US diplomatic cables to be dropped by wikileaks; US doing pre-emptive damage control

[Kuya]

Ask them yourself, because i don't know what the reasons are for every individual leak.

[Athas]

You can't come up with a single reason in support of the release of these cables?

[Kuya]

Buffoon, the reasons i invent for justifying leaks are not the same thing as the reasons for why they release anything. Specify your intent.

edit: the leak we are talking about reveals what the US government considers a part of national interest, which, to an American, would reveal where the government's priorities are, and then they can judge for themselves whether they are adequate or not.

[Kuya]

I don't recall if this article was posted, but some highlights (some information or most of it, we already know but i wanted to post the article anyway):

Since several major Internet companies cut off services to WikiLeaks in recent days, activists have created hundreds of mirror sites, Web sites that host exact copies of another site’s content, making censorship difficult.

The collective Anonymous, an informal but notorious group of hackers and activists, also declared war on Sunday against enemies of Mr. Assange, calling on supporters to attack sites companies that do not support WikiLeaks and to spread the leaked material online.

On Friday, WikiLeaks sought refuge in a diffuse web of financial and Internet infrastructure spread across Europe, particularly in Switzerland. It moved to wikileaks.ch, a domain registered to the Swiss Pirate Party, a political organization that shares many of Mr. Assange’s aims.

The Internet group Anonymous, which in the past has taken on targets as diverse as the Church of Scientology and Iran, disseminated a seven-point manifesto via Twitter and other social networking sites pledging to “kick back for Julian.”

Gregg Housh, who has previously worked on such campaigns with Anonymous, said by telephone from Boston that he had noticed an orchestrated effort under way to attack companies that have refused to support WikiLeaks and to post multiple copies of the leaked material.

The Anonymous manifesto singled out PayPal, which cut off ties with WikiLeaks for “a violation” of its policy on promoting illegal activities, a company statement said.

“The reason is amazingly simple,” Mr. Housh said of the campaign. “We all believe that information should be free, and the Internet should be free.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/wo....html?_r=1&hpw

[Athas]

My intent is to point out there has been no reason for the leak and no one benefited from the information disseminated. I’ve not seen any justification for the material released other then the trite ‘information should be free’. Such was not the case for the releases on Iraq and Afghanistan and I can’t help be concerned that no one else has produced a compelling reason in this instance. And to my knowledge that haven’t been any revelations in the governments priorities, I myself was quite sure the US held the security of water purification, weapon’s manufacture and energy production in quite high regard. They did say as much without mentioning facilities they feel are most critical or most vulnerable.

[Kuya]

Did you know that they also considered anti-venom factories in Australia to be a vital interest?

Copy/posting a Juan Cole post about important leaks relating to the Middle East (all of it):

1. The US and India wanted to slap United Nations sanctions on Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and his group, Jama’at al-Da’wa, for terrorism. But Pakistan asked China to block this move at the UN, and Beijing complied. The Jama`at is widely considered a front group for the Lashkar-i Tayyiba or “Good Army,” a terrorist group that India suspects of planning and carrying out the 2008 attack on Mumbai. China is Pakistan’s closest ally.

2. Qatar has used its Aljazeera satellite television channel for diplomatic bargaining, according to some cables. Aljazeera denies the allegations. The cables maintain that the emir of Qatar offered to cease broadcasting in Egypt for a year if President Hosni Mubarak would intervene forcefully to secure a Palestinian state. (Egypt’s government despises Aljazeera and its coverage of Egypt, seeing it as favorable to dissidents and challengers to the ruling National Democratic Party). Mubarak is said to have greeted the proposal with silence.

3. In 2008, the pro-West Lebanese government revealed to the US and its allies that Iran had funded the building of a private fibre optics communication system in Lebanon for the Shiite party-militia, Hizbullah.

4. The Shiite government of Iraq views Saudi Arabia, not Iran, as the biggest threat to its stability.

5. Obama administration officials are opposed in private to any deal-making that would bring the Taliban into the government of President Hamid Karzai, whatever they say in public.

6. The European Union gave up on the Afghanistan War around 2009, and only keeps troops there out of loyalty to the United States.

7. Swedish intelligence discovered that the US was transporting through people it had kidnapped (“rendition”) to be tortured in countries like Egypt through Swedish airports,and stopped the practice.

8. Saudi Arabia has done all right stopping financing for al-Qaeda from wealthy Saudis, but isn’t very good about policing funds that go to the Taliban or the Lashkar-i Tayyiba (see above).

