Category: Shills

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Yes Sir, No Sir – Whose Australia Is This Anyway?

The Age has now released some of its clutch of US embassy cables after harvesting them for exclusives and is to be applauded for conforming to the Wikileaks “scientific journalism” process. Today, the Australian Federal Police confirm Wikileaks has not breached the Australian criminal code.

The Australian Wikileaks cables reveal a disturbing pattern of snitching by politicians and union leaders, a disgusting collaboration between right wing elements from Australia and the US.

AWU union boss and zionist Paul Howes surfaces as a confidant of the American Embassy [6/13/2008 2:13 08CANBERRA609 Embassy Canberra].

‘When we reminded Paul Howes (protect), head of the right-wing Australian Workers Union, that ALP politicians from the Left, no matter how capable, do not become party leader, he said immediately: “but she votes with the Right.”‘

Gillard is given gold stars by the US for her pro-Israel sycophancy. This cable [6/10/2009 22:19 09CANBERRA545 Embassy Canberra] makes it explicit that Australian leader’s support for the brutal Israeli occupier is of paramount importance to the US.

PRO-ISRAEL

7. (C/NF) Gillard has thrown off the baggage of being from what one analyst called the “notoriously anti-Israel faction” of the ALP. As Acting Prime Minister in late December 2008, Gillard was responsible for negotiating the Government’s position on Israel’s incursion into Gaza. Left-wing ALP MPs, a group to which Gillard used to belong, wanted her to take a harder line against Israel. Instead, she said Hamas had broken the ceasefire first by attacking Israel – a stance welcomed by Israel’s supporters in Australia. MP Michael Danby, one of two Jewish members of Parliament and a strong supporter of Israel, told us that after the Gaza statement he had a new appreciation of Gillard’s leadership within the ALP (ref B). Israeli Ambassador Yuval Rotem told us that Gillard has gone out of her way to build a relationship with Israel and that she asked him to arrange an early opportunity to visit. He will accompany Gillard and a delegation of Australian officials (including newly-appointed Minister Mark Arbib and Liberal Party heavyweights former Treasurer Peter Costello and Chris Pyne, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) to a meeting of the Australia-Israel Leadership Forum later this month.

The Australian comments on Gillard’s plans for a leadership coup, with Senator Farrell ‘telling US embassy staff in June last year Ms Gillard was trying to knock off Mr Rudd’.

“Don Farrell, the right-wing union powerbroker from South Australia, told us Gillard is ‘campaigning for the leadership’ and at this point is the frontrunner to succeed Rudd, conceding that the Right did not yet have an alternative,” the cable states.

If correct, this means Ms Gillard was eyeing off Mr Rudd’s job before Tony Abbott replaced Malcolm Turnbull as Coalition leader, and before the international climate change talks at Copenhagen had failed and Labor’s carbon pollution reduction scheme was shelved.

At that time, Newspoll had the government ahead by a 10-point two-party-preferred lead over the opposition, and Mr Rudd had a 32-point lead over Coalition leader Malcolm Turnbull as preferred prime minister.

…

The cable says several Rudd “confidants have told us that Rudd appreciates Gillard and sees her as a possible PM, but that he wants to avoid anointing her to head off a possible leadership challenge when his poll numbers inevitably sag”.

They said Mark Arbib, the right-wing powerbroker behind the coup, “once told us a similar story, though he stressed Rudd appreciates Gillard’s strengths. However, another Rudd adviser told us that while the PM respects Gillard, his reluctance to share power will lead to a falling out, while Gillard will not want to acquiesce in creating potential rivals.”

The leaked US embassy briefings show Washington took a keen interest in the rise of Ms Gillard, and her migration from Labor’s Socialist Left faction to the party’s centre. The cables note that after the ALP won government in 2007, Ms Gillard sought to alter her left-wing image, particularly in asserting her credentials as a supporter of Israel and the US alliance.

Australian Ex Secretary of Defence, Primary Industries and Energy, Paul Barratt confirms there are two sine qua nons for being in office in Oz – being pro-ANZUS and pro-Israel. To hold Australia’s top job, one must be pro-imperialism, pro-neoliberalism, and pro-apartheid. No left-wingers or humanists need apply! Remember the lesson the US gave Australia when Gough Whitlam, the last left wing ALP leader, who ended conscription for the appalling US war on the people of Vietnam, was summarily dismissed.

Michael Hand helped forge documents used by the media to discredit the Whirtlam government, while his partner Frank Nugan was the conduit for CIA money to the Liberal Party. Millions of dollars flowed to the conservative parties via Nugan Hand.

Shackley played a key role in the security crisis of November 1975, which revolved around the US military base at Pine Gap. Whitlam had threatened that if the US tried to “bounce” his government, he would look at the presence of US bases in Australia.

The lease for Pine Gap was due for renewal in December 1975. On 10 November 1975, the day before Whitlam was sacked, Shackley sent an extraordinary cable from the CIA to ASIO’s director general, threatening to remove ASIO from the British-US intelligence agreement because he considered Whitlam a security threat.

The cable was published by the Financial Review in 1977 and has been widely reprinted. It shows Shackley’s involvement in the security crisis.

Shackley was furious that Whitlam had accused the CIA of funding the opposition conservative parties and had claimed CIA money was being used to influence domestic Australian politics. In particular, Whitlam was asking questions about the close relationship between Richard Stallings, who ran the so-called joint facility at Pine Gap, and National Party leader Doug Anthony.

“The CIA has grave concerns as to where this type of public discussion may lead”, Shackley’s cable said.

In his 1977 speech calling for a royal commission into the activities of the CIA in Australia, Whitlam called Shackley’s cable “a clear example of the attempted deception of the Australian Government by the American intelligence community … The message was offensive in tone, deceitful in intent and sinister in its implications.”

Australia’s lack of integrity is laid bare by Wikileaks. Another cable, 08CANBERRA609 sent on June 13, 2008, reveals Julia Gillard’s speechwriter, Michael Cooney has been a confidential source of information for United States embassy officials in Australia.

All Australian political snitches and sycophants who have dragged Australia through the mud by asserting a prior allegiance for apartheid Israel and US imperialism should resign NOW!

UPDATE

Arbib claims Fairfax got its facts wrong reporting from WikiLeaks cable :

Senator Arbib told The Weekend Australian yesterday that “the unedited cables show that there are serious factual errors in the original story, which is very disappointing”. The Weekend Australian cross-checked the WikiLeaks cable against the Fairfax report and discovered a comment attributed to Senator Arbib in one report was in fact made by Kevin Rudd’s brother, Greg Rudd.

Several other errors have emerged, including misquoting former US ambassador Robert McCallum and claiming former defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon’s resignation was a “blessing in disguise” when the WikiLeaks cable quoted US officials saying it was a “blessing for the government”.
…
The Australian also established from the cables that Ms Gillard’s speechwriter, Michael Cooney, was designated as a “protected source” by the US embassy, just like Senator Arbib and Mr Howes.

