Item #6 below: If you haven’t already signed the Avaaz petition in support of Julian Assange, please do! I expect a million people will sign on. 300,000 signed on in the last 24 hours.
Items #2 and #3: from the website of Citizens for Legitimate Government, http://www.legitgov.org/ . They have a running list of updates on the Assange case. Please go there if you want more.
Item #1: Michael Moore is great as usual!
CONTENTS
(1) WHY I’M POSTING BAIL MONEY FOR JULIAN ASSANGE (A STATEMENT FROM MICHAEL MOORE), Dec 14
(2) WIKILEAKS’ ASSANGE WINS U.K. BAIL IN SWEDEN EXTRADITION CASE, Dec 14, FROM CITIZENS FOR LEGITIMATE GOVERNMENT (CLG) (source Bloomberg)
(3) SWEDEN TO APPEAL WIKILEAKS FOUNDER’S BAIL, Dec 14, CLG (source CBC)
(4) AMERICA, ALLIES LAUNCH SHOCK & AWE CAMPAIGN ON WIKILEAKS WEBSITE, Dec 4
(5) ASSANGE ACCUSER WORKED WITH US-FUNDED, CIA-TIED ANTI-CASTRO GROUP, Dec 4
(6) SIGN THE AVAAZ PETITION TO STOP THE CRACK-DOWN ON ASSANGE. CURRENTLY AT 643,518 SIGNATURES!
(7) AUSTRALIAN EDITORS BACK WIKILEAKS, Dec 14
(8) 600,000 SIGN WIKILEAKS SUPPORT PETITION, Dec 14, AUSTRALIAN PRESS
(9) EUROPEAN AMAZON.COM WEBSITES DOWN, Dec 13
(10) JULIAN ASSANGE YOUTUBE, INTERVIEW WITH AL JAZEERA, July 2010 (excerpt from earlier email)
(11) YOU TUBE: TOM FLANAGAN, PROFESSOR AT UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY, CALLS FOR ASSASSINATION OF ASSANGE, Nov 29
(12) WIKILEAKS UPLOADED VIDEO OF ATTACK ON IRAQIS BY TWO US APACHE HELICOPTERS. INTERVIEW WITH ETHAN MCCORD, ONE OF THE SOLDIERS IN THE VIDEO. April 28, 2010 (excerpt from earlier email)
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(1) WHY I’M POSTING BAIL MONEY FOR JULIAN ASSANGE (A STATEMENT FROM MICHAEL MOORE), Dec 14
From: Michael Moore [mailto:maillist AT michaelmoore.com]
Sent: December 14, 2010 8:20 AM
Subject: Why I’m Posting Bail Money for Julian Assange (A Statement from Michael Moore)
Why I’m Posting Bail Money for Julian Assange (A statement from Michael Moore)
Tuesday, December 14th, 2010
Friends,
Yesterday, in the Westminster Magistrates Court in London, the lawyers for WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange presented to the judge a document from me stating that I have put up $20,000 of my own money to help bail Mr. Assange out of jail.
Furthermore, I am publicly offering the assistance of my website, my servers, my domain names and anything else I can do to keep WikiLeaks alive and thriving as it continues its work to expose the crimes that were concocted in secret and carried out in our name and with our tax dollars.
We were taken to war in Iraq on a lie. Hundreds of thousands are now dead. Just imagine if the men who planned this war crime back in 2002 had had a WikiLeaks to deal with. They might not have been able to pull it off. The only reason they thought they could get away with it was because they had a guaranteed cloak of secrecy. That guarantee has now been ripped from them, and I hope they are never able to operate in secret again.
So why is WikiLeaks, after performing such an important public service, under such vicious attack? Because they have outed and embarrassed those who have covered up the truth. The assault on them has been over the top:
**Sen. Joe Lieberman says WikiLeaks “has violated the Espionage Act.”
**The New Yorker‘s George Packer calls Assange “super-secretive, thin-skinned, [and] megalomaniacal.”
**Sarah Palin claims he’s “an anti-American operative with blood on his hands” whom we should pursue “with the same urgency we pursue al Qaeda and Taliban leaders.”