9. In fall of 2009, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki criticized Iranian influence in Iraqi politics and gave that as the reason he chose not to join an all-Shiite coalition. The irony is that al-Maliki did not receive enough votes to actually remain independent of Iran, and was forced to rejoin with the other Shiite parties in order to form a government.

10. And these are the vital infrastructure and key resources for the US in the Middle East and Central and South Asia [Note: Nothing in Afghanistan; zilch, nada, zero]:

NEAR/MIDDLE EAST
Djibouti: Bab al-Mendeb: Shipping lane is a critical supply chain node

Egypt: ‘Ayn Sukhnah-SuMEd Receiving Import Terminal ‘Sidi Kurayr-SuMed Offloading Export Terminal Suez Canal

Iran: Strait of Hormuz Khark (Kharg) Island Sea Island Export Terminal Khark Island T-Jetty

Iraq: Al-Basrah Oil Terminal

Israel: Rafael Ordnance Systems Division, Haifa, Israel: Critical to Sensor Fused Weapons (SFW), Wind Corrected Munitions Dispensers (WCMD), Tail Kits, and batteries

Kuwait: Mina’ al Ahmadi Export Terminal

Morocco: Strait of Gibraltar Maghreb-Europe (GME) gas pipeline, Morocco

Oman: Strait of Hormuz

Qatar: Ras Laffan Industrial Center: By 2012 Qatar will be the largest source of imported LNG [Liquefied Natural Gas] to U.S.

Saudi Arabia: Abqaiq Processing Center: Largest crude oil processing and stabilization plant in the world;Al Ju’aymah Export Terminal: Part of the Ras Tanura complex As Saffaniyah Processing Center Qatif Pipeline Junction Ras at Tanaqib Processing Center Ras Tanura Export Terminal Shaybah Central Gas-oil Separation Plant

Tunisia: Trans-Med Gas Pipeline

United Arab Emirates (UAE): Das Island Export Terminal Jabal Zannah Export Terminal Strait of Hormuz

Yemen: Bab al-Mendeb: Shipping lane is a critical supply chain node

SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA

Kazakhstan: Ferrochromium Khromtau Complex, Kempersai, (Chromite Mine)

India: Orissa (chromite mines) and Karnataka (chromite mines) Generamedix Gujurat, India: Chemotherapy agents, including florouracil and methotrexate

http://www.juancole.com/2010/12/dec-...ddle-east.html

[Correction]

I’ve not seen any justification for the material released other then the trite ‘information should be free’. Such was not the case for the releases on Iraq and Afghanistan and I can’t help be concerned that no one else has produced a compelling reason in this instance. And to my knowledge that haven’t been any revelations in the governments priorities, I myself was quite sure the US held the security of water purification, weapon’s manufacture and energy production in quite high regard. They did say as much without mentioning facilities they feel are most critical or most vulnerable.

Implicit here is the blind faith that the government knows what it's doing when it marks cables secret and noforn, that somehow a secret is a secret because otherwise lives are endangered. It's already been clearly pointed out that knowledge of what we feel are vulnerable international targets is not in and of itself actionable intelligence. It does not constitute a 'this is how you dismantle internationally-based american infrastructure' guide. How is the stance that the government keeps secrets because the government needs secrets any less trite of a rhetorical smokescreen than 'information wants to be free?'

[MF Perm tha Fineass]

I don't recall if this article was posted, but some highlights (some information or most of it, we already know but i wanted to post the article anyway):
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/wo....html?_r=1&hpw

The concept of warfare and guerilla engagement has always evolved but this is amazing. Sides are being taken outside of the realm of loyalty to state and people are unifying for something without distinct political gain or tangibility of control. There's something a lot greater going on here than leaked cables and I feel terrible for people that can't see this, especially the statists frothing at mouth and out for blood. It was interesting but not surprising seeing Ron Paul come out in defense of Wikileaks, and still interesting to see most of the left up for Julian's cause as well. He definitely set the tone for the decade to come and I think we're going to see an exciting era of strange bedfollows in politics in the next couple of years.

[notorious bum]

So beautiful, I could almost cry. (no homo)

[Edelweiss]

Sides are being taken outside of the realm of loyalty to state and people are unifying for something without distinct political gain or tangibility of control.

So beautiful, I could almost cry. (no homo)

It's probably ok to be homo about this.

