*promote

Self promoting this video and sending it back into the queue for one more try; last queued Tuesday, December 7th, 2010 9:02am PST - promote requested by original submitter Tymbrwulf.

...and so it begins.

A week ago, Assange revealed his next target would be big business.

(from Forbes)

WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange Wants To Spill Your Corporate Secrets
Nov. 29 2010 - 5:04 pm By ANDY GREENBERG

In a rare interview, Assange tells Forbes that the release of Pentagon and State Department documents are just the beginning. His next target: big business.

http://blogs.forbes.com/andygreenberg/2010/11/29/wikileaks-julian-assange-wants-to-spill-your-corporate-secrets/

Those of you that aren't in the know, here is a breakdown of what's happened since they began releasing these documents:(provided by The Guardian)

Sunday 28 November

• TECH: DDoS attack hits WikiLeaks as first set of US diplomatic cables is published.

Wednesday 1 December

• TECH: Tableau Software, which offers free software for data visualisation, removes the public views of graphics built using information about the diplomatic cables. It is the first company to distance itself from Wikileaks, and admits that the reason was pressure from Senator Joe Lieberman, an independent senator with ties to the Democratic party.

• POLITICS: Lieberman, chairman of the Senate's committee on homeland security, calls for Wikileaks to be taken offline. "I call on any other company or organization that is hosting Wikileaks to immediately terminate its relationship with them. Wikileaks' illegal, outrageous, and reckless acts have compromised our national security and put lives at risk around the world. No responsible company - whether American or foreign - should assist Wikileaks in its efforts to disseminate these stolen materials."

• TECH Amazon removes Wikileaks's content from its EC2 cloud service, but later insists it did so because the content could cause harm to people and did not belong to Wikileaks – and that it was not due to political pressure or the hacker attacks against the site.

Friday 3 December

• TECH: Wikileaks.org ceases to work for web users after everyDNS.com(*edit* not easyDNS), which had provided a free routing service translating the human-readable address into a machine-readable form, ends support.

Wikileaks shifts to a backup domain registered in Switzerland but actually hosted in Sweden, at Wikileaks.ch, though the cables are hosted in part by OVH, an internet provider in the north of France.

EveryDNS claims that the DDOS attacks against Wikileaks were disrupting its service provided to thousands of other customers. (*edit* there was a mixup, and everyDNS, not easyDNS was resonsible. EasyDNS has posted that it's "The Company That Did NOT Take Down Wikileaks" beside a cartoon character showing a thumbs up.

• POLITICS: French industry minister Eric Besson writes to internet companies warning them there will be "consequences" for any companies or organisations helping to keep WikiLeaks online in the country.

Saturday 4 December

• MONEY: PayPal, owned by US auction site eBay, permanently restricts account used by WikiLeaks due to a "violation of the PayPal Acceptable Use Policy". A spokesman said the account was suspended because "[it] cannot be used for any activities that encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct others to engage in illegal activity."
You can still donate at Commerzbank Kassel in Germnany or Landsbanki in Iceland or by post to a post office box at the University of Melbourne or at http://wikileaks.ch/support.html

• TECH: Switch, the Swiss registrar for Wikileaks.ch declines pressure from US and French authorities to remove the site or block access to it.

Sunday 5 December

• TECH: The Pirate Party in Sweden says that it has taken over the hosting of the Cablegate directory of Wikileaks after the server in France at OVH, which had been hosting the contents of the US diplomatic cables released so far, goes offline.

Monday 6 December

• MONEY: Credit card company Mastercard withdraws ability to make donations to Wikileaks. "MasterCard is taking action to ensure that WikiLeaks can no longer accept MasterCard-branded products," the credit card outfit says.

• TECH: Wikileaks' servers in Sweden attacked by distributed denial of service attack.

