Just arrived in Ghana after a journey complicated by the snow in the UK. A few meetings this morning, then some thoughts on Wikileaks, Chilcot and the so called complicity in torture inquiry to come.
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Craig, It must be great to be in the Sun of Africa, because it’s bloody freezing here in Calgary. Yet we have had our moments of excitement in relation to wikileaks.
I am sorry to say that an academic where I live, who was once very close to Canada’s Prime Minister Harper, called for the assassination of Mr. Assange though he speedily retracted and apologized. Most people I’ve talked to in Calgary believe in open democracy and welcome these wikileaks disclosures as I do. One of these disclosures even demonstrates that Canada’s Spy Agency (CSIS) operates above the law, and harasses innocent citizens at will. Here is a short article on it that was published recently from Calgary.
Former CSIS Chief Admits to Torture
http://mostlywater.org/former_csis_chief_admits_torture_0
Clark:
To be honest I don’t really like the H. L. Mencken quote. I like to think that “Conscience is the inner voice that warns us even when no one is looking”.
Vronsky:
Sorry if I expressed myself poorly. I didn’t mean that YOU might be using tinyurl to send people to malware sites, I was just trying to explain why in general I don’t follow those links and why I try to discourage people from using such services. This blog ain’t twitter, there isn’t a character limit 😉
Richard:
It was actually all the trolling that got me to stop being a lurker. I wanted to try an get the conversation back on the rails. Probably didn’t help, but I had to try =P
dreoilin:
What brown and sticky?
A stick! *ZING*
ingo:
Botnets will take any computer they can get. Honestly I don’t have too much faith in AV software. If my computer got infected I would backup the relevant data and then do a complete re-install. A pain in the arse I know, but I don’t wanna risk my bank details, CC numbers or work details in order to save an hour or two installing a new OS.
To add to what dreoilin wrote earlier, the following was sent to students at Columbia University:
” From: “Office of Career Services”
Date: November 30, 2010 15:26:53 ESTTo:
Hi students,
We received a call today from a SIPA alumnus who is working at the State Department. He asked us to pass along the following information to anyone who will be applying for jobs in the federal government, since all would require a background investigation and in some instances a security clearance.
The documents released during the past few months through Wikileaks are still considered classified documents. He recommends that you DO NOT post links to these documents nor make comments on social media sites such as Facebook or through Twitter. Engaging in these activities would call into question your ability to deal with confidential information, which is part of most positions with the federal government.
Regards,
Office of Career Services”
(arabist.net/blog/2010/12/2/state-dept-warning-prospective-recruits-to-steer-clear-of-wi.html)
A comment in the blog also says the same email was sent to Georgetown students. Simply outrageous.
“U.S. soldiers in Iraq who try to read about the Wikileaks disclosures?”or read coverage of them in mainstream news sites?”on unclassified networks get a page warning them that they’re about to break the law.”
[SNIP]
“Not even Social Security Administration employees are safe from the intimidation: The Administration has reportedly sent an alert to all its employees claiming that the Wikileaks documents “remain classified and SSA employees should not access, download, or transmit them. Individuals may be subject to applicable federal criminal statutes for unlawful access to or transmission of classified information.””
(gawker.com/5705639/us-military-in-iraq-tries-to-intimidate-soldiers-into-not-reading-wikileaks)
“Brazil says it has recognized the state of Palestine based on borders at the time of Israel’s 1967 conquest of the West Bank. ”
(washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/03/AR2010120303134.html)
One of the few positive results of the recent US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq is that it provided enough political space for the leftist Latin American movements to advance their position.
Ok I will stop spamming the blog now =P
Support We Are Change against the Southern Poverty Law Center!
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2010/winter/free-radical#
These addresses did not work this am,
http://213.251.145.96/
http://88.80.13.160/
Could someone update me ?
Wanted to look at first posters cable on Chagos Islands .
Thanks.
The Times this morning —
World News British diplomat ‘plotted to keep islanders in exile’
Colin Roberts urged American diplomats to support plans to prevent natives of the Chagos Islands from returning home
Dave from France, thanks for the link – that was a great article by Jonathan Cook, which I’d recommend to everyone. I’d read another, earlier piece by him on general press management but hadn’t read this more recent, and longer, one specifically on Israel. Here it is again, for anyone who missed it first time around:
http://www.ameu.org/printer.asp?iid=293&aid=633
CheebaCow, you’re right about South America’s ‘window’; in the past, the USA would simply have crushed the Left as they did for a hundred years before. They still try to manipulate (eg. they failed in Venezuela but succeeded in Mexico, which of course is part of North America and the NAFTA), but one hopes that the zeitgeist and the momentum of change (THIS is ‘change we can recognise and know, change we can vote for’, people) will overcome such subversions. Brazil, the powerhouse, will be too economically powerful to stop – and the USA needs the investment, but can no longer treat South America a a fiefdom, a neo-colony. So, it will be trade, not slavery. Good. I hope this will be a domino effect, an example, for other areas, too.
