Interview

2013-02-02 Exclusive: CIA Drug Money Plot to Overthrow Ecuador's President Correa

UPDATE: Chilean journalist @PatricioMery advises ex-detective Ulloa has now left the Ecuadorean Embassy in Santiago, and confirms he is "safe and sound". He adds with a wink: "I don't know where he is. ;-)"

WL Central presents an exclusive interview with Chilean journalist Patricio Mery, who claims the CIA has been actively plotting to destabilise or even assassinate Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa, after US anger over decisions such as the granting of political asylum to Julian Assange and the termination of the US lease on a military base in Manta.

2012-12-01 Former PM Condemns Australia for Abandoning Assange and Abdicating Sovereignty

In a wide-ranging exclusive interview with WL Central, former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser has accused the current Gillard government of acting as though Julian Assange "doesn't exist, that he's not an Australian citizen." Mr Fraser slams the existing relationship between Australia and the United States as "far, far too close" and claims Australia is "a strategic colony of the United States, under current circumstances."

2012-07-23 A Short Chat With Christine Assange

WikiLeaks supporters around the globe are informed, talented, and wonderfully passionate people. But supporting WikiLeaks day after day, week after week, month after month, can be an emotional roller coaster. We all have our highs and lows, and surely nobody knows that better than Julian Assange's mum Christine.

2012-06-29 Francisco Carrión ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs: "Ecuador must grant asylum because Mr. Assange is being politically persecuted and his life is at stake"

Francisco Carrión is an Ecuadorian diplomat and political analyst. He is the ex-Foreign Affairs Minister of Ecuador, having also worked in the embassies in Paris, Madrid and London. After resigning as head of mission at the United Nations he began teaching at FLACSO University in Quito.

The delay in Ecuador's answer to Mr. Assange's asylum bid hints at a deep think caused by the issue's complexity. What do you think are the key points of the debate?

2012-06-28 Francisco Carrión ex-ministro de Relaciones Exteriores: "Ecuador debería conceder el asilo ya que la vida del Sr. Assange corre peligro y es un perseguido político"

Entrevistamos a Francisco Carrión, diplomático y analista político ecuatoriano. Fue Ministro de Relaciones Exteriores de Ecuador y en su carrera en el exterior pasó por las embajadas de París y Londres, siendo nombrado embajador en Madrid. Tras su renuncia como jefe de la misión ante las Naciones Unidas dejó la profesión para ser profesor en la Universidad FLACSO en Quito.

2012-06-13 Sen Ludlam on extradition & #Assange in light of expanding US military presence in Asia Pacific #WikiLeaks

"Between 70 and 80 per cent of Australians
support the work of WikiLeaks..." Senator Scott Ludlam

Earlier today, I spoke to Greens Senator for Western Australia, Scott Ludlam, about the threat of extradition for WikiLeaks Editor in Chief, Julian Assange, in light of expanding US military presence in Asia Pacific and broadening military ties between Australia and the United States.

2012-03-18 Interview with Kevin Gozstola, Is media coverage of #Manning timid & recent demands for access?

I recently spoke with Kevin Gosztola, journalist and blogger at The Dissenter at FDL. We spoke about media coverage of Bradley Manning's legal proceedings, as well as the recent demand by a coalition of 46 media organizations for access to Court records. You can find Kevin on twitter @kgosztola.

2012-03-18 Interview w Naomi Colvin on UN Rpt on Torture & Euro advocacy for US political prisoner #Manning

I recently spoke with Naomi Colvin of the UK Friends of Bradley Manning and Occupy London about the UN Special Rapporteur Report on Torture as it concerns Bradley Manning, as well as European sentiment and advocacy for the U.S. political prisoner and alleged whistleblower. You can find Naomi on twitter at @auerfeld

2012-03-10 Interview with Chase Madar, journalist and author of The Passion of Bradley #Manning

Chase Madar is the author of the recently published book, The Passion of Bradley Manning. Madar is a civil rights attorney, who also writes for the London Review of Books, Le Monde diplomatique, The American Conservative (where he is a contributing editor), CounterPunch and TomDispatch. He can be found on twitter at @ChMadar.

