WikiLeaks News #4

WIKILEAKS NEWS #4, January 1, 2011
The struggle for the transparency essential to a democracy and affirmation of the Bill of Rights are good platforms for opening this Blog on New Year’s Day 2011.
Contents
WikiLeaks and First Amendment
Robert Meeropol: Espionage Act Danger to Free Speech

Support for Manning, Assange, and Ethan McCord
Protesters Support Manning

Ray McGovern
From Rolling Stone: Petition, Twitter, Support Page
Glenn Greenwald on Corruption of Mainstream Journalism

Revelations of WikiLeaks 2010
Cables from WikiLeaks Reveal Truth about New York Times Report
Many Arab Officials Have Close CIA Links: Assange
WikiLeaking Covert Wars
Obama Protected Bush Aides
Israel in WikiLeaks

New Sedition Act Coming?
Lieberman Attacks New York Times
Interpol's Red Alert on Assange, and the US Attack on WikiLeaks

A Progressive’s Reservations



WIKILEAKS’ FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS
The ACLU, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the American Library Association and other groups have published an open letter to public officials opposing further government efforts to limit free speech in the wake of the WikiLeaks disclosures. The groups note that under Supreme Court rulings, publishers have a First Amendment right to print truthful political information free of prior restraint; publishers are protected by the First Amendment against liability for publishing truthful political information that is lawfully obtained, even if the original disclosure of that information to the publisher was unlawful; and Internet users have a First Amendment right to receive information.
https://mail.google.com/mail/?hl=en&shva=1#inbox/12d15314ec18af0e
Just Foreign Policy News on the Web:
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/node/791

Robert Meeropol, “Why We Must Fight to Protect Julian Assange”
Robert Meeropol, Rosenberg Fund for Children
"The Espionage Act is a huge danger to our open society; it's been used to send hundreds of dissenters to jail just for voicing their opinions, transforming dissent into treason."
READ MORE https://mail.google.com/mail/?hl=en&shva=1#inbox/12d33a4b82411326
http://www.readersupportednews.org/


Support for Manning, Assange, and Ethan McCord
Please sign Bradley Manning petition to end torture. Support Whistleblowers. Support Truth-based Media.

https://mail.google.com/mail/?hl=en&shva=1#inbox/12d312a3cf3c9dab Demand Humane Treatment for WikiLeaks Whistleblower Bradley Manning

Forgetting Bradley Manning Click here to demand an end to Private Manning's torture and call on the Army to give him a trial or set him free.
Laura Flanders
Posted on December 16, 2010

Glen Greenwald On Julian Assange Release And Bradley Manning ...
Dec 16, 2010 ... Democracy NOW! DN! News - A High court in London has upheld a decision to grant bail to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
onlinefreevideos.net/.../glen-greenwald-on-julian-assange-release-and-bradley-manning-democracy-now.html

Rally to Free Whistleblower Bradley Manning http://criminaljustice.change.org/blog/view/activists_rally_to_free_whistleblower_bradley_manning

Bradley Manning at Quantico, the New Gitmo
http://www.commondreams.org/video/2010/12/16-0
The Bradley Manning Defense Fund

The BBC: Wikileaks' Julian Assange tells of 'smear campaign' http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12015140
Swedish State on Trial in Assange Case?

Remembering Why WikiLeaks Matters (Media) “The question of whether we want a real 'net is really the question of whether we want a real democracy.”

Ellsberg Calls Assange a Hero
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/12/16-2

ETHAN MCCORD
Glen Ford, “Who Is the FBI Really Trying to Entrap?”
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/12/16-1
Below this message about Ethan McCord from WarIsaCrime.org and the message about Independent Media Network is the message from Santa.
When Wikileaks released a video called Collateral Murder earlier this year, one soldier was seen in the video rescuing injured children from a van that had been attacked by a U.S. helicopter. That soldier, Ethan McCord, spoke out against the incident of murder and the murderous war. He and another veteran, Josh Stieber, published an open letter of apology to the people of Iraq. Last summer peace activists were calling Ethan McCord the bravest man alive, and corporate newspapers were calling him a soldier for peace. Watch this speech he gave. Now Ethan McCord cannot pay his bills. The military doesn't even "support the troops" that keep quiet. There is little chance of it supporting Ethan. That's our job.
Do you appreciate what Ethan has done to expose the nature of our wars? Then please contribute directly to him. Every penny goes straight to Ethan: DONATE HERE.
Ethan McCord has also exposed more war crimes and even worse war crimes. http://warisacrime.org/content/videos-systematically-trained-abusive-soldiers
This is the kind of truth-telling that our government and our corporate media do not do. In fact, the government would like to criminalize it, and the corporate media would like to silence it. Wikileaks is only able to expose information when whistleblowers are willing to leak information or speak out. They must be rewarded.

