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[radioheadrule83]

Time for some more quotes of WikiLeaks support

Here are previous compilations of quotes that I have posted on GAF:
http://is.gd/iJu6t
http://is.gd/iJu3j

Chris O'Brien, Mercury News -
http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_16762752?source=rss&nclick_check=1

But the reaction is misguided. Our government is undermining its own credibility with this overheated rhetoric. And this lashing out says more about our politicians than it does about Assange or WikiLeaks.[...]

The proper response to WikiLeaks should be a national conversation about what material should be kept secret -- and to keep that at an absolute minimum. No one is arguing that there aren't some secrets the government needs to keep. Even WikiLeaks has held back some of the documents it received. But the circle around the stuff that falls into this category should be drawn as small as possible.[...]

But there should be no doubt that WikiLeaks' efforts to expose government secrets have done a great public service by puncturing a hole in the government's arguments that it needs to keep expanding its bubble of secrecy to keep us safe."

Micah L Sifry, Tech President
http://techpresident.com/blog-entry/after-wikileaks-promise-internet-freedom-real

So, while I am not 100% sure I am for everything that Wikileaks has done is and is doing, I do know that I am anti-anti-Wikileaks. The Internet makes possible a freer and more democratic culture, but only if we fight for it. And that means standing up precisely when unpopular speakers test the boundaries of free speech, and would-be censors try to create thought-crimes and intimidate the rest of us into behaving like children or sheep.

Jeff Jarvis, The Huffington Post -
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-jarvis/transparency-the-new-sour_b_792213.html

"Government should be transparent by default, secret by necessity. Of course, it is not. Too much of government is secret. Why? Because those who hold secrets hold power.

Now WikiLeaks has punctured that power. Whether or not it ever reveals another document -- and we can be certain that it will -- Wikileaks has made us all aware that no secret is safe. If something is known by one person, it can be known by the world.

Guy Rundle, Crikey
http://www.crikey.com.au/2010/12/06...orts-wikileaks-is-phillip-adams-in-the-frame/

"Greens leader Bob Brown has spoken out in support of WikiLeaks, following its Cablegate document release to major media that began last week. While urging the global whistleblowing website to be "diligent" in ensuring that its released documents do not put lives at risk, Brown told Crikey that "the documents have caused increased scrutiny on often controversial aspects of US foreign policy. Such scrutiny is a good thing."

Brown's statement comes as the Gillard Labor government, which remains in power with the support of Green MHR Adam Bandt, continues to explore ways in which it can prosecute Julian Assange. Attorney-General Robert McClelland stated yesterday that "... the Australian Federal Police are looking at whether any Australian laws have been breached," a repeat of earlier statements. However, he is yet to specify any crimes with which Assange might be charged.

McClelland has also raised the possibility of cancelling Assange's Australian passport, though again no grounds on which this might occur have been raised.[...] The move is reminiscent of actions by the Menzies government at the height of the Cold War, when passport cancellation or refusal to issue was one of several techniques of political censorship and repression."

Paul Craig Roberts, Counterpunch
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts12022010.html

"The reaction to WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange tells us all we need to know about the total corruption of our “modern” world, which in fact is a throwback to the Dark Ages.

Some member of the United States government released to WikiLeaks the documents that are now controversial. The documents are controversial, because they are official US documents and show all too clearly that the US government is a duplicitous entity whose raison d’etre is to control every other government.

The media, not merely in the US but also throughout the English speaking world and Europe, has shown its hostility to WikiLeaks. The reason is obvious. WikiLeaks reveals truth, while the media covers up for the US government and its puppet states."

French Data Network supports WikiLeaks by hosting its own mirror

"There is a strong government commitment, strong pressure, to censor this website, without court order, even without justice having pronounced on whether the site is legal in France or not. Censorship via technical means and intermediaries, bypassing the law and courts, is precisely what FDN fights against. This is precisely the heart of our fight, to defend an open and neutral network. So, naturally, this is where we work. Wikileaks has network-related problems, and we know how to handle them."

