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“I Am Wikileaks” Campaigners Rally to Defense
Campaigners Rally to Defense as Attempts to Muzzle Site Mount
Renewed cyber attacks on Wikileaks servers in Sweden closed down sections of the whistle-blowing website today as the information war over the State Department cables escalated dramatically.
The attacks came as the Swiss post office announced it had frozen a Wikileaks bank account containing 31,000 euros, leaving the website with limited ability to raise money.
The ongoing attempts to halt the release of US government communiqués has created a backlash amongst grassroots online campaigners who have rallied under the Wikileaks banner to keep the website online.
Using the moniker "I Am Wikileaks", supporters are using social network sites to publicize new outlets for the State Department cables when old ones get closed down or taken offline. They have also now created more than 570 mirror versions of the Wikileaks website and have called for a boycott of Paypal, Amazon and EveryDNS, three US-based websites that recently severed ties to Wikileaks.
Followers have vowed to retaliate against attempts to muzzle Wikileaks. Anonymous, a shadowy network of global cyber activists behind a series of recent high profile hacks, has threatened companies with retaliatory cyber attacks if they cut Wikileaks off.
Following Paypal's decision to suspend its Wikileaks account, Mr Assange tried to open a bank account for donations with Postfinace but the application was rejected this afternoon because the Wikileaks' founder did not have an address in Switzerland. A spokesperson for the bank said Mr Assange would get his money back but the decision leaves Wikileaks with a drastically curtailed donation network at a time when its leader is facing the prospect of lengthy court battles to keep him in Britain.
The website's remaining bank accounts are located in Iceland and Germany but Wikileaks claims to have lost 100,000 euros in the past week because of the Paypal and Postfinace account freezes.
In a further increase of the pressure on Wikileaks, the Australian Post Office also announced last night that it was closing a branch in Melbourne where Mr Assange has a post box. It is believed that the website has used the box to acquire leaks from whistle-blowers who want to leave no digital trail.
Yesterday's developments have escalated what is already a bitter conflict between the US government, which has called on companies to refuse help to Wikileaks, and a motley coalition of online campaigners that have vowed to keep the whistle-blowing platform going using little more than their computers at home.
A Twitter posting by American poet and essayist John Perry Barlow has proved particularly popular online today among Wikileaks supporters. "The first serious infowar is now engaged," he wrote. "The field of battle is Wikileaks. You are the troops."
The first task for supporters has been to keep Wikileaks online amid a sustained campaign against the website. Service providers in France and the US have come under intense pressure to stop hosting Wikileaks, with a number of American companies eventually agreeing to cease co-operation.
PRQ, a Swedish-based internet service provider which specializes in hosting controversial sites, admitted today that its servers were running slowly after what it suspected was a cyber attack. Wikileaks has been forced to shunt its sites around different servers to avoid the ongoing cyber assaults.
Other server providers in Switzerland and Sweden are still up and running with the majority of the website running on the Swiss address www.wikileaks.ch.
One Swedish provider, Banhoff, houses its servers in a former military bunker built 30 meters into the side of a mountain and has been described as one of the most secure internet facilities in the world.
Anna Mosberg, CEO of Banhof, told The Independent that her servers had yet to be attacked by hackers but she would resist any pressure from overseas to kick Wikileaks off their servers.
"Our guiding principle is that Wikileaks should be treated like any of our other clients," she said. "We would only stop hosting them if they broke Swedish law or failed to pay their bills."
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120 Comments so far
Show AllThe real issue here is not about rape or even leaking information.
This is showing all of us- if YOU step out of line, YOU will be cut off, shut down, and put away. And all through our agreements by connecting our needs to a virtual world.
It's the upgraded version of The Emperor's New Clothes: The kid who points out the Emperor is naked gets thrown in the dungeon for imperiling imperial security and the populace continues cheering as if nothing had happened.
There was NO rape.
no, he was seduced , raped and assassinated by law
edweg
And remember that Big Brother now has the selfgiven authority to assassinate ANY US citizen who he proclames to be an Enemy of the State.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/06/wikileaks-julian-assange-police
and add 'mastercard' to the list of companies refusing wikileaks access to funds etc.
and 'VISA' - it's back to barter, cash and cheques....
The fascist empire is shaking right down to its foundation. Right wing governments of AmeriKKKa, Sweden, et al and the corporations that control them are becoming desperate. Wikileaks struck a major blow to their infrastructure. Corporations and repressive governments hate the truth; lies are their life blood.
