US Intell planned to destroy Wikileaks

[Paul Rigby]

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/gl...aks/index.html

The Report celebrates the fact that the governments of those two nations continue to fight the war in defiance of overwhelming public opinion which opposes it -- so much for all the recent veneration of "consent of the governed" -- and it notes that this is possible due to lack of interest among their citizenry: "Public Apathy Enables Leaders to Ignore Voters," proclaims the title of one section.

[Ed Jewett]

CIA Officer- Robert Steele stresses the importance of Blogging - MONTAGE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4lLzSJhEPA&feature=player_embedded#

Clone it, copy it, share it, embrace it, do it

[Peter Lemkin]

I found some of the links mentioned [all with the .no -Norway at the end and some others] above didn't work. The whole matter is troubling in the extreme. Wikileaks should expect some dirty tricks and hacking attacks, tails, threats - the whole works. They should also expect that at the same time the very persons working to destroy and frighten them will very likely send them false-flag stuff, to then try to discredit them when it 'blows up in their face'. Who is next is the question. I think we have really entered a VERY dangerous time on the Planet and the internet will be just as much a battleground as will the drones, private mercs, troops, police, secret police, off the shelf plumber ops, et al. Wikileaks best protection is getting many to know about this story and watching and keeping tabs on those brave individuals involved.

As to Iceland's ability or interest in spying on such a group, intelligence creeps are much the same around the world and do favors or are forced to do favors for other 'friendlies'. I would doubt that this would have originated there, knowing the Scandinavian countries pretty well. However, the Palme assassination, IMO, while involving some Swedes in intel and police, was IMO set in motion by the US. Ask those named in the Iran-Contra Scandal, I think they'd know quite exactly. This op may well follow in that 'mold'; Iceland's fiscal crisis may provide US intel leverage. Lets hope it doesn't get to anything approaching physical harm to anyone. What is needed are certified & vetted 'white hackers' who can stop and outwit black hacker attacks and other cyber-tricks. Ditto those trained in special ops (and such) to act as protectors for truth-tellers. The war is engaged....and long has been. :stickyman:

[Helen Reyes]

The story is getting around, at least.

This

http://www.abcnyheter.no/node/106843

was followed by infowars.com, then this:

http://grapevine.is/News/ReadArticle...nce-in-Iceland

My guess is NATO and State Dept Security/CIA are worried their recent public relations campaign on the Telescreen to show the people how our troops are winning the battle in Airstrip CentralAsia didn't go exactly well, and a Petraeus snuff film with exploding pregnant women and children will not have the proper soothing effect at this time.

If they can't even get away with murdering some villagers and calling it a great victory against terrorism, times have become very tough for the UKUS MIC. There's also the problem of Iceland itself breaking out of the mold, bucking the banksters, not accepting private debt as soveriegn debt and not really in favour of NATO adventures in AIrstrip CentralAsia and Iranq. Iceland was a fouding member of NATO, after all, even if they only became so because of a British followed by an American invasion. There might be tectonic forces at work in the Alliance.

[Peter Lemkin]

Wikileaks editor Julian Assange said he was shadowed by U.S. agents then traveled from Iceland to Norway. Photo: New Media Days / Peter Erichsen (CC-BY-SA)
Agents may have shadowed a journalist on Norway
A secret U.S. military video may be the cause.


News

Thursday, May 25 March 2010 - 20:01
Text: Andreas H. Lunde, Thomas Vermes, John Karlsen and Hans Henrik Torgersen

These are Wikileaks messages on twitter from Wednesday morning in chronological order:

Wikileaks is currently under an aggressive U.S. and Icelandic surveillance operation. Following / Photographing / filming / detaining.

If anything happens to us, you know why: it is our April 5 film. And you know who is responsible.

Two under the State Dept diplomatic cover followed our editor from Iceland two http://skup.no on Thursday.

One related person was detained for 22 hours. Computer's seized. That 's http://www.skup.no

We have been shown secret photos of our production meetings and been asked specific questions during detention related to the AirStrike.

We have airline records of the State Dep / CIA tails. Do not think you can get away with it. You can not. This is Wikileaks.

