Tag Archives | Julian Assange

What’s In The WikiLeaks Mystery File?

By on August 31, 2011 in News 17

Wikileaks logoIs this the notorious Julian Assange “insurance” file? From AFP:

WikiLeaks released a mysterious encrypted file on Wednesday after telling its followers on Twitter to stand by for “an important announcement.”

WikiLeaks did not identify the contents of the 571 megabyte file and it could not be opened without a decryption key, which the anti-secrecy website said would be released “at the appropriate moment.”

In July of last year, WikiLeaks posted what it called an “insurance file,” which was also encrypted.

According to press reports, the 1.4-gigabyte file was intended for public release in the event of something untoward happening to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Assange is currently fighting extradition from Britain to Sweden where he is wanted to face questioning over allegations of rape and sexual assault.

The release of the latest mystery file comes just days after WikiLeaks published more than 130,000 US diplomatic cables from what it says is a cache of more than 251,000 documents.

… Read the rest

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Wikileaks’ Julian Assange to Address 9/11 Conspiracy?

By on July 14, 2011 in News 40

AssangeVia Prison Planet Live:

Julian Assange may be about to address concerns over his comments last year that 9/11 truth was a “false conspiracy” which he found “annoying”. Assange made the statement despite Wikileaks’ 2009 release of half a million pager messages on the day of 9/11 from New York City officials, many of which contradicted the official story.

The Wikileaks founder is currently in London embroiled in an extradition appeal relating to allegations of rape, which many suspect are unfounded and part of a smear campaign against Assange.

An increasing number of activists are questioning Assange’s motives, including some of his former colleagues like Cryptome’s John Young. However, we have noted that Anonymous, the hacking collective that has vigorously defended Assange, is doing excellent work in exposing the power elite head on, particularly with their intention to shine a light on the secretive gathering of globalists at this week’s Bohemian Grove confab.

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Julian Assange And Slavoj Zizek In Conversation

By on July 8, 2011 in News 1

What good is freedom of speech if you’re on the moon?

Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman moderates an entertaining two-hour conversation in London between Julian Assange and Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek, discussing the broader meaning of Wikileaks, the media, and “the attack on the public use of reason”. Thanks to Zizek, the discussion also veers between everything from dirty jokes to Stalinist propaganda to Psycho to the rumors linking him romantically to Lady Gaga. Things get going about ten minutes in.

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Mainstream Media Calls For Indictment Of Assange, For Competing With Them

By on May 11, 2011 in News 12

3087568318_87df10fa6aPartial Objects notes the rank hypocrisy as the Wall Street Journal unveils “Safe House”, its new WikiLeaks-lite website. (Whistle-blowers, submit your juicy classified documents and emails!) Of course, the WSJ may report tipsters to law enforcement and “third parties”:

The WSJ calls for Assange to be indicted, elaborating on the difference between him and regular media (they use the NYT as their counterexample).

Yet the WSJ also announces the start of their new site, Safe House:

Documents and databases: They’re key to modern journalism. But they’re almost always hidden behind locked doors, especially when they detail wrongdoing such as fraud, abuse, pollution, insider trading, and other harms. That’s why we need your help. If you have newsworthy contracts, correspondence, emails, financial records or databases from companies, government agencies or non-profits, you can send them to us using the SafeHouse service.

The easy criticism is that the Journal, i.e. Murdoch, is being hypocritical.  But no good deed goes unpunished: the difference is that Assange has set up Wikileaks so that the attention is on himself.  That may sound like arrogance, but it’s also a technical maneuver: if the focus is on him, it’s not on the person who leaked him the information.

… Read the rest

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DreamWorks Studio Buys Rights To WikiLeaks’ Book

By on March 4, 2011 in News 2

wiki4It was only a matter of time there was a movie about Assange. Looks like Spieldberg’s studio got to it first. The Guardian reports:

Steven Spielberg‘s Hollywood studio looks set to oversee WikiLeaks: the Movie after securing the screen rights to WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange‘s War on Secrecy, the book by Guardian journalists David Leigh and Luke Harding.

Reportedly conceived as an investigative thriller in the mould of All the President’s Men, the film will be backed by DreamWorks – the studio founded in 1994 by Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen.

Leigh and Harding’s book charts Julian Assange’s life and times, from his itinerant childhood through to the creation of the WikiLeaks website in 2006. It also provides the inside story of Assange’s explosive partnership with the Guardian and the release, last December, of more than 250,000 secret diplomatic cables.

Alan Rusbridger, editor-in-chief of Guardian News & Media, said: “The Guardian’s unique collaboration with WikiLeaks led to what some have described as one of the greatest journalistic scoops of the last 30 years.”

[Continues at The Guardian]… Read the rest

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WikiLeaks Opens Gift Shop

By on February 26, 2011 in News 2

free assangeWikiLeaks not only leaks government secrets. They’ve also got an online gift shop! (“Keep us strong,” it announces to new visitors.)

“What better way to make a little extra cash than to open an online store selling branded merchandise?” jokes this technology blog, acknowledging that all proceeds go towards running of the site, and that “Assange is facing a hefty legal bill which he’ll need to pay.”

The shop includes t-shirts with appropriate sayings, including “Censorship reveals fear” and “Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government.” Interestingly, the shop’s t-shirts are supplied by the same German merchandising company that makes t-shirts for the Spice Girls.… Read the rest

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Julian Assange To Be Extradited To Sweden

By on February 24, 2011 in News 12
Julian Assange. Photo: Espen Moe (CC)

Julian Assange. Photo: Espen Moe (CC)

Any bets on how long it takes the United States to persuade the Swedes to turn him over to American prosecutors?

Esther Addley and Alexandra Topping report on his extradition to Sweden for the Guardian:

The WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is to be extradited to Sweden to face allegations of rape and sexual assault. Assange will appeal, his legal team has confirmed. If they lose he will be sent to Sweden in 10 days.

Delivering his ruling at a hearing at Belmarsh magistrates court in London, the chief magistrate, Howard Riddle, dismissed each of the defence’s arguments against Assange’s extradition.

Assange’s legal team had argued that the Swedish prosecutor Marianne Ny did not have the authority to issue a European arrest warrant. The magistrate ruled that she did possess this authority and the warrant was valid.

Ny’s credibility had been questioned by the defence team but Riddle said those doubts amounted to “very little”.

… Read the rest

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Media Roots Radio: Wikileaks, Bradley Manning & False Memory Research

By on February 19, 2011 in News, Podcasts 3

In this episode of Media Roots Radio, Robbie and Abby Martin discuss Wikileaks, Bradley Manning and the inhumane conditions of his detention.

Media Roots Radio- Wikileaks, Bradley Manning, False Memories with Guest Researcher Steven Frenda by Media Roots

During the second half of the show, guest Steven Frenda talks about his studies and research in the field of human memory: manipulated and false memories, coerced confessions, and how they relate to the legal system…

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