Truth Is Treason?

The authorities in England seem to have a particular hard-on for Julian Assange. Thanks to modern day photography a paper a police officer was holding is readable. It says Assange should be arrested on sight and under all possible circumstances. You can read more about it here. This whole Wikileaks thing turned into a huge drama and where all fears seem to be justified mind you.
Sweden just might turn Assange over to the U.S.A. The latter doesn't go easy on its own whistleblowers so a foreigner should be even less of a problem. A clampdown and a stern warning to seedling whistleblowers of the future is what's at hand. Earlier this week I saw a formidable phrase on YouTube about this situation and I wonder if it can be applied here; "Truth is treason in the empire of lies."

Free At Last

Julian Assange was finally released today. He's not off the hook but on bail, depending on an inquiry by the British justice department concerning his extradition to Sweden. That process could take months. In the meantime Assange is under house arrest although he doesn't have to stay indoors all the time. He's residing in a mansion made available by a sympathizer of WikiLeaks, a former officer of the British Army named Vaughan Smith.
Interesting to note is that Assange's bail was set at 240.000 pounds (€283.000). (Funny how the justice system can be paid off, but I digress.) One big contributor to this cause was none other than Michael Moore, the American filmmaker who donated $20.000 if I'm not mistaken. With the help of many supporters the bail was met, and touching upon another fine financial peculiarity, 200.000 pounds had to be paid in cash. (Bit reminiscent of the Dick Cheney/Halliburton Nigerian scandal where they were accused of bribing officials and settled paying a fine of a few hundred million dollars. Funny how money opens doors, but I digress again.) Good thing that Assange is out of prison.

The Rat

Forgot something regarding WikiLeaks in my previous blog. There was an interesting leak regarding to what some of our (Dutch) politicians had been up to. On the left here is Maxime Verhagen, former Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Cabinet Balkenende IV. On 14 July 2009 Verhagen and then Prime Minister Balkenende (both belonging to the conservative Christian political party CDA) met with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In the leaked the document the following is revealed;

Mr Verhagen alluded to comments made by Jan Peter Balkenende – the Dutch Prime Minister at the time – to President Barack Obama. Mr Balkenende apparently told Mr Obama that, while there was disagreement in the cabinet on the Dutch military mission in Afghanistan, he was convinced that the Netherlands would continue to have a presence there to carry on the ‘3-D’ approach – defence, diplomacy and development.

What's so strange about this you might ask? Well, the Dutch mission in Afghanistan was extended twice and the last time with the explicit condition that the troops would be withdrawn by 2010. The document reveals that Verhagen and Balkenende alluded to extending the mission even though there was a lot of opposition, including from the coalition partner PvdA (Dutch Labour Party) who was strongly opposed. It gets worse. The Dutch government fell over this issue. The Labour Party gave the cabinet a deadline to confirm it would withdraw all 1,600 Dutch soldiers no later than December 2010 and the CDA and the CU refused.

Let me put it in more simpler terms. Verhagen and Balkenende went back on their promise of taking the troops home and (vaguely) promised to extent the mission (in some capacity), also knowing that their coalition partner would be against such action. This clearly is a violation of previous agreements. When the government fell the CDA and especially Verhagen vehemently blamed the Labour Party. The document however, reveals that Verhagen was engaged in some backdoor diplomacy. When this news came out this week I discovered that Verhagen already had a nickname that was used by many people to describe him. "The Rat." To top it off, Verhagen is again a minister in the current Dutch cabinet. You can't make this stuff up.

Wikiwitchhunt 3

Well, it has been a fruitful WikiWeek. I rather enjoy the revelations that keep popping up from the leaked U.S. diplomatic cables. It has also become more clear what Assange himself is accused off and I must say that it enters a 'grey area.' He had sexual relationships with 2 women last summer and the bottom line is that both of them don't press rape charges against Assange but do insist he takes a HIV test. Swedish authorities are the ones who take it to another level. You can question Assange's morals about this matter of course. Dating two women at the same time is frowned upon by most. From what I've read is that with one partner a condom ruptured and the other claims that while asleep Assange tried to have unprotected sex with her. The latter is of course more serious. When the 2 ladies found out about each other, that was the moment they stepped to the police and insisted Assange do a STD test.

