Wikileaks documenten #19: Langzaam het nieuwe jaar in

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(Reuters) - Egypt's new vice president, Omar Suleiman, has long sought to demonize the opposition Muslim Brotherhood in his contacts with skeptical U.S. officials, leaked diplomatic cables show, raising questions whether he can act as an honest broker in the country's political crisis.

U.S. Embassy messages from the anti-secrecy WikiLeaks cache of 250,000 State Department documents, which Reuters independently reviewed, also report that the former intelligence chief accused the Brotherhood of spawning armed extremists and warned in 2008 that if Iran ever backed the banned Islamist group, Tehran would become "our enemy."

The disclosure came as Suleiman met on Sunday with opposition groups, including the officially banned Brotherhood, to explore ways to end Egypt's worst political crisis decades.

Washington has been exploring options for speeding up President Hosni Mubarak's resignation, including a scenario that calls for turning over power to a transition government headed by Suleiman and backed by the military.

Mubarak, who had done without a vice president for 30 years, hurriedly appointed the 74-year-old Suleiman as his deputy on January 29 as protesters demanded the autocratic ruler's ouster.

Suleiman privately voicing disdain for the Brotherhood will not surprise Egyptians, used to the Mubarak government's anti-Islamist stance. The comments could stoke suspicions, though, as he seeks to draw the long-banned movement into a broad dialogue on reform in response to mass protests.

The clear implication in the cache of State Department cables was that U.S. officials were skeptical of Suleiman's effort to depict the Brotherhood as "the bogey man."

Mubarak's government had long cited the Islamist threat to justify its years of authoritarian rule. A more pressing concern for Washington and its ally Israel, however, is what happens to the 1979 peace treaty between Egypt and the Jewish state if the Brotherhood gains political clout in the post-Mubarak era.

"We decline to comment on any individual classified cable," U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said when asked about the documents seen by Reuters.

ACCUSATIONS OF EXTREMISM

In a cable dated February 15, 2006, then-ambassador Francis Ricciardone reported that Suleiman had "asserted that the MB (Muslim Brotherhood) had spawned '11 different Islamist extremist organizations,' most notably the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and the Gama'a Islamiya (Islamic Group)."

Egyptian security forces crushed groups that targeted tourists, Christians, government ministers and other officials in a 1990s campaign for a purist Islamic state, and has kept a tight lid on them since.

The Brotherhood once had a secret paramilitary section, but it now says it is committed to promoting its policies through peaceful, democratic means. The government has been unable to prove any serious act of violence orchestrated by the movement's leadership for more than 50 years.

Mubarak, in an ABC interview on Thursday, blamed the Brotherhood for violence that erupted on Wednesday during protests in Cairo's central Tahrir Square. [ID:nLDE71029E]Independent witnesses said Mubarak supporters launched the attacks.

Suleiman, then Mubarak's top spymaster, was speaking to FBI Director Robert Mueller, who was visiting Cairo in February 2006, the 2006 cable says.

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http://www.volkskrant.nl/vk/nl/2668/Buitenland/article/detail/1832195/2011/02/07/Excentrieke-Brit-biedt-Assange-onderdak.dhtml

LONDEN - Vandaag begint de Britse uitzettingszaak tegen Julian Assange. De WikiLeaks-oprichter heeft huisarrest bij Vaughan Smith, een excentrieke Engelsman die hem zijn landhuis aanbood. 'Hij is niet de makkelijkste. Maar ik zal hem nooit in de steek laten.'

Kogelhulzen, Bin Laden T-shirts, en Saddam Hoesseinhorloges vormen het decor van de knusse Londense bar met rode chesterfieldbanken. Het zijn souvenirs die leden van de Frontline Club hebben meegenomen van hun reizen. De sociëteit (1.500 leden), is een soort stamkroeg - inclusief restaurant en slaapkamers - voor oorlogsverslaggevers uit de hele wereld.

Beschoten
In de vitrines ontbreken de spullen niet die oprichter Vaughan Smith (47) het leven hebben gered. Tijdens de Kosovo-oorlog werd hij als free­lance cameraman van de BBC beschoten door een Servische schutter. De kogel boorde zich door een bundel van 4.000 D-mark en het pakje Marlboro dat hij in zijn binnenzak droeg, om te blijven steken in zijn mobiele telefoon.

Het is slechts een van de vele avonturen van Smith, een ex-kapitein van de Grenadier Guards die ooit een legertoernooi voor scherpschutters won. Tijdens de eerste Golfoorlog blufte hij zich in zijn oude uniform Irak binnen, waarna hij de enige niet-officiële beelden van de gevechten vastlegde.

'Onafhankelijke journalistiek bedrijven, de wereld inzichtelijk maken is mijn passie', zegt Smith, die is gehuwd met een Kosovaarse. 'Maar daarnaast is oorlog ook fascinerend en spannend. Getting shot at is fun. Iedere oorlogsverslaggever die anders beweert, houdt zichzelf voor de gek.'

Clubhuis
De 47-jarige filmt nog steeds, zoals in Afghanistan, maar hij is vooral druk met de Frontline Club. Voor het clubhuis leende hij 5 miljoen euro met zijn landgoed als onderpand. Smith erfde een landhuis in Norfolk met tien slaapkamers en 245 hectare grond. Met zijn personeel drijft hij er nu een biologische boerderij.

Sinds december heeft hij daar een bijzondere gast: Julian Assange, de man die meedingt naar de titel van 's werelds most wanted man. Vandaag en morgen behandelt een Londense rechtbank zijn uitleveringszaak. Zweden zoekt hem na klachten van twee vrouwen met wie Assange een seksuele relatie had

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http://www.volkskrant.nl/(...)ambtsberichten.dhtml

DEN HAAG - Van de zijde van het kabinet mag geen antwoord verwacht worden over de juistheid van de inhoud van de vermeende ambtsberichten die uitlekken via Wikileaks. Dat schrijft minister Piet Hein Donner van Binnenlandse Zaken namens het kabinet aan de Kamer.
De aandacht voor de berichten is het kabinet natuurlijk niet ontgaan, meldt hij namens de premier en de collega's van Buitenlandse Zaken en Defensie. Maar van Amerikaanse zijde wordt nu eenmaal geen inzage verstrekt aan Nederlandse autoriteiten in de echte ambtsberichten die met het 'State Department' zijn gewisseld, 'zodat ook van Nederlandse zijde de authenticiteit van de documenten niet kan worden vastgesteld of bevestigd.'

Weergaven, percepties en inschattingen
Ook als de uitgelekte berichten 'echt' zijn, bevatten die 'weergaven, percepties en inschattingen' van het ambassadepersoneel over de Nederlandse situatie en gesprekken die gevoerd zouden zijn met onder anderen ministers, Kamerleden en ambtenaren. 'De weergave van een gesprek bevat niet noodzakelijkerwijze de inhoud van dat gesprek. Dat is begrijpelijk. Het betreft immers een verslag waarin vooral nadruk wordt gelegd op wat de verslaggever begrijpt, hoort en wil weergeven', aldus Donner. En 'anders dan de aanduiding suggereert gaat het daarbij niet om berichten die onder ambtseed worden bevestigd.'

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The prosecutor leading the rape and sexual assault case against Julian Assange is a "malicious" radical feminist who is "biased against men", a retired senior Swedish judge has told the hearing into Assange's extradition to Sweden.

In caustic evidence on the first day of the two-day hearing, Brita Sundberg-Weitman, a former appeal court judge, told Belmarsh magistrates court that Sweden's chief prosector, Marianne Ny, who is seeking the Wikileaks founder's extradition, "has a rather biased view against men. I honestly can't understand her attitude here. It looks malicious."

Geoffrey Robertson QC, acting for Assange, asked if it was her view that Ny wanted "to get [Assange] into her clutches and then arrest him no matter what?"

"Yes" said Sundberg-Weitman. "It might be her attitude to have the man arrested and maybe let him suffer for a few weeks to have him softer [for interrogation]."

Such was the hostility towards Assange in Sweden that "most people take it for granted that he's raped two women", she said. The country is seeking Assange's extradition in relation to allegations of rape, sexual assault and sexual molestation made by two women in August. He denies all the allegations and has not been charged.

Under cross-examination by Clare Montgomery QC, for the Swedish government, however, Sundberg-Weitman admitted she had no personal knowledge of the conduct of the prosecutor in the case, basing her views instead on what she had been told.

She also acknowledged that while she believed the warrant to have been disproportionate, a Swedish district court and the appeal court, considering evidence from Assange's Swedish lawyer Bjorn Hurtig, had judged it both proportionate and legal.

"I must say I am very concerned about the state of the rule of law in Sweden," she said in response. "It has been decaying since the mid-1970s."

The hearing is being presided over by Judge Howard Riddle, the chief magistrate. Assange listened intently from the dock watched by supporters including Jemima Goldsmith, Bianca Jagger and Tony Benn, who had agreed to attend following an invitation by Goldsmith.

Montgomery also led the former judge to acknowledge that she was not an expert in the European arrest warrant, despite criticising its use in this case, and challenged line by line the newspaper article on which she said she was basing her assertion that Ny was a "radical feminist".

