Robert Stevens spoke at a public meeting in Sheffield on 23rd February about the persecution of WikiLeaks, 
http://wikileaks.ch/ and in defense of Julian Assange.
http://wikileaks.ch/ and in defense of Julian Assange.
Robert Stevens Defend Julian Assange! Behind the witch-hunt of WikiLeaks
- mp3 36M
Questions and Answers
- mp3 31M
Audio Post Production by ZKT.
The meeting was part of a tour and was advertised with the following text:
The publication of US diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks provides an invaluable insight into the real state of international relations, the plots, conspiracies and crimes of the United States and other governments, and the mounting global tensions that threaten to spark new military conflicts.
The organisation’s founder, Julian Assange, has faced death threats from US politicians and media figures as well as calls for his trial and execution.
The British authorities are participating in efforts to extradite Assange to Sweden on trumped-up sex charges, where he will almost certainly face extradition to the US and a possible death sentence.
Much of what passes for the liberal or “left” milieu has either joined in the right-wing campaign against Assange or, in what amounts to the same thing, are silent as to the grave threat to democratic rights that is posed by this counter-attack by the imperialist powers.
http://alt-sheff.org.uk/events/1268/
See also this article:
Wikileaks, Karl Marx and You
by Alistair Davidson
http://www.libertyandsolidarity.org/wikileaks
The meeting was part of a tour and was advertised with the following text:
The publication of US diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks provides an invaluable insight into the real state of international relations, the plots, conspiracies and crimes of the United States and other governments, and the mounting global tensions that threaten to spark new military conflicts.
The organisation’s founder, Julian Assange, has faced death threats from US politicians and media figures as well as calls for his trial and execution.
The British authorities are participating in efforts to extradite Assange to Sweden on trumped-up sex charges, where he will almost certainly face extradition to the US and a possible death sentence.
Much of what passes for the liberal or “left” milieu has either joined in the right-wing campaign against Assange or, in what amounts to the same thing, are silent as to the grave threat to democratic rights that is posed by this counter-attack by the imperialist powers.
http://alt-sheff.org.uk/events/1268/ See also this article:
Wikileaks, Karl Marx and You
by Alistair Davidson
http://www.libertyandsolidarity.org/wikileaks
Homepage:
Comments
Hide the following 41 comments
maybe
28.02.2011 23:54
just a suggestion
Hmm
01.03.2011 01:54
As for the accusation of “Holocaust denial”, my family lost too many of its sons and daughters for me to deny the facts of Jewish tragedy, but I do deny its religious salvific significance implied in the very term ‘Holocaust’; I do deny its metaphysical uniqueness, I do deny the morbid cult of Holocaust and I think every God-fearing man, a Jew, a Christian or a Muslim should reject it as Abraham rejected and smashed idols. I deny that it is good to remember or immortalise such traumatic events, and I wrote many articles against modern obsession with massacres, be it Jewish holocaust of 1940s, Armenian massacre of 1915, Ukrainian “holodomor”, Polish Katyn, Khmer Rouge etc. Poles, Armenians, Ukrainians understood me, so did Jews – otherwise I would be charged with the crime of factual denial which is known to the Israeli law.
Looks like Intel Ops are out smearing again even on this "obscure news site". You people should at least try to uphold the Law that's what the suckered tax payer expects, but not you lot, you psychotic freaks are a freaking disgrace to the human race.
Assange he's just some bloke who set up a web site. All this smeary shit is just the Ruling Gangster War Criminals' foot soldiers spamming because the Gangsters crimes are exposed. That's the real story here. And not the switched narrative bullshit that Assange is a holocaust denying rapist. Which crimes are the more serious? the deaths of millions. Who are the people who we really should be locking up?. Blair? Bush? Cameron?
Mr Smeary (the Window Cleaner)
re: maybe
01.03.2011 02:20
anon
Tryptychs & Triangles.
01.03.2011 02:32
Silly comment to make! Unwise too.
Julian Assange is a man who has done good work on the criminal US Government in the past but most people (this isn't about left or right) recognise the devious machinations of the people he is up against.
The "cables" are diplomatic communications sent by diplomats which are rarely sensitive and almost never insightful when it comes to the truth of any given situation.
So what we have is a hotch-potch of non-sensitive data that is being used by criminal elements of the US political estate to illicit controversy in order to sterilise public outrage at its past conduct. Its very difficult to get angry over the cables when suspicions, reasonable suspicions, are that the truth is decidedly more squalid. It is very difficult to get angry with Republican representatives making death threats when it is apparent that these death threats are more politically strategic than genuine heart-felt outrage.
Julian Assange is a man who started well, but his motivations and goals have now converged with the wider aims of the republican party who see him as a controllable patsy and, therefore, are falling over themselves to qualify the controversy surrounding him, in order to capitalise on the "moderate" tone of the content of the cables. Better that than have the truth, the real truth, revealed.
The Republican party have recently made gains politically in both the House of Representatives and the Senate and consider that they are in a position to launch a comeback, only one thing stands in their way, the remaining residue of long-standing damage done by the human rights abusing Bush Presidency. Julian Assange and his undercooked "cables" are key to the Republican's for their future electoral plans. Julian Assange is the pen the Republicans plan to use to draw a line under their previous conduct.
So, rather than berate "the left" for not supporting Julian Assange, understand that as far as this situation is concerned, people have their eyes on a bigger and more delicious prize.
Simply put, it is not possible to support Julian Assange, when Julian Assange is of such critical importance to the longer term political welfare of the Republican party.
And you are forgetting that the British coalition Government have a stronger relationship with the Swedes right now than the Swedes have with the US. Ultimately, the matter revolves around that relationship remaining stable. Mr Assanges deportation is certain to pole-axe it and reverberate directly in London at a time the coalition can ill afford.
Knot-Eyed Jaguar
total support for Assange& especially Pvt Bradley manning
01.03.2011 02:59
Julian really needs to be vvvcareful paying people like Shamir though
James
@KEJ - more mind numbing BS from the PTB
01.03.2011 05:08
Oh Aye Tryptychs & Triangles alright....
.
The "cables" are diplomatic communications sent by diplomats which are rarely sensitive and almost never insightful when it comes to the truth of any given situation.
What utter bollocks. Stop taking the Guardian fool!
So what we have is a hotch-potch of non-sensitive data that is being used by criminal elements of the US political estate to illicit controversy in order to sterilise public outrage at its past conduct.
What a load of conspiraloon bullshit
Its very difficult to get angry over the cables when suspicions, reasonable suspicions, are that the truth is decidedly more squalid.
The cables contain the squalid truth it's just that you only read the friggin; Guardian which carefully redacts the squalid truth like the squalid truth that BP are happily doing deals with gangsters that happily torture people to death by boiling them alive on behest of the CIA with the tacit support of the FO.
It is very difficult to get angry with Republican representatives making death threats when it is apparent that these death threats are more politically strategic than genuine heart-felt outrage.
More utter claptrap.
Julian Assange is a man who started well, but his motivations and goals have now converged with the wider aims of the republican party who see him as a controllable patsy and, therefore, are falling over themselves to qualify the controversy surrounding him, in order to capitalise on the "moderate" tone of the content of the cables. Better that than have the truth, the real truth, revealed.
Now your a fantasist the real truth is revealed in the cables it's just that you read the f'in Guardian and watch Pano f'in rama.
