might be the biggest reply-all-FAIL of all time, a CIA agent accidentally emailed the agency’s entire spy network inside Iran in 2004, allowing a double agent to identify and then neutralize all the CIA’s snitches.
And the CIA might not WikiLeak, but it leaks like a sieve. In his first public speech as director of national intelligence, Jim Clapper said that President Obama was pissed at “widely quoted amorphous and anonymous senior intelligence officials who get their jollies from blabbing to the media.” All those are WTF moments — though, as a reporter, I’m not complaining — but chances are they’re not going to merit their own task force.
Photo: CIA
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"Could become as important a journalistic tool as the Freedom of Information Act." - Time Magazine
June, 2013
Rape accusers in a 'tizzy' after cops 'bamboozled' them: Assange
December 22, 2010 - 10:17AM
Julian Assange feels he has been unjustly persecuted.
"They know not what they do 'cos they are only women"........................you sexist pig! Bamboozled by Police my arse...........the prick still doesn't understand or accept that he has done anything wrong........
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said the Swedish women who have accused him of sexual assault had got into a "tizzy" about the possibility they had caught a sexually transmitted disease from him.
Assange told the BBC that one account of what happened in August - the month at the centre of allegations against him - was that the two women had panicked when they found out they had both slept with him and went to police who "bamboozled" them.
He insisted he was fighting a Swedish extradition warrant because he believes "no natural justice" would occur in Sweden.
Alleged victims ... Anna Ardin, left, and Sofia Wilen.
"There are some serious problems with the Swedish prosecution," he said in an interview from the mansion of a wealthy supporter in eastern England where he must stay as part of his bail conditions.
Sweden wants Britain to extradite the 39-year-old Australian to face questioning over allegations from two women that he raped one of them and sexually assaulted the other in Stockholm in August.
Assange said he was used to attention from women but would not reveal how many women he had slept with.
"A gentleman certainly doesn't count," he said. "I've never had a problem with women. Women have been extremely helpful and generous with me and put up with me, assisting me in my work, caring for me, loving me and so on. That's what I'm used to."
Assange claimed that the Swedish authorities had asked that his Swedish lawyer be "gagged", adding that his offers to be interviewed by video link or by Swedish officials in Britain had been rejected.
"I don't need to be at the beck and call of people making allegations," he said.
"I don't need to go back to Sweden. The law says I... have certain rights, and these rights mean that I do not need to speak to random prosecutors around the world who simply want to have a chat, and won't do it in any other standard way."
He said that one account of what occurred in August was that after having discovered they had each had sex with him, they had got into a "tizzy", or a panic, about the possibility of sexually transmitted diseases.
As a result, he said, the women had gone to the police for advice "and then the police jumped in on this and bamboozled the women".
WikiLeaks has enraged Washington by releasing thousands of US diplomatic cables and US Vice President Joe Biden described Assange as a "hi-tech terrorist".
US officials are believed to be considering how to indict Assange for espionage.
In an interview with The Times on Tuesday, Assange compared WikiLeaks' "persecution" to that endured by Jews in the US in the 1950s.
Assange also confirmed that WikiLeaks was holding a vast amount of material about Bank of America which it intends to release early next year.
"We don't want the bank to suffer unless it's called for," Assange told The Times. "But if its management is operating in a responsive way there will be resignations," he said, without giving details about the material.
Shares in Bank of America have fallen amid speculation that it was a WikiLeaks target.
AFP
CIA’s WikiLeaks Task Force: WTF, Indeed
By Spencer Ackerman December 22, 2010 | 9:33 am | Categories: Info War
It can set up mirrored sites. It can bounce from server to server. But whatever impact WikiLeaks continues to have on the U.S. government after dumping tens of thousands of military reports and diplomatic cables, the CIA’s WikiLeaks Task Force is watching, studying, learning. It’s literally a WTF operation.
Actually, what makes it a WTF operation isn’t just the task force’s acronym. It’s the WTF’s mandate: not to launch any subterfuge against the radical disclosure entity — that would be a job for NSA, most likely, or maybe Saturday Night Live — but rather to study its disclosure’s impact on the CIA’s ability to recruit snitches and retain the trust of spy agencies worldwide.
According to the Washington Post’s Greg Miller, it takes an entire task force to determine that CIA came out of the WikiLeaks saga with minimal exposure. While WikiLeaks appeared to show CIA operations in Iraq, its biggest-hyped disclosure was a boring piece of analysis on homegrown terrorism. The Pentagon and the State Department can only wish they had such limited breaches.
Score one for the CIA’s distaste for sharing information. It didn’t participate in the government-wide SIPRNet secret internet that allowed an Army private like Bradley Manning to allegedly put hundreds of thousands of State Department cables on a Lady Gaga CD. While the Defense Department is rushing to ban thumb drives, an ex-CIA official tells Miller that if he ever put a thumb drive into his work computer, “there would probably be a little trap door under my chair.” For all the carping about CIA’s reluctance to share information from earnest think-tankers and angry congressional panels, here’s an enormous information-security upside.
That’s partially the result of an institutional culture of secrecy. But CIA’s also had a lot of early experience with cyber-insecurity. In 1995, then-Director John Deutch put classified information on his home computer, which his AOL account left vulnerable to cookies, malware or phishing – though a CIA inquiry found no harm was done. More seriously, in what might be the biggest reply-all-FAIL of all time, a CIA agent accidentally emailed the agency’s entire spy network inside Iran in 2004, allowing a double agent to identify and then neutralize all the CIA’s snitches.
And the CIA might not WikiLeak, but it leaks like a sieve. In his first public speech as director of national intelligence, Jim Clapper said that President Obama was pissed at “widely quoted amorphous and anonymous senior intelligence officials who get their jollies from blabbing to the media.” All those are WTF moments — though, as a reporter, I’m not complaining — but chances are they’re not going to merit their own task force.
Photo: CIA
US Army launches WikiLeaks probe
Nancy A Youssef of McClatchy Newspapers
December 24, 2010 - 2:59PM
WASHINGTON - The US Army has launched a wide-ranging investigation into how a private suspected of downloading thousands of secret reports and diplomatic cables and handing them over to WikiLeaks was able to do so and whether other soldiers should face criminal charges in the case.
An army official familiar with the investigation told McClatchy newspapers that the six-member task force has been given until February 1 to complete a report that will look at everything from how Private Bradley Manning was selected for his job and trained to whether his superiors missed warning signs that he was downloading documents he had no need to read.
The army confirmed the investigation, but wouldn't release details.
Advertisement: Story continues below The report could change how the army - the largest distributor of government security clearances - grants access to government documents as well as lead to recommendations of charges against soldiers who worked with Manning and may have been aware of his activities.
Manning was working as an intelligence specialist in Baghdad during 2009 and the early months of 2010 when he allegedly downloaded hundreds of thousands of classified documents.
Those documents reached WikiLeaks - army officials have said they're not certain how - and have been published by the website in four separate bursts that began in April with the release of a video showing an army helicopter firing on civilians in Baghdad, killing two Reuters news agency employees.
The website also released tens of thousands of documents related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan before the current, ongoing publication of hundreds of thousands of US State Department cables, which began on November 28.
Manning allegedly downloaded the documents while pretending to listen to music by Lady Gaga on headphones, a cover story, investigators say, to explain the sound of the computer's CD drive whirring as he copied the files.
He's being held in solitary confinement at the Quantico Marine Base in Virginia on charges that could lead to a 52-year prison sentence.
Some human rights groups charge that Manning is being mistreated, with no ability to exercise or access to news.
The Defense Department has denied the claims.
Army Lieutenant General Robert Caslen Jr, the commander of the Army General Command and Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, will lead the study, which was ordered by John McHugh, the Army secretary.
"Lt Gen Caslen has a very broad investigative mandate and he has been assured of the co-operation of both the Department of the Army and the US Central Command as he proceeds. Lt Gen Caslen's investigation will not interfere nor conflict with the ongoing criminal investigation," Army spokesman Lt Col Christopher Garver said in a statement prepared in response to questions from McClatchy.
No other service branch is conducting a similar investigation, but the army findings could lead to changes throughout the military. With more than 800,000 uniformed personnel, the Army issues more security clearances than any other government organisation.
The US Justice Department also is conducting an investigation into whether to bring charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, though such a prosecution faces a number of challenges, including the apparent difficulty prosecutors are having tying Assange directly to Manning.
Manning, now 23, reportedly isn't co-operating with investigators, and Defense Department officials who have been briefed on the case said according to their most recent information, now months old, that no direct tie has been established between Manning and Assange.
© 2010 AAP
Assange says he could be killed in US jail
December 24, 2010 - 11:59AM
The only reason there'd be a "high chance" is because he is such a mouthy, obnoxious little prick and people would want the peace his non-existence would bring.............his paranoia and media manipulation continues.............
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.
The only reason there'd be a "high chance" is because he is such a mouthy, obnoxious little prick and people would want the peace his non-existence would bring.............his paranoia and media manipulation continues...........
Wow, are you serious?
Not sure if it was posted here but finally got to read the police report summary, what an arse! Doesn't change anything though
Originally Posted by DeksWow, are you serious?
No I wrote that to pass the time of day..................
Originally Posted by buglerbilly No I wrote that to pass the time of day..................
h fair enough, I thought you may respond with some reasoning into your thoughts though.
For myself, I haven't yet decided whether on balance wikileaks is a good thing or not. I'm certainly not calling for the julian assanges head over and above anyone else in that particular arena
I thought my views on Mr Assange were very clear: -
1) Personally, I think he's an obnoxious little prick who's ego is only matched by his inability to keep his zip up..........this doesn't only refer to the Swedish instances............
2) He's of a left-wing "society" that believes TOTALLY in its own supreme correctness ensuring that the rest of us mere mortals have our outlooks and beliefs modified to understand that THEY are always right.........IF you've never dealt with such vermin, then undoubtedly this will sound strange to you BUT I've had to deal with it, understand the type and still have difficulty being polite when discussing the same.
3) WikiLeaks, as a group, I have no problem with IN THEORY. However, taking the current example as a case in point, we still are in the very early days of how we handle Cyber Leaks where people ILLEGALLY download masses of information NOT business info but State, Defence and Political "secrets"; to then say this puts no one at risk 'cos they've read it OR "its your fault cos you didn't read the STOLEN info we have in our possession to verify what or who was at risk" defies description in its banal rigtheous naivety and blatant stupidity. Equally, to ignore the Global political impact such disclosures can creat is also naive and stupid.
4) Do I want to live in a society where all matters are open to disclosure as a right? Nope I do NOT...........it's idealistic and almost moronic to beleve that this will somehow ensure either equality, justice or peace in this World. I most certainly do not want other people knowing what I do or say in every instance, I value my privacy far more than that and make no mistake, being allowed to leak State secrets is only a skip and a jump away from no one have any rights to privacy as privacy, by definition, could be viewed as having "secrets". bles
On 23 April, John Shipton, an architect and one-time anti-war activist, lodged a sheaf of 540 signatures at the offices of the Australian Electoral Commission in Canberra, and a new party entered the fray. Now the party has a head office – in hipster-central Brunswick Street, Fitzroy – an hourglass logo and Senate candidates set to run in at least three states. There’s a lot of it about these days. Up north, Bob Katter’s Australian Party threatens to take territory from the Nationals; on the Sunshine Coast, in white-shoe valley, Clive Palmer’s United Party promises to provide rich entertainment right up till 14 September. Like these outfits, the WikiLeaks Party is focused on a charismatic figure – one who, unlike Bob and Clive, won’t be seen out on the hustings.
The WikiLeaks Party has the distinction of being the first Australian party to have a leader not merely in exile, but in asylum. Campaigning by video link, Skype and encrypted email, Julian Assange hopes to win a seat in the Senate from the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he has now spent nearly a year. He is claiming protection against an extradition order to Sweden, on sex-crime allegations – an extradition he believes would be a prelude to onward delivery to the US on espionage charges, stemming from WikiLeaks’ release of a quarter of a million US diplomatic cables.
Although the party is running a serious Senate ticket, it’s Assange’s spot on the Victorian list that is at the heart of the campaign. Shipton, Assange’s biological father, has helped out with WikiLeaks for years. Assange’s mother, the redoubtable Christine, is also involved. With a reported membership of 1500 and counting, the party has every intention of becoming a movement. Its leaders are spruiking figures collected by research company UMR, suggesting the vote for Assange and the party might be as high as 26%. Cooler heads doubt this, but the party doesn’t need anything like that level of support if it can create a series of interlocking preference deals. At the 2010 federal election, John Madigan, the missing-in-action candidate from the revived Democratic Labor Party (DLP), took the sixth Senate spot in Victoria with 2.3% of the primary vote. There is every possibility that a high-profile candidate such as Assange, who has already gained millions of dollars’ worth of publicity for free, could surpass that to secure a virtual place on the red leather benches. Should he do so, the Australian government will be in a bind.
From 28 November 2010, when WikiLeaks, with the Guardian, New York Times and other publications, released the first of the “cablegate” archives, the Gillard government saw its role as siding with the US, rather than protecting the rights of one of its own citizens. US politicians and right-wing pundits openly called for Assange’s assassination; Vice-President Joe Biden described him as a “high-tech terrorist”: given the Obama administration’s record of assassinating those it deems terrorists, this was no idle chatter.
Australia’s response, via then attorney-general Robert McClelland, was to announce that the federal police were looking for any Australian laws that Assange might have broken. It turned out Assange was under investigation by the Swedes after two women alleged some non-consensual behaviour within consensual sexual encounters. In February 2011, he was fighting extradition to Sweden in the City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court. He was given standard consular assistance. In June 2012, foreign minister Bob Carr went out of his way to deny that Assange was under any threat of prosecution by the US, despite journalist Philip Dorling having revealed statements by the Australian embassy in Washington that indicated media reports of a secret grand jury charged with considering indictments against Assange were “likely true”. Should the returns on the night of 14 September produce a Senator-elect Assange, then such blithe evasions will no longer suffice. Any threats made will be against an elected representative of the Australian people: the insult will not be to one individual, but to our sovereignty.
This is unquestionably one of Assange’s major aims in making a run. What has always marked off WikiLeaks in the hacker- and information-led political uprising of recent years has been a greater savvy about the ways in which old and new forms of power intersect. In a slim volume of writing from 2006, which sets out the theory of action behind WikiLeaks, Assange outlined government as a conspiracy relying on monopolies of information. Small leaks – the “smoking guns” beloved by mainstream media – make no difference to this structure. Massive leaks change the relations between rulers and ruled decisively. The key is to push state power into a situation in which it cannot not act.
Beyond making the US pursuit of Assange problematic – an ambition shared by the party’s principal figures, many of whom came out of a group called the WikiLeaks Australian Citizens Alliance – the party has a set of core policies related to free speech and open society, including demands for whistleblower-protection legislation, journalist shield laws and privacy protection (for those outside power). However, it faces the same problems as other small, specific-issue parties with a real chance – what to do about the myriad policies it would have to vote on should it gain one or two seats. If the WikiLeaks Party does succeed, it might well end up holding the balance of power between a surging Coalition and the de facto alliance (on most issues) of Labor and the Greens.
What position will WikiLeaks take on industrial relations, macroeconomics, social policy? Asked about this, Samantha Castro, the party’s Melbourne campaign manager and co-founder, has said that the party will develop a full slate of policies over time, rather than simply bud them off pro forma. That is wise, but it may also lead to complexity in the future: although Assange is seen by many as a standard-issue anti-American under false cover, he is no knee-jerk leftist. His distrust of the state is so great as to ill dispose him to the large corporate–state entities that make left-ish social programs possible. After all, WikiLeaks sprang out of the “cypherpunks” group – the mailing list and network of ’90s hackers, alarmed by an increasingly surveilled global state – and more than a few of those have seen their cyber-anarchism lead them towards the right. The WikiLeaks Party’s campaign director is Greg Barns, a one-time John Howard staffer, who in 2002 was disendorsed by the Liberals in Tasmania over his views on asylum-seeker policy. Barns’s position on social issues has always been left-liberal, but he remains oriented to laissez-faire policies in matters economic. Yet the majority of those who have flocked to join the WikiLeaks Party come from groups like the Occupy movement, whose leftism is undoubted. Should the party fall short at the election, all of this will be a dead letter. Success will bring with it some interesting conversations.
Most discommoded by the rise of the WikiLeaks Party would be the Greens party, which for some years has enjoyed being the principal champion of civil liberties and political dissent in Australia. In 2003, Bob Brown and Kerry Nettle were the only MPs to protest the Howard government’s fawning hosting of the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, and the turning over of parliament to Chinese state security when he addressed it. Two years later, the Greens defended Chen Yonglin, the dissident whose defection proved an embarrassment to the Howard government; and the party defended Assange, applying the blowtorch to the government for its failure to stand up for the rights of an Australian journalist and whistleblower. Having seen its national primary vote increase (from 1% in 1996 to 11.8% in 2010, with many recent polls suggesting it remains steady at 10–11%) and its representation grow (from two senators in 1996 to the current nine and an MP, with the possibility of heading towards a dozen or more after the election) the party is in for the long haul. Unlike the Australian Democrats, to which it is sometimes compared, it is part of a global movement, and has a solid base in sections of the “knowledge class”. Its continued success rests on getting the sixth place in each Senate race, based on a raw vote, and a series of complex preference deals. It is accustomed to being pipped at the post by right-wing parties, such as Family First and the DLP, often with the assistance of the ALP Right. Competition in the form of the WikiLeaks Party represents a new, and not very welcome, threat. In public the party has been polite about it. Scott Ludlam, the Western Australian senator who has spent more time on the Assange brief than most, stated that the Greens party:
welcomes the WikiLeaks party ... The old political parties have effectively closed ranks against Julian Assange, ignoring the revelations of war crimes. If these issues get fresh currency by Julian’s Senate run I can only see that as a good thing.
