The award is judged by a group of retired senior US military and intelligence personnel, and past winners. This year the award to Julian Assange was unanimous.
Previous winners and ceremony locations:
Coleen Rowley of the FBI; in Washington, D.C.
Katharine Gun of British intelligence; in Copenhagen, Denmark
Sibel Edmonds of the FBI; in Washington, D.C.
Craig Murray, former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan; in New York City
Sam Provance, former sergeant, U.S. Army, truth-teller about Abu Ghraib; in Washington, D.C.
Frank Grevil, major, Danish army intelligence, imprisoned for giving the Danish press documents showing that Denmark’s prime minister disregarded warnings that there was no authentic evidence of WMDs in Iraq; in Copenhagen, Denmark
Larry Wilkerson, colonel, U.S. Army (retired), former chief of staff to Secretary Colin Powell at the State Department, who has exposed what he called the “Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal”; in Washington, D.C.
http://original.antiwar.com/mcgovern/2010/08/15/can-wikileaks-help-save-lives/
Not sure yet where this year’s award ceremony will be held, but I’ll be there.
Unbeliever – ‘Assange’s revelations damaged no establishment figure. Their primary impact was to release ‘secret’ information connecting Pakistani government with the activities of the Taliban in Afghanistan, thus providing a pretext for further US expansion of its war against Pakistan.
Assange is not be trusted, imo. These leaks look like a CIA operation.
The recent charge of rape against him and then its withdrawal looks, to the public mind, like a CIA dirty tricks operation further boosting his credibility as an anti-establishment truth teller.
Let’s see what he comes up with next and how damaging it is to the US/UK/Israel Imperial ‘make war for peace’ project.’
It’s good to keep questioning and remain openminded. I appreciate you making that argument and wondered the same myself, like Suhayl did. I think Assange is genuine myself, but couldn’t swear to it. Let’s not forget that they are ‘already’ in Pakistan doing pretty much what they like. They have ‘already’ connected the Pakistani authorities to terrorism. I haven’t scrutinised the plethora of documents that wikileaks published, but would bet my bottom dollar that most of it damages U.S. reputation rather than provide evidence that links Pakistan to the Taliban. Moreover, the controlled mass media would ‘already’ have harped on about this link if it was part of some U.S. plan. Like they would expect Joe Bloggs to trawl through it all and say:
‘Ah, links between the Pakistani authorities and the Taliban. Hideous Hillary was right!’
Going on to the rape allegations it is indeed a bit of a conundrum. I even had the thought that the woman involved might have secretly been on Assange’s side. A false allegation deliberately made and withdrawn. A move to discredit the U.S. authorities even more. I thought that because it happened so soon after the leak. In the end, that scenario just didn’t sit as quite right with me though. On balance, I think the most likely explanation is that it was some punishment for what he did and a warning to not leak anything else. Even all the online numpties that can’t see past their noses were shouting ‘government job!’
Suhayl – ‘Jaded, how d’you know it’s minimum wage?’
Well, I don’t actually ‘know’, but he’s hardly the sharpest tool in the box. I wouldn’t even hire him in the first place. It seriously disgusts me that he is tax payer funded.
ah, ad hominem attacks; how I’ve missed them…
MJ, I don’t care how strongly you endorse Mark’s “hypothesis” nor how strongly Mark endorses it.
I am looking at the hypothesis itself and saying it sounds silly.
“On the basis of the known facts the proposition that the high but non-lethal amount of dextropropoxyphene was caused by injection is no less plausible than the proposition that it was caused by taking co-proxamol.”
WRONG! It’s far less plausible than the idea it was caused by taking co-proxamol because WE KNOW HE TOOK CO-PROXAMOL.
How did the paracetamol get there? Was that injected too? What was the co-proxamol doing there?
“Moreover, the controlled mass media would ‘already’ have harped on about this link if it was part of some U.S. plan.”