Sundburg-Weitman pointed to lectures on sexual violence that the prosecutor had made, to which Montgomery said: "But she's a rape prosecutor." The former judge maintained her assertion that the prosecutor was "a bit biased".

Robertson argued that both Ny and Claes Borgstrom, the lawyer representing the two women, were politically motivated. Ny had "illegally" confirmed Assange's identity on the charges when asked by a Stockholm tabloid, he said (accused sex offenders are customarily anonymous in Sweden). "This man Borgstrom", meanwhile, had "vilified" Assange in the press and "would be behind bars for contempt in this country".

Also called by the defence was Goran Rudling, a Swedish blogger and campaigner on the country's rape laws, which he believes are not tough enough.

Rudling said he was not a supporter of Assange or Wikileaks but had taken an interest in the case after finding on the internet tweets sent by "Miss A", one of the two women, in the hours after the alleged offences, in which she had asked if anyone was holding a crayfish party which she could attend with Assange, and later tweeting from the party that she was "sitting outside. with the coolest and smartest people. that's amazing".

Though he found the tweets mirrored on a blog, he said, Miss A had deleted them from her Twitter account around 20 August , when she first made her allegations to police. "It meant that the story told to police was not consistent with the tweets," he said. He had reported the tweets to police but had not heard back from them, he said.

Rudling also translated for the court another document he had also found on the internet, entitled "A 7-point programme for legal revenge", apparently posted by Miss A in January 2010, but deleted in November. The last point included the admonition: "Remember your victim has to suffer as much as he made you suffer."

Asked had he seen the police file relating to the case, Rudling said his knowledge was based on a 100-page bundle of documents faxed in November by Hurtig to Mark Stephens, Assange's British solicitor, and leaked onto the internet last week.

Earlier, Robertson, in opening the case for the defence, said that the Swedish custom of trying rape cases in secret was a "flagrant denial of justice". Assange had been subject to "trial by media", and it was "hyperbolic and irrational to suggest there was wickedness involved" in Assange's sexual behaviour, he said.

All relationships had "moments of frustration, irritation and argument", he said. "It doesn't mean that the police are entitled to slip between the bedclothes."

The act of "minor rape" allegedly committed by Assange against the second woman would not be an extradition offence in English law, he said. After three "utterly consensual" sex acts, she had objected to Assange having sex with her again without a condom, but "she let him continue". "It's not natural to call this rape."

The case continues.

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CAIRO - De onlangs aangetreden vicepresident van Egypte, Omar Suleiman, onderhield in het verleden goede banden met Israël. Suleiman was eerder hoofd van de inlichtingendiensten. In die functie overlegde hij dagelijks via een geheime hotline met de Israëliërs.
Dat blijkt uit documenten van Amerikaanse diplomaten, die door de klokkenluiderssite WikiLeaks zijn gelekt. De Britse krant The Daily Telegraph heeft dinsdag documenten over Suleiman gepubliceerd. Suleiman was in de afgelopen jaren als hoofd van de inlichtingendiensten en toponderhandelaar zeer belangrijk voor president Hosni Mubarak.

Serieuze kandidaat
In door WikiLeaks gelekt materiaal uit 2008 noemde David Hacham, een adviseur van het Israëlische ministerie van Defensie, Suleiman een serieuze kandidaat om Mubarak op te volgen als president van Egypte. Hacham stelde dat een presidentschap van Suleiman voor Israël gunstig zou zijn.

In de gelekte ambtsberichten staat ook dat Suleiman wel voelde voor de komst van Israëlische militairen naar Egyptisch grondgebied. Hij zou hebben geopperd dat Israëlische militairen dan een einde konden maken aan de smokkel van wapens van Egypte naar de Gazastrook door de militante Palestijnse beweging Hamas. Suleiman zou voorstander zijn van het isoleren van Hamas die in de Gazastrook de lakens uitdeelt.

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Op dinsdag 8 februari 2011 10:10 schreef Ryan3 het volgende:
Wanneer komen de banken aan bod, Papier?

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Vandaag praat de Tweede Kamer in een spoeddebat over de Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), de beoogde opvolger van de F-16.

Aanleiding van het zoveelste debat over de JSF is een via Wikileaks uitgelekt diplomatiek bericht uit 2007 van de Amerikaanse ambassade in Den Haag aan Washington. Hierin staat dat Defensie al in 2007 wist dat er te weinig geld was om het geplande aantal van 85 JSF-gevechtsvliegtuigen aan te schaffen, terwijl de regering de Tweede Kamer altijd heeft voorgehouden dat er 85 vliegtuigen stonden gepland.

'Het is klaar'
GroenLinks, die heeft het spoeddebat heeft aangevraagd, wil dat het kabinet stopt met de aanschaf van de JSF. 'Het is klaar. De belastingbetaler is er door de kabinetten Balkenende ingerommeld. Het kabinet Rutte1 rommelt door. Dat moet afgelopen zijn', zegt GroenLinks Tweede Kamerlid Niels van den Berge. Ook de PvdA en SP willen ermee stoppen.

In het regeerakkoord staat dat in deze kabinetsperiode niet zal worden overgegaan tot de aanschaf van de JSF. Dit debat gaat in feite over de aanschaf van twee testvliegtuigen. De vraag is in hoeverre Wilders en de PvdA ervoor gaat liggen, zegt Volkskrant-verslaggever Jeroen Trommelen.

Salamitactiek
Volgens zijn analyse heeft Defensie nooit daadwerkelijk kans gehad op 85 toestellen. Omdat de JSF's steeds duurder wordt, heeft de organisatie daar het geld helemaal niet voor. Door hoog in te zetten, hoopt Defensie uiteindelijk ongeveer de helft te kunnen aanschaffen, en later misschien meer. 'Het hele JSF-dossier is één grote oefening in de salamitactiek', zegt Trommelen.

Het kabinet wil graag twee testtoestellen hebben en zal de plannen in maart aan de Tweede Kamer voorleggen. Het kabinet heeft laten weten inhoudelijk niet op de Wikileaks-berichten in te zullen gaan.

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The US fears that Saudi Arabia, the world's largest crude oil exporter, may not have enough reserves to prevent oil prices escalating, confidential cables from its embassy in Riyadh show.

The cables, released by WikiLeaks, urge Washington to take seriously a warning from a senior Saudi government oil executive that the kingdom's crude oil reserves may have been overstated by as much as 300bn barrels – nearly 40%.

The revelation comes as the oil price has soared in recent weeks to more than $100 a barrel on global demand and tensions in the Middle East. Many analysts expect that the Saudis and their Opec cartel partners would pump more oil if rising prices threatened to choke off demand.

However, Sadad al-Husseini, a geologist and former head of exploration at the Saudi oil monopoly Aramco, met the US consul general in Riyadh in November 2007 and told the US diplomat that Aramco's 12.5m barrel-a-day capacity needed to keep a lid on prices could not be reached.

According to the cables, which date between 2007-09, Husseini said Saudi Arabia might reach an output of 12m barrels a day in 10 years but before then – possibly as early as 2012 – global oil production would have hit its highest point. This crunch point is known as "peak oil".

Husseini said that at that point Aramco would not be able to stop the rise of global oil prices because the Saudi energy industry had overstated its recoverable reserves to spur foreign investment. He argued that Aramco had badly underestimated the time needed to bring new oil on tap.

One cable said: "According to al-Husseini, the crux of the issue is twofold. First, it is possible that Saudi reserves are not as bountiful as sometimes described, and the timeline for their production not as unrestrained as Aramco and energy optimists would like to portray."

It went on: "In a presentation, Abdallah al-Saif, current Aramco senior vice-president for exploration, reported that Aramco has 716bn barrels of total reserves, of which 51% are recoverable, and that in 20 years Aramco will have 900bn barrels of reserves.

"Al-Husseini disagrees with this analysis, believing Aramco's reserves are overstated by as much as 300bn barrels. In his view once 50% of original proven reserves has been reached … a steady output in decline will ensue and no amount of effort will be able to stop it. He believes that what will result is a plateau in total output that will last approximately 15 years followed by decreasing output."

The US consul then told Washington: "While al-Husseini fundamentally contradicts the Aramco company line, he is no doomsday theorist. His pedigree, experience and outlook demand that his predictions be thoughtfully considered."

Seven months later, the US embassy in Riyadh went further in two more cables. "Our mission now questions how much the Saudis can now substantively influence the crude markets over the long term. Clearly they can drive prices up, but we question whether they any longer have the power to drive prices down for a prolonged period."

A fourth cable, in October 2009, claimed that escalating electricity demand by Saudi Arabia may further constrain Saudi oil exports. "Demand [for electricity] is expected to grow 10% a year over the next decade as a result of population and economic growth. As a result it will need to double its generation capacity to 68,000MW in 2018," it said.

It also reported major project delays and accidents as "evidence that the Saudi Aramco is having to run harder to stay in place – to replace the decline in existing production." While fears of premature "peak oil" and Saudi production problems had been expressed before, no US official has come close to saying this in public.

