I remain simultaneously amazed and appalled that the cux of the matter of the activities of WikiLeaks is not so much about the contents of what WikiLeaks actually leaks, but rather about WikiLeaks itself, their motives and the terrible, horrible dange…
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Reloaded: This Is How The End Of Democracy Is Hastened
First, the mainstream/corporate media largely abdicates its raison d’être, i.e. reporting facts, the truth and keeping checks on the Powers-That-Be.
Second, corporations collude with politicians not only to make policy, but to facilitate increased su…
Continue readingFortress North America Back on the Radar
Just want to get my .02 in on this one again, make sure all y’all know about it. Alison, Greg, Dawg, Laxer and The Beav have the details. Give them some love and go read them. Then you might wanna take a look at this Globe & Mail article,…
Continue readingWelcome To Your Authoritarian Corporatocratic Security Surveillance State Of North America
Behold the authoritarian mind-set in it’s awful glory (emphasis added):
The Harper government is bracing for a backlash over a border security agreement it is negotiating with the United States, anticipating it will spark worries about eroding soverei…
Continue readingRight of Center Ice: Wikileaks: It’s not free speech
Part 1: An issue of semantics? Maybe I’m splitting hairs, but I don’t necessarily view the Wikileaks drama as being an exercise of acting on a person’s right to free speech. My question: how is it a person’s right to be able to view a confidential document, pass judgment on
Continue readingWorld Headlines Review: Drones, Torture, Rendition: Democratic Values?
A Huffington Post column by Johann Hari summarizes certain revelations stemming from the leaked USG diplomatic cables by Wikileaks. The piece posits that Julian Assange’s efforts have made the world safer and are a boon to US National Security, that a better educated public with proof of government wrongdoings can
Continue readingPop The Stack: He Leaks Me, He Leaks Me Not, He Leaks Me…
The unrolling of the US diplomatic cables by Wikileaks over the past week is a fascinating event that may be unparalleled in human history, so far. I’ve had difficulty deciding if this is a good or a bad thing over the past week as the news has come out. See my other article here over at Computationally […]
Continue readingJimBobby Sez: Wikileaks Whack-a-Mole Workaround
Whooee! Well, friends an’ foes, the cyber-censors have been doin’ their dangedest to keep folks from seein’ the Wikileaks website. The chased ’em from wikileaks.org to wikileaks.ch to wikileaks.nl an’ I dunno how many other domains. Here’s one that’s b…
Continue readingFive of Five: Open Letter to Dr. Elizabeth Cannon
Please consider faxing or emailing this open letter to University of Calgary President Dr. Elizabeth Cannon. This is regarding Dr. Flanagan’s comments on CBC re Julian Assange. I recommend including your own cover letter with your own thoughts to mini…
Continue readingTaylorOwen.com: wikileaks is important, but it is not a revolution
Dave Eaves has a thoughtful reply to my wikileaks piece up on his site. As usual, he gets at some of the meta questions surrounding this topic. While we would usually have this convo over a long drunken dinner, below are a few points in response. First, I 100% agree with Dave that the institutions […]
Continue readingDTK: Diplomacy and Secrecy
I watched a CBC interview, linked from Greenwald‘s salon blog.
About half way through that video, a former Canadian diplomat comes on for a interview in which he derides the latest Wikileak as bad for diplomacy. His argument, boiled down, is this:
1. The Indonesian gov’t was carrying out horrible human rights abuses against the East Timorese
2. The East Timorese told the Canadian diplomat
3. The Canadian diplomat told the Canadian gov’t
4. The Canadian gov’t could use this information in negotiations with the torturing, human rights abusing Indonesian gov’t.
His argument is basically that, should this path of the information (tortured -> diplomat -> gov’t) be broken by a lack of secrecy, it would fall apart. Victims would no longer feel safe to complain. Diplomats like himself would be too scared to report.
Seems reasonable, doesn’t it?
Except it’s bullshit.
His argument boils down to the idea that I should trust Stephen Harper, Jean Chretien or Paul Martin – under cloak of secrecy – to solve human rights problems the world over.
Really? That’s your best argument? That political leaders will do the right thing if we just cover our eyes and ignore them?
I have very little patience for that level of willful stupidity, especially as it comes from someone who ought to know better.
The best thing, Mr. Diplomat, is transparency. You know what stops wars? Seeing little girls burnt by napalm. Seeing helicopters pilots shooting up vans full of Iraqi children. Seeing East Timorese slaughtered and executed by the tens of thousands (which, you’ll note was not prevented by our diplomatic cables).
Would I prefer to trust the Internet or the government?
I think you know the answer.
Continue readingDTK: Diplomacy and Secrecy
I watched a CBC interview, linked from Greenwald‘s salon blog. About half way through that video, a former Canadian diplomat comes on for a interview in which he derides the latest Wikileak as bad for diplomacy. His argument, boiled down, is this: 1. The Indonesian gov’t was carrying out horrible
Continue readingDTK: Diplomacy and Secrecy
I watched a CBC interview, linked from Greenwald‘s salon blog. About half way through that video, a former Canadian diplomat comes on for a interview in which he derides the latest Wikileak as bad for diplomacy. His argument, boiled down, is this: 1. The Indonesian gov’t was carrying out horrible
Continue readingFive of Five: Flanigan: Diminished Expectations
I’m still taking in the Tom Flanagan’s comments about assassinating Julian Assange. What amazed me about the comments was how casual and glib they were – as if another man’s sub-judicial, illegal killing was academic. The snicker chilled me.He apologi…
Continue readingRegret is not enough!
Yesterday, Tom Flanagan, a buddy of Prime Minister Harper’s called for the assassination of Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange. You can read the regina mom’s opinion on that over here. Today, the University of Calgary professor, Flanagan says he has regrets regarding his remarks. “I regret that I made a glib comment about a serious issue,” he […]
Continue readingWhat has my country come to?
Wikileaks’ release of US Embassy cables is hitting some Canadians harder than others. On November 30, Tom Flanagan, a political and strategic adviser to Prime Minister Harper, said, on national television, no less, “I think Assange should be assassinated, actually. I think President Obama should put out a contract and maybe use a drone or […]
Continue readingWorld Headlines Review: Wikileaks: Misanthropy and the Spectre of Scrutiny
Amid the bluster surrounding the public release of 278 of 251,287 secret and confidential USG diplomatic cables by Wikileaks as of Monday November 29th; more telling as to the behaviour and thinking of governments and vested interests is the current reaction in the world media and of public officials, than
Continue readingAnd So It Begins . . . .
The organized lynching of truth-telling by way of FoxNoise, of course.From The Guardian this morning:A Fox News contributor and former state department adviser has accused WikiLeaks of conducting “political warfare against the US” and called for those …
Continue readingOn secrecy and Wikileaks.
IntroductionSo, as everyone and their brother’s roommate knows, Wikileaks managed to get their hands on another chunk of material that the powers-that-be would rather the rest of us never saw. This time, of course, it was a collection of documents rela…
Continue readingMore Notes From Underground: Predators
Like the aliens from the movie franchise, these sick fucks use a massive technological advantage to engage in some deranged sport shooting:
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