Wikileaks
Leaked files reveal new info on Gitmo detainees
Secret documents about detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison reveal new information about some of the men that the United States believes to be terrorists, according to reports about the files released by several American and European newspapers. The U.S. government criticized the publication as "unfortunate."
Wikileaks publishes secret files on Gitmo prisoners
WikiLeaks Associates Hit Back Over U.S. Twitter Records Demand
Three WikiLeaks associates fighting to keep records of their Twitter use out of the hands of the prosecutors lobbed the latest volley in a contentious legal battle with the Justice Department on Thursday, charging in a court filing that the government s argument "trivializes both the Parties and the public s constitutional rights."
Even Mainstream Reporters Now Mocking US Bogus ‘Transparency’ On Human Rights Issues Concerning Bradley Manning
Prosecutors Defend Probe of WikiLeaks-Related Twitter Accounts
‘Collateral Murder’ Soldier Speaks in New Film
New group leaks confidential Tufts financial information online
Army: Manning Snuck ‘Data-Mining’ Software Onto Secret Network
Top Computer Scientists Back WikiLeaks Associates in Twitter Case
The Mystery Of The Fiat-Gaddafi Connection The Truth About Cars
Back in 1976, the Italian automaker Fiat had been badly battered by a global energy crisis and the resulting malaise infecting the global auto industry. In what Time Magazine described at the time as "a devastatingly ironic example of petropower," Col. Muammar Gaddafi instructed his Libyan Arab Foreign Bank to invest some $415m into the Italian automaker, giving it a stake that would eventually grow to some 14 percent of the firm s equity.
WikiLeaks Associates Appeal Twitter Records Demand
Congress Asks to Review DoD and NSA Contracts With HBGary
Manning’s dad protests conditions of son’s incarceration, new legal filing complains conditions unjust
The attorney for Pvt. Bradley Manning, the 23-year-old Army intelligence analyst who is accused of downloading thousands of classified State Department documents and making them available them to WikiLeaks, today posts this update on the condition of Manning's incarceration in maximum security at the U.S. Marine brig in Quantico, VA:
Bradley Manning Hit With New Charges; Could Face Death Penalty
After being unable to convince Bradley Manning to lie about his "relationship" with Julian Assange, the government has decided to up the pressure on Manning by filing another 22 charges against him, including putting him at risk of facing the death penalty -- though, they insist that they will not ask for the death penalty
Anonymous vs. HBGary the aftermath
The RSA security conference took place February 14-18 in San Francisco, and malware response company HBGary planned on a big announcement. The firm was about to unveil a new appliance called "Razor," a specialized computer plugged into corporate networks that could scan company computers for viruses, rootkits, and custom malware - even malicious code that had never been seen before.
Colbert Report features Ars Anonymous HBGary coverage
Will the Rise of Wikileaks Competitors Make Whistleblowing Resistant to Censorship
Spy Chief: Damage from WikiLeaks Is Unclear
At a key congressional briefing yesterday, the man who oversees all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies backed off an early, dire assessment of the damage done to the government by WikiLeaks. "The impacts of the WikiLeaks disclosures are still being assessed," James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, told the House intelligence community during an annual omnibus testimony on national security known as the Worldwide Threat briefing.
Firm targeting WikiLeaks cuts ties with HBGary – apologizes to reporter
Dr. Alex Karp, the Co-Founder and CEO of Palantir Technologies, one of three data intelligence firms who worked to develop a systematic plan of attack against WikiLeaks and their supporters, has severed all ties with HBGary Federal and issued an apology to reporter Glenn Greenwald. The move comes just twenty-four hours after The Tech Herald reported on the plans, thanks to a tip from Crowdleaks.org
WikiLeaks Defector Defends Site’s Crippling
Leaked State Department Cables Confirm That ACTA Was Designed To Pressure Developing Nations
The idea is to first do all of this with those "like-minded" (i.e., protectionist) countries, and then use the agreement to try to pressure those developing nations and other nations concerned about the expansive problems of intellectual property law into "joining." In other words, stack the deck first with those who benefit most, and then use international pressure to force the agreement on those who aren't comfortable with the end result of such laws.
The long shadow of WikiLeaks
Talk about a wake-up call. If federal officials needed a reminder about the downside of the Internet s so-called democratization of information, WikiLeaks has provided it, big time. The whistle-blowing website has also raised numerous questions that the federal government is just beginning to answer.
WikiLeaks alternative OpenLeaks goes live
OpenLeaks, the alternative whistleblower site created by WikiLeaks defectors, has officially gone live, though it's not yet fully operational. The organization confirmed that it doesn't plan to publish information itself, but rather help third parties (such as nonprofits and news orgs) get access to leaked documents in order to convey them to the public
NYT Pondering WikiLeaks-Esque Submission System
The Background Story Of The NY Times’ Relationship With Julian Assange
If you haven't yet, set aside some time to read the NY Times' executive editor Bill Keller's account of the paper's association with Julian Assange. It gives some interesting (and not too surprising) background details about the relationship, Assange himself, and Keller's views on the overall impact of Wikileaks.
