On 2nd March 2011 at 9.15am a meeting was held, organised by Andrew Laming (Liberal Party MP Bowman Qld) at Parliament House Canberra to allow federal parliamentarians who wished to attend, some insights into the matters of Julian Assange facing extradition from the UK to Sweden, and facing (subject to that extradition process) a possible trial in Sweden and another possible extradition to the USA thereafter.
Among others, MPs Andrew Laming, Malcolm Turnbull, Doug Cameron and Sarah Hanson-Young were in attendance, along with parliamentary staff members.
Three speakers made themselves available for oral presentations and questions: Greg Barns, barrister from Tasmania; former Australian diplomat Tony Kevin and Peter Kemp, solicitor from NSW. The latter two made written material available for the parliamentarians, reprinted below with their permission. Written material was also provided by Jennifer Robinson, UK counsel for the Julian Assange. That material is reprinted with permission here.
After short addresses by each of the three speakers, the meeting was opened for questions and summaries of each speaker in the proceedings appears below, after biographies.
WL Central will be updating news on Iraq, with new items added at the top. You can contact me on twitter @GeorgieBC or by email at admin@wlcentral.org.
Current time and date in Baghdad:
TUESDAY, March 1
The next protest in Iraq has been set for Friday, March 4. Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki and Baghdad Operations Command have apologized today for restricting freedom of press during the February 25 protest and released all detained reporters. Maliki has also proposed a reduction in retirement age from 63 to 61 and called to dissolve the municipal council and to hold early provincial elections.
An account of the fourteenth day in Sulaymaniyah from The Moving Silent. MONDAY, February 28 An account of the thirteenth day in Sulaymaniyah from The Moving Silent.
"100s of civlians r held by #KDP in #Erbil 4 protestin, claims pro-democracy Australian doc (who was abducted by KDP) PLS RT WE NEED UR HELP" via @GorranGuy
"@BayanRahman @BarhamSalih @qubadjt Any comments on the kidnapping and torture claims by Australian doc Dr. Reben Renwar in #Erbil?" via @GorranGuy
Responding to the controversy today arising out of a publication by Private Eye, Wikileaks made a statement concerning its relationship with the journalist Israel Shamir, the subject of concerted speculation and rumour over the last few months.
The statement is as follows:
On Tuesday 1st March 2011, @wikileaks said:
WikiLeaks statement that was given to, but not used by, the UK satirical current-affairs magazine, Private Eye:
Israel Shamir has never worked or volunteered for WikiLeaks, in any manner, whatsoever. He has never written for WikiLeaks or any associated organization, under any name and we have no plan that he do so. He is not an 'agent' of WikiLeaks. He has never been an employee of WikiLeaks and has never received monies from WikiLeaks or given monies to WikiLeaks or any related organization or individual. However, he has worked for the BBC, Haaretz, and many other reputable organizations.
It is false that Shamir is 'an Assange intimate'. He interviewed Assange (on behalf of Russian media), as have many journalists. He took a photo at that time and has only met with WikiLeaks staff (including Asssange) twice. It is false that 'he was trusted with selecting the 250,000 US State Department cables for the Russian media' or that he has had access to such at any time.
Shamir was able to search through a limited portion of the cables with a view to writing articles for a range of Russian media. The media that subsequently employed him did so of their own accord and with no intervention or instruction by WikiLeaks.
We do not have editorial control over the of hundreds of journalists and publications based on our materials and it would be wrong for us to seek to do so. We do not approve or endorse the the writings of the world's media. We disagree with many of the approaches taken in analyzing our material.
Wikileaks posted a press release responding to the rumour of the day, namely, the one published by Private Eye, and republished here, that Julian Assange attributes The Guardian's recent demonstrable and disproportionate enmity towards his person to a "Jewish conspiracy."
Despite the main thrust of the Private Eye article, the last few paragraphs of it (now excised from the post above, and only available by purchasing the issue of Private Eye) expresses remorse for Assange, in light of the fact that the journalism sector is so constituted as to force him to deal with every futile and irrelevant canard available, all while he is trying to perform activities of genuine benefit to both the public and the media. In short, the end of the article betrays guilt over the balance of it.