Tom, right-on!
It certainly appears that Assange is far more dangerous than just an anti-war activist ---- he's become the first highly visible "Anti-EMPIRE" activist.
That's what makes him so dangerous to this guilefully disguised global corporate/financial/militarist EMPIRE, which is only hiding behind the facade of its 'owned' TWO-Party 'Vichy' sham of democratic government.
Anti-War activists the EMPIRE can defuse and handle very easily, but a global Anti-EMPIRE movement "Against Empire" and starting "The Coming Insurrection" is a deadly threat to this GD Empire.
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
Well stated Mr. MacDonald. I'm a disabled veteran and I think what we, as true Americans, constitutional abiding citizens that believe in the tenets of this country, should do everything we can to bring to the forefront not the young service member that possibly gave these documents or access to Wikileaks and not Assange are who the AG should be targeting but, those responsible for heinous acts and policies uncovered by these documents! America is and has been in dire trouble for a long time. The leadership of this country has sold it down the river into a future of fascism and an era of pre WW2 Germany. These are dangerous times and people in this country need to take and stand for a position and fight for it!
Memo to self:
One definition of "safe sex" is not to have sex with a CIA agent or associate. That is never safe.
Isn't there some sort of name for a woman who uses sex for her job?
Yeah, HO!
For all you people still carrying water for Jon Stewart...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Comic Jon Stewart attacks WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange"
from WSWS.org (front page)
http://wsws.org/articles/2010/dec2010/stew-d07.shtml
By David Walsh
7 December 2010
Comic Jon Stewart, host of The Daily Show, the satirical US news program and talk show, went out of his way November 30 to attack WikiLeaks’ co-founder Julian Assange and the exposure of American government conspiracies around the world.
In the eight-and-a-half-minute segment, Stewart downplayed the explosive WikiLeaks material, cynically made fun of Assange’s name―of all things―and generally made light of revelations that have produced a major crisis for US imperialist diplomacy.
-----------------------------------------------------------
It must be hard to be such a hero for the status quo. His brother is probably happy though.
Whats Wrong,
Thank you for posting this.
I liked Jon Stewart 10 years ago and even went to a taping of the show. I first boycotted the show when I heard Jon Stewart repeatedly using the word "retarded" as a slur. I started watching it again a few months ago.
But after reading your post, no more. You have inspired me to boycott The Daily Show for good.
One fact that David Walsh seemed to have failed to research is that Jon Stewart is estimated to have a current annual income of $15 Million.
Based upon my reading of Walsh's opinion when my WSWS newsletter arrived last night I went back to review the supposedly offensive Jon Stewart mockery of Julian Assange. I'd seen that particular Daily Show segment when it first aired and it was interesting to review it in light of Walsh's criticisms.
What I can say is that my respect for David Walsh has plummeted. His interpretation of what Stewart was up to is astonishingly off the mark and an indication that when God handed out the funny gene, Walsh was sadly excluded. Such a dour interpretation of Stewart is hilarious, in a pathetic sort of way. David Walsh is the sort of person who when he sees a bouquet of roses asks where the funeral is.
Stewart nailed the Wikileaks story with his creative additions of mentions of U.S. covert attacks on Allende of Chile and Mossadegh of Iran among other nefarious acts of state. Stewart's point that much of the content of Wikileaks "revelations" was either boilerplate or stale gossip was on the mark. Of the several Cablegate.wikileak.org items I've perused, I've discovered that there is more information already available in the open media than is revealed in the rather circumspect average cable item.
***
Here's Julian Assange speaking for himself today in The Australian newspaper, a Murdock publication: http://tinyurl.com/36r82zb
John Stewart's older brother, Lawrence Lebowitz, is the Chief Operating Officer of the New York Stock Exchange. If I were Jay Leno, I wouldn't have the nerve to call anyone else "creepy". Look in the mirror, Jay.
Jon Stewart is annoying. He's an arrogant, batshit crazy liberal.
I'll side with Chris Hedges take on Stewart and Colbert:
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_phantom_left_20101031/
"The phantom left took a central role on the mall this weekend in Washington. It had performed admirably for Glenn Beck, who used it in his own rally as a lightning rod to instill anger and fear. And the phantom left proved equally useful for the comics Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, who spoke to the crowd wearing red-white-and-blue costumes. The two comics evoked the phantom left, as the liberal class always does, in defense of moderation, which might better be described as apathy. If the right wing is crazy and if the left wing is crazy, the argument goes, then we moderates will be reasonable. We will be nice. Exxon and Goldman Sachs, along with predatory banks and the arms industry, may be ripping the guts out of the country, our rights—including habeas corpus—may have been revoked, but don’t get mad. Don’t be shrill. Don’t be like the crazies on the left."
