Wikileaks UPDATES (2010-12-20): Roving Hands, Etc.

Not that kind . . . Karl Rove has been employed by the Swedish Prime Minister for the last two years and is believed to have influenced the country's handling of the allegations against Assange. More at HuffPo.

Apple has reportedly pulled a Wikileaks app from the iTunes store. The app gave users access to the cables and other docs on the WikiLeaks site and also provided a live feed from the wikileaks Twitter account. The app is still available for the Android.

Cablegate: the Game makes a game of searching the cables, awarding points for reading, tagging and summarizing finds.

Glenn Greenwald at Salon discusses The NYT's decision to publish an article today re- high-level planning for imminent, covert military action by the US in Pakistan – a kind of info that's usually top-secret and that Wikileaks has never published. (The info for the article was not obtained from Wikileaks but through the reporters' own investigation.) Greenwald argues The NYT was right to publish the info, since (among other reasons) "There are few things more damaging to basic democratic values than having the government conduct or escalate a secret war beyond public debate or even awareness. By exposing these classified plans, [the reporters] did exactly what good journalists ought to do: inform the public about important actions taken or being considered by their government which the government is attempting to conceal." He of course proceeds to call out for their hypocrisy those who call Wikileaks culpable while attempting to distinguish The NYT – including Visa, MasterCard, Paypal, the Times' web hosting company and the various banks who have cut off Wikileaks.

The BBC's published the transcript of a lengthy interview with Assange. At least 80% of the interview is spent hounding Assange for his alleged personal shortcomings; but if that's what you're interested in, it's the best Q & A I've seen.

Here's another interesting documentary on YouTube: Julian Assange – a Wanted Man, aired shortly before Wikileaks' publication of the Afghan War docments leak in July , 2010.

Alan Greenspan Confirms: Crisis Caused by Fraud by Counterparties

Note, he's not talking about fraud by the little guys; he's talking about fraud by "counterparties" – the people packaging and selling securitized mortgages and derivatives. This is from Nov. 9 of this year; too bad Greenspan didn't get clarity on this problem (or others) sooner.

Thanks to Karl Denninger's Market Ticker, one of few rational observers of economic news these days.

Speaking of the Media . . .

Pilger on Propaganda in the Media

John Pilger is a journalist and documentary maker who's twice won Britain's Journalist of the Year Award and whose docs have received academy awards in Britain and the US. This is the first of 7 segments, all currently available on YouTube.



Pilger was relatively early in identifying Obama as a "corporate marketing creation."

Fun; and Circuitous Mental Profit re- Wikileaks

When I was 14, my parents couldn't stand that my chores (making my bed, washing the dishes, doing the laundry, dusting, and vacuuming, taking out the trash, mowing and trimming our thick, 2/3-acre lawn using a heavy, non-self-propelled mower and hand shears, re-painting all the shutters on the house plus a picnic table, bench, etc.) did not completely take up all my free time; and I was too young to be legally, gainfully employed. So they enrolled me in a typing course, and for the duration, I rode my bike to class each week day.

The ride was 4 miles each way and included an extremely large hill. The area had been under a glacier, which might have scraped the land flat on its way in but left gigantic mounds when it melted. I never made it up this one without having to walk my bike up the last 10 - 20 yards.

I managed not to resist learning to type entirely; but engraved more deeply on my mind was an idea: that "Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country."

We were told that typing those particular letters in that particular order involved the most difficult typing movements, so we practiced it, to improve our agility and speed. The sentiment was probably also thought helpful as an inspiration to young citizens.

Now, of course, we're just urged to shop.

Back then, my country certainly needed help, but I was too young and oblivious to feel personally called. But on some level, I understood that the time might come.

Re- the video below, there's a beyond-urgent need for Julian's stylist; but it's worth the visual torture for the info/ideas – it's jam-packed (pardon the pun) – and for the spoof on Alex Jones, plus lines such as "Obama must get firm grip on Wikitits."



If you appreciated the sentiment near the end, you may also like:

Let’s do something, while we have the chance! It’s not every day that we are needed. . . . Let us make the most of it before it is too late!
– Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot (1949; emphasis supplied)

Or as Hamlet said, "the readiness is all."

This evening when I went out with friends, I brought 100 copies of this flyer with me. I returned home with about 25% of them. About 80% of the people I'd offered them to seemed glad to have them.

Here's another idea. Let's slip the word, "Wikileaks" into our everyday conversation, for no reason, without explanation, and on a regular basis.

More fun: Assange on The Colbert Report last spring.

"After Hours with George Quartz"

At CentralTrak last night; loved it. Impossible to do it justice in few words, but call it the Twilight Zone of talk shows. I think they really were taping it, and hope to see the results. You should definitely try to catch it if/when it returns.

More visuals here.

UPDATE: Edited "tv" taped excerpts from this performance can now be viewed on "Quartz"'s vimeo channel.

"Unsilent Night" and "Operation Paperstorm"

There'll be what sounds like a cool event in downtown Dallas, TX TONIGHT, Unsilent Night.

It's basically a performance that you can participate in, conceived by artist Phil Kline. The event has been held annually in New York City since 1992. As many as 1,500 eager partakers gather for a contemplative procession armed with boomboxes playing nothing more than the beautiful, mysterious sounds of echoing bells. The crowd slowly strolls along a designated route, drifting peacefully through a cloud of holiday sound, as each person experiences the event from their own perspective. Beginning in 2009, Dallas has joined 24 other cities around the globe who invite their citizens to come together and create this intriguing and inspiring performance art experience.