Suddenly I got the impression Mr Assange was bored. Bored of me. Bored of answering questions. The energy and anger seemed to have gone from his voice. He was almost weary when he told me that he was not powerful, but had been crushed by powerful global interests and the least I could do was not support them by running pieces critical of him.
I did feel guilty. Briefly. I told him that I would email him the whole piece and that I would happily run a letter from him, answer his points in full, or put him in contact with out lawyers if he wanted. He gave me an address and I sent him the article. I heard nothing back. In the circumstances, I thought the best thing to do was to publish as much as I could remember of our conversation in Private Eye. As a "mode of information flow."
As reported earlier on WL Central, a million citizen march was planned for today in Harare, by a facebook group with currently 1292 members. While the march did not materialize, and neither did protests or demonstrations of any kind, the group is claiming a victory for provoking a reaction from the country's military and police. Armoured cars, trucks of riot police and Israeli-built water cannon vehicles had swept through Harare over the weekend, fanning out into townships around the city. Authorities gave no explanation for the display of force.
The failure of any protest materializing could have been due to the government reaction, or it could indicate, in a country where 15% of the population have internet access, that they simply had not heard of it. There is no mention of it on the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition website and they in fact have stated that they were not aware of it. Neither did it have any stated backing of any other local human rights or political opposition movements.
WL Central also reported earlier on the arrest, imprisonment, and torture for some, of Munyaradzi Gwisai, the International Socialist Organisation (ISO) general coordinator, and 45 others on February 19. They were charged on the 23rd with treason, which carries the death penalty, or subverting a constitutionally elected government, for which the maximum penalty is 20 years imprisonment for watching a video of the uprising in Egypt.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay expressed her deep concern over the case today. "Many people in North Africa have said clearly and loudly that there is no democracy without freedom of expression and assembly. It is both ironic and disturbing that in Zimbabwe, activists are being arrested and abused for simply discussing the efforts in North Africa to bring change through peaceful demonstrations."
Update: Edited podcast episode is now posted.
The fourth episode of this weekly podcast, which looks at stories related to WikiLeaks from the past week, featured guest Kevin Zeese, who is with the Bradley Manning Support Network and WikiLeaksIsDemocracy.org, which is a project dedicated to preventing the prosecution and extradition of Assange to the United States. The podcast also welcomed CMN News correspondent Chris Novembrino, who provided commentary throughout the episode.WL Central will be updating news on Yemen, with new items added at the top. All times are based off of Sanaa time in Yemen. You can contact me on Twitter @kgosztola or by email at kgosztola@hotmail.com.
Current time and date in Sanaa:
FRIDAY, March 4
Video of protesters out in Yemen demonstrating The number of people protesting swelled and was larger than previous days in the uprising.
Jane Novak has posted a statement of solidarity from people in Saada, Amran, and al Jawf, an organization that intends to move to overthrow Saleh The statement makes clear how the people plan to continue to push for Saleh to step down:
We affirm our support and solidarity with members of the Yemeni people to overthrow the corrupt regime, and we stress the following: http://armiesofliberation.com/archives/2011/03/04/saada-amran-al-jawf-or...
* Moved that this move is within the broad popular marches and this is the cohesion and harmony with the position of people in all governorates of Yemen.
Violence has continued today in the economic centre of Ivory Coast, the south-eastern city of Abidjan, and has left one dead after clashes between protesters and police forces began early in the morning. Today most of the businesses in the city remain paralyzed and the BBC reports that the La transmission centre of the national television was “burnt down, but is working again, even though the video is of poor quality”. Political tensions over the outcome of the presidential election past November, when the candidate from the opposition Alassane Ouattara accused Laurent Ggagbo, president since 2000, of fraud, have given way to widespread violence in most of the country.
Several days after the official deadline for the results had expired, the Independent Electoral Commission for Ivory Coast claimed Ouattara as the winner with 54% of the votes. The country’s Constitutional Council, however, declared that the commission had no right to publish the results, having missed the deadline to do so. The President of the Council, Paul Yao N’Dre, also said they had decided to nullify around 500,000 votes coming from pro-opposition areas in the north of the country, alleging that the violence and tension that occurred there during the election invalidated the results. They therefore gave a marginal victory to Ggagbo, with a slim 51% of the votes. Both candidates claim they have been sworn into office. The U.N., along with most of the international community, has sided with Ouattara, and imposed sanctions on the Government, calling Ggagbo to step down. Ouattara is known to have strong connections with the West: he studied economics in the U.S. and worked with the International Monetary Fund as an analyst.