• MONEY: Postfinance, the Swiss postal system, strips WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange of a key fundraising tool, accusing him of lying and immediately shutting down one of his bank accounts. The bank says that Assange had "provided false information regarding his place of residence during the account opening process."
Assange had told Postfinance he lived in Geneva but could offer no proof that he was a Swiss resident, a requirement of opening such an account. Postfinance spokesman Alex Josty told The Associated Press the account was closed Monday afternoon and there would be "no criminal consequences" for misleading authorities. "That's his money, he will get his money back," Josty said. "We just close the account and that's it."

Tuesday 7 December

• MONEY: Credit card company Visa withdraws ability to make donations or payments to Wikileaks. "Visa Europe has taken action to suspend Visa payment acceptance on WikiLeaks' website pending further investigation into the nature of its business and whether it contravenes Visa operating rules," said a spokesman.

We want our governments to be transparent. That's why we keep electing officials who promise more transparency then get pissed when they don't deliver. Of course, not everyone agrees what should and shouldn't be transparent. I don't think everything said in the White House should be public. Nor do I feel that way about the Pentagon. I'm less inclined to say that about Congress, but maybe that's just from my utter disdain for them. But if you're from the Europe/the U.S. (as I imagine most sifters are), then your government serves at the will of the people and is wholly answerable to them.

However, no matter how you feel about corporations, their information isproprietary. It's theirs. It doesn't belong to the public and no matter how frustrated we are at certain corporations, that doesn't make us entitled.

Every individual will have a differing opinion on where the transparency line should be drawn. I think a lot of people are pissed because one man has decided there isn't going to be one and is spilling everything he knows.

"A day which will live in infamy."

>> ^Morganth:

We want our governments to be transparent. That's why we keep electing officials who promise more transparency then get pissed when they don't deliver. Of course, not everyone agrees what should and shouldn't be transparent. I don't think everything said in the White House should be public. Nor do I feel that way about the Pentagon. I'm less inclined to say that about Congress, but maybe that's just from my utter disdain for them. But if you're from the Europe/the U.S. (as I imagine most sifters are), then your government serves at the will of the people and is wholly answerable to them.
However, no matter how you feel about corporations, their information isproprietary. It's theirs. It doesn't belong to the public and no matter how frustrated we are at certain corporations, that doesn't make us entitled.
Every individual will have a differing opinion on where the transparency line should be drawn. I think a lot of people are pissed because one man has decided there isn't going to be one and is spilling everything he knows.


I don't think it has nothing to do with entitlement. If we come across information about a corporation breaking ethics codes or outright breaking the law that should be made public. It should be released to show that the government is not doing it's job to police the corporations who have an enormous effect on all our lives.

For fencing stolen information and releasing classified documents which harmed the US military and diplomatic relations, Assange should be considered another foreign enemy, just like bin laden.

>> ^quantumushroom:

For fencing stolen information and releasing classified documents which harmed the US military and diplomatic relations, Assange should be considered another foreign enemy, just like bin laden.


Fencing stolen information? You mean publishing whistleblower documents? You should check out dystopianfuturetoday's video about that. It's even broadcast on your favorite news station.

You're right, any company that can be harmed by the release of incriminating information should be protected. /sarcasm

A foreign enemy like bin laden? If he would, he'd have been free for at least 10 more years.

If anyone's interested, someone pointed out a few oddities surrounding these allegations back in September, you can read about it here. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" comes to mind ...

Tymbrwulf: Thanks, I didn't know Mastercard and Visa got involved. Nice to live in a free democracy.

Julian Assange wrote an Op Ed for an Australian newspaper.
"Don't shoot messenger for revealing uncomfortable truths"

The Guardian had a poignant remark about MasterCard and VISA during their live coverage:

4.14pm: Charles Arthur, the Guardian's technology editor, points out that while MasterCard and Visa have cut WikiLeaks off you can still use those cards to donate to overtly racist organisations such as the Knights Party, which is supported by the Ku Klux Klan.

The Ku Klux Klan website directs users to a site called Christian Concepts. It takes Visa and MasterCard donations for users willing to state that they are "white and not of racially mixed descent. I am not married to a non-white. I do not date non-whites nor do I have non-white dependents. I believe in the ideals of western Christian civilisation and profess my belief in Jesus Christ as the son of God."