Clay Shirky
http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2010/12/wikileaks-and-the-long-haul/

[...] as a citizen it sickens me to see the US trying to take shortcuts. The leaders of Myanmar and Belarus, or Thailand and Russia, can now rightly say to us “You went after Wikileaks’ domain name, their hosting provider, and even denied your citizens the ability to register protest through donations, all without a warrant and all targeting overseas entities, simply because you decided you don’t like the site. If that’s the way governments get to behave, we can live with that.”

Over the long haul, we will need new checks and balances for newly increased transparency — Wikileaks shouldn’t be able to operate as a law unto itself anymore than the US should be able to. In the short haul, though, Wikileaks is our Amsterdam. Whatever restrictions we eventually end up enacting, we need to keep Wikileaks alive today, while we work through the process democracies always go through to react to change. If it’s OK for a democracy to just decide to run someone off the internet for doing something they wouldn’t prosecute a newspaper for doing, the idea of an internet that further democratizes the public sphere will have taken a mortal blow."

Andrew Gavin Marshall, Global Research
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=MAR20101206&articleId=22278

We are under a heavy propaganda offensive on the part of the global corporate and mainstream media to spin and manipulate these leaks to their own interests. We, as alternative media and voices, must use Wikileaks to our advantage. Ignoring it will only damage our cause and undermine our strength. The mainstream media understood that; so too, must we.[...]

We are on the verge of a period of global social transformation, the question is: will we do anything about it? Will we seek to inform and partake in this transition, or will we sit and watch it be misled, criticizing it as it falters and falls? Just as Martin Luther King commented in his 1967 speech, Beyond Vietnam, that it seemed as if America was “on the wrong side of a world revolution,” now there is an opportunity to remedy that sad reality, and not simply on a national scale, but global.[...]

Make no mistake, this is an opportunity for the spread of truth, not a distraction from it. Treat it accordingly."

Glenn Greenwald, Salon -
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks/index.html

Just look at what the U.S. Government and its friends are willing to do and capable of doing to someone who challenges or defies them -- all without any charges being filed or a shred of legal authority. They've blocked access to their assets, tried to remove them from the Internet, bullied most everyone out of doing any business with them, froze the funds marked for Assange's legal defense at exactly the time that they prepare a strange international arrest warrant to be executed, repeatedly threatened him with murder, had their Australian vassals openly threaten to revoke his passport, and declared them "Terrorists" even though -- unlike the authorities who are doing all of these things -- neither Assange nor WikiLeaks ever engaged in violence, advocated violence, or caused the slaughter of civilians.[...]

People often have a hard time believing that the terms "authoritarian" and "tyranny" apply to their own government, but that's because those who meekly stay in line and remain unthreatening are never targeted by such forces. The face of authoritarianism and tyranny reveals itself with how it responds to those who meaningfully dissent from and effectively challenge its authority: do they act within the law or solely through the use of unconstrained force?"

John Naughton, The Guardian -
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentis...c/06/western-democracies-must-live-with-leaks

"Western political elites obfuscate, lie and bluster – and when the veil of secrecy is lifted, they try to kill the messenger.[...]

The response has been vicious, co-ordinated and potentially comprehensive, and it contains hard lessons for everyone who cares about democracy and about the future of the net. There is a delicious irony in the fact that it is now the so-called liberal democracies that are clamouring to shut WikiLeaks down.[...]

One thing that might explain the official hysteria about the revelations is the way they expose how political elites in western democracies have been deceiving their electorates.[...] What we are hearing from the enraged officialdom of our democracies is mostly the petulant screaming of emperors whose clothes have been shredded by the net.

Which brings us back to the larger significance of this controversy. The political elites of western democracies have discovered that the internet can be a thorn not just in the side of authoritarian regimes, but in their sides too. It has been comical watching them and their agencies stomp about the net like maddened, half-blind giants trying to whack a mole. It has been deeply worrying to watch terrified internet companies – with the exception of Twitter, so far – bending to their will."

