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Julian Assange Enemy of the State Hero of the People
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http://kurtrudder.blogspot.com/2010/12/is-wikileaks-julian-assange-hero.html
Don't believe the lies, critically analyze!

Don't believe the lies, critically analyze!


Sound bites, political speak, media spin, tabloid sensationalism, propaganda and misinformation are the media's language. How do you see through the lies and discover the truth? Be discerning; critically analyse what you are being told. The media does not have a responsibility to report the news honestly; profit is the purpose of the media corporation. They answer to their shareholders. News and advertising is their product. The viewing public are their consumer. No Conspiracy theories here.

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Left criticisms of the media always draw the accusation of conspiracy theory because defenders of the media establishment are either too lazy to examine the case made by left analysts, can't understand it, or are happy to resort to a smear tactic while masking the filter system maintained by free market forces. Bottom line pressures, owner influence, parent company goals and sensitivities, advertiser needs, business-friendly government influence and corporate PR flak introduce bias by marginalising alternatives, providing incentives to conform and high costs for a failure to do so. Tuesday 7th December 2010

Sound bites, political speak, media spin, tabloid sensationalism, propaganda and misinformation are the media's language. How do you see through the lies and discover the truth? Be discerning; critically analyse what you are being told. The media does not have a responsibility to report the news honestly; profit is the purpose of the media corporation. They answer to their shareholders. News and advertising is their product. The viewing public are their consumer. No Conspiracy theories here.

Left criticisms of the media always draw the accusation of conspiracy theory because defenders of the media establishment are either too lazy to examine the case made by left analysts, can't understand it, or are happy to resort to a smear tactic while masking the filter system maintained by free market forces. Bottom line pressures, owner influence, parent company goals and sensitivities, advertiser needs, business-friendly government influence and corporate PR flak introduce bias by marginalising alternatives, providing incentives to conform and high costs for a failure to do so. Tuesday 7th December 2010.


Is WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange a Hero?

WikiLeaks is coming under attack from all sides. The U.S. government and embassies around the world are criticizing the whistleblowing group for releasing a massive trove of secret State Department cables. The WikiLeaks website is struggling to stay online just days after Amazon pulled the site from its servers following political pressure. The U.S. State Department has blocked all its employees from accessing the site and is warning all government employees not to read the cables, even at home. "These attacks will not stop our mission, but should be setting off alarm bells about the rule of law in the United States," said WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. We host a debate between Steven Aftergood, a transparency advocate who has become a leading critic of WikiLeaks, and Glenn Greenwald, a constitutional law attorney and legal blogger for Salon.com.


Guests:
Glenn Greenwald, constitutional law attorney and political/legal blogger at Salon.com.
Steven Aftergood, senior research analyst at the Federation of American Scientists. He directs the Project on Government Secrecy and runs Secrecy News.

JUAN GONZALEZ: WikiLeaks is under attack. The whistelblowing group’s website has effectively been killed just days after Amazon pulled the site from its servers following political pressure. Wikileaks.org went offline this morning for the third time this week in what the Guardian newspaper is calling "the biggest threat to its online presence yet."

A California-based internet hosting provider called EveryDNS dropped WikiLeaks last night, late last night. The company says it did so to prevent its other 500,000 customers from being affected by the intense cyber attacks targeted at WikiLeaks.

This morning, WikiLeaks—and the massive trove of secret diplomatic cables it has been publishing since Sunday—was only accessible online through a string of digits known as a DNS address.

Earlier this week, Joe Lieberman, the chair of the Senate committee on Homeland Security, called for any organization helping to sustain WikiLeaks to immediately terminate its relationship with them.

Meanwhile, the State Department has blocked all its employees from accessing the site and is warning all government workers not to read the cables, even at home.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange told The Guardian the developments are an example of the, quote, "privatization of state censorship." Assange said, quote, "These attacks will not stop our mission, but should be setting off alarm bells about the rule of law in the United States."

AMY GOODMAN: Just what is WikiLeaks’ mission? On its website, the group says, quote, "WikiLeaks is a non-profit media organization dedicated to bringing important news and information to the public." The website goes on, "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," unquote.

But not all transparency advocates support what WikiLeaks is doing. Today we’ll host a debate. Steven Aftergood is one of the most prominent critics of WikiLeaks and one of the most prominent transparency advocates. He’s the director of the government secrecy project at the Federation of American Scientists. He runs the Secrecy News project, which routinely posts non-public documents. He is joining us from Washington, D.C. We’re also joined by Glenn Greenwald. He’s a constitutional law attorney and political and legal blogger for Salon.com who’s supportive of WikiLeaks. He’s joining us from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Why don’t we begin with Steven Aftergood? You have been a fierce proponent of transparency, yet you are a critic of WikiLeaks. Why?

STEVEN AFTERGOOD: I’m all for the exposure of corruption, including classified corruption. And to the extent that WikiLeaks has done that, I support its actions. The problem is, it has done a lot more than that, much of which is problematic. It has invaded personal privacy. It has published libelous material. It has violated intellectual property rights. And above all, it has launched a sweeping attack not simply on corruption, but on secrecy itself. And I think that’s both a strategic and a tactical error. It’s a strategic error because some secrecy is perfectly legitimate and desirable. It’s a tactical error because it has unleashed a furious response from the U.S. government and other governments that I fear is likely to harm the interests of a lot of other people besides WikiLeaks who are concerned with open government.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And when you say—when you list some of the main errors that the organization has made, could you give some examples of what to you are most troubling, when you talk about the invasion of privacy rights and other—and the others that you’ve listed?

STEVEN AFTERGOOD: Last year, WikiLeaks published a thousand-page raw police investigative file from Belgium, investigating a case of child abuse and murder. And as one would expect, the police file included lots of unsubstantiated allegations that later turned out to be false. But by publishing the raw allegations in their original state, WikiLeaks brought embarrassment and disgrace to people who were in fact innocent. It got to the point where the Belgium government was looking into the possibility of blocking access to WikiLeaks, not as an act of censorship, but as an act of protection against libel.

WikiLeaks has also published what I think is probably the only actual blueprint of a nuclear fission device that has been made available online. It’s not an artist’s concept, but it’s an actual blueprint of a real nuclear weapon that they posted online. I think from a proliferation point of view, that was a terrible mistake.

AMY GOODMAN: Glenn Greenwald, we want to bring you in before the break with a response.

GLENN GREENWALD: Right. Well, it’s interesting because we led off the segment with you, Amy, detailing a whole variety of repressive actions that are being taken against WikiLeaks. And one of the reasons for that is because people like Steven Aftergood have volunteered themselves and thrust themselves into the spotlight to stand up and say, "I’m a transparency advocate, but I think that what WikiLeaks is doing in so many instances is terrible."

If you look at the overall record of WikiLeaks—and let me just stipulate right upfront that WikiLeaks is a four-year-old organization, four years old. They’re operating completely unchartered territory. Have they made some mistakes and taken some missteps? Absolutely. They’re an imperfect organization. But on the whole, the amount of corruption and injustice in the world that WikiLeaks is exposing, not only in the United States, but around the world, in Peru, in Australia, in Kenya and in West Africa and in Iceland, much—incidents that are not very well known in the United States, but where WikiLeaks single-handedly uncovered very pervasive and systematic improprieties that would not have otherwise been uncovered, on top of all of the grave crimes committed by the United States. There is nobody close to that organization in terms of shining light of what the world’s most powerful factions are doing and in subverting the secrecy regime that is used to spawn all sorts of evils.

And I think the big difference between myself and Steven Aftergood is it is true that WikiLeaks is somewhat of a severe response, but that’s because the problem that we’re confronting is quite severe, as well, this pervasive secrecy regime that the world’s powerful factions use to perpetrate all kinds of wrongdoing. And the types of solutions that Mr. Aftergood has been pursuing in his career, while commendable and nice and achieving very isolated successes here and there, is basically the equivalent of putting little nicks and scratches on an enormous monster. And WikiLeaks is really one of the very few, if not the only group, effectively putting fear into the hearts of the world’s most powerful and corrupt people, and that’s why they deserve, I think, enthusiastic support from anyone who truly believes in transparency, notwithstanding what might be valid, though relatively trivial, criticisms that Mr. Aftergood and a couple of others have been voicing.

AMY GOODMAN: [inaudible] to break, and then we’re going to come back to this discussion. We’ve just gotten word from a tweet that the WikiLeaks website is now being hosted in Switzerland, again taken down over the last hours. We are seeing here the WikiLeaks tweet says, "WikiLeaks moves to Switzerland, "http://wikileaks.ch">http://wikileaks.ch." We’ll bring you the latest as we go through this broadcast. We’re speaking with Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com and Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists. Back with them in a minute.

[break]

AMY GOODMAN: Our guests are Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com—he’s joining us from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil—and Steven Aftergood, the Federation of American Scientists, joining us from Washington, D.C., debating WikiLeaks and the trove of cables they’ve released. It ultimately will be the largest trove of U.S. diplomatic cables ever leaked in U.S. history, following the largest trove of government documents ever released in the Iraq war cables, close to 400,000 of those documents. Juan?

JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, Steven Aftergood, I’d like to get your response to Glenn Greenwald just before our break and this issue of the fundamental challenge that he believes they are providing to elites all around the world.

STEVEN AFTERGOOD: You know, maybe he’s right, but I don’t think so. I think their theory of political action is extremely primitive. It’s basically throw a lot of stuff out there, and then good things will happen to good people and bad things will happen to bad people. They made a tremendous splash with their Apache helicopter video, showing the killing of people in Baghdad in 2007. But did it lead to a change in the rules of engagement that would prevent a similar event from happening in the future? No. Did it lead to compensation for or reparations for the people who were wounded there? No. It made a big splash, and then we went on to the next big splash. And, you know, again, I could easily be wrong; I often am. Maybe WikiLeaks is going to lead to an avalanche of openness and good government. My concern, though, is the opposite, that it’s going to lead to a new clampdown, new restrictions, more secrecy.