On a more lighter note, some revelations were revealing this week. Turns out the Vatican obstructed an investigation into child abuse by Catholic priests last year. Imagine that cesspool opening up, right? What I also found fascinating was a report on Saudi Arabia and the Royal House. One diplomat commented that behind the walls of private compounds and security forces, members of the Arabian royal family throw quite the parties. Liquor, cocaine and prostitutes can be found in abundance at such parties, according to the diplomatic messages. For the ordinary citizens of that country it's forbidden to even consume alcohol and punishments are severe. A bottle of vodka, which you can't buy in the shops, costs $300 on the black market. I always find it utterly amusing when people who make the rules - don't follow them themselves. It's the age old axiom, absolute power corrupts absolutely. I just love seeing hypocrites go down.

Lots of cyber attacks have gone down this week and some people are already speaking about a cyber war. Anonymous reared its head by attacking various websites who had cut off WikiLeaks. In my own country, Holland, a teenager was arrested in the Hague for such an offensive. It caused quite a stir since a lot people commented that the police should catch and arrest real criminals instead of teenagers behind a computer. (The low opinion of police in my country is also fueled by the notion that they are more preoccupied with writing tickets and generating money for the state then catching hardcore criminals.) What happened next is that state websites came under cyber attack in my country and were effectively shut down for a considerable time. It's fascinating to say the least. Assange has been taken to another, tighter prison facility, 'for his own safety' - of course.

Wikiwitchhunt 2

Several things have happened since my last blog on WikiLeaks and classified information being released to the general public. Julian Assange, director of WikiLeaks, upped the ante by stating that if he was arrested he would release the rest of the (diplomatic) information without any editing whatsoever. He supported this move by making a (large) encrypted file downloadable with all the raw data. A decryption key will be made available to the public if Assange were to be arrested. Quite the power play I might say. The file in question has been downloaded thousands of times already so I reckon Assange isn't bluffing here.

Amazon, host to the WikiLeaks main website, has decided to no longer keep them on their servers. Basically what they did is kick them out, maybe because of (political) pressure or corporate policy. This didn't stop the owners of WikiLeaks and they quickly established a website on a Swiss domain. The website on Amazon was also under continuous cyber attack. Paypal, a daughter company of Ebay, canceled the bank account of WikiLeaks because of "violation of policy", meaning that they are of the opinion that their former client was engaged in illegal activity. It just so happens that WikiLeaks is highly dependent on donations and needs around 200.000 dollars every year to keep the organization going. (Since the release of U.S. diplomatic cables last week they received about 15.000 euros in donations.)

It's pretty obvious the witch hunt is well underway and personally I think it's going to end in a shit storm. Professor Tom Flanagan, a political advisor to the Canadian prime minister, flat out said on television that Assange should be assassinated. Australian authorities are looking into revoking Assange's passport - if they proceed on this matter that would mean Assange can't travel borders without setting off alarm bells. All of this is of course beside the international arrest warrant that is already out. U.K. police stated that they are aware of Assange's whereabouts and are looking into the legality of Sweden's request.

It's painfully clear that an immense amount of pressure is put on Assange to give up and that WikiLeaks is obstructed in many ways. Secrecy is apparently paramount. Democracy, freedom and transparency? My ass. My guess is that pretty soon a decryption key will be released and that the whole world can see how politicians "serve" the interests of the people.

Is He Serious?

Take a load of this guy. Professor Tom Flanagan from the University of Calgary and conservative political activist, political advisor of the prime minister of Canada - Stephen Harper, calls for the assassination of WikiLeaks director Julian Assange. I'm not that convinced that Flanagan is kidding here and if he doesn't retract his statements I personally think a criminal case can be brought against him on the grounds of incitement to murder.

Wikiwitchhunt

The recent release of U.S. (diplomatic) information on WikiLeaks caused quite a stir. The U.S. immediately went on the diplomatic offensive, warning friends (and sometimes foes) that classified information was about to be released and that some things weren't that pretty. The information contained mostly diplomatic email traffic and assessments of foreign leaders but I don't know if many people have realized this, the information itself is not top secret. It is rated below that. Most of the information is rated confidential and a small portion is labeled secret. Basically what this means is that the real juicy stuff hasn't been released yet.

The assessments of foreign leaders are quite hilarious actually, especially since embassy staff made those comments. Putin and Medvedev are described as Batman and Robin, Berlusconi is said to be vain and ineffective and "Teflon" Merkel is said to be risk avoiding and uncreative. Not very flattering such comments. What's more troublesome are other tidbits of information. King Abdullah suggested the U.S. should attack Iran and that Guantanamo detainees about to be released should be electronically chipped and put on surveillance. Then there's the directive by the U.S. State Department ordering diplomats to spy on UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon.

