2011-05-10 WikiLeaks Notes: Guardian Could Not Have Published Documents Without NY Times, Assange Gets a Medal
Julian Assange Says Whistleblowers “Heroes,” WikiLeaks Played “Significant Role” in Recent Arab Uprisings As He Accepts Sydney Peace Prize
Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, was awarded the Sydney Peace Model at the Frontline Club in London. The award was given to recognize his work for “greater transparency and accountability of governments.” @Asher_Wolf covered the event on Twitter.
Assange said, “WikiLeaks is the most scrutinized organization per capita in the world,” and that he was in “the absurd situation of receiving the Sydney Peace Prize in London whilst wearing a surveillance device” around his ankle. He noted that the submission site for WikiLeaks is being re-engineered as a result of “sabotage and website attacks.” Also, Assange acknowledged that coverage of releases from WikiLeaks could devolve into newspapers attacking each other.
Below is video of Assange accepting the medal:
Cables: China Made East Timor an Offer to Build a Surveillance Radar Facility Which the Country Rejected
US State Embassy cables released by WikiLeaks and given to Fairfax media indicate a Chinese made an offer at the end of 2007. East Timorese officials consulted with US and Australian officials.
East Timor Deputy Prime Minister Jose Luis Guterres was interviewed and he denied an offer was ever made to Timor to build a radar system. In the interview, Liam Cochrane asks:
COCHRANE: Mr Guterres the article in The Age newspaper and Sydney Morning Herald this morning actually mentions you specifically, saying that you were the one who went to the US Embassy to discuss the issue and to discuss your concerns that the radar could be used for spying essentially. Is that the case?
GUTERRES: No first if this comes from WikiLeaks I only can say that first I cannot comment on the content of any cables that are coming from diplomatic mission of any embassy in any country. The second one is that our policy in terms of defence cooperation with any country is open, it's not secret. And I want to mention to you that when I was at Boao forum in China just last year, I had stated clearly to everybody, foreign dignitaries there including Chinese, that if Timor was willing to cooperate with China and any country at a military or economic level, we don't hide any cooperation of any country, including the United States of America, with Australia, Indonesia or other country.
Times of India Covers Guantanamo Files with Revelations on Terrorism in India and Pakistan
-Detainee assessment reports show the US shied away from designating Pakistan a state sponsor of terror. Zia Shah of Karachi’s file features a not that he is connected to “Tier 1 Terrorist Groups” in Pakistan, groups with “state support that have demonstrated their intention and capability to attack US persons or interests.”
-Details for 69 detainees show an intermingling between al-Qaida and Kashmir militants. Some “terror suspects” ended up in Afghanistan because they could not get to Kashmir. One in particular went to Afghanistan to fight “Hindus.”
-Taliban fighters bribed ISI officials to release them. One Pakistani citizen told interrogators about how the ISI would let members of the Taliban off for a payment. He learned he could by his release by paying “100,000 rupees (about $1,670) to Pakistani intelligence service officials.
Editor of The Guardian Admits It ‘Could Not Go It Alone’ with WikiLeaks
Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger has revealed that he teamed up with the New York Times to publish information released to the organization by WikiLeaks because he “feared it would be prevented from publishing by the British courts if it attempted to do so alone.”
“… We suspected that, if we went it alone under the framework of laws governing newspapers in this country, we simply wouldn't be allowed to get away with it. We would be sued, or injuncted," he said.
"It seemed a good idea to harness the whole exercise to a country with extremely robust media laws rather than risk it all on the quicksands of the British legal system."