The Outlaws - Boston Music Hall, MA. 1979
22 minutes ago
Thursday, 9 December 2010
Nataliya
Did I ever tell you about the time Nataliya took me out to go get a drink with her? We go off looking for a bar and we can't find one. Finally Nataliya takes me to a vacant lot and says, 'Here we are.' We sat there for a year and a half, until sure enough, someone constructs a bar around us. Well, the day they opened we ordered a shot, drank it, and then burned the place to the ground. Nataliya yelled over the roar of the flames, 'Always leave things the way you found 'em!'
Malcolm Turnbull Political risk in making a martyr of Assange
In 1986, I represented former MI5 officer Peter Wright in his efforts to publish his memoirs Spycatcher. Margaret Thatcher was determined that no former MI5 officer should be able to write about his work, regardless of whether the information was still confidential, affected current operations or was otherwise of any real detriment to intelligence services.
While it is true that some of the best legal minds of the day had advised Wright's publishers he had no hope of success, we always thought that the old spook turned Tasmanian horse breeder would succeed.
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That was because of a decision of the High Court of Australia in 1980, Commonwealth v Fairfax, in which Sir Anthony Mason had held that a government could restrain the publication of confidential information only if it could establish that the information was still secret and, most importantly, that publication would cause real detriment, not just embarrassment, public debate and controversy.
It was also a fundamental part of our jurisprudence that a court would not restrain the publication of confidences if their disclosure would reveal the commission of crimes.
The information in Spycatcher was at least 20 years out of date and had no relevance to current operations. Almost all of it had been previously published by the journalist and trusted MI6 mouthpiece Chapman Pincher in his book Their Trade Is Treachery. Further, there was material that revealed acts of criminality on the part of British intelligence officers.
The British government made a martyr of Wright by fighting a furious legal battle not just in Australia (where Wright lived) but around the world, making itself look foolish and Wright rich.
There are a few lessons from this regarding WikiLeaks.
Julian Assange should make sure that any further documents published do not contain information that would impinge on current operations and put lives at risk. We are in a global struggle with terrorism and any material that assists our opponents should not be published. Material that puts at risk the lives of those who help us should not be published and to do so is morally reprehensible whatever its legal character.
Governments and politicians should be careful not to make a martyr of Assange and fools of themselves. Julia Gillard's claim that Assange had broken Australian laws, when it is clear he has not, demonstrates how out of her depth she is.
One may well ask whether her denunciations would be so shrill if the documents had been handed to a powerful newspaper group - if the contents were being dribbled out by The Australian, would she be accusing Rupert Murdoch of high crimes and misdemeanours?
Assange is an Australian citizen. No matter how much the government disapproves of his actions, it should make it clear that he is entitled to return to Australia if he wishes and to receive consular assistance if the charges of sexual assault proceed in Sweden.
I have heard conflicting reports of whether Assange has invited the US State Department to edit the materials he has received. While it may stick in their craw to do it, the US government should take up that opportunity if it is offered. After all, this is not the first leak of security-related materials. What is shocking is the extraordinary scale of the leak - more than a quarter of a million documents. Harm minimisation should be the order of the day for Washington.
Extravagant demonisation of Assange and the leaks only makes them more exciting than they are. Is it really a story that American diplomats think Silvio Berlusconi is a skirt chaser or that Kevin Rudd was a control freak presiding over a chaotic, dysfunctional government? It would be amazing if they had reached any other conclusion.
Just as the vindictive pursuit of Peter Wright turned his book into an international bestseller, so the furious attacks on Assange are likely to be counterproductive. It is hard to know what to say about the Swedish sexual assault charges, other than to observe that the facts so far outlined by the prosecution would constitute an unlikely basis for a prosecution in Australia.
American politicians might use their time more productively working out how a 23-year-old army private had access to so much confidential material and was able to copy it and hand it over to WikiLeaks. The long-term damage from the leaked cables is likely to be that it confirms that despite spending billions on security and the war against terror, the US government is unable to preserve the security and confidence of those it deals with around the world. It will take a lot of reassurance before the chilling impact of these leaks wears off.
As to the contents of the cables, the material seems to me to fall into three categories. There are the many penetrating glimpses of the obvious such as those relating to Berlusconi and Rudd. I could not imagine Australian legal principles justifying a ban on the publication of that material.
There are some cables with information that is not surprising but the publication of which is diplomatically damaging, such as the report that Saudi Arabia had urged America to attack Iran. Although I should note that this cable was received rapturously in Israel! One can see the argument that this sort of material should not be published, but I doubt whether a newspaper would resist the temptation to print it or that a court would injunct it.
The third category are those cables that reveal enough information to identify people who are informants of the US government in circumstances where the disclosure would put their lives at risk. That is material that should not be published and that a court, were it to have jurisdiction, may well decide to injunct on the basis that the publication would cause "real detriment" as opposed to embarrassment.
Malcolm Turnbull is shadow minister for communications and broadband.
Guantanamo files may star in next WikiLeaks release
WikiLeaks' next assault on Washington may highlight U.S. government reports on suspected militants held at Guantanamo Bay, which some U.S. officials worry could show certain detainees were freed despite intelligence assessments they were still dangerous.
The leaks could be an embarrassment to President Barack Obama's administration, already angered over WikiLeaks document dumps of U.S. State Department cables, as it seeks to fulfill a 2-year-old pledge to close the prison and either release the foreign terrorism suspects or move them elsewhere.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, jailed in Britain this week, has told media contacts he has a large cache of U.S. government reports about inmates at the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, known as GITMO, the last of four major tranches of U.S. government documents which WikiLeaks had acquired and at some point would make public.
"He's got the personal files of every prisoner in GITMO," said one person who was in contact with Assange earlier this year.
Officials at the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies had no immediate comment.
