|
|
May 18, 2013
|
|
|
|
 WikiLeaks, Wimbledon and WarPosted on Jul 5, 2011
By Amy Goodman Last Saturday was sunny in London, and the crowds were flocking to Wimbledon and to the annual Henley Regatta. Julian Assange, the founder of the whistle-blower website Wikileaks.org, was making his way by train from house arrest in Norfolk, three hours away, to join me and Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek for a public conversation about WikiLeaks, the power of information and the importance of transparency in democracies. The event was hosted by the Frontline Club, an organization started by war correspondents in part to memorialize their many colleagues killed covering war. Frontline Club co-founder Vaughan Smith looked at the rare sunny sky fretfully, saying, “Londoners never come out to an indoor event on a day like this.” Despite years of accurate reporting from Afghanistan to Kosovo, Smith was, in this case, completely wrong. Close to 1,800 people showed up, evidence of the profound impact WikiLeaks has had, from exposing torture and corruption to toppling governments. Assange is in England awaiting a July 12 extradition hearing, as he is wanted for questioning in Sweden related to allegations of sexual misconduct. He has not been charged. He has been under house arrest for more than six months, wears an electronic ankle bracelet and is required to check in daily at the Norfolk police station. WikiLeaks was officially launched in 2007 in order to receive leaked information from whistle-blowers, using the latest technology to protect the anonymity of the sources. The organization has increasingly gained global recognition with the successive publication of massive troves of classified documents from the U.S. government relating to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and thousands of cables from the U.S. embassies around the world. Of the logs from the two wars, Assange said that they “provided a picture of the everyday squalor of war. From children being killed at roadside blocks to over a thousand people being handed over to the Iraqi police for torture, to the reality of close air support and how modern military combat is done ... men surrendering, being attacked.” Advertisement Likewise, thousands of Haiti-related cables analyzed by independent newspaper Haiti Liberte and The Nation magazine revealed extensive U.S. manipulation of the politics and the economy of that country. (This column was mentioned in one of the Haiti cables, referencing our reporting on those critical of the Obama administration’s post-earthquake denial of visas to 70,000 Haitians who had already been approved.) One series of cables details U.S. efforts to derail delivery of subsidized petroleum from Venezuela in order to protect the business interests of Chevron and ExxonMobil. Other cables show U.S. pressure to prevent an increase in Haiti’s minimum wage at the behest of U.S. apparel companies. This, in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. For his role as editor in chief of WikiLeaks, Assange has faced numerous threats, including calls for his assassination. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden called him a “high-tech terrorist,” while Newt Gingrich said: “Julian Assange is engaged in terrorism. ... He should be treated as an enemy combatant, and WikiLeaks should be closed down permanently and decisively.” Indeed, efforts to shut down WikiLeaks to date have failed. Bank of America has reportedly hired several private intelligence firms to coordinate an attack on the organization, which is said to hold a large cache of documents revealing the bank’s potentially fraudulent activities. WikiLeaks has also just sued MasterCard and Visa, which have stopped processing credit-card donations to the website. The extradition proceedings hold a deeper threat to Assange: He fears Sweden could then extradite him to the U.S. Given the treatment of Pfc. Bradley Manning, accused of leaking many of the documents to WikiLeaks, he has good reason to be afraid. Manning has been kept in solitary confinement for close to a year, under conditions many say are tantamount to torture. At the London event, support for WikiLeaks ran high. Afterward, Julian Assange couldn’t linger to talk. He had just enough time to get back to Norfolk to continue his house arrest. No matter what happens to Assange, WikiLeaks has changed the world forever. Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column. Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on more than 900 stations in North America. She is the author of “Breaking the Sound Barrier,” recently released in paperback and now a New York Times best-seller. © 2011 Amy Goodman Distributed by King Features Syndicate  TAGS:
|
Letter From Birmingham Jail
Email 
Print
Share
Email to a friend
Newsletter 
Like Us
Follow Us
Get Our Feed
Tags|Bazaar|Podcast|About Us|Contact Us|User Agreement|Privacy Policy|FAQ: Comments and Moderation | Google+
© 2013 Truthdig, LLC. All rights reserved.
