do you not find it ridiculous to the point of comedy that republican idiots would call for an AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL to be court marshalled rockadelic? all this huffing and puffing about the law this, the law that, treason the other, like please familiarize theeselves with the basic premises of your justice system. plus maybe some geography too.
my iPhone typing leaves a lot to be desired, agreed. it'll be interesting to see what happens from here, the case for extradition seems pretty weak at this point in time, in which case he may simply be interviewed on UK soil.
Everywhere around the world, people in power have been quick to denounce the leaks. Yet here in the UK, Assange HAS BEEN ARRESTED AND IS GOING TO COURT Any talk of "Assange should be court-martialled and crucified", "Feed him to the dogs", or whatever has been relatively muted.
.
How do you mean funny?
Like funny ha ha??
"High-Five!"
I'll try a Rock-speak poast (let me know where I've lapsed stylistically):
So I guess you view this guy as guilty.
If I were a rapist, the last thing I'd do is to make myself the most wanted man on the planet.
But this arrest makes you feel better to know that nobody is above the law.
And Assange is really on trial for demonstrating a similar point.
When Joe Public is caught sh*t talking about his employers on the internet, or making libelous comments, or embarrassing statements, there's a good chance he will be held accountable, or at the very least rightly laughed at. And despite the bullsh*t talk of endangering lives, this is really about embarrassment. But those in power feel that embarrassment is for not for them - ???The devil - the prowde spirit - cannot endure to be mocked???*.
Back to the funnies. Despite all of the tough talk around the world about "kill Assange", "treason" and the rest, in the UK there hasn't been the same volume of brave words from our government, which kind of echoes their spineless showing in the cable leaks, and the reality of their standing in world politics.
I do find it funny, like funny ha ha, almost as much as people trying to point-score on a message board.
I respect you though, and will be sure to buy you a beer should we ever meet, so don't take this as personal, but I'm out of this particular game for now.
*Utopia is worth working towards, even if never reached.
Everywhere around the world, people in power have been quick to denounce the leaks. Yet here in the UK, Assange HAS BEEN ARRESTED AND IS GOING TO COURT Any talk of "Assange should be court-martialled and crucified", "Feed him to the dogs", or whatever has been relatively muted.
.
How do you mean funny?
Like funny ha ha??
"High-Five!"
I'll try a Rock-speak poast (let me know where I've lapsed stylistically):
So I guess you view this guy as guilty.
If I were a rapist, the last thing I'd do is to make myself the most wanted man on the planet.
But this arrest makes you feel better to know that nobody is above the law.
And Assange is really on trial for demonstrating a similar point.
When Joe Public is caught sh*t talking about his employers on the internet, or making libelous comments, or embarrassing statements, there's a good chance he will be held accountable, or at the very least rightly laughed at. And despite the bullsh*t talk of endangering lives, this is really about embarrassment. But those in power feel that embarrassment is for not for them - ???The devil - the prowde spirit - cannot endure to be mocked???*.
Back to the funnies. Despite all of the tough talk around the world about "kill Assange", "treason" and the rest, in the UK there hasn't been the same volume of brave words from our government, which kind of echoes their spineless showing in the cable leaks, and the reality of their standing in world politics.
I do find it funny, like funny ha ha, almost as much as people trying to point-score on a message board.
I respect you though, and will be sure to buy you a beer should we ever meet, so don't take this as personal, but I'm out of this particular game for now.
*Utopia is worth working towards, even if never reached.
Way too much effort in assuming what I think.
My post was simply a jab at the irony of your post of "Here in the UK we are above all this nonsense" followed by your governments arrest of the blappable leaker..
Since you took the time and made the effort to make a "Rock-speak poast" I'll take the time to respond.
[I'll try a Rock-speak poast (let me know where I've lapsed stylistically):
So I guess you view this guy as guilty. I have no idea if this guy is guilty of rape or any other silly no-condom laws that he may have broken. I can only hope he gets a fair trial and justice is properly served.
If I were a rapist, the last thing I'd do is to make myself the most wanted man on the planet.
But this arrest makes you feel better to know that nobody is above the law. This arrest, nor his subsequent trial if there is one does not make me happy, quite frankly I couldn't care less about this so-called crime of "rape".
And Assange is really on trial for demonstrating a similar point.
When Joe Public is caught sh*t talking about his employers on the internet, or making libelous comments, or embarrassing statements, there's a good chance he will be held accountable, or at the very least rightly laughed at. And despite the bullsh*t talk of endangering lives, this is really about embarrassment. But those in power feel that embarrassment is for not for them - ???The devil - the prowde spirit - cannot endure to be mocked???*.
