On January 23, Al Jazeera announced their possession of 1,684 files of confidential documents related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and with the release of these documents, they launched their new Transparency Unit. They released the Palestine Papers and reported on their contents between January 23-26th, 2011. The documents include:
These accounts of high level exchanges and strategy papers cover a period from 1999 to 2010. As promised by Al Jazeera, they have revealed new details regarding:
The Palestinian Authority’s willingness to concede illegal Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem, and to be “creative” about the status of the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount.
The New York Times reported today on former Guantánamo Bay detainee Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani. On Tuesday, Ghailani was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for his role in the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in East Africa. Ghailani is the first former Guantánamo detainee to be tried in the civilian court system.
Lewis A. Kaplan of the US District Court wrote of the evidence that Ghailani had been acquitted of more than 280 charges of murder and conspiracy:
Mr. Ghailani knew and intended that people would be killed as a result of his own actions and the conspiracy he joined.
Mr. Ghailani, 36, was convicted on November 17 of a single count of conspiracy to destroy government buildings and property. After over two months of deliberation, judge Kaplan handed down the sentencing earlier today.
In an NBC News report dated January 24, US military officials reportedly confessed that they have been unable to find any direct connections between Bradley Manning, suspected of leaking secret documents, and Julian Assange:
Officials with the U.S. military, say that while investigators have determined that Manning had allegedly unlawfully downloaded tens of thousands of documents onto his own computer and passed them to an unauthorized person, there is apparently no evidence he passed the files directly to Assange, or had any direct contact with the controversial WikiLeaks figure.
Further, in the same briefing, the Defense Department officially denied the mistreatment of Bradley Manning, while admitting that:
Brig Commander James Averhart did not have the authority to place Manning on suicide watch for two days last week, and that only medical personnel are allowed to make that call.
Egyptians will be demonstrating today in solidarity with Tunisia and in hope for change within their own government. An Egyptian national holiday in honour of the police, has been renamed 'The Day of Wrath', 'Revolution Day', and the 'Koshari Revolution', the latter referring to a rice, lentils and pasta dish frequently eaten by lower income Egyptians.
There has been a significant amount of support and planning for the protest online, causing the government and police to promise an equally strong suppression. Over 85,000 people have liked the Facebook page for the protest day, calling for a day of revolution against torture, poverty, corruption and unemployment.
April 6 Youth Movement, whose group said they distributed over 150,000 flyers for the event, had at least three members arrested last week for distributing pamphlets, according to Egypt's al-Masry al-Youm. Almost half of Egypt's 80 million people live on less than or just above USD$2 a day. The protesters are calling for a raise of minimum wage to 1200 pounds, linking wages to prices, getting rid of the Interior Minister, and abolishing the state of emergency that Egypt has imposed since 1981.
In a development which may cast new light on yesterday's incidents at Quantico military prison, NBC reports that "U.S. military officials" indicated that Bradley Manning was placed on suicide watch last week by Brig Commander James Averhart, in a violation of procedure.
The officials told NBC News, however, that a U.S. Marine commander did violate procedure when he placed Manning on "suicide watch" last week.
Military officials said Brig Commander James Averhart did not have the authority to place Manning on suicide watch for two days last week, and that only medical personnel are allowed to make that call.
The official said that after Manning had allegedly failed to follow orders from his Marine guards. Averhart declared Manning a "suicide risk." Manning was then placed on suicide watch, which meant he was confined to his cell, stripped of most of his clothing and deprived of his reading glasses — anything that Manning could use to harm himself. At the urging of U.S. Army lawyers, Averhart lifted the suicide watch.
Events in Tunisia continue to develop quickly. Protesters from rural areas streamed into the capital overnight, defying a curfew, to protest the continued presence of remnants of the Ben-Ali regime. Here is a round-up of today's events in Tunisia.
Al Jazeera:
Talks underway for new Tunisia govt - Politicians said to be meeting to negotiate the creation of a committe of "wise men" to replace current government.
Tunisian politicians are reportedly negotiating the creation of a committee of "wise men" to replace the interim government and "protect the revolution".
Sources have told the Reuters news agency on Monday that the committee could include respected opposition politician Ahmed Mestiri. The comments echo that of the country's army chief, Rachid Ammar, who also vowed to "defend the revolution" that ousted former president Zine El Abedine Ben Ali, but warned of a "power vacuum" that may result if a solution to the subsequent political crisis is not found. [Source]
Tonight at 6 p.m.(23:00 utc) the Personal Democracy Forum, in partnership with New York University's Interactive Technology Program, will present the second symposium on WikiLeaks and Internet Freedom.
The panel will include:
In an interview with the Frankfurter Rundschau today, Guido Strack, EU lawyer and former official of the EU commission at Luxembourg, outlines some of the pitfalls of whistleblowing.
