2012-05-07 [UPDATED 05-11] Bahraini human rights activist Nabeel Rajab arrested, detained after meeting Assange

rajab2

This is Part Two in WL Central's continued coverage of the arrest of Bahraini human rights activist Nabeel Rajab. He was arrested on May 5 at the Bahraini International Airport, following the announcement of his upcoming appearance on Julian Assange's talk show "The World Tomorrow." A representative of the public prosecution ordered that Rajab be detained for one week for "insulting a statutory body" via Twitter. Rajab denies the charges, saying they are aimed at hindering his human rights work and his right of expression. See Part One of our coverage here.

2012-05-06 WikiLeaks News Update: Nabeel Rajab arrested; US planned to destabilize Ecuadorian President; Other news




WikiLeaks has been financially blockaded without process for 519 days.
Julian Assange has been detained without charge for 516 days.
Bradley Manning has been imprisoned without trial for 713 days.
A secret Grand Jury has been active in the U.S. without transparency for 599 days.


2012-05-05 [UPDATED 2012-05-07] Bahraini human rights activist Nabeel Rajab arrested at airport

Bahraini human rights activist Nabeel Rajab was arrested today by the order of the Bahraini public prosecution. This comes the day after WikiLeaks' press release that he, along with Egyptian activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah, will be the guests on next week's episode of Julian Assange's talk show, "The World Tomorrow."

Rajab was arrested at the Bahraini International Airport upon his return from Lebanon. Authorities have yet to comment on the reason for his arrest. Maryam al-Khawaja, another Bahraini human rights defender, said she and Rajab were discussing the possibility of his arrest as they left Beirut, knowing that the government in Bahrain was escalating.

2012-05-04 WikiLeaks News Update: Press Freedom Day; Guangcheng cables; DFAT seeks to delay Assange FOI request




WikiLeaks has been financially blockaded without process for 517 days.
Julian Assange has been detained without charge for 514 days.
Bradley Manning has been imprisoned without trial for 711 days.
A secret Grand Jury has been active in the U.S. without transparency for 597 days.


WikiLeaks News:

  • May 3 was World Press Freedom Day. The United States plummeted in its press freedom ranking, falling from 20th to 47th. Despite this, the U.S. still made a statement touting its freedom of speech. EFF's Trevor Timm authored an article which commented on the U.S.'s crackdown on whistleblowers, the secret grand jury on WikiLeaks, and the arrests of journalists at Occupy protests. Politico's Byron Tau also wrote about the attacks on whistleblowers and WikiLeaks.

2012-05-03 Former Polish President Aleksander Kwaśniewski admits to collaboration with CIA

In a recent interview with Gazeta Wyborcza, former Polish president Aleksander Kwaśniewski made the following statements:

2012-05-02 #WikiLeaks News Update: Latin America refused to publish cables; "World Tomorrow" episode 3; Other news




WikiLeaks has been financially blockaded without process for 515 days.
Julian Assange has been detained without charge for 512 days.
Bradley Manning has been imprisoned without trial for 708 days.
A secret Grand Jury has been active in the U.S. without transparency for 594 days.


2012-04-29 #WikiLeaks News Update: #IJF12, "World Tomorrow" guest announced; Other news




WikiLeaks has been financially blockaded without process for 512 days.
Julian Assange has been detained without charge for 509 days.
Bradley Manning has been imprisoned without trial for 705 days.
A secret Grand Jury has been active in the U.S. without transparency for 591 days.


WikiLeaks News:

  • A WikiLeaks cable shows that private media journalists in Ecuador served as informants for the U.S. Embassy in Quito.
  • WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson spoke on two panels at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, Italy: "Dossier Wikileaks: Italian secrets. By those on the inside" with Stefania Maurizi and Gavin MacFadyen (see below), and "Whistleblowers and anonymous leaks: can the media do without them?" Both panels contain English and Italian speakers.

2012-04-26 #WikiLeaks News Update: Major developments from Manning's motion hearing; Other news




WikiLeaks has been financially blockaded without process for 509 days.
Julian Assange has been detained without charge for 506 days.
Bradley Manning has been imprisoned without trial for 703 days.
A secret Grand Jury has been active in the U.S. without transparency for 589 days.


