A day after Amazon was forced to block Wikileaks, the site is again offline in an alleged campaign by the United States to prevent the public from seeing the whistleblower material. This includes a disclosure, discussed last night on Countdown, that the Obama Administration has been misleading the public and actually moved to force Spain to drop its prosecution of American officials for war crimes and torture.
This is the third time that the public has found itself cut off from Wikileaks material. The question is whether the United States is attacking carriers — in this case, Everydns, which cut off Wikileaks at 3am GMT on Friday (10PM EST Thursday). Everydns complained that it did so to prevent its other 500,000 customers of being affected by the intense cyber attacks targeted at WikiLeaks. Wikileaks accuses the United States of the attacks.
An anonymous source has come forward to claim “credit” for cutting off public access to the material. Calling himself “Jester” and a “hackitvist for good,” the individual claims to be a former soldier. It is not clear if such a claim is to be believed or accepted at face value. Here you have someone bragging that he is serving “the good” by preventing other citizens from reading these disclosures on the alleged misconduct of their government. The claim will certainly not end speculation that the widespread problems are being directed or assisted by the government. Moreover, it would be interesting if any of these companies go to court to seek information on this individual as we have seen in recent cases where anonymous individuals have been forced into the open in litigation. It is also curious why the United States government is not using its oft-cited cyber units to find an individual who is allegedly causing such property damage and shutting down parts of the Internet.
The question is, if the allegation is true as many expects assume, what authority does the United States have in conducting dangerous attacks on private companies and endangering thousands of other sites? If the President can order such attacks without legal authority, the government could engage in an obvious form of restraint on free speech — targeting critics and whistleblowers. It would be the equivalent of stopping newspapers from publishing.
The disclosures from Wikileaks have been embarrassing for both Republican and Democrats in Congress — who have joined in calling for prosecution. The disclosures, once again, show the public has been intentionally misled on major policies and that Congress has continued to exercise no oversight in these areas. These disclosures constitute the most extensive record ever produced of how our government routinely misleads the public and engages in activities that conflict with our stated policies and values. It is an indictment of our political system — perhaps the greatest in history. It has led many to question whether our democracy is based a carefully constructed illusion of half-facts and outright lies — routinely denying citizens the true facts in major policy areas. The impression left by these documents is that we have a two-party monopoly that treats citizens as uneducated dolts who should be fed comforting and misleading information while the real actions of our government are confined to the power elite. On issues like torture, Obama has clearly misled the public in his blocking of any investigation into our torture program. He was first challenged before he actually took office when Bush officials revealed that (while campaigning against torture) he secretly promised Bush officials that no one would be prosecuted. We now know that, while claiming to be studying the issue, his Administration was threatening allies if they tried to enforce international law. Putting aside the merits of covering up for war crimes, the Wikileaks disclosure is the latest example of how our leaders now show little restraint in knowingly misleading the public like children who have little ability to understand or need to know the true facts behind U.S. policy. It is the modern version of bread-and-circus politics used by Roman emperors. This is a view that appears shared by leaders in both parties.
The result is that both Congress and the White House are embarrassed and eager to prevent public review of this material. However, there is little discussion of the legality of such cyber attacks directed against a whistleblower and claimed journalist.
What is equally striking is the relative mild reaction of mainstream media. If the New York Times had revealed the Obama Administration’s secret efforts to pressure the Spanish courts to drop its prosecution, it would have been viewed as a major investigative breakthrough. However, there is a discernible hostility in some coverage of Wikileaks and a reluctance to accept the site as either a whistleblowing or journalistic enterprise.
Source: Guardian
Jonathan Turley
As I read on about the suppression of wikileaks on Glen’s site I found something very interesting. DHS wanted a chart of the cables removed. I believe I know why.
The govt. has been hyping the war on terror to push through a dictatorship. The chart of the cables reveals talk about terrorism was quite far down (and I mean quite far) the list of topics discussed. If terrorism is the crisis that justifies permanent war and dictatorship, why isn’t it first on the list of the cable topics? Does this mean the govt. is being insincere when it claims to be caring the most about fighting terrorism? I would say, most certainly, yes.
Backlash is coming. It is assured. People under 40 will not be interested in this religious oligarchy we are creating, complete with creationist museums. They are going to turn the power of information systems as the basis for Future Truths, not the mouths of decimated political personalities, those who are stuck in the past of their own crapulence.
