Will WikiLeaks unravel the American 'secret government'?

[Peter Lemkin]

:hahaha::hahaha::rofl::rofl::rofl:

Tsk, tsk dear boy - "point of law"? Whatever is that when it's at home?

The judicial system is politicized remember. The Director of Public Prosecutions answers to the Attorney, the Attorney answers to the Crime Minister, and he, our beloved Cameron,.... he answers to the United States.

This is "The Law" of reality. So please no more word plays about the perception of it all, let's simply stick to what we all know is the actualite, 'kay.

:evil::banghead::adore::deal::afraid:

[Peter Lemkin]

Bail WAS granted with the prior 'conditions' as one would expect for someone being examined for extradition on murder charges.

Apparently, the USA is about to/trying to charge Assange as a co-conspirator to Manning....stay tuned in the New World Prison we all now live in!

Manning is being kept in solitary confinement without even sheets or pillow - having not even been convicted of anything. The Nazi's have nothing on USS. He is not allowed to read, talk, exercise. He must just lie down on cold metal bed when not eating. Not to mention the drugs he's getting now.

[Peter Presland]

Bail WAS granted with the prior 'conditions' as one would expect for someone being examined for extradition on murder charges.

Batting for Assange here, and assuming the US is indeed preparing legally arguable grounds for an extradition request, here is how I see his options:

It's a toss up whether such a request would have a better prospect of success from the UK or Sweden. Given the history of the past 100 years or so, my guess is Sweden might be a better bet for Assange. I may be wrong about that but... it's a potentially crunch judgement for him.

For sure the only chance he has of NOT having to answer such a request from either Sweden or the UK is to have the putative Swedish charges dealt with so that he can move to somewhere less in awe of Uncle Sam.

I just have this nagging suspicion that there are things in play that are being kept well hidden. In particular the US/UK SIS's doing their damndest to scupper the prospective decrypting of the "Insurance File". I have no idea how he has primed that prospective bombshell but, if he has been daft enough to keep the key entirely to himself, then they have every prospect of scuppering it so long as he is under their control. The contents of that file are clearly worth mega-bucks right now - and just who does he/can he trust with mega-bucks - $64,000 question that (though inflation means it really ought to be re calibrated by a factor of a thousand or so). If the NSA get a hold of the key first then lots of new options open up for them and my guess is they are throwing everything they've got at it - with this legal charade just an itsy bit of their 'everything'

[Peter Lemkin]

Bail WAS granted with the prior 'conditions' as one would expect for someone being examined for extradition on murder charges.

Batting for Assange here, and assuming the US is indeed preparing legally arguable grounds for an extradition request, here is how I see his options:

It's a toss up whether such a request would have a better prospect of success from the UK or Sweden. Given the history of the past 100 years or so, my guess is Sweden might be a better bet for Assange. I may be wrong about that but... it's a potentially crunch judgement for him.

For sure the only chance he has of NOT having to answer such a request from either Sweden or the UK is to have the putative Swedish charges dealt with so that he can move to somewhere less in awe of Uncle Sam.

I just have this nagging suspicion that there are things in play that are being kept well hidden. In particular the US/UK SIS's doing their damndest to scupper the prospective decrypting of the "Insurance File". I have no idea how he has primed that prospective bombshell but, if he has been daft enough to keep the key entirely to himself, then they have every prospect of scuppering it so long as he is under their control. The contents of that file are clearly worth mega-bucks right now - and just who does he/can he trust with mega-bucks - $64,000 question that (though inflation means it really ought to be re calibrated by a factor of a thousand or so). If the NSA get a hold of the key first then lots of new options open up for them and my guess is they are throwing everything they've got at it - with this legal charade just an itsy bit of their 'everything'

Looks like the USA is trying to checkmate him wherever he goes. If they crack the insurance file and if it contains something hot [they certainly have a spy or three in Wikileaks gang too by now and always did in their media allies] they could charge him with espionage. As mentioned elsewhere, they are not trying to 'break' Manning and telling him they won't execute him IF and ONLY IF he says that Assange was a co-conspirator in the theft of the secret information......and with that they'd execute Assange on espionage charges after a monkey trial. I also see danger for all the other similar sites, like Cryptome et al. The internet repression ain't a comin' - its here now.....they just going to keep tightening the thumb-screws.

