News

This is a "WikiLeaks News Update", a daily news update of stories that are obviously related to WikiLeaks and also freedom of information, transparency, cybersecurity, and freedom of expression. All the times are GMT.
- See @wlfind for some of the latest information found in the newly released WikiLeaks cables.

>> Updates on WikiLeaks news from #wlfind twitter hashtag (as curated by @wikileaks):

* 2010 Korea sells "experimental" Nuclear Reactor to Jordan, wants to sell to Turkey and the UAE.

* Omar Soliman told us Egypt wants Gaza to go "hungry" but not "starve".

* Tantawi/Soliman said Israel is welcome to reinvade Philadelphi corridor.

* In 2010 US pushed Colombia to ship small arms to Haiti.

* US concerned that resolution of the North Korean conflict might lead to China asking US to leave Korea.

* Wikileaks cable on the closure of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights by @DrMajeedAlalawi.

* A 2007 cable ties private oil field security to Sudanese National Intelligence and Security Services.

The two major parties in control of Spanish Congress (PP and PSOE) announce that they have agreed to change the Constitution to include a maximum expenditure of 0.4% GDP on public spending. This is the first time in thirty years of the current democratic situation that the Constitution will be modified. They also plan to do so in the fastest way possible, looking to calm the market forces that are predicting doom regarding Spanish debt. Therefore, they have called for an extraordinary voting session for next Tueday, 30th of August. This has fueled an already incensed population who demand to have their say on issues in which they believe they are directly involved. As a result, the web is already alive with calls for protests so that the general public is taken into account for such an important decision. Groups of activists in Spain are already planning for protests this weekend in front of Congress. The hashtag #yoquierovotar ("I want to vote") has been a storm of outraged voices, calling for the political class to stand up and defend their right to participate by blocking the proposal unless a referendum is accepted.

The initiative was proposed by President Zapatero and immediately backed up by the conservative opposition party PP. Already, however, voices of dissent have emerged outside and inside the Government party, with politicians stating that doing it so rapidly is going against their personal beliefs. According to Spanish law the measure needs 10% of support in Congress (35 congressmen) or in the Senate (26 senators), if not, a public referendum is mandatory.

Wikileaks releases 55 thousand cables from the U.S. embassies in Iran, Afghanistan, Israel, Russia, and Venezuela, among others. Through their official channels they asked for citizen participation in analyzing them. They also asked that they post their finds by sending them to @wikileaks on Twitter under the hashtag #wlfind. You can take a look at the cables yourself by visiting this link: http://wikileaks.org/tag/TU_0.html or http://www.cablegatesearch.net/search.php.

As a consequence of this release, Wikileak's Californian DNS hoster, Dynadot, "has received a PATRIOT act production order for information on Julian Assange", according to their website. It also mentioned that it had been complied and that "the production order seeks all available information on Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, for the US grand jury in Alexandria, Washington."

This is a "WikiLeaks News Update", a daily news update of stories that are obviously related to WikiLeaks and also freedom of information, transparency, cybersecurity, and freedom of expression. All the times are GMT.

09:30 PM Updates on WikiLeaks news from #wlfind twitter hashtag:

* French Total Oil's in Yemen asked US govt to cover up any diversions of cargo for "national security" reasons.

* Djibouti hires Blackwater military firm to combat Pirates.

* Mitterrand's press advisor, Vincent Peyregne, accused Google of corporate tax fraud.

* US PR machine - "making the stories and bringing them to journalists"

* The Irish government & Shannon Airport vs. US Army

* "Illegal drug trade, organized crime, murder, weapon smuggling, trafficking of women" on the rise in Israel.