The Republican party have recently made gains politically in both the House of Representatives and the Senate and consider that they are in a position to launch a comeback, only one thing stands in their way, the remaining residue of long-standing damage done by the human rights abusing Bush Presidency. Julian Assange and his undercooked "cables" are key to the Republican's for their future electoral plans. Julian Assange is the pen the Republicans plan to use to draw a line under their previous conduct.
FFS! This is just made up shit!
So, rather than berate "the left" for not supporting Julian Assange, understand that as far as this situation is concerned, people have their eyes on a bigger and more delicious prize.
Oh aye the big prize WTF?
Simply put, it is not possible to support Julian Assange, when Julian Assange is of such critical importance to the longer term political welfare of the Republican party.
Bullshit!
And you are forgetting that the British coalition Government have a stronger relationship with the Swedes right now than the Swedes have with the US.
More BS, Karl Rove is big mates with the Swedish PM "The Swedish Reagan"
Ultimately, the matter revolves around that relationship remaining stable. Mr Assanges deportation is certain to pole-axe it and reverberate directly in London at a time the coalition can ill afford.
totally f'in meaningless drivel, Go back to your Guardian safe zone will ya'
Knot-Eyed Jaguar
Squint-Eyed Pussy
Mr Smeary (the Window Cleaner)
The failure of the English left,@ scene etc in relation to Assange & Manning
01.03.2011 08:25
I have attended all of Assange's court appearances since he self surrendered in December at Kentish Town/London police station. My estimates of the solidarity attendance are thus......
1st Westminister Magistrates Horseferry Rd. where Assange is denied bail and take to HMP Wandsworth placed in solitary - 12 activists against extradition
2.nd Westminister (see above) - J.A. granted bail but returned to HMP Wandsworth (we later are told by Guardian website it is the Brisith state not the Swedes who oppose J.A. being released on bail) - after SWP/StWC puts in a week of promotion - 150 max over the course of 4 hours outside the court against extradition
3rd. High Court - along with the world's media I was there in the snow from 11am- 6pm when he is finally released on bail, - I estimate 40 opposed to extradition passed through the demonstration over the course of 7 hours
4th Woolwich Court/ Belmarsh Prison (why was he case moved there? to give the backdrop of terrorist hearings....this bombproof court was built for the Prvisional IRA and now hears jihadist cases, there is a tunnel from the court into Cat A Belmarsh Prison - this hearing occurs on the 11th. anniversary of the opening of Guanatanamo - 6 of us opposed to extradition present outside (ther are handful of cebs & others in the public gallery)
5,6,7th.Woolwich Court/ Belmarsh Prison) London Catholic Worker circulates 2500 flyers promoiting this 1,000 go out in Peace News direct mailing, we leaflet Australian pubs on Australia Day, Ani DiFranco concert, 5,000 storng student anti-cuts demo - only 20 come to vigil outside Belmarsh Prison/Woolwich Court against extradition (again handful of celebs and some of our people get in to public gallery of the court)
*In repsonse to the 2500 flyers and other CW promotion
-14 attended demo on the Friday evening (preceeding hearing) at Australian embassy (all who attended are connected witht the Catholic Worker)
- 40 attended a free entry/free food/ fine music and speakers event on the Saturday evening
8th Wooliwch Court/ Belmarsh Prison - Written verdict delivered, 20 outside against extradition (12 of them are connected to the Catholic Worker 2 of these are English one of the EDO 9 and a random we picked up the night before)
- Colombian woman suggests that because he is Australian the English left don't support non-English in trouble
- Local english @ suggest it is because Assange presents as arrogant and nature of the charges he won't get support
- Others, the campaign against Assange waged by the liberal media works on english radicals because they are basically liberals with a hipper dress sense.....easily manipulated?
- Others, "Stop the War" don't expend any energy on anything they can't control...don't support activists facing trial...as they don't like folks who appear more militant and serious about addressing the war than their rrrrrrrrrrevolutionary leadership...they are concerned about drift from their youngster cardre towards such people
- Others, the British war on the peoples of Iraq and Afghanistan osttheir sex appeal a long time ago...people won't mobilise again until the Bristish are told by the U.S. to invade Iran
- Others, Assange is a cyber kid, all his support is in cyber space
The numbers have been pathetic when you take into consideration the total television coverage of the case, the population of London, the very real potential that Manning and Assange will spend the rest of their lives in jail for exposing the nature of these British/American/Austraian wars on the people of Iraq and Afghanistan
Report of the Catholic Worker bocakade of
Belmarsh Magistrates' Court on veridct day, Thursday, Feb. 24, 2011.
The nature of the Catholic Workervigils outside the hearings, making the links with persecution of Assange, jailing of Manning, continued detention ofShaaker in Guantanamo and the ongoing war (rememebr teh war?)
YOUTUBE (4 ins 30 secs)
Ciaron (Giuseppe Conlon House/ London Catholic Worker)
Homepage:
http://www.londoncatholicworker.org
STWC War Criminals.
01.03.2011 12:01
Ciaron, the "left" as you call it will not support Julian Assange in any meaningful way. The SWP/STWC have a broad reputation for clumsiness and poor conduct with its campaigning and tend to drive people away from any given cause. For every ten people you get support from, the STWC will drive 15 away.
The STWC will do nothing of any use and act as a magnet for the extreme right wing which will have the effect of allowing your cause to become diffused. It was the STWC that marched up and down the streets waiving communist flags and demanding Blair be arrested for war crimes. That approach galvanised public mistrust over every individual who joined those calls and ensured Blair remained free. Throughout the period of the Labour Government, the STWC worked hard to protect Blair and were in regular contact with Downing Street. They continue to protect him.
The SWP/WSWS/STWC are organisations that will always protect the Labour Party, even if it means actively working alongside war criminals.
My point is Ciaron, Julian Assange is a threat to the longer term welfare of the Labour movement which wants its human rights record buried and forgotten, just like the US Republicans, it will marginally call a few protests to keep up appearances, but if Mr Assange is eventually deported, the SWP/STWC will have been part of the deportation process by rendering Mr Assange's defence provision completely ineffective.
I've been involved in a number of very effective campaigns and I consider that they were only effective because the SWP/STWC were kept out of it all together. The SWP/STWC do not campaign on an issue because it is right or wrong, they campaign because it is politically beneficial or financially rewarding to do so. They are no more morally "aware" than the war mongers themselves.
If you want to protect Mr Assange, you must take the bull by the horns, wrestle it to the ground, twist its head until you hear its neck snap and then stand on its lifeless carcus and proclaim a victory for everything that is right with the world. But of course it won't happen that way, just as you declare victory, you'll be violently shoved out of the way! Kicked and spat at as the SWP/STWC take the credit for all your hard work claiming it as great victory not for what is right, but for Socialism!
Do not defend Julian Assange by using a predictable entity like the STWC, build it yourself and leave your opponent guessing at what you might do next!
Knot-Eyed Jaguar
Knot-Eyed Jaguar = CIA stooge?
01.03.2011 12:55
Fortunately, Knot-Eyed Jaguar isn't doing a very good job of it - they are coming across as a raving conspiracy theory nutcase, so people are less likely to take notice of their ramblings. Here's a tip for Knot-Eyed Jaguar and their handlers - try a more subtle approach next time and you might sucker in a few more people.
