As Britain's alienated young rose up, where was the NME? Watching Wild Beasts and worrying about indie stock, sadly

Riots: Metropolitan police planned to hold all suspects in custody

Patti Smith Co-Writing ‘Just Kids’ Film

Patti Smith’s excellent National Book Award-winning memoir, Just Kids, might become a feature film, as Smith herself has reportedly teamed up with Tony Award winner and Oscar-bait heavyweight John Logan (Gladiator, The Aviator, The Last Samurai) to pen a screenplay based on the book’s account of her relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. No distribution deals are in place as of yet, so the project is very much in its beginning stages. Meanwhile, Smith has a number of other ambitious projects on her plate (in addition to covering Adele): an extension of her first memoir, a detective novel, and a new LP inspired by Saint Francis of Assisi, the home of Dylan Thomas, and Mikhail Bulgakov’s 1967 novel The Master and Margarita.
Via

Alain Badiou on riots and racism: 'Daily Humiliation'

Looking back at Gaddafi's rule

David Starkey tries to rewrite history

Coulson got hundreds of thousands of pounds from News Int. while working for Cameron

Andy Coulson, the former editor of the News of the World who has been arrested on suspicion of involvement in phone hacking and bribing the police, received several hundred thousand pounds from News International after starting work as the Conservative Party's Director of Communications in July 2007.

These payments were part of his severance package, under what is known as a "compromise agreement".
According to sources, Mr Coulson's contractual leaving pay was given to him in instalments until the end of 2007 - which means he continued to be financially linked to News International for several months of his tenure as David Cameron's main media adviser.
The disclosure that Mr Coulson maintained a financial relationship with News International after moving into a sensitive role in the Tory Party will be controversial.
According to a senior member of the government, Tory Party managers at the time say they were not aware Mr Coulson was receiving these payments from News International while employed by the Conservative Party.
As I understand it, after Mr Coulson resigned from News International on 26 January 2007, News International said it would pay him his full entitlement under his two-year contract as editor of the News of the World - although the money would be paid in instalments.
I am told that Mr Coulson also continued to receive his News International work benefits, such as healthcare, for three years, and he kept his company car.
Mr Coulson was appointed as the Conservative Party's Director of Communications on 31 May 2007 and took up the post in July of that year. He was reportedly paid £275,000 a year by the Conservative Party.
News International is the UK arm of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. For decades, leaders of the Tory and Labour parties have battled to win the support of Mr Murdoch's influential newspapers, including the Sun and the Times.
The Tories and Labour have both had to respond to criticisms that they became unhealthily close to Mr Murdoch and his senior executives, including Mr Coulson's predecessor as editor of the News of the World, Rebecca Brooks, who went on to become chief executive of News International - and who has also been arrested on suspicion of involvement in phone hacking and making illegal payments to police officers.
Some will question whether Mr Coulson could give impartial advice on media issues to Mr Cameron when in opposition, given that he retained financial ties to News International.
Mr Coulson's supporters would dispute that his impartiality had been compromised.
When the newspaper's then royal editor, Clive Goodman, was convicted of phone hacking in January 2007 and was imprisoned, Mr Coulson resigned from News International.
Mr Coulson denied any knowledge of the phone hacking but said he felt obliged to quit because the hacking had taken place while he was editor of the News of the World.
A letter written by Mr Goodman in March 2007, disclosed last week by the Culture Media and Sport Committee, claims that phone hacking was routinely discussed in the News of the World's editorial conference, although it does not explicitly say that Mr Coulson knew about hacking.
In May 2010, after the Tories formed a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats, Mr Coulson became Director of Communications for the government. In January of this year, he resigned from that post, following disclosures that criminal activity at the News of the World may have been more widespread than News International had been saying.
Mr Coulson was arrested in July.
David Cameron has had to defend his recruitment of Mr Coulson, following claims he ignored warnings that phone hacking went wider than Mr Coulson had claimed.
A spokesman for News International said: "News International consistently does not comment on the financial arrangements of any individual."
Mr Coulson did not return calls.
Robert Peston @'BBC'

Tinariwen - Tassili (2011 - Albumstream)

Imidiwan Ma Tenam (Feat. Nels Cline)
Asuf D Alwa
Tenere Taqhim Tossam (Feat. Tunde Adebimpe & Kyp Malone)
Ya Messinagh
Walla Illa
Tameyawt
Imidiwan Win Sahara
Tamiditin Tan Ufrawan
Tiliaden Osamnat
Djeredjere
Iswegh Attay


UK release date: 29 August 2011
Review
Free Live Album Download
From The Sahara to NYC


ALBUMSTREAM

ChasLicc Chas Licciardelli

BREAKING: Gaddafi captured for ninth time today, after being killed six times.

exilestreet Mona Street 
Doug Cameron yer gallus and I want yer bairns. No credit card needed #qanda

...and here's what #qanda guest Daniel Pipes wrote about the tragic bushfires here in Victoria in 2009!

