Wikileaks News
Dwayne Winseck and Patrick McCurdy – 17 may 2012
Two weeks ago Birgitta Jonsdottir, the self-styled activist Member of Parliament from Iceland and central figure in the important and ongoing Twitter-WikiLeaks cases, was in Ottawa. We sent her a tweet, got a quick reply, then met to talk about whistle-blowers, privacy and the role of the free press in the age of the Internet.
Ms. Jonsdottir is one of the co-producers of Collateral Murder, a selectively edited video that documents a U.S. military helicopter gunning down two Reuters staff and several others in the streets of Baghdad. The distribution of the video over the Internet in April 2010 shed light on events that the U.S. military had not disclosed and marked the beginning of WikiLeaks’ campaign to release what would be the largest cache of U.S. classified material the world has ever seen.
Over the course of the next year, WikiLeaks joined together with five of the world’s most respected news organizations – The New York Times, The Guardian, Der Speigel, Le Monde and El Pais – to publish material that wreaked havoc with the routine conventions of journalism, diplomacy and war. The near simultaneous publication of the material also set the global news agenda three more times in 2010: (1) during the release of the Afghan and (2) Iraq war logs in July and October, respectively, and (3) a cache of diplomatic cables starting in late November.
The modern day whistle-blowing campaign garnered a number of prestigious awards for journalistic excellence, including Readers’ Choice in Time magazine’s Person of the Year (Julian Assange) (2010), International Piero Passetti Journalism Prize of the National Union of Italian Journalists, Italy (2011) and the Walkley Award for Most Outstanding Contribution to Journalism, Australia (2011), among many others.
It also unleashed the wrath of the U.S. government and a wave of recrimination and reprisals against WikiLeaks, and its key figures. Some literally called for its enigmatic frontman, Julian Assange, to be assassinated. In December 2010, Senator Joe Lieberman, Chair of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, pressured Amazon, Paypal, Mastercard, Visa and everyDNS to cut-off resources essential to WikiLeaks’ survival: including servers, data storage, domain names and online payments. Apple removed a WikiLeaks app from the iTunes store shortly thereafter.
The actions did not kill WikiLeaks, but they did cause its donor funding to plummet by an estimated 90 per cent. Read the rest of this entry »
Eric Holder, portrait of a man who matters – Part one: accusing Wikileaks
May 14, 2012 – by evablumdumontet
Attorney General Eric Holder has been at the forefront of the legal battle the United States have led against Julian Assange and Wikileaks.
In the American administration, the attorney general is both the head of the Department of Justice and the chief law enforcement officer of the Federal Government. He is designated by the President of the United States and acts as his legal adviser. He also represents the US government in legal matters.
Back in December 2010, Eric Holder was the official figure designated to condemn Wikileaks’s actions and to announce the legal measures that would be taken against the organisation. He accused the organisation of putting “the safety of the American people at risk” and announced that the Department of Justice and the Pentagon were undertaking criminal investigations. When asked how he could prosecute Assange, because of the complexity and uniqueness of the case, he responded:
“Let me be very clear, it is not saber rattling. To the extent there are gaps in our laws we will move to close those gaps, which is not to say . . . that anybody at this point, because of their citizenship or their residence, is not a target or a subject of an investigation that’s on going.
Answering questions at a press conference he explained he had “authorized ‘significant’ actions aimed at prosecuting Wikileaks,” without explaining what they were. He added that the justice department was examining ways to stem the flow of leaked cables, a comment of particular significance, when one recalls that the banking blockade started at the same period.
Eric Holder also came forward regarding the attacks Anonymous organised to avenge Wikileaks. At a news conference he explained that he was looking into “those incidents” and said that he was “hopeful that the people responsible for the WikiLeaks disclosures of classified information will be brought to justice.” Read the rest of this entry »
Don’t shoot the messenger
The worldwide furore caused by WikiLeaks will be the subject of a public seminar by University of Adelaide law Associate Professor and online media expert Dr Melissa de Zwart on Monday 21 May.
Dr de Zwart’s lecture, WikiLeaks, Google and Facebook: How Terms of Use Control Information, will address the fallout from WikiLeaks and the implications for freedom of speech and the internet as a global networked public sphere.