But Jaded, that’s exactly what the New York Times did. Their coverage wasn’t the same as the Guardian’s:
http://tinyurl.com/365vjxz
which is not to say that I don’t (as yet!) distrust Assange. I find it interesting to watch him in action a few times and try to evaluate his sincerity:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpwGMdJdyl0
Abe,
Many thanks again. No worries about Kindle. There’s always the bookshop and the library.
technicolour,
You’ve been very brief lately. As if you have only one foot in the door. How are you?
Don’t worry about the ad hominem. Angry told me to, “try to look a little less like a proud and petulantly ignorant idiot”, and when I remarked, “angry indulges in abuse”, he promptly said, “I don’t think that’s very fair”. I think it’s funny (most of the time.) Although on balance the civility here is a pleasure compared to some blogs I’ve frequented.
Jaysus, Angry, don’t shout. There’s no need.
“How did the paracetamol get there? Was that injected too? What was the co-proxamol doing there?”
It was shoved into his mouth by a herd of vicious killer wombats. Would you calm down? This isn’t an exam.
Man Talking Bollox on the Internet #1: “As I stand I can but find the truth! A truth which delves beyond consciousness and survival…
I PERSONALLY BELIEVE David Kelly was killed with a samurai sword after being injected with succinylcholine by a three man team comprising of Michael Shrimpton, platinum blonde Julian Assange (who had died his hair a less conspicuous blue for the job), Father James Chesney assisted by Harvey the Rabbit and a herd of vicious killer wombats who were disguised as Iraqi Ba’athists on a boating trip. They clearly received direction from France and were paid for their work through a Dominican Republic bank. The money had been wired from Moscow under the orders of Englebert Humperdink, although he didn’t know he was part of it.
Michael Shrimpton’s unrivalled access to the intelligence world extends even as far as having all of Tom Clancy’s espionage novels and it was there, in the “Teeth of the Tiger”, that he found the method of succinylcholine to relax his prey. You could say it was a “textbook suicide”.”
Man Talking Bollox on the Internet #2: “But the autopsy made no mention of the samurai sword cuts.”
Man Talking Bollox on the Internet #1: “But my dear Man Talking Bollox on the Internet #2, they did. They found the wound to the left ulnar artery.”
Man Talking Bollox on the Internet #2: “That’s ingenious! Well, I suppose it is just as likely that it was a samurai sword which caused those cuts as it was the small blood-covered gardening knife that could easily have been planted there. I suppose the smaller cuts were there to disguise the samurai sword wounds.”
Confused Man on the Internet: “But haven’t you, for the last few years, asserted that the wound is unlikely to have caused death and therefore made you believe the suicide verdict is unsafe? Why do you now say a samurai sword was the cause of death?”
Man Talking Bollox on the Internet #2: “Hello? It’s just an extraordinarily far-fetched and detailed hypothesis. No one is saying they believe it! And anyway it is just as likely that he was killed with a samurai sword than committed suicide with a knife and dangerous medication!”
I wonder if there’ll be a plethora of groups like Wikileaks (such as Cryptome, I suppose) which will start trying to investigate each other:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704554104575436231926853198.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsForth
The thing is that whatever standards Wikileaks might impose on themselves (and I think they tend to be at the responsible end) don’t have to be adhered to by any other similar enterprise which might choose that no one has a right to any kind of privacy. There’s no oversight for it, in the end.
Angrysober,
The latest disclosures from Hunt are that:
1. Mr Hunt said Dr Kelly’s wrist was red from where he had been rubbing it to keep the blood flowing.
So arterial blood was everywhere from rubbing – on his right hand, on his clothes, on his legs and on the ground.
..an *overdose* of co-proxamol, a strong pain killer withdrawn from sale in 2007.
Despite the fact that only 1/5 of one tablet was found in his stomach. He could not swallow tablets – there were NO fingerprints on the water-bottle so – err – wiped clean?
Toxicology c2003 is not exact because non-flowing blood/time of death/site where blood sample taken makes extrapolation difficult and inaccurate.(Professor Robert Forrest)
I have not mentioned some other facts (from Hunt) – David had a cut lip, a grazed head and bruises on his chest and legs.