Mr Howes yesterday said he had “no idea what being a protected source means”.

“I have met with the embassy a few times; I know colleagues have as well. The fact that moderates in the ALP support the US alliance is hardly news,” he said.

OTHER NOTABLE POINTS RE THE AUSTRALIAN/US/ISRAEL ALLIANCE

06CANBERRA1366 9/8/2006 :

Beazley: “The Labor Party, for its part, could be counted on to continue to support the alliance’s core elements of ship visits, the joint facilities, and joint exercises.”

“the Howard government had had full knowledge of the Australian Wheat Board’s violations of the Iraq sanctions regime”

“Rudd had also provided a candid description of where Labor differed from the U.S. approach on certain issues, while reaffirming the leadership’s ironclad commitment to the overall alliance.”

“Australians remained obsessed with the United States, and followed Washington,s every move, perhaps to a fault.”

“In the meantime, the Ambassador told Beazley that he was committed to ensuring Washington had a comprehensive picture of Australian views, which meant those of the Opposition and well as those of the Government.”

“The government, and Foreign Minister Downer in particular, had badly misstated the facts, Beazley charged, when Downer claimed in August of 2004 in Beijing that a conflict between the U.S. and China over Taiwan would not necessarily trigger Australia,s ANZUS obligations to aid the U.S. In the event of a war between the United States and China, Australia would have absolutely no alternative but to line up militarily beside the U.S., Beazley said.”

“Labor supported Australia,s military contributions in Afghanistan, and would continue to do so until Hell freezes over, since Australia,s actions clearly fell under its ANZUS obligations to respond to the 9/11 attacks on the U.S. Iraq was different, he maintained, and was a terrible mistake because it damaged, rather than strengthened, the overall war on terror. Labor would not commit an act of vandalism, however, if it came to power.”

“David Hicks was a ratbag who had almost certainly been up to nefarious things, and should probably spend a long time in jail, Beazley said.”

“Although the reasons for Mark Latham’s loss to John Howard in 2004 are legion, Labor recognizes that his multiple, embarrassing pronouncements on issues affecting the alliance represented blunders of the first order”

06CANBERRA1574 10/5/2006 :

(Ongoing as I trawl through the Australian cables)

Today’s Wikilinks

HRW – US: Don’t Prosecute WikiLeaks Founder
WikiLeaker Bradley Manning’s Brutal Detention
Julian Assange bail decision made by UK authorities, not Sweden
State Department Bars Employees From Reading Wikileaks on ‘Personal Time’
The evolving Wikileaks website (and its attackers) – Watch Washington try and find something, anything, to get Julian Assange and how many Western states are keen to help them.
The Media Gets It Wrong on WikiLeaks: It’s About Broken Trust, Not Broken Condoms
WikiLeaks cables: Thai leaders doubt suitability of prince to become king
Misuse of the European arrest warrant
Wikileaks is currently mirrored on 2194 sites
U.S. Air Force blocks NYT, Guardian over WikiLeaks
Afghan civilian killed and children hurt in NATO strike
The Costs of War: Afghan Civilian Casualties Spike, says ICRC
Protect Assange, Don’t Abuse Him
2010-12-16: German newspapers call for WikiLeaks protection
How the US could charge Assange
Helping US spy on Fiji in the name of democracy
2010-12-16: Sweden case updates: Bail appeal hearing [Update 1]
TIME picks ‘wrong person’ this year
WikiLeaks’s Assange walks free on bail in London
Congress Hears WikiLeaks Is ‘Fundamentally Different’ From Media
Angry Wikileaks founder Julian Assange back online
Angry Assange back online
Rundle: Assange, the wikikids, a soldier, mum, an Icelandic ice-god … then it starts again
United States Antarctic Program Responds to Wikileaks: You Are Not Allowed to Look at the Classified Information That’s All Over the Internet.
Wikileaks’ Julian Assange tells of ‘smear campaign’
WikiLeaks: Anonymous hierarchy emerges
WikiLeaks cables: India accused of systematic use of torture in Kashmir
India: Official Spokesperson on allegations by Red Cross as per Wikileaks
WikiLeaks: US fears bioweapons from India labs
Sir Tim Berners-Lee on WikiLeaks Vs. Open Government
WikiLeaks cables: Mervyn King plotted banks bailout by four cash-rich nations
US embassy cables: Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya received many death threats, said embassy contact
US embassy cables: Pirate party rides an electoral wave in Sweden
WikiLeaks: CIA torture flights through Shannon

Today’s Australian Wikilinks

WikiLeaks: Fruit of an unhealthy tree (shill for imperialism)
Australian Documentary Makers Sign Petition in Support of Julian Assange and Wikileaks
Let’s start counting; how many Aussie politicians or advisers are leaking to US?
Australia and Canada working together to kill Afghans (and private firms keen to help out)
Greens demand Murdoch hack get a clue and fired
Julia Gillard ‘after top job a year before coup’: WikiLeaks
India and Sri Lanka are our mates (and they cause violence)
I am not a fan of WikiLeaks says Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard
PM must retract “illegal” WikiLeaks claim
Julia Gillard : Australia – Transcript of press conference, 17 december 2010
Balibo five: our secret blacklist
Leaked Cable: Hike Food Prices To Boost GM Crop Approval In Europe

Today’s Palestine / Israel Links

‘The Palestine Cables’: WikiLeaks dox expose Netanyahu’s vision of Palestinian bantustan (I already spotted this from the outset)
Apartheid Israel-style : Law to keep Jews and Arabs apart
GENERAL ASSEMBLY CONCLUDES TWO-DAY DEBATE, ADOPTING SIX RESOLUTIONS : ON QUESTION OF PALESTINE, SITUATION IN MIDDLE EAST All Texts Adopted by Recorded Vote; Speakers Say Israel’s Intransigence
Harms Peace Effort, United States’ Delegation ‘Disheartened’ by One-Sided Focus (Australia crawls to US and Israel and votes with them and for racism) 30th Nov, 2010
Inside the moral corruption of Israeli society
BDS update: ‘Besiege your siege!’
After protest by Jordan, Israel denies plans to expand East Jerusalem hotel
Muslims criticize handling of Israelis’ stay at D.C. hotel
#BDS: Marrickville Council supports BDS
Adidas, Don’t Help Running Apartheid: Cancel Sponsorship of Jerusalem Marathon!
ISRAEL: Jerusalem Marathon runs into politics
Dissolve The Palestinian Authority
Israel never really wanted peace
The rabbis’ racist letter: many words, little action
The problem with Israel’s Jewish ‘refugee’ initiative
In A Letter Send To Turkish PM; Likud MK Says Israel Should Have Killed All Marmara Passengers
Israeli Military demolishes water wells and cisterns in the South Hebron Hills
Bon Jovi to perform in Israel for first time
Israeli towns continue to rewrite bylaws to keep Arabs out
Israel’s Ayalon: No intention to apologize to Turkey
Open letter from the Jerusalem Palestinian Legislative Council members
Israeli police ravaged Palestinian store in Jerusalem
NGO Monitor’s smear campaign against the Electronic Intifada
The farce of a secular and democratic Jewish state
Blair blasts isolation of Gaza, says doesn’t weaken Hamas
To Motorola: We Don’t Want Your Dirty Phones
The Return of “Plan B” and the Death of the Peace Process
Linkage and its discontents: What WikiLeaks reveals about Israel-Palestine
Israel, anti-Semitism and the black humour of hypocrisy
Israel Doesn’t Need the West Bank To Be Secure – Martin van Creveld misses the point
Despite court ruling, IDF took Arab land for train line
Arab students get harsh lesson in racism from holy city
Free the Children of Palestine! Petition
Village is under attack in nabi saleh! One wounded badly

