Wikileaks documenten #19: Langzaam het nieuwe jaar in

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One of WikiLeaks' greatest achievements has been to expose the exorbitant amount of influence that multinational corporations have over Washington's diplomacy.

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Haiti: Leaked Cables Expose U.S. Suppression of Min. Wage, Election Doubts and Elite’s Private Army

Drawing on almost 2,000 classified U.S. diplomatic cables on Haiti released by WikiLeaks, a partnership between The Nation magazine and the Haitian weekly, Haïti Liberté, exposes new details on how Fruit of the Loom, Hanes and Levi’s worked with the United States to block an increase in the minimum wage in the hemisphere’s poorest nation, how business owners and members of the country’s elite used Haiti’s police force as their own private army after the 2004 U.S.-backed coup that ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and how the United States, the European Union and the United Nations supported Haiti’s recent presidential and parliamentary elections, despite concerns over the exclusion of Haiti’s largest opposition party, Lavalas, the party of Aristide. We speak with the reports’ authors, longtime Haiti correspondent Dan Coughlin and Haïti Liberté editor, Kim Ives. [includes rush transcript]

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Climate of Fear: Jim Risen v. the Obama administration

The Obama DOJ's effort to force New York Times investigative journalist Jim Risen to testify in a whistleblower prosecution and reveal his source is really remarkable and revealing in several ways; it should be receiving much more attention than it is. On its own, the whistleblower prosecution and accompanying targeting of Risen are pernicious, but more importantly, it underscores the menacing attempt by the Obama administration -- as Risen yesterday pointed out -- to threaten and intimidate whistleblowers, journalists and activists who meaningfully challenge what the government does in secret.

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2011-06-25 WikiLeaks Notes: Latest News on #Cablegate Releases, #WikiLeaks & More

This is a "WikiLeaks News Update," constantly updated throughout each day. The blog tracks stories that are obviously related to WikiLeaks but also follows stories related to freedom of information, transparency, cybersecurity, freedom of expression, and sometimes the national security establishment of the United States because each issue/topic helps one further understand WikiLeaks and vice versa. All the times are GMT.

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http://wlcentral.org/node/1962

02:20 AM 'What Wikileaks Reveals about Canadian and U.S. Efforts in Suppression and Surveillance of Indigenous Communities': a comprehensive selection of articles.

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WikiLeaks Intends To Sue Visa And MasterCard For Blocking Payment

WikiLeaks and its credit card processing partner Datacell have just announced their intent to file suit in the EU against credit card companies Visa and Mastercard for blocking donations to the service last year.

In early December the two payments companies cut off all payments to the relatively quiet as of late organization, with Mastercard citing that its “rules prohibit customers from directly or indirectly engaging in or facilitating any action that is illegal.” The legality of WikiLeaks itself is still a matter of debate.

However, Visa and Mastercard were not alone in withdrawing their support, as both PayPal and Amazon also pulled their services from WikiLeaks, which facilitates anonymous leaks of sensitive information including hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables. WikiLeaks does not mention Amazon or PayPal in the suit.

WikiLeaks is holding that the PayPal and Visa blocks count as “anti-competitive” and violate Article 101 (1) and 102 of the EU competition laws, seeking to file a complaint in the Danish Maritime and Commercial Court. As of yet, according to the release, that complaint has not been filed.

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Here’s The Legal Complaint WikiLeaks Is Threatening To File Against Visa, MasterCard

More than six months have passed since Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, and others cut WikiLeaks’ purse strings. And if that blockade lasts six more days, the secret-spilling group plans to take its financial fight to the courtroom.

If Visa Europe and MasterCard Europe haven’t re-opened payment WikiLeaks by next Thursday, the group and its payment provider DataCell plan to file a complaint with the E.U. Commission against the two companies as well as the Danish payment processor Teller, according to Sveinn Andri Sveinsson, the Icelandic lawyer for WikiLeaks and DataCell.

“They’re boycotting Datacell and Wikileaks without any objective justification,” says Sveinsson. “This is clearly an abuse of their market dominance.”

According to Sveinsson, the following complaint was sent to the two companies earlier this month, and will be filed with the E.U. Commission at an appointment Thursday if the situation isn’t resolved by then.