There is a distinct difference between making libelous or embarrassing comments vs. stealing confidential documents and releasing their contents. And yes, if I stole confidential documents from my employer and released them to the world I would assume that I would be facing a criminal investigation at the very least. And I would think that if my company was headquartered in Australia, and I committed this act in the U.S. that I would still be held liable.
Contrary to what your assumptions would seem to indicate, I have not claimed that these "leaks" have harmed anyone nor have I called for legal action against Assange. I will state however, that if he broke any laws, he should be held accountable.
Back to the funnies. Despite all of the tough talk around the world about "kill Assange", "treason" and the rest, in the UK there hasn't been the same volume of brave words from our government, which kind of echoes their spineless showing in the cable leaks, and the reality of their standing in world politics.
I do find it funny, like funny ha ha, almost as much as people trying to point-score on a message board.
How many points does the Internets give you for statements like "Assange is holding court over here" vs. "Assange is heading to court over here"??
I respect you though, and will be sure to buy you a beer should we ever meet, so don't take this as personal, but I'm out of this particular game for now.
First pint's on me
*Utopia is worth working towards, even if never reached.
Some call it Utopia, I call it Gum Drop Island and I live there in my dreams.
Don't shoot messenger for revealing uncomfortable truths
WIKILEAKS deserves protection, not threats and attacks.
* Julian Assange
* From: The Australian
* December 08, 2010 12:00AM
IN 1958 a young Rupert Murdoch, then owner and editor of Adelaide's The News, wrote: "In the race between secrecy and truth, it seems inevitable that truth will always win."
His observation perhaps reflected his father Keith Murdoch's expose that Australian troops were being needlessly sacrificed by incompetent British commanders on the shores of Gallipoli. The British tried to shut him up but Keith Murdoch would not be silenced and his efforts led to the termination of the disastrous Gallipoli campaign.
Nearly a century later, WikiLeaks is also fearlessly publishing facts that need to be made public.
I grew up in a Queensland country town where people spoke their minds bluntly. They distrusted big government as something that could be corrupted if not watched carefully. The dark days of corruption in the Queensland government before the Fitzgerald inquiry are testimony to what happens when the politicians gag the media from reporting the truth.
Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.
Related Coverage
* Assange to fight extradition Herald Sun, 18 minutes ago
* Assange: Don't shoot messenger Adelaide Now, 7 hours ago
* WikiLeaks boss arrested in UK Herald Sun, 7 hours ago
* WikiLeaks - the site that won't die NEWS.com.au, 16 hours ago
* Gillard fails to name law broken by Wiki The Australian, 1 day ago
End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.
These things have stayed with me. WikiLeaks was created around these core values. The idea, conceived in Australia, was to use internet technologies in new ways to report the truth.
WikiLeaks coined a new type of journalism: scientific journalism. We work with other media outlets to bring people the news, but also to prove it is true. Scientific journalism allows you to read a news story, then to click online to see the original document it is based on. That way you can judge for yourself: Is the story true? Did the journalist report it accurately?
Democratic societies need a strong media and WikiLeaks is part of that media. The media helps keep government honest. WikiLeaks has revealed some hard truths about the Iraq and Afghan wars, and broken stories about corporate corruption.
People have said I am anti-war: for the record, I am not. Sometimes nations need to go to war, and there are just wars. But there is nothing more wrong than a government lying to its people about those wars, then asking these same citizens to put their lives and their taxes on the line for those lies. If a war is justified, then tell the truth and the people will decide whether to support it.
If you have read any of the Afghan or Iraq war logs, any of the US embassy cables or any of the stories about the things WikiLeaks has reported, consider how important it is for all media to be able to report these things freely.
WikiLeaks is not the only publisher of the US embassy cables. Other media outlets, including Britain's The Guardian, The New York Times, El Pais in Spain and Der Spiegel in Germany have published the same redacted cables.
Yet it is WikiLeaks, as the co-ordinator of these other groups, that has copped the most vicious attacks and accusations from the US government and its acolytes. I have been accused of treason, even though I am an Australian, not a US, citizen. There have been dozens of serious calls in the US for me to be "taken out" by US special forces. Sarah Palin says I should be "hunted down like Osama bin Laden", a Republican bill sits before the US Senate seeking to have me declared a "transnational threat" and disposed of accordingly. An adviser to the Canadian Prime Minister's office has called on national television for me to be assassinated. An American blogger has called for my 20-year-old son, here in Australia, to be kidnapped and harmed for no other reason than to get at me.