By blogdog, July 10, 2011 at 11:31 pm Link to this comment
By dipconsult, July 6 : “You can’t blame Wikileaks for picking up and publishing what was offered!”
Expert analysis confirms that it was “...offered!” According to John Young of Cryptom.org, expert on
cybersecurity… in so many words, “...Cablegate was a sting op. to test cybersecurity systems and give raison
d’etre to launch Cybercom, NSA’s 21st C. cybersecurity program, currently in serious fund-raising mode.”
But, according to other analyses, Cablegate’s a ‘two-fer’ - not only does it stimulate NSA funding options, it
Report this‘leaks’ carefully seeded, manipulative disinfo., designed to set in motion a number of geopolitical gambits;
e.g. the so-called Arab Spring, wave of Color Revolutions, intended to oust aging, recalcitrant and fast-
becoming, uncooperative despots, e.g. Mubarak, who refused to join the Israel/Saudi/Egypt ‘troika’ which the
Anglo-Americans had proposed to counter Iran, shifting more recently to Syria and Libya - remember the
‘leaks’ about the so-called evil Colonel cavorting with his Ukrainian nurse
By prgill, July 10, 2011 at 10:51 pm Link to this comment
Disappointing article.
The lead on the TD homepage promised a discussion of “information and the importance of transparency”. All this article does is rehash old news.
No discussion of what Slavoj Zizek has to say on the issue.
Too bad, TD. This content IS NOT COMPELLING.
Report thisBy Frank Conway, July 10, 2011 at 12:20 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Yup, Amy’s a darn good reporter, by gosh. I love her, too. I listen to her show.
Look, rush to Amy’s defense, but defend her with more than I’m “picking on” her (MarthaA) and ‘everybody else does it, too’ (Felicity).
In fairness, Israel is just one area of news coverage, but what I say about it with regard to her stands.
And the contention that she “has nothing whatsoever to do with policy of government in either Israel, Palestine or the United States” is not true. She has an influence on government policy, just like any gatekeeper with a large audience would. She does that primarily by influencing her audience, some of whom apparently think she can do no wrong.
Also, I limited my criticism of her to one issue. There is the matter, for example, of her funding, which she doesn’t disclose, not even to the Pacifica national board, while of course demanding transparency from everyone else. A big chunk of it comes from Pacifica, but not all. She gets grants from here and there, and so what does she owe those people? Is she going to look critically into one of her funders?
Also there is the matter of her using the money we send in to Pacifica to fly around the country promoting those books she writes with her brother. Do you know where the proceeds of the books go? Do you know what her brother, who benefits from the promotional tours, does with his share? Do you know what she does with hers? You may presume, you may wish, but you don’t know.
Report thisBy MarthaA, July 10, 2011 at 11:48 am Link to this comment
Frank Conway, July 10 at 8:49 am,
You are picking on Amy, as if she is something more than the
Report thismessenger reporting the news. Amy is not a politician and has
nothing whatsoever to do with policy of government in either Israel,
Palestine or the United States. Amy is a reporter
and I might add, a darn good reporter—more fair
and balanced than any other reporters on the news
today.
By felicity, July 10, 2011 at 11:35 am Link to this comment
Frank Conway - CSPAN does the same thing - primarily
Report thiscuts off any caller who even utters the word ‘Israel.’
Of course, the listener is left with the distinct
impression that the behavior of the State of Israel
towards the Palestinians is so egregious that it must
be hidden from public scrutiny - which is not the
impression intended by CSPAN, I’m sure.
