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Norwegian Newspaper has access to ALL 250,000+ Wikileak State Dept. Cables!!! Fasten Seatbelts!
#1
WikiLeaks documents leaked again

December 22, 2010

An Oslo-based newspaper reportedly has become the only medium in the world that's secured unlimited access to more than 250,000 documents initially leaked to the non-profit organization WikiLeaks. Dance Newspaper Aftenposten's access seems to have spoiled WikiLeaks' strategy to retain control over the vast array of classified material mostly originating from US embassies around the globe.


Aftenposten has earlier disclosed that it had gained access to all the WikiLeaks documents that started being made public last month. WikiLeaks itself had intended to control their distribution through exclusive agreements with several major media outlets including, among others, the Guardian in the UK, El Pais in Spain, Le Monde in France and Der Spiegel in Germany which had been invited to participate in their publication. Those media outlets have since been releasing documents and writing about their contents in cooperation with WikiLeaks.

On Wednesday, Norway's main business newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (DN) reported that now WikiLeaks seems to have lost that control. Aftenposten, according to DN, gained access to all 251,287 documents with no strings attached and has been publishing stories about the contents of many over the past several days, without always publishing the original documents themselves.

"I have no comment on how we secured access to the documents," Aftenposten's news editor Ole Erik Almlid told DN. "We never reveal our sources, not in this case either." DN also reported that WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson had no immediate comment.

(PICAPP PHOTO ABOVE: WikiLeaks director Julian Assange, leaving the High Court in London last week after being released from custody.)

Almlid has earlier said in his own newspaper that Aftenposten has not paid anyone anything for the documents, and that his editorial staff will use their standard journalistic criteria when selecting which documents to write about. Almlid has said Aftenposten is aware that the contents of some documents can involve both personal and state security concerns, which will be taken into consideration.

Free to publish…' or not
"We're free to do what we want with these documents," Almlid told DN. "We're free to publish the documents or not publish the documents, we can publish on the Internet or on paper. We are handling these documents just like all other journalistic material to which we have gained access."

Publication, of course, is in the Norwegian language, leaving the contents of the documents subject to translation from their original English and restricting their consumption, at least initially, to readers who can understand Norwegian. Aftenposten shut down its own English-language news service two years ago.

Aftenposten is part of the Media Norge group owned by media concern Schibsted, making it partners with other Norwegian newspapers in, for example, Bergen, Stavanger and Kristiansand. Staff on those papers are also helping in the effort to sift through the WikiLeaks documents, with Almlid telling DN that around 20 journalists are involved.

They've also sought some international help, reported DN, sending out e-mails to reporters around the world to seek advice on what issues Aftenposten should search for in the documents.

Under pressure
WikiLeaks itself has been under enormous pressure, not least from the US government which is not at all happy that diplomatic communication it thought was confidential is now being revealed on a daily basis. Major US banks and credit card companies have cut off WikiLeaks' access to funding from donors and WikiLeaks' director Julian Assange has been held in custody.

Asked whether Aftenposten now worried that it would incur the wrath of the US government, Almlid said: "I have not thought to use any time to think about that."
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
Reply
#2
WikiLeaks has turned into a torrent

January 4, 2011

Oslo newspaper Aftenposten continues to churn out stories related to the content of more than 250,000 diplomatic cables that the US had intended to keep secret. Among the topics: Sri Lankan dealings with Iran, alleged French espionage and German-US spy satellites, and Israel's plans for war.

