Um, I Think It's Time for a Thread on WikiLeaks

Read the response. I won't say that it challenges the story on 'factual grounds', it just repeatedly says 'It is false'. Some of the 'false' things aren't in the article to begin with, others are refuted by either bad evidence (as in the idea that because wikileaks has leaked 650.000 documents on Russia, it's been critical of Russia. Leaking American diplomatic cables criticizing Russia is not being anti-Russia) or no evidence at all (such as just saying that it's false that Assange considered going to Russia). A couple of the most serious cases, such as the attack on the Panama Papers and the apparent critical leak of Russian documents that was promised but then shelved, isn't mentioned at all.

Really, wikileaks response is weak on the evidence, and is undermined by trying to paint it as a conspiracy. And another thing, the evidence of mischief is that nyt has endorsed Hillary against Trump! So now you can't be anti-Trump if you want to be 'pure'?

Wikileaks also released Russian diplomatic cables. The report doesn't mention why the leaked materials Assange promised about domestic corruption didn't get published extensively - Wikileaks is thought to have sold them to Novaya Gazeta (the same Novaya Gazeta that released some of the Panama papers, is described in glowing terms as "one of the last independent newspapers in Russia", etc, in the article). There's a big question mark over why those materials were never published in their entirety but the question is largely with Novaya Gazeta and not with Wikileaks. NG doesn't dispute having access to the archive.

Assange has become more desperate since 2011 and more reliant on favours and positive exposure so it's not beyond the bounds of possibility that he has an arrangement to publish state-hacked materials but he does remain fairly critical of Russia and has frequently campaigned on the same bill as Pussy Riot, etc.

Lol, so you're saying wikileaks will publish personal information that might lead to murder in a heartbeat, but if they've 'sold' the information, they throw up their hands and say 'nothing we can do'. Come on.

Ultimately, yes. It doesn't reflect well on Assange or Wikileaks and is clearly not intended as a defence of either. Assange appears to regard information in the Wikileaks archive as his personal property to dispose of as he wishes. He is thought to have sold the Russia archives to Alexander Lebedev. It's one of the relatively few cases where there was a willing, slightly unscrupulous and deep-pocketed buyer for his data. I assume that Assange could still release the information but won't because it would compromise his chances of selling similar data in the future. Selling the info to an opposition newspaper doesn't particularly fit the narrative WP is going for though.

Also, been going through the wikileaks section called 'leaks', and no, there is nothing from Russia. Which cables are you talking about?

May be my mistake - i was under the impression that they had released Russian diplomatic communication with the US but that may not be accurate.

i should note that it's one thing for assange to say that he's publicly criticized russia -- as indeed he has. but it's also true that he hasn't been nearly as aggressive in soliciting leaked materials that might damage russia. you can choose to buy his justification that russia just isn't as important (or as damaging) globally as the USA, or not.

it's a familiar response from leftists when they are criticized for focusing their outrage on the US and Europe and not speaking out against the human-rights disasters of other countries. certainly you can't expect someone to express an equal amount of outrage at everything--that strikes me as close to the kind of performative outrage-policing people do on social media, and equally unhelpful. i guess the question is whether there's a /pattern/ to assange's actions that suggests that his choices of what and when to leak, and how to spin it, are echoing putin talking points in ways that are more than coincidental.

I guess they could definitely have released diplomatic communications between Russia and US, but it would be in one of the leaks of US information, I think.

My big issue with Assange's justification of his priorities is that they're just based on his own assumptions. The whole point of leaking organizations was to set information free, but now he act as just another gatekeeper, and this new gatekeeper is also an egomaniacal rapist. That's not progress in my book.

What I am not clear on is the extent to which Wikileaks really does act as a gatekeeper or even solicits hacks. In its current form it looks more like a branded clearing house for stuff other people have leaked. Does Assange set priorities or direct a dedicated hacking team?

Most of the stuff they leak is either against people with a specific set of local actors who don't like them (the AKP stuff, the Saudi leaks, the anti-Assad leaks) or the one universal target every disgruntled individual in the world dislikes (the US).

Actually hacking Russian government servers would require a high degree of proficiency in Russian which narrows the pool considerably. It would be telling if Russian or Ukrainian hackers did release info to them and they refused to publish it but, again, I don't know what would stop them just sticking it all on Pastebin.