WikiLeaks News:

  • Jacob Appelbaum was on Democracy Now! discussing CISPA, surveillance, WikiLeaks' Spy Files, Tor, and the "Militarization of Cyberspace." Watch the video below.

2012-04-25 #WikiLeaks News Update: Manning's motion hearings; "World Tomorrow" Episode 2; Other news




WikiLeaks has been financially blockaded without process for 508 days.
Julian Assange has been detained without charge for 505 days.
Bradley Manning has been imprisoned without trial for 702 days.
A secret Grand Jury has been active in the U.S. without transparency for 588 days.


WikiLeaks News:

  • One year ago today, WikiLeaks released The Gitmo Files, thousands of documents detailing 765 of the 779 prisoners held at Guantánamo Bay.
  • Stratfor emails released by WikiLeaks reveal an anti-Obama prejudice within the company, with Vice President Fred Burton often referring to him as "Barry Hussein."
  • Blogger Peter Knight has written seven articles correcting recent smears against WikiLeaks and Julian Assange from various media outlets.

2012-04-23 #WikiLeaks News Update: "World Tomorrow" news; Swedish hypocrisy; Manning's next hearings




WikiLeaks has been financially blockaded without process for 506 days.
Julian Assange has been detained without charge for 503 days.
Bradley Manning has been imprisoned without trial for 700 days.
A secret Grand Jury has been active in the U.S. without transparency for 586 days.


WikiLeaks News:

  • WikiLeaks cables show that U.S. officials see Manitoba Hydro, which plans to spend $18B on export-dependent projects, as a struggling utility whose enthusiasm about proposed dams is not shared.
  • Virgin Airlines stated that WikiLeaks lawyer Jennifer Robinson was stopped at Heathrow Airport due to "security issues." Virgin continued by saying it was not an airline issue, but something to be brought up with security services or the Home Office. Robinson also gave an interview with WSWS discussing the incident, as well as government and media attacks on WikiLeaks. See our in-depth coverage of the incident here.

2012-04-22 'Terrorist' by Association, Assange's Lawyer on the Watch List?

Last Thursday, human rights and Julian Assange lawyer Jennifer Robinson was held up on her flight from London to Sydney for security reasons. Over the years, journalists have been interrogated and detained at borders, often for purely political reasons. This incident was unprecedented with a lawyer now facing similar treatment.

Robinson was told that she is on an "inhibited" list of mysterious origin and that the Australian High Commission in London needed to be contacted before her departure. At some point, she was given the green light to board without that call being made and was able to get to her destination. When pressed, Australian Attorney General Roxon showed concern about the incident. She said that "this is not the result of any action taken by the Australian Government. We believe [Robinson], as an Australian who is not subject to any criminal charges or allegations, should be free to travel in and out of Australia."

The Guardian reported that "The Australian high commission in London has no record of a call being received from UK authorities concerning her travel". Virgin Atlantic, the airline that stopped Robinson, deferred responsibility to security services, while the UK Border Agency and DFAT each deny involvement.

2012-04-21 List of possible NSA interception point locations and VIDEO of Whitney Surveillance teach-in

Below is a list of addresses that were handed out on a sheet of paper at the Whitney Biennial 2012's Surveillance Teach-In, and described as "possible domestic NSA interception points".

  • 2651 Olive Street, Saint Louis, MO 63103 United States
  • 420 South Grand, Los Angeles, CA 90071 United States
  • 611 Folsom Street, San Francsco, CA, 94107 United States
  • 51 Peachtree Ctr NE, Atlanta, GA 30303 United States
  • 10 S. Canal, Chicago, IL, 60606, United States
  • 30 E STR SW, Washington, DC 20024, United States
  • 811 10th Avenue, New York, NY 10019, United States
  • 12976 Hollenberg Dr., Bridgeton, MO, 63044, United States

Friday night was standing room only at the Whitney Biennial 2012's Surveillance Teach-In of Academy Award nominated filmmaker, Laura Poitras.

Her body of work includes: "My Country, My Country", about the U.S. invasion of Iraq; "The Oath", about two Yemeni men caught up in America’s "War on Terror"; and her current work in progress detailing the U.S. surveillance state in post 9/11 America.

Woven through the museum were interactive installations by Stimulate, and two mysterious portraits of of Julian Assange, the editor of WikiLeaks, who has been under house-arrest in Great Britian for 501 days without charge.

