So this Wikileaks thing....

[Fresh Prince]

I'll admit I thought it was a fairly small deal at first but the leaks themselves haven't become the issue now it's become a larger philosophical question now about the role of governments and FREEDOM!

[Phoenix Dark]

So when Russia takes this guy out, will republicans cheer and fantasize even more about a "strong" male leader?

[Fresh Prince]

Shit about Russia confirms the worst. Though I think Russia wouldn't go after Assange it'd go after US diplomats working in Russia- I wouldn't be suprised if they got 'house arrested for their own protection'.

Edit: Actually that'd instigate something very serious. Any way Russia may send US diplomats back.

[brawndolicious]

One of the worst things I think is the stuff about Saudis wanting to take out Iran's nuclear program.  I mean, I'm not saying that the corrupt monarchy is necessarily worse than the corrupt rigged democracy but seeing such overt threats between middle-eastern countries is a very bad thing.

I don't get the comments about this news supporting the war hawks "bomb iran" sentiment though.  Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't it just show the very self-serving reason for why one muslim country might be against Iran?

[T-Short]

I don't get the comments about this news supporting the war hawks "bomb iran" sentiment though.  Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't it just show the very self-serving reason for why one muslim country might be against Iran?

Who said this supported "Bomb Iran" hawks? If anything, this reveal strengthens the hawkish tendencies in Iran, giving them more incentive to say f u to the other gulf states, go for nukes and get out of the NPT.

[Mandark]

Who said this supported "Bomb Iran" hawks?

David Frum, unsurprisingly.

[T-Short]

Who said this supported "Bomb Iran" hawks?

David Frum, unsurprisingly.

Haha. So because the wahhabi and sunni arab gulf states say that Iran is dumb, that should be enough incentive for a US invasion of Iran?

Good jon, Frum

[AdmiralViscen]

They should go bomb them then

[T-Short]

A lot of saudis just downright despise iran and iranians, so this came as no shock to me.

Hehe. Shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone

[AdmiralViscen]

I'd rather bomb israel.

fixed

[Beardo]

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/features/view/feature/Wikileaks-Cables-Reveal-That-Canada-Is-Boring-2668

What do the wikileak documents reveal about canada?

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Wikileaks Cables Reveal That Canada Is Boring
The most significant Canadian cable to emerge from the Wikileaks release is this long -- really long -- cable that, and we swear that we are not exaggerating its boringness, summarizes Canadian TV shows. If that does not have you feeling sorry for the State Department employee who probably dedicated years of hard study and work to joining the foreign service, only to end up in Ottawa transcribing CBC sitcoms, then consider the fact that he or she also has to pretend that his or her TV summaries have immediate geopolitical implications with "insidious" -- insidious! -- consequences.

[close]

[Himu]

I'd rather bomb egypt.

what? why?

[drew]

dicktuckers

[Howard Alan Treesong]

Canada

[Boogie]

Normally, I loathe editorial cartoons, but I liked this one:

[ManaByte]

Library of Congress blocks WikiLeaks
http://gawker.com/5705492/library-of-congress-is-latest-government-institution-to-block-wikileaks

PayPal bans WikiLeaks after US government pressure
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/paypal_announces_it_will_no_longer_handle_wikileak.php

Social Security bosses: Crime to look at WikiLeaks?
http://richardbrenneman.wordpress.com/2010/12/02/social-security-bosses-crime-to-look-at-wikileaks/

No job if you link to WikiLeaks, warns Columbia
http://richardbrenneman.wordpress.com/2010/12/02/no-job-if-you-link-to-wikileaks-warns-columbia/

U.S. Military in Iraq Tries to Intimidate Soldiers Into Not Reading Wikileaks
http://gawker.com/5705639/us-military-in-iraq-tries-to-intimidate-soldiers-into-not-reading-wikileaks

[Great Rumbler]

It's like they're trying to plug the hole in the dam with their finger after all the water's been drained from the lake...

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

It'd be interesting to see how the leaks of corporations, banks, etc. will play out.  The government, already pissed, will probably go supernova.

[Mupepe]

Weren't they supposed to release something about China today?

[Great Rumbler]

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/901762--wikileaks-cables-depict-china-as-obsessed-with-google-profile?bn=1

[Mupepe]

thanks, cnn and yahoo news didn't have it and I couldn't get into wikileaks.