**Democrat Bob Beckel (Walter Mondale’s 1984 campaign manager) said about Assange on Fox: “A dead man can’t leak stuff … there’s only one way to do it: illegally shoot the son of a bitch.”
**Republican Mary Matalin says “he’s a psychopath, a sociopath … He’s a terrorist.”
**Rep. Peter A. King calls WikiLeaks a “terrorist organization.”
And indeed they are! They exist to terrorize the liars and warmongers who have brought ruin to our nation and to others. Perhaps the next war won’t be so easy because the tables have been turned — and now it’s Big Brother who’s being watched … by us!
WikiLeaks deserves our thanks for shining a huge spotlight on all this. But some in the corporate-owned press have dismissed the importance of WikiLeaks (“they’ve released little that’s new!”) or have painted them as simple anarchists (“WikiLeaks just releases everything without any editorial control!”). WikiLeaks exists, in part, because the mainstream media has failed to live up to its responsibility. The corporate owners have decimated newsrooms, making it impossible for good journalists to do their job. There’s no time or money anymore for investigative journalism. Simply put, investors don’t want those stories exposed. They like their secrets kept … as secrets.
I ask you to imagine how much different our world would be if WikiLeaks had existed 10 years ago. Take a look at this photo. That’s Mr. Bush about to be handed a “secret” document on August 6th, 2001. Its heading read: “Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US.” And on those pages it said the FBI had discovered “patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings.” Mr. Bush decided to ignore it and went fishing for the next four weeks.
But if that document had been leaked, how would you or I have reacted? What would Congress or the FAA have done? Was there not a greater chance that someone, somewhere would have done something if all of us knew about bin Laden’s impending attack using hijacked planes?
But back then only a few people had access to that document. Because the secret was kept, a flight school instructor in San Diego who noticed that two Saudi students took no interest in takeoffs or landings, did nothing. Had he read about the bin Laden threat in the paper, might he have called the FBI? (Please read this essay by former FBI Agent Coleen Rowley, Time’s 2002 co-Person of the Year, about her belief that had WikiLeaks been around in 2001, 9/11 might have been prevented.)
Or what if the public in 2003 had been able to read “secret” memos from Dick Cheney as he pressured the CIA to give him the “facts” he wanted in order to build his false case for war? If a WikiLeaks had revealed at that time that there were, in fact, no weapons of mass destruction, do you think that the war would have been launched — or rather, wouldn’t there have been calls for Cheney’s arrest?
Openness, transparency — these are among the few weapons the citizenry has to protect itself from the powerful and the corrupt. What if within days of August 4th, 1964 — after the Pentagon had made up the lie that our ship was attacked by the North Vietnamese in the Gulf of Tonkin — there had been a WikiLeaks to tell the American people that the whole thing was made up? I guess 58,000 of our soldiers (and 2 million Vietnamese) might be alive today.
Instead, secrets killed them.
For those of you who think it’s wrong to support Julian Assange because of the sexual assault allegations he’s being held for, all I ask is that you not be naive about how the government works when it decides to go after its prey. Please — never, ever believe the “official story.” And regardless of Assange’s guilt or innocence (see the strange nature of the allegations here), this man has the right to have bail posted and to defend himself. I have joined with filmmakers Ken Loach and John Pilger and writer Jemima Khan in putting up the bail money — and we hope the judge will accept this and grant his release today.
Might WikiLeaks cause some unintended harm to diplomatic negotiations and U.S. interests around the world? Perhaps. But that’s the price you pay when you and your government take us into a war based on a lie. Your punishment for misbehaving is that someone has to turn on all the lights in the room so that we can see what you’re up to. You simply can’t be trusted. So every cable, every email you write is now fair game. Sorry, but you brought this upon yourself. No one can hide from the truth now. No one can plot the next Big Lie if they know that they might be exposed.
And that is the best thing that WikiLeaks has done. WikiLeaks, God bless them, will save lives as a result of their actions. And any of you who join me in supporting them are committing a true act of patriotism. Period.
I stand today in absentia with Julian Assange in London and I ask the judge to grant him his release. I am willing to guarantee his return to court with the bail money I have wired to said court. I will not allow this injustice to continue unchallenged.
Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlin AT aol.com
MichaelMoore.com
(below. Links no longer valid)
P.S. You can read the statement I filed today in the London court here.
P.P.S. If you’re reading this in London, please go support Julian Assange and WikiLeaks at a demonstration at 1 PM today, Tuesday the 14th, in front of the Westminster court.
Join Mike’s Mailing List | Follow Mike on Twitter | Join Mike’s Facebook Group | Become Mike’s MySpace Friend
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(2) WIKILEAKS’ ASSANGE WINS U.K. BAIL IN SWEDEN EXTRADITION CASE, Dec 14, FROM CITIZENS FOR LEGITIMATE GOVERNMENT (CLG) (source Bloomberg)
WikiLeaks’ Assange Wins U.K. Bail in Sweden Extradition Case
14 Dec 2010
Julian Assange, founder of the WikiLeaks whistleblower website, was granted bail by the U.K. judge overseeing his extradition fight with Sweden over allegations of rape and molestation. Assange, 39, will be released after posting bail of 240,000 pounds ($378,480), Judge Howard Riddle said at a hearing today. Assange’s lawyer, Geoffrey Robertson, said Assange would stay with a friend in Suffolk, north east of London, to address Riddle’s concerns at a hearing last week that his client was a flight risk.
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(3) SWEDEN TO APPEAL WIKILEAKS FOUNDER’S BAIL, Dec 14, CLG (source CBC)
Sweden to appeal WikiLeaks founder’s bail 14 Dec 2010 Swedish authorities said Tuesday they will appeal a British judge’s decision to grant bail for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The decision means the 39-year-old Australian will remain behind bars for at least another 48 hours. Britain’s High Court will now hear the Swedish appeal, although it is not clear when.
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(4) AMERICA, ALLIES LAUNCH SHOCK & AWE CAMPAIGN ON WIKILEAKS WEBSITE, Dec 4
http://www.suite101.com/content/america-allies-launch-shock–awe-campaign-on-wikileaks-website-a316597
Dec 4, 2010 Frank W. Hardy
Wanted Poster of Julian Assange – Interpol Website 5 December 2010
Embarrassed by contradictory, provocative and degrading statements made by powerful world leaders, America and its Allies have begun a frontal attack on the information website that provided the news. Orchestrated as if the struggle were a powerful military campaign, Western nations have pursued WikiLeaks simultaneously on three fronts. They have not only attacked the corporation as an entity and its founder and leader personally, but also have launched a propaganda crusade of disinformation. In this article, we will examine the areas and allow the reader to understand the tactics.
Barrage on the Corporation
The actions on the commercial side have been straightforward. The first attack was a series of DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks on the servers. “There were indeed large-scale DDOS attacks, but they were successfully defended against,” reported Dan Nystedt and Martyn Williams in PC World on December 3, 2010. The second is governmental influence on suppliers of services to WikiLeaks. When Senator Joe Lieberman, chairman of the U.S. Homeland Security Committee asks Amazon to stop hosting WikiLeaks, Amazon eagerly complied.
- On 22 January 2010, PayPal temporarily suspended WikiLeaks services
- November 2010 Dynadot domain name service ousts WikiLeaks
Ugly Face of the West The ugly face of brilliant Western Civilization. Dr. Ragheb ElSergany english.islamstory.com
- November 2010 EveryDNS host service ousts WikiLeaks
- December 1, 2010 Amazon pulls server from WikiLeaks
- December 2, 2010 France requests .ch WikiLeaks site closure
- December 4, 2010, PayPal permanently cancels WikiLeaks‘ accounts
- December 6, 2010 MasterCard cuts off receipt of payments for WikiLeaks accounts
- December 7, 2010 Visa International cuts off WikiLeaks accounts
Personal Attacks
attack the messenger, in this case Julian Assange. Using these methods, governments are able to do two things. Distract the public from the information and keep the adversary tied up in legal battles. In both cases, the governments of the world are using a skittish media to propagate their message.