The Hindu - "Digital McCarthyism" -
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/article933915.ece?sms_ss=twitter&at_xt=4cfd65b19bf0ad1a,0

"The campaign against WikiLeaks is a clear move to censor political material on the Internet and, potentially, on other media. The first moves made by lawmakers such as Senator Joe Lieberman, who chairs the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, have no legal foundation and yet have succeeded with Amazon and PayPal. What has followed is shockingly repressive and obscurantist. The Library of Congress blocked access to WikiLeaks across its computer systems, including reading rooms, and Columbia University students aspiring for diplomatic careers have been advised not to comment on, or link to, the whistleblower website's revelations. It is doubly tragic that such concerted attacks are securing support from countries with a progressive legacy such as France. The intolerant response to WikiLeaks is a potential threat to all media and must be fought. Senator Lieberman and other lawmakers have introduced legislation that proposes to make the publication of an intelligence source a federal crime. Already, U.S. law allows the shutting down of some Internet domains managed in that country on grounds of infringement of copyright. The threat to the publication of inconvenient material, even with responsible redactions, is all too real."

Dan Gillmor, Salon
http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/12/06/war_on_speech

"Journalists cover wars by not taking sides. But when the war is on free speech itself, neutrality is no longer an option.

The WikiLeaks releases are a pivotal moment in the future of journalism. They raise any number of ethical and legal issues for journalists, but one is becoming paramount.

As I said last week, and feel obliged to say again today, our government -- and its allies, willing or coerced, in foreign governments and corporations -- are waging a powerful war against freedom of speech.

WikiLeaks may well make us uncomfortable in some of what it does, though in general I believe it's done far more good than harm so far. We need to recognize, however, as Mathew Ingram wrote over the weekend, that "Like It or Not, WikiLeaks is a Media Entity." What our government is trying to do to WikiLeaks now is lawless in stunning ways, as Salon's Glenn Greenwald forcefully argued today.[...]

Media organizations with even half a clue need to recognize what is at stake at this point. It's more than immediate self-interest, namely their own ability to do their jobs. It's about the much more important result if they can't. If journalism can routinely be shut down the way the government wants to do this time, we'll have thrown out free speech in this lawless frenzy."

Civil Liberties Australia

Civil Liberties Australia unreservedly supports Julian Assange's right to operate as a journalist/blogger, and to post leaked material online. By doing so, he commits no legitimate offence we're aware of in the USA or Australia*.

In fact, he is following in a proud US tradition, along the lines of Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein with leaker 'Deep Throat' in the Nixon era, and the now-revered leaker Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers at the time of the Vietnam war.

If the person who leaked the material to Assange has broken a US law, it would be the same law that leaker Ellsberg would have broken in the case of the Pentagon Papers in 1971 during Vietnam...and Ellsberg is now a US hero.

If Assange himself has broken a US law, it would be the same law that Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein broke in the Watergate – Deep Throat case which led to the impeachment and departure in disgrace of President Richard Nixon. Both journalists are American heroes, with at least one movie and many books about them and their leaking/reporting ways.

What was the problem in both the Pentagon Papers and Watergate cases? US military and Administration officials were caught lying.

Plus ca change...

As regards Assange and the Australian Government, CLA is alarmed that a government can so readily abandon an Australian citizen as Prime Minister Gillard and Attorney-General McClelland appeared to do at the outset of this matter.

CLA recalls how even extremely conservative Australians eventually rebelled and forced the Howard Liberal Government to do something to help David Hicks, whom that government had abandoned to fabricated American laws and prison-without-reason at the Guantanamo Bay hellhole in Cuba.

Now, it seems, the Gillard Labor Government is going one better, and refusing to stand up for an Australian citizen whose only proven crime is being a good journalist/blogger. It makes you wonder what is the value of an Australian passport if the Australian Government's first response is to try to help a foreign power find a charge to lay against an Australian passport holder.

CLA would prefer the Australian Government spent its resources assisting Assange defend possibly-fabricated sex crime charges being made against him. Remember, they were made once, then dropped by a Swedish prosecutor, and only recently re-instated by another prosecutor at the time of the latest leaks.

CLA would like to nominate Julian Assange for Australian of the Year 2011: he has done more to eliminate lies, deceit, humbug and hubris in international affairs than anyone in the Gillard (or, for that matter, Howard) Governments…or in the US Government.