UK Police Nab 5 Members of ‘Anonymous’ Pro-WikiLeaks Hacker Ring
Bradley Manning Friend Prevented From Visiting Soldier Over Traffic Violation
Wikia Owned Wikileaks.com Domain; Assange Ignored Attempts To Hand It Over
I had seen the BBC article from a week or so ago about Jimmy Wales talking about the complexity of Wikipedia and how it needs to improve, but hadn't read all the way to the end where there was a rather interesting tidbit. Copycense however alerted us to this little bit of trivia at the end about how Wikipedia's sorta sister company Wikia owns some Wikileaks domain names... including Wikileaks.com:
More on the possible WikiLeaks-inspired Bank of America domain name grab
PBS "Need to Know" has an in-depth report on MarkMonitor Inc., the "little-known company that specializes in protecting the public image and product identity of Fortune 500 companies." They've been "quietly buying up hundreds of domain names that could be used to host online criticism of Bank of America," in case Wikileaks does dump something dirty on BofA
WikiLeaks Browser Gets Tease On Facebook
It was only a matter of time before someone put together a browser that would make it easier to search through the hundreds of thousands of leaked diplomatic cables that WikiLeaks has been sharing with the public. And it only made sense for Dazzlepod, makers of the cable browser, to team up with Facebook in order to support the release of the application.
PdFLeaks II – NY University symposium on WikiLeaks and Internet Freedom
Personal Democracy Forum, in partnership with New York University's Interactive Technology Program, is pleased to present our second symposium on WikiLeaks and Internet Freedom this coming Monday, January 24, from 6-8pm. Tickets are $15 and only available in advance; don't delay, they're selling quickly.
Rep. Darrell Issa — Who Says Investigating Wikileaks Is A Priority — Sets Up His Own Whistleblower Site
There seems to be a bit of confusion among the new leadership in the House concerning just what Wikileaks does. Just over a week ago or so, we noted that Rep. Darrell Issa, who is heading the "oversight committee" had declared that investigating Wikileaks was a major priority for Congress, because if the US government didn't attack back at Wikileaks, the world would "laugh" at how the US had become a "paper tiger."
Tweeting tyrants out of Tunisia the global Internet at its best
So Who Else Did The Government Demand Info From In The Wikileaks Investigation
Rep. Peter King Wants Treasury Dept. To Put Wikileaks On Terrrorist List
U.S. attempted to leverage Twitter in war on WikiLeaks
Customs’ Hamfisted Attempts To Intimidate Wikileaks Volunteers
Manning’s attorney files demand for speedy trial and release due to poor conditions
Debunking The Myth That Wikileaks Cable Leaks Haven’t Been Important
Wikileaks Twitter dispute reaches European Parliament
Wikileaks volunteer detained and searched (again) by US agents
Jacob Appelbaum, a security researcher, Tor developer, and volunteer with Wikileaks, reported today on his Twitter feed that he was detained, searched, and questioned by the US Customs and Border Patrol agents at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on January 10, upon re-entering the US after a vacation in Iceland.
Twitter’s Response to WikiLeaks Subpoena Should Be the Industry Standard
Why Senator Lieberman’s Censorship Law Is Unconstitutional And A Danger To Free Speech
Feds Subpoena Twitter For Info On Wikileaks-Supporting Icelandic Politician
In the feds continued efforts to find something (anything!) to charge Wikileaks with, its latest fishing expedition apparently involves issuing a subpoena to Twitter asking for info on the account of Birgitta Jonsdottir, a Member of Iceland's Parliament, who had been instrumental in helping Wikileaks establish a strong free speech legal structure in Iceland.
Debunking The ‘Wikileaks Puts Lives In Danger In Zimbabwe’ Myth
New Congressional Leadership Prioritizes Wikileaks Investigation
Wikileaks Reveals That The US Won’t Comply With Treaty Obligations Concerning Investigations Into CIA Rendition
Once again, this is hardly a surprise, but it's increasingly being confirmed by the various State Department cable leaks that the US Justice Department is failing to comply with its treaty obligations with other countries, in their investigations into US (mainly CIA) "rendition" operations, where they take people captured elsewhere and find some place to torture them.
FBI seizes server in probe of WikiLeaks attacks
Why Does The Myth Persist That Wikileaks Is Indiscriminately Leaking Thousands Of Documents
A few weeks ago, we called out the fact that many in the press continued to falsely report that Wikileaks had indiscriminately released all 250,000+ State Department cables that it had in its possession. In fact, this was the key claim that many have used to condemn Wikileaks and to suggest that it's neither a journalistic entity nor a whistleblowing entity.