In private, some of the Greens’ backroom people are seething. Their frustration is understandable. They’re now in a position to cement themselves as a third-party force, but rising micro-parties may turn their vote-getting chaotic. Yet the Greens party is not without dilemmas, having policies both libertarian and managerialist. It has defended not only Assange but the likes of Jonathan Moylan, the political hoaxer who sent out a fake press release from coal investors ANZ Whitehaven, thus bringing its brown-energy policies front and centre, and also sending ANZ’s share price tumbling. The Greens have also backed Labor’s new human rights and anti-discrimination bill, which criminalises “insult” and “offence” in public speech. The contradiction is obvious: WikiLeaks’ insistence on radical openness can only be seen as legitimate political action if you believe in a Jeffersonian democracy, in which all speech but direct incitement to specific violence is permitted. The Greens have yet to work out a way to square having a seat at the table of government with their dissident civil libertarian policies.
It is a particularly difficult position to be in as it becomes clear that various forces – states, corporations, information networks – are converging into a new power complex. The point made by Assange and three co-writers in his 2012 book Cypherpunks is that we are living through a crisis period in which a bid for total control and surveillance is being made – the “hackerati” have been on to this idea for some time. At this year’s Chaos Communication Congress, the annual gathering of the global hacker scene in Germany, all talk was of unparalleled levels of control, centred around the US National Security Agency’s new data-collection centre in Bluffdale, Utah – a facility that will be capable of catching and recording every form of electronic communication for a century. The talk was also of a response: the wide distribution of encryption software, such as the Tor system, which makes it possible to send uncrackable messages between private persons. Much of this distribution is already being done by way of informal teaching sessions in which experienced hackers teach encryption to neophytes. These “CryptoParties”, a concept developed by Melbourne cyber-activist Asher Wolf, have spread rapidly around the world. The WikiLeaks Party in part fulfils the need for a dissident libertarian party, challenging convergences of power on behalf of average citizens.
Had Assange run under the Pirate Party, it might have been to the advantage of both, but it would almost certainly have been unworkable in the end: Assange is not a team player.
Problem is, there are already two small local libertarian parties – the Australian Sex Party, which grew out of the pro-porn Eros Association, and the newer Pirate Party Australia. Pirate parties – dedicated to defending open-source exchange and net neutrality (the idea that there shouldn’t be a “two-speed” net, with a fast lane for the elite) and committed to the idea that the digital revolution should transform our idea of economy and citizenship – have sprung up across the world since 2006. They began in Sweden, established to defend “the Pirate Bay”, a BitTorrent site whose founders had been prosecuted by the Swedish government for copyright violations, as the site was mainly used for sharing movies, TV and music. The Swedish Pirate Party quickly gained seats in the European parliament; there are now a dozen or so Pirate parties with members in national and local parliaments. It’s a global movement, holding international conferences, capable of making a collective response to challenges, rather than being isolated and defeated. Indeed, one of the reasons that Julian Assange went to Sweden in 2010 was to make a deal with the Pirates, whereby they would host the WikiLeaks site on their ultra-secure servers.
The Australian Pirate Party, established in 2009, has been measured in its reaction to the WikiLeaks Party, stating that it hopes the party “will apply the same transparency to their internal processes as the Pirate Party does”. Had Assange run as a Pirate, it might have been to the advantage of both, but it would almost certainly have been unworkable in the end: Assange is not a team player. The WikiLeaks Party may triumph, not least because it seems capable of drawing out a dissident vote beyond those who currently identify with the inner-city-based Greens. When, in 1989, the International Subversives, a hacker group of which Assange was a member, launched the “WANK Worm” virus to attack global military networks, they made sure the last thing that terminal users saw before their computers froze was a quote from Midnight Oil: “You talk of times of peace for all, and then prepare for war.” Peter Garrett and the Oils played then the role that Assange does now – they were dissident, but also recognisably of the suburbs; they appealed to a group who knew that something at a very basic level was wrong. In the ’80s, the issue was winnable nuclear war. Now, it’s the rise of huge power networks cut off from the public good.
Many analysts believe the WikiLeaks Party’s vote will hit 3–4% come September. From that, if it makes good enough deals, it may win a seat. Too promiscuous in its deal-making, however, and it may well have another effect: elevating to a commanding position some loopy single-issue party that will rule the roost for years to come.
Whether Assange or his associates care deeply about that, or should do, remains to be seen. Labor and the Coalition are monolithic in regards to civil liberties, openness and the like. In some ways, with its firewalls and legislative fixes, Labor is worse, and there is no compelling reason for WikiLeaks to be concerned as to whether its electoral effort might ultimately advantage Tony Abbott. Julian Assange has one political virtue that many around him lack – an appetite for audacity, for the radical act that changes everything. Few political professionals think that this ramshackle group of libertarians, hacks and marginals, led from an embassy in a terrace house in London, can pull it off. Then again, no one thought that Assange, a reformed hacker turned science student, could launch a global dissident organisation and throw the world into uproar, all from the University of Melbourne maths students’ common room.
Guy Rundle is the global correspondent-at-large for Crikey. He is the author of Down to the Crossroads: On the Trail of the 2008 US Presidential Election and two Quarterly Essays, ‘The Opportunist’ and ‘Bipolar Nation’.
CEDAR LAKE, Ind. (AP) — A northern Indiana man who allegedly threatened to "kill as many people as he could" at an elementary school near his home was arrested by officers who later found 47 guns and ammunition hidden throughout his home.
Von. I. Meyer, 60, of Cedar Lake, was arrested Saturday after prosecutors filed formal charges of felony intimidation, domestic battery and resisting law enforcement against him. He was being held Sunday without bond at the Lake County Jail, pending an initial hearing on the charges, police said in a statement.
Cedar Lake Police officers were called to Meyer's home early Friday after he allegedly threatened to set his wife on fire once she fell asleep, the statement said.
Meyer also threatened to enter nearby Jane Ball Elementary School "and kill as many people as he could before police could stop him," the statement said. Meyer's home is less than 1,000 feet from the school and linked to it by trails and paths through a wooded area, police said.
Police said in the statement that they notified school officials and boosted security at all area schools Friday — the same day 26 people, including 20 students, were shot and killed at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.
On Saturday, officers served warrants at Meyer's home and arrested him. The statement said police had learned that Meyer kept many weapons in his older, two-story home and "is a known member of the Invaders Motorcycle Gang."
Officers searched the home, finding 47 guns and ammunition worth more than $100,000 hidden throughout the home. Many of the weapons were collector's guns.
Cedar Lake is about 45 miles southeast of Chicago.
A dispatcher with Cedar Lake Police said that the police chief was not available for interviews until Monday.
Lake County police spokeswoman Patti Van Til said Sunday that a SWAT team from the department assisted in serving Saturday's warrants.
Jacintha Saldanha's Death: Australian DJs Behind Royal Prank May Face Police Probe
The two Australian DJs who pulled the prank call on the U.K. hospital where Kate Middleton was staying are now in hiding and may soon have to face police after the death of a nurse caught in the hoax.
Kate Middleton and Indian-born mother-of-two Jacintha Saldanha, 46, is thought to have taken her own life.
2Day FM hosts, Michael Christian and Mel Greig.
Questions have been raised by members of the Australian public whether MI5, MI6 and/or their well known murder partners Mossad where involved somehow in the death of Indian-born mother-of-two Jacintha Saldanha, 46, who the UK media are claiming that she took her own life...
and it is noted that all media reports coming from the United Kingdom only ever call it a suspected suicide... but was it a murder by MI5, MI6 and/or their well known murder partners Mossad
to make and example of the nurse who gave out the private information about Kate Middleton who was in a U.K. hospital...
Australian readers of INLNews.com and awn.bz who have read all about the murder of Thomas Allwood,
INL News Under-Cover Investigative Journalist and co producer with Stephen Carew-Reid and the INL News Group of Fringe Shows Have Talent TV Shows Have, on the 21st June, 2012 in Broxburn Scotland which is about an hour's drive from Edinburgh... and how the Scottish Lothian Borders Police and the Scottish Prosecution known in Scotland as the Procurator Fiscal's Office and the world's media are clearly not looking closely enough the evidence brought out at the recent trial of Kyle Montgomery heard from the 19th November to the 26th November 2012 in Scotland's High Court in Livingston, who had been charged by the Scottish Lothian Borders Police for the murder of Thomas Allwood ..the evidence clearly indicates strongly that Thomas Allwood was not murdered by Kyle Montgomery who locals in Broxburn say is a well known local mentally depressed Scitzophrenic at around 2.20am on the 21st July, 2012 ... as implied by his father John Montgomery in his sworn evidence at by Kyle Montgomery's trial... when the much more believable independent evidence from two next door neighbours who have a common wall with John Montgomery's house in Galloway Cresent, Broxburn was produced at the trial that say they both heard and felt an enormous bang on their bedroom wall that felt like their bedroom wall was about to cave in...coming from John Montgomery's house at about 3.15 am on the 21st June, 2012.... which was the loudest bang that they had ever heard coming from John Montgomery's house which they stated was like living next door to a pub with drinking, shouting, arguing and fighting went on all the time all hours of the day and night... they said in evidence that before the enormous bang there was loud shouting, screaming, arguing and fighting coming from John Montgomery's house... however as soon as the enormous bang happened that felt like their bedroom wall was about to cave in... there was complete silence coming from John Montgomery's house... and then they heard the back door quietly open and close ... which was first time that that door was ever opened and close without being slammed for the last couple of years since they lived next door to John Montgomery's house..... John Montgomery had given sworn evidence at his sons trial that after his son grabbed a bread knife from his kitchen draw and ran out the back door after Thomas Allwood, who was unarmed when he left the house a few minutes before, and that his son Kyle Montgomery came back into the house a few minutes later with blood on the bread knife admitting to his Dad, John Montgomery, that he had just done something bad... John Montgomery then said he took to bread knife with blood on it from his Son, Kyle Montgomery and calmly placed it back into the draw still with the blook on it... then Kyle Montgomery left the house and John Montgomery calmly had another drink and then fell asleep on the lounge and did not wake up until the police turned up and arrested him at about 5 am on the 21st June, 2012... another person who was at John Montgomery's house that early morning on the 21st June, 2012 was a lady known as Maggie whose name is Margaret Shedden (Galloway being her birth name- a very well connected and influential family in Scotland with a famous politician George Galloway and a Freemason Scottish Police Officer Hugh Galloway of 7 Tower Place Johnstone Renfrewshire Renfrewshire 791 being member of the family)...John Montgomery's family also are well connnected and respected in Scotland with war heros in the family and a Freemason Police Officer Alexander Montgomery 51 Parkhead Rd Glen Village by Falkirk Stirlingshire 484
also a member of the Montgomery Family.... so it does not seem believable that John Montgomery would not have been awake and/or woken up with the enormous bang coming from his house at about 3.15 that the next door neighbours say was the loudest bang they had ever heard from John Montgomery's house and felt like their bedroom wall was going to cave in... so this clearly indicates along with other evidence that John Montgomery had lied on the witness stand and in doing so has implicated his Kyle Montgomery as the person who was likely to have made a fatal six inch stab wound in the right chest of Thomas Allwood through cloths with a bread knife that would have cerated edge and no sharp point for stabbing anyone through clothing which is only suitable for a sawing acting rather that a stabbing action...however at the same time implicating Kyle Montgomery as the likely person who made the fatal six inch stab wound in Thomas Allwood's right chest that cut through a main archery causing the death of Thomas Allwood... John Montgomery gave evidence which is believed by the jury could get his son off the murder charge his Son Kyle Montgomery was facing and to try and convince the jury that his son
Kyle Montgomery was only guilty of culperable homicide... which is like an accident homicide crime that resulted in the death of a person without intent in a drunken fight that got out of hand ... even though the bar maid gave evidence at the trial that Thomas Allwood was only drinking soft drinks that night... and Kyle Montgomery had been alcohol drinking heavily since about 1pm on the 20th June, 2012.....and so was his father John Montgomery drinking alcohol heavily since at least 8pm and likely most of the day since he received his government benefit cheque that day... in fact the jury based mainly on his father's evidence... very conveniently for all those Scottish Government officials involved in the investigation into the murder of Thomas Allwood.... and others... found Kyle Montgomery not guilty of the murder of Thomas Allwood and found Kyle Montgomery guilty of the lesser charge of Culperable homicide (accidental death) of Thomas Allwood....now the evidence that came out at the trial of Kyle Montgomery seems to clearly indicate that there were at least four people... maybe more in the house of Kyle Montgomery from 10pm on the 2oth June, 2012 and about 3.30 am on the 21st June, 2012... and in fact at least voices coming from John Montgomery's house that night and early morning were heard by the next door neighbours ....these seem to include...Thomas Allwood, John Montgomery, Kyle Montgomery and Margaret Shedden (Galloway being her birth name) and maybe others who did not want to make themselves known and kept reasonable quiet while at John Montgomery's house... the evidence seems to clearly indicate that at 2am to 2.30 am on the 21st June, 2012 when John Montgomery states was the time frame when his son Kyle Montgomery was meant to have gone out the back door and meant to have stabbed Thomas Allwood with a bread knife and came back with blood on the knife admitting he has just done something bad...making it fairly obvious to the at least three people left at the house which at the least included John Montgomery, Kyle Montgomery and Margaret Shedden (Galloway being her birth name)... that Kyle Montgomery had just stabbed Tomas Allwood outside in the back yard and/or a nearby street .. and that Thomas Allwood would be likely have been badly hurt from a stab wound and would have needed urgent medical attention.... regardless if was considered that stabbing of Thomas Allwood by Kyle Montgomery deliberate and/or in self defense... either way it would have been clear to these three people and anyone else that may have been at John Montgomery's house at that time, that they should call an ambulance and the police immediately to make sure that Thomas Allwood obtained urgent medical attention which if had been done then could well have saved the life of Thomas Allwood... sure the fact that neither of these people bothered to ring the police and/or an ambulance to try and get urgent help for Thomas Allwood at around 2.20-2.30 am...if what John Montgomery says id true.... they all should be charged with being responsible for the murder and/or death of Thomas Allwood as they seemed to just let him die on the street or the back yard.. and under Australian law could well be charged as accessories after the fact and at least charged with some serious charge that resulted in the death of Thomas Allwood... very similar to walking away from a serious car accident where it is clear someone had been seriously hurt and not calling the police and/or an ambulance....
Now... when one looks at the evidence of the two next door neighbours that say they both heard and felt an enormous bang on their bedroom wall that felt like their bedroom wall was about to cave in...coming from John Montgomery's house at about 3.15 am on the 21st June, 2012.... which was the loudest bang that they had ever heard coming from John Montgomery's house... then the more believable truth is that at about 3.15 am Thomas Allwood was king hit by someone and/or some people with either a fist or fists and/or a hard object that was enough to knock out Thomas Allwood.. then the body of Thomas Allwood was carried outside while Thomas Allwood was still unconscious ...then someone stabbed Thomas Allwood... not with a bread knife but a sharp pen knife which made the deep six inch stab wound into the right chest of Thomas Allwood that cut a main archery so that Thomas Allwood was never wake up and would bleed to death... and then quietly they carried Thomas Allwood body to the next streets Clarkson and Pyothall Roads and quietly left the body there at about 3.30 am where the body was found at about 4.45 am by three boys walking past at that time...the neighbour that had a window open looking right over where Thomas Allwood's body was found says you can hear a pin drop in her street and there was not one sound or noise in her street that early morning... and the only noise that was heard was the sound of the police at about 5am looking at the body and the murder scene... so it is clear that there was not fighting in her street that morning at 2.00-4.00 am where the body was found that morning and so screaming or cries for help from Thomas Allwood in her street that morning at 2.00-4.00 am where the body was found that morning.. why?... because Thomas Allwood was obviously carried and left there and was already unconscious having been knocked out before he was stabbed with the six inch stab wound and then stabbed and then carried to to the next streets Clarkson and Pyothall Roads and quietly left there... private investigators employed by friends and family of Thomas Allwood have a strong belief that the evidence clearly suggests that Thomas Allwood was not murdered and/or even killed by Kyle Montgomery with a bread knife but was murdered by a contract killer well trained to know where and how to stab a person with one six inch stab wound with a very sharp and pointed pen knife which is designed to be able to kill some with just one stab wound.... the people in the world that are well known to be able to know how to murder someone with just one stab wound are agents and/or assets of MI5, MI6 and Mossad... and it is well known they work as agents for the state of the United Kingdom and the UK Prime Minister's Office to carry out murders of people like Thomas Allwood who was an undercover INL News Investigative Journalist who was working on a story to expose state of the United Kingdom and the UK Prime Minister, David Cameron and their Treasury Solicitors and Barristers for knowing being involved with having a false and fraudulent UK Border Agency document and having that false and fraudulent document presented to the High Court of Justice to stop Thomas Allwood from successfully claiming £500 million in damages claim for the wrongful arrest of USA Comedian Ronnie Prouty by the UK Border Agency on the 27th April, 2011 as a favour for the powerful Rupert and James Murdoch and their all powerful media group News Corporation as a way of commercially sabotaging the planned filming of the pilot fo the Fringe Shows Have Talent TV Show in Edinburgh in April- May 2011 being co-produced by Thomas Allwood, Stephen Carew-Reid (the author of the well known bboks The Triumph of Truth -Who Is Watching the Watchers? and the original founder of the INL News Group-formerly known as the Australian Weekend News Publishing Group) and the INL News Group to create an international showcase of talented entertainers that perform at the 60 year old Edinburgh Fringe Festival each year... which has become the biggest arts festival in the world with over 3,000 Fringe shows being performed during August each year in Edinburgh....