[Document te zien op de site]

The complaint argues that the three payment firms have violated Articles 101 and 102 of the E.U. Treaty, which deal with competition among businesses and forbid the creation of anti-competitive cartels. Article 101 prevents firms from creating partnerships for the purposes of price fixing, and Article 102 forbids firms in a “dominant position” from abusing that position.

Both Visa and MasterCard have claimed that payments to WikiLeaks and DataCell were suspended because they potentially violate the companies’ terms of service. MasterCard has gone as far explaining that it prohibits “customers from directly or indirectly engaging in or facilitating any action that is illegal.” Visa has stated that it is investigating “the nature of [WikiLeaks] business and whether it contravenes Visa operating rules.”

A Visa spokesperson told me earlier this month that the company would “respond in due course” to WikiLeaks’ threat of legal action. I’ve put out requests to both companies for further comment but haven’t yet heard back.

Teller has already completed an investigation into WikiLeaks’ legality, and in January stated in a report to Visa that it could find no proof that WikiLeaks had broken any laws.

WikiLeaks’ and DataCell’s complaint makes no specific claims of monetary damages. But a video released by WikiLeaks earlier this week implied that the termination of credit card payments to WikiLeaks has cost it $15 million.

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Cablegate: Visa and MasterCard face legal problems over WikiLeaks blockade

After more than six months of preparation, WikiLeaks and DataCell are moving forward with a lawsuit, looking to end the financial blockade brought by Visa and MasterCard. According to WikiLeaks, Visa Europe, MasterCard Europe, and Teller are the three businesses highlighted by the complaint.

“…U.S. influenced, financial blockade…”

On December 7, 2010, DataCell announced to the world that Visa Europe suspended their accounts due to them processing donations to WikiLeaks. They were asked to stop processing donations in exchange for service restoration, but DataCell refused, explaining that the request to do so was based on untrue and unverified accusations.

A day later, DataCell’s payment processor, Teller, started suspending all Visa transactions through DataCell, on the request of Visa Europe. The reasoning behind Visa Europe’s request was to “investigate the case in order to protect the Visa brand name; and to make sure neither payment processor nor Visa Europe is doing illegitimate transactions to fund the WikiLeaks website.”

For those same reasons, Teller suspended DataCell’s MasterCard account as well. The block on DataCell has prevented them from collecting WikiLeaks-related donations, as well as collecting payments via credit card for other services, including their primary business as a data center and hosting provider.

“… [Visa] is clearly an attempt trying to undermine WikiLeaks through financial mean. This is not about the Visa brand name. This is about politics. Visa should not be involved in it (sic),” DataCell said in a statement.

In March, Teller said that they found nothing wrong with DataCell’s processes within the legal framework governing the credit transactions. They asked that Visa Europe, as well as MasterCard Europe, allow them to reopen DataCell’s accounts. Visa Europe refused, and MasterCard’s stance is unknown, but it is understood that they were working with Teller on the matter.

However, the fact that DataCell was still unable to process payments led them to announce the hiring of a legal team in Iceland, Denmark, and U.K. “…to present our case in the courts.”

“Our goal is to get the justice fulfilled. We believe it's our right to conduct businesses in a legal way just like any other companies. The legal opinion we have got from our law firms and legal professors around the western world is, simply, Visa behaves like the worst kind of mafia with their behaviour…It's not in the hands of Visa to decide what is illegal and what's not.”

When speaking to Icelandic media, DataCell’s founder, Olaf Sigurvinsson, added to his company’s statements.

“…I can support Al-Qaeda, the Ku Klux Klan, buy me a weapon, drugs and all kinds of porn with a Visa card…while I can not support human rights organization which campaigns for freedom of expression.”

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is a different type of Distributed Denial-of-Service attack

In each example, the financial giants revoked access due to something that has never been proven in any court of law. To this day, most of the public and media has ignored the irony:

The moment they revoked financial access to WikiLeaks, these five organizations were starting their own DDoS attack against WikiLeaks.

This DDoS attack impacts the way WikiLeaks can collect donations, and like other forms of DDoS, it denies innocent consumers the ability spend their money as they wish. Given the freedom stripped from consumers, one would think this would be a rather large issue, but its gone ignored for the most part. Perhaps that is because WikiLeaks supporters are in the minority.