2012-04-21 #WikiLeaks news update: WikiLeaks lawyer on "inhibited" list; Bradley Manning support events; Other news




WikiLeaks has been financially blockaded without process for 504 days.
Julian Assange has been detained without charge for 501 days.
Bradley Manning has been imprisoned without trial for 698 days.
A secret Grand Jury has been active in the U.S. without transparency for 584 days.


WikiLeaks News:

  • WikiLeaks lawyer Jennifer Robinson was delayed at Heathrow Airport, being told she had been put on an "inhibited" list for apparently doing "something controversial." Australian Attorney-Genreal Nicola Roxon denied involvement with her placement on the list and said she is investigating the matter. Meanwhile, Australian citizens protested outside a law conference which both Roxon and Robinson were attending. Crikey has also put out a rather amusing comic about the incident. Watch an interview with Robinson on the matter below:

2012-04-19 Cablegate: Polish Secret Service cooperated with US in 2006 #wlfind

In 2006, the Polish military Secret Service (WSI) was restructured. The negotiations leading up to this drastic move triggered a number of US diplomatic dispatches. Most of these summarize public speeches by leading Polish politicians. The selection of material included in these dispatches is in itself telling. Most remarkable, however, is a casual comment by embassy staff in an unclassified cable (06WARSAW1171, emphasis by editor):

"On June 9, President Lech Kaczynski signed into law three bills that will liquidate Poland's existing Military Information Services (WSI) on September 30, 2006 in order to create two new services on October 1, 2006, the Military Intelligence Service (SWW) and the Military Counterintelligence Service (SKW). The laws were a centerpiece of PiS's campaign promise to eliminate the vestiges of communism and corruption from Polish military intelligence. The laws do not appear to eliminate any existing military intelligence functions and so Post sees no reason to fear disruption of any ongoing cooperation with Polish military intelligence."

Polish daily Rzeczpospolita reported in 2009 that such a collaboration in fact existed - up to 2005. The article is based on numerous sources with inside knowledge.

This article contains a number of interesting claims:

- A number of the agents delegated to the CIA went through an old fashioned USSR training. Some did not even have good English language proficiency. They would not be associated with the US.

- These agents had an excellent expertize in the Near and Middle East. They were paid for their work.

2012-04-19 Breaking the Silence: Beyond the Doctrine of Nihilism


Image Credit - idlewild606

"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" This familiar philosophical question came to my mind in response to a friend's challenge of my support for WikiLeaks and call for investigation into the recent shooting of a black teen in Florida. She said, "How do you know what the truth is? How do you know that George Zimmerman didn't act in self-defense? How do you know that Julian Assange didn't sexually assault women in Scandinavia? ... Unless you get on an airplane, go the scene of the action, and see for yourself, you can't be absolutely certain. You can check and crosscheck multiple different sources and you can draw reasonable inferences, but you still have to inject a certain amount of faith unless you conduct your own personal investigation".

It is true. We were not there at the moment of Trayvon Martin's death. Someone pulled the trigger and as a result the young man was dead. At the moment of his death, the neighbor's 911 call recorded someone crying for help. Someone was being threatened. Was it Zimmerman or Martin? We don't know if this was a murder or an act of self defense by Zimmerman. When the tree fell down, we were not in the woods to hear it.

Later I contemplated my friend's perspective and realized how it represents a psychological condition prevalent in American society. It is a kind of social disease, which perhaps explains the public silence around many problems in the world. This is a kind of belief system that says; I wasn't there. I don't know the truth, so I withhold judgment and remain aloof.

2012-04-20 Common Misconceptions of the Assange Case

Julian Assange has now been detained for 500 days without charge. This includes the 10 days he spent in solitary confinement on top of the 490 days he's spent electronically tagged under house arrest. After all this time the media is still spreading the same falsities about his case and people continue to attack him with the same misconceptions as they were a year and a half ago.

2012-04-19 #WikiLeaks News Update: "The World Tomorrow" premiere; Other news




WikiLeaks has been financially blockaded without process for 502 days.
Julian Assange has been detained without charge for 499 days.
Bradley Manning has been imprisoned without trial for 696 days.
A secret Grand Jury has been active in the U.S. without transparency for 582 days.


