Is WikiLeaks biased against the West and the US in particular? This news item would tend to indicate so.
According to Christian Science Monitor Moscow correspondent Fred Weir, Kremlin-funded media outlet Russia Today is set to hire WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, despite the fact that Assange remains under house arrest in Britain, awaiting a Supreme Court decision on his extradition to Sweden to face sexual assault allegations.
According to Weir [my emphasis]:
WikiLeaks founder and controversy magnet Julian Assange has been driven off the Internet, deprived of funding and placed under house arrest. Now he will get his chance to strike back, courtesy of the Kremlin.
Starting in March, Mr. Assange will host a 10-part series of interview programs with “key political players, thinkers and revolutionaries” on Russia Today (RT), a state-funded English-language satellite news network which claims to reach more than 85 million viewers in the US alone.
According to a statement on his website, the new Assange series will explore the “upheavals and revolutions” that are shaking the Middle East and expose how “the deterioration of the rule of law has demonstrated the bankruptcy of once leading political institutions and ideologies” in the West.
Through this series I will explore the possibilities for our future in conversations with those who are shaping it… Are we heading towards utopia, or dystopia and how we can set our paths? This is an exciting opportunity to discuss the vision of my guests in a new style of show that examines their philosophies and struggles in a deeper and clearer way than has been done before.
It’s the television channel that has given voice to a thousand anti-western conspiracy theories, while avoiding criticism of the hand that feeds it. Now state-run Russia Today, the Kremlin’s English-language propaganda arm, has forged an unlikely partnership – with the self-proclaimed defender of truth and freedom Julian Assange …
… “Our viewers are open to the discussions that will be presented through Julian’s show on our channel,” the channel’s editor-in-chief, Kremlin loyalist Margarita Simonyan, said in a statement.
I can’t wait to see how long Assange lasts the moment he speaks of Russia and whispers of revolution after their last exercise in pretending to hold an election.
Reuters is out with a tough story on Sen. Marco Rubio today, arguing that, the senator “has had significant financial problems that could keep him from passing any vetting process as a potential vice presidential choice…”
Unfortunately, it appears many of the facts are either wrong or exaggerated.
By my count, there were at least 7 errors or exaggerations:
1. “Rubio also voted against Sonia Sotomayor, Obama’s Supreme Court nominee who is of Puerto Rican descent…”
- Ridiculous. The arrest of “journalists” at the Occupy movement has caused the US to drop in its ranking of press freedom.
Reporters Without Borders’ latest Press Freedom Index was released on Wednesday, and the list reflected some of the tumult that took place in the world in 2011, as well as the impact that those events had on journalists across the globe. Reporters became targets over and over again throughout the year, both in the Middle East and on the streets of New York.
I’m sure Reporters Without Borders didn’t bother delving into the habit many of these “journalists” had of blurring the lines between journalist and protester. No worries, we at Big Journalism did. When you cease acting like a professional during a protest and join in with the protesters, yes, you are subject to arrest if you break the law. Your media badge doesn’t give you special allowances under said law.
- Diane Sawyer’s reporting under fire for inaccurate remark on tornado warnings in Alabama:
After being publicly criticized yesterday for a report stating Monday’s tornadoes hit Alabama residents with “no warning,” “World News” anchor Diane Sawyer backpedaled last night, saying the death toll “could have been far worse” without the tornado warning system.
ABC “World News” anchor Diane Sawyer reported that Alabamians had “no warning” of the tornadoes that struck Jan. 23, but Birmingham weatherman James Spann begs to differ.
NO WARNING? Get a clue. This event was forecast days in advance, and the average lead times for the entire event were 20 to 30 minutes. That is plenty of time to get to a safe place.
We were on the air non-stop from about midnight until almost 8 a.m. It has been our policy at ABC 33/40 to provide long form, uninterrupted severe weather coverage if ANY county in our market goes under a tornado warning.
Journalists who have dealt with Assange describe him as a man who skips around like a child, doesn’t always wash and is sensitive and volatile.
Bill Keller, executive editor of the New York Times, reveals that one reporter told him that Assange’s behaviour had been very strange.
‘He was alert but dishevelled, like a bag lady walking in off the street, wearing a dingy, light-coloured sport coat and cargo pants, dirty white shirt, beat-up sneakers and filthy white socks that collapsed around his ankles,’ he wrote.
Instapundit has linked my main page on the Greenwald sock-puppet/lying story, but most of the Greenwald stuff isn’t here. Here are the key links in this story:
But this kind of thing does seem to be Greenwald’s shtick in whatever corner of the Internet he occupies, one I generally choose to ignore given his bizarre and disingenuous nature. That he’s ranting about disclosure and transparency is laughable given his dubious history. But I guess that’s what passes as credible in the cesspool otherwise known as Salon.
As I reported reported earlier, four “Swedes” and a “Dane” were arrested yesterday for planning a massive attack on the Jyllands-Posten building in Copenhagen as revenge for the Mohammed cartoons. They intended to make their operation a reprise of Mumbai, with as many innocent casualties as possible.
