Rick Perlstein is this ratty little dude with a nasal voice who goes on and on and on
Marine brass being real dicks to well-known military reporters trying to visit Manning.
Quantico guards say I’ll be arrested if I go to McDonalds while @davidmhouse visits Manning. “That privilege has been withdrawn.”
Now been here at Quantico gate for 30 min. Will not let us leave base, holding us.
Gunny Foster Military Police #1715 writing me ticket for not hving latest insurance card. Sorry to 42,000 people who signed Manning petition
Can’t leave base, can’t go 2 brig, can’t get my driver’s license, Gunt Foster threatening 2 arrest us. Haven’t done a thing.
The guards absolutely knew we were coming @auerfeld & told to harass us. “This was what I was told to do” said Gunny Foster.
We’ve been coming 2 Quantico 4 months @chrisvcb, @DavidMHouse has official permission 2 visit Bradley Manning,
Gunny Foster towing my car bc they won’t accept my electronic proof of insurance, demanding paper.
Forcing @DavidMHouse 2 go 2 court. Wouldn’t give ticket, gave him a summons 2 appear in court.
Military police searching & impounding my car. Won’t let @DavidMHouse on 2 see Bradley Manning, won’t say why.
It’s 28 degrees, forcing us 2 stand outside.
Still holding us, my car on tow truck but Quantico guards still won’t let us leave.
For whatever reason, Quantico Marine brass don’t want Manning 2 have visitor now. Isolation & enforcement of solitary confinement complete.
Lum
1563
The editor of the NY Times tells about the decision making behind publishing Wikileaks
Over the next few days, Schmitt huddled in a discreet office at The Guardian, sampling the trove of war dispatches and discussing the complexities of this project: how to organize and study such a voluminous cache of information; how to securely transport, store and share it; how journalists from three very different publications would work together without compromising their independence; and how we would all assure an appropriate distance from Julian Assange. We regarded Assange throughout as a source, not as a partner or collaborator, but he was a man who clearly had his own agenda.
Quite a lot of detail as well on what it was like to work with Assange for months.
The reporters came to think of Assange as smart and well educated, extremely adept technologically but arrogant, thin-skinned, conspiratorial and oddly credulous. At lunch one day in The Guardian’s cafeteria, Assange recounted with an air of great conviction a story about the archive in Germany that contains the files of the former Communist secret police, the Stasi. This office, Assange asserted, was thoroughly infiltrated by former Stasi agents who were quietly destroying the documents they were entrusted with protecting. The Der Spiegel reporter in the group, John Goetz, who has reported extensively on the Stasi, listened in amazement. That’s utter nonsense, he said. Some former Stasi personnel were hired as security guards in the office, but the records were well protected.
Assange was openly contemptuous of the American government and certain that he was a hunted man. He told the reporters that he had prepared a kind of doomsday option. He had, he said, distributed highly encrypted copies of his entire secret archive to a multitude of supporters, and if WikiLeaks was shut down, or if he was arrested, he would disseminate the key to make the information public.
Schmitt told me that for all Assange’s bombast and dark conspiracy theories, he had a bit of Peter Pan in him. One night, when they were all walking down the street after dinner, Assange suddenly started skipping ahead of the group. Schmitt and Goetz stared, speechless. Then, just as suddenly, Assange stopped, got back in step with them and returned to the conversation he had interrupted.
‘Five arrested over ‘Anonymous’ web attacks’:
"Five men have been arrested over a spate of recent web attacks carried out in support of Wikileaks.
The five males are being held after a series of arrests at residential addresses in the West Midlands, Northamptonshire, Hertfordshire, Surrey and London this morning.
The men were arrested in relation to recent and ongoing attacks by an online group that calls itself “Anonymous”.
Targets included the websites of PayPal, Mastercard and Amazon.
Anonymous used a technique called “distributed denial of service” (DDoS) attacks in a bid to take the sites offline. Not all their attempts succeeded."
Yay, so someone got vanned. That’s always stopped them in the past.
Kurdel
1567
60 minutes interview with Assange. I am still watching part one, and it’s awesome.
Yeah, I thought 60 minutes did a pretty good job with the interview. They explained things clearly, and asked some tough questions. I also think Assange did well with his responses.
The 60 minutes Overtime segment is worth watching too. It shows the producers talking about how they set the interview up.