AMY GOODMAN: Glenn Greenwald, your response?

GLENN GREENWALD: I mean, I find that standard that he just articulated to be unbelievable and absurd. The idea that WikiLeaks hasn’t single-handedly reformed the United States military’s rule of engagement, and that’s supposed to be some sort of criticism of what it does? I mean, Mr. Aftergood created a big splash back in June after Wikileaks released the Afghanistan war documents, and he made that same argument in response to something I had written when I praised Wikileaks, and he said, "Well, how many wars have WikiLeaks stopped?" How many wars has Mr. Aftergood stopped? How many rules of engagement has he caused to be changed? I mean, it’s not WikiLeaks’s fault or its responsibility that when they show grave injustices to the American people that the citizenry is either indifferent towards those injustices or apathetic towards them. WikiLeaks is devoted to shedding light on what these injustices are, and it’s then our responsibility to go about and do something about them.

Again, they’re a four-year-old organization. And they have led to all sorts of important reforms. I mean, in Iceland, WikiLeaks was basically the single-handed cause of a new law that is designed to protect whistleblowing and whistleblowing sites like WikiLeaks beyond anything else that exists in the world. Their exposure of corruption on the part of a Iceland’s biggest banks, that led to the financial meltdown, led to investigations and prosecutions. The same thing happened to exposure of injustices and corruption on the part of oil magnates in Peru. They exposed the Australian government’s efforts to target websites to be shut down under a program designed to target child pornography, when in reality the sites that were targeted were political sites. And in Spain this week, the headlines are dominated by documents that WikiLeaks released that you, Amy, covered two days ago with Harper’s Scott Horton about the fact of the Spanish government’s succumb to pressure by the American State Department not to investigate the torture of its own citizens and the death of a Spanish photojournalist in Iraq, because WikiLeaks exposed that. And so you see all over the world, in just a short history of four years, immense amounts of reforms and greater awareness of what political and financial elites are doing around the world. I think he’s imposing on them an absurd and unreasonable standard that he, himself, and essentially nobody else is able to meet, either.

AMY GOODMAN: Steven Aftergood, how would you—what would you say the difference is between WikiLeaks and your own newsletter, Secrecy News?

STEVEN AFTERGOOD: I mean, there are several obvious differences in scope and scale and distribution. From my point of view, WikiLeaks is poorly focused in order to achieve its objective. And let me say, of course, I supported the release of the Apache helicopter video. I started out by saying that I favor the unauthorized disclosure of classified information that reveals corruption. It’s very hard, evidently, to say both good and bad things about WikiLeaks. People want you to say only one or the other.

But yesterday, Der Spiegel reported that a member, an official from the Free Democratic Party, had been relieved of his duties after he was identified as one of the persons who provided documents to the U.S. government in one of the WikiLeaks cables. Does that advance the public interest? WikiLeaks might call that a victory for open government, but I think it’s regrettable. I think if it’s multiplied dozens or hundreds of thousands of times over, it does real damage to the conduct of American diplomacy and to the national interest. So, just on principle, I oppose that kind of cavalier approach to disclosure.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Glenn Greenwald, your response?

GLENN GREENWALD: Right. Well, actually, WikiLeaks does not have a cavalier or indiscriminate approach to disclosure, contrary to accusations often made against it. They’ve certainly made mistakes in the past. I criticize them, for instance, for exercising insufficient care in redacting the names of various Afghan citizens who cooperated with the United States military. They accepted responsibility for that, and in subsequent releases, including in the Iraq document disclosures, they were very careful about redacting those names. And in the current diplomatic cable disclosure, thus far on their website, the only documents that have been posted were cables that were already published by their newspaper partners such as The Guardian and the New York Times and Der Spiegel, which included the redactions that those newspapers applied to those documents to protect the names of various people who are innocent and otherwise might be harmed in an inadvertent way. So they are constantly increasing their safeguards and their scrutiny. They’re perfecting their procedures. They acknowledge the responsibility that they have.

But what they—what I think is the crucial point is, is that, again, I mean, you know, what I hear from him speaking, it’s sort of like if you had a surgeon who had a cancer patient riddled with tumors and was removing huge tumors, this complaint, "Well, there was an ingrown toenail that he left and didn’t extract that very well." And just the more—no matter what you say, they just keep focusing on those relatively trivial flaws. I think that, you know, in order to criticize WikiLeaks—and it’s legitimate to do so—if you don’t think that their approach to bringing transparency and subverting the secrecy regime is an effective one or a commendable or noble one, you’re obligated to say what the alternative is, not in some fantasy world, but in the real world. And I don’t see one.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, Glenn, I’d like to ask you, because the focus of so much of this is in killing the messenger and not dealing with the messages that are being released here. First of all, the comment on just the fact that as the internet and computerization of information has grown, it has made it easier for folks to download troves of information about an institution or a government, so that our societies have not dealt with this other side of the internet and computerization. And also, if this information was so secret, why did the government do such an amateurish job of protecting supposedly vital information that a—supposedly a PFC, as they suspect, downloaded so much of this critical information about Afghanistan, Iraq and even diplomatic cables?

GLENN GREENWALD: Well, I think that’s really—that last point is one of the critical issues, which is, the reality is that of all the hundreds of thousands upon hundreds of thousands of pages that WikiLeaks has released just in the last six months alone, a tiny portion of it is even interesting, let alone legitimately secret. And that underscores one of the real problems, is that the secrecy regime that we’re talking about is just—is not just a little bit excessive on the margins. What it means is that the government, the United States government, and all of its permanent national security state institutions reflexively do virtually everything behind a shield of secrecy. Essentially, the presumption is that whatever the government does in our name is secret, when the presumption is supposed to be the opposite. And you see that as clearly as you possibly can in these leaks, how much innocuous information is simply marked and stamped "secret."

And the reason that there’s not many safeguards placed on it is because what WikiLeaks is releasing—and I think this is so important—is that, you know, despite how much corruption and wrongdoing and impropriety and criminality it has revealed, this is really the lowest level of secrecy that the United States government has. The truly awful things exist on a far higher level of secrecy, at the top-secret level or even above. And it is true that if the United States government’s claim is correct, that what WikiLeaks has done has jeopardized so much that’s good and important in the world, a lot of the blame lies with the United States and the government and the military for not having safeguarded it more securely.

And the first question that you asked is, I think, critical, too, which is, we can debate WikiLeaks all we want, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter, because the technology that exists is inevitably going to subvert these institutions’ secrecy regimes. It’s too easy to take massive amounts of secret and dump it on the internet. You know longer need the New York Times or the network news to agree. And I think that what we’re talking about is inevitable, whether people like Steven Aftergood or Joe Lieberman or others like it or not.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to get Steven Aftergood’s response, but first, here on Democracy Now!, we’ve conducted three extensive interviews with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The archives of the interview are on our website. But I wanted to play for you part of what he told us in July on government transparency.

JULIAN ASSANGE: We have clearly stated motives, but they are not antiwar motives. We are not pacifists. We are transparency activists who understand that transparent government tends to produce just government. And that is our sort of modus operandi behind our whole organization, is to get out suppressed information into the public, where the press and the public and our nation’s politics can work on it to produce better outcomes.

AMY GOODMAN: That’s Julian Assange on Democracy Now! Yesterday, NBC News highlighted Democracy Now!’s interview yesterday with his attorney. And we are linking to all of this on our website. She says that Julian Assange is not in hiding from the authorities—they are contacting him through his lawyers—but in hiding from harm, that this character assassination, the possibility that could lead to an actual real one. Steven Aftergood, your response to what Assange said and Glenn Greenwald before that?

STEVEN AFTERGOOD: Well, I actually agree with everything that Assange said in that statement. What I don’t agree with is that it’s an accurate characterization of what WikiLeaks has done.

Glenn Greenwald had a lot to say. Let me just mention a couple of things. I don’t believe that it’s a choice between the WikiLeaks approach and giving up. This year, for the first time, the United States declassified and disclosed the size of its nuclear weapons arsenal. This year, for the first time, the U.S. government issued its first unclassified Nuclear Posture Review Report, the basic statement of nuclear weapons employment policy. This year, for the first time, the U.S. government disclosed the total intelligence budget, including both its civilian and military components. There is an alternative mechanism for progress. In today’s paper, there’s a story about ACLU having uncovered reports of violations of the Freedom—the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act amendments. So it’s really not a question of WikiLeaks or nothing. It’s a question of a smart, well-targeted approach or a—you know, a reckless shotgun approach.

My concern about where we—you know, going forward, I basically have two agenda items. In the security review process, I want to try and inject the idea, as Glenn Greenwald said, that overclassification is a problem here and that as we fix the other security measures, we also need to focus on fixing the classification system, reducing the scope of classification sharply. The other agenda item, which WikiLeaks has made more difficult, is to prevent a rewriting of the Espionage Act statutes in order to make them more versatile and useful against both those who disclose classified information and those who publish such information. That is now building up steam, and I think we’re likely to see efforts in that direction in the next Congress.

AMY GOODMAN: Glenn Greenwald?

