Wikileaks releases 250,000 US embassy cables

[Gerry]

Plus, he was arrested on sex charges.

What IF those charges are credible

Let the justice system play out.

Good or bad, the whole world is watching.

[TravelFastpitch]

[

[Mike Cruz]

Any news source who would of got their hands on this would of done the same. It's all for publicity and ratings. U.S. news sources would of probably just gone a bit differently about putting it out there. He got too greedy and was just publishing it all as fast as he can.

[urlurl]

the news networks are just as bad or worse - they are taking the information from wikileaks and giving it to the masses. Posting it on a site is one thing... braodcasting it on prime time news is another.

every day im bombarded with the newest wikileak...not directly from the site but all these other news agencies providing the information

[Gerry]

There is no way that a soldier with the ranking of a lowly private had access to any of these documents.

Rank has absolutely ZILCH to do with who has access. Access is based on extensive background checks, reliability, and other factors. That is the military's decision who grants access.

He as much as admitted it and why he did it on his facebook page.

That is like saying that no one but the top echelon of the navy works on the nuclear reactors of the ships at sea and the submarines. Surely no punk seaman would have that job.

Yes, I too am a former NCO with top secret clearance which I obtained as an airman (one stripe). It was called HRP, Human Reliability Program. Further duties and responsibilities garnered me TS clearance as a two striper.

[Raider]

I believe in free speech, decency, freedom, etc

That's what all Liberals say isn't it? But then they turn around and tell us Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck or any other popular conservative should removed from the airwaves, simply because they don't agree with their opinions.

Just look at all the attempts of the last 2 years from the Obama administration to stifle dissent or suppress free speech from Fox News and Rush Limbaugh, And this is a man who taught courses in constitutional law at the University of Chicago, He obiviously didn't learn that the First Amendment applies to EVERYONE.

[south]

Moneybookers.com taken down by DDoS attacks

[Banned: dn-101]

Free Julian
Indict Hillary

[Gerry]

A new organization, OpenLeaks, promises to pick up where WikiLeaks left off.

---------- Post added at 11:56 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:55 AM ----------

Free Julian
Indict Hillary

I'd much rather arrest Cheney and Bush for their crimes.

[Banned: dn-101]

Bush & Cheney are passe by now. THe'll die from booze.
Hillary is the one who asked Bill to kill Bobby Fischer

[randomo]

Hillary is the one who asked Bill to kill Bobby Fischer

Um, is that just a non sequitur, or do you want to expand on it? (Does it mean something more than that RJF was the only one ever to face prosecution for the don't-do-business-in-Yugoslavia law?)

[Banned: dn-101]

The were rumors around DC then that Hill was putting pressure on Bill to make Bobby Fischer a non-person or even kill him outright.

[randomo]

Well, he made himself a pariah, & kicked the bucket naturally in '08. So Bill didn't need to do any dirty work.

[Banned: dn-101]

Well, he made himself a pariah, & kicked the bucket naturally in '08. So Bill didn't need to do any dirty work.

Nope!
The Japs kept him in jail for a long time per Bill's request. He got sick there.

[tigereye1]

My two cents for what its worth. Big fan of free speech, without it we're not living in a democracy, however don't believe in putting soldiers lives at risk unnecessarily and/or publicily listing secure (vulnerable) locations for terrorists to consider.
In saying that, some of the US/Security cables were originally leaked by US Armed Forces personnel (now in prison).
Innocent till proven guilty, though i think our Australian government is ready to throw him to the wolves..
Very sensitive issue, it seems every country has their take on this issue, how it relates to them and their information/security

[katherine]

I guess somebody gotta do it: expose the ugly face of government.

Now it's not that the government doesn't like to leak when it suits them.

[Gerry]

I guess somebody gotta do it: expose the ugly face of government.

Now it's not that the government doesn't like to leak when it suits them.

Before clicking on your link, that is THE ONE I was thinking of.

That in itself is a treasonous act - the outing out of an active CIA operative because her husband is a critic of the administration.

[think]

Assange has been released on bail.

Michael Moore offers to pay Assange' bail:

Why I'm Posting Bail Money for Julian Assange (A statement from Michael Moore)

Tuesday, December 14th, 2010

Friends,

Yesterday, in the Westminster Magistrates Court in London, the lawyers for WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange presented to the judge a document from me stating that I have put up $20,000 of my own money to help bail Mr. Assange out of jail.

Furthermore, I am publicly offering the assistance of my website, my servers, my domain names and anything else I can do to keep WikiLeaks alive and thriving as it continues its work to expose the crimes that were concocted in secret and carried out in our name and with our tax dollars.

We were taken to war in Iraq on a lie. Hundreds of thousands are now dead. Just imagine if the men who planned this war crime back in 2002 had had a WikiLeaks to deal with. They might not have been able to pull it off. The only reason they thought they could get away with it was because they had a guaranteed cloak of secrecy. That guarantee has now been ripped from them, and I hope they are never able to operate in secret again.

So why is WikiLeaks, after performing such an important public service, under such vicious attack? Because they have outed and embarrassed those who have covered up the truth. The assault on them has been over the top:

**Sen. Joe Lieberman says WikiLeaks "has violated the Espionage Act."

**The New Yorker's George Packer calls Assange "super-secretive, thin-skinned, [and] megalomaniacal."

**Sarah Palin claims he's "an anti-American operative with blood on his hands" whom we should pursue "with the same urgency we pursue al Qaeda and Taliban leaders."

**Democrat Bob Beckel (Walter Mondale's 1984 campaign manager) said about Assange on Fox: "A dead man can't leak stuff ... there's only one way to do it: illegally shoot the son of a *****."