* The US might decide to charge him with sedition – historically a charge laid at the whim of English kings – which is a political ‘offence’ not used in the USA for half a century and one formally and officially discredited in Australia by a change of legislation in 2010.

– released by Bill Rowlings, CEO, Civil Liberties Australia, 7 Dec 2010

 

[cntr]

Why are there soooo many fucking Wikileaks threads?!

Can someone find that Firefox extension or something that hid threads? I'm too tried of having my GAF browsing being assaulted by this.

Edit: and god, they're filled with so much bullshit and nearly all of them have extremely horrible, provocative, and misleading titles

 

[SolidusDave]

+1 support for this thread

It's just that it's kinda more a thread for reading than discussing, I don't know. I'm very grateful that you post all these little news here.


and I have to agree with this:

So, while I am not 100% sure I am for everything that Wikileaks has done is and is doing, I do know that I am anti-anti-Wikileaks.

If you are against the very basic concept behind wikileaks, you suck.
I really hope this will encourage more and more people to speak up (anonymously) if they know about secret/covered up stuff they feel is simply wrong. Wikileaks (and possible follow-ups) provide a platform to spread such sensible information to everyone.

 

[Mecha_Infantry]

New shit hot off the press!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11944645

 

[Lard]

New shit hot off the press!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11944645

Details!

WikiLeaks cables: Lockerbie bomber freed after Gaddafi's 'thuggish' threats
Megrahi case led to threats against UK's Libyan interests, while Scots who released him had turned down 'a parade of treats'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/07/wikileaks-gaddafi-britain-lockerbie-bomber

You're a bunch of paranoid freaks.

This is a thread for posting news stories.

If you want to be a right-wing dickhead, piss off and do it in another thread.

 

[Lard]

Holy fuck

WikiLeaks: Texas Company Helped Pimp Little Boys To Stoned Afghan Cops
http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2010/12/wikileaks_texas_company_helped.php

 

[Daheza]

Holy fuck

WikiLeaks: Texas Company Helped Pimp Little Boys To Stoned Afghan Cops
http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2010/12/wikileaks_texas_company_helped.php

Wow that is horrible

 

[Ether_Snake]

How am I a right-wing freak? I was just disappointed people wouldn't comment in this thread on leaks but they would in every other thread.

Anyway the latest leaks are really important IMO. Glad to see it's still going, I originally thought it would end with China.

 

[Manos: The Hans of Fate]

Holy fuck

WikiLeaks: Texas Company Helped Pimp Little Boys To Stoned Afghan Cops
http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2010/12/wikileaks_texas_company_helped.php

Horrible, but wasn't that reported awhile ago? I recall reading about Dynocorps shitty habits a couple of months ago. Of course they have a stellar record dating back to Bosnia too.

 

[See You Next Wednesday]

IF he leaks significant Russian documents, he's a dead man walking. Seriously. He has most of the world by the balls, but not them.

He already leaked documents of them, a lot of them. Read the OP.

He is still alive.

 

[Manos: The Hans of Fate]

He already leaked documents of them, a lot of them. Read the OP.

He is still alive.

No he leaked AMERICAN documents, he hasn't leaked crap authored by the Russians.

 

[See You Next Wednesday]

No he leaked AMERICAN documents, he hasn't leaked crap authored by the Russians.

What the hell is the difference? They are official claims against them either way.

You might want to read this: http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/egnj7/wikileaks_assange_rape_accuser_has_cia_ties/c17yjyy

:lol The guy who found the information about the C.I.A. connection might be a anti-Semite, so disregard his information.

 

[Manos: The Hans of Fate]

What the hell is the difference? They are official claims against them either way.

The implication is that the Russians would kill them if their stuff is leaked (ie say FSB internal memos). They don't care if it's our stuff.

 

[Lard]

How am I a right-wing freak? I was just disappointed people wouldn't comment in this thread on leaks but they would in every other thread.

Anyway the latest leaks are really important IMO. Glad to see it's still going, I originally thought it would end with China.