Below is some the transcripts of what was said at a court hearing in London's High Court of Justice heard on the 24th July, 2012 where applications were originally listed to be heard by Thomas Allwood prior to his murder on the 21st June, 2012 in Broxburn, Scotland for criminal contempt applications to be heard against David Cameron the UK Prime Minister, George Osborne, the UK Chancellor, the UK Government, the UK Border Agency and their treasury solicitors for knowingly having prepared a false and fraudulent UK Border Agency document and presenting such false and fraudulent UK Border Agency document to the High Court of Justice to try to stop Thomas Allwood from suing David Cameron the UK Prime Minister, George Osborne, the UK Chancellor, the UK Government, the UK Border Agency for £500 million in damages caused to the filming of the Fringe Shows Have Talent TV Show by the wrongful arrest of USA Comedian Ronnie Prouty on the 27th April, 2012 at Heathrow Airport as favour David Cameron and George Osborne's good friends at the time...Rupert and James Murdoch and their all powerful multi- billion media group known as News Corporation..the murder of Thomas Allwood on the 21st June, 2012 meant that would stop Thomas Allwood continuing with his criminl contempt applications against suing David Cameron the UK Prime Minister, George Osborne, the UK Chancellor, the UK Government, the UK Border Agency and their treasury solicitors and well as other criminal contempt applications taken out against barristers and solicitors involving another legal fight Thomas Allwood and his de-facto partner Valerie Butler where involved with at the High Court of Justice in their fight over their 25 acre family farm known as Haywicks Farm, Haywicks Lane, Hardwicke, Gloucester in the UK... where Thomas Allwood alleged that powerful and well connected s Freemason solicitors and barrister in Gloucester that Thomas Allwood called the Gloucestershire Legal Mafia (GLM) were involved with the preparing a false will in the name of Valerie Butler's father Herbert Butler and presenting that false will for a wrongful grant of probate so that partners of the Gloucestershire Legal Mafia (GLM) could wrongly obtain the title deed of their 25 acre family farm known as Haywicks Farm, Haywicks Lane, Hardwicke, Gloucester in the UK which they had planned to turn into a multi-million luxury real estate development ... Thomas Allwood also had a firm belief and was not scared to openly say...that Valerie Butler's father Herbert Butler was also murdered as part of the conspiracy he alleged to defraud his de-facto partner Valerie Butler of her rightful ownership of Haywicks Farm..
Some of the reasons why the Private Investigation Team employed by friends and family of the late Thomas Allwood to investigate who and why Thomas Allwood was murdered on the 21st June. 2012 in Broxburn, Scotland strongly believe that the powerful agents of the State of the United Kingdom such as MI5, MI6 and/or Mossad and/or some other professional contract murdered was and/or were involved in the murder of Thomas Allwood on the 21st June, 2012 include:
1. The Scottish Lothian Borders Police and the Scottish Prosecution known in Scotland as the Procurator Fiscal's Office and the world's media are clearly not looking closely enough the evidence brought out at the recent trial of Kyle Montgomery heard from the 19th November to the 26th November 2012 in Scotland's High Court in Livingston, who had been charged by the Scottish Lothian Borders Police for the murder of Thomas Allwood ... seem to be risking their worldwide good reputation by quite openly protecting those at the house of John Montgomery on the evening of the 20th June, 2012 and the early morning of the 21st June, 2012 who according to the evidence of John Montgomery, and including John Montgomery knew that Thomas Allwood was likely badly wounded from a stab wound at about 2.20 am and did niot ring the police of an ambulance and simply went to sleep and left Thomas Allwood to die on the road just a street away from John Montgomery's house
2. Why is there a complete worldwide media block out.. except for one lone Scottish Journalist Vic Roderick who was the only journalist to cover the trial... who has now been silenced by the world mainstream media with what is called a "D Notice" on the reporting of the murder/death of Thomas Allwood who was an undercover INL News Investigative Journalist, Poet and TV Shows producer of the Fringe Shows have Talent TV Show...
3. Why is the a mentally sick person such as Kyle Montgomery whom the locals say is a well known Scitzophrenic which is capable to believing and/or repeating any story he is told is the truth.. being made a patsy for the death of Thomas Allwood.. .at about 2.20 am when the evidence clearly indicates that Thomas Allwood was knocked unconscious in the house of John Montghomery at about 3.15 am on the 21st June, 2012 and then carried out of the house and then stabbed with a six inch wound in the right chest cutting a main archery nd then carried to be let to die on Clarkson and Pyothall Road, Broxburn
With the more believable truth is that at about 3.15 am Thomas Allwood was king hit by someone and/or some people with either a fist or fists and/or a hard object that was enough to knock out Thomas Allwood.. then the body of Thomas Allwood was carried outside while Thomas Allwood was still unconscious ...then someone stabbed Thomas Allwood... not with a bread knife but a sharp pen knife which made the deep six inch stab wound into the right chest of Thomas Allwood that cut a main archery so that Thomas Allwood was never wake up and would bleed to death... and then quietly they carried Thomas Allwood body to the next streets Clarkson and Pyothall Roads and quietly left the body there at about 3.30 am where the body was found at about 4.45 am by three boys walking past at that time...the neighbour that had a window open looking right over where Thomas Allwood's body was found says you can hear a pin drop in her street and there was not one sound or noise in her street that early morning... and the only noise that was heard was the sound of the police at about 5am looking at the body and the murder scene...
so it is clear that there was not fighting in her street that morning at 2.00-4.00 am where the body was found that morning and so screaming or cries for help from Thomas Allwood in her street that morning at 2.00-4.00 am where the body was found that morning.. why?... because Thomas Allwood was obviously carried and left there and was already unconscious having been knocked out before he was stabbed with the six inch stab wound and then stabbed and then carried to to the next streets Clarkson and Pyothall Roads and quietly left there... private investigators employed by friends and family of Thomas Allwood have a strong belief that the evidence clearly suggests that Thomas Allwood was not murdered and/or even killed by Kyle Montgomery with a bread knife but was murdered by a contract killer well trained to know where and how to stab a person with one six inch stab wound with a very sharp and pointed pen knife which is designed to be able to kill some with just one stab wound.... the people in the world that are well known to be able to know how to murder someone with just one stab wound are agents and/or assets of MI5, MI6 and Mossad...
Part of the transcripts of hearing before Justice Vos at High Court of Justice in London on the 24th July, 2012
Miss Love: The Border Agency matter.
Mr Justice Vos: I know, but I do not have any of the core papers in the Border Agency matter. What is the action no?
Miss Love: My Lord, it is HC11C04395
Mr Justice Vos: You see that is why, I have been through all the cases, and I do not have any papers in that except your letter and the correspondence.
Miss Love: Right
Mr Justice Vos: If I just pick it up. I have this much stuff on the UKBA, but it really is just your letter and a lot of historical material, and material concerning the famous INL News Group.
Miss Love: Mr Lord, we can remedy that situation _ I am sure your Lordship does not particularily want further copies of the correspondence, but certainly of the original claim form_
Mr Justice Vos: That is what I would like. So there was an application, was there, in that matter that was returnable today?
Miss Love: There was....
Mr Justice Vos: To do what?
Miss Love: If I could just start the procedural history, the claim by Mr Carew-Reid, which in essense was apparently a claim for damages in respect of treatment by the UK Border Agency of an individual known as Mr Prouty was issued on 9th December, 2011...
Page 6:
Miss Love: as you will see, it appears to be some hybrid of striking out and appealing the order of Master Bowles, an application for the cross-examination of myself and Mr Spanton, who was acting Treasury Solicitor and a generalised, if I might respectfully say so, rather difficult to grasp criminal contempt application..
Mr Justice Vos: It is another criminal contempt
Page 8:
Mr Geis: But the point was that Mr Prouty was refused entry into the UK and I've seen the forms that Mr Carew-Reid had, and there was one form which did not have a signature on. Now, I think this does cause for a bit of alarm and I think you should carefully consider this point and. if necessary, make an adjournment.
Mr Justice Vos: Thank you, Mr Gies...
Miss Lean: My Lord may have seen in the more recent correspondence from Mr Reid and INL that clearly they have concerns that this was a murder effected by MI5 or Mossad and/or other agents of the State, but as far as we are aware it is being dealt with as a criminal murder charge (murder of Thomas Allwood)
Mr Justice Voss: Yes, and who was Mr Allwood- apart from being a party to litigation, did he occupy some important position?....
Miss Lean: My Lord, for completeness, I should mention I am afraid among the many letters and emails from members of the INL News Group I do not have that one. I think I have seen some reference in the correspondence to Mr Allwood being involved with the INL News Group in some capacity so that may be the...
Mr Justice Voss: Right, but he was a associate and friend of Mr Carew-Reid, that is what it comes to?.... Right, thank you. Well Mr Carew-Reid himself says he was a friend of Mr Carew-Reid's side, I do not think we need to go further than that.....
Jacintha Saldanha's Death: Australian DJs Behind Royal Prank May Face Police Probe
The two Australian DJs who pulled the prank call on the U.K. hospital where Kate Middleton was staying are now in hiding and may soon have to face police after the death of a nurse caught in the hoax.
This morning, there are also new questions about whether DJs Mel Greig and Michael Christian, radio shock jocks at Sydney's 2Day FM broke laws after they recorded the private conversation when they pretended to be Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles.
British police have also contacted Australian police about a possible probe into the prank call, The Associated Press reported Sunday.
Rhys Holleran, CEO of Southern Cross Austereo, the parent company of Sydney's 2Day FM radio station said no laws were broken. The prank had been cleared by the Australian radio station's lawyers. Holleran said the DJs followed the company's procedures before broadcasting the call. "I think the more important question here is that we're very confident that we haven't done anything illegal. Our main concern at this point in time is what has happened is incredibly tragic and we're deeply saddened and we're incredibly affected by that," Holleran said Saturday. The hoax has caused public outcry after the death of a nurse, Jacintha Saldanha, who connected the pair to the Duchess' room.
Saldanha was found dead Friday morning after police were called to an address near the hospital to "reports of a woman found unconscious," according to a statement from Scotland Yard. Circumstances of her death are still being investigated, but are not suspicious at this stage, authorities said earlier. Lord Glenarthur, the chairman of King Edward VII's Hospital, the U.K. hospital where the Duchess of Cambridge was receiving treatment, condemned the prank Saturday in a letter to the Max Moore-Wilton, chairman of Southern Cross Austereo, the Australian radio station's parent company.
Glenarthur said the prank humiliated "two dedicated and caring nurses," and the consequences were "tragic beyond words," The Associated Press reported. Max Moore-Wilton, the chairman of Southern Cross Austereo, said in a letter to Lord Glenarthur Sunday that the company is reviewing the station's broadcast policies, the AP reported. "I can assure you we are taking immediate action and reviewing the broadcast and processes involved," Moore-Wilton said in the letter. "As we have said in our own statements on the matter, the outcome was unforeseeable and very regrettable." Saldanha came to England from India nine years ago, with her husband and two children. On Facebook, her 14-year-old daughter wrote this weekend, simply: "I miss you, I loveeee you."
Saldanha worked as a nurse at King Edward VII private hospital for four years. Her family lives 100 miles away in Bristol, but while on shift she slept in a residence for nurses. With no receptionist on duty overnight she answered the prank call and put it through. The hospital called her a "first-class nurse" and "a well-respected and popular member of the staff" and extended "deepest sympathies" to family and friends, saying that "everyone is shocked" at this "tragic event."
The duchess spent three days at the hospital undergoing treatment for hyperemesis gravidarum, severe or debilitating nausea and vomiting. She was released from the hospital Thursday morning. The hospital apologized for the mistake.
A man who stabbed a photographer to death in a drunken street brawl was caught after police found a blood-stained knife in a cutlery drawer.
http://local.stv.tv/edinburgh/203156-killer-who-stabbed-man-to-death-had-bloody-knife-in-cutlery-drawer/
A man who stabbed a photographer to death in a drunken street brawl was caught after police found a blood-stained knife in a cutlery drawer.
Kyle Montgomery, 24, denied murdering Thomas Allwood after a late-night drinking session but was found guilty of culpable homicide by a jury on Wednesday.
Jurors at the High Court in Livingston took four and a half hours to return a guilty verdict on the lesser charge.
Sentence on the first-time offender, of Winchburgh, West Lothian, was deferred until December 20 for background reports.
Mr Allwood, a 56-year-old photographer who worked for the Australian-based INL News Group, was stabbed in the chest during an incident on June 21.
Giving evidence in his own defence, Montgomery claimed he grabbed the knife to frighten Mr Allwood after being attacked by him at a house in Broxburn, West Lothian.
He said the killing was an accident and that he did not know the blade had sliced through the victim's chest and severed a major artery as he struggled with the victim.
Police who were called to the scene followed a trail of blood from Mr Allwood's body to Montgomery's father’s home. They found the knife, still stained with blood, in a cutlery drawer.
Montgomery was detained as he returned to the house from a nearby shop.
Mr Allwood was a photographer with the Australian-based INL News Group. Although he was born in Scotland, his family emigrated when he was a child and he spent most of his live in Australia.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/murder-trial-told-dna-of-victim-1453803
Murder trial told DNA of victim and alleged killer found on kitchen knife
THE knife was found in the kitchen of the dad of Kyle Montgomery, who denies murdering Thomas Allwood.
THE DNA of a murder victim and his alleged killer were found on a kitchen knife, a court heard yesterday.
The High Court in Livingston was told the odds of the DNA matching anyone other than the deceased, Thomas Allwood, were 28,600,000-1.
Blood samples lifted from the blade were a billion-to-one match for 24-year-old Kyle Montgomery, who denies murdering Thomas in Broxburn on June 21.
The knife was found in Montgomery’s dad’s kitchen.
Forensic scientist Kirsty McTurk told the jury: “The findings are consistent with Kyle Montgomery having assaulted Thomas Allwood.”
The trial was adjourned until Monday.
http://www.scotsman.com/news/scottish-news/top-stories/man-caused-stab-death-by-accident-1-2664172
Man ‘caused stab death by accident’
Published on Wednesday 28 November 2012
A MAN accused of murdering an Australian journalist has claimed he must have stabbed the victim to death by accident.
Kyle Montgomery admitted that he armed himself with a kitchen knife and squared up to 56-year-old Thomas Graham Allwood.
He claimed in evidence at the High Court in Livingston that the blade was for his own “protection” and he had no intention of using it.
After being attacked twice by the victim, he said he just wanted to “scare him off” with the knife.
He struggled with Mr Allwood, who was armed with a metal pole or iron bar, but said he was unaware of inflicting the fatal blow which severed the main artery above his heart.
Montgomery, 24, from Winchburgh, West Lothian, denies murdering Mr Allwood in Broxburn on June 21.
In his closing speech yesterday, advocate depute Martin Macari asked the jury to convict Montgomery of murder. He said: “Whatever happened between those men, Kyle Montgomery had returned to the house to get a weapon.”
Derek Ogg QC, defending, said: “If he didn’t realise he’d caused that injury, he could not and did not have any criminal intent towards Mr Allwood.”
Judge Lord Doherty was due to deliver his charge to the jury this morning.
Comment from INL News Reader: Mary Gleeson
I have read all the published stories on the trial of Kyle Montgomery who was charged with the murder of INL Journalist Thomas Allwood, and all other previous media reports I could find on the web since Thomas Allwood was first reported on the BBC website on the 22nd June 2012 that he had been murdered in Broxburn, Scotland and that Kyle Montgomery was charged with Willfull murder of Thomas Allwood... and I have come to the conclusion that the way the evidence has presented at the trial of Kyle Montgomery and what evidence has been given by the witnesses the dots simply do not add up... and the trial has created more questions than answers..... when it seems clear that this Maggie lady, described as a female friend of Thomas Allwood and tJohn Montgomery, the father of the accused ..according to John Montgomery's evidence were in the house when Kyle Montgomery deliberately went outside to chase after Thomas Allwood with a bread knife... rather than jut locking lall the doors and windows of his father's house t make sure Thomas Allwood can not get back into their house....because they were meant to be in fear of him... then ring the police and say that Thomas Allwood was threatening Kyle Montgomery and had attacked Kyle Montgomery in John Montgomery's house ( all according the John Montgomery) and was continuing to bang on their door ... then the police would have come around immediately and arrested Thomas Allwood... who would then have spent the night in the police lock up.... where he would have woken up the next morning alive and be able to explain to a magistrate and/or the police what happened that night... no it all did not happen that way... John and Kyle Montgomery both claim that having removed Thomas Allwood from John Montgomery's house.... and expecting Thomas Allwood to have been unarmed....deliberately ran out of the back door of the house to the back garden for the purpose to chase Thomas Allwood with a bread knife in his hand.... instead of staying safe in his dads house and ringing the police.... now I read in the above article the unbelievable claim by Kyle Montgomery that Thomas Allwood "was armed with a metal pole or iron bar" and thus was acting in self defence after delieberately going outside to look for Thomas Allwood to attack him with a knife... other purpose would he have grabbed the knife and run outside with it for... it can only be to stab Thomas Allwood who he thought was unarmed... now Kyle Montgomery seems on the evidence had been drinking heavily since bout 1pm at his dads house and would have been very drunk by 2am the next morning and Thomas Allwood looks like a big man and Kyle Montgomery looks like a small thin boy... and thus could easily be over powered by Thomas Allwood even without Thomas Allwood have a metal pole or an iron bar to defend himself with from a vicious knife attack... we also heard from John Montgomery who said that Thomas Allwood had his son Kyle Montgomery pinned on the floor with his foot on his chest... which shows that Thomas Allwood had no problem in over powering Kyle Montgomery without any weapon of any sort.... then se have the unbelievable story of John Montgomery that at the same time the Thomas Allwood had his son Kyle Montgomery pinned to the floor by having his foot on his chest... Thomas Allwood was meant to have his hands around Kyle Montgomery's throat trying to strangle Kyle Montgomery... this is simply physically impossible for a tall big man to do at the same time as standing up with his foot on the person's chest....it is simply also unbelievable that that Thomas Allwood was armed outside with a metal pole or iron bar because if that was the case having already being told by John Montgomery that Thomas Allwood had no problem about being able to overpower Kyle Montgomery without any weapon, the how the hell is Kyle Montgomery going to be able fatally stab Thomas Allwood with just one six inch stab wound with a bread knife ( bread knife do not have pointy tips and just a cerated edge for a sawing action for bread or meat but not a stapping action) through clothing knowing the exact place to stab (single handed) a big man to kil him with one stab wound in the front chest ( not in the back) who is well aware that of the identity of the attacked and that the attcked is likely to attack because of a previous disagreement in the house.... and Thomas Allwood is also now armed with a metal pole or an iron bar.... which in one swing would have knocked small frail drunk Kyle Montgomery for six ... there is no way Kyle Montgomery is going to have any chance of being able to make that one fatal stab wound all by himself.... no normal jury is going to beleive this story.. so there seems no doubt what ever happened that morning Thomas Allwood must have been unarmed and Kyle Montgomery would have have to hav had some helpers... if it was really Kyle Montgomery that handed the fatal stab wound on Thomas Allwood...at about 2.15 according to the timing given by his father John Montgomery... then John and Kyle Montgomery and the lasy Maggie have to explain what the enmormous bang against the wall of the next door neighbours bedroom that cam from John Montgomery's house at about 3.5 to 3.15 am that felt to them that their bedroom wall was abourt to cave in... then after there being constant arguing, shouting and fighting etc before this enormous bang at about 3.05 to 3.15 am on the 21st June 2012.. everything from John Montgomery's house suddenly went quiet and for the first tikme ever... the back door was opened and wht and the door was not slammed which indicated clearly that someone or some people went out the door of John Montgomery's very silently and quietly... and the only logical deduction as to what the enormous bang against the wall was just before that nearly push the wall in from John Montgomery's side... was someone king hitting Thomas Allwood with a fist or a heavy object.. making him unconscious....then carrying Thomas Allwood out the door while he was unconscious... then may be making soem more bruses on his boy and then the one fatal stab wound ... all while he was unconscious.... and then carrying the body of Thomas Allwood quietly to where he was found on Clarkson/Pyothall Roads... at about 4.45 am by passers by...