Kurdel
1569
Just finished the Overtime segment, and it was really interesting to see how image conscious he is. He knows how people perceive him, and he doesn’t want to perpetrate that image. Writing alone on a notepad and walking around on the propriety were both unintentionally hilarious though.
ArtiSel
1570
Assange did good, some of those questions were really provocative though, I’m glad he managed to keep his head.
Quaro
1571
In this extra bit: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504803_162-20029950-10391709.html?tag=component.0 Assange gets so into the conversation you can see his assistant literally grabbing him by the arm and dragging him away so he can check in to the Police station or whatever.
Well-prepared, well-spun interview. Will hopefully help create a more level perspective on Assange’s intentions and actions. He seems less shrill, more confident than earlier.
In fact, he appears quite likeable, if distant and far outside the consensus. I’m glad they discussed Manning.
Now that’s a good use of leakiness.
I’d heard it was all wrapped up in some BP contracts also, which i’m sure will thrill americans ;) But you guys play these games also, so glass houses and stones really.
Whoops: US gives Russia secret information on Britain’s nuclear weapons, against Britain’s explicit wishes.
A series of classified messages sent to Washington by US negotiators show how information on Britain’s nuclear capability was crucial to securing Russia’s support for the “New START” deal.
Although the treaty was not supposed to have any impact on Britain, the leaked cables show that Russia used the talks to demand more information about the UK’s Trident missiles, which are manufactured and maintained in the US.
Washington lobbied London in 2009 for permission to supply Moscow with detailed data about the performance of UK missiles. The UK refused, but the US agreed to hand over the serial numbers of Trident missiles it transfers to Britain.
Professor Malcolm Chalmers said: “This appears to be significant because while the UK has announced how many missiles it possesses, there has been no way for the Russians to verify this. Over time, the unique identifiers will provide them with another data point to gauge the size of the British arsenal.”
Duncan Lennox, editor of Jane’s Strategic Weapons Systems, said: “They want to find out whether Britain has more missiles than we say we have, and having the unique identifiers might help them.”
While the US and Russia have long permitted inspections of each other’s nuclear weapons, Britain has sought to maintain some secrecy to compensate for the relatively small size of its arsenal.
well hopefully this can be used a nail in the coffin for our part in buying the new Trident replacement system. I think previously it was because ‘we had to’, but what with the financial difficulties and this move by the americans, well surely ‘we don’t have to’ anymore?
‘Wikileaks’ Julian Assange begins extradition battle’: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12379018 “Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has begun his court battle against extradition from the UK to Sweden. He faces allegations of sexual assault against two women, which he denies. Mr Assange argues Swedish prosecutors had no right to issue a warrant for his arrest because he has not yet been charged with any offences. At the extradition hearing, in London’s Belmarsh Magistrates’ Court, his lawyers are also challenging the move on human rights grounds. Mr Assange’s legal team, led by Geoffrey Robertson QC, argues that if their client is forced to return to Sweden he could be extradited to the US, or even Guantanamo Bay, to face separate charges relating to the publication of secret documents by Wikileaks. He fears he could face the death penalty as a result, his defence says. BBC legal affairs correspondent Clive Coleman suggests Mr Assange’s lawyers are focusing their defence on technical arguments, such as that the Swedish prosecutor in this case is not a recognised judicial authority. They say the extradition is being sought for Mr Assange’s questioning, not prosecution, meaning the Swedish authorities could ask for him to be questioned by UK police, or via the internet, instead. The defence team is also putting forward human rights issues, by suggesting that three of the offences alleged against Mr Assange are not extradition offences. And our correspondent says he understands it is being argued that Mr Assange would not get a fair trial in Sweden, because rape cases in that country are customarily held without a jury and in secret. The whistle-blowing website has been used to publish leaked US diplomatic cables, as well as other sensitive material from governments and high-profile organisations.”
JD
1579
Some excerpts from ‘Inside Wikileaks’, an upcoming book written by former Wikileaks member Daniel Domscheit-Berg.
Kurdel
1580
What do you think about it JD?
I think that a book written by a disgruntled ex-employee months after the fact holds little credibility. He should have gone to journalists if he truly wanted to unmask Assange for the child he is portrayed in the excerpts.
But of course, he will talk to the media. When he will have a book to sell and a website to promote. I remain skeptical to mr. Domscheit-Bergs intentions here.