Anyone with half a brain can see that the stuff put out by Wikileaks is extremely damaging to the current power structures. I'm not sure it is a total coincidence that we are also seeing uprisings in several dictatorships at the moment with increasing communication via the internet, and people questioning authority more and more.
anon
Mr Smeary, played for a fool
01.03.2011 14:21
Here's what a writer for "The Nation" saw:
'I spent a few hours on www.israelshamir.net and learned that: "the Jews" foisted capitalism, advertising and consumerism on harmonious and modest Christian Europe; were behind Stalin's famine in Ukraine; control the banks, the media and many governments; and that "Palestine is not the ultimate goal of the Jews; the world is." There are numerous guest articles by Holocaust deniers, aka "historical revisionists."'
And that's not the BNP talking, that's the US's longest-running progressive weekly, so it won't do to just snarl "zionist smear smear smear" over and over. Antizionists (those who weren't fools, at least) saw through Shamir a decade ago - remember that the first major denunciation of Shamir came from Electric Intifada.
You've been had, Mr Smeary. Shamir's a fascist pretending to be a leftist. Most of the progressive left figured that out long long ago. You've got a choice. Wipe your eyes, wipe your nose, and get over it. Or else aim for winning the medal for being the very last guy Shamir was able to dupe. He will pat you on the head for it. You'd wouldn't find anything objectionable about getting patted on the head by a fascist, wouldn't you?
Assange was so worried about Shamir's antisemitic reputation he wanted Shamir to use a pen name. And surely, given Assange's line of work, he can't complain when his email saying exactly that was leaked to the press.
Of course, none of this makes the Wikileaks cables any less true. It just makes Julian Assange a terrible judge of character. Which puts him in the same class as anyone who still believes Shamir is on the left.
just a suggestion
hang on a minute
01.03.2011 14:26
The real deal is what hasn't been released as of yet. These files relating Rupert Murdoch, Bank of America and the Cayman Is. offshore tax fiddle (est $22 Trillion), if released, will pale all other leaks into mediocrity.
We are in an end game, a delicate game of chess, with the whole of the financial and corporate industries well aware of the repercussions of the publications of these documents.
These unreleased docs have the potential to take down capitalism as we know it. Time, gentleman please.
The peoples war against the corporate death machine
More hand waving and division from K-EJ
01.03.2011 14:31
You are a patronising hand waving bullshitter of the first order of bullshitters, you are happy to be spoon fed 'Liberal' misinformation from 'main stream' media and your aim is to demoralise and split grass roots activists. The evidence is in your own words.....
e.g.
Patronising
"Silly comment to make! Unwise too."
and you claim to speak for
"most people" WTF!
always a sign of a mock liberal, appealing to the 'Norms' - "9 out of ten cat owners say" etc. a marketing tactic.
I'm not 'disagreeing' with you, I'm saying your're making out that you know shit, when you actually don't. In other words; you are bluffing flat foot.
e.g. The title of your first comment
"Tryptychs & Triangles."
Totally meaningless in the context of the current thread, just there to make you look like an 'Intellectual' and sound like you might know what you're blathering on about. Then you give the classic "nothing to see here" hand wave vis,
Hand waving
"I'm going to dismiss the comments by window cleaner as meaningless."
"The "cables" are diplomatic communications sent by diplomats which are rarely sensitive and almost never insightful when it comes to the truth of any given situation. "
or
"Julian Assange and his undercooked "cables""
and
"hotch-potch of non-sensitive data"
When in fact the cables (to quote myself again)
.... contain the squalid truth it's just that you only read the friggin; Guardian which carefully redacts the squalid truth like the squalid truth that BP are happily doing deals with gangsters that happily torture people to death by boiling them alive on behest of the CIA with the tacit support of the FO.
I mean the Liberal Guardian are redacting and not publishing the 'squalid truth'
like for example
ASTANA 000072, entitled KAZAKHSTAN: MONEY AND POWER.
Guardian
Actual Document
Demoralising and Divisive
"clumsiness and poor conduct with its campaigning and tend to drive people away from any given cause. For every ten people you get support from, the STWC will drive 15 away."
Fear Mongering
"act as a magnet for the extreme right wing which will have the effect of allowing your cause to become diffused"
And complete BS.
Misinformation? Your Evidence?
"the STWC worked hard to protect Blair and were in regular contact with Downing Street. They continue to protect him. "
Present your evidence for this statement. You really should be saying "the STWC *LEADERSHIP* worked hard to protect Blair" and show your evidence otherwise this is a divisive and unsupported accusation. and is anyway "OFFTOPIC" and designed to get off the subject at hand which is the exposure of our criminal corporate elite's global actions.
1) Any hierarchical Authoritarian group like SWP are the potential pawns of the corporate ruling elite, that's the trouble with hierarchy it's easy to 'supervert' and control access to information, and thence control larger numbers of authoritarian following dissidents and activists, the hierarchy is the tool of the ruling class and always has been. This is a non hierarchical site so what are you doing posting here? if you don't actually get why it's important to be non hierarchical?
Its not that well meaning LWAs (Leftwing Authoriarians), that make up the mass of SWP and other hierarchical authoritarian groups, are bad people, if the actions of the group are to be criticised then the 'Leadership' of that group should be the target of the criticism not the well meaning rank and file authoritarian followers. Your comment is therefore aimed at dividing rank and file activists Authoritarian Followers or otherwise.
So KEJ you first wave your hands about and then set about dividing anti war activists in an off topic rant with a piss poor analysis of one of those hierarchical authoritarian groups.
GO back to the Guardian 'safe-zone' where 'most people' herd themselves to keep safe from the alleged holocaust denying, sex criminal who's embarrassing the Industrial Military Complex and the nabob East India Company style action of British and Global Corporations all over the planet and is fermenting revolt in the Arab World with the WL releases.
Support Wikileaks and whistle blowers around the world. The control of information is central to the Elites' power
Mr Smeary (the Window Cleaner)
Double Edged Sword.
01.03.2011 14:49
And it is a classic tactic of the deluded to see conspiracy and "state-Agents" everywhere they look! Saw this through the entire war on terror period, the lead up to the G20 protests, the anti-capitalist protests in 99, and other more decisive protests. Always the same story, smother anything that looks like the truth with "conspiraloon" nonsense because that is a sure-fire way to have people dismiss the truth with a waive of the hand. Its called distraction and you fit right in dear!
"Fortunately, Knot-Eyed Jaguar isn't doing a very good job of it - they are coming across as a raving conspiracy theory nutcase, so people are less likely to take notice of their ramblings. Here's a tip for Knot-Eyed Jaguar and their handlers - try a more subtle approach next time and you might sucker in a few more people."
Why bother with a "subtle approach" when the outright truth works so much better. The state of the US government is a matter for the record as are the cables themselves. And the British Labour Party and their pro-war stooges the SWP/STWC are a matter for the record too. I don't have any time for conspiracy theories, or the people who "get by on them"...unless of course there is a conspiracy...in which case I'm all ears!
"Anyone with half a brain can see that the stuff put out by Wikileaks is extremely damaging to the current power structures. I'm not sure it is a total coincidence that we are also seeing uprisings in several dictatorships at the moment with increasing communication via the internet, and people questioning authority more and more."
Well thankfully I don't have half a brain, I have a complete brain and my complete brain, having read the cables themselves and been involved in some of the matters they deal with, can see through them as only slightly embarrassing but not in any way decisively embarrassing, especially considering that the real truth just ain't made it yet. The cables are easily dismissed by the general public and up against what has actually happened, I mean that stuff that is kept from the diplomats as much as the public, the cables aren't up to much.
