Posts Tagged ‘julian’

Wikileaks Finally Resorting Crowdsourcing

Thursday, August 25th, 2011

Whistle blowers and freedom fighters extraordinaire – Wikileaks – have just released 35000 classified documents originating from U.S. embassies from around the world.

But this time, instead of slowly sifting through the heaping pile themselves, they are doing something new – opening up the classified cables to the public, letting crowdsourcing handle the brunt of the painstaking work.

The entire cache of cables made freely available online in searchable format, making it easy to scour. And whenever any intrepid investigator finds a juicy tidbit they need only tweet about it with the hashtag #wlfind to share it with the world.

Finally, Assange and his gang are embracing a bit of that transparency they so vehemently espouse – something I’ve been lamenting about since January.

Well, better late than never. Plus, with plans to expose more nations – like Israel and Russia –  to the dreaded transparency treatment, it is high time Wikileaks distributed some of their burden to the rest of us.

Wikileaks:Priceless

Friday, July 1st, 2011

While the whole MasterCard spoof can get tired fast, it’s great to spread awareness about Wikileaks’ struggle with a banking embargo. Paypal, Visa, Mastercard, and more, all refusing to do business with Wikileaks, all bowing to pressure from the government.

Damages will be sought for the projected $15 million in lost donations to the whistleblowing website.

That’s awesome for Julian Assange and his band of freedom fighters. When a bunch of powerful corporations are ganging up on you, you must be doing something right!

 

Wikileaks to Take on Fox News and Murdoch

Wednesday, January 12th, 2011

Wikileaks’ champion Julian Assange let slip another of his future targets: News Corp. owner Rupert Murdoch and his station Fox News. In an interview with John Pilger, Assange claimed he has some dirt on Murdoch, which will be held as insurance for the time being.

Given how Assange faces possible Gitmo detention or execution, it’s hard to blame him for wanting to secure his own assets. However, Assange willingly took up this cause, and chose to be a leader in the fight for transparency in government. He knew the risks involved.

But what about all of the whistle-blowers who risked severe penalties, trusting in Wikileaks to release their documents. They are still waiting for justice and a blow against corruption, yet Assange just sits on his stockpile of secrets.

Is Assange just loving the attention and relishing his celebrity status? Probably. The fact that he sought to protect his own financial interests by threatening to sue The Guardian if they released ‘his’ cables shows what Assange thinks of freedom of information when he’s on the short end of it.

But let’s not come down too hard on Assange. He is still a hero, having spearheaded a pivotal moment in humankind’s history. Wikileaks and Cablegate have defined the moment when the balance of power truly began to shift away from the corrupt oligarchies of ole’ and into the hands of the world’s people.

In time, other leaks will come out, either from Wikileaks or one of their spin-offs, or maybe from a publicly shared torrent containing all the secrets. No matter the truth comes out, it will no doubt rattle the establishment.

It’s just hard sometimes to be patient anticipating the change transparency will bring.

Saving the Ass of the Assange

Friday, December 31st, 2010

Princess Leia (disguised as Boushh) held a thermal detonator. The Joker kept his thumb connected to a string of grenades. Julian Assange’s insurance policy? A pile of dirty secrets.

In 2006, Julian Assange founded Wikileaks as a technological means to embolden the world’s people. Regime change, claimed Assange, could be fostered by releasing classified information to the public. Once an unjust organization’s inner workings get exposed, they lose the upper-hand and become vulnerable to being replaced by others who will promote a more open government.

While Assange and his fellow freedom fighters have yet to directly overthrow a dictatorship, they certainly haven’t shied away from repeatedly stomping on increasingly powerful toes.

Earlier this year, they posted a classified US military video showing children, journalists and other Iraqi civilians being gunned down in an unprovoked attack. A few months later came war logs from Afghanistan, followed by war logs from Iraq. Yet all of these leaks were trumped when Assange and his troop of truth-bringers began publishing 250,000 classified US cables, of which they’ve released less than 2000 to date.

It is no small wonder that Wikileaks’ head honcho has been doing his best to safeguard his own life. This summer, part of this policy was put in place when a mysterious encrypted file appeared on the Wikileaks’ page for “insurance”. Were anything to happen to Assange or Wikileaks, the password for this massive file would be released letting the world gain access to all the skeletons held within.

Until a cracker figures out how to beat the encryption scheme or the password gets leaked, the exact contents of this insurance file will remain known only to Assange and his inner circle. The rest of us can only speculate.

Maybe this archive contains damning data pertaining to one of the targets Assange has already painted: The State of Israel or the Bank of America.  Perhaps it deals with those alluded to yesterday by Wikileaks’ fearless leader, namely, CIA agents who’ve been colluding with Arab leaders. The file might even be a bluff, containing no intrinsic value other than the fear it inspires in those with secrets to hide.

Whatever insurance policies Wikileaks decides to take out, hopefully they’ll be enough to keep one of the world’s greatest threats to tyranny – Julian Assange.  – alive for long enough to see the fruits of the social revolution he’s helping to create.

Cenk Uygur from TYT is Julian Assange

Thursday, December 9th, 2010

Cenk Uygur from The Young Turks is Julian Assange. Symbolically, anyway, as long as it means standing up for transparency of government and journalistic freedom.