* Kazakhstan "knows how to throw a party" with "sexy girls"

* MasterCard: good for Mossad assassins, but not for WikiLeaks supporters

Berlin has its own Outraged camp: a loose network of politically critical people started occupying the city's main square, Alexanderplatz, since Saturday night, following the example of north-African and Spanish revolutions. After the nightly event "aCAMPada Berlin goes aCAMParty" it was decided to camp out in order "to demonstrate against various political events, that aren't compatible with the free democratic basic order of the Federal Republic of Germany anymore", according to a local newspaper. Some of these incidences are "the manifested intention of the Merkel administration to establish a European economic government, the participation of the federal government in theNATO war against Libya and the feared military intervention in Syria. We see in all of these developments of the last days an acute danger for peace and democracy". The motivations of the outraged of Berlin were illustrated in a letter some of them sent to theglobal community last Sunday.

This is a "WikiLeaks News Update", a daily news update of stories that are obviously related to WikiLeaks and also freedom of information, transparency, cybersecurity, and freedom of expression. All the times are GMT.

10:45 PM WikiLeaks will make 'several important announcements' via twitter.

So far, a confirmation that the claimed Domscheit-Berg destroyed leaks include the videos of a major US atrocity in Afghanistan. Likely referring to footage of the Garani massacre.

09:05 PM The United States attempted to send a group of 22 Uyghur Guantanamo Bay detainees to El Salvador, cables dating from the 2005-2007 period show. The group had been found innocent of terrorist charges. There were at least two resettlement requests to which the Antonio Saca presidency responded negatively.
Additionally, Mario Rivera, an official of El Salvador’s Ministry of External Relations, is cited in one of the cables, on the subject of Guantanamo. According to Rivera the country understood the necessity and respected the right of the U.S. to keep individuals detained in Guantanamo Bay.

American institutions and government have been captured by oligarchs and kleptocrats, who systematically set about stealing and looting what was once a great nation.

America can once again be a great nation, but we must take it back. NOBODY will do this for us. It will not be handled back to us by bought 'representatives'.

Wall Street is a huge contributor to the political machine, which in turns enables Wall Street's corporate plunder of our nation. Both the Democratic and Republican parties set the bankster agenda because of the MONEY. When we speak of 'taking the MONEY out of politics', we have no choice but to focus on the sources of the MONEY.

As a critical FIRST STEP, we call on Citizens to take the lead. Bring your friends and neighbors together to non-violently protest the tyranny of kleptocrats on Sept 17, 2011 (#Sept17).

We at usdayofrage.org DO NOT tolerate violence of any kind. US Day of Rage NYC, San Francisco, and Los Angeles stand is solidarity with each others' actions and endorse the planned actions of the NYC Assembly to #occupywallstreet on #Sept17.

• We will support and endorse the planned action of a NON-VIOLENT occupation of the financial district by the free and independent assembly of people, which is currently being planned by the NYC Assembly. We will post their website and plans as soon as they are live. The next assembly meeting is Saturday, August 27, 2011 at 5pm in Tompkins Square Park. Come down. Everyone is welcome.

Millions of Indians pour out into the streets as arrest of 74-year old anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare and 2,600 supporters backfires.

Attempts by the Indian government to crack down on a budding anti-corruption movement in the country have backfired. After Tuesday’s arrest of some 2,600 protesters, including the high-profile anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare, millions of Indians poured out into the streets to fight for a strong anti-corruption law.

The 74-year old Hazare, whose struggle is deeply inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, had wanted to stage an indefinite hunger strike in a park in New Delhi, vowing to “fast until death” unless the government accepted the movement’s demand to create an independent anti-corruption agency with sweeping powers, a so-called Lokpal, or ombudsman.

Hazare (bio), a decorated former army officer who after a near-death experience at the age of 26 decided to dedicate his life to humanity, has been fighting against the endemic corruption in India’s political establishment for years. Earlier this year, he fasted and managed to force the government into including his movement in the drafting of a new anti-corruption bill. Eventually, the proposed bill ended up being charade, covering less than 0.5% of India’s officials.

This is a "WikiLeaks News Update", a daily news update of stories that are obviously related to WikiLeaks and also freedom of information, transparency, cybersecurity, and freedom of expression. All the times are GMT.