Other Links

Study Confirms That Fox News Makes You Stupid
FOXLEAKS: Fox boss ordered staff to cast doubt on climate science
Do supporters of Nobel winner Liu Xiaobo really know what he stands for?
Security Concil’s Big Five send senior-level naval delegations to Colombo – utterly vomitous
Get your act together or risk losing US ally, EU foreign policy chief tells leaders
Berlusconi-bashing tweets shut down EU summit experiment
Public Money May Fund European Arms
Let Us Pay: John Lanchester on the future of the newspaper industry
‘Supervision’ is not enough; the IPCC must handle this investigation themselves

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Curiouser and Curiouser – How Deep is the Rabbit Hole?

Michael C. Moynihan at the rightwing libertarian Reason magazine suggests Wikileaks has been infiltrated by Israel Shamir aka Jöran Jermas, Adam Ermash, Adam Shlessing, Izrail Schmerler, Vassili Krasevsky, Jorge Gold and Robert David, inveterate anti-semite, and son Johannes Wahlström, ‘himself accused of anti-Semitism and falsifying quotes’. Moynihan already pinpointed Shamir for spreading disinformation about the CIA orchestrating sex crime allegations against Julian Assange.

Strip away the caginess and the obfuscation—remember, no one is allowed secrets but WikiLeaks – and Hrafnsson, who took over spokesman duties when Assange was jailed last week, confirms that WikiLeaks chose Shamir to work with their Russian media partners. After its investigation, the Swedish Radio program Medierna concluded flatly that “Israel Shamir represents WikiLeaks in Russia.”

Moynihan, senior editor at Reason, gained notoriety himself from involvement in ‘the protest movement “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” which began in May 2010. The movement grew in response to censorship by Comedy Central of an episode of South Park which depicted the Prophet Muhammad’.

For verification of the Wikileaks/Shamir story, I’ve trawled through Moynihan’s source material.

According to Magnus Ljunggren, Professor Emeritus of Russian Literature at the University of Gothenburg [TR]

In an extensive commentary, jointly signed by the editor and Shamir and bearing the title “How the world will explode in the air of a great Wikileaks’, explained that the latter has exclusive access to Assanges documentation – in the same way, therefore, that the son in Sweden.

Ljunggren continues, saying that a photo of Shamir with Assange prompted

Yulia Latynina, based in Anna Politkovskaya of Novaya Gazeta to go out on the radio station Echo Moskvy with the question: What does it mean that Assange let themselves be represented by an extremist? She said that Shamir also offered their materials to the newspaper Kommersant, but met with a cold shoulder, for it would not take him with pliers.

Her conclusion was that it is a shame that Wikileaks documents in other countries were analyzed by experienced journalists, but in Russia by a total incompetent and deceitful Jew hater.

Karin Olsson notes on her blog at Expressen:

Expressen Kultur’s article today has P1’s media put out Saturday’s program in advance. There Wikileaks spokesperson confirms that Israel Shamir is working for them and that they know of his anti-Semitic background. De har också en intervju där Israel Shamir förnekar sitt faderskap till Wahlström. Hör inslaget här. They also have an interview with Israel Shamir denies his paternity of Wahlstrom.

On Swedish Radio:

It is Wikileaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson confirming the media Israel Shamir involvement with Wikileaks – but would not accept that there would be no problem for the organization.

Moynihan, who has lived in Sweden, annotates the radio interview:

Wahlström and Shamir, father and son, are the WikiLeaks representatives for two rather large geographic areas. According to Swedish Radio’s investigation, Wahlström is the gatekeeper of the cables in Scandinavia, and “has the power to decide” which newspapers are provided access and what leaks they are allowed to see. (At the time of filing, Wahlström had yet to respond to an email request for comment.)

In Russia, the magazine Russian Reporter says that it has “privileged access” to the material through Shamir, who told a Moscow newspaper that he was “accredited” to work on behalf of WikiLeaks in Russia. But Shamir has a rather large credibility problem, so Swedish Radio put the question directly to WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson.

Swedish Radio: Israel Shamir…Are you aware of him? Do you know him?

Kristinn Hrafnsson, Wikileaks spokesman: Yes. Yes, he is associated with us.

SR: So what is his role?
Hrafnsson: Well, I mean, we have a lot of journalists that are working with us all around the world. And they have different roles in working on this project. I won’t go into specifics into what each and everybody’s role is.

SR: Are you aware of how controversial Israel Shamir is in an international context?

Hrafnsson: There are a lot of controversial people around the world that are associated with us. I don’t really see the point of the question.

SR: Are you aware of the allegations that he is an anti-Semite?

Hrafnsson: I have heard those allegations…yes, yes. [Pause] What is the question really there?

SR: The question is, do you that that would [sic] be a problem?

Hrafnsson: No, I’m not going to comment on that.

The Moscow Times investigates the Russian Reporter’s association with Shamir:

Shpak refuted criticism that Russian Reporter, which belongs to the Kremlin-friendly Expert publishing group, was withholding material damning to the authorities.

“You can read allegations arguing the exact opposite — that we just publish damning material — in the patriotic press,” he said by phone.

The magazine has cooperated with Israel Shamir, a Russian-born Israeli journalist, on WikiLeaks.

But Shpak denied that Shamir alone was responsible for the magazine’s access to WikiLeaks.

Shamir said by phone that he was a freelancer who was “accredited” to WikiLeaks. “This means I have working relations with them but does not mean going to the banya together,” he said.

He also denied allegations that one of the cables quoted by Russian Reporter was forged.

Writing in The Moscow Times earlier this week, liberal journalist Yulia Latynina said the magazine had made up quotes from a report about EU diplomats’ instructions before a speech by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

“The cable is real, it has just not been published yet,” Shamir said.

RFE/RL (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is funded by the U.S. Congress) says:

According to the magazine “Russky Reporter,” for example, the famous walkout by Western diplomats during Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad’s speech to the United Nations in September 2009 was not spontaneous and had in fact been planned by Washington.

The magazine, citing WikiLeaks documents, claimed in a December 2 article that U.S. officials gave detailed instructions to EU representatives on when to leave the room during Ahmadinejad’s speech. The claim, if substantiated, could be deeply embarrassing to the United States.