And the BBC has been broadcasting pictures of anti-Ghadaffi protesters holding up placards saying "Let the West have the Oil" so it should be very obvious who is behind those protests...no?
If I were a Republican, given everything that has happened, I would be happy that the public have bought the content of the cables. I would be happy that people feel that they finally have the truth and have bought into the narrative. I would be happy that the actual truth is now sufficiently protected by the clumsiness of Julian Assange and his supporters.
If I were a Republican or a Labour acolyte, I would be happy!
Let me give you some help dear.
The war is waged and those who waged the war continue to have their liberty. Bush, Rumsfield, Bolton, Wolfowitz, Blair, Brown, Miliband....all free as birds. The US remains in Iraq and Afghanistan and continues to strike at Pakistan. Israel kills peace activists in international waters and as we speak, continues to "expand" into territory it doesn't own. People continue to die and continue to be murdered. Nobody has faced justice or anything coming close to justice. The world is now ruled by the criminal war mongering classes.
Exactly what part of this do you consider a victory for peace?
I am not a state agent much as I'm sure you would like me to be one...I am just someone who knows a joker when I see one.
Knot-Eyed Jaguar
Boiling it all down.
01.03.2011 15:07
Your diatribe is quite weak and heavily reliant on emotion. Are you sure your happy with what you have written?
I don't have a lot of time but it isn't the "grass-roots" I have a problem with...it is the Labour Party, its supporters and its volunteers who spend a lot of time here at IMC trying to pretend that they are something they are not. For them, I have nothing but utter contempt.
Protecting war criminals from prosecution in the courts...how dare you claim you are anti-war. You don't have a single anti-war bone in your whole body!
Disgusting, foul creature!
Knot-Eyed Jaguar
Shamir, Assange, McKinney
01.03.2011 15:56
Your first post here was to call Shamir a 'holocaust denier' , I merely pointed out that he doesn't think he is and, he says neither does Israeli law, calling him a 'Holocaust Denier' is misinformation, you spread misinformation.
Shamir IMO (Like I'll make my own mind up and not trust an organ that calls itself "The Nation" WTF? is that if not NATIONALISM ug) does misuse the word Jew and could be and is called anti-semetic. He has the plausible deniability of being culturally at least, Jewish.
So I think that Shamir may well be a trap for people like Assange and Cynthia McKinney, the US ex democrat congress woman and Green Party Presidential Candidate, so that the trolls and robot personae can use the association to switch the narrative away from the criminality of the ruling elite and onto these side issues
I merely quoted what Shamir said in his defence against the smear you began this thread with, would you care to account for your actions? Why post misinformation?
Mr Smeary (the Window Cleaner)
When I'm cleaning windows...
01.03.2011 16:23
Mr Squint-Eyed Pussy....
"Your diatribe is quite weak and heavily reliant on emotion."
Something Liberals are averse to, emotion, like human beings aren't emotional, fekin' un-human, pussy.
"Are you sure your happy with what you have written?"
Yes ta, you patronising hand waiver.
"I don't have a lot of time but it isn't the "grass-roots" I have a problem with...it is the Labour Party,"
Oh wow you don't like the Labour Party Aw, I feel for ya K-EJ, what about the toads that put them in Power? which bank gave Blair an £8m part time job after he left office? For services rendered no doubt. What about the documented crimes of your beloved ruling corporate elite? You know? doing deals with gangsters that boil people alive? What about them K-EJ? Care to enlighten us on how you feel about that?
"its supporters and its volunteers who spend a lot of time here at IMC trying to pretend that they are something they are not. For them, I have nothing but utter contempt."
Well at least we agree on something :-)
"Protecting war criminals from prosecution in the courts...how dare you claim you are anti-war. "
I dare because I am and I have never "Protect[ed] war criminals from prosecution" How dare you!!!!!!!!!!
"You don't have a single anti-war bone in your whole body!"
All my bones are anti-war.
"Disgusting, foul creature!"
Actually a Human Being, so it goes .......
Knot-Eyed Jaguar
Over sensitive, non-emotional, hand waving Liberal. You are a bag of contradictions, you smell of compartmentalisation, bordering on cognitive dissonance, ug pooo.
Mr Smeary (the Window Cleaner)
Who is Israel Shamir?
01.03.2011 16:32
Someone who has taken time to read and think about what Shamir has said.
fresh horse
Homepage:
http://freshhorse.wordpress.com/2011/02/04/2011-02-03-who-is-israel-shamir/
Good grief!
01.03.2011 17:24
I recognise this language as the language used by a long-time IMC disruption specialist who is a serial disruptive poster.
It was the use of the phrase "cognitive dissonance" that gave you away.
You've blown it!
Knot-Eyed Jaguar
oh well that changes everything then
01.03.2011 17:45
Ask David Irving whether he considers himself a Holocaust denier, and he'll say no, no, of course not, no.
You've been diddled.
And what kind of deep expert dismisses the USs best-known progressive weekly out of hand just because he thinks the name is "nationalistic"? You haven't the slightest idea what "The Nation" is, do you?
Not so naïve
huh
01.03.2011 19:01
another wikipedia user convicted
More OFFTOPIC than ON on the whole K-EJ
01.03.2011 20:28
From reading Shamir that about sums Shamir up pretty well.
@K-EJ
Blown what exactly K-EJ? that I'm an anonymous poster posting trying to keep this thread on topic, now we could do a quantitative analysis if you like, count your posts to see how many are about the WL Witch Hunt and how many are demoralising, divisive, mirror the MSM, hand waving or patronising.
What about the witch hunt of Assange and his supporters?
Care to say anything about that?
Right so now we're on to the lies and distortion part of the mock liberal indignation routine. Remember you're the divisive one. It's documented in your posts.
It's the cognitive dissonance that gives you away K-EJ and again you're off topic, do you actually have anything to say you know, about the witch hunt of WL? that isn't divisive or a patronising dumb liberal complaint? or just a bunch of pseudo intellectual made up stuff?
I reiterate..
What about the documented crimes of your beloved ruling corporate elite? You know? doing deals with gangsters that boil people alive for the CIA while the FCO watch? What about them K-EJ? Care to enlighten us on how you feel about that?
NSN
Ha Ha "progressive" says it all really. Capitalisms OK it just needs the nice Capitlists in control and we'll all be happy.
Like this
Liberal Complaint in that while it seems to have a 'class analysis' in that the Title says
The Betrayal of Public Workers
and Identifies 'Wall Street' as the villain, but instead of say lets get rid of the banks and debt creation and instead have credit unions and not for profit institutions it goes the other way. Wall Street = bad, but
"The state and local governments do borrow to finance their long-term investments .... They have established a long record of reliability in repaying these debt obligations, even during the recession. "
So there's still a 'duty' somehow to honour the debt owed to these felonious casino bankers. Just bend over a little further, a little further further Oh you're no fun you fell right over.
And from the same article
"The Great Recession did blow a massive hole in state and municipal government finances, with tax receipts—including income, sales and property taxes—dropping sharply along with household incomes, spending and real estate values."
Well says it all it's so bad to have falling 'real estate values' now who's 'values' are those values?
Now I could go on, if you like 'The Nation' so much go and hang out with your liberal chums there.
Your first post here was to call Shamir a 'holocaust denier', but in the eyes of the Israeli state he is not.
You quote me
"I merely pointed out that he doesn't think he is"
but the bit you edit out is this
"he says neither does Israeli law, calling him a 'Holocaust Denier' is misinformation,"
here again are the questions you are failing to answer.