Maybe I misunderstood the context. Sorry. :/

 

[Dartastic]

Holy fuck

WikiLeaks: Texas Company Helped Pimp Little Boys To Stoned Afghan Cops
http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2010/12/wikileaks_texas_company_helped.php

Just saw this. HOLY FUCKING SHIT. o.0 HOW WOULD WE KNOW THIS WITHOUT WIKILEAKS?!?!?

 

[jorma]

Holy fuck

WikiLeaks: Texas Company Helped Pimp Little Boys To Stoned Afghan Cops
http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2010/12/wikileaks_texas_company_helped.php

Pretty impressive that these corporations even manage to make the Taliban look good; no easy feat.
And then they get help covering it up. Simply amazing.

But hey, not news, not interesting, not important etc etc.

 

[Wazzim]

Holy fuck

WikiLeaks: Texas Company Helped Pimp Little Boys To Stoned Afghan Cops
http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2010/12/wikileaks_texas_company_helped.php

smh

 

[jamesinclair]

Thanks for the compilation of media reactions to the leak.

It's great to see so much sanity in once post.

 

[Jex]

Details!

WikiLeaks cables: Lockerbie bomber freed after Gaddafi's 'thuggish' threats
Megrahi case led to threats against UK's Libyan interests, while Scots who released him had turned down 'a parade of treats'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/07/wikileaks-gaddafi-britain-lockerbie-bomber

Holy fuck

WikiLeaks: Texas Company Helped Pimp Little Boys To Stoned Afghan Cops
http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2010/12/wikileaks_texas_company_helped.php

Dang those are both crazy enough to get their own threads, if they don't already have them.

 

[jaxword]

Why are there soooo many fucking Wikileaks threads?!

Can someone find that Firefox extension or something that hid threads? I'm too tried of having my GAF browsing being assaulted by this.

Edit: and god, they're filled with so much bullshit and nearly all of them have extremely horrible, provocative, and misleading titles

You could just not read them...

 

[Dead Man]

Don't know what thread wanted this, but the former Aussie PM, and Foreign Minister have come out in support of Assange in regards the leaks.

http://www.news.com.au/world/kevin-...s-julian-assange/story-e6frfkyi-1225967838974

 

[BowieZ]

Don't know what thread wanted this, but the former Aussie PM, and Foreign Minister have come out in support of Assange in regards the leaks.

http://www.news.com.au/world/kevin-...s-julian-assange/story-e6frfkyi-1225967838974

I wonder if Rudd REALLY doesn't give a damn about what was said about him... :lol

 

[Dead Man]

I wonder if Rudd REALLY doesn't give a damn about what was said about him... :lol

Yeah, don't think so. But if it takes him having a tantrum to get some support for a citizen, then he will just have to have a tantrum

Edit: Same story from ABC: http://abc.com.au/news/stories/2010/12/08/3088461.htm

 

[Ikael]

Guys, my father wants to make a donation to Wikileaks. As in, a BIG donation. Any ideas about how to do it now that Pay Pal has blocked his account?

 

[m3k]

to me rudd doesnt seem like he would mind to much... to be honest most of his stuff is fairly normal stuff to be said

he admitted china was australias banker lol

really props to this thread, but i think you would need to make another in the future cause your OP is gonna get flooded in a month or so

maybe this could be the first thread... or you could continue this thread with notes on where the next page of updates is kept

 

[radioheadrule83]

Guys, my father wants to make a donation to Wikileaks. As in, a BIG donation. Any ideas about how to do it now that Pay Pal has blocked his account?

Direct bank transfer seems the only safe way to me. Their IBAN details are on their site...
which I can't access at the moment from where I am.

Don't make a Visa / Mastercard or Paypal payment anywhere as its unclear as to whether they'd ever see the money and whether your dad would ever get it back if not... I wouldn't really risk AMEX or any other kind of card either.

 

[mavs]

Holy fuck

WikiLeaks: Texas Company Helped Pimp Little Boys To Stoned Afghan Cops
http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2010/12/wikileaks_texas_company_helped.php

Many of DynCorp's employees are ex-Green Berets and veterans of other elite units, and the company was commissioned by the US government to provide training for the Afghani police. According to most reports, over 95 percent of its $2 billion annual revenue comes from US taxpayers.

