If Osama Bin Laden had read the latest batch of WikiLeaks documents a bit closer, he would have known that one of his couriers had been compromised and that we were hot on his trail.
Still on the fence about Julian Assange and WikiLeaks? Maybe this will change your mind.
If Osama Bin Laden had read the latest batch of WikiLeaks documents a bit closer, he would have known that one of his couriers had been compromised and that we were hot on his trail.
The Atlantic reveals a heretofore unrevealed document:
We follow the news pretty damn closely, yet we didn’t know that a new batch of WikiLeaks documents had been released just a few days ago.
Looks like Julian’s 15 minutes of fame expired even before Bin Laden did.
Bradley Manning, the turncoat U.S. Army private accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables to Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, is unhappy with his jailers. Poor baby doesn’t like his pillow and wants his MTV, so his attorney has officially complained that Manning is being mistreated.
Bradley Manning, the turncoat U.S. Army private accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables to Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, is unhappy with his jailers. Poor baby doesn’t like his pillow and wants his MTV, so his attorney has officially complained that Manning is being mistreated.
CNN.com has the details:
That's what we'd tell the other prisoners. "Help yourself to some free Bradley."
His lawyer, David Coombs, formally objected to Manning’s treatment, filing an Article 138 complaint Wednesday, according to a posting on the lawyer’s blog. Manning has been in solitary confinement and for part of this week was again placed on suicide watch by the Quantico brig commander, according to his lawyers.
“He was stripped of all clothing with the exception of his underwear. His prescription eyeglasses were taken away from him,” Coombs wrote in the blog entry. “He was forced to sit in essential blindness with the exception of the times that he was reading or given limited television privileges. During those times, his glasses were returned to him.”
… Manning is confined to his cell 23 hours a day with no pillow, sheets or personal items, according to Coombs.
His only exercise, according to his lawyer, is when he is taken to an empty room and allowed to walk. When he sleeps he must strip to his underwear and surrender his clothing to the guards.
Hard as this may be for you to believe, the military dismisses Coombs’ complaints and says they’re much ado about nothing:
Quantico public affairs officer Lt. Brian Villiard said under military rules he could not confirm whether the complaint had been received. He said all the conditions of Manning’s confinement are in line with his maximum custody status and to prevent Manning from harming himself.
“He is not being treated any differently than anyone else in maximum custody,” Villiard said. “We’re not treating him any differently than anyone who could pose a risk to life, property or national security.”
In December, a Pentagon spokesman said that even under the restrictive conditions, Manning is allowed to converse with other prisoners, receive visitors and exercise for an hour a day. In addition, Manning has pillows and sheets made from a material that cannot be torn into strips, according to Villiard.
We realize that the purpose of waterboarding is to coerce secrets out of a prisoner, but in the case of Manning we’d say the waterboarding should be applied retroactively for all the secrets he’s already spilled.
Specifically, we’d like to see Obama’s original birth certificate, his college transcripts and records of who paid for his college education.
We would say that Julian Assange should be set free, cleared of all charges and maybe even given a damn medal if he would just release a few additional secret documents.
Specifically, we’d like to see Obama’s original birth certificate, his college transcripts and records of who paid for his college education.
C’mon, Julian, if you can get your hands on sensitive military and diplomatic documents, how tough could it be to procure a couple documents Americans are really interested in?
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange tried to hide his bail address from the public in an astonishing move for the man responsible for leaking thousands of diplomatic secrets.
This is not just your ordinary, run of the mill hypocrisy. No, this is world class hypocrisy on a scale rarely seen.
Suddenly, when it comes to his home address, Julian Assange believes in secrets
The Daily Mail UK has the story:
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange tried to hide his bail address from the public in an astonishing move for the man responsible for leaking thousands of diplomatic secrets.
Assange’s lawyers argued that the location – a 10-bedroom stately home – should not be disclosed on grounds of privacy during yesterday’s hearing at City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
But the move was dismissed by District Judge Howard Riddle, who ruled not to reveal the address would conflict with Assange’s commitment to open justice.
The judge insisted the address – Captain Vaughan Smith’s Ellingham Hall on the Norfolk/Suffolk border – was read out in open court as usual.
Fat filmmaker Michael Moore just ponied up $20,000 to help spring Wikileaks spokeshole Julian Assange from his English jail cell. Far as we can tell, the only thing keeping this story from being a perfect left wing trifecta is the absence of the Daily Kos.