In the last two years, other senior energy analysts have backed Husseini. Fatih Birol, chief economist to the International Energy Agency, told the Guardian last year that conventional crude output could plateau in 2020, a development that was "not good news" for a world still heavily dependent on petroleum.

Jeremy Leggett, convenor of the UK Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security, said: "We are asleep at the wheel here: choosing to ignore a threat to the global economy that is quite as bad as the credit crunch, quite possibly worse."

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Recently released U.S. embassy cables paint a portrait of an Egyptian military led by a sycophantic defense minster with little interest in economic or political reform. In recent weeks, that official, Mohamed Tantawi, has been on the phone regularly with U.S. military officials, who view the Egyptian army as a crucial conduit for change and continued stability.

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After a tip from Crowdleaks.org, The Tech Herald has learned that HBGary Federal, as well as two other data intelligence firms, worked to develop a strategic plan of attack against WikiLeaks. The plan included pressing a journalist in order to disrupt his support of the organization, cyber attacks, disinformation, and other potential proactive tactics.

The tip from Crowdleaks.org is directly related to the highly public attack on HBGary, after Anonymous responded to research performed by HBGary Federal COO, Aaron Barr. Part of Anonymous’ response included releasing more than 50,000 internal emails to the public. For more information, the initial coverage is here.

What was pointed out by Crowdleaks is a proposal titled “The WikiLeaks Threat” and an email chain between three data intelligence firms. The proposal was quickly developed by Palantir Technologies, HBGary Federal, and Berico Technologies, after a request from Hunton and Williams, a law firm that currently counts Bank of America as a client.

The law firm had a meeting with Bank of America on December 3. To prepare, the firm emailed Palantir and the others asking for “…five to six slides on Wikileaks - who they are, how they operate and how this group may help this bank.”

Hunton and Williams were recommended to Bank of America’s general council by the Department of Justice, according to the email chain viewed by The Tech Herald. The law firm was using the meeting to pitch Bank of America on retaining them for an internal investigation surrounding WikiLeaks.

“They basically want to sue them to put an injunction on releasing any data,” an email between the three data intelligence firms said. “They want to present to the bank a team capable of doing a comprehensive investigation into the data leak.”

Hunton and Williams would act as outside council on retainer, while Palantir would take care of network and insider threat investigations. For their part, Berico Technologies and HBGary Federal would analyze WikiLeaks.

“Apparently if they can show that WikiLeaks is hosting data in certain countries it will make prosecution easier,” the email added.

In less than 24-hours, the three analytical companies created a presentation filled with publically available information and ideas on how the firms could be “deployed” against WikiLeaks “as a unified and cohesive investigative analysis cell.”

On January 2, The New York Times wrote about a late night conference call held by Bank of America executives on November 30. The reason for the call was to deal with a statement given by WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange on November 29, where he said that he intended to “take down” a major American bank. The country’s third largest financial institution needed to get the jump on WikiLeaks, so they started scouring thousands of documents, and auditing physical assets.

Shortly after the late night conference call, the email from Hunton and Williams was sent. Booz Allen Hamilton, according to the Times, was the firm brought in to help manage the bank’s internal review.

A month after the proposal for the initial December meeting on WikiLeaks was created, email messages from HBGary Federal show plans for a meeting with Booz Allen Hamilton. The meeting was set after Barr emailed Hunton and Williams about information he was gathering on WikiLeaks and Anonymous. Later, this information would be the direct cause of Anonymous’ attack on HBGary.

On page two you will find an overview of the proposal developed by the three data intelligence firms.

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The US provided officers from the Egyptian secret police with training at the FBI, despite allegations that they routinely tortured detainees and suppressed political opposition.

According to leaked diplomatic cables, the head of the Egyptian state security and investigative service (SSIS) thanked the US for “training opportunities” at the FBI academy in Quantico, Virginia. The SSIS has been repeatedly accused of using violence and brutality to help prop up the regime of President Hosni Mubarak. In April, 2009, the US ambassador in Cairo stated that “Egypt’s police and domestic security services continue to be dogged by persistent, credible allegations of abuse of detainees.

“The Interior Ministry uses SSIS to monitor and sometimes infiltrate the political opposition and civil society. SSIS suppresses political opposition through arrests, harassment and intimidation.”

In October, 2009, “credible” human rights lawyers representing alleged Hizbollah detainees provided details of the techniques employed by the SSIS. The cable states: “The lawyers told us in mid-October that they have compiled accounts from several defendants of GOE [Government of Egypt] torture by electric shocks, sleep deprivation, and stripping them naked for extended periods.

“The lawyers believe the accounts to be credible.”

A dispatch in January, 2010, states: “While the GOE and its supporters claim that police brutality is unusual, human rights lawyers believe it continues to be a pervasive, daily occurrence in prisons, police station and interior ministry state security headquarters.”

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AMSTERDAM - De spanningen over een wapenwedloop tussen de Verenigde Staten en China zijn de afgelopen jaren zo hoog opgelopen dat Washington op een bepaald moment met militair ingrijpen dreigde. Dat blijkt uit nieuwe Wikileaks-documenten, waarover de Britse krant de Daily Telegraph bericht.

De sfeer tussen beide landen verslechterde toen China in januari 2007 - tot verbijstering van de VS - een eigen weersatelliet uit de ruimte schoot. De satelliet cirkelde op dat moment zijn rondjes op 830 kilometer boven de aarde. De actie voedde de vrees dat China in staat zou zijn ook Amerikaanse satellieten aan te vallen.

Woede groot
Dat de woede over de Chinese actie groot was, blijkt uit het officiële protest dat een medewerker van de toenmalig minister van Buitenlandse Zaken Condoleezza Rice naar Peking stuurde. Daarin staat: 'Een Chinese aanval op een satelliet door middel van een wapen dat gelanceerd is vanaf een ballistische raket, dreigt de ruimtesystemen te vernietigen die de Verenigde Staten en andere landen gebruiken voor de commercie en nationale veiligheid. Het vernietigen van satellieten brengt volken in gevaar.'

'Elke doelbewuste inmenging met Amerikaanse ruimtesystemen zal door de Verenigde Staten worden geïnterpreteerd als een schending van haar rechten en worden beschouwd als een esclatie van een crisis of een conflict.'

'De Verenigde Staten behouden zich het recht voor, in overeenstemming met het VN-charter en internationaal recht, zijn ruimtesystemen te verdedigen en te beschermen met een groot aantal opties, van diplomatieke tot militaire.'

Amerikaanse actie
Een jaar later, in februari 2008, schoten ook de VS een eigen satelliet uit de lucht. De Amerikanen beweren echter dat dit geen militaire oefening was, maar noodzaak omdat de satelliet kapot was en de giftige benzinetank een gevaar voor de gezondheid zou kunnen vormen. De Chinezen geloofden deze uitleg niet. Andere Wikileaks-documenten lijken aan te tonen dat deze actie wel degelijk militair van aard was.

Na deze Amerikaanse actie volgden maanden van intensieve gesprekken. De Chinezen zijn bang voor de Amerikaanse plannen om raketdefensieradars te plaatsen in Japan. De Amerikanen zouden daarmee raketten uit de lucht willen kunnen schieten, zelfs als ze zich nog boven Chinees soeverein gebied bevinden.

De laatste cable stamt uit januari 2010. Daarin staat dat de Chinezen hun anti-satelliet- en raketdefensiesystemen nog altijd uitbreiden.

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WikiLeaks row intensifies as US makes 'privacy' move against Twitter

The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, praised the role of social networks such as Twitter in promoting freedom – at the same time as the US government was in court seeking to invade the privacy of Twitter users.

Lawyers for civil rights organisations appeared before a judge in Alexandria, Virginia, battling against a US government order to disclose the details of private Twitter accounts in the WikiLeaks row, including that of the Icelandic MP Birgitta Jonsdottir, below.

The move against Twitter has turned into a constitutional clash over the protection of individual rights to privacy in the digital age.

Clinton, in a speech in Washington, cited the positive role that Twitter, Facebook and other social networks played in uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. In a stirring defence of the internet, she spoke of the "freedom to connect".

The irony of the Clinton speech coming on the day of the court case was not lost on the constitutional lawyers battling against the government in Alexandria. The lawyers also cited the Tunisian and Egyptian examples. Aden Fine, who represents the American Civil Liberties Union, one of the leading civil rights groups in the country, said: "It is very alarming that the government is trying to get this information about individuals' communications. But, also, above all, they should not be able to do this in secret."

The court case, which is turning into a cause celebre in the US, centres round the release of tens of thousands of Pentagon and state department classified documents by WikiLeaks. Outraged by the leaks, the US has set up a grand jury in secret, based in Alexandria, to investigate whether grounds can be found for a criminal case against WikiLeaks' founder, Julian Assange. As part of that investigation the grand jury ordered Twitter to disclose the details of the accounts of WikiLeaks and three people said to be linked to the organisation.

The investigation also covers Bradley Manning, the US soldier who was based in Iraq and is suspected of being behind the leak. He is being held in jail in Virginia.

