Julian Assange Christmas Address from the Balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Assange requests political asylum from Ecuador

WikiLeaks announced this evening via Twitter (19:40 local time) that Julian Assange has requested political asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

This comes after the UK Supreme Court refused a submission to reopen his case on June 14. Julian Assange has spent 560 days under house arrest without charge. His extradition to Sweden is set between June 28 and July 7.

Mr Assange will remain at the embassy under the protection of the Ecuadorian government while they process his request.

In his statement to the Diplomatic Mission of Ecuador, Julian Assange commented on his abandonment by his home country, Australia, as well as the threat of the death penalty in the U.S.

Ecuador has been offering political asylum to Julian Assange since November 2010. At that time, Vice Chancellor Kintto Lucas stated, "We are open to grant him Ecuadorian residency, without any kind of problem or any kind of conditions."

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa was a guest on Julian Assange's talk show "The World Tomorrow" this past May. The full interview is available online in English, Spanish, Italian, Russian, and Arabic.

Updates will be added as they become available.

[UPDATE: 21:25 BST] Julian Assange's U.S. based lawyer Michael Ratner commented on the request via Twitter:

Julian's asylum not about questioning in Sweden. Facing life in solitary in US with no comm.for exposing war crimes, What Would You Do???
Sweden easier. Smaller. lawyers in UK remarkable. More public support. He would be in jail in Sweden, US lodges warrant and he never is out

[UPDATE: 21:29 BST] Clark Stoeckley of the WikiLeaks Truck and Venezuelan author Eva Golinger will be on RT to discuss Julian Assange and his request for political asylum.

[UPDATE: 21:33 BST] Jesselyn Radack of the Government Accountability Project and Barrett Brown will also be on RT to discuss Mr Assange's request for political asylum.

Media currently outside Ecuadorian embassy waiting for Julian Assange (image via RT London).

[UPDATE: 23:10 BST] Glenn Greenwald has written an article covering Julian Assange's decision to seek political asylum in Ecuador. Kevin Gosztola has also covered it.

Mr Assange's mother, Christine, has come out in support of his decision to seek asylum, saying it shows clear thinking, but also comments she had no prior notice.

SwedenvsAssange tweeted the following in support of his decision:

You can only request political asylum if you are free to walk into an Embassy. In Sweden Assange would not be able to exercise his right.

RT America has also reported on the news. Watch their coverage below:

[UPDATE: 00:30 BST] WikiLeaks has published an effective "declaration of abandonment" from the Australian Government, which refuses to protect Julian Assange or make any requests on his behalf.

This article is reproduced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Original source is WL Central.







If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Saudi Government Facilitating Child Sex Trafficking

Image via Wikipedia

Cable Viewer

This from Wikileaks. Click link above for full US diplomatic cable from its embassy in Yemen.

ROYG officials and independent experts 
repeatedly express frustration with the lack of Saudi 
cooperation on trafficking-in-persons issues, including 
children smuggled to Saudi Arabia for work and Saudi "sex 
tourists" who frequent underage prostitutes in Yemen.  They 
allege that the Saudi government has significantly stalled 
bilateral efforts to combat trafficking.  Without 
higher-level Saudi commitment, it will continue to be 
difficult for impecunious Yemen to fight this cross-border 
problem alone.

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

John Hutton, Russian Gas, Georgia and Wiikileaks

Image via Wikipedia

Confidential US State Department cable 08LONDON2384 , published by Wikileaks, contains the following quote relating to the Russian invasion of Georgia's Abkhazia region in August 2008. 

At a meeting in September 2008 between US Deputy Secretary of Energy Jeffery Kupfer and the then British Business Secretary John Hutton, discussion turned to Russia's growing dominance of the European gas market. The discussion is summarised as follows:

Hutton stated that the EU is never going to speak with one voice on

energy security, pointing out that each country has dealt with supply

issues independently. He pointed to the growing European dependence on

Russian gas, and the fact that much of Gazprom's board was former

Federal Security Service (FSB). These factors, Hutton said,

contributed to the EU's feeble response to the Russian invasion of Georgia.

