The Swiss news organization Tages-Anzeiger reported today on the potential threat posed by Wikileaks' forthcoming release and subsequent measures which Bank of America has taken to mitigate that threat (previously covered here on WL Central).
Sie setzte im Dezember einen Krisenstab von 20 Computer- und Risikoexperten ein, zog die renommierte Beratungsfirma Booz Allen Hamilton sowie mehrere Topkanzleien bei, um sich abzusichern. (Bank of America had set up a crisis unit in December. The crisis unit of 20 computer and risk experts, pulled from the prestigious consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton has been tasked to access and defend Bank of America.)
Further, the article notes that delaying the release of the Banking information will dilute their effectiveness and potential for harm.
länger Wikileaks zuwartet, desto geringer wird die Wirkung des Lecks sein.
Setting up death threats against Julian Assange in the form of a domain name is the new fad. Just don't try setting up "killobama.org" or "murderthepresident.com". The site http://vivantleakers.org/ is devoted to tracking these explicit threat domain names. At the moment it lists 6 domains of the "kill Assange" variety.
Here's a summary of coverage:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/14/death-threat-domain-names_n_809174.html
From the above HuffPo item:
Go Daddy, the site which registered both killjulianassange.com and julianassangemustdie.com said there is nothing that can be done about either site while they are contentless. Go Daddy registers a domain name every .8 seconds -- any domain name can be registered and there is no human intervention.
More...
David Rovics wishes to thank WikiLeaks for featuring this video and expressed his further wish, on his YouTube page, for this video's global distribution.
"We want all the information to be above the table so the press is not restricted and the truth is reflected in the history books. These principles, are in essence, our philosophy." -Julian Assange (translated)
Today, the Dutch news organization NOS.nl posted a segment of their interview with Julian Assange. In this brief segment, Mr. Assange elaborates on the philosophy behind the release of several cables concerning Afghanistan troop deployment from the Netherlands. According to the website, the full interview will be posted later today, at which time we will provide an update.
Interview with Julian Assange. (Full Interview)
The full article can be found here.
This Day in Cable History. (May 12th 1986. Madrid)
QADHAFI RETALIATES AGAINST SPANISH EXPULSIONS.LIBYA MAY 12 RESPONDED TO FRIDAY'S EXPULSION OF ITS CONSUL GENERAL, CHARGED WITH PASSING FUNDS TO A SPANISH ARMY COLONEL ON THE ANTI-DEMOCRATIC RIGHT, BY PNG'ING THE SPANISH COMMERCIAL AND CULTURAL COUNSELORS IN TRIPOLI. MFA'S SUBDIRECTOR GENERAL FOR NORTH AFRICA TELLS US THAT THE GOS WILL NOT RETALIATE SPECIFICALLY FOR THESE EXPULSIONS; AS INVESTIGATIONS CONTINUE INTO THE LIBYAN ACTIVITIES HERE, HOWEVER, MORE EXPULSIONS ARE QUITE POSSIBLE.
This Cable, written on a Monday afternoon in 1986 describes some of the "realpolitik" between Spain and Libya at the time. Further, this cable was written 27 days after the United States bombed Tripoli and surrounding military bases. Though QADHAFI and his administration were not an innocent party to the events leading up to the raid; the raid-bombing itself was condemned by many countries.
By a vote of 79 in favor to 28 against with 33 abstentions:
Framing is a fundamental tool of understanding. It is in the action of framing, or providing a narrative that context is created and understanding promoted. As with all "big" news stories and the embassy cables in particular, the various news outlets reporting on the cables have provided the context in which understanding is created, gained. The Guardian, New York Times, Der Spiegel and others have to a greater or lesser degree provided the political framing much needed to understand these cables. But, what of the social framing? What was the state of culture during the writing of these cables? And for that matter what were some of the economic indicators at the time?
In support of Wikileaks worldwide.
Common law conspiracy is an agreement by two or more to do an unlawful act, or to do a lawful act by unlawful means. The actus reus (guilty act) is the agreement itself. The mens rea (guilty mind) is the intention to carry out the unlawful act. Another way of putting it is that there must be a "meeting of the minds" to commit the unlawful act.
It does not matter that the conspiracy was not carried out, liability for common law conspiracy arises simply from the the agreement.
It goes almost without saying, that to avoid First Amendment protection of a hypothetical Espionage case (and I will leave those arguments to US constitutional lawyers), conspiracy appears to have a much greater prospect of success for the DOJ,
The Wachowski brothers’ 1999-2003 film series, The Matrix gained worldwide popularity and since its release has been very influential. It is not simply a film, but has become a cultural phenomenon. In past ages, it was philosophers like Friedrich Nietzsche and Immanuel Kant that engaged youth with deep questions and the search for meaning in their lives. Yet Neo’s conundrum “What is real?” has become the question of our age.
The following contains no commentary; only quotes from a well reported cable release earlier this week. It will quickly become apparent why no commentary is required.
FRANCE AND THE WTO AG BIOTECH CASE
Summary: Mission Paris recommends that that the USG reinforce
our negotiating position with the EU on agricultural biotechnology by
publishing a retaliation list when the extend "Reasonable Time
Period" expires. In our view, Europe is moving backwards not
forwards on this issue with FRANCE playing a leading role, along with
Austria, Italy and even the Commission.
