Slashdot Mirror

The us military released the entire video unedited to discredit and show just how badly edited the file was.

That's not correct.

Wikileaks actually released both videos at the same time, with the edited "short version" clearly labeled as such.

Here is a link to the videos: https://collateralmurder.wikil...

Which places even more limits on Consumer Choice.
https://wikileaks.org/tpp-ip3/
web site take-downs without court orders?
Illegal to modify devices you own?
etc.

> , there's a shadow government,

Gee, and that's why the G20 summit secret law and TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) were held in the open, right? Oh, wait,they're weren't until WELL after the fact.

Maybe if governments would stop making bullshit reasons for secret laws maybe this conspiracy would finally die.

> WTC was an inside job,

And yet seven hours after the Twin Towers collapsed, Building 7 just "mysteriously" collapses.

What was the official report on the cause of _that_ again??

Only a fucking idiot would believe it was "the terrorists."

I'm all for ending the war on drugs, but doing so won't make cops' jobs easier.

How can it not?

• No more arresting people for possession of a mostly-benign chemical.
• No more violence to control market access.
• No more arms race for smuggling and interdiction.
• No more payoffs to officials to look the other way.
• No more slaughter of innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire.
• No more petty theft to purchase drugs at inflated prices.
• More people participating in society as citizens instead of marginalized as felons.
• Fewer people fleeing cartel-ravaged Latin America for the relative safety of the U.S.
• More time and funds available to fight actual crimes.

Ironic that that Chapter QQ is about Imaginary Property :-/

... google and tech companies are not what they seem. This is just more PR.

See here:

Article

Science on reasoning:

Science on reasoning

The real news

" Cohen’s world seems to be one event like this after another: endless soirees for the cross-fertilization of influence between elites and their vassals, under the pious rubric of “civil society.” The received wisdom in advanced capitalist societies is that there still exists an organic “civil society sector” in which institutions form autonomously and come together to manifest the interests and will of citizens. The fable has it that the boundaries of this sector are respected by actors from government and the “private sector,” leaving a safe space for NGOs and nonprofits to advocate for things like human rights, free speech, and accountable government.

                This sounds like a great idea. But if it was ever true, it has not been for decades. Since at least the 1970s, authentic actors like unions and churches have folded under a sustained assault by free-market statism, transforming “civil society” into a buyer’s market for political factions and corporate interests looking to exert influence at arm’s length. The last forty years has seen a huge proliferation of think tanks and political NGOs whose purpose, beneath all the verbiage, is to execute political agendas by proxy.

                It is not just obvious neocon front groups like Foreign Policy Initiative.20 It also includes fatuous Western NGOs like Freedom House, where naïve but well-meaning career nonprofit workers are twisted in knots by political funding streams, denouncing non-Western human rights violations while keeping local abuses firmly in their blind spots. The civil society conference circuit—which flies developing-world activists across the globe hundreds of times a year to bless the unholy union between “government and private stakeholders” at geopoliticized events like the “Stockholm Internet Forum”—simply could not exist if it were not blasted with millions of dollars in political funding annually.

                Scan the memberships of the biggest US think tanks and institutes and the same names keep cropping up. Cohen’s Save Summit went on to seed AVE, or AgainstViolentExtremism.org, a long-term project whose principal backer besides Google Ideas is the Gen Next Foundation. This foundation’s website says it is an “exclusive membership organization and platform for successful individuals” that aims to bring about “social change” driven by venture capital funding.21 Gen Next’s “private sector and non-profit foundation support avoids some of the potential perceived conflicts of interest faced by initiatives funded by governments.”22 Jared Cohen is an executive member."

"And your thesis that it's all leaders, sorry, it isn't - we elect them,"

Your thesis is incorrect...

World is fucked

American wealth distribution

Research

More on American wealth

Who rules america

Science on reasoning:

Science on reasoning

The real news

Article

" Cohen’s world seems to be one event like this after another: endless soirees for the cross-fertilization of influence between elites and their vassals, under the pious rubric of “civil society.” The received wisdom in advanced capitalist societies is that there still exists an organic “civil society sector” in which institutions form autonomously and come together to manifest the interests and will of citizens. The fable has it that the boundaries of this sector are respected by actors from government and the “private sector,” leaving a safe space for NGOs and nonprofits to advocate for things like human rights, free speech, and accountable government.