General David Petraeus had command when the video allegedly showing the killing of civilians was shot. Photo: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images / AFP / Scanpix

The Icelandic representative Birgitta J�nsd�ttir believes she will be monitored as a result of her commitment to Wikileaks. Photo: Althingi

The editor of alert site Wikileaks, Julian Assange, found himself on Island before going to Norway to give a lecture at the annual conference on journalism, SKUP.

In an e-mail to ABC News Assange says that he was pursued by agents from the U.S. State Department on his way to Norway Thursday 18 March.

Julian Assange traveled from Reykjavik to Oslo, via Copenhagen.

- According to passenger lists two people, both with diplomatic status from the U.S. State Dept, took boarding passes three minutes apart. None of them checked any luggage, writes Assange in the email.
-
Surveillance of Iceland

While Assange was in Iceland last week, he said in an e-mail to ABC News he had been shadowed and photographed. A volunteer Icelandic Wikileaks-employee was arrested Monday and interrogated by the Icelandic police, according to the same e-mail.

Wikileaks editor found himself in the Island saga to assist the Icelandic politicians with a bill to modernize the legislation and introduce what is called "Icelandic Modern Media Initiative". A bill that will largely protect investigative journalism and internet services from espionage and censorship.

Do you know anything about the case? Tip us on tips@abcnyheter.no

Do you have information regarding this story? Email us: tips@abcnyheter.no
Sources will remain anonymous.

In the e-mail to ABC News says Assange that Wikileaks has long been in both private and state security organizations� spotlight.

The reason for attention is that this has taken on to publish documents and other information that governments and others would not like to see made public.

- Wikileaks has built up a reputation as a credible source for a long time, and has received several awards for his work. Among other things, from Amnesty International, says SKUP-board member and Aftenposten journalist Jan Gunnar Furuly.

At the SKUP conference Wikileaks came with a strong allegation.

- I read the posters here that 1000 journalists have been killed since 1945. And I know what I say now is controversial, but it is not close to NOK, said Julian Assange.

With it will Assange believe that most journalists do their jobs well.

Killing of civilians

Assange pointed out several possible causes for the increased surveillance in recent months. Most people think it is because the U.S. has "interests" in the cases they work with.

The most likely reason for monitoring this time believe Assange was caused by a secret video from the U.S. military.

The video shows civilians killed in an air attack that took place under the U.S. General David Petraeus� command.

Assange�s e-mail says nothing about time or place for the attack on the civilians, but Petraeus had partly been the commander of special forces chasing the top al-Qaida people in Iraqi. Later he became chief of all U.S. forces in the country.

- Have Wikileaks video they say that they have, so it is not unlikely that U.S. intelligence is interested in it, "says Jan Gunnar Furuly to ABC News.
-
Were shown surveillance photos

The Icelander (a minor) who was detained and interrogated on Monday, according to multiple sources, ABC News has spoken to, and her story also matches the description Assanges gave of the interrogation.

Under interrogation, where the boy's father was present, it should have been presented surveillance photos of Wikileaks editor Julian Assange on the outside of a restaurant in Reykjavik and from the room where it was held a production meeting in connection with the secret U.S. military video.

It should, according Assanges e-mail also have referred specifically to the video and "important" Icelandic players. Names of several well-known journalists who have worked with the video should also have been referred to during the police interrogation.

The boy was held in police custody for about 21 hours.

- I'm bugged

An Icelandic journalist ABC News spoke with believes that Wikileaks editor was monitored when he was in Iceland.

- It's suspicious things here now and it is obvious that the Icelandic police kept Assange under surveillance when he was here, "said the journalist who does not wish to be identified.

Representative Birgitta J�nsd�ttir who has worked closely with Wikileaks believes that she is being monitored.

- In recent days strange things have happened with my phone, and I see it as likely that I will be tapped, "says J�nsd�ttir.
-
Denying knowledge of the matter

The Icelandic Ministry of Justice said that they have no knowledge of that Wikileaks should have been hidding in Iceland, that foreign agents are involved or that someone should have been detained and interrogated.

- We did not know any of this before we got an email from ABC News with any questions about the case, "said Haukur Gu�mundsson in the Icelandic Department of Justice.

Nor did not the Icelandic foreign minister have any knowledge of the alleged surveillance.

- I have not heard anything about this" the Icelandic foreign minister, �ssur Skarphedinsson, told ABC News last night.

The Norwegian Foreign Ministry says the following about the case.

