News

The past few months have seen an ongoing series of revelations that have rocked the Murdoch media empire. The News International phone-hacking scandal’s genesis began at the Murdoch owned, now-defunct News of the World UK newspaper.

A new website Murdoch Leaks: www.murdochleaks.org has been setup recently and is accepting information on criminality occurring at Murdoch publications.

Last Monday, Lulzsec hacked into The Sun, pinned a fake news story about Murdoch's death on the homepage and redirected the site to their Twitter page; they also bought down a number of other News Corp and News International websites.

Following this, on Thursday, the hacker known as 'Sabu'(who is rumoured to have connections with LulzSec and Anonymous) claimed to have 4gb worth of emails - or 'sun mails' that might blow up into a series of new revelations with regards to criminality in Murdoch outlets. This information was said to be procured during the hacking. It is not yet known whether Lulzsec will be releasing this information to the public. The Lulzsec twitter has posted, "We're currently working with certain media outlets who have been granted exclusive access to some of the News of the World emails we have."

The media scandal began in May 2000, when Rebekah Brooks (then known as Rebekah Wade) was appointed editor of News of the World; she worked there for three years before moving to the Murdoch-owned The Sun in 2003. During her three years as editor at News of the World, it was alleged that reporters working under her engaged in illegal phone-hacking, including the voicemail of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler.

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 and Bradley Manning nominated for a Pwnie for Epic 0wnage.

12:15 PM Al Joumhouria published a report on a cable from 2004 containing comments from historians who believe documents on the Armenian Genocide are constantly being cleared from the archives.
At least two attempts to clear the archives of the documents on crimes against Armenians are mentioned in the cable by Prof Halil Berktay. The second, he believes, ‘planned by a group of retired diplomats and generals headed by the former Turkish ambassador to Iraq’.
Link to the original article.

03:35 AM Diplomatic cable analysis published by EFF with details on privacy violations and government surveillance in Latin America.

According to the cables mentioned, the governments of Paraguay and Panama pressured the U.S. into granting them access to Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) software in an attempt to spy on mobile communications for political gain.

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 Cables were released today.

02:05 PM Murdoch Leaks is a new website that, as the name indicates, is accepting information on 'wrong doing relating to Rupert Murdoch's affiliated institutions'.

10:40 AM A diplomatic cable from 2009 offers insight into Canada’s approach to foreign policy in Latin America.
Former Australian prime minister John Howard's influence on Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s strategy is described in paragraph 2.
(Harper had caused controversy in 2008 when he copied parts of a Howard speech supporting U.S. led invasion of Iraq.)

…"Harper had long been favorably impressed by Australia's ability to exert outsized influence with the U.S. in particular -- and other powers as well -- by emphasizing its relations in its own neighborhood, observed Lambert, who added that PM Harper hoped to gain similar benefits for Canada by increased attention to Latin America and the Caribbean. When forming his second government after the October 2008 election, PM Harper also created the new position of Minister of State for the Americas, naming former journalist and new Conservative MP Peter Kent."

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.

* Two cables dating from 2007 and 2009 show inflexibility of U.S. and Okinawa over controversial relocation of Futenma Air Station. Okinawan politicians, according to the 2007 cable, proposed faking a revision in Futenma’s relocation plan that would allow them to keep public promises. Former Tokyo-based U.S. Consul General Keving Maher, reportedly fired this year after referring to Okinawans as ‘lazy’ and ‘masters of extortion’, considered any revision to the plan ‘unnaceptable’.
Similar efforts are documented in the second diplomatic cable, from 2009, where Japanese foreign affairs official Nobushige Takamizawa is said to have suggested public discussion of a "package" of military issues by the United States would ‘provide the (Democratic Party of Japan) significant political cover to continue the (Futenma relocation facility)’.

* Brandon Neely speaks of the abuses he witnessed while serving at Guantanamo Bay as a guard, with particular focus on the treatment of David Hicks and political interference in his case.

* In a diplomatic cable recently published, it is alleged armed Cambodian soldiers are protecting loggers working illegally in Thai territory.

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.

* Julian Assange, John Pilger and Noam Chomsky have added their names to an online petition that aims to prevent commonwealth prosecutors from seizing the proceeds of David Hicks’ memoirs Guantanamo: My Journey.