The plan was larger and more ambitious than previous Motoon revenge plots, but it was not different in kind. As Dymphna reported last year, the plot against Kurt Westergaard and Flemming Rose in October 2009 was designed as a mass attack on Jyllands-Posten’s offices. Last year’s version was part of a conspiracy that extended back to the Pakistani terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba, and involved terrorists in Canada and the United States, including David Headley. Yesterday’s plot may have similar connections; it’s too early to tell.
The terror plot in Denmark assumes a wider significance when juxtaposed with a leaked American diplomatic cable, which coincidentally was also reported yesterday at Islam in Europe. Readers should consult Esther’s entire post for the details on the WikiLeaks revelations, but the gist is this:
The United States government, through ambassador James P. Cain, pressured the Danish government to force Jyllands-Posten not to reprint the Motoons on the first anniversary of their publication. The Danish government responded by basically telling us to buzz off, that they were not in the business of telling their newspapers what to print or not print. So the ambassador contacted the newspaper directly, and spoke to its editor-in-chief.
the one on Rap News, wherein two white dudes, one English, rhyme the day’s news into lefty spin.
I don’t get why Assange makes a window-washing move twice in the video, like it’s his only move. Come on. If you’re going to act like a rockstar you need more moves than some rehashed Rose Royce routine.
Mr Assange said he had enough material ready to destroy the bosses of one of the world’s biggest banks.
Speaking from the English mansion where he is confined on bail, the 39-year-old Australian said that the decision to publish incriminating police files about him was “disgusting”.
[...]
Mr Assange claimed the newspaper received leaked documents from Swedish authorities or “other intelligence agencies” intent on jeopardising his defence.
According press reports, Bradley Manning the former US intelligence analyst who is believed to have supplied the confidential data Wikileaks may be loosing his cognitive abilities in prison. Manning, was arrested seven months ago and is being held at a military base in Virginia. He faces a court martial and up to 52 years in prison for his role in the WikiLeaks distribution, and probably extra time because he smuggled the data out via a Lady Gaga CD.
A friend of the information thief David House, a computer researcher from Boston who visits Manning regularly, reports that the “poor baby” is starting to mentally and physically deteriorate.
“Over the last few weeks I have noticed a steady decline in his mental and physical wellbeing,” he said. “His prolonged confinement in a solitary holding cell is unquestionably taking its toll on his intellect; his inability to exercise due to [prison] regulations has affected his physical appearance in a manner that suggests physical weakness.”
Manning, House added, was no longer the “brilliant” man he had been, despite all efforts to keep him intellectually engaged. The problem according to computer programmer is that Manning’s being held in solitary confinement.
It started on his show with guest Michael Moore, who put up $20k in bond for Assange.
Later on Olbermann, on Twitter, reTweeted something from Bianca Jagger which included the accusers’ names (which have been all over the Internet, along with photos, for some time) and the frenzy began.
Let’s be frank: while I am no fan of the man, I thought the dramatic, solitary confinement incarceration of Julian Assange, prohibiting him any access to media or electronics, all on the suspicious accusation – not charges – of sexual molestation was a bit too much to justify. So he’s a self-infatuated whore, we know this. Forgive me if I’ve lingering questions about the two women who, according to news reports, threw themselves at him like groupies before realizing they’d both been had in the same week, especially as one of the women reportedly once blogged about using the court systems to get back at unfaithful lovers. We can all agree that some things present questions here, is all, and that people are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
(By the way, it cracks me up how the left predictably won’t defend chicks who accuse the object of their fangirldom of sexual abuse – think Clinton, Edwards, et al – but instead have concocted elaborate schemes wherein the accusers work with the CIA. Are they also writing the story lines for the daytime soaps now, too?)
All of these seem like nothing more than smoke and mirrors to avoid discussing the obvious: our government sucks at keeping secrets and Bradley Manning had a tantrum because he felt identity was more important than service, and he’s also a traitor.
Manning posted online about his unhappiness at having to fetch coffee for his superior officers. Because no other person working their way up the ladder has had to undertake such a humiliating and discriminatory gopher task ever in the history of the workplace or military, I can see how this would motivate him to steal classified information and leak it to a guy looking for a follow up hit to last summer’s “Is That An RPG Or Are You Just Happy to See Me?” </sarcasm>
Apparently, there was trouble in paradise between Julian Assange and his number two, Daniel Domscheit-Berg.
A number of WikiLeaks defectors, including founder Julian Assange’s former right-hand man, plan to launch a rival site on Monday after accusing Mr Assange of behaving like “some kind of emperor or slave trader”.
Apparently, folks were mad over Assange’s rockstar status. It all seems to undermines Assange’s declaration that this is all for the “common good.” Openleaks’ structure:
Like WikiLeaks, it will allow whistleblowers to leak information to the public anonymously. However, Openleaks won’t host the documents itself, instead acting as an intermediary between whistleblowers and other groups including media organisations.
Several WikiLeaks members abandoned the site following perceived autocratic behaviour by Mr Assange. They said he failed to consult them on many decisions and put himself front and centre of everything WikiLeaks did.
Some members were also concerned that the Swedish rape allegations against Mr Assange were damaging the organisation’s reputation. Dagens Nyheter reported that insiders were sabotaging the site earlier this year in order to convince Mr Assange to step down.
