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Will WikiLeaks unravel the American 'secret government'? - Printable Version +- Deep Politics Forum (https://deeppoliticsforum.com/fora) +-- Forum: Deep Politics Forum (https://deeppoliticsforum.com/fora/forum-1.html) +--- Forum: Players, organisations, and events of deep politics (https://deeppoliticsforum.com/fora/forum-32.html) +--- Thread: Will WikiLeaks unravel the American 'secret government'? (/thread-4936.html) |
Will WikiLeaks unravel the American 'secret government'? - Magda Hassan - 05-12-2010 There are Somali pirates who have ended up in trials in the US. They will take anyone they like and have them charged and tried, if it suits them. I'm conscious of the Pinochet precedent in the UK too and if that is stopping them this time. A friend of mine thinks the Swedes will just put him up in a hotel to protect him till things settle then have the trial and charges will be dismissed and he can be on his way and Sweden's reputation restored in the process. I don't know if this is the same Sweden though given their shift to the right recently. Will WikiLeaks unravel the American 'secret government'? - Jan Klimkowski - 05-12-2010 This is an important one (Ed - thanks for posting the link): Quote:Wikileaks Shocker http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/12/wikileaks-shocker/#more-25993 One of the hypotheses about the origins of the Wikileaks cable dump is that it is a Mossad operation, designed to further Zionist objectives. Amongst the wikileaks cables are details of "a June 2009 meeting between Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and a U.S. congressional delegation, Barak said that the Israeli government “had consulted with Egypt and Fatah prior to Operation Cast Lead, asking if they were willing to assume control of Gaza once Israel defeated Hamas”?" So, what are we seeing here? Many of us on DPF regard Abbas as an illegitimate quisling "leader" of the Palestinian people, and would not be greatly surprized to learn that he had sold out Hamas-dominated parts of "Palestine" to Israel's Operation Cast Lead. The precise claim made in the cables is an assertion by Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak that Abbas had been "consulted" about the IDF operation. This particular cable has been ignored by MSM, and picked up by Stuart Littlewood @ Dissident Voice, who writes: "you have to wonder why, if the story’s true, the Israelis felt comfortable discussing with the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority what would happen after their tanks and aircraft had pulverized the Gaza part of Palestine and shredded and vaporized its women and children. "A genuine leader knowing about plans for such a mega-crime would surely have sounded the alert and raised merry hell at the UN for preventive action." In other words, if true, the claim confirms Abbas as a puppet, who is willing to allow his people to be slaughtered by the IDF. Given that the wikileaks cables prove that Arab leaders have been speaking with forked tongues, privately urging an Israeli-American attack on Shia Iran, this Barak/Abbas information potentially adds another traitor to the gallery of Arab leaders betraying their people. Against this, the Abbas information is completely toxic to the MSM fairytale about middle eastern peace talks with Obama as an honest broker. If Barak's claim in the cable is true, it proves that the American-sponsored Israel-Palestine peace talks are completely illegitimate. Because Abbas is a quisling. The entire Obama-Hiillary edifice is revealed as a sham. Is this in Mossad's interests? I wiill be watching the coverage of the Barak claims about Abbas with great interest for the light they may shine on the origin or use of the wikileaks cables by intelligence agencies. Will WikiLeaks unravel the American 'secret government'? - Magda Hassan - 05-12-2010 Netanyahu says his is vindicated by the leaked cables becaue of what they say about Iran. Ahmadinejad says he is vindicated because of they say about the duplicity of the Arab rulers. I think it just shows that the US is obsessed with getting hold of Iran and its resources and will play any one they think are useful in furthering that. All the better to move on to Russia and China and get theirs. Will WikiLeaks unravel the American 'secret government'? - Magda Hassan - 05-12-2010 Abbas is a traitor to his people. Will WikiLeaks unravel the American 'secret government'? - Peter Lemkin - 05-12-2010 Two, Three, Many Wikileaks by Peter LaVenia / December 5th, 2010 Wikileaks is the most important thing to happen to the cause of democratic rule since the multitude of grassroots uprisings in 1968. Even sympathetic commentators miss the fundamentally radical threat to the existence of the bureaucratic state it represents; Wikileaks