The issue is one of financial freedom. The world over, consumers will find it hard to use a debit or credit card issued from a bank without it coming from MasterCard or Visa. Unfortunately, when one signs the customer agreement forms, they agree to abide by the credit card companys terms. This means if Visa, MasterCard, or banks like BoA, wish to restrict how you can spend your money - as is the case here - they are well within their rights to do so. It is all in the fine print. The question is, do you as a consumer think this is fair?

Its a holiday weekend in the U.S., and spokespersons from the EU were unavailable at the time this story was written. Well update with new information on the lawsuit and any comments as we get them.

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Op dinsdag 5 juli 2011 14:58 schreef Sloggi het volgende:
Leeft Julien Assange nog?

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Op dinsdag 5 juli 2011 15:00 schreef Sloggi het volgende:
Hoe zit het met die aanklacht tegen hem? Loopt die nog of is die een stille dood gestorven?

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Navy medic detained for refusing training over WikiLeaks claims

Michael Lyons sentenced to seven months' detention after developing moral objections to Afghanistan conflict

A Royal Navy medic has been sentenced to seven months' detention for refusing rifle training prior to deployment in Afghanistan after developing moral objections, following revelations made by WikiLeaks.

Michael Lyons, 25, was found guilty of wilful disobedience of a lawful order at a military hearing in Plymouth on Tuesday. He had served in the navy since 2005 as a medial assistant submariner. He was demoted to the rank of able seaman and dismissed from the service.

Lyons's case was the first heard by the Advisory Committee on Conscientious Objectors, which considers appeals to resign or retire on moral grounds from serving forces personnel, since 1996, and was one of only 37 cases considered by the committee in its 41-year life. The committee rejected Lyons's appeal for conscientious objector status in December 2010, leading to Tuesday's hearing.

The court martial, at HMS Nelson in Portsmouth, heard that on 20 September 2010, Lyons refused to train in the use of an SA80 assault rifle as part of pre-deployment training, repeatedly requesting to be assigned to a non-combat role.

Speaking in court, Lyons confirmed he had no physical or mental impairment preventing him following orders, but had chosen to disobey orders based on his personal convictions.

"My initial objections started with Afghanistan and I wanted to investigate the reasons why we were at war. At the time WikiLeaks came along and mentioned Iraq and Afghanistan. The reports said there had been some civilian casualties that nobody knew about and they were being covered up," he said. "After a lot of deliberation I decided I was a conscientious objector."

Lyons claimed he was told he would be barred from treating Afghan civilians, and this formed part of his objection.

He said: "We were put into scenarios and in one of these a family had been walking for two days to our base. The child had a birth defect that was causing it pain and the instructor asked us whether they would get treatment. I said we would offer them whatever we could, but I was shouted down by an officer who said it was a waste of resources."

Warrant Officer Robert Bainbridge, who issued the training order, told the court he spent several hours discussing Lyons's ethical objections.

"We spent six hours in my office talking about the issue. I told him that as a medic he is in a combative and non-combative role and had an inherent right to self-defence. He briefed me that he felt that the war in Afghanistan was unjust, but I told him I was not sending him to war, I was training him how to use a rifle."

Lyons was unable to speak publicly about his case, but his wife Lillian wrote in the Guardian that she felt Lyons's appeal for conscientious objector status was damaged because of his lack of religious belief.

"[Michael] was ordered to see a chaplain, even though Michael is an atheist, and the chaplain's statement implied Michael had a slight political reservation, not a moral objection," she said. "If Michael had been dishonest and said he was a committed Christian, and because of his faith he could not be part of war on moral grounds, perhaps this would have been over in an instant."

Emma Sangster, co-ordinator of pressure group Forces Watch, which has offered support to Lyons through his case, said Lyons's treatment highlighted a need for reform of the law around conscientious objection.

"The simple injustice of Michael's treatment illustrates how the government and the Ministry of Defence repeatedly fail to recognise conscientious objection in practice," she said. "We urge MPs to uphold the human rights of forces personnel by clarifying and strengthening the right to conscientious objection, and the procedures for it in the armed forces bill currently going through parliament."