McKenzie Wark: 'The Logic of Riots'

FBI Warns anonymous

Rick Perry's Crony Capitalism Problem 

Perry Mines Texas System to Raise Cash for Campaigns

Former Reagan Adviser: 'Rick Perry's an Idiot'

Glenn Greenwald: A prime aim of the growing Surveillance State

The recent UK disorder: bail and sentencing

Kristin Hersh: 'I've only written one book and I didn't know how to write that'

Kristin Hersh: 'I hate music'

Is Twitter destroying its own usefulness?

Critics label Australia's cybercrime bill 'invasion of privacy'

A controversial bill that extends the powers of Australia's police and security agencies to retain emails, text messages and other data used in alleged cyber crimes has encountered a roadblock, with a committee recommending significant changes.
The new cybercrime bill, introduced in June by Attorney-General Robert McClelland, lays out legislative changes that will let Australia accede to an international cyber law convention, touted by the United States as an important bulwark in the fight against cybercrime.
However, critics of the bill - which will also create provisions that allow foreign agencies such as the FBI to request data retention - say it goes too far and will be a significant invasion of privacy and civil liberties.
Many of those submissions included concerns about the extended reach the bill would provide to law enforcement and security agencies, and that there were no legal restrictions regarding how data was used by foreign nations once it was handed over.
''We are [concerned that] there appears to be no way of guaranteeing or enforcing limitations that are supposedly placed on overseas law enforcement agencies,'' spokesman for the Australian Privacy Foundation, Nigel Waters, told the committee during a public hearing earlier this month.
Australia was, per capita, home to more data interception than almost anywhere else in the world, he said, making the concerns about this bill particularly important.
There was some recognition of that concern yesterday, with the joint select committee on cyber safety recommending 13 changes that it said would clarify and tighten conditions under which agencies could access information.
''We want to ensure powers are available to fight cyber crime and that the public has confidence in the scheme,'' the committee chairman, Labor senator Catryna Bilyk, said.
She rejected claims, however, that the bill would allow wholesale retention of people's private data. ''It is not a data retention scheme and it does not allow foreign countries to demand access to private communications, as has been alleged,'' she said.
Greens communications spokesman Scott Ludlam applauded the committee's report, which he said was ''highly critical'' of the draft bill.
''We all want to see enhanced collaboration by law enforcement agencies fighting serious crime, but the proposed law goes well beyond the already controversial European convention on which it is based and could encroach on civil liberties,'' Senator Ludlam said yesterday.
He also criticised the speed with which the bill had travelled through Parliament, saying ''a disturbing pattern of behaviour'' had emerged, with the Attorney-General's Department fast-tracking several national security bills through the parliamentary process. That reduced scrutiny of legislation that could affect civil liberties, he said.
Online users' lobby group Electronic Frontiers Australia said it was keen to see functional and appropriate legislation to combat cybercrime but it was not going to welcome laws that limit civil rights and unnecessarily increase surveillance on Australian citizens, particularly by other countries.
"There are a number of provisions in [the bill] that go well beyond the [European] Convention, into areas such as collection and retention of material on Australians that can potentially be used by third states to undertake legal action against Australians where no Australian law has been broken," said EFA spokesman Stephen Collins.
David Vaile, executive director of the UNSW Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre, said many of the concerns about the bill raised by himself and others had been left "unaddressed or unresolved" by the committee, which he said made minor suggestions for tweaking the Bill.
The Attorney-General, Mr McClelland, welcomed the report.
Dylan Welch and Asher Moses @'The Vine'

The FBI vs. Antiwar.com

The scandal that could bring down Australia's government

Ita Buttrose: Murdoch told me to have someone followed

WTF???