However if one is to discount that theory and ignore the enormosu bang at 3.05 to 3.15 am coming from John Montgomery's house... and just still to what John Montgomery sated on the witness stand under oath.. that his sone Kyle Montgomery grabbed a bread knife from the kitchen draw and ran out the back door( obviously to go to try and stab Thomas Allwood or at least chase after himw ith the knife) then coming back ten minutes later with blod on the knife and admitting he had done something bad... and John Montgomery not asking any more questions and calmly oputting the knife woth the blood on it back into the draw... having one more drink,,, the son leave the house and he falls asleep on the lounge...and is woken uop at about 5am by the police arresting him... so why didn't John Montgomery, Kyle Montgomery and/or Maggie ring the police and/or an ambulance at about 2.20 am which would haved saved the life of Thomas Allwood..
http://www.lbp.police.uk/information/latest_news/news_archives/2012/november_2012/man_convicted_of_thomas_allwoo.aspx
Man convicted of Thomas Allwood death
28 November 2012 15:59
A man who stabbed his victim in the chest, resulting in his death has today been convicted.
At the High Court in Livingston today, Kyle Montgomery was found guilty of culpable homicide after killing 56-year-old Thomas Graham Allwood during a disturbance in Broxburn in the early hours of Thursday 21st June.
Members of the public found Mr Allwood's body in Clarkson Road and alerted police who launched a major investigation to identify his killer.
Detectives quickly traced and arrested Montgomery and charged him in connection Mr Allwood's death.
The 24-year-old is due to be sentenced on Thursday 20th December at Edinburgh High Court.
Detective Inspector Stuart Houston, who led the investigation said: "It is my sincere hope, that following today's verdict Mr Allwood's family can begin to move on with their lives and put this horrendous ordeal behind them.
"I would also like to thank the members of the community who came forward and assisted with this investigation.
"Lothian and Borders Police are committed to tackling violent crime and by working closely with our partners at the Crown Office, ensure that offences of this nature are investigated thoroughly and those responsible are removed from our communities."
Thomas Allwood was born in Scotland but spent most of his life in Australia
First offender Kyle Montgomery will be sentenced next month for the killing
http://www.s1broxburn.com/news/broxburn-killer-montgomery-convicted--1.html
Broxburn killer Montgomery convicted
by Rebecca GarrettWednesday, 28 November 2012
The monster who stabbed Thomas Graham Allwood in the chest in Broxburn, which resulted in his death, has been convicted.
Kyle Montgomery was found guilty of culpable homicide the High Court in Livingston. He killed 56-year-old Allwood during a disturbance in the early hours of Thursday, June 21.
Members of the public found Mr Allwood's body in the Clarkson Road/Pyothall Road area and alerted police. A major investigation to identify his killer was launched.
Detectives quickly traced and arrested Montgomery and charged him in connection Mr Allwood's death.
The 24-year-old is due to be sentenced on Thursday, December 20 at Edinburgh High Court.
Detective Inspector Stuart Houston, who led the investigation, said: "It is my sincere hope, that following today's verdict Mr Allwood's family can begin to move on with their lives and put this horrendous ordeal behind them.
"I would also like to thank the members of the community who came forward and assisted with this investigation.
"Lothian and Borders Police are committed to tackling violent crime and by working closely with our partners at the Crown Office, ensure that offences of this nature are investigated thoroughly and those responsible are removed from our communities."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-20526345
28 November 2012
Kyle Montgomery found guilty of killing journalist Thomas Allwood
A man who stabbed a journalist to death in West Lothian has been convicted of culpable homicide.
Kyle Montgomery, from Winchburgh, denied murdering 56-year-old Thomas Allwood in Broxburn in June.
A jury at the High Court in Livingston took four-and-a-half hours to find the 24-year-old guilty of the lesser charge.
Sentence was deferred until 20 December at the High Court in Edinburgh for background reports.
Montgomery had said he grabbed a knife to scare off Mr Allwood after claiming he was attacked by him at a house in Broxburn.
He said the killing was an accident and that he did not know the blade had sliced through the victim's chest and severed a major artery during the struggle.
After the attack, Mr Allwood, who was a journalist with the Australian-based INL News Group, was found on Clarkson Road by members of the public.
Police who were called to the scene followed a trail of blood from his body to Montgomery's father house.
They found the knife, still bloodstained, in a cutlery drawer. Montgomery was detained as he returned to the house from a nearby shop.
Mr Allwood was born in Scotland but his family emigrated to Australia when he was a baby and he spent most of his life there.
He was involved in producing a TV show called Fringe Shows Have Talent, to showcase entertainers performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Det Insp Stuart Houston, who led the Lothian and Borders Police investigation, said: "It is my sincere hope, that following today's verdict Mr Allwood's family can begin to move on with their lives and put this horrendous ordeal behind them.
"I would also like to thank the members of the community who came forward and assisted with this investigation.
"Lothian and Borders Police are committed to tackling violent crime and by working closely with our partners at the Crown Office, ensure that offences of this nature are investigated thoroughly and those responsible are removed from our communities."
http://local.stv.tv/edinburgh/203156-killer-who-stabbed-man-to-death-had-bloody-knife-in-cutlery-drawer/
Killer who stabbed man to death had bloody knife in cutlery drawer
STV 28 November 2012 16:45 GMT
Associated Press/Carolyn Kaster, File - FILE - In this Nov. 16, 2012, file photo, President Barack Obama acknowledges House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio while speaking to reporters in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, as he hosted a meeting of the bipartisan, bicameral leadership of Congress to discuss the deficit and economy. Admnistration officials say President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner met Sunda, Dec. 9, 2012, at the White House to discuss the ongoing negotiations over the impeding "fiscal cliff." Spokesmen for both Obama and Boehner said the two men agreed to not release details of the conversation, but emphasized that the lines of communication remain open. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
Stock market is a wild card in fiscal cliff talks
By By CHARLES BABINGTON | Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress and the White House can significantly soften the initial impact of the "fiscal cliff" even if they fail to reach a compromise by Dec. 31. One thing they cannot control, however, is the financial markets' reaction, which possibly could be a panicky sell-off that triggers economic reversals worldwide.
The stock market's unpredictability is perhaps the biggest wild card in the political showdown over the fiscal cliff.
President Barack Obama's re-election gives him a strong negotiating hand, as Republicans are increasingly acknowledging. And some Democrats are willing to let the Dec. 31 deadline pass, because a rash of broad-based tax hikes would pressure Republicans to give more ground in renewed deficit-reduction negotiations.
A chief fear for Obama's supporters, however, is that Wall Street would be so disgusted or dismayed that stocks would plummet before lawmakers could prove their newfound willingness to mitigate the fiscal cliff's harshest measures, including deep, across-the-board spending cuts that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says could significantly damage the nation's military posture. SomeRepublicans believe that fear will temper the president's insistence on a hard bargain this month. Obama and GOP House Speaker John Boehner on Sunday held their first meeting between just the two of them since the election, and spokesmen for both emphasized afterward their lines of communication remain open.
The so-called cliff's recipe of major tax hikes and spending cuts can actually be a gentle slope, because the policy changes would be phased in over time. Washington insiders say Congress and the White House would move quickly in January or February to undo many, but not all, of the tax hikes and spending cuts.
Financial markets, however, respond to emotion as well as to research, reason and promises. If New Year's headlines scream "Negotiations Collapse," an emotional sell-off could threaten the president's hopes for continued economic recovery in his second term, even if Republicans receive most of the blame for the impasse.
"Nobody can predict the markets' reaction," said Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn.
Some Republicans are surprised that the White House has not made clearer efforts to reassure Wall Street that if the Dec. 31 deadline is breached, the worrisome pile of tax increases and spending cuts would not hit all at once.
A few liberal commentators are making just that case.
"If we go past the so-called fiscal cliff deadlines and all the resulting budget cuts and tax increases come into force, the administration can minimize the damage," Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne wrote last week. "Obama can publicly announce he is delaying any cuts, on the theory thatCongress will eventually vitiate some of them. And he can make sure the bond markets know of his plans well in advance. ... Everyone (especially Wall Street) should calm down."
Some financial bloggers agree. "Although it would be bad to let the spending cuts and tax hikes fully go into effect, if this thing is addressed in early January, things will be okay," wrote Business Insider's Joe Weisenthal.
So far, the stock markets have stayed calm. The S&P 500 index is up 12 percent for the year.
That might be because investors agree that a temporary trip over the cliff wouldn't be too harmful. Chastened lawmakers, the thinking goes, would quickly minimize the economic damage with a deficit-reduction compromise that eluded them in December.
Or, it's possible that investors view the most pessimistic tones surrounding the fiscal cliff talks as posturing that will give way to a last-minute deal. If that is the thinking — and if the Dec. 31 deadline instead is breached — Obama's fear might come to pass: The expectation of a deal might produce a significant decline in stock prices if it doesn't occur.
As bad as that sounds, some liberals think it will be necessary to force many Republicans to drop their opposition to higher tax rates on the wealthy that Obama says are crucial to trimming the deficit.
Rep. Peter Welch, a Vermont Democrat who says temporarily going over the cliff wouldn't be so bad, noted what happened on Sept. 29, 2008. The House surprised investors by rejecting a proposed bailout of the crisis-stricken financial sector. Republicans strongly opposed the plan despite then-President George W. Bush's support. The Dow plunged 777 points, its largest one-day point drop ever. Four days later the House, shaken by the market reaction, passed a slightly modified bailout bill.
Welch said a similar market meltdown next month, in the event of a fiscal cliff impasse, "is what will force members of Congress eventually to act." Few lawmakers in either party are eager to predict how the stocks and bonds markets would react to a failure to reach a fiscal cliff accord by year's end. "Let's not pretend the markets fully understand the politicians, or the politicians fully understand the markets," said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., who has served in Congress for 37 years.
Follow Charles Babington on Twitter: //twitter.com/cbabington
How the 'Mayan Apocalypse' came from a New Age magic mushroom trip
The 'prophecy' does not stem from the Mayans at all. Instead, the beliefs come from two New Age books in the Seventies and Eighties, says a British academic.
Jose Arguelles, author of The Mayan Factor (Image: Wikimedia)
The so-called 'Mayan' prophecy actually comes from New Age writers in the Seventies and Eighties (Image: Rex)
People who are expecting the world to end on December 21 - the so-called 'Mayan Apocalypse' - should be in for a pleasant disappointment.
The 'prophecy' does not stem from the Mayans at all - or date from thousands of years ago.
Instead, the beliefs come from two New Age books in the Seventies and Eighties.
The two books predict outcomes as surreal as a 'upgrade' to human consciousness predicted by a spirit from the seventh century. The date itself comes from a prophecy based on a magic mushroom trip.
“December 21st will be just another Friday morning,” said Andrew Wilson, Assistant Head of Social Studies at the University of Derby. “A hippy guru called Jose Arguelles associated the date with the Mayan calendar in a book called The Mayan Factor in 1987. But it's an obsolete form of the calendar, which had not been used since the year 1100AD.”
“He claimed to be channelling various spirits, including the spirit of a Mayan king from the seventh century. He predicted a ‘shift in human consciousness’ - mass enlightenment.”
The actual date of December 21 first appeared in an earlier work - a 1975 book by Terence McKenna, a writer known for his descriptions of “machine elves” seen while under the influence of drugs.
The date appeared in McKenna's ‘Timeline Zero’ prophecy, and was based on McKenna’s own mathematics, the Chinese I Ching and a magic mushroom trip.
McKenna later met Arguelles and the two became, Wilson says, part of a circle of New Age authors who cited each other’s work, lending the ‘prophecy’ an air of believability.
“The significance of December 21 2012 in ‘New Age’ circles emerged from the work of ‘ethnobotanist’ Terence McKenna as he travelled deep into the Amazon in the 1970s,” says Wilson. His calculations of a ‘zero time wave’ suggested the world would go through a large change on December 21.”
“Arguelles, who had a long-held interest in Native American spiritualties, was inspired by McKenna’s work. He popularised the date in connection with the ‘long count calendar’ of the Mayan people in his new-age circles.”
As the belief has evolved, it has become associated with other, wilder predictions - such as the idea that Earth will be hit by a ‘rogue planet’, Nibiru, or swallowed by a black hole.
“There is no central belief,” says Wilson, “It varies from the ideas that Earth’s magnetic poles might shift, to the idea of a ‘galactic council’ visiting Earth. There’s no one, definite idea - it mirrors the New Age beliefs from which it comes.”
“It’s become part of a lot of religious movements. For instance, ‘The Galactic Federation of Light’ believes that ‘Planet X’ will make a close pass by the earth in 2012 – causing a deep transformation of human life on Earth.
“What this and other apocalyptic dates have in common across new religious movements is that they are often predicted to occur within a believer’s lifetime - making their beliefs urgent and important,” said Wilson.
“However, most people who believe in the significance of December 21 2012 have tempered their predictions of an apocalypse to, instead, signifying some significant change in humanity. Whether that is a change in culture or a world-wide event - most believers in an apocalypse won't be preparing for an earthly end but looking forward to an imminent transformation."
“A lot of people look to this story for reassurance - about the financial climate, or even about fears of, for instance, the Large Hadron Collider.”
“What’s been popularised is the dramatic stuff - but I am definitely still doing my Christmas shopping as normal this year.”
Wilson’s paper, ‘From Mushrooms to the Stars’, will be published by Ashgate in 2013.
Georgia details nuke black market investigations
By By DESMOND BUTLER | Associated Press
This June 24, 2012 photo shows the Hotel L Bakuria in Batumo, Georgia, Black Sea coast near the Turkish Border. In April 2012, three men gathered in secret at the hotel to talk about a deal for radioactive material for sale. The Georgian seller offered cesium, a byproduct from nuclear reactors that terrorists can use to make a dirty bomb.But one of the Turkish men made it clear he was after something much more dangerous: Uranium, the material used to make a nuclear bomb. The two Turks and the seller businessman Soslan Oniani, were convicted in September, 2012 in a Georgian court, according to officials, and sentenced to six years in prison each. Despite years and hundreds of millions of dollars spent in the fight against illicit sale of nuclear contraband, the black market remain active in the countries around the former Soviet Union. (AP Photo by Desmond Butler)
This undated handout photo provided by the Georgia Interior Ministry shows components for four cylinders containing radioactive substances seized in Batumi, Georgia on April 10, 2012. Police, who have been tracking Georgian Businessman Soslan Oniani, for over year, monitored him in a hotel room meeting with two Turskish citizens, trying to sell to sell the cylinders with the materials which included cesium-137 and strontium-90. The two Turks and the seller, Oniani, were convicted were convicted in September, 2012 in a Georgian court, according to officials, and sentenced to six years in prison each.
Associated Press/Georgia Interior Ministry - This undated photo provided by the Georgia Interior Ministry shows part of a seizure of radioactive substances including iridium-192 and europium-152. Police in Kutaisi, Georgia arrested two people involved in the smuggling in February 2011. The investigation led police to track a third man, Soslan Oniani, who would be arrested in April 2012 trying to sell radioactive material to two Turkish men. Despite years of effort and hundreds of millions of dollars spent in the fight against the illicit sale of nuclear contraband, the black market remains active in the countries around the former Soviet Union. The radioactive materials, mostly left over from the Cold War, include nuclear bomb-grade uranium and plutonium, and dirty-bomb isotopes like cesium and iridium. (AP Photo/Georgia Interior Ministry)
BATUMI, Georgia (AP) — On the gritty side of this casino resort town near the Turkish border, three men in a hotel suite gathered in secret to talk about a deal for radioactive material.
The Georgian seller offered cesium, a byproduct of nuclear reactors that terrorists can use to arm a dirty bomb with the power to kill. But one of the Turkish men, wearing a suit and casually smoking a cigarette, made clear he was after something even more dangerous: uranium, the material for a nuclear bomb. The would-be buyers agreed to take a photo of the four cylinders and see if their boss in Turkey was interested. They did not know police were watching through a hidden camera. As they got up to leave, the police rushed in and arrested the men, according to Georgian officials, who were present.
The encounter, which took place in April, reflected a fear shared by U.S. and Georgian officials: Despite years of effort and hundreds of millions of dollars spent in the fight against the illicit sale of nuclear contraband, the black market remains active in the countries around the former Soviet Union. The radioactive materials, mostly left over from the Cold War, include nuclear bomb-grade uranium and plutonium, and dirty-bomb isotopes like cesium and iridium. The extent of the black market is unknown, but a steady stream of attempted sales of radioactive materials in recent years suggests smugglers have sometimes crossed borders undetected. Since the formation of a special nuclear police unit in 2005 with U.S. help and funding, 15 investigations have been launched in Georgia and dozens of people arrested. Six of the investigations were disclosed publicly for the first time to The Associated Press byGeorgian authorities. Officials with the U.S. government and the International Atomic Energy Agency declined to comment on the individual investigations, but President Barack Obama noted in a speech earlier this year that countries like Georgia and Moldova have seized highly enriched uraniumfrom smugglers. An IAEA official, who spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to comment, said the agency is concerned smuggling is still occurring in Georgia.
Four of the previously undisclosed cases, and a fifth — an arrest in neighboring Turkey announced by officials there — occurred this year. One from last year involved enough cesium-137 to make a deadly dirty bomb, officials said.