But unlike other media reporting on the WikiLeaks revelations, “Russky Reporter” provided no documents to back up its allegations. An extensive search of the WikiLeaks database fails to yield relevant U.S. cables, causing some analysts to suggest the magazine might be exploiting WikiLeaks to propagate false information.

“The problem is that what should be backed by the cables does not actually appear in the published cables,” says Yulia Latynina, one of several Russian journalists to have voiced doubts over the credibility of “Russky Reporter,” which claims to have a privileged relationship with WikiLeaks. “This allegation is left hanging in the air, to put it mildly.”

WikiLeaks did not respond to repeated requests for comment about the existence of the cables and its relationship with “Russky Reporter.”

…

“Russky Reporter” claims to be one of the few media outlets that were given early access to WikiLeaks’ quarter-million U.S. cables.

Only four media organizations, however, are known to be collaborating directly with WikiLeaks: “The Guardian” in Britain, “Le Monde” in France, “El Pais” in Spain, and “Der Spiegel” in Germany.

“The Guardian” has shared the material with “The New York Times” and the five newspapers have been advising WikiLeaks on which documents to release, what redactions to make, and when to publish.

Unlike “Russky Reporter,” these newspapers have carried stories relating exclusively to cables that have been simultaneously released by WikiLeaks and coordinated with the publication in question.

In an interview with RFE/RL’s Russian Service, Leibin says that his magazine’s collaboration with WikiLeaks is slightly different.

“To be accurate, we’re not cooperating in the same way as ‘The Guardian’ or ‘The New York Times.’ Their staff journalists worked together with WikiLeaks activists going through this vast database to find things they were interested in publishing,” Leibin says. “In our case, a freelance journalist worked for us: Israel Shamir, who has been an activist with WikiLeaks. It simply turned out that we knew an activist from WikiLeaks.”

Shamir could not be reached for comment.

In an apparent attempt to dispel any doubt about its ties with the secret-leaking website, the magazine has posted a photo of Shamir standing next to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on its website.

The Russian Reporter article containing the photo of Shamir and Assange is penned by Israel Shamir and Vitaly Leibin.

That the materials were able to reach interested readers, the publication will be implemented in concert with the leading magazines of the world, the main partner in Russia – “Russian Reporter”.

…

Head and founder of Wikileaks Julian Assange fled from persecution in northern Europe. Next to him is now a journalist Israel Shamir , thanks to his work “Russian reporter” gets preliminary materials before they become public.

Assange and ShamirIs this photo bona fide? there’s no exif information. The shadow on Shamir ends before it crosses the red on his right side. The edge of the shadow cast by Assange on Shamir’s clothing is very sharp compared with the shadow on Assange’s clothing. There’s some odd pixelation on the right side of Assange’s face.

Is Wikileaks and in particular Julian Assange aware of Shamir and son’s dubious affiliations? what is Shamir hoping to gain through his involvement in Wikileaks? is RFE/RL running a counter campaign?

UPDATE MARCH 2011

WikiLeaks statement that was given to, but not used by, the UK satirical current-affairs magazine, Private Eye:

Israel Shamir has never worked or volunteered for WikiLeaks, in any manner, whatsoever. He has never written for WikiLeaks or any associated organization, under any name and we have no plan that he do so. He is not an ‘agent’ of WikiLeaks. He has never been an employee of WikiLeaks and has never received monies from WikiLeaks or given monies to WikiLeaks or any related organization or individual. However, he has worked for the BBC, Haaretz, and many other reputable organizations.

It is false that Shamir is ‘an Assange intimate’. He interviewed Assange (on behalf of Russian media), as have many journalists. He took a photo at that time and has only met with WikiLeaks staff (including Asssange) twice. It is false that ‘he was trusted with selecting the 250,000 US State Department cables for the Russian media’ or that he has had access to such at any time.

Shamir was able to search through a limited portion of the cables with a view to writing articles for a range of Russian media. The media that subsequently employed him did so of their own accord and with no intervention or instruction by WikiLeaks.

We do not have editorial control over the of hundreds of journalists and publications based on our materials and it would be wrong for us to seek to do so. We do not approve or endorse the the writings of the world’s media. We disagree with many of the approaches taken in analyzing our material.

Index did contact WikiLeaks as have many people and organisations do for a variety of reasons. The quote used here is not complete. WikiLeaks also asked Index for further information on this subject. Most of these rumors had not, and have not, been properly corroborated. WikiLeaks therefore asked Index to let us know if they had received any further information on the subject. This would have helped WikiLeaks conduct further inquiries. We did not at the time, and never have, received any response.

Shamir Links

Israel Shamir and Julian Assange’s cult of machismo
On Anna Ardin, Israel Shamir and glass houses
Russian Reporter – How exactly Wikileaks will blow the world
Medierna – Confirmed for the media: notorious anti-Semite working on Wikileaks
Karin Olsson Blog – Wikileaks messenger – Wahlstrom and Shamir – must be reviewed
Daddy’s Boy?
THE ISRAEL SHAMIR CASE
Israel Shamir exposed! A fake or a plant?
E-mail: SERIOUS CONCERNS ABOUT ISRAEL SHAMIR
Lord Ahmed’s unwelcome guest
Putin Bristles Over Leaked U.S. Cables
Critics Allege Russian Magazine Is Misrepresenting WikiLeaks Cables
Israeli writer is Swedish anti-Semite
WikiFakes watch: Russia
Israel Shamir: Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
WikiLeaks employs Israeli-Swedish Holocaust-denier
Opinion: WikiLeaks and its anti-Semitic spokesmen
Victims, jilted lovers or undercover agents
Head of the Belarusian President’s Administration Uladzimri Makei had a meeting with Israel Shamir, representative of WikiLeaks website’s founder.
Telling Shamir quote? “For a smear that really sticks, you need to get it from an ex-apostle. An accusation by a Caiaphas does not impress. If you are targeting a leftist, hire leftists.”

Today’s Wikilinks

Uncle Sam vs Wikileaks – game
WIKILEAKS – UK
XKCD Wikilinks comic (don’t miss the ALT text)
A Bayesian Take on Julian Assange

Most Americans critical of WikiLeaks dump: poll
Don’t let the evidence get in the way of a good conspiracy theory
Spamhaus’ False Allegations Against wikileaks.info
Julian Assange’s bail challenged in high court by Sweden

Today’s Australian Wikilinks

Link to Wikileaks cables at The Age – ‘The Age believes it is acting in the public interest by publishing both news reports on these matters and selected cables on which those reports are based.’ Good 🙂
The Age Australian Wikileaks cables
Reader riposte: WikiLeaks
Secrets And Leaks
WikiLeaks exposes the two faces of America
Out of the war: policies for an Australian contribution to a sustainable peace in Afghanistan
WIKILEAKS founder Julian Assange may not have broken the law by publishing leaked diplomatic cables, Treasurer Wayne Swan has conceded.

