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

HM--the reason the legality of it all is pretty important (over here, at least), is because Lieberman et al are trying to make it illegal. which, as tipsy points out, sets a dangerous precedent.

so you may not care about it, but as an American concerned about my civil rights, I do. and srsly dude, why is yr default "unpleasant and insulting"? nagl

freedom isn't free

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/07/wikileaks-saudi-arab-invasion-lebanon

so you may not care about it, but as an American concerned about my civil rights, I do. and srsly dude, why is yr default "unpleasant and insulting"? nagl

gbx OTM (even tho I'm much less sympathetic to WL as an institution than he is) - dial it back hm.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20101202184039AAFQSfV

fwiw, I'm still wary of WL as an institution that just indiscriminately publishes anything it gets; I'm not sure I'm that comfortable with the "lights on all the time" cryptomish philosophy that underpins it. otoh, I can't fathom a way to meaningfully distinguish it from journalism. I'm sorta left going "that's kinda how it is now" and have to hope that the assanges of the world are ethical actors, and that legally-bound gatekeepers don't go ham and start spilling everything they know all the time. I'm ambivalent about the former, and optimistic about the latter---the people we trust with sensitive information have always had the opportunity to violate that trust, and I'm not sure that the existence of wikileaks will do much to provoke a meaningful change in how seriously these gatekeepers take their positions.

I'm still wary of WL as an institution that just indiscriminately publishes anything it gets; I'm not sure I'm that comfortable with the "lights on all the time" cryptomish philosophy that underpins it.

Except none of this is the case. They've gone to the US gov't and a bunch of huge international media companies first, then when they put up the original documents they keep the redactions NYT, Guardian, etc. have made. The misinformation surrounding this is pretty thick. For instance, a lot of people think they've leaked all 250,000 docs.

Looks like 4chan is on the offensive for wikileaks

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/12/4chan-rushes-to-wikileaks-defense-forces-swiss-banking-site-offline.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss

now i have no idea what side im on

lol jk fuck the feds :D

haha yeah well being pro free speech means being associated with some strange bedfellows. like I think Ron Paul called assange a hero you know?

Yeah but wasn't that for "Sex By Surprise"?

pretty fucked up that Twitter is blocking a Wikileaks hashtag.

IS ILXOR NEXT!?!?

He surrendered to police in London and was arrested. Bail was refused over fears that he might flee, and also due to some fear that he was at risk from "unstable persons."

http://bunchgrasser.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/sarah-palin.jpg

pretty fucked up that Twitter is blocking a Wikileaks hashtag.

wait what

pretty fucked up that Twitter is blocking a Wikileaks hashtag.

Wait - this is not good.

They're not - because Wikileaks is also @wikileaks it can't be a trending topic.

yeah they adressed that. "cablegate" was trending earlier.

lol, U.S. announces press freedom day:

http://gizmodo.com/5708380/

thru the looking glass

http://i.imgur.com/5kYP1.jpg

because Wikileaks is also @wikileaks it can't be a trending topic.

Ahh. I dont use Twitter so I dunno how that stuff works.

^O_O

xp

OK, guilty lols at that image.

OK LULZ

h/t dom (rip)

it's kevin i was mostly aiming my bile at; gbx had the sack to, you know, mount arguments so caught it, i guess

anyway, i just think beefing with assange over all of this is wildly and weirdly misplaced. sure he's a self-absorbed d-bag and possible rapist who no doubt loves the prospect of being an hero to millions of...whoever, but it doesn't change the fact that we are watching, in real-time, the lengths some of our elected officials will go to to excoriate and gag what basically counts, under law, as "journalism"

that he chose the wrong battle is starting to become irrelevant at this point---that there's a "battle" at all is what should really be of concern

― kanellos (gbx), Monday, 6 December 2010 23:13 (2 days ago)

agree with most of this...the rape stuff is probably contrived....read yr blogs if cynicism fails

these arguments about whether wl are doing 'journalism' and if so how successfully, seem completely obscure....perhaps cuz i have little regard for the woodward/bernstein mythos but who gives a shit...at least some of this recent stuff is a lot more than any news org have done by themselves lately

right now i think u have to set any misgivings about assange and wikileaks' tactics to one side and condemn the transparency circling of the wagons by powers-that-be

transparencyt

greenwald is so on top of this stuff, he's putting most the media to shame: http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/07/wikileaks/index.html

one key point is just the reminder that WikiLeaks worked with newspapers to select and redact the cables. the idea that they just indiscriminately dumped stuff is just not true. and it makes it seem even more ridiculous to go after them rather than after the media outlets that actually reported the stuff before WL even released it.

otm

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

Dunno how the BoPA flack managed to type that up w/o either cracking up lauging or crying his poor little eyes out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublethink

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superior_Orders

so they got some gontser macher lawyer bro gonna tear it up on assange's behalf at the extradition hearing

i don't see how it's gonna work tho

p sure rape is a crime

OH SNAP

not accused of rape, accused of "sex by surprise"

geoff robertson qc out of retirement for the big one

Just FYI, "sex by surprise" is not a legal term at all but Swedish slang for rape.

So "he's not accused of rape, he's accused of ::slang for rape::" is not really a convincing defense.

Ah I have been misled! I read somewhere that there was a difference. I wasn't defending him by the way, just jumping at the opportunity to be juvenile.

one key point is just the reminder that WikiLeaks worked with newspapers to select and redact the cables.

No, that's right. I just wish they'd been more drip-feedy. The "Collateral Murder" release was so effective because it was a single, hot issue. It got discussed for days, everywhere.

Forgive me for being in the dark here, but did Guardian, NY Times et al pay for access to this stuff? (AFAIK Wikileaks is a commercial organization that hoped to raise $5M in its first year of operation.)

x-post Not only did Wikileaks work with places like the NYT, the NYT double-checked some of its decisions with the State Department! So Wikileaks showed, say, the Times some cables, the Times told them what it suggested would be wise to redact, Wiki complied, then the NYT ran those decisions by the State Department, who of course offered its own suggestions which the Times in turn cherry picked, because the State Department had no real authority. I think this all came about because Wikileaks realized it was in the wrong to release info that, say, blew someone's top secret cover and put real lives at risk. Wiki showing it's willing to compromise demonstrates its not as coolly "information will be free" as it poses. Their idea of ethics is evolving.

roundtable on aljazeera, including greenwald:

http://www.youtube.com/user/AlJazeeraEnglish#p/u/1/hK3hq3aPl8k

pro wikileaks hax0rs taking down mastercard.com, oh yay

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=12341830

Faisal Islam
@faisalislam

This is very serious now, not just the website ... RT @ruskin147: Customers seeing "a complete loss of service" on MasterCard Securecode
17 minutes ago via web Favorite Undo Retweet Reply

http://i1.squidoocdn.com/resize/squidoo_images/-1/draft_lens9155221module80913991photo_1264293344LisbethSalander.jpg

"securecode"

just in time for christmas!

american irritation with wikileaks about to tip over into full-blown rage

don't fuk w/ xmas shopping

http://forum.greytalk.com/public/style_emoticons/default/yay.gif

now they've infiltrated the greyhound network WHO IS NEXT

Assange backers in cyber retaliation over arrest (Reuters)

Next Glenn Beck will be pulling up 4chan on his screen to show us Assange's "backers."