The Ministry of Defence declined to comment on the case

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Sex, lies, no videotape and more lies. False accusations in the Assange case

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family anatidae on our hands.

A “ducktest” is a method to try to figure out the true nature of an entity by studying its identifiable character traits. A simple method to reveal that a subject is not what it purports to be.

Allegations of sexual abuse that bear all the signs of being fake and lacking credibility is almost certainly false.

In the Assange case it is obvious that a “ducktest” has not yet been made by police and prosecutors. It is easy to see. For had it been done it could be seen that one of the plaintiff’s, charges, Anna Ardin’s, against Julian Assange are almost certainly false.

The Assange case was handled strangely from the beginning. The lack of quality in the investigation is evident. What is perhaps most disturbing is that since September 1, 2010 the matter was handled by a “highly qualified investigative unit” under the direction of the superior prosecutor Marianne Ny. If this is the best that Sweden has to offer with regard to investigations of sexual abuse, we have a huge problem with getting justice for victims of sexual abuse. If police and prosecutors cannot distinguish between true and false reports, it becomes very difficult to prosecute the real perpetrators.

An aide to false allegations?

The Assange case brings another important issue into focus. What is the complainant’s counsel (“målsägarbiträde”, non prosecution lawyer representing and supporting complainants) task during the process? If a complainant’s counsel reasonably assumes that the plaintiff’s allegations of sexual abuse are false, what is that counsel supposed to do? It cannot be that a complainant’s counsel’s mission is to support a plaintiff’s false accusations and to help ensure that an innocent person is tried and possibly convicted. If the complainant’s counsel helps a plaintiff to make false accusations what is the responsibility of that counsel? Abetting false accusation is what it is. And it should of course be punished. But what does the law say? Is it a crime? And what does the Bar’s disciplinary body say? Claes Borgström’s conduct in the Assange case must be thoroughly examined.

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WikiLeaks MasterCard, Visa Donations Accepted Again

LONDON — WikiLeaks has again begun accepting credit card donations, a company affiliated with the secret-spilling site said Thursday.

Andreas Fink, the chief executive of Icelandic payment processor DataCell, told The Associated Press that Visa and MasterCard were again processing payments to WikiLeaks after a seven month hiatus. Fink claimed the move was a tacit admission of guilt on behalf of the credit card companies, but it may well have been accidental.

Visa Europe spokesman Simon Kleine told AP that processing the payments was "not something that we've sanctioned" and that the company was investigating.

Both Visa and MasterCard pulled the plug on Fink's service in early December, shortly after WikiLeaks began publishing about 250,000 U.S. State Department cables. But Fink said Thursday that card services had been restored – saying that lawyers had made sure of it by making test donations.

An email and phone calls seeking comment from MasterCard were not immediately returned.

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Anon_Central Anonymous Operations
Update 4:30 p.m. : Visa sent us this statement: "We have not reinstated DataCell and are looking into how transactions are being made." CNET

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Visa Says It's Still Not Processing Transactions for WikiLeaks

Contrary to widely-circulated reports in the Associated Press and Forbes, Visa did not lift its financial blockade on WikiLeaks, a Visa spokesperson tells The Atlantic Wire. Earlier today, headlines splashed across the web "WikiLeaks MasterCard, Visa Donations Accepted Again" after Andreas Fink, the chief executive of DataCell, an internet hosting service in Iceland that helps channel money to WikiLeaks, posted a note on his company's web site saying, "DataCell is happy to report that we are now able again to process donations to Wikileaks." The AP and Forbes were careful to note that neither MasterCard nor Visa had confirmed the report. Now, Visa is making it clear: "We have not reinstated DataCell and are looking into how transactions are being made."

In his statement, Fink suggested that the credit card companies had made an about-face after his recent legal threats against the financial firms. "Last week, WikiLeaks and DataCell said they were preparing to take the credit card companies to court in Denmark," reported the AP. "On its website, WikiLeaks claims that the block placed on WikiLeaks by companies such as MasterCard and Visa have cost it more than 90 percent of its donations, or $15 million."