By Frank Conway, July 10, 2011 at 8:49 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
A few weeks back, in the week or two leading up to the al Nakba (the catastrophe) commemoration, there were articles in pro Palestinian media and web sites, as there are every year, explaining that the al Nakba commemoration is about the mass eviction of Palestinians by the Zionist militias in 1948. In the mainstream media you’d read here and there that the Palestinians consider the formation of Israel a catastrophe. On the day, Amy’s staff set her up with a young Palestinian activist in Palestine, and she asked him straight away, ‘So why do you consider the formation of Israel to be a catastrophe?’ It was left to the young man to educate her, which he did.
I have long noticed that when a person she is interviewing gets close to the question of Israel’s formation, which was quite bloody, with hundreds of thousands of Palestinians being driven from their towns, over 500 towns worth, Amy steers the conversation away from it, and away from anything that would impinge on Israel’s legitimacy.
By reporting some, just some, of the major atrocities Israel commits, she does Zionism a great service, by absorbing much of the righteous anger at Israel—she and others, like Chomsky, a frequent guest, who is on record as opposing the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement against Israel and who has been quoted as saying he is a Zionist (“after 1967,” he explains, referring to the war of that year that he says threatened Israel’s existence).
So here is another example of her being a gatekeeper. Others here have pointed out others. There are consequences in each instance. In this case, because of her power and influence within the Left, that is, because of her contribution to the continuation of a skewed narrative on this issue, negotiations have been drawn out (for 40 years now) so that more and more settlements could be built on the Palestinian’s little remaining land, Palestinians are still being evicted from their homes and towns, thousands of them rot in Israeli prisons, Palestinian children continue to be roasted alive by Israeli rockets, and so on.
Zionism Lite, is what I call it.
Report thisBy felicity, July 9, 2011 at 2:11 pm Link to this comment
What does it say when a classified memo made public by
WikiLeaks on 9/10/08 suggested that binLaden was living
in Abbottabad and, for reasons we’ll probably never
know, the Bush Administration had chosen, apparently,
to ignore the memo/information?
Then again, if you’re going to classify information
Report this45.6 million times (requested by the president or
designated agency heads), as was done in’04, you’re
bound to lose a memo here-or-there?
By blogdog, July 9, 2011 at 11:19 am Link to this comment
extending benefit of doubt to Left Gatekeepers, one has to assume they ‘keep their powder
dry’ by avoiding ‘third-rail’ issues like 9/11 as a false flag, deep and persistent domestic
cointelpro, global state-sponsored terrorism directed by the CIA/MI6/MOSSAD, oligarchical
control of central banks across the globe - point in fact: one of the first things the so-called
Libyan Rebels have done is to establish a central bank - http://tinyurl.com/427ozus - from
the article…
“...But the creation of a new central bank, even more so than the new national oil regime, left
analysts scratching their heads. “I have never before heard of a central bank being created in
just a matter of weeks out of a popular uprising,” noted Robert Wenzel in an analysis for the
Economic Policy Journal. “This suggests we have a bit more than a rag tag bunch of rebels
running around and that there are some pretty sophisticated influences.”
so, while Amy chats up ‘celebrity dissident’ Assange, she steers safely clear of NATO’s war
crimes and the IMF’s designs for North Africa, as DN sticks to the ‘official story’ and sends no
reporters to Tripoli where they would witness the so-called hated Colonel arming his people
with over a million small arms and grenade launchers in preparation for NATO’s planned
invasion - point of logic… despots don’t historically do that, i.e. pass out millions of lethal
military-grade weapons to their so-called ‘oppressed subjects’
as the ‘official Libya story’ unravels, DN is not there to report it, but rather, works overtime to
enhance the Assange persona
doubt notwithstanding, seems a smelly kettle of fish, if you ask me
Report thisBy THX 1133 is not in the movie..., July 9, 2011 at 4:41 am Link to this comment
Not One More!, July 9 at 12:29 am
Report thisunrepentant Nader supporter
==========================
Thank you for your considered response; I am
affiliated with nothing, politically speaking, but I
did vote for Nader (a great American).