WikiLeaks News:

  • WikiLeaks published a press release for the 500th day of the unlawful banking blockade against them. Many individuals and organizations support WikiLeaks and are fighting for their right to spend.
  • Cabledrum has released the GIFiles Top 20, a list of the Stratfor emails which have received the most media attention. The list includes backgrounds and summaries of the emails, as well as links to related articles.
  • WikiLeaks cables from the U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines show that Chinese investment scandals in the Arroyo administration affected the Spratly Islands and Scarborough Shoal.

2012-04-18 Christine Assange Demands Attorney General's Resignation

In an emotional ABC radio interview today, Christine Assange, mother of WikiLeaks founder and editor-in-chief Julian Assange, has demanded the resignation of Australian Attorney General Nicola Roxon.

The demand came after Ms Roxon appeared with other panelists, including WikiLeaks lawyer Geoffrey Robertson QC, on an Australian political TV show, "Q And A", on Monday 16th April 2012.

Christine Assange says Ms Roxon "has just point blank unblinkingly lied to the Australian people all the way through that Q And A session."

Ms Roxon's appearance on the show was eagerly awaited because since December 2010 there has been almost complete silence on Assange and WikiLeaks from both major Australian political parties. Radio presenter Phil Kafcaloudes replayed the following segment from the Q and A show:

Roxon: "There isn't something at the moment where we can intervene. We've made representations about proper processes, we've done all of the things that you should. He is not in a country that has doesn't have a legal system that operates properly. Ah, even I, as I said at the beginning, think it's an odd process, that you can keep someone detained for this period of time without there being a charge -"

Host: "Have you protested about that?"

Roxon: "We have made our views very clearly known to the - "

Robertson: "Not to the Australian public you haven't."

Roxon: "- to the Americans. Well, I'm here doing an interview today. This is a very public thing to be doing."

Robertson: "Good. What have you said to the Americans?"

(clapping, laughter)

Roxon: "Well we've said lots of things to the Americans."

2012-04-17 #WikiLeaks News Update: WikiLeaks on Q&A; The World Tomorrow; Other news




WikiLeaks has been financially blockaded without process for 500 days.
Julian Assange has been detained without charge for 497 days.
Bradley Manning has been imprisoned without trial for 694 days.
A secret Grand Jury has been active in the U.S. without transparency for 580 days.


WikiLeaks News:

  • Today marks the 500th day of the unlawful financial blockade against WikiLeaks by MasterCard, Visa, PayPal, Bank of America, and Western Union. WikiLeaks has lost 95% of their revenue because of this blockade. Find out how you can donate at the WikiLeaks website.
  • WikiLeaks lawyer Geoffrey Robertson QC and Australian Attorney-General Nicola Roxon were among the panelists on Australian TV show "Q and A" last night, where WikiLeaks and Julian Assange was discussed. An audience poll showed 79% believe the Australian government is not doing enough to support Julian Assange. At one point, Roxon falsely stated that Julian Assange had fled from Sweden. Watch the full segment below.

2012-04-15 How free speech becomes terrorism: The Tarek Mehanna case and the implications for WikiLeaks and Julian Assange

I am indebted to Glenn Greenwald who posted an article here on the Tarek Mehanna case.

Greenwald outlines the case:

Tarek Mehanna, an American Muslim, was convicted this week in a federal court in Boston and then sentenced yesterday to 17 years in prison. He was found guilty of supporting Al Qaeda (by virtue of translating Terrorists’ documents into English and expressing “sympathetic views” to the group) as well as conspiring to “murder” U.S. soldiers in Iraq (i.e., to wage war against an invading army perpetrating an aggressive attack on a Muslim nation)

In a link by Greenwald to Julia Spitz of MetroWest Daily News, further details emerge:

He was a 'serious young man' who wanted to 'exemplify Islam,' said the judge, but became consumed by a fervor that led him to support al Qaeda by translating materials from Arabic into English and 'proselytizing' to recruit others to embrace his views.

Embrace his views or incite others to violence? (one might ask). As I wrote here, about incitement on the subject of certain Americans inciting others to kill Julian Assange:

There is no automatic 1st Amendment protection per Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444 (1969):
Freedoms of speech and press do not permit a State to forbid advocacy of the use of force or of law violation except where such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action

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