...
As we mentioned, this isn't DynCorp's first brush with the sex-slavery game. Back in Bosnia in 1999, US policewoman Kathryn Bolkovac was fired from DynCorp after blowing the whistle on a sex-slave ring operating on one of our bases there. DynCorp's employees were accused of raping and peddling girls as young as 12 from countries like Ukraine, Moldova and Romania. The company was forced to settle lawsuits against Bolkovac (whose story was recently told in the feature film The Whistleblower) and another man who informed authorities about DynCorp's sex ring.

What the FUCK?

 

[jaxword]

What the FUCK?

America literally has an underage sex trade industry.

Watch as...no one does anything about it.

 

[Walshicus]

WikiLeaks cables: Saudis proposed Arab force to invade Lebanon
Foreign minister wanted US, Nato and UN backing for offensive to end Iranian-backed Hezbollah's siege of government
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/07/wikileaks-saudi-arab-invasion-lebanon

 

[scorcho]

Saudi Arabia is certainly never shy about requesting American troops to do their bidding.

 

[Duracelllll]

More Saudi news for you guys. typical hypocrites..

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/07/wikileaks-cables-saudi-princes-parties

In what may prove a particularly incendiary cable, US diplomats describe a world of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll behind the official pieties of Saudi Arabian royalty.

Jeddah consulate officials described an underground Halloween party, thrown last year by a member of the royal family, which broke all the country's Islamic taboos. Liquor and prostitutes were present in abundance, according to leaked dispatches, behind the heavily-guarded villa gates.

The party was thrown by a wealthy prince from the large Al-Thunayan family. The diplomats said his identity should be kept secret. A US energy drinks company also put up some of the finance.

"Alcohol, though strictly prohibited by Saudi law and custom, was plentiful at the party's well-stocked bar. The hired Filipino bartenders served a cocktail punch using sadiqi, a locally-made moonshine," the cable said. "It was also learned through word-of-mouth that a number of the guests were in fact 'working girls', not uncommon for such parties."

Good to see them modernising a little?

 

[Duracelllll]

Guys, my father wants to make a donation to Wikileaks. As in, a BIG donation. Any ideas about how to do it now that Pay Pal has blocked his account?

http://213.251.145.96/support.html

direct deposit or cheque in the mail seems to be the best option

 

[Lv99 Slacker]

Guys, my father wants to make a donation to Wikileaks. As in, a BIG donation. Any ideas about how to do it now that Pay Pal has blocked his account?

Saw this on RawStory.com:

Exclusive: Xipline now taking WikiLeaks donations
Tuesday, December 7th, 2010 -- 11:30 am

The Philadelphia, PA-based mobile payments firm Xipwire, Inc. said Tuesday that it would act as an intermediary for WikiLeaks after the world's largest credit card providers halted all electronic donations to the non-profit media outlet.

"We do think people should be able to make their own decisions as to who they donate to," Xipwire co-founder Sibyl Lindsay told Raw Story during a Tuesday afternoon telephone interview. "The fact that people can't donate to where they'd like to and make that decision for themselves does bother us."

The company has set up a page where WikiLeaks supporters can donate, saying it will waive all related fees.

"Our motivation is really simple," Xipwire founder Sharif Aleandre explained in an email. "While people may or may not agree with WikiLeaks and the documents it has released, we feel that PayPal's recent decision to refuse to process donations on their behalf effectively silences voices in this democracy. In fact, it was the Citizens United case that basically equated donations with free speech and if the Supreme Court decided that our government doesn't have the power to regulate that speech then it's our opinion that corporations certainly shouldn't have that power either."

https://xipwire.com/give/wl

 

[BudokaiMR2]

Anyone surprised by the Saudi royalty stuff needs a swift kick to the groin.

I once had about 12 Saudi students at a TOEFL based english teaching program I worked at. They were all spoiled as shit and some of them came over with their wives. You could find all of them(including the married ones) at clubs almost every night grinding up on every girl there.

