Wednesday, December 08, 2010

What's Behind the War on WikiLeaks

By Ray McGovern
December 8, 2010

WikiLeaks has teased the genie of transparency out of a very opaque bottle, and powerful forces in America, who thrive on secrecy, are trying desperately to stuff the genie back in.

Read on.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

There's more to this story than meets the eye. Working on it:
http://www.locustfork.net/

Ethan Allen said...

I agree with everything said in Mr. McGovern's piece, as far as he goes; the opening paragraph is especially cogent. Those "..powerful forces in America, who thrive on secrecy,.." most certainly are spending much time stuffing genie's back in proverbial bottles these days, and it is certainly interesting that some of the alumni of these "forces" have re-branded themselves as advocates of truth-telling, and are now presenting themselves as born-again advocates of an informed public.
And, I certainly agree with the observations regarding the complicity of the corporate MSM with these "forces", at least as far as they went. In >bb<, it is likely that our protagonist, along with his cadre of reformed dissemblers, could actually come out of the dark and shed some actual light on the subject of "the community's" various uses of public media, both main stream and alternative, as an "information management" tool.
wink...wink

Anonymous said...

Help fundraising for Wikileaks in a fun way:

arrange a cake meeting (or a soup meeting), with for example 10£ or 10$ entrance fee and donate the money to Wikileaks.

The arranger of the cake meeting offers cakes and sweets, while the guests spend the evening discussing Wikileaks and talking for example about how it works, what they have acheived sofar, the present situation, what is possible to do et c.

End the meeting by donating the cash to Wikileaks via one of the options on the Wikileaks homepage. I'm just about to arrange my first cake meeting myself... Spread the idea, and invite your friends.

rosemerry said...

I agree with Ray Mcgovern on nearly all his points, except the assumption that the USA at any time has been interested in democracy, truth etc. Anyone reading Howard Zinn's "People's History of the US" can see that the whole time a small élite has crushed any opposition eg the native people, Black slaves even when "freed", immigrants, the poor, workers' unions, and now is just an extension of the same rules. A tiny improvement after WW2 still demonised those called communists,and now terrorists and/or Muslims are the villains.

RichardKanePA said...

AsAs tensions escalate this article seems awkward. At least needs an update. I wish Ray McGovern and Daniel Ellsberg weren’t distracted from defending Army Pvt. Bradley Manning’s efforts to stop people from being killed in war. Julian Assange edits more for sensationalism than for a moral antiwar message. I wonder if Zibigniew Brzezinski is right that lobbies both foreign and domestic have been adding or subtracting from the diplomatic gossip pool,
www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2010/11/zbigniew-brzezinski-who-is-really.html

Some say Israel actually released it because Israel claims that WilkiLeaks proves them right about Iran. While Eli Clifton and Jim Lobe at International Press Service says that the leaks has been misquoted and mistranslated and really show Arab nations urging enforcing peace between Israel and Palestine as a way to counter Iran’s dreams in the middle east,
http://ipsnorthamerica.net/news.php?idnews=3427

Two Iranian scientists were the first victims of the release though they might have been attacked later if not for Wilkileaks. The shill blurbs in the NY Post can endanger more lives than run on material in the NY Times, the Guardian and other secondary sources.

I wish something like my material could be moved to blogs like Consortium blog, instead of on the comment page.

Ray McGovern you blame governments for anger at Assange but some ordinary folk think of the gay college student who committed suicide after his bedroom romp was secrecy published on Facebook or other ordinary people who had their private lives publicized. Meanwhile Anonymous, formerly Scientology Anonymous, is blasting Pay Pal with cyber-attacks to punish it for not allowing cash transfers to WilkiLeaks.
www.nytimes.com/2010/12/09/world/09wiki.htm read down to the 10th paragraph

Casual news outlets claim that WilkiLeaks itself is fighting back with cyber attacks. And I fear that next anyone who claims that Wilkileaks represents freedom could be called terrorists.

I like Dan Gillmor in Solon and his criticism of both Wilkileaks and those who want to end due process in attacking Assange.“A few questions about the WikiLeaks release” www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/11/29/wikileaks_a_few_questions
It would be appropriate for Dan Gillmor to be on Consortium Blog, not just on Salon.
I have a lot more to say about such things as Linn Steward’s 28 month transforming to 10 years and similar changes in the US justice system that can’t fit a 4 thousand character limit posting so I’ll email the rest.

RichardKanePA said...

AsAs tensions escalate this article seems awkward. At least needs an update. I wish Ray McGovern and Daniel Ellsberg weren’t distracted from defending Army Pvt. Bradley Manning’s efforts to stop people from being killed in war. Julian Assange edits more for sensationalism than for a moral antiwar message. I wonder if Zibigniew Brzezinski is right that lobbies both foreign and domestic have been adding or subtracting from the diplomatic gossip pool,
www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2010/11/zbigniew-brzezinski-who-is-really.html

Some say Israel actually released it because Israel claims that WilkiLeaks proves them right about Iran. While Eli Clifton and Jim Lobe at International Press Service says that the leaks has been misquoted and mistranslated and really show Arab nations urging enforcing peace between Israel and Palestine as a way to counter Iran’s dreams in the middle east,
http://ipsnorthamerica.net/news.php?idnews=3427

Two Iranian scientists were the first victims of the release though they might have been attacked later if not for Wilkileaks. The shill blurbs in the NY Post can endanger more lives than run on material in the NY Times, the Guardian and other secondary sources.

I wish something like my material could be moved to blogs like Consortium blog, instead of on the comment page.

Ray McGovern you blame governments for anger at Assange but some ordinary folk think of the gay college student who committed suicide after his bedroom romp was secrecy published on Facebook or other ordinary people who had their private lives publicized. Meanwhile Anonymous, formerly Scientology Anonymous, is blasting Pay Pal with cyber-attacks to punish it for not allowing cash transfers to WilkiLeaks.
www.nytimes.com/2010/12/09/world/09wiki.htm read down to the 10th paragraph

Casual news outlets claim that WilkiLeaks itself is fighting back with cyber attacks. And I fear that next anyone who claims that Wilkileaks represents freedom could be called terrorists.

I like Dan Gillmor in Solon and his criticism of both Wilkileaks and those who want to end due process in attacking Assange.“A few questions about the WikiLeaks release” www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/11/29/wikileaks_a_few_questions
It would be appropriate for Dan Gillmor to be on Consortium Blog, not just on Salon.
I have a lot more to say about such things as Linn Steward’s 28 month transforming to 10 years and similar changes in the US justice system that can’t fit a 4 thousand character limit posting so I’ll email the rest.

RichardKanePA said...

Somehow the most important part of my comment what I see as the right way to criticize both WilkiLeaks and oppression toward vigilantee justice such as calling for Assange's death,

www.
salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/11/29/wikileaks_a_few_questions

Anonymous said...

Somehow the link posted wrong again
Google WilkiLeaks a few questions Dan Gillmor

www.salon.com/technology/
dan_gillmor/2010/11/29/wikileaks_a_few_questions