                This sounds like a great idea. But if it was ever true, it has not been for decades. Since at least the 1970s, authentic actors like unions and churches have folded under a sustained assault by free-market statism, transforming “civil society” into a buyer’s market for political factions and corporate interests looking to exert influence at arm’s length. The last forty years has seen a huge proliferation of think tanks and political NGOs whose purpose, beneath all the verbiage, is to execute political agendas by proxy.

                It is not just obvious neocon front groups like Foreign Policy Initiative.20 It also includes fatuous Western NGOs like Freedom House, where naïve but well-meaning career nonprofit workers are twisted in knots by political funding streams, denouncing non-Western human rights violations while keeping local abuses firmly in their blind spots. The civil society conference circuit—which flies developing-world activists across the globe hundreds of times a year to bless the unholy union between “government and private stakeholders” at geopoliticized events like the “Stockholm Internet Forum”—simply could not exist if it were not blasted with millions of dollars in political funding annually.

                Scan the memberships of the biggest US think tanks and institutes and the same names keep cropping up. Cohen’s Save Summit went on to seed AVE, or AgainstViolentExtremism.org, a long-term project whose principal backer besides Google Ideas is the Gen Next Foundation. This foundation’s website says it is an “exclusive membership organization and platform for successful individuals” that aims to bring about “social change” driven by venture capital funding.21 Gen Next’s “private sector and non-profit foundation support avoids some of the potential perceived conflicts of interest faced by initiatives funded by governments.”22 Jared Cohen is an executive member."

Just add to this, it is not just the TTP, but also the TTIP and other similar trade agreements of which private American corporations are central and the only ones that apparently get free reign to the agreement.

From what I understand, in the case of the TTIP, European representatives have to go to the U.S. Embassy to view and are not allowed to make any copies of the document, which makes it hard to have unhindered negotiations.

We all stand to lose out democratic leverage with these and give more control to corporations and lobbyists. It is not just people outside of the US who stand to lose out.

This may also be worth supporting, if you believe in your democratic rights:
https://wikileaks.org/WikiLeak...

Will the cryptoloons and techno-anarchists ever give up trying to push their awful solution everywhere and anywhere in hopes of a price bump?

No. Completely mechanizing currency is attractive, because removing the human element supposedly makes it immune to corruption. Also, Bitcoin is modeled after the gold standard which happens to be fashionable right now, along with anarcho-capitalism in general. Dunno what happens when the continuing economic tailspin breaks that spell, but assuming a total collapse is averted people will still need to make payments online, sometimes without donating to PayPal or the banks in the process.

And of course, even if they all gave it up, the USA would continue marketing Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

7 transactions per second, costs more the traditions methods, no consumer protections, easy to get ripped off, impossible to use securely.

Consumer protections are independent of the payment method. Also, the only "traditional method" cheaper than Bitcoin transfer is handing someone cash in person, which is not possible over the Internet.

Just let it die, already, the experiment failed.

There doesn't seem to be any indication whatsoever of failure. What do you base this assertion on?

The scam artists of the world would de-fund ISIS in about a year

You forgot who is financing ISIS.
According to the vice-president (and a lot of other more credible places), it's the US allies, that their funds from the US.
The clip with Joe Biden
News about him apologizing for telling them out
Old Wikileaks leak about them financing anyone available to fight against Assad, and being interested in a big humanitarian disaster. Quotes from the e-mail:

One Air Force intel guy (US) said very carefully that there isn't much of a Free Syrian Army to train right now anyway

the idea 'hypothetically' is to commit guerrilla attacks, assassination campaigns, try to break the back of the Alawite forces, elicit collapse from within

They dont believe air intervention would happen unless there was enough media attention on a massacre, like the Ghadafi move against Benghazi. They think the US would have a high tolerance for killings as long as it doesn't reach that very public stage.

Remember this?

2009 VIRGINIA TERRORISM THREAT ASSESSMENT
COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA
DEPARTMENT OF STATE POLICE
VIRGINIA FUSION CENTER

Page 45 under the section "Anonymous"

Anonymous
A "loose coalition of Internet denizens", Anonymous consists largely of users from multiple internet
sites such as 4chan, 711chan, 420chan, Something Awful, Fark, Encyclopedia Dramatica,
Slashdot, IRC channels, and YouTube. Other social networking sites are also utilized to mobilize
physical protests. Anonymous has no leader and is reliant on the collective power of individuals
acting in such a way that benefits the movement.