When governments are humiliated and caught red handed lying to the public, the most powerful option available is
- Distraction – this is the art of flinging information about an individual, whether true or not, with the intent of discrediting the source. Most students of Nobel Physicist Albert Einstein know that he had an affair with and eventually married his maternal first cousin Elsa Lowenthal. Some individuals may consider this an incestuous relationship but it does little to change history. The public rightfully separates Einstein the man from Einstein the genius. In Julian’s case, the Swedish Government is, in cooperation with the UK, France and the USA, attacking the man in an attempt to distract from the message.
- Legal Battles – Sex and lies, initiated by governments and perpetuated by the media confront Julian Assange. The last several days the world has heard the “facts” that the Swedish government “filed” criminal charges “…of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion,” against Assange according to the BBC on 1 December 2010. Joel Sterling, of CNN reported, “Assange is wanted in Sweden on suspicion of rape….” The facts are that Sweden has not issued any warrants for rape or filed any new charges against the WikiLeaks founder. In August, Sweden dropped the rape allegation and requested questioning on violation of an obscure Swedish law against having sex without a condom, according to Angella Johnson of the Daily Mail. Refocusing on the rape allegations, the Swedish government has stopped calling the allegations rape, but direct informers to a site that does so. However, a copy of the Interpol request (shown above) has no indication of rape only “Sex Crimes.” Furthermore, reporter Mark Townsend of the UK’s Guardian Newspaper on Dec 3 paraphrases Assange attorney Mark Stephens, “Assange is wanted in Sweden…although no charges have been laid.”
Of course, the US announcing that it was investigating whether he had violated American espionage laws looms high over his head.
Campaign of Disinformation
The most unfortunate effect of the controversy is the black propaganda campaign launched to divert the public from the issues. Similar to distraction above, in this movement governments are wildly rhetorical at best or blatantly dishonesty at worst. They intentionally provide false information with a concentration on national security.
This is a common tactic of the USA. In 1971, the New York Times published what became the Pentagon Papers; an embarrassing account of Presidents, Truman through Johnson. In retribution, Attorney General John Mitchell used the FBI to hunt the whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg. Called by former President Richard Nixon “the most dangerous man in America,” according to a recent documentary by the same name, once incited the government’s rage was enormous.
Today the USA is following the same script as thought the world did not see act one. Arguments of “putting our troops in danger” follow “international treaties and cross border alliances could falter.” However, reporter Nancy Youssef of McClatchy Newspapersreported on November 28, 2010, “…despite similar warnings ahead of previous…releases of classified…reports…. U.S. officials concede that they have no evidence…that the documents led to anyone’s death.”
I do not know what crimes Julian Assange committed nor can I imagine what possible relevance they have to the fact that the King of Saudi Arabia instructed the USA to attack Iran and “cut off the head of the snake.” The USA and its allies are definitely humiliated over WikiLeaks’ actions. World government’s 3-way attack is having immediate benefits as WikiLeaks has had to protect their corporation, Julian has had to hide and the disinformation is taking its toll. Canadian government adviser Tom Flanagan expresses how governments around the world may feel. While appearing on a CBC television program Flanagan said, “I think Assange should be assassinated.”
Copyright Frank W. Hardy. Contact the author to obtain permission for republication.
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(5) ASSANGE ACCUSER WORKED WITH US-FUNDED, CIA-TIED ANTI-CASTRO GROUP, Dec 4
| By: Kirk James Murphy, M.D. Saturday December 4, 2010 9:20 pm |
Yesterday Alexander Cockburn reminded us of the news Israel Shamir and Paul Bennett broke at Counterpunch in September. Julian Assange’s chief accuser in Sweden has a significant history of work with anti-Castro groups, at least one of which is US funded and openly supported by a former CIA agent convicted in the mass murder of seventy three Cubans on an airliner he was involved in blowing up.
Anna Ardin (the official complainant) is often described by the media as a “leftist”. She has ties to the US-financed anti-Castro and anti-communist groups. She published her anti-Castro diatribes (see here and here) in the Swedish-language publication Revista de Asignaturas Cubanas put out by Misceláneas de Cuba. From Oslo, Professor Michael Seltzer points out that this periodical is the product of a well-financed anti-Castro organization in Sweden. He further notes that the group is connected with Union Liberal Cubana led by Carlos Alberto Montaner whose CIA ties were exposed here.