I don't know if they actually act as a gatekeeper either, there's a bunch of logistical reasons as to why getting documents from autocratic regimes might be tougher than from pretty open democracies. But Assange speaks as if he's a gatekeeper.

Oh absolutely.

yeah, it's interesting that wikileaks even exists, in a sense. since any hacker could just post a torrent file to an entire terabyte of leaked stuff to pastebin or whatever

i mean, since you don't /need/ wikileaks to post stuff, the whole point of wikileaks is as a kind of amplifier/curator of leaked stuff. which means that assange's judgement is important.

Back in the day wikileaks could help with curation and redaction. But now that they just publish everything, and several other newslets are more than willing to help with the work, they frankly are quite pointless to most whistleblowers. Which is probably why they get their stuff from Putin now :)

@ggreenwald
The NYT partners quite often with a group that today it suggests is a Russian asset. Very suspicious behavior.

glenn greenwald disingenuously accuses another media outlet of being disingenuous

and the painted ponies, they go up and down

http://www.dailydot.com/layer8/wikileaks-syria-files-syria-russia-bank-2-billion/

http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/9/12864328/wikileaks-threat-reporters-syria-russia-emails

good guys

I found good stuff
email messages from Ninja of Die Antwoord

https://wikileaks.org/sony/emails/emailid/19478

I wish that had been in one of the State Department cable batches

for sure

so what's going on?

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/6f997f97c5f140a29f385ea05f1b642c/wikileaks-assanges-internet-link-severed-state-actor

Was he hosting pitchfork.com there?

maybe pamela anderson really did poison him

Idk how this can be any state actor other than Ecuador.

My impressions so far:

- There's a lot of stuff to sift through that hasn't been thoroughly sifted through, so it's premature to say "nothing to see here."
- However to the extent stuff has come out so far, there's no complete shocker/smoking gun stuff. There is however a lot of interesting stuff in terms of insights into how the Clinton campaign operates, what people inside it really think, arguably just how political power works in the US in 2016 and how it interacts with finance and other industries (speaking both to the transcripts and the podesta emails).

I don't like the knee-jerk "we already knew all of this" reactions because (1) it's not always exactly true and (2) it's the kind of stuff that Clinton supporters deny all the time. Nonetheless, if you are looking for bodies, bribes etc, that's not here, at least so far.

Can I just say, it's not okay to hack and leak peoples personal emails to find out how they 'really think'. It's illegal bullshit, and nothing that has come out of the podesta mails so far legitimates what's a gross breach of privacy.

The way certain parts of the hard left has become completely okay with illegal attacks on their 'liberal' opponents is gross and unhealthy.

seems likely Hillary called in some State Dept favors from Ecuador and if so good for her Assange should be in jail

when you give 1.4 million people top secret clearance these things happen

Clinton campaign shouldn't have given 1.4 million staff members security clearance. Thx Adam!

There is however a lot of interesting stuff in terms of insights into how the Clinton campaign operates, what people inside it really think, arguably just how political power works in the US in 2016 and how it interacts with finance and other industries (speaking both to the transcripts and the podesta emails).

i have yet to see anything particularly interesting or enlightening

How about the proposal to put fake anti-wall-street rhetoric in the Deutsche Bank speech in order to then leak it and throw people off the scent.

At a minimum that's hilarious imo

It didn't happen. And hilarious doesn't make it legal to hack.

NOT OKAY!

I mean sure, it's not legal. But it is legal to publish the contents of hacked emails that you legally received. And also the sanctity of the private communications of a presidential election campaign is very, very low on my list of ethical issues to care about.

is anybody saying this was legal?

I don't honestly believe that he doesn't have internet access, he just wanted some attention today

its kind of obvious leaking intel is bad, frowned upon, and in practice severely punished. Thurston Moore's even made a record about it.

Is it true or not? Kind of lol if the one maybe interesting thing isn't real

What is true?

Indeed, Thurston Moore's record is a myth

is this the point where i advise people on the safe handling of usb drives

I shouldn't complain. The discussion in the election thread reminded me that I took Podesta's advice on risotto-making, even though that was illegally obtained as well. Sorry everyone.

fred i hate to break it to you but there are sites all over the internet that will give you the same intel. if you've seriously been dumping all the stock in at once all this time you might want to consider watching a youtube cooking show now and again.

Why would I seek out intel, my risotto is fine for all intent and purposes. But now it's even better!

people tell me my risotto is the best. really just the best.

there are people who put the stock in all at one time while making risotto?

disgusting savages imo