Welcome back, Richard. Really good to see you, we did miss your august presence! And thanks for the (as always) sage advice. How are the tunes going? Is that website back up yet? Let me know, I’m keen to check them out. Ta much.
There is a young singer of traditional British folk who I think is excellent named Chloe Matharu; I think she’s part-Welsh, part-Indian, sings mainly English traditional music and lives in Edinburgh:
http://www.chloematharu.com/default.aspx
Check it out.
Jonathan Cook is a brave individual who lives within ‘the belly of the beast’ in Nazareth. Because he is married to a Palestinian he has been obliged to take Israeli citizenship. He took the ‘oath’ with his fingers crossed behind his back. He worked for the MSM and latterly at the Guardian/Observer group but abandoned it to become independent. He has +always+ spoken out about Israeli crimes.
http://www.jkcook.net/index.html
There is an archive of his articles on his site.
Hello Suhayl
———————————
Wikileaks Chagos —
http://213.251.145.96/cable/2009/05/09LONDON1156.html
maybe those first two addresses are good, I was half-asleep …
——————–
I came back here after a long absence, when I think opmoc and co drove me away!
I was an early bird, copying “”those”” FCO telegrams.
Raining now but still vvvv close to freezing in Normandy ..Seeya
One way and anotherm they are cutting the legs off Julian Assange and Wikileaks. Apart from the taking down of access to servers, etc. Paypal have cancelled transactions with Wikileaks.
John Pilger who is nobody’s fool is calling for support for Assange.
‘In an ABC Radio Australia interview, John Pilger asks Australians to break their silence and rally round compatriot Julian Assange, the editor-in-chief of Wikileaks. John Pilger’s new film, ‘The War You Don’t See’, due to be released in Australia in 2011, will feature an interview with Queensland born Assange.’
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/breakfast/stories/2010/3083583.htm
http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/2010/12/bst_20101203_0821.mp3
That film btw is released in London on Dec 13.
@dreoilin
Q: What do you get if you cross an atheist with a Jehovah’s Witness?
A: Someone who comes to your door and tells you to fuck off.
http://www.jkcook.net/Articles3/0536.htm#Top
Here’s a good, pithy one from the Jonathan Cook site (thanks, somebody) on Wikileaks and imperial over-reach.
Israel the parasitic state almost wholly dependent on foreign tax subsidy failed to get the 2022 World Cup.
The ethnosupremacist entity lost out to Qatar!
Now with its JNF-planted pine forests engulfed in raging inferno we see a uniquely poignant metaphor for the sad impotent masonic spawn that calls itself,”Israel”.
For Gilad Atzmon Zionism has burnt itself out.
P.S. Israelis are fucking useless at football anyway.
P.P.S. Qatar and Al Jazeera 6 Israel 0!
Thanks Suhayl,
“the world’s finite resources and its laws of nature promise a much harsher lesson[than the release of confidential documents]”
Britain and America must muster the courage to regret the carnage and slaughter inflicted on Iraq. The ‘inner voice of conscience’ cannot be distracted or hidden by a curtain of diplomat induced noise created by a manipulated WikiLeaks intended to divert eyes and ears away from the preparations of war.
The crescendo of hope focused on the humiliation of the ‘shock and awe’ purveyors is our weapon against further atrocities by a failing and obsolescent capitalist war machine.
Without that hope our children and their children will be condemned to centuries of relentless fear and suppression.
Have faith…
Harr!
Love the agnostic Jehovah’s Witness. I’m sitting here in this bankrupted country with a bad head/chest dose, haven’t slept for two full nights because of coughing/breathing probs, my eyes are burning and falling out of my head, so it’s good to laugh!
Just to fill you in, since you were all so kind about my friend who was attacked and brutally beaten around the head. Miraculously, he’s home and online (after 4 months in hospital). He has double vision and amnesia, but he seems to be recovering. A Christmas present for all his friends.
‘The War You Don’t See’, in UK cinemas from Sunday 12 December 2010 and on ITV two days later at 10.35pm.
Poor you Dreoilin. Hope you’re better soon and glad about your friend.
Saw this on the BBC website. Duh!! Almost feel sorry for the lad.
Snow footprints lead to burglar in Sutton
Footprints led the way to the unfortunate culprit
A trail of footprints in the snow led police to catch a burglar shivering in a bush.
The 17-year-old was spotted by a homeowner stealing a bicycle from a garage in Sutton, south London.
Police noticed his footprints and followed them for several streets until they found him cowering under frozen foliage.
The officers then followed the trail back – to discover several other garages had been targeted.
Insp Colin Baker, of Sutton Police, said: “This burglar left great big footprints for officers to follow.
“So, despite the difficult weather conditions, officers were able to track him down, following the tracks in the snow.”
The teenager was arrested on suspicion of burglary at about 0300 GMT on Friday and was released on bail pending further inquiries.
It is not the first time snow has helped police in Sutton defeat criminals.
Two teenagers were caught stealing electronic goods from a garage in January after officers followed their footprints
Good job he wasn’t the Bigfoot!
Here’s a super documentary, just the first in a series:
http://metanoia-films.org/psywar.php
“The public is a threat that needs to be countered” –
http://player.vimeo.com/video/17085237
Superb indeed Suhayl thank-you – reasons to be wary.