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

U.S. intelligence collaboration with Omar Suleiman “most successful”

Egyptian Intelligence Director Omar Suleiman  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

U.S. intelligence collaboration with Omar Suleiman “most successful”

Useful background notes from Wikileaks on Omar Suleiman, Egypt's new vice-president, and therefore the man constitutionally next in line to take over if President Mubarak were to step down.

Key points include:

• Suleiman was trained early on in his career at the U.S. Special Warfare School at Fort Bragg
• Head of Egypt's spy agency
• Professional links with the CIA
• Fiercely opposed to the Muslim Brotherhood

Not an American puppet, but certainly an acceptable alternative to the US when Mubarak boards that plane for Jeddah.

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Related articles

• omar Suleiman the CIA torture chief in Cairo (propagandapress.wordpress.com)
• "Who Is Omar Suleiman?" and related posts (newyorker.com)

Wikileaks, Sweden, the Suicide Bomb and the CIA: Is There a Connection?

 

Source, Tomblanton 1957

Mainstream media outlets are generally making no connection between the terrorist attack in central Stockholm last week and current attempts by the Swedish authorities to extradite Wikileaks director Julian Assange.

The consensus view on the pre-Christmas bombings is that they were carried out by Iraqi-born Taimour Abdulwahab, apparently a British-based self-radicalised jihadist acting on his own initiative, though possibly with some logistical support from persons currently unknown.

There is, of course, an alternative and more disturbing view.

Respected Swedish academic Professor Ola Tunander is currently based at the Peace Research Institute in Oslo (PRIO), an independent peace studies institution which publishes numerous peer-reviewed articles on international relations, conflict resolution, foreign policy and peace studies.  

Professor Tunander's 2004 book, The Secret War Against Sweden: US and British Submarine Deception Against Sweden in the 1980s makes the well-documented case that during the Cold War, British and American forces operated major submarine incursions into Swedish waters with the aim of creating the belief that these were Soviet ships acting aggressively. 

From the book's forward:

"Following the stranding of a Soviet Whiskey-class submarine in 1981 on the Swedish archipelago, a series of massive submarine intrusions took place within Swedish waters. However, the evidence for these appears to have been manipulated or simply invented. Classified documents and interviews point to covert Western, rather than Soviet activity.....

Ola Tunander's revelations make it clear that the United States and Britain ran a 'secret war' in Swedish waters. The number of Swedes perceiving the Soviet Union as a direct threat increased from 5-10 per cent in 1980 to 45 per cent in 1983. This Anglo-American 'secret war' was aimed at exerting political influence over Sweden. It was a risky enterprise, but perhaps the most successful covert operation of the entire Cold War."

Former US Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger was also interviewed on Swedish television around the time of the publication of The Secret War and confirmed that American and British submarines had indeed been conducting operations against Swedish installations during the 1980s as a way of ensuring military (and civilian) "readiness" to counter the threat of Soviet expansion into the Baltic. The interview took place on  TV2 on 7 March 2000.

In an earlier article in the journal Cooperation and Conflict, Professor Tunander quotes former CIA Director James Schlesinger on the existence of a Swedish "dual state" in which the official "Political Sweden" is matched by the "Military Sweden" which is portrayed as seeking ever closer ties to the United States. The article reflects on the "supranational" structure which, despite the country's official policy of non-membership, ties Sweden inexorably into the NATO orbit and policy objectives. 

State Department cable 07STOCKHOLM506 on Wikileaks bluntly reveals this current political reality:

"While Sweden's official foreign policy doctrine emphasizes non-alignment, in practice Sweden is a pragmatic and strong partner with NATO"

and, in the same cable,

"Sweden's official security policy is non-participation in military alliances during peacetime and neutrality during wartime.  Its active participation in the NATO Partnership for Peace and its role in leading the European Union's 1,500 troops-strong Nordic Battle Group give the lie to the official policy."