Also, Georgian officials see links between two older cases involving highly enriched uranium, which in sufficient quantity can be used to make a nuclear bomb. The AP's interviews with the two imprisoned smugglers in one case suggested that the porous borders and the poverty of the region contributed to the problem. The arrests in the casino resort of Batumi stand out for two reasons: They suggest there are real buyers — many of the other investigations involved stings with undercover police acting as buyers. And they suggest that buyers are interested in material that can be used to make a nuclear weapon. "Real buyers are rare in nuclear smuggling cases, and raise real risks," said nuclear nonproliferation specialist Matthew Bunn, who runs Harvard's Project on Managing the Atom. "They suggest someone is actively seeking to buy material for a clandestine bomb." The request for uranium raises a particularly troubling question. "There's no plausible reason for looking for black-market uranium other than for nuclear weapons— or profit, by selling to people who are looking to make nuclear weapons," Bunn said.
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Georgia's proximity to the large stockpiles of Cold War-era nuclear material, its position along trade routes to Asia and Europe, the roughly 225 miles (360 kilometers) of unsecured borders of its two breakaway republics, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and the poverty of the region may explain why the nation of 4.5 million has become a transit point for nuclear material. Georgian officials say the radioactive material in the five new cases this year all transited through Abkhazia, which borders on Russia and has Russian troops stationed on its territory. Abkhazia's foreign ministry said it has no information about the Georgian allegations and would not comment, but in the past it has denied Georgian allegations.
Russia maintains that it has secured its radioactive material — including bomb-grade uranium and plutonium — and that Georgia has exaggerated the risk because of political tension with Moscow. But while the vast majority of the former Soviet Union's nuclear arsenal and radioactive material has been secured, U.S. officials say that some material in the region remains loose. "Without a doubt, we are aware and have been over the last several years that not all nuclear material is accounted for," says Simon Limage, deputy assistant secretary for non-proliferation programs at the U.S. State Department. "It is true that a portion that we are concerned about continues to be outside of regulatory control."
U.S. efforts to prevent smuggling have prioritized bomb-grade material because of the potential that a nuclear bomb could flatten a U.S. city. But security officials say an attack with a dirty bomb — explosives packed with radioactive material — would be easier for a terrorist to pull off. And terrorist groups, including al-Qaida, have sought the material to do so. A study by the National Defense University found that the economic impact from a dirty bomb attack of a sufficient scale on a city center could exceed that of the September 11, 2011, attacks on New York and Washington.
The U.S. government has been assisting about a dozen countries believed to be vulnerable to nuclear smuggling, including Georgia, to set up teams that combine intelligence with police undercover work. Limage says Georgia's team is a model for the other countries the U.S. is supporting. On Jan. 6, police arrested a man in Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, and seized 36 vials with cesium-135, a radioactive isotope that is hard to use for a weapon. The man said he had obtained the material in Abkhazia. In April, Georgian authorities arrested a group of smugglers from Abkhazia bringing in three glass containers with about 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram) of yellowcake uranium, a lightly processed substance that can be enriched into bomb-grade material.
"At first we thought that this was coincidence," said Archil Pavlenishvili, chief investigator of Georgia's anti-smuggling team. "But since all of these cases were connected with Abkhazia, it suggests that the stuff was stolen recently from one particular place. But we have no idea where. " Days later, more evidence turned up when Turkish media reported the arrest of three Turkish men with a radioactive substance in the capital, Ankara. Police seized 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram) of cesium-135, the same material seized in January in Tbilisi.
Georgian officials said the suspects were residents of Germany and driving a car with German plates, but that the material had come from Abkhazia. Turkish authorities said the men had entered Turkey from Georgia. Information provided by German authorities led to the arrest in June of five suspects in Georgia with 9 vials of cesium-135 that looked very similar to the vials seized in January. The Batumi investigation started after the arrest of two men in the city of Kutaisi in February 2011 year with a small quantity of two radioactive materials stolen from an abandoned Soviet helicopter factory, according to Georgian officials. The men said that a businessman, Soslan Oniani, had encouraged them to sell the material. Police interviewed Oniani and searched his house, but found insufficient evidence to arrest him, according to officials. Still, they kept monitoring him through phone taps and an informant. Georgian officials say Oniani was a braggart, who played on his relationship with his cousin, Tariel Oniani, a well- known organized crime boss convicted in Russia of kidnapping.
Early this year, Soslan Oniani started talking about a new deal. Through surveillance and phone taps, police learned of the meeting in Batumi and monitored it. While no money passed hands, the men discussed an illegal deal, which is sufficient for prosecution in Georgia. Tests by Georgian authorities later revealed that one lead cylinder held cesium-137, two strontium-90, and the fourth spent material that was hard to identify. All are useful for making a dirty bomb, although the material in the cylinders alone was not enough to cause mass casualties, according to data provided by Georgian nuclear regulatory authorities. The arrested Turks denied knowing they were negotiating for radioactive substances. They claimed to be musical instrument experts, who had come to Batumi seeking to buy violins. A skeptical interrogator asked them if they were familiar with the famed instrument maker Stradivarius.
One man said he had never heard of him. The two Turks and the seller, Oniani, were convicted in September in a Georgian court, according to officials, and sentenced to six years in prison each.
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The Georgian smuggling cases suggest that the trade in radioactive materials is driven at least in part by poverty and the lingering legacy of Soviet corruption in a hardscrabble region. Georgian officials say that because of U.S. backed counter-smuggling efforts, organized crime groups seem to have concluded that the potential profit from trade in these materials doesn't justify the risk. But individuals sometimes conclude they can make a quick buck from radioactive material. For instance, in one newly disclosed case last year, authorities arrested two Georgian men with firearms, TNT and a lethal quantity of cesium-137. One was a former Soviet officer in an army logistics unit, who told police that at the end of his service in the early 90s, he had made a second career stealing from the military.
"He openly said: 'I was a logistics officer and my second duty was to steal everything possible," according to Pavlenishvili. The man kept the cesium for years before he and a relative tried to sell it last year to a Georgian undercover officer. He did not try to sell the weapons or explosives. Poverty and corruption also appear to have played into three smuggling incidents in 2003, 2006 and 2010 that involved bomb-grade highly enriched uranium.
In 2003, an Armenian man, Garik Dadaian, was arrested when he set off a radiation detector provided by an American program at a checkpoint on the Armenian-Georgian border. Days later, the man was released and returned to Armenia under murky circumstances.
Dadaian's name resurfaced in 2010 on a bank transfer slip in the pocket of the two smugglers arrested with highly enriched uranium. The men had obtained the material from Dadaian and were offering it as a sample of a larger quantity. Police say forensic analysis suggests the uranium may have come from the same batch seized in 2003. Russian investigators suspected Dadaian got the nuclear fuel from a manufacturing plant in Novosibirsk, Russia, where several disappearances of material have been documented. Pavlenishvili said Dadaian bribed prosecutors to win his release and take some of the uranium. The two smugglers in the 2010 case were Sumbat Tonoyan, a dairy farmer who went bankrupt, and Hrant Ohanian, a former physicist at a nuclear research facility in the Armenian capital of Yerevan. The AP interviewed both at a prison about 25 miles (40 kilometers) outside Tbilisi, where they are serving sentences of 13 and 14 years.
In separate interviews, each man blamed the other for the idea of smuggling uranium, and talked of financial hardship. Ohanian said his daughter needed urgent medical care that he couldn't afford, and Tonoyan said a bank had seized his house after his dairy factory collapsed. "I didn't have a job and I couldn't pay the bank," he said in Russian through an interpreter. The men also claimed they believed the material they were selling was to be used for scientific work, not nefarious purposes. Ohanian said a Georgian contact, who was also arrested, told him relations with Moscow were so bad that Georgian scientists could not get the uranium they needed from Russia on the open market. "I feel guilty because I behaved like an idiot," he said. "I should have known and I would never do something like this again."
Follow Desmond Butler at //twitter.com/desmondbutler
The family of nurse Jacintha Saldanha have thanked people for their support and messages of condolence.
Speaking on their behalf, Keith Vaz MP described Mrs Saldanha as a "loving mother and a loving wife".
"This is a close family, they are devastated by what has happened, they miss her every moment of every day," he said, as he stood beside Mrs Saldanha's husband Benedict Barboza and her two teenage children.
"They are really grateful for the support of the British public and the public overseas for the messages of support and kindness," he added.
The post-mortem for the nurse, who put through a hoax call made about the Duchess of Cambridge's medical condition, will take place on Tuesday.
Mrs Saldanha took the initial call from Australian DJs Mel Greig and Michael Christian who posed as the Queen and the Prince of Wales when they rang the hospital where Kate was being treated for acute morning sickness.
Believing it to be genuine, she put the call through to another colleague who was duped into describing the duchess' condition in detail.
Mrs Saldanha was found dead days later, having apparently taken her own life.
Her post-mortem will take place at Westminster Mortuary.
Prime Minister David Cameron spoke of his "shock" at Mrs Saldanha's death.
He said: "I thought it was completely shocking ... I heard about the suicide of this nurse, who worked incredibly hard and obviously was incredibly dedicated.
"I feel incredibly sorry for her and her family. It is an absolute tragedy that this has happened and I am sure everyone will want to reflect on how it was allowed to happen."
It comes after the boss of Sydney radio station 2Day FM said five attempts were made to contact London's King Edward VII's Hospital about the prank call before it aired.
"Following the hoax call, the radio station did not speak to anyone in the hospital's senior management or anyone at the company who handles our media enquiries," a hospital spokesman said.
Earlier, Rhys Holleran - head of the station's parent company Southern Cross Austereo - said he was satisfied that the appropriate checks were carried out before the pre-recorded segment was broadcast.
"It is absolutely true to say that we actually did attempt to contact those people on multiple occasions," he told Fairfax Radio, an Australian broadcaster.
"We rang them up to discuss what we had recorded ... we attempted to contact them on no less than five occasions ... we wanted to speak to them about it."
Britain's Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has told Sky News the nurse's response to the prank call does not point to a widespread breach of procedure.
Asked what lessons needed to be learned, he said: "I think we need to make sure that the right safeguards are in place, that the right training is in place, but I think it's too early for me to say whether this is something which is just an individual prank that went horribly wrong and it was an isolated breach or whether there are more widespread issues.
"My instinct is that this was an isolated incident with very exceptional circumstances."
Labour MP Mr Vaz, who visited Mrs Saldanha's family in Bristol on Sunday, has called on the hospital to hold an inquiry and provide more support to the relatives.
"What is needed, clearly, is an inquiry by the hospital into what has happened.
"The hospital has sent them a letter, which I have seen, but I'm surprised that nobody has made the journey to Bristol to sit with them and offer them the counselling that I think they need."
He said the family was in "terrible distress", adding: "More support in my view needs to be given."
A statement from King Edward VII Hospital said chief executive John Lofthouse had offered to meet Mrs Saldanha's husband.
It said it had also offered to establish a memorial fund in her name.
The statement read: "We hope that everyone will focus on doing all they can for the family of Jacintha Saldanha at this terrible time."
The two young 2Day FM hosts at the centre of the controversial Royal prank have broken their silence on the call that had such tragic repercussions.
Headlines and commentary in the UK have condemned the two young radio hosts at the centre of 2DayFM's tragic prank call.
The two young 2Day FM hosts at the centre of the controversial Royal prank have broken their silence on the call that had such tragic repercussions.
After the stunt received international coverage, the nurse who answered the call, 46-year-old Jacintha Saldanha, took her own life.
How much the prank had to do with the tragedy is open to conjecture, but what is certain is that Michael Christian and Mel Greig are two young people under unimaginable pressure.
Though they both say that they are emotionally stable in talking about the events, both Christian and Greig appear visibly distraught.
More stories from Today Tonight
When Greig describes hearing the dreadful results following the days after the prank she says "unfortunately I remember that moment very well because I haven't stopped thinking about it since it happened, and I remember my first question was 'was she a mother?'"
On hearing that Saldanha had indeed been the mother of two children, Greig says she was "very sorry and saddened for the family. I can't imagine what they'd be going through."
Christian says he is "gutted", "shattered", and "heartbroken".
He says "we're still trying to get our heads around everything. Trying to make sense of the situation."
According to Greig the whole tragedy doesn't even seem real. "It doesn't seem real because you just couldn't foresee something like that happening from a prank call. You know it was never meant to go that far. It was meant to be a silly little prank that so many people have done before. This wasn't meant to happen," she said.
When asked whether, in hindsight, they would they do something like that again, Christian says "I don't think that anyone could have predicted what could've happened. It was just a tragic set of circumstances. I don't think anyone could have thought that we'd be here."
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So how did the idea of the prank first come up? Both Christian and Greig are clear that the idea was the whole team's - that there is no single person that can or should be blamed. "Everything's done as a team," the said.
When asked whether there was legal advice or guidance from senior staff on how best to tackle the call, both Christian and Greig are clear on the fact that the call was never meant to be more than a silly joke.
"The call to begin with wasn't about speaking to Kate. It wasn't about trying to get a scoop or anything. The call was just – I mean we'd assumed that we'd be hung up on and that'd be that," Christian said.
Indian-born mother-of-two Jacintha Saldanha, 46, is thought to have taken her own life. Photo: Supplied
However when the two weren't hung up on during the call last week, the prank was certainly treated as a scoop. The hosts were both shocked and amused when they were put through and given information about Princess Kate's health.
According to Greig "the accents were terrible. You know it was designed to be stupid. We were never meant to get that far - from the little corgis barking in the background – we obviously wanted it to be a joke."
Christian echoes that "the joke was always on us, not anyone else. It wasn't about trying to fool someone. I mean we just assumed that with the voices that we put on, you know, we were going to get told off and that was the gag – in us."
More stories from reporter Clare Brady
Asked whether Austereo provides any coaching or training about the legal and ethical implications of what is put on air, Christian is clear that his role is as a presenter and that there are others who make the tough calls.
"This phonecall is the same with any phonecall, with any prerecorded segment that goes to air. There's processes in place and people that make those decisions," he said.
"There are people that make those decisions for us."
2Day FM hosts, Michael Christian and Mel Greig. Photo: Supplied
Greig echoes the sentiments, saying "it went through the processes of every other recorded bit that we do – from interviews to you know anything at all that gets recorded and passed on to the appropriate people, goes through the process, and we're told whether it's yes or no to play."
While the powers that be made the decisions about whether to air the segment, the two DJs were certainly giddy that they'd pulled off such an unlikely prank.
"We couldn't believe that it had worked, absolutely. You didn't expect it to. We thought a hundred people before us would've tried the same thing. We just did not see that actually working," Greig said.
Yahoo!7 News: Sydney station tried to contact nurses
Christian is careful to reiterate that the point of the prank "wasn't to get something that no one else had. It wasn't about getting (information)."
However they did try to get a medical condition update - and the medical condition of a Royal at that.
Greig explains that "we didn't actually want that. We just wanted to be hung up on. We wanted to be hung up on with our silly voices and wanted a twenty second segment to air of us doing stupid voices."
Police officers stand outside the King Edward VII's hospital following the death of a nurse who took a hoax call concerning the Duchess of Cambridge's treatment on December 7, 2012 in London, England. Photo: Getty
The two didn't identify themselves at the end of the call (though today station management said that they'd tried to contact the two nurses who were part of the call a number of times before the segment went to air).
"That's where the process comes in. We just record everything and pass it to the team. That's what we do," Greig said.
"And again the call itself is – there's no malice in the call. There was no digging. There was no trying to upset or get a reaction," Christian reiterated.
Yahoo!7 News: Royals close ranks as radio station defends conduct
The extreme vilification of the two DJs by the UK media looks like a witch hunt - there are those that want someone to pay. At the same time hackers here are threatening to shut down the radio station and hack into the whole system if the two young DJs aren't sacked.
In tears, Greig says "there's nothing that can make me feel worse than what I feel right now. And for what I feel for the family. We're so sorry that this has happened to them."
Though both DJs are being given counseling and support from Austereo, they say their priority is that the family of the nurse gets the support and care they need.
"I care more about the family. I want to know that they've got the support that they need and that the public are, you know, being respectful of their privacy," Greig said.
She has not made contact with the family, deciding that it was no appropriate at this time.
"I don't think it's an appropriate time to do that yet. But this is where we want to say that we are thinking of you and if we could call you we would want to reach out to you."
So if they could turn the clock back, would these two DJs make the same phonecall?
"If we played any involvement in her death, then we're very sorry for that. And time will only tell," Christian said.
However he does maintain that "these are prank calls. They've been around for as long as radio's existed, and they're done by every radio station."
And while that's certainly true, the results of this specific prank call are horific. Christian is clear that "no one could have predicted this result."
What does the future hold for the two DJs at the centre of this disaster?
"I don't want to think about that right now. There's bigger, more pressing issues and that's making sure that family gets through this tough time. You know our careers aren't important at the moment," Greig said.
With Scotland Yard now involved, there is eery chance that they two will be called to an inquest, which will probably be in London, where they'll meet the family face to face. Are they prepared for that?
Not ready to look at the future just yet, Christian says "right now we're trying to wrap our heads around what's happened."
Greig assures that "if that's going to make them feel better then I'll do what I need to do, absolutely. If that's something that they want to do, to get some closure, then I'll do that."
Both Greig and Christian have a lot of support. A poll out today of 11,000 people, had two thirds saying they feel the two DJs are not to blame for this horrible result. However the other side are horrible comments in mainstream media and on Twitter saying they've ruined many lives, 'shame on you', and 'you've got blood on your hands'.
Christian says that that's not what they are focusing on.
"What's important right now is you know, that the family of Jacintha are getting the support and the love that they deserve. And I mean that's what's important here. You know, it was, it is, nothing more than a tragic turn of events that no one could have predicted and, you know, for the part that we played, we're obviously incredibly sorry."
"If we had any idea that something like this could be even possible to happen, you know, we couldn't see this happening. It was meant to be a prank call," Greig said.
When the phonecall first aired, Greig said it was the 'highlight of her career' - incredibly excited to get the call through. But of course, as she keeps repeating "we couldn't foresee what was going to happen in the future."
"The call itself was not malicious and no harm was intended on Jacintha, or the other nurse, or Kate, or Prince William, or anyone. It wasn't – from start to finish – there was no harm intended. And obviously, you know, we're incredibly sorry for the harm that we may have helped contribute (to)," Christian concluded.
Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifelineon 13 11 14 or Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467.