Clinton tried to reconcile the US administration's support for the internet as a motor for change in the Middle East, China and elsewhere with its fury over WikiLeaks. She said: "Liberty and security. Transparency and confidentiality. Freedom of expression and tolerance. There are times when these principles will raise tensions and pose challenges, but we do not have to choose among them. And we shouldn't. Together they comprise the foundation of a free and open internet."

She added that the US backed internet freedom and encouraged other countries to do the same: "Leaders worldwide have a choice to make. They can let the internet in their countries flourish, and take the risk that the freedoms it enables will lead to a greater demand for political rights. Or they can constrict the internet, choke the freedoms it naturally sustains—and risk losing all the economic and social benefits that come from a networked society."

In courtroom 500 in Alexandria, the lawyers were arguing that the government orders be declared unlawful and that they should also be made public. One of the lawyers, John Keker, told the court it was "ironic" that the case was being heard against the backdrop of the Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings. He argued that if the government request was successful it would allow the government to intrude into the lives of individuals previously protected by constitutional rights. "This is something brand new," he said.

He added that Twitter, as a US company, was protected by the constitution. "The fact that some non-US citizens use Twitter does not make the constitution go away," Keker said.

Manning is almost certain to face trial in the US later this year but so far the US justice department has failed to find grounds for a criminal case against Assange, who is currently in the UK.

The court hearing broke up without any ruling by the judge.

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The irony of the Clinton speech coming on the day of the court case was not lost on the constitutional lawyers battling against the government in Alexandria.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/18/wikileaks-assange-extradition-sweden-australia
Australian ambassador to Sweden seeks assurances that WikiLeaks founder will be treated fairly

The Australian ambassador to Sweden has written to the country's justice minister seeking assurances that Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, would be treated justly under Swedish and international law, should he be extradited there.

Assange, an Australian citizen, is currently fighting extradition from Britain to Sweden over allegations of rape, sexual assault and sexual molestation made by two women in August last year, which he denies. He will learn within days whether his attempt to resist the European arrest warrant has been successful.

His letter to Sweden's minister for justice, Beatrice Ask, ambassador Paul Stephens writes, is to convey the Australian government's "expectation that, should Mr Assange be brought into Swedish jurisdiction, his case would proceed in accordance with due process and the provisions prescribed under Swedish law, as well as applicable European and international laws, including relevant human rights norms".

He does not state what reasons, if any, Australia might have for seeking such assurances.

Assange's lawyers argue that the conduct of the Swedish prosecutor has been "illegal and/or corrupt" in confirming his identity to the press against Swedish custom for accused sex offenders, and issuing a warrant without charge. The Swedish custom of hearing evidence in sex abuse cases in private is, they say, "a flagrant denial of justice".

They also argue that extraditing the Australian to Sweden would be a breach of his human rights, suggesting this would make more likely his onward extradition to the US, where a number of politicians have called for his imprisonment, or worse, over WikiLeaks' publication of leaked US embassy cables. Such a move would carry a "real risk" of Assange being confined in Guantánamo Bay or facing the death penalty, according to a skeleton argument released last month by his legal team.

Assange will learn his fate on Thursday, when chief magistrate Howard Riddle will deliver his judgment on the extradition warrant. The magistrate has already spoken of the strong likelihood of an appeal from one side or the other, whatever his judgment.

Earlier this month Assange, who is currently on bail in the UK, appealed to the Australian prime minister, Julia Gillard, to "bring me home". "There have been outrageous and illegal calls to have me and my staff killed, clear cases of incitement to violence," he said in a video message to supporters in Melbourne. "Yet the Australian government has condoned this behaviour by its diplomatic silence."

The Swedish justice ministry declined to comment on the Australian ambassador's letter, saying only that the judiciary is independent and the established norm is that ministers never comment on ongoing court cases.

Speaking to the Guardian earlier this month, Ask said there had been no political influence on any of the decisions taken by Swedish prosecutors in the Assange case. "Meeting the law, each one of us is worth as much as one another. That's the whole principle of justice, that the law works in the same way whoever breaks it."

The government had had no discussions with the US regarding Assange's case, she said, but she did not believe that the conduct of WikiLeaks in leaking the cables had been contrary to Swedish law. "People can have opinions about what is in the information, but Swedish regulations on freedom of speech and press are very liberal … the publisher is not liable."

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http://community.nytimes.com/comments/dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/02/14/buffett-closes-out-his-bank-of-america-stake/?scp=2&sq=hbgary&st=cse

Berkshire Hathaway, the investment company run by Warren E. Buffett, sold off its remaining five million shares of Bank of America in the fourth quarter.

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Robert Charleston
San Francisco, CA
February 15th, 2011
6:47 am

I wonder if the is just in time.....is he anticipating the Wikileaks information about BofA coming out soon? With all the drama this past weekend involving HBGary, BofA and Anonymous, it is only a matter of time until BofA faces some serious public backlash. How does Buffet always stay one step ahead?

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http://wikileaks.ch/cable/2009/03/09TRIPOLI208.html

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 05 TRIPOLI 000208

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR NEA/MAG, INR/NESA
E.O. 12958: DECL: 3/4/2019
TAGS: PGOV PREL KCOR ECON MARR MASS PHUM PINR LY
SUBJECT: LIBYA'S SUCCESSION MUDDLED AS THE AL-QADHAFI CHILDREN CONDUCT INTERNECINE WARFARE
REF: A) 08 TRIPOLI 564, B) 08 TRIPOLI 592, C) TRIPOLI 198, D) 08 TRIPOLI 870 , E) 08 TRIPOLI 679, F) 08 TRIPOLI 494, G) TRIPOLI 196, H) TRIPOLI 134, I) 0 8 TRIPOLI 227

CLASSIFIED BY: Gene A. Cretz, Ambassador, U.S. Embassy - Tripoli, U.S. Dept of State. REASON: 1.4 (b), (d) 1. (C) Summary: A series of events since last summer suggest that tension between various children of Muammar al-Qadhafi has increased, XXXXXXXXXXXX. Much of the tension appears to stem from resentment of Saif al-Islam's high-profile as the public face of the regime; however, deeper tension about contradictions between Saif al-Islam's proposed political-economic reforms, XXXXXXXXXXXX and XXXXXXXXXXXX also play an important role. The arrest and intimidation of a number of Saif al-Islam allies since last summer, on the one hand, and moves to circumscribe Muatassim's role in military equipment procurement, on the other, suggest that the current level of discord among al-Qadhafi's children is acute. While internecine strife is nothing new for the famously fractious al-Qadhafi family, the recent escalation of tension comes during a particularly momentous period. Amid turmoil related to the 40th anniversary of the revolution, Muammar al-Qadhafi's recent election as African Union chairman, proposed political-economic reforms and persistent rumors about al-Qadhafi's health and the absence of a viable mechanism to orchestrate a succession, the sharp rivalry between the al-Qadhafi children could play an important, if not determinative role, in whether the family is able to hold on to power after the author of the revolution exits the political scene. End summary.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

¶3. (C) XXXXXXXXXXXX the arrest of Hannibal al-Qadhafi, a son of Muammar al-Qadhafi, in Geneva in mid-July (ref B subsequent) and a visit to Rome by Saadi al-Qadhafi, a son of Muammar al-Qadhafi, against his father's express wishes in early August. Hannibal and Saadi both have checkered histories of unseemly behavior and public scuffles with authorities in Europe and elsewhere. Although Muammar al-Qadhafi was reportedly fed a carefully vetted version of the events attendant to Hannibal's arrest to help minimize the perception that Hannibal was to blame, the elder al-Qadhafi was reportedly vexed that Libya, for reasons of protecting the first family's pride, had to engage in a bilateral spat with Switzerland at a time when it was trying to move ahead with negotiations for a framework agreement with the European Union. XXXXXXXXXXXX

... PROMPT AN AL-QADHAFI FAMILY MEETING

¶4. (C) The upshot of Muatassim's solicitation of funds, Hannibal's arrest and Saadi's jaunt was an al-Qadhafi family meeting in mid-August. Al-Qadhafi reportedly decided to reduce Sanussi's role as a minder for the most troublesome children (he is still a key adviser to Saif al-Islam al-Qadhafi) and to

TRIPOLI 00000208 002 OF 005

instead assign his daughter, Aisha al-Qadhafi, the task of monitoring the activities of ne'er-do-wells Saadi, Hannibal and Saif al-Arab. (Note: The latter is the least publicly know of al-Qadhafi's children; he lives in Munich, where he pursues ill-defined business interests and spends much time partying. At the meeting, Saadi reportedly criticized his father for having ignored him, and specifically cited the fact that his (Saadi's) efforts to establish an Export Free Trade Zone near the western Libyan town of Zuwara had not enjoyed the kind of support that Muatassim's activities as National Security Adviser or Saif al-Islam's high-profile efforts under the Qadhafi Development Foundation and Libya Youth Forum. As reported ref C, Muammar al-Qadhafi subsequently made an unusual visit to Zuwara last September and significant work on the development project began within a few days of his visit. Although the Zuwara Free Trade Zone is an ambitious and expensive project, XXXXXXXXXXXX