Fat filmmaker Michael Moore just ponied up $20,000 to help spring Wikileaks spokeshole Julian Assange from his English jail cell. Far as we can tell, the only thing keeping this story from being a perfect left wing trifecta is the absence of the Daily Kos.
C'mon, admit it. You're not convinced that Michael Moore isn't really Sean Penn in a fat suit.
Oh, wait, we spoke too soon. Michael Moore just took to the pages of the Daily Kos to explain his actions:
Yesterday, in the Westminster Magistrates Court in London, the lawyers for WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange presented to the judge a document from me stating that I have put up $20,000 of my own money to help bail Mr. Assange out of jail.
Furthermore, I am publicly offering the assistance of my website, my servers, my domain names and anything else I can do to keep WikiLeaks alive and thriving as it continues its work to expose the crimes that were concocted in secret and carried out in our name and with our tax dollars.
We were taken to war in Iraq on a lie. Hundreds of thousands are now dead. Just imagine if the men who planned this war crime back in 2002 had had a WikiLeaks to deal with. They might not have been able to pull it off. The only reason they thought they could get away with it was because they had a guaranteed cloak of secrecy. That guarantee has now been ripped from them, and I hope they are never able to operate in secret again.
So why is WikiLeaks, after performing such an important public service, under such vicious attack? Because they have outed and embarrassed those who have covered up the truth. The assault on them has been over the top.
Now if only Hugo Chavez can be worked into this story somehow, our lives will be complete.
We hate to admit it, but we’ve come to like Vladimir Putin in a weird sort of way. He hunts, he drives race-cars, he competes in judo tournaments and he doesn’t wear dorky helmets on bicycle rides, throw like a girl or frolic about the White House Lawn with a plastic light-saber.
We hate to admit it, but we’ve come to like Vladimir Putin in a weird sort of way. He hunts, he drives race-cars, he competes in judo tournaments and he doesn’t – like some world leaders we could mention – wear dorky helmets on bicycle rides, throw like a girl or frolic about the White House Lawn with a plastic light-saber.
Vladimir Putin thinks he's soooo macho, but can he handle a light sabre as deftly our President?
But then we are reminded of his authoritarian side and are brought back to reality.
We can credit ABC News with this latest intervention:
Assange’s arrest in London earlier this week indicated that the West isn’t as democratic as it thinks it is, Putin suggested.
“If there is democracy, it must be a full one. Why did they jail Mr. Assange? Is that democracy?” Putin said at a news conference Thursday. “You know what our villagers say: while someone’s cow is mooing, yours better be silent.” The Russian expression is loosely equivalent to the pot calling the kettle black.
Putin would do well to remember there are worse things than a trial by a jury. Like, for example, a cup of tea fortified with a shot of Polonium 210. That’s how notorious Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko met his untimely end. With a cup of Polonim 210-spiked tea that might very well have been brewed in a pot or a kettle. We don’t know if Putin recalls the specific color of these items.
O’Reilly couldn’t take it anymore. Just couldn’t take it. “I don’t think there’s anybody in the world who fears Barack Obama,” he ranted. “I don’t think anybody does!”
Brit Hume got together with Bill O’Reilly to talk about the Wikileaks mess. After discussing Obama’s weak response to the issue, O’Reilly couldn’t take it anymore. Just couldn’t take it.
“I don’t think there’s anybody in the world who fears Barack Obama,” he ranted. “I don’t think anybody does!”
Bill is correct. The only thing they still fear is that he’s going to start talking again.
Missouri’s Democrat Senator Claire McCaskill showed up on Fox News Sunday this week and told Chris Wallace that the Wikileakers “need to do a gut check on their patriotism.” Don’t look now, Claire, but none of these guys are American.
Missouri’s Democrat Senator Claire McCaskill showed up on Fox News Sunday this week and told Chris Wallace that the Wikileakers “need to do a gut check on their patriotism.”
Don’t look now, Claire, but none of these guys are American.
Julian Assange is Australian. Wikileaks servers are located in Sweden. And although the actual creators of Wikileaks haven’t been identified, the site says it was “founded by Chinese dissidents, journalists, mathematicians and start-up company technologists, from the US, Taiwan, Europe, Australia and South Africa”. Chinese, English, Brazilian and Australian citizens are listed on its board of advisors.
So what country does the Show Me State genius expect these lunatics to be patriotic toward?
