For the probably whole lot of you that have no idea what Wikileaks is, read this.
OK, done? Next read this:
I just received an email from Wikileaks editor Julian Assange that’s pretty wild. It accuses the U.S. government of deliberately trying to take down the whistle-blower site PDF two years ago.
As proof, Wikileaks has posted a 32-page classified document PDF from the Department of Defense Intelligence Analysis program, dated March 2008, which details “the counterintelligence threat posed to the US Army by the Wikileaks.org Web site.” It reads:
“The possibility that a current employee or mole within DoD or elsewhere in the US government is providing sensitive information or classified information to Wikileaks.org cannot be ruled out. Wikileaks.org claims that the ‘leakers’ or ‘whistleblowers’ of sensitive or classified DoD documents are former US government employees.”
The document, attributed to the Army Counterintelligence Center and titled “Wikileaks.org — An Online Reference to Foreign Intelligence Services, Insurgents, or Terrorist Groups?”, cited the leaking of classified Army materials as the chief reason Wikileaks is harmful to national security.
Basically, Wikileaks–I used to read it sometimes, but couldn’t make heads or tails of half the things I was looking at–became a massive clearinghouse of all sorts of leaked, useful information. It got a foreign bank to sue them in the United States for some nonsense of impeding trade, which was finally thrown out in court after the the bank was humiliated. If I recall right, Wikileaks just kept leaking their stuff right out during trial, so they gave up. With this, the government under Bush’s administration actually looked into ways to take them down. Well, tonight it looks like, on top of the above mentioned news, they’ve apparently really pissed off the US intel orginization this time–I’ve never seen commentary like this from them before. From their twitter:
WikiLeaks is currently under an aggressive US and Icelandic surveillance operation. Following/photographing/filming/detaining. about 1 hours ago
If anything happens to us, you know why: it is our Apr 5 film. And you know who is responsible. about 1 hours ago
Two under State Dep diplomatic cover followed our editor from Iceland to http://skup.no on Thursday. about 1 hours ago
One related person was detained for 22 hours. Computer’s seized.That’s http://www.skup.no 44 minutes ago
We know our possession of the decrypted airstrike video is now being discussed at the highest levels of US command. 32 minutes ago
If you know more about the operations against us, contact https://secure.wikileaks.org/ 31 minutes ago
We have been shown secret photos of our production meetings and been asked specific questions during detention related to the airstrike. 27 minutes ago
We have airline records of the State Dep/CIA tails. Don’t think you can get away with it. You cannot. This is WikiLeaks. 23 minutes ago
Even when the heat is on, someone leaks them CIA airline records from the investigation? Yes, someone will call bullshit, but they do I think have a reputation for being bullshit-free. Looks like the Internet has finally caught up with the Old World of governments, and the governments are pissed they can’t control the Internet. Too bad.
More at: http://www.wikileaks.org and http://twitter.com/wikileaks.
Update: apparently, it’s got something to do with this…
Original Dutch news article: Amerikaanse autoriteiten pakken Wikileaks aan
Translated on InfoWars (if you hate Alex Jones, here’s the Google translation): WikiLeaks Monitored by U.S., Icelandic Authorities Over Pentagon Murder Video
It looks like Wikileaks may have evidence of some sort of murder carried out by the US military or possibly the CIA (sorry for the bad translation):
On April 5 to Wikileaks at a meeting of the National Press Club in Washington a video showing an attack by the U.S. Air Force. It would involve a murder carried out by the Pentagon. The staff of the site also draw on information from CIA aircraft have as supporting evidence.
If that’s true, it implies that the airstrike–I have no idea what airstrike this is about–violated either domestic or international law and/or was an outright murder versus a legal military action. If their claims of being detained and followed overseas by United States officials and the CIA are true, then they’ve definitely got their hands on something the State Department, Pentagon or CIA don’t want out there. I wonder what?
Is this about the Kunduz airstrike in Afghanistan from September 4, 2009, when a US F-15 caused the deaths of dozens of civilians? Or is it about, as rumored online, an assassination of journalists by the military that was recorded–which Wikileaks alluded to on February 20th, 2010?
Finally cracked the encryption to US military video in which journalists, among others, are shot. Thanks to all who donated $/CPUs.
More here on Technorati: Is WikiLeaks.org Being Tailed By Government Ops?
April 5, 2010 update:
Wikileaks has disclosed it all: http://collateralmurder.com/
WikiLeaks has released a classified US military video depicting the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad — including two Reuters news staff.
Reuters has been trying to obtain the video through the Freedom of Information Act, without success since the time of the attack. The video, shot from an Apache helicopter gun-site, clearly shows the unprovoked slaying of a wounded Reuters employee and his rescuers. Two young children involved in the rescue were also seriously wounded.
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