“How is it that what is essentially a one-person organisation can have attracted such a level of hatred from the US Government in particular?” Dr de Zwart asks.
“What does the concerted effort to shut WikiLeaks down and to silence Julian Assange tell us about the effectiveness of the internet as a communications medium?”
Dr de Zwart will examine why public law has failed to silence WikiLeaks when the law of contract and the exercise of private regulation has been so successful.
“WikiLeaks is a new model of online news dissemination. Its structure, operations and motivations are little understood, despite the worldwide furore caused by the publication of a series of documents in the last two years.
“The fallout from the publication of WikiLeaks material has resulted in the withdrawal of service by numerous providers, including Amazon, Mastercard, VISA and Paypal. This has effectively limited WikiLeaks’ operations when more direct attacks have not,” Dr de Zwart said.
Her lecture will cover the legal and cultural context of the internet and why the small print should never be ignored.
The lecture will be held on Monday 21 May in the Moot Court, Adelaide Law School, Ligertwood Building at 5pm. To register go to www.law.adelaide.edu.au/events/lawweek/
To watch a video of Associate Professor Melissa de Zwark discussing her upcoming lecture, please visit the University of Adelaide’s YouTube page: http://youtu.be/2o2JEsZlDpE
14 May, 2012
Julian Assange speaks with Moazzam Begg and Asim Qureshi
The latest episode of The World Tomorrow takes us to the very heart of America’s War on Terror: Guantanamo Bay. Julian Assange sat down with a former Gitmo prisoner and a rights campaigner fighting for those still trapped behind the wire.
Ten years ago the war on terror prompted the opening of the facility. Now, more than three years after President Obama ordered its closure, the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, like the war in Afghanistan, remains with us. Over a year ago, Wikileaks blew the lid on Gitmo by releasing a cache of files that exposed the inner workings of the infamous prison where 169 remain without hope of trial or release.
Moazzam Begg, born and raised in the UK, was imprisoned for years in Guantanamo as an Al Qaeda suspect. He amazingly managed to secure his release in 2005 after lobbying his government.
Asim Qureshi is a former corporate lawyer, whose human rights organization Cageprisoners Ltd exists solely to raise awareness of the plight of prisoners who remain in Guantanamo Bay.
Begg signed a confession admitting he “was armed and prepared to fight alongside the Taliban and Al Qaeda against the US,” but only after being hog-tied and beaten as he listened “to the sound of a woman screaming next door I’m told or am led to believe is my wife.”
Together, both men discuss the plight of Muslims in the post 9/11 world, the thin line between terror and self-defense, and how Begg believes Obama has ushered in an era where “extra-judicial killing” has replaced “extra-judicial detention.”
Stay tuned and watch the new episode of Assange’s “The World Tomorrow” exclusively on RT, Tuesday, 11:30
http://rt.com/news/assange-world-tomorrow-guantanamo-bay-209/
07/may/2012 by RussiaToday
***
Bahrain authorities have arrested the country’s most prominent human rights activist and harsh critic of the state’s ruling family. Nabeel Rajab was detained just days before his appearance on Julian Assange’s show here on RT. In the programme, which airs on Tuesday, the whistleblower gets an insight from him, and a fellow Egyptian activist, into the uprisings in the Arab States. RT spoke with London-based author and journalist Afshin Rattansi, who believes that Nabeel Rajab and his fellow activists have a lot of challenges to face in the future.
RT on Twitter http://twitter.com/RT_com
Press Release – Fri May 4 16:45:40 UTC 2012
Julian Assange show ‘The World Tomorrow’ Episode 4: Egypt & Bahrain
Tuesday 8 May, 12:30 PM London time
The forth episode of “The World Tomorrow” will be an interview between Julian Assange, who has been under house arrest without charge for over 500 days, and two leading Arab revolutionaries in the mididle of conflict, Alaa Abd El-Fattah from Egypt and Nabeel Rajab from Bahrain. The episode will air thoughout Tuesday in English, Spanish, Arabic, Italian and Russian, starting from 12:30 PM London time, 7:30 AM (New York), 13.30 PM (Rome), 15:30 PM (Moscow) and 9:30 PM (Sydney/Melbourne). RT will air the episode 12 times on Tuesday on its international cable network which covers over 430 million subscribers, including 53 million in the United States on Comcast and Warner. The show will be aired in Italian by L’Espresso Group in Italy. The episode will be available online immediately after broadcasting. Transcripts and URLs will be available at http://worldtomorrow.wikileaks.org
Assange notes, “Is the Arab spring an unfolding dream or an impossible fantasy? I look past the media spin and conspire directly with its human participants.”