- We have not at any knowledge of this, "the press spokesperson Ragnhild Imerslund to ABC News, adding that this is not something UD is going to look at.

Here is the e-mail from Julian Assange:

*****

SOMETHING IS ROTTEN IN THE STATE OF ICELAND

Over the last few years, Wikileaks has been the subject of hostile acts by security organizations. In the developing world, these range from the appalling assassination of two related human rights lawyers in Nairobi last March (an armed attack on my compound there in 2007 is still unattributed) to an unsuccessful mass attack by Chinese computers on our servers in Stockholm, after we published photos of murders in Tibet. In the West this has ranged from a police raid in Germany over an Australian censorship list, to an ambush by a "James Bond" character in a Luxembourg car park, an event that ended with a more "we think it would be in your interest two ...".

Developing world violence aside, we've become used to the level of security service interest in us and have established two procedures ignore that interest.

But the increase in surveillance activities this last month, in a time when we are barely publishing due to fundraising, are excessive. Some of the new interest is related to a film exposing a U.S. massacre we will release that the U.S. National Press Club Wed, April 5

The spying includes attempted covert following, photographng, filming and the overt detention & Questioning of a Wikileaks' volunteer in Iceland on Monday night.

I, and others were in Iceland two advise Icelandic parliament ariana on the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative, a new package of laws designed to protect Investigative journalists and internet services from spying and censorship. As such, the spying has an extra poignancy.

The possible triggers:

(1) our ongoing work on a classified film revealing Civilian Casualties occurring under the command of the U.S., general, David Petraeus.

(2) our release of a 32 page classified U.S. intelligence report on how to fatally marginalize Wikileaks (expose our sources, destroy our reputation for integrity, hack us).

(3) our release of a classified cable from the U.S. Embassy in Reykjavik reporting Wed contact between the U.S. and the U.K. over billions of euros in loan guarantees claimed.

(4) pending releases related to the collapse of the Icelandic banks and Icelandic "oligarchs".

We have discovered half a dozen attempts at covert surveillance in Reykjavik both by native English speakers and Iceland. On the occasions where these individuals were approached, they ran away. One had the market police equipment and the license plates of another suspicious vehicle track back to the Icelandic private VIP bodyguard firm Terr (http://terr.is/). What does that mean? We do not know. But as you will see, other events are clear.

U.S. sources told Icelandic state media's deputy head of news, that the State Department was aggressively investigating a leak from the U.S. Embassy in Reykjavik. I was seen at a private U.S. Embassy party at the Ambassador's residence, late last year and it is known I had contact with Embassay staff, after.

On Thursday March 18, 2010, I took the 2:15 AM flight out of Reykjavik to Copenhagen - on the way to speak at the SKUP Investigative journalism conference in Norway. After receiving a tip, we obtained airline records for the flght concerned. Two individuals, recorded as brandishing diplomatic credentials checked in for my flight at 12:03 and 12:06 under the name of "U.S. State Department". The two are not recorded as having any luggage.

Iceland does not have a separate security service. It folds its intelligence function into its police forces, leading to an Uneasy overlap of policing and intelligence functions and values.

On Monday 22, March, at approximately 8.30pm, a volunteer Wikileaks was detained by Icelandic police for over 20 hours on an insignificant matter. The police then apparently took the opportunity two detain the volunteer overnight, without charge - an unusual act in Iceland. The next day, during the course of interrogation, the volunteer was shown covert photos of me outside the Reykjavik restaurant "Icelandic Fish & Chips", where a Wikileaks production meeting took place on Wednesday March 17, 2010 - the day before individuals operating under the name of the U.S. State Department boarded my flight to Copenhagen.

The spied Wed production meeting used a discreet, closed, back room. The subject: a concealed, scandalous, U.S. military video showing civilian kills by U.S. pilots. During the interrogation, a specific reference was made by police to the video --- which could not have been understood from that day's exterior surveillance alone. Another specific reference was made to "important", but unnamed Icelandic figures. References were also made to the names of two senior journalists at the production meeting.

Who are the Icelandic security services loyal to in their values? The new government of April 2009, the old pro-Iraq war government of the Independence party, or perhaps to their personal relationships with peers from another country who have them on a permanment intelligence information drip?