¶5. XXXXXXXXXXXX have told us that Aisha played a strong role in urging a hardline Libyan position with respect to the Swiss-Libyan contretemps over Hannibal's arrest. Separately, the Swiss Ambassador told us that Aisha's less than accurate rendering to her father of the events surrounding Hannibal's arrest and treatment by Swiss authorities helped stoke Muammar al-Qadhafi's anger, limiting the extent to which Libyan and Swiss officials could maneuver to find an acceptable compromise. The Swiss have told us that in the most recent effort between the two sides to resolve the issue in Davos, Saif had approved an agreement that had the Swiss literally bending over backwards to assuage Libyan demands. After making a phone call (to either Aisha or the leader), Saif returned somewhat chastened after several minutes to rescind the aproval. The Swiss crisis, together with other points of intra-family tension, has reportedly brought Aisha, who enjoys closer relations with Hannibal than with her other brothers, together with Hannibal, Saadi and, to a lesser extent, Saif al-Arab. Muatassim reportedly agreed with the hardline approach vis a vis the Swiss and has been closer to Aisha's end of the spectrum than to that of Saif al-Islam, who urged a more moderate approach. Muhammad al-Qadhafi (the eldest son, but by al-Qadhafis' first wife) and Khamis al-Qadhafi (fifth son by al-Qadhafi's second wife and the well-respected commander of a special forces unit that effectively serves as a regime protection unit) have remained neutral. XXXXXXXXXXXX expressed frustration XXXXXXXXXXXX that Saif al-Islam had persisted in his hard-partying, womanizing ways, a source of concern in a socially conservative country like Libya.

INCREASED TENSION BETWEEN SAIF AL-ISLAM AND MUATASSIM

¶6. (C) Against that backdrop of tension, competition between Saif al-Islam, whom most still regard as the heir-apparent, and Muatassim, whose viability as a potential alternative successor has risen since his appointment as National Security Adviser, has increased since last fall. XXXXXXXXXXXX Saif reportedly bridled at the fact that Muatassim accompanied Muammar al-Qadhafi on the latter's visit to Moscow, Minsk and Kiev last year (ref D), and played a key role in negotiating potential weapons contracts. Muatassim (who flew back early) and his older brother Muhammad greeted Muammar al-Qadhafi at the airport upon the latter's return to Tripoli; Saif, who was in town, was pointedly absent. XXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXX It was further determined that Khamis al-Qadhafi would play a larger role in military procurement, since his Khamis Regiment (the 32nd Brigade) had demonstrated some success in procurement. Muatassim, whom the Serbian Ambassador described as "a bloody man" and "not terribly bright", XXXXXXXXXXXX

¶7. (C) Saif al-Islam's highly-publicized visit to the U.S. last November-December exacerbated tension with his siblings, particularly Muatassim, who viewed it as grandstanding. Saif al-Islam's high-profile role as the public face of the regime to the West has been a mixed blessing for him. While it has bolstered his image (he is probably the most publicly-recognized figure in Libya other than Muammar al-Qadhafi), many Libyans view him as self-aggrandizing and too eager to please foreigners at the expense of Libyans' interest. His role in the denouement of the Bulgarian nurses' case, in which he acknowledged in media interviews that the nurses had been tortured and the investigation into their alleged injection of the AIDS virus into Libyan children bungled, badly damaged his reputation. The fact that his recent visit to the U.S. came not long after his August 2008 Youth Forum address - in which he strongly criticized the existing Jamahiriya system of governance, XXXXXXXXXXXX said that most of his proposed reforms had already been achieved, and declared his intention to withdraw from political life to focus solely on civil society issues (ref E) - reportedly irritated his siblings. XXXXXXXXXXXX have suggested to us that Muatassim's desire to visit Washington this spring and his seemingly overweaning focus on having meetings with senior USG officials and signing a number of agreements are driven at least in part by a strong sense of competition with Saif al-Islam.

THE KNIVES COME OUT

¶8. (C) Recent events have fueled speculation that inter-sibling rivalries, and those of the more conservative regime elements they represent, have been increasing. XXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXX

TRIPOLI 00000208 004 OF 005

¶9. (C) XXXXXXXXXXXX

1 XXXXXXXXXXXX

¶11. (C) Comment: While internecine strife is nothing new for the famously fractious al-Qadhafi family, the recent escalation of tension between Saif al-Islam and Muatassim, Aisha, Hannibal and Saadi, comes during a particularly momentous period in the Jamahiriya's history. The 40th anniversary of the revolution on September 1, 2009, together with Muammar al-Qadhafi's recent election as Chairman of the AU (ref H), proposed political-economic reforms, consideration of a constitution, and rumored elections, have contributed to a sense that Libya is in the midst of a period of particular political turbulence. XXXXXXXXXXXX told XXXXXXXXXXXX that a draft constitution had been finished and submitted to the General People's Committee (cabinet-equivalent) for approval, and that it could be submitted to the General People's Congress for ratification sometime this year. The UN Resident Representative recently told the Ambassador that Saif al-Islam had established a super-committee under the auspices of the Economic and Development Board to draw up plans to implement wealth distribution and privatization/government restructuring advocated by Muammar al-Qadhafi last March (ref I). XXXXXXXXXXXX Saif al-Islam's recent announcement of a regional organization that would publicly identify specific individuals who perpetrate human rights abuses and target them for sanctions has been interpreted by some local observers as a manifestation of his frustration with the slow pace of reforms

TRIPOLI 00000208 005 OF 005

and as a threat to conservative regime elements, many of whom personally played a part in the most serious transgressions of the late 1970's and 1980's.

¶12. (C) Comment (continued): Persistent rumors about Muammar al-Qadhafi's declining health have lent particular urgency to questions about succession scenarios, throwing into stark relief the fact that, absent a constitution, there is no legal mechanism by which to orchestrate such an endeavor and seemingly increasing the stakes for the sibling rivalry. XXXXXXXXXXXX As Libya lurches forward with the effort to balance badly needed economic reform with the appearance of some political re-structuring - all against the backdrop of looming succession issues - the sharp rivalry between the al-Qadhafi children could play an important, if not determinative role, in whether the al-Qadhafi family is able to hold on to power after Muammar al-Qadhafi exits (one way or another) the political scene. End comment. CRETZ

quote:

(CNN) -- WikiLeaks could have one foot in the online grave.

It's been months since its last major leak, and its staff members -- former and current -- say it's so thinly staffed and broke that it can't dissect a massive file a whistle-blower handed over, allegedly naming rich and influential global players guilty of tax crimes.

Founder Julian Assange, described as a megalomaniac in a tell-all book by the group's former spokesman, is facing extradition to Sweden on sex crime charges. Many observers predict he'll face extradition to the United States next.

quote:

So, if WikiLeaks wilts, what will grow in its place?

Several leak-loving sites claim to be WikiLeaks' heir apparent. Greenleaks.org and GreenLeaks are battling to become the top site for whistle-blowers with dirt on environmental issues.

WikiLeaks' ex-spokesman and Assange's former right-hand man, Daniel Domscheit-Berg, has launched OpenLeaks, a secret information catch-all.

quote:

But perhaps the most controversial incarnation of the WikiLeaks model comes from Anonymous, the hacker collective globally infamous for disrupting the websites of MasterCard, Visa and PayPal in December.

The hackers said the attacks were revenge after the companies cut ties to WikiLeaks. Since then, Anonymous has grown more sophisticated, and experts say it's reasonable to fear that they could do more than wait for someone to give them secret documents. They could hack into highly sensitive military and corporate computer systems themselves.

This month, Anonymous launched anonleaks.ru, a site that features a searchable database of what appear to be tens of thousands of internal e-mails from a U.S.-based internet security firm whose website was also defaced.

quote:

The thought of an army of prankster hackers breaking into your e-mails, credit card records or business is disturbing. But it would be a mistake to portray members of Anonymous as cackling evil-doers, Ridder and Zittrain said.

Instead, Ridder said, Anonymous is driving Web culture. "They are making a significant mark on what it means to put information online."

quote:

Julian Assange to be extradited to Sweden
24 Feb 2011: WikiLeaks founder handed verdict at Belmarsh magistrates court

quote:

San Francisco, CA – The online payment provider PayPal has frozen the account of Courage to Resist, which in collaboration with the Bradley Manning Support Network is currently raising funds in support of U.S. Army Pfc. Bradley Manning. PayPal was one way people--especially international residents--were able to contribute to the grassroots effort supporting the accused WikiLeaks whistleblower. “We’ve been in discussions with PayPal for weeks, and by their own admission there’s no legal obligation for them to close down our account,” noted Loraine Reitman of the Bradley Manning Support Network (Support Network). “This was an internal policy decision by PayPal.”

“We exchanged numerous emails and phone calls with the legal department and the office of executive escalations of PayPal,” explained Jeff Paterson. “They said they would not unrestrict our account unless we authorized PayPal to withdraw funds from our organization’s checking account by default. Our accounting does not allow for this type of direct access by a third party, nor do I trust PayPal as a business entity with this responsibility given their punitive actions against WikiLeaks—an entity not charged with any crime by any government on Earth.”