Here follows a summary of revelations emerging recently from the WikiLeaks documents to which Aftenposten has gained access:
French officials have been accused in American diplomatic cables of being behind more industrial espionage in Europe than both the Russians and the Chinese. In Norway, special police intelligence unit PST has warned that foreign firms are constantly on the lookout for valuable information about Norwegian products.Among the notes written by the US ambassador in Berlin, the French were referred to as "the evil empire" when it comes to trying to steal technology, "and Germany knows it," according to the director of a large German firm.
German intelligence agents are developing new secret spy satellites in cooperation with the US, according to reports from the US Embassy in Berlin. The satellites were being disguised as part of an environmental measure to help reverse climate change, but WikiLeaks documents reveal that they are capable of surveillance all over the globe, also underground.German officials later denied the so-called HiROS (High Resolution Optical System) satellites were part of any military program and called reports they would be used for spying "humbug."
Sri Lanka, during the final stages of its war against the Tamil Tigers (LTTE), was reportedly in negotiations to buy rocket launchers and other military equipment from both Iran and North Korea. US officials threatened Sri Lanka with costly sanctions if the weapons deals were carried out. Any purchases would have been in violation of UN resolutions against trade with either country.Sri Lankan officials denied they were in the process of illegal weapon purchases, but the US ambassador in Colombo wasn't convinced. There was no comment on any deals with North Korea.
Top Israeli military officials told a US Congressional delegation in November 2009 that Iran has 300 Shihab missiles that can reach Israel, and that the missile threat was more serious than ever before. Israel would have approximately 12 minutes to respond to an attack, and war would be underway.The threat, revealed in WikiLeaks documents, explains why Israel puts such importance on missile defense. The documents also reveal that Israel is in the midst of full preparations for another war in the Middle East.
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
Reply
#3
It certainly is a major development.

The last release by Wikileaks.org website was 1 cable - on 4th December 2010. Two days earlier on 2nd December 2010, just 3 cables were released. In fact, releases have almost dried up altogether.

The same is true for the British newspaper associated with Wikileaks, the Guardian. It's online editions have no recent stories and its database does not seem to have been updated (unless I'm missing something) and the stories it carries are now largely on its blog, rather than articles per se (again unless I'm missing something).
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.
Carl Jung - Aion (1951). CW 9, Part II: P.14
Reply
#4
[My Note] I think as someone calculated it would take at the current rate about 30 years for Wikileaks to get through all of the cables...but I'm guessing someone inside the organization didn't like that and re-leaked ALL the cables to this Norwegian paper - who have in turn shared them with other papers...so in short order all should be sorted for importance, gone through and out.....here come the 'missing' Israeli cables too.....for example this one...]

Wikileaks documents showing how Israel planned that 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza would be held "on the edge of the cliff" through economic sanctions.
OFPER ANDERS JOHANSEN

Read embassy documents relating to this matter to the right of the article. Read all embassy documents we have published on this site .

While the fear increases until a new armed conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, throwing Wikileaks documents new light on what happened behind the scenes in the weeks and months before the war two years ago.

Israeli officials, intelligence agencies and politicians give in secret stamped documents from the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv an unbiased and almost cynical view of Israel's economic blockade of the Gaza Strip, which inflicted the 1.5 million Palestinians in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip suffering.

"As part of their overall embargoplan against Gaza, Israeli officials confirmed on many occasions that the goal is to keep Gaza's economy on the brink of collapse, without pushing it over the edge," the U.S. Embassy 3 November 2008 under the title "Pengeløs in Gaza?".

"The plan is to keep the Gaza economy in the function at the lowest possible level without getting a humanitarian crisis."

The day after the embassy summed up the situation - and while Barack Obama was elected president of the United States - was the 5-month-long ceasefire between Israel and Hamas breached. Israeli forces attacked a Hamas targets in Gaza, supposedly to stop an attempt to kidnap an Israeli soldier. Hamas responded by sending rockets at several Israeli towns. A few weeks later started the war.
Pengeløs in Gaza

The U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, states that it has not been possible to get Israel to turn back, despite pressure from the U.S. to allow larger money transfers.

At this time, the Palestinian Authority sent a desperate plea, with support from both the UN and the EU, to transfer 100 million shekels a month to pay salaries to public employees.

"This will not be considered seriously by Israel until after January 2009".

The justification by Israel was that a lot of money to the government employees in Gaza would still end with Hamas.
Unsuccessful strategy

In another Wikileaks-note of Israel's economic blockade of Gaza from July 2007 says Brigadier General Danny Arditi, one of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's closest counterterrorism advisers, that "the goal was to hurt the Hamas government in Gaza economically without creating a humanitarian crisis, and buy time for Fatah to rebuild support. "

Israel imposed sanctions on Gaza after Hamas gained control of the area in June 2007. The borders were closed, with the exception of some shipments of humanitarian supplies. Cash flow was also closed at times, even though Israel sometimes gave permission to transfer money to the Palestinian administration to be able to pay the salaries of 77,000 public sector employees. Both the EU and the United Nations reacted strongly to the blockade, which was described as "collective punishment" of Palestinians.
The United States had no

While the Gaza crisis escalated and the number of rocket attacks by Hamas increased, did U.S. diplomats a new offensive in the evening 3 December 2008 to Amos Gilad, the security commander in the Israeli Defense Ministry. At that time, Amos Gilad was described as "the man who governs Israel." The Americans believed that a transfer of NIS 250 million to the Palestinians to ease the crisis.