is most powerful contemporary weapon in the arsenal of radical, grassroots transparency advocates and democrats. A decentralized plethora of Wikileaks-type websites focused on local, state, and national affairs in every nation, scouring for document leaks from governments, corporations, and organizations has the potential to shatter an intrinsic part of the modern state’s anti-democratic structure: the ability of bureaucrats and officials to hide decisions and actions from the demos itself. Not only can this be done with the tools now available to us, it must be done. State secrecy is nothing new, but the rise of the modern bureaucratic state is barely a century old, coinciding with the rise of massive industry and, ironically, with the advent of universal suffrage. Its rise chronicled by intellectual luminaries of the day such as Max Weber and Robert Michels, bureaucracy was the extension of rationalized organizational patterns from industrial capitalism to the sphere of government. Prior to the twentieth century Western governments kept the masses from participating via restrictive suffrage laws; after the advent of universal suffrage this shifted to limiting the possibility of direct democratic influence through oligarchic control over organizations necessary for the maintenance of the modern industrial society: political parties, state institutions, and capitalist corporations. Radical democrats fought back, and the twentieth century is littered with attempts at curtailing the power of elite oligarchy found in bureaucratic institutions via workers’ councils, grassroots political parties, the alternative press – but none ever succeeded in breaking the hold of secrecy and control they fought. Complete transparency in government (and the economy) is a necessary feature of any truly democratic socio-economic system. Alienating the democratic will of many into that of a few representatives is a compromise (Rousseau claimed it was the abolition of democracy), and to retain any sort of democratic power the citizen must ultimately have access to everything their government does, overtly and covertly. It provides a necessary check against anti-democratic rule and government lies and half-truths. Without full access to information, it is often difficult for a person to make the best choice in any circumstance. Without access to information, the modern citizen has become a passive player in what amounts to a sham democracy, controlled by elites and bureaucrats cloaked in secrecy. It is the bureaucrats and elites who have access to critical information, allowing them to rule unchecked. Wikileaks provides the demos the possibility of reversing that trend. The growth of the national security state and the technology it has used to dis-empower the demos is without parallel in world history. Yet, as Karl Marx long ago observed, every socio-economic advance eventually creates the conditions for its own demise – its own gravediggers. Capitalism created immense wealth, poverty, and the most concentrated and powerful ruling class in history, but via the collection of the urban working class and intense development of technology the possibility (still just a possibility) of a truly egalitarian order. The modern industrial bureaucratic state, itself part and parcel of contemporary capitalism, created vast swathes of routinized specialists across society whose technical expertise and need for secrecy eventually compromised the possibility of democratic check on their rule. Yet, the seeds for change, always existent within the bureaucracy, are now being actualized. Much has been made of Wikileaks as reaction to the craven complicity of the mass media to the state. This is undoubtedly true, but again misses the point. Noam Chomsky pointed out long ago that the media, privately run and owned by corporate executives, has always been a gatekeeper and a fundamental part of industrial society. Reporters do not only desire access to the state, preventing them from consistently acting as a check on the oligarchs; the media is a pillar of the modern state. It has as much interest in the state’s survival (profits, elite status itself) as Wall Street or Barack Obama. When its paid employees attack the recklessness of Wikileaks, they are attacking their own ability to carefully manage and shape information for the public’s consumption. Wikileaks does no editing, save for redacting some names; it presents information to the public for its own analysis, understanding, and enlightenment. Wikileaks does not rely upon legions of trained reporters, but rather other citizens for its information. The release of the documents from Iraq was done by a courageous soldier who had come to understand the extent of the American state’s imperialism and crimes, and wished, for the benefit of other