Responding to the question "Stehen Mitarbeiter, die Rechtsbrüche anprangern, am Ende oft alleine da?"(Current employees who stand up against violations of the law often stand alone; why is that?), Strack says:
Viele geben irgendwann auf. Es ist eine enorme Drucksituation. Man findet gravierende Verstöße und weiß, dass das dem Chef nicht passen wird. Was macht man damit? Entweder man geht in die innere Kündigung, geht weg oder man gibt einen Hinweis auf die Missstände. Oft werden diese Menschen dann als zu widerspenstig angesehen und von der Organisation ausgesiebt.
Some give up at some point. There is tremendous pressure in this situation. One finds serious failures and violations of the law and knows that the boss will not address the issues. What does one do in that situation? Either you resign and have nothing to do with the problem or you report the violation. However, the people who report the violations will be regarded as being insubordinate and blacklisted from other organizations.)
Strack expands on the plight of whistleblowers in reply to the question:"Warum sind die Sanktionen gegen Whistleblower oft so heftig?"(Why are the legal consequences / punishments enacted against whistleblowers often so draconian?)
Arabic news portal Soparo.com reports today under the headline "Bouazizi infection in the province of Al-Hasakah, Syria" that a 25-year-old man named only as "Hassan" attempted to burn himself to death, following the example set by Mohamed Bouazizi in Tunisia last December. The report further cites sources claiming that the man was "mentally ill," but also that the attempt was a protest against unemployment and living conditions in the province of Al-Hasakah. The man remains in critical condition in the hospital under security.
Previously on WL Central:
El País: El FBI interroga a sus anchas a los inmigrantes en territorio de México (FBI interrogates freely immigrants in Mexican territory)
"Calderón autorizó a los agentes a seguir la pista del terrorismo internacional. (Calderón authorized the [American] agents to follow the track of international terrorism.)"
El País: Sicarios adiestrados por EE UU (Hit men trained by the United States)
"Rogelio López Villafana, un ex militar del Ejército mexicano entrenado por EE UU, fue reclutado a la fuerza por los Zetas y estuvo implicado en un plan para asesinar a un ex fiscal general adjunto. (Rogelio López Villafana, an ex-soldier of the Mexican Army trained in the United States was forcibly recruited by the "Zetas" and was involved in a plot to kill an ex attorney.)"
Al Jazeera launches Transparency Unit:
Launched in January 2011, the Al Jazeera Transparency Unit (AJTU) aims to mobilize its audience - both in the Arab world and further afield - to submit all forms of content (documents, photos, audio & video clips, as well as “story tips”) for editorial review and, if merited, online broadcast and transmission on our English and Arabic-language broadcasts. ...
From human rights to poverty to official corruption, AJTU will fairly evaluate and pursue all leads and content submitted, without geographical, political, cultural, or religious bias.
Today, activist David House and Jane Hamsher, publisher of firedoglake, were detained, harassed, and ultimately prevented from delivering the petition to Stop the Inhumane Treatment of Bradley Manning.
David House reported from his twitter feed:
david house@davidmhouse Detained for 40 minutes now upon entering base. Advised that cannot leave.
Protests have spread across the Middle East in the wake of Tunisia's popular uprising set in motion by the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi, resulting in the intimidation, arrest, and imprisonment of dissident voices and journalists. Governments in the region have responded with both carrots and sticks. A short round-up of significant events over the weekend in Yemen, Jordan, and Algeria.
Yemen: Reporters Without Borders: Arrests and threats against journalists.
... Tawakkol Karman, the head of the NGO Women Journalists Without Chains, ... was arrested for unclear reasons in the capital, Sanaa, yesterday evening following a protest in the city in the afternoon. Her family said she is being held in Sanaa’s main prison. Yesterday’s demonstration was part of a 10-day-old wave of protests in Yemen inspired in part by the protests in Tunisia. Around 20 people have been reportedly arrested. ... More than 200 journalists took part in a march this morning to demand their release.
That "WikiLeaks has divulged nothing new" has become, in the last 8 months, a refrain within officialdom and the mainstream press.
Those who have been following the events for themselves know otherwise. So numerous are the valuable public interest disclosures facilitated by WikiLeaks that to encapsulate them can sometimes seem a daunting task.
Here, though, are five efforts by prominent journalists and organizations to do just that. The five posts here serve as digests of the last year's WikiLeaks news, selected according to personal assessment of newsworthiness and salience. They are a valuable resource for anyone who wants to ascertain for him or herself whether it is true that "WikiLeaks told us nothing new."
The Nation: Greg Mitchell: Why WikiLeaks Matters
The Nation's Greg Mitchell is by now one of the key names in WikiLeaks coverage. His WikiLeaks live blog has been a fixture since late November for anyone wanting to keep abreast of the news on WikiLeaks. He has also written a book on WikiLeaks' activities since April 2009, which will be available soon. In this post, Mitchell compiled, from his own archive, a huge list of valuable points of information WikiLeaks brought to the public eye.