Indian-born mother-of-two Jacintha Saldanha, 46, is thought to have taken her own life. Photo: Supplied
Police officers stand outside the King Edward VII's hospital following the death of a nurse who took a hoax call concerning the Duchess of Cambridge's treatment on December 7, 2012 in London, England. Photo: Getty
2Day FM hosts, Michael Christian and Mel Greig. Photo: Supplied
Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifelineon 13 11 14 or Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467.
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For many more media reports see Google news reports on Wikileaks, past 30 days (without syndications)
A US diplomatic cable says the mayor of Jamaica's biggest city acknowledged forging an alliance of convenience with an alleged drug baron to reduce crime in a sprawling patchwork of gritty slums.
The September 2009 cable says that Kingston Mayor Desmond McKenzie told a US Embassy officer that his administration collaborated for years with Christopher 'Dudus' Coke to fight crime, particularly in the powerful slum leader's stronghold of West Kingston, the home constituency of Prime Minister Bruce Golding.
McKenzie, an influential figure in the ruling Jamaica Labour Party, warned of a doomsday scenario if Washington continued to push for the extradition of Coke, according to the memo, which apparently was written by Isiah L. Parnell, the embassy's deputy chief of mission.
It was released by WikiLeaks and published by the British newspaper The Guardian on Wednesday.
Coke was the alleged crime 'don' of Tivoli Gardens, providing services and a lawless, violent sort of order in the slums.
McKenzie 'predicted that there would be 'severe repercussions' and 'collateral damage' if Coke were arrested, and that this would 'risk destroying everything the government was trying to do on the economy and crime,'' the leaked US communique said.
In fact, at least 76 people died in battles between drug gangs and authorities after Prime Minister Bruce Golding finally agreed to extradite Coke after fighting the US request for nine months - even to the point of hiring a US lobbyist to oppose it.
The diplomatic cable was written in August 2009, days after the US first asked Jamaica to extradite Coke to face federal drug and weapons-trafficking charges in New York.
The US indictment accused Coke of leading the 'Shower Posse' - a gang with agents in Jamaica and the United States that was named for its tendency to spray victims with bullets.
Jamaica has a long history of politicians forging alliances with gangsters in vote-rich ghettoes.
The political parties built the gangs: Dons received government contracts, and in exchange delivered the votes of their people.
Slum dwellers were caught in the middle.
Still, the image of a powerful Jamaican mayor working for years on crime-fighting strategies with a man portrayed by the US Justice Department as one of the world's most dangerous drug kingpins is stark, especially since Kingston is a city with one of the highest homicide rates in the Western Hemisphere.
McKenzie's main office line at the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation went unanswered on Wednesday.
The government's information minister, Daryl Vaz, did not immediately provide comment about the WikiLeaks cable.
Washington's extradition request for Coke immediately became a problem for the Jamaican government because the reputed gang leader was widely known for loyalty to the governing party.
The US cable says that Coke was reputedly close to leading figures within Golding's Jamaica Labour Party, including McKenzie.
In the cable, McKenzie apparently warned the US embassy officer that his 'contacts in the communities' had told him personally that they 'would not take this (Coke's extradition) lying down'.
The leaked cable said that McKenzie's fears of repercussions were not groundless.
'He is easily the highest profile figure whose extradition has been requested in many years, and his long-standing ties to the JLP have put McKenzie, Golding, and other leading party figures in an extremely awkward position,' said the cable.
It also stated that 'Coke's gang provides social and welfare services and turns out the JLP vote in elections, while his business interests profit from lucrative government contracts'.
WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange has said in an interview he had signed deals for his autobiography worth more than one million pounds(($A1.57 million).
Assange told Britain's Sunday Times newspaper that the money would help him defend himself against allegations of sexual assault made by two women in Sweden.
'I don't want to write this book, but I have to,' he said on Sunday. 'I have already spent 200,000 pounds for legal costs and I need to defend myself and to keep WikiLeaks afloat.'
The Australian said he would receive the equivalent of $A800,000 from Alfred A. Knopf, his American publisher, and a British deal with Canongate is worth about $A500,000.
Money from other markets and serialisation is expected to raise the total to 1.1 million pounds, he said.
The latest project of Assange's whistleblower website is the gradual release of tens of thousands of US diplomatic cables.
Since this latest project began Assange, who is on bail in Britain fighting a bid by Sweden to extradite him over the sex assault claims, has faced problems financing WikiLeaks.
Credit-card companies Visa and MasterCard and the internet payment firm PayPal have blocked donations to WikiLeaks, prompting Assange to label them 'instruments of US foreign policy'.
The Bank of America, the largest US bank, has also halted all transactions to WikiLeaks.
Washington has been infuriated by WikiLeaks as the site slowly releases the cache of about 250,000 secret US State Department cables. The US is believed to be considering how to indict Assange over the the huge leak.
Assange has been staying at a friend's country mansion in eastern England since his release from jail on December 16 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.
The Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten says it has obtained all 250,000 secret US diplomatic documents that WikiLeaks is in the process of releasing.
Managing editor Ole Erik Almlid says Aftenposten has no restrictions on how to use the material and will publish articles about documents it finds relevant.
He says Aftenposten will also post parts of some original documents on its website. The diplomatic cables show the behind-the-scenes conduct of Washington's diplomats.
Almlid declined to say on Thursday how the paper obtained the documents but said it didn't pay for them.
The documents are also being published by other media, including The New York Times, France's Le Monde, Britain's Guardian newspaper and the German magazine Der Spiegel.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says a US government effort to prosecute him should serve as a warning to journalists in the United States.
Assange, in an interview with the MSNBC television network on Wedensday, said there has been a 'quite deliberate attempt to split off our organisation from the First Amendment protections that are afforded to all publishers'.
The Australian-born WikiLeaks founder said he considers himself a journalist and 'we all have to stick together to resist this sort of reinterpretation of the First Amendment', which guarantees the right to free speech.
'We have seen these statements, that The New York Times is, you know, also being looked at in terms of whether they have engaged in what they call 'conspiracy to commit espionage',' he said.
'If they want to push the line that when a newspaperman talks to someone in the government about looking for things relating to potential abuses, that that is a conspiracy to commit espionage, then that's going to take out all the good government journalism that occurs in the United States,' he said.
Assange added that if the 'Washington authorities target us and destroy us' other journalists should be worried because 'they're going to be next.'
Assange rejected US Vice President Joe Biden's description of him as a 'high-tech terrorist' and condemned calls for his assassination.
'The definition of terrorism is a group that uses violence or the threat of violence for political ends,' he said.
'Now, no one in our four-year publishing history, covering over 120 countries, has ever been physically harmed as a result of what we have done.
'Whoever the terrorists are here, it's not us,' Assange said.
'But we see constant threats from people ... calling for my assassination, calling for the illegal kidnapping of my staff.
'What sort of message does that send about the rule of law in the United States?' he said.
'I mean, if we are to have a civil society, you cannot have senior people making calls on national TV to go around the judiciary and illegally murder people -- that is incitement to commit murder.'
Assange also described Bradley Manning, the US army soldier suspected of providing WikiLeaks with secret US military and diplomatic documents, as a 'political prisoner'.
'He has been a political prisoner without trial in the United States for some six or seven months,' Assange said, adding that he did not know if the material he received was from Manning since it is submitted anonymously.
'We recently heard calls to try and set up a plea deal with Bradley Manning to testify against me, personally, to say that we engaged in some kind of conspiracy to commit espionage,' he said, dismissing the charge as 'absolute nonsense.'
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.
Published: 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 »
Moves to beatify controversial wartime pope reveal tension between conservatives and liberals in Catholic church
Burger giant tried to delay US legislation in order to aid lawsuit being fought in Central American country
Leaked document shows UK Foreign Office official told US that marine reserve would end evicted Chagos islanders' claims
Foreign Office looked to use UN sanctions against Press TV after BBC Persian service was blocked by Tehran
New Zealand's condemnation of Israeli intelligence agents in 2004 seen as attempt to increase exports to Arab states
WikiLeaks founder expected to publish book in March, through UK publishers Canongate
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
WikiLeaks founder says he is not obliged to return to be questioned over sexual assault allegations
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
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 commentsUS Army launches WikiLeaks probe
Nancy A Youssef of McClatchy Newspapers
December 24, 2010 - 2:59PM
WASHINGTON - The US Army has launched a wide-ranging investigation into how a private suspected of downloading thousands of secret reports and diplomatic cables and handing them over to WikiLeaks was able to do so and whether other soldiers should face criminal charges in the case.
An army official familiar with the investigation told McClatchy newspapers that the six-member task force has been given until February 1 to complete a report that will look at everything from how Private Bradley Manning was selected for his job and trained to whether his superiors missed warning signs that he was downloading documents he had no need to read.
The army confirmed the investigation, but wouldn't release details.
Advertisement: Story continues below The report could change how the army - the largest distributor of government security clearances - grants access to government documents as well as lead to recommendations of charges against soldiers who worked with Manning and may have been aware of his activities.
Manning was working as an intelligence specialist in Baghdad during 2009 and the early months of 2010 when he allegedly downloaded hundreds of thousands of classified documents.
Those documents reached WikiLeaks - army officials have said they're not certain how - and have been published by the website in four separate bursts that began in April with the release of a video showing an army helicopter firing on civilians in Baghdad, killing two Reuters news agency employees.
The website also released tens of thousands of documents related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan before the current, ongoing publication of hundreds of thousands of US State Department cables, which began on November 28.
Manning allegedly downloaded the documents while pretending to listen to music by Lady Gaga on headphones, a cover story, investigators say, to explain the sound of the computer's CD drive whirring as he copied the files.
He's being held in solitary confinement at the Quantico Marine Base in Virginia on charges that could lead to a 52-year prison sentence.
Some human rights groups charge that Manning is being mistreated, with no ability to exercise or access to news.
The Defense Department has denied the claims.
Army Lieutenant General Robert Caslen Jr, the commander of the Army General Command and Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, will lead the study, which was ordered by John McHugh, the Army secretary.
"Lt Gen Caslen has a very broad investigative mandate and he has been assured of the co-operation of both the Department of the Army and the US Central Command as he proceeds. Lt Gen Caslen's investigation will not interfere nor conflict with the ongoing criminal investigation," Army spokesman Lt Col Christopher Garver said in a statement prepared in response to questions from McClatchy.
No other service branch is conducting a similar investigation, but the army findings could lead to changes throughout the military. With more than 800,000 uniformed personnel, the Army issues more security clearances than any other government organisation.
The US Justice Department also is conducting an investigation into whether to bring charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, though such a prosecution faces a number of challenges, including the apparent difficulty prosecutors are having tying Assange directly to Manning.
Manning, now 23, reportedly isn't co-operating with investigators, and Defense Department officials who have been briefed on the case said according to their most recent information, now months old, that no direct tie has been established between Manning and Assange.
© 2010 AAP
Assange says he could be killed in US jail
December 24, 2010 - 11:59AM
The only reason there'd be a "high chance" is because he is such a mouthy, obnoxious little prick and people would want the peace his non-existence would bring.............his paranoia and media manipulation continues.............
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.
The only reason there'd be a "high chance" is because he is such a mouthy, obnoxious little prick and people would want the peace his non-existence would bring.............his paranoia and media manipulation continues...........
Wow, are you serious?
Not sure if it was posted here but finally got to read the police report summary, what an arse! Doesn't change anything though
Originally Posted by Deks
On Sunday 28th Novembre 2010, Wikileaks began publishing 251,287 leaked United States embassy cables, the largest set of confidential documents ever to be released into the public domain. The documents will give people around the world an unprecedented insight into the US Government’s foreign activities.
Due to recent attacks on our infrastructure, we’ve decided to make sure everyone can reach our content. As part of this process we’re releasing archived copy of all files we ever released - that’s almost 20,000 files. The archive linked here contains a torrent generated for each file and each directory.
The 391,832 reports (’The Iraq War Logs’), document the war and occupation in Iraq, from 1st January 2004 to 31st December 2009 (except for the months of May 2004 and March 2009) as told by soldiers in the United States Army. Each is a ’SIGACT’ or Significant Action in the war. They detail events as seen and heard by the US military troops on the ground in Iraq and are the first real glimpse into the secret history of the war that the United States government has been privy to throughout.
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.
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.
International News Limited Domain Pricing Per Year |
.com* $9.99 | .net* $9.99 | .org* $9.99 | .info* $9.99 | .us* $9.99 | .biz* $9.99 | .ws* $9.99 | .name* $9.99 |
Save even more on multi-year registrations! |
"Could become as important a journalistic tool as the Freedom of Information Act." - Time Magazine
WikiLeaks is a non-profit media organization dedicated to bringing important news and information to the public. We provide an innovative, secure and anonymous way for independent sources around the world to leak information to our journalists. We publish material of ethical, political and historical significance while keeping the identity of our sources anonymous, thus providing a universal way for the revealing of suppressed and censored injustices.
WikiLeaks relies on its supporters in order to stay strong. Please keep us at the forefront of anti-censorship and support us today. You can also read more about WikiLeaks, our mission and objectives.
WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange,
claims a woman accusing him of sexual assault took a "trophy photo" of him lying naked in her bed.
Assange, 39, who is fighting two allegations of sexual assault, was arrested earlier this month in London and later released on bail pending an extradition hearing.
He admits to Britain’s The Sunday Times he is confused by the allegations, as the woman had invited him to stay in her flat in Stockholm in August. He claims she had also invited him to bed with her.
"We went to bed, and things went on from there," he was reported as saying.
He claimed the night began with the 31-year-old woman, known in legal documents as Miss A, taking the nude photograph. She apparently gave no indication there was a problem between them, even reportedly inviting friends to her flat for dinner "in honour" of Assange.
"Does that sound like someone who was upset by what had happened? And at the dinner were a couple who had offered to have me as their guest. Instead, she insisted I remain with her. I stayed the rest of the week," Assange told The Sunday Times.
The other young woman at the centre of the second allegation says she invited him back to her flat and had consensual sex with him, but woke up the next morning to find him having intercourse with her.
When she asked him if he was using protection, he allegedly said: "I am wearing you."
Assange has denied the allegations in both cases and is fighting extradition to Sweden for further questioning. His British lawyer has said the suspicions stem from a "dispute over consensual, but unprotected sex."
While unprotected sex cannot in itself be interpreted as rape in Sweden, sexual intercourse with a person who is asleep is considered non-consensual.The Swedish prosecutor out to get Julian Assange, described as “overzealous” in the prestigious German weekly, Die Zeit, once advocated that men accused of mistreating women be locked up even without a conviction to give the accusing women time and space to think.
There is heated debate in Sweden whether the hard line taken against Assange by the state attorney is right, the paper says.
“Not an international conspiracy of secret services, but an overzealous state attorney is regarded as the main reason for (Assange’s) arrest.
“Even an association of young feminist women within the Social Democratic Party now doubts the seriousness of the accusations and the professionalism of the state attorney.
“That is remarkable inasmuch as Assange’s alleged victim (Anna Ardin) is a member of this group.”
Even within the group, Die Zeit writes, it is assumed that the allegations rest only on Assange allegedly not having used a condom against the will of his sex partner.
“These claims are not officially confirmed, however. But they would fit with the behaviour of the Swedish judiciary in the Assange case.”
When the accusations were first voiced to the Swedish police in August, the prosecutors did not lay charges.
Then personnel changed.
A new prosecutor, Marianne Ny, took over the case, distanced herself from the previous decision and laid a rape charge.
Marianne Ny is regarded as a prosecutor who goes especially far. “In one case of a woman being mistreated she voiced the opinion that men accused by women but not convicted should in any case be preventively locked up – to give the women “space to think things over”.
"Only when the man is in captivity and the woman in quietude gets time to look at her existence with some distance, does she get the opportunity to discover how she was treated,” she is quoted as saying at the time.
To Swedish media Assange’s British lawyer has likened Marianne Ny to an "unsecured firearm on the tossing deck of a ship in stormy sea”.
The second woman who accuses Assange is Sofia Wilen. Both alleged victims, who went to the police together “to seek advice”, are described as frauds at this site:
Also have a look at
http://engforum.pravda.ru/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 »
Moves to beatify controversial wartime pope reveal tension between conservatives and liberals in Catholic church
Burger giant tried to delay US legislation in order to aid lawsuit being fought in Central American country
Leaked document shows UK Foreign Office official told US that marine reserve would end evicted Chagos islanders' claims
Foreign Office looked to use UN sanctions against Press TV after BBC Persian service was blocked by Tehran
New Zealand's condemnation of Israeli intelligence agents in 2004 seen as attempt to increase exports to Arab states
WikiLeaks founder expected to publish book in March, through UK publishers Canongate
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
WikiLeaks founder says he is not obliged to return to be questioned over sexual assault allegations
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
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 commentsFind 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
WikiLeaks is a non-profit media organization dedicated to bringing important news and information to the public. We provide an innovative,
secure and anonymous way for independent sources around the world to leak information to our journalists. We publish material of ethical, political and historical significance while keeping the identity of our sources anonymous, thus providing a universal way for the revealing of suppressed and censored injustices.
WikiLeaks relies on its supporters in order to stay strong. Please keep us at the forefront of anti-censorship and support us today.
You can also read more about WikiLeaks, our mission and objectives.
On Sunday 28th Novembre 2010, Wikileaks began publishing 251,287 leaked United States embassy cables, the largest set of confidential documents ever to be released into the public domain. The documents will give people around the world an unprecedented insight into the US Government's foreign activities.
Due to recent attacks on our infrastructure, we've decided to make sure everyone can reach our content. As part of this process we're releasing archived copy of all files we ever released - that's almost 20,000 files. The archive linked here contains a torrent generated for each file and each directory.
The 391,832 reports ('The Iraq War Logs'), document the war and occupation in Iraq, from 1st January 2004 to 31st December 2009 (except for the months of May 2004 and March 2009) as told by soldiers in the United States Army. Each is a 'SIGACT' or Significant Action in the war. They detail events as seen and heard by the US military troops on the ground in Iraq and are the first real glimpse into the secret history of the war that the United States government has been privy to throughout.
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.
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.
Published 15-Dec-2010, 8:00 AM GMT
On Tuesday, 14-Dec-2010 Spamhaus has issued a statement wherein it labels wikileaks.info as "unsafe", as they consider our hosting company as a malware facilitator:
http://www.spamhaus.org/news.