Unsilent Night is free and will be held regardless of the weather. It's recommended to arrive at least 30 minutes before the departure time of 7PM for the route through downtown Dallas and/or the 8:30 PM departure time for the route through the Arts District.

Gather at DART Rail's Akard Station, where instructions will be given before each walk begins. People are encouraged to bring one or more boomboxes or similar devices with them to broaden the scope of the experience. However, with or without a boombox, all are invited to participate in the experience.

You can download the soundtracks and find more info at www.UnsilentNightDallas.com.

And there's something else going on today: Operation Paperstorm. It's a protest in which people are distributing printed, paper info to help raise awareness of the facts surrounding the unfolding Wikileaks story (see links in sidebar at left, or info here).

Unsilent Night might be an excellent time to show your support of Wikileaks' unsilence. If that doesn't work for you, just do it some time soon.

You can download a flyer here (to be printed on legal-size paper); or see here for additional options.

Wikileaks UPDATES (2010-12-17): The Gritty Nitty; Payment Process Usurps Due Process; Things You Can Do; Etc.

Wikilaugh: "Julian Assange to Launch Social Network for Diplomats, Twofacebook," from the excellent Borowitz Report. "Saying that he hopes to build the site into a 'portal of deceit,' Mr. Assange said, 'This will be a must-visit destination on the Internet for sworn enemies to friend each other.'"

Let's get it over with: The Guardian has a detailed account of new info re- the allegations against Assange of sexual misconduct.

The confusion as to who really chose to appeal Assange's release apparently flows from the fact that it was done in the Swedes' name, but decided upon by the Brits; see Head of Legal (a blog by a British barrister [trial lawyer] who worked for the UK for some years). The comments at the foregoing link are interesting and worrisome.

Concerns continue regarding the Wikileaks site now back up at its original URL: "the internet security firm Spamhaus yesterday warned that the site's new incarnation could be riddled with malware run by 'Russian cybercriminals.' WikiLeaks.org redirects users to a mirror site – mirror.wikileaks.info – which sits within an IP range hosted by the Russian firm Webalta." See The Guardian – although there are also concerns that these concerns could be part of a disinformation campaign. Best to go to a mirror site such as this one, instead.

Also today, Bank of America announced it will no longer process payments for Wikileaks, and I've seen a report indicating that one or more other banks may join it. (Fortunately, I moved my accounts to a credit union last year.)

Has due process become obsolete, since the oligarchs can execute you financially whenever they don't like what you're doing?

Devastating essay by Mark Weisbrot in The Guardian:

The polarisation of the debate around WikiLeaks is pretty simple, really. Of all the governments in the world, the United States government is the greatest threat to world peace and security today. This is obvious to anyone who looks at the facts with a modicum of objectivity. The Iraq war has claimed certainly hundreds of thousands, and, most likely, more than a million lives. It was completely unnecessary and unjustifiable, and based on lies. Now, Washington is moving toward a military confrontation with Iran.

As Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell, pointed out in an interview recently, in the preparation for a war with Iran, we are at about the level of 1998 in the buildup to the Iraq war.

On this basis, even ignoring the tremendous harm that Washington causes to developing countries in such areas as economic development (through such institutions as the International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organisation), or climate change, it is clear that any information which sheds light on US "diplomacy" is more than useful. It has the potential to help save millions of human lives.

You either get this or you don't. Brazil's president Lula da Silva, who earned Washington's displeasure last May when he tried to help defuse the confrontation with Iran, gets it. That's why he defended and declared his "solidarity" with embattled WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, even though the leaked cables were not pleasant reading for his own government.

The rest of the piece just gets better.

There's more worthwhile news today than I have time to report, but Greg Mitchell is continuing to do a great job blogging it; today's entries are here.

If you'd like to show support for Wikileaks or Assange, here are some THINGS YOU CAN DO:

• Discuss the events and issues with your friends. (See the left sidebar for links to more on the facts and issues, or click here.)
• Organize a gathering to watch/discuss the Swedish documentary and other video (there's all kinds of stuff online, if you can hook your computer up to a tv or large screen).
• Boycott Amazon, Mastercard, Visa, PayPal, Bank of America and any other companies refusing to serve Wikileaks. Don't keep any money with them, buy anything from them, or use them to pay for anything. (Re- credit cards, most places accept Discover or American Express as alternatives; and Discover has the best cash-back program I'm aware of. Re- banking, you'll probably get much better service and rates from a credit union anyway. You can find ratings and other info re- local credit unions at Bankrate.com.)
• Donate to Wikileaks or to Assange's defense fund (and don't use Mastercard, Visa, PayPal, or Bank of America to do it). You can also use Flattr.
  
• Write letters to the editor of your local newspaper and other media outlets, your governmental representatives, Mastercard, Visa, PayPal, Bank of America, and others.
• Help search the cables for significant information (see the left side bar for online facilities such as cablefinder or dazzlepod that offer various ways to do this easily).
• Organize or participate in one or more protests (again, see the left sidebar for info/resources).
• Download and share this flyer with info in support of Wikileaks.