I almost punched one when he came into my class and practically slapped a video camera out of my hand because his wife wasn't allowed to be videotaped. We were shooting an innocent class skit to be shown at their graduation...

 

[theignoramus]

More Saudi news for you guys. typical hypocrites..

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/07/wikileaks-cables-saudi-princes-parties

Good to see them modernising a little?

the monarchy cant rule in the manner that it has forever. I hope I'm alive to watch it go down in flames.

 

[Alucrid]

Anyone surprised by the Saudi royalty stuff needs a swift kick to the groin.

I once had about 12 Saudi students at a TOEFL based english teaching program I worked at. They were all spoiled as shit and some of them came over with their wives. You could find all of them(including the married ones) at clubs almost every night grinding up on every girl there.

I almost punched one when he came into my class and practically slapped a video camera out of my hand because his wife wasn't allowed to be videotaped. We were shooting an innocent class skit to be shown at their graduation...

Wives? How old were they?

 

[BudokaiMR2]

Wives? How old were they?

It ranged as with all of my students. It was a program primarily aimed at people trying to improve their english in order to enter American universities but not limited only to that. The Saudi students were ranged between 17-35 with most in their early twenties though.

 

[Duracelllll]

Another story you guys will love: (worth reading all the story at the link)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/08/wikileaks-us-russia-visa-mastercard

The US lobbied Russia this year on behalf of Visa and MasterCard in an attempt to ensure the payment companies were not "adversely affected" by new legislation, according to American diplomats in Moscow.

A state department cable released this afternoon by WikiLeaks reveals that US diplomats intervened to try to amend a draft law going through Russia's Duma. Their explicit aim was to ensure the new law did not "disadvantage" the two US firms, the cable states.

...

The answer, Mitman suggests, is for the Obama administration to actively bat for Visa and MasterCard. "While the draft legislation has yet to be submitted to the Duma and can still be amended, post will continue to raise our concerns with senior GOR officials.

"We recommend that senior USG officials also take advantage of meetings with their Russian counterparts, including through the Bilateral Presidential Commission, to press the GOR to change the draft text to ensure US payment companies are not adversely affected."

Co-incidence? I think not!

 

[Totakeke]

Adding to that, Paypal admits US pressure over Wikileaks account freeze.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/08/paypal-us-pressure-wikileaks-mastercard

PayPal today admitted it suspended payments to WikiLeaks after an intervention from the US State Department.

The site's vice-president of platform, Osama Bedier, told an internet conference the site had decided to freeze WikiLeaks's account on 4 December after government representatives said it was engaged in illegal activity.

"State Dept told us these were illegal activities. It was straightforward," he told the LeWeb conference in Paris, adding: "We ... comply with regulations around the world, making sure that we protect our brand."

PayPal is the first major corporation to admit that its decision to suspend dealings with WikiLeaks was a result of US government pressure.

 

[ElectricThunder]

Ether and folk are doing great work on posting newsbits into the thread---here and over on D&D at SomethingAwful have pretty well been the best places I know of to try and digest the lot of it as it is combed through.

 

[radioheadrule83]

Just closed my PayPal account with this missive:

WikiLeaks is not responsible for any illegal activity. It has not been charged, officially, with any illegality. It has simply helped in the journalistic practice of whistle-blowing -- just as Der Spiegel, the New York Times, the Guardian and others have. They are a whistleblowing organisation that exposes wrong-doing and facilitates essential political journalism.

Donations to such entities are a form of free speech. Unless WikiLeaks is proven to have done something illegal (by more than US State Department rhetoric), PayPal has no right to be telling its customers what it can and can't spend its money on and influencing the ability of a political, journalistic organisation to defend itself. You have suppressed peoples' voices in ending support for WikiLeaks, and you have engaged in corporate-led censorship. PayPal's actions - along with those of others - have endangered the future of free speech on and off the Internet.

I cannot in good conscience continue to use your service!

I'd close my credit cards down as well, but the balances are as such that I simply can't at the moment. Having looked into it as well, its actually scary how much of a monopoly on finances VISA and MasterCard hold... I could try Discover / AMEX I suppose - I know AMEX operates in the UK, but is that any safer?