At the 2004 Pan-European International Relations Conference held in the Netherlands, Professor Tunander presented a paper with the working title of  "The Use of Terrorism to Construct World Order" . Building on the pioneering work of Hans Morgenthau from the 1950s, Tunander outlines the history since 1945 of CIA-backed terrorist incidents in mainland Europe. The aim of these actions was the fueling of anti-communist sentiment among European citizens, in order to strengthen US/NATO-lead attempts to contain and oppose communism on the continent and elsewhere:

"The Strategy of Tension, as we know it from Cold War Europe, has received a global dimension. During the Cold War, the US ‘dual security structure’ – with its specifically tasked units masquerading as ‘enemy forces’ – was developed by the US ‘security state’ in order to keep the political strength and the readiness and capability of the Western defences. Now, this structure has seemingly been made into a self-propelled mechanism that is able to transform the world order into a Pax Americana."

Swiss academic Dr Daniele Ganser has also written extensively about the existence of secret armies operating in Europe under American control during the early 1990s. His book NATO's Secret Armies outlines their history and deployment as agents of terror.

After outlining how this policy was applied in Italy and elsewhere in Europe from  the 1960s to 80s, Professer Trunandar then argues that following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US-NATO elites required a "new enemy" in order to justify ongoing American hegemony. That enemy was radical Islam. 

CIA support for Osama bin Laden and his mujaheddin in the 1980s is a matter of public record. Later contact with the group took place in the Balkans in the 1990s and, according to several sources, as late as 2001. Trunandar provides details:

"The Saudi military intelligence chief Prince Turki bin Faisal had several meetings with bin Laden and supported the Taliban economically. Bin Laden allegedly had a meeting with the CIA station chief in Dubai, Larry Mitchell, as late as on July 12, 2001, as well as with the Saudi intelligence chief, Prince Turki bin Faisal, while bin Laden was treated for his kidney problems at the American Hospital in Dubai (Von Bülow, 2003, p. 228. See also Richard Labeviere, 2001. ‘La CIA aurait recontré Ben Laden en juillet’, Le Figaro, November 1; Anthony Sampson, 2001. ‘CIA agent allegedly to have met Bin Laden in July’, Guardian, November 1; Elisabeth Bryant, 2001. ‘Report: bin Laden treated at US hospital’, United Press International, October 31) "

Fascinating though all of this is, none of it proves even a remote link between Taimour Abdulwahab, the CIA and the Pentagon's current crusade against Wikileaks.

Nonetheless, the history of CIA operations in Sweden does prove that

(a) American and British military forces have used "false wars" in Sweden as a way of manipulating popular opinion against America's enemies

(b) CIA strategic involvement with radical Islamic groups has been a proven reality until at least the start of this decade.

Beyond these facts, we are left only able to ask questions:

1. Why did Abdulwahab choose to commit his attack in Sweden rather than the UK? Although his parents apparently lived there, the practical challenges of carrying out a "lone" terror attack across international boarders must have been considerable. Why not target the Swedish embassy in London? Or IKEA?

2. What is the significance (if any) of the release of an official report on the Islamic terror threat in Sweden - three days after the Stockholm bombing?  The report was originally commissioned by the government in February. Was its release this week pure coincidence? Or was it timed to create maximum impact in the media in the week of Scandinavia's first suicide bombing, with the report's claims that up to 200 Swedish Muslims are currently advocating violent jihad ? 

3. Why was the Stockholm attack such a failure? Reports that the attacker's car - allegedly full of gas canisters - failed to blow up are attributed in many publications to the "amateurish" nature of his tactics. Considering what we know about the role of previous CIA covert operations in Sweden, is it not also plausible that those handling the attacker may have not wanted the car to blow up? This would make sense if their aim was not to kill but to create fear. Similar questions should be asked about the location of the car. It was not parked in the most obvious place to cause major casualties - with the heart of the shopping district being several hundred metres away. 

4. Why did Abdulwahab's device detonate when it did? If the aim was to create terror (with the minimum loss of Swedish lives), then the detonation of his belt bomb down a side street with no casualties could be seen as achieving this result. If Abdulwahab's claim that he had been training as a jihadist for four years are true (as relayed on the audio message he is alleged to have sent to the authorities minutes before the first blast), then it might appear surprising that such a lengthy training period resulted in the perpetrator being unable to create a device that could even blow himself up properly, let alone kill others. Eye witness reports claim that the bomber was still alive for a short while after his device exploded.    