Chris Hedges is a great writer but he confuses liberals with neo-liberals, a crass error that adds to the right's effective liberal bashing. It makes one wonder who he's working for.
I really would like to know how you came to that conclusion. I am midway through C. Hedges "Death of the Liberal Class" and his historical critique of liberalism begins way before the term "neoliberal" was coined.
I am particularly impressed with the context he brings to our current crisis with his historical reminder about what happened during the lead-up to WWI (Chapter 3: Dismantling the Liberal Class). I have only recently become a better student of history and much of the propaganda of that time (a diabolically new way of controlling the masses for the time) is relevant today (e.g. renaming the daschund, liberty dog - sauerkraut, liberty cabbage).
Hedges critiques the near complete sell-out of the liberal class (minus a few - Eugene Debs, Mary "Mother" Jones and others) during the run-up to WWI.
"his historical critique of liberalism begins way before the term "neoliberal" was coined."
The term neoliberal was coined in response to what some so called liberals, in effect conservatives of the Blue Dog ilk and petit bourgeois, were doing under the then illustrious liberal name. Mr. Hedges does liberals a great disservice by lumping them in with these sorts, playing into the hands of conservatives that have been demonizing liberals for decades with great success. Most liberals today have changed their name to progressives as a result of this right wing campaign.
You really _don't_ know what "neoliberal" means... Did you completely miss the anti global capitalism movement?
The term was coined by Europeans in the 1980's who would not have a clue what blue dog is or anything else about US politics:
From Wikipedia:
Neoliberalism describes a market-driven approach to economic and social policy based on neoclassical theories of economics that stresses the so-called "efficiency of private enterprise," liberalized trade and relatively "open markets," and therefore seeks to maximize the role of the corporate sector in determining the political and economic priorities of the state.
The term "neoliberalism" has also come into wide use in cultural studies to describe an internationally prevailing ideological paradigm that leads to social, cultural, and political practices and policies that use the language of markets, efficiency, consumer choice, transactional thinking and individual autonomy to shift risk from governments and corporations onto individuals and to extend this kind of market logic into the realm of social and affective relationships.
Hooray, another poster to whom fact is an important addition to posting. Thank you.
The fact that he, in anyway, downplays the acts discussed within the leaks, either through trivializing attempts and general misdirection, is inexcusable and deplorable. I don't see how Stewart making a cool 15 million detracts from the on-target critique from WSWS, if anything it enhances it.
Stewart says that the information is 'already known'. This is what the Pentagon says. I don't need another Pentagon spokesperson in my life.
WWWB,
Thank you.
Ahh a vestige of sanity and truth in an increasingly puzzling ( or obviously agendized) attack on progressives and their spokespersons. While Stewart is not an extreme leftist he is certainly far more comfortable in the company of such than he is in those on the right, including those little folks pretending to be one of us, who condemn him.
I,too, heard that show, recognized Stewarts satire for what it was, sarcasm that supported Assange and ridiculed the right wing critiques of the man. Now that the opening salvoes in the war against fascism have been fired by the self-styled "nine thousand", and I welcome and fully support it, we must all beware of the increasing attempts to villify our allies and the truth, especially those that come from posters pretending to be what they are not.
We are nine thousand and one. Expect us.
It's not just Jon Stewart. Last night on the Tonight Show Jay Leno described Assange as "creepy". That really shocked me. Of course you have to consider who he has writing his monologue.
Jay Leno--another corporate comic puppet.
I can't stand him or Letterman either.
Jon Stewart has thrown his hat in with the Corporatists. Given the dismissal of Rick Sanchez I suspect that it goes even deeper.
Jon Stewart is finished -- by his own hand.
Thanks for the update!
.
"According to all myth, the female - not the male -- gives life"
Jon Stewart sucks--who likes this guy anyway????
He's a corporate comic puppet--and he's not even funny.
something about wikileaks is taking us all to the dark side, the dream that's moving along more or less under control (even though the background is one of hyperalertness, tension and uncertainty), when suddenly, monte python-like, lights out, as one finds oneself descending head-over-heel through space into the realm of the unknown and (therefore) unpredictable that is chaos, all the while thrashing one's arms about in a desperate snd futile attempt at warding off some rapidly approaching & possibly frightening moment of reckoning, whatever such might be. This time, thougg(and lo and behold), guess what; that's right, said reckoning is with none other than the plain and simple truth - What the world we live in is really all about - Hey, folks, given the knowledge and insights that the wikileakers have provided us with, how's about our getting together and changing the world?