From what can be gleaned about OpenLeaks, the site does not intend to publish information solely for the public, opting instead to allow other organizations access to OpenLeaks and do with it what they will. The information on the site will be produced and published by partnering organizations.
[...]
According to Forbes, the project will initially partnered with five newspapers worldwide, but soon expand to anyone who wants to participate.
As for Assange’s opinion of OpenLeaks, Forbes reports he downplayed the notion that OpenLeaks would compete with WikiLeaks, stating. “The supply of leaks is very large. It’s helpful for us to have more people in this industry. It’s protective to us.”
Andrea Mitchell named the tea party movement as her pick for “person” of the year:
They’ve changed the debate on deficit reduction. They’ve got, you’ve got Ron Paul now in charge of monetary policy from the House. They have changed politics for now in Washington.
David Ignatius of the Washington Post and Helene Cooper of the New York Times chose Assange:
It’s painful to say this but I would say Julian Assange the head of WikiLeaks.
Not even in terms of being a lightning rod does Assange match the tea party. Assange hasn’t changed anything within this country except, perhaps, to remind this administration that loose lips sink ships.
Turns out there’s a fairly clear answer to the question Why is Julian Assange doing this? Anyway, it’s as clear as the topic of human motivations ever really get. Back in 2006, Assange wrote a couple of essays on the topic of conspiracy and control. He takes the position that all authoritarian structures are conspiracies of power. His thoughts are interesting. Their may even be some truth to some of what he says. In any case, if you want to understand his motivation, grasp what he’s saying here:
Conspiracies take information about the world in which they operate (the conspiratorial environment), pass it around the conspirators and then act on the result. We can see conspiracies as a type of device that has inputs (information about the environment) and outputs (actions intending to change or maintain the environment).
A bit later he asks “How can we reduce the power of a conspiracy to act?”
Originally, I wrote that using “terrorist” to describe Julian Assange was hyperbole. Of course, this was before he double-downed. After this stunt, it’s difficult to argue that he’s not behaving like a terrorist:
The founder of WikiLeaks has warned that his supporters are primed to publish a ‘deluge’ of leaked government documents should his activities be curtailed by any country.
Julian Assange has distributed to fellow hackers an encrypted ‘poison pill’ of damaging secrets, thought to include details on BP and Guantanamo Bay.
He believes the file is his ‘insurance’ in case he is killed, arrested or the whistleblowing website is removed permanently from the internet.
One of the files identified this weekend by The (London) Sunday Times — called the “insurance” file — has been downloaded from the WikiLeaks website by tens of thousands of supporters, from America to Australia.
Assange warns that any government that tries to curtail his activities risks triggering a new deluge of state and commercial secrets.
The Society for Professional Journalists recently deemed that “ethical journalism prevailed” in the leaking of hundreds of thousands of classified government documents by WikiLeaks.
In her post on Thursday, SPJ’s President Hagit Limor wouldn’t commit to saying that Julian Assange is not a journalist saying, “To exclude any format will define us as the fools of tomorrow.” Furthermore, she says that the classification of WikiLeaks doesn’t matter to the people because “The world audience just wants information.”
Limor doesn’t doubt the “journalistic value” of the leaked information, as she cites some noteworthy tidbits that were made public.
Where Ms. Limor goes off the rails is when she states that, “Nothing I’ve read rises to the level of endangering lives.” This might be true in the case of the most recent leaks, but on the whole WikiLeaks has made public Afghani informants that the U.S. Military depends on for support. They give that support based on the condition of their anonymity. One would presume that without our assurance of secrecy, we’d find our thirst for fresh Intel unquenched.
Folks, it’s not called WikiHacks. Nowhere in the news have I seen reports of hack attacks into CIA or State Department files. Last time WikiLeaks well, uh, leaked, it had lots of help from an insider -allegedly the low level (read low life) intel flunkie Bradley Manning who described the prospect of disclosing vast amounts of state secrets as “beautiful and horrifying.”
Obvious conclusion that you won’t see in the Make-Believe Media: This isn’t diplomatic rape — it’s incest. America’s enemies are attacking from within. And the Media is running a screen.
Slate Magazine’s Jack Shafer has called for Sec. of State Hillary Clinton to resign her post after classified cables sent be her were released in the Wikileaks document dump. Slate is often an Obama ally however Shafer said, “The leaked cables make it impossible for Hillary Clinton to continue as secretary of state.”
Not withstanding the fact that numerous nations dabble in spying and say things in classified cables that aren’t meant for public consumption, previous Secretaries of State have engaged in similar efforts. Shafer acknowledges this but claims, “what makes Clinton’s sleuthing unique is the paper trail that documents her spying-on-their-diplomats-with-our-diplomat orders.” And because its now public, Shafer says we must give the offended nations Clinton’s “scalp” to “save face.”
On my Twitter account, I follow a few hundred mainstream media-types (keep the enemy closer, right?), and unless I've missed it (and I hope I have), not a single one has spoken out in defense of Roland Martin. Not one. How scary is that. The politically correct Groupthink...
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