2011-08-01 Interview with organizer of Tennessee's Day of Rage #usdor #usdorTN #aug2

Image

Tennessee is planning a 'Day of Rage' at the state capitol on Tuesday, August 2 at 9:00 am, 600 Charlotte Avenue, Nashville, Tennessee.. WL Central writer, Alexa O'Brien, spoke with the organizer of the Tennessee Day of Rage, Lara Jennings, on August 1, 2011 as Jennings prepares for the protest tomorrow.

 

Important Information:

2011-07-24 Interview: Cambodian Cables and Politics

The following interview was conducted with a Cambodian American that the interviewer knows personally as someone who has written extensively on Cambodian issues and is a very active member of the Cambodian community in the United States and elsewhere. The interviewee asked to remain anonymous.

2011-07-17 Interview with Atanas Tchobanov, Balkanleaks' spokesman and Bivol.bg co-editor

ImageAtanas Tchobanov is the spokesman for balkanleaks.eu and co-editor of Bivol.bg as well as a regular writer on WL Central.

Balkanleaks.eu is a whistleblowing Web site modeled on WikiLeaks, and formed to "promote transparency and fight the nexus of organized crime and political corruption in the Balkan states." The site solicits "confidential documents related to political, criminal or financial topics, by offering a manner of collection that is secure and anonymous." Bivol.bg is a Web site devoted to investigative journalism.

In a climate where only three years ago, the editor in chief of a Bulgarian online news provider was severely beaten following several attacks on journalists the same year, both balkanleaks.eu and Bivol.bg have been instrumental in exposing corruption and the abuse of power by organized crime and politicians. You can read some of Bivol's coverage here at WL Central and also here in Bulgarian and Macedonian.

LISTEN TO INTERVIEW

2011-07-12 Göran Rudling & Peter Kemp in Conversation about #Assange Swedish Extradition Case VIDEO #wljul

On July 10 and 11, WL Central's Alexa O'Brien moderated a conversation between Göran Rudling, former witness for the defense at the February extradition hearing for Julian Assange, and Peter Kemp, WL Central legal commentator and Australian solicitor.

Göran Rudling is a Swedish citizen and author of, "Sex, lies, no videotape and more lies. False accusations in the Assange case" in which he deconstructs the case against Julian Assange. Mr. Kemp has translated and made commentary on Mr. Rudling's article from its original Swedish.

Mr. Rudling has also recently written "Weird accusation or proof of lies? More about the Assange case", which covers some of the contents of our 2 hour discussion.

Total running time is about 2 hours. There is image degradation the first 30 seconds of Part 2 and 3. Sound quality is of lesser quality comparatively on Parts 2, 3, and 4 only.


2011-06-27 Interview with Global Bitcoin Stock Exchange developer AntiVigilante

Note from Editor: The following emails have been sent to us.

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Hi, I'm nefario, founder of GLBSE(Global Bitcoin Stock Exchange), glbse.com

I came across this article on your site
http://wlcentral.org/taxonomy/term/958/0

And want to point out some false information in it.

AntiVigilante, is not nor has he ever been a developer for GLBSE, he is
not affiliated with GLBSE in anyway.

The part "Right now, I'm writing for Global Bitcoin Stock Exchange." is
not true/correct.

He may be using GLBSE, in the same way someone uses GMail but he is not
working/writing FOR GLBSE, I have at no time hired him.

Please update your article.

Nefario.

You could go to glbse.com and have a look at the email for contact, or
to Nefario profile on forum.bitcoin.org, both those emails are from this
address.

My GPG key is publicly available on pgp.mit.edu and other keyservers.

Nefario.


What follows is an interview with the Global Stock Market developer known as AntiVigilante. Recently, Bitcoin has grown in both popularity and notoriety with the well known hack attack on mtgox.

Tracy Phillips: Are you a developer for Bitcoin? Please describe what your position is or what you do for Bitcoin. And do you want me to qoute you as "AntiVigilante" or another name?

Anti Vigilante: Anti Vigilante is fine.

Tracy Phillips: Describe what you do.

Anti Vigilante: I have my own interests in it but the fact is Bitcoin is necessary whether it's the best or the worst. So I'm trying to prime the pump and karma has been 60 / 40 my way because of it. I've made contacts. I've been able to cover personal expenses with Bitcoin. I am currently finishing work on a few businesses and services. Mostly documentation.