Quelle surprise, no? Shamir and Bennett went on to write about Ardin’s history in Cuba with a US funded group openly supported by a real terrorist: Luis Posada Carriles.
In Cuba she interacted with the feminist anti-Castro group Las damas de blanco (the Ladies in White). This group receives US government funds and the convicted anti-communist terrorist Luis Posada Carriles is a friend and supporter. Wikipedia quotes Hebe de Bonafini, president of the Argentine Madres de Plaza de Mayo as saying that “the so-called Ladies in White defend the terrorism of the United States.”
Who is Luis Posada Carriles? He’s a mass murderer, and former CIA agent. . . .
Luis Clemente Faustino Posada Carriles (born February 15, 1928) (nicknamed Bambi by some Cuban exiles)[1] is a Cuban-born Venezuelan anti-communist extremist. A former Central Intelligence Agency agent,[2] Posada has been convicted in absentia of involvement in various terrorist attacks and plots in the Americas, including: involvement in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed seventy-three people;[3][4] admitted involvement in a string of bombings in 1997 targeting fashionable Cuban hotels and nightspots;[5][6][7] involvement in the Bay of Pigs invasion; [and] involvement in the Iran-Contra affair…
Luis Posada Carriles is so evil that even the Bush administration wanted him behind bars:
In 2005, Posada was held by U.S. authorities in Texas on the charge of illegal presence on national territory before the charges were dismissed on May 8, 2007. On September 28, 2005 a U.S. immigration judge ruled that Posada cannot be deported, finding that he faces the threat of torture in Venezuela.[11] His release on bail on April 19, 2007 had elicited angry reactions from the Cuban and Venezuelan governments.[12] The U.S. Justice Department had urged the court to keep him in jail because he was “an admitted mastermind of terrorist plots and attacks”, a flight risk and a danger to the community.[7]
Who is Julian Assange’s chief accuser in Sweden? She’s a gender equity officer at Uppsula University – who chose to associate with a US funded group openly supported by a convicted terrorist and mass murderer. She just happens to have her work published by a very well funded group connected with Union Liberal Cubana – whose leader, Carlos Alberto Montaner, in turn just happened to pop up on right wing Colombian TV a few hours after the right-wing coup in Honduras. Where he joined the leader of the failed coup in Ecuador to savage Correa, the target of the coup. Montnaner also just happened to vociferously support the violent coup in Honduras, and chose to show up to sing the praises of the Honduran junta. Jean-Guy Allard, a retired Canadian journalist who now writes for Cuba’s Gramma, captured the moment
A strange pair appeared on NTN 24, the right-wing Colombian television channel aligned to the Fox Broadcasting Company the U.S. A few hours after the coup attempt in Quito, Ecuador, CIA agent Carlos Alberto Montaner, a fugitive from Cuban justice for acts of terrorism, joined with one of the leaders of the failed Ecuadorian coup, ex-Lieutenant Colonel Lucio Gutiérrez, to attack President Rafael Correa…
On the margin of his media news shows, Montaner’s is known for his fanatic support of the most extreme elements of the Cuban-American mafia.
Last year, in the wake of the coup d’état against Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, June 28, he became an fervent supporter of the dictator Roberto Micheletti, along with U.S. Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and another Cuban-American terrorist and CIA collaborator, Armando Valladares.
Montaner showed up repeatedly in Tegucigalpa to “defend human rights,” and at the same time to applaud the fascist Honduran regime when it unleashed its police on demonstrations by the National Resistance Front.
Oh…and the “rape” charge that’s smeared Julian Assange’s name around the world? On Thursday James D. Catlin, the Melbourne barrister who represented Assange in London, wrote:
Apparently having consensual sex in Sweden without a condom is punishable by a term of imprisonment of a minimum of two years for rape. That is the basis for a reinstitution of rape charges against WikiLeaks figurehead Julian Assange that is destined to make Sweden and its justice system the laughing stock of the world and dramatically damage its reputation as a model of modernity.