[Peter Lemkin]

Incredible.....free to go....as long as he doesn't go. Latest is he won't be freed at the earliest until tomorrow.....this is a travesty of injustice!

[Carsten Wiethoff]

WikiLeaks: the emperor wears no clothes

Now WikiLeaks has laid bare the lies and collusion, we pledge to not just witness but actively participate in its fight for democracy

• 
  
• • John Pilger and others
    
  • guardian.co.uk, Thursday 16 December 2010 13.30 GMT <li class="history">Article history
    
  We are writing this statement in support of democracy.
  Since Sunday, 28 November, WikiLeaks and five major newspapers from around the world (the Guardian, the New York Times, Der Spiegel, Le Monde, El Pais) have been publishing redacted versions of leaked US diplomatic cables in an ongoing story that has become known as "Cablegate". The identity of the original leaker is – as yet – unconfirmed.
  This is not the first leak of confidential documentation that exposes governmental lies – and it won't be the last. Secret information has long been used by elites to build and maintain power over huge populations of citizens, workers, armed forces and others. But when the secrets of the elite are revealed, the power they represent can be confronted and reversed.
  Nor is this the first time that state (and other) forces of power have acted to prevent dissemination of information on the internet – and it won't be the last.
  Sites have been removed by their hosting companies, servers seized by police or other governmental authorities, take-down requests issued under the rule of law: none of these prevented information spreading.
  But the issues run deeper than this. As former US president Thomas Jefferson once stated, "information is the currency of democracy". Democracy – the rule of the people – as currently understood and practiced is, and has long been, severely restricted.
  Power is abused in our name by governments and transnational corporations around the world: they fight illegal wars; abuse and kill people; pillage property and planet. The powerful accumulate wealth and force the majority – the rest of us – to pay for it: with our health, our freedom, our time, our money and with our lives. For a long time, we have been deceived about the reasons for this: it is our right for the truth to be known. Without that right, democracy cannot and does not exist. The current assault on WikiLeaks is yet another instance of democracy-hating by elites.
  Now, we find we are witnessing a new level of info-struggle. We are witnessing how the emperor wears no clothes. We can see the lies made bare, we can see the posturing and propositioning that our governments participate in. We can see the collusion that occurs with transnational corporations and with global media giants. WikiLeaks and others are battling against powerful institutions bent on curtailing our knowledge of and influence over policies and structures that impact our lives: they are information heroes, not information villains. We see all this being done in our name, and we condemn it.
  Thus, we pledge to not simply bear witness but to actively participate in this fight – for freedom of speech, for real democracy and for justice. We know this is only the beginning: de-masking the puppeteers facilitates action towards fairer and more just societies. We demand that the truth be heard. We stand at the doorway to a new, just and democratic world: a doorway we pledge to keep open and to march through. We stand with all the inhabitants of this world who are affected daily by governments that oppress the right to free speech and obstruct the path to true democracy.
  Signed:
  Andrei Morgan
  Michael Albert
  Jamie McClelland
  Daniel Kahn Gillmor
  Tachanka! collective
  London Indymedia
  John Pilger
  Donnacha Delong, vice-president, National Union of Journalists
  Yvonne Ridley, founder, Women In Journalism
  Hessom Razavi
  Mike Holderness, freelance journalist
  Pennie Quinton, freelance journalist and human rights campaigner
  May First/People Link
  Phil Edwards
  Sheffield Indymedia
  Chris Grollman
  Chris Anderson
  David Graeber, reader in social anthropology, Goldsmiths, University of London
  Toile-Libre
  Plentyfact collective
  Koumbit Worker's Committee
  Sasha Costanza-Chock, fellow, Berkman Centre for Internet & Society, Harvard University
  
  
  Add my name to that!
  