If Wikileaks Is About Cyberwar, Was The Pentagon Papers About A Wood Pulp War
The guy behind the Pentagon Papers, Daniel Ellsberg, recently tweeted a link to my blog post about how some believed the US government was trying to make the case that Wikileaks was a part of a "cyberwar" because it helped further the agenda of certain government officials and defense contractors to use FUD about "cyberwar" to give the government more technological snooping powers and make those contractors tons of money supplying the tools.
Just Weeks After Cutting Off Wikileaks, Amazon Brags About How US Federal Gov’t Is One Of Its Biggest AWS Customers
While Senator Joe Lieberman took credit for pressuring Amazon to stop hosting Wikileaks content via its Amazon Web Services infrastructure, Amazon insisted that government pressure had nothing to do with it. Still, it seems rather odd that just weeks after booting Wikileaks, Amazon sent out a press release bragging about how the US federal government is one of its biggest customers (found via Slashdot).
FBI Raids Web Hosts Over Wikileaks Advocates’ Operation Payback
The FBI has reportedly raided a Texas web host and worked with international authorities to search servers in pursuit of the anonymous leaders of the group Anonymous, who blocked the website of PayPal earlier this month in retribution to the company's decision to stop its customers from making donations to Wikileaks.
Putting the Record Straight on the Lamo-Manning Chat Logs
Six months ago, Wired.com senior editor Kevin Poulsen came to me with a whiff of a story. A source he d known for years claimed he was talking to the FBI about an enlisted soldier in Iraq who had bragged to him in an internet chat of passing hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the secret-spilling site WikiLeaks.
Once Again, More State Dept. Cables Show Swedish Copyright Enforcement At The Behest Of US
There's absolutely nothing surprising at all about the following, but Christian Engstrom (one of the two European Parliament Members from The Pirate Party*) highlights yet another leaked State Department cable that shows that many of the copyright enforcement efforts of the Swedish government were in response to a six point checklist given to the Swedish government by the US Embassy
Wikileaks has only published 1,942 cables
In recent weeks, NPR hosts, reporters and guests have incorrectly said or implied that WikiLeaks recently has disclosed or released roughly 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables. Although the website has vowed to publish "251,287 leaked United States embassy cables," as of Dec. 28, 2010, only 1,942 of the cables had been released.
NY Times Finally Speaks Out Against Financial Firms Blocking Wikileaks
One of the more annoying things about watching the major news publications discussing the Wikileaks controversy is how infrequently they seem to realize that many of the attacks they themselves have been directing (or redirecting) at Wikileaks could come back to haunt them as well, as many could apply to them when they do things such as publish information about leaked documents.
Wikileaks, Intermediary Chokepoints And The Dissent Tax
What the Wikileaks furor shows us is that a dissent tax is emerging on the Internet. As a dissident content provider, you might have to fight your DNS provider. You might need to fund large-scale hosting resources while others can use similar capacity on commercial servers for a few hundred dollars a year. Fund-raising infrastructure that is open to pretty much everyone else, including the KKK, may not be available. This does not mean that Wikileaks cannot get hosted, as it is already well-known and big, but what about smaller, less-famous, less established, less well-off efforts? Will they even get off the ground?
Wikileaks – traditional liberalism with balls
NYT on Banks and Wikileaks – a troubling prospect
Steve Jobs kicks WikiLeaks out of the iTunes App Store
Can we use S3 and EC2 to host free speech?
Now Random Webhosts Are Demanding Wikileaks Mirrors Be Taken Down Over Possibility Of DDoS
With all the attempts by corporations to distance themselves from Wikileaks -- often claiming dubious legal issues or terms of use violations that don't seem to really exist -- the EFF is pointing out that one of the (many, many) Wikileaks mirror sites was told by his hosting company he had to remove it or he'd lose his account. The reasoning was quite bizarre. The host claimed that its upstream provider was worried about potential DDoS attacks
Assange US pushing Digital McCarthyism in assault on Wikileaks
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange gave an interview with msnbc's Cenk Uygur today. During the exchange, Assange denies conspiring to commit espionage with U.S. Army Specialist Bradley Manning, as it is believed US prosecutors would like to charge. Assange says these claims are "absolute nonsense." Responding to Vice President Biden's claims that he is "a high-tech terrorist," the leaker-in-chief effectively accused the United States of terrorism threatening violent, extralegal actions in its assault on Wikileaks.
JFK On Secrecy And Censorship
How Wikileaks killed Spain’s anti-P2P law
Spain last night killed a controversial anti-P2P bill that would have made it easier to shut down websites that link to infringing content. The move was a blow to the ruling Socialist government, but it may be of even bigger concern to the US, which pushed, threatened, and cajoled Spain to clamp down on downloading. And Wikileaks can take a share of the credit for the defeat.