People familiar with Assange's dealings with the media said they had no indication he had already given journalists access to the Guantanamo material. In the past, large document dumps by WikiLeaks were made available initially to a small group of media.
Several U.S. government sources said there was concern Assange's material could include highly sensitive "threat assessments" by U.S. intelligence agencies gauging the likelihood that specific inmates would return to militant activities if set free.
These assessments, if published, could prove damaging in a number of ways, including revelations that could theoretically put in jeopardy U.S. intelligence sources and methods.
They could further embarrass the U.S. government if they show that detainees deemed likely to return to terrorism were released and subsequently involved in anti-U.S. violence.
It is unclear what time period may be covered by the Guantanamo documents believed to be in WikiLeaks' possession.
The prison at a U.S. naval base in Cuba was opened to house prisoners taken in the U.S.-led Afghan war launched by President George W. Bush soon after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. It has been controversial as a legal limbo, and Obama said on taking office in January 2009 that he wanted to close it in a year...
The leaks could be an embarrassment to President Barack Obama's administration, already angered over WikiLeaks document dumps of U.S. State Department cables, as it seeks to fulfill a 2-year-old pledge to close the prison and either release the foreign terrorism suspects or move them elsewhere.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, jailed in Britain this week, has told media contacts he has a large cache of U.S. government reports about inmates at the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, known as GITMO, the last of four major tranches of U.S. government documents which WikiLeaks had acquired and at some point would make public.
"He's got the personal files of every prisoner in GITMO," said one person who was in contact with Assange earlier this year.
Officials at the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies had no immediate comment.
People familiar with Assange's dealings with the media said they had no indication he had already given journalists access to the Guantanamo material. In the past, large document dumps by WikiLeaks were made available initially to a small group of media.
Several U.S. government sources said there was concern Assange's material could include highly sensitive "threat assessments" by U.S. intelligence agencies gauging the likelihood that specific inmates would return to militant activities if set free.
These assessments, if published, could prove damaging in a number of ways, including revelations that could theoretically put in jeopardy U.S. intelligence sources and methods.
They could further embarrass the U.S. government if they show that detainees deemed likely to return to terrorism were released and subsequently involved in anti-U.S. violence.
It is unclear what time period may be covered by the Guantanamo documents believed to be in WikiLeaks' possession.
The prison at a U.S. naval base in Cuba was opened to house prisoners taken in the U.S.-led Afghan war launched by President George W. Bush soon after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. It has been controversial as a legal limbo, and Obama said on taking office in January 2009 that he wanted to close it in a year...
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Mark Hosenball @'Reuters'
Mark Hosenball @'Reuters'
Anon Facebook ban and NEW genuine twitter #
http://213.251.145.96/
NEW Twitter
@Anon_Operationn
government, if not silenced!
...and here we go
anonops TARGET: WWW.TWITTER.COM: FIRE FIRE FIRE!!! WEAPONS http://bit.ly/e6iR3X ::: SET YOUR LOIC TO irc.anonops.net :: #PAYBACK #WIKILEAKS #anonops
torrentfreak I think Twitter might do down next, @Anon_Operation doesn't appreciate 'censorship' much so I've heard. #payback
Back up
anonops Ok, we have another target. #anonops #payback #Wikileaks The Free Speech is the final border. If we can't speak we have no freedom.
Hardly a surprise after THAT tweet!
JPBarlow RT @evgenymorozov RT @jackschofield: Twitter has suspended the @Anon_Operation account, which has 22,173 followers...
German Police Seize Marijuana Christmas Tree
A six-foot marijuana plant decorated as a Christmas tree was confiscated from the home of "an old hippie," who is now facing a drug possession charge, German police said Wednesday.
In a press release entitled "All you need is love, or how a hippie celebrates Christmas," police in the western city of Koblenz said they found the big cannabis plant in the living room of the suspect, reports AFP.
"A hippie celebrates Christmas too, just differently," read the release. "The two-meter-tall marijuana plant had been put in a Christmas tree stand and decorated with a string of lights."
"When asked, the hashish fan told the perplexed officers that he had intended to add more decorations to the 'tree' and place the presents it, according to tradition."
Narcotics detectives stumbled on the unconventional Christmas tree while searching the home of an "old 68er," a reference to the groups of young students and workers who participated in political protests which swept across Germany in 1968, reports The Local.
The Grinch-like cops seized the plant plus 150 grams (5.3 ounces) of marijuana found in the apartment.
The man "more or less willingly" handed over the 150 grams to the officers, according to the report.
The "old hippie" in Koblenz isn't the only German having a high holiday season.
Authorities on Tuesday said that a 21-year-old man in the southern city of Munich had been arrested for a homemade Advent calendar with cannabis behind each little door, instead of chocolate.
That suspect was released but now faces charges of possessing drugs.
"A hippie celebrates Christmas too, just differently," read the release. "The two-meter-tall marijuana plant had been put in a Christmas tree stand and decorated with a string of lights."
"When asked, the hashish fan told the perplexed officers that he had intended to add more decorations to the 'tree' and place the presents it, according to tradition."
Narcotics detectives stumbled on the unconventional Christmas tree while searching the home of an "old 68er," a reference to the groups of young students and workers who participated in political protests which swept across Germany in 1968, reports The Local.
The Grinch-like cops seized the plant plus 150 grams (5.3 ounces) of marijuana found in the apartment.
The man "more or less willingly" handed over the 150 grams to the officers, according to the report.
The "old hippie" in Koblenz isn't the only German having a high holiday season.
Authorities on Tuesday said that a 21-year-old man in the southern city of Munich had been arrested for a homemade Advent calendar with cannabis behind each little door, instead of chocolate.
That suspect was released but now faces charges of possessing drugs.
(Thanx j6nnie!)
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