citizens and without monetary remuneration but rather prison in the offing, to expose the plutocrats who had conducted the war. Wikileaks was, thus, always a latent possibility with the advent of the Internet and direct mass information exchange worldwide. Like any other anti-systemic movement, it only took a group of committed people to organize and exploit that possibility. It is, then, up to those committed to radical democracy and egalitarian social change to extend the gains made by Wikileaks by proliferating its example and encouraging the growth of transparency via document dumps at all levels. A world where all levels of government and the economy would have to be wary of exposure is one where the rank-and-file would no longer be met with opaque silence about the inner-workings of government, but could begin to take the oligarchs and plutocrats to task, the first step in a truly democratic worldwide revolution. Bureaucracy’s wall of mystique will be shattered, and the demos will wrest control away from the officials and the elected representatives who rely on secrecy to cut deals, divide the population, and keep the masses dis-empowered. It is not often that the wheels of history give us the potential to swing the pendulum toward democratic rule and a curtailment of elite power. We have such a chance now, and it is up to us to take advantage of it. Let a thousand Wikileaks bloom – let us build the democracy of tomorrow, today. Peter LaVenia is Co-Chair of the NY State Green Party and a PhD candidate in Political Theory, SUNY Albany. He can be reached at: Chair2@gpny.org. Will WikiLeaks unravel the American 'secret government'? - David Guyatt - 05-12-2010 http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/05/julian-assange-lawyers-being-watched Quote:Julian Assange's lawyers say they are being watched Will WikiLeaks unravel the American 'secret government'? - Carsten Wiethoff - 05-12-2010 From http://wlcentral.org/node/480 2010-12-04: NSW Supreme Court Solicitor Peter Kemp: Letter to Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard Submitted by admin on Sat, 12/04/2010 - 04:09 By Peter Kemp, Solicitor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, on 2010-12-04 Dear Prime Minister From the Sydney Morning Herald I note you made a comment of "illegal" on the matter of Mr Assange in relation to the ongoing leaks of US diplomatic cables. Previously your colleague and Attorney General the Honourable McClelland announced an investigation of possible criminality by Mr Assange. As a lawyer and citizen I find this most disturbing, particularly so when a brief perusal of the Commonwealth Criminal Code shows that liability arises under the Espionage provisions, for example, only when it is the Commonwealth's "secrets" that are disclosed and that there must be intent to damage the Commonwealth. Likewise under Treason law, there must be an intent to assist an enemy. Clearly, and reinforced by publicly available material such as Professor Saul's excellent article: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/dont-cry-over-wikil... ...Julian Assange has almost certainly committed no crime under Australian law in relation to his involvement in Wikileaks. I join with Professor Saul also in asking you Prime Minister why has there been no public complaint to the US about both Secretaries of State Condaleeza Rice and Hillary Clinton being in major breach of International law ie UN Covenants, by making orders to spy on UN personnel, including the Secretary General, to include theft of their credit card details and communication passwords. Perhaps the Attorney General should investigate this clear prima facie evidence of crime (likely against Australian diplomats as well), rather than he attempts to prosecute the messenger of those crimes. It is also disturbing that no Australian official has castigated Sweden for the shameful treatment Mr Assange has received ie his human rights abused, in that he has not been charged and served with papers in the English language regarding the evidence against him of alleged sexual offences. This is contrary to Article 6 of the European Covenant on Human Rights to which Sweden is a signatory nation. Those offences remain unclear and the Swedish prosecutor Ms Ny appears to be making up the law as she wants. It appears now, by Ms Ny's interpretation that when consensual sex occurs but if a condom breaks, the male party is liable to 2 years imprisonment for sexual assault. All this information is publicly available. An Australian citizen is apparently being singled out for "special treatment" Prime Minister. There are legitimate concerns among citizens here that his treatment by the Swedes is connected to US interests which are against the activities of Wikileaks, and you will note the strident, outrageous (and