Anything to keep the case in the public eye? Thank you, Newsweek, for this delightful photo gallery: The holidays are a time of rest and relaxation for everyone, even enigmatic, internationally wanted former fugitives under house arrest. In an exclusive photo gallery, NEWSWEEK peeks into WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange‘s Christmas revelry as he awaits a…
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.
Who is best to keep unnecessary secrets now?
The job of real journalists and citizens is to challenge government spin and lies and not feel sorry for a super-power being less able to get its way: Before the infamous leak, the 250,000 State Department cables acquired by anti-secrecy activists resided in a database so obscure that few diplomats had heard of it. It…
One hour of Assange in long interview with Pilger on freedom and Wikileaks
Here’s an extended interview with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange from the John Pilger film The War You Don’t See: John Pilger in conversation with Julian Assange from John Pilger on Vimeo.
“Governments now need to factor in that things can be WikiLeaked”
Let the information flow freely. These comments represent the kind of healthy debate so absent from the mainstream political and journalistic world. If secrets are kept, Wikileaks and sites like it will remain essential: The government should take the WikiLeaks revelations as a lesson that civil servants and ministers can no longer assume they operate…
Yet more Wikileaks cables to devour
When the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten recently announced it had received the entire collection of the Wikileaks cable dump, the world was strangely silent. But there is a treasure trove in there and should be examined. Heaps on Sri Lanka from the last years, including Colombo allegedly purchasing weapons from North Korea and Iran. Norway as…
Ahmadinejad bitch slapped by even harder hard-liner
Oh my: The chief of the Revolutionary Guard angrily slapped Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in early 2010, as Tehran was still dealing with the fallout from last year’s election, according to a leaked US diplomatic cable. The cable, written in February, said Revolutionary Guard Chief of Staff Mohammed Ali Jafari blamed Ahmadinejad for the post-election…
Israel has such charming friends in its region
All those “moderate” US-backed dictatorships in the Middle East: Top officials in several Arab countries have close links with the CIA, and many officials keep visiting US embassies in their respective countries voluntarily to establish links with this key US intelligence agency, says Julian Assange, founder of the whistle-blowing website, WikiLeaks. “These officials are spies…
Government and media are different?
For many corporate “journalists”, pleasing power is all in a day’s work. Glenn Greenwald is spot-on: It’s not news that establishment journalists identify with, are merged into, serve as spokespeople for, the political class:… that’s what makes them establishment journalists.… But even knowing that, it’s just amazing, to me at least, how so many of…
Damascus had hand in Prophet Mohammed outrage
Causing trouble: The government of Syria was active in organizing the 2006 riots that erupted across the Arab world following the publication of controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, Oslo daily Aftenposten reported Monday, quoting US diplomatic cables released by website WikiLeaks. The cartoons were originally published in neighboring Denmark in 2005. Their publication resulted…