Antony Loewenstein

An Haaretz editorial that should be read by every Zionist organisation in the world; the smearing brigade should think again:

Leaker of the Pentagon Papers Daniel Ellsberg on Democracy Now! talks about what Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assanage could be facing:

I speak from an unusual perspective there. In May 3rd, 1972, when I was on trial, in a major political trial with tremendous publicity on me, Richard Nixon, President Nixon, sent a dozen CIA assets up from Miami to Washington, where I was giving a—addressing a rally on the steps of the Capitol with a number of Congress persons there and a large crowd, with orders to incapacitate me totally. Those were the orders given to them. So I can hardly assure Assange that nothing like that could happen again.

The first shopping mall in Gaza doesn’t signify a good life for the residents there, merely an attempt to behave normally in a fundamentally abnormal and inhumane situation.

At Sydney Gleebooks on 23 August at 6.30pm, the following event, in conversation, is taking place. Come along:

In Gaza: Morality, Law and Politics, Raimond Gaita brings together a thought-provoking collection of essays by public intellectuals on the subject of conflict.

Following the Israeli Army invasion of the Gaza strip, many Australians are left with questions of law, morality and politics; a minefield of ethical dilemmas to challenge the moral code we live by.

The contributors are Mark Baker, Anthony Billingsley, Hilary Charlesworth, Gerry Simpson, Ghassan Hage, Geoffrey Levey & Raimond Gaita.

Gaza Editor Raimond Gaita is Foundation Professor of Philosophy at ACU National and Professor of Moral Philosophy at King’s College London. He is perhaps best known to the general reader as the author of the prize-winning memoir, Romulus, My Father. His other books include Good and Evil: An Absolute Conception, A Common Humanity: Thinking About Love & Truth & Justice, The Philosopher’s Dog, and Breach of Trust: Truth, Morality and Politics.

Antony Loewenstein is a Sydney-based independent freelance journalist, author, documentarian and blogger.

The Wikileaks story over Afghanistan continues to reverberate around the world.

The latest angles, analysis and stories here, here, here, here, here and here.

A powerful explanation of how Wikileaks is changing the rules of the game is writer Jeff Sparrow in ABC Unleashed:

…The release of the Afghan logs constitutes a damning indictment on the traditional pillars of journalism. Wikileaks is a tiny organisation: basically, a bunch of computer nerds supported by a handful of volunteers. Yet, in the short period of its existence, it has broken an extraordinary number of big stories, from the ‘Collateral Murder’ footage of the Apache helicopter in Iraq to corruption in Kenya. As one admirer put it, “Wikileaks has probably produced more scoops in its short life than the Washington Post has in the past 30 years”.

It is, quite simply, remarkable that the New York Times, with its global staff and budget, is depending on revelations from a few people with a website.

What’s the explanation for Assange’s success? Most importantly, Wikleaks practises outsider journalism in a time when many reporters prefer to boast about being insiders. That is, in recent decades, journalism has evolved from its origins as a fairly disreputable trade to become a profession that grants its most high-profile practictioners equal status with those on whom they report. Senior reporters are themselves political players. They know all the candidates personally, they mix with them socially – and they justify that proximity as a way of extracting information.

The problem, of course, is that journalists accustomed to walking the corridors of power are quite likely to end up sharing the attitudes and sensibilities of those they’re supposed to scrutinise. Not surprisingly, within the US, sections of the media have been more concerned to argue that the war logs should never have been released than they’ve been to dig deeper into what the files reveal.

In that respect, Wikileaks represents a very different model – basically, the journalist as outlaw. Julian Assange will not, one imagines, be receiving any invitations to White House parties. Indeed, he seems to be in serious danger of detention or worse.

An exciting time to be a journalist and citizen of the world. Wikileaks is showing the corporate media that transparency and real reporting is the only way forward, if they want to remain relevant and not tied to establishment interests:

The Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, said today that the organisation is working through a “backlog” of further secret material and was expecting a “substantial increase in submissions” from whistleblowers after one of the biggest leaks in US military history.

Speaking in London after his website published more than 92,000 classified military logs relating to the war in Afghanistan, Assange said that he hoped for an “age of the whistleblower” in which more people would come forward with information they believed should be published.

Assange said that the site, which currently operates with a small dedicated team but has a network of about 800 volunteers, had a “backlog” of more material which only “just scratched the surface”.

While he would not be drawn into commenting on the nature of the material, he said that the organisation held “several million files” that “concern every country in the world with a population over 1 million”.

He said the site had undergone a “publishing haitus” since December during a period of re-engineering. Assange suggested a clear step-up of operations and said that there were difficulties in changing from a small to large organisation while ensuring it would still be able to work in a secure way.

“My greatest fear is that we will be too successful too fast and won’t be able to do justice to the material,” he said.

He said that from past experience the organisation was expecting more material to add to the backlog. He said that after the site leaked details of one incident that killed 51 people in Afghanistan, “we received substantial increase in submissions”.

“Courage is contagious,” he added. “Sources are encouraged by the opportunities they see in front of them.”

Yesterday’s event at New York’s Revolution Books alongside writer and author Michael Otterman – interviewed today about Iraqi casualties on NPR – was a unique opportunity to discuss Palestine and Iraq. We talked about the hidden civilian trauma, power of the US to wage war with little social cost inside the country, the power of the war and Zionist lobbies and appetite for change.

I was struck by both a frustration and determination of the crowd to not allow a strike to occur against Iran, a real fear, and to find ways to support those at the end of American and Israeli missiles.

The anti-war movement in the US is weak and Barack Obama has captured too many on the Left to remain silent or scared (because the opposition may be far worse.)

But the event yesterday at Revolutions Books showed that growing numbers of people refuse to accept the pro-war sentiments of both the Democrats and Republicans. Peace making is far more difficult.

The ongoing forgotten war in Sri Lanka; forced detention, lack of work for women and disappearances.

Note the difference between the New York Times and Guardian dealing with the Wikileaks revelations over Afghanistan.

So this is how it is. A senior Jewish leader in Australia defending the illegal colonies in the West Bank.

For shame:

The elected leader of Australian Jewry blasted his Christian counterpart over an “ill-considered” resolution asking churches to boycott goods produced by West Bank Jews.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry President Robert Goot, in a letter last Friday to the National Council of Churches in Australia’s general secretary, the Rev. Tara Curlewis, said the resolution passed by Australia’s top ecumenical body “revived painful memories for Jews in Australia of earlier times in Europe when churches allowed themselves to be swept up in the tide of popular prejudices against the Jewish people.”

The resolution, passed during the organization’s seventh triennial forum held July 9-13, called on member churches to “consider boycotting particular goods produced in Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.”

Curlewis said in a statement that she “hoped that such actions will liberate the people from an experience of injustice to one where a just and definitive peace may be reached.”

The resolution also affirmed the right to exist for Israel and a Palestinian state within secure internationally recognized borders, and it condemned all acts of terrorism.

Goot, saying he felt “badly let down by people we have long thought of as our friends,” asked to be able to present a critique of the resolution to the executive of the National Council of Churches.

The council of churches comprises 17 groups, including the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Church and the Uniting Church. It was a founding partner of the Australian National Dialogue of Christians, Muslims and Jews, a body founded in 2003 alongside the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils.

The Australian election arrives on 21 August and refugees remain a convenient punching bag.

Election Wire website journalist Austin G. Mackell visits Villawood detention centre in Sydney and shows the absurdity of the way in which Australia treats the handful of asylum seekers arriving by boat:

For those wondering about the history of Wikileaks reporting, I’ve been writing about the website for years, including an interview with founder Julian Assange in 2008.