As to Amy Goodman; if she represents anything, it’s
the truth (mercurial ideal) as much as an independent
journalist can. Amy can’t be all things to all
people; but she does a pretty damn good job of
highlighting the hot spots as they ignite.
Nader has been a guest on her broadcast enough that I
have lost count.
Be very careful of belief and pedantry; keep as
objective a mind as is possible.
There are no saviors; only those who will do the
least harm…
By Not One More!, July 9, 2011 at 12:29 am Link to this comment
Regarding Amy, I don’t want to knock her, but there are times when courageous reporting is called for, and she doesn’t rise to the occasion for what ever reason.
I recall in the 2008 Presidential elections, she reported extensively on the ‘Free Speech zones’ at the republican convention (where she got arrested) but failed to place equal weight (by under- reporting) on the ‘free speech zones’ at the democratic conventions (and the other arrests there).
If you are still supporting the democratic party, in spite of all the actions of the democrats in the last few years (their support of corporate interests over the public good, the war, lack of health care, wall street bailout etc), you are in denial of reality that the democratic party is working against the interest of the general population.
If you want to support republican policies, vote democratic.
so it goes,
Report thisunrepentant Nader supporter
By MarthaA, July 8, 2011 at 8:16 pm Link to this comment
glider, July 6 at 10:56 am,
Also, Brasschecktv http://www.brasschecktv.com/ and RealEcontv
http://www.realecontv.com/ and The Real News http://therealnews.com/t2/
The CIA/Academic mind control program - Government corruption,
control freaks, sadists and thugs:
http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/government-corruption/control-freaks-sadists-and-thugs.html
Report thisBy Go Right Young Man, July 8, 2011 at 5:21 pm Link to this comment
glider, July 6 at 10:56 am
-
You’re an interesting individual. - Only morons would disagree with you. - You fit in well here.
You argue that career Justice Dept. and Congressional Investigators are bad people and the American electorate is too stupid to agree with you. I disagree.
Report thisBy blogdog, July 7, 2011 at 9:11 pm Link to this comment
Libya - indeed… why only the basic NATO line? - who’s heard more from DN? - others are there and grim reports are coming out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-Sjt22q3Bb4
Report thisBy THX 1133 is not in the movie..., July 7, 2011 at 6:05 pm Link to this comment
Michael Cavlan RN, July 7 at 12:51 pm
Yes, Amy Goodman IS a left wing gate keeper.
This proves it.
Report this========================
Oooh, gate keeper. Is that like the guy in Ghost
Busters?
Blah, blah, blah; just more silly speak…
By MarthaA, July 7, 2011 at 5:45 pm Link to this comment
Praise the Lord for Amy Goodman caring about Democracy for the
Report thismasses, instead of the few.
By Tobysgirl, July 7, 2011 at 4:53 pm Link to this comment
Do we really have nothing better to do than howl about Amy Goodman?
Report thisBy Michael Cavlan RN, July 7, 2011 at 12:51 pm Link to this comment
I watched this on Democracy Now.
I noted Amy Goodman say, repeatedly that the corporate media has failed us (they have) by refusing to publish stories. That information is power.
Amy Goodman who has not done, to my knowledge one story on former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and her trip to Libya. Exposing the lies of the Libya “campaign” and the actual innocent civilian deaths by US and NATO forces there.
Yes, Amy Goodman IS a left wing gate keeper.
This proves it.
Report thisBy Jim Yell, July 7, 2011 at 11:23 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
I have always been a pessimist, but until late middle age I always believed in the basic rightness of my country. At 67 I no longer believe this. It was way out the door with Bush/Cheney and the poor performance of the present administration has fairly brought any hope to an end.