Children aged four in Wales A & E's for drink and drugs

7 Myths the Alcohol Industry Wants You to Believe

The WikiLeaks Palace Revolt

Teenager cleared of setting fire to Miss Selfridge during Manchester riots

Dane Williamson, 18, who spent nine days in prison before being cleared of setting fire to Miss Selfridge in Manchester. Photograph: Chris Bull/Manchester Evening News 
A teenager who spent nine days in prison after being charged with setting fire to Miss Selfridge during the Manchester riots has been cleared after new evidence emerged confirming his innocence.
Dane Williamson, 18, said he had had a nightmarish ordeal after he was charged with being involved in causing £500,000 damage to the Market Street store during the riots, despite having five alibis.
He was charged with criminal damage and being reckless over property damage or endangering life. His name was widely reported and Facebook groups were set up on which he was identified and subjected to abuse.
Williamson's flat in Salford was damaged by fire while he was on remand in Forest Bank prison; he lost all of his possessions and is now homeless. He suffered panic attacks after he was targeted by other prisoners who taunted him about what he had supposedly done.
A 50-year-old man has since been arrested in connection with the incident but Greater Manchester police say they are still searching for those who started the fire.
During his time on remand, Williamson said, he was called a firebug, told by prison staff he would be jailed for life, and initially locked up for 23 hours a day as a category A prisoner.
His solicitor, Kerry Morgan, criticised the judicial system for pursuing instant justice so much it resulted in an innocent man being locked up.
Williamson, who has spent much of his life in care and has two previous convictions, told the Manchester Evening News: "Being in Forest Bank was horrible. I had heard my name all over the radio. In prison I was being treated as if I was already guilty. It was quite scary and an experience I don't want to repeat.
"I was in there for nine days, 23 hours a day locked up in a cell. I was categorised as a category A prisoner at first then reduced to category B. I had a lot of snide comments from officers about the arson, like: 'You're that firebug,' 'You're gonna get time for this,' and 'They're gonna put you in Strangeways.'"
He added: "The worst thing that was said was: 'You're getting life and you're scum.' They must have told other prisoners because some would flick their fingers like a lighter in my face.
"I was going through hell. I was depressed. I was having panic attacks. The stress was awful. I feared I was going to get convicted for something I didn't do, which potentially carried a life sentence.
"While I was in custody I got the news from my solicitor that there had been a fire at my flat. That was very distressing. All my personal belongings and photos were destroyed. I lost my home. On top of everything else it was a final blow."
Williamson told how he had been arrested, saying: "One of my mates had said: 'Are you sure you were not involved in the riots? The photo of the arsonist looks a bit like you.'
"We had a laugh and a joke about it. Two police officers were stood in front of Phones 4 You, and I said: 'I'll prove it's not me,' and walked in front of the coppers. When I came out of the shop they grabbed me and then three more approached and asked if I had been involved in the riots. I said no.
"The next thing I was arrested in the middle of the street on suspicion of arson. I couldn't believe it. It was surreal. I was taken into police custody and it was all very distressing. I was interviewed at Pendleton police station and gave an account of where I was that day. Then I was interviewed again and they were trying to pin the offence on me and get me to admit it. I wasn't having any of it because it was not me."
He was charged with damage to the shop and presented before magistrates. He had been selling CDs on Market Street on the day of the riot but was at his brother's home in Salford during the evening.
Morgan, senior partner with Morgan Brown & Cahill, who represented Williamson, said: "They notified us as part of their duty of ongoing disclosure that they had checked footage in relation to Dane's account of where he was during the day and that CCTV showed him wearing similar clothes to the arsonist, but slightly different.
"Also a police officer had identified someone other than Dane who he thought was the suspect. Those two things undermined their case and as a result Dane was bailed on Thursday by the recorder of Manchester and later that day we received notification that the case against him was being discontinued."
Williamson has spent 17 of his 18 years in care, living in children's homes and foster homes. He has two previous convictions: for possession of cannabis in March this year, and burglary three years ago, when he and friends broke into the reception of a holiday camp. For both offences he was given a youth referral order.
He is annoyed that people were setting up Facebook pages about the riots, naming him and defaming him. He says he does not condone violence or rioting. This year, with the help of the charity Barnardo's, he moved into his own flat in Broughton, Salford, and has completed business courses at college.
Helen Carter @'The Guardian'

Ken Kesey's first trip animated

Via

Secret report casting doubt on Megrahi’s guilt will be published

Joe Strummer on Bruce Springsteen - 'Bruce is great...'