The silly thing is... it IS NOT a rape case, but the media keeps calling it that.

Of course visa and mastercard pulled the plug. he's about to go after the financial industry, which has been raping the world for the better part of 400 years.

His arrest won't stop anything, he's not the only holding the keys at Wikileaks.

always funny how politicians invoke the "safety of the troops"...
first, the US has been waging an aggressive and illegal war for 10 years. The highest crime under the geneva convention.
second, the percentage of civilian casualties to military casualties has risen every year. it's somewhere around 25 to one now (anyone have the stat?).
third, the public's right to know what their governments are doing *should* be one of the freedoms protected by a true democracy. but we're not a democracy (see Citizens United vs. Fed. Election Committee) and our military doesn't protect freedom, other than the corporate elite's freedom to do whatever the hell they want.

Wikileaks ain't the first or the last in the present WAR - that is, the war to control the flow of information. An ignorant populace is one that can be easily controlled.

I hope you are right. >> ^KnivesOut:

His arrest won't stop anything, he's not the only holding the keys at Wikileaks.

Oh, this State Department Press Release is just epic. EPIC!, I say.

The United States is pleased to announce that it will host UNESCO’s World Press Freedom Day event in 2011, from May 1 - May 3 in Washington, D.C. UNESCO is the only UN agency with the mandate to promote freedom of expression and its corollary, freedom of the press.

The theme for next year’s commemoration will be 21st Century Media: New Frontiers, New Barriers. The United States places technology and innovation at the forefront of its diplomatic and development efforts. New media has empowered citizens around the world to report on their circumstances, express opinions on world events, and exchange information in environments sometimes hostile to such exercises of individuals’ right to freedom of expression. At the same time, we are concerned about the determination of some governments to censor and silence individuals, and to restrict the free flow of information. We mark events such as World Press Freedom Day in the context of our enduring commitment to support and expand press freedom and the free flow of information in this digital age. (...)

I'm gonna go and agree with morganth atleast partially.

Some things that are stated in the pentagon should be kept secret especially hurtful remakes like calling prime minisiters of super powers names since our society and culture is based on not telling what you really feel, with the exception when you're drunk. Also we've all talked trashed about people behind theyre backs and its just that, trash talk, its human so i think keeping a charade that we all like each other is more important than spilling every bean atleast for now when the world isin't ready for that degree of transparency. It's a matter of the greater good (This applies almost exclusivly for social secrets)

Then again when it comes to crimes against humanity, greed, corruption and deception i say full force in every whole.

So what assange is doing is 99.5% good 0.5% hurtful so the good outweighs the bad quite a bit

Fencing stolen information? You mean publishing whistleblower documents?

Assangle published the finook traitor's stolen classified documents. That's a crime.

You should check out dystopianfuturetoday's video about that. It's even broadcast on your favorite news station.

You mean America's favorite news station?

A foreign enemy like bin laden? If he would, he'd have been free for at least 10 more years.

The wikiclown isn't a diaperheaded billionaire with a network of jihadist vermin. But it sure looks like he could've used a spidey hole about now.

>> ^quantumushroom:

Fencing stolen information? You mean publishing whistleblower documents?
Assangle published the finook traitor's stolen classified documents. That's a crime.
You should check out dystopianfuturetoday's video about that. It's even broadcast on your favorite news station.
You mean America's favorite news station?
A foreign enemy like bin laden? If he would, he'd have been free for at least 10 more years.
The wikiclown isn't a diaperheaded billionaire with a network of jihadist vermin. But it sure looks like he could've used a spidey hole about now.


No. It's not a crime. Manning committed the crime. Then he blabbed about it and is getting what he deserves.

Uncovering secrets is what real journalism is all about.

What's going on here is pure fucking evil perpetrated by the incestuous marriage of business and politics.

