Today's WikiLeaks News 312
In today's episode of As WikiLeaks Turns we learn that WikiLeaks's main web site is back up less than 10 days after EveryDNS terminated the domain name over stability concerns. A 16-year-old Dutch boy suspected of being involved in the pro-WikiLeaks attacks on MasterCard and Visa has been arrested. But Dutch teenagers aren't the only Assange fans in the news. Many top journalists in Australia have sent a letter(PDF) to Prime Minister Julia Gillard today to express their support of WikiLeaks. The Sydney Police have written their own letter however to organizers of a pro-WikiLeaks rally saying that the police oppose a planned demonstration. Finally, special correspondent for The Times, Alexi Mostrous and freelance reporter Heather Brooke were given permission by the judge in the Julian Assange trial to post Twitter updates about the proceedings.
One down (Score:5, Insightful)
tweets? Damn (Score:3, Insightful)
OMG! Ass. is up for Qs. Its gonna be bad. He's vervus. SHORT.URL?XVHEHWK
The proof is in the Opposition (Score:5, Insightful)
At a higher level, this just indicates the extraordinary influence (coersion? CIA blackmail?) the US wields. Just why would Sweden (of all places) dance to Hillary's tune? Their politics runs more the opposite. Some feminists might like the broadening and exposure of sexual misconduct laws, but the more thoughtful might consider this stretch happens on the backs of women who are indisputably abused. Dubious claims and outright false allegations justify unfortunately piercing scrutiny of victims and further humiliation.
Britian is similar. First we had the unbelieveable spectacle of a Labour government supporting the American invasion of Iraq, and maintaining support after WMD unfound and Tony Blair putting down three quite representative backbencher revolts. They will grind it all through very carefully, trying to stay reasonable lest they suffer the voter backlash that Sweden is almost certain to see.
Astonishing how the US gets people to jump in front of a bus. Proof more Wikileaks are needed.
Hasty Assembly Permit (Score:5, Insightful)
This time with more than just the pirate parties involved.
but still-- "Police oppose a planned demonstration?" I will have to read the linked article, because that is some fishy sounding shit.
Let me help you:
The assistant commissioner added that without a court notice authorising the rally, protesters and organisers would not have the support of the NSW Police Service.
I don't know about Australia but in America you need a permit after your party gets to be a certain size on public property. The assistant commissioner stated:
"Under Section 26 of the Summary Offences Act, I am advising you that I oppose the holding of your public assembly,"
Doesn't that just sound like some fishy shit? Not supported by the NSW Police Service because you don't have a permit? Or massive government conspiracy?
...
It's opposed because they didn't properly prepare for it and the police are not obligated to support it so if things get ugly for whatever reason, people may get out of control and hurt. And if you march on streets that are normally occupied by vehicles without police support, you're going to get hit with obstruction offenses. The police don't oppose it, the assistant commissioner said that they oppose it because they didn't follow the law to get authorization to assembly. All this is going down immediately (this evening). The complaint from the commissioner is that the paperwork wasn't submitted in a timely manner.
When I was in Boyscout Troop 238, we would apply for the right to assembly when we had larger functions in the town's parks weeks or months ahead of time. And it's not because Big Oil wanted us stopped
Re:The Good Wikileaks Does (Score:5, Insightful)
is not justification for the bad Wikileaks does.
Well, you can't have the good without the bad...
There are better ways to do it.
Like what? Wear buttons with sloagans about love, put bumper stickers on your car?
Police Letter (Score:2, Insightful)
What the hell is the point of a letter from the police stating they oppose the demonstration? Does Australia protect the right of people to peacefully assemble, or does it not? A letter from the police on this subject is ominous for Australia's political and economic security.
Re:Can we get a category? (Score:0, Insightful)
A category, maybe?
I'm amazed that there are people like you that don't care that we are living in the prequel to "1984". We may be witnessing the birth of the new dark ages.
Moderator
Re:Can we get a category? (Score:4, Insightful)
most people don't try to close their eyes to the world, especially when the results of things like this do affect the IT/technology world.
Re:Bradley Manning (Score:5, Insightful)
Does anyone in the USA actually believe the constitution has power anymore? I mean, I regularly see Americans argue from the position of "You can't do that, it's unconstitutional" yet the right to not be imprisoned without charges and a trial is the only right that is included in the original text, sans amendments.
If Manning ends up in a Guantanamo type limbo nobody will be surprised. Very sad. Especially given how unreliable a witness Lamo is. If Lamo is the only thing they have on Manning then a good defence lawyer could make great progress with his case.
Re:Bradley Manning (Score:3, Insightful)
Guess he should have thought of that before committing a military crime while he was an active member of the military service. He is governed by a different set of laws that aren't nearly as nice as civilian laws.
Or at least, he might have thought of that BEFORE HE STARTED FUCKING BRAGGING ABOUT IT.
Congratulations. (Score:2, Insightful)
Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.
youre on /., a geek or a nerd, and you dont care (Score:5, Insightful)
had this been any newspaper, none of these news would make the headline. had they made, rest would be suppressed.
we are seeing internet show its power, through people, even if the establisment tries to suppress it.
see :
http://46.59.1.2/mirrors.html [46.59.1.2]
2100+ mirrors. that many people put up private server space to help wikileaks. that is, not even counting the people who are spreading messages, links, articles.
it interests all of us. its internet in its purest form, as how it should be. if it doesnt interest you, or you are unable to understand, maybe you should try other sites like digg, or facebook.
oh yeah (Score:2, Insightful)
wake up. if it was possible to do it in any other way, it would have been done.
Re:Bradley Manning (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, they can end up with their own TV shows. It just depends on who they commit treason for. If it's the American public, or even worse, the world's public, you are correct. If they are good little soldiers and stomp on throats at the request of the powerful, well... how else do you think they get promoted?
