US Intell planned to destroy Wikileaks

[Peter Lemkin]

Assange Beseiged: Making a Mockery of the Real Crime of Rape
17th September 2010
http://www.counterpunch.org/shamir09142010.html
” … The farcical rape charges have once again been leveled against the Pentagon’s Public Enemy Number One. Julian Assange now stands accused of: (1) not calling a young woman the day after he had enjoyed a night with her, (2) asking her to pay for his bus ticket, (3) having unsafe sex, and (4) participating in two brief affairs in the course of one week. These four minor charges, worthy of Leopold Bloom’s mock trial in the Nightown chapter in Ulysses, have been shaken and fermented until they were able to cook up a half-baked rape case. … “

By ISRAEL SHAMIR and PAUL BENNETT
CounterPunch | September 14, 2010

The plot thickens as our favorite hero of the Matrix; our own “Captain Neo” Julian Assange, faces danger yet again. When we last parted company with the legendary founder of WikiLeaks, he was breathing a sigh of relief after dodging spurious double-rape charges. The complaints were dropped, and our hero was free to roam the globe once again. But soap opera plots are repetitive; the story was quickly recycled and now our brave captain is again under threat of being castrated on Stockholm’s Stora Torget, or whatever the latest craven penalty is for molesting sacred Nordic virgins in a land where Vikings once ruled.

In other words, the farcical rape charges have once again been leveled against the Pentagon’s Public Enemy Number One. Julian Assange now stands accused of: (1) not calling a young woman the day after he had enjoyed a night with her, (2) asking her to pay for his bus ticket, (3) having unsafe sex, and (4) participating in two brief affairs in the course of one week. These four minor charges, worthy of Leopold Bloom’s mock trial in the Nightown chapter in Ulysses, have been shaken and fermented until they were able to cook up a half-baked rape case! Step down Iran; Sweden takes the cake! While Iran is notorious for unyielding conservative sentences against adulterers, Sweden shows us what the liberal side of the coin looks like as she invents criminal charges for failing to telephone and for careless use of preservatives in consensual acts of affection. Worse, they are purposely conflating consensual sex with rape for political purposes. In this, Sweden makes a mockery of the very real crime of violent rape.

The Swedes have a practical reason behind their deceptively slapstick police-work. The WikiLeaks founder, pursued by malevolent forces around the world, sought momentary relief beneath Sweden’s reputation as a bastion of free speech. But the moment Julian sought the protection of Swedish media law, the CIA immediately threatened to discontinue intelligence sharing with SEPO, the Swedish Secret Service. That got the present right-wing government out of its chair, as it does everything it can to bury the Prime Minister Olof Palme’s legacy of careful neutrality. The suspicion of whether the rape farce is an orchestrated campaign, might be illuminated by these facts: (1) Sweden sent troops to Afghanistan, (2) Assange’s WikiLeaks published the Afghan War Diary which exposed this cruel and needless neo-colonial campaign. Furthermore, the expected release of new secret materials by WikiLeaks might just influence the general elections on September 19. Perhaps that explains the sudden police raid on a WikiLeaks server.

An American Tea Party website the RightwingNews.com suggested that “a CIA agent with a sniper rifle rattle a bullet around [Assange’s] skull the next time he appears in public as a warning”. Rest assured that the CIA is wiser than the Tea Party. They at least have learned the lesson of Che Guevara. Nowadays they ruin a rebel’s reputation instead of wasting a bullet. They won’t raise Assange up to become a martyr, they simply use his own erstwhile allies to reduce him to a laughing stock. They stain him with opprobrium. It is much more certain and final than the marksman’s shot. History is witness to their growing efficiency in using this tactic. In the 70’s, they could only bring themselves to say that Philip Agee was a womanizer and a drunkard. Nowadays they do not stint at charges of pedophilia, for example to humiliate Scott Ritter for failing to go along with George W Bush’s charade of Iraqi WMD. As you might expect, the rape campaign against Assange might be just an initial volley. Perhaps they will decide he is a pedophile too. The unspoken threat is enough to send some faint-hearted supporters of WikiLeaks scurrying for cover.

The bullet can always come later, once the victim has been successfully isolated by the smear campaign. The Gospels tell us that hardly anyone followed Jesus to Golgotha, though just a week earlier the people of Jerusalem hailed Him with hosannas. A Jewish anti-Gospel explains that this was the result of a successful smear campaign managed by Judas, a surprisingly modernist reading for an early medieval story.

For a smear that really sticks, you need to get it from an ex-apostle. An accusation by a Caiaphas does not impress. If you are targeting a leftist, hire leftists. For example, Trotskyites were willing and useful tools against the Communists. Pseudo Anti-Zionists are currently being used to hamstring a genuine Pro-Palestinian movement. Who are the Judases of this campaign against our Julian?
An anonymous group claiming to be “Wikileaks insiders” uploaded a new site full of “revelations” about Assange’s past and present, claiming he lives in luxury in South Africa on donated funds – though he appears almost daily in Swedish media and police reports.
Another ex-apostle is the Icelander politician Birgitta Jonsdottir, who is misrepresented as a “Wikileaks spokesperson”. She called on Assange “to step down” and leave Wikileaks to drift without his guidance – as if WikiLeaks is somehow separate from Assange.
The pseudo-progressive organization Reporters Sans Frontières attacked Assange for endangering the lives of innocent American secret agents in Afghanistan. Despite its ‘leftist’ terminology, RSF is a private organization drawing funds from US government sources aiming to destabilize Cuba. It is connected to Cuban émigrés in Miami.
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?

The brilliant Israeli writer Gilad Atzmon describes, in his funny novel My One and Only Love, how the secret services employ young ladies for honey-traps. Is this the case here? Perhaps it is nothing more than a case of gold digging. New legislation, in Sweden and all over Europe, has made men extremely vulnerable to extortion scams of this sort. A young Swedish woman, 26 (her name withheld) succeeded in winning over a million dollars during the course of one vacation in Greece, as reported by the Daily Telegraph. She complained of being raped. Four men were arrested, their names disclosed, and their jobs jeopardized. She went back home a millionaire, her sacred identity safely preserved. Her success begs imitation: according to an EU report, Sweden has twenty times more rape complaints than were generated by the hot-blooded Italians. Most are dismissed right away, and justly so.

Rape is a horrible crime, and it should not be stretched to encompass minor misdemeanors and moral failings (like the failure to give an encouraging phone call the next day). Tellingly, when the complainant’s advocate was asked why the young women were unsure whether they were raped, he replied: “They are not lawyers”. Rape (like murder) is a crime that one needs no lawyers to understand. Rape is a capital crime: if the rape charges are proved false, then certainly the complainant should be charged with criminal defamation.

As for Julian Assange, we need him. We need our captain Neo, whether chaste or womanizer, in order to uncover the secret doings of our governments behind the Matrix. For our own sakes, we must all do our part to protect him from castrating feminists and secret services alike.

Israel Shamir can be reached at adam@israelshamir.net

[Peter Lemkin]

WikiLeaks founder 'free to leave Sweden'

(AFP) – 2 days ago

STOCKHOLM — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is free to leave Sweden, after prosecutors said there was no arrest warrant against him for an alleged case of rape, one of his lawyers said Saturday.

Bjorn Hurtig said an investigation was still under way but the head of the whistleblowing website had been given no summons for questioning.

"I have been told that there is no arrest warrant against him," meaning Assange could do what he liked, including going abroad, Hurtig said.

Sweden's director of prosecutions Marianne Ny said on September 1 she was reopening a rape probe against the Australian, who had an arrest warrant against him issued on August 20 but saw it withdrawn by another prosecutor the following day.

Assange, 39, has said the allegations against him are part of a "smear campaign" aimed at discrediting his website, which is locked in a row with the Pentagon over the release of secret US documents about the war in Afghanistan.

A source familiar with the case said one of Assange's two alleged victims had been questioned on Friday and the other would be seen on Monday.

In a telephone interview with AFP on September 8 Assange said the charges against him were part of "a clear set-up," and had caused damage to WikiLeaks.

He said that he had decided to stay in Sweden to prove his innocence.

"This entire rape investigation has been conducted without my input," he said, adding that the police refused to say if there was a warrant out for him or not.