"The move against Hicks’ memoirs should concern everyone. But it is of particular relevance to writers and publishers, precisely because of the direct interference into publications with which the government politically disagrees.", the petition reads.

* UMNO’s abuse of security institutions and national security laws pointed out as causes to political crisis in Malaysia in a diplomatic cable from 2008.

"In good times UMNO can maintain control by distributing power and money to get what it wants. In bad times, it uses the stick, and for now that means intimidation. The ruling elite

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.

08:40 PM Diplomatic cables analysed by The Telegraph show criticism had been previously directed at Norwegian intelligence for failing to keep track of suspected terror cells and having a complacent attitude towards terrorism.

U.S. authorities reportedly had to ‘press’ their Norwegian counterparts, as there was a generalized feeling of ‘immunity’ to potential attacks.

Today a deadly bombing took place in the country’s capital Oslo, outside the building that housed the offices of the country’s Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, killing 7 people, and a shooting in Norway’s Utoya island where the Prime Minister’s Labour party youth section's yearly gathering was taking place also made several victims. The exact number is yet to be determined. via Reuters

06:35 PM The first of ten parts of Andy Worthington’s WikiLeaks and the Guantánamo Prisoners Released from 2002 to 2004 analysis can now also be read on the WikiLeaks website.

Four parts of this series have been published at andyworthington.co.uk.

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.

10:40 PM TimeWorld analysis of the recently released Phnom Penh U.S. embassy cables which detail concerns of the U.S. with China’s growing influence over Cambodia.

10:15 PM Prince Andrew steps down as a representative for British trade overseas. In a diplomatic cable dating from 2008, U.S. Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan Tatiana Gfoeller described a lunch meeting with Prince Andrew as "astonishingly candid, the discussion at times verged on the rude (from the British side)".

08:10 PM Upset by the content of the first diplomatic cable from Dominican Republic to be published by Noticias SIN, the Presidency's Antinarcotics Advisor labeled U.S. ambassador Hans Hertell's accusations of corruption a 'horrible perversity'.
He also claims to be about to reveal 'hidden facts' about the ambassador's political relations.

July 19, 2011

It has come to the attention of the Peoples Liberation Front the current plight of the freedom loving people of Belarus. Using social media and the internet, the people of Belarus have risen up against their dictator in a popular street movement modelled on the revolutions spreading globally from the mid east to Africa and beyond.

These protesters, along with the national and international journalsists covering these events have been brutalized, arrested - and persecuted. The Peoples Liberation Front will not stand for this, and now launches Operation Belarus to defend and assist these courageous protesters and reporters in Belarus.

Tomorrow at High Noon in Minsk, Belarus (5:00 AM Eastern Time USA) the forces of the PLF will take down the web site of the dictator of Belarus located @ http://president.gov.by - and we will from this day until the tyrant leaves power remove this site from the interwebz. This initial action and raid will be accompanied by a Black Fax and E-Mail Bomb action targeting the Office of the President of Belarus. PLF Operation Belarus has begun. Remember our Official Peoples Liberation Front Motto: Nil Desparandum - No Despair.

Peoples Liberation Front

Morgan Tzvangirai will not be prosecuted, a Zimbabwean panel has determined, in connection with comments he made to US diplomats, revealed in cables published by the Guardian.

The Financial Gazette, a Zimbabwean English-language news weekly, reports:

A PANEL set up early this year to probe alleged treason by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and leading ZANU-PF critics, has recommended that there are no legal grounds to prosecute individuals on the basis of accounts contained in WikiLeaks files, The Financial Gazette has established. The panel, set up by Attorney-General (AG), Johannes Tomana, was composed of some of the country's top legal minds, in terms of Section 76 of the Constitution, to sift through the WikiLeaks cables for possible breach of the country's laws.

In January, the potential charges against Tzvangirai were seized upon in a Guardian opinion piece by GOP public relations consultant James Richardson, who proceeded to argue that any harm that might come to Morgan Tzvangirai would be attributable to Wikileaks as "collateral damage," since, he argued, Wikileaks had failed to redact information that might incriminate the Zimbabwean PM.

The international community was once again surprised by the action of @Lulzsec after the reporter Sean Hoare, the first person to blow the whistle on the News of the World editor Andy Coulson, who was linked to the paper's phone hacking scandal, was found dead in his home Watford, England on Monday. Hoare was an entertainment reporter for News of the World and The Sun media outlets.

