…and probably bound to be quite effective…
Category Archives: Julian Assange
Assange calls for criminal charges against ‘shock jock’ Fox hosts
WikiLeaks founder calls Bradley Manning ‘political prisoner’; says Fox hosts, politicians committing ‘terrorism’
Julian Assange has accused Fox personalities Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin, among others, of committing terrorism through their calls to hunt down and kill the WikiLeaks founder.
In an interview with MSNBC’s Cenk Uygur, Assange referred to the politicians-turned-Fox-personalities as “shock jocks” who should be charged for inciting violence against him and his organization.
He also referred to Huckabee as “just another idiot trying to make a name for himself.”
Asked what he thought of the accusation — made by Vice President Joe Biden and others — that he is a “high-tech terrorist,” Assange said his organization’s actions didn’t meet the definition of terrorism — but those of Fox personalities and other TV pundits did.
“We see constant threats from people, the Republican Senate trying to make a name for themselves, people like Sarah Palin to shock jocks on Fox and, unfortunately, some members also of the Democratic Party, calling for my assassination, calling for the illegal kidnapping of my staff,” Assange said.
“What sort of message does that send about the rule of law in the United States? That is conducing violence in order to achieve a political end. The elimination of this organization or the threat of violence to achieve a political end, the elimination of a publisher. And that is the definition of terrorism.” More…
Related Articles
- Julian Assange Attacks Sarah Palin, Fox News, And Mike Huckabee On MSNBC (mediaite.com)
- Assange: US pushing “Digital McCarthyism” in assault on Wikileaks (boingboing.net)
- Assange rips ‘shock jock’ politicians (cnn.com)
- My Exclusive Interview with WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange (mydd.com)
- Mike Huckabee: WikiLeaks Source Should Be Executed (VIDEO) (huffingtonpost.com)
- US embassy cables culprit should be executed, says Mike Huckabee (guardian.co.uk)
Comments Off
Filed under Julian Assange, Mike Huckabee, Wikileaks
Julian Assange Bail GRANTED; WikiLeaks Founder Back In Court
Image by bbwbryant via Flickr
Update: Julian Assange remains in jail as Sweden appeals against bail decision
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is back in court today, and has been granted bail by a British judge. He has been in a British prison for a week after being denied bail last week. Assange is wanted for questioning for alleged sex crimes involving two women in Sweden. It is thought that one of the women, Anna Ardin, may no longer be cooperating with prosecutors.
Assange released a statement from prison via his mother saying that Visa, MasterCard and PayPal are “instruments of U.S. foreign policy.” He also said:
My convictions are unfaltering. I remain true to the ideals I have expressed. This circumstance shall not shake them. If anything this process has increased my determination that they are true and correct.
Related Articles
- WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Granted Bail by British Court (politicsdaily.com)
- Julian Assange Granted Bail, Swedish Prosecutor to Appeal (blippitt.com)
- WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Granted Bail By British Judge Today [Video] (realestateradiousa.com)
Comments Off
Filed under Julian Assange, Wikileaks
Operation Payback: WikiLeaks Supporters’ Cyberattacks Target Online ‘Enemies’
Image via Wikipedia
An online group calling itself Anonymous is attacking sites around the web perceived to be “enemies” of WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange. This appears to be the group responsible for the shutdown of the Mastercard site earlier today, owing to Mastercard’s refusal to process payments to the group. After the site went down, the group posted a statement that read in part:
We will fire at anything or anyone that tries to censor WikiLeaks, including multibillion-dollar companies such as PayPal.Twitter, you’re next for censoring #WikiLeaks discussion. The major shitstorm has begun.
Other targets that have already been targeted, or threatened with attack, range from Sarah Palin to Sen. Joe Lieberman to PayPal, the last of which recently admitted to bowing to U.S. pressure to break ties with the site.
Follow live updates on The Huffington Post.