Sweden’s Public Prosecutor’s Office was embarrassed in August this year when it leaked to the media that it was seeking to arrest Assange for rape, then on the same day withdrew the arrest warrant because in its own words there was “no evidence”. The damage to Assange’s reputation is incalculable. More than three quarters of internet references to his name refer to rape. Now, three months on and three prosecutors later, the Swedes seem to be clear on their basis to proceed. Consensual sex that started out with a condom ended up without one, ergo, the sex was not consensual.
I’ve spent much of my professional life as a psychiatrist helping women (and men) who are survivors of sexual violence. Rape is a hideous crime. Yet in Assange’s case his alleged victim – the gender equity officer at Uppsala University – chose to throw a party for her alleged assailant – after they’d had the sex that even Swedish prosecutors concede was consensual. Barrister Caitlin again:
[The] phenomena of social networking through the internet and mobile phones constrains Swedish authorities from augmenting the evidence against Assange because it would look even less credible in the face of tweets by Anna Ardin and SMS texts by Sofia Wilén boasting of their respective conquests after the “crimes”.
In the case of Ardin it is clear that she has thrown a party in Assange’s honour at her flat after the “crime” and tweeted to her followers that she is with the “the world’s coolest smartest people, it’s amazing!”. Go on the internet and see for yourself. That Ardin has sought unsuccessfully to delete these exculpatory tweets from the public record should be a matter of grave concern. That she has published on the internet a guide on how to get revenge on cheating boyfriends ever graver. The exact content of Wilén’s mobile phone texts is not yet known but their bragging and exculpatory character has been confirmed by Swedish prosecutors. Neither Wilén’s nor Ardin’s texts complain of rape.
Small world, isn’t it? Julian Assange is the human face of Wikileaks – the organization that’s enabled whistle-blowers to reveal hideous war crimes and expose much of America’s foreign policy to the world.
He just happens to meet a Swedish woman who just happens to have been publishing her work in a well-funded anti-Castro group that just happens to have links with a group led by a man at least one journalist describes as an agent of the CIA: the violent secret arm of America’s foreign policy.
And she just happens to have been expelled from Cuba, which just happens to be the global symbol of successful defiance of American foreign policy.
And – despite her work in Sweden upholding the human right of gender equity – in Cuba she just happens to end up associating with a group openly supported by an admitted CIA agent who himself committed mass murder when he actively participated in the terrorist bombing of a jetliner carrying a Cuban sports team…an act that was of a piece with America’s secret foreign policy of violent attacks against Cuban state interests.
And now she just happens – after admittedly consensual sex – to have gone to Swedish authorities to report the sex ended without a condom…which just happens to be the pretext for Interpol to issue a “Red Notice” informing the world’s police forces of charges against Julian Assange.
Who just happens to be the man America’s political class – the people who run America’s foreign policy – have been trying to silence. And who happens to be the man some of them have been calling to have murdered.
With a lust for vengeance like that, one could be forgiven for concluding they’ve just happened to have taken a page from Anna’s revenge manual.
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(6) SIGN THE AVAAZ PETITION TO STOP THE CRACK-DOWN ON ASSANGE. CURRENTLY AT 643,518 SIGNATURES!
(Tues Dec 14, 9:25 pm Saskatchewan time.)
http://www.avaaz.org/en/wikileaks_petition/97.php
643,518 have signed – over 300,000 in 24 hours! Let’s reach 1,000,000
WikiLeaks isn’t acting alone — it’s partnered with the top newspapers in the world (New York Times, The Guardian, Der Spiegel, etc) to carefully review 250,000 US diplomatic cables and remove any information that it is irresponsible to publish. Only 800 cables have been published so far. Past WikiLeaks publications have exposed government-backed torture, the murder of innocent civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, and corporate corruption.
Ever wonder why the media so rarely gives the full story of what happens behind the scenes? This is why – because when they do, governments can be vicious in their response. And when that happens, it’s up to the public to stand up for our democratic rights to a free press and freedom of expression. Never has there been a more vital time for us to do so.
. . . The massive campaign of intimidation against WikiLeaks is sending a chill through free press advocates everywhere.
Legal experts say WikiLeaks has likely broken no laws. Yet top US politicians have called it a terrorist group and commentators have urged assassination of its staff. The organization has come under massive government and corporate attack, but WikiLeaks is only publishing information provided by a whistleblower. And it has partnered with the world’s leading newspapers (NYT, Guardian, Spiegel etc) to carefully vet the information it publishes.