And Australians should observe with no pride the disgraceful pandering to these sentiments by Julia Gillard and her government. The powers of the Australian government appear to be fully at the disposal of the US as to whether to cancel my Australian passport, or to spy on or harass WikiLeaks supporters. The Australian Attorney-General is doing everything he can to help a US investigation clearly directed at framing Australian citizens and shipping them to the US.
Prime Minister Gillard and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have not had a word of criticism for the other media organisations. That is because The Guardian, The New York Times and Der Spiegel are old and large, while WikiLeaks is as yet young and small.
We are the underdogs. The Gillard government is trying to shoot the messenger because it doesn't want the truth revealed, including information about its own diplomatic and political dealings.
Has there been any response from the Australian government to the numerous public threats of violence against me and other WikiLeaks personnel? One might have thought an Australian prime minister would be defending her citizens against such things, but there have only been wholly unsubstantiated claims of illegality. The Prime Minister and especially the Attorney-General are meant to carry out their duties with dignity and above the fray. Rest assured, these two mean to save their own skins. They will not.
Every time WikiLeaks publishes the truth about abuses committed by US agencies, Australian politicians chant a provably false chorus with the State Department: "You'll risk lives! National security! You'll endanger troops!" Then they say there is nothing of importance in what WikiLeaks publishes. It can't be both. Which is it?
It is neither. WikiLeaks has a four-year publishing history. During that time we have changed whole governments, but not a single person, as far as anyone is aware, has been harmed. But the US, with Australian government connivance, has killed thousands in the past few months alone.
US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates admitted in a letter to the US congress that no sensitive intelligence sources or methods had been compromised by the Afghan war logs disclosure. The Pentagon stated there was no evidence the WikiLeaks reports had led to anyone being harmed in Afghanistan. NATO in Kabul told CNN it couldn't find a single person who needed protecting. The Australian Department of Defence said the same. No Australian troops or sources have been hurt by anything we have published.
But our publications have been far from unimportant. The US diplomatic cables reveal some startling facts:
??? The US asked its diplomats to steal personal human material and information from UN officials and human rights groups, including DNA, fingerprints, iris scans, credit card numbers, internet passwords and ID photos, in violation of international treaties. Presumably Australian UN diplomats may be targeted, too.
??? King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia asked the US to attack Iran.
??? Officials in Jordan and Bahrain want Iran's nuclear program stopped by any means available.
??? Britain's Iraq inquiry was fixed to protect "US interests".
??? Sweden is a covert member of NATO and US intelligence sharing is kept from parliament.
??? The US is playing hardball to get other countries to take freed detainees from Guantanamo Bay. Barack Obama agreed to meet the Slovenian President only if Slovenia took a prisoner. Our Pacific neighbour Kiribati was offered millions of dollars to accept detainees.
In its landmark ruling in the Pentagon Papers case, the US Supreme Court said "only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government". The swirling storm around WikiLeaks today reinforces the need to defend the right of all media to reveal the truth.
Julian Assange is the editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks.
DocMcCoy"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
Needs moar Depends.The United States, which is currently engaged in a complete war against some weird guy with a website, is going to host ???World Press Freedom Day,??? the Department of State announced today. They???re all especially excited about protecting the flow of digital news, which is why Washington is ???concerned about the determination of some governments to censor and silence individuals, and to restrict the free flow of information.??? LOL. This is the same Department of State (and Justice Department and Pentagon and CIA and NATO and PayPal) trying everything to cut off WikiLeaks??? access to the Internet and its own money. Washington is also, at this moment, planning to extradite Julian Assange if it can figure out what the Swedes want. Where is Sweden, anyway?
From the official announcement:
The theme for next year???s commemoration will be 21st Century Media: New Frontiers, New Barriers. The United States places technology and innovation at the forefront of its diplomatic and development efforts. New media has empowered citizens around the world to report on their circumstances, express opinions on world events, and exchange information in environments sometimes hostile to such exercises of individuals??? right to freedom of expression. At the same time, we are concerned about the determination of some governments to censor and silence individuals, and to restrict the free flow of information. We mark events such as World Press Freedom Day in the context of our enduring commitment to support and expand press freedom and the free flow of information in this digital age.
Comments
I find many things about Wikileaks to be ridiculous......on both sides of the fence.
And just a polite FYI....it's Court Martial...not Marshall.
"High-Five!"
I'll try a Rock-speak poast (let me know where I've lapsed stylistically):
So I guess you view this guy as guilty.
If I were a rapist, the last thing I'd do is to make myself the most wanted man on the planet.
But this arrest makes you feel better to know that nobody is above the law.
And Assange is really on trial for demonstrating a similar point.