Now, I know that the act of releasing classified information itself is fiercely debated. Lots of government officials say that by releasing sensitive information people's lives are put at risk. This is not however an introspective way of looking at matters. Spying on foreign leaders and collecting classified information is already part of an 'action - reaction' situation. In other words, you make a move and you can bet the other party will make a move as well. Secrecy is an invitation for trouble. That's partly how I see it. While I don't want to see anyone getting killed, playing the spy game will already make that a possibility. I'm for releasing classified information. The primary reason for that is that it shows the truth. It shows how corrupt and calculating governments really are.

It's painfully obvious that patience with WikiLeaks has run out and that they have been targeted in many ways. An hour prior to the planned release of the initial documents there was a massive distributed denial-of-service attack on the websites servers, but that didn't stop the information already leaked out to newspapers. You can wonder who instigated the cyber attack in the first place. Julian Assange, the spokesperson and editor-in-chief for WikiLeaks, has an arrest warrant out in Sweden for suspicion of rape and sexual harassment. Interpol issued a 'red notice' against Assange, meaning they are looking for him and can arrest and extradite him. Which in itself is strange since Assange is formally wanted as a witness and for questioning, he's not officially charged yet.

I presume most people can see the witch hunt underway right now. Governments are going to clamp down on websites like WikiLeaks because it exposes them. They'll do it anyway possible depending on the severity of the leaks. This is the democracy you live in. As a citizen, when you're pulled over by the cops, you'll often get the request to show your bags and open the trunk - because you got nothing to hide, right? The same thing doesn't seem to work for those in power. Realizations such as this one will hopefully make a person aware that there is still much to be improved in our world.

Thoughts On Wikileaks & Conspiracy Theories

It's been all over the news the last few weeks. WikiLeaks released classified military files about the war in Afghanistan. Lots of commentators stepped up on television and in the newspapers condemning such an act and that it put the soldiers, Afghan collaborators and informants at risk. Personally I have to give that part of the story the green light. Releasing information that puts certain people directly at risk and in mortal jeopardy is of course not the route to take. As much as I want the truth, getting that at the expensive of human life is not something I, and presumably others, want.
Having said that I also think, and this is the other side of the mental coin, releasing classified files is also a good thing since it shows you what the exact truth really is and how your government really works. It shows you how much you're being deceived at times and how much corruption there really is in the world by your elected officials. You start to realize how much you're being fooled and hopefully you'll also get the notion that things should be better in the world. I realize that at this point people are at a crossroad, they can totally lose faith in the system or they can slowly work to make things better in a constructive way.

WikiLeaks will probably also fuel new conspiracy theories, something some folks will adhere to while others would oppose. Conspiracy theories are tricky. From my perspective some are totally unfounded or false, some could have a grain of truth in them (like in myths) and some can actually be spot on. It depends on the information and how factual it really is. You would have to find that balance between being skeptical and what could be possible based on confirmed data. Most of all you would have to be objective and this is something most people on this planet have a hard time getting at when factors such as nationalism, patriotism and other ideologies such as religion come into play.
Those folks that strongly oppose conspiracy theories, I have some bad news for you. There were cases where they were proven to be true. That is basically the reason why conspiracy theories continue to surface. In the past stories have surfaced that were shockingly true and showed the misleading if not criminal machinations of the people in charge. Again, the confirmed stories that show the workings of the people in power fuel those theories that have not been proven. Lets just look at a few.

The Pentagon Papers was a top-secret United States Department of Defense history of the United States' political-military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967. Those files were copied by Daniel Ellsberg and show that the Pentagon Papers demonstrated, among other things, that the Johnson Administration had systematically lied, not only to the public but also to Congress, about a subject of transcendent national interest and significance.

Project MKULTRA, or MK-ULTRA, was the code name for a covert, illegal CIA human research program, run by the Office of Scientific Intelligence. Basically what the CIA did was experiment on their own citizens they swore to protect just to get information about how it would be possible to control someones mind. What's important here is the willingness by certain people in positions of power and the intelligence community to totally throw every human right out the window.

1973 Chilean coup d'état, the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état, the 1953 Iranian coup d'état. Anyway, you can find more of those here. What that shows is that the United States, the beacon of democracy and the home of the brave, sponsors and makes possible, the overthrowing of other foreign democratically elected governments because they wanted to protect their own (national) security.

You wonder why conspiracy theories originate?
Because people in positions of power have been shown, and proven, to be utterly corrupt.

WikiLeaks is on a precarious road. I'm sure there are some people that will be happy if it disappeared tomorrow. Me? I say let them go on, yet at the same time I hope they will be careful not to put some person who is just another cog in the wheel die for the people that put them there in the first place. Let truth prevail and may it lay enlighten those that want a better world.