Today’s Palestine / Israel Links

‘We’ll Wipe Israel Off the Map’ and Other Things Ahmadinejad Never Said
Danny Ayalon Plays a Losing Blame Game
The Press Release ADC Never Issued About FBI Raids
Instead of befriending neo-fascists, Israel should make peace
Hussein Ibish And The Good Old Days
BDS hits the Sydney suburbs

Other Links

Scientists Figure Out How to Erase Pathological Fear
Australian Coastlines after global warming

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Hypo-ethical

On The Drum, Jonathan Holmes has broached the Fairfax vessel and uncovered its seedy motives for ignoring the ‘scientific journalism’ process made possible by Wikileaks and extolled by Assange.

Third, Julian Assange has made another claim for WikiLeaks, which he says sets it apart from other media organisations. According to this op-ed in The Australian last week:

WikiLeaks coined a new type of journalism: scientific journalism. We work with other media outlets to bring people the news, but also to prove it is true. Scientific journalism allows you to read a news story, then to click online to see the original document it is based on. That way you can judge for yourself: Is the story true? Did the journalist report it accurately?

Well, WikiLeaks clearly doesn’t insist on ‘scientific journalism’ being practised by all the media outlets with which it’s working. The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald are still publishing story after story by Philip Dorling – stories that have deeply embarrassed or compromised Kevin Rudd, Mark Arbib, Joel Fitzgibbon, and Stephen Gumley, to name just a few, not to mention the US Embassy in Canberra. But we can’t judge for ourselves if Dorling has reported accurately or fairly, because Fairfax hasn’t posted a single cable online.

On Monday I sent an email to SMH editor-in-chief Peter Fray, asking him why not. His response (read it in full here) makes it clear that the primary reason is to protect not the public, but Fairfax’s commercial, interest:

…the volume of material in The Australian referenced cables means we are still mining the source documents. There are, for instance, several potential stories in each cable; to put the material online would be to give access to our competitors in the local market.

That’s not a line of reasoning that has prevented The Guardian, the New York Times, Der Spiegel, Le Monde or any other of WikiLeaks’s collaborators from posting cables online to support their stories; and it would seem to be in direct contravention of the principles espoused by Julian Assange. Perhaps he’s been too preoccupied by other matters recently to have noticed.

Philip Dorling has undoubtedly scored a major scoop for Fairfax. Most of the stories he’s writing – and there are goodness knows how many to come – are fascinating, especially to politics and foreign policy junkies. But we’re having to take them on trust, and we shouldn’t have to. And very few are telling us stuff we didn’t already know (Kevin Rudd’s a control freak; Defence Procurement is a mess; China doesn’t like the Defence White Paper): what they are telling us is that the US Embassy knew it too, often before we did. Surprise, surprise.

The Australian puts in its bib bleating “We would have loved the leaks given to Fairfax papers but we note the problems they have had sieving wheat from chaff”, patting itself and the rest of the mainstream media on the back for raising Wikileak’s circulation, and filtering the information on behalf of an inept public. This is the sort of contemptuous attitude which further encourages one to distrust Australian dead wood media generally. The UK Guardian has managed to keep its pact with its readers, while Australians are deemed inadequate.

Geoffrey Robertson, QC is to defend Julian Assange tonight in old Blighty, and this will not be televised but live-blogged at the Guardian. Around the globe, demonstrations for Wikileaks and Julian Assange proliferate, and ‘all-out cyberwar’ is presaged following the trial.

Hearing

@newsbrooke Heather Brooke
In an amazing nod to the fact we live in digital age, judge has said we can tweet #assange. So I will be along w @AlexiMostrous #

Today’s Wikilinks

Julian Assange to appear in court to appeal for release
RBS chairman said directors ‘failed to live up to their duties’
Mervyn King plotted banks bailout by four cash-rich nations
Wikileaks Events and protests
In Defense of DDoS
Iceland may ban MasterCard, Visa over WikiLeaks censorship
A brilliant fan-made video
J’Accuse: Sweden, Britain, and Interpol Insult Rape Victims Worldwide
The US Government’s pursuit of WikiLeaks could be its undoing
‘Draconian’ whistleblowing laws need an overhaul, says academic
George Monbiot: These astroturf libertarians are the real threat to internet democracy
Why Wikileaks is now splitting the liberal elite
Criminal Prohibitions on the Publication of Classified Defense Information
Wikiriver – wikileaks newsfeed

Today’s Australian Wikilinks

‘Defend Wikileaks’ Australian rallies & meetings
More than 1000 WikiLeaks protesters have vowed to march through Sydney today despite being refused permission by police.
Julian Assange’s overdue library book
WikiLeaks ‘a risk’: Defence Minister Smith

Rallies defend Wikileaks and the ‘right to know’
Lowy Institute Rory Medcalf “The website is bad for diplomacy and encourages voyeurism”. Newspeak for public scrutiny of politicians?
Sydney rally – http://yfrog.com/h2spfuj, http://yfrog.com/gyqxnnj, http://yfrog.com/h05m8aj, http://yfrog.com/h03k2jgj, http://yfrog.com/gy29tjj, http://yfrog.com/h0hz6hj, http://yfrog.com/h34yxnj, http://yfrog.com/h4w6otj, http://twitpic.com/3fsstd, http://twitpic.com/3fsoon, http://twitpic.com/3fsr4k, http://twitpic.com/3fsrl4

WikiLeaks protesters stopped by riot police – Sydney
Defending Wikileaks faces Oprah-obsessed police force

Melbourne rally – http://yfrog.com/h2oy3bnj, http://yfrog.com/h3nc7apj, http://yfrog.com/h4mgqbtj, http://yfrog.com/h2lm8nj, http://yfrog.com/h3si1lj, http://yfrog.com/h3wcmjj, http://yfrog.com/h37ioaj, http://yfrog.com/h05m8aj, http://yfrog.com/0cv2bz, http://yfrog.com/gyty5bj, http://yfrog.com/gy8qvuj, http://yfrog.com/h0qlngj, http://yfrog.com/h0kxqtj, http://yfrog.com/h4xksdj
LCA reins in profession over WikiLeaks outrage

Today’s Palestine / Israel Links

Rescuing Zionism at Palestinian expense – Ali Abunimah shows how the US has chosen racism and Israel over Palestinian human rights and justice.
Gaza Health Ministry: 137 of required medicines out of stock
Stormy weather adds to plight of Gaza’s refugees
US editorial says Israel similar to North Korea
Knesset Approves New Law Preventing Detainees From Meeting Lawyers For Six Month
EU shelves recognition of Palestine
Chances of two-state solution in Palestine seen fading away – sorry, already gone
Internal pressure on Netanyahu mounts over prospect of apology to Turkey
Hamas reiterates all of Palestine claim
2011 ‘difficult’ for Mideast peace: Rudd – ‘Israel’s “settlement activity should cease and it must cease”‘.
Rudd: “What we need to see is not another peace process. What we need to see is a peace outcome.” Let’s have a justice outcome, please Kev. Equal rights, an end to occupation and recognition of right of return.
Israel’s War On Jerusalem Children
Scott Horton Interviews Max Blumenthal
Two more leftwing activists summoned to a meeting with Israel’s General Security Service
Asia2Gaza protest against Israel at Palestine square in Tehran
Israel and the Misrule of Law
Israel refuses entry to Palestinian firefighters being honored for Carmel fire assistance
Arab actor: Boycott Israeli cinema
Tourists in Washington: anatomy of an European Mideast failure
The Internet Goes to War