When Joe Public is caught sh*t talking about his employers on the internet, or making libelous comments, or embarrassing statements, there's a good chance he will be held accountable, or at the very least rightly laughed at. And despite the bullsh*t talk of endangering lives, this is really about embarrassment. But those in power feel that embarrassment is for not for them - ???The devil - the prowde spirit - cannot endure to be mocked???*.
Back to the funnies. Despite all of the tough talk around the world about "kill Assange", "treason" and the rest, in the UK there hasn't been the same volume of brave words from our government, which kind of echoes their spineless showing in the cable leaks, and the reality of their standing in world politics.
I do find it funny, like funny ha ha, almost as much as people trying to point-score on a message board.
I respect you though, and will be sure to buy you a beer should we ever meet, so don't take this as personal, but I'm out of this particular game for now.
*Utopia is worth working towards, even if never reached.
Way too much effort in assuming what I think.
My post was simply a jab at the irony of your post of "Here in the UK we are above all this nonsense" followed by your governments arrest of the blappable leaker..
7pm: The joke of the week (so far) comes from Ben Yarrow's Twitter account:
Freedom of Speech - priceless. For everything else, there's MasterCard
Don't shoot messenger for revealing uncomfortable truths
WIKILEAKS deserves protection, not threats and attacks.
* Julian Assange
* From: The Australian
* December 08, 2010 12:00AM
IN 1958 a young Rupert Murdoch, then owner and editor of Adelaide's The News, wrote: "In the race between secrecy and truth, it seems inevitable that truth will always win."
His observation perhaps reflected his father Keith Murdoch's expose that Australian troops were being needlessly sacrificed by incompetent British commanders on the shores of Gallipoli. The British tried to shut him up but Keith Murdoch would not be silenced and his efforts led to the termination of the disastrous Gallipoli campaign.
Nearly a century later, WikiLeaks is also fearlessly publishing facts that need to be made public.
I grew up in a Queensland country town where people spoke their minds bluntly. They distrusted big government as something that could be corrupted if not watched carefully. The dark days of corruption in the Queensland government before the Fitzgerald inquiry are testimony to what happens when the politicians gag the media from reporting the truth.
Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.
Related Coverage
* Assange to fight extradition Herald Sun, 18 minutes ago
* Assange: Don't shoot messenger Adelaide Now, 7 hours ago
* WikiLeaks boss arrested in UK Herald Sun, 7 hours ago
* WikiLeaks - the site that won't die NEWS.com.au, 16 hours ago
* Gillard fails to name law broken by Wiki The Australian, 1 day ago
End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.
These things have stayed with me. WikiLeaks was created around these core values. The idea, conceived in Australia, was to use internet technologies in new ways to report the truth.
WikiLeaks coined a new type of journalism: scientific journalism. We work with other media outlets to bring people the news, but also to prove it is true. Scientific journalism allows you to read a news story, then to click online to see the original document it is based on. That way you can judge for yourself: Is the story true? Did the journalist report it accurately?
Democratic societies need a strong media and WikiLeaks is part of that media. The media helps keep government honest. WikiLeaks has revealed some hard truths about the Iraq and Afghan wars, and broken stories about corporate corruption.
People have said I am anti-war: for the record, I am not. Sometimes nations need to go to war, and there are just wars. But there is nothing more wrong than a government lying to its people about those wars, then asking these same citizens to put their lives and their taxes on the line for those lies. If a war is justified, then tell the truth and the people will decide whether to support it.
If you have read any of the Afghan or Iraq war logs, any of the US embassy cables or any of the stories about the things WikiLeaks has reported, consider how important it is for all media to be able to report these things freely.
WikiLeaks is not the only publisher of the US embassy cables. Other media outlets, including Britain's The Guardian, The New York Times, El Pais in Spain and Der Spiegel in Germany have published the same redacted cables.
Yet it is WikiLeaks, as the co-ordinator of these other groups, that has copped the most vicious attacks and accusations from the US government and its acolytes. I have been accused of treason, even though I am an Australian, not a US, citizen. There have been dozens of serious calls in the US for me to be "taken out" by US special forces. Sarah Palin says I should be "hunted down like Osama bin Laden", a Republican bill sits before the US Senate seeking to have me declared a "transnational threat" and disposed of accordingly. An adviser to the Canadian Prime Minister's office has called on national television for me to be assassinated. An American blogger has called for my 20-year-old son, here in Australia, to be kidnapped and harmed for no other reason than to get at me.