**Republican Mary Matalin says "he's a psychopath, a sociopath ... He's a terrorist."

**Rep. Peter A. King calls WikiLeaks a "terrorist organization."

And indeed they are! They exist to terrorize the liars and warmongers who have brought ruin to our nation and to others. Perhaps the next war won't be so easy because the tables have been turned -- and now it's Big Brother who's being watched ... by us!

WikiLeaks deserves our thanks for shining a huge spotlight on all this. But some in the corporate-owned press have dismissed the importance of WikiLeaks ("they've released little that's new!") or have painted them as simple anarchists ("WikiLeaks just releases everything without any editorial control!"). WikiLeaks exists, in part, because the mainstream media has failed to live up to its responsibility. The corporate owners have decimated newsrooms, making it impossible for good journalists to do their job. There's no time or money anymore for investigative journalism. Simply put, investors don't want those stories exposed. They like their secrets kept ... as secrets.

I ask you to imagine how much different our world would be if WikiLeaks had existed 10 years ago. Take a look at this photo. That's Mr. Bush about to be handed a "secret" document on August 6th, 2001. Its heading read: "Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US." And on those pages it said the FBI had discovered "patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings." Mr. Bush decided to ignore it and went fishing for the next four weeks.

But if that document had been leaked, how would you or I have reacted? What would Congress or the FAA have done? Was there not a greater chance that someone, somewhere would have done something if all of us knew about bin Laden's impending attack using hijacked planes?

But back then only a few people had access to that document. Because the secret was kept, a flight school instructor in San Diego who noticed that two Saudi students took no interest in takeoffs or landings, did nothing. Had he read about the bin Laden threat in the paper, might he have called the FBI? (Please read this essay by former FBI Agent Coleen Rowley, Time's 2002 co-Person of the Year, about her belief that had WikiLeaks been around in 2001, 9/11 might have been prevented.)

Or what if the public in 2003 had been able to read "secret" memos from Dick Cheney as he pressured the CIA to give him the "facts" he wanted in order to build his false case for war? If a WikiLeaks had revealed at that time that there were, in fact, no weapons of mass destruction, do you think that the war would have been launched -- or rather, wouldn't there have been calls for Cheney's arrest?

Openness, transparency -- these are among the few weapons the citizenry has to protect itself from the powerful and the corrupt. What if within days of August 4th, 1964 -- after the Pentagon had made up the lie that our ship was attacked by the North Vietnamese in the Gulf of Tonkin -- there had been a WikiLeaks to tell the American people that the whole thing was made up? I guess 58,000 of our soldiers (and 2 million Vietnamese) might be alive today.

Instead, secrets killed them.

For those of you who think it's wrong to support Julian Assange because of the sexual assault allegations he's being held for, all I ask is that you not be naive about how the government works when it decides to go after its prey. Please -- never, ever believe the "official story." And regardless of Assange's guilt or innocence (see the strange nature of the allegations here), this man has the right to have bail posted and to defend himself. I have joined with filmmakers Ken Loach and John Pilger and writer Jemima Khan in putting up the bail money -- and we hope the judge will accept this and grant his release today.

Might WikiLeaks cause some unintended harm to diplomatic negotiations and U.S. interests around the world? Perhaps. But that's the price you pay when you and your government take us into a war based on a lie. Your punishment for misbehaving is that someone has to turn on all the lights in the room so that we can see what you're up to. You simply can't be trusted. So every cable, every email you write is now fair game. Sorry, but you brought this upon yourself. No one can hide from the truth now. No one can plot the next Big Lie if they know that they might be exposed.

And that is the best thing that WikiLeaks has done. WikiLeaks, God bless them, will save lives as a result of their actions. And any of you who join me in supporting them are committing a true act of patriotism. Period.

I stand today in absentia with Julian Assange in London and I ask the judge to grant him his release. I am willing to guarantee his return to court with the bail money I have wired to said court. I will not allow this injustice to continue unchallenged.

Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

P.S. You can read the statement I filed today in the London court here.

P.P.S. If you're reading this in London, please go support Julian Assange and WikiLeaks at a demonstration at 1 PM today, Tuesday the 14th, in front of the Westminster court.

[Gerry]

Wow, what a great read!

As I have claimed, Assange has committed no crime.

Imagine if the files were sent to FOX, or The New Yorker (mentioned in your post), or any of Rupert Murdocks agencies...or even Ted Turner. These outlets would be all over themselves and high-fiving for having exclusivity on the biggest story in their network's life.

Let Assange stand for the crimes he is alleged to have committed - sexual misconduct.

I enjoy listening to Mary Matalin, but calling him a terrorist?

The crime was committed by the individual who downloaded the files, stole the files, and then passed them on. That is the crime, that is the criminal, that is the felony, that is the treasonous act. If connected to the passing of these documents and found guilty of doing this crime, death by firing squad is in order and an option per military protocol.

The individual who stole all those documents and released them is the one with blood on his hands and responsible for subsequent deaths because of the information released.

If deaths from acts of violence are found to be as a direct result of theft of these documents, then if not death by firing squad then a life sentence for each death should be handed down with no possibility of parole. A sentence in solitary confinement for the rest of his natural life, even if it is a life sentence x 1000 for the lives lost due to his treasonous act.

It serves no purpose to be outraged at Wikileaks or Assange. I am outraged over a little sissy piece of shit sitting in a cell someplace all cozy and comfy who did this treasonous act as the result of his gay lover dumping him. I am not homophobic. I am simply pointing out what and why he claimed was his reason for doing what he did. I connect the dots. That is what took place and that is where the emphasis on the reporting and media should be focused. Instead, what we hear is what songs he was listening to while doing this - Lady Gaga.

Give me a f*cking break, media. Get back to reporting the story and not reporting a piece made for TMZ or Entertainment Tonight.