Protesters at Beale Air Force Base Decry Treatment of Pfc. Bradley Manning
http://act.commondreams.org/go/3770?akid=326.126591.kK4Z0h&t=12

FROM ROLLING STONE
Petition
http://www.readersupportednews.org/off-site-news-section/368-wikileaks/4402-the-american-wikileaks-hacker
Also See:
WikiLeaks' Twitter Page: http://twitter.com/wikileaks
WikiLeaks' Support Page: http://wikileaks.ch/support.html

(CNN) Ex-CIA Ray McGovern Supports Wikileaks' Julian Assange http://www­.youtube.c­om/watch?v­=MM_IdfPPm­EY

Glenn Greenwald, “The Merger of Journalists and Government Officials,” Salon
Glenn Greenwald writes: "What an astounding feat to train a nation's journalist class to despise above all else those who shine a light on what the most powerful factions do in the dark and who expose their corruption and deceit, and to have journalists - of all people - lead the way in calling for the head of anyone who exposes the secrets of the powerful."
READ MORE https://mail.google.com/mail/?hl=en&shva=1#inbox/12d3862e6399f47e


“How WikiLeaks Enlightened Us in 2010”
Joshua Norman, CBS News
Joshua Norman writes: "WikiLeaks has brought to light a series of disturbing insinuations and startling truths in the last year, some earth-shattering, others simply confirmations of our darkest suspicions about the way the world works."
https://mail.google.com/mail/?hl=en&shva=1#inbox/12d3d9653b89d5ff
http://www.readersupportednews.org/

“Walk It Back Award: New York Times” [Thanks to WikiLeaks]
On November 29, the New York Times published an explosive piece based on the WikiLeaks diplomatic cables. "Iran Fortifies Its Missiles With the Aid of North Korea" was the headline, and the piece stated that Iran now possesses powerful missiles with "the capacity to strike at capitals in Western Europe." The Times declined to publish the cable that made this case "at the request of the Obama administration," but the cable was on the WikiLeaks website--and provided ample grounds to be skeptical about the Times' definitive conclusion. (It's not clear, it turns out, that the kind of missile Iran supposedly bought from North Korea even exists.) After critiques were published by FAIR and others, the Times published a follow-up (12/3/10), "Wider Window Into Iran's Missile Capabilities Offers a Murkier View." The piece suggested that "a review of a dozen other State Department cables" and interviews "with American government officials offer a murkier picture of Iran's missile capabilities." But that "murky view" should have been obvious from the start. The Times' first account was taken as fact in countless media outlets; their quiet follow up wasn't a correction, but it should have been. (From FAIR’s “2010 P.U.-litzer Prizes”)
https://mail.google.com/mail/?hl=en&shva=1#inbox/12d383b0ddb1874d

“Many Arab Officials Have Close CIA Links: Assange”
http://act.commondreams.org/go/3765?akid=326.126591.kK4Z0h&t=2

WikiLeaking Covert Wars (Internet and New Media, Covert Ops, War on Terrorism) The latest WikiLeaks dump has corroborated, in part, what sources recently told The Nation about covert military actions in over seventy-five countries.
https://mail.google.com/mail/?hl=en&shva=1#inbox/12d3cc2a5955abca

“WikiLeaks: How ObamaProtected the Bush Administration”
Carol Rosenberg, The Miami Herald (from Reader Supported News)
Carol Rosenberg reports: "It was three months into Barack Obama's presidency, and the administration - under pressure to do something about alleged abuses in Bush-era interrogation policies - turned to a Florida senator to deliver a sensitive message to Spain: Don't indict former President George W. Bush's legal brain trust for alleged torture in the treatment of war on terror detainees, warned Mel Martinez on one of his frequent trips to Madrid. Doing so would chill US-Spanish relations."
READ MORE https://mail.google.com/mail/?hl=en&shva=1#inbox/12d2e3075fd2cd21

Bob Barr, “WikiLeaks May Spawn New Sedition Act”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Bob Barr writes: "If the congressional critics of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange have their way, a new and revised version of the Sedition Act may be in the offing."
READ MORE https://mail.google.com/mail/?hl=en&shva=1#inbox/12d29321d122de44
http://www.readersupportednews.org/

Lieberman Attacks New York Times Over WikiLeaks Documents: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/07/wikileaks-joe-lieberman-new-york-times-investigated

“Something is Rotten: The Strange Case of Interpol's Red Alert on Assange, and the US Attack on WikiLeaks
Fri, 12/10/2010 - 14:56 — lindorff http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/node/337

WIKILEAKS ON ISRAEL (from Just Foreign Policy News on the Web)
WikiLeaks says it will publish hundreds of "sensitive" US diplomatic cables on Israel, AFP reports. "Sensitive and classified documents" on Israel's 2006 war on Lebanon and January's assassination in Dubai of Hamas militant Mahmud al-Mabhuh would be released, Julian Assange told Al-Jazeera.
https://mail.google.com/mail/?hl=en&shva=1#inbox/12d15314ec18af0e
Just Foreign Policy News on the Web:
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/node/791

A PROGRESSIVE’S RESERVATIONS
In These Times regular columnist Susan Douglas in “WikiLeaks: The TMZ of Global Politics” wonders about Assange’s motives in revealing so much under Obama’s admin. and condemns the mix of significant information needed by citizens and mere gossip.