The Atzmon “Burning Bush” commentary on Israel’s fires mentioned earlier has been extended with interjections by Brian Akira:
http://brianakira.wordpress.com/
The 6m trees they meant to plant eventually as commemoration to the “6m” who supposedly died in the Jewish “Holocaust” seem to have gone up in smoke literally.
Much like the Holocaust exterminationist myth peddled on this site by Murray and the PC saps here who haven’t done enough research to discover that like the 911 official conspiracy theory it bears no scrutiny whatever-the Hoax of the Twentieth Century is falling apart in the Twenty-First!
The myth can only be maintained by corporate media, their gate-keeper camp followers like Murray and legal threats from the Bn’ai Br’ith/ADL mafia.
Wait for the censor’s scissors.
They hate the truth!
In a society where culture is saturated with deceit and propaganda telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
@ somebody
the snow is a mixed blessing for the Sutton cops, on the one hand it helps them look good by solving petty crime and being reported positively by BBC, on the other they need to get off their fat a**es to give chase while they could be far better employed eating bacon butties back at the station.
Quite right anon at 5.50pm How many are on sickies whilst the rest are bashing kids up in London?
This choked me about Cadbury. First the giant US corporation Kraft made their acquisition with the help of the usual financial vultures when Brown and Mandelslime were around. They immediately broke pledges and shed some workers when a factory was closed and now decide to decamp to Switzerland to cut their tax bill. Boycott them.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11919248
Ha bloody ha! So much for Brown.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/7025145/Kraft-deal-for-Cadbury-Gordon-Brown-warns-US-firm-over-jobs.html
@CheebaCow
“a lot of information has always been known/available, it was just not reported in the press. For example in the run up to the recent Iraq war when everyone was going on about WMD, if you actually read the public UNSCOM reports, or even the statements of the US government from a few years earlier it was obvious there would be no WMD to be found.”
Ha! But Trikileaks proved otherwise:
Wired Mag: October 23, 2010
But WikiLeaks’ newly-released Iraq war documents reveal that for years afterward, U.S. troops continued to find chemical weapons labs, encounter insurgent specialists in toxins and uncover weapons of mass destruction.
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/10/wikileaks-show-wmd-hunt-continued-in-iraq-with-surprising-results/
There’s yer rat poison, right there.
Joe Quinn explains Wikileaks
“… The broad view of Wiki-leaks and its documents, so far, paints a picture of a concerted effort to supplant the alternative, anti-war media with an illusion of truth. As the Western mainstream media continues to reach new heights of mendacity and obfuscation of the truth, an increasing number of ordinary people have been turning to alternative news sites for a more accurate perspective of what is happening on our planet. This has posed a clear threat to those whose positions of influence and power depend on a misinformed population.
The solution to this problem would be the appearance on the scene of an organization that goes one better than the anti-war, alternative media and produces ‘smoking gun’, officially documented evidence of government lies and deception. …”
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/218901-Wiki-Leaks-and-Plausible-Lies-Where-Have-All-The-Critical-Thinkers-Gone-
Dreoilin, congratulations to your friend, and thanks for the update.
CheebaCow, re: “..somebody may be looking” / “..even when no one is looking”; I think both are true, to varying extents in different people over different matters. I was thinking that this leak may sharpen the consciences of people who thought they were protected by secrecy. So maybe I meant “..somebody may find out”.
Humanity face many crises now and in the near future, and the alternative / hippy types sometimes talk of raising or expanding the Global Consciousness. Well, I think that’s what these leaks do, in a very literal sense. Intentions and judgements of an influential section of humanity (US diplomatic staff) that were formerly hidden have suddenly been revealed, like a person suddenly realising that they’ve had some unconscious motivations or prejudices.
CheebaCow, thanks for the stories of US authorities instructing students and others to not read the leaks. This is so serious and so funny at the same time. “Oh no, quick, cover your eyes! You must stick your head in the sand now, it’s the law!”.
Also amusing is the blanket agreement between governments that WikiLeaks is a Really Bad Thing, versus the masses of popular support. Eris has thrown the Apple of Discord; all the leaders want it, and none of them want any of the others to have it. It really illustrates the tension between all the people and all the rulers.
Vronsky, knock knock…
Zbigniew Brzezinski on Wikileaks
“It’s, rather, a question of whether WikiLeaks are being manipulated by interested parties that want to either complicate our relationship with other governments or want to undermine some governments, because some of these items that are being emphasized and have surfaced are very pointed.
And I wonder whether, in fact, there aren’t some operations internationally, intelligence services, that are feeding stuff to WikiLeaks, because it is a unique opportunity to embarrass us, to embarrass our position, but also to undermine our relations with particular governments.”
http://www.pacificfreepress.com/news/1/7483-brzezinski-on-wikileaks-doubting-seeds-seeding-doubts.html
http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2010/11/zbigniew-brzezinski-who-is-really.html
Zbigniew Brzezinski: Who is Really Leaking to Wikileaks?