Deep Politics Forum

Peter Lemkin Wrote:

Ed Jewett Wrote:Australia: WikiLeaks Cables Reveal Secret Ties Between Rudd Coup Plotters and US Embassy

Not the first Australian govt. the Americans brought down. If I were and Aussie I'd be hopping mad and really now come to Assange's aid!.....it should have happened anyway, but based upon this new information!!.....to not do so is to remain traitors to democracy and self determination and not allowing yourselves to be manipulated by the Beast from D.C.

We are. There were 400,000 signature to a petition supporting Wikileaks and justice for Julian Assange in just 24 hours. Plus 100s of 1,000 $s for an ad to run in the US. We've had protest in many major cities here today and yesterday. With the exception of the PM and a few others, US appointed apparently, so no surprise there, there has been almost universal support for both Julian Assange and Wikileaks. Kevin Rudd, former PM deposed by mining and US interests is looking better each day. One of the main architects of his removal was found to be moonlighting for the US. This was already known to me and others but it is good to see it confirmed in writing. Ditto some of the trade union leadership also known to me and others. They in particular have a long association going back many decades.

http://www.activistpost.com/2010/12/brea....html#more

Tuesday, December 7, 2010
BREAKING: WikiLeaks Being Used to Justify "Patriot Act" Legislation For Internet

Eric Blair
Activist Post

Senator Mitch McConnell called Assange a "high-tech terrorist" on NBC's Meet the Press Sunday and said, "if it‘s found that Assange hasn’t violated the law, then the law should be changed."

Over the weekend, an insightful article by Zen Gardner exposed how WikiLeaks resembles an establishment creation. The article correctly pointed out that the WikiLeaks storyline was conforming nicely to the elite's problem-reaction-solution method, with the solution of more tyranny for our safety.

WikiLeaks is being used to bring in the agenda on so many levels, but most importantly by setting the precedent of shutting down websites for politically "dangerous" content. Gardner writes:

After all, if information is now the enemy, we must carefully police any and every aspect of this dangerous medium -- all for the safety and protection of 'we the people.'

Oh, we’ll still have the Internet, just like you can still fly. You’ll just have to be on the 'approved' list, screened, stamped, zapped, mugged and molested if you want to get 'on the net.' No biggie. Thanks Julian -- job well done.

First, let's be clear, the 250,000 pages of cables amounted to some geopolitical Jerry Springer he-said-she-said nonsense to make countries look petty and stupid. They revealed nothing new that wasn't already known or well suspected. The information simply stoked existing flames by airing geopolitical dirty laundry, nothing more -- no secret weapons, no major arms deals, no tactical locations of troops, and no revealing the ID of secret agents, etc.

Yet, the government has used its corporate muscle to illegally limit access to WikiLeaks. It was recently revealed that Amazon, the server host for WikiLeaks, caved to political pressure to drop the website. Then, in dictatorial fashion, PayPal removed its service for donations to WikiLeaks, and now their bank account has been frozen. And all this comes a week after the shutdown of 80-plus websites for "copyright infringement," apparently in preparation for passing the "Blacklist" bill.

Now, Gardner's weekend speculation and McConnell's call for action has turned into political reality. The Hill reports today that Senators unveil anti-WikiLeaks legislation, which seems to be a sort-of "Patriot Act" for the Internet. It's astonishing how fast these guys can write legislation when major events occur. And again, it's tyranny-saurus rex, Joe Lieberman, leading the charge with scandal-ridden Ensign (R-Nev.) and empty-suit Scott Brown (R-Mass.). Ensign was quoted:

WikiLeaks is not a whistleblower website and Assange is not a journalist.

That, we agree with. Yet, therein lies the concern for establishing new Internet rules of what can and can't be discussed, and who qualifies as a "journalist." Look, Assange is clearly either a kinda-smart "useful idiot" or a brilliant insider to the elite. He is certainly not a genuine whistleblower. Admittedly, though, for those of us who hoped he was the real thing, the elite have used some savvy tactics to boost WikiLeaks' rogue credibility in order to confuse us.

The White House has sent down a warning to government agencies to restrict employee access to WikiLeaks in order to make Assange and crew appear dangerously off limits. Apparently, this warning has already trickled down to "potential" government employees as well. It was revealed that the State Department warned Columbia University students who may apply for a Federal job:

DO NOT post links to these documents nor make comments on social media sites such as Facebook or through Twitter.

In other words, the Thought Police are out in full force telling job-hungry students to not apply if they discuss current events if authorities label those events dangerous or harmful to America. Soon, they'll most likely publicly fire a mid-level employee who went over the line to prove how serious they are. After all, they desperately need to keep the slaves on the plantation.

