When Journalism Becomes ‘Terrorism’ Senior Pentagon adviser Richard Perle abruptly announced his resignation on March 27 as chair of the Defense Policy Board, an influential Pentagon advisory panel. Not coincidentally, Perle had shortly before his resignation described the respected journalist Seymour Hersh as a "terrorist," and threatened to sue Hersh for libel in Britain. Pulitzer-winner Hersh’s report in the New Yorker (dated 3/17/03) on Perle’s messy finances became the first of a series of embarrassing stories that threatened Perle’s considerable access to power. It now looks as though Perle, frequently described as the chief architect of the war in Iraq, launched his counter-attack on Hersh as part of a "hide-in-plain-sight" strategy--dodging scrutiny, not the spotlight--in a calculated spin campaign. Notwithstanding his resignation as the board's chair, Perle’s strategy may have worked. As the chair of the Defense Policy Board, Perle was indeed well-placed to broker influence in the military establishment.
Hizballah Exploiting Wikileaks Cables by IPT News • Apr 14, 2011 at 2:56 pm U.S. cooperation with pro-Western Lebanese politicians is actually a conspiracy against Hizballah, according to identical reports on the terror organization's news website and in Iranian media. The stories cite U.S. diplomatic cables released by the website Wikileaks and say the United States backed a compromise Lebanese presidential candidate in order to "embarrass" Hizballah and harm its political allies. From Hizballah's perspective, the documents show the subservience of Saad Hariri's pro-Western bloc to the United States and their Saudi allies. "They [the Wikileaks releases] confirmed that the 'battle' against Hezbollah was the essence of all challenges in the country in the eyes of the Hariri bloc," the article said. Another Wikileaks document from Nov. 3, 2007, quoted Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Abdul Aziz Khoja's conversations with Lebanese politicians.
War on Tierra: WikiLeaks Reveals Climate Blackmail Conference of Parties 16 (COP16), United Nations Global Warming Summit Cancún, Mexico, 2010 Hardly a lunar landscape, the Moon Palace resort in Cancún, Mexico, boasts material opulence cum tropical paradise, complete with its own skull-like circumference of militia to protect the world's most revered gray matter - or should I say green matter? Slated between the dates of November 29 and December 10, this meeting of minds attracted over 20 heads of state, coupled with environmental ministers representing 193 countries. The impetus of their gathering: to settle their differences and patch together some kind of an agreement over what should be done to address climate change on a global scale. In what some have declared a new low for climate profiteering, one of the agreements outlined in Cancún was the establishment of REDD. Another initiative proposed at Cancun was the "Green Climate Fund," which promises monetary compensation for poor nations affected by climate change. Maldives: Brazil:
Social Media and Subpoenas: The Loophole That Puts Journalistic Sources at Risk The Department of Justice issued Twitter a subpoena for access to the accounts of Julian Assange and several others in relation to its investigation of the whistle-blower organization, which released roughly 2,000 classified cables. As a result of its current law enforcement guidelines, Twitter is going to divulge the information. The provision is fairly typical for technology startups to include in their policies as a way to protect themselves from getting involved in legal issues pertaining to the platform's users. Jodi Olson, a spokeswoman at Twitter, would not comment on details about the subpoena, but she said that "to help users protect their rights, it's our policy to notify users about law enforcement and governmental requests for their information, unless we are prevented by law from doing so." That's because most of such requests come with a gag order, and so companies like Twitter and Google cannot notify the user that his or her information is being requested. A Broken System
Vatican, U.S. Embassy Respond to Wikileaks Cables from the U.S. embassy to the Holy See are contained in the latest Wikileaks revelations. They report on a wide range of issues, including the Holy See’s reaction to investigations into clerical sex abuse in Ireland, internal Vatican communications, British embassy concerns over the reaction to Anglicanorum coetibus, and the Holy See’s approach to: Venezuela, the Copenhagen accord on climate change, and Poland and the E.U.. The cables also contain the Pope’s approach to Turkey and how he helped release 15 British Royal Navy sailors captured by Iran in 2007. Although quite sensational, none of the details actually come as any real surprise. Having now read more of the material, however, some of the analysis could be useful to the Vatican. Fr. The following are official reactions from the Holy See, and the U.S. In every part of the world, as at the Holy See, we are working with partners to pursue important aims.
US Defense Department bans removable media to curb Wikileaks US DoD bans removable storage in Wikileaks fight The US Department of Defense has banned all forms of removable digital storage from being used on its computers in a bid to stop Wikileaks and similar exposures, an ironic leak from the military has revealed. A December 3 "Cyber Control Order" from Air Force Network Operations commander Major General Richard Webber has demanded that staff "immediately cease use" of writable CDs, DVDs, USB flash drives and other media for any system connected to SIPRNET, its secret system. Wired heard it was a direct response to an August review following the first wave of major leaks, which was made possible by PFC Brad Manning burning documents to a CD. The DoD was knowingly making the cutoff in spite of many systems either being connected only at a basic level to the network and sometimes not connected at all. By Electronista Staff
Key Lawmakers Up Pressure on WikiLeaks and Defend Visa and Mastercard | Threat Level Senator Joe Lieberman, who was instrumental in persuading Amazon.com to kick WikiLeaks off its webhosting service, came to the defense Thursday of companies denying services to the secret-spilling site, saying they are “doing the right thing as good corporate citizens.” The list of companies that have suspended services to WikiLeaks in the wake of its publication of secret, and politically embarrassing, U.S. diplomatic cables includes Visa, MasterCard, Paypal and Amazon. The cables were allegedly leaked to the organization by a disgruntled military intelligence analyst. Lieberman said these companies “deserve the support of the American people.” “The WikiLeaks data dump has jeopardized U.S. national interests and the lives of intelligence sources around the world,” Lieberman said, though there is no proof or even detailed allegations that the release has endangered any intelligence source.
On the Heels of Recent Domain Seizures, ICANN Insists "We Don't Take Down Websites" Following the recent government seizure of over 80 websites, there was a certain amount of finger-pointing aimed at ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers - the nonprofit organization tasked with managing IP address spaces and managing top-level domains. ICANN has just issued a statement, saying that it was not responsible for any part of the government actions. "As we have said many times, ICANN was not a party to those actions" by the U.S. Immigation and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE), "nor was it a target of them." According to Domain Incite, the requests to take down websites went through VeriSign, the company that operates the .com domain. "ICANN does not take down domain names," the ICANN statement says, "we have no technical or legal authority to do that. While not an official agency, ICANN was created in part by a mandate from the U.S. government.