Moving to retaliation will make clear that the current path
has real costs to EU interests and could help strengthen
European pro-biotech voices.
Both the GOF and the Commission have suggested that their
respective actions should not alarm us since they are only
cultivation rather than import bans. We see the cultivation ban as a
first step, at least by anti-GMO advocates, who will move next to ban
or further restrict imports. (The environment minister's top aide
told us that people have a right not to buy meat raised on biotech
feed
The US Department of Justice has issued a subpoena on Twitter for material related to Birgitta Jónsdóttir, including her personal details and, it can be assumed, all her private direct messages.
Ms Jónsdóttir twittered thus:
department of justice are requesting twitter to provide the info - i got 10 days to stop it via legal process before twitter hands it over.
While this is not in any way confirmed, it appears that while the subpoena is from the DOJ it may actually emanate from the Grand Jury so far held in secret (but often mentioned or alluded to in the mainstream media) to examine whether or not Wikileaks people in general and Julian Assange in particular can be charged with an offence.
Subpoenae are a normal part of a criminal justice system and ordinarily there are restrictions against abuse, for both prosecution and defence.
The normal common law test for subponae is the "legitimate forensic purpose" test. Arguable for and against (with respective case law in mind in whatever jurisdiction one happens to be in), the test is for the purpose of eliminating or significantly reducing "fishing expeditions: to reduce waste of a court's time and to eliminate the speculative and wide subpoena that would require truckloads of documents to satisfy it.
The nature of the Internet makes detailed, concise, well thought out arguments almost impossible. The fluidity, the ebb and flow of information all conspire against the well thought out essay. In the past weeks, months even, there has been numerous attempts by myself and others to boil down the main arguments, the main points to be made, to try and shine some light into the encroaching darkness. While some have made a good go of it, placing cap-stones on some of the more pressing issues; others have failed miserably. I am forced to concede, alas, I am in the "fail" category.
I can hardly count the numerous "beginnings" of essays; which, in my heart of hearts I felt, were Surly to illuminate and keep the darkness at bay. However, it seems, new information, new spins on old information come flooding; torrents of rumors, facts and fallacies kaleidoscope round; peculate and illustrate most macabre.
This will not happen now.
Further to my open letter on those inciting murder upon Julian Assange, this op ed style post again responds to those who say that Julian Assange should be kidnapped, executed, murdered or otherwise be "whacked", to use a favourite Hollywood gangster expression. It is a much expanded variant of the open letter to the inciters at Wikileaks Central.
The CIA and/or US military forces have been invoked by some, as the agents who would carry out such extra curial "services" of which it must be said, such actions both incitement and carrying the incitement out, are undoubtedly unlawful. Doubtless the early December Assange-illegal-posturing Prime Minister of Australia would not officially, take kindly to the latter course of action.
The web roll of inciters or borderline inciters is growing.
The World Will Become Better. 
Soft as filigree,
damming as ice;
we shudder now,
when we hear "nice"
Your day at the office,
forty minutes of it we viewed.
twenty-four hours later,
your corporate masters decried,
"the footage was skewed"
As if you hadn't killed,
Children, Journalists, Dads,
leaving their ruined bodies,
suffering in the Iraqi sands.
You said, "well it's their fault"
"for bringing their kids into a battle"
Secure in the sky,
safe from the child's death rattle.
The callousness of your action,
your eagerness to kill
the slight gratification in your voice,
haunts me still.
What was done, by you and then,
reminds me of another war,
another "them"
Untermensch "they" were called,
by those solders,
who seemed
to enjoy it all.
But that was a "good" war,
as if killing isn't anything but.
they too laughed it off
making jokes not meant to cut.
And if we hold up a mirror,
to compare the past and today,
what do you see?
are there any differences in play?
The rise of WikiLeaks and the heat of the response from the US political leadership brought worldwide attention to a little known underground population that calls themselves Anonymous. Some think of it as an organization with certain identifiable members but as Sam, a member of the #WikiLeaks Forums pointed out, this is misunderstanding the nature of this open source action group. In anticipation of the Bank of America DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attack that was planned by a section of Anonymous, some pundits were assuming that this was the same organization as Operation Payback, the Pay Pal/Amazon DDoS group.
OPEN LETTER
TO:
THOSE INCITING MURDER UPON JULIAN ASSANGE AND/OR MEMBERS OF HIS FAMILY.
We, among many law abiding citizens of the world deplore and condemn, as applicable, your utterances and writings calling for the extra judicial ie unlawful: kidnapping/assassination/murder/physical harm of Julian Assange, his supporters, Wikileaks workers or members of Assange's family.
We remind you of the laws in your country and others against incitement, inter alia:
Common law:
Codified Incitement Law:
(1) Australian Commonwealth
11.4 Incitement
(1) A person who urges the commission of an offence is guilty of the offence of incitement.
(2) For the person to be guilty, the person must intend that the offence incited be committed.
(3) United Kingdom
I spoke for about 20 minutes with Lt. Brian Villiard, from the Public Affairs Office at Quantico Prison. He had returned my call from the voice mail message I had left regarding Bradley Manning’s ‘detainment’ conditions, and Lt. Villiard was also contacted by Quantico Base Commander Colonel Daniel Choike’ s office where I had left a voicemail message.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Theme by Danetsoft and Danang Probo Sayekti inspired by Maksimer