We find it very disturbing that Spamhaus labels a site as dangerous without even checking if there is any malware on it. We monitor the wikileaks.info site and we can guarantee that there is no malware on it. We do not know who else is hosted with Heihachi Ltd and it is none of our business. They provide reliable hosting to us. That's it.
While we are in favour of "Blacklists", be it for mail servers or web sites, they have to be compiled with care. Just listing whole IP blocks as "bad" may be quick and easy for the blacklist editors, but will harm hosters and web site users.
Wikileaks has been pulled from big hosters like Amazon. That's why we are using a "bulletproof" hoster that does not just kick a site when it gets a letter from government or a big company. Our hoster is giving home to many political sites like castor-schottern.org and should not be blocked just because they might have hosted some malware sites.
Fortunately, more responsible blacklists, like stopbadware.org (which protects the Firefox browser, for example), don't list us. We do hope that Spamhaus hasn't issued this statement due to political pressure.
Wikileaks.info will always be safe and clean. Promised:
Google Safe Browsing Check for wikileaks.info
Update (15-Dec-2010 17:00 PM GMT): Spamhaus has updated their statement to say that they don't blacklist us.
The wikileaks.info Team
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
WikiLeaks is a non-profit media organization dedicated to bringing important news and information to the public. We provide an innovative,
secure and anonymous way for independent sources around the world to leak information to our journalists. We publish material of ethical, political and historical significance while keeping the identity of our sources anonymous, thus providing a universal way for the revealing of suppressed and censored injustices.
WikiLeaks relies on its supporters in order to stay strong. Please keep us at the forefront of anti-censorship and support us today.
You can also read more about WikiLeaks, our mission and objectives.
On Sunday 28th Novembre 2010, Wikileaks began publishing 251,287 leaked United States embassy cables, the largest set of confidential documents ever to be released into the public domain. The documents will give people around the world an unprecedented insight into the US Government's foreign activities.
Due to recent attacks on our infrastructure, we've decided to make sure everyone can reach our content. As part of this process we're releasing archived copy of all files we ever released - that's almost 20,000 files. The archive linked here contains a torrent generated for each file and each directory.
The 391,832 reports ('The Iraq War Logs'), document the war and occupation in Iraq, from 1st January 2004 to 31st December 2009 (except for the months of May 2004 and March 2009) as told by soldiers in the United States Army. Each is a 'SIGACT' or Significant Action in the war. They detail events as seen and heard by the US military troops on the ground in Iraq and are the first real glimpse into the secret history of the war that the United States government has been privy to throughout.
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.
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.
Published 15-Dec-2010, 8:00 AM GMT
On Tuesday, 14-Dec-2010 Spamhaus has issued a statement wherein it labels wikileaks.info as "unsafe", as they consider our hosting company as a malware facilitator:
http://www.spamhaus.org/news.
We find it very disturbing that Spamhaus labels a site as dangerous without even checking if there is any malware on it. We monitor the wikileaks.info site and we can guarantee that there is no malware on it. We do not know who else is hosted with Heihachi Ltd and it is none of our business. They provide reliable hosting to us. That's it.
While we are in favour of "Blacklists", be it for mail servers or web sites, they have to be compiled with care. Just listing whole IP blocks as "bad" may be quick and easy for the blacklist editors, but will harm hosters and web site users.
Wikileaks has been pulled from big hosters like Amazon. That's why we are using a "bulletproof" hoster that does not just kick a site when it gets a letter from government or a big company. Our hoster is giving home to many political sites like castor-schottern.org and should not be blocked just because they might have hosted some malware sites.
Fortunately, more responsible blacklists, like stopbadware.org (which protects the Firefox browser, for example), don't list us. We do hope that Spamhaus hasn't issued this statement due to political pressure.
Wikileaks.info will always be safe and clean. Promised:
Google Safe Browsing Check for wikileaks.info
Update (15-Dec-2010 17:00 PM GMT): Spamhaus has updated their statement to say that they don't blacklist us.
The wikileaks.info Team
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
WikiLeaks is a non-profit media organization dedicated to bringing important news and information to the public. We provide an innovative,
secure and anonymous way for independent sources around the world to leak information to our journalists. We publish material of ethical, political and historical significance while keeping the identity of our sources anonymous, thus providing a universal way for the revealing of suppressed and censored injustices.
WikiLeaks relies on its supporters in order to stay strong. Please keep us at the forefront of anti-censorship and support us today.
You can also read more about WikiLeaks, our mission and objectives.
On Sunday 28th Novembre 2010, Wikileaks began publishing 251,287 leaked United States embassy cables, the largest set of confidential documents ever to be released into the public domain. The documents will give people around the world an unprecedented insight into the US Government's foreign activities.
Due to recent attacks on our infrastructure, we've decided to make sure everyone can reach our content. As part of this process we're releasing archived copy of all files we ever released - that's almost 20,000 files. The archive linked here contains a torrent generated for each file and each directory.
The 391,832 reports ('The Iraq War Logs'), document the war and occupation in Iraq, from 1st January 2004 to 31st December 2009 (except for the months of May 2004 and March 2009) as told by soldiers in the United States Army. Each is a 'SIGACT' or Significant Action in the war. They detail events as seen and heard by the US military troops on the ground in Iraq and are the first real glimpse into the secret history of the war that the United States government has been privy to throughout.
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.
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.
Published 15-Dec-2010, 8:00 AM GMT
On Tuesday, 14-Dec-2010 Spamhaus has issued a statement wherein it labels wikileaks.info as "unsafe", as they consider our hosting company as a malware facilitator:
http://www.spamhaus.org/news.
We find it very disturbing that Spamhaus labels a site as dangerous without even checking if there is any malware on it. We monitor the wikileaks.info site and we can guarantee that there is no malware on it. We do not know who else is hosted with Heihachi Ltd and it is none of our business. They provide reliable hosting to us. That's it.
While we are in favour of "Blacklists", be it for mail servers or web sites, they have to be compiled with care. Just listing whole IP blocks as "bad" may be quick and easy for the blacklist editors, but will harm hosters and web site users.
Wikileaks has been pulled from big hosters like Amazon. That's why we are using a "bulletproof" hoster that does not just kick a site when it gets a letter from government or a big company. Our hoster is giving home to many political sites like castor-schottern.org and should not be blocked just because they might have hosted some malware sites.
Fortunately, more responsible blacklists, like stopbadware.org (which protects the Firefox browser, for example), don't list us. We do hope that Spamhaus hasn't issued this statement due to political pressure.
Wikileaks.info will always be safe and clean. Promised:
Google Safe Browsing Check for wikileaks.info
Update (15-Dec-2010 17:00 PM GMT): Spamhaus has updated their statement to say that they don't blacklist us.
The wikileaks.info Team
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
WikiLeaks is a non-profit media organization dedicated to bringing important news and information to the public. We provide an innovative,
secure and anonymous way for independent sources around the world to leak information to our journalists. We publish material of ethical, political and historical significance while keeping the identity of our sources anonymous, thus providing a universal way for the revealing of suppressed and censored injustices.
WikiLeaks relies on its supporters in order to stay strong. Please keep us at the forefront of anti-censorship and support us today.
You can also read more about WikiLeaks, our mission and objectives.
On Sunday 28th Novembre 2010, Wikileaks began publishing 251,287 leaked United States embassy cables, the largest set of confidential documents ever to be released into the public domain. The documents will give people around the world an unprecedented insight into the US Government's foreign activities.
Due to recent attacks on our infrastructure, we've decided to make sure everyone can reach our content. As part of this process we're releasing archived copy of all files we ever released - that's almost 20,000 files. The archive linked here contains a torrent generated for each file and each directory.
The 391,832 reports ('The Iraq War Logs'), document the war and occupation in Iraq, from 1st January 2004 to 31st December 2009 (except for the months of May 2004 and March 2009) as told by soldiers in the United States Army. Each is a 'SIGACT' or Significant Action in the war. They detail events as seen and heard by the US military troops on the ground in Iraq and are the first real glimpse into the secret history of the war that the United States government has been privy to throughout.
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.
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.
Published 15-Dec-2010, 8:00 AM GMT
On Tuesday, 14-Dec-2010 Spamhaus has issued a statement wherein it labels wikileaks.info as "unsafe", as they consider our hosting company as a malware facilitator:
http://www.spamhaus.org/news.
We find it very disturbing that Spamhaus labels a site as dangerous without even checking if there is any malware on it. We monitor the wikileaks.info site and we can guarantee that there is no malware on it. We do not know who else is hosted with Heihachi Ltd and it is none of our business. They provide reliable hosting to us. That's it.
While we are in favour of "Blacklists", be it for mail servers or web sites, they have to be compiled with care. Just listing whole IP blocks as "bad" may be quick and easy for the blacklist editors, but will harm hosters and web site users.
Wikileaks has been pulled from big hosters like Amazon. That's why we are using a "bulletproof" hoster that does not just kick a site when it gets a letter from government or a big company. Our hoster is giving home to many political sites like castor-schottern.org and should not be blocked just because they might have hosted some malware sites.
Fortunately, more responsible blacklists, like stopbadware.org (which protects the Firefox browser, for example), don't list us. We do hope that Spamhaus hasn't issued this statement due to political pressure.
Wikileaks.info will always be safe and clean. Promised:
Google Safe Browsing Check for wikileaks.info
Update (15-Dec-2010 17:00 PM GMT): Spamhaus has updated their statement to say that they don't blacklist us.
The wikileaks.info Team
We are of assistance to peoples of all countries who wish to reveal unethical behavior in their governments and institutions. We aim for maximum political impact.
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For many more media reports see Google news reports on Wikileaks, past 30 days (without syndications)
A US diplomatic cable says the mayor of Jamaica's biggest city acknowledged forging an alliance of convenience with an alleged drug baron to reduce crime in a sprawling patchwork of gritty slums.
The September 2009 cable says that Kingston Mayor Desmond McKenzie told a US Embassy officer that his administration collaborated for years with Christopher 'Dudus' Coke to fight crime, particularly in the powerful slum leader's stronghold of West Kingston, the home constituency of Prime Minister Bruce Golding.
McKenzie, an influential figure in the ruling Jamaica Labour Party, warned of a doomsday scenario if Washington continued to push for the extradition of Coke, according to the memo, which apparently was written by Isiah L. Parnell, the embassy's deputy chief of mission.
It was released by WikiLeaks and published by the British newspaper The Guardian on Wednesday.
Coke was the alleged crime 'don' of Tivoli Gardens, providing services and a lawless, violent sort of order in the slums.
McKenzie 'predicted that there would be 'severe repercussions' and 'collateral damage' if Coke were arrested, and that this would 'risk destroying everything the government was trying to do on the economy and crime,'' the leaked US communique said.
In fact, at least 76 people died in battles between drug gangs and authorities after Prime Minister Bruce Golding finally agreed to extradite Coke after fighting the US request for nine months - even to the point of hiring a US lobbyist to oppose it.
The diplomatic cable was written in August 2009, days after the US first asked Jamaica to extradite Coke to face federal drug and weapons-trafficking charges in New York.
The US indictment accused Coke of leading the 'Shower Posse' - a gang with agents in Jamaica and the United States that was named for its tendency to spray victims with bullets.
Jamaica has a long history of politicians forging alliances with gangsters in vote-rich ghettoes.
The political parties built the gangs: Dons received government contracts, and in exchange delivered the votes of their people.
Slum dwellers were caught in the middle.
Still, the image of a powerful Jamaican mayor working for years on crime-fighting strategies with a man portrayed by the US Justice Department as one of the world's most dangerous drug kingpins is stark, especially since Kingston is a city with one of the highest homicide rates in the Western Hemisphere.
McKenzie's main office line at the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation went unanswered on Wednesday.
The government's information minister, Daryl Vaz, did not immediately provide comment about the WikiLeaks cable.
Washington's extradition request for Coke immediately became a problem for the Jamaican government because the reputed gang leader was widely known for loyalty to the governing party.
The US cable says that Coke was reputedly close to leading figures within Golding's Jamaica Labour Party, including McKenzie.
In the cable, McKenzie apparently warned the US embassy officer that his 'contacts in the communities' had told him personally that they 'would not take this (Coke's extradition) lying down'.
The leaked cable said that McKenzie's fears of repercussions were not groundless.
'He is easily the highest profile figure whose extradition has been requested in many years, and his long-standing ties to the JLP have put McKenzie, Golding, and other leading party figures in an extremely awkward position,' said the cable.
It also stated that 'Coke's gang provides social and welfare services and turns out the JLP vote in elections, while his business interests profit from lucrative government contracts'.
WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange has said in an interview he had signed deals for his autobiography worth more than one million pounds(($A1.57 million).
Assange told Britain's Sunday Times newspaper that the money would help him defend himself against allegations of sexual assault made by two women in Sweden.
'I don't want to write this book, but I have to,' he said on Sunday. 'I have already spent 200,000 pounds for legal costs and I need to defend myself and to keep WikiLeaks afloat.'
The Australian said he would receive the equivalent of $A800,000 from Alfred A. Knopf, his American publisher, and a British deal with Canongate is worth about $A500,000.
Money from other markets and serialisation is expected to raise the total to 1.1 million pounds, he said.
The latest project of Assange's whistleblower website is the gradual release of tens of thousands of US diplomatic cables.
Since this latest project began Assange, who is on bail in Britain fighting a bid by Sweden to extradite him over the sex assault claims, has faced problems financing WikiLeaks.
Credit-card companies Visa and MasterCard and the internet payment firm PayPal have blocked donations to WikiLeaks, prompting Assange to label them 'instruments of US foreign policy'.
The Bank of America, the largest US bank, has also halted all transactions to WikiLeaks.
Washington has been infuriated by WikiLeaks as the site slowly releases the cache of about 250,000 secret US State Department cables. The US is believed to be considering how to indict Assange over the the huge leak.
Assange has been staying at a friend's country mansion in eastern England since his release from jail on December 16 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.
The Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten says it has obtained all 250,000 secret US diplomatic documents that WikiLeaks is in the process of releasing.
Managing editor Ole Erik Almlid says Aftenposten has no restrictions on how to use the material and will publish articles about documents it finds relevant.
He says Aftenposten will also post parts of some original documents on its website. The diplomatic cables show the behind-the-scenes conduct of Washington's diplomats.
Almlid declined to say on Thursday how the paper obtained the documents but said it didn't pay for them.
The documents are also being published by other media, including The New York Times, France's Le Monde, Britain's Guardian newspaper and the German magazine Der Spiegel.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says a US government effort to prosecute him should serve as a warning to journalists in the United States.
Assange, in an interview with the MSNBC television network on Wedensday, said there has been a 'quite deliberate attempt to split off our organisation from the First Amendment protections that are afforded to all publishers'.
The Australian-born WikiLeaks founder said he considers himself a journalist and 'we all have to stick together to resist this sort of reinterpretation of the First Amendment', which guarantees the right to free speech.
'We have seen these statements, that The New York Times is, you know, also being looked at in terms of whether they have engaged in what they call 'conspiracy to commit espionage',' he said.
'If they want to push the line that when a newspaperman talks to someone in the government about looking for things relating to potential abuses, that that is a conspiracy to commit espionage, then that's going to take out all the good government journalism that occurs in the United States,' he said.
Assange added that if the 'Washington authorities target us and destroy us' other journalists should be worried because 'they're going to be next.'
Assange rejected US Vice President Joe Biden's description of him as a 'high-tech terrorist' and condemned calls for his assassination.
'The definition of terrorism is a group that uses violence or the threat of violence for political ends,' he said.
'Now, no one in our four-year publishing history, covering over 120 countries, has ever been physically harmed as a result of what we have done.
'Whoever the terrorists are here, it's not us,' Assange said.
'But we see constant threats from people ... calling for my assassination, calling for the illegal kidnapping of my staff.
'What sort of message does that send about the rule of law in the United States?' he said.
'I mean, if we are to have a civil society, you cannot have senior people making calls on national TV to go around the judiciary and illegally murder people -- that is incitement to commit murder.'
Assange also described Bradley Manning, the US army soldier suspected of providing WikiLeaks with secret US military and diplomatic documents, as a 'political prisoner'.
'He has been a political prisoner without trial in the United States for some six or seven months,' Assange said, adding that he did not know if the material he received was from Manning since it is submitted anonymously.
'We recently heard calls to try and set up a plea deal with Bradley Manning to testify against me, personally, to say that we engaged in some kind of conspiracy to commit espionage,' he said, dismissing the charge as 'absolute nonsense.'
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.
Published: 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)
Former Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks. Photo: Jacky Ghossei 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 bai-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
http://engforum.pravda.ru/showthread.php?301387-Anna-Ardin-and-Sofia-Wilen
Anna Ardin and Sofia Wilen
// * Anna Ardin (the official complainant) is often described by the media as a “leftist”. She has ties to the US-financed anti-Castro and anti-communist groups. She published her anti-Castro diatribes (see here and here) in the Swedish-language publication Revista de Asignaturas Cubanas put out by Misceláneas de Cuba. From Oslo, Professor Michael Seltzer points out that this periodical is the product of a well-financed anti-Castro organization in Sweden. He further notes that the group is connected with Union Liberal Cubana led by Carlos Alberto Montaner whose CIA ties were exposed here. Note that Ardin was deported from Cuba for subversive activities. In Cuba she interacted with the feminist anti-Castro group Las damas de blanco (the Ladies in White). This group receives US government funds and the convicted anti-communist terrorist Luis Posada Carriles is a friend and supporter. Wikipedia quotes Hebe de Bonafini, president of the Argentine Madres de Plaza de Mayo as saying that “the so-called Ladies in White defend the terrorism of the United States.”
However we do not have to accept the single-bullet theory. Life is more complicated than that. In addition to her anti-Castro, pro-CIA streak, Anna Ardin apparently indulges in her favorite sport of male-bashing. A Swedish forum reports that she is an expert on sexual harassment and the male “master suppression techniques”. Once, as she was lecturing, a male student in the audience looked at his notes instead of staring at her. Anna Ardin reported him for sexual harassment because he discriminated against her for being a woman and because she claimed he made use of the male “master suppression technique” in trying to make her feel invisible. As soon as the student learned about her complaint, he contacted her to apologize and explain himself. Anna Ardin’s response was to once again report him for sexual harassment, again because he was using the “master suppression technique”, this time to belittle her feelings.