Other Links

Richard Holbrooke Dead: Diplomat Dies At 69
Police drag protester from wheelchair – the Beeb outdoes itself for squalid interviewing.
Jody McIntyre’s inspired reporting on Electronic Intifada.
How Holbrooke Lied His Way into a War
Tony Blair’s ex-roommate shut down inquest into death of David Kelly

Posted on

Of Mitherin’ Clutterbucks and Mordor

More than two weeks after Wikileaks began publishing US embassy cables, Fairfax is still printing “exclusives” from its treasure trove of leaks without linking to the source, subverting the process to which the honourable Guardian adhers by making its cables available for public scrutiny and interpretation. The Guardian blew the whistle on fake documents published last week by Pakistani dailies, so one might presume that if the Fairfax cables were not authentic, they too would be exposed. Crikey’s Bernard Keane has pointed out Fairfax’s ignominy. Asad Abukhalil is vouching for the authenticity of additional cables published by Al Akhbar. There are even more cables streaming from Indoleaks in Indonesia, according to the Jakarta Globe.

As far as I am aware, no Australian media is linking directly to Wikileaks cables, despite 1885 mirror sites in Australia and elsewhere. Since the Australian Attorney General has muttered that it may take the Australian Federal Police up to a year to locate a crime to fit the cables’ release, our gutless media may be hedging its bets.

In another article, Keane nails Mastercard, Paypal and Visa for providing service for donations to illegal Israeli settlement activities.

‘Visa, Mastercard and PayPal all enable donations to be made to US-registered groups funding illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank in defiance of international law.

It appears at least one of the major credit cards also enables donations to an extremist Jewish group that has placed a bounty on the lives of Palestinians.’

As I’ve previously revealed, an Australian Zionist organisation, the United Israel Appeal’s New South Wales branch, also offers online credit card facilities for tax deductible donations to its Women’s Division, 50% of whose funds are directed toward the consolidated revenue of Keren Hayesod which is involved in illegal Israeli ‘national’ heritage projects in the West Bank.

Currently, Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd is in Israel causing waves with his demands for Israel to submit to IAEA inspections and renew the settlement freeze.

“Our view has been consistent for a long period of time, and that is that all states in the region should adhere to the NPT, and that includes Israel.”

But it is what he added next by referring to International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors that has caught Israeli officials by surprise: “And therefore their nuclear facility should be subject to IAEA inspection.”

He was speaking before reports that a WikiLeaks cable suggested Australia, along with the US, could be drawn into a nuclear war in the Middle East if Israel were to attack Iran in an attempt to disable its nuclear program.

Perhaps Rudd hasn’t noticed that Lieberman told the Russians in 2009 that Israel did not intend attacking Iran, nor that Israel has repeatedly, deliberately and tactically linked ‘peace’ with Palestinians with the US confronting Iran. That this fiction about an attack on Iran must be maintained when the IAEA inspectors have not found any evidence of wrongdoing is annoying. The Israelis can’t attack without US support. The US would prefer a non-confrontational dialogue with Iran. Senator Kerry made this perfectly clear in February, 2010. Thus, ‘peace’ with Palestinians is also a fiction.

“There’s nowt wrong wi’ owt what mitherin’ clutterbucks don’t barley grummit!”

Israeli officials were not surprised by Mr Rudd’s call for Israel to sign the NPT but were taken aback by his call for IAEA inspections. One high-ranking Israeli official said: “I don’t remember any Australian minister saying (Israel’s) facilities should be put under inspection.”

…

On settlements, which have been at the centre of the collapse of direct peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians, Mr Rudd said: “The position of the Australian government has long been clear. We do not support new settlement construction and the reason is that it undermines the prospects of the successful prosecution of peace negotiations.”

Mr Rudd said the Australian government fully understood Israel’s security concerns from Gaza, but that settlements were “a different matter”.

He expressed concern after comments by Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, that if the peace talks achieved nothing he might dissolve the Palestinian Authority and hand over day-to-day running of the West Bank to Israel. “There is a second reality also, which is what security challenges Israel would face if the peace process entirely collapses, if the Palestinian Authority totally disengages or if Abu Mazen were to give effect to what he publicly implied in his recent statements about folding the authority, or if the moderate Arab states would begin to adopt a different posture against a protracted and non-successful peace negotiating process.”

Mr Rudd warned that there may be serious consequences if the peace process collapsed.

“All of us, if we are any students of the history of the last decade or so, have a grasp of what can go wrong, and what can go wrong big time if the Palestinian people don’t have a stake in a negotiated outcome,” he said.

For Palestinians, there are serious consequences if the peace process continues, because the interminable peace process is and has always been a facade for more Israeli land theft. Netanyahu called the US bluff with his refusal to stop settlement building despite handsome US bribes and now further, insisting Jerusalem will not be shared. Unless there are concrete repercussions from the US and other nations, the Israel will continue to steal, murder and occupy in pursuit of its expansionist strategy and goal. Is Kevin a knowing participant in this ongoing villainous mythology? A brief examination of a map of the illegal West Bank settlements should be enough for him to realise the two state solution is a vexatious illusion and a de facto one state with discontinuous, unofficial bantustans is the present reality. Israel is an apartheid state to be engaged accordingly with a tangible justice process through boycotts, divestments and sanctions to shortcircuit the duplicitous ‘peace process’ charade.

Meanwhile, somewhere in a cavern in Mordor, US gollums are plotting a star chamber, associated pseudo-laws and an attempt to spirit Julian Assange, the bearer of inconvenient tidings, into their pocketses.