Continuing their crusade for transparency and against corruption, The Lulz Boat crew hacked the page of The Sun newspaper, so that it displayed an article announcing the death of Rupert Murdoch, head of News Corp, the massive media company that operates in the United States, the United Kingdom, Continental Europe, Australia, Asia and Latin America, and to which The Sun belongs to. Subsequently, the same newspaper page redirected the visitors to the Twitter feed @LulzSec, who gained tens of thousands of new followers in a few hours.

Murdoch, aged 80, has said to have ingested a large quantity of palladium before stumbling into his famous topiary garden last night, passing out in the early hours of the morning.

Another officer reveals that Murdoch was found slumped over a particulary large garden hedge fashioned into a galloping horse. "His favourite", a butler, Davidson, reports.

Sean Hoare, the reporter who first blew the whistle on News of the World editor Andy Coulson for the publication's phone hacking scandal, was found dead at his home in Watford, England on Monday according to reports in the Guardian and Hollywood Reporter.

The report follows the recent arrest and detainment of former Murdoch chief Rebekah Brooks by British police on charges of conspiring to illegally intercept communications as well as corruption, in the form of bribing police.

According to a report in the Guardian, Hertfordshire police did not confirm Hoare's identity, but stated "At 10.40am today [Monday 18 July] police were called to Langley Road, Watford, following the concerns for the welfare of a man who lives at an address on the street. Upon police and ambulance arrival at a property, the body of a man was found. The man was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after. The statement continues, "The death is currently being treated as unexplained but not thought to be suspicious. Police investigations into this incident are ongoing."

In 2007 Coulson stepped down as News of the World editor, a result of the the phone-hacking scandal. Coulsen then became Prime Minister David Cameron's director of communications that same year.

The News of the World phone hacking scandal involves the alleged industrial scale phone hacking by publications of News International and the collusion and bribery of the Metropolitan Police.

Former Murdoch chief Rebekah Brooks was arrested and detained last night by British police on charges of conspiring to illegally intercept communications as well as corruption, in the form of bribing police.

Brooks was apprehended by detectives working on Operation Weeting – the UK Metropolitan Police’s phone hacking investigation, and Operation Elveden – the investigation into illicit payments to police officers, a July 18 Guardian article reported.

Until recently, Brooks had been defended by both Rupert and James Murdoch from the very outset of the now-widespread hacking scandal that began within the Murdoch-owned newspaper News of the World.

One of the most contentious cases in the scandal so far is that of teenager Milly Dowler, who was abducted on her way home from school and subsequently murdered. Milly Dowler’s family’s phone messages were illegally intercepted by News of the World staff.

Mark Lewis, the lawyer for Milly Dowler’s family has questioned the timing of the arrest, as Brooks is due to be questioned by a parliamentary committee next Tuesday.

“Undoubtedly, she will have the option of saying on Tuesday ‘I’m sorry I can’t answer that because I’m under police investigation ‘,” he said. “The timing stinks...it gives the impression that those questions can’t be asked [at this time]...it looks deliberate.”

Liberal Democrat MP Adrian Sanders has also expressed grave concerns over the timing of the arrest, according to a July 18 article in The Age.

The House of Commons select committee maintained that it would not canvass material that affected any criminal investigation and Brooks now appears to be protected by that. Brooks has been offering to help the police since January, yet two days before she is due to stand before a parliamentary committee she was arrested.

NB: See end of story for updates, now including an official reply by The National Library of Australia & the US Library of Congress. Additional contact details for National Library and Archives Canada as well as the US Library of Congress have been added.

Submitted by @nyxpersephone.

This article would not have been possible without the help of many Twitter users, most notably @Asher_Wolf, @carwinb, @CassPF, @dexter_doggie, @issylvia, @jaraparilla, @JLLLOW, @m_cetera, @NOH8ER.

A Cataloguing-in-Publication (CiP) record is what you usually see on the second page of a book, right after the title page. It is similar to the catalogue record of a book in a library and contains basic information on the book, such as the author's name and the title of the book. It also contains "keywords" ("subject headers") that may be used by librarians and other information professionals to classify the book in their collections.

CiP records are usually provided upon request by national libraries and/or national bibliographic databases, such as the National Library of Australia (NLA) and the Library of Congress (LOC). So the CiP is a useful thing, albeit rather boring and usually only of interest to librarians and information professionals.

