Brad/Chelsea Manning: Charged w/AFG file leak, Cdn angles, disposition (merged)

[Jarnhamar]

I bet when he (they) release the doccuments they'll actually mention how the US found WMD's.

 

[HavokFour]

Wikileaks in Revolt: Spokesman Quits Amid Tension with Founder​

Ever since Julian Assange, the enigmatic founder of secret-sharing wbesite Wikileaks, was accused of rape, rumors have swirled of a revolt among Wikileaks organizers. These rumors are justified now, with news that Wikileaks spokesman Daniel Schmitt has quit.

German newspaper Der Spiegel reports that Schmitt quit amid tensions with Assange. Schmitt told Der Spiegel that Assange had started focusing too much on large projects—like the massive 77,000-document Afghanistan leak—instead of the many smaller leaks that used to be Wikileaks' trade. Anytime Schmitt criticized Assange's plans, Assange shot back "that I was disobedient to him and unloyal to the project."

Schmitt also sheds light on an apparent morale problem within Wikileaks, which has been battered by harsh criticism both over Assange's sleazy dismissal of the rape and sexual molestation charges against him as a Pentagon "smear campaign," and over allegations that Wikileaks didn't do enough to protect Afghan informants' identities in their Afghanistan leak.

"We have lost the faith that we are all pulling together," Schmitt told Der Spiegel.

Read more...

UPDATE: Wikileaks' official Twitter account (that is, Julian Assange) claims the Der Spiegel article is 'misleading':

"Spiegel report Schmitt resigned which is misleading. Schmitt was suspended a month ago."

Gosh golly can you say damage control?  ;D

 

[Edward Campbell]

Wikileaks in Revolt: Spokesman Quits Amid Tension with Founder​

Read more...

Gosh golly can you say damage control?  ;D

Ship, this is Rats; SITREP: you are sinking, over.

 

[ArmyRick]

I read a bunch of the comments below the article in the link and laughed.

It seems that people out there can differ between a true whistle blower and a sensational journalism (if you can call it that)

;D

 

[HavokFour]

WikiLeaks founder says may seek Swiss asylum​

(Reuters) - The founder of WikiLeaks said on Thursday he may seek political asylum in Switzerland and move his whistle-blowing website there to operate in safety.

"I'm considering whether I should seek asylum," Julian Assange, the Australian founder of WikiLeaks, told TSR, a Swiss television station. His words were dubbed into French.

Assange is in Geneva to speak at the United Nations on Friday, when the U.N. Human Rights Council conducts a review of the human rights record of the United States.

Last month Sweden rejected an application for a work and residency permit for Assange, who has angered the Pentagon by releasing nearly 500,000 classified files on the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Assange had been hoping to establish a base in Sweden to take advantage of its strict laws protecting journalists. He has been under investigation there over rape allegations, which he has denied.

Assange told TSR the idea of setting up a foundation in neutral Switzerland to operate WikiLeaks was under serious consideration.

Earlier Assange called on the United States to fully examine abuses by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and halt its "aggressive investigation" into WikiLeaks.

Assange said WikiLeaks would release thousands of documents this year concerning not only the United States, but other countries including Russia and Lebanon.

EDIT: Whoops, forgot the link.

Starting to feel the pressure Mr. Assange? Cold feeling in the pit of your stomach? Clammy hands? Cold feet? You know that funny taste in the back of your throat? That's fear. 

I always knew you were spineless.

 

[Brad Sallows]

I'm looking forward to when Wikileaks releases thousands of files of Russian or Chinese state secrets.  Or even Bulgarian.

 

[George Wallace]

How about Al Qaeda operation plans?




Funny what living in a democratic peaceful society allows you to do.  :

 

[OldSolduer]

I'm looking forward to when Wikileaks releases thousands of files of Russian or Chinese state secrets.  Or even Bulgarian.

Bulgarian ones would be good to see,,,,,mind you if they were leaked to Wikileaks........hmmmmmm.....

 

[HavokFour]

Better yet, secret Wikileaks documents and financial records. I can't imagine him flying economy and staying in Best Western's.

 

[ArmyRick]

Is there any update on the rape allegations against the founder, Julian Assange?

 

[HavokFour]

Is there any update on the rape allegations against the founder, Julian Assange?

Haven't picked anything up on my radar.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Is there any update on the rape allegations against the founder, Julian Assange?