GLENN GREENWALD: Yeah, I mean, let me just say, I mean, you know, I have respect for the work that Steven Aftergood and other transparency activists do in Washington, working within the Congress and other American political institutions to try and bring about incremental reform. I think he’s well intentioned. I think we probably share the same values. The problem is that I just don’t think that his perspective is, A, realistic or, B, sufficiently urgent. I don’t think it’s realistic that the Congress of the United States, now dominated by the Republican Party in the House of Representatives and an extremely conservative Democratic Party in the Senate and led by an administration, the Obama administration, that has actually increased secrecy weapons, including the state secrecy privilege and other forms of immunity designed to shield high-level executive power wrongdoing and lawbreaking from all forms of accountability or judicial review, I think it’s incredibly unrealistic to take an optimistic view that that political system, dominated by those factions, is somehow on the verge of starting to bring about meaningful increases in transparency.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to—

GLENN GREENWALD: And I think it’s insufficiently—go ahead, I’m sorry.

AMY GOODMAN: I’m going to interrupt, because I want to get to some memos that we’ve been getting from around the country that are very important and interesting. University students are being warned about WikiLeaks. An email from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, that we read in headlines, reads—I want to do it again—quote, "Hi students,

"We received a call today from a SIPA alumnus who is working at the State Department. He asked us to pass along the following information to anyone who will be applying for jobs in the federal government, since all would require a background investigation and in some instances a security clearance.

"The documents released during the past few months through Wikileaks are still considered classified documents. He recommends that you DO NOT post links to these documents nor make comments on social media sites such as Facebook or through Twitter. Engaging in these activities would call into question your ability to deal with confidential information, which is part of most positions with the federal government.

"Regards, Office of Career Services."

That’s the email to Columbia University students at the School of International and Public Affairs.

Now, I want to go on to another memo. Democracy Now! has obtained the text of a memo that’s been sent to employees at USAID. This is to thousands of employees, about reading the recently released WikiLeaks documents, and it comes from the Department of State. They have also warned their own employees. This memo reads, quote, "Any classified information that may have been unlawfully disclosed and released on the Wikileaks web site was not 'declassified' by an appopriate authority and therefore requires continued classification and protection as such from government personnel... Accessing the Wikileaks web site from any computer may be viewed as a violation of the SF-312 agreement... Any discussions concerning the legitimacy of any documents or whether or not they are classified must be conducted within controlled access areas (overseas) or within restricted areas (USAID/Washington)... The documents should not be viewed, downloaded, or stored on your USAID unclassified network computer or home computer; they should not be printed or retransmitted in any fashion."

That was the memo that went out to thousands of employees at USAID. The State Department has warned all their employees, you are not to access WikiLeaks, not only at the State Department, which they’ve blocked, by the way, WikiLeaks, but even on your home computers. Even if you’ve written a cable yourself, one of these cables that are in the trove of the documents, you cannot put your name in to see if that is one of the cables that has been released. This warning is going out throughout not only the government, as we see, but to prospective employees all over the country, even on their home computers. Steven Aftergood, your response?

STEVEN AFTERGOOD: It’s obviously insane. I mean, if they’re not allowed to read the cables on WikiLeaks, they shouldn’t be allowed to read the cables on the New York Times or other sites. It’s obviously ridiculous. You know, this whole "cablegate" was intended as a provocation. Bradley Manning said it would give thousands of diplomats heart attacks. The system has been provoked. It is—you know, it is outrageous. It’s kind of disgusting. The question is, is it good politics? I don’t think so.

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, Glenn Greenwald, your final response?

GLENN GREENWALD: I think that that response is not one caused by WikiLeaks. I think that response is reflective of what our government is and the egos that prevails. And it’s every bit as severe as it was before WikiLeaks existed. And it’s WikiLeaks that is devoted to subverting it. And I think those memos, those disgustingly repressive and authoritarian memos, and the mindset in them, shows why WikiLeaks is so needed.

AMY GOODMAN: We want to leave it there, and we want to thank Glenn Greenwald, speaking to us from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, a legal blogger at Salon.com, and Steven Aftergood of the Federation for American Scientists, for engaging in this debate.

The response on our website has been just overwhelming. We’ve got the highest number of viewers online right now than we’ve had since the beginning of this. The interview we did with Daniel Ellsberg on October 22, Juan, the day that he was flying off to London to have the news conference with Julian Assange announcing the latest trove of documents—they’re releasing something like a quarter of a million documents—has now been hit close to 2.8 million times, and it is just soaring every day. The hunger for this information has been astounding. You can go to our website to see all the different coverage, as well as our interview with Noam Chomsky responding to the specific cables that have been released. Our website is democracynow.org.

And we also just got this information: economy adds 39,000 jobs in November, far fewer than expected. Unemployment rate up to 9.8 percent.


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Posted by Kurt Rudder at 8:04:00 PM 

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fact is that secrets are hard to keep.Cork out of the bottle. post-it-all 1-to:world. Technology is a thread, it always was.. it always was unstoppable.
Maybe this technological evolution is a good thing. CrCrises and the cable gate shows government is not so much in control of the global society. We need proper steering mechanism to survive the global society we created with technology. Whould we have gone to Iraq over Weapons of mass destruction is we were part of the diplomatic cable discussion ? Will reading the cables prevent us from another stupid global decision based upon wrong leader ego's/shortvision ? Probably our global society is in the long run better of with more transparency. Shutting down the discussion/web is not an option. Its like banning books.
You hackers made a point. You don't need to be a stupid suicide soldier. The Press is really slow, on the core discussion julian asks for. Give the world some time to adapt and don,t spread AE21 files anymore. Showing military facilities is bad. Responsibility starts with yourself.

8:10 PM
Anonymous said...

Technology is not a thread. 
But maybe this is a good thing....

We need proper steering mechanism to survive the global society we created with technology. 

Whould we have gone to Iraq over Weapons of mass destruction is we were part of the diplomatic cable discussion ? more upcomming leader ego's/shortvision ? Better of with more transparency ? CreditCrises / Cable gate shows government is not so much in control of the global society. Wasn't it work of the press to tell us the truth ?

At least the cork out of the bottle. Fact is that secrets are harder to keep anno 2010. post-it-all 1-to:world. Shutting down is naive. Discuss it is the only option.. common free press, were are you?

10:42 PM
rashid1891 said...

GLENN GREENWALD: I think that that response is not one caused by WikiLeaks. I think that response is reflective of what our government is and the egos that prevails. And it’s every bit as severe as it was before WikiLeaks existed. And it’s WikiLeaks that is devoted to subverting it. And I think those memos, those disgustingly repressive and authoritarian memos, and the mindset in them, shows why WikiLeaks is so needed.

6:15 PM
Anonymous said...

I understand a University in the USA sent out a warning to its students not to get involved in sending information concerning wikileaks: If the students did then they would probably fail any future job application where there is security vetting. This is ridiculous. Confidential information is one thing but corruption is another. I.e. Wikileaks is quite rightly exposing corruption. Who wants corruption kept a secret? Only those involved in corruption do.

4:15 AM
Anonymous said...

ofcourse,julian assange uncover the truth.he is the hero of our real life.we should face the true stories of our modren civilize world.

2:45 PM
Anonymous said...

ofcourse,julian assange uncover the truth.he is the hero of our real life.we should face the true stories of our modren civilize world.

2:46 PM

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//www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJdn38QaQiQ

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  • @Sundrumify Hi Lisa, have been posting this situation on facebook as well, heard the government has tried to enforce that students not post any Wikileaks information on Facebook, ha, how dare? they, this is a democratic society, presumably, the world is going mad,

    miakissadams 1 week ago
  • Hi Dennis,

    This interview is featured on my front page just now. Please also see the interview with Dahlia Wasfi, peace activist, posted the other day? by Press TV.

    Lisa

    Sundrumify 2 months ago
  • Excellent? work as ever.

    dekionplexis 2 months ago
  • thank you for this accurate professional? reporting.




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Julian Assange
Enemy of the State Hero of the People
By Lucy Carne LONDON
SEEDS OF CHANGE

Julian Assange the boy and the thorn in the side of governments, and a rally by his Brisbane supporters this week
In front of an adoring crowd at the Frontline journalist’s club in London last month, Australia Julian Assange explained why he’s risking the wrath of the world’s most powerful governments.
In his face could still be seen traces of the sweet natured, sensitive little boy his Sunshine Coast-based mother has described and, smiling, the Queensland born 39 year old leaned into the microphone.
“They say I enjoy crushing bastards and. Yes, that’s part of my motivation,” Assange said.
“For some reason, the White House finds that offensive.”
Today, the founder of whistle blowing website WikiLeaks and the man on whom the world’s spotlight is focused, sits is a grey tracksuit in one of western Europe’s biggest prisons.
This week he was remanded in custody of rape, sexual assault and unlawful coercion stemming from alleged  non-consensual sex without a condom with two women in Sweden.
Assange’s imprisonment, after he handed himself in, was met with relief in the US, where authorities were angered by his website’s release of embarrassing diplomatic cables last week.
The man who kicked the hornets’ nest had been silenced they thought.
“I hadn’t heard that, but it sounds like good news to me,” US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on being told of Assange’s arrest.
But while Assange grows restless behind bars – he has already complained about the “boring” daytime television and his request to be reunited with his own laptop has been denied – a global groundswell of support has grown.
The strongest act of revenge is coming from a group of ”hacktivists”  known as Anomymous, which temporariiy shut down the websites of US and Swedish corporations this week.
The group also froze the websites of credit-card companies Visa and Mastercard, which had cancelled financial donations to WikiLeaks.
Post Finance – the Swiss bank that froze Assange’s private account – was disabled too, as was the Swedish prosecution office and the Swedish lawyers representing the two  women who claim  to have been sexually assaulted by Assange.
The Anonymous group’s spokesman, known only as Coldblood, told reports they had not met Assange and were not connected to his organization but felt the need to defend him.
“If we let WikiLeaks fall without a fight then government will think they can just take down any sites they wish or disagree with,” Coldblood said.
In Brisbane on Thursday, some 300 protestors took to the streets in anger at Assange’s imprisonment.
Protests in London were due to be held today.
More than 35,000 people have joined a Facebook group to support Assange, with calls for all members to donate to his legal fund, while around 28,000 Australians have signed a letter to US President BARACK Obama supporting him.
In an open letter published yesterday, prominent supports, including Australia documentary film maker John Pilger, Monty Python member Terry Jones, English actress Miriam Margolyes and author Iain Banks, call for his immediate release from jail
Assange’s unusually harsh imprisonment for allegedly ignoring two women’s  requests to use contraception has caused this sudden swell of skepticism and fury.
Many believe it is a flimsy excuse to keep Assange, who was placed on Interpol’s most wanted list, within reach of the US Justice Department so it can prosecute him under the Espionage Act.
Even while he is hailed by the public as a champion of transparency, to the governments of Australia and the US he remains a menace. To them he is not an innocent messenger but an anti-government terrorist who wants to harm the US and governments across the world.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard labeled WikiLeaks’s activities illegal but, despite calls for her to do so, has failed to outline any Australian law that Assange has broken.
Federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland also has stood by his condemnation of Assange, while arch-conservative US politician Sarah Palin called him an anti-American operative with blood on his hands.”
How did the tousled-haired boy in overalls grow up to become an Andy Warhol-esque hero of the people.
“He can seem – with his spectral white hair, pailed skin, cool eyes, and expansive forehead – like a rail thin being who has rocketed to Earth to deliver humanity some hidden truth,” The New Yorker wrote in June.
Born in Townsville in 1971, Assange has described his childhood as “pretty Tom Sawyer”’ filled with horseriding, building rafts and fishing.
I was, however, far from Idyllic. By the age od 14, his family had moved 37 times, living everywhere from Magnetic Island to Byron Bay. 