Fink's note said that its "payment gateway" to Visa and MasterCard provided by Teller A/S had been closed since December. He wrote, "today we have observed that an alternative payment processor that we have contracted with, has in fact opened the gateway for payments with Visa and MasterCard, and now also for American Express Card payments, which is an option we did not had before." He added a taunt: "DataCell is happy that our threats of legal action have had this effect."

As of late WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been doing everything he can to raise funds for his organization, including writing a book (a reported $1.7 million haul that is now being delayed) and raffling off seats at lunch with him and philosopher Slavoj Zizek.

We've reached out to MasterCard but have not heard back. We spoke with PayPal, another firm that imposed a financial blockade on WikiLeaks last December and the company said its position is unchanged. "There has been no change to PayPal's policy regarding donations to support Wikileaks. However, we are allowing payments for the Julian Assange legal defense fund via a facebook fundrazr app."

Update: DataCell CEO Andreas Fink sends an e-mail clarifying what his company observed:

Donations on https://donations.datacell.com are being processed.
I can confirm you that my own test got charged on my personal credit card statement.
I personally retested a minute ago and my donation went through without any problem (unless I messed up the expiration date or so).

Maybe Visa has no clue what their own payment processors are doing?

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APNewsBreak: Visa again blocks funds for WikiLeaks


LONDON (AP) — Visa said Friday it has closed a donation channel to WikiLeaks after a payment processor briefly accepted money transfers to the anti-secrecy site.

Visa and MasterCard were two of several financial and Internet service companies that severed ties to WikiLeaks following its disclosure of thousands of confidential U.S. documents. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange claims the 7-month-long blockade has cost his online group millions.

But on Thursday both companies appeared to abruptly change course when WikiLeaks' payment processor, DataCell ehf, announced that donations to the site were again being processed.

That appears to have been an accident, at least as far as Visa Europe Ltd. was concerned. In an email to The Associated Press, the company said that one of its financial partners had "briefly accepted payments on a merchant site linked to WikiLeaks."

"As soon as this came to our attention, action was taken with the suspension of Visa payment acceptance to the site remaining in place," the company said.

It's unclear how many payments were accepted, or even if they were fully processed. DataCell Chief Executive Andreas Fink confirmed to the AP that credit card payments appeared to have halted, but said he couldn't know for sure why.

He added that he wouldn't know how many payments had been successfully made to WikiLeaks until technical staff examined the logs.

MasterCard did not return emails and phone calls seeking comment.

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Op vrijdag 8 juli 2011 12:51 schreef Sloggi het volgende:
Voel je je niet eenzaam hier?

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Anonymous threatens police over phone hacking and Julian Assange


Senior source inside hacker collective seeks to embarrass Metropolitan police and judges with 'explosive' revelations

Figures at the top of hackers' collective Anonymous are threatening to attack the Metropolitan police's computer systems and those controlled by the UK judicial system, warning that Tuesday will be "the biggest day in Anonymous's history".

The collective is understood to be seeking to express anger over News International's phone hacking and at the threatened extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

A Twitter feed purporting to belong to Sabu, a senior figure within the group and the founder of the spin-off group LulzSec, which hacked a site linked to the CIA and the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency, promised two releases of information would be launched within a day.

"Everyone brace," he tweeted. "This will be literally explosive."

A follow-up message read: "ATTN Intelligence community: Your contractors have failed you. Tomorrow is the beginning."

The account, @anonymouSabu, has not been verified as belonging to Sabu – but it has over 7,700 followers and has been referenced by the "official" Anonymous @anon_central account on Twitter.

Sources close to the collective were unusually close-lipped about the targets of tomorrow's hack, but talk within chat channels has suggested several top-level members of Anonymous are eager to launch attacks based around Julian Assange's appeal hearing against extradition, which begins on Tuesday.

Others are also believed to have proposed targeting the Met in retaliation for alleged payments to police officers by News of the World reporters, and the general response to the phone hacking scandal.

Other speculation centres around material claimed to have been obtained last week from contractors relating to security and secrecy of "former world leaders", or plans to target a senior leaders' retreat at Bohemian Grove, California.

As is typical in the chaotic and occasionally paranoid Anonymous community, other sources close to the collective are warning some prominent members are probably engaging in "disinformation campaigns" ahead of any action.