@Anonymous coward: "How is this at all what Wikileaks is supposed to be for? At this point it seems more like crass voyeurism than any type of serious attempt to shine a light on corporate misconduct."

"I understand you may be contacted by Bob Iger or United States Trade Representative, Michael Froman .. my sense is that much of the discussion will center on the TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP (TPP, which is a pending multilateral trade agreement with 12 countries that boarder the Pacific Ocean) – you’ll recall this was one of the key topics of your meeting with Froman and your peers at the White House last year. It seems as though these negotiations are drawing to a close this year and the President/Froman want key industries saying positive things about the benefits." ref

Apart from the pretty colors, it's pretty badly designed. There's only the one video explaining why it's bad, no text, no in-depth analysis, no outside opinions, no nothing. There isn't even (that I could find) a link to the text of the TPP.

Even members of the US Congress only get extremely limited access to the text of the TPP:

Only members of the House and Senate are currently allowed to view the text of the deal, and even they are forbidden from discussing what it contains. As a new report from Politico published Monday details, "If you’re a member who wants to read the text, you’ve got to go to a room in the basement of the Capitol Visitor Center and be handed it one section at a time, watched over as you read, and forced to hand over any notes you make before leaving."

You basically have to be a negotiator or a representative of large business interests to get full access. Some chapters (5 out of 31) of the text have been made available via Wikileaks until now.

Anyone know and want to elaborate on what this TPP is?

The best, and definitely the most enjoyable, primer on the potential for abuse of the TPP (based on abuse of previously negotiated similar trade agreements) and the underhanded way it's being negotiated, is probably John Oliver's segment on it.

The US State Department recruited Hollywood to boost “anti-Russian messaging“.
Sony pirated multiple books about hacking, while aggressively campaigning against piracy.
Emails reveal concerns in the US over the secrecy of the TPP talks.
The leaks included a draft of the international VOD and DHE agreement between SONY and Google
Sony received nearly $48 million in tax breaks in 2011 and 2012 after donating to New York Governor Cuomo.
Ben Affleck demanded PBS program “Finding Your Roots” hide his slave-owning ancestor.
Sony changed the Snowden film press release to remove “illegal spying” from the description of NSA’s activities
Sony cameras are used as a part of the guidance system for Israeli rockets bombing Gaza
Sony Chiefs met with David Cameron ahead of the Scottish referendum
Corrupt product placement practices used in Dr. Oz show

I really hope that slashdot doesn't become another place of pro-government propaganda, as that really pisses me off. The information was already out there, but their republishing obviously did us a favor (us that care about government accountability or knowing the truth anyway). We already have enough media outlets against information out there, let's keep this one useful.
I would never know the above facts if it wasn't for them, as 1. I believed the propaganda that it was mostly employee information and didn't feel comfortable downloading it and reading, and 2. it would be too much work for me to look into the e-mails.
Now that I know these stuff I feel like someone more informed than before. I hope the Slashdot community stops being against information.

By the way, since I haven't seen here a link to their press release, with the leaks, here it is.

The US State Department recruited Hollywood to boost “anti-Russian messaging“.
Sony pirated multiple books about hacking, while aggressively campaigning against piracy.
Emails reveal concerns in the US over the secrecy of the TPP talks.
The leaks included a draft of the international VOD and DHE agreement between SONY and Google
Sony received nearly $48 million in tax breaks in 2011 and 2012 after donating to New York Governor Cuomo.
Ben Affleck demanded PBS program “Finding Your Roots” hide his slave-owning ancestor.
Sony changed the Snowden film press release to remove “illegal spying” from the description of NSA’s activities
Sony cameras are used as a part of the guidance system for Israeli rockets bombing Gaza
Sony Chiefs met with David Cameron ahead of the Scottish referendum
Corrupt product placement practices used in Dr. Oz show

I really hope that slashdot doesn't become another place of pro-government propaganda, as that really pisses me off. The information was already out there, but their republishing obviously did us a favor (us that care about government accountability or knowing the truth anyway). We already have enough media outlets against information out there, let's keep this one useful.
I would never know the above facts if it wasn't for them, as 1. I believed the propaganda that it was mostly employee information and didn't feel comfortable downloading it and reading, and 2. it would be too much work for me to look into the e-mails.
Now that I know these stuff I feel like someone more informed than before. I hope the Slashdot community stops being against information.