It set the scene for his future nomadic life.
The young boy was home schooled, sporadically educated by university professors and even taught himself in hours spent alone in council libraries.
But his life changed when his mother’s abusive boyfriend tried to gain custody of Assange’s half brother in order to submit him to religious sect The Family.
His mother and her young family “disappeared”, constantly moving, never leaving a trail.
But at the age of 16, in 1987, Assange got a computer and modem and his life was suddenly transformed.
He embraced the random problem-solving and solace of life as a computer hacker.
“We were bright sensitive kinds who didn’t fit the dominant subculture and fiercely castigated those who did as irredeemable boneheads,” he wrote of himself and a teenage friend.
He was arrested in the early 1990’s for hacking into the computer system of a major Canadian telecommunications company, but avoided a prison sentence of up to 10 years.
A brief spell in hospital for depression soon followed, as well as time spent living rough in the Dandenong Ranges National Park in Victoria and a stint motorcycling across Vietnam.
While working towards a physics degree at the University of Melbourne in 2006, he founded WikiLeaks.
It was a site for anyone wishing to “reveal illegal or immoral behavior in their own governments and corporations” he wrote at the time of the site’s launch.
“ I am the one who takes that risk,” he said prophetically, explaining his role at WikiLeaks while addressing the Frontline club last monthly. “As a consequence, I also get a lot of undue credit. I also get all the criticism.”
His original WikiLeaks mandate was to “make the news, not be the news”.
But that seems to have backfired, with Assange now a household name around the world.
“Is is weird?” an audience member asked him of his new celebrity status.
“No,” Assange shrugged.” Actually, I find it quite boring.”
Lucy Marne is The Courier-Mail’s European correspondent

Dear Friend,

Sarah Palin wants Julian Assange hunted as a terrorist.1 She's among a swelling chorus of American politicians calling for the arrest - and even the death - of the Australian citizen who runs WikiLeaks. It's a shame that real terrorists, the kind we should be focusing our attention on, don't show up at British Police stations with their lawyers, as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange did yesterday.

Here in Australia, Prime Minister Gillard pre-emptively judged Mr. Assange "illegal," even as the Attorney General confirmed that no Australian nor international crime by WikiLeaks has been identified.2

The death penalty? Judgment before trial? This isn't the kind of justice system we have in Australia. If our Government won't stand up for the rights of Australian citizens, let's do it ourselves.

We're printing ads in The Washington Times and The New York Times with the statement our Government should have made, signed by as many Australians as possible. Will you add your name to the signatories, and invite your friends to join too?

http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/Wikileaks

The statement:Dear President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder:

We, as Australians, condemn calls for violence, including assassination, against Australian citizen and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, or for him to be labeled a terrorist, enemy combatant or be treated outside the ordinary course of justice in any way.

As Thomas Jefferson said, "information is the currency of democracy."3 Publishing leaked information in collaboration with major news outlets, as Wikileaks and Mr. Assange have done, is not a terrorist act.

Australia and the United States are the strongest of allies. Our soldiers serve side by side and we've experienced, and condemned, the consequences of terrorism together. To label WikiLeaks a terrorist organisation is an insult to those Australians and Americans who have lost their lives to acts of terrorism and to terrorist forces.

If WikiLeaks or their staff have broken international or national laws, let that case be heard in a just and fair court of law. At the moment, no such charges have been brought.

We are writing as Australians to say what our Government should have said: that all Australian citizens deserve to be free from persecution, threats of violence and detention without charge, especially from our friend and ally, the United States.

We call upon you to stand up for our shared democratic principles of the presumption of innocence and freedom of information.We're printing this statement in The Washington Times and The New York Times early next week - and the more Australians sign, the more powerful the message will be. Please add your name by clicking below, and forward this message to friends and family:

http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/WikiLeaks

What has started with WikiLeaks being branded as terrorists won't end there.

In fact, just yesterday U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman, Chair of the Senate's Homeland Security Committee, said thatThe New York Times should also be investigated under the U.S. Espionage Act for publishing a number of the diplomatic cables leaked to WikiLeaks.4 We can help stop such plans in their tracks, by showing how they are affecting the image of the US in the eyes of their staunchest friends and allies.

Click here to sign the statement before it's published in The New York Times and Washington Times.

Thanks for being part of this,
The GetUp team

---

1 Beckford, M., 'Sarah Palin: hunt WikiLeaks founder like al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders', The Telegraph, 30 November 2010.

2 Oakes, L., 'Oakes: Gillard gushes over US leaks', Perth Now, 4 December 2010.

3 The quote is widely attributed to Jefferson, but some now dispute whether he actually said it. We know, at least, that he said "knowledge is power," even if Francis Bacon did say it first.

4 Savage, C., 'U.S. prosecuters study WikiLeaks prosecution', The New York Times, 7 December 2010.


Jillian Assange is he hero or villian?


OT/Jillian Assange is he hero or villian?

Postby Guest on Tue Nov 30, 2010 6:19 pm

Do you think that Jillian Assange of Wiki Leaks is a hero or villian? We think that he is a hero because he tell truth about Government and Corporate Corruption to the people, so they can have better future! Many bad corrupt government and corporate establishment hate him because they are evil and self-serving people! We believe that Jillian Assange will be hero for common people in the world!!

Re: OT/Jillian Assange is he hero or villian?

Postby Guest on Tue Nov 30, 2010 6:32 pm

Assange probably did not censor the leaked documents to protect the innocent. For example, the names of individuals who provided information to foreign governments like the USA revealing crimes against humanity within their own countries. In other words did Assange, the Wikileaker, protect all the other whistleblowers?

Re: OT/Jillian Assange is he hero or villian?

Postby TheDude02 on Fri Dec 03, 2010 5:34 am

:D I got nothing but love for a person who risks their life to tell the truth.
Truth is the only thing that is real. Its hard to find any media that's supports him which makes it apparent that perspective is dictated. We need to seek the truth to find it. But that is the big question, "do we really need to know the truth?" Heck yea! Secret information will always get leaked. Governments spend our hard earned billions of on spying on eachother and it's just a game. The real problem here is that Jillian Assange told the public. And you would think that any journalist with integrity would support him. Xoxoxo jillian

Re: OT/Jillian Assange is he hero or villian?

Postby Guest on Sun Dec 05, 2010 7:54 pm

I believe most of the documents leaked are true and honestly nothing we've never guessed before. 

However I think this is a very successful theatre play with "free ads" on major publications like NYT and Der Spiegel!!!!

Eventually this will lead up to internet regulations, internet laws and rules.

In the near future we'll find out what else this whole act will help. 

Shock and awe!

Re: OT/Jillian Assange is he hero or villian?

Postby bingbing on Sun Dec 05, 2010 6:42 am

The arrest warrant for Julian Assange is for "sex without a condom", NOT non-consensual r*ape using force 
http://tinyurl.com/2vgkf5q

Full URL: http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/12/sex-charges-and-arrest-warrant-against.html

That should bear repeating, many many times over!!

If he actually did commit ra*pe, I would have a lot to say about that, but it's just so clear (to me, from the way these charges just seem to be trumped up, from all angles), that he didnt commit a crime like that. Those in authority knew he was about to leak some big stuff, so they tried to smear him with the worst possible thing they could - falsely accuse him of being a rapist and put a cloud over his integrity just before he leaked it through his Wikileaks site. B@astards.

Re: OT/Jillian Assange is he hero or villian?

Postby bingbing on Fri Dec 03, 2010 4:08 pm

I think Julian Assange is a good guy. Good on him for blowing the whistle on all this corruption all around the world. As if people didnt know about it, this just confirmed it.

By the way, his name is spelt Julian, not Jillian, which is a girl's name

Re: OT/Jillian Assange is he hero or villian?