Assange has admitted that he had met both women in question, but refused to say if had had sex with either of them, calling it "a private matter."

In his interview with AFP he would not point a direct finger at US intelligence services, which have expressed alarm at WikiLeaks' publishing of thousands of confidential documents.

But he said his website had "two reliable intelligence sources that state that Swedish intelligence was approached last month by the United States and told that Sweden must not be a safe haven for WikiLeaks."

Two days before the allegations against Assange were made public, he had applied for a Swedish work and residency permit.

Some of the servers hosting the WikiLeaks website are kept in a basement in the Stockholm suburb of Solna.

WikiLeaks published nearly 77,000 classified US military documents on the war in Afghanistan on July 23, and intends to publish another 15,000.

Newsweek magazine said last week that WikiLeaks was teaming up with news outlets to release a "massive cache" of classified US military field reports on the conflict in Iraq.

[Ed Jewett]

Dave Emory at http://spitfirelist.com/ has a curious "For The Record #724" called "Wiki of the Damned", here offered without comment, digestion, supportive research, or anything else, as this is clearly beyond my purview or expertise.

The link is here: http://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/f...he-damned/. This whole thing may be best read by clicking through the link.

Posted by Dave Emory ⋅ October 19, 2010

Intro*duc*tion: The first of two pro*grams deal*ing with Wik*iLeaks, this broad*cast exam*ines an intel*li*gence–con*nected mind con*trol cult with which Wik*iLeaks king*pin Julian Assange appears to be affil*i*ated. As well con*nected as it is ruth*less and crim*i*nal, the San*ti*nike*tan Park Asso*ci*a*tion of Anne Hamilton-Byrne con*di*tioned chil*dren with drugs, sen*sory depri*va*tion, sleep depri*va*tion, tor*ture and rit*ual sex*ual abuse in order to pro*duce sub*jects who bent to the will of the group’s leader.
Although Assange (pic*tured at left) claims to have been “on the run” from the cult, his claims of links to Aus*tralian intel*li*gence plus his strange, “plat*inum” col*ored hair (dis*tinc*tive of chil*dren raised in the group) sug*gest that the con*nec*tions may run much deeper. (Recall in this con*text that the group prac*tices rig*or*ous, sophis*ti*cated mind-control method*ol*ogy and Assange him*self may be sin*cerely unaware of the depth of his appar*ent links to the group. The orga*ni*za*tion also devel*ops mul*ti*ple iden*ti*ties for the chil*dren raised in its ranks, as well as obtain*ing mul*ti*ple pass*ports for them. Assange’s mother claims his hair turned white fol*low*ing a dif*fi*cult cus*tody case involv*ing a child of his. As will be seen later, Assange claims that Aus*tralian intel*li*gence has advised him, and there is an appar*ent link between Aus*tralian intel*li*gence and the cult.)
The title of the pro*gram comes from two sci-fi/horror movies from the late 1950’s and 60’s called Chil*dren of the Damned and Vil*lage of the Damned. Both movies fea*tured a gen*er*a*tion of platinum-blonde chil*dren with psycho-kinetic pow*ers, preter*nat*ural intel*li*gence and a really, really bad atti*tude. The chil*dren are pic*tured in a pro*mo*tional poster for the film in the upper left. Cult leader Hamilton-Byrne (inset) and her “chil*dren” are pic*tured above and at right. A still from the film is at right. Assange is pic*tured twice at left. Is this a case of life imi*tat*ing art?
Pos*sess*ing con*sid*er*able wealth, in con*trol of its own psy*chi*atric hos*pi*tal, com*posed largely of well-heeled pro*fes*sional peo*ple, uti*lized as an exper*i*men*ta*tion cen*ter by one of Australia’s lead*ing Catholic psy*chol*o*gists, linked to the Aus*tralian min*is*ter over*see*ing that country’s intel*li*gence ser*vice, the “Fam*ily” as they like to be called, used these con*nec*tions to escape the pun*ish*ment that would cer*tainly have fol*lowed their activ*i*ties. Avail*able evi*dence sug*gests that the group is an intel*li*gence front.
Even for*mer cult mem*bers who have turned on the orga*ni*za*tion have been drawn back into its fold and rec*on*ciled with Anne Hamilton-Byrne.
Tar*get*ing Rus*sia, China and some of the Cen*tral Asian states that emerged fol*low*ing the breakup of the Soviet Union, Wik*iLeaks has pur*sued a polit*i*cal agenda that smacks of a Third Position/UNPO/Underground Reich polit*i*cal ori*en*ta*tion. The group has also stung the United States, mak*ing an already dif*fi*cult Afghanistan pol*icy that much more dif*fi*cult fol*low*ing their leaks of key U.S. doc*u*ments about NATO involve*ment in that country.
Pro*gram High*lights Include: The group’s exces*sive secre*tive*ness; the group’s lack of can*dor about their sources of financ*ing in par*tic*u*lar; phar*ma*ceu*ti*cal com*pany Sandoz’s alleged dis*pens*ing of free LSD to Fam*ily; par*tial dis*cus*sion of Wik*iLeaks’ con*nec*tions to the milieu of Pirate Bay and Swedish fas*cist financier Carl Lund*strom; the Hamilton-Byrne cult’s “car*ing” for Lord Casey, the Aus*tralian cab*i*net mem*ber charged with over*sight of the Aus*tralian intel*li*gence agency; the Hamilton-Byrne cult’s close asso*ci*a*tion with Catholic psy*chol*o*gist Ronald Con*way; Conway’s alleged molesta*tion of peo*ple asso*ci*ated with the cult; Conway’s role as an expert com*men*ta*tor on the Church’s molesta*tion scandals.
1. The pro*gram begins with dis*cus*sion of a cult with which Assange appears to have been affil*i*ated, although he min*i*mizes his con*nec*tion to them. It is worth not*ing that flee*ing this cult appar*ently dom*i*nated much of his life at this point, yet the group’s pow*er*ful con*nec*tions appear to have allowed them to track him and his mother.
In light of the appar*ent mind con*trol tech*niques prac*ticed by the group, indi*ca*tions of the group’s pos*si*ble intel*li*gence con*nec*tions, as well as delib*er*ate and exten*sive oper*a*tions to obfus*cate the iden*tity of cult mem*bers, one should take much of what Assange says about his rela*tion*ship to the group with a grain of salt. Might he be a mem*ber of the cult, who was “sheep-dipped” to mask his links to the group?
Assange’s own track record indi*cates a record of delib*er*ate, elu*sive behav*ior and statements.

. . . . When Assange was eight, Claire left her hus*band and began see*ing a musi*cian, with whom she had another child, a boy. The rela*tion*ship was tem*pes*tu*ous; the musi*cian became abu*sive, she says, and they sep*a*rated. A fight ensued over the cus*tody of Assange’s half brother, and Claire felt threat*ened, fear*ing that the musi*cian would take away her son. Assange recalled her say*ing, “Now we need to dis*ap*pear,” and he lived on the run with her from the age of eleven to six*teen. When I asked him about the expe*ri*ence, he told me that there was evi*dence that the man belonged to a pow*er*ful cult called the Family—its motto was “Unseen, Unknown, and Unheard.” Some mem*bers were doc*tors who per*suaded moth*ers to give up their new*born chil*dren to the cult’s leader, Anne Hamilton-Byrne. The cult had moles in gov*ern*ment, Assange sus*pected, who pro*vided the musi*cian with leads on Claire’s where*abouts. In fact, Claire often told friends where she had gone, or hid in places where she had lived before. . . .

“No Secrets” by Jeff Khatch*a*tourian; The New Yorker; 6/7/2010.
2. Wikipedia gives a nice overview of the group. Note that Wikipedia should, as a rule, be scru*ti*nized very care*fully. It is fre*quently in error. When sources and links check out, as they do here, it is gen*er*ally reliable.