  

[Peter Lemkin]

Surely made this old heart feel good to read that. That list will grow, I'm sure to thousands.......but this really is the start of a long war we can win, but ONLY if a sizable number of people stand up and are not afraid to face the Monsters behind the Masks of Deep Political machinations [usually disguised - Wizard Of Oz style - as legitimate Governments.] :willy:

Update: The veteran journalist John Pilger was rejected as one of the sureties. The judge described him in court as "another peripatetic Australian like Assange". Where do they get these models of injustice and conformity to TPTB's views? [I ask you rhetorically, Fellow Serfs]!

[David Guyatt]

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20101224/tuk-...dbed5.html

WikiLeaks Founder: 'I Could Die In A US Jail'
Friday, December 24 11:37 am
© Sky News 2010
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has claimed he could be killed if he is detained in an American jail. Skip related content

But, in an interview with The Guardian, he also said it would be "politically impossible" for Britain to extradite him to the United States for alleged espionage.

Assange is currently on bail in the UK amid moves to extradite him to Sweden on sex assault charges.

American authorities are reportedly considering whether they could extradite him to stand trial for espionage over leaked US diplomatic cables.

The WikiLeaks website has distributed about 1,900 of the more than 250,000 embassy documents it claims to possess.

Many of them contain critical or embarrassing US assessments of foreign nations and their leaders.

Assange told the paper, if he was extradited to America, there was a "high chance" of him being killed "Jack Ruby-style" in the US prison system.

Ruby is the man who shot dead Lee Harvey Oswald before he could stand trial for the murder of President John F Kennedy.

But Mr Assange also believed it would be difficult for the British to hand him over to the Americans, if there was strong public support for him in the UK.

"It's all a matter of politics. We can presume there will be an attempt to influence UK political opinion, and to influence the perception of our standing as a moral actor," he said.

He added: "Legally the UK has the right to not extradite for political crimes.

"Espionage is the classic case of political crimes. It is at the discretion of the UK Government as to whether to apply to that exception."

[David Guyatt]

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20101224/r_t_...?printer=1

WikiLeaks Founder: 'I Could Die In A US Jail'

Friday, December 24 11:37 am
© Sky News 2010
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has claimed he could be killed if he is detained in an American jail. Skip related content

But, in an interview with The Guardian, he also said it would be "politically impossible" for Britain to extradite him to the United States for alleged espionage.

Assange is currently on bail in the UK amid moves to extradite him to Sweden on sex assault charges.

American authorities are reportedly considering whether they could extradite him to stand trial for espionage over leaked US diplomatic cables.

The WikiLeaks website has distributed about 1,900 of the more than 250,000 embassy documents it claims to possess.

Many of them contain critical or embarrassing US assessments of foreign nations and their leaders.

Assange told the paper, if he was extradited to America, there was a "high chance" of him being killed "Jack Ruby-style" in the US prison system.

Ruby is the man who shot dead Lee Harvey Oswald before he could stand trial for the murder of President John F Kennedy.

But Mr Assange also believed it would be difficult for the British to hand him over to the Americans, if there was strong public support for him in the UK.

"It's all a matter of politics. We can presume there will be an attempt to influence UK political opinion, and to influence the perception of our standing as a moral actor," he said.

He added: "Legally the UK has the right to not extradite for political crimes.

"Espionage is the classic case of political crimes. It is at the discretion of the UK Government as to whether to apply to that exception."

[Peter Lemkin]

Assange says Lee Harvey Oswald type execution would await him in US

Calcutta News.Net
Friday 24th December, 2010


Julian Assange has told the Guardian newspaper he doesn't believe Britain will deport him to the United States.

Dismissing a threat from the US government, he said if he were to be sent to America he could be killed in the same way as Lee Harvey Oswald; "Jack Ruby style."

The WikiLeaks founder said it would be politically impossible for Britain to extradite him to the United States on espionage charges as he had strong public support from the UK public.

He told the Guardian: "It's all a matter of politics. We can presume there will be an attempt to influence UK political opinion, and to influence the perception of our (Wikileaks') standing as a moral actor. Legally the UK has the right to not extradite for political crimes. Espionage is the classic case of political crimes. It is at the discretion of the UK government as to whether to apply to that exception."

US authorities are thought to be considering whether they could extradite Assange on espionage charges.

He is currently on bail facing extradition proceedings to Sweden on allegations of sexual assault, which he has said are trumped up.