Assange is undoubtedly being held on trumpt up charges because they can’t really hold him for anything else. And poor Manning may have broken military code, but his superiors knew he had basic problems and yet put him in the field anyway. Because of that and the fact that I believe the American People should not be kept in the dark about the crimes, conspiracies and general malice of our institutions—I Believe Manning should not be in jail” There are people who should be in jail many bankers and many politicians and many military brass, but not a poor boy manipulated by a bunch of gangsters.
Report thisBy THX 1133 is not in the movie..., July 7, 2011 at 1:10 am Link to this comment
Not One More!, July 6 at 11:33 pm
Report thisAnd Ms. Goodman, you have to decide whether you want
to actually bring about democracy now, and whether
you will be content acting as a ‘Left’ gatekeeper
just so you can keep broadcasting as you have been.
Because at some point, you have to stand for
something, or will fall for anything.
=======================
Now that is one of the most confounding things I’ve
ever read!
Do you have any idea who Amy Goodman is! Do you know
anything about her at all? Her history and
credentials as a reporter?
Just what the heck do you hear when you are
listening; are you in fact paying any attention at
all?
Please engage and put brain before
mouth/pen/keyboard…
By Not One More!, July 6, 2011 at 11:33 pm Link to this comment
Just like Daniel Ellsberg who released the Pentagon Papers, Julian Assange should be a national and global hero, people who shed light on the dark secrets of a corrupt government. Why aren’t they winning the Nobel Peace prize?
Of course, the Nobel Peace Committee is now discredited (again) after giving the Nobel Peace Prize to Obama.
And Ms. Goodman, you have to decide whether you want to actually bring about democracy now, and whether you will be content acting as a ‘Left’ gatekeeper just so you can keep broadcasting as you have been. Because at some point, you have to stand for something, or will fall for anything.
A true hero (with faults no worse then most of us), lets celebrate people like Assange and Ralph Nader who dedicate and sacrifice themselves to bringing about the change necessary for a sustainable world.
“There is no peace without justice, and no justice if it is based on lies.” AG
http://www.NotOneMore.US
Report thisBy MarthaA, July 6, 2011 at 7:11 pm Link to this comment
**God Bless Julian Assange for being a blessing to democracy.**
Report thisBy MarthaA, July 6, 2011 at 6:59 pm Link to this comment
God Bless Julian Assange for being a blessing to democracy.
Report thisBy glider, July 6, 2011 at 10:56 am Link to this comment
GRYM,
“So Atty Gen. Eric Holder found nothing about the CIA’s Interrogation Program “torturous” or illegal. And this receives not even a mention on “Truth” Dig after a decade”
An example of why I pretty much give up with the mentality of the electorate in America. Go read some Glenn Greenwald if you want to educate yourself about the coverup/whitewash you suggest is a valid conclusion of the CIA/Executive Branch having done nothing wrong. It is like the police investigating their own bad actions, moron!
Report thisBy dipconsult, July 6, 2011 at 8:39 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
It would be inexcusable if the UK Govt. extradites Mr. Assange for some alleged minor sexual transgression when we all know the US Govt. is determined to put such pressure on “little” Sweden that it will send him to the US - and possible death.
As a diplomat I have to say that it is impossible to “do” diplomacy unless the people who talk to you know that you and your government can keep secret that they were your source.
In the case of the State Department documents there was no real security - if a private in the army has access to a whole mass of delicate State Department communications - then the United States has let down not only its diplomats but its people (tax payers) by having virtually no security in place. You can’t blame Wikileaks for picking up and publishing what was offered!
And you don’t need to know as much as I know to realise that it would be very surprising if the Russians and Chinese hadn’t already got all or a lot of the Wikileaks exposures before we saw them - and maybe documents of even higher classification. Russians are renowned as No 1 hackers and the US set-up didn’t even need hacking!