This is just another reason to get my balance(s) paid off as soon as possible.

 

[talisayNon]

How do you become VP of a company like Paypal with a first name like Osama? :lol

 

[Ikael]

Thanks for the replies! I am sending the info to my father right now. I will try to donate too, but my donation will be in the 3 digit range instead, I fear :/

 

[curls]

US embassy cables reveal top executive's claims that company 'knows everything' about key decisions in oil-rich Niger Delta

The oil giant Shell claimed it has inserted its staff into all key ministries of the Nigerian government, giving it access to politicians' every move in the oil-rich Niger Delta, according to a leaked US diplomatic cable.

The company's top executive in Nigeria told US diplomats that Shell had seconded employees to every relevant department and so knew "everything that was being done in those ministries". She boasted that the Nigerian government had "forgotten" about the extent of Shell's infiltration and were unaware of how much the company knew about its deliberations.

The WikiLeaks disclosure was today seized on by campaigners as evidence of Shell's vice-like grip on the country's oil wealth. "Shell and the government of Nigeria are two sides of the same coin," said Celestine AkpoBari, programme officer for Social Action Nigeria.

"Shell is everywhere. They have an eye and an ear in every ministry of Nigeria. They have people on the payroll in every community, which is why they get away with everything. They are more powerful than the Nigerian government."

The criticism was echoed by Ben Amunwa of the London-based oil watchdog Platform. "Shell claims to have nothing to do with Nigerian politics," he said. "In reality, Shell works deep inside the system, and has long exploited political channels in Nigeria to its own advantage."

Source

 

[curls]

Rampant corruption 'could push Kenya back into violence'

Kenya could descend into violence worse than the 2008 post-election crisis unless rampant corruption in the ruling elite is tackled, the US ambassador to Kenya has warned in a report to Washington.

Michael Ranneberger's cable, written in January, is scathing about efforts to reform the political system in the country. "While some positive reform steps have been taken, the old guard associated with the culture of impunity continues to resist fundamental change," he wrote.

That culture has existed since independence, he said, adding that President Mwai Kibaki, prime minister Raila Odinga and "most members of the cabinet and leaders of the political parties" are part of it.

He cited, but did not name, "a person at the Kenya Anti Corruption Commission ... [who] blocks progress on high-level investigations and has ties directly to State House. He also described a senior policeman as having close links with the president but "allegedly closely associated with the 'kwe kwe' death squad responsible for extrajudicial killings."

"Failure to implement significant reforms will greatly enhance prospects for a violent crisis in 2012 or before – which might well prove much worse than the last post-election crisis," he wrote.

Source

 

[Ether_Snake]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2010/dec/08/wikileaks-us-embassy-cables-live-updates

The vice president of Bolivia, Alvaro Garcia Linera, has posted all the leaked US diplomatic cables about his country on his official website.

Garcia says he wants Bolivians to know the "barbarities and insults" of what he called Washington's "interventionist infiltration". Bolivia's leftwing leaders expelled the US ambassador in 2008, accusing him of conspiring against the country.

The site includes two quotes, "The truth will set you free," from the New Testament, and from Julian Assange, "Every organisation rests on a mountain of secrets".

Saudi Arabia is certainly never shy about requesting American troops to do their bidding.

They are most likely behind a lot of the bullshit hype before the Iraq war. Putting the US between them and Iran.

 

[Divvy]

SourceShell boasts it has infiltrated Nigerian government

So this seems like it should be a pretty big deal.

 

[mavs]

They are most likely behind a lot of the bullshit hype before the Iraq war. Putting the US between them and Iran.

From the cables released so far, it seems King Abdullah advised against the Iraq war. For the Saudis, Saddam Hussein was the best case scenario in Iraq: A sunni-dominated dictatorship over the borderlands of Shia territory.

 

[jorma]

So this seems like it should be a pretty big deal.

I mean we all knew Shell was playing dirty in Nigeria, but... just wow.

 

[curls]

I mean we all knew Shell was playing dirty in Nigeria, but... just wow.

It's fucking disgusting.