The massive extra-judicial intimidation of WikiLeaks is an attack on democracy. We urgently need a public outcry for freedom of the press and expression. Sign the petition to stop the crackdown and forward this email to everyone — let’s get to 1 million voices and take out full page ads in US newspapers this week!
The US government is currently pursuing all legal avenues to stop WikiLeaks from publishing more cables, but the laws of democracies protect freedom of the press. The US and other governments may not like the laws that protect our freedom of expression, but that’s exactly why it’s so important that we have them, and why only a democratic process can change them.
Reasonable people can disagree on whether WikiLeaks and the leading newspapers it’s partnered with are releasing more information than the public should see. Whether the releases undermine diplomatic confidentiality and whether that’s a good thing. Whether WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has the personal character of a hero or a villain. But none of this justifies a vicious campaign of intimidation to silence a legal media outlet by governments and corporations. Click below to join the call to stop the crackdown:
With hope, Ricken, Emma, Alex, Alice, Maria Paz and the rest of the Avaaz team.
SOURCES:
Law experts say WikiLeaks in the clear (ABC)
Avaaz.org is a 6.4-million-person global campaign network that works to ensure that the views and values of the world’s people shape global decision-making. (“Avaaz” means “voice” or “song” in many languages.) Avaaz members live in every nation of the world; our team is spread across 13 countries on 4 continents and operates in 14 languages.
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(7) AUSTRALIAN EDITORS BACK WIKILEAKS, Dec 14
Source: AAP
(Link no longer valid) http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1441511/Australian-editors-back-WikiLeaks
Australia’s main media players say the federal government’s reaction to the release of diplomatic correspondence by the WikiLeaks website is “deeply troubling”.
The country’s newspaper editors, along with television and radio directors, have written an open letter to Prime Minister Julia Gillard in support of WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange.
“The volume of the leaks is unprecedented, yet the leaking and publication of diplomatic correspondence is not new,” the letter, initiated by the Walkley Foundation, states.
“We … believe the reaction of the US and Australian governments to date has been deeply troubling.
“We will strongly resist any attempts to make the publication of these or similar documents illegal.”
The editors and directors say any attempt to shut down WikiLeaks, prosecute those who publish official leaks, or pressure companies to cease working with the whistle-blower website “is a serious threat to democracy which relies on a free and fearless press”.
Ms Gillard has declared the actions of WikiLeaks and Mr Assange “illegal”.
Attorney-General Robert McClelland has said the initial leaking of classified documents and their subsequent distribution by WikiLeaks are likely to be illegal.
But the media’s open letter notes that so far the government “has been able to point to no Australian law that has been breached”.
The editors and directors state that WikiLeaks is simply doing what the media has always done – expose official secrets that governments would prefer to keep in the dark.
“WikiLeaks, just four years old, is part of the media and deserves our support.”
Almost 600,000 people have signed a separate online petition in support of WikiLeaks ahead of a second appearance in court in London by Mr Assange.
The petition on campaigning website Avaaz calls on the US and other nations to “stop the crackdown on WikiLeaks and its partners immediately” and to respect “the laws of freedom of expression and freedom of the press”.
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(8) 600,000 SIGN WIKILEAKS SUPPORT PETITION, Dec 14, AUSTRALIAN PRESS
(Link no longer valid)
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1441416/600-000-sign-WikiLeaks-support-petition
Print Source: AAP
Almost 600,000 people had signed an online petition in support of WikiLeaks on Monday, ahead of a second appearance in court in London by the whistle-blowing website’s founder, Julian Assange.
The petition on campaigning website Avaaz calls on the US and other nations to “stop the crackdown on WikiLeaks and its partners immediately” and to respect “the laws of freedom of expression and freedom of the press”.
WikiLeaks has been releasing thousands of confidential US diplomatic cables, causing huge embarrassment in Washington.
US President Barack Obama has denounced the leak as “deplorable” and various countries have tried to close down the site, sending it jumping from server to server in a bid to stay online.