When it comes to shining a light on the truth that none of you fucks are free, the cables, the collateral murder video and all the rest is nothing compared to the reaction to them, by business and politics.

I view Assange and Wikileaks as probably somewhat utopian in their desires.

They want politics without any bullshit involved. Yes, it's an EXTREMELY high goal to aim for, but is it wrong? No absolutely not.
What is wrong is assuming that governments have ANY right to keep secrets from the people who elected them, sometimes with the stupid shitty excuse that people wouldn't want to know what needs to be done.

Oh... and about the possible Corporate leak on the way. Is it wrong because they are privately owned? Only if the information leaked could be used for industrial espionage. If it's a leak concerning the way corporations act(ed) then fuck them all. Corporations should be the first ones to be called on their bullshit.

But hey... why would one bunch of bullshiters stop another bunch of bullshiters? Only if it serves their mutual interest.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag.(show it anyway)

I support Julian Assange and Wikileaks. History will show him to be a hero and hopefully not a martyr.

[redacted]

>> ^quantumushroom:

For fencing stolen information and releasing classified documents which harmed the US military and diplomatic relations, Assange should be considered another foreign enemy, just like bin laden.


Treat him like Bin Laden? I guess he'll be safe for another decade, then, eh.

No. It's not a crime. Manning committed the crime. Then he blabbed about it and is getting what he deserves.

Not until he hangs will Manning 'get what he deserves'. But I doubt we have the balls to hang traitors anymore.

Assange's crime is taking those classified documents as well as classified diplomatic cables and making them available to a wider audience, including America's enemies. Corporate espionage and the rest is another matter and another set of crimes.

Uncovering secrets is what real journalism is all about.

The American mainstream libmedia gave up journalism long ago. Now the useful idiots just carry water for taxocrats and the left.

What's going on here is pure fucking evil perpetrated by the incestuous marriage of business and politics.

Which has been going on since the beginning of human history. And really, how much of THE TRUTH changes things? It was known well before Tim Geithner was made Secretary of the Treasury he was a m0therfcking TAX CHEAT. Did anyone care? Apparently not.

When it comes to shining a light on the truth that none of you fucks are free, the cables, the collateral murder video and all the rest is nothing compared to the reaction to them, by business and politics.

It's the people screaming "You are not free" who have even more tyrannical plans for the human race. There's nothing more common than "revolutionaries" adopting the same tactics and principles of the "oppressors" they overthrow. And so: yawn.

It used to be common sense that to maintain freedom and order, things like military operational readiness, technology and war plans and even diplomatic secrets should be hidden from the prying eyes of our enemies. I'm sure the Germans wished for American "transparency" about D-Day and the Japanese (Happy December 7th!) about our atom bomb programs.

For attacking the USA the wikiclown should be considered fair game. He claims to be an "anarchist" so I'm sure he'll enjoy his fate.

QM, nothing you've said is remotely factual or relevant. Your incoherent babbling of bullshit is just the stuff that comes prancing out of your closeted mind like word salad. You are not smart, you are not informed, I award you no points and please shut the fuck up.

You show me where I can buy a 'Leaks tee, with proceeds going to Assange's legal team, and I'll show you some money.>> ^dag:

I support Julian Assange and Wikileaks. History will show him to be a hero and hopefully not a martyr.

Oh, and I'm not sure if moustache-man has a winning sweater or if sweater-guy has a winning moustache.

Boosting this quality contribution up in the Hot Listing - declared quality by notarobot.

Please don't feed the troll.

*politics

Adding video to channels (Politics) - requested by NetRunner.

>> ^quantumushroom:

For fencing stolen information and releasing classified documents which harmed the US military and diplomatic relations, Assange should be considered another foreign enemy, just like bin laden.


Giving away something free now equals fencing? Lol.

Assange is not a US citizen, so he could give a fuck about 'classified'...