5. How are we to account for reports on Sweden's The Local news site of alleged military knowledge of the attack in advance? The claim is made that a Swedish armed forces member was warned by a colleague two hours before the bomb blast, “If you can, avoid Drottninggatan today. A lot can happen there…just so you know."

6. Who was behind the fake bomb left at Kungstraedsgaarden metro station in Stockholm, on Christmas eve, two weeks after the suicide attack? A police officer is quoted by AFP as saying:  “It looked like a real bomb. Someone made it to frighten people.”

As for the connections with the Wikileaks saga, the following video reveals Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt claiming in a recent interview with Sir David Frost that he knows very little about the Assange case as it is not handled by his particular government department. This modest denial is strange considering the Minister's recent political history. Bildt has been heavily criticised in recent years for his membership of The Committee to Liberate Iraq, which was an American political lobby group aimed at the "replacement of the Saddam Hussein regime with a democratic government" in the years leading up to the US-lead invasion in 2003.

Other members of the Committee included Newt Gingrich, John McCain,  Richard Pearle (founder of the right-wing Project for a New American Century), and R James Woolsey, former director of the CIA. Bildt's participation is remarkable as, apart from one Iraqi, he  was virtually the only non-American of the 35-member Committee. Clearly, he was closely associated with many of the prime movers at the heart of efforts to ensure a US-lead invasion of Iraq, whose project has come under such fierce criticism, in part as a result of revelations from the Wikileaks site.

It is inconceivable that Bildt is not actively concerned about the Wikileaks phenomenon and, presumably, receiving the perspective of the United States government on the matter via their man in Stockholm, Matthew Barzun or indeed, from more senior American political figures.

.

Specific US Embassy cables released through the Wikileaks site that relate to Sweden have not portrayed the inner workings of the country's Foreign Ministry in a particularly positive light.

Cable 09STOCKHOLM194, for instance, notes that "the current Swedish political climate makes any formal terrorist screening agreement highly difficult" and notes that "existing informal arrangements are working well."

In other words, Mr Bildt's department (he became Minister for Foreign Affairs in 2006 after serving as Prime Minister from 1991-94 ) wished in the words of the Daily Telegraph to "avoid parliamentary scrutiny" of its discussions with the US over terrorism-related matters. The cable goes on to reveal that Sweden's continuing US visa-waiver entitlement was being officially linked to its co-operation on allowing access to information on Swedish nationals that might be of interest to American authorities in their counter-terrorism strategy, in line with Homeland Security Presidential Directive Hspd-6.

The cable reveals that the Swedish representative at an October 2008 meeting noted that it was "a particularly sensitive time politically in Sweden for issues involving government surveillance and personal privacy."

In a final, rather chilling conclusion in light of recent events, the leaked cable notes that,

In the longer term, while a changed political environment in Sweden might be more conducive to a formal agreement with the U.S., there is a very clear GOS [Government of Sweden?] belief that Sweden is not likely to be a direct target for terrorists and therefore has little to gain from an HSPD-6 agreement.

One could logically conclude from this statement, therefore, that  a terrorist attack in Sweden might help to move public and political opinion towards embracing a more formal information-sharing arrangement, which the cable reveals as being beneficial to the United States.

In conclusion, we have at this time no concrete evidence that the terror attack in Stockholm was supported or directed by the CIA. What we do have, however, is a political motive for such an event, a previous history of such events and a number of practical questions about the attack itself that warrant further investigation.

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

WikiLeaks Cables Reveal U.S. Sought to Retaliate Against Europe over Monsanto GM Crops

WikiLeaks Cables Reveal U.S. Sought to Retaliate Against Europe over Monsanto GM Crops

Dr. Arpad Pusztai was actually working on a $3 million grant from the U.K. government to figure out how to test for the safety of GMOs. And what he discovered quite accidentally is that genetically modified organisms are inherently unsafe. Within 10 days, his supposedly harmless GMO potatoes caused massive damage to rats—smaller brains, livers and testicles, partial atrophy of the liver, damaged immune system, etc. And what he discovered was it was the process, the generic process of genetic engineering, that was likely the cause of the problem. He went public with his concerns and was a hero.

And unfortunately, the Obama administration has not been better than the Bush administration, possibly worse.