CIA’s WikiLeaks Task Force WTF, indeed
It can set up mirrored sites. It can bounce from server to server. But whatever impact WikiLeaks continues to have on the US government after dumping tens of thousands of military reports and diplomatic cables, the CIA s WikiLeaks Task Force is watching, studying, learning. It s literally a WTF operation.
Wikileaks’ Leaks Leaked: Norwegian Paper Has All the Cables and None of the Restrictions
WikiWars: Assange turns on friends, foes and lovers
Julian Assange, the man behind WikiLeaks, today begins a wideranging series of attacks on both his enemies and allies as he defends his public and private conduct. In his first UK newspaper interview since releasing hundreds of secret diplomatic cables last month, Mr Assange predicts that the United States will face reprisals if it attempts to extradite him on conspiracy charges. He accuses his media partners at The Guardian newspaper, which worked with him to make the embarrassing leaks public, of unfairly tarnishing him by revealing damaging details of the sex assault allegations he faces in Sweden. He insists that the women behind the claims were motivated by revenge.
Manning’s attorney on the laws he’ll use to fight inhumane treatment
Assange’s already assassinated comment, clarified
In a roundup post earlier today regarding all things Assange, I noted a comment made by the Wikileaks founder in a wide-ranging BBC News intervew: "People affiliated with our organisation have already been assassinated." I didn't get it, neither did many others, judging by the proliferation of "WTF?" in my tweetstream.
Michael Moore on Wikileaks on Maddow
Moore discussed the confusion around a leaked State Department Cable relating to his film Sicko the Guardian reported the cable stating Sicko been banned in Cuba. I reblogged that here on Boing Boing. The content of the cable was not true, said Moore tonight (he'd published a detailed explanation earlier on his blog). The Guardian updated their coverage here, and I'd updated Boing Boing's here. Maria Bustillos, who is Cuban, wrote a nuanced post over at The Awl that suggests the cable might not have been false at the time it was written but that Moore is entirely correct in stating that the movie did not end up being banned. Go have a read.
Bruce Sterling on #cablegate
Spain’s House rejects new copyright law; #cablegate showed it had been written by the US government
So WikiLeaks Is Evil For Releasing Documents… But DynCorp Gets A Pass For Pimping Young Boys To Afghan Cops
Why Are US Publications Downplaying The Significance Of Some Of Wikileaks’ Leaks
Czech version of Wikileaks will turn to The Pirate Bay for help
It appears that the Czech Pirate Party's attempt to set up its own Wikileaks site isn't going as smoothly as the group hoped. The CPP (Ceska piratska strana) announced the inauguration of its "PirateLeaks" information service earlier this month, to be officially launched on Tuesday. But now the organization says that there will be some delays due to security issues.
The NYT spills key military secrets on its front page
Mercs Win Billion Dollar Afghan Cop Deal. Again.
Danger Room has confirmed that DynCorp, one of the leading private-security firms, has held on to a contract with the Army worth up to $1 billion for training Afghanistan s police over the next three years. With corruption, incompetence and illiteracy within the police force a persistent obstacle to turning over security responsibilities to the cops by 2014, NATO has revamped much of its training efforts except, apparently, the contractors paid lavishly to help them out.
WikiLeaks – Mirrors
Watch How WikiLeaks’ Mirrors Spread Around the World
When WikiLeaks began its release of more than 250,00 classified diplomatic cables late last month, its domain name - wikileaks.org - was the first thing to go. In the week that followed, however, a slew of mirror sites popped up, and Harvard-based developer Laurence Muller gave us a look at the global effort to keep WikiLeaks standing. Muller took the list of WikiLeaks mirrors, determined their locations, and plotted the points on Google Earth.
Will The Journalists Who Outed CIA’s Pakistan Chief Be Treated Like Julian Assange
Richard Kulawiec pointed us to the news that got a lot of attention last week concerning how the CIA had recalled its chief in Pakistan back to the US after his name was outed in a lawsuit. The lawsuit was filed by a guy who blames the CIA for his relatives being killed in a drone attack. Apparently, two Pakistani journalists gave him the name of the CIA chief, and the guy included it in his lawsuit, leading to the recall. While the American press is not reporting the guy's name, it's widely available in foreign coverage.
Net neutrality is hypocrisy
At the PDFleaks conference in NYC last Saturday I said that after Amazon booted WikiLeaks from EC2 that signaled very clearly that there is no such thing as net neutrality. Here's a service provider, very analogous to Comcast and Verizon, that decided it wasn't in its economic interest to carry a user's bits. It wasn't just about the level or cost of the service, they cut them off totally. Without adequate explanation of why. Saying they were doing something illegal is no explanation at all. That's not for Amazon to decide, that's for the courts. Due process is required to prove that something illegal is happening. And many legal experts believe that there's nothing illegal about WikiLeaks.