The Support Network repeatedly requested and was refused formal documentation from PayPal describing their policies in this matter.

PayPal is a private company and thus under no legal obligation to provide Courage to Resist, the Bradley Manning Support Network, or anyone else with services. This was something made very clear to the Support Network by PayPal representatives.

“They opted to apply an exceptional hurdle for us to clear in order to continue as a customer, whereas we have clearly provided the legally required information and verification. I think our dealings with PayPal should be a cautionary tale for any possibly controversial not-for-profit entity with a PayPal account,” Paterson said, “While there may be no legal obligation to provide services, there is an ethical obligation. By shutting out legitimate nonprofit activity, PayPal shows itself to be morally bankrupt.”

quote:

https://www.wepay.com
WePay makes it easy to collect and manage money online. Unlike competitors, WePay allows users to keep their group's money in a dedicated account, and to share this account with their group. The service is great for roommates, clubs, organizations, fantasy leagues, teams, and much more. WePay was founded by Bill Clerico and Rich Aberman in Boston in 2008. The company is located in Palo Alto, CA and has 14 employees.

quote:

http://www.myce.com/news/(...)mpaign=related_posts

The United States Department of Justice’s (DOJ) handling of the Wikileaks investigation is drawing criticism not only from Anonymous, a vigilante activist group that has been fighting against censorship involving the leak of US diplomatic cables, but also from an 85 member European Parliament group known as the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.

The European politicians organized a protest on Wednesday against the DOJ’s attempt to obtain private information from Twitter about close Wikileaks supporters including Julian Assange, Bradley Manning, Jacob Appelbaum, and Iceland Parliament member Birgitta Jónsdóttir. They planned to call upon the EU to request clarifications from the US government about the Twitter subpoenas.

The United States Department of Justice’s (DOJ) handling of the Wikileaks investigation is drawing criticism not only from Anonymous, a vigilante activist group that has been fighting against censorship involving the leak of US diplomatic cables, but also from an 85 member European Parliament group known as the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.

The European politicians organized a protest on Wednesday against the DOJ’s attempt to obtain private information from Twitter about close Wikileaks supporters including Julian Assange, Bradley Manning, Jacob Appelbaum, and Iceland Parliament member Birgitta Jónsdóttir. They planned to call upon the EU to request clarifications from the US government about the Twitter subpoenas.

“[Our group defends] the right to offend which is an essential part of freedom of expression, and we will stand with those who come under pressure to freely express their views,” said German European Parliament Member Alexander Lambsdorff at an event back in July which hosted both Assange and Jónsdóttir.

Meanwhile, Anonymous released a new video on their blog Wednesday which announces global protests to take place on Saturday January 15th “in defense of Wikileaks and freedom of expression”. That video contained the following message:

“Beneath this mask there is an idea, and ideas are bulletproof. We believe that free speech is non-negotiable. The quality of an idea matters more than its authorship and the radical notion that information should be free. We are done waiting for someone to save us from tyranny and censorship. The internet needs champions and we will rise. We didn’t start this to destroy a cult. We took on a cult to defend free speech. Tens of thousands strong, we lie in wait as the real battle approaches. We are Anonymous, and so are you. Stand up and fight. Every city, everywhere, January 15th. Expect us.”

All of this comes as worry grows that Wikileaks’ founding member Julian Assange may face the death penalty in the US if Swedish officials are successful in extraditing Assange to their country where he faces allegations of raping two woman. Assange’s defense attorney, Mark Stephens, outlined his concerns in a 35-page legal document released on Tuesday.

“It is submitted that there is a real risk that, if extradited to Sweden, the U.S. will seek his extradition and/or illegal rendition to the USA, where there will be a real risk of him being detained at Guantanamo Bay or elsewhere, in conditions which would breach Article 3 of the ECHR,” Stephens states in the document. ”Indeed, if Mr. Assange were rendered to the USA, without assurances that the death penalty would not be carried out, there is a real risk that he could be made subject to the death penalty. It is well-known that prominent figures have implied, if not stated outright, that Mr. Assange should be executed.”

Lately, I have been talking with others in my local community about Wikileaks events and how the case should be handled, and the responses have been quite mixed. Some believe that the information contained in the leaked diplomatic cables should be openly published and that the government should learn a lesson about transparency from the situation. Others believe that the cables represent stolen property and should never have see the light of day. The situation is dividing not only Americans, but citizens around the world on views of government control and freedom of expression.

My personal feelings are mixed on the matter. While I believe that the actual theft of the cables is wrong, I don’t necessarily agree with the US government’s response on the matter. Since the cables were already out, I believe that government officials should have taken the opportunity to assist Wikileaks in redacting personal information contained in the cables before they were published, rather than taking the hard stance which caused cables to be published with information intact that has put some of the people involved in grave danger. Should Assange be severely punished? Is the US treatment of PVC Bradley Manning wrong? These are questions that I’m having difficulty answering.

What are your views on the Wikileaks situation? Let your opinion be heard in the comments.

quote:

http://www.rawstory.com/r(...)st-twitter-accounts/
WASHINGTON – A US judge is to hear arguments next week about the US government's efforts to get Twitter to hand over information on the accounts of three people connected with WikiLeaks.

The hearing is scheduled to be held on February 15 in a federal court in Alexandria, Virgina, according to court documents unsealed on Tuesday.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and others have challenged the government's bid to get Twitter to turn over information about the Twitter accounts of the three WikiLeaks supporters.

The three are Icelandic parliamentarian Birgitta Jonsdottir, Jacob Appelbaum, a US computer researcher, and Rop Gonggrijp, a Dutch volunteer for WikiLeaks.

The EFF, ACLU and lawyers for the trio are seeking to overturn a court order the government obtained on December 14 requiring Twitter to provide the account information.

The court order was confidential, but a judge unsealed it allowing Twitter to notify the users and give them a chance to appeal.

"Twitter is a publication and communication service, so the information sought by the government relates to what these individuals said and where they were when they said it," EFF legal director Cindy Cohn said.

"It is especially troubling since the request seeks information about all statements made by these people, regardless of whether their speech relates to WikiLeaks," Cohn said.

Iceland's foreign ministry last month summoned the US ambassador in Reykjavik to express "serious concern" about the bid to obtain personal information about Jonsdottir, the Icelandic MP.

Jonsdottir, an early WikiLeaks supporter who distanced herself from the site a few months ago, is an active promoter of freedom of information and a member of the Icelandic parliament's foreign affairs committee.

The US Department of Justice has been pursuing a criminal investigation of WikiLeaks, which has obtained and published hundreds of thousands of secret US military reports and diplomatic cables

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Julian Assange police investigator a friend of sex assault accuser

The police investigator who first interviewed two Swedish women about allegations of rape and sexual assault against Julian Assange is a friend and political associate of one of the women, a Swedish newspaper has claimed.

The female officer became friends with the woman referred to in court as Miss A through Sweden's Social Democratic party, in which both are involved, according to Expressen. The pair corresponded on the internet 16 months before the allegations were made against Assange.

Miss A commented on a Facebook update on the police officer's page as recently as 10 February, the paper said, and Miss A links to the officer's private blog from her personal page.

The paper said the officer had made anti-Assange comments on the internet.

The WikiLeaks founder is appealing against a British magistrate's decision last month to extradite him to Sweden to answer the accusations, which include an allegation of rape against another woman, Miss B. Miss A alleges Assange had sex with her without a condom, against her wishes. He has not been charged with any offence.

His legal team has argued that the Swedish judicial process is unfair and a number of those involved in the prosecution are politically motivated.

According to Expressen, Miss A and the police interrogator had internet contact in April 2009, when Miss A wrote a blog about white men "who take the right to decide what is not abusive". The officer commented that the author "puts her finger on the bottom line and speaks out", to which Miss A replied: "Hello! Thanks for the compliment. And like you say, white men must always defend the right to use abusive words. Then they of course deny that these very words are part of a system that keeps their group at the top of the social ladder."

The paper said that when another newspaper, Aftonbladet, hosted a recent webchat with Assange, the officer commented "What the heck is this! Judgment zero!" The previous day she had commented on the same page: "Way to go, Claes Borgstrom!" Borgstrom is the lawyer representing the women and a former SDP politician, who Assange's team has argued is acting from political motives.

The paper says the officer had just started her shift at Klara police station in Stockholm on 20 August when Miss A and Miss B arrived to make a complaint against Assange. It says she did not declare a conflict of interest. The police say that the officer in question did not interview Miss A and she played no further part in the investigation. On the basis of the interrogations, duty prosecutor Maria Häljebo Kjellstrand ordered Assange's arrest, a decision overturned by a more senior prosecutor. Borgstrom appealed against that decision and the case was reinstated by prosecutor Marianne Ny.Mark Stephens, Assange's lawyer, said they had been aware of the relationship, which had informed their arguments in court last month that the Swedish judicial process had been improper.

"There are a whole raft of issues like this which should cause reasonable people a bit of concern," he said. "I'm delighted that the Swedes, who objected so strongly to our criticisms of the case, have started to acknowledge that there are systemic problems in their judicial process which allow this sort of thing to happen."