Around 1964 Dr Raynor John*son was host*ing reg*u*lar meet*ings of a reli*gious and philo*soph*i*cal dis*cus*sion group led by Hamilton-Byrne at San*ti*nike*tan, his home at Ferny Creek in the Dan*de*nong Ranges on the east*ern out*skirts of Mel*bourne. Also con*nected was a series of weekly talks he gave at the Coun*cil of Adult Edu*ca*tion in Mel*bourne, enti*tled “The Macro*cosm and the Micro*cosm”. The group pur*chased an adjoin*ing prop*erty which they named San*ti*nike*tan Park [1] in 1968 and con*structed a meet*ing hall, San*ti*nike*tan Lodge.
The asso*ci*a*tion con*sisted of mid*dle class, pro*fes*sional peo*ple; it has been esti*mated that a quar*ter were nurses and other med*ical per*son*nel, and that many were recruited by John*son who referred them to Hamilton-Byrne’s hatha yoga classes.[2] Mem*bers mainly lived in nearby sub*urbs and town*ships in the Dan*de*nongs, meet*ing each Tues*day, Thurs*day and Sun*day evening [3] at San*ti*nike*tan Lodge, Crowther House in Olinda or another prop*erty in the area known as the White Lodge [4].
Dur*ing the late 1960s and 1970s Newhaven Hos*pi*tal in Kew was a pri*vate psy*chi*atric hos*pi*tal owned and man*aged by Mar*ion Vil*limek, a San*ti*nike*tan mem*ber; many of its staff and attend*ing psy*chi*a*trists were also members.
Many patients at Newhaven were treated with the hal*lu*cino*genic drug LSD [7]. The hos*pi*tal was used to recruit poten*tial new mem*bers from among the patients, and also to admin*is*ter LSD to mem*bers under the direc*tion of the San*ti*nike*tan psy*chi*a*trists Dr John Mackay and Dr Howard Whitaker . One of the orig*i*nal mem*bers of the Asso*ci*a*tion was given LSD, elec*tro*con*vul*sive ther*apy and two leu*co*tomies dur*ing the late 1960s.
Although the psy*chi*atric hos*pi*tal had been closed down by 1992, in that year a new inquest was ordered into the death of a Newhaven patient in 1975 after new claims that his death had been due to deep sleep ther*apy. The inquest heard evi*dence con*cern*ing the use of elec*tro*con*vul*sive ther*apy, LSD and other prac*tices at Newhaven but found no evi*dence that deep sleep had been used on this patient. The Newhaven build*ing was later reopened as a nurs*ing home with no con*nec*tions to its pre*vi*ous owner or uses.
Anne Hamilton-Byrne acquired four*teen infants and young chil*dren between about 1968 and 1975. Some were the nat*ural chil*dren of San*ti*nike*tan mem*bers, oth*ers had been obtained through irreg*u*lar adop*tions arranged by lawyers, doc*tors and social work*ers within the group who could bypass the nor*mal processes. The children’s iden*ti*ties were changed using false birth cer*tifi*cates or deed poll, all being given the sur*name ‘Hamilton-Byrne’ and dressed alike even to the extent of their hair being dyed uni*formly blonde[11].
The chil*dren were kept in seclu*sion and home-schooled at Kia Lama, a rural prop*erty usu*ally referred to as “Uptop”, at Tay*lor Bay on Lake Eil*don near the town of Eil*don, Vic*to*ria. They were taught that Anne Hamilton-Byrne was their bio*log*i*cal mother, and knew the other adults in the group as ‘aun*ties’ and ‘uncles’ They were denied almost all access to the out*side world, and sub*jected to a dis*ci*pline that included fre*quent cor*po*ral pun*ish*ment and star*va*tion diets.
The chil*dren were fre*quently dosed with the psy*chi*atric drugs Anaten*sol, Diazepam, Haloperi*dol, Largac*til, Mogadon, Serepax, Ste*lazine, Tegre*tol or Tofranil[4]. On reach*ing ado*les*cence they were com*pelled to undergo an ini*ti*a*tion involv*ing LSD[13]: while under the influ*ence of the drug the child would be left in a dark room, alone apart from vis*its by Hamilton-Byrne or one of the psy*chi*a*trists from the group[4].

“San*ti*nike*tan Park Asso*ci*a*tion”; Wikipedia.
3. More about the cult, from an arti*cle about a long-overdue bust of the group. Note the dif*fi*culty law enforce*ment had in bring*ing this group to jus*tice. One of many indi*ca*tions that the orga*ni*za*tion was “connected.”

The leader of Australia’s most noto*ri*ous cult, The Fam*ily, remains unre*pen*tant two decades after the raid that shocked the nation.
Anne Hamilton-Byrne broke her silence yes*ter*day, say*ing she was ready to die after rec*on*cil*ing with Sarah Moore, the “daugh*ter” who betrayed her to the authorities.
The Fam*ily made head*lines around the world in 1987 when the Aus*tralian Fed*eral Police and Com*mu*nity Ser*vices Vic*to*ria raided the cult’s prop*erty at Lake Eil*don and took six chil*dren into care.
Police later found 14 chil*dren had been brought up in almost com*plete iso*la*tion believ*ing they were the off*spring of Hamilton-Byrne and her late hus*band Bill.
In fact none of them was the Hamilton-Byrnes’, but chil*dren of sin*gle moth*ers who had been pres*sured into giv*ing them up for adop*tion or cult mem*bers who did not want them.
But it was the way the chil*dren had been treated that really shocked the nation.
Hamilton-Byrne had ordered the children’s hair be dyed per*ox*ide blonde and they be dressed in iden*ti*cal outfits.
It was also alleged they had been half-starved, beaten and forced to take large quan*ti*ties of tran*quilis*ers to “calm them down” and even fed LSD when they became adults.
Now, in the first ever inter*view at her sprawl*ing Olinda com*pound, the cult leader has defended how she raised the chil*dren and attacked those who said she mis*treated them as “lying bas*tards”. Of her crit*ics, she said: “I would love to put them right, but I can’t.” . . .

“Anne Hamilton-Byrne, Leader of the Fam*ily, Unre*pen*tant but Ready to Die” by James Camp*bell; Her*ald Sun; 8/16/2009.
4. More about the prac*tices of the group, from a police*man who helped to bring them to heel:

Lex De Man, the police*man who spent five years bring*ing The Fam*ily cult leader Anne Hamilton-Byrne to jus*tice, is still haunted by the case and its toll on every*one involved.
And while proud that Oper*a*tion For*est, the task*force on which he worked from 1989 to 1994, even*tu*ally secured her con*vic*tion for per*jury, he is still angry Hamilton-Byrne escaped pun*ish*ment for alleged mal*treat*ment of the chil*dren in her care.
Mr De Man said Hamilton-Byrne was lucky the chil*dren who had endured beat*ings, drug*gings and star*va*tion at The Family’s Lake Eil*don prop*erty were too trau*ma*tised to tes*tify against their alleged tormentor.
“One girl looked like she was seven but was, in fact, 11. She was suf*fer*ing from psycho-social dwarfism,” Mr De Man said.
“I didn’t think at that time – and even today – that many of the kids would be able to sus*tain giv*ing evi*dence in the wit*ness box. I think they’d been dam*aged too much.”
The detective’s deci*sion to go after Hamilton-Byrne for fal*si*fy*ing doc*u*ments came in 1991 when the cult’s solic*i*tor, Peter Kibby, decided to co-operate with police.
“Doc*u*ments don’t lie. Peo*ple lie on doc*u*ments. A doc*u*ment might be false, but it’s a human being that puts the infor*ma*tion on it,” Mr De Man said.
Kibby then per*suaded one of the for*mer “Aun*ties”, Pat Mac*Far*lane, to make a statement.
After months of inter*views, and later armed with the evi*dence to secure a war*rant to arrest Hamilton-Byrne, police still took three years to find her.

“Painful Jus*tice” by James Camp*bell; The Her*ald Sun; 8/16/2009.
5a. Another indi*ca*tion of seri*ous insti*tu*tional sup*port for the cult con*cerns the par*tic*i*pa*tion in their activ*i*ties of Ronald Con*way. One of Australia’s most promi*nent Catholic intel*lec*tu*als, Con*way appears to have engaged in molesta*tion of chil*dren placed in his care. Con*way has also writ*ten dis*mis*sively of com*plaints of sex*ual abuse against Catholic priests.