@'Letters of Note'

Financial world dominated by a few deep pockets

Conventional wisdom says a few sticky, fat fingers control a disproportionate slice of the world economy’s pie. A new analysis suggests that the conventional wisdom is right on the money.
Diagramming the relationships between more than 43,000 corporations reveals a tightly connected core of top economic actors. In 2007, a mere 147 companies controlled nearly 40 percent of the monetary value of all transnational corporations, researchers report in a paper published online July 28 at arXiv.org.
“This is empirical evidence of what’s been understood anecdotally for years,” says information theorist Brandy Aven of the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh.
The analysis is a first effort to document the international web of relationships among companies and to examine who owns shares — and how many — in whom. Tapping into the financial information database Orbis, scientists from ETH Zurich in Switzerland examined transnational companies, which they defined as having at least 10 percent of their holdings in more than one country. Then the team looked at upstream and downstream connections, yielding a network of 600,508 economic actors connected through more than a million ownership ties.
This network takes on a bowtie shape, with a large number of diffuse actors in the wings and a few major players tangled up in the tie’s knot. So while it’s true that ownership of publicly held corporations is broadly distributed, says complex systems scientist James Glattfelder, a coauthor of the new work, “take a step back and it’s all flowing into the same few hands.”
While any man on the street may have predicted this outcome, the economic literature portrays markets as so dynamic that they lack hot spots of control, Glattfelder says.
Researchers aren’t sure what to make of the core’s interconnectedness. On the one hand, it could expose the whole network to risk.
“Imagine a disease spreading,” says Aven. “If you have a high school where everyone’s sleeping together and one person gets syphilis, then everyone gets syphilis.”
But on the flip side, she notes, interconnectedness can lead to better self-policing and positive behaviors, such as fair labor practices or environmentally friendly policies.
And even though the status of many players in the analysis has changed drastically since 2007 (now-defunct Lehman Brothers is a key element of the core), the analysis shows that ownership is becoming increasingly concentrated and increasingly transnational, says Gerald Davis of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Because interpreting and analyzing these kinds of data is difficult, he says, the analysis serves more as “an impression of the moon’s surface you get with a telescope. It’s not a street map.”
Ownership can be difficult to study internationally because holding shares in a mutual fund doesn’t necessarily mean the same thing in the U.S. as it does in communist China. And even within a single country ownership can be hard to tease out, says economist Matthew Jackson of Stanford University. For example, when an individual invests in a mutual fund or even purchases shares through an institution like Merrill Lynch, the firm is often still the official owner of the assets. And even when shareholders do have voting rights, they may not exercise them.
“This becomes worrisome if everyone is like me and says I’ll let Vanguard do the voting,” says Jackson. “Maybe we should be a little bit worried. I don’t know if we should be.”
Rachel Ehrenberg @'Science News'

The 30 Harshest Musician-on-Musician Insults in History

Alex Crawford of Sky News as rebels enter heart of Tripoli

One Ring to Rule Them All

Gone, gone, going...gone

Statement by the NATO Secretary General on the situation in Libya

The Qadhafi regime is clearly crumbling. The sooner Qadhafi realises that he cannot win the battle against his own people, the better -- so that the Libyan people can be spared further bloodshed and suffering.

The Libyan people have suffered tremendously under Qadhafi’s rule for over four decades.  Now they have a chance for a new beginning.  Now is the time for all threats against civilians to stop, as the United Nations Security Council demanded.  Now is the time to create a new Libya – a state based on freedom, not fear; democracy, not dictatorship; the will of the many, not the whims of a few.
That transition must come peacefully.  It must come now. And it must be led and defined by the Libyan people. 
NATO is ready to work with the Libyan people and with the Transitional National Council, which holds a great responsibility. They must make sure that the transition is smooth and inclusive, that the country stays united, and that the future is founded on  reconciliation and respect for human rights.
Qadhafi's remaining allies and forces also have a great  responsibility. It is time to end their careers of violence. The world is watching them. This is their opportunity to side with the Libyan people and choose the right side of history.
We will continue to monitor military units and key facilities, as we have since March, and when we see any threatening moves towards the Libyan people, we will act in accordance with our UN mandate.
 Our goal throughout this conflict has been to protect the people of Libya, and that is what we are doing. 
Because the future of Libya belongs to the Libyan people.  And it is for the international community to assist them, with the United Nations and the Contact Group playing a leading role. NATO wants the Libyan people to be able to decide their future in freedom and in peace. Today, they can start building that future.
@'NATO'

GreatDismal William Gibson

Somewhere Gaddafi's Elvis jumpsuits hang in a closet.

