Wikileaks Diplomatic Cables

Good resources

• The Guardian's daily summary of headlines
• wlcentral
• Cablegate site (and mirrors)
  
• Wikipedia page on the United States diplomatic cables leak (gives a good breakdown of leaks by region)
• Democracy Now's coverage
  

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."

The truth about torture is out in the UK... and Obama is angry

It seems that the disclosure will "complicate" intelligence sharing between the US and the UK. At least one of these countries sometimes places human rights over expediency.

Iraqi security forces collaborate in systematic torture, execution and kidnapping of Iraqi gays

Sad, but true.

Obama continues rendition and torture

Obama has selected a strange candidate for his first rendition-and-torture target. Not a "terrorist," not an enemy combatant but... some mid-level employee that allegedly committed contract fraud? Just because it's unusual doesn't make this treatment any more acceptable. Especially appalling is how Obama renounced these tactics in his election campaign. Wait... this sounds familiar...

Yahoo censors Obama critic

Apparently Yahoo feels compelled to retaliate against those who dare to criticize politicians on its services by deleting all of their data. Rather unfortunate. I'm certainly not creating a flickr account anytime soon.

Graham-Lieberman secrecy law (with Obama support)

Transparency is so inconvenient for today's powerful politicians who profess to be 'protecting America' that they will go to almost any end to circumvent it. Case in point: the new bill by Lieberman (with, notably, the support of Barack "Hope" Obama) that allows the white house to suppress any torture photographs taken after September 11th.

Looks like Obama didn't end torture after all...

So says Jeremy Scahil. Apparently, a group called the Immediate Reaction Force still roams the halls of Guantanamo Bay, brutally torturing and punishing prisoners for the most trivial of reasons. Nice.

While we're on the subject, here's a nice, succinct list of the 13 people who made torture possible. Thanks, guys!

No More Obama Posts... For Now

Keeping track of all of Obama's ridiculous policies, campaign policy betrayals and Bush-like decisions is just getting too much to handle.

Just in the past week:
- Obama plans to bring back military commissions system
- Obama plans infinite detention for prisoners on US soil without trial
- Obama does a 180, refuses to release more torture photots
- Obama makes absurd claims about healthcare that even healthcare executives refute

For the time being, I will defer to the following blogs about this subject:
http://dissentingjustice.blogspot.com/
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/
http://jonathanturley.org/

Pentagon's 'Privilege Review Team' Off Its Rocker

This post by Glenn Greenwald has to be read to be believed. A defense attorney for Binyam Mohamed, a man tortured by the US, has written a letter to president Obama about the torture that his client has received at the hands of the US. In response, the Prentagon's 'Privilege Review Team' has initiated a summons against him to explain himself in court. All this for complying with policies that the Pentagon itself set up. Amazing.

Obama administration tries to block release of torture memos

In another bout of political CYA, current senior national security aide John Brennan, who played a prominent role in the past administration's intelligence efforts, is trying to block publication of torture memos that will likely implicate many in the current and former administrations. As Turley notes, the only person that can break this blockade is Obama, who will now have to personally order the documents to be released.

Time to show what you're made of, Barack. The right thing to do is release these memos, even if (and especially if) it will trigger a war crimes investigation that brings nearly the whole government under scrutiny.

Update: More on Greenwald

Obama administration doesn't actually think using state secrets privilege to hide torture practices is a bad idea

Pop quiz: if a president's justice department were to invoke the state secrets privilege from letting evidence be admitted into a case about torturing of potential terrorist suspects that the US government detained (and shipped off to other countries to be tortured, etc. etc.), which president would you associate that with?

a) Bush
b) Obama
c) All of the above

The correct answer is C
Looks like all that talk of transparency was all for naught. Will the American people ever really find out what horrors the government has been perpetrating for the past decade? Not while Obama is in office, it seems.

Rumsfeld linked to Torture by Senate Armed Services Committee

And, not surprisingly, the mainstream media did not care and no meaningful action to ensure discontinuation of these practices and policies is going to be taken. A microcosm of the last eight years, indeed.

Coverage:
Greenwald
Reuters