Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Obama doesn't actually favor net neutrality

Yet another broken promise and giveaway to business lobbies.

Friday, December 03, 2010

Wikileaks Diplomatic Cables

Good resources
Interesting points
  • All of the documents that have been published on Wikileaks so far have also been published by the NYT, etc. with the same redactions. There are around 250,000 cables total but less than 1% has been released.
  • The documents were offered to the WSJ and CNN, but both refused them. The NYT got them from the Guardian, not Wikileaks.
  • Julian Assange's personal philosophy is very pro-capitalist.
  • Allegedly, a fake Lady Gaga recording was involved in the disclosure.
  • The NYT, as expected, took the most jingoistic angle possible
  • Other Wikileaks-like sites are planned for launch
  • Assange's old blog is here
  • The smear campaign directed at Assange is farcical
  • A previous, similar leak in 1982 from the Tehran embassy has been all but forgotten
  • Good discussion here on the legality of Wikileaks (synopsis: there is no clear illegality on the part of Wikileaks)
  • Casualties: sacking of German minister's aide, former Croatian PM flees the country
  • Companies refusing to do business with Wikileaks: Amazon, Visa, Mastercard, Paypal, Bank of America, PostFinance, Apple
  • The government of Tunisia was overthrown partially because of Wikileaks
Significant revelations
  • Obama and GOP worked together to kill torture probe
  • US is using U2 spy planes flying from Cyprus to spy on Hezbollah
  • The CIA directed a biometric-information gathering program conducted by US diplomats
  • Pharmaceutical firm Pfizer conducted fatal experimental drug tests on children in Nigera without parental consent, and then tried to dig up dirt on the Nigerian attorney general in order to pressure him to drop a lawsuit against Pfizer
  • Private security contractor DynCorp "Helped Pimp Little Boys to Stoned Afghan Cops"
  • The ICRC told US diplomats of widespread torture by the Indian police in Kashmir
They're getting nervous

"WikiLeaks could be transformed from a handful of volunteers to a global movement of politicised geeks clamouring for revenge. Today’s WikiLeaks talks the language of transparency, but it could quickly develop a new code of explicit anti-Americanism, anti-imperialism and anti-globalisation.[...] An aggressive attempt to go after WikiLeaks – by blocking its web access, for instance, or by harassing its members – could install Mr Assange (or whoever succeeds him) at the helm of a powerful new global movement able to paralyse the work of governments and corporations around the world."