Related Articles
- Cyberattacks In Support of WikiLeaks Pose PR Dilemma (mediabistro.com)
- WikiLeaks Supporters Launch Cyber-Attack on Sarah Palin (politicsdaily.com)
- Pro-WikiLeaks Hackers Attack Swedish Gov’t Site (cbsnews.com)
- Twitter Bans WikiLeaks’ Hacker Avengers. Here Comes The Cyberattack (blogs.forbes.com)
- WikiLeaks: Assange Set To Meet With Lawyers (news.sky.com)
Comments Off
Filed under Julian Assange, Wikileaks
Sarah Palin Cyber Attack: WikiLeaks Supporters Take On Ex-Governor
They’re out to get “poor” Caribou Barbie now…
London-based hackers reportedly working in support of the website WikiLeaks as part of “Operation Payback” have turned their keyboards on Sarah Palin, launching a cyber-attack targeted at her fundraising arm SarahPAC, as well as the former Alaska Governor’s personal credit card information.
“No wonder others are keeping silent about Assange’s antics,” Palin emailed ABC News, which originally reported the hacking attempt. “This is what happens when you exercise the First Amendment and speak against his sick, un-American espionage efforts.”
Sarah Palin took aim at WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, last month in a Facebook post slamming the website’s disclosure of classified information. The former Alaska governor questioned why Assange had not been “pursued with the same urgency we pursue al Qaeda and Taliban leaders?” Assange responded in an op-ed this week, writing that Palin had encouraged him to be “hunted down like Osama bin Laden.” Palin then took issue with this mischaracterization of her quote in a tweet Wednesday.
SarahPAC aide Rebecca Mansour told ABC News Wednesday that the tech team at SarahPAC had been able to shield the site from the hacking attempts and that Palin herself was prepared for the strike.
“[T]he governor voiced her opinion knowing full well that she was speaking out against a shady disreputable organization with no regard for laws or human life,” Mansour told ABC News. “This is how they operate. The world should not be intimidated by them.”
The people behind “Operation Payback” better hope that they leave a difficult trail to trace. The last person that tried to hack Sarah Palin’s information has been sentenced to a year in jail, though the new attackers’ disruption of Visa and Mastercard websites will probably make them much larger targets.
Someone making things up again? Keep seeing this quote attributed to me. Huh? Wikileaks Assange on Sarah Palin’s Criticism http://bit.ly/dXP9zaless than a minute ago via Twitter for BlackBerry®
Sarah Palin
SarahPalinUSA
Related Articles
- Report: Sarah Palin Under Cyber Attack From Hackers In Support Of WikiLeaks (mediaite.com)
- Palin under cyber attack… (blogs.abcnews.com)
- Andy Borowitz: WikiLeaks Attempts to Expose Palin’s Thoughts, Finds Nothing (huffingtonpost.com)
- Visa DOWN: WikiLeaks Supporters Take Down Site As ‘Payback’ (huffingtonpost.com)
- “Hillary Clinton vs. Sarah Palin on WikiLeaks” and related posts (globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com)
Comments Off
Filed under Julian Assange, Sarah Palin, Wikileaks
Assange swipes at Palin, Republicans
Julian Assange has an op-ed in The Australian this morning, kicking off with a quote from, of all unlikely people (considering that no News Corp. newspaper has been given an advance peek at the leaks), Rupert Murdoch.
“In the race between secrecy and truth, it seems inevitable that truth will always win,” Assange quotes a young Murdoch as saying in 1958.
Assange goes on to explain the role he feels WikiLeaks plays in the media landscape (“Democratic societies need a strong media, and WikiLeaks is part of that media.”) while naming the names of those who have come out most strongly against him.
WikiLeaks is not the only publisher of the U.S. embassy cables. Other media outlets, including Britain‘s The Guardian, The New York Times, El Pais in Spain and Der Spiegel in Germany have published the same redacted cables.
Yet it is WikiLeaks, as the coordinator of these other groups, that has copped the most vicious attacks and accusations from the U.S. government and its acolytes. I have been accused of treason, even though I am an Australian, not a U.S., citizen. There have been dozens of serious calls in the U.S. for me to be “taken out” by U.S. special forces. Sarah Palin says I should be “hunted down like Osama bin Laden,” a Republican bill sits before the U.S. Senate seeking to have me declared a “transnational threat” and disposed of accordingly. An adviser to the Canadian prime minister’s office has called on national television for me to be assassinated. An American blogger has called for my 20-year-old son, here in Australia, to be kidnapped and harmed for no other reason than to get at me.