Postby Guest on Sat Dec 04, 2010 1:57 pm

TheDude02 wrote::D I got nothing but love for a person who risks their life to tell the truth.
Truth is the only thing that is real. Its hard to find any media that's supports him which makes it apparent that perspective is dictated. We need to seek the truth to find it. But that is the big question, "do we really need to know the truth?" Heck yea! Secret information will always get leaked. Governments spend our hard earned billions of on spying on eachother and it's just a game. The real problem here is that Jillian Assange told the public. And you would think that any journalist with integrity would support him. Xoxoxo jillian









Julian Assange from Jail to Masion






Former Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks. Photo: Jacky Ghossein

 \

Assange gets bail but still locked up (01:12)
British judge grants bail to WikiLeaks founder under strict monitoring conditions, but he remains in jail as Sweden appeals the ruling.

Assange will never receive a fair trial: Hicks
Cameron Atfield
December 15, 2010

Hicks answers the tough questions
Former terrorism suspect David Hicks has come out in support of jailed freedom-of-speech campaigner Julian Assange, saying he feared for Mr Assange's safety should he end up in American hands.
Mr Assange, the founder of the WikiLeaks website, has been returned to London's notorious Wandsworth prison despite winning bail from a British Court.
He will be held there for another 48 hours while Swedish prosecutors, who want to extradite him to Sweden to face allegations of sex crimes, mount a High Court appeal against the decision.
Supporters of Mr Assange, including his lawyer, have claimed the charges are politically motivated after the release of thousands of secret diplomatic cables, causing embarrassment for several governments.
Yesterday, Mr Hicks told Fairfax Radio he was concerned about what might happen to Mr Assange if he was extradited to the United States.
"He will never receive a fair trial," he said.
"We have already established that it's a political decision rather than a legal one. It's important that our governments are held to account for any war crimes they may be involved in and that is why the work of WikiLeaks is so important."
Mr Hicks spent six years at Guantanamo Bay, the US-run prison camp in Cuba, before he returned home to Australia to serve nine months at Adelaide's Yatala jail.
He was convicted by a US military commission of "providing material support for terrorism".
Mr Hicks said he believed future WikiLeaks releases could contain information about his incarceration.
"I will watch with interest in more leaks released because I have heard that they might contain information about my treatment in Guantanamo and the political interference in my case," he said.
"I just hope the Australian government doesn't abandon him like they did to me."
WikiLeaks: Julian Assange sex assault court case branded a 'show trial'
The Swedish authorities are turning the sexual assault case against Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, into a "show trial", his lawyers claimed.

Mark Stephens attacked the decision by the Swedish authorities to appeal against a judge's ruling to grant the 39 year-old Australian bail.
He said their decision was now a "'persecution" rather than a prosecution and was politically motivated.
He accused the authorities of stopping at nothing to have the Wikileaks founder behind bars, a claim they denied.

 

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is refused bail
15 Dec 2010
WikiLeaks: summary of the latest disclosures
15 Dec 2010
Julian Assange: is 'Wikileaker' on a crusade or an ego trip?
15 Dec 2010
Julian Assange: Jemima Khan comes to aid of Wikileaks founder in Swedish extradition fight
15 Dec 2010
Julian Assange: 'don't shoot the messenger'
15 Dec 2010

Julian Assange: 'don't shoot the messenger'
Governments around the world must not "shoot the messenger" by attacking disclosures by WikiLeaks, Julian Assange said on Tuesday.
Julian Assange says his whistle-blowing website deserves protection and has not cost a single life despite the claims of critics

The former computer hacker said his whistle-blowing website deserves protection and has not cost a single life despite the claims of critics.
Writing for The Australian newspaper, Mr Assange quoted its founder, Rupert Murdoch, as once saying the truth will inevitably win over secrecy.
He said: "Nearly a century later, WikiLeaks is also fearlessly publishing facts that need to be made public."
Mr Assange said WikiLeaks has coined "scientific journalism" that allows readers to study the original evidence for themselves.
He added: "Democratic societies need a strong media and WikiLeaks is part of that media. The media helps keep government honest.
"WikiLeaks has revealed some hard truths about the Iraq and Afghan wars, and broken stories about corporate corruption."
The campaigner denied he is anti-war, but said Governments must tell the truth about their reasons for fighting.
He claimed the United States, supported by its "acolytes", has attacked WikiLeaks instead of other media groups because it is "young and small".
Branding the website "underdogs", he accused Australia Prime Minister Julia Gillard of "disgraceful pandering" to the Americans.
He said: "The Gillard government is trying to shoot the messenger because it doesn't want the truth revealed, including information about its own diplomatic and political dealings."
Mr Assange highlighted some of the most high-profile revelations made by his website over the last week.
He added: "The swirling storm around WikiLeaks today reinforces the need to defend the right of all media to reveal the truth."

In news
  
The WikiLeaks bunker
  
WikiLeaks: 10 greatest scoops
  
WikiLeaks: do they have a right to privacy?
  
The key WikiLeaks revelations
  
Why law is powerless to stop WikiLeaks

 

WikiLeaks 'will continue releasing documents'
15 Dec 2010

 
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is driven into Westminster Magistrates Court in London Photo: Stefan Rousseau/PA
WikiLeaks 'will continue releasing documents'
WikiLeaks has pledged to continue releasing confidential documents after Julian Assange, the website's founder and chief, arrived at court for an extradition hearing.
Wednesday 15 December 2010

Richard Edwards and Nick Collins 2:53PM GMT 07 Dec 2010
Mr Assange handed himself over to police in central London on Tuesday morning after a warrant was issued for his arrest on rape charges.
But ahead of his first court appearance a spokesman for the website insisted the arrest would not prevent the planned release of further cables on Tuesday evening.
The spokesman wrote on Twitter: "Today's actions against our editor-in-chief Julian Assange won't affect our operations: we will release more cables tonight as normal."

The 39-year-old Australian was due to appear before a district judge at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court on Tuesday afternoon, where his lawyers were expected to fight extradition proceedings.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "Officers from the Metropolitan Police Extradition Unit have this morning arrested Julian Assange on behalf of the Swedish authorities on suspicion of rape.
"Assange is due to appear at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court today."
Supporters of Assange were told to protest against censorship outside the Horseferry Road court house on several websites.
His arrest came after an Australian newspaper published an editorial written by Assange, in which he urged governments around the world not to "shoot the messenger".
He wrote: "Democratic societies need a strong media and WikiLeaks is part of that media. The media helps keep government honest."
He accused the Australian government and prime minister Julia Gillard of "disgraceful pandering" to the Americans, adding: "The Gillard government is trying to shoot the messenger because it doesn't want the truth revealed, including information about its own diplomatic and political dealings."
Mr Assange has not been seen publicly for 31 days, since an appearance in Geneva, and was believed to have been in hiding in the south-east of England as the latest tranche of WikiLeaks material was released.
A European Arrest Warrant was issued by the Swedish last month but could not be acted upon because it did not contain sufficient information for the British authorities. A spokesman for Marianne Ny, the Swedish prosecutor, said the extra details were sent last week.
Police processed the warrant yesterday and arrangements were made with Mark Stephens, Mr Assange’s British lawyer, for the Wikileaks founder to attend a central London police station.
Mr Stephens said his client was keen to discover what allegations he was facing so he could clear his name.
"It's about time we got to the end of the day and we got some truth, justice and rule of law," he said.
"Julian Assange has been the one in hot pursuit to vindicate himself to clear his good name.
"He has been trying to meet with her (the Swedish prosecutor) to find out what the allegations are he has to face and also the evidence against him, which he still hasn't seen."
The 39-year-old Australian has been under intense pressure since the release of thousands of secret documents in recent weeks.
Kristinn Hrafnsson, spokesman for WikiLeaks, said Mr Assange had been forced to keep a low profile after several threats on his life.
Sweden’s Supreme Court upheld a court order to detain Mr Assange for questioning on suspicion of “rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion” after he appealed against two lower court rulings. He denies the allegations.
His details were also added to Interpol’s most wanted website, alerting police forces around the world.
Mr Stephens said he would fight any bid to extradite his client. He added that Mr Assange “has been trying to meet with the Swedish prosecutor since August this year”.
Mr Assange’s troubles deepened when his Swiss bank account was shut down after it was found he had given a false address. Postfinance, the financial arm of Swiss Post, said: “The Australian citizen provided false information regarding his place of residence during the account opening process.”
Mr Assange had allegedly told Postfinance he lived in Geneva but could offer no proof that he was a Swiss resident.
News of his potential arrest came as WikiLeaks was criticised for publishing details of hundreds of sites around the world that could be targeted in terrorist attacks.
Among the British sites listed are a transatlantic undersea cable landing in Cornwall; naval and motoring engineering firm MacTaggart Scott, based in the small Scottish town of Loanhead; and BAE Systems sites, including one in Preston, Lancashire.
The revelations prompted Sir Peter Ricketts, David Cameron’s national security adviser, to order a review of computer security across all government departments.
Julian Assange: Jemima Khan comes to aid of Wikileaks founder in Swedish extradition fight
Jemima Khan appeared in court to lend her support to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange as he was put behind bars over sexual allegations originating from Sweden.
By Andrew Hough, and Caroline Gammell  07 Dec 2010

Khan, the socialite and charity worker, offered to provide a £20,000 surety to prevent the 39-year-old Australian from being remanded in custody in Britain over the claims.
Swedish officials want him extradited to answer questions over the alleged rape of one woman and molestation of another while he was in Stockholm this summer.
Mr Assange, who was also supported in court by film director Ken Loach and four others, has repeatedly denied the claims.