WL Central will be updating news on Egypt, with new items added at the top. You can contact us on twitter @wikileaks_world and by email at wikileaksworld@wikileaksworld.org or @clayclai.
Current time and date in Cairo: -
MONDAY, February 28
Army allows protesters to remain at #Tahrir #Egypt
Protesters have continued to gather in Tahrir Square. Yesterday, they were told by Army Officers that they could not stay out after curfew, however, after insistence on their behalf they have been allowed to stay, given that they do not disturb traffic.
The people there demand the release of all political prisoners, the lifting of the Emergency Law, the dismantling of the state security apparatus and the prosecution of those guilty of corruption.
@FatmaNaib said around 17.00 (GMT):
#Tahrir right now. Never seen it this full! Thousands of ppl
WL Central will be updating news on China, with new items added at the top. You can contact me on twitter @GeorgieBC or by email at admin@wlcentral.org.
Current time and date in Beijing:
Sunday, February 27
Since Friday, a message has gone out on Twitter that Boxun.com says was forged. The founders of the Jasmine Revolution in China, decided to cancel the action. Watching so many people be arrested and missing, we are deeply ashamed. It was a difficult decision: Please do not go to the afternoon to take to the streets, and the meetings at 2 pm every Sunday is also canceled. A "climate of fear" was also created in the two days prior to scheduled protests, with many midnight raids and arrests of activists. Many activists were invited to "come in for a cup of tea", the euphemism for an interrogation. The Chinese government is censoring not just the word "Jasmine", as the name of the revolution, but many other plant names as well, such as "azalea", "rhododendron" etc. There were two days of heavy snow in Beijing leading up to protests.
The protests in China today were marked largely by the beating of anyone attempting to film them. Either the Chinese government is afraid of the powerful images they have seen from other countries, or they just could not find a better way to deal with the "strolling" protest. The BBC says, "unable to distinguish the protesters, who'd been called to "stroll" peacefully and silently past McDonald's restaurant at 1400, from genuine shoppers they focussed on picking out foreign reporters and cameramen."
Aftenposten: THE CURSE OF THE BLUE DIAMOND
"In the latest chapter of a two decade-long saga which has long soured Thai-Saudi relations, the Royal Thai Government (RTG) Office of the Attorney General on January 12 indicted five police officers in connection with the 1990 murder of a Saudi Arabian businessman with family ties to the Saudi royal family, just weeks before the expiration of the 20-year statute of limitations. In 1989, a Thai worker in the Saudi Arabian royal palace stole a large quantity of jewelry and smuggled it back to Thailand, including a 50-carat blue diamond. The graft, murders, and kidnappings that followed this incident resulted in a rift in the Saudi-Thai relationship that has lasted to the present day, compounded by the murder of four Saudi diplomats in 1989-1990 in circumstances never clearly explained publicly. In their effort to respond to Saudi demands for justice, the RTG seeks to hold senior members of the Royal Thai Police (RTP) accountable for their part in the drama and, in doing so, normalize relations with Saudi Arabia and possibly reap economic benefits through expanded trade and investment with gulf states."
Read cable
(Image Credit: Dali Rău)
As reported previously on WL Central, a facebook group appeared calling for a protest "against corruption" in Qatar. "Support the revolution, Qatar February 27 against corruption."
As we reported then, Neither the posted info nor the comments have issued more specific demands, than to "topple this corrupt regime" but 500 people have liked the page which has been up since around February 8. The current Emir of Qatar, Hamad Bin Khalifa took control from his father in 1995. He has been criticized in the Arab world for meeting with Israeli minister Tzipi Livni, and for supporting the Al Jazeera news network which is critical of other Arab governments and frequently airs western and Israeli views.