Police superintendent Ulf Göranzon told Expressen he was not aware of any relationship between the two women, and would not comment on rumours.

The Swedish prosecutor's office also declined to comment, citing the ongoing extradition process in the UK.

quote:

Op vrijdag 11 maart 2011 11:54 schreef Sloggi het volgende:
Er komen niet veel nieuwe leaks bij, of wel?

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Twitter must give user info in WikiLeaks probe

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) -- A federal magistrate ruled Friday that prosecutors can demand Twitter account information of certain users in their criminal probe into the disclosure of classified documents on WikiLeaks.

The prosecutors' reasons for seeking the records remain secret and it's unknown how important they are to the investigation of the largest leak ever of classified American documents.

The Twitter users argued that the government was on a fishing expedition that amounted to an unconstitutional violation of their freedoms of speech and association.

But in a ruling issued Friday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Theresa Carroll Buchanan said the government's request was reasonable and did nothing to hamper the Twitter users' free speech rights.

"The freedom of association does not shield members from cooperating with legitimate government investigations," Buchanan wrote in her 20-page opinion.

The efforts by the Twitter users marked the first legal skirmish in the Justice Department's criminal investigation of the WikiLeaks disclosures, but is unlikely to be the last. The Twitter users' lawyers, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, have said they will appeal.

Cindy Cohn, the Electronic Frontier Foundation's legal director, said she was troubled by several aspects of Buchanan's ruling, including a technical ruling that the Twitter users lack legal standing to challenge the judge's order at all and a ruling that keeps much of the case under seal.

"What we don't know is who else they're trying to get information from," Cohn said.

Prosecutors have said little about their case, though Attorney General Eric Holder has said that the leaks jeopardized national security and promised to prosecute anyone who violated U.S. law.

Prosecutors submitted their rationale for seeking the Twitter accounts to Buchanan, but that submission remains secret. In her ruling Buchanan said only that she "remains convinced that the application stated 'specific and articulable' facts sufficient to issue" the order.

Steven Aftergood, who works on government secrecy policy for the Federation of American Scientists, said the government's aggressive pursuit of the Twitter accounts reflects one of two possibilities.

"Either the government is being extremely diligent in crossing every 't' and dotting every 'i'. Or the other possibility is that they have no case whatsoever and they're tallying up all conceivable leads," he said. "The information they're going to get from Twitter is indirect evidence at best."

A federal law - the Stored Communications Act - allows prosecutors to obtain certain electronic data without a search warrant or a demonstration of probable cause. Instead, the government must only show that it has a reasonable belief that the records it seeks are relevant to an ongoing criminal investigation.

Prosecutors said the law is used routinely in criminal investigations, and that the WikiLeaks investigation is no different from any other criminal probe.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, which is investigating the WikiLeaks case, declined comment after Friday's hearing.

Buchanan agreed with prosecutors, and said the Twitter users had no reason to expect that the information sought by prosecutors would be kept private. The order does not seek the content of the tweets themselves, which are already publicly disseminated. Instead, it seeks certain "non-content" information, like billing records and IP addresses associated with the accounts.

"The Twitter Order does not seek to control or direct the content of petitioners' speech or association," Buchanan wrote.

Lawyers for the Twitter users had argued that people would be less likely to speak freely if they knew that doing so could result in their being subjected to a government investigation.

Twitter issued a statement Friday saying its policy "is designed to allow users to defend their own rights. As such, Twitter will continue to let the judicial process run its course."

The original order issued by Buchanan in December 2010 at prosecutors' request sought account information from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and Pfc. Bradley Manning, who is being held at Quantico Marine Corps Base amid allegations that he leaked classified documents about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars to WikiLeaks.

Three other accounts belonging to American Jacob Appelbaum, Dutch citizen Rop Gonggrijp and Birgitta Jonsdottir, a member of Iceland's parliament, were also targeted. Those three challenged the court order. Assange has contended that, as an Australian citizen, he is not subject to American law.

Buchanan also rejected a request that would have required the government to disclose whether it sought similar records from other social networking sites like Facebook.

© 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

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http://www.volkskrant.nl/(...)eaks-verdachte.dhtml

WASHINGTON - J.P. Crowley is opgestapt als woordvoerder van het Amerikaanse ministerie van buitenlandse zaken vanwege zijn opmerkingen over de behandeling van de Amerikaanse militair die verdacht wordt van het doorspelen van geheime informatie aan Wikileaks.

'Belachelijk' en 'stom' noemde Crowley de wijze waarop de verdachte, Bradley Manning, wordt vastgehouden. President Barack Obama zei vrijdag nog dat het Pentagon hem had verzekerd dat Manning 'gepast' behandeld wordt.

Manning zit 23 uur per dag in eenzame opsluiting in een militair detentiecentrum. Iedere nacht moet hij zijn kleren inleveren en krijgt hij een dwangbuis om te voorkomen dat hij zelfmoord pleeft. Het licht in zijn cel gaat nooit uit.

Crowley liet zondag in een verklaring weten de verantwoordelijkheid te nemen voor zijn opmerkingen en zei dat hij zijn ontslag heeft ingediend bij minister van buitenlandse zaken Hillary Clinton.

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US ambassador to Mexico resigns over WikiLeaks embassy cables

The US ambassador to Mexico has resigned amid a furore over a leaked diplomatic cable in which he complained about inefficiency and infighting among Mexican security forces in the campaign against drug cartels.

Hillary Clinton said Carlos Pascual's decision to step down was "based upon his personal desire to ensure the strong relationship between our two countries and to avert issues" raised by the Mexican president, Felipe Calderón.

The US secretary of state was not specific, but a furious Calderón has publicly criticised Pascual's criticisms, divulged as part of the US embassy cables by WikiLeaks.

Pascual's resignation appears to be the biggest fallout yet from the release of thousands of sensitive US diplomatic cables from around the world. It is the first such public departure by a US ambassador during the Obama administration.

Clinton went to lengths to praise Pascual's work in Mexico and said the Obama administration never lost confidence in him. Clinton said Pascual's work with Mexico to build institutions capable of fighting drug traffickers "will serve both our nations for decades".

She was "particularly grateful to Carlos for his efforts to sustain the morale and security of American personnel after tragic shootings in Mexico" that killed a US employee and three other people tied to the consulate in the border city of Ciudad Juarez last year.

"It is with great reluctance that President Obama and I have acceded to Carlos's request" to step down, Clinton said in a statement.

The ambassador's resignation laid bare how difficult relations between the US embassy and the Mexican government had become since the release of the cable in December. Calderón has made no secret of his personal anger at Pascual.

"I will not accept or tolerate any type of intervention," Calderón said in an interview with the newspaper El Universal in late February. "But that man's ignorance translates into a distortion of what is happening in Mexico and affects things and creates ill feeling within our own team."

There was no immediate reaction from the Mexican government, although an official from Calderón's office said it was preparing a response.

Pascual may have ruffled feathers in the Mexican government and Calderón's National Action party by dating the daughter of Francisco Rojas, the congressional leader of the former longtime ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party. Mexican officials and the U.S. Embassy have declined to comment on that matter.

One of the leaked diplomatic cables that most angered Calderón referred to friction between Mexico's army and navy while detailing an operation that led to the death of drug lord Arturo Beltran Leyva.

Pascual said the US, which had information locating Beltran Leyva, originally took it to the army, which refused to move quickly. Beltran Leyva was eventually brought down in a shootout with Mexican marines, who have since taken the lead in other operations against cartel capos.

Other cables reported jealousies and a lack of co-ordination between various Mexican security forces.

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Op maandag 21 maart 2011 12:46 schreef Schanulleke het volgende:

[..]

Ik vind de vraag die gesteld wordt voorafgaand aan die van Assange veel pijnlijker voor Gillard. De interviewer weet ook niet wat hij hoort als ze haar antwoord geeft.

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I have no regrets, says PJ Crowley after state department resignation

The former US state department spokesman who resigned over the treatment of Bradley Manning has said he has no regrets about his comments criticising the manner of the soldier's detention, saying it has undermined the investigation into his role as the alleged source for WikiLeaks.

PJ Crowley resigned this month after calling the Pentagon's treatment of Manning "ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid".

His remarks, made during a speech at MIT, were first reported by blogger Phillpa Thomas.

In an interview with the BBC, his first since the resignation, Crowley said he had recently been asked why the US was torturing Manning.

"The United States is doing no such thing, but I understand why the question was asked," Crowley said. "I thought the treatment of Bradley Manning - the fact that he had to sleep naked and stand in a jail cell naked - was counter-productive to our broader effort of appropriately prosecuting someone who has violated his oath of office," he told Hardtalk.

Crowley said he was a believer in "something like strategic narratives", saying: "The United States, as an exceptional country in the world, has to be seen as practising what we preach."

Asked if he had realised the effect his comments would have, Crowley said: "Well, I realised that I was challenging another agency of government. Quite honestly I didn't necessarily think the controversy would go as far as it did.

"But I don't regret saying what I said."