Only a few years ago, Icelandic airspace was used for CIA rendition flights. Why did the CIA think that this was acceptable? In a classified U.S. profile on the former Icelandic Ambassador to the United States, obtained by Wikileaks, the Ambassador is Praised for helping two quelle publicity of the CIA's activities.

Often when a bold new government arises, bureaucratic institutions remain loyal to the old regime and it can take time to change the guard. Former regime loyalists must be discovered, dissuaded and removed. But for the security services, that first vital step, discovery, is awry. Congenitally scared of the light, such services hide their activities, if it is not known what security services are doing, then it is surely impossible to know who they are doing it for.

[Helen Reyes]

Couldn't this be a classic case of killing several penguins with one icicle? I mean they could harrass wikileaks and try to stop the video being released, while ruining the Althing initiative to make Iceland a center for investigative journalism and internet freedom by demonstrating that Icelandic officials took part in the caper, which they did.

The spin now is the wikileaks volunteer, the minor who was arrested, was arrested for breaking into a restaurant, and when asked about the laptop in tow, said it belonged to wikileaks.

This is obvious obfuscation in order to discredit the story, to make it appear the volunteer was at fault and tried to escape responsibility by creating an international incident. This can then be used to discredit wikileaks, which is what the Pentagon report on wikileaks originally called for.

Thanks for the Norwegian translation, I already had most of it more or less translated correctly using google and peeking back at the original.

There is another item at either grapevine.is or icenews.is about private surveillance data released to the foreign media concerning the foreign minister. I'm not certain but I think he's the same FM who made Iceland the first, and for a long time only, country to recognize the Lithuanian parliament's declaration of independence in 1990. You know, back when Bush Sr and the pundits were bucking 50 years of US policy and refusing to recognize it, saying "The Lithuanians have put themselves naked out on a ledge and expect us to save them" and so on. If so, the FM has real character and might be the target of some UK-US insider smear campaign under way currently.

In the same vein there is a private Dutch army renting the former NATO air base outside Reykjavik, and Icelanders famously have no guns. Checkmate?

[Peter Lemkin]

Couldn't this be a classic case of killing several penguins with one icicle? I mean they could harrass wikileaks and try to stop the video being released, while ruining the Althing initiative to make Iceland a center for investigative journalism and internet freedom by demonstrating that Icelandic officials took part in the caper, which they did.

I think the 'many polar bears with one icicle' is apt. Iceland was flirting with being a 'free-zone' for investigative journalism of normal news and intelligence news - definitely a 'no-no' for all of the intelligence (sic) agencies, worldwide. Icelanders are mad as hell at the banksters and the intel agencies and corporations to whom they are interconnected. They must be controlled [from the Oligarchy / Deep Political point of view]. The few Icelandic banksters and pols who would support them have been marginalized and almost mobbed/stoned. This current 'push' is coming from outside - not inside Iceland.

[Ed Jewett]

The Dutch have private armies too? And all I have is an old lame half-blind, half-deaf cocker spaniel and a walking stick.

[Helen Reyes]

http://www.infowars.com/private-army...ts-on-iceland/

Private Army Sets Sights on Iceland

Paul Nikolov
The Reykjav�k Grapevine
March 20, 2010

Editor�s note: It looks like defiant Iceland will get a mercenary force of the sort exposed in Hardin, Montana. The E.C.A. website brags about its �seamless compatibility� with NATO. NATO was formed under the auspices of the United Nations� Charter. As the former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark has noted, NATO is �a surrogate military police force for globalization and U.S. world economic domination,� that is to say the domination of the international bankers.

A private company offering military support has expressed interest in working with the Icelandic government. Many Icelanders are strongly opposed to the idea.

The company in question is known as ECA Program. They are a private company that works in military training and support for governments around the world, and have most recently worked with India. Their interest in Iceland is apparently strong enough to warrant the use of images from Keflav�k � where the NATO base used to be located until it closed in 2006 � on their website. They have already asked the Icelandic government if they can utilize the base for their private air force, and are willing to pay 200 billion ISK to do so.

However, the Campaign Against Militarism � in Icelandic group originally founded in opposition to the NATO base � is strongly against the idea. They point out that the comany�s background is shrouded in mystery, and that they amount to a mercenary group. Furthermore, the company was denied operation permission in Canada.

Read entire article

Grapevine.is reported the deal went through last week.

[David Guyatt]

I bet ECA Program are funded by the Pentagon.