Re:Bradley Manning (Score:4, Insightful)
"Speaking of idiots, Assange thinks everything should be open but information that he deems private should be kept out of the public record." - Anonymous Coward
If Assange thinks everything should be open, why isnt he (or wikileaks) releasing all the information, why are they redacting there information to protect individuals.
Its ironic that you post as AC while criticizing him, you are an obvious propaganda victim.
Re:How close are the US and Sweden? (Score:4, Insightful)
Good find. Gives the lie to the Swedish state being 'all above board' and very anti-corruption.
Secret deals with the US government - plenty of people suspected that this was the case with the Pirate Bay crackdown - and now it's made clear that deals are being done and hidden from parliamentary scrutiny.
Re:Hasty Assembly Permit (Score:5, Insightful)
Because the lack of a permit is not the actual problem. The permit is just one solution to the real problem, the police offered several other solutions. Now, I bet if you stopped to think about it, you would realize what the real problem is. The real problem is, how do we fairly allocate the use of resources we share? Why should the protesters get precedence over the daily users of streets and sidewalks? It is a tricky issue, to be sure, and one I have been on both sides of. In my mind it boils down to this: either you play by the rules and try not to piss off the people you are attempting to reach with your message, or you specifically DO try to piss them off, to show how serious you are. But if you do that, you must accept the possibility that you will be inconvenienced at least as much as the people you are trying to piss off, if you get thrown in a holding cell for a few hours and have to pay a $100 fine.
Do you see how it works? Either we agree to play by the rules and hold a protest that is respectful of its audience and all the other users of public property, or we participate in civil disobedience to show how serious we are. What we do NOT do, unless we are assholes, is claim a right to disrupt other people's lives without consequence.
Re:Hasty Assembly Permit (Score:4, Insightful)
When I was in Boyscout Troop 238, we would apply for the right to assembly when we had larger functions in the town's parks weeks or months ahead of time. And it's not because Big Oil wanted us stopped ...
Multi-week delays are perfectly reasonable for a Boy scout troop --- they can plan their functions weeks ahead of time. However, it's absolutely not reasonable to delay peaceful political protest on issues that have an inherent component of timeliness, e.g., court cases, legislation, etc. In many cases, enforcing a delay is tantamount to preventing the assembly itself, simply by delaying it until the protest no longer has relevance.
I can't speak to UK law, but most democracies have explicitly guaranteed a freedom of assembly precisely because that right is so important, and because it's so easy to deny. Protecting the right means supporting its spirit, not just paying lip service to it.
Re:Bradley Manning (Score:2, Insightful)
If he is depressed, exercise would do him good. Also his depression was likely caused by the lack of exercise and lack of any comfort.
Plus, as the article says, he has never been on suicide watch. So maybe you should take a closer look at the data before you start talking smack.
Re:youre on /., a geek or a nerd, and you dont car (Score:2, Insightful)
All Wikileaks has done has given the US an excuse to stick a big red button on the internet and shut bits of it down when it chooses. Expect a bipartisan ruling from governments all around the world to enforce direct control over IPS and Domains in the future.
Wikileaks has just helped give reason to censor the internet with a very simple concept behind managing the censorship.
Re:youre on /., a geek or a nerd, and you dont car (Score:4, Insightful)
Enjoy it while it lasts. We're marching towards Internet 2 where Net Neutrality will be a thing of the past. It's happening in the EU and it's started in the US. 15 years ago the internet caught a lot of people by surprise and they weren't sure what to make of it. I think they have a better idea now and are slowly working towards swinging the pendelum from the wild wild west of information back to something closer to how the "on-line" experience was in the late 80's and early 90's with Compuserve/AOL/Prodigy, etc..
Re:Bradley Manning (Score:3, Insightful)
Yeah right. All those soldiers the US government has sent out to fight their wars over the last century knew exactly what they were getting involved in. My god what an incredibly simplistic and easy worldview you must have.
The whole reason Manning leaked the information to Wikileaks was that he hadn't realised what he had gotten involved in. Thanks in large part to the lies, duplicity and hypocrisy of the responsible politicians and the inane press that believed journalism could be equated to quoting government sources.
Re:youre on /., a geek or a nerd, and you dont car (Score:4, Insightful)
So you're saying we should self-censor in order to not give the government an excuse to implement official censorship? If we don't even use our rights to free speech, why should we care in the first place?
Our governments already have many, many bogus reasons to censor the Internet..
Re:How close are the US and Sweden? (Score:4, Insightful)
The sad thing is how they always get off the hook so easily. SVT (public service tv) did a great documentary on this. The politicians involved of course claimed not to know anything about it. It made the news for a few days and then it went away with any demands for the justice minister's head evaporating. (that woman seriously has too many lives, I can't count how many controversies she's been involved in, not to mention that she is not actually qualified for the job, she doesn't have a law degree and pretty much had nothing to do with law prior to being appointed justice minister)
Only two parties wanted any actual investigation of the matter.
The left party demanded a parliamentary investigation, the greens filed a report against the government with the constitutional committee (a parliamentary committee which is pretty much the closest thing we have to a constitutional court).
The largest opposition party (the social democrats) made some statements regarding the matter but it was mostly just platitudes from a party that has been in government many times, and who's senior officials most likely knew full well this was going on..
Re:youre on /., a geek or a nerd, and you dont car (Score:4, Insightful)
I agree. We should voluntarily give them a big red button (by NOT doing what they don't want us to do).
So, your worry about giving them an "excuse to stick a big red button on the internet" (like they haven't already tried, and don't have enough reasons already), is that we voluntarily do it for them, by stopping everything they don't like, regardless of whether its just to do so?
You Sir, are a fucking genius.