The forced growing of GM crops in Europe as a result of political pressure by Monsanto and their allies in the US Department of Agriculture is, to me, a red line issue.

It's the sort of issue that, if they push it, we should retaliate against by  a mass boycott of all American foods.

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Related articles

• Leaked Reports Reveal US Threatened EU To Accept GMOs (bimchat.wordpress.com)
• Bush Admin Officials Advised Retaliation Against Europe For Rejecting GM Crops: Wikileaks (treehugger.com)
• USDA Recommends "Coexistence" with Monsanto: We Say Hell No! - Huffington Post (blog) (news.google.com)

Christians and Wikileaks

Reaction to the Wikileaks phenomenon among Christians has been mixed, but in my observation this week, it has gravitated towards being concerned or annoyed, with a minority being outraged. A short piece by Julie Clawson on the Sojourner's website has been the only article I have read so far from a Christian perspective that sees the publishing of the leaks as a qualified good.

In reflecting on the more general view among Christians whose comments I have read this week, which express concern or hostility, I have noted a number of theological and political assumptions which are influencing interpretations of the Wikileaks project. In addition, as we shall see, there are more personal concerns being raised about the nature of security and privacy in the Internet age.

1. A high view of government. The "key texts" of Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2 appear to represent a grid through which a deferential perspective on the role of political rulers is formed and expressed.
2. A concern about process. I have heard some say that while they see it as helpful for the public to know the facts about how its government has been operating, they are nervous about the manner in which Wikileaks have gone about disclosing the inner workings of the state.
   
3. A concern about lawlessness. The commencement of Denial of Service attacks against businesses which have withdrawn support from Wikileaks (including Amazon, Mastercard, Visa and PayPal) has, in my reading, raised the hackles of those who might otherwise be more sympathetic to the Wikileaks agenda. One church leader in the United States, for instance, has questioned whether these DOD attacks represent a "spirit of lawlessness" as described in 2 Thessalonians 2.
   
4. A concern for privacy - both at the institutional and individual level. It has been interesting to hear some express concern that the leaking of the State Department's internal memos could be a step in the direction of everyone's private thoughts and correspondence being broadcast online. Interestingly, I have not come across this particular Orwellian concern being expressed by anyone other than Christian writers in the last week.

What can we deduce from the above points, and are there alternative or complementary considerations that are worth taking into account when assessing the Wikileaks phenomenon? A few broad themes present themselves:

1. Romans 12 and 1 Peter 2 could be read against the backdrop of a New Testament that paints a rather more negative view of government than might be suggested if those two passages are taken in isolation. We see in the writing of the apostles rulers portrayed as routinely corrupt, immoral and bloodthirsty (think Herod), described as enemies of the gospel (emperors and their subordinates) and as members of an immoral world system that is under God's judgment, represented variously as a drunken prostitute and a many-headed monster.
2. We ought to think carefully about "why" it is that many believers appear to be more troubled by the process of the leaks than they are by some of the facts they reveal. In particular, the large (and previously unreported) number of civilians who have lost their lives as a direct result of the American and British invasion of Iraq ought, surely, to be of greater concern than any loss of prestige caused to the governments that have contributed to these loses. If this is not the case, we must ask ourselves some fundamental questions about our faith and the moral priorities that arise from it.
3. We should be careful not to equate lawlessness with disturbing the status quo. Blind obedience to rulers is not a virtue, Christian or otherwise, and all moral people will have some actions which they will not commit, even if required to do so by the State. Furthermore, we should be careful to not miss the fact that the leaks reveal spectacular acts of lawlessness on the part of those in government. Illegal phone tapping of citizens, and orders to obtain biometric data from UN diplomats, are revealed as just two of the most obvious examples of lawless activity that elected leaders stand accused of by their own official documents.
   
4. We should be careful to be historically consistent when analyzing such a phenomenon as Wikileaks. It is ironic, to say the least, to hear residents of a nation birthed in an act of armed rebellion (the United Sates) denying the right of citizens to take modest action to assert their freedoms and challenge the perceived injustices of militarized and increasingly dominant governments.
5. Concerns about individual privacy are important and valid concerns. However, the reality is that the greatest threats to our right to a private life come not from reporters such as Julian Assange, but from corporations and governments who have the power and the motive to pry, spy and intrude in ways unimaginable a generation ago. Against such a backdrop, the need for a free press (defined as one that says things some people don't want to have said) remains of paramount importance as a restraint against tyranny.
   

