Wikileaks strikes again: Paraguay president Fernando Lugo, a center-left politician who was elected to office in April 2008, was seen as a potential ally to the U.S. by the U.S. embassy in Asuncion, so long as he had “more than just a little help from ’upstairs’ to govern as president” which Lugo was apparently willing…
Wikileaks
Wikileaks is one of the biggest and most important stories in the world, challenging governments and journalists alike. I’ve been writing extensively about the group since 2006, featured an exclusive interview in 2008 with founder Julian Assange and examined the myriad of issues around the website. Assange himself asked me in the early days whether I wanted to be on the group’s board to vet incoming leaks and determine their veracity before publishing. I agreed but unfortunately this never eventuated.
Rest assured, Mubarak regime saw Obama as a friend
One of the latest Wikileaks cables just released, from January 2009, makes that clear: The Egyptian leadership is taking notice of, and welcoming, President Obama’s recent outreach to Egypt, and focus on the Middle East peace process. Safwat El Sherif, the powerful secretary-general of the ruling National Democratic Party and speaker of the Shura Council…
Finland wants to kill Muslims to get far with UN
Thank you, Wikileaks: According to Wikileaks cables acquired by YLE, Finland has made deals to exchange votes with other countries in an effort to get a place on the United Nations Security Council. If Israel votes for Finland to join the Security Council in 2013, then Finland will vote for Israel to join in 2019.…
Hillary loves the kind of speech written by her speech-writers
Does anybody take America seriously over its alleged free speech wishes? The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, praised the role of social networks such as Twitter in promoting freedom – at the same time as the US government was in court seeking to invade the privacy of Twitter users. Lawyers for civil rights organisations…
Bradley Manning is the hero
A fine and detailed investigation by ABC TV’s 4 Corners program this week on the case of Bradley Manning, the alleged leaker to Wikileaks:
Washington loathes Wikileaks; Arabs love it
Hard to determine the real accuracy of such a poll but fascinating nonetheless: Six out of ten Arabs believe that the world is better off with Wikileaks and nearly three quarters would like to see the whistle-blowing website publish more on the Arab world. Support for Wikileaks and a demand for greater transparency emerged from…
Is anybody in Australia being targeted for backing Wikileaks?
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy More here from one of those targeted by some of America’s leading corporate and legal outfits, Salon’s Glenn Greenwald.
US definition of web freedom; content that we like
How noble is the Obama administration, pledging to support citizens in repressive regimes (many of which are run by US-backed thugs but why quibble with such details?): Days after Facebook and Twitter added fuel to a revolt in Egypt, the Obama administration plans to announce a new policy on Internet freedom, designed to help people…
Dershowitz joins Assange team
Loathing Palestinians is clearly no barrier to assisting the US case of Julian Assange: Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz has joined the legal defense team for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. The announcement–which came via a Tweeted… press release Monday afternoon–took place a… day ahead of the first showdown over Wikileaks in a U.S. courtroom: a hearing set…
ABCTV News 24 on Egypt and Wikileaks
I was a guest on last night’s ABCTV News 24’s The Drum alongside Sue Cato and the Daily Telegraph’s Joe Hilderbrand (video here). One of the main areas of discussion was the Egyptian revolution and just how good it felt. I argued that it was vital for us in the West to understand that Egypt’s…