The latest (I'm sure a CIA plot - just ask him), from the Associated Press:

A Swedish prosecutor requested a court order Thursday to detain WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for questioning on suspicion of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion.

Assange has denied the allegations, which stem from his encounters with two women during a visit to Sweden in August.

The Stockholm District Court was to rule on the request later Thursday. The move could mean that prosecutors are preparing an international arrest warrant for the Australian, whose whereabouts was not immediately clear.

"The reason for my request is that we need to interrogate him," Director of Public Prosecution Marianne Ny said in a statement. "So far, we have not been able to meet with him to accomplish the interrogation." ....

 

[57Chevy]

Haven't picked anything up on my radar.

Is there a major leak leaking at wikileaks ;D
a portion of article (see link for the rest)

The WikiLeaks founder himself has previously hinted the allegations against him could be part of a "smear campaign" aimed at discrediting his website, which is locked in a row with the Pentagon over the release of secret U.S. documents about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

WikiLeaks last month published an unprecedented 400,000 classified U.S. documents on the Iraq war and posted 77,000 secret U.S. files on the Afghan conflict in July.

As for the two women at the centre of the Swedish rape and sexual molestation probe, whose names have not officially been made public, Assange admitted in a September interview with AFP that he had met them both, but refused to say if he had sex with either of them, calling it "a private matter."

article link
                      (Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act)
                  ________________________________________________________

 

[ArmyRick]

Maybe someone should leak it to the public what a slime ball sleaze bag, double standard that Julian Assange is. His affairs are private? Oh and the garbage he leaked out was any of his business?

Gotta love his double standard.

 

[HavokFour]

Swedish Police Files International Arrest Warrant For WikiLeaks Founder ​

STOCKHOLM (Dow Jones)--The Swedish National Criminal Police on Friday told Dow Jones Newswires that it has issued an international arrest warrant for Julian Assange, the founder and chief editor of whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks.

Assange is wanted for questioning in connection with allegations of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion stemming from his encounter with two women during a trip to Sweden earlier this year.

The international arrest warrant for Assange was placed in the Schengen Information System, or SIS, which is used by the 27 European countries under the Schengen Agreement Application Convention, and the Interpol database.

It means that countries can arrest and upon court order transfer him to Sweden without having to examine the allegations made against him. Countries in the European Union are required to do so under the European Arrest Warrant, which is valid throughout all EU member states.

Assange was in London as of Thursday morning, his U.K. lawyer Mark Stephens said Friday. But he said he isn't "prepared to divulge" Assange's current whereabouts.

"I have submitted an appeal to the Stockholm district court. The appeal will be transferred to the court of appeal for review," Assange's Swedish lawyer Bjorn Hurtig told Dow Jones Newswires. "I expect a decision from the court of appeal in the next couple of days."

Hurtig added that Assange, who denies the allegations made against him, hasn't attempted to abscond from Sweden to avoid punishment and that he has tried to cooperate with the prosecutor throughout the process.

"We established contact with the prosecutors when my client left Sweden to ask if they had any objections and they didn't. My opinion is that the detention order and the international arrest warrant is disproportionate considering the circumstances," Hurtig said.

If the Swedish court of appeal decides to withdraw the detention order made by the Stockholm district court, the Swedish National Criminal Police will have to withdraw its international arrest warrant for Assange, said superintendent Tommy Kangasvieri at the Swedish National Criminal Police.

-By Sven Grundberg, Dow Jones Newswires; +46-8-5451-3098; sven.grundberg@dowjones.com

Article

 

[Cpl4Life]

Maybe someone should leak it to the public what a slime ball sleaze bag, double standard that Julian Assange is. His affairs are private? Oh and the garbage he leaked out was any of his business?

Gotta love his double standard.

Very true. It would not surprise me to find out he was set up in August though.

 

[OldSolduer]

From the Winnipeg Sun

http://www.winnipegsun.com/comment/columnists/ezra_levant/2010/11/29/16364771.html

 

[George Wallace]

From the Winnipeg Sun

http://www.winnipegsun.com/comment/columnists/ezra_levant/2010/11/29/16364771.html

Looks like there is a bunch of the usual "It is my right to do whatever I want" crowd on that site as well.  "If you don't agree with me, you are a troll" types.  It seems the media allow these comments to save having to print off the comic pages.    :nod:

 

[The Bread Guy]

Dopiest idea of the day, from Berkeley, California's city council agenda for tonight:

.... 26.  Support and Free Pfc. Bradley Manning and Proclaim Him a Hero (PDF)
From: Peace and Justice Commission
Recommendation: Adopt a Resolution to support and free Pfc. Bradley Manning and proclaim him a hero ....

