Barack H. Obama and George W. Bush enjoying an intimate moment whilst looking out at Empire #thefoxandthewolf (Image source: wikipedia)
So it is with the reactions of those in power today in the US. WikiLeaks has exposed the dark lord for what it is and the organization, like the Jedi who posed an "existential" risk to the new Galactic Empire, must be wiped out. An "order 66" if you may.
But the real story is lame. Apparently, some upstarts @ WikiLeaks are unhappy with their boss, Julian Assange's, leadership style. Their rallying cry? "If you preach transparency to everyone else, you have to be transparent yourself." Their solution? Openleaks, a WikiLeaks rival.
Seriously?
Sounds kinda corny to me. But beyond corniness are these guys gonna volunteer for the thinly veiled US government-sponsored smear campaign? Are they gonna line up (or queue up for Brit readers) for bogus rape charges and jail time? Will they take the assassin's bullet? I think it would be smarter to keep Assange out front whilst you quietly do your work.
The other criticism of the upstarts is even more suspect--they are complaining that Assange is moving WikiLeaks along "too fast." Sounds vaguely familiar. Sort of like the Civil Rights movement detractors. "Slow down" they said. "We need more time." (No, i'm not comparing WikiLeaks to Civil Rights. I am just making a point about the conservative posturing of the Openleaks upstarts).
But that's what happens when you have a good business model (or, perhaps, when your underlings are paid off by the government?). Now everyone wants Leaks. I just read somewhere that a disgruntled woman at WikiLeaks has announced plans to start up FemiLeaks. Latino's will soon clamour for LatinoLeaks. Asians will demand AsianLeaks and so on.
But seriously, few people on the planet have been more oppressed by their own government than African Americans. Much of that oppression was brutal and is well documented (slavery, Ku Klux Klan, lynchings, Jim Crow, sun down towns, redlining, vagrancy laws, war on drugs, racial profiling, police brutality, Clarence Thomas). Some of it is still ongoing. But a lot of it was sponsored by COINTELPRO and remains "classified" information. If anyone on the planet merits "transparency" from their government it would be African Americans.
I have no clue as to what Pfc. Bradley E. Manning's motivation was for leaking this horrific video, but it was courageous. He is an American Hero. GI
Washington (CNN) -- In the wake of the leak of thousands of classified documents, the U.S. Army has expanded its criminal investigation into a soldier allegedly involved in the earlier leak of a combat video and thousands of military documents, according to the Pentagon. The expanded investigation was confirmed by Col. David Lapan at the Pentagon.
According to a U.S. military official who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to talk about the investigation, the probe by the Army's Criminal Investigation Division into Pfc. Bradley E. Manning was expanded to look at potential accomplices and what military or U.S. government systems the information came from. CNN was unable to reach Manning's attorney. The leak of documents published by the website WikiLeaks.org is a "very big breach," Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said on Monday.
"Look, there's a slew of people who have access. It will be, as all these investigations are, very difficult, but we are determined to find out who is responsible for this and to make sure they pay or are held accountable for it," Morrell said in an interview with CNN's John King. "This is a very big breach for which there must be consequences."
The investigation was expanded because investigators believe Manning has a connection to a number, but not all, of documents released on WikiLeaks.org on Sunday. The Army is also working with other U.S. agencies in the investigation, according to Army CID spokesman Christopher Grey. Manning, 22, of Potomac, Maryland, was charged with eight violations of the U.S. Criminal Code for allegedly illegally transferring classified data, including an earlier video that wound up on WikiLeaks. He has been accused of "wrongfully introducing a classified video of a military operation filmed at or near Baghdad, Iraq" around July 12, 2007, "onto his personal computer, a non-secure information system."
Manning had top-secret clearance as an intelligence analyst with the Army while he was stationed in Iraq. He was detained in June and sent to the U.S. base in Kuwait for his connection to the release of the classified U.S. military combat video showing the shooting death of Iraqi civilians and two journalists in 2007 by a helicopter gunship.
tags: war, iraq, wikileaks, military industrial complex, military occupation
Update #1- 7/30/2010: CNN reports that Manning was outed by hacker Adrian Lamo. Manning allegedly confessed to Lamo during instant message chats online. Here is an excerpt from the article:
Lamo said he isn't sure why Manning would have reached out to him on the Web. He theorizes that Manning might have seen the Wired profile and recognized a nerdy, kindred spirit.
According to Wired, the messenger suspected to be Manning introduces himself to Lamo by saying, "I'm an army intelligence analyst, deployed to eastern baghdad, pending discharge for 'adjustment disorder.' "
Manning allegedly goes on to say that he feels "isolated." His messages explain in detail his disillusionment with the way the U.S. was waging the Afghan war.
The person alleged to be Manning wrote to Lamo: "i dont believe in good guys versus bad guys anymore... i only a plethora of states acting in self interest... with varying ethics and moral standards of course, but self-interest nonetheless "
According to Wired, on May 22, Manning told Lamo that he had provided WikiLeaks with 260,000 classified State Department diplomatic cables.