[Mistress Stowastiq]

I found this to be somewhat of a good sign in Julian's favor. I don't know how significant this organization is but at least they said something. Wondering what "ca change" means.


http://wlcentral.org/node/541

2010-12-07: Statement by Civil Liberties Australia
Submitted by admin on Tue, 12/07/2010 - 08:10

CLA released an official statement today:

Civil Liberties Australia unreservedly supports Julian Assange's right to operate as a journalist/blogger, and to post leaked material online. By doing so, he commits no legitimate offence we're aware of in the USA or Australia*.


In fact, he is following in a proud US tradition, along the lines of Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein with leaker 'Deep Throat' in the Nixon era, and the now-revered leaker Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers at the time of the Vietnam war.


If the person who leaked the material to Assange has broken a US law, it would be the same law that leaker Ellsberg would have broken in the case of the Pentagon Papers in 1971 during Vietnam...and Ellsberg is now a US hero.


If Assange himself has broken a US law, it would be the same law that Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein broke in the Watergate – Deep Throat case which led to the impeachment and departure in disgrace of President Richard Nixon. Both journalists are American heroes, with at least one movie and many books about them and their leaking/reporting ways.


What was the problem in both the Pentagon Papers and Watergate cases? US military and Administration officials were caught lying.


Plus ca change...


As regards Assange and the Australian Government, CLA is alarmed that a government can so readily abandon an Australian citizen as Prime Minister Gillard and Attorney-General McClelland appeared to do at the outset of this matter.


CLA recalls how even extremely conservative Australians eventually rebelled and forced the Howard Liberal Government to do something to help David Hicks, whom that government had abandoned to fabricated American laws and prison-without-reason at the Guantanamo Bay hellhole in Cuba.


Now, it seems, the Gillard Labor Government is going one better, and refusing to stand up for an Australian citizen whose only proven crime is being a good journalist/blogger. It makes you wonder what is the value of an Australian passport if the Australian Government's first response is to try to help a foreign power find a charge to lay against an Australian passport holder.


CLA would prefer the Australian Government spent its resources assisting Assange defend possibly-fabricated sex crime charges being made against him. Remember, they were made once, then dropped by a Swedish prosecutor, and only recently re-instated by another prosecutor at the time of the latest leaks.


CLA would like to nominate Julian Assange for Australian of the Year 2011: he has done more to eliminate lies, deceit, humbug and hubris in international affairs than anyone in the Gillard (or, for that matter, Howard) Governments…or in the US Government.


* The US might decide to charge him with sedition – historically a charge laid at the whim of English kings – which is a political ‘offence’ not used in the USA for half a century and one formally and officially discredited in Australia by a change of legislation in 2010.

– released by Bill Rowlings, CEO, Civil Liberties Australia, 7 Dec 2010
ENDS STATEMENT

[Cantih]

Wondering what "ca change" means.

Plus ca change is the beginning fragment of a french saying that translates to "The more things change, the more they stay the same"
I cba to google it or dig out my shadowrun book that has the phrase as a chapter title but I think it goes (missing the accent marks)

Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.

[Ragnus]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...=feeds-newsxml

Details of the two one night stands that Assange had that led to the rape allegations.

TL : DR Version: Assange is a political rock star / Bitches be crazy.

[Cyn]

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...ested-warrant/

[Rammses]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...=feeds-newsxml

Details of the two one night stands that Assange had that led to the rape allegations.

TL : DR Version: Assange is a political rock star / Bitches be crazy.

[BerenTebogo]

But Ms. Hrafnsson also said the group had no plans at the moment to release the key to a heavily encrypted version of some of its most important documents — an "insurance" file that has been distributed to supporters in case of an emergency. Ms. Hrafnsson said that will only come into play if "grave matters" involving WikiLeaks staff occur, but she did not elaborate on what those would be.

Sure is getting Gundam up in here.

[Odesseiron]

I know I'm going to get slammed for this (on this board anyway... but whatever) If that's not a terrorist, I don't know what is. Just hang him now, get it over with!

[tyven]

treasonous terrorist raper

[Norellicus]

I don't really have an opinion on the leaks themselves but this whole thing is fascinating to watch. The measures that are being taken to stop him, the unlikely places he's getting support, and the almost straight-from-a-movie way some of it is happening are just incredible.


In other news, archi you are a god damn hypocrite.

[BerenTebogo]

So you don't know what a terrorist is, is what you're saying.

This seems to be what a lot of people are saying. Not that I'm shocked.