Furthermore, an Interpol arrest warrant has been issued for Julian Assange for shady rape charges, making him an internationally "wanted" man.

And Assange is playing the clever but likable villain part so well, too, claiming to have an encrypted "insurance" file in case anyone kills him or terminates the website. Assange is the perfect international man of mystery with the dark shades in press conferences; endless mainstream media interviews with his exotic accent and short temper; and his famous silver-blond locks. What a great show they're putting on for us. I'm sure the movie industry is already clamoring for the rights to the script.

In the meantime, it has become the typical political game show. Only in America could Cablegate become such a divide-and-conquer partisan issue. The Right have successfully defined WikiLeaks as a dangerous terrorist organization and desire the assassination of its leader, while the Left defends the public's right to knowledge, but disparages the damage the documents may cause, thus setting up the obvious bipartisan compromise: tighter control and surveillance of the Internet.

It will go down like this: the Right's extreme calls for Assange's execution will give the establishment the publicly defensible compromise to at least shut down their website by way of pressuring their service providers, etc. And the wimpy Left will compromise by letting it happen, while Assange will be allowed to remain alive and free.

It fits ever so perfectly for them to extend the definition of an "enemy combatant" to a website that publishes "anti-government" material. Enter Attorney General Eric Holder, who has authorized "significant" action into the probe of WikiLeaks. Can't you just smell the tyranny coming to the Internet?

Ron Paul said it best in his book Revolution: A Manifesto: "Truth is treason in an empire of lies." Paul reiterated this principle of transparency in a recent interview. Paul said we need more WikiLeaks if we expect to live in a free society:

'In a free society we're supposed to know the truth,' Paul insisted. 'In a society where truth becomes treason, then we're in big trouble.'

Given the angry calls for action and today's developments of government proposals, not to mention the blight of Internet legislation already on the table, we will likely get the exact opposite of the free-flow of information that Paul is advocating. In fact, if history is any indicator, get ready for nothing less than the Patriot Act for the Internet!

Jim...isn't this called setting up a "strawman" so it
can be attacked?

Jack

If a government is betraying its original writs and purpose isn't a website that exposes government doings in a transparent manner "patriotic"?


Homeland Security, the Patriot Act, etc should all be struck down and abolished because they were established during a rogue regime in contempt of the Constitution. In creating non-democratic laws and rules that violate previous freedoms these acts are showing their true intended purpose. There's a good percentage of freedom respecting citizens who laud Wikileaks and its democratic purpose. These oppressive measures are the signs of governments that have cut themselves off from their people and are acting according to their own purposes and answering to themselves and not the democratic principles they say they represent.


People like Lieberman should be thrown in Constitutional prisons until they re-educate themselves about the nation they are supposed to represent.

Albert Doyle Wrote:If a government is betraying its original writs and purpose isn't a website that exposes government doings in a transparent manner "patriotic"?


Homeland Security, the Patriot Act, etc should all be struck down and abolished because they were established during a rogue regime in contempt of the Constitution. In creating non-democratic laws and rules that violate previous freedoms these acts are showing their true intended purpose. There's a good percentage of freedom respecting citizens who laud Wikileaks and its democratic purpose. These oppressive measures are the signs of governments that have cut themselves off from their people and are acting according to their own purposes and answering to themselves and not the democratic principles they say they represent.


People like Lieberman should be thrown in Constitutional prisons until they re-educate themselves about the nation they are supposed to represent.

If only....but the Congress is the best Corporate Money Can Buy [with a handful of exceptions]; the Supreme Court has been 'packed' with right-wing pro-Corporate hacks; the MSM is Corporate owned and 'run'; and the Presidency is just a PR job.....I'm afraid short of a long and ugly Public Shut-Down of the the whole Society [sustained walk-outs/strikes/demonstrations/no buy plans/boycotts/monkeywrenching/and more] they will only use the UnPatriot Act to further 'justify' new and more repressive measures until we are at the maximum police state....we are well, well on our way there and as I've warned for years, the Internet was going to be a major target and now they have found their [or created or manipulated] target of opportunity. They will use it and we could 'loose it'. We have really come to the last fork in the road, IMO.

SVT: WikiRebels - The Documentary
Submitted by admin on Fri, 12/10/2010 - 16:40

[I am writing this just 5% into the video...WATCH THIS ONE!!!!] Better than expected...better than could be expected....this one, IMO, will be remembered for decades and this is not the final version, only the first cut!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SVT, Sweden's national television broadcaster, has made available an "exclusive rough-cut" of its one-hour, in-depth documentary on WikiLeaks. The video, in its current format, will be available on the SVT Play website until Monday, December 13.