Ardin is apparently involved with a “Christian” Social-Democrat group. The Swedish church has a precious few male priests: what was once the struggle for female equality has ended up with men being effectively removed from service. Nowadays very few Swedish male-female couples marry in the church, or get married at all; most Swedish gay couples, however, are proud to become “man and wife” in the church. This is all good news for wealthy Swedes: deserted churches sell their properties (once enjoyed by the community) to be fenced off by the nouveau riche created by the latest privatization wave. So much for Swedish social democracy!
The second accuser, Sofia Wilen, 26, is Anna’ friend. Here is a video of an Assange press conference where one can see the girls together. Those present at the conference marveled at her groupie-like behavior. Though rock stars are used to girls dying to have sex with them, it is much less common in the harsh field of political journalism. Sofia worked hard to bed Assange, according to her own confession; she was also the first to complain to police. She is little known and her motives are vague. Why might a young woman (who shares her life with American artist Seth Benson) pursue such a sordid political adventure?//
//Santa is a bad example to the children... so fat
he can't get down chimneys any more
he is a reindeer abuser
and won't allow the elves to unionize // sb11
Note to self: If you go after a fly, sooner or later, you will land on a pile of shit
video=youtube;nBmueYJ0VhA]//www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBmueYJ0VhA[/video]
www.inmalafide.com/2010/12/04/the-name-of-julian-assanges-other-false-rape-accuser-is-sofia-wilen/
« Julian Assange was accused of rape by Anna Ardin, a radical feminist who was out for revenge
Linkage is Good for You: Arise, Men of the West! Edition »
Dec 04 2010
The name of Julian Assange’s other false rape accuser is Sofia Wilén
Posted by Ferdinand Bardamu in Feminism, Men's Rights,Sexuality
A reader emailed me to tell me that Julian Assange’s second rape accuser is named Sofia Wilén. She’s the “Woman B” in this article, the stalkerish groupie who slept with Assange but got mad at him after he turned out to be an inattentive geek. There are a bunch of articles confirming Wilén’s involvement in the case, including her friendship with Assange’s other accuser, the psychotic feminist Anna Ardin:
STOCKHOLM/MELBOURNE (Rixstep) — The charges against Julian Assange were indeed trumped up. Anna Ardin and Sofia Wilén planned it all. They went to the police station asking for advice, knowing the police would turn it into an accusation of rape. They’re also the ones who leaked the story to the tabloid Expressen.
This was revealed in a letter written by Assange’s Australian barrister to the website Crikey.
A bit of a recap first.
Anna Ardin and Sofia Wilén approached the Klara police station in Stockholm on the afternoon of Friday 20 August 2010 to ask questions of the police, purportedly about forcing someone to submit to STD/HIV tests.
The policemen on duty rang up prosecutor on duty Maria Kjellstrand even before the formal interrogation had begun. Kjellstrand - working with no paperwork at all at this point – issued an ‘APB’ for Assange and had the police search the Stureplan district of Stockholm for Assange, ostensibly to bring him in for questioning (and a tour of Swedish isolation cells).
The formal interrogation of Sofia Wilén was only concluded hours later and the interrogation of Anna Ardin didn’t take place until the day after - by telephone.
As seen from Anna Ardin’s SMS history, Anna Ardin and Sofia Wilén made the whole thing up - and even decided to leak the story to notorious Swedish tabloid Expressen. The story reached Niklas Svensson and others at Expressen at 19:52.
A colleague of Svensson’s rang up Maria Kjellstrand to find out if the story was true - and Kjellstrand, violating the rules of her office, told the reporter that it was.
Wilén is apparently a photographer by trade. This is supposedly the only known picture of her on the Internet:
Spread the word – Julian Assange’s lying rape accusers are Anna Ardin and Sofia Wilén. These women need to be exposed for what they have done.
For more on Anna Ardin, the radical feminist who convinced Wilén to file charges against Assange, see here. For my complete breakdown of the Assange case, see here.
UPDATE: I’m adding some more pictures that my readers have found. Here’s one from Legion, atUnfrozen Caveman’s blog:
Here’s two more from Advocatus Diaboli:
If you have more info, be sure to let me know, either in the comments or in an email.
UPDATE II: Legion has come through with an unpixellated version of the picture from Unfrozen Caveman’s site:
Also check these links from Legion’s blog for more info:
“The Charges Against Julian Assange are Part of a Smear Campaign”
Tags: Advocatus Diaboli, Anna Ardin, Crikey,Expressen, Julian Assange, Legion, Maria Kjellstrand,Niklas Svensson, Sofia Wilén, Stockholm, Sweden,Unfrozen Caveman, Wikileaks
This entry was posted on Saturday, December 4th, 2010 at 5:24 pm and is filed under Feminism, Men's Rights, Sexuality. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
36 Responses to “The name of Julian Assange’s other false rape accuser is Sofia Wilén”
[...] reading this article, I decided to look around and try to find some pictures of Sofia [...]
I have no idea how to go about doing such a thing myself; just thought I’d put that out there.
Hughman says:
You’re number one on Google now for the searched name. Congrats!
The feminists have shot themselves in the foot. Exposing the libertarian/intellectual factions to MRA concerns is going to dig another huge hole in their graves.
You were talking about calling men to arms yesterday and now you have a chance to do just that. To the rest of the people reading this, start a google bomb about this (and the previous) post. The more people who see these two vapid liers for what they are, the better.
But you don’t have the experience that a newspaper editor does in libel and slander. These 2 women aren’t public figures. It’s possible you could have wrong info. I think it would be better to distance the certainty with “i think X because of the sources that have said Y.” rather than a call to “spread the word”. Just looking out for you dude. Keep up the good work otherwise.
Gloob says:
Um, is she about three months pregnant in that pic, or what? Or it is the way her jacket is made?
And “Seth” looks pretty spazzed out in that pic, maybe a few seconds away from raping somebody himself. I can’t tell what “show” they’re intensely waiting for, but from the image in the mirror behind them it looks like a live-action “Emperor’s New Groove.” (??)
It looks like this is the Left vs the Right and Radical Feminists. It also looks like Sweden is being made to look (even more) foolish in the eyes of the world for their Kafkaesque sex laws.
FB, I have put up one more picture of her. Apparently someone copied her profile picture (from some art site) before she could delete it.
Her name has been known since early September.
https://www.flashback.org/t1275257
[...] good story on the bogus “sex crimes” accusations against Julian Assange appears here, on Ferdinand Bardamu’s In Mala Fide blog. Contrary to widespread speculation, Assange is not being charged with rape, but apparently just [...]
[...] the last time I write about Julian Assange for the time being. Promise. And if my previous posts on Assange offended you, this one will probably give you a coronary. Proceed at your own [...]
Wikileaks? There is an easy way to secure all government documents, and to prevent any further security leaks. Keep all of America’s classified documents in the same filing cabinet as President Obama’s college transcripts, passport information, nationality documents and birth certificate(s). Problem solved.
Berkeley is a liberal city that votes for the Democrats, and it is the Democrats who will lose a lot of votes if they do not manage to find whoeverleaked the Cables to Wikileaks either innocent, or to say either truthfully or to lie and say that they cannot find who made the leak to Wikileaks. I am not suggesting that liberals will vote for the Republicans, although a few might; but America has voluntary voting, and the liberals may not vote at the next election. This is why President Hillary Clinton has not been Publicly calling for an Imperialistic version of a Fatwa on Manning, but the Democrats have left to the other side of the coin to do their dirty work, because the Democrats know that it will cost the Democrats votes. The Republicans do not have any worries as regards loss of votes with a person who could be portrayed as a traitor, even though, depending on testimony that is not extracted from torture may show that he is probably a Patriot and maybe even a Hero. The problem for both Political Parties in America is that regardless of who leaked the information, they are showing the world that they are not happy with being made to be honest, and that is why they are persecuting Private First Class Bradley Manning in a Middle East Jail, so that protests cannot be held at an American Jail. We can all be certain that Private First Class Bradley Manning’s Legal Defence Team, and even common sense have instructed him to answer no questions.
We have learned from the Media that the American Government, is trying to make it look like there was coercion from the founder of Wikileaks on Private First Class Bradley Manning to make the leaks. We have seen attempts at this by asking why Wikileaks has not paid money to Private First Class Bradley Manning, because as far as President Hillary Clinton is concerned, she needs Julian Assange convicted in America for her election at the next American Presidential election. The reason for detaining a Presumed Innocent American Citizen in Contravention of the American Constitution is to bribe, pressure, or even torture him into doing the whims of President Hillary Clinton. Whoever leaked the information to Wikileaks did the American Community a great Public Service, because what we learn is that the Dictatorship is coming to America, regardless of Democrats or Republicans. The Democrats and the Republicans want to conceal the fact that the American Military must one day come home, and that they are now trained psychopaths who need an endless supply of victims. That supply of victims will not be foreigners, but American Citizens who have been disarmed because of being manipulated by a Puppet Uncle Tom using their stupid white guilt trip. The American citizens will be told criticism against the Unconstitutional policies of a Puppet Uncle Tom will because of their alleged racism, and not because of the evil policies.
The Democrats and the Republicans both know all these things to be true, but they will not confess for the obvious reasons.
They have their ready made excuses that were invented long ago, and all of this information is Classified Top Secret. The reason they are against even the low level Classified Information being leaked, is because others will be able to deduce what the Top Secret Information concerning the disarming of the American people, and the return home of America’s psychopathic Nazi Army. It should not surprise us if the Founder of Wikileaks has been bribed, pressured, or even intimidated into changing the original content of the UnDiplomatic American Cables. The American Government has made so many documents Classified, because that way they can intimidate anyone with commenting on their definition of Classified Information. I know that we are all wiser with hindsight, but a non-Nazi Hope and Change would have said what is done is done, and that persecuting those who may or may not have leaked this information, and those who are publishing it even in a changed form after they have been bribed and intimidated would not be in the Public Interest.
I truly wish that I did not have to be the one of many to inform America’s Politicians, but I guess that if they do not know by now, then they need to firstly be advised as to how Americans are thinking, and they need to be reminded of their obligations to the American Public. The American People may soon rise up and kill all, and that means all American Politicians, Federal, State, and Local.
That is why if even people like Ron Paul need to decide to leave Politics or to confess that he has been as corrupt as the rest of them all along, because if there is a cleansing, the cleansing will be complete.
There will be no distinction between good Politicians or bad Politicians, because the only good American Politician will be a Dead American Politician.
As far as the Main Stream Media is concerned, I have not been able to see the mood of the American people, but they may go down along with the bankers.
This is why both Political Parties in America ware working together to find ways to unduly censor the Internet, so that the Corrupt and Bribed Puppet Media can free rein brainwash the Gullible.
There were many people who were hoping that the British Legal System was not subservient to the dictates of America.
Proud to Be One of the World's Worst Hotels
By DRAGANA JOVANOVIC Nov. 12, 2012
The good news? This hotel is a bargain, no room costs more 25 euros per night. The bad news: You get what you pay for. It may be the worst hotel in the world.
The people who own the Hans Brinker Budget Hostel in Amsterdam wrote the book on the subject with a simple idea in mind: If you were warned in advance, you can't complain after you arrive. Some of the Hans Brinker's advertising slogans include: "It can't get any worse. But we'll do our best" or "Improve your immune system – stay at Hans Brinker!" And this "honest" humorous approach works, if you judge by the high percentage of the hotel's 511 beds in 127 rooms that are occupied these days.
The hotel's target clientele are mostly students and backpackers, who can appreciate the sarcastic humor and the price. The Hans Brinker ads make extremely modest claims: "Now with beds in every room" or "Now more rooms without a window," to go with the modest rate. And cheapness isn't the only virtue on display at the Hans Brinker Budget Hostel, there's also so-called ecological correctness. So the hotel's broken elevators becomes an "eco-friendly elevator"-- the stairs. No hot water in the shower? It keeps water consumption environmentally sound. No towels? Drying yourself off with the curtains saves on washing and helps save the planet. "It's an experience," says Tijmen Receveur, a manager at Hans Brinker. "Most of our guests are pleasantly surprised when they arrive at the hotel. They love our humor and sarcasm and they have diminished their expectations to less than nothing." A "legal note" posted on the hotel's website states that guests book there "at their own risk and will not hold the hotel liable for food poisoning, mental breakdowns, terminal illness, lost limbs, radiation poisoning, certain diseases associated with the 18th century, plague, etcetera."
"I've stayed in a lot of crummy places, but I like to think the Hans Brinker is the best of the worst," says Eleonor, a Belgian student, who stayed there recently. "It's the perfect place for teenage travelers or people in their twenties, who are likely to fall asleep in one of the bars around the corner anyway." Still, wacky humor can only take you so far, and recent comments on TripAdvisor indicate some guests may have forgotten the basis of their bargain: you get what you pay for, even or especially, at "The Worst Hotel in the World." Recent comments range from "For the reputation of the world's worst hotel it wasn't as bad as I thought. Pretty scabby still, very basic. The bathroom was atrocious! The winner for it was the location though. I wouldn't say don't stay there, but I would never stay there ever again" to the more flattering "Hans Brinker is a fun filled hostel with great facilities, friendly staff and great location. You will not be disappointed!"
Either way, you've been warned.
Interactive: US inner circles of power |
Meet the top consultants, advisers, and pollsters behind Barack Obama and Mitt Romney's candidacies.
Mohammed Haddad and Hasan Salim Patel Last Modified: 31 Oct 2012 10:45
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US votes in tight presidential race |
Long lines reported in some states as millions of voters take to the polls after a grueling campaign.
Last Modified: 06 Nov 2012 20:20
After a seemingly endless presidential campaign, voters in the United States are going to the polls to decide whether to give president Barack Obama a second term or replace him with his Republican challenger, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.
Voters in dozens of states were lined up before dawn, with lengthy lines and hour-long waits reported in many places. In New York and New Jersey, eastern states battered last week by Hurricane Sandy, voters queued outside of tents and other makeshift polling places.
There were scattered reports of irregularities across the country, particularly from voters who said they were asked to show identification while waiting in line. In Pennsylvania, a judge ordered Republicans to stop demanding ID from voters outside a polling station.
Voting machines also broke down in a number of polling stations. One man in Pennsylvania posted a video of a machine which did not let him vote for Obama, apparently a malfunction.
Romney voted on Tuesday morning near his home in Belmont, Massachusetts. From there he planned to hit the campaign trail, a rarity for presidential candidates on Election Day; his campaign has scheduled events in Pennsylvania and the battleground state of Ohio.
Obama voted more than a week ago in his hometown of Chicago, part of a campaign to encourage his supporters to take advantage of early voting. Some 30 million Americans have already voted, a record number.
The president plans to spend the day at his headquarters in the city, and has no plans to hit the campaign trail, though he did make phone calls to volunteers.
"[I] want to say to Governor Romney, congratulations on a spirited campaign," he told reporters on Tuesday morning. "We feel confident we've got the votes to win, but it's going to depend ultimately on whether those votes turn out."
His vice president, Joe Biden, cast his ballot in the early morning hours in his home state of Delaware. He will travel to Chicago in the afternoon to watch the results with Obama.
Tuesday's vote caps off a grueling campaign that became the most expensive in history: Candidates and outside groups spent some $2.6bn on the presidential race alone.
Both candidates have spent the last few weeks barnstorming the handful of "swing states" which will decide the election. Obama made campaign stops on Monday in Wisconsin, Iowa and Ohio, while Romney visited New Hampshire, Florida, Ohio and Virginia.
Obama used his final campaign stop to remind voters of his accomplishments: the economy's slow recovery from recession, the rescue of the American auto industry, and the end of the war in Iraq, among other things.
He sought to sharpen the contrast between his policies and those of his opponent.
"It's not just a choice between two candidates and two parties, it's a choice between two different visions for America," he said.
Obama has not laid out a detailed agenda for his second term, and Romney has seized on that in his final speeches, warning voters that the president will simply repeat his policies from the past four years - which the Republican nominee described as a failure.
"His plan for the next four years is to take all the ideas from the first term - the stimulus, the borrowing, Obamacare, all the rest - and do them over again," Romney said, referring to the president's $787bn economic stimulus package and his health care reforms.
"He calls that ‘Forward.’ I call it ‘Forewarned,'" the former governor quipped.
Polls positive for Obama
The last round of national polls heading into the vote were good news for the president. A Pew Research Center poll showed him leading Romney by three points, 48 per cent to 45 per cent. The same poll had them tied last week.
Two other polls showed a closer race: A Washington Post-ABC News poll had Obama leading by one point, 49 per cent to 48 per cent; and a CNN poll had the candidates tied with 49 per cent of the vote.
All three of those results were within the polls' margins of error.
But the popular vote will not decide the outcome. States are apportioned a number of electoral votes based on their population, and the candidate who wins a majority - 270 - becomes president. And the final state polls showed the president leading in most of the crucial swing states.
Surveys in Ohio have had Obama leading by anywhere from three to five points. A victory there would mean Romney would have to win at least six of the remaining eight battleground states, which seems unlikely: Obama led every poll conducted in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, Virginia and Wisconsin; Romney's lone bright spot was North Carolina, where he looks poised to win by a narrow margin.
The other two battlegrounds, Colorado and Florida, seem too close to predict, with polls showing a range of possible outcomes.
In Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, a small village which traditionally opens its polling places just after midnight - the first vote in the nation - Romney and Obama tied, 5-5. It was the first tie in more than 50 years of midnight voting in the town, which is not a bellwether for the national result.
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P.O.Box 774, KemPTville, Ontario, Canada KOG 1J0 |
Tel. (613) 258-2893 Fax. (613) 258-0015 email:| Glen Kealey @ Sympatico in Canada | |
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Shelf-Life expiry date AD 2062 |
IRS |
INTERCHANGE |
Nasreddin Hodja |
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BLUE MARBLE |
Hermaphrodite |
The SuperSlave Androgyny UBERMENSCH, the penultimate triphibian inter-planetary SuperSlave, is yetto come. To complete the PO-HUN experiment and bring on the SuperSlave each of the currently existing races must be eliminated in turn, once its assigned task has been completed and only after the planet has cleansed itself over time. See 1000 years of peace. |