"Theyre not Getting a dime." They do not get ten cents, "said Maj. Gen. Amos Gilad cash, according to the embassy minutes of the meeting.

- Outwardly, Israel said that the argument for the blockade was concern for Israeli security. This shows that Israel's long-term goal was to keep Gaza under a strong pressure so that the situation was untenable. Israeli Government spokesmen said that Gaza was on a diet, so they got on better thoughts about Hamas, "Middle East expert and professor of history Hilde Henriksen Waage.

- Wikileaks documents show that the United States as late as 3 December tried to force Israel to release more money into. How could this have affected the situation in Gaza?

- Of course it would be helpful to the civilian population substantially. This was before the black economy was such a large scale that we see today. When we look at the situation now, we can say that Israel's plan has succeeded. Hamas keeps pretty good order, the black economy is flourishing in Gaza, Israel will not have to feed the 1.5 million Palestinians and political, no one cares about Gaza. Thus, this policy has been a success for Israel, even if the conflict is not resolved, "said Henriksen Waage.
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
Reply
#5
But this case is also about some absolutely essential values.

During the first week of the so-called "Cable Street" leak from the site Wikileaks has received enormous amounts of information. Much of it was well known - or at least expected - in advance and that corruption flourishes in Moscow and Kabul that Gordon Brown had a mildly difficult time as British prime minister or the United States put pressure on Norway in the forefront of fighter decision.

Several of the documents very useful as background material because they are written so well by the obviously talented and well-informed diplomats. One example is a story about a wedding in Dagestan. Read, laugh and learn.

Still other wiki-reporting was entertaining in a somewhat dirty way - just look at the brutal and ruthless characteristics of people Nicholas Sarkozy ("tynnhudet" and "authoritarian"), Angela Merkel ("Teflon Merkel") and Hamid Karzai (" paranoid ").

Common to all the documents that have come out so far is that they were not intended to be read by you and me.
Embarrassing calls

There are many good reasons. Of course, the tone directly in the reports sent home to Washington, where leaders must make important decisions about U.S. foreign policy. And of course it can have serious consequences for the same foreign policy if that information becomes public. American diplomats can expect a wide range of embarrassing conversations in the future.

But this means that it is an evil that the information now made available?

To answer that question, it is important to emphasize that in no way Wikileaks has completed a release of the over 250,000 documents leaked from the U.S. authorities. Currently, only about 700 documents made public. All of them have been evaluated, either by Wikileaks or quality of the editorial that The New York Times or the Guardian, to see whether the news value is greater than the potential damage the documents can cause.

Names are censored. Documents are withheld. Currently it is difficult to see any content in the claims by U.S. authorities that life could be in danger because of these documents.
Values

Given the careful, responsible and controlled the publication date has been, it is disturbing to see how strong reactions to the leak has been from governments around the world. U.S. investigating whether Wikileaks-founder Julian Assange can be prosecuted for espionage. At the same powerful forces working to close the entire site, which they succeeded on several occasions in the past week.

The condemnation has been unanimous from those in power because the leakage obscure diplomacy. It's understandable. But this is also about values. We in the West preaches a lot of other countries about the need for transparency and freedom of expression. It becomes difficult to justify such claims when our leaders also reveals a strong hostility to what can be some of the most important thing that has happened in the name of freedom of speech in a very long time.
--------------------------------------------------------------
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
Reply
#6
Peter Lemkin Wrote:[My Note] I think as someone calculated it would take at the current rate about 30 years for Wikileaks to get through all of the cables...but I'm guessing someone inside the organization didn't like that and re-leaked ALL the cables to this Norwegian paper - who have in turn shared them with other papers...so in short order all should be sorted for importance, gone through and out.....here come the 'missing' Israeli cables too.....for example this one...]