Why do you post misinformation?
and
Why can't you/won't you account for your actions?
Support the whistle blowers.
Mr Smeary (the Window Cleaner)
Smears against WikiLeaks cross the geopolitical spectrum
01.03.2011 21:12
A Washington intelligence firm was recently exposed as being behind a $2M plan to destroy WikiLeaks reputation and target supportive journalists:
The intelligence firm was referred by the US Department of Justice.
But smears against WikiLeaks cross the geopolitical spectrum. Ian Hislop, editor of the weekly satirical current affairs magazine Private Eye, recently wrote an article "as much as he could remember", about an off the record conversation with Julian Assange who complained that a previous article, appearing in Private Eye, was based on falsehoods spread by opponents and calculated to undermine WikiLeaks strong Jewish support. The problems stem from a November the 1st, 2010 legal dispute with the Guardian, which were trigged by the actions of one particular journalist, David Leigh. Leigh deliberately, and secretly, broke an agreement signed by the Guardian's editor-in-chief stating that 1. the Guardian was not to publish WikiLeaks cables 2. the Guardian was to keep them confidential. 3. the Guardian was to not store them on an internet connected computer system. Leigh had previously shown himself to be a competent journalist, but secretly broke all elements of the contract. On being notified that the German news weekly Der Spiegel was writing a book (in German) that would expose this breach, Leigh attempted to cover his actions, first by laundering an distorted version of the events through a friend at Vanity Fair then by writing his own book, which he had published through the Guardian. WikiLeaks has not previously covered this or many other process and reputational issues, due to the opportunity cost of removing writers from our core mission which has never been more important.
Mr. Leigh has since continued to shore up his own power position by spreading malicious libels, targeted at WikiLeaks principle support bases. A brief look through the focus of Leigh's Twitter account
Julian Assange said "Hislop has distorted, invented or misremembered almost every significant claim and phrase. In particular, 'Jewish conspiracy' is completely false, in spirit and in word. It is serious and upsetting. Rather than correct a smear, Mr. Hislop has attempted, perhaps not surprisingly, to justify one smear with another in the same direction. That he has a reputation for this, and is famed to have received more libel suits in the UK than any other journalist as a result, does not mean that it is right. WikiLeaks promotes the ideal of "scientific journalism" - where the underlaying evidence of all articles is available to the reader precisely inorder to avoid these type of distortions. We treasure our strong Jewish support and staff, just as we treasure the support from pan-Arab democracy activists and others who share our hope for a just world."
WikiLeaks
Homepage:
http://www.twitlonger.com/show/92hpnj
Israel Shamir has never worked or volunteered for WikiLeaks
01.03.2011 22:31
Israel Shamir has never worked or volunteered for WikiLeaks, in any manner, whatsoever. He has never written for WikiLeaks or any associated organization, under any name and we have no plan that he do so. He is not an 'agent' of WikiLeaks. He has never been an employee of WikiLeaks and has never received monies from WikiLeaks or given monies to WikiLeaks or any related organization or individual. However, he has worked for the BBC, Haaretz, and many other reputable organizations.
It is false that Shamir is 'an Assange intimate'. He interviewed Assange (on behalf of Russian media), as have many journalists. He took a photo at that time and has only met with WikiLeaks staff (including Asssange) twice. It is false that 'he was trusted with selecting the 250,000 US State Department cables for the Russian media' or that he has had access to such at any time.
Shamir was able to search through a limited portion of the cables with a view to writing articles for a range of Russian media. The media that subsequently employed him did so of their own accord and with no intervention or instruction by WikiLeaks.
We do not have editorial control over the of hundreds of journalists and publications based on our materials and it would be wrong for us to seek to do so. We do not approve or endorse the the writings of the world's media. We disagree with many of the approaches taken in analyzing our material.
Index did contact WikiLeaks as have many people and organisations do for a variety of reasons. The quote used here is not complete. WikiLeaks also asked Index for further information on this subject. Most of these rumors had not, and have not, been properly corroborated. WikiLeaks therefore asked Index to let us know if they had received any further information on the subject. This would have helped WikiLeaks conduct further inquiries. We did not at the time, and never have, received any response.
WikiLeaks
Homepage:
http://www.twitlonger.com/show/92ichb
@wiki
01.03.2011 23:00
The peoples war against the corporate death machine
WikiLeaks On Ice.
02.03.2011 00:15
Sure thing, you post a copy of this "documented crime" involving a representative of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office here and I'll tell you what I think!
I'll wait here while you go and get it.
"It's the cognitive dissonance that gives you away K-EJ and again you're off topic, do you actually have anything to say you know, about the witch hunt of WL? that isn't divisive or a patronising dumb liberal complaint? or just a bunch of pseudo intellectual made up stuff?"
I don't see it that way. I don't see a witch hunt of Wikileaks. I see political opportunism all round.
Personally, I couldn't give a flying bats arse about Julian Assange, I want to see the complete cables and all the information contained within them. Julian Assange could not be any less important in the general scheme of things.
I don't want to be spoon-fed by a media that's already shamed itself by its inaction time and time again.
All I see is very unconvincing soap-opera!
Knot-Eyed Jaguar
Criminal Gangsters
02.03.2011 02:02
"Sure thing, you post a copy of this "documented crime" involving a representative of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office here and I'll tell you what I think!
I'll wait here while you go and get it."
Not heard of Craig Murray then?
Karimov gangsters boil people alive and split open the skulls one survived and 'lives' in an assylum where he just screams, Murray blew the whistle when he was ambassador and his bosses at the FCO turned a blind eye, They're complicit in covering up torture, the FCO know what's going on there, Murray made it very clear to them and showed them the evidence and he's not the only one, and yet we read in the even Telegraph of all places
(and elsewhere) that...
"..... secret cables revealed on Sunday night by WikiLeaks, will come as an embarrassment to Prince Michael, as well as to the representatives of more than 70 British companies, such as the London Stock Exchange, mining companies Rio Tinto and Oxus Gold, and oil companies Worley Parsons and Tethys Petroleum, who made up the trade delegation on Wednesday and Thursday last week. "
So Ruling class gangster Prince Michael of Kent led the biggest-ever delegation of British businessmen to the capital, Tashkent.
Gangster Prince Michael of Kent doing deals with the gangster people boilers of Tashkent and the FCO turning their blind eye.
His suit even looks like a gangsters suit in that picture!
"I don't see it that way. I don't see a witch hunt of Wikileaks. I see political opportunism all round."
You ain't lookin at it right,
" I want to see the complete cables and all the information contained within them. "
you can search through the cables on line.
Mr Smeary (the Window Cleaner)
stranger and stranger
02.03.2011 09:47
"the even Telegraph of all places "
So you reject information from 'The Nation' because it's got 'nation' in its title and so must be nationalistic, but you're happy to rely on the 'even Telegraph'.
Not the most anti-establishment of sources. What was that you were saying about beloved corporations?
hissing fred
Yep, Soap Opera.
02.03.2011 11:50
Karimov gangsters boil people alive and split open the skulls one survived and 'lives' in an assylum where he just screams, Murray blew the whistle when he was ambassador and his bosses at the FCO turned a blind eye, They're complicit in covering up torture, the FCO know what's going on there, Murray made it very clear to them and showed them the evidence and he's not the only one, and yet we read in the even Telegraph of all places"
Saw this originally in 2006 and must have seen it a million times since then.