[brawndolicious]

PayPal has permanently restricted the account used by WikiLeaks due to a violation of the PayPal Acceptable Use Policy, which states that our payment service cannot be used for any activities that encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct others to engage in illegal activity. We’ve notified the account holder of this action.

That seems like a good reason for paypal to drop wikileaks.  While wikileaks' popularity may have been what attracted legal scrutiny from the government it's all conjecture to claim that paypal was intimidated.

[Great Rumbler]

Like Paypal needs a good reason to suspend someone's account.

[ManaByte]

There's a new encrypted "insurance" file with BP and Gitmo info.

[Phoenix Dark]

Can't wait for the bankster info. I hope it exposes the back door deals going on from both parties.

[Fresh Prince]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/04/spain-rolls-royce-helicopter-engines

[ManaByte]

Twitter is censoring the discussion of #Wikileaks
http://bubbloy.wordpress.com/2010/12/05/twitter-is-censoring-the-discussion-of-wikileaks/

[Great Rumbler]

Somewhat misleading as they're not deleting or editing people's Tweets.

[chronovore]

This is interesting:
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/12/the-nobel-peace-prize-for-2011.html

[Brehvolution]

Good article!

I liked this comment:

the belief among those in government that exposure of government crimes is itself a crime

[Mupepe]

So they released a list of sites "which, if destroyed, disrupted or exploited, would likely have an immediate and deleterious effect on the United States."

The locations cited in the diplomatic cable from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton range from undersea communications lines to suppliers of food, medicine and manufacturing materials.

Aaaaaaand this is where it stops being a case of transparency and it turns into a case of Assange becoming exactly what the US Government has been trying to make him out to be.  There is no need to release this. 

[Great Rumbler]

The cable, written in February 2009 and classified “Secret,” lists more than a hundred facilities that the U.S. considers critical infrastructures or key resources. They include an Israeli weapons manufacturer in Haifa; undersea cables in China and elsewhere; hydroelectric plants; metal and chemical mines and manufacturers; pharmaceutical facilities and labs in Denmark and France where critical formulas are manufactured, such as vaccines for smallpox and influenza and insulin for foot and mouth disease and other ailments; and the Straits of Hormuz, a choke point through which much of the Middle East’s crude oil passes.

The list is compiled annually as part of the Department of Homeland Security’s National Infrastructure Protection Plan to track locations outside U.S. borders whose loss could “critically impact the public health, economic security, and/or national and homeland security of the United States,” according to the cable. Key resources are defined as “publicly or privately controlled resources essential to the minimal operations of the economy and government.”

Although the facilities listed are not secret — and the locations for most of them can be found through a simple Google search — British and U.S. authorities denounced WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange for releasing the list.

Steve Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists’ Project on Government Secrecy, said that while it might interest potential attackers to know what facilities the U.S. deemed sensitive and critical, a motivated attacker is capable of selecting his own targets without government aid.

“My own opinion is that there’s no shortage of potential targets that hostile actors might find interesting, and they don’t need a State Department list to assist them,” he told Threat Level, noting that the list, produced in a run-on format, makes it difficult to decipher.

“The good news is it’s hard to read,” he said. “Talk about security through obscurity, . . . this is one boring memo. You have to be really committed to get through this.”

He noted, however, that what’s not on the list could be deemed just as important to an attacker.

“By implication it also says that facilities not listed here may not be deemed as important by the government or may not have been recognized by the government as sensitive and may therefore be receiving less protection,” he said.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/12/critical-infrastructures-cable/

[Fresh Prince]

lol at mupepe's overreaction

Also the article is very good. In short it's about accountability.

[Phoenix Dark]

kinda wonder if this truly is a US plant meant to set the stage for internet censorship.

[Phoenix Dark]

I hate being right all the time

*cue music, cut to helicopter shot of Langley*

[Himu]

this is AMAZING.

*grabs popcorn*

[Mupepe]

lol at mupepe's overreaction

Also the article is very good. In short it's about accountability.

?