Web Attacks and Student Protests: What's the Link?

Politics is getting really interesting again in Britain.

Street politics, I mean, rather than the managed politics of official parties and the Westminster Village.

When was the last time we saw the two top stories on the mainstream news programmes covering direct political action by ordinary citizens? The student demos and the web attacks against Visa, Mastercard and PayPal even managed to take priority over snow stories today!

It's been common in recent years to hear of decline in popular political activity - but this has tended to be measured primarily in terms of turnouts at elections and in membership of political parties.

Today's events reveal that a spirit of largely peaceful protest has started to galvanise sections of the population both in Britain and elsewhere.

Is there any connection between the apparently disparate actions of students and other protesters in central London and those hacking and coordinating DOS attacks on sites that have withdrawn their support for Wikipedia?

The theme that runs through both actions seems to be an anger against perceived economic and political elites who, in both cases, are being held responsible for presiding over a number of inter-related and unwelcome developments in Britain and America:

• the increased concentration of economic power in the hands of smaller numbers, and the corresponding increase in economic inequality
• the use of public money to subsidise the failures of banks
  
• aggressive overseas militaristic ventures
• restrictions on freedom of speech, particularly attempts to attack Wikileaks

All in all, interesting times.

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Open Letter to Australian Prime Minister

We believe this case represents something of a watershed, with implications that extend beyond Mr Assange and WikiLeaks. In many parts of the globe, death threats routinely silence those who would publish or disseminate controversial material. If these incitements to violence against Mr Assange, a recipient of Amnesty International’s Media Award, are allowed to stand, a disturbing new precedent will have been established in the English-speaking world.

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Related articles

• Open letter calls for Gillard to defend Assange - ABC Online (news.google.com)
• Chomsky signs Australian letter of support for Assange (thehimalayantimes.com)

Wikileaks cable corroborates evidence of US airstrikes in Yemen | Amnesty International

Image via Wikipedia

Wikileaks cable corroborates evidence of US airstrikes in Yemen | Amnesty International

"An alleged Qa’ida training camp at al-Ma’jalah, Abyan, was hit by a cruise missile on 17 December 2009. A Yemeni parliamentary inquiry found that 41 local residents, including 14 women and 21 children, and 14 alleged al-Qa’ida members were killed in the attack. In the 4 January cable, General Petraeus is recorded as saying that the attack had caused the deaths of “only” three “civilians”.

Wikileaks reveals that the air-borne attack was carried out by American planes and that Yemani authorities who claimed that their forces carried out the attacks were knowingly lying.

The attack included the use of cluster bombs, which spread munitions across a wide area and remain lethal for decades. Cluster munitions are particularly deadly with children, who are often attracted to the bright coloured bomblets which have the appearance of soft drink cans.

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Related articles

• WikiLeaks: U.S. bombs Yemen in secret (salon.com)
• Yemen cable gives al-Qaida new 'recruiting' tool (msnbc.msn.com)
• Cable seems to confirm U.S. military role in Yemen (msnbc.msn.com)

Canadian Academic Calls for Assassination of Julian Assange

Image by New Media Days via FlickrConservative political scientist Professor Tom Flanagan has publicly called for the assassination of Julian Assange, director of wiki-leaks.

The University of Calgary professor made his remarks during an interview with CBS yesterday (November 30th) in response to information that Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper had been mentioned in US diplomatic cables leaked through the wikileaks site, which was continuing to experience co-ordinated denial of service attacks over the weekend.

Professor Flanagan has worked in recent years to support the election of Stephen Harper, and is frequent commentator on political issues in Canada, from a conservative perspective.











Whatever one's views on the wisdom of the Wikileaks project, it is surely unacceptable when public figures are now increasingly given a platform to call for the assassination of foreign nationals who are not military combatants. The assassination of journalists may, tragically, be a regular part of life in Russia, but in a democratic society that values human freedom and the freedom of the press, such calls are simply outrageous.