The 36-year-old former wife of Imran Khan said she would pay “whatever sum was required” to ensure he was granted bail.
However, a district judge at City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court decided he was too much of risk as it emerged that there was no record him ever arriving in Britain.
During Tuesday's hearing he was accompanied by officials from the Australian High Commission after asking for consular assistance.
Outside court, Khan said: “I am not here to make any kind of judgement on the Julian Assange as an individual as I do not know him and I have never met him.
“I am here because I believe in the principle of the human right to freedom of information and our right to be told the truth.”
Mr Assange’s supporters believe his arrest is a political stunt to detract from the revelations being made on a daily basis on the Wikileaks website.
Geoffrey Robertson QC, a prominent Australian human rights barrister who was a defending lawyer at the Brighton Bombing trial in the mid 1980s, has reportedly agreed to act for Mr Assange in future hearings.
The former computer hacker claims he had received several death threats since the secret documents were published and that someone had called for the kidnap of his 20-year-old son in Australia.

Julian Assange in British prison on rape charge
08 Dec 2010
Julian Assange: Extradition case involving Wikileaks founder could last many months
08 Dec 2010
Julian Assange: question of consent
08 Dec 2010
Julian Assange: 'don't shoot the messenger'
07 Dec 2010
The Scarlet Pimpernel of cyberspace
07 Dec 2010
US Attorney General taking 'significant' action
07 Dec 2010

 

Julian Assange: is 'Wikileaker' on a crusade or an ego trip?
Julian Assange, the man who published the Afghan war files on his Wikileaks website, is unlikely to be chastened by Admiral Mike Mullen’s claims that he might now have “blood on his hands”.
Julian Assange outside court in Melbourne in 1995, where he was later convicted of hacking offences.

Julian Assange, pictured in London this week, relies on donations and the hospitality of wellwishers as he travels the globe.

WikiLeaks: summary of the latest disclosures
The latest round of WikiLeaks releases disclose more detail about the US's relationships with allies and foes across the globe. Here is a round-up of today’s headlines.

Britain
Prince Andrew criticised a variety of governments, including those of Britain and America, as corrupt, stupid and backward in a conversation with a US diplomat.
In his wave of “almost neuralgic patriotism”, the Duke also made the bizarre claim that British geography teachers are the best in the world.

Families of British servicemen killed in Sangin, Afghanistan have reacted furiously after it was claimed WikiLeaks would disclose dismissive remarks by US commanders on British efforts to secure the town.
The Welsh family of Bradley Manning, the US soldier suspected of handing the classified documents to WikiLeaks, have flown to America but been prevented from visiting him in prison.
The internet has been rife with speculation about which former Labour minister was labelled “a bit of a hound dog” with women by an American official.
David Cameron was seen as “lightweight” by Barack Obama after the first meeting between the two leaders, leaked files will show.
Prince Charles does not command the same respect as the Queen, according to a senior Commonwealth official.
International
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, dismissed claims that Arab countries had asked the US to attack his country as a deliberate attempt by the US to destabilise the Middle East.
Released Guantánamo Bay prisoners should have electronic tagging devices implanted so that they can be followed by security officials, the King of Saudi Arabia suggested to a White House official.
Silvio Berlusconi responded to leaked claims by American diplomats that he has a penchant for “wild parties” by claiming he only throws parties in a “proper, dignified and elegant way”.
One of the more unlikely stories to surface from the leaked documents was that of a 77-year-old American dentist who fled Iran on horseback after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
American officials suspect that North Korea has been secretly aiding Iran in its attempts to build nuclear weapons under the auspices of the Chinese government.
Colonel Gaddafi was believed to be very close to a “voluptuous” Ukrainian nurse who followed him everywhere he went, a US cable claimed.
An exile from Iran was living in London when he was targeted in an assassination plot by an Iranian agent, who was later arrested in America.
Hillary Clinton asked US diplomats in Argentina about the mental health of President Cristina Kirchner and questioned whether she was using medication to help her “calm down”.
The White House has told federal agencies to tighten security around the US military computer network following the leaking of classified information.
China would support a unified Korea controlled from Seoul because it believes the North is behaving like a “spoiled child”, documents show.
Sarah Palin has accused Barack Obama of taking insufficient action to prevent the release of the latest batch of WikiLeaks files.
The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, could die within months from terminal cancer, an Iranian informant told American officials.
Angela Merkel is the only leader “man” enough to lead the European Union, according to American cables.
The United Nations has angrily hit back at American “interference” after learning that Hillary Clinton ordered what amounted to an espionage campaign on its senior officials.
Julian Assange
The WikiLeaks founder is in hiding after an international warrant was issued for his arrest on rape allegations.
Assange’s next target will be the banking sector, with one American bank in particular to suffer from his next revelations, which he compared to the Enron scandal.
Assange has accused Barack Obama of attempting to smother the freedom of the press.
A criminal investigation is underway into how the latest batch of documents was made public, and Barack Obama could take legal action against Mr Assange.

Kazakh defence minister 'was openly drunk'
01 Dec 2010
WikiLeaks: Best quotes from Duke of York's Kyrgyzstan breakfast with US ambassador
30 Nov 2010
WikiLeaks: bereaved families' fury at US 'insult' over Afghanistan
30 Nov 2010
WikiLeaks: British and US governments stupid, says Prince Andrew
30 Nov 2010
WikiLeaks: Criminal investigation underway into leak of classified diplomatic documents
30 Nov 2010
WikiLeaks: Hillary Clinton states WikiLeaks release is "an attack"
30 Nov 2010


Alleged Victims Arina Ardin and Sofia Wilen


Rape accuser took "trophy photo", says Assange
December 27th 2010


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-consensua
l.

  1. Assange prosecutor: “Lock the men up anyway” | Indymedia Australia

    8 Dec 2010 ... The second woman who accuses Assange is Sofia Wilen. Both alleged victims, who went to the police together “to seek ... Also have a look at http://engforum.pravda.ru/showthread.php?301387-Anna-Ardin-and-Sofia-Wilen ...
    www.indymedia.org.au/.../assange-prosecutor-“lock-the-men-up-anyway” - Cached
  2. WikiLeaks founder blasts Pentagon amid Afghan files row

    10 posts - 2 authors - Last post: 2 days ago
    Alleged victims ... Anna Ardin, left, and Sofia Wilen. ..... the julian assanges head over and above anyone else in that particular arena. ...
    www.w54.biz/showthread.php?949-WikiLeaks-founder...p... - Cached
  3. Doomsday File to be released... - Page 33 - Bodybuilding.com Forums

    30 posts - 19 authors - Last post: 7 Dec
    Anna Ardin and Sofia Wilén approached the Klara police station in ... according to Borgström and Ny - but the alleged victims don't decide ...
    forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=129738483&page... - Cached
  4. Wikileaks not charged... - Page 5 - Yesfans.com: Founded 4/01

    19 Dec 2010 ... Alleged victims ... Anna Ardin, left, and Sofia Wilen. ..... Italy, November 7th, Saturday - Jako Arena, Bamberg, Germany, November 8th, ...
    www.yesfans.com/showthread.php?t=62197&page=5 - Cached
  5. Comments on WikiLeaks' Julian Assange complains he's victim of ...

    21 Dec 2010 ... sofia wilen worked hard to bed assange (typo). Inappropriate? ... release the obnoxious spy jonathan pollard!..anna ardin worked for a cia front ... of it all and focus on thriving outside that mental arena. ... As far as the "Alledged" Rape charges, that is a seperate issue, or at least should be. ...
    www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/.../comments-newest.html - Cached
  6. portland imc - 2010.12.05 - Julian Assange Sex Case Grows Ever ...

    5 Dec 2010 ... At first the two women, Anna Ardin and Sofia Wilen, tweeted and texted, ... Exactly what you are doing to the alleged victims right now. ...
    portland.indymedia.org/en/2010/12/404194.shtml - Cached
  7. Keith Olbermann Suspends Twitter Account After Attacks Over ...

    16 Dec 2010 ... Problem: It's been proven that Anna Ardin and Sofia Wilen fabricated the .... Circulating the names of possible r@pe victims; leave it to ...
    www.huffingtonpost.com/.../keith-olbermann-suspends-twitter-account_n_797845.html - Cached
  8. Who is Anna Ardin?: One of Assange's Accusers. - Neowin Forums

    Google brings back "Sofia Wilen." Yeh thats the one. Was close :rofl: .... but you can't really compare a speeding ticket to an alleged act of sexual .... Movie Ratings, |---- Wall of Sound, |-- The Sporting Arena, The Archive ...
    www.neowin.net/.../959396-who-is-anna-ardin-one-of-assanges-accusers/ - Cached
  9. Who is Anna Ardin?: One of Assange's Accusers.

    8 Dec 2010 ... Indeed after the alleged rape et al Ardin arranged a "crayfish party" ..... of taking a rape allegation to court is notoriously hard for the victim. ... luis posada carriles, rape, remand, sofia wilen, spying, sweden, ...
    www.allvoices.com/.../7565838-who-is-anna-ardin-one-of-assanges-accusers - United States - Cached
  10. Julian Assange's police report detailing rape charges leaked ...

    10 posts - 6 authors - Last post: 19 Dec
    Funny how this all turned nasty when Anna Ardin (Miss A) met up with Assange's other girlfriend Sofia Wilen (Miss W). ...
    wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?101543-Julian... - Cached

Assange prosecutor: “Lock the men up anyway”

http://www.indymedia.org.au/2010/12/08/assange-prosecutor-%E2%80%9Clock-the-men-up-anyway%E2%80%9D Wed 08 Dec 2010
By Diet Simon

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: http://www.inmalafide.com/2010/12/04/the-name-of-julian-assanges-other-f...

Also have a look at http://engforum.pravda.ru/showthread.php?301387-Anna-Ardin-and-Sofia-Wilen

http://www.w54.biz/showthread.php?949-WikiLeaks-founder-blasts-Pentagon-amid-Afghan-files-row&p=12144

WikiLeaks: Julian Assange fears he is subject of an 'illegal investigation'

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has claimed that there could be an "illegal investigation" being carried out into him.



WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange celebrates as he prepares to address the media outside the High Court in central London yesterday. Photo: AFP/GETTY

1:26PM GMT 17 Dec 2010

Speaking on his first day under house arrest, the 39-year-old Australian said he had not been provided with any evidence relating to claims he sexually assaulted two women.

He was let out of prison on Thursday after a judge ruled he should be released ahead of Swedish extradition proceedings in the new year.

Bail conditions require Mr Assange to remain in the country until the extradition hearing next year and he is now staying at Ellingham Hall, a country retreat on the Norfolk/Suffolk border owned by Vaughan Smith, the founder of London's Frontline club.
Speaking from the grounds of the mansion, he claimed certain institutions were "engaged in what appears to be, certainly a secret investigation, but appears also to be an illegal investigation.

"We can see that by how certain people who are allegedly affiliated with us were contained at the US border and had their computers seized, and so on."

Asked if he was facing a US conspiracy, Mr Assange said: "I would say that there is a very aggressive investigation, that a lot of face has been lost by some people, and some people have careers to make by pursuing famous cases, but that is actually something that needs monitoring.

"We've seen the Swedish government, let's not say the government, a Swedish prosecutor in these representations to the British Government and British courts said he needed not to provide a single shred of evidence."

Mr Assange reiterated that he had spent 10 days in solitary confinement at Wandsworth Prison, south west London, and had still not been presented with "a single piece of evidence".

He claimed his organisation had been attacked primarily not by governments, but by banks in Dubai, Switzerland, the US and the UK and added that WikiLeaks is continuing to release information about the banks.

He added: "Over 85 per cent of our economic resources are spent dealing with attacks, dealing with technical attacks, dealing with political attacks, dealing with legal attacks, not doing our journalism. And that, if you like, is a tax upon quality investigative journalism.

"An 85 per cent tax rate on that kind of economic activity. Whereas people who are producing celebrity pieces for Vanity Fair have much lower tax rates."

Mr Assange said that he had support from a "large Washington law firm" and from "colleagues in California" but called for more help.

He said: "We need more, and not just at a reactive level."

After emerging from the High Court in London, Mr Assange vowed to "continue his work and protest his innocence".

Assange believes further leaked information relating to the sexual assault claims are to be made public later today. He has also indicated that the US is preparing to indict him on espionage charges.

A spokeswoman for the US Department of Justice would confirm only that there is "an ongoing investigation into the WikiLeaks matter".

Assange is wanted in Sweden for alleged sex offences, which he denies. His lawyers have accused the Swedish authorities of waging a "vendetta" against him.

Earlier this week at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court he was granted bail pending the bid to extradite him.

But the whistleblower remained in prison while the authorities challenged his release at the High Court in London, arguing that there was "a real risk" he would abscond.

However, on Thursday Mr Justice Ouseley released Assange after rejecting submissions that the risk he posed made it impossible to set him free.

The judge said his cooperation with police suggested he was not "a person who is seeking to evade justice" and accepted offers by Assange's supporters to stump up £200,000 as a cash deposit and a number of other sureties.

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

The truth lies trapped in a web of intrigue

December 24, 2010


A murky situation ... Julian Assange outside a police station this week in Britain, where he is on bail. Photo: Reuters

This sexual and political drama has more mysteries than any thriller, writes Guy Rundle in London.

Whatever prompted Naomi Wolf to defend Julian Assange by penning a satirical article for The Huffington Post titled ''Julian Assange Captured by World's Dating Police'', one assumes she is now regretting it. Ditto Michael Moore's ex cathedra statements on whether the sex crime allegations made against the WikiLeaks founder constituted rape or not: ''His condom broke during consensual sex. This is all a bunch of hooey as far as I'm concerned.''

Two weeks ago, when he was on remand in Wandsworth prison, it was broadly accepted that the man responsible for humiliating and challenging great powers across the world had been railroaded by a series of accusations relying on scorned female fury.

But now people more critical of the ethereal 39-year-old former hacker have hit back, as tabloid articles and a long piece in The Guardian detail the allegations against him blow by blow. The tabloid pieces in Sweden's Expressen and Britain's Mail on Sunday seemed more interested in his sexual encounters that were unquestionably consensual than in the criminal accusations. It is the report from The Guardian, one of WikiLeaks' publishing partners, that may do him more damage. Yet even this assessment is more interesting for what it left out - stories of influence, tampering, shadowy establishments and hidden agendas that leave the late Stieg Larsson out in the cold.

The story begins in early August, with the first complainant, Miss A, a woman now universally acknowledged as Anna Ardin, a rising star in the Social Democratic Party and an organiser of Assange's speaking engagement in Stockholm. Ardin had put up Assange in her apartment and organised a crayfish party for him, a traditional Swedish summer get-together attended by journalists and the leaders of Sweden's libertarian anti-censorship Pirate Party.

Assange and Ardin had begun a sexual relationship but, according to Nick Davies in The Guardian report, Ardin had told two friends that the sex had been ''violent''; Assange had pinned down her arm to prevent her applying a condom. She had let him stay in her apartment, but not her bed.

Unbeknown to her, Assange was also seeing Sofia Wilen, a photographer who, by her own account to police, had become a little obsessed with Assange after seeing him on TV. Though she had told him she never had unsafe sex, she said she had woken to find him having sex with her without a condom. According to her account to prosecutors, they joked about pregnancy, had breakfast and returned to Stockholm by train, with Wilen paying for the tickets - as she had paid days earlier for the cinema, the meal and the train out.

On the Wednesday, August 18, Wilen rang Ardin, whom she did not know, to find out where Assange was. They compared notes and, on Friday, August 20, went to Klara police station to inquire how they could force Assange to take a test for sexually transmitted infections. Fifteen minutes into the interview the police decided to ask the duty prosecutor to open a rape investigation.

Though it would be months before it began to be adjudicated in The Huffington Post, the case became murky and mysterious from the get-go. Wilen's experience had been the basis for the rape accusation, Ardin's for two misdemeanour accusations. The senior prosecutor threw out the rape accusation, leaving a case barely worth pursuing.

But then Claes Borgstrom entered the scene. Battered and feisty, a real-life Kurt Wallander, Borgstrom is both a celebrity lawyer and a major figure in the Social Democratic Party, its gender equality spokesman. He petitioned the appeals prosecutor, Marianne Ny, to revive the accusations. When she did, in early September, there were four accusations, not three, the most serious being a new one - that of violent sexual coercion of Ardin.

The new accusation created a substantial difference between the first and later account of events to the police. It was at this time that material began to disappear from the internet. Two tweets were removed from Ardin's Twitter feed in early September - one saying ''Julian wants to go to a crayfish party, anyone around'' and another from the crayfish party Ardin organised for him that night ''2am - sitting outside with the most exciting, interesting people in the world'', both tweets sent in the 24 hours after the alleged violent sexual encounter took place.

Simultaneously, two items disappeared from blogs written or co-written by Ardin: a record of events making no mention of a violent sexual encounter, and a ''7-step guide to revenge'' on ex-lovers. All four deleted items were retrieved from internet caches by Swedish bloggers.

One of those who retrieved the deleted material was Goran Rudling, an activist involved in a campaign to revise Sweden's 2005 Sex Crimes Act, which he believes has rendered the law unworkable. No fan of Assange, whom he describes as a ''villain - he wants to make himself more important by saying there is a conspiracy to get him'', Rudling nevertheless points out that the investigation of his case has been hamstrung by a routine disregard for the proper procedures.

''There is, for example, no full record of the first interviews, written or audio/video. So we don't know what questions were asked, or how they were answered,'' Rudling says. ''The arrest warrant was issued before the interview proper had even begun, and one of the complainants was only interviewed the next day, by telephone.''

Why was a warrant for a serious allegation issued so quickly? One possibility is so that it could be leaked in time for the afternoon news, especially to the right-wing tabloid Expressen, which painted such a harsh picture of Assange that it prompted Ardin to give an interview to the rival paper Aftonbladet the next day, in which she said that ''Assange is not violent and we do not fear him … this is about someone who has problems with women''.

It is this quote that has become a headache for Borgstrom, since it contradicts Ardin's later claims. Questioned about this by reporters, Borgstrom replied that said the women ''weren't jurists - they don't know what rape is''. This claim was shaky. As gender equality officer at Uppsala University, Ardin had issued a new edition of the student union's gender equality procedures, including a guide to legal recourse.

By now, however, attention had turned to Borgstrom and the passion with which he was pursuing the case. His decision to take the case had been met with bemusement by many as his party was on the verge of contesting the September general election, one it lost badly.

When the Social Democrats were last in power, Borgstrom had helped draft the 2005 Sex Crime Act, which had made it possible to charge people with what has become known as ''sex by surprise''. Since losing power in 2006, his party has claimed that the ruling centre-right coalition has done nothing to give the new laws any force. Opponents of the law contended that it was unworkable, prompting investigations into matters that would be reduced to two conflicting stories in court and open to misuse for reputation damage and revenge.

Crucially, the 2005 law had gone beyond simple notion of consent and elaborated the idea of ''violation of sexual integrity'' and non-financial ''sexual exploitation'' - that is, psychological or situational manipulation. It thus became possible to charge someone with a sex crime even if consent was present throughout, a feature of at least two, and possibly all four, of the accusations against Assange.

The accusations against him occurred at a highly charged time, as the centre-right government received an exhaustive review of the law. The review had been prompted by bitter struggle between those who said it was unworkable - people drawn from the left and right - and those on the centre-left, feminists and greens who argued that the justice system should be further transformed to overcome the low conviction rate it achieved.

