2011-06-02 WikiLeaks Notes: Latest News on #Cablegate Releases & #WikiLeaks

Mentor and friend Greg Mitchell at TheNation.com is on vacation. I'm no Greg Mitchell so I cannot promise to bring the flourish to blogging WikiLeaks News & Views that he brought for 185 days. However, I am Kevin Gosztola, someone very enthusiastic and passionate about staying up to date on the cable releases and all news and discussion surrounding the WikiLeaks organization. While he is away, I will be blogging WikiLeaks updates here.

You can contact me at kgosztola@hotmail.com with any news tips. Also, my Twitter username is @kgosztola.

11:00 PM USA Today, in their portrait of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, use WikiLeaks cables to illuminate his political history as a Socialist.

9:55 PM Another indication of how useful the US State Embassy cables are to US media: Los Angeles Times cites Yemen cables in its coverage of violence erupting in Yemen

8:50 PM Justice Department, in response to an ACLU motion filed last month, determines three individuals (Jacob Appelbaum, Rop Gonggrijp and Birgitta Jonsdottir) have no "right to information about similar demands that may have been issued to other internet companies." Court filing here.

8:20 PM Belfast Telegraph with ten or more new stories on the Ireland cables. One of the stories covers a senior Irish official who "told US diplomats that loans being transferred to the Republic’s ‘toxic bank’ could be worth half their stated value — at a time when the government was saying losses should be less than a third." The official, Kevin Cardiff, had the word "PROTECT" printed next to his name, indicating his identity and/or comments were "not to be disclosed" to the public by US officials.

6:00 PM South Africa may be the next government WikiLeaks needs to set its sights on and open: The ANC is "reviving apartheid-era secrecy laws that could make exposing corruption or dodgy government deals punishable with prison." The Protection of Information bill could potentially allow "dishonest officials to hide misdemeanours by making sensitive information difficult to obtain and by threatening journalists or whistleblowers with up to 25 years in jail."

A clampdown could very well mean whistleblowers release material to WikiLeaks before they go to South Africa media.

5:20 PM Well-written op-ed by Ed Kinane, who was arrested while protesting in support of Bradley Manning at Quantico in March. He writes on Bradley Manning and resistance:

Many of us have valid reasons not to risk arrest. But some of us are in a position to take the plunge ... or we're in a position to make changes in our life style or circumstances so we can risk arrest and its consequences when that imperative calls. In any case we can actively support those nonviolently taking such risk.

Bradley Manning is "deeply at risk."

5:15 PM National Post covers cables from Canada on the North American Initiative

2:20 PM Greek Cables: how Greece played a critical role in supporting US military operations in the eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East, especially in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Here's a cable that further describes the relationship.

11:10 PM New York Times's Bill Keller will be relinquishing his position as executive editor. Keller says he will be leaving the position to write more (perhaps, on Julian Assange's filthy white socks).

Jill Abramson will be taking over, making her the first woman executive editor in the paper's history. For those wondering what her stance on WikiLeaks might be, this is how she defended the publishing of the US State Embassy Cables in November of last year. (Of course, that says nothing about what she currently thinks about the WikiLeaks organization in general. Maybe WikiLeaks will have a tweet on her later, if she was involved in meetings on the publishing of war logs or cables.)

10:56 PM Zack Whittaker of ZDNet.com, who wrote about the problem with designating WikiLeaks as a terrorist organization in February, now writes on whether cyber attacks can really be considered acts of war.

10:19 PM Debate in Sydney on whether WikiLeaks is a "force for good." Follow @iq2oz for updates on what is being said by debate participants.

10:06 PM A place where you can ask questions of the WikiLeaks staff and get answers

9:57 PM Andy Worthington, media partner with WikiLeaks on the Gitmo Files, has an update to his book "The Guantanamo Files." New chapters include information from the recent detainee assessment reports released.

9:52 PM What does the media-manufactured controversy that is "Weinergate" in America have to do with WikiLeaks? If you're Bill O'Reilly, it's another pretext, like the PBS hack and WikiLeaks' publishing of the cables, to escalate US cybersecurity efforts.

7:57 PM Bulgarian Prosecutor's Office won't "self-initiate" an investigation into the information contained in released cables on Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov

7:55 PM Julian Assange wins top UK award for journalism, the Martha Gellhorn Trust Prize. Here is a full description on why he was awarded:

“WikiLeaks has been portrayed as a phenomenon of the hi-tech age, which it is. But it’s much more. Its goal of justice through transparency is in the oldest and finest tradition of journalism. WikiLeaks has given the public more scoops than most journalists can imagine: a truth-telling that has empowered people all over the world. As publisher and editor, Julian Assange represents that which journalists once prided themselves in – he’s brave, determined, independent: a true agent of people not of power.”

7:50 PM Cables from Peru provide insight into the presidential election between former army colonel Ollanta Humala and Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of "disgraced" former president Alberto Fujimori. El Comercio finds Humala might have thought WikiLeaks cables that have been impacting Peruvian politics would help him out but one cable in particular shows Humala and a US army officer once discussed killing rebels and torturing suspects with electro shock. Humala "did not have the stomach" for rape, however, he was aware that it happened on the base where he was stationed.

7:45 PM More on Pakistan: Pakistan given arms like advanced F-16 fighters, to fight the "war on terror," however, the US denied advanced Harpoon missile technology to Pakistan believing the technology would threaten India

7:40 PM Pakistan Papers: Indian army an obstacle to Siachen solution

7:23 PM Canada cables: Canadian officials advised US officials on how to get around privacy laws and get information on whether a Canadian businessman and politician had links to the ruling regime in Syria

7:00 PM Glenn Greenwald speech at ACLU Bill of Rights dinner in Massachusetts on "bipartisan security state" and President Obama. Says when Obama was elected it was "very difficult to talk about some the real impediments that still remained and some of the risks that were evident to the civil liberties agenda." Now, he wouldn't even spend time trying to prove Obama Administration has been "continuing the essence of Bush-Cheney radicalism" on terrorism and civil liberties because most have come to understand it is true. Greenwald talks about Bradley Manning, how Americans were afraid when he suggested they donate to WikiLeaks and the general war on whistleblowing by the Obama Administration.

Also, Greenwald's latest on criminalizing free speech.