>> The leader of India’s BJP party, L.K. Advani, demands that the Manmohan Singh government quit voluntarily and defends the authenticity of the information published by WikiLeaks.

>> A Pública reports on diplomatic cable revealing Bush administration's views on Brazil’s Ministry of External Relations, then headed by Celso Amorim, as anti-american.
During a meeting in 2005, U.S. Ambassador John Danilovich showed himself disappointed by Amorim’s refusal to see Hugo Chavez as threat.

>> Daniel Domscheit-Berg claims to have destroyed a cache of more than 3.000 unreleased submissions he took from WikiLeaks.
WikiLeaks responded to these allegations with two statements, attributed to Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, where it is suggested Daniel Domscheit-Berg and his wife Anke maintained contact with the FBI to whom they provided ‘helpful’ information.
Today, WikiLeaks specified the content of some of the destroyed documents in a series of tweets:

We can confirm that the DDB claimed destroyed data included a copy of the entire US no-fly list.

(…) five gigabytes from the Bank of America.
(…) the internals of around 20 neo-Nazi organizations.
(…) US intercept arrangements for over a hundred internet companies.

Rough translation, apologies. Original at Der Spiegel

Former Wikileaks spokesman Daniel Domscheit-Berg claims to have destroyed more than 3,500 unpublished files that had been sent from unknown informants and are now apparently lost irrevocably. These are documents which were stored until the late summer of 2010 on the Wikileaks server and were taken by a group including Domscheit-Berg upon their leaving the organization. Domscheit-Berg has "in the last days shredded" the files "to ensure that the sources are not compromised," said Domscheit-Berg. He said WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange could not guarantee a safe handling of the material. In the data base was among other things, the so-called "no-fly list" of the U.S. government, on which the names of suspects were listed, which are prohibited from entering an aircraft. Assange said the material would also have insider information from 20 right-wing organizations. Domscheit-Berg would not confirm that. Assange had been asking him to return the data since early this year.

Previous WL Central coverage here.

While Madrid is traditionally empty in August, the city is now literally packed with Catholic pilgrims of all ages, who have come from all around the world to attend the World Youth Days, presided by the Pope Benedict XVI. Authorities estimate that around 1.4 million people have flooded the city. From the very beginning the event has created resistance in the general public, as the investment of approximately 70-100 million euros is seen as exaggerated, in a time when politicians are demanding austerity measures for a country facing severe economic recession. They criticize, for example, that the centre of Madrid will be closed to traffic for more than four days, causing a lot of problems for normal citizens who have to work. Furthermore, the pilgrims have been given benefits that any unemployed Spaniard would desperately need: they have been given places to stay for free, food for free and while public transport in Madrid went up by 50% this month, being a pilgrim gives you a whopping 80% discount for all travels. This has caused major irritation in an already angry population, who are demanding answers as to why a constitutionally secular country should give this kind of support to any religion, while at the same time neglecting it’s own citizens.

Today, Daniel Domscheit-Berg confirmed to Heise that he was planning to destroy the WikiLeaks documents he took with him when he left the organization. As we have reported, he had recently publicly denied that he took these documents.

According to Domscheit-Berg, WikiLeaks did not react fast enough when he removed the data in September 2010; he says first contact was made by the end of October. Andy Müller Maguhn recently stated that he had been trying to mediate and retrieve the data for eleven months - which would be September.

The time from August to October 2010 was very turbulent for WikiLeaks, as its editor in chief Julian Assange was fighting accusations of sexual misconduct in Sweden. He also had his luggage stolen when he traveled from Stockholm to Berlin. It did not facilitate proceedings that the WikiLeaks email system was taken down around this time.

The plans to destroy the WikiLeaks submissions are likely to cause outrage amongst the community. Domscheit-Berg invited the leakers to resubmit to a platform of their choice - a very unrealistic prospect, as they would likely have destroyed the documents after submission as they could be used as evidence against them.

As Andy Müller Maguhn pointed out, it will be difficult to take legal steps against these plans, because this would mean that WikiLeaks would have to describe the data involved.