One of the players in the debate had been Gothenburg's crime development unit, a department of the prosecutor's office responsible for exploring new modes for the development of sex crime legislation, and headed by the appeals prosecutor Marianne Ny.

Does this add up to a possible hidden agenda? Yes and no. Unlike the experience of Larsson's character Lisbeth Salander, Sweden has less explicit corruption than a lot of countries. What it does have is a suffocatingly tight political elite, much of it grouped around the Social Democratic Party, which has huge cultural power even in opposition.

Some, such as the law blogger Marten Schultz, are impatient with Assange's repeated claims of especially bad treatment, arguing that the most surprising decision from the prosecutors was the second one, stating that Assange was not a suspect - without carrying out any investigation.

Others, such as Christian Engstrom, a Pirate Party member of the European Parliament, suggest that it would be difficult for Assange to get a fair trial in Sweden, as the judge and ''lay examiners'' who assess each case are appointed by the political parties in proportion to their numbers in parliament. ''Usually Swedish justice works well,'' he argues. ''But in cases like Julian's everything goes strange.''

His chief of staff, Henrik Alexandersson, is more forthright, saying that as Assange has antagonised all major parties ''there is no chance of him getting a fair trial''.

Few cases in recent times have been so argued about on the basis of so much misinformation. Even Davies's account in The Guardian has been criticised as one-sided by a WikiLeaks associate in Sweden who was one of several people who tried to mediate between Assange and Ardin, before she went to the police. ''I would say that it is simply the case for the prosecution,'' he says. ''The police record contains Assange's early interview with the police on the 'misconduct' [accusations], yet none of that has been included.''

Assange has at no time been charged with any crime. His arrest warrant was issued in relation to questions the prosecutors' office wishes him to answer regarding the accusations. Assange is next due in court in Britain on January 11 for the beginning of his extradition hearing.

The WikiLeaks associate suggests the case may never come to trial, noting that ''one of the complainants has refused to sign off on her statement''. Even if that proves to be the case, Julian Assange has entered history, though it remains to be seen whether in triumph or tragedy.

Days of his life

August 20 Julian Assange is accused of the rape and sexual assault of Sofia Wilen and of ofredande (''unfreedom'' - a misdemeanour crime under Swedish law) in relation to Anna Ardin. The accusations are leaked to the tabloid Espressen.

August 21 Stockholm's chief prosecutor withdraws the arrest warrant for Assange, saying she sees no description of rape or assault. An investigation into the ofredande accusation stands.

August 31 Police in Stockholm question Assange and formally tell him of the allegation against him. He denies the accusations.

September 1 Marianne Ny, an appeals prosecutor, reopens an investigation into rape in relation to Ardin.

November 18 An arrest warrant is issued in Sweden for Assange to answer questions from the prosecutor.

November 30 Interpol issues a ''red notice'' for Assange's detention.

December 6 A European arrest warrant is issued.

December 7 Assange gives himself up to British police. The Crown Prosecution Service reads out four accusations: rape: that Assange had held Ardin down, forcibly parted her legs and had sex with her; ofredande: that Assange had unsafe sex with Ardin, thereby violating her sexual integrity; ofredande: that Assange had pushed his erect penis into Ardin's back, thereby violating her sexual integrity; sexual assault: that Assange had had unsafe sex with Wilen while she was sleeping.

December 16 Assange is released on bail of £200,000 ($308,000) plus several sureties. An initial extradition hearing is set for January 11. The substantive hearing will begin in early February.


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

Quote Originally Posted by Deks View Post
Wow, are you serious?

No I wrote that to pass the time of day..................

Quote Originally Posted by buglerbilly View Post
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".


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

Julian Assange: The Charges

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36 Responses to “The name of Julian Assange’s other false rape accuser is Sofia Wilén”
  1. Badger Nation says:

    Dude, you’re way off base – women never lie about rape!

  2. [...] reading this article, I decided to look around and try to find some pictures of Sofia [...]

  3. Legion says:

    Great find, Ferdinand. I shall add this to my site also.

    There is a second picture of Sofia Wilén that I have found, but her face is unhelpfully blurred out. No idea how Unfrozen Caveman found it:

    Now, as far as I know, there are certain software programs that can actually re-pixellate manipulated images such as this.

    I have no idea how to go about doing such a thing myself; just thought I’d put that out there.

  4. 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.

  5. Breeze says:

    Ferd, since you are now number one on google search the name sofia wilen you should edit your post to include the other pictures linked to among the comments.

    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.

  6. anon says:

    ferd dude…

    i’d be a bit careful about using such certainty in your language to describe your allegations about what these 2 specific women did. I’m not saying I disagree with you… not at all… and I think your insight and journalistic activism is spot-on and extremely helpful and important in this very important issue.

    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.

  7. 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.” (??)

  8. More on the CIA honey trap (alleged):

    From the Left Wing counterpunch website,

    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.

  9. Tschafer says:

    Typical CIA f**ked up operation. The KGB would have fed him into a wood chipper, and that would have been the end of it. I sometimes why we even try…

  10. more info.

    —-
    Assange: Aftonbladet’s ‘Inside Story’

  11. 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.

  12. Lavazza says:

    Her name has been known since early September.

  13. Lavazza says:

    Late August.

  14. Nestorius says:

    yeah, that’s how you hunt them down.

  15. [...] welcome to re-publish any and all of my original posts on the debacle in their entirety (find them here, here, and here) provided they follow these [...]

  16. [...] Ferdinand Bardamu has noted (check out links here, here, and here), Julian Assange, editor of Wikileaks, has been accused under very suspicious circumstances of [...]

  17. [...] article was originally posted, in a slightly different form, at In Mala Fide on December 4, [...]

  18. Lupo Leboucher says:

    On a totally different note: Legion, I thought you were another Legion. There’s a dude who goes by that handle here on the left coast.

  19. [...] 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 [...]

  20. [...] 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 [...]

  21. Robert in Arabia says:

    Thanks to kulak for this gem: Felt it had to be published as a separate post:

    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.

  22. Umit says:

    How come a man like Julian choose a way to rape two hookers?
    In a country like Sweden, where sex is one of the most free in Universe?
    Poohahh..
    Tell it to my stinking shoes.
    It’s a pure cia thing.

  23. [...] In Malafide 4 december 2010 – UPDATE II – The name of Julian Assange’s other false rape accuser is Sofia Wilén [...]

  24. [...] rape accusers. My traffic has ballooned from Googlers seeking info and pictures of Anna Ardin and Sofia Wilén in the past 48 hours, and my posts are being linked all over the place from sites as diverse as [...]

  25. james says:

    It is very sad that important issues are being mixed up concerning the charges against Julian Assange. Yet I am convinced that all involved have a primary interest in seeing the impotant work of Wikileaks go forward. Please people, do whatever you can to prevent Mr. Assange from being extradicted to the USA. If that should occur I’m quite certain that he will never return to Europe alive. Noone has intended that.

    The climate here is now totally “over the top.” He will be tortured and killed. Please, you must prevent extradition. Joe

  26. m hunting says:

    Great investigative journalism! I have noticed that the mainstream media has not done any real digging on the accusers there names or profiles. Well done.

  27. ML says:

    Assange is a smart dude, but not smart enough to avoid a Swedish girl in those black-topped rectangle glasses which stand everywhere for “I WILL ACCUSE YOU OF RAPE IF YOU EVEN LOOK AT ME”?

  28. [...] This guy bears an uncanny resemblance to the “Seth” vegging out with Wilén in this picture: [...]

  29. Man says:

    wow,..MEN watch out for these FALSE RAPE ACCUSERS,.. hey too greedy for money and fame !! Rather use ur hand than sleeping wth such FALSE-ACCUSERS AND GETTING LOCKED UP BEHIND BARS !!!

  30. THE says:

    We have read how the City of Berkeley which wanted to award Private First Class Bradley Manning the Honour of being a Hero to America, but they have correctly and properly delayed a vote on the matter.

    This is because the City of Berkeley should not have moved on this matter until it has been proven in a Proper Court of Law if Private First Class Bradley Manning is the one who leaked the American Undiplomatic Cables to Wikileaks.

    The City of Berkeley in typical American fashioned has forgotten that anyone under suspicion is to be PRESUMED INNOCENT UNTIL FOUND OTHERWISE BY A PROPER COURT OF LAW.

    This is of course the correct position, because a person has to be found guilty in a Court of Law, and not in what the Media might say, or even what hearsay says.

    The City of Berkeley in California is a liberal City, and most people vote for the Democrats, and this may have been politically motived because of the recent Federal and State Elections.

    There are many possibilities here, and I will only mention the more obvious ones to illustrate why the Presumption of Innocence must be respected.

    What if a million Americans claimed that he was the one who leaked that Classified Information to Wikileaks, would that make all of them suspects?

    We may be correct in assuming that the person or persons behind this leak to Wikileaks were sane, and therefore had their motives.

    It could be that if a person heard about what someone else or others have leaked to Wikileaks, then they made have wanted to take the credit for it, or it could have been just booze talk.

    If a person knew of the leak, and then pretended that it was him to someone who is not the Authority, then he would be confident to be found innocent at his trial.

    The motivation is of course fame and fortune, or even infamy and fortune, but as long as there is the fortune along with the pronouncement of innocence.

    That is one end of the spectrum, and the other possibility is that Presidents Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton were the masterminds of this, and that Manning will receive a Pardon from Barack Obama, just before he hands over office to President Hillary Clinton.

    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 whoever leaked 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.

  31. [...] UPDATE II – The name of Julian Assange's other false rape accuser is Sofia Wilén [...]

  32. Elizabeth M says:

    Xtranormal cartoon of an ‘interview’ with Claes Borgstrom. He doesn’t like talking much about his business partner, Thomas Bodstroms CIA connections much..



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]

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