How does this prove the cables are genuinely damaging? or the Julian Assange is anything other than a patsy?
Knot-Eyed Jaguar
Diumb fuck misinfo Troll
02.03.2011 14:44
"the even Telegraph of all places "
"So you reject information from 'The Nation'"
Now you're desperately knit picking to avoid any accountability for posting misinformation to Indymedia.
No I don't reject information from the Nation but I don't come on Indymedia posting misinformation and singing the praises of a liberal leftish organ that pretends to be radical and progressive, but meerely champions the status quo and is certainly not radically anti capitalist quite the reverse.
"Not the most anti-establishment of sources. What was that you were saying about beloved corporations?"
All sources of information are useful if you take into account the perspective of the purveyor of the information, so 'The Nation', The Telegraph, Indymedia, even Ezra Pound is a source of information, you have to be able first to know what the World view of the disseminator of that information is in order to get a three dimensional picture (without the need for special glasses). Understanding the 'bias' of the source and your own 'bias' in relation to a topic is important IMO.
I've answered your questions, but you're still avoiding answering my questions.
1) Why do you post misinformation?
2) Why won't you account for this?
3) How do you cope with compartmentalisation?
Mr Smeary (the Window Cleaner)
Oh dear, at it again!
02.03.2011 15:54
In your opinion you are not interested in anybodies view but your own.
In my experience its usually those who claim others are biased who are biased. Judging by your language, tone, demeanour and approach your not really interested in anything other than your own warped world view.
You've used every trick in the misinfo arsenal to denigrate other people who are posting here but have claimed everybody else is at fault.
You sure do look dodgy Window Cleaner.
You use the phrase cognitive dissonance freely, a term used in psychology which is a branch of science used by the establishment to keep control by messing with peoples heads. But you don't see a contradiction in this. You claim to be anti-establishment but you use establishment techniques to argue with IMC contributors.
Something very wrong here!
Are you here to contribute or to disrupt? All I'm seeing is hackneyed disruption.
Joshua Goldman-Shmuck
Still f'n hand waving
02.03.2011 16:55
Yep Still hand waving
"Saw this originally in 2006 and must have seen it a million times since then."
`And that's no exaggeration folks, let's just work it out, that's 1 year and 9 months of your life continuously watching that video of Craig Murray wow! and still you don't get it, how dumb do you have to be? a million times, unbelievable!
I suppose you're so busy hand waving you must have missed Murray's description of what is going on in Uzbekistan.
So maybe on the one million and first time the penny might drop.
After about 3 weeks in post Murray says he was able
"to build up a picture of torture practised on an Industrial Scale"
on the 10,000 political prisoners held in gulags and prisons.
"An old lady brought in photographs of a body, eh this gentleman, his name was Musaffa Uvazov had been a prisoner in the um, Jazlit gulag, he was this lady's son and his body had been returned to her in a sealed casket. She'd been ordered to bury the body the next day and not to open the casket. Erm now she had opened the casket because she felt she had certain religious duties to perform by way of washing the corpse ... She took photographs of the body which was in a very bad condition. When I saw the photographs I couldn't work out what had happened. You see I'd never seen anything like it. We sent the photographs to the University of Glasgow pathology department and they sent back a report saying, that his fingernails had been pulled out, he'd been beaten about the face and the neck and that he'd died from immersion in boiling liquid and it was immersion not splashing because there was this clear 'tide line' (draws a line across his chest at the top of the pectoral muscles) around the upper torso and the upper limbs, ehm I was stunned I mean he'd been boiled alive."
Now we know the FCO were and are fully cognisant of this situation of people being tortured on an industrial scale in an industry subsidised by generous grants from the USA to confess to being "members of AQ" so that the defence dept could use these figures to exaggerate AQ membership from around zero members to 1000's of members to inflate budgets and the 'level of threat'. They used a similar tactic in the Cold War arms race to exaggerate the Soviet threat, the Industrial Military Complex are playing the same game in the 'War on Terror' only its by deriving "statistics" from the "confessions" of human beings who were seeing their children tortured in front of them or were having their nails pulled out or were being immersed in boiling liquid.
So what part of this crime against humanity - torturing a human being, don't you get?.
As for the cables, what they show is the continuing Corporate Elite's 'business as usual' approach to gangster regimes that boil people alive, in the interests of profit.
At one time you say this..
"Personally, I couldn't give a flying bats arse about Julian Assange,"
And now you say this
"..... or the Julian Assange is anything other than a patsy?"
You 'care' enough to want to imply he's a patsy, but you offer no supporting evidence just insinuation and slur.
You are a bag of contradictions your statements contradict each other so much that it's almost as if you are more than one person clocking into Indymedia, but if you are one person, having so many compartmentalised personae running around your brain is very damaging to your mental health, `At some point your 'core' personality, the one that is compassionate and loving will come to the foreground. Which could be damaging both to yourself, but more importantly perhaps the people that love and care about you. (If there are any)
Mr Smeary (the Window Cleaner)
Fuck off coppers
02.03.2011 17:17
"An old lady brought in photographs of a body, eh this gentleman, his name was Musaffa Uvazov had been a prisoner in the um, Jazlit gulag, he was this lady's son and his body had been returned to her in a sealed casket. She'd been ordered to bury the body the next day and not to open the casket. Erm now she had opened the casket because she felt she had certain religious duties to perform by way of washing the corpse ... She took photographs of the body which was in a very bad condition. When I saw the photographs I couldn't work out what had happened. You see I'd never seen anything like it. We sent the photographs to the University of Glasgow pathology department and they sent back a report saying, that his fingernails had been pulled out, he'd been beaten about the face and the neck and that he'd died from immersion in boiling liquid and it was immersion not splashing because there was this clear 'tide line' (draws a line across his chest at the top of the pectoral muscles) around the upper torso and the upper limbs, ehm I was stunned I mean he'd been boiled alive."
You're defending this shit.
Mr Smeary (the Window Cleaner)
A Validiction
02.03.2011 18:18
You are so full of shit, but you know that don't you.
Still playing the mock Liberal indignation game. still not accounting for what you do you're a chicken shit dumb fuck authoritarian, trolling Indymedia like a dog pissing on a tree.
Message to the obvious Trolls operating here.
Read this
Craig Murray
"An old lady brought in photographs of a body, eh this gentleman, his name was Musaffa Uvazov had been a prisoner in the um, Jazlit gulag, he was this lady's son and his body had been returned to her in a sealed casket. She'd been ordered to bury the body the next day and not to open the casket. Erm now she had opened the casket because she felt she had certain religious duties to perform by way of washing the corpse ... She took photographs of the body which was in a very bad condition. When I saw the photographs I couldn't work out what had happened. You see I'd never seen anything like it. We sent the photographs to the University of Glasgow pathology department and they sent back a report saying, that his fingernails had been pulled out, he'd been beaten about the face and the neck and that he'd died from immersion in boiling liquid and it was immersion not splashing because there was this clear 'tide line' (draws a line across his chest at the top of the pectoral muscles) around the upper torso and the upper limbs, ehm I was stunned I mean he'd been boiled alive."
Now we know the FCO were and are fully cognisant of this situation of people being tortured on an industrial scale in an industry subsidised by generous grants from the USA to confess to being "members of AQ" so that the defence dept could use these figures to exaggerate AQ membership from around zero members to 1000's of members to inflate budgets and the 'level of threat'. They used a similar tactic in the Cold War arms race to exaggerate the Soviet threat, the Industrial Military Complex are playing the same game in the 'War on Terror' only its by deriving "statistics" from the "confessions" of human beings who were seeing their children tortured in front of them or were having their nails pulled out or were being immersed in boiling liquid.
