Another Wikileaks release

[Flames Fan, Ph.D.]

Apparently to get on Interpol's most wanted, you just need to go bareback.

"A Swedish lawyer representing two women whose allegations triggered a sexual-misconduct investigation of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has given Declassified the first on-the-record confirmation of the allegations that led to the issuance—and then rapid cancellation—of a warrant on a rape charge and to a parallel investigation into alleged “molestation." Claes Borgstrom of the Stockholm law firm Borgstrom and Bostrom, who is representing two women who said they had sexual relationships with Assange, said his clients complained to the police of Assange's reluctance to use condoms and unwillingness to be tested for sexually transmitted disease."

Link back from August.

And now most recent:

"Apparently having consensual sex in Sweden without a condom is punishable by a term of imprisonment of a minimum of two years for rape. That is the basis for a reinstitution of rape charges against WikiLeaks figurehead Julian Assange that is destined to make Sweden and its justice system the laughing stock of the world and dramatically damage its reputation as a model of modernity."

If true, I think it leaves little doubt that Assange should not turn himself in.

[algernon]

I wonder if he'll decline using condoms when he ends up in the hoosegow?

I thought the charges were a little too convenient to be legit, with the timing and all.

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

Originally Posted by Flames Fan, Ph.D.

Fair enough.

And if the chain of command buries it?

Frankly in my opinion if I were to come across files like these (and he didn't stumble across them, he used a computer virus to steal them in the case of Pte Manning), there is no way I could release them. Not because I agree with everything that the US Military has done over the course of the past few years, but rather because there is no way of ensuring the contents of the reports including full names of innocent parties won't be released causing retributions. Even if it doesn't happen, he wasn't in a position to personally judge what information was released and whose name would be given to an anonymous website.

Also there is the aspect of breaking the oath that you swore to uphold. Frankly the punk who stole the information isn't much more than a pencil pushing jackoff who doesn't deserve to be wearing his uniform. However he might want to get comfortable where he is staying because he isn't getting out of prison for a very long time.

[Weiser Wonder]

haha, the Onion does it again:

http://www.theonion.com/articles/jul...entagon,18572/

[T@T]

WikiLeaks cables on Afghanistan show monumental corruption.

Unreal.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapc...ex.html?hpt=T2

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by T@T

WikiLeaks cables on Afghanistan show monumental corruption.

Unreal.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapc...ex.html?hpt=T2

you mean "totally and utterly unsurprising."

[Phaneuf3]

Originally Posted by Flames Fan, Ph.D.

Apparently to get on Interpol's most wanted, you just need to go bareback.

"A Swedish lawyer representing two women whose allegations triggered a sexual-misconduct investigation of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has given Declassified the first on-the-record confirmation of the allegations that led to the issuance—and then rapid cancellation—of a warrant on a rape charge and to a parallel investigation into alleged “molestation." Claes Borgstrom of the Stockholm law firm Borgstrom and Bostrom, who is representing two women who said they had sexual relationships with Assange, said his clients complained to the police of Assange's reluctance to use condoms and unwillingness to be tested for sexually transmitted disease."

Link back from August.

And now most recent:

"Apparently having consensual sex in Sweden without a condom is punishable by a term of imprisonment of a minimum of two years for rape. That is the basis for a reinstitution of rape charges against WikiLeaks figurehead Julian Assange that is destined to make Sweden and its justice system the laughing stock of the world and dramatically damage its reputation as a model of modernity."

If true, I think it leaves little doubt that Assange should not turn himself in.

The best TL;DR summary I've seen is:
Julian Assange's rape charge boils down to a broken condom. His accuser wrote a treatise on how to take revenge against men, and after her "rape" she was seen with him at a seminar and later shared lunch.

[HPLovecraft]

Corruption in Afghanistan is a way of life. It's like Russia -- it's not seen as something out of the ordinary and wrong, it just is. Of course, that probably applies to more than half of every politician in any Western country, too.

[HPLovecraft]

Julian Assange answered some questions online that were asked by people:

Daithi
Have you released, or will you release, cables (either in the last few days or with the Afghan and Iraq war logs) with the names of Afghan informants or anything else like so?
Are you willing to censor (sorry for using the term) any names that you feel might land people in danger from reprisals??
By the way, I think history will absolve you. Well done!!!


Julian Assange:
WikiLeaks has a four-year publishing history. During that time there has been no credible allegation, even by organisations like the Pentagon that even a single person has come to harm as a result of our activities. This is despite much-attempted manipulation and spin trying to lead people to a counter-factual conclusion. We do not expect any change in this regard.

[ . . . ]

distrot
The State Dept is mulling over the issue of whether you are a journalist or not. Are you a journalist? As far as delivering information that someone [anyone] does not want seen is concerned, does it matter if you are a 'journalist' or not?

Julian Assange:
I coauthored my first nonfiction book by the time I was 25. I have been involved in nonfiction documentaries, newspapers, TV and internet since that time. However, it is not necessary to debate whether I am a journalist, or how our people mysteriously are alleged to cease to be journalists when they start writing for our organisaiton. Although I still write, research and investigate my role is primarily that of a publisher and editor-in-chief who organises and directs other journalists.

[ . . . ]

achanth
Mr Assange,
have there ever been documents forwarded to you which deal with the topic of UFOs or extraterrestrials?