. . . Conway’s auto*bi*og*ra*phy says that he began his LSD exper*i*ments at St Vincent’s Hos*pi*tal. And for*mer patients say that Con*way also admin*is*tered LSD to them at the Newhaven psy*chi*atric hos*pi*tal which was sit*u*ated at 86 Nor*manby Road, Kew, in Melbourne’s inner east.
In the late 1960s and dur*ing the 1970s, Newhaven hos*pi*tal was owned and man*aged by Mar*ion Vil*limek, a mem*ber of a “New Age” sect called the San*ti*nike*tan Park Asso*ci*a*tion, also known as “The Fam*ily”. A leader of the sect, Anne Hamilton-Byrne, was also an admin*is*tra*tor at the Newhaven. Con*way, Eric Seal and other ther*a*pists hired con*sult*ing rooms there on a ses*sional basis, and were not involved with the sect. Newhaven ceased being a hos*pi*tal in 1992.
Ronald Con*way became one of Australia’s most promi*nent Catholic intel*lec*tu*als, writ*ing books and news*pa*per arti*cles about Aus*tralian soci*ety. He also appeared in radio and tele*vi*sion dis*cus*sion pro*grams as a psy*chol*o*gist and social commentator.
When the church’s sex*ual scan*dals became news in Aus*tralia in the 1990s, Con*way some*times com*mented on the issues of celibacy and sex*ual abuse. . . .

“Ronald Con*way: The Hands-On Psy*chol*o*gist Who Helped the Catholic Church’s Trainee Priests”; clericalwhispers.blogspot.com; 5/17/2010.
5b. As one wag who blogged about the San*ti*nike*tan Park Asso*ci*a*tion observed; “What good is an LSD mind con*trol reli*gious cult sex*ual abuse story with*out the Catholic Church mak*ing a guest appearance?”

. . . “After sev*eral ses*sions with Con*way, it was sug*gested that I undergo LSD ther*apy in Newhaven Pri*vate Hos*pi*tal as an overnight patient. It was explained to me that this ther*apy was a way to fast-track psy*cho*analy*sis and would be very help*ful in accept*ing my sex*u*al*ity. Con*way, as a psy*chol*o*gist, had no qual*i*fi*ca*tions to admin*is*ter drugs. I did not under*stand this at the time.
“Dur*ing the last ses*sion I came to believe that I had been in the pres*ence of God who autho*rized me to lead the sex*ual life which had been cho*sen for me.
“Con*way then sug*gested that I con*tinue to see him with*out the use of LSD.I explained to him that my finances were stretched and that it was not pos*si*ble. He said that it was impor*tant that I con*tinue to see him and that if I were will*ing he would see me at his home in Tor*ring*ton Street, Can*ter*bury, gratis.
“What a shock I got when one night he made advances to me and we ended up on the floor of his sit*ting room. The room was dec*o*rated as if it were the inside of an Egypt*ian tomb. He said this should not have hap*pened but that, as it had, we should do it prop*erly in his bed*room. It was a spar*tan room with the bed cov*ers on a sin*gle bed already turned down and elec*tric bar heaters turned on rest*ing on tables either side.
…”In the early 1990s, when I was 48 years of age, I was a patient in the Freemason’s Hos*pi*tal and woke up one after*noon to find Ron Con*way sit*ting on my bed hold*ing my hand. He had heard from some*one that I was in hos*pi*tal. I made it clear that I was not happy with his pres*ence .He explained to me that he had been fol*low*ing my life through a work col*league of mine, another psychologist.
“Ron Con*way never appeared again.” . . .

Idem.
6. A more detailed–and con*se*quently more horrifying–account of the cult’s prac*tices was pre*sented by dis*si*dent mem*ber Sarah Moore, who even*tu*ally rec*on*ciled with Anne Hamilton-Byrne. Note the “breed*ing pro*gram” alluded to here, as well as the use of mul*ti*ple iden*ti*ties, birth*dates and passports.
Note also, Moore’s indi*ca*tion that ene*mies of the group had “disappeared.”

My mother was Anne Hamilton-Byrne, the leader of a small sect in the Dan*de*nongs called the Fam*ily or the Great White Broth*er*hood. I was a small part of her plan to col*lect chil*dren in what she her*self once called a “sci*en*tific exper*i*ment”. Later I dis*cov*ered it was her inten*tion that we chil*dren would con*tinue her sect after the earth was con*sumed by a holo*caust. She saw us as the “inher*i*tors of the earth”. I didn’t know that then. In those days I was just a child. A child of a guru, but a child no less.
Twenty-two to twenty-eight chil*dren in all lived at Uptop in its hey*day, although the fos*ters had vary*ing lengths of stay
She used to say that she couldn’t remem*ber all the dates very well because she had so many chil*dren. Maybe, in ret*ro*spect, we should have realised that was weird but then we never thought it was any*thing out of the ordi*nary. She decided upon sets of twins and triplets and gave us ages and birth-dates to fit in with that idea. Birth*day changes were just some*thing you accepted. It was as if Anne knew so much more about every*thing than us and she just might be reveal*ing another piece of our life plan if she changed our birthdays.
We were the chil*dren of The Fam*ily, the chil*dren of Anne Hamilton-Byrne. We were dressed alike. Most of the girls’ hair was dyed blond, cut into fringes and worn long with iden*ti*cal hair*styles and identically-coloured rib*bons. All the boys had bowl haircuts.
…Why did she raise us in almost total social iso*la*tion, miles from any*where, with min*i*mal con*tact with other humans apart from the sect mem*bers who looked after us? Why did she sub*ject us to the bizarre and cruel reg*i*men in which we grew up? Was it to demon*strate that she had the power to cre*ate a gen*er*a*tion that would be reared with her beliefs and believ*ing in her? I sus*pect per*haps that there were more sin*is*ter motives than these alone. Some of us had mul*ti*ple birth cer*tifi*cates and pass*ports, and cit*i*zen*ship of more than one coun*try. Only she knows why thus was and why we were also all dressed alike, why most of us even had our hair dyed iden*ti*cally blond.
I can only con*jec*ture because I will never know for sure. How*ever I sus*pect that she went to such great lengths in order to enable her to move chil*dren around, in and out of the coun*try. Per*haps even to be sold over*seas. I’m sure there is a mar*ket some*where in the world for small blond chil*dren with no trace*able iden*ti*ties. If she did it, it was a per*fect scam. Many ex-sect mem*bers have said that they were aware that Anne was cre*at*ing chil*dren by a “breed*ing pro*gram” in the late 1960s. These were ‘invis*i*ble’ kids, because they had no papers and there is no proof that they ever existed. Yet we Hamilton-Byrne chil*dren had mul*ti*ple iden*ti*ties. These iden*ti*ties could per*haps have been loaned to other chil*dren and the sim*i*lar*ity of our appear*ance used to cover up their absence. One lit*tle blond kid looks very like another in a pass*port photo. I don’t sup*pose we will ever know the truth because only Anne Hamilton-Byrne knows the truth about the whole affair and the truth is some*thing she will never tell.
…I am train*ing to be a doc*tor but some*times I think my med*ical career will be sab*o*taged because there are still many in the sect who have a lot of influ*ence in pro*fes*sional and aca*d*e*mic cir*cles. It may sound melo*dra*matic, but I know that some who were Anne’s ene*mies have dis*ap*peared in strange circumstances. . . .

Unseen, Unheard, Unknown; by Sarah Moore (Hamilton-Byrne).
7. Among those on the receiv*ing end of the cult’s ser*vices was Lord Casey, for*mer Governor-General of Aus*tralia and the min*is*ter in charge of over*see*ing the Aus*tralian intel*li*gence ser*vice, with which Assange claims to be connected.

. . . It has been sug*gested that Anne would have had no power with*out a syringe. She claimed a lot of knowl*edge of med*ical things. She said she had been the matron of a hos*pi*tal but there is no evi*dence she ever did nurs*ing. I can’t empha*sise the impor*tance of nurs*ing in the sect enough. It was crit*i*cal to the way she viewed the Aun*ties and, it was what she planned for the girls’ future pro*fes*sion. She said nurs*ing was one of the ideal occu*pa*tions because it was a form of ‘self*less ser*vice’ that led to spir*i*tual advance*ment. We knew that on their weeks off from Uptop the Aun*ties were either train*ing to be nurses or prac*tised as nurses. Sev*eral of the Aun*ties nursed Lord Casey, a for*mer Governor-General of Aus*tralia. [Ital*ics are mine–D.E.] Rumour has it that he made a sig*nif*i*cant dona*tion to the sect. . . .