And Australians should observe with no pride the disgraceful pandering to these sentiments by Prime Minister Gillard and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have not had a word of criticism for the other media organizations. That is because The Guardian, The New York Times and Der Spiegel are old and large, while WikiLeaks is as yet young and small.
- Julian Assange arrested! (propagandapress.wordpress.com)
- Brian Sullivan: `The truth will always win’ – Julian Assange writes (blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au)
- #cablegate: WikiLeaks essential to a strong media, Assange argues in new op-ed (blogs.journalism.co.uk)
- Don’t shoot the messenger for telling the truth (theaustralian.com.au)
- Julian Assange: ‘Don’t shoot the messenger’ (independent.co.uk)
Comments Off
Filed under Julian Assange, Wikileaks
Assange threatens to release ‘poison pill’ if arrested or killed
Real life cloak and dagger drama…
There is a new threat from the founder of the whistleblower website WikiLeaks.
Julian Assange will release a “poison pill” that contains a “deluge” of secret information if he is killed, arrested or his website is permanently shut down, Daily Mail reports.
“Due to recent attacks on our infrastructure, we’ve decided to make sure everyone can reach our content. As part of this process we’re releasing archived copy of all files we ever released,” WikiLeaks said in a message on its site.
WikiLeaks says it has another 250,000 cables it plans to gradually release over coming months — if it can.
Anticipating the US attempts to block it though, WikiLeaks has taken the precaution of posting a big, 1.4-gigabyte file encrypted with a 256-digit key said to be unbreakable.
Titled “insurance.aes256″, the file was big enough to contain all the US cables said to be in WikiLeaks’s possession.
The encryption makes it unreadable until the key is supplied — at which time all its contents would be available to those who downloaded it from torrent-feeding sites such as ThePirateBay.org.
“It’s a ticking time bomb with a remote fuse,” one expert told NBC News. “So this bomb can go off the second that they release the key and the key will spread around the internet in a matter of seconds.”
Appearing on the BBC, Assange’s lawyer defended the move. “They need to protect themselves,” Mark Stephens said. This is what they believe to be a thermo-nuclear device effectively in the electronic age.”
WikiLeaks has been under constant cyber attacks since it began releasing the secret US diplomatic cables.
Continue reading here…
Related Articles
- Swiss infrastructure keeping WikiLeaks alive (msnbc.msn.com)
- WikiLeaks Founder Continues Morphing Into Movie Villain (politics.usnews.com)
- “WikiLeaks Says Ready To Release Giant “Insurance” File If Shut Down” and related posts (patdollard.com)
- Report: WikiLeaks can trigger deluge of secrets (msnbc.msn.com)
- WikiLeaks’ ‘insurance’ file to ensure work goes on (msnbc.msn.com)
Filed under Julian Assange, Wikileaks
‘WikiLeaks WON’T be stopped’: Founder reveals 100,000 encrypted versions of secret files have been
- Assange says he’s taking ‘precautions’ due to death threats
- Cables sent to 100,000 other people in case ‘something happens’
- Website down for six hours after American firm pulls plug
- Suspicions it acted under pressure from Obama administration
- Scotland Yard won’t comment about arrest of founder
- France becomes first country to attempt to ban website
The founder of WikiLeaks today revealed he has sent out 100,000 encrypted copies of secret diplomatic cables so they will definitely be released whatever happens to him.
Julian Assange, breaking his silence in an online question and answer session, acknowledged there had been death threats against him and his colleagues because of the damaging leaks.
He told for the first time of the insurance policy he had put in place to ensure that his whistleblowing website will not be silenced, whatever drastic steps may be taken by his enemies.
Mr. Assange also hailed the young American soldier suspected of leaking the classified U.S. cables as an ‘unparalleled hero’.
The session came as he was still in hiding in Britain. The Australian is wanted in Sweden for questioning over sexual assault allegations but Scotland Yard has yet to arrest him.
‘The threats against our lives are a matter of public record. However, we are taking the appropriate precautions to the degree that we are able when dealing with a superpower,’ he said.