Today’s Wikilinks

Inside Story – WikiLeaks’ financial crisis
How to Support Julian Assange & Wikileaks
Wikileaks.org domain comes back online, helped by new DNS providers
Indoleaks Touts Revealing WikiLeaks Documents, But Technical Problems Persist | The Jakarta Globe
Julian Assange Boasted About ‘Asian Teengirl Stalkers’ In Online Dating Profile
Foreign Office memo shows 2002 plan to sell Iraq invasion to UK media
America, the Grim Truth
America’s Facile, Self-Congratulatory Response to Wikileaks
Julian Assange wined and dined at US Embassy
Call for action over death calls
China: A Nobel Peace Prize for Assange?
Sweden colluding with US to charge Assange with espionage
Wikileaks mum in UK mercy dash
Cablegate Reveals Government Requesting Access to Microsoft Data, Kill Switches
Danish Politiken mirrors Wikileaks on Amazon servers
Wikileaks Christmas Song 2010
Assange attorney: Grand jury meeting in Virginia on WikiLeaks
WikiLeaks Can Survive Swedish, U.S. Assange Probes, Lawyers Say
Another cable searcher
Assange lawyers say US preparing charges
Imperialist diplomacy exposed: Behind the witch-hunt of WikiLeaks and Julian Assange
There Is Something To See Here
Peter Ludlow on “The Political Philosophy of Julian Assange”
Vatican reaction to WikiLeaks claims (LOLOL)
WikiLeaks row: why Amazon’s desertion has ominous implications for democracy
Rumsfeld: Government documents in new memoir, but not like WikiLeaks
Of Wikileaks, Whistleblowers and Whipping Boys
US Poll: People Behind WikiLeaks Should be Prosecuted (how dumbed down are Americans!!)
The Swedish prosecutor denies political pressure from the United States. From Wikileaks published documents show the opposite.
Hilarious: ‘XXXXXXXXXXXX passed on the suggestion from his North Korean interlocutors that the USG arrange for Eric Clapton to perform a concert in Pyongyang. As Kim Jong-il’s second son, Kim Jong-chol, is reported to be a great fan, the performance …could be an opportunity to build good will.’
WikiLeaks founder Assange says Pentagon plans prosecution
Inside Story – WikiLeaks and the craft of journalism
Food for thought. Updated Sunday 12 December
WikiLeaks may make the powerful howl, but we are learning the truth
Rundle: timeline of Assange’s visit to Sweden and events that followed
Swedish Police Leak May Clear Assange
WikiRebels
WikiLeaks cyber war: pro-Assange Anonymous v US nationalists
The Ballad of Julian Assange
What makes Assange tick from somebody who should know
Leaks and Leakers : NO QUARTER
WikiLeaks: Tying Assange to Manning Won’t Be Easy
WikiLeaks release ‘deplorable’: Obama
Hyperdemocracy
PdF Presents: A Symposium on Wikileaks and Internet Freedom
Danish search engine for cables
Why did I back Julian Assange? It’s about justice and fairness
Wikileaks and arms sales | Jewbonics
Sodomy charges were a set-up

Today’s Australian Wikilinks

Rudd defends Assange’s rights
Israel praises Labor allies
Lawyers defend WikiLeaks founder Assange
Defence costings dodgy
In other leaked US cables, Australian diplomats are reported as telling their US counterparts that the Australian government was ”completely aligned” with the United States in regard to Iran.
Rudd derided ‘loathsome’ Ahmadinejad – ‘Israel saw Australia ”as playing an important role in the ‘global PR battle’ on Iran’ – time for Australia to stop sucking up to apartheid Israel and US imperialism
ALP stuck on two state non-solution – Joint Statement on Australia-Arab Relations
Kevin Rudd defends Julian Assange’s rights – and promises him a laptop
The net will win against deception
Australia doesn’t seem to know what morality is re Wikileaks
Blast from the past: Departing ALP member tells of deep Zionist influence in party
Mungo: WikiLeaks principle critical, but contents … oh well
Iran not a rogue state: Australia
WikiLeaks exposes foreign policy’s dark side
Free Speech Is S*xy Again
Doug Cameron joins Labor Left rally to support Julian Assange
Australian Media’s Finest Defend Wikileaks
The cables and the damage done
Israel’s policy of separation is backed by Western powers
Antony Loewenstein speaks to Sydney Wikileaks Rally
So this is what the Afghan war is all about
WikiLeaks: gathering secrets in the new age
US refused cable access to Canberra
Here’s the story of how the Age received their cables, which they don’t publish, just interpret. IMV this undermines the cables’ credibility and usefulness.
The weight of the word
Labor’s big guns squirm in the WikiLeaks glare
Mark Arbib, aka CIA Agent 007
Compromising the Labor Party: WikiLeaks, the US Alliance and Mark Arbib
Arbib goes quiet, but many are talking
Wikileaks reveals Labor powerbrokers in regular contact with US Embassy
Government under fire at Assange rallies
‘Professor Chomsky, a long-term critic of US foreign policy, said Mr Assange was performing a civic duty. “Systems of power wish to protect themselves from citizens, while at the same time sparing no effort to intrude into private lives so as to better establish their control.”
Australia: WikiLeaks cables reveal secret ties between Rudd coup plotters and US embassy
Leaks point to US concerns over Australian role in Afghanistan

Today’s Palestine / Israel Links

Dutch giant PGGM reconsidering companies involved in Israel-occupied territories
Israel trying to eject Palestinians from Jordan Valley to take over region
Santa leads Boycott Apartheid Israel action in Brisbane
Knesset Approves New Law Preventing Detainees From Meeting Lawyers For Six Month
PALESTINE CAMPAIGNERS CLAIM BOYCOTT SUCCESS AS COUNCIL REJECTS CONTROVERSIAL BIDDER – Edinburgh Council rejects Veolia
Israel attacked for arrests of hundreds of children
The crumbling alliance / A natural lose-lose for Netanyahu
Suspected Israeli neo-Nazi arrested in Kyrgyzstan
IOF troops assault old woman, arrest her son
Blind woman sent to jail for harboring Palestinian
Winning Hearts and Minds for Palestine
Photos: Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine 43rd Anniversary Rally, Gaza City
Connection between the human rights march and West Bank demonstrations?
Israeli apartheid in Lod (Palestinian name Lydda)
Ghoul: Israel violates all international laws protecting rights of prisoners
Tom Friedman to Israeli Government: Suck On This! (when will Friedman et al realise 2 state is a non-solution?)
Israel/Palestine needs a South African style truth and reconciliation commission
Israel says it won’t share Jerusalem
Poll: Israel’s Arabs don’t want to be part of Palestinian state
Livni moans about Israel being at a ‘strategic disadvantage’; begs to continue the negotiations charade [Jpost]
British parliament debates Palestinian children prisoners
‘An Israeli human rights group has accused the police of arresting Palestinian minors as young as five in east Jerusalem and dealing with them in ways that violate the country’s laws, as well as international laws.
Israel dumps chem. waste in W Bank
Australian FM visits Israel as part of his world tour
The Israelis In The Machine. Or, SIA Later, Alligators…
Rudd, Yad Vashem and William Cooper
Jewish Congress Leaders Demand Pope To Combat the “Delegitimization” of Israel
New CWP Report – “All-Out War: Israel Against Democracy”
‘Our lives became something we’d never dreamt’: The former Israeli soldiers who have testified again
Israel to Destroy Electric Infrastructure Near Hebron
Kissinger relaxed about Jews being put in gas chambers
Former EU leaders call to sanction and boycott Israel

Other Links

Cancun agreement builds towards a global climate deal | Greenpeace Australia Pacific
UK Govt Moves Against 12 Year Old Dissident
Police-state tactics against protesters in Britain