And answer me this...
Who are the 'Extremists'? The Ruling Elite who tolerate this so they can enrich themselves or the people your controllers (the same gangster elite) are paying you to keep an eye on here at IM UK?.
Now if you find yourself capable of sustaining the image of a human being being boiled alive while posting misinformation that supports this ruling gang's agenda and don't suffer the effects of severe cognitive dissonance about the job you are being ordered to carry out on behalf of a bunch of Lawless Criminals then pity you, cos you're so fucked as human beings.
Take Care
BFN
Mr Smeary (the Window Cleaner)
whaat!?
02.03.2011 20:55
I think we should be told.....
squint-eyed daimler
Wel excuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse me....how about a repsonse to comment 7?
04.03.2011 06:27
.............but way back in cmment 7 i raised some siginifiant questions and challenges about the
inadequacies of the English "left" and @ scene to respond to these cases of the persecution of anti-war activists Manning (Welsh/North American) and Assange (Australian) given the very real prospect they will spend the rest of their lives in custody, be formally executed or informally killed in jail.
The issues I have raised have not been addressed on this thread or anywhere else.
I'm starting to think that none of you have spent a night in the hoosegow and have no idea of custody let alone what a liftime of that could mean for these courageous pair.
I raised these issues here provocativey to provoke a response after spending months mass leafleting around the aternate/lefty Brit subcultures (seriously I've got RSI, tennis elbow I kid ya not from this!), holding gigs, posting and spamming.....and still no response here or anywhere else.
So puhleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze address these issues before it's too late.
thanx
Ciaron
Ciaron
Homepage:
http://www.bradleymanning.org
What to Do
04.03.2011 15:36
I think your criticisms of the left @ scene are perfectly valid. And I apologise for the goat-fuck which I share some responsibility for, but you can see (perhaps) in the goat-fuck the reasons for the left @ failure to respond. There is so much disinformation about WL about that it's extremely difficult for people to get a handle on what's actually going on. Liberal Lefties still think the Guardian and BBC are 'trusted' sources and it is perhaps this that has caused the most damage, So the 'hand waving' responses here are as a result of the 'liberal' MSM's selective publication, as I say people 'trust' these 'main stream' sources and quite clearly they shouldn't. And there is an obvious massive disinformation campaign raging wherever the WL topic raises it's head.
As an example the release of the Afghan war documents came across through the filter of the MSM as a way of pointing the finger of blame onto Pakistan and Iran which then would appear to justify the continuing Imperialist Policy in the region.
It's a very difficult situation, I certainly don't have time to sift through 90,000 documents and so it's left to these so called 'trusted' MSM sources who do have the resources to sift, the problem then becomes one of the bias of the sifter, and it turns out that these formerly 'trusted' sources are working for the Imperialists and are sifting and redacting to show that the US/UK policy is justified. This reflects badly on WL because it then looks as though it is WL that is doing this, when in fact it is the selection made by the MSM that is the source of this error.
Our response was to post the audio of the talk given in Sheffield by a Socialist group about the current WL Witch Hunt, as media activists this is what we do, This article has also been promoted on the news wire to give it more prominance, maybe IM should post an article to the central column so that this issue doesn't disappear as the news wire grows.
You can write an article and propose it to the imc-features list where it will be discussed and you might get help from some activists to write an it. One problem you might face though is that you are part of what looks like a hierarchical organisation, that involves a god. And I'd guess that most IM activists are non-hierarchic and atheist. Though there is at least 1 practising catholic in the net work that I know of.
If you have problems with the UK features list you can propose an article to Sheffield IM as they are the ones that posted and promoted this audio article and seem to have a handle on the WL situation (maybe!).
Hope this helps.
Support the Whistle Blowers and WikiLeaks.
Mr Smeary (the Window Cleaner)
One flew over the cuckoo's nest!
04.03.2011 21:05
As argument style and composition goes that really is a very miserable response.
"Now we know the FCO were and are fully cognisant of this situation of people being tortured on an industrial scale in an industry subsidised by generous grants from the USA to confess to being "members of AQ" so that the defence dept could use these figures to exaggerate AQ membership from around zero members to 1000's of members to inflate budgets and the 'level of threat'. They used a similar tactic in the Cold War arms race to exaggerate the Soviet threat,"
Yes, yes we know all that. The point was proven a long time ago. Private corporations were funded with tax-payer money to falsely breed the myth of Al Quaida in order to consolidate funding for the military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Are you new to this?
"So what part of this crime against humanity - torturing a human being, don't you get?."
I got this and acted while it was happening you fuckwit...where were you?
"As for the cables, what they show is the continuing Corporate Elite's 'business as usual' approach to gangster regimes that boil people alive, in the interests of profit."
No shit sherlock, did you just work that out?
"You 'care' enough to want to imply he's a patsy, but you offer no supporting evidence just insinuation and slur."
If the cables are so damaging, why release them through a channel known for its bias toward the culprit you describe above? If I had this data, the LAST thing I would do would be to release them through the MSM. I would release them unedited straight out into the public domain where they can do most damage. No editing, no filter. Just the raw truth.
"You are a bag of contradictions your statements contradict each other so much that it's almost as if you are more than one person clocking into Indymedia, but if you are one person, having so many compartmentalised personae running around your brain is very damaging to your mental health, `At some point your 'core' personality, the one that is compassionate and loving will come to the foreground. Which could be damaging both to yourself, but more importantly perhaps the people that love and care about you. (If there are any)"
Don't understand a frigging word of that. But obviously you do.
I think the lady doth protest too much!
Knot-Eyed Jaguar
Tachanka Statement Supported by IM London and Sheffield
04.03.2011 21:17
Both Sheffield IM and London IM (along with John Pilger and others) signed this statement
from tachanka
The Emperor Wears No Clothes [En]
We are writing this statement in support of democracy.
Since Sunday, November 28th, WikiLeaks and five major newspapers from around the world (The Guardian, The New York Times, Der Spiegel, Le Monde, El Pais) have been publishing redacted versions of leaked US Diplomatic Cables in an ongoing story that has become known as "Cablegate." The identity of the original leaker is - as yet - unconfirmed.
This is not the first leak of confidential documentation that exposes governmental lies - and it won't be the last. Secret information has long been used by elites to build and maintain power over huge populations of citizens, workers, armed forces, and others. But when the secrets of the elite are revealed, the power they represent can be confronted and reversed.
Nor is this the first time that state (and other) forces of power have acted to prevent dissemination of information on the internet - and it won't be the last. Sites have been removed by their hosting companies, servers seized by police or other governmental authorities, take-down requests issued under the rule of law: none of these prevented information spreading.
But the issues run deeper than this. As former US President Thomas Jefferson once stated, "information is the currency of democracy." Democracy - the rule of the people - as currently understood and practiced is, and has long been, severely restricted.
Power is abused in our name by governments and transnational corporations around the world: they fight illegal wars; abuse and kill people; pillage property and planet. The powerful accumulate wealth and force the majority - the rest of us - to pay for it: with our health, our freedom, our time, our money and with our lives. For a long time, we have been deceived about the reasons for this: it is our right for the truth to be known. Without that right, democracy cannot and does not exist. The current assault on WikiLeaks is yet another instance of democracy-hating by elites.