Julian Assange:
Many weirdos email us about UFOs or how they discovered that they were the anti-christ whilst talking with their ex-wife at a garden party over a pot-plant. However, as yet they have not satisfied two of our publishing rules.
1) that the documents not be self-authored;
2) that they be original.
However, it is worth noting that in yet-to-be-published parts of the cablegate archive there are indeed references to UFOs.

cargun
Mr Assange,
Can you explain the censorship of identities as XXXXX's in the revealed cables? Some critical identities are left as is, whereas some are XXXXX'd. Some cables are partially revealed. Who can make such critical decisons, but the US gov't? As far as we know your request for such help was rejected by the State department. Also is there an order in the release of cable or are they randomly selected?
Thank you.


Julian Assange:
The cables we have release correspond to stories released by our main stream media partners and ourselves. They have been redacted by the journalists working on the stories, as these people must know the material well in order to write about it. The redactions are then reviewed by at least one other journalist or editor, and we review samples supplied by the other organisations to make sure the process is working.

Some interesting stuff. Check out the rest: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog...ange-wikileaks

This one, in particular, I find interesting. Concerning Amazon "ousting" the WikiLeaks servers at the behest of Republican Joe Leiberman.

rszopa
Annoying as it may be, the DDoS seems to be good publicity (if anything, it adds to your credibility). So is getting kicked out of AWS. Do you agree with this statement? Were you planning for it?
Thank you for doing what you are doing.


Julian Assange:
Since 2007 we have been deliberately placing some of our servers in jurisdictions that we suspected suffered a free speech deficit inorder to separate rhetoric from reality. Amazon was one of these cases.

Intelligent move, if true.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

you mean "totally and utterly unsurprising."

That doesnt help. This is the thing, "oh yeah, totally corrupt, thats no surprise, everyone knew that!"

Really? And, what? We're all just totally cool with that? As long as we 'know' that they're corrupt they're just free to go about their obviously corrupt business?

This is the attitude most financial oversight committees took and now look where we are.

Maybe being bitch slapped with a document the size of a Chinese phone book is what it takes to wake people up a little.

[FlameOn]

Originally Posted by HPLovecraft

However, it is worth noting that in yet-to-be-published parts of the cablegate archive there are indeed references to UFOs.

I can't wait until this one is published.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by FlameOn

I can't wait until this one is published.

I'm already folding an army of tinfoil hats.

[mikey_the_redneck]

Originally Posted by FlameOn

I can't wait until this one is published.

No kidding...

I believe intellegent life exists somewhere out there but I think UFO's as we know them are man-made...

[Ozy_Flame]

We'll finally get the real story on Roswell . . . Fingers crossed, fellow tin-hatters!

[FlameOn]

Maybe something on the ancient visitations too haha

[Sluggo]

Wikileaks removed from the DNS registry and PayPal stops accepting donations... the big guns come out. I wonder if this will trigger the insurance torrent?

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

Originally Posted by Sluggo

Wikileaks removed from the DNS registry and PayPal stops accepting donations... the big guns come out. I wonder if this will trigger the insurance torrent?

I doubt it, that is likely one of the few things that is keeping him from disappearing in a few years once his 15 minutes of fame are up.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by Locke

That doesnt help. This is the thing, "oh yeah, totally corrupt, thats no surprise, everyone knew that!"

Really? And, what? We're all just totally cool with that? As long as we 'know' that they're corrupt they're just free to go about their obviously corrupt business?

This is the attitude most financial oversight committees took and now look where we are.

Maybe being bitch slapped with a document the size of a Chinese phone book is what it takes to wake people up a little.

What?

I'm not trying to help anything, this has been my stance since before the invasion.

You can't possibly expect a first world government to invade a third world country and not have massive amounts of corruption ensue as they try to prop up people in power who had no initial claim to it.

Just because I am unsurprised by the situation doesn't mean I am begrudgingly accepting of it.

I've never been cool with it, which is why I have been, and will continue to be, a staunch advocate of a unilateral withdrawal of Canadian troops from what is so obviously a banana republic building session.

Now that you know things are corrupt, what exactly do you plan on doing about it?

[HPLovecraft]

Quite a bit of more stuff coming out slowly. Already posted that Amazon ousted WikiLeaks servers after Leiberman's staff called them. Their American domain provider stopped dealing with them, and PayPal cut them off, too. Their website is also getting attacked basically non-stop, but they have sent out a request for individuals to host copies of their website, so it's on a couple hundred different systems now with different mirrors provided. Also, the US government is banning federal employees from looking at the WikiLeaks website at work or at home.

An interesting leak is this one. The UK offered to temporarily store US cluster munitions on its soil even though it goes against a treaty they signed restricting such practices.

The British government offered the United States a deal to temporarily store cluster munitions at a military base on its soil, despite having signed a treaty banning such storage, according to a State Department cable published by WikiLeaks.

The proposal was discussed in a May 2009 State Department cable published by the website.
The cable was written after Britain signed on to the Convention on Cluster Munitions -- which bans the use, stockpiling, transfer, and production of cluster munitions -- but before the treaty had been ratified by Parliament. In the cable, a British official suggested it would be better for both governments to withhold the information from Parliament and not reach a final agreement on what the cable described as a '"temporary agreement" until after the treaty was ratified, which did happen.

The reason for this was to avoid "complicating/muddying the debate" by indicating that the request for the United States to remove its cluster munitions by 2013 was "open to exceptions," according to the cable.

Responding to reports concerning the WikiLeaks material, a British Foreign Office spokesman denied the the government misled or failed to inform Parliament but would not elaborate beyond saying, "We condemn leaks of classified information."

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe...ons/index.html

[FlamesAddiction]

I bet they end up making a movie about this.