‘Wikileaks provides a game breaking revelation of the secrecy, duplicity, violence, and criminal nature of the imperial state’ – Michael Parenti

Posted on

Dissent against authoritarianism – an Australian tradition

Australians’ rebellious, spontaneous actions against authority are legion – the Vinegar Hill Irish insurrection at Castle Hill in 1804, the 1808 Rum Rebellion, Eureka stockade in 1854, the retaliations of Ben Hall and Ned Kelly, the 1899 Boer war where Australian officials actively questioned the authority of the Crown, Keith Murdoch’s whistleblowing of the British manipulations of our troops in Gallipoli contributing to rejection of conscription in 1916 and 1917, rejection of Menzies’ 1951 bill to ban communism, major demonstrations against the Vietnam war, Joh Bjelke Petersen’s anti-street march and emergency legislation laws, Gulf Wars 1 and 2, the war in Afghanistan and Israel’s Operation Cast Lead, mandatory detention of refugees, for Aboriginal land rights and numerous other protests.

In this tradition, the people of Australia will rise up tomorrow in most capital cities in defence of freedom of the press and the people’s right to know, and in support of incarcerated Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

One of the speakers at the event in Sydney tomorrow will be journalist Antony Loewenstein who says:

“I think this is a free speech issue. I think it’s an important question more journalists should be working on. The truth is, that a number of journalists, corporate journalists in Australia and elsewhere have shown their true colours,”

Watch today’s Brisbane Wikileaks rally live on 4ZZZ UStream.

George Brandis, Andrew Wilkie and Bob Brown along with an impressive list of prominent Australians and luminaries. have expressed support for Australians, Australia and Wikileaks.

Affirming consular assistance for Julian Assange and unlike the PM not decrying Wikileaks as illegal, Kevin Rudd has exonerated Wikileaks from blame for the release of the cables.

“Mr Assange is not himself responsible for the unauthorised release of 250,000 documents from the US diplomatic communications network,” said Mr Rudd, who had been criticised in one leaked cable as a “control freak”.

“The Americans are responsible for that.”

Gillard does not – our Mrs. Grundy is revealed:

Julia Gillard has also stated that Mr Assange acted illegally in publishing the cables.

Mr Assange’s British solicitor, Mark Stephens, told The Australian that his legal team were examining the Prime Minister’s comments and considering a defamation action against her.

Ms Gillard yesterday refused to specify what laws Mr Assange might have broken. “The foundation stone of it is an illegal act,” Ms Gillard said.

“Information was taken and that was illegal, so let’s not try and put any glosses on this.”

The comments drew fire from the opposition, with shadow attorney-general George Brandis describing the remarks as “clumsy”.

“As far as I can see he (Mr Assange) hasn’t broken any Australian law,” Senator Brandis told Sky News.

“Nor does it appear he has broken any American laws.”

Since her installation, Gillard has shown herself to be remarkably pliable to US strategic plans – assenting to a substantial increase in joint exercises, US troop numbers and logistics in Australia and continuing the government’s plan to purchase F35s from the US.

It is useful to be aware of the comparative military strength and budget of China and the US. When there is such US disproportionate strength, why contribute without serious question to the upscaling madness in association with an imperial power which does not submit to international law? Beware the stagnant mercantilist imperative which feeds on militarisation and feathers the nest of mining and defence companies.

Today’s Wikilinks
Wikileaks Mass Mirror Party Cartoon
Mark Arbib, aka CIA Agent 007
Thousands rally to defend Bradley Manning
Exclusive: Sarah Palin Under Cyber-Attack from Wikileaks Supporters in ‘Operation Payback’
DataCell ehf who facilitates those payments towards Wikileaks has decided to take up immediate legal actions to make donations possible again.
Why WikiLeaks Is Winning Its Info War
Another view of Wikileaks madness
On Anna Ardin, Israel Shamir and glass houses
Why WikiLeaks Is Winning Its Info War
Obama vs Assange Cartoon
MasterCard and Visa want to play politics, then game on…
Berkeley City Council May Declare Support For Alleged WikiLeaks Informant
Is Julian Assange Helping the Neocons?
Noose Closes Around Pro-Wikileaks Vigilantes
Attacks on credit card sites a grass-roots effort
Caving to pressure from supporters, PayPal releases WikiLeaks’ funds
Assange accuser may have ceased co-operating
The charges – two counts of sexual molestation, one count of unlawful coercion and one count of rape
The Rape of Julian Assange
From Jefferson to Assange (some Americans think Assange is one of them!
Wikileaks keeps on publishing despite arrest (funny vid)
Origin of the latest Israel is behind it conspiracy theory (written by an Israeli)
‘The Only Option Left for Me Is an Orderly Departure’ – interview with Daniel Domscheit-Berg
Feds hint at charges for WikiLeaks’ Assange
Understanding Wikileaks’ ally Anonymous
WikiLeaks Defector Plans Tell-All Book
Meet The New Public Face Of WikiLeaks: Kristinn Hrafnsson
The Empire Is Collapsing, And Americans Will Be The Last To Know
Petition – Wikileaks: Stop the crackdown
Non-governmental organizations should consider nominating Julian Assange for a Nobel Prize, a source in the Russian presidential administration has said.
WikiLeaks followers close Swedish government site: report
Anon Ops – A Manifesto
Is the Wikileaks we see the Wikileaks we need?
Mum’s plea: bring Julian home
Julian Assange rape allegations: treatment of women ‘unfair and absurd
Tell me what a rapist looks like
Today’s Australian Wikilinks

US diplomats monitored the progress of Gillard
Andrew Wilkie on WikiLeaks’ Rudd revelations
Arbib not a spy: Shorten
Politicians downplay Arbib revelations
Arbib warned US of Gillard coup – ‘The cables suggest Senator Arbib has been secretly informing the US embassy in Canberra for several years. The former Labor minister Bob McMullan and the federal MP Michael Danby have also been revealed as close sources.’
Gillard showing ‘contempt for law’: Wilkie
Politicians downplay Arbib revelations
WikiLeaks outs Mark Arbib as US informant
WikiLeaks cables cast fresh light on coup against former Australian PM Rudd
If Only Rudd Hadn’t Expelled That Israeli Diplomat…
The realist we need in foreign affairs
Rudd and Arbib duck the North Korea of the internet

Today’s Palestine/Israel links
End Military Aid to Israel’ campaign comes to BART
Sustainable tourism or sustaining Israel’s occupation?
Alla T. Elshawa: In Gaza
Israeli warplanes attack Gaza
Israel, NATO Launch Spying Operation against Iran at Afghan Borders
Ye Shall Share the Land by Noushin Darya Framke
Sustainable tourism or sustaining Israel’s occupation?
US hails Turkey’s ‘constructive’ role at NATO,
OSCE summits
No, America, You Can’t
Palestinian takes over East Jerusalem property through co acquisition
Cheney involved in long list of crimes