Idem.
8. More about Lord Casey, his pro*fes*sional his*tory and ide*o*log*i*cal outlook:

In pub*lic, Casey seemed to be a devoted Cold-War war*rior, fer*vently sup*port*ive of Britain and the U.S.A., and deeply hos*tile towards the Soviet Union and China; he was the min*is*ter respon*si*ble for the Aus*tralian Secret Intel*li*gence Service.”

“Casey, Richard Gavin Gard*ner”; Aus*tralian Dic*tio*nary of Biog*ra*phy.
9. More about the bru*tal con*di*tion*ing pro*gram exe*cuted by the cult on its accolytes. Notice, again, the use of mul*ti*ple iden*ti*ties, pass*ports and birth*dates for the chil*dren. What are they used for?

…Once ini*ti*ated, came the ‘go-through’ and that meant LSD trips. Every*one knew that it was an inevitable con*se*quence of ini*ti*a*tion, one of the rit*u*als that was inte*gral to the spir*i*tual devel*op*ment of the new ini*ti*ate. I’ve been present at many ‘go-throughs’ of peo*ple in the sect and ended up hav*ing at least a dozen myself.
Dur*ing a ‘go-through’ you were sup*posed to look at your*self and see the bad*ness inside, to regress to sig*nif*i*cant inci*dents in child*hood and in pre*vi*ous lives which affected your per*son*al*ity and retarded your spir*i*tual devel*op*ment. The drug, which Anne some*times called the ‘herb’ or the ‘dream med*i*cine’, was meant to make this eas*ier. It was also meant to make the spir*i*tual bond*ing eas*ier between mas*ter and dis*ci*ple. You were sup*posed to recog*nise her as the “one true mas*ter”, Christ incarnate.
She would come in to peo*ple when they were under and ask, “Do you know who I am?” The cor*rect answer was, “the Lord Incar*nate”. The incor*rect answer meant you weren’t ‘work*ing’ hard enough. “Work*ing” was ‘look*ing at your*self’ and real*is*ing what a “hor*ri*ble” per*son you were, repent*ing for your sins and puri*fy*ing yourself.
Before my first ‘go-through’ I was deprived of sleep for sev*eral nights and made to read ‘Yoga and the Bible’. Before*hand I’d watched one of my broth*ers get down on his knees and beg me not to hate him for being a closet homo*sex*ual. This con*fes*sion had been wrung out of him by Anne after sev*eral days of inten*sive ‘work*ing’ under the drug. He felt that he was a fail*ure and I did my best to tell him that he’d never be a fail*ure to me because I loved him. We were all scared of reveal*ing our weak*nesses but doubted that we would be able to hold any*thing back once under the influ*ence of the drugs.
Anne’s tech*nique, pretty typ*i*cal, of keep*ing us awake for sev*eral days before a ‘go-through’ meant that we were incred*i*bly vul*ner*a*ble any*way. You have to hand it to Anne, she knew her stuff; this was chronic sleep depri*va*tion and it added to the strain of the whole expe*ri*ence. Even today, I find if I am really tired I’m prone to flash*backs of LSD and it is harder to cope than it should be. Add to that the sen*sory depri*va*tion, for I was placed in a quiet and dark room and never knew whether it was day or night.
…It was also at this time in 1984, just before my ini*ti*a*tion, that Anne changed my name and gave me a new iden*tity. No longer was I to be called Andree who was born in June, July or maybe Sep*tem*ber. Now, for some rea*son that I never knew, I was called Sarah. I was now a triplet and had even changed nation*al*i*ties: I was now born in New Zealand on 16 Novem*ber 1970. I even had a pass*port to prove this.
It may seem bizarre now but at the time I took this in my stride. I didn’t even con*sider it strange that Anne had never told me this infor*ma*tion up to now, that pre*vi*ously I had believed I was some*one else. This sort of thing – sud*den changes in our real*ity– was par for the course in our lives and we never ques*tioned sur*prises. We were used to unpre*dictabil*ity as far as Anne was con*cerned. I hated the name Andree any*way and being a triplet was more inter*est*ing than being a sin*gle. I now know that there were sev*eral pass*ports in my name, a cou*ple of which were Aus*tralian. They all had dif*fer*ent birth-dates. I also had sev*eral birth cer*tifi*cates in dif*fer*ent names and in dif*fer*ent states.. . .

Unseen, Unheard, Unknown; by Sarah Moore (Hamilton-Byrne).
10. Sarah Moore sug*gests a pos*si*ble rea*son for the group’s appar*ent abil*ity to escape legal ret*ri*bu*tion for their activities.
Of inter*est and pos*si*ble sig*nif*i*cance, also, is the alle*ga*tion by Moore that Sandoz–part of the old I.G. Far*ben complex–was pro*vid*ing the group with free LSD. San*doz also bought the fam*ily busi*ness of Swiss Nazi financier Carl Lund*strom, thereby empow*er*ing him with the cap*i*tal with which he has real*ized his polit*i*cal endeavors.
Among those endeav*ors is the Pirate Bay down*load*ing web*site, with an asso*ci*ated polit*i*cal party (the Pirate Party) and PRQ server, which hosts Wik*iLeaks. As we will see in FTR #725, the Pirate Party is help*ing spon*sor Wik*iLeaks’ pres*ence in Sweden.

…The bulk of the sect was made up of pro*fes*sional peo*ple. With*out their sup*port and par*tic*i*pa*tion, Anne Hamilton-Byrne would never have become what she is today. It was their names, or most impor*tantly, the let*ters that went after their names, that gave her the cred*i*bil*ity and social power she needed. It gave her the means to keep those she already had and to get more and sim*i*lar peo*ple into the cult..
These pro*fes*sional peo*ple: doc*tors, lawyers, engi*neers, archi*tects, psy*chi*a*trists, nurses and social work*ers allowed her suc*cess*fully to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes for more than twenty years.
Had The Fam*ily been a group of strangely dressed peo*ple meet*ing once or twice a week for med*i*ta*tion, an address by the Mas*ter, play*ing of music and chant*ing, they would never have gone unno*ticed for so long. But pin-striped pro*fes*sion*als in their con*ser*v*a*tive suits with their impec*ca*ble social cre*den*tials could get away with main*tain*ing in their pri*vate life morals that were com*pletely at vari*ance with their pro*fes*sional ethics. They looked respectable, peo*ple thought, there*fore they must be respectable.
Who were these pro*fes*sion*als? They were doc*tors who wrote out the pre*scrip*tions that con*trolled us; lawyers, who wrote out the Deed Polls that were needed to forge pass*ports and birth cer*tifi*cates that cre*ated our false iden*ti*ties; social work*ers, who allowed Anne to by-pass nor*mal chan*nels to allow her to adopt, or sim*ply steal in some instances, six*teen chil*dren; doc*tors and nurses who gave her con*tacts with rich dying peo*ple who then left their estates to her. It was the same doc*tors who signed their death cer*tifi*cates; psy*chi*a*trists who had peo*ple com*mit*ted to Newhaven – the Fam*ily owned psy*chi*atric hos*pi*tal; and doc*tors and nurses who super*vised the abuse of LSD,( which for a while they actu*ally obtained free of charge from the Swiss drug com*pany, Sandoz). . . .

Idem.
11. Wik*iLeaks’ polit*i*cal ori*en*ta*tion is clar*i*fied in an arti*cle pub*lished in The New Yorker. Note that the group’s pri*mary tar*gets are “highly oppres*sive regimes in China, Rus*sia and Cen*tral Eurasia”–the Earth Island about which we’ve spo*ken so often. They’re also will*ing to work against the United States, obviously.
Wik*iLeaks polit*i*cal ori*en*ta*tion smacks of a Third Posi*tion, UNPO polit*i*cal orientation–one con*sis*tent with the Under*ground Reich.
Do not fail to note the poten*tial dam*age that could result from pub*lish*ing the social secu*rity num*bers of active-duty U.S. mil*i*tary per*son*nel. This could lead to, among other things, the com*pro*mis*ing of WMD tech*nol*ogy, nukes in particular.