#SpanishRevolution, documentary about the indignant 15M movement from Lainformacioncom on Vimeo.

The Popular March to Brussels that left the Puerta del Sol of Madrid on July 26th, is now at the Pyrenees. Until today, over one hundred people have decided to go to Brussels. The Marchers are, among other places, from Italy, Greece, Germany, France, Russia, USA, Cuba, Colombia, Mexico, Tunisia, Poland and England. Women and men of all ages are sharing this experience.

After twenty-three days on tour along towns and cities in Northern Spain, on Wednesday August 17th, early in the morning and from the city of Irun, the March will cross the border. Then, they will meet their counterparts in France at Baiona, where a warm welcome is prepared.

On Monday, August 8th, also the Mediterranean March to Brussels left the city of Barcelona in their journey to the Belgium capital. The Marchers are currently 21 and tomorrow it’s expected that several people will join up them. Besides, 12 participants have already confirmed their presence in the neighbor country, who will join up the March to accompany them to cross the border.

This is a "WikiLeaks News Update", a daily news update of stories that are obviously related to WikiLeaks and also freedom of information, transparency, cybersecurity, and freedom of expression. All the times are GMT.
- New Cable(s) were released today.

09:05 PM A cable obtained by Noticias Sin, WikiLeaks’ media partner in the Dominican Republic reveals there were suspicions that Puerto Rican murder convict and drug trafficker Jose Figueroa Agosto was allowed to escape from prison. The incident 'reaffirmed the public’s perception that which the judicial sector, the Public Ministry and the police are plagued with the corruption of drug trafficking':

The totality of the case of Figueroa-Sobeida-Mary and now Gonzalez, has been a public relations disaster for the police and judicial agencies, from the bungled (deliberately? ) first arrest attempt, until the release of Sobeida on bail and her disappearance, to the circus in press media which involves Peláez, and the possible complicity of the Justice Ministry when bringing to light the apparent cooperation by González with the authorities, even the involvement, it has been said, of at least two colonels of the unit antinarcotics in Gonzalez’s murder. From one incident to the other, the topic has reaffirmed the public’s perception that which the judicial sector, the Public Ministry and the police are plagued with the corruption of drug trafficking.

Update 1: Malalai Joya's Australian Schedule

Adelaide
Tuesday, August 30, 7pm Australian Education Union (SA), Main Hall.
Organised by Left Unity, entry by donation.
Ph Gemma 0437 714 786 or gweedall@gmail.com

Armidale
Monday, September 5, 7pm Armidale Town Hall, entry $5/$10/$20
Ph Bea Bleile 0458 752 680 or bbleile@bigpond.net.au or
New England Writers Centre 6772 7210 or newc44@dodo.com.au

Hobart
Thursday, September 1, time and location TBA. Visit sawa-australia.org.

Melbourne
Melbourne Writers Festival, September 3 & 4
Ten years after 9/11: Pakistan Afghanistan & the struggle for democracy, Saturday, September 3, 6:30pm
The pity of war: Afghanistan & Iraq, Sunday, September 4, 2:30pm.
Visit mwf.com.au.

Sydney
Friday, September 9, 5:30pm Marrickville Town Hall (cnr Marrickville & Petersham rds)
Organised by Stop the War Coalition Sydney, entry $15/$10.
Visit stopwarcoalition.org.

Sydney West
Tuesday, September 6, 3:30pm University of Western Sydney, Bankstown Campus
Organised by Stop the War Coalition Sydney, entry $15/$10.
Visit stopwarcoalition.org.

Malalai Joya – the woman Time Magazine listed as one of the 100 most influential people in the world - is travelling to Armidale [NSW Australia] to present her talk Afghanistan – 10 years on on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks on the US and the coalition invasion of Afghanistan. Described as the bravest and most famous woman in Afghanistan she is a writer, feminist and anti-war activist and it is an honour to have the chance to hear her talk after her appearance as a guest speaker at the Melbourne Writer’s festival. Her first visit to Australia was in 2009, when she was promoting her autobiographical book Raising My Voice and she continues to be a voice for her own people and for peace everywhere.