As for the bin Laden comment, your government has been incapable of catching the guy that orchestrated the biggest mass murder on US soil. It's understandable why they'd go after a softball like a journalist instead. Gotta make sure the right wing racist morons have someone to cheer for... ; )

@quantumushroom

If you had gained access to the Pentagon Papers, would you have made them available or kept hidden that the US invaded Vietnam under false pretenses?

I'm totally intimidated by a guy who lifts lines from Billy Madison. I'm glad you're comfortable that you don't have what it takes to debate anything. Seems pretty common around here. BTW why don't you post all YOUR personal information to teh internets? This will somehow lead to greater transparency and freedom for all. I'm sure most people won't use it to enrich themselves at your expense.

(Double birds)


>> ^Yogi:

QM, nothing you've said is remotely factual or relevant. Your incoherent babbling of bullshit is just the stuff that comes prancing out of your closeted mind like word salad. You are not smart, you are not informed, I award you no points and please shut the fuck up.

Your loaded question was actually the most civil response.

Wouldn't release 'em. Why be a traitor when the Pentagon Papers had zero effect on the Democrat-run Vietnam War?

False pretenses? You mean, communists didn't murder 2 million Vietnamese?

At least Ellsberg was ready to accept his fate.


@ quantumushroom


If you had gained access to the Pentagon Papers, would you have made them available or kept hidden that the US invaded Vietnam under false pretenses?

Yogi isn't a government acting on behalf of other people. The Government has no personal information. Spreading this information is a good thing, the people who lead us should keep their laundry clean, or face the consequences that people might see.

Now they are facing the consequences and hopefully a lot of civilians are having their eyes opened.
>> ^quantumushroom:

I'm totally intimidated by a guy who lifts lines from Billy Madison. I'm glad you're comfortable that you don't have what it takes to debate anything. Seems pretty common around here. BTW why don't you post all YOUR personal information to teh internets? This will somehow lead to greater transparency and freedom for all. I'm sure most people won't use it to enrich themselves at your expense.
(Double birds)

>> ^Yogi:
QM, nothing you've said is remotely factual or relevant. Your incoherent babbling of bullshit is just the stuff that comes prancing out of your closeted mind like word salad. You are not smart, you are not informed, I award you no points and please shut the fuck up.

The Institute for Public Accuracy published a comment, co-signed by Daniel Ellsberg, on the current WikiLeaks situation and quoted this Pravda article, a quote I'd like to copy:

What WikiLeaks has done is make people understand why so many Americans are politically apathetic … After all, the evils committed by those in power can be suffocating, and the sense of powerlessness that erupts can be paralyzing, especially when … government evildoers almost always get away with their crimes. …

So shame on Barack Obama, Eric Holder, and all those who spew platitudes about integrity, justice and accountability while allowing war criminals and torturers to walk freely upon the earth. … the American people should be outraged that their government has transformed a nation with a reputation for freedom, justice, tolerance and respect for human rights into a backwater that revels in its criminality, cover-ups, injustices and hypocrisies.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag.(show it anyway)

Great^

God damn it... This just makes me sick, really.

I am sorry QM, I thought you were liberatarien... I can see that may not be the case with this statement. As a fellow liber, I feel Assanage did the constitutionally-protected thing. I mean it.

Here is a question---if your sister or children were a meth addict, would you just "shush" to keep her or you from disgrace? Even at there own life? Just for your pride? I think you would--based on your comments... But if this had been info leaked on B-Obama, you would have been all on its nuts?

If I expected one person to defend this guy, it would have been you. So, if you do not care about the constitution, or small government and wholesome, American government, then what are you?

>> ^quantumushroom:
For fencing stolen information and releasing classified documents which harmed the US military and diplomatic relations, Assange should be considered another foreign enemy, just like bin laden.

how many of you stopped using amazon/paypal/visa/mastercard?

alright then.

I agree with everything said. I just want to know what the difference between a "war criminal" is and a man who makes "rape/aids camps" and "gasses jews" and such, and what George Bush is? He is classified exactly the same as those, "war cimimals," so what is the difference?

(And yes, he is classifed in the exact same way... So even if you do not classify him that way, you do purport the same information...)

