Rep. Dennis Kucinich: Is This Quantico or Abu Ghraib? After initial allegations of mistreatment, I requested a visit with Private First Class Bradley Manning, the soldier accused of leaking classified information to WikiLeaks, to see for myself the conditions of his treatment. Despite the fact that Manning has not been found guilty of any crime, his lawyer reports that he is in isolation 23 out of 24 hours every day, conditions which may violate his 8th Amendment protection from 'cruel and unusual' punishment.
This treatment is in stark contrast to a presumption of innocence and raises questions of whether Pfc. Manning can be fit for trial. My request to visit with Pfc. Manning must not be delayed further. Is this Quantico or Abu Ghraib? Bank of America using three intelligence firms to attack WikiLeaks. You would almost need to be disconnected from the Internet to not know about Aaron Barr, the CEO of HBGary Federal, feeling the wrath of Anonymous after Barr told of his intentions to expose the leaders of Anonymous at an upcoming Security B-Sides conference. But today, WikiLeaks published a document called "The WikiLeaks Threat" [PDF] which revealed two other intelligence firms, besides HBGary, were working to develop a strategic plan of attack against WikiLeaks on the behalf of Bank of America.
When I saw that, I wanted to relate what I saw in the proposal. "The WikiLeaks Threat" outlines a plan by three private data intelligence firms, Palantir Technologies, HBGary Federal, and Berico Technologies, which were hired to effectively combat and attack WikiLeaks. The intel firms were "acting upon request from Hunton and Williams, a law firm working for Bank of America. " The proposal goes on to lists the strengths and weakness of WikiLeaks. On page 15, "Speed is crucial! " Officials may be overstating the danger from WikiLeaks. WASHINGTON — American officials in recent days have warned repeatedly that the release of documents by WikiLeaks could put people's lives in danger. But despite similar warnings ahead of the previous two massive releases of classified U.S. intelligence reports by the website, U.S. officials concede that they have no evidence to date that the documents led to anyone's death.
Before Sunday's release, news organizations given access to the documents and WikiLeaks took the greatest care to date to ensure no one would be put in danger. In statements accompanying stories about the documents, several newspapers said they voluntarily withheld information and that they cooperated with the State Department and the Obama administration to ensure nothing released could endanger lives or national security. The newspapers also communicated U.S. government concerns to WikiLeaks to ensure sensitive data didn't appear on the organization's website.
One cable, for example, describes a meeting between Gen. Banking secrets handed to WikiLeaks - Europe. A former Swiss banker has passed on documents allegedly detailing tax evasion attempts by hundreds of business leaders, politicians and celebrities to the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks. Rudolf Elmer, an ex-employee of Swiss-based private bank Julius Baer, handed over two CDs containing the data to Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, at a press conference in London on Monday.
The disks are thought to contain details of 2,000 individuals. Elmer has said the information includes details on politicians, multinational companies and financial institutions from the United States, Europe and Asia, all secretly avoiding paying tax. "I do think as a banker I have the right to stand up if something is wrong," Elmer said, addressing reporters at London's Frontline Club, alongside Assange.
"I am against the system. Assange promised "full revelation" of the data, but said it would be weeks before any of the information could be checked and published by the WikiLeaks website. Banker accused. Feds Subpoena Twitter Seeking Information on Ex-WikiLeaks Volunteer | Threat Level. The U.S. Justice Department has served Twitter with a subpoena seeking information on an Icelandic lawmaker who has worked with WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange, the lawmaker told Threat Level on Friday. “I got the letter from Twitter a couple of hours ago, saying I got 10 days to stop it,” wrote Birgitta Jonsdottir, a member of Iceland’s parliament, in an e-mail.
“Looking for legal ways to do it. Will be talking to lawyers from EFF tonight.” EFF refers to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit civil liberties group in the United States. On her Twitter feed, Jonsdottir said the government is seeking an archive of tweets she sent out since Nov. 1, 2009 as well as “personal information” for her account. Josdottir told Threat Level that the request was filed under seal by the Justice Department on December 14 in U.S. Jonsdottir has been a strong supporter of WikiLeaks and became a volunteer with the organization last March to help edit and publish a classified U.S.