illegal) calls inciting violence against him in the US in demands for his assassination, by senior influential US politicians. Granted that in western political circles, Mr Assange is not flavour of the month, but what he is doing in my opinion, and in the opinion of many here and abroad, is vitally necessary to expose American foreign policy failures and potential war crimes and crimes against humanity--not for the purpose of damaging US interests but to make them accountable. While we have close and a good relationship with the US, there is no doubt that US influence and power is declining. That we appear to be still posturing, (given that declining power and a new paradigm of privately enforced accountability) to the US on the issue of Wikileaks is, Prime Minister, deeply disappointing. Yours Faithfully Peter Kemp. (Readers are encouraged contact the Australian Prime Minister here: http://www.pm.gov.au/PM_Connect/Email_your_PM) Update: Darren Bailey, Solicitor of the Supreme Court of South Australia, has written a letter to the Australian Prime Minister in support of Peter Kemp's argument. I say: Bravo Mr. Kemp! Will WikiLeaks unravel the American 'secret government'? - Peter Lemkin - 05-12-2010 Great letter! The second letter is great, as well! Lot more like that needed, worldwide!...not the least in the USA to the Beast attacking Assange/Wikileaks with every dirty trick and breaking of the rules imaginable. No surprise his lawyers are being pressured and under surveillance. Soon they will all need 'food taster' goldfish. Again, imagine how many criminals are out there who have not used a condom in consensual sex [with a CIA honeypot, it seems too] - or the condom broke..... Millions! Tens of Millions. Hundreds of Millions...but Assange is target #1. Gee, I wonder why? :ciao: ------------------------------------------------ A bit more on death threats: Julian Assange: "Geopolitics will be separated into pre and post 'Cablegate" JOSEBA ELOLA - Madrid - 05/12/2010 Saturday the 4th of december. 6.41 pm. Julian Assange seats in front of his computer for a chat interview with EL PAÍS. Interpol is looking for him. His webite is under constant attacks. The 39 year old Australian, and Wikileaks founder, says he has a terrible headache. The last 24 hours were tough. Q. I read you are taking steps to protect yourselves (you and other people from Wikileaks) after receiving many death threats ¿Where are those death threats coming from? A. We have hundreds of specific death threats from US military militants. That is not unusual, and we have become practiced from past experiences at ignoring such threats from Islamic extremists, African kleptocrats and so on. Recently the situation has changed with these threats now extending out our lawyers and my children. However it is the specific calls from the elites of US society for our assassination, kidnapping and execution that is more concerning. These range from a US senate bill by John Ensign which seeks to declare us a "transnational threat" to assassination calls from former Bush speech writers such as Marc Thessian in The Washington Post and Bill o'reilly of Fox news. Q. Your children? How were they threatened? A. I believe it is better to not encourage these ideas too much by talking about them. However some rightwing sites also called for attacking me via my children. I predicted this might happen since April, so since that time I have had to stay away from my family. Wait a moment. I get you some evidence. Assange sends a document with a list of all the threats the organization has endured these days. http://filebin.ca/jzzfz/ListPeople_AssangeCriminalized.pdf. There are more. That is some one of our lawyers found. Q. I guess this one must have been one of the toughest weeks for Wikileaks. How is the organization doing, how many people are helping you with the DDos (electronic attacks)? Do you feel well surrounded to keep strong? A. The organisation is strong. We have a lot of support, however we also have many attacks of different forms. From ongoing mass DDOS attacks to smears and the legal issues. Q. How many people help you deal with the DDOS attacks? A. We have dozens helping and setting up mirror sites but it takes a lot of time for us to manage the process. We are automating that process and will soon have hundreds. If there is a battle between the US military and the preservation of History, we have insured, History will win. Q. Is this the biggest leak ever? Or the most relevant? Or was it Ellsberg?s with the Pentagon papers? A. This is the biggest, at over 265 million words and the most relevant - it covers every serious issue in every country-. It is more significant than the Pentagon Papers. Q. What will be the consequences of this megaleak? A. It is too early to say yet. The ripples are just starting to flow