PayPal acts responsibly
WIKILEAKS faced a fresh threat to its survival as the online payment service PayPal cut off the account used for donations to the whistle-blowing website.
Good! That’s a start. Now arrest the little hippy and close down his website before he does any more damage.
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Wikileaks has chosen a side in an ongoing war, treat them as such.
Watergate, climategate… wikileak
I fail to see the difference.
Hear Hear!
I believe in transparency in all Govt. actions, and reactions, but if it looks like helping one side or another or costing lives on one side or another then shut him down. Humiliating politicians of any nation is one thing, national security is something all should embrace.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/dec/05/wikileaks-julian-assange
Well worth a read.
“Assange’s doctrine is woefully simplistic, and actually rather hypocritical. If secret communication is so inextricably linked to authoritarianism, then why is WikiLeaks itself so secretive? Why are its sources anonymous? Why is its leader so frequently in undisclosed locations? The answer is obvious: if WikiLeaks was open, it would face effective opposition. By Assange’s own metric, WikiLeaks is as much an authoritarian conspiracy as the United States government is.
Of course, we shouldn’t accept such a conclusion. Rather, we should disavow Assange’s perspective entirely. The US government and its allies may do objectionable things, but their security services, militaries and diplomats also carry out vital work – and crippling them wholesale is not a goal worthy of approbation. It is ludicrous to argue that there are no good reasons for a state to keep secrets. If one does take that position, it is even more ludicrous to imply that WikiLeaks, a now-powerful organisation with global reach, is exempt from the same standards.
Assange’s philosophy of total transparency in the exercise of power is either incoherent or intellectually dishonest. He should present himself as what he is: an opponent of US foreign policy, who seeks to obstruct it, no matter the cost. He is no neutral truth-bearer – he just prefers one secret agenda, his own, to another.”
“He should present himself as what he is: an opponent of US foreign policy,”
That is complete bollocks.
If he were simply an opponent of US foreign policy, he would not be publishing leaks from countries (such as Iran) who are also opponents of the US.
The most blatant hypocrisy of all is demonstrated by the MSM who on the one hand post Wikileaks material, and on the other criticise them for making it available. Bolt is a prime example.
The level of hypocrisy shown by the US state department is also up there. “The land of the free” is quite happy to use coercion and threats against Assange, because it has been embarrassed by its own lax security. They put pressure on the Swedish authorities to have him jailed on a pretext. Does anyone seriously think that the Swedes would be seeking extradition for sexual misdemeanours at that level if there wasn’t serious monstering going on?
He is an Australian, not a Yank, and they have no jurisdiction; nor has he broken any law on the US statute books. For Palin to say he should be tried for treason shows her limited grasp of her own country’s legal system – the slight complication that he’s not a US citizen has completely slipped her mind.
The truth will out – remember Daniel Ellsberg?
We need whistleblowers. They help give Jo Citizen a bit of leverage against the crushingly powerful government and corporate monoliths who have no respect for international borders or ethics of any kind.
If he drops the promised bucket on corporate corruption on the US banking system, he might really do some good. Banging him up will make that more likely than not.
“MSM who on the one hand post Wikileaks material, and on the other criticise them for making it available. Bolt is a prime example. ”
You are clearly a simpleton. it is perfectly reasonable to criticise the leaking of classified documents (particularly when Assange has admitted being responsible for the deaths of 1300 Kenyans and rendering homeless another 350,000). Once the information is in the public domain it is equally reasonable to comment on it as the damage is already done.
Poor security measures do not justify the publication of the documents any more than having a shopkeeper busy out the back justifys wheeling a trolly load of goods out without paying.
I also love the way you throw a womans right to justice straight under the bus to support a favoured cause.
Assange isn’t a whistleblower, he has chosen to wage a war against the US, that is a matter for him, but pretending that it is some noble act is ludicrous.
He has violated the US Espionage act, it doesn’t care what nationality you are and you have an obligation under it to return classified material that may come into your possession. They may choose to charge him with a lesser crime to be certain of conviction, particularly since, to get him extradited, they will almost certainly need to rule out the death penalty.
Personally I don’t trust anyone that has a Swiss bank account.
“Once the information is in the public domain it is equally reasonable to comment on it as the damage is already done.”
What bizarre logic. I’m wondering what part of “hypocrisy” you don’t understand. You’re saying that there’s no ethical problem with making a quick quid out of trading in this information, but posting it on a website for free is deserving of penalties ranging from life imprisonment to the death penalty.
It lays bare one of the basic tenants of the conservative mindset – the one that says that as soon as the market becomes involved morality and ethics are no longer relevant – and the rightists have the temerity to criticise “moral relativism” in what they call the Left.
“having a shopkeeper busy out the back justifys (sic) wheeling a trolly (sic) load of goods out without paying.
Again – an interesting (and revealing) choice of metaphor. If the shopkeeper is too lousy to employ a staffer to be busy out the back, he’s probably getting what he deserves. This deep reverence for the mighty dollar is once again revealed. It’s a practice being adopted now by our big two (monopoly) supermarket chains because it works in more timid societies across the Pacific and in the UK. If Australians had any backbone they’d boycott the automated outlets.
“I also love the way you throw a womans (sic) right to justice straight under the bus to support a favoured cause.”
Actually there were two women involved, Anna Ardin and Sofia Wilen. Complaints against Assange were only made after they accidentally discovered that Assange had sex with both of them after one of his seminars which they attended. Ardin has since travelled to Palestine, and has played no further part in the allegations.
Naomi Klein, herself a radical feminist, probably got it right when she tweeted that: “Rape is being used in the Assange prosecution in the same way that women’s freedom was used to invade Afghanistan. Wake up! wikilieaks”
The original arrest warrant was withdrawn on 21st August. “I don’t think there is reason to suspect that he has committed rape,” said the Stockholm chief prosecutor involved, Eva Finne, at the time. It was dredged up again on 1st September. I wonder what diplomatic coercion was brought to bear by the Yanks to change her mind during those ten days.
All of the above information is freely available on the Swedish prosecution record, but is being ignored by the MSM because it doesn’t fit the concocted narrative. It can be easily translated using one of many on-line resources out there.
“it doesn’t care what nationality you are and you have an obligation under it to return classified material that may come into your possession”
I wish the Yanks good luck in attempting to retrieve the information that I and hundreds of thousands of other Australians have downloaded. Perhaps I should be watching my back in case the CIA sends hit men to sleepy old Toowoomba…..
Get real.
“… If the shopkeeper is too lousy to employ a staffer to be busy out the back, he’s probably getting what he deserves.”
You’re a dickhead Bobby red-herring.