Since June last year Manning has been kept in solitary confinement at a Marine Corps prison near Washington awaiting trial on suspicion of giving classified material to WikiLeaks. Earlier this month it was revealed that he is forced to sleep naked in his cell.

His lawyers said his clothes were taken after he made sarcastic comments about using his underwear to commit suicide. The US authorities confirmed Manning was made to relinquish his boxer shorts for about seven hours due to a "situationally driven" event.

Barack Obama has said he has asked Pentagon officials about aspects of Manning's confinement and been assured that they were appropriate.

Asked about Obama's comments, Crowley said: "Again, I can only offer you my view, which is that it is one thing that actions can be legal and it is another thing that actions can be smart. I do think that the prosecution of Bradley Manning is legitimate and necessary.

"The release of 251,000 cables has damaged US interests around the world and more importantly has put the lives of activists who help us understand what's going on around the world in jeopardy. "But I felt his treatment undermines the credibility of the ongoing investigation and prosecution. I spoke my mind and I haven't changed my view."

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It should be easier to stop an abuse of power. It shouldn't cost you your job or your friends.

We should live in a place where people who blow the whistle are recognised for the heroes they are. However we don't live there. Not yet.

So rather than wait until we do, the IrishLeaks project will provide a system that will help whistleblowers who shed light on abuses of power within the Republic of Ireland remain anonymous.

We hope this will encourage a fairer, more honest society in which openness and transparency become something to be valued, not something that will demonise you in the eyes of your peers.

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http://www.volkskrant.nl/(...)bassadeurs-uit.dhtml

De Verenigde Staten en Ecuador hebben elkaars ambassadeurs uitgewezen. Dat gebeurde na de publicatie van documenten door de klokkenluiderssite WikiLeaks.

De regering van Ecuador verklaarde gisteren als eerste de ambassadeur van de VS tot persona non grata. Als tegenmaatregel deed Washington donderdag hetzelfde met de ambassadeur van Ecuador. Beide ambassadeurs moeten zo snel mogelijk terug naar eigen land.

Heather Hodges, die de diplomatieke missie van de VS in Ecuador leidt, had in 2009 een bericht gestuurd naar haar bazen in Washington, waarin stond dat de Ecuadoraanse president Rafael Correa akkoord was gegaan met de benoeming van een zeer corrupte politiechef. Correa zou op de hoogte zijn geweest van de criminele praktijken van de topambtenaar.

Ricardo Patino, de minister van Buitenlandse Zaken in Ecuador, maakte bekend dat Hodges zo snel mogelijk moet vertrekken, zo meldden Amerikaanse media dinsdag (lokale tijd). Washington noemde het besluit van de regering in Quito 'ongerechtvaardigd'.

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Julian Assange claims WikiLeaks is more accountable than governments

WikiLeaks founder defends organisation in his first formal public appearance since being arrested over sexual assault allegations

WikiLeaks is more accountable than democratically elected governments because it accepts donations from members of the public, Julian Assange has claimed, in his first formal public appearance since being arrested in December following accusations of rape and sexual assault.

Questioned at a public debate about the whistleblowing organisation's own transparency, Assange told an audience of 700 people, many of them supporters: "We are directly supported on a week-to-week basis by you. You vote with your wallets every week if you believe that our work is worthwhile or not. If you believe we have erred, you do not support us. If you believe we need to be protected in our work, you keep us strong.

"That dynamic feedback, I say, is more responsive than a government that is elected after sourcing money from big business every four years."

The WikiLeaks founder, who is currently appealing against his extradition to Sweden to face allegations of sexual assault, told the audience at a packed debate organised by the New Statesman and the Frontline Club that whistleblowing was essential in a democracy because "the only way we can know whether information is legitimately kept secret is when it is revealed".

He cited the examples of Vietnam and "the disaster that was the Iraq war", saying that if whistleblowers had had the courage to speak up earlier about both conflicts, "bloodbaths" could have been avoided.

He said he "could speak for hours" about the impact of the publication of leaked US embassy cables, much of it through the Guardian, and that leak's positive impact.

The Hindu newspaper had in recent weeks published 21 front pages based on so-called "cablegate" revelations, he said, leading to the Indian government walking out four times and a growing anti-corruption movement in the country.

But the political commentator Douglas Murray, director of the centre for social cohesion, challenged Assange over the website's sources of funding, its staffing and connections with the Holocaust denier Israel Shamir, who has worked with the site.

"What gives you the right to decide what should be known or not? Governments are elected. You, Mr Assange are not."

Murray also challenged the WikiLeaks founder over an account in a book by Guardian writers David Leigh and Luke Harding, in which the authors quote him suggesting that if informants were to be killed following publication of the leaks, they "had it coming to them".

Assange repeated an earlier assertion that the website "is in the process of suing the Guardian" over the assertion, and asked if Murray would like to "join the queue" of organisations he was suing.

The Guardian has not received any notification of such action from WikiLeaks or its lawyers.

Jason Cowley, the editor of the New Statesman and chair of the debate, interjected to ask: "How can the great champion of open society be using our libel laws to challenge the press?"

The WikiLeaks founder was obliged to leave before responding to all the questions in order to comply with the curfew conditions of his bail.

WikiLeaks' lawyer Mark Stephens could not be reached for comment. Asked after the debate whether he could shed any light on the supposed legal action, WikiLeaks spokesman Kristin Hrafnsson said "not really".

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New arrest over Anonymous' pro-WikiLeaks attacks

Police have made a sixth arrest in their investigation of Anonymous, the online activist collective that launched a series of cyber attacks on major firms it saw as anti-WikiLeaks.

The new suspect, a 22-year-old man from Cleveland, was questioned by specialist computer crime detectives at a local police station on Wednesday last week. He was bailed until 26 May pending further enquiries.

The five original suspects - three teenage boys and two men - have also all been bailed again in the last 48 hours, to reappear at police stations in June.

They were arrested at addresses in the West Midlands, Northamptonshire, Hertfordshire, Surrey and London in coordinated dawn operations on 27 January.

They are suspected of involvement in cyber attacks on the websites of Amazon, Bank of America, Mastercard, PayPal and Visa in December. Deliberately causing such disruption is an offence under the Computer Misuse Act and carries a sentence of up to 10 years' imprisonment.

The firms were targeted after they cut off services to WikiLeaks, amid controversy over its release of classified US diplomatic cables.

Anonymous saw the moves as an affront to free speech online, and in chatrooms planned Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks in revenge.

Members downloaded a specially-developed piece of software - dubbed the Low Orbit Ion Cannon - to participate in "Operation Avenge Assange". The software was designed to effectively shut down the websites by bombarding their servers with requests for data.

But the impact was limited: while Amazon’s heavy duty infrastructure withstood Anonymous’ attack, the Mastercard and Visa websites were temporarily disrupted. Yet credit card payment systems themselves were mostly unaffected.

Since the attacks international law enforcement agencies have been cooperating on an investigation that has also led to the arrest of alleged Anonymous members in France, the Netherlands, and the US.

The collective had already caught the attention of British authorities before its WikiLeaks-related attacks, however.

Scotland Yard's Police Central e-Crime Unit began inquiries after similar DDoS attacks by Anonymous in September, on organisations connected to the entertainment industry. Its targets included the BPI and ACS:Law, a London-based law firm that had controversially accused thousands of internet users of copyright piracy.

Anonymous, which emerged more than three years ago from the anarchic web forum 4Chan.org, is also battling other attempts to unmask its members.

In February it hacked into HBGary Federal, a government computer security contractor that claimed to have identified its leaders. The firm's chief executive was forced to step down after the hackers stole his emails and published them online.

And recently a group claiming to be made up of disgruntled former Anonymous members has published a dossier its says contains the true identities of senior figures. Several are listed as living in Britain.

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‘VS financieren oppositie Syrië’

De Verenigde Staten hebben in het geheim Syrische oppositiegroepen gesteund, blijkt uit diplomatieke correspondentie, gepubliceerd door Wikileaks en ingezien door The Washington Post.

Volgens die krant zouden de VS sinds 2006 zo’n zes miljoen dollar naar een groep Syrische bannelingen hebben gesluisd, om onder meer vanuit Londen een satellietzender te beginnen, Barada TV. Bovendien werden met het geld actitiveiten binnen Syrië gefinancierd.

Barada TV begon in 2009, maar is met de afgelopen maand begonnen massaprotesten in Syrië steeds actiever geworden..

Financiering begon onder George W. Bush

De financiering voor Syrische oppositiegroepen is begonnen onder president George W. Bush, nadat de diplomatieke banden met Damascus werden afgesneden in 2005, zo meldt de krant. De steun is voortgezet door president Obama, ook terwijl zijn kabinet probeert de banden met de Syrische president Bashar al-Assad wat aan te halen. In januari is voor het eerst in zes jaar weer een Amerikaanse ambassadeur in Damascus geïnstalleerd.

Volgens The Washington Post is het onduidelijk of de financiering nu nog altijd wordt voortgezet, maar de ‘cables’ van Wikileaks maken duidelijk dat er in elk geval tot in september 2010 nog geld apart werd gezet voor dit doel.