From the description:

"From summer 2010 until now, SVT has been following the secretive media organization WikiLeaks and its enigmatic Editor-in-Chief Julian Assange.

Reporters Jesper Huor and Bosse Lindquist have traveled to key countries where WikiLeaks operates, interviewing top members, such as Assange, new Spokesperson Kristinn Hrafnsson, as well as people like Daniel Domscheit-Berg who now is starting his own version - Openleaks.org."

The documentary also includes interviews with Ian Overton from The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, James Ball of TBIJ and WikiLeaks, Icelandic MP Birgitta Jónsdóttir, former WikiLeaks collaborators Herbert Snorrason and Smári McCarthy, and PRQ CEO Mikael Viborg.

The documentary looks at WikiLeaks' philosophy and operations, some of its famous disclosures including the Kenya report, the Guantanamo manuals, Kaupthing, Trafigura, the Collateral Murder video, the Afghanistan and Iraq war logs, the US administration's reactions, and the lead-up to the Cablegate release.

Ed - A fine statement of principle, but I disagree with your end sentiment in the extract below.

Ed Jewett Wrote:I appreciate and have said that I am a relative newcomer to this business of deep political reading, research and analysis. I have a great degree of respect for many people here, like David Guyatt and others, and if he has dismantled a post, then so be it. That is, as has already been said, the nature of the process. My hat is off to him. No skin off my teeth. No wounded ego. Delete it.

DPF should not delete articles which have been deconstructed.

Rather, DPF should keep such articles. And their deconstruction.

That is the historical and dialectic process

2010-12-02: WikiLeaks and the US Espionage Act: legal opinions
Submitted by admin on Thu, 12/02/2010 - 05:10


"Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has confirmed that the Justice Department is examining whether Mr. Assange could be charged with a crime, but legal scholars say that such an effort would encounter steep legal and policy difficulties," writes Charlie Savage in the New York Times.

“The government has never brought an Espionage Act prosecution that would look remotely like this one,” law professor Stephen I. Vladeck told Savage. “I suspect that has a lot to do with why nothing has happened yet.”

"A relic of World War I, the Espionage Act was written before a series of Supreme Court rulings expanded the First Amendment’s protection of speech and press freedoms. The court has not reviewed the law’s constitutionality in light of those decisions," continues Savage. He points to a 2005 case which "ended in embarrassment" for the government because it could not prove that the accused "specifically intended to harm the United States or benefit a foreign country."

“If you could show that [Assange] specifically conspired with a government person to leak the material, that puts him in a different position than if he is the recipient of an anonymous contribution. If he’s just providing a portal for information that shows up, he’s very much like a journalist,” said Jack M. Balkin, a Yale professor of constitutional law.
Read more.

Reuters' Mark Hosenball writes that "U.S. authorities could face insurmountable legal hurdles if they try to bring criminal charges against" Assange. "Three specialists in espionage law said prosecuting someone like Assange on those charges would require evidence the defendant was not only in contact with representatives of a foreign power but also intended to provide them with secrets. No such evidence has surfaced, or has even been alleged, in the case of WikiLeaks or Assange."

Reuters quotes Mark Zaid, a defense lawyer who specializes in intelligence cases, saying it would be "very difficult for the U.S. government to prosecute (Assange) in the U.S. for what he is doing."

"Joseph DiGenova, a former U.S. Attorney in Washington who prosecuted high-profile espionage cases, said that federal authorities would face "pretty tough" legal obstacles if they tried to bring a prosecution against Assange. But he said officials like Holder had to make threats of prosecution, even if they lack legal substance, to "send a signal" to other would-be leakers."
Read more

Trevor Timm of the New York Law School has already made the case last month that WikiLeaks and Julian Assange have committed no crime in publishing such information.

Libération hosts WikiLeaks mirror: Statement
Submitted by admin on Fri, 12/10/2010 - 19:47



Prominent French newspaper Libération is now hosting a WikiLeaks mirror at http://wikileaks.liberation.fr . Please find below a translation of the media group's statement:

"We have chosen to help prevent the asphyxiation of WikiLeaks at a time when governments and companies try to block is operation without as much as a legal order. Like thousands of other sites, Libération.fr decided to participate in the support movemement that is being put in place on the internet, replicating WikiLeaks content fully. These sites, called mirrors, can be hosted by anyone who has available server space. This is what we did, in order to prevent the disparition from the record of WikiLeaks documents selected with partner media organizations. We have therefore opened this site: wikileaks.liberation.fr"