Now, we find we are witnessing a new level of info-struggle. We are witnessing how the Emperor wears no clothes. We can see the lies made bare, we can see the posturing and propositioning that our governments participate in. We can see the collusion that occurs with transnational corporations and with global media giants. WikiLeaks and others are battling against powerful institutions bent on curtailing our knowledge of and influence over policies and structures that impact our lives: they are information heroes, not information villains. We see all this being done in our name, and we condemn it.
Thus, we pledge to not simply bear witness but to actively participate in this fight - for freedom of speech, for real democracy, and for justice. We know this is only the beginning: de-masking the puppeteers facilitates action towards fairer and more just societies. We demand that the truth be heard. We stand at the doorway to a new, just and democratic world: a doorway we pledge to keep open and to march through. We stand with all the inhabitants of this world who are affected daily by governments that oppress the right to free speech and obstruct the path to true democracy.
Signed by:
* Andrei Morgan
* Michael Albert
* Jamie McClelland
* Daniel Kahn Gillmor
* Tachanka! Collective –
* London Indymedia –
* John Pilger
* Donnacha Delong, Vice President National Union of Journalists
* Yvonne Ridley, founder Women In Journalism
* Hessom Razavi
* Mike Holderness, Freelance Journalist
* Pennie Quinton, freelance journalist and Human Rights Campaigner
* May First/People Link –
* Phil Edwards
* Sheffield Indymedia –
* Chris Grollman
* Chris Anderson
* David Graeber, Reader in Social Anthropology, Goldsmiths, University of London
* Toile-Libre -
* plentyfact collective –
* Koumbit Worker's Committee –
* Sasha Costanza-Chock, Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University
If you are planning actions use
to publicise and promote
and
to report your actions
good luck with your campaign
Sheffield IMC'er
Taking back the circle from the attack dogs
04.03.2011 22:52
An intelligent being forced into the asymmetric conflict with organised stupidity will realise the need of making decisions over a probability of suspicion without full knowledge of the situation. Under these circumstances it is required to make consistent decisions before being able to complete the information, because poking the situation to come as close to certainty as perceived necessary does only result in intellectual quagmire. We can get the full knowledge after we take their headquarters and reclaim what they stole, but in this situation the focus must be on the very next steps that could lead there. These are decisions reducing the overall ambiguity of the situation, not such erratically driven by suspicion and infiltration.
Any sane activist should know enough of the psychology of the conservative mind to be able to touch their own nose.
insurgent clown without a handle
Thanx Mr. Smeary and Sheffield IMCer
05.03.2011 11:39
This is an anaysis I worte a couple of months ago on how they hope to break Manning to deliver Assange.
Bradley Manning is an amzing person to hold up under this 8 months of torture and now weoth the threat of the death penalty. I don't think I would have lasted 8 weeks. The FBI has been to his small Welsh village to harrass his mother who has suffered a series of strokes. The British peace movement has yet top reach out to the family! We know from the Brimingham 6, Maguire 7 and Guilford 4 frame ups in this country...if they can't break you, they go after your family!
In the past week Manning was stripped of all his clothing, they usually leave him in his boxer shorts in solitary confinem,ent and sensory deprivation from 9 pm-5am - but this week they took the boxers away. What else can they take they have nmot already taken from this courageouos young man?
Torture has been so mainstreamed in Amerikkka in the past ten years, it shocks us who are older when it wasn't so mainstream. Maybe it's not such anoutrage and a shock for you that have come of age in the War on (is) Terror.
I'm a marginalised figure Catholic @narchist (too hip for the straights, too straight for the hips,too fluffy for the spikes, too spikey foy the fluffies) an I've have had more folks in solidarity at my trials in smaller towns (without the mainstream media awareness) than Julian Assange had in London. Go figure?
Stay staunch
Do what you can
Ciaron
Ciaron
Homepage:
http://www.londoncatholicworker.org
'Private Eye' Hypocrisy Concerning Assange
26.03.2011 02:12
Lots of people are trying to smear Assange. Here is proof of their hypocrisy.
'Private Eye' is a magazine which expresses a particularly strong moral dislike of misogyny, anti-feminism, holocaust denial and anti-Semitism – in public that is. Behind the scenes at 'Private Eye', things are rather different.
'Private Eye' appeared to be so obviously concerned that Julian Assange might have caused harm to women and Jewish people, I took them at their word and wrote to Ian Hislop. My letter warned of something far more dangerous and sinister than Assange's alleged crimes.
For decades, a police informer called David Myatt has been churning out hate material and spreading it all over the internet. Not on hidden 'Darknet' sites and not even anonymously. It is all published under his own name and is easily obtainable from any of Myatt's numerous hate sites. Here are a few archived samples.
“It is no coincidence that those at the forefront of the campaign for so-called "feminism" are Marxists and Jews. Indeed, the whole "women's liberation movement" was the creation of Jews....”
“This society is founded upon the Zionist hoax, or illusion, of 'racial equality', This was the hoax of the Jewish 'holocaust'.”
“There are several excellent reasons why the story of "the Jewish holocaust" is a fictional tale - a product of Zionist propaganda - and why the so-called "evidence" which is produced, and which has been produced, in support of this story is suspect or false.”
Strangely, 'Private Eye's abhorrence of anti-Semitism and its pious concern for the defence of feminists, evaporated completely as soon someone other than Assange was being accused. 'Private Eye' didn't want to run the story and no, they wouldn't even publish a letter on the subject.
So it seems Holocaust denial and misogyny are not the real issues for 'Private Eye'. It is Julian Assange himself that they disapprove of.
But why is all the hostility aimed at Julian Assange and not David Myatt? Read a little further and you will begin to see that 'Private Eye' is a bit more pro-establishment than it would have us believe.
David Myatt is a police informer, with alleged links to MI5.
The authorities' failure to arrest this man, even though he has published illegal hate material for thirty years, certainly supports this assertion.
My letter to 'Private Eye' explained that the hate sites are used as 'honey traps' to attract extremists for the purpose of ID theft. The information is then passed on to the authorities. The problem with this strategy is that, although some extremists are prompted to attempt acts of terrorism by the material, they are not always caught in time. This is what happened in London in 1999. David Copeland, heavily influenced by David Myatt's hate material and his bomb making manual, set off a series of nail bombs before he was caught by the police. An unborn child and its mother and many others, were killed in these attacks. At the time the security services said that the police informer was not under surveillance, so they could not have prevented the loss of life. Now more than a decade later, David Myatt is still publishing his dangerous nonsense and nothing is done. So it looks as if the bomb victim's families were lied to in 1999, because David Myatt is an informer and they knew exactly what he was up to.
It is amazing that the security services trust Myatt to do anything, he is such a profoundly unstable character.
But 'Private Eye', the magazine which promotes itself as a fearless exposer of the truth, wont touch this story. They wont even allow any mention of David Myatt in their letters page. Yet Julian Assange is pilloried in every issue of the 'Eye', over allegations which at present haven't even been tested in court.
Could it be that for 'Private Eye', Holocaust denial and manslaughter are O.K. If MI5 says it is?
Some very lucrative careers in the mainstream media have been launched on the back of 'anti-establishment' satirical magazine 'Private Eye'. Next time you see a rich little guy on TV 'defending to the death' our right to free speech, just remember it doesn't extend to the unborn child who was blown up before it had a chance to live.
Harry
Homepage:
http://truthisgolden.wordpress.com