At 1600 GMT (0300 AEDT) on Monday, more than 594,000 people worldwide had signed the Avaaz petition.
Although the petition does not mention Assange, many supporters link the campaign against WikiLeaks to the allegations of sexual assault and rape made against the site’s founder in Sweden.
The 39-year-old Australian will appear in court in London for a second time on Tuesday where his lawyers will make a second application for bail.
He was arrested in London on December 7 on an extradition warrant from Sweden, where prosecutors want to quiz him on the sexual assault claims.
He denies the allegations and his lawyers have said they are politically motivated.
Supporters are expected to gather outside City of Westminster Magistrates Court ahead of Assange’s expected appearance on Tuesday afternoon to protest his continued detention.
Last week, the judge denied him bail because he was a flight risk, but said he would like to see more evidence of the allegations.
The Stop The War Coalition, which is organising the protest, claims the US government and its allies have built up a campaign against Assange which culminated in his detention “on dubious charges”.
“We demand his immediate release, the dropping of all charges and an end tothe censorship of WikiLeaks,” it says.
About 15 people protested outside the Swedish embassy in central London on Monday.
Organised by the Justice for Assange Campaign, they wore masks bearing Assange’s face and held up banners claiming he was a “political prisoner” and was being gagged.
Last week, Assange’s legal team said he had been moved into a segregation unit of Wandsworth prison in south London “for his own safety”.
Assange will be represented in court by high-profile human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson.
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(9) EUROPEAN AMAZON.COM WEBSITES DOWN, Dec 13
(Link no longer valid) http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1440726/European-Amazon.com-websites-down
Source: AAP
The European websites of online retailer Amazon.com were knocked out for hours on Sunday night, the latest attacks in recent days on companies that have stopped doing business with the embattled WikiLeaks organisation.
In Germany, attempts to view the Amazon.de website resulted in error messages. The world’s largest internet retailer’s servers in Britain, France and Italy were similarly affected, though the websites were viewable again late on Sunday.
Amazon’s US websites appeared unharmed, and the company issued no immediate statement about the incident, which follows hacking attacks last week on the websites of Visa, MasterCard and PayPal.
The credit-card and online-payment firms recently refused to handle donations to WikiLeaks, which has been posting some US diplomatic cables on The internet to the consternation of Washington and other national governments. Those denial-of-service attacks, in which the websites are bombarded by requests for information, were claimed by a group of WikiLeaks sympathisers known as Anonymous.
Amazon, which is also a major provider of online commercial services, recently withdrew server space that was used by WikiLeaks. Amazon cited alleged illegal activity by the website.
Amazon and the others said their actions against WikiLeaks were not the result of any US or other government pressure.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is jailed in London on an arrest warrant issued in Sweden, where prosecutors are investigating alleged sex crimes. Assange’s lawyer, Mark Stephens, said in a German media interview published Sunday that the case was part of a US-led conspiracy.
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(10) JULIAN ASSANGE YOUTUBE, INTERVIEW WITH ALJAZEERA, July 2010
Excerpt from 2010-7-27: The balance of power between us and them; make war against those who make war. Julian Assange and wikileaks.
Aljazeera interview with Julian Assange, the man behind wikileaks:
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/07/2010726112724506988.html
At 15:44, the interviewer asks Julian:
“What about your core values? .. maybe some incident in your life that helped form them? ”
IN HIS RESPONSE, JULIAN SAYS: “ . . . capable generous men do not create victims, they nurture victims. That’s something from my Father and something from other capable generous men that have been in my life … I’m a combative person. So I’m not actually so deep on the nurture. .. There is another way of nurturing victims, which is to police perpetrators of crime. So that is something that has been in my character for a long time.”
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(11) YOUTUBE: TOM FLANAGAN, PROFESSOR AT UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY, CALLS FOR ASSASSINATION OF ASSANGE, Nov 29. See the posting.
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(12) WIKILEAKS UPLOADED VIDEO OF ATTACK ON IRAQIS BY TWO US APACHE HELICOPTERS. INTERVIEW WITH ETHAN MCCORD, ONE OF THE SOLDIERS IN THE VIDEO. April 28, 2010 See posting.