>> ^radx:
The Institute for Public Accuracy published a comment, co-signed by Daniel Ellsberg, on the current WikiLeaks situation and quoted this Pravda article, a quote I'd like to copy:

What WikiLeaks has done is make people understand why so many Americans are politically apathetic … After all, the evils committed by those in power can be suffocating, and the sense of powerlessness that erupts can be paralyzing, especially when … government evildoers almost always get away with their crimes. …
So shame on Barack Obama, Eric Holder, and all those who spew platitudes about integrity, justice and accountability while allowing war criminals and torturers to walk freely upon the earth. … the American people should be outraged that their government has transformed a nation with a reputation for freedom, justice, tolerance and respect for human rights into a backwater that revels in its criminality, cover-ups, injustices and hypocrisies.

The Wikileaks site (http://www.wikileaks.org/) is now down. Welcome to the world of Political Internet Censorship.

I simply asked a straightforward question. It is a fact that the US invaded and continued the Vietnam War under false pretenses. And facts are darned things.

I'm amazed you're so eager to call someone who leaks confidential documents but apparently are willing to fully brush off a government lying to it's people.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentagon_Papers

You know what annoys me the most about what you say is you just don't have any consistent beliefs. Your only consistency seems to be that you always just happen to agree with Republican rhetoric.

If you were really concerned about Vietnamese deaths, you would have realised that a communist regime would have been a far better outcome, spared countless lives and would have resulted in a conversion to capitalism gradually just like Vietnam is doing now.

And hey, I bet you opposed intervention in Kosovo when Clinton was in office, right? Quite ironic if so, right?

And what about intervening in Rwanda and right now in Darfur? Against that too I'm guessing?

>> ^quantumushroom:

Your loaded question was actually the most civil response.
Wouldn't release 'em. Why be a traitor when the Pentagon Papers had zero effect on the Democrat-run Vietnam War?
False pretenses? You mean, communists didn't murder 2 million Vietnamese?
At least Ellsberg was ready to accept his fate.

@ quantumushroom

If you had gained access to the Pentagon Papers, would you have made them available or kept hidden that the US invaded Vietnam under false pretenses?

Not to mention it is also blatantly hypocritical of you to pretend to want smaller government and yet allow your country lie to you while leading you into costly wars that result in countless lost lives.

Then again you've just said yourself that you're more interested in partisanship and I assume then will just follow whichever way the Republican tide swings.

Bush in 2000? Non-interventionist foreign policy and lower government spending? Sounds great!

Bush in 2004? Why, he lodged our budget off track and caused the debt to rise from 3.3 trillion to 4 trillion and engaged the country in 2 wars that will achieve nothing against terrorism because a transient terrorist network will just relocate! Like to Yemen and Somalia. Let's re-elect him.

Republican Congress in 2010? Why, Bush and mostly the same congressmen who voted for his policies managed to raise the deficit to 5.1 trillion by the end of the second term while delivered lower growth than Clinton! If there's anyone who can recover the economy and put the budget back on track, it's them! Tax cuts clearly and demonstrably led to this deficit, so why not try them again?

When will you wake up and realise that the set of partisan polices you subscribe to are ever changing and entirely inconsistent?

Here's one for ya: remember when Amazon tossed the WikiLeaks data off its cloud because it was not property of WikiLeaks or somesuch bullshit reason?

How about this: first batch of cables, Kindle Edition, via Amazon Whispernet, only £7.37.

A LMFAHS is truely in order.

If you haven't read any of the details of the allegations, check out the link below. Apparently he's being questioned on suspicion of "Sex by Surprise" not Rape. It's a Swedish thing.

http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/sex-by-surprise-at-heart-of-julian-assange-criminal-probe/19741444

I'm actually surprised this happened this soon. It had to happen eventually based on the amount of people he's pissing off, just didn't think it would be this soon.

*length=12:42

The duration of this video has been updated from unknown to 12:42 - length declared by radx.