And Australians should observe with no pride the disgraceful pandering to these sentiments by Julia Gillard and her government. The powers of the Australian government appear to be fully at the disposal of the US as to whether to cancel my Australian passport, or to spy on or harass WikiLeaks supporters. The Australian Attorney-General is doing everything he can to help a US investigation clearly directed at framing Australian citizens and shipping them to the US.
Prime Minister Gillard and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have not had a word of criticism for the other media organisations. That is because The Guardian, The New York Times and Der Spiegel are old and large, while WikiLeaks is as yet young and small.
We are the underdogs. The Gillard government is trying to shoot the messenger because it doesn't want the truth revealed, including information about its own diplomatic and political dealings.
Has there been any response from the Australian government to the numerous public threats of violence against me and other WikiLeaks personnel? One might have thought an Australian prime minister would be defending her citizens against such things, but there have only been wholly unsubstantiated claims of illegality. The Prime Minister and especially the Attorney-General are meant to carry out their duties with dignity and above the fray. Rest assured, these two mean to save their own skins. They will not.
Every time WikiLeaks publishes the truth about abuses committed by US agencies, Australian politicians chant a provably false chorus with the State Department: "You'll risk lives! National security! You'll endanger troops!" Then they say there is nothing of importance in what WikiLeaks publishes. It can't be both. Which is it?
It is neither. WikiLeaks has a four-year publishing history. During that time we have changed whole governments, but not a single person, as far as anyone is aware, has been harmed. But the US, with Australian government connivance, has killed thousands in the past few months alone.
US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates admitted in a letter to the US congress that no sensitive intelligence sources or methods had been compromised by the Afghan war logs disclosure. The Pentagon stated there was no evidence the WikiLeaks reports had led to anyone being harmed in Afghanistan. NATO in Kabul told CNN it couldn't find a single person who needed protecting. The Australian Department of Defence said the same. No Australian troops or sources have been hurt by anything we have published.
But our publications have been far from unimportant. The US diplomatic cables reveal some startling facts:
??? The US asked its diplomats to steal personal human material and information from UN officials and human rights groups, including DNA, fingerprints, iris scans, credit card numbers, internet passwords and ID photos, in violation of international treaties. Presumably Australian UN diplomats may be targeted, too.
??? King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia asked the US to attack Iran.
??? Officials in Jordan and Bahrain want Iran's nuclear program stopped by any means available.
??? Britain's Iraq inquiry was fixed to protect "US interests".
??? Sweden is a covert member of NATO and US intelligence sharing is kept from parliament.
??? The US is playing hardball to get other countries to take freed detainees from Guantanamo Bay. Barack Obama agreed to meet the Slovenian President only if Slovenia took a prisoner. Our Pacific neighbour Kiribati was offered millions of dollars to accept detainees.
In its landmark ruling in the Pentagon Papers case, the US Supreme Court said "only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government". The swirling storm around WikiLeaks today reinforces the need to defend the right of all media to reveal the truth.
Julian Assange is the editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40556948/ns/us_news-wikileaks_in_security/
This shit is pretty sad and ridiculous to say the least.
U.S. State Department Hilariously Announces ???World Press Freedom Day???
by Ken Layne
9:51 pm December 7, 2010
Needs moar Depends.The United States, which is currently engaged in a complete war against some weird guy with a website, is going to host ???World Press Freedom Day,??? the Department of State announced today. They???re all especially excited about protecting the flow of digital news, which is why Washington is ???concerned about the determination of some governments to censor and silence individuals, and to restrict the free flow of information.??? LOL. This is the same Department of State (and Justice Department and Pentagon and CIA and NATO and PayPal) trying everything to cut off WikiLeaks??? access to the Internet and its own money. Washington is also, at this moment, planning to extradite Julian Assange if it can figure out what the Swedes want. Where is Sweden, anyway?
From the official announcement:
The theme for next year???s commemoration will be 21st Century Media: New Frontiers, New Barriers. The United States places technology and innovation at the forefront of its diplomatic and development efforts. New media has empowered citizens around the world to report on their circumstances, express opinions on world events, and exchange information in environments sometimes hostile to such exercises of individuals??? right to freedom of expression. At the same time, we are concerned about the determination of some governments to censor and silence individuals, and to restrict the free flow of information. We mark events such as World Press Freedom Day in the context of our enduring commitment to support and expand press freedom and the free flow of information in this digital age.
Ellsberg: ???EVERY attack now made on WikiLeaks and Julian Assange was made against me and the release of the Pentagon Papers at the time.???
Ends with a Bible quote. RAD.
Further down, there's a holiday/travel piece called Escape To Ecuador.
:oh_snap:
WikiLeaks Reveals That Military Contractors Have Not Lost Their Taste For Child Prostitutes