. . . Assange, despite his claims to sci*en*tific jour*nal*ism, empha*sized to me that his mis*sion is to expose injus*tice, not to pro*vide an even-handed record of events. In an invi*ta*tion to poten*tial col*lab*o*ra*tors in 2006, he wrote, “Our pri*mary tar*gets are those highly oppres*sive regimes in China, Rus*sia and Cen*tral Eura*sia, but we also expect to be of assis*tance to those in the West who wish to reveal ille*gal or immoral behav*ior in their own gov*ern*ments and cor*po*ra*tions.” he has argued that a ‘social move*ment” to expose secrets could ” bring down many admin*is*tra*tions that rely on con*ceal*ing reality–including the US administration.”
Assange does not rec*og*nize the lim*its that tra*di*tional pub*lish*ers do. Recently, he posted mil*i*tary doc*u*ments that included the Social Secu*rity num*bers of sol*diers, and in the Bunker I asked him if Wik*iLeaks’ mis*sion would have been com*pro*mised if he had redacted these small bits. [Ital*ics are mine–D.E.] He said that some leaks risked harm*ing inno*cent people–“collateral dam*age, if you will”–but that he could not weigh the impor*tance of every detail in every doc*u*ment. Per*haps the Social Secu*rity num*bers would one day be impor*tant to researchers inves*ti*gat*ing wrong*do*ing, he said; by releas*ing the infor*ma*tion he would allow judg*ment to occur in the open.
A year and a half ago, Wik*iLeaks pub*lished the results of an Army test, con*ducted in 2004, of elec*tro*mag*netic devices designed to pre*vent IED’s from being trig*gered. The doc*u*ment revealed key aspects of how the devices func*tioned and also showed that they inter*fered with com*mu*ni*ca*tion sys*tems used by soldiers–information that an insur*gent could exploit. By the time Wik*iLeaks pub*lished the study, the Army had begun to deploy newer tech*nol*ogy, but some sol*diers were still using the devices. I asked Assange if he would refrain from releas*ing infor*ma*tion that he knew might get some one killed. He said that he had insti*tuted a “harm-minimization pol*icy,” whereby peo*ple named in cer*tain doc*u*ments were con*tacted before pub*li*ca*tion, to warn them, but that there were also instances where the mem*bers of Wik*iLeaks might get “blood on our hands.” . . . .

“No Secrets” by Raffi Khatch*adourian; The New Yorker; 6/7/2010.
12. More about the sen*si*tive nature of what Wik*iLeaks pub*lishes. It might cause loss of life and/or limb by U.S., coali*tion, or Afghan personnel.

. . . . In 2007, he pub*lished thou*sands of pages of secret mil*i*tary infor*ma*tion detail*ing a vast num*ber of Army pro*cure*ments in Iraq and Afghanistan. He and a vol*un*teer spent weeks build*ing a search*able data*base, study*ing the Army’s pur*chase codes and adding up the cost of the procurements–billions of dol*lars in all. The data*base cat*a*logued materiel that every unit had ordered: machine guns, Humvees, cash-counting machines, satel*lite phones. Assange hoped that jour*nal*ists would pore through it, but barely any did. “I am so angry,” he said. ‘This was such a fuck*ing fan*tas*tic leak: the Army’s force struc*ture of Afghanistan and Iraq, down to the last chair, and nothing.” . . .

Idem.
13. Another aspect of Wik*iLeaks that has attracted inter*est con*cerns their obfus*ca*tion of fund*ing, cre*at*ing ques*tions about where the money they col*lect is actu*ally going.

The secret-spilling web*site Wik*iLeaks appears to be a fru*gal spender, tap*ping less than 5 per*cent of the funds received through two of its three dona*tion meth*ods, accord*ing to the third-party foun*da*tion that man*ages those contributions.
Wik*iLeaks has received 640,000 euros (U.S. $800,000) through Pay*Pal or bank money trans*fers* since late Decem*ber, and spent only 30,000 euros (U.S. $38,000) from that fund*ing, says Hen*drik Fulda, vice pres*i*dent of the Berlin-based Wau Hol*land Foundation.
The money has gone to pay the travel expenses of Wik*iLeaks founder Julian Assange and spokesman Daniel Schmitt, as well as to cover the costs of com*puter hard*ware, such as servers, and leas*ing data lines, says Fulda. Wik*iLeaks does not cur*rently pay a salary to Assange or other vol*un*teers from this fund*ing, though there have been dis*cus*sions about doing so in the future, Fulda adds. The details have not yet been worked out. . . .
. . . . The site got another boost in dona*tions in April after it pub*lished the con*tro*ver*sial video show*ing a 2007 U.S. Army heli*copter attack in Bagh*dad. Wik*iLeaks claimed it raised more than $150,000 in less than a week after the release of the video. A U.S. Army intel*li*gence ana*lyst named Bradley Man*ning was since arrested and charged with being Wik*iLeaks’ source for the video. Assange and other Wik*iLeaks vol*un*teers have claimed that the orga*ni*za*tion com*mis*sioned lawyers to defend Man*ning, and the group has cam*paigned for more dona*tions from the pub*lic to cover the legal expenses.
Fulda said that no money han*dled by the foun*da*tion has gone to pay expenses for Manning’s defense. [Ital*ics are mine, D.E.] He didn’t know if Wik*iLeaks obtained money from other sources for the pur*pose. He said, how*ever, that his foun*da*tion would have no prob*lem in prin*ci*ple pay*ing such legal expenses. . . .

“Wik*iLeaks Cash Flows In, Drips Out” by Kim Zetter; wired.com; 7/13/2010.
14. Many of the organization’s crit*ics have noted the sharp con*trast between the opaque nature of its oper*a*tions and the drive for total trans*parency it demands on the part of the orga*ni*za*tions it scru*ti*nizes. In the next pro*gram about Wik*iLeaks, we will exam*ine the Wau Hol*land foun*da*tion at greater length.

The con*tro*ver*sial web*site Wik*iLeaks, which argues the cause of open*ness in leak*ing clas*si*fied or con*fi*den*tial doc*u*ments, has set up an elab*o*rate global finan*cial net*work to pro*tect a big secret of its own—its funding.
Some gov*ern*ments and cor*po*ra*tions angered by the site’s pub*li*ca*tions have already sued Wik*iLeaks or blocked access to it, and the group fears that its money and infra*struc*ture could be tar*geted fur*ther, founder Julian Assange said in an inter*view in Lon*don shortly after pub*lish*ing 76,000 clas*si*fied U.S. doc*u*ments about the war in Afghanistan in July. The move sparked inter*na*tional con*tro*versy and put Wik*iLeaks in the spotlight.
In response, the site has estab*lished a com*plex sys*tem for col*lect*ing and dis*burs*ing its dona*tions to obscure their ori*gin and use, Mr. Assange said. Anchor*ing the sys*tem is a foun*da*tion in Ger*many estab*lished in mem*ory of a com*puter hacker who died in 2001.
WikiLeaks’s finan*cial sta*bil*ity has waxed and waned dur*ing its short his*tory. The site shut down briefly late last year, cit*ing a lack of funds, but Mr. Assange said the group has raised about $1 mil*lion since the start of 2010.
WikiLeaks’s lack of finan*cial trans*parency stands in con*trast to the total trans*parency it seeks from gov*ern*ments and corporations. . . .