Electronic Frontier Foundation: Rainey Reitman: The Best of Cablegate: Instances Where Public Discourse Benefited from the Leaks
This post by Rainey Reitman lists "a small selection of cables that [have] been critical to understanding and evaluating controversial events." Among the revelations overviewed are the DYNCORP "dancing boy" scandal, and the misuse of the U.S. diplomatic corp to fix contracts and law reform for big business. Valuable commentary is provided for each entry.
It is not clear from the UK Press Association report why Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt responded to reporters' questions about Julian Assange in London two days ago by addressing the hypothetical question of Assange's extradition from Sweden to the US, but he didn't dismiss it as hypothetical:
Mr Reinfeldt said Sweden's policy was not to extradite people to countries with the death penalty. But he said Sweden's courts, not its government, would decide that. ...
"We should remember when we ask questions about this that these are legal systems talking to each other, not politicians."
We know from the cables and other sources (see the summary in section 7, 92-96, of the "skeleton" legal argument) that Swedish courts have in the past been complicit in the illegal kidnapping of refugee claimants by US agents. More broadly, the role of diplomacy as mediator between law and politics has arisen repeatedly in many of the cables released by its major media partners and WikiLeaks.
Since the role of the courts is usually to interpret legislation ("policy") or to strike it down if it is unconstitutional, Reinfeldt's apparent failure to affirm Swedish refusal to extradite to countries that retain capital punishment raises questions.
Via @calixte on Twitter
Mark Stephens (@MarksLarks), Julian Assange's London-based solicitor, tweets today:
Biographies of the blind. Assange films & books: puffery by people without knowledge of his life http://tiny.cc/c08ut
As well as the biopics discussed in the Independent report and Daniel Domscheit-Berg's book, a growing number of instant books about WikiLeaks have been announced for publication in advance of Assange's autobiography, including a few that may be of substance: Heather Brooke's report on her dealings with the Guardian over a leaked trove of WikiLeaks documents, the Guardian's own version of their history with Assange and WikiLeaks, and Greg Mitchell's forthcoming narrative of WikiLeaks since last April (see his continuing work on WikiLeaks news at The Nation).
El País: EE UU retrata la corrupción en Cuba (The United States portraits corruption un Cuba)
"Sobornos, mordidas, comisiones ilegales, tráfico de influencias... Los informes detallan la generalización de prácticas corruptas en un sistema asediado por la penuria. (Bribes, illegal committees, trafic of influences... The informs detail the generalized corruption in a system chased by poverty.)"
El País: [Cables:] "La Iglesia ha capitulado" ([Cables:] "The church has capitulated")
"EE UU dibuja una jerarquía resignada a las concesiones del régimen castrista. La Iglesia católica ha renunciado al activismo político en Cuba, e incluso optó por distanciarse de los disidentes católicos, a cambio de que el régimen le permita mantener un espacio para el culto y pueda reconstruir su infraestructura en templos y seminarios. (The United States portraits a hierarchy surrendered to the Castro regime conditions. The Catholic Church has quit the political activism in Cuba and even has chosen to take distance from the catholic dissidents, in exchange for a free spot to worship and infrastructure for temples and seminaries allowed by the Castro regime.)"
Reuters reported today on possible EU legal action against Hungary for its new media law passed in 2010 (reported here by WL Central). Hungary has two weeks to show that the new law complies with EU rules regarding free speech and media freedom, and with EU regulations on broadcasting. The report goes on to state:
The commission, which serves as the EU executive body, is concerned whether the new rules limit freedom of expression in Hungary by requiring all broadcasters to provide balanced coverage of news and to register with a state authority.
The full article can be read here.
On December 22, 2010, the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act Bill S.372) was killed by an unknown United States Senator, who placed an anonymous hold on the bill (reported here on WL Central).
WNYC, On the Media and the Government Accountability Project have joined forces to uncover the identity of the mystery senator.
WNYC has posted a table, "containing the names, states, and contact information for the 87 [United States] Senators still serving that could have put the anonymous hold on this bill." You can find it here.
They are asking the American public to "call, write, [or] email their Senators and ask them 'did you kill this bill?'” Then, regardless of the Senator's reply, they request you email blowthewhistle@wnyc.org with an update.
Here are some tips about "How To Track Down Anonymous Holds" from Tom Devine, legal director of the Government Accountability Project
Source: WNYC: Blow the Whistle
The following summarizes the unfolding of events surrounding the arrest of Julian Assange, as recounted in an article entitled "The European Arrest Order Against Julian Assange," originally published here by Brita Sundberg-Weitman, retired Swedish judge and author in the areas of legal and civil rights. Sundberg-Weitman also expresses concerns about media coverage of the event and about the possible extradition of Julian Assange in this article, which I received via email by a source who also reports that Sundberg-Weitman translated the piece herself. Quotations refer directly to this English translation received.
The article has 3 parts: Background, justification of extradition fears and clarification of related political considerations under Swedish law. Each is summarized here.
Background
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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