Dominic Grieve, the attorney general, has said they [doubters], “may have a valid point”
Nothing is ‘silly’ at the moment Angrysober – a newspaper comment that suggests, perhaps it was, ‘the tooth fairy’ is what I regard as ‘silly’ and insulting.
I have read conflicting reports that Hunt said blood clots were found ‘inside his sleeve’ and in another statement said, ‘inside his Barbour jacket’. Jeez!
dreoilin – ‘”Moreover, the controlled mass media would ‘already’ have harped on about this link if it was part of some U.S. plan.”
But Jaded, that’s exactly what the New York Times did. Their coverage wasn’t the same as the Guardian’s:
http://tinyurl.com/365vjxz
which is not to say that I don’t (as yet!) distrust Assange. I find it interesting to watch him in action a few times and try to evaluate his sincerity:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpwGMdJdyl0‘
Ok, but I was referring to the TV networks. It would have been in the headlines for days. They would obviously try and use some of it to their advantage, like with the article you posted, but to set all this up just for articles like that and get all the other bad press at the same time? I can’t see it myself. Pakistan is a done deal and they were already doing what the hell they wanted to.
It’a common tactic of the intelligence services to criminalise their operatives particularly when there’s a suspicion.
I thought Assange’s revelations and the way he went about publicising them very odd and so did other people.
The rape charge makes him look as if he’s being persecuted. To me he appears nothing more than an intelligence operative.
Suhayl: indeed, it was Glenn Ford who starred (with Dean Jagger) in “Brotherhood of the Bell”. I’d see it on Youtube while you can, before some busybody gets it removed.
Glenn Ford also starred in the comedy “Cry for Happy”. In the story, as a sideline a Japanese film-maker shows his attempt at a silent film drama combining the best of East and West: “The Rice Rustlers of Yokohama Gulch.” In one scene someone looks at a piece of paper and the caption appears on the screen “NOTE SAY (sic): GET OUT OF TOWN BY SUNSET!” In another scene, before a gunman goes into a saloon to shoot it out he takes his boots off Japanese-style. The director is mortified that the audience roar with laughter instead of being moved by his drama, we can only guess why.
Ruth – ‘It’a common tactic of the intelligence services to criminalise their operatives particularly when there’s a suspicion.
I thought Assange’s revelations and the way he went about publicising them very odd and so did other people.
The rape charge makes him look as if he’s being persecuted. To me he appears nothing more than an intelligence operative.’
Fair play and i’m open to that view, but for what purpose? So everyone believes something he leaks in the future which isn’t true and suits them? They want to foster some attempted, limited uprising to introduce new laws? Why? There are a lot of murky goings on, which i’ve always ahouted about. Maybe, and with good reason, we can get over-suspicious on occasion.
I think the reason is that the revelations have given Wikileaks a lot of publicity and anyone who wants to leak something will think immediately of doing it through WikiLeaks especially now as it’s involved with Iceland in setting up a ‘safe haven’ for whistleblowers.
With their hands in it, how easy will it be for the CIA, MI6 etc to censor the leaks?
Most certainly in the near future as more and more people lose their jobs, they’ll have nothing to fear in divuging the corrupt practices of their employers particuly when they’ve been working for a government.
WHO CARES ABOUT A STINKING AWARD!
This sums up Craig Murray’s shallowness and hypocrisy.
Without whistleblowers, there could be no Assange.
No mention of Bradley Manning who is facing 52 years in jail.
To hell with Manning, right Mr Murray? He didn’t get an award, so he doesn’t get a mention.
Assange doesn’t give full disclosure regarding donations to his site or where the money goes, so a bit less integrity than I’d expect.
WikiLeaks raised over $1 million last year.
Should not enough money be raised for Manning’s legal defense, is Assange going to hang Manning out to dry?
Murray doesn’t care about anything except stupid awards, his ego, and corporations.
Murray likes to fool people that British foreign policy is about assisting British corporations to develop other countries’ economies. BP is doing a great job, isn’t it? Oh, but BP is just an aberration, right?
ASSANGE IS FREE – MANNING ISN’T!
www dot bradleymanning dot org
Larry from St. Louis writes:
“So when do you think Assange will publish documents that detail 911 being an inside job?”
