Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Demonstrators Call for Release of Soldier in Wikileaks Case

 Bradley Manning,the soldier accused of leaking military secrets to the public is facing 52 years in prison for leaking the Iraq documents to WikiLeaks for publication.  The US government warns that these documents could imperil the lives of US troups still in Iraq. However, Marjorie Cohn, a professor at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, argues that if Manning did what he is accused of doing, he should be honoured as a hero for exposing war crimes. I guess there are a;ways two sides to every story.
   . . . June


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Demonstrators to call for release of soldier in Wikileaks case
Media | guardian.co.uk:

Rallies will be staged in 21 US cities this week calling for the release of Bradley Manning, the soldier accused of leaking military secrets to the public.

Manning allegedly passed on the video known as 'collateral murder' that showed American troops shooting civilians from a helicopter in Iraq in July 2007. The dead included two employees of the Reuters news agency.

Though the actions depicted in the video amount to violations of the Geneva Conventions (aka war crimes), none of the soldiers have been prosecuted.

Manning, who faces 52 years in prison, is also being investigated for allegedly leaking the 'Afghan war diary' documents that were posted on Wikileaks and reported by The Guardian, the New York Times and Der Spiegel.

Marjorie Cohn, a professor at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, argues that if Manning did what he is accused of doing, he should be honoured as a hero for exposing war crimes.

In a separate development, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been told he is not obliged to remain in Sweden even though prosecutors are however continuing to investigate rape allegations against him.

Assange's lawyer, Björn Hurtig, said: "I have been told that there is no arrest warrant against him."

Assange has said the allegations against him are part of a "smear campaign" aimed at discrediting his website, and that he will stay in Sweden to prove his innocence.

Read entire article . . .

Thursday, September 9, 2010

WikiLeaks Collaborating With Media Outlets on Iraq Documents

 According to the article below, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, tells Newsweek Declassified that his organization has teamed up with media organizations—including major television networks and one or more American media outlets—in an unspecified number of countries to produce a set of documentaries and stories based on the cache of Iraq War documents in the possession of WikiLeak. Wow!
   . . . June
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Exclusive: WikiLeaks Collaborating With Media Outlets on Release of Iraq Documents
Newsweek:
 
A London-based journalism nonprofit is working with the WikiLeaks Web site and TV and print media in several countries on programs and stories based on what is described as massive cache of classified U.S. military field reports related to the Iraq War. Iain Overton, editor of The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, tells Declassified that his organization has teamed up with media organizations—including major television networks and one or more American media outlets—in an unspecified number of countries to produce a set of documentaries and stories based on the cache of Iraq War documents in the possession of WikiLeaks

As happened with a similar WikiLeaks collection of tens of thousands of U.S. military field reports on the Afghan war, the unidentified media organizations involved with the London group in the Iraq documents project will all be releasing their stories on the same day, which Overton says would be several weeks from now. He declined to identify any of the media organizations participating in the project.

Overton acknowledges that the volume of Iraq War reports that WikiLeaks has made available for the project is massive, and almost certainly more than the 92,000 Afghan field reports the organization made available for advance review to The New York Times, Britain's Guardian, and Germany's Der Spiegel. The material is the "biggest leak of military intelligence" that has ever occurred, Overton says. As we reported when stories on WikiLeaks' Afghan holdings first appeared, the site's stash of Iraq documents is believed to be about three times as large as its Afghanistan collection. After the Times, Guardian, and Der Spiegel published their stories based on the Afghan war documents, the site itself posted 76,000 of the papers. But after coming under criticism from both Pentagon spokesmen and human-rights activists for publishing information that could jeopardize the lives of Afghans cooperating with American and allied forces, WikiLeaks said it would not itself post the remaining 15,000 Afghan war documents until activists had taken some time to review, and, if necessary, edit sensitive information from the material.

WikiLeaks had signaled that the Afghan war documents might be posted on the site in the near future; its plans for the release of those documents are currently unclear. Overton says that in their work on the Iraq War documents, his organization and its media partners have "significantly learned from past experiences" regarding disclosure of material that could put lives in jeopardy. "We are hugely aware that this is an issue, and we're taking it very seriously," Overton says. He says that his organization itself would not be posting raw U.S. government reports on the Web, adding that he sees his group's job as digging stories out of the raw material, not simply publishing it in its original form. Overton says that his bureau's media partners are also "aware of the need to ensure that information is properly redacted.

Read on . . .

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Government Secrecy Versus Transparency?

Sabotage or free press? This is not a new question; nor is it one that has been resolved in earlier comparable situations. This leak of the intelligence reports could be classified as whistleblowing or irresponsible reporting, depending on which side you're on. The following article compares the disclosures to other similar incidents.
    . . . June




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The morality of government secrecy versus transparency
By Ronald Goldfarb - 09/08/10 12:59 PM ET 


The recent WikiLeaks (tsunami would be a better word) of about 77,000 diplomatic cables and intelligence reports raised a recurring issue of American law and policy.