“How Wik*iLeaks Keeps Its Fund*ing Secret” by Jeanne Whalen and David Craw*ford; The Wall Street Jour*nal; 8/23/2010.
15. Another fas*ci*nat*ing detail con*cern*ing the tan*gled web that is Wik*iLeaks con*cerns the PRQ server, based in Swe*den. In addi*tion to host*ing Wik*iLeaks, it is the base for Pirate Bay, a con*trol*ling inter*est in which is owned by Carl Lund*strom, a promi*nent Swedish Nazi and financier of that country’s lead*ing fas*cist polit*i*cal party. It is unclear if this would give Swedish Nazi ele*ments to infor*ma*tion from doc*u*ments accessed by Wik*iLeaks, but that seems a rea*son*able possibility.
Note that Lund*strom sold his fam*ily busi*ness to the San*doz com*pany. Part of the old I.G. Far*ben com*plex, it is the firm that devel*oped LSD and, accord*ing to Sarah Moore, pro*vided it gratis to the Hamilton-Byrne cult. Note that the ele*ments of the old I.G. Far*ben firm have coa*lesced into an essen*tial ele*ment of the Bor*mann cap*i*tal net*work, the eco*nomic com*po*nent of the Under*ground Reich.
In FTR #725, we will exam*ine more ele*ments of link*age between the Pirate Bay milieu and WikiLeaks.

A Swedish Inter*net com*pany linked to file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay says it’s help*ing online whistle-blower Wik*iLeaks release clas*si*fied doc*u*ments from servers located in a Stock*holm sub*urb. Mikael Viborg, the owner of the Web host*ing com*pany PRQ, on Fri*day showed The Asso*ci*ated Press the site — the base*ment of a drab office build*ing — in Solna on the con*di*tion that the exact loca*tion was not revealed.
“This is the office. The server room is fur*ther inside,” the 28-year-old Viborg said, with the door to the office cracked open. Desks with com*put*ers, doc*u*ments, and empty pas*try boxes and soda cans could be seen inside before he closed the door.
Wik*iLeaks posted more than 76,900 clas*si*fied mil*i*tary and other doc*u*ments, mostly raw intel*li*gence reports from Afghanistan, on its web*site July 25. The White House angrily denounced the leaks, say*ing they put the lives of Afghan infor*mants and U.S. troops at risk.
The secre*tive web*site gives few details about its setup, but says its “servers are dis*trib*uted over mul*ti*ple inter*na*tional juris*dic*tions and do not keep logs. Hence these logs can*not be seized.” . . .

” Swedish Web Host*ing Firm Con*firms Wik*iLeaks Link” by Karl Rit*ter [AP]; msnbc.com; 8/6/2010.

[Ed Jewett]

WikiLeaks Claims to Be Under Attack, Calls Press Conference

October 21st, 2010 Here are a few recent tweets, for whatever they’re worth:
# Major WikiLeaks press conference in europe coming up; to book [press/NGO only], mail sunshine.booking@mail.be
# WikiLeaks communications infrastructure is currently under attack. Project BO move to coms channel S. Activate Reston5.
# Now is a good time to mirror this WikiLeaks ‘insurance’ backup http://bit.ly/bRaiYF

[Ed Jewett]

A successful smear by the US government against Wikileaks, while America sleeps

22 October 2010

tags: wikileaks, julian assange
by Fabius Maximus

Summary: An udpate about the affair Wikileaks. US government operations grind down Wikileaks and its best known member, Julian Assange. All smoothly done. But such success requires our disinterest and passivity. Fortunately for our rulers, these are notable characteristics of most 21st century Americans. Wikileaks could become the model for a 21st news media, unlike the parrots who dominate our current news media, scribes repeating whatever they’re told by the government and major corporations. Links to previous chapters of this story appear at the end.
Results to date of the Affair Wikipedia:

1. Sweden’s endless rape/molestation investigation (the ongoing smear)
   
2. Sweden rejects Assange’s application for residency
   
3. Wikileads donation site shutdown by the operator
   
4. Slow admission that a previous smear was wrong
   

(1) Keeping Assange on the defensive, an accused criminal
The endless rape/molestation investigation acts as an ongoing smear appearing in every story about Wikileaks. It’s a crime reported on August 20, involving 3 people with a simple he-said/she-said story. Two months later the “investigation” continues. No end in sight. No charges, no exoneration. Since the charges appear bogus (per the public information), this works well for Wikileaks’ enemies.
(2) Keeping them homeless, without a secure base
“Sweden rejects WikiLeaks editor’s residency request“, CNN, 19 October 2010 — Excerpt:

WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief Julian Assange’s application for permanent residency in Sweden has been rejected, a Swedish Migration Board official told CNN Monday. His application failed to fulfill all the requirements, Gunilla Wikstrom said. She declined to give further details, citing Swedish confidentiality laws.
… Assange faces charges of rape and molestation in Sweden, allegations that came out after the Afghanistan documents were published. It is not clear if the outstanding investigation had any bearing on his residency application.

(3) Cut off their funding, with the usual lies denying the government’s role
“WikiLeaks says funding has been blocked after government blacklisting“, Guardian, 14 October 2010 — Excerpt:

Moneybookers, a British-registered internet payment company that collects WikiLeaks donations, emailed the organisation to say it had closed down its account because it had been put on an official US watchlist and on an Australian government blacklist. … Moneybookers moved against WikiLeaks on 13 August, according to the correspondence, less than a week after the Pentagon made public threats of reprisals against the organisation. Moneybookers wrote to Assange: “Following an audit of your account by our security department, we must advise that your account has been closed … to comply with money laundering or other investigations conducted by government authorities.”
When Assange emailed to ask what the problem was, he says he was told in response by Daniel Stromberg, the Moneybookers e-commerce manager for the Nordic region: “When I did my regular overview of my customers, I noticed that something was wrong with your account and I emailed our risk and legal department to solve this issue. “Below I have copied the answer I received from them: ‘Hi Daniel, you can inform him that initially his account was suspended due to being accessed from a blacklisted IP address. However, following recent publicity and the subsequently addition of the WikiLeaks entity to blacklists in Australia and watchlists in the USA, we have terminated the business relationship.’”
… Moneybookers, which is registered in the UK but controlled by the Bahrain-based group Investcorp, would not make anyone available to explain the decision. Its public relations firm, 77PR, said: “We have never had any request, inquiry or correspondence from any authority regarding this former customer.” Asked how this could be reconciled with the references in the correspondence to a blacklist, it said: “We stick with our original statement.”

“Wikileads donation site shutdown by the operator“, CNN, 16 October 2010 — Excerpt:

According to e-mails provided to CNN by Assange, Moneybookers informed WikiLeaks of its decision in August, shortly after the Pentagon demanded WikiLeaks return all of the military documents and remove them from its website. WikiLeaks refused to do so and is expected to release hundreds of thousands of additional Pentagon papers later this month.
The first e-mail from Moneybookers that notified WikiLeaks of its decision indicated one of the potential grounds for termination was “to comply with money laundering or other investigations conducted by government authorities, agencies or commissions.” When Assange asked for a further explanation, he received another e-mail from the company saying the account was initially suspended “due to being accessed from a blacklisted IP address. However following recent publicity and the subsequently addition of the WikiLeaks entity to blacklists in Australia and watch lists in the USA, we have terminated the business relationship.”
Moneybookers refused to discuss the specifics of its decision, but in a statement denied it had been asked by the United States to terminate the WikiLeaks account. “We simply assess risk like any other financial institution,” said the statement. “We can assure you that we have never had any direct request, inquiry or correspondence from any governmental authority regarding this former customer.”

(4) Slow admission that a previous smear was wrong
Transcript of remarks by Admiral Mullen at a press conference on 29 July 2010 — Excerpt:

I certainly share {SecDef’s} concerns about the recklessness with which classified documents were both leaked and then posted online. As I said earlier this week, I am appalled by this behavior, and, frankly, outraged that anyone in their right mind would think it valuable to make public even one sensitive report, let alone tens of thousands of them, about a war that is being waged. Mr. Assange can say whatever he likes about the greater good he thinks he and his source are doing, but the truth is they might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family. Disagree with the war all you want, take issue with the policy, challenge me or our ground commanders on the decisions we make to accomplish the mission we’ve been given, but don’t put those who willingly go into harm’s way even further in harm’s way just to satisfy your need to make a point.