Now a new Facebook page is calling for protests on March 16, and twitter is divided between retweets of
"It was written by non qatari people. It was 27feb and no body react to it and then they moved it to new date."
and
"Facebook Page of #16March Revolt in Qatar Was Blocked inside #Qatar"
The struggle for democracy, unleashed indirectly in Egypt by the leaking of thousands of secret documents from the U.S. Diplomatic service, is particularly complicated due to Egypt’s political situation in the Middle East. The necessary succession of the Mubarak regime results in a very fragile state of affairs, as the important players in area, Israel and the U.S. on one hand, and Palestine, Syria and Iran on the other, all know how important it is to count the future Egyptian president as an ally. Precisely because of this, in a 2007 cable 07CAIRO1417 the U.S. ambassador in Cairo says that “Presidential succession is the elephant in the room of Egyptian politics. Despite incessant whispered discussions, no one in Egypt has any certainty about who will succeed Mubarak, or how the succession will happen”.
As of now, Egypt is entering its third week of paralysis; protests and riots are still widespread across the country and without a sign of relent. President Mubarak has hidden himself and even though he has come out to assure the nation that he will not run for President again, the government’s stance on the matter indicates that he does not want to step down from his office, but rather that he prefers to stall and see if the situation calms down. To relieve some tension he shifted power toward Omar Suleiman, the vice-president and the strong arm currently in charge of running the country. This political maneuver is revealing after taking into account the strategic interest from Egypt’s allies, Israel and the U.S. It is obvious that even though the Obama administration has publicly asked Mubarak to step down and allow a democratic transition, they did this knowing that they could never permit a figure such as Amre Moussa’s, the secretary of the Arab League, to lead the country.
WL Central will be updating news on Tunisia, with new items added at the top. You can contact me on twitter @kgosztola or by email at kgosztola@hotmail.com.
The current date and time in Tunis, Tunisia:
SUNDAY, February 27
8:59 PM Photo of demonstrator running from tear gas in Tunis
Beji Caid Essebsi is now the interim PM of Tunisia. Here is his biography posted on the French Wikipedia. (It can be translated with Google.)
What will likely be most focused on in the world is this:
[He] rejoined the government as Minister Delegate to the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs on 15 April 1981 , he held the position until 15 September 1986 . During these six years, he faces several crises, including the arrival of Palestinian fighters - driven out of Beirut - at Bizerte in 1982 , the bombing of the headquarters of the PLO in Hammam Chott (south of Tunis) by the army Israeli Air ( Operation Wooden Leg ) in 1985 , not to mention the constant mood of Muammar Qaddafi 2 . The high point of his career as head of the diplomacy of Tunisia remains the vote on UN resolution 3 condemning the Israeli aggression against Tunisia 4 .
February 25 Update
Hundreds protesting turned into thousands today in the Mauritania capital Nouakchott, as people answered the call put out on facebook. Police removed the initial hundreds from Blocat Square and arrested one early on Saturday, only to have thousands return. The facebook page states the goal is to "achieve democracy and justice in our country." Discrimination between the poor non-Arab population and the richer Arab citizens is an issue, as is the military rule from a prime Minister, Moulaye Ould Mohamed Laghdaf, who came to power through a "coup d'etat". In response to the threatened protests, the prime minister had promised that the government would soon create 17,000 jobs, develop new infrastructure projects and boost local food production capacity to tackle spikes in prices.
The protesters have promised to continue until their demands are met.
February 23
From the AnonNews site:
Aziz isn't stronger than Ben Ali, Moubarak or Kadafi!
We are not weaker than the young people from Tunisia, Egypt or Libya.
Send text-messages to all your friends!
The 25th of Februari at 12:00 o'clock.
Place: The court blocks - NOUAKCHOTT
Objective: To overthrow Aziz.
Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz is the ruthless dictator of Mauritania, who acquired power through a "coup d'etat" on the 6th of August 2008, and established himself as leader without any democratic measures taken.
Image credit: Facebook page.
Time for a Cablegate farewell to interim PM Mohamed Ghannouchi. The revolution wanted Ghannouchi gone the moment he stepped into power. His ties to the Ben Ali regime could not be overcome.
Tunisian youths were allegedly throwing rocks breaking windows right after the resignation speech. Reuters reports security forces "fired tear gas and rounds in the air to disperse them. There was no sign of any wounded."