A disturbed young man in our military in Europe turned over classified government documents to WikiLeaks (ironically, an organization dedicated to transparency that does not disclose its address or officers’ names). It, in turn, passed them on to The New York Times, as well as reputable British and German press organizations.

Most, not all, of the documents were published. There was wide public interest in the disclosures, and expected outrage by government officials and others. Threats of indictments against Wiki founder Julian Assange were made, in the United States for the disclosures and in Sweden for improper sexual behavior. So far, the sky has not fallen.

Sabotage or free press? This is not a new question; nor is it one that has been resolved in earlier comparable situations.

During World War II, the Chicago Tribune was investigated but not indicted for reporting secret government naval intelligence. It ran anti-war stories mentioning our breaking encrypted Japanese messages about its armada at Midway in 1942, and an account on Dec. 6, 1941, of United States military plans in Europe. The government threatened, but backed off, indicting the Tribune under the Espionage Act of 1917. One can hardly imagine a situation more warranting of prosecution than the disclosure of secret wartime maneuvers.

When the notorious Pentagon Papers were leaked and published by
The New York Times and The Washington Post, the United States Supreme Court refused to enjoin publication of that Vietnam War history. It was a cause célèbre and became a landmark victory for freedom of the press. Erwin Griswold, the solicitor general who argued against publication for the government, wrote years later in The Washington Post that the documents did not threaten national security, as he had argued to the court, but unearthed a cover-up of the government’s failed policy.

Read on . . .


Sunday, September 5, 2010

Is There A Revolt in The WikiLeaks Camp?

According to the following article, it appears that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is causing some embarassment for organisers of the website. They are demanding that he step down. He is standing fast. If he is in fact innocent of the charges, then I guess I don't blame him. Time will tell
   . . . June


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Revolt in wikileaks
Pune Talking - Bloggers Park - Pune Mirror

The rape charges against Julian Assange are the last straw for some organisers of WikiLeaks, who are demanding that the website’s controversial point man step aside.

The Australian-born founder and chief editor of WikiLeaks is facing an insurrection, with WikiLeaks supporters outraged that Assange has insisted on remaining in charge of the whistleblowing website despite the rape allegations he faces in Sweden.

A WikiLeaks organiser, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Assange had been resisting efforts over the last two weeks to push him off the public stage as a result of the criminal investigation in Sweden, and that his insistence on “staying in charge of everything” was creating “a mess for everyone” as the website prepares to release an additional library of 13,000 classified American military reports from the war in Afghanistan.

The website outraged the Pentagon in July when it released more than 70,000 other classified reports from the war.

The organiser added that internal protests directed against Assange resulted in a temporary shutdown of the WikiLeaks website several days ago, nominally for mechanical reasons. “It was really meant to be a sign to Julian that he needs to rethink his situation. Our technical people were sending a message,” said the organiser.

A prominent WikiLeaks organizer, Birgitta Jonsdottir, a parliamentarian in Iceland, told that she has encouraged Assange to step aside as WikiLeaks’ public spokesman and give up his other management responsibilities, at least until after the criminal investigation is over.


Read On . . .

Friday, September 3, 2010

Wikileaks Founder Assange Will Post Documents Anyway!

According to the article below, claims that Assange had non-consensual sex with two women in Sweden first surfaced last month, following demands by the Pentagon that Wikileaks return some 92,000 mostly classified military documents concerning the US war in Afghanistan. Assange has said the remaining 15,000 documents will be posted in the coming weeks, once names and other sensitive details are redacted.  Has the leaking of documents got anything to do with the allegations?
   . . . June


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Wikileaks founder blasts reopening of rape probe
By Dan Goodin  2nd September 2010 18:28 GMT

The Register: "Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has blasted Sweden's investigation into allegations against him for sexual misconduct after prosecutors reopened a probe into charges he raped a woman last month.

'It appears to be highly irregular and some kind of legal circus,' Assange told the TV service of newspaper Expressen on Thursday. “Today I also had a case filed against me in the United States on a wholly unrelated manner,” he added without elaborating.

The charges come as Assange is applying for a permit to live and work in Sweden, a legal haven for journalists and whistleblowers, Assange said. The investigations may “prevent that application going ahead,” he said, adding “we will find a replacement if it comes to that.

Claims that Assange had non-consensual sex with two women in Sweden first surfaced last month, following demands by the Pentagon that Wikileaks return some 92,000 mostly classified military documents concerning the US war in Afghanistan. The whistle-blowing website has already published about 77,000 records, an action that prompted strong condemnation from US military officials. Some human rights organizations have also claimed the move put Afghan civilians at risk.

Assange has said the remaining 15,000 documents will be posted in the coming weeks, once names and other sensitive details are redacted. Pentagon officials have warned they may spill even “more explosive” secrets than the first batch.
Assange on Thursday suggested the controversy generated by Wikileaks may be stoking the investigations.

“As I have said before, there was clearly a smear campaign, and who was behind this, we do not know,” he said. “Now, whether that turns out to be a smear campaign done by a couple of people for personal motives or ideological motives, or that is larger and involves geopolitical concerns, or whether it is a mixture of all those, we do not know.”

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