Ms Joya’s teenage years were spent in refugee camps in Pakistan; she later worked as a teacher/activist smuggling books to clandestine schools beneath her burqa.

This is a "WikiLeaks News Update", a daily news update of stories that are obviously related to WikiLeaks and also freedom of information, transparency, cybersecurity, and freedom of expression. All the times are GMT.
- New Cable(s) were released today.

»» A diplomatic cable published last week, dated November 11 2005, shows the United States were targeting overseas Bank accounts of leaders of Philippines Islamist separatist group Abu Sayyaf as part of an investigation on the group’s financing.

A cable released earlier revealed possible ties between the Abu Sayyaf Group and Nur Misuari, founder of the Moro National Liberation Front were being investigated by Malaysian authorities.

»» Julian Assange will speak at APME's 2011 Conference in Denver, on the 15th September – from England.

For an updated list of upcoming events with the participation of Julian Assange, please visit this link.

»» ‘Brandeis on WikiLeaks: An argument for truth’, is a new academic paper defending the work of the whistleblowing organization falls under First Amendment protection.

This is a "WikiLeaks News Update", a daily news update of stories that are obviously related to WikiLeaks and also freedom of information, transparency, cybersecurity, and freedom of expression. All the times are GMT.
- New Cable(s) were released today.

10:05 PM In a diplomatic cable dated October 10 2006, the large concentration of native Filipinos in the Malaysian state of Sabah - described as ‘especially troublesome’ - is attributed to a scheme implemented in the 1990s by Malaysia’s dominant party UMNO under which Malaysian citizenship and voting rights were given to over 600,000 foreigners, predominantly Muslims from Mindanao and Indonesia, in return for their votes in Sabah's state assembly elections.

08:40 PM The first report on Guatemala cables obtained by newspaper Plaza Pública exposes revelations made during a meeting in 2007 between presidential candidate of the Patriotic Party Otto Pérez Molina and U.S. representatives.
His funding sources were then revealed to be Guatemala’s four wealthiest families, among them the Mendoza family, accused of being involved in drug-trafficking and allegedly hired in 1999 by U.S. banana marketer Del Monte to intimidate and murder members of SITRABI banana union.

First published in spanish at www.periodismohumano.com. Written by Claudia Ciobanu.

Hundreds of young people in Belarus take the streets weekly, bonding through social networking sites. They are protesting against the lack of free speech and the iron fist of the regime.

At 7:00 pm every Wednesday, hundreds of citizens from Belarus applaud or make their cell phones ring simultaneously in the country’s main squares. It is the Revolution Through Social Networks movement, created nine weeks ago by a group of students. The phenomenon has grown in the Russian equivalent to Facebook, Vkontakte, creating a new threat to President Alexander Lukashenko’s regime.

Openleaks founder Daniel Domscheit-Berg has been expelled from the Chaos Computer Club on grounds of damaging the reputation of the club. Following a meeting of the board members, he was handed a written notice at the Chaos Communication Camp in Finowfurt. According § 5 of the club statutes, this decision is not final, as he can now request to be heard by the board of the club; its members can also ask for the topic to be discussed in a plenary meeting.

The reason given for this decision was that Domscheit-Berg had used the reputation of the CCC to promote his new online submission platform. During his talk, he asked the attendees to test Openleaks, but refused to release the full source code. The club states explicitly on its homepage that it does not perform such tests. Board member Andy Müller Maguhn subsequently described his conduct as "impertinent" (Spiegel interview, Nr. 33, page 81). Openleaks spokesperson Jan Michael Ihl later denied Domscheit-Berg had asked the CCC to test its submission platform. Insofar, only one review of Openleaks by CCCamp11 delegate Hanno Böck has been made public. It lists several SSL vulnerabilities.

The decision caused substantial controversy amongst the members of the club. One board member has reportedly resigned.