Wikileaks documents showing how Israel planned that 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza would be held "on the edge of the cliff" through economic sanctions.
OFPER ANDERS JOHANSEN

Read embassy documents relating to this matter to the right of the article. Read all embassy documents we have published on this site .

While the fear increases until a new armed conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, throwing Wikileaks documents new light on what happened behind the scenes in the weeks and months before the war two years ago.

Israeli officials, intelligence agencies and politicians give in secret stamped documents from the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv an unbiased and almost cynical view of Israel's economic blockade of the Gaza Strip, which inflicted the 1.5 million Palestinians in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip suffering.

"As part of their overall embargoplan against Gaza, Israeli officials confirmed on many occasions that the goal is to keep Gaza's economy on the brink of collapse, without pushing it over the edge," the U.S. Embassy 3 November 2008 under the title "Pengeløs in Gaza?".

"The plan is to keep the Gaza economy in the function at the lowest possible level without getting a humanitarian crisis."

The day after the embassy summed up the situation - and while Barack Obama was elected president of the United States - was the 5-month-long ceasefire between Israel and Hamas breached. Israeli forces attacked a Hamas targets in Gaza, supposedly to stop an attempt to kidnap an Israeli soldier. Hamas responded by sending rockets at several Israeli towns. A few weeks later started the war.
Pengeløs in Gaza

The U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, states that it has not been possible to get Israel to turn back, despite pressure from the U.S. to allow larger money transfers.

At this time, the Palestinian Authority sent a desperate plea, with support from both the UN and the EU, to transfer 100 million shekels a month to pay salaries to public employees.

"This will not be considered seriously by Israel until after January 2009".

The justification by Israel was that a lot of money to the government employees in Gaza would still end with Hamas.
Unsuccessful strategy

In another Wikileaks-note of Israel's economic blockade of Gaza from July 2007 says Brigadier General Danny Arditi, one of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's closest counterterrorism advisers, that "the goal was to hurt the Hamas government in Gaza economically without creating a humanitarian crisis, and buy time for Fatah to rebuild support. "

Israel imposed sanctions on Gaza after Hamas gained control of the area in June 2007. The borders were closed, with the exception of some shipments of humanitarian supplies. Cash flow was also closed at times, even though Israel sometimes gave permission to transfer money to the Palestinian administration to be able to pay the salaries of 77,000 public sector employees. Both the EU and the United Nations reacted strongly to the blockade, which was described as "collective punishment" of Palestinians.
The United States had no

While the Gaza crisis escalated and the number of rocket attacks by Hamas increased, did U.S. diplomats a new offensive in the evening 3 December 2008 to Amos Gilad, the security commander in the Israeli Defense Ministry. At that time, Amos Gilad was described as "the man who governs Israel." The Americans believed that a transfer of NIS 250 million to the Palestinians to ease the crisis.

"Theyre not Getting a dime." They do not get ten cents, "said Maj. Gen. Amos Gilad cash, according to the embassy minutes of the meeting.

- Outwardly, Israel said that the argument for the blockade was concern for Israeli security. This shows that Israel's long-term goal was to keep Gaza under a strong pressure so that the situation was untenable. Israeli Government spokesmen said that Gaza was on a diet, so they got on better thoughts about Hamas, "Middle East expert and professor of history Hilde Henriksen Waage.

- Wikileaks documents show that the United States as late as 3 December tried to force Israel to release more money into. How could this have affected the situation in Gaza?

- Of course it would be helpful to the civilian population substantially. This was before the black economy was such a large scale that we see today. When we look at the situation now, we can say that Israel's plan has succeeded. Hamas keeps pretty good order, the black economy is flourishing in Gaza, Israel will not have to feed the 1.5 million Palestinians and political, no one cares about Gaza. Thus, this policy has been a success for Israel, even if the conflict is not resolved, "said Henriksen Waage.

Curious that the 5 major Wikileaks MSM outlets haven't carried this story hitherto, eh?
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.
Carl Jung - Aion (1951). CW 9, Part II: P.14
Reply
#7
David Guyatt Wrote:Curious that the 5 major Wikileaks MSM outlets haven't carried this story hitherto, eh?

More so when you know it was released in Norway, not a third world nation!, about a week ago!!!!!