Julian Assange threatened to sue the Guardian over WikiLeaks leak | People in the News | People | The First Post. WikiLeaks demands Google and Facebook unseal US subpoenas | Media. WikiLeaks has demanded that Google and Facebook reveal the contents of any US subpoenas they may have received after it emerged that a court in Virginia had ordered Twitter to secretly hand over details of accounts on the micro-blogging site by five figures associated with the group, including Julian Assange. Amid strong evidence that a US grand jury has begun a wide-ranging trawl for details of what networks and accounts WikiLeaks used to communicate with Bradley Manning, the US serviceman accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of sensitive government cables, some of those named in the subpoena said they would fight disclosure.
"Today, the existence of a secret US government grand jury espionage investigation into WikiLeaks was confirmed for the first time as a subpoena was brought into the public domain," WikiLeaks said in a statement. They include WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, Manning, Icelandic MP Brigitta Jonsdottir and Dutch hacker Rop Gonggrijp. After Getting Amazon To Boot Wikileaks, Lieberman Eyes Other Firms (VIDEO) Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, yesterday succeeded in getting Amazon.com to boot Wikileaks off its servers. Now, Lieberman says he's widening his scope. "We've gotta put pressure on any companies -- like Amazon, [which] just cut Wikileaks off from its servers to distribute -- there's a company now in Sweden, I think it's called Bahnhof, which is providing that kind of access to the Internet to Wikileaks," he said on MSNBC this afternoon. "We've got to stop them from doing that.
" As TPM reported yesterday, Lieberman's committee staff called Amazon and asked, "Are there plans to take the site down? " Amazon responded by removing the site, telling the committee it violated unspecified terms of use. TPM yesterday asked a committee spokeswoman, Leslie Phillips, whether Lieberman was planning to reach out to other companies. "The committee is not reaching out to other companies," she said. But his pressure on Amazon is already having a wider effect. Julian Assange interview - FROST OVER THE WORLD. Julian Assange, the co-founder of the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks - which is currently releasing over 250,000 confidential American diplomatic cables - is in the UK fighting extradition to Sweden where he is wanted on charges for sexual assault. He joins Sir David to talk about a host of issues, from his personal situation to the role of WikiLeaks as a bastion of transparency, championing the right to reveal government secrets, when it is in the publics' interest.
When he co-founded WikiLeaks he saw that he could encourage, through successful examples, people to step forward to reveal abuses by governments - to produce more justice. Subscribing to the motto that "courage is contagious", Assange claims not to be an anarchist; rather his modus operandi is to promote responsible governance. Now his lawyers are concerned that he will end up in an American jail, either directly through extradition from the UK, or through extradition from Sweden.
Visa & MasterCard: KKK Is A-OK, But Wikileaks Is Wicked. Ron Paul Defends WikiLeaks On House Floor. In the wake of the recent WikiLeaks document dump, Representative Ron Paul (R-Texas), the self-styled libertarian crusader who's spent the past half-decade building up a massive grassroots following, has emerged as a principal voice in support of the transparency that WikiLeaks has provided. In a speech on the House floor yesterday, Paul held forth at length on the controversy.
Others may disagree, but I don't read Paul's remarks as a defense of Julian Assange specifically -- Assange is only mentioned three times during the five minute oration. This was perhaps wise, given the fact that Assange is facing charges unrelated to WikiLeaks abroad, and has become a fractious enough figure within the WikiLeaks organization itself that internecine battles have broken out, with one faction preparing to open their own site, "OpenLeaks.
" But it's certainly a defense of WikiLeaks in principle, and whistleblowers in general -- Paul spends more time discussing Daniel Ellsberg than he does Assange. Online, the censors are scoring big wins - Dan Gillmor. The WikiLeaks affair is highlighting the Internet’s soft underbelly: the intermediaries on which we all rely to store our information and make it available.