Way to miss the point.  I'm not acting like it's going to cause terrorist attacks on these facilities and wer'e going to be crippled and all die.  I'm saying that his calls for transparency are bullshit.  The dude just likes to stir shit up and be in the spotlight.  I used the descriptive quote because it's an attention grabbing headline that the government can run with to justify silencing him.  Like I said, he's turning himself into what the government has been trying to paint him as and they don't even have to lift a finger to do it.  

[Fresh Prince]

The cable, written in February 2009 and classified “Secret,” lists more than a hundred facilities that the U.S. considers critical infrastructures or key resources. They include an Israeli weapons manufacturer in Haifa; undersea cables in China and elsewhere; hydroelectric plants; metal and chemical mines and manufacturers; pharmaceutical facilities and labs in Denmark and France where critical formulas are manufactured, such as vaccines for smallpox and influenza and insulin for foot and mouth disease and other ailments; and the Straits of Hormuz, a choke point through which much of the Middle East’s crude oil passes.

The list is compiled annually as part of the Department of Homeland Security’s National Infrastructure Protection Plan to track locations outside U.S. borders whose loss could “critically impact the public health, economic security, and/or national and homeland security of the United States,” according to the cable. Key resources are defined as “publicly or privately controlled resources essential to the minimal operations of the economy and government.”

Although the facilities listed are not secret — and the locations for most of them can be found through a simple Google search — British and U.S. authorities denounced WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange for releasing the list.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/12/critical-infrastructures-cable/

[Mupepe]

aaaaaand still missing the point. 

I used the descriptive quote because it's an attention grabbing headline that the government can run with to justify silencing him.  Like I said, he's turning himself into what the government has been trying to paint him as and they don't even have to lift a finger to do it. 

Because the US Government and news agencies never use scare tactics to promote their own ill agendas.

[Mupepe]

Not to mention he's now also holding information hostage.

Fox News Commentator: Sounds like a terrorist to me!  He has hostages!

Everyday he's making it easier and easier for the public to turn on him regardless if what he's doing is in their best interest.

[Fresh Prince]

Yes I still don't get your point.

Releases list of US sites. But sites are already known. Assange is attention grabbing whore- probably. Assange is dangerous attention grabbing whore- probably not.

[Mupepe]

Makes it easier for the media to spin him into a dangerous attention grabbing whore - most definitely

He's an idiot.  Everytime he opens his mouth, the government has more ammo to censor him with the public's consent.

Releases list of well known critical US sites - Fox News: Wikileaks releases secret list of critical US sites
Threatens to release info if arrested - Fox News: Assange avoiding rape charges by holding critical information hostage

Average citizen: sounds like a terrorist to me!

Assange is a PR nightmare for Wikileaks.  He's a fucking idiot.

[ManaByte]

http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/131885-senators-unveil-anti-wikileaks-legislation

Senators unveil anti-WikiLeaks bill

Sens. John Ensign (R-Nev.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Scott Brown (R-Mass.) introduced a bill Thursday aimed at stopping WikiLeaks by making it illegal to publish the names of military or intelligence community informants.

Ensign accused WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his "cronies" of hindering America's war efforts and creating a "hit list" for U.S. enemies by outing intelligence sources.

“Our sources are bravely risking their lives when they stand up against the tyranny of al Qaeda, the Taliban and murderous regimes, and I simply will not stand idly by as they become death targets because of Julian Assange," Ensign said. "Let me be very clear, WikiLeaks is not a whistleblower website and Assange is not a journalist.”

Assange has been under fire in recent weeks thanks to his site's dissemination of thousands of classified diplomatic cables, some of which have proved embarrassing to the Obama administration because of their frank tone. Attorney General Eric Holder recently pledged to close gaps in the law that allow sites like WikiLeaks to continue to operate.

The Securing Human Intelligence and Enforcing Lawful Dissemination Act (SHIELD) would give the government the flexibility to pursue Assange for allegedly outing confidential U.S. informants. Brown said the law would prevent anyone from compromising national security in a similar manner, while Lieberman said its passage was essential to restore the international diplomatic community's faith in the U.S.

"Our foreign representatives, allies and intelligence sources must have the clear assurance that their lives will not be endangered by those with opposing agendas, whether they are Americans or not, and our government must make it clear that revealing the identities of these individuals will not be tolerated," Lieberman said.