Wording of the proposed resolution, from the PDF (3.9 MB download) linked above:

WHEREAS, the Peace and Justice Commission advises the City Council on all matters relating to the City of Berkeley’s role in issues of peace and social justice (Berkeley Municipal Code (BMC) Chapter 3.69.070); and

WHEREAS, the “Collateral Murder” video of a massacre in Baghdad, Iraq, in 2007, released by Wikileaks, in April, 2010, shows a United States Army Helicopter attack that killed eleven civilians, including two Reuters journalists, and wounded two children; and

WHEREAS, the release of this video harmed no one and is information the people of the world, and especially American citizens, are entitled to know; and

WHEREAS, the United States Army covered up the evidence and declared this war crime “justified” and now claims that exposing the massacre is criminal; and

WHEREAS, blowing the whistle on war crimes is not a crime; and

WHEREAS, Wikileaks subsequently released 92,000 documents that reveal years of whitewashing of the war in Afghanistan, by the United States, and that the United States systematically covered up civilian casualties, evidence of corruption, including the funding of the Afghan Taliban by the ISI, Pakistan’s military intelligence unit, and successful attacks by the Taliban and the significance of those attacks; and

WHEREAS, the illegal wars waged by the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan and Pakistan have cost the lives of thousands of U.S. military personnel, the lives of unknown numbers [likely over a million] of people in Iraq and Afghanistan, and squandered U.S. treasure, in vain, that could have been used for human needs in
Berkeley and across our nation; and

WHEREAS, in 1998, thirty years after the My Lai Massacre, former Warrant Officer Hugh C. Thompson, Jr. [who retired from the United States Army as a major in 1983] and his comrades in arms, Specialist Glenn Andreotta and Specialist Lawrence Colburn [the heroes of My Lai, who stopped the continuation of the My Lai Massacre on March 16, 1968] were awarded [Andreotta, posthumously] the Soldiers Medal, the United
States Army’s highest award for bravery not involving direct contact with the enemy; and at the 1998 Soldiers Medal award ceremony, Army Major General Michael Ackerman said, "It was the ability to do the right thing even at the risk of their personal safety that guided these soldiers to do what they did," and that the three, "set the standard for all soldiers to follow”; and

WHEREAS, 22 year old, Pfc. Bradley Manning has been accused of leaking the “Collateral Murder” video and faces a possible 52 year prison sentence if convicted of doing so; and is a “person of interest” in the investigation of the release of the “Afghan War Diary” documents, also referred to as “Pentagon Papers II”; and

WHEREAS, months ago, Daniel Ellsberg, the Pentagon Papers whistleblower, and Advisory Board Member of the Bradley Manning Support Network, said, “From what I know of [Pfc. Bradley] Manning, he’s a new hero of mine” and then on September 16, 2010, at the Humanist Hall in Oakland at the benefit for Bradley Manning during the International Days of Action for Bradley Manning (September 16th through 19th), Daniel Ellsberg said, “We’re honoring an American Hero.”; and

WHEREAS, in her article of September 19, 2010 entitled “Bradley Manning: An American Hero,” Marjorie Cohn, professor of International Human Rights Law at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, concluded by writing, “…if Manning did what he is suspected of doing, he should be honored as an American hero for exposing war crimes and hopefully, ultimately, helping to end this war.”;

NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Council of the City of Berkeley urges the United States Army to free Pfc. Bradley Manning from confinement in the military brig, where he is being held at Quantico, Virginia, and to drop all charges against him.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Council of the City of Berkeley proclaims that if Pfc. Bradley Manning is the source who provided Wikileaks with the “Collateral Murder” video and/or the 92,000 documents known as “The Afghan War Diary” that he is a hero and we thank him for his courage in bringing the truth to the American people and the people of the world.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Council of the City of Berkeley send copies of this resolution to President Barack Obama, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Senator Barbara Boxer, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Secretary of Defense, Robert M. Gates, and Secretary of the Army, John McHugh. A record signature copy of said Resolution to be on file in the Office of the City Clerk.

Uh, riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight....

More from CNN.

 

[George Wallace]

Remember; this is Berkeley we are talking about.  Center of the Acid Generation.