Julian Assange doesn’t find the documents he releases – whistleblowers and others do. He effectively sits and waits while others act.
Time to give the whistleblowers a mention, too, like Bradley Manning: www dot bradleymanning dot org.
Carol writes:
“Well done to Julian Assange, keep it coming.”
KEEP WHAT COMING? ASSANGE DOESN’T DO ANYTHING BUT PUBLISH. HE’S A PUBLISHER! Though I’m aware that he’s technically a journalist – being a “journalist” confers certain legal protections that he needs.
It’s whistleblowers and others who release the information you read.
Good God – is everyone so ignorant?
THE CELEBRITY CULTURE HAS ROTTED PEOPLE’S BRAINS. People will be asking for Julian’s autograph next, while others will be claiming that they are having his baby.
Abe Rene
“Assange has put lives at risk by revealing classified documents containing details about informers.”
–
Who are you kidding? Bush and Blair put millions of lives at risk when they lied about WMD in Iraq, hurriedly invaded, and showed a complete disregard for international law designed to protect the civilian population. They killed hundreds of thousands, directly and indirectly. Bush “forgot” to mention that Saddam had volunteered to go into exile.
How about the brutal sanctions on Iraq? 500,000 children killed as a result of those sanctions. Madeleine Albright in 1996, then Secretary of State under Clinton, said that the deaths of half a million children was a price worth paying. Her exact words: “…we think the price is worth it.” (“60 Minutes”, 12/5/96).
How about the US encouraging Saddam to wage war with Iran in 1980, leading to one million deaths. When Saddam looked to be losing, America stepped in and gave Saddam satellite photos and other intelligence to prevent his defeat. The US did this because it wanted to weaken both countries, not have one side defeat the other.
And what about the uprising in 1991, shortly after the first Gulf War? Bush Senior gave Saddam permission to fly his military helicopters so that he (Saddam) could crush the rebellion. Tens of thousands were slaughtered. They were sacrificed because Bush didn’t want Iraqis carrying out their own regime change – it might have meant a government hostile to American “interests” – so Saddam was kept in power, and brutal sanctions were imposed. America didn’t “liberate” Iraq in 2003 – it had kept a dictator in power that could have been overthrown in 1991.
And let’s not forget that America and Britain armed Iraq in the 1980s. Read “Spider’s Web” by Alan Friedman, at the time, a London Financial Times correspondent.
But “Abe Rene” claims Assange has put lives at risk.
WikiLeaks contacted the Dept. of Defense for assistance in expunging sensitive names. The DoD wrote back telling Assange that they will NOT help him. In other words, the Afghanis who helped the US are COMPLETELY EXPENDABLE. It is not WikiLeaks, but the US military, that has potentially endangered their lives.
You can read the letter by Googling: “wikileaks pdf gc letter”
As Craig Murray is studiously avoiding mentioning his name – because he didn’t get an award! – I will: BRADLEY MANNING.
He’s 22 years old, and accused by the US government of being a whistleblower – of giving WikiLeaks a video showing US soldiers killing Iraqi civilians. Some claim he was behind the leaked Afganistan “war” documents, too. That’s right, it wasn’t Assange at all – Assange doesn’t do any actual leaking. Journalists don’t make the news, they write about it. That’s effectively what Assange does, too.
Manning needs a legal team that has a sound understanding of military law.
You can help him buy a legal team by clicking a link on this site:
www bradleymanning dot org
Donations are collected by “Courage To Resist”.
“Wikileaks Afghanistan: Osama bin Laden alive:
Osama bin Laden is alive and playing a key role in directing the war in Afghanistan, leaked US military files suggest.
Telegraph 27 July 2010
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/7913050/Wikileaks-Afghanistan-Osama-bin-Laden-alive.html
“A secret “threat report” drafted by the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in 2006 locates bin Laden as well as the Taliban leader Mullah Omar to the Pakistani city of Quetta as well as several villages on the Afghan border.”
So here’s one document published by $million-dolla-a-year Julian Assange, which does much to justify Obarmy’s new war on Pakistan.