Communication problems around the planned releases were compounded as the main chat channel used by Anonymous was offline for much of Monday, leaving even those close to senior members of the collective unable to verify rumours ahead of the release.

Rumours on Friday suggested that one Anonymous member had broken into the News International servers and taken copies of some internal emails which were being offered for sale or even ransom. However this could not be confirmed, and the Guardian has not seen any evidence that the claimed email stash is legitimate, although News International's site is understood to have been "probed" by members of Anonymous at the end of last week.

Last Wednesday, two days after the Dowler revelations, a listing of emails of NoW staff appeared on Pastebin, a favourite site for posting the results – or beginnings – of attacks against all sorts of sites by Anonymous and other hacker groups.

One source told the Guardian that News International's server had been probed for up to 30 minutes at a time last week by hackers using "proxy chaining" – a method of logging in via a number of remote computers – to disguise their identity. "Everyone thinks Interpol will get involved at some point," the source said.

The hackers' anger at the company was ignited by the revelation last week that a private detective acting for NoW had listened into voicemails on the phone of the murdered teenager Milly Dowler, which may have interfered with the police investigation to find her.

Anonymous has previously attacked PayPal and Visa over their refusal, following orders from the US government, to process donations for WikiLeaks. It has also carried out online attacks against the Church of Scientology over what is seen as suppression of information.

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Assange vecht morgen weer tegen zijn uitlevering naar Zweden

WikiLeaks-oprichter Julian Assange staat morgenochtend weer voor de Britse rechter om tegen zijn uitlevering naar Zweden vechten. Assange wordt beschuldigd van verkrachting en aanranding van twee vrouwen.

WikiLeaks publiceerde vorig jaar grote hoeveelheden geheime documenten over de oorlogen in Irak, Afghanistan en van het Amerikaanse diplomatieke verkeer.

Assange ontkent de beschuldigingen tegen hem en hij en zijn aanhangers suggereren dat de uitlevering van Zweden politiek gemotiveerd is. Het zou als doel dienen om hem uiteindelijk over te dragen aan de Verenigde Staten. De VS veroordelen het lekken van de gevoelige informatie die het land in verlegenheid heeft gebracht. De Zweedse autoriteiten ontkennen dat Assange uitgeleverd zal worden aan de VS.

Op 24 februari oordeelde de Britse rechter dat Assange uitgeleverd kon worden aan Zweden. De WikiLeaks-voorman ging in beroep en verblijft sindsdien onder huisarrest in een villa in Oost-Engeland.

Vorige maand klaagde Assange over de strikte voorwaarden van zijn borgtocht een avondklok, het dragen van een elektronische armband en dat hij zich dagelijks moet melden bij de politie. Naar eigen zeggen komt hij daardoor niet meer toe aan zijn werkzaamheden bij de klokkenluiderssite. WikiLeaks heeft sinds april geen nieuw materiaal meer gepubliceerd. Bovendien drogen de geldstromen op doordat VISA, MasterCard, PayPal, Western Union en Bank of America donaties aan Wikileaks blokkeren.

Als morgen de rechter besluit dat Assange uitgeleverd moet worden aan Zweden, zal hij naar het Britse Hooggerechtshof of het Europese hof voor de Rechten van de Mens stappen, meldt persbureau Reuters.

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Executive Order Responding to WikiLeaks Due Shortly

The Obama Administration is putting the finishing touches on a new executive order that is intended to improve the security of classified information in government computer networks as part of the government’s response to WikiLeaks.

The order is supposed to reduce the feasibility and the likelihood of the sort of unauthorized releases of classified U.S. government information that have been published by WikiLeaks in the past year.

According to an official who has reviewed recent drafts, the order addresses gaps in policy for information systems security, including characterization and detection of the insider threat to information security. It does not define new security standards, nor does it impose the security practices of intelligence agencies on other agencies. (“It doesn’t say, ‘go polygraph everybody’,” the official said.)

Rather, the order establishes new mechanisms for “governance” and continuing development of security policies for information systems. Among other things, it builds upon the framework established — but not fully implemented — by the 1990 National Security Directive 42 (pdf), the official said.

The order, developed on a relatively fast track over the past nine months, has already gone through two rounds of interagency coordination and is expected to be issued within a matter of weeks.