The first cracks of this revolution appeared in 2008 when politicians such as George Allen and Bill Clinton could no longer tell little mean (read, white) lies all over he place and expect it to go unnoticed. McCain is somehow excused from this; I will never understand the deference he is given. He lies to be a jerk. Period.
But it cannot last. What we have is unsustainable. It makes the siren song of the Tea Party particularly enchanting, were it not for the missing chromosome requirement for membership. They are going to destroy the GOP, which ought to be applauded.
The cables also sharpen the point on a very uncomfortable proposition, one to which I must now commit: the unseating of President Barack Obama, whom I supported with top hats and spats. Time’s up, and there is now no reason to believe this leopard is going to change his illegal spots. He aids and abets. He is a willing accomplice to war crimes. It renders him mealy-mouthed.
But at least we censured Charlie Rangle for using a #3 pencil instead of a #2.
And, oh yes, the cables also confirm Hillary would have been better only at piling it higher and deeper for public consumption.
More leaks, please. We’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg.
Glenn Greenwald has been writing on this subject the past few days. Here is part of that: “”a Seattle-based software company, Tableau, which provides a free Web platform for interactive graphics, removed charts uploaded by WikiLeaks in response to Sen. Joe Lieberman’s public statement that companies should stop helping the whistle-blowers.” Tableau issued a statement, which reads in part:
Wednesday afternoon, Tableau Software removed data visualizations published by WikiLeaks to Tableau Public. We understand this is a sensitive issue and want to assure the public and our users that this was not an easy decision, nor one that we took lightly. . . .
Our decision to remove the data from our servers came in response to a public request by Senator Joe Lieberman, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Committee, when he called for organizations hosting WikiLeaks to terminate their relationship with the website.”
Good casting there, Bob.
I see a future for you in Hollywood.
Little Bill Daggett and the problem with tyranny.
Starring Will Munny as the categorical imperative.
Buddha: “You can’t build a stable structure on a foundation of shit.”
Clyde: “You know, [Little Bill] don’t have a straight angle in that whole god-damned porch, or the whole house for that matter. He is the worst damn carpenter.”
Little Bill Daggett: I don’t deserve this… to die like this. I was building a house.
Will Munny: Deserve’s got nothin’ to do with it.
[aims gun]
Little Bill Daggett: I’ll see you in hell, William Munny.
Will Munny: Yeah.
[fires]
Thanks for the link to the Washington Post article, Bdaman.
Tip of the ice-berg… (I hope and pray that someone keeps digging.)
Bob,
If that’s the house they are building, it’s going to fall down.
My grandfather and father both taught me a lot about how buildings work, but they were both insistent upon one thing:
You can’t build a stable structure on a foundation of shit.
From my perch in the cage, Buddha is spot-on…
Buddha, you don’t understand. They don’t ‘deserve’ your derision. They’re ‘building a house.’
Exactly my sentiments, BIL.
Tennis anyone?
Excellent piece, Prof. Thank you.
And Buddha, your comments are right-on too. Always well put.
It is my long-standing observation that there are declarative theories and there are procedural theories. Declarative theories may sometimes be called “theories espoused,” while procedural theories may sometimes be called, “theories in use.”
Is hypocrisy present when the theory in use the refutes theory espoused, and vice versa?
Andrew P. Napolitano, “Constitutional Chaos: What Happens When the Government Breaks Its Own Laws” (Nelson Current, 2004).
I asked an attorney-at-law how I can know and understand “the law” well enough as to be able, by deliberate, conscientious intent, to avoid being in violation of any and every law, because that is how I, to the absolute limit of my actual ability, choose to live my life.
No one has yet told me of any achievable process whereby I can truthfully be a law-abiding citizen, and I observe this abject failure on my part to be the direct consequence of laws which require what other laws prohibit.
Except as an utterly delusional psychotic fantasy, how can anyone be law-abiding in a society in which the structure of adversarial law absolutely and categorically prohibits even the faintest possibility of any person ever, as an act of intentional conscience, actually being law-abiding?
Perhaps someone will some day make an effort to understand the set of situational phenomena that drives people into the mutually-defeating process of escalating reciprocal retaliation?