Earlier this week, Lieberman reportedly convinced Amazon.com to stop hosting WikiLeaks, forcing the website to relocate to Switzerland.

Amazon denied government pressure influenced the decision, which they attributed to WikiLeaks's violating the company's terms of service and putting innocent lives at risk.

"It’s clear that WikiLeaks doesn’t own or otherwise control all the rights to this classified content," Amazon said in a statement. "Further, it is not credible that the extraordinary volume of 250,000 classified documents that WikiLeaks is publishing could have been carefully redacted in such a way as to ensure that they weren’t putting innocent people in jeopardy."

WikiLeaks responded on Twitter by calling Amazon cowardly and dishonest.

"Amazon's press release does not accord with the facts on public record. It is one thing to be cowardly. Another to lie about it."

Assange is also currently facing a warrant in Sweden concerning accusations of sexual assault of two young women. Assange has said the encounters were consensual and has called the investigation an international plot to stop WikiLeaks.

A well-known recluse, Assange has gone underground, only resurfacing to conduct remote interviews with the press.

Who will be Nick Fury?

[Mandark]

Collating publicly available data and packaging it with analysis changes how it's likely to be used.  That's why doctors who perform abortions don't want Operation Rescue publishing their home addresses, even if they're listed in the book.

[Fresh Prince]

Assange is a smart guy with a martyr complex. He wants the attention because the guys doing the real work get to keep doing their work.

[Beardo]

Is it wrong that I want to see what's in his "Insurance file" that he sent out in case something happens to him.

[ManaByte]

Is it wrong that I want to see what's in his "Insurance file" that he sent out in case something happens to him.

It's apparently stuff about BP and Bank of America.

[drew]

kinda wonder if this truly is a US plant meant to set the stage for internet censorship.

 

[M3wThr33]

Twitter doesn't chart the most popular things as trends, rather things that increase out of nowhere, or rather, are more popular than they ever were. It's the reason Justin Bieber doesn't track anymore, because of decaying value of trend tags. The longer a hashtag exists, the less likely it is to trend.

[Mupepe]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_wikileaks_secret_sites;_ylt=AiqSWqbcbULVnAlKUeEXVcCs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNwcmdvbGtyBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAxMjA2L3VzX3dpa2lsZWFrc19zZWNyZXRfc2l0ZXMEY2NvZGUDbW9zdHBvcHVsYXIEY3BvcwMyBHBvcwM3BHB0A2hvbWVfY29rZQRzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3J5BHNsawN1c3dpa2lsZWFrc3I-

US: WikiLeaks release gives hit list to al-Qaida

Hey Fresh Prince, that didn't take long, right??

[Fresh Prince]

So? This is PR. The pro-leaks newspapers will come back with their own spin.

[Mupepe]

Yeah, I don't think there's a way to be more sensationalist than "he's giving our secrets to the enemy to attack us"  Fox News and even moderate outlets are way too good at spinning that shit and people eat it up way too easily. 

[Diunx]

America is the drama queen of this continent.

[Fresh Prince]

I mean people hear what they want to hear. If you want the truth then you dig a bit deeper.

[Mandark]

So PR and news stories have no effect on public opinion?  Cause if that's true, then Wikileaks would be worthless in any case.

[Fresh Prince]

Basically yes. The left\libertarians just got a confirmation on what they sort of already knew. The right has a new white-haired devil boy and the centrists will go 'I am all for the open dissemination of information except in the case of lives at risk etc'.

Hence wikieaks is a tool for the left\libertarians to actually do something.

[Fresh Prince]

According to the US.

[Mandark]

wat

[Fresh Prince]

One one hand official US sources have deemed the list to be high value terrorist threats.
On another most of these sites can be found by a Google search.

It's an overreaction for the sake of drumming up support.

Also this http://www.news.com.au/business/wikileaks-cables-reveals-australian-terror-targets/story-e6frfm1i-1225966699674

Right now the value of the list is in dispute.

[T-Short]

I'm positive to the general idea of Wikileaks, as a proof-of-concept for secure leak/whistleblowing collection, but despise the way they editorialize, especially the super dumb text overlays for the "collateral murder" Apache video. Also Assange is a distinguished mentally-challenged fellow who needs to step down, which he won't do since he's a co-founder and too full of himself.