Other government officials made similar claims, such as Senator Levin (D-MI, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee) on CNN, DoD Press Secretary Press Secretary Geoff Morrell, and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. This blood libel was uncritically repeated by the news media and exaggerated by a thousand analysts and bloggers, such as Conn Carroll of the Heritage Foundation, Liz Cheney (video here), Newt Gingrich (video here), and Paul Rieckhoff (Executive Director of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America). (This history is from Glenn Greenwald)
The damage done, the government can announce the truth — relying on our torpor and amnesia. As in this letter from SecDef Gates to Senator Mullen. Excerpt:

Our initial review indicates most of the information contained in these documents relates to tactical military operations. The initial assessment in no way discounts the risk to national security; however, the review to date has not revealed any sensitive intelligence sources and methods compromised by this disclosure.
… The documents do contain the names of cooperative Afghan nationals and the Department takes very seriously the Taliban threats recently discussed in the press. We assess this risk as likely to cause significant harm or damage to the national security interests of the United States and are examining mitigation options.

More from CNN: “But a senior NATO official in Kabul told CNN that there has not been a single case of Afghans needing protection or to be moved because of the leak.” If there was evidence that Wikileaks contributed to the death of an American or ally, the military would certainly let us know.
Other posts about this story

1. Sad news about the CIA – Delusional assumption about America savvy.
   
2. The full story of the rape charges against Julian Assange of Wikileaks, a possible covert op.
   
3. Update to the Wikeleaks rape story, and why it’s important – If a covert op, it’s working
   
4. New and strange developments in the prosecution of Julian Assange (Wikileaks) – New but not more enlightening.
   
5. Endgame for the affair Assange: a big win for the government, 27 September 2010
   

Other posts about Wikileaks

1. A major leak of government secrets – read all about it!, 9 February 2010
   
2. About the Wikileaks footage of possible war crimes, 7 April 2010
   
3. Afghanistan war logs: Shattering the illusion of a bloodless victory, 28 July 2010
   

From http://fabiusmaximus.wordpress.com/2010/...more-22685

Read more about the website, the authors (several under the name), the politics of the web site, and more at the masthead of the site:
http://fabiusmaximus.wordpress.com/

[Ed Jewett]

WikiLeaks releases sensitive documents on Iraq war

Hundreds of thousands of U.S. military documents about the Iraq war are made public in one of the largest leaks of classified material in American history. The most explosive documents are reports suggesting that U.S. forces knew about but failed to stop numerous cases of prisoner abuse.


By David S. Cloud, Los Angeles Times October 22, 2010|6:25 p.m.


Reporting from Washington —
Hundreds of thousands of U.S. military documents about the Iraq war were made public Friday by the WikiLeaks website in one of the largest leaks of classified material in American history.

The most explosive documents are reports suggesting that U.S. forces knew about but failed to stop numerous cases of prisoner abuse by Iraqi police and soldiers, according to accounts by several news organizations that were given early access to the files by WikiLeaks.

The documents, known in the U.S. military as "significant activities" reports, describe in minute detail what U.S. troops in Iraq encountered on a daily basis from 2003 to this year, from daily casualty notifications and routine descriptions of attacks to sensitive intelligence tips and accounts of meetings.

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The files also outline U.S. concerns that Iran's Revolutionary Guard was providing training and giving weapons to Shiite Muslim militias in a proxy war aimed at killing U.S. troops and Iraq's Sunni Muslims.

WikiLeaks, a secretive activist organization that claims to campaign against officials' secrecy, called the disclosure of the 391,832 documents on the Iraq conflict "the first real glimpse into the secret history of the war that the United States government has been privy to throughout."

The WikiLeaks statement said that its analysis of casualties mentioned in reports determined that 109,032 people died in Iraq over the seven-year period, including 66,081 civilians, 23,984 insurgents, 15,196 Iraqi army soldiers and police officers and 3,771 U.S. and allied military personnel.

Those numbers could not be verified, but that accounting of civilian casualties is substantially higher than a tally of the death toll released this month by the Pentagon, which said that 76,939 Iraqi civilian and security force members had died in the conflict.

Amnesty International, a human rights group, said it appeared that the U.S. forces may have broken international law by turning prisoners over to Iraqi security forces when they knew the prisoners were likely to be tortured.

"We have not yet had an opportunity to study the leaked files in detail but they add to our concern that the U.S. authorities committed a serious breach of international law when they summarily handed over thousands of detainees to Iraqi security forces who they knew were continuing to torture and abuse detainees on a truly shocking scale," said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International's director for the Middle East and North Africa.

WikiLeaks did not reveal who provided it the classified material, but a U.S. Army intelligence analyst who was stationed in Iraq until this year has been charged with improperly downloading vast amounts of classified material, including files that were previously made public by WikiLeaks.

U.S. officials, who have been bracing for the release of the documents for weeks, denounced WikiLeaks for ignoring appeals in recent days to not make the material public. But they also downplayed the significance of the disclosures, describing the material as raw and unanalyzed information that would contribute little to the public's understanding of the war.

"We strongly condemn the unauthorized disclosure of classified information," Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said in a statement. He described the reports as "snapshots of events, both tragic and mundane" that do "not bring new understanding to Iraq's past."

A team of more than 100 U.S. government analysts have been working for weeks to go through files they expected WikiLeaks to post, looking for names of Iraqis who assisted the U.S. and other sensitive details in the reports. That information has been forwarded to U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in Iraq, in hopes of minimizing the damage.

Even so, Morrell said, the leak does "expose secret information that could make our troops even more vulnerable to attack in the future. Just as with the leaked Afghan documents, we know our enemies will mine this information looking for insights into how we operate, cultivate sources, and react in combat situations, even the capability of our equipment."

Last July, WikiLeaks made public tens of thousands of similar classified U.S. reports about the war in Afghanistan, which the organization vowed would transform the debate about that war. Senior Pentagon officials said the leaks compromised U.S. intelligence methods and might result in the death of Afghans identified in the documents who had assisted the U.S. and its allies.

Neither prediction appears to have come true. While public support for the Afghan war has continued to fall, the WikiLeaks documents have faded from public view.

Pentagon officials have admitted they are unaware of any Afghans who have been killed as a result of their names appearing in the documents. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in a letter to the head of the Senate Armed Services Committee that the leak had not revealed any "sensitive intelligence sources or methods."

As it did with the Afghan reports, WikiLeaks gave the New York Times, Britain's Guardian newspaper, the German news weekly Der Spiegel, and al Jazeera television advance access to the Iraq documents, all of which released stories about their findings Friday.

david.cloud@latimes.com

Times staff writer Ned Parker in Washington contributed to this report. Copyright © 2010, Los Angeles Times


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/...6465.story

[Ed Jewett]

Also from Google News:

Video: News Wrap: WikiLeaks Releases 400,000 Iraq War Documents PBS News Hour Video: News Wrap: WikiLeaks Releases 400,000 Iraq War Documents PBS News Hour

WikiLeaks reveal Iraqi torture, deaths ABC Online


ABC News - Reuters - msnbc.com - Washington Post - Wikipedia: Iraq War Logs all 1,650 news articles »

[Ed Jewett]

Huge dossier of secret files shows the US ignored torture of Iraqis --Killings at checkpoints were 'covered up' --Estimate of civilian deaths rises to 122,000 23 Oct 2010 Whistle-blowing website Wikileaks unveiled its cache of secret Iraq war documents last night in what is the largest leak in US military history. The reports deliver a devastating verdict on the Coalition's involvement in Iraq including revelations that the American military: --Knew Iraqi officials were torturing detainees but ruled against intervening. --Conspired to cover up the deaths of "hundreds" of Iraqi civilians at manned checkpoints. --Kept records of the number of Iraqi civilians that were being killed, despite famously claiming that the military "didn't do body counts".

[Ed Jewett]

Secret files reveal how US turned blind eye to Iraq torture

Submitted by davidswanson on Fri, 2010-10-22 23:41

• Evidence
  
• Iraq
  
• Torture
  
• Massive leak of military logs exposes serial abuse of detainees, 15,000 previously unknown deaths and full toll of Iraq's five years of carnage
  

• • [URL="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2010/aug/13/iraq-war-logs"] Interactive: One day in Iraq, log by log
    [/URL]
    
  • Nato and Pentagon condemn disclosure of files
    
  • Apache killed insurgents who tried to surrender
    
  • Secret order that let US ignore abuse
    
  • About the latest war logs leak
    
  • Full coverage of the Iraq war logs
    
  
  

[Magda Hassan]

Woops! Oh, you mean those 15,000 to 120,000 un-necessary deaths?