Libya

AJEnglish Al Jazeera English 

Watch #AlJazeera's Live Stream for the latest news from #Libya: aje.me/ajelive #Tripoli

moggieboy moggieboy 
Nothing trivial, I hope: nme.com/news/u2/58751

TV's Andy Levy Apologizes To Chris Brown And His Fans

WikiLeaks Statement on Daniel Domscheit-Berg and OpenLeaks

Sat Aug 20 23:41:31 2011 GMT
Five days short of a year ago, on 25 August 2010, WikiLeaks suspended former employee "Daniel Domscheit-Berg". Over the last 11 months, we have tried to negotiate the return of various materials taken by Mr. Domscheit-Berg, including internal communications and over 3000 unpublished, private whistleblower communications to WikiLeaks. Mr. Domscheit-Berg has repeatedly attempted to blackmail WikiLeaks by threatening to make available, to forces that oppose WikiLeaks, these private communications and to which Mr. Domscheit-Berg is not a party. He has stated he will commit this action, should WikiLeaks move to charge him with sabotage or theft. Mr. Domscheit-Berg has refused to return the various materials he has stolen, saying he needs them, solely, to carry out this threat. Mr. Domscheit-Berg has already, secretly, and with malicious intent, disclosed portions of the private communications content to other parties, to the harm of WikiLeaks.
The negotiations have now been terminated by the mediator, Andy Müller-Maguhn, who has stated that he doubts Mr. Domscheit-Berg's integrity and claimed willingness to return the material and that under those circumstances Müller-Maguhn cannot meaningfully continue to mediate. In response, Mr. Domscheit-Berg has stated that he has, or is about to, destroy thousands of unpublished whistleblowers disclosures sent to WikiLeaks. The material is irreplaceable and includes substantial information on many issues of public importance, human rights abuses, mass telecommunications interception, banking and the planning of dozens of neo-nazi groups. Our sources have in some cases risked their lives or freedom attempting to convey these disclosures to WikiLeaks and to the public.
As a matter of policy and implementation WikiLeaks does not collect or retain source identifying information, so fortunately, source identities for this material are not significantly at risk.
WikiLeaks has only made one prior formal statement regarding Mr. Domscheit-Berg, which we issued in February and repeat here:
WikiLeaks has been taking legal action against former employee, Daniel Domscheit-Berg who was suspended from the organization in September. The reasons for these actions will gradually become clear, but some are hinted at by extracts from Domscheit-Berg's book.
In the book Domscheit-Berg confesses to various acts of sabotage against the organization. The former WikiLeaks staffer admits to having damaged the sites primary submission system and stolen material.
The sabotage and concern over motives led to an overhaul of the entire submission system, an ongoing project that is not being expedited due to its complex nature and the organization´s need to focus its resources on publication and defense.
It should be noted that Domscheit-Berg´s roles within WikiLeaks were limited and started to diminish almost a year ago as his integrity and stability were questioned. He has falsely misrepresented himself in the press as a programmer, computer-scientist, security expert, architect, editor, founder, director and spokesman. He is not a founder or co-founder and nor was there any contact with him during the founding years. He did not even have an email address with the organization until 2008 (we launched in December 2006). He cannot program and wrote not a single program for the organization, at any time.
Domscheit-Berg was never an architect for the organization, technically, or in matters of policy. He was a spokesperson for WikiLeaks in Germany at various times, but he was never the spokesman for WikiLeaks, nor was he ever WikiLeaks editor, although he subedited some articles. He was also never a computer scientist, or computer security expert, although he was a computer science student many years ago. His accounts of the crucial times in WikiLeaks history since April last year are therefore based upon limited information or malicious falsifications.
In order to provide an environment which would encourage Mr. Domscheit-Berg to return what he has stolen and not to use it for malicious purposes, we have made no further statements until today.
This diplomatic silence has been difficult for us, and, is perhaps a warning lesson about secret diplomacy. While we have been silent in order to maximize the chances of regaining the material that was entrusted to us, Mr. Domscheit-Berg has issued dozens of legally harmful falsehoods including during our ongoing legal conflict with the Pentagon, during the imprisonment and investigation of two alleged sources, Bradley Manning and Rudolf Elmer and during the imprisonment and extradition hearings of our founder Julian Assange.
Mr. Manning is imprisoned pending trial, Mr. Assange is under house arrest pending extradition. Over 100 WikiLeaks supporters have been arrested or raided by the FBI, Scotland Yard and other police or intelligence services. Publicly declared task forces into WikiLeaks over the last year include the Pentagon (120 personnel), the State Department, the FBI, the US Department of Justice and the CIA. Concurrently, a "secret" Grand Jury in Washington (Alexandria) has been considering whether to indict Julian Assange with espionage as a result of Wikileaks' publishing.
Mr. Domscheit-Berg has acted dishonestly, he has admitted to stealing WikiLeaks property, and has admitted to the deliberate sabotage of Wikileaks’ operations, impeding it from carrying out the will of its sources. He has lied, constantly, and flagrantly, to the public, to us, to our lawyers, and to the mediator, Andy Müller-Maguhn.
We are making this public statement in a final attempt to make Mr. Domscheit-Berg return the data he has stolen, before he destroys it. This material was entrusted to WikiLeaks specifically by our sources, who often go to significant risks to bring us materials under the basis that we will bring their revelations to the public and defend them from censorship. Every day that passes compromises the will of these sources and the efforts they have undertaken.
Mr. Domscheit-Berg has illegitimately taken this data along with Wikileaks’ secure online submissions system, funds and internal documentation. He has sabotaged years of work, none of which was his own. We have had to recreate this work under difficult circumstances. This rebuilding comes at a significant cost to Wikileaks, which is under an unlawful Washington instigated financial blockade enforced by the big US financial companies. This cost is ultimately borne by the public, who fight to keep our operations afloat with contributions of twenty dollars a month or less.