throughout the world. But I believe geopolitics will be separated into pre and post cablegate phases. Two more questions. I have to go soon I'm afraid... Q. Speaking to Time magazine you said that Clinton should resign if it can be shown that she was responsible for ordering US diplomatic figures to engage in espionage in the United Nations. Should that be the case, shouldn?t it be Obama the one who should resingn? A. The whole chain of command who was aware of this order, and approved it, must resign if the US is to be seen to be a credible nation that obeys the rule of law. The order is so serious it may well have been put to the president for approval. Q. So, should Obama resign, then? And please, allow just five minutes for a couple of questions, if you can, please. A. Obama must answer what he knew about this illegal order and when. If he refuses to answer or there is evidence he approved of these actions, he must resign. Q. Is it right that Scotland Yard knows where you are and that you have made yourself available to speak with Swedish authorities, including the prosecutor handling the case? A... Q. Hello? Still there? A. ... Q. ¿Is it over? A. Sorry. Internet disconnected momentarily Q. Will I be able to ask just two extra questions? A. Ok. make them quick ![]() Q. Well, first, the one I asked ¿Is it right that you made yourself available to speak with Swedish authorities? What are you going to do about the case after the Sweedish Supreme court' s denial of your appeal? A. We will fight them and expose them, naturally. That there is something "wrong" with this case is now obvious to everyone. Q. Do you plan to stay in a hidden place or are you willing to have your say with the Swedish Justice? A. Ok. I have to go now. Q. Please, answer if you intend to stay in a hidden place, if you can. [The chat is over. Julian?s assistant writes: He?gone. Sorry!] Will WikiLeaks unravel the American 'secret government'? - Peter Lemkin - 05-12-2010 http://wlcentral.org/ Many interesting articles....part of one below - his British lawyer speaking: "Mr. Assange has repeatedly sought meetings with the Prosecutrix - both in Sweden and subsequently - in order to answer her questions and clear his name. It is relevant that Mr. Assange sought permission from the Prosecutrix to leave Sweden and she gave him her permission. Since leaving Sweden Mr. Assange has continued to seek meetings with the Prosecutrix, but his requests have either been ignored or met with a refusal." "Bizarrely, the Prosecutrix - having ignored or rejected those offers of voluntary cooperation - instead sought an arrest warrant to have Mr. Assange held incommunicado without giving his Swedish lawyer sufficient notice, access to evidence or information to take proper instructions from Mr. Assange. This action is all the more peculiar as she has not even issued a formal summons for his interrogation or brought charges against Mr. Assange," the statement added. "Since the rape charge has been dropped, the current allegation he faces does not - as a matter of Swedish law - justify an arrest warrant for Mr. Assange. The sole ground for the warrant is the Prosecutor's blatantly false allegation that he is on the run from justice: he left Sweden lawfully and has offered himself for questioning," Stephens said. "At this point in time we have no evidence pointing to a link between these allegations from August and the issue of the Interpol alert just two days after the WikiLeaks first release of US diplomatic cables. However, it is highly unusual for a red notice warrant to be issued in relation to the allegations reported as having been made, since Swedish law does not require custodial orders in relation to the allegation - indeed to our knowledge this is a unique action by the Swedish prosecuting authorities in applying for a red notice on the basis of these allegations," Stephens’ statement concluded. "We are also investigating whether the Prosecutor's application to have Mr. Assange held incommunicado without access to lawyers, visitors or other prisoners - again a unique request - is in any way linked to this matter and the recent, rather bellicose US statements of an intention to prosecute Mr. Assange." In an interview with Sweden's TV4, prosecutor Marianne Ny has categorically refused to meet with Julian Assange in the UK, despite repeated offers from Assange's lawyers, reports Expressen. Will WikiLeaks unravel the American 'secret government'? - Peter Presland - 05-12-2010 76 mirrors to date - and counting. Plus masses of static mirrors and other clever linking stuff here I'm working at getting a live one up on the wikispooks server. Meanwhile I've put a banner link up on Wikispooks main page and will try to ensure it always links to a live site They are going to have to hit the nuke button to stop this now |