We are learning, to our dismay, that we cannot trust them. Combine that with increasing government intervention, we’re also learning that the Internet is somewhat easier to censor than we’d assumed. This should worry anyone who believes that we’re going to move our data and online lives into the fabled “cloud” — the diffused online array of hardware and services where, proponents say, we can do our online work, play and commerce without the need for storing data on our own personal computers. Trusting the cloud is becoming an act of faith, and it’s time to question that faith. And the situation should absolutely chill everyone who believes in free speech — and especially the people who call themselves journalists. WikiLeaks has been under attack all week from governments that want to hide their misdeeds, not just legitimate secrets. Ron Paul: ‘What we need is more WikiLeaks’ | Raw Story. By Stephen C. WebsterFriday, December 3, 2010 14:36 EDT Popular Texas Republican Congressman Ron Paul is no stranger to breaking with his party, but in a recent television appearance the libertarian-leaning Rep. went even further than any member of Congress in defending whistleblower website WikiLeaks.
Speaking to Fox Business host Judge Napolitano on Thursday about recent revelations at the Federal Reserve, Paul’s typical candor showed through. “What we need is more WikiLeaks about the Federal Reserve,” he said. Paul, a longtime critic of the US Federal Reserve, is the incoming chairman of a House subcommittee on monetary policy. “In a free society we’re supposed to know the truth,” Paul insisted.
He added: “This whole notion that Assange, who’s an Australian, that we want to prosecute him for treason — I mean, aren’t they jumping to a wild conclusion? The Texas congressman echoed his message from Fox Business in a twitter post early Friday. Stephen C. Stephen C. The Meaning of the Assange Wars, or, None Dare Call It Tyranny. Glenn Greenwald (get yer boos and hisses started!) With some reasons why loony koo-koo moonbats who you don't need to give a second thought to might sometimes think the U.S. government is actually a danger to liberty: Just look at what the U.S.
Government and its friends are willing to do and capable of doing to someone who challenges or defies them -- all without any charges being filed or a shred of legal authority. He hasn't just been murdered, yes. And if that's your standard, you are welcome to it, and imagine yourself or a loved one the target of what's been aimed at Assange. Assange concerned over 'natural justice' in Sweden. 21 December 2010Last updated at 07:47 Julian Assange: "There are some serious problems with the Swedish prosecution" Julian Assange has told the BBC that he is fighting a Swedish extradition warrant because he believes "no natural justice" would occur in Sweden.
Mr Assange was speaking in an interview for the Today programme, at the mansion in East Anglia where he is staying under strict bail conditions. The Wikileaks founder suggested the two women who have accused him of sexual assault had got into a "tizzy". Mr Assange denies the allegations and says the case is politically motivated. The 39-year-old is free on bail in the UK while facing the extradition proceedings to Sweden and staying in Norfolk. Mr Assange told the BBC's John Humphrys: "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. " Legal loopholes. Watching WikiLeaks' 'Cablegate' From Tbilisi - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty © 2010. The main news to emerge from the huge WikiLeaks scandal so far is that there are no conspiracies and everything in the world actually is more or less what it seems. And that the diplomats of the democratic countries -- and of the United States in particular -- are amazingly honest. Not that they don't hide things. What would diplomacy be without that? But they hide specific things for perfectly respectable reasons. There hasn't turned out to be any striking difference between what politicians and diplomats say publicly and what they are saying among themselves.
In the end, the shouts of the extreme anarchists of all countries to the effect that bold individuals have defeated repressive institutions and that the dark deeds of the mighty in this world (particularly those of the American imperialists) have finally been exposed for all to see turn out to be worthless. Dark Secrets? The August 2008 war between Georgia and Russia is one of the hot topics within the WikiLeaks material.
Letter From Canada: Why Is America So Furious About Wikileaks? The most baffling thing about the Wikileaks Cablegate kerfuffle is the massive foot-shooting overreaction across the entire American political spectrum. Here in the rest of the world (okay, in Canada), we’ve already moved on, because (to date) the cables are more shrug-inducing than explosive—but US senators are still in the throes of a bizarre frenzy of rabid chest-beating and tooth-gnashing. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, has called for Julian Assange’s prosecution, despite the general consensus that he hasn’t actually committed any American crime.
Mitch McConnell, a Republican, has a slightly clearer-eyed view; he wants the law changed so that Assange can be prosecuted as a terrorist. Joe Lieberman wants a criminal investigation of not just Assange but also the New York Times. What exactly do they hope to accomplish? Well, yes. The American diplomatic corps actually comes across as smart and competent in the Wikileaked cables.