Statement by Julian Assange 
Sat Aug 20 20:21:04 2011 UTC
WikiLeaks does not record or retain source identifying information, however the claimed destruction of documents entrusted to WikiLeaks between January 2010 and August 2010 demands the revelation of inside information so sources can make their own risk assessments.
Early in 2010, Daniel Domscheit-Berg, (then "Daniel Berg", "Daniel Schmitt") (born 1978), who was responsible for keeping selected WikiLeaks backups, met and entered into a relationship with Anke Domscheit-Berg (then, "Anke Domscheit") (born 1968) who described her job title as "Director Government Relations" for Microsoft, Germany.
DDB told me that ADB's role was to interface with the German government on behalf of Microsoft. He was proud that he had been to a party at the German ministry of the interior, as ADB's consort, and that ADB was on intimate terms with senior figures in the German government and bureaucracy.
DDB told me that he had moved into ADBs house in Berlin, without any counter-intelligence cover, going so far as to place his legal name on a street visible mail box and the interior door and that he would work from this location.
At this point WikiLeaks issued a policy directive that DDB not be permitted contact with source material.
ADB and DDB officially married within a few weeks and changed their surnames to "Domscheit-Berg".
DDB secretly, and in clear violation of WikiLeaks internal security directives, recorded internal WikiLeaks encrypted "chat" conversations. He initially publicly denied having done so, but attempted to place many of these recordings into his ghostwritten book, most of which were rejected by his publishers' lawyers as violations of german privacy law. Others he secretly conveyed to hostile media, such as Wired magazine, which had been involved in the arrest and persecution of US intelligence analyst Bradley Manning.
His book, "Inside WikiLeaks", contains many proven malicious libels and breaches of WikiLeaks security policies. The book is promoted throughout U.S. military book stores, by the U.S. military.
After DDB's suspension in August 2010, he managed, through guile, to convince a German WikiLeaks system administrator, who was an old associate of DDB's, to obtain the keys and data for a large quantity of then pending WikiLeaks whistleblower disclosures.
In the last year there has been publicly declared task forces or investigations into WikiLeaks by the CIA, the Pentagon, the FBI, the Department of State, the DoJ, ASIO, ASIS, and the AFP (the last has now been publicly cancelled, finding that no Australian laws have been broken). Many other agencies, such as the NSA have also been involved, but not publicly declared.
I have received a warning from a current Western intelligence officer that DDB has been in contact with the FBI, on more than one occasion, and that the information from this contact was "helpful". I do not know if DDB was complicit with the reported contact.
David House, of the Bradley Manning Support Network, stated publicly, and repeatedly, that U.S. investigative authorities attempted to bribe him to become an informant and infiltrate WikiLeaks activities.
I have been told that the girlfriend of a Berlin-based Israeli intelligence officer attended the wedding of ADB and DDB. This may not be significant.
I have received intelligence from current Western intelligence officer, that Anke Domscheit Berg, personally, came into contact with the CIA during her time working for the McKinsey & Company consulting group. This was a direct, volunteered statement of fact and warning, and not a statement of speculation. I do not know if ADB was complicit in the reported
contact.
J. Assange

Open Letter from Renata Avila