:pointlaugh: I think whoever thought they could control and mould the Wikileak leaks has just sprung a massive leak and the ship is sinking......:pinkelephant: Titanic style!!!!
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
Reply
#8
Editor expounds on WikiLeaks access

January 4, 2011

The editor of Oslo-based newspaper Aftenposten was fending off reaction Tuesday to a commentary she wrote on her paper's access to all of the more than 250,000 diplomatic cables initially leaked to the non-profit organization WikiLeaks. She had called it a "paradox" that WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange reportedly is angry that Aftenposten now can report freely from the leaked cables.


Aftenposten's editor-in-chief, Hilde Haugsgjerd, elaborated on her media company's access to the WikiLeaks documents. PHOTO: http://www.aftenposten.no

"Paradoxically enough, the chief of one of our times' biggest leaks is angry because there was a leak from his own leak," editor-in-chief Hilde Haugsgjerd wrote in her commentary in Monday's edition of Aftenposten. She wrote that Aftenposten's own access to the cables, with no strings attached, "destroyed Assange's own strategy for when and how documents about international conficts and themes should be made public."

WikiLeaks, Haugsgjerd claimed, had a media plan to "secure themselves the best possible coverage and contribute to the most international debate possible around the leak's content." Aftenposten, she noted is not adhering to WikiLeaks' plan, which she referred to as a "news monopoly" that involved a consortium of international media outlets.

"We have not signed the confidentiality clause that hinders (the media outlets) from publishing stories without an explicit agreement with WikiLeaks," Haugsgjerd wrote.

That sparked a reaction from journalists at The Guardian in the UK, which has been among the media outlets that secured access to the cables from WikiLeaks. Nick Davies of The Guardian's editorial staff told the web site for Norway's journalists' union, Journalisten, that Assange has had "zero influence" on The Guardian's editorial decisions regarding its use of the WikiLeaks cables.

Davies claimed that the agreement signed between The Guardian and WikiLeaks determined, in fact, that Assange would not have any influence, and he has not.

Completely independent'
David Leigh, another editor at The Guardian, told Journalisten on Tuesday that his paper has all the cables as do the other newspapers in the original agreement with WikiLeaks. Leigh told Journalisten that the papers themselves have decided what they will publish, and when. After writing their stories, he said, edited copies of the relevant cables are sent to WikiLeaks (with some identities deleted, for example, for security reasons) so that WikiLeaks can publish the documents at the same time.

Leigh said the other papers in the so-called "consortium" follow the same practice but they all had their own diverse interests in the documents. The practice was followed from November 29, but the papers otherwise operated as completely independent editorial staffs. He said they always had full and independent control over their own publication decisions.

Haugsgjerd told Journalisten on Tuesday that she didn't mean to criticize The Guardian or other papers involved in the WikiLeaks agreement. "My intention was to simply explain to our readers how we are handling this material (the diplomatic cables) and describe our involvement with the leak from WikiLeaks," she told Journalisten. "I stand for what I wrote."

She conceded that she had indicated the other newspapers were bound by more restrictions than is Aftenposten, "but I don't know whether they have broken the agreement or if it still applies." Asked whether she had read the agreement between the papers and WikiLeaks, she said "no, but we have good sources and are sure of our position. Some things I don't know, some things I don't want to say. I can't tell you more." Aftenposten officials haven't revealed how they obtained their own access to the cables, and theories are flourishing in Oslo.

Basis for coverage
Haugsgjerd defended her newspaper's decision to report on the contents of the cables, even though "we probably are dealing with stolen property" and even though the information is "one-sided" and doesn't give "the full, true picture."

It is a "strength" for society, she wrote, also internationally, when those in charge and those with the most power can't assume that "their secrets will never be known." She noted that the US has become a target of much criticism, perhaps unfairly, because that's where the leaks came from. "The biggest human rights violations," she wrote, and "the most corruption" likely occurs in powerful nations other than the US.

But as the world's only "superpower," the US needs to be watched closely, she wrote, and its cables "offer considerable insight into the world's conflicts, wars and diplomacy." The nature of the Internet, she added, suggests media outlets like Aftenposten will face more "journalistic challenges" in the years to come.
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
Reply
#9
WikiLeaks blockade under probe

December 24, 2010

Government officials in both Norway and Iceland are questioning the grounds for what's become a credit card blockade against WikiLeaks that has disrupted the non-profit whistle-blowing organization's ability to raise funds. Norwegian-Danish finance firm Teller is also the target of a government inquiry.