Daily Mail”
“Glimpses of Bin Laden: Now WikiLeaks reveals Al Qaeda boss was seen at village meetings”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1297916/Wikileaks-reveals-Osama-Bin-Laden-seen-village-meetings.html#ixzz0xaKLEnTk
Just keep those drone attacks coming. Who knows, Obarma might get lucky and wack Osama as well as all those wedding parties.
‘British spy’ found dead in bath”
“The man, believed to have been working for MI6, had been missing for 10 days”
“Police were last night investigating the murder of a man whose body was found stuffed in a sports bag in the bath of his London flat.”
“The man, who was in his early 30s, is believed to have worked for the government’s intelligence agencies. An unconfirmed report suggested he had worked at GCHQ, the government’s secret listening service, and had been on secondment to MI6, the secret intelligence service, when he disappeared up to 10 days ago.”
BUT, BUT, BUT…
“But a police source stressed that he had not been formally identified, and that while the man’s employment documentation suggested he had indeed worked for the secret service, “he might have been an air conditioning technician rather than a spy”.
“If he really was a spy, you imagine someone would have reported him missing rather sooner,” the source added.”
YEAH, YEAH, YEAH. BUT, BUT, BUT. If he were only a cleaner why all these counterterrorist and security service officials on the scene?
“Last night Scotland Yard launched a murder inquiry, with the homicide and serious crime command working in conjunction with counterterrorist and security service officials.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/25/british-spy-dead-in-bath
Are these Police spokespeople just routine liars?
It very much seems so, in this case as in so may others.
They’re clearly not working for the public who pay their salaries, so who exactly are they working for?
I’ve been seeing such routine lies from Police PR people for quite some time now.
Is it really satisfactory that the taxpayer funds liars whose only function is to ensure that taxpayer funded institutions are not subject to proper public scrutiny?
Ant bets on the identity of the latest disinformation/confusion merchant GoToHell?
‘My lord, he doth protest too much’
Any bets….
GoToHell: since you have named yourself thus, out of your own mouth be you judged. The West’s terrible blunders in Iraq do not justify Assange putting people at risk by releasing classified information about them. I maintain my position that he deserves punishment, not reward.
@ruth
Check here for more on anthrax in Africa (links on top left of first page). Dig back into older posts to find much material on the alleged suicide of Dr Bruce Ivins and the ‘Amerithrax’ attacks, with many disturbing parallels to the Kelly case. The material is highly specialised so it is difficult for trolls to get traction (although there’s at least one trying).
http://anthraxvaccine.blogspot.com/
I would like to exchange links with your site http://www.craigmurray.org.uk
Is this possible?
“Let’s talk about…shares”
Talking about ‘bets’ – Looking at a Portfolio line chart of bank shares this morning over a ten year period has brought home the calamity of the financial ‘crash’
In 2002 a banks share price was 817p – now, 2010 they are 66p and falling after a low of 40p.
Just to put this in perspective if one had a £million shares in 2002 worth £8million then today that investment is worth £600,000 and falling.
Hey the prophet was right – the poor really will inherit our earth.
Abe Rene,
Err – Robin Cook and David Kelly blew the whistle on the ‘dodgy dossier’ an uncredited report plagiarised from an article in Sept. 2002 by Ibrahim al-Marashi.
Robin Cook’s warning fell on deaf eyes and David Kelly, troubled by his security clearance was too late in his exposure.
Both might have saved the deaths, maiming and traumatising thousands of Iraqi babies, toddlers and teens if the British public and the world had been fully aware of the deceit.
Again we read of a myopic ‘drone’ killing women and children in Afghanistan – Google the link – I’m too disgusted.
GoToHell, the case and plight of Manning has been well covered on the TV networks. Whatever your opinions I am sure that everyone here knows Assange wasn’t the whistleblower and the role he played. Anyhow, if Assange is genuine, then he is just as important as any whistleblower on state matters. They give him the whistles and he blows them. I don’t think ‘Bin Laden is alive’ was the headline behind a contrived leak!