Huh?
Yeah, you would say that. Assange, Wikileaks, and even Stewart in his own way, are fighting for us. You, I think you fail even to understand the sides.
I just closed my paypal account and explained that it was because of their anti-democratic behavior toward wikileaks. Probably not worth shit but hey, it took 2 mins of my time.
I just did the same.
Good for you both. If I had one Id close it too!
Isnt it hilarious,we go around the world forcing our Democracy down
Everyone's throat. Only to close up like the Soviet Union when
someone expresses a different view.
Really? Like the Soviet Union? Really?
Is Assange dead or in an institution yet? Are his lawyers and family arrested? Are people that read the leaks losing their jobs (except at State Department where employees agree on hire not to read documents that are classified above their level)? Is Wikileaks totally blocked? Are other Wikileaks contributors missing or dead?
I agree that the US and allies are playing hardball, but they are not behaving like the USSR for a second.
Silly rhetoric makes you look silly, not insightful.
He is in jail on trumped up charges, sounds pretty show trial to me "John."
Just in case you hadn't noticed the velvet glove over the iron first is much less noticeable to the people and packs the same knock out punch. People who live in totalitarian states at least know one thing for sure: they have little freedom and democratic choices and as such scheme to undermine the system. People who live under the propagandic umbrella of WMD's (weapons of mass deception i.e. the corporate media) go willingly into the mouths of their own victimization.
Of course if some how the masses become aware of their exploitation (possibly through something on the order of wikileaks) then the bare iron hammer is always poised to crush them where they stand.
When the gleam of consumerism starts to fail (like now) mostly through lack of the entrance fee then all the secret and subtle elements that have been building behind the scenes will be unveiled in full blown 3D Technicolor fascism.
John,
I think you have been sitting in the SHADE for too long.
Get out into the light........
The primary value of public participation in the spread of the information obtained by Wikileaks has become, more than the information itself, a powerful, global, act of nonviolent civil disobiedience.
Admittedly, it is an odd sort of civil disobiedience, since no actual laws are being broken.
there's nothing add about it.
who cares what the "law" is, when a new one can created just like that to meet a new need of a new situation?
the "law" and the righteous thing to do are two different things.
The Rich don't obey laws, they just enforce them...
It's our job to resist the Rich.
I think you have nailed it: the real threat to the powers that be is not Wikileaks or Mr. Assange so much as it is that the whole embarrassing episode serves as a foundational blueprint for civil resistance. The technology of Wikileaks combined with our Viral Nation (to say nothing of the Viral World) restores a measure of power back to the people.
We must all do everything we can to maintain this beginning and turn it into something even more meaningful.
Remembering first & foremost that power IS information, we now have the mechanism & the assignment clearly laid out before our very eyes.
Wow, we have real heros to rally around. Major congratulations Julian Assange and Bradley Manning. The establishment cuts off one of its perceived enemy's heads and ten more spring up to take its place. This is the same way Vietnam won its war, with its rag tag guerilla army kicking the ass of the mighty war machine of the empire. This is why the elites struggle to shut down or restrict the flow of info on the internet. Their terror is that if they lose this time, they will be finished.
finished they will be. at what cost on the people's part is the question.
rnadolfski, it certainly appears that Assange is far more dangerous than just an anti-war activist ---- he's become the first highly visible "Anti-EMPIRE" activist.
That's what makes him so dangerous to this guilefully disguised global corporate/financial/militarist EMPIRE, which is only hiding behind the facade of its 'owned' TWO-Party 'Vichy' sham of democratic government.
Anti-War activists the EMPIRE can defuse and handle very easily, but a global Anti-EMPIRE movement "Against Empire" and starting "The Coming Insurrection" is a deadly threat to this GD Empire.
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
Hopefully any doubts that Western governments are self-serving rather than serving the interests of its people will finally be put to rest. And this self-serving is, of course, coming at the price of being corporate poodles.
Russia has now become equal the USA in the sense that both are controlled by Organized Crime.
.... and the CIA etc etc etc == KGB
god bless our noble leaders
Its all a heinous joke, but, shush . . . you're not supposed to know that