Norway's leading business newspaper, Dagens Næringsliv (DN), has reported in a series of articles this week how Visa Europe and MasterCard have effectively blocked their credit card holders' ability to send donations to WikiLeaks. The blockade has been carried out through the Norwegian-Danish finance firm Teller, which handles credit card transactions for Visa Europe and MasterCard.

Teller officials claim they were ordered by Visa Europe to suspend yet another firm involved in the complicated chain of credit card facilitators, Datacell of Iceland, which received donations (which donors had charged to their credit cards) on behalf of WikiLeaks.

Demanding legal basis for the suspension
DN reported earlier this week that a leading Norwegian law professor believes the credit card blockade, suspected of being politically motivated because of WikiLeaks' disclosures of classified government documents, is illegal and violates both national and EU finance agreements and directives.

Now, reports DN, the Icelandic Parliament has launched an investigation into the grounds for the actions taken by Teller, Visa Europe and MasterCard against WikiLeaks. "Nobody has been able to clarify the judicial foundation as to why payments to Datacell, and therefore WikiLeaks, have been stopped," Robert Marshall, who leads the Parliament's control committee, told DN. "And that is, of course, a problem."

Marshall called the credit card blockade "serious" and "highly dubious" and said the Icelandic parliamentarians were demanding a "legitimate reason" for it. So far, he told DN, Teller has only referred to "due diligence" undertaken to ensure that Datacell has operated in accordance with its agreement with Visa. Neither Teller nor Visa Europe has produced evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Datacell or WikiLeaks, even though they have effectively halted payments to WikiLeaks through Datacell for nearly three weeks. That, according to DN, has cost WikiLeaks an estimated USD 1.6 million in lost donations from its supporters and also is hurting Datacell, which has more than 3,000 other customers.

Norway also demands some answers
DN reports that Norwegian financial authorities at regulatory agency Finanstilsynet in Oslo are also raising questions and have asked Teller to produce a legitimate reason for turning away customers. Finanstilsynet planned to send a letter Thursday to Teller demanding a legal reason as to why Teller has effectively stopped payments to WikiLeaks by suspending Datacell.

Anders Kvam of Finanstilsynet told DN that "we're looking into this," and that the regulators want to know Teller's basis for the actions taken against Datacell. Teller must answer by January 3, an unusually short deadline that means Teller officials will need to work on the issue during what otherwise is a Christmas holiday period in Norway.

"This is a current problem that must be solved,"" Kvam told DN. "It involves payment transactions, and we can't let these types of questions remain unanswered."

Teller sent out a press statement earlier this week saying it had concluded that Datacell had violated its agreement with Visa by turning over payments to a third party. Datacell's officials objected immediately and legal action is pending.

Teller also claimed that it had found no violations on the part of Sunshine Press, WikiLeaks' company in Icceland, but that it was now up to Visa to approve payments to Sunshine Press.
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
Reply
#10
Norway's AFTENPOSTEN newspaper claims to have received the entire cache of Cablegate diplomatic cables. So far they've restricted themselves to releasing correspondence relating to US-Norwegian relations, revealing particular Norwegians doing America's bidding, from those with "strong pro-US instincts, to another considered by "some very senior U.S. officials" to be "weasily."


From the cable about weasily Norwegian Ministry of Defense State Secretary Espen Barth Eide who's played a key role in keeping Norwegian troops in Afghanistan and tried to manipulate his Government to support US machinations in Haiti, these misgivings:

Senior Norwegian officials, with strong pro-U.S. instincts, have also told the Embassy in private that Barth Eide is not to be relied upon to promote U.S. priorities. One key test of Barth Eide´s inclinations will be the MOD recommendation on which fighter plane to purchase, the Joint Strike Fighter or the Saab Gripen.

News as well to Norwegians is a cable about Oslo's regional governor collaborating with US plans to move/expand its embassy which had been meeting with severe resistance from the public.