Report thisBy marta, July 6, 2011 at 4:45 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
The Germanys listened to only the propaganda on main media news, not the facts of the independant-[-called underground-in 1933-1945-]]—
Report thisBy ardee, July 6, 2011 at 3:14 am Link to this comment
Interesting that another article is subjected to a clumsy effort to sidetrack it by our resident psychopath, Grimy grimm the fairy tale king.
I cannot believe, as suggested, that this no doubt acne scarred sophomoric moron is an employee of any such propaganda mill or agency. No, just an attention starved and damaged personality. Posting, no doubt, from above his mother’s garage.
Hey Fairy tale king, isn’t it time for one of your alter egos to make an appearance?
Report thisBy blogdog, July 6, 2011 at 1:11 am Link to this comment
2 points:
1. the Goodman broadcast streams through and cites all the usual Left Gatekeeper players:
Moore, The Nation, et al.
2. Holder’s dismissal of criminal charges against the CIA and its Torture Gulag is in full
keeping with the current regime’s designated mission of advancing the global financiers’
hegemonic agenda under Left Cover
conclusions: the global war of terror psy-op rolls on schedule, enabled from every side -
Report thisas well from so-called ‘dissident voices’ of the Left Gate Keepers, who lend tacit support
to it’s faux premise - the ‘source du jour’, the ‘deflective source’, disinformation operation:
Wikileaks… as for GRYM, one has to wonder if the poor sod ever glimpses daylight - those
NSA cubicles must get dreary
By THX 1133 is not in the movie..., July 5, 2011 at 10:59 pm Link to this comment
I was most intrigued by what Slavoj Zizek had to say;
Report thishis critical thinking skills are second to none. They
allow him to quickly slice to the heart of our present dilemmas. The best course of action becomes clear
because he’s able to critique the lies, duplicity, and
true motives of those who would take away what few
liberties/rights we have left.
By Nader Mokhtrai, July 5, 2011 at 9:34 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Funny Amy dear, that there were no mentions of Israeli atrocities or intelligence activities, sponsored terrorism or attacks on civilians, ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in any of the hundreds of thousands of leaked pages.
Report thisBy gerard, July 5, 2011 at 9:25 pm Link to this comment
“No matter what happens ...” is an unfortunate phrase. That freedom of information and personal support for those who publich that information matters very much. It also matters that the U.S.government has not yet seen the opportunity the cable releases offer it—a golden opportunity to self-correct in areas of shadowy internatioinal diplomacy which are obviously not entirely beneficial to the world or to the U.S. but instead often sew seeds of resentment and misunderstanding due to undue pressures brought to bear rather than open and mutually beneficial agreements.
The world is right at the door of opportunity to turn away from violence, secrecy and injustice and move toward a more mutually reasonable solution of problems through open and fair negotiations based on mutual benefit. Nothing less than the survival of humanity is at stake. Democratic self-government depends upon the broadest possible knowledge of the facts. WikiLeaks making the facts of diplomacy known has opened the door to more democratic governments everywhere.
Report thisBy Go Right Young Man, July 5, 2011 at 8:46 pm Link to this comment
Off topic I know, however, an Amy Goodman article seems as good a place to point out that last Thursday, after a two-year investigation, the Justice Department announced that a special prosecutor appointed by Attorney General Eric Holder found no criminal wrongdoing by CIA officials involved in the agency’s Rendition, Detention and Interrogation program.
So Atty Gen. Eric Holder found nothing about the CIA’s Interrogation Program “torturous” or illegal. And this receives not even a mention on “Truth” Dig after a decade, and literally hundreds of articles, covering the evil Neo-Con cabal and its torture program.
Ironic, yes? TruthDig “cherry picking” information fit for sharing.
-
“We will not use water to frighten suspected enemy.’ ‘Shoot Them In The Head Instead!’ - Obama for President 2014
Report thisBy John Sullivan, July 5, 2011 at 7:52 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Little man whip a big man every time if the little man’s in the right and keeps a’comin.’
Report this—Motto of the Texas Rangers and the epigraph to The Magic Christian