At the time of the interview all three participants were in the middle of serious legal and political attacks. Read the rest of this entry »
A new play started showing at Gate Theatre in London entitled “Tenet” which has French mathematician Évariste Galois and Julian Assange as characters.
April 30, 2012
MOSCOW, April 30, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Tunisia’s Acting President Moncef Marzouki is interviewed by Julian Assange on the May 1st episode of “The World Tomorrow” on RT.
The two men discuss a wide range of topics, including the crisis in Syria, democratic Islamism and human rights. Moncef Marzouki was elected the interim President of Tunisia on December 12, 2011 by the newly-formed Constituent Assembly. Tunisia became the ‘ground zero’ of the Arab Spring revolutionary movements, with the wave of protests that started in December 2010.
The segment will air globally across all RT channels on Tuesday, May 1, at 15:30 Moscow time / 11:30 GMT / 07:30 EDT in English, Arabic and Spanish, and will be rebroadcast every two hours thereafter for the rest of the day. Read the rest of this entry »
with: Kristinn Hrafnsson,Stefania Maurizi
The facts that have been hidden from Italian citizens about Italy. As brought to light by Wikileaks. A book presentation in the company of Kristinn Hrafnsson, the right-hand man of Julian Assange, and Stefania Maurizi, the only Italian journalist to whom Julian Assange gave the secret Wikileaks documents.
Did you have an idea? – Andrew Partos – The Man who Rang
Making his television debut on ABC’s QandA, Andrew Partos leads with two questions about Julian Assange to a panel that includes Australia’s Attorney General Nicola Roxon and Jeffrey Robinson QC. If given a third chance to speak, he would have mentioned his conversation with Mastercard executive David Masters, regarding the Wikileaks blockade.
In this interview, Partos stands his ground against Masters, who denies he said that Mastercard Australia acted on instructions from Julia Gillard and the former Attorney General Robert McClelland, to block donations to Wikileaks. When this story broke just over a week ago, journalists flocked around Masters but completely ignored the other party, and the official statement was as expected. Masters did not deny that the conversation with Mr Partos took place; just what was said. In a case where it’s one man’s word against another, we feel it only fair to let both parties speak.
Andrew is a Holocaust survivor and prolific writer of letters to the press in the name of truth, justice and free speech. In the last six years, he has had some 600 letters published but claims to have written over 3000. For that reason he calls himself both the most published – and unpublished! – citizen in Australia.
Fullscreen version:
2 May 2012 – The Real Wikileaks: beyond Julian Assange
Date: 02 May 2012
Time: 18:30 – 20:30
Location: College Building, St John Street, London EC1V 4PB, UK
- Speaker: Gavin MacFadyen, Director, Centre for Investigative Journalism
- Event Type: Lectures
- Open to: Public
- Event Details: Lecture preview:
- The explosion of interest in WikiLeaks and Julian Assange is one of the biggest leaps on the Journalism timeline for decades.
- It is a quiet story in which City University London played a part. But the tangled, garish public story is often painted by tabloid attacks, where Julian Assange is normally “monstered”, but the engine of WikiLeaks, its social, economic and political consequences, its role in media exclusivity, in law and in personal conscience is rarely discussed or described.
- http://www.city.ac.uk/events/2012/may/the-real-wikileaks-beyond-julian-assange
Posted:Thursday, 26 April 2012
News briefs Author:Deborah Erwin
Protestors assembled in Darling Harbour to demand more government support for Julian Assange and Wikileaks on Friday.