Although the AFTENPOSTEN is published in Norwegian, the cables are being reprinted in their original, Here's a listing of what's out so far:

Dokumentene fra USAs ambassader

OSLO REGIONAL GOVERNOR OFFERS SUPPORT FOR NEW AMERICAN EMBASSY PROJECT (15.12 2010)

NORWAY: A POTENTIAL HAVEN FOR WAR CRIMINALS?
(15.12 2010)

ESPEN BARTH EIDE, POWER IN NORWAY´S MOD AND RISING STAR IN THE LABOR PARTY (16.12 2010)

RISING NORWEGIAN ANTI-SEMITISM AFFECTING ITS ROLE IN THE MIDDLE EAST? (15.12 2010)

13.2.2009: CONSTRAINTS ON NORWAY´S MIDDLE EAST ROLE? (15.12 2010)

NORWEGIAN LAWYERS SUE ISRAEL FOR WAR CRIMES ABUSES (15.12 2010)

NORWAY WILL NOT PUBLICLY SUPPORT UN 1267 KREKAR DESIGNATION (15.12 2010)

GOJ TO APPROACH DUTCH TO ASK THAT MULLAH KREKAR NOT BE EXPELLED TO NORWAY (15.12 2010)

MULLAH KREKAR CASE: STATE OF PLAY IN JORDAN (15.12 2010)

OSLO NEC THE HIGH COSTS OF FREEZING THE PROJECT (15.12 2010)

21.5.2003: Tigers issue hard-edged letter demandinginterim structure in north/east (19.12 2010)

11.2.2009: Norwegian FM Stoere: The world at his feet (15.12 2010)

16.6.2003: Tensions notch up over sinking of Tamil Tigership and latest slaying of a Tiger opponent (19.12 2010)

15.7.2003: Tigers still refusing request from monitors tovacate forward base (19.12 2010)

11.8.2003: LTTE base issue; Tigers get ready for Paris meeting (19.12 2010)

4.11.2003: Provoking political crisis, President fires three key ministers and suspends Parliament (19.12 2010)

23.10.2003: President demands removal of chief monitor, but it is not clear how far she wants to push matter (19.12 2010)

5.11.2003: President Affirms Commitment to Negotiated Settlement and Cease-fire (19.12 2010)

12.11.2003: Sri Lanka update: No resolution in "cordial" President-PM meeting; Norwegians here to meet all sides (19.12 2010)

17.11.2004: Possible ways forward in political standoff between Sri Lankan President and Prime Minister (19.12 2010)

6.3.2004: Ignoring orders of LTTE leadership, rebel commander remains ensconced in east (19.12 2010)

9.6.2004: Recent meetings show the way forward for Sri Lanka peace process is troubled (19.12 2010)

15.4.2004: In meeting, Norwegian Ambassador reviews recent discussion with President on peace process (19.12 2010)

17.6.2004: Talks about Talks in Stasis while Norwegians Ponder Next Moves (19.12 2010)

23.6.2004: Norwegian peregrinations for peace (19.12 2010)

20.4.2004: Norwegian envoy Solheim finds GSL and LTTE committed to peace process (19.12 2010)

6.12.2004: "Low key" Norwegian visit to Wanni (19.12 2010)

29.11.2004: Norwegians concerned by JVP-orcheastrated campaign against them (19.12 2010)

18.8.2005: Norwegian facilitators send letter to LTTE leader Prabhakaran via London; GSL asks EU to list LTTE as terrorist organization (19.12 2010)

23.1.2006: U/S Burns reviews Sri Lankan peace process with Norwegian facilitator Erik Solheim (19.12 2010)

Here's an excerpt about the US ambassador's concern about "growing anti-Semitic" criticism of Israel's attack on Gaza:

4/27/2009 12:55
C O N F I D E N T I A L OSLO 000315 SIPDIS E.O. 12958:
DECL: 04/27/2019
TAGS: PREL, PINR, PHUM, IS, NO
SUBJECT: NORWEGIAN LAWYERS SUE ISRAEL FOR WAR CRIMES ABUSES

…

More recently, the Israeli Ambassador formally protested Norwegian Foreign Minister Stoere's decision to stay in the room at the UN Racism Conference in Geneva during the Iranian President´s speech. The Ambassador also confidently told us that the embassy will likely sue the Norwegian National Broadcasting Company for what they perceive to be very biased news magazine reporting on Hezbollah and the Gaza war.

WHITNEY
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
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