Ghannouchi was one official the US State Department thought might succeed Ben Ali if he ever became fatally ill. This is how Ghannouchi was described in a January 9, 2006 cable titled, "Succession In Tunisia: Finding A Successor Or Feet First?":
Prime Minister Ghannouchi: (8/18/1941) A career technocrat and trained economist, Ghannouchi has served as Prime Minister since 1999. Ghannouchi is rumored to have told many that he wishes to leave the GOT but has not had the opportunity. The length of his service as PM also suggests that Ben Ali does not view him as a threat and that he is unlikely to be viewed as a qualified successor. However, average Tunisians generally view him with respect and he is well-liked in comparison to other GOT and RCD officials.
Average Tunisians' attitudes (whatever that demographic is to US officials) appear to have been made insignificant by the revolutionary organizers who continue to move Tunisia closer to the society they envision.
La Jornada: Sócrates Rizzo: imposible, prevenir que cárteles financien a candidatos (Sócrates Rizzo: "Impossible to prevent cartels from financing candidates")
"El ex gobernador señaló posibilidad de que el narco proveyera dinero para sobornar a votantes. En sus cables, el consulado en Monterrey incluyó opiniones sobre atentado contra Televisa. Se afirmó que ataque perpetrado contra la televisora buscaba dañar imagen de Rodrigo Medina. (The former governor said that the drug can provide money to bribe voters. In their cables, the consulate in Monterrey included views about the attack against Televisa. It said the attack against the broadcaster wanted to damage the image of Rodrigo Medina.)"
Read more (Spanish) Google Translate
(Image Credit: Dali Rău)
WL Central will be updating news on Algeria, with new items added at the top. You can contact me on twitter @kgosztola or by email at kgosztola@hotmail.com.
Current time and date in Algeria:
SATURDAY, February 26
3:55 PM
El Watan live blogged the action in Algeria as police prevented a protest from taking place in Place des Martyrs. The NCCD tried to hold the protest.
The post describes how police swarmed the streets and occupied sidewalks and pedestrian spaces in the capital of Algiers. Said Saadi and other protesters showed up to begin the action and police divided a forming group into two smaller groups. Said Saadi tried to get up on a police vehicle and go talk to some of the protesters and the police brought him down violently.
Protesters on Che Guevera boulevard began to hold an action only to be dispersed by security forces.
At 12:00, the area was still filled with police. There were tiny pockets of protesters in the area carrying portraits of Bouteflika demanding his resignation but the police effectively prevented anything from taking place.
Here is what appears to be video from the February 26 action that was broken up by police:
At the White House Press Briefing yesterday, Friday, 25 February 2011 Press Secretary Jay Carney inadvertently reveals the top secret source of CIA intelligence on North Africa and the Middle East.
This is followed by a plug for my documentary Vietnam: American Holocaust
If you like this you will probably love the documentary I made with Martin Sheen
Vietnam: American Holocaust
You can get it from Amazon or you can get it directly from me.
Aftenposten: CONGRESSMAN LANTOS STRESSES BILATERAL ACHIEVEMENTS AND REGIONAL CHALLENGES WITH LIBYAN OFFICIALS
"In a series of meetings with senior Libyan officials during his August 22-24 trip to Libya, Congressman Tom Lantos, ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Relations Committee, reviewed bilateral achievements since his first visit to the country in January, 2004 and set new goals for enhanced future cooperation. The Congressman, accompanied by Charge Berry, House International Relations Committee (HIRC) Senior Professional Staff Member Alan Makovsky, HIRC Professional Staff Member Mike Beard, and Poloff, met with the Libyan Leader Moammar Qadhafi, Director of the Qadhafi Development Foundation Seif Al-Islam Qadhafi, Libyan Director of Military Intelligence Abdullah Sanussi, Director of the External Security Organization Musa Kusa, Secretary of the General Peoples Committee for Foreign Liaison and International Cooperation (Foreign Minister equivalent) Abdurrahman Shalgam, Secretary of American Affairs Ahmed Fatouri and Secretary for European Affairs Abdelati Obeidi of the General Peoples Committee for Foreign Liaison and International Cooperation. The Congressman´s trip partially overlapped with visit of Senator Arlen Specter (septel) and several official meetings were combined."
(Image Credit: Dali Rău)
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