However, in the case of WikiLeaks and Andrew Fowler's book "The Most Dangerous Man in the World", the CiP makes for an interesting story. Examining the keyword section headers of the CiP-record on Fowler's book, one cannot help but notice the last one: "Extremist web sites".

I have to confess that I paid less attention to WikiLeaks over the last couple of months than before. The usual excuses: I had lots of other interesting things to do. Maybe the novelty had worn out. I had definitely also been lulled asleep by the fact that the Netherlands still seems running smoothly and by the assurance that Sweden would not be allowed to extradite without permission from the UK. So it was a rough awakening when I read on the brilliant website SwedenVersusAssange how an extradition would be realized:
http://www.swedenversusassange.com/US-Extradition.html

That fast and that easy!

On November 10, 2009, a blackout left 18 of the 26 Brazilian states without power, also effecting Paraguay. At the time, it was the worst accident of its kind for the Itaipu Plant, from its inauguration in 1982. Paraguayan and Brazilian authorities reported a "total shutdown" of the turbines. A map of the event can be accessed here.

The explanation of the event was never clear and is still considered the largest blackout occurred in the country. Brazilian authorities, specifically the Minister of Mines and Energy, Edison Lobao pointed to meteorological reasons for the event, which was confirmed later by a government commission to study the only open case.

WIRED's publication of the full Lamo-Manning chat logs brings a year-long controversy to a close. But questions remain over WIRED's reticence.

1. The History of the Lamo-Manning Chat Logs
2. The Unredacted Chat Logs.
3. WL Central's Annotated Chat Log

The History of the Lamo-Manning Chat Logs

On June 10, 2010, Kevin Poulsen and Kim Zetter at WIRED Magazine published the abridged chat logs - supposedly between Adrian Lamo and Bradley Manning. The logs gave considerable insight into the person accused of leaking to Wikileaks, and to his possible motivations.

However, many questions were raised over the veracity of the logs, the reliability of their source, Adrian Lamo, and his relationship to Kevin Poulsen. Poulsen and Zetter's introduction to the logs stated that redactions had been made to those parts of the logs that "discuss deeply personal information about Manning or that reveal apparently sensitive military information," but shortly after the release, other portions of the logs which fell into neither category appeared in a Washington Post article, and on BoingBoing. These extracts raised the question as to what purposes WIRED had performed the redactions.

Originally published in Spanish, by Periodismo Humano.

Written by Patricia Simon. Photographs by Javier Bauluz.

The 15M movement of Gijón (in the north of Spain) had called for a gathering on July 7th in front of some of the city's banks to protest for their "greed and responsibility in the crisis we are living", as one of the participants stated. At that same time, Ángel T.P. was heading for the the city's court to see if his petition to delay the eviction from his house had been accepted. The eviction had been set for midday by another court, so that very morning, when he found no answer to his petition, he went with little hope to one of the permanent information points set up by the movement in front of the Town Hall. Thanks to social networking and the coincidence that a protest was being held at exactly the same time, merely one hour later 40 people were occupying the stairway of his building, stopping an eviction for the first time in Asturias.

RevolutionTruth
Primary Contact:
Tangerine Bolen, Executive Director
Phone: 1-503-887-0773
Email: tangerine.bolen@revolutiontruth.org

Local Contact Info:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Revolution Truth releases Wikileaks film

14 July 2011 - On the day that Julian Assange begins his appeal against extradition to Sweden, citizen-driven media project Revolution Truth released its first short films, centered around an open letter to the US Government in support of Wikileaks. These shorts, in a project endorsed by Michael Moore, have been produced with the contributions of over 300 individuals from around the world. A major redesign of the RevolutionTruth website, also unveiled today, includes the launch of two new campaigns: one in support of accused whistleblower Bradley Manning and another encouraging solidarity with emerging democratic movements in the Middle East and beyond.

RevolutionTruth is a grassroots, wholly volunteer-led endeavor that conducts campaigns by pairing open letters to influential figures or institutions with short films made up of messages from the public. The first RevolutionTruth campaign began in December 2010 when organization founder Tangerine Bolen decided to stand up to the Obama administration's alarming handling of WikiLeaks and Julian Assange. The open letter that Tangerine composed has been signed by nearly 10,000 concerned citizens and is today being released in video form with contributions from around the world.