Tracy Phillips: Is there any contact person, a developer or someone, who can be the public face for Bitcoin?

2011-06-26 #Lulzsec on the future

Following directions in a tweet from @LulzSec Twitter account, Wikileaks World connected to Anonymous IRC server and joined the public channel #AntiSec. The IRC, or Internet Chat Protocol, is the oldest chat protocol on the internet. It is also free. Once there, they recieved the automatic message for the channel's subject: “Got information/leaks?”. The text pointed us to several 'network operators' for the chat-room, marked with an “&” right before their screen-names. We talked with one of them.

After negotiating a moment when both he/she and we were not busy, we started the conversation below between an #AntiSec and WLCentral.


2011-06-25 Timothy Lawson interviews Jim Richardson, member of Sydney Solidarity for Bradley Manning

ImageTimothy Lawson spoke to Jim Richardson, a member of Sydney Solidarity for Bradley Manning, about the group’s campaign work. This interview was sent to us by Mr. Lawson, for publication on WL Central.

Can you tell me about the Sydney Solidarity for Bradley Manning group?

Bradley Manning is a US army soldier accused of passing information to WikiLeaks, including the “Collateral Murder” video of an American airstrike that killed two journalists and nine other Iraqis and wounded two children; the Afghan War Diary; the Iraq War Logs; and more than 250,000 diplomatic cables, many of which reveal vast differences between the public statements and the actions of numerous governments.

Manning was arrested in May 2010, and from July 2010 to April 2011 was held waiting trial in maximum security under widely criticised conditions at the Quantico Marine Base in Virginia.

He is facing charges carrying sentences of up to 52 years jail, and, in theory, the death penalty. After worldwide outcry, on April 20, still awaiting trial, Bradley was moved to a new military remand prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where his detention conditions seem to be better.

Sydney Solidarity for Bradley Manning is a small, informal, self-organised group, currently of six people. Michele, our founding member, started things going in March 2011, with a rally in support of Manning in Sydney’s Martin Place.

2011-06-23 Interview with WikiLeaksWorld in Brussels where demonstrators overtook European Parliament #europeanrevolution

ImageI spoke with WL Central reporter Wikileaks World, currently reporting on the #revolution across Europe. They were present today in Brussels where 200 demonstrators overtook European Parliament to protest the Euro Pact - in like manner to the protests in Spain and Greece against financial measures that grant greater power to corporations vis a vis employess, and erode the sovereignty of nation states.

INTERVIEW

2011-06-07 Interview with Omar Deghayes #Guantanamo

ImageOmar Deghayes was born the son of a prominent Libyan lawyer, an "opponent of the increasingly totalitarian Gaddafi" later taken away by the Libyan authorities and killed. After his father's death, Omar Deghayes settled with his family in Saltdean, Great Britian. As a British resident and student of law, Deghayes was imprisoned in Guantanamo for six years after he was abducted from Pakistan and sold for bounty to the United States military. As many of his interviews rightly point out, Mr. Deghayes lost an eye after it was gouged by a Guantanamo guard.

You were captured and detained between May 2002 and Dec 2007?

2007 May...April? Yes. I think. Probably May or April…yes.

Do you recall where you were held? Were you going from one camp to another? Do you remember those dates...?

No. It's going to be very difficult because when we were in the prisons in Guantanamo, we had no idea of dates or time.

It was difficult to...we didn't have any watches. We weren’t allowed to know dates or things...I think until 2005, when the lawyers started to come in…we started to have some idea of the dates.

And then after that I think 2006 we were allowed to know what time...they had time...a big clock hanging in some of the...not the cells...but in the middle in between the cells. So, it would be difficult to say which dates I was in which prison and so on...

Do you have a recollection of the places that you were actually held?

Yes. Yes. I do. Yes. Even though we weren't allowed to even know that. But we eventually did know where we are.

Where were you first?

I was first in Lahore. I was kept in Lahore prison for two months. And I think it was a maximum security in Lahore. Kind of a fortress, which is made special for, I think, terrorism cases and things like that. There are some Pakistani people there. And some Arabs.

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