All the leaked American diplomatic cables as well as ‘significant material from the U.S. and other countries’ has been copied to more than 100,000 people in encrypted form, he added.
‘If something happens to us, the key parts will be released automatically,’ he wrote.
Continue reading here…
Related Articles
- WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange ‘taking precautions’ after death threats (telegraph.co.uk)
- WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange ‘taking precautions’ after death threats – Telegraph.co.uk (news.google.com)
- WikiLeaks data can spread without site: founder (cbc.ca)
- The War on Wikileaks – CBS News (news.google.com)
- Attacks shut down WikiLeaks – The Age (news.google.com)
- WikiLeaks chief: Expect UFO talk in future files (msnbc.msn.com)
- WikiLeaks cables: Live Q&A with Julian Assange (guardian.co.uk)
- Julian Assange faces renewed arrest attempt over sex offence allegations (guardian.co.uk)
Comments Off
Filed under Julian Assange, Wikileaks
Bush Speechwriter Marc Thiessen Suggests Invading U.S.-Allied Nations To Capture WikiLeaks Founder
Prosecute the truth so as to hide its stark reality…
Once again, this blog is mainly about sorting out the “crazies”. Well, we’ve found a few more!
Conservative outrage over the WikiLeaks release of secret State Department cables has reached a fever pitch, with Rep. Pete King (R-NY) — who will chair the Homeland Security Committee in the new Congress — demanding the group be declared a terrorist organization. Former GOP Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum echoed King yesterday, saying WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is guilty of “terrorism,” while a number of Republican lawmakers have called for treason charges against suspected leaker Bradley Manning. Meanwhile, a number of conservative figures have fantasized about committing bodily harm to Assange.
But former Bush speechwriter-cum-leading torture advocate Marc Thiessen took this outrage to comic heights last night on Fox News host Sean Hannity’s show. Proving that neoconservatives never miss an opportunity to call for war, Thiessen suggested that if diplomacy fails to capture Assange, the U.S. should “go and get him” — with or without his host country’s permission:
THIESSEN: There are plenty of tools at our disposal. … But failing that, we can act unilaterally. We can go and get him without another country’s permission. We did it with General Noriega — there’s authority within the Office of Legal Counsel and that we can go and take anybody anywhere in the world. Continue reading here…
Watch it:
Related Articles
- Marc Thiessen, Tough Guy (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com)
- WikiLeaks Diplomatic Document Dump Yields No Surprises (dailyfinance.com)
- WikiLeaks, A Terrorist Organization? (buzzfeed.com)
- Can the Government Prosecute WikiLeaks? (criminaljustice.change.org)
- Sweden Orders Arrest of WikiLeaks Founder (theroot.com)
Comments Off
Filed under Julian Assange, Wikileaks
WikiLeaks U.S. Embassy Cables: New Documents Released
This doesn’t look good for the U.S. and its allies…
The New York Times and The Guardian have published a selection of the 250,000 classified State Department documents provided to them by the online website WikiLeaks. The WikiLeaks website appeared to be inaccessible, and WikiLeaks said in its Twitter feed that it was experiencing a denial of service attack. WikiLeaks also provided the documents to Spain’s El Pais, France’s Le Monde, and Germany’s Der Spiegel.
According to The New York Times, the cables reveal how foreign leaders, including Israel’s defense minister Ehud Barak and Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, urged the U.S. to confront Iran over its nuclear program.
“The cables also contain a fresh American intelligence assessment of Iran’s missile program,” The Times reports. “They reveal for the first time that the United States believes that Iran has obtained advanced missiles from North Korea that could let it strike at Western European capitals and Moscow and help it develop more formidable long-range ballistic missiles.”
Continue reading here…
Related Articles
- Arab Leaders Urged US to Stop Iran Bombs, NYT Says – BusinessWeek (news.google.com)
- Wikileaks documents reveal sensitive US cables (thestar.com)
- WikiLeaks Under Cyber Attack Right Before Release of Secret Documents (alternet.org)
- WikiLeaks to defy US demands on leaked cables (sfgate.com)
- WikiLeaks to Defy US Demands on Leaked Cables (abcnews.go.com)
Comments Off
Filed under Julian Assange, National Security, Wikileaks