The federal government has repeatedly violated legal limits governing the surveillance of U.S. citizens, according to previously secret internal documents obtained through a court battle by the American Civil Liberties Union.
In releasing 900 pages of documents, U.S. government agencies refused to say how many Americans’ telephone, e-mail or other communications have been intercepted under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act – or FISA – Amendments Act of 2008, or to discuss any specific abuses, the ACLU said. Most of the documents were heavily redacted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/02/AR2010120206052.html
The jackboot is coming down.
We will not tolerate the truth.
We will not obey the law.
We will attack whomever we please with impunity.
We will oppress whomever we please.
We will trample your Constitutional Rights and human rights when it profits us or keeps us from going to prison.
We will assassinate anyone, including our own citizens, who gets in the way of us doing whatever the Hell we want to do.
We will protect domestic war criminals.
We will protect corporate criminals.
We are the
FederalFascist Government of the United States of America.Here’s our receipt as proof of purchase: Citizens United v. FEC
________
“Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.” – Thomas Jefferson
The United States Federal Government is no longer a legitimate government.
Feds Warrantlessly Tracking Americans’ Credit Cards in Real Time
Federal law enforcement agencies have been tracking Americans in real-time using credit cards, loyalty cards and travel reservations without getting a court order, a new document released under a government sunshine request shows.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/12/realtime/
Here is the ruling from Pakistan: “LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Friday dismissed a petition registered by one Arif Gondal seeking a ban on the Wikileaks website.
Gondal in his petition termed the leakage of secret information by WikiLeaks (a not-for-profit media organisation) a conspiracy to create a rift among Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and other Muslim and Western countries.
Requesting the court to issue orders for imposing a ban on the website, the petitioner argued that since Pakistan had good bilateral relations with a number of countries, particularly Saudi Arabia, the leakage of secret information would adversely affect these ties.
LHC’s Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed dismissed the petition, calling it non-maintainable.
We must bear the truth, no matter how harmful it is, television reports quoted Justice Saeed as saying.
I believe the attacks from our govt. are intense and ongoing because the next set of leaks will reveal systemic corruption at one of the largest banks, likely, the BOA.
So far the govt. has been able to manage the military and state dept leaks through propaganda and the complicity of US “free press”. They have not been as successful at this as they would like because more people are paying attention to the actual content in the leaks instead of the spin surrounding them.
The US govt. got its “coalition of the willing” by threatening other states with cut off of aid if they failed to “willingly” do what they were told. Clearly, this is happening here.
Here is a particularly revelatory cable: “9.43pm: Micah Sifry (@Mlsif) tweets about an engaging cable from Kazakhstan, where a group of powerful oil executives talk with the US ambassador about corruption, and make a good point: “If Goldman Sachs executives can make $50 million a year and then run
America’s economy in Washington, what’s so different about what we do?’ they ask.”
The banking industry is an interlocking directorate with the US and other national govts. The US govt. has allowed our entire system of govt. to be destroyed on for the sake of this one industry. It will be essential to stop wikileaks from revealing what Assage calls, “ecosystem corruption.” You can believe this govt. will try anything it can to shut down the public’s right to know about this corruption.
Meanwhile, in Pakistan, their courts refused to shut down wikileaks. In the US, the govt. itself engages in illegal prior restraint, actual suppression of free speech while claiming we are bringing democracy to the world. If you want to reach wikileaks here is what the site recommends: Free speech has a number: http://88.80.13.160 (that is their IP address.
“If the President can order such attacks without legal authority, the government could engage in an obvious form of restraint on free speech — targeting critics and whistleblowers.” -Jonathan Turley
This is exactly what the government is doing – critics and whistleblowes (and others) are being targeted (and harmed) in rather unimaginable ways. (By the way, whatever happened to Russell Tice?) And the practice of “discrediting” is the least of it…
The “targeting” of “critics and whistleblowers” was ramped up during the Bush years and continues to this day. What’s going on is truly Machiavellian. If it doesn’t come to light, I don’t even want to imagine where we’re headed.
Yes and no.
Yes if such laws were ever illegal in the eyes of The Department of Just Us, but no in the sense of the law of the jungle, which is the current jurisdiction.
http://blogdredd.blogspot.com/2010/12/on-origin-of-momcom.html