Actions that could be taken against Professor Flanagan and others who call for the assassination of non-combatants could include:

1. Investigation by the Canadian authorities as to whether Professor Flanagan has committed a criminal act when making his remarks. I am no legal expert, but I believe that here in the UK, incitement to murder is a criminal offence.
2. Public protests against professor Flanagan on the University of Calgary campus where he teaches.
3. Protests against his stance during any overseas visits he may make in a professional capacity.

For all his tough talk (the professor says he is feeling "manly" when he makes his call) Professor Flanagan seems to have failed to grasp several political realities:

1. Revealing the secret actions of those in power who would rather their secrets remain hidden is an important aspect of investigative journalism and a bulwark of a free and open society.
2. There are others around the world apart from Julian Assange who will fill the gap left should he meet an untimely end
3. The wikileaks phenomenon is part of a large and growing grass roots movement that is opposed to the nexus of power between global elites in the military and corporate business communities. Removing a leading spokesman such as Assange will merely give fuel to a riot of anger on the part of progressively-minded citizens, with consequences for the political establishment that are unimaginable at the present time.
   

Stop Press

Professor Flanagan has today issued a statement to CBS news expressing regret for his assassination comment: "I regret that I made a glib comment about a serious issue."

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Related articles

• WikiLeaks: Canadian official calls for assassination of Julian Assange (telegraph.co.uk)
• WikiLeaks: Canadian official calls for assassination of Julian Assange - Telegraph.co.uk (news.google.com)

WikiLeaks Hit by DOS Attack. Police Seek Increased Internet Powers

Image via Wikipedia

The backlash against Wikileaks continues apace today, November 28th, with the site claiming on its Twitter page to be "under a mass distributed denial of service attack."

The site today began the process of releasing hundreds of thousands of official diplomatic reports from American embassies and the US State Department, revealing intimate details of discussions between and about America's allies, trade partners and hostile regimes around the world.

The New York Times is publishing a series of articles based on the diplomatic leaks. Today's revelations include insights into diplomatic activity with China concerning the possible reunification of Korea, candid observations on corruption within the Afghan government and the incentives offered to nations to take Guantanamo inmates since President Obama came into office.

Today's attack on the Wikileaks site follows an official condemnation of the leak by the White House, which describes the leaks as "reckless and dangerous" as well as illegal.

The DOS attack, presumably carried out under the authorisation of the CIA, coincides with a report on the BBC website that the UK's Serious and Organised Crime Agency are seeking statutory powers in the UK to shut down web sites which are "deemed to be engaged in criminal activity". That is, before a conviction has been secured in a court of law!

As is often the case when the authorities want extra power, worst case scenarios are usually presented which, it is claimed, will be resolved, prevented or cured if the police are allowed to do X, Y or Z. Web sites that sell drugs, guns or humans for sex trafficking will no doubt be presented as the kind of sites that the police are currently "powerless" to act against under the "limitations" of current legislation.

In fact, such powers, were they to be granted, will be not only be used against organised crime, if recent experiences in the UK are anything to go by.

Following the recent storming of the Conservative Party HQ in central London by a small number of around 50,000 demonstrators taking part in a protest against a trebling in the cost of university tuition fees, some criminal damage was done to the building and one protester threw a fire extinguisher off the roof of the building towards police below.

The web site FIT Watch followed up the mini-riot with an article advising those who had taken part in the demonstration on how to conduct themselves if they found themselves at the receiving end of police inquiries following.

The police then applied to the site's web hosts, the ironically-named Justhost, requesting that the site be suspended, which the company rather meekly agreed to.

Fit Watch - which I am not an uncritical supporter of - has since been re-hosted (here) and is continuing to publish articles that the police would, presumably, prefer that they didn't.

All of which puts the request of the Serious and Organised Crime Agency for the ability to close down "criminal sites" into some perspective.

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Related articles

• WikLeaks Reports It Is Under A Denial Of Service Attack (techcrunch.com)
• DOS attack on WikiLeaks.org (news.blogs.cnn.com)
• WikiLeaks Hit By DDoS Attack Just as Its Newest Leak is Leaked Early (mashable.com)
• The Lede: WikiLeaks Reports Attack on Its Web Site (thelede.blogs.nytimes.com)