The small group gathered outside the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre at midday on Friday, April 20 to confront Attorney-General Nicola Roxon who was at the venue to attend a Commonwealth Lawyers Association (CLA) conference. The demonstrators occupied the ground floor lobby of Exhibition Hall 5 to attract attention before being ushered out by the venue’s staff. A member of the Coalition, Jann Dark said: “There were a lot of lawyers around so we were sure wouldn’t be man-handled by staff but were not sure of our rights.” The Protestors, organized by Support Wikileaks and Assange Coalition, held up banners and picket signs.
The demonstration occurred the day after Mr Assange’s lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, was stopped by security staff at London’s Heathrow airport and alerted that she was on the Inhibited Persons List. She was flying home to attend the CLA conference. A spokesperson for the Coalition, Anne Picot said in a statement: “Who on earth put Jennifer Robinson, a human rights lawyer of international reputation, on a No Fly list? This is more the action of a Stalinist police state or third world dictatorship than a common law country which prides itself on ‘innocent til proven guilty’.” Australian Lawyers Alliance National President Greg Barns said: “The ALA is extremely concerned that simply because a lawyer is representing a client that government does not like, the lawyer is then subjected to security scrutiny,” in a statement. “The UK and Australian governments must come clean as to why Ms Robinson was subjected to this treatment at Heathrow airport today and why she is on any sort of security list,” he said. Ms Dark said Ms Robinson exited the building to say thank you for the support. Another banner holder, Matt Watt said they received thumbs-ups from the conference’s domestic and international delegates.
Bradley Manning trial: US government ordered to release WikiLeaks damage assessments
The US government has been ordered to release its assessments on how much damage WikiLeaks’ publication of secret files caused to US interests, after lawyers for Pfc Bradley Manning argued they were essential to his defence.
By Raf Sanchez, Fort Meade, Maryland – 24 Apr 2012
The 24-year-old soldier is accused of smuggling thousands of classified military and diplomatic files to the whistle-blowing website.
WikiLeaks began publishing the files last year, leaving the US government scrambling to figure out whether the leaks could harm American national security.
Task forces from across the government – including the State Department, the CIA and the Pentagon – were formed to assess the damage and report back to the White House and other agencies.
Colonel Denise Lind, the military judge presiding over Pfc Manning’s court-martial, ruled on Tuesday that the task forces’ reports could be “materially relevant” to his case and ordered the government to hand them over to the court.
The assessments will be reviewed in a secret hearing by the judge but could then be included as evidence in the eventual trial stage. The State Department has already said it will fight to keep the documents secret and the CIA and Pentagon are expected follow suit.
Pfc. Manning faces charges over his alleged role in stealing more than half a million secret documents from a secure military network and passing them to Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks. Among the most serious charges is one count of aiding the enemy, a crime that can lead to life imprisonment.
David Coombes, Pfc. Manning’s civilian defence lawyer, said prosecutors must prove that the leaks actually “caused harm” if they are to convict his client. While the government assessments remain classified, Mr Coombes cited media reports from last year where anonymous US authorities privately admitted that the WikiLeaks revelations had caused only “pockets” of short-term damage.
The reports directly contradicted the Obama administration’s official position that the leaks had caused “substantial” damage and endangered the lives of American informants around the world.
In a densely legalistic hearing at the sprawling Fort Meade military complex in Maryland, Pfc. Manning’s lawyers also demanded that government release video footage reportedly showing the soldier stripped naked and interrogated by Army authorities. Read the rest of this entry »
FORT MEADE, Maryland (AP) – A military judge refused on Wednesday to throw out the case against an Army private accused of providing reams of sensitive documents to Wikileaks in the biggest leak of government secrets in U.S. history.
Army Col. Denise Lind said she will rule Thursday on whether to dismiss any of the individual charges against Pfc. Bradley Manning, including the most serious count of aiding the enemy — which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison. Prosecutors argue that the leak helped al-Qaida and that Manning knew its members regularly viewed the anti-secrecy website.
Manning hasn’t entered a plea to the charges. He also hasn’t yet decided whether he will be tried by a judge or a jury. Lind scheduled Manning’s trial for Sept. 21 through Oct. 12.
He is accused of sending hundreds of thousands of classified documents to WilkiLeaks, a website founded by Julian Assange, in late 2009 and early 2010. Read the rest of this entry »