By the way, since I haven't seen here a link to their press release, with the leaks, here it is.

In 2010, Assange threatened to post on Wikileaks a trove of information about Russia, Putin, his administration, and important businessmen. This information was going to do a lot of damage to all concerned. The material never showed up.

Go to Wikileaks, and view their Russian section. It has just normal run of the mill postings, such as who was a creditor/borrower from the failed banks. Nothing really damaging to anyone, let alone Putin or Russia as a whole.

Click here and laugh at some of the most funniest emails I've ever seen

Some more laughs

Click here and laugh at some of the most funniest emails I've ever seen

Some more laughs

Hehehe. Hehe. https://wikileaks.org/sony/ema...

Bringer of the Thetans, and destroyer of BILLION year old volcanoes :P

And don't forget after you learn about Xenu, you start gaining super powers, you get telekinesis, clairvoyance, force someone with your mind to do your bidding, ability to cure by touching someone. See the future and the past. And eventually space travel with astral projection.

http://file.wikileaks.org/file...

also uses DPI (packet injection) and is supposed to be the state-of-the-art full-spectrum intelligence platform: it will allow one to intercept an email, alter and forward it unknown to either the addressor or addressee, with a new meeting time and place, and then dispatch either an extreme rendition, or kill team, to the rendezvous point. Ain't life grand?

https://www.wikileaks.org/spyf...
http://www.spiegel.de/internat...
http://www.allgov.com/news/us-...
http://securityaffairs.co/word...

Here is my problem: Google has a long history of cooperating with NSA.

Don't believe me? Fine: read these links instead... Yahoo News article about cooperation between Google and NSA, Guardian article, Tom's Guide article.

Even if Google does not/did not/will not cooperate with NSA, Eric Schmidt himself has been cooperating with the US Government, which cast serious doubts about his desire to protect the private information of Google clients.

Again, don't believe me? Fine, read this instead: Julian Assange on Eric Schmidt. Or (even better) this transcript.

Even if Eric Schmidt does not cooperate with the US Government, he has said himself, repeatedly, that privacy is dead and that it's something for hackers.

Don't believe me? Fine, read this instead: EFF article, Gawker article.

In other words, a company that cooperated with the NSA, led by a man who does not care about your privacy (but cares very much about his) is telling you that there is nothing to see here, sure we are protecting your privacy, please buy our products, we are safe and professionals and there is nothing to be afraid of.

Seriously? How come this gasbag is a freaking CEO, paid millions of dollars a year?

Here.

GIYF, when memory does not serve.

... only hypothetically, via Pine Digital's business which prominently displays in wikileaks: https://www.wikileaks.org/spyf...

Want to download and examine FinFisher yourself? https://wikileaks.org/spyfiles...

= WikiLeaks releases previously unseen copies of weaponised German surveillance malware used by intelligence agencies around the world to spy on journalists, political dissidents and others.

http://slashdot.org/firehose.p...

https://wikileaks.org/spyfiles...

"Today, 15 September 2014, WikiLeaks releases previously unseen copies of weaponised German surveillance malware used by intelligence agencies around the world to spy on journalists, political dissidents and others.

FinFisher (formerly part of the UK based Gamma Group International until late 2013) is a German company that produces and sells computer intrusion systems, software exploits and remote monitoring systems that are capable of intercepting communications and data from OS X, Windows and Linux computers as well as Android, iOS, BlackBerry, Symbian and Windows Mobile devices. FinFisher first came to public attention in December 2011 when WikiLeaks published documents detailing their products and business in the first SpyFiles release.

Since the first SpyFiles release, researchers published reports that identified the presence of FinFisher products in countries aroud the world and documented its use against journalists, activists and political dissidents.

Julian Assange, WikiLeaks Editor in Chief said: "FinFisher continues to operate brazenly from Germany selling weaponised surveillance malware to some of the most abusive regimes in the world. The Merkel government pretends to be concerned about privacy, but its actions speak otherwise. Why does the Merkel government continue to protect FinFisher? This full data release will help the technical community build tools to protect people from FinFisher including by tracking down its command and control centers."

FinFisher Relay and FinSpy Proxy are the components of the FinFisher suite responsible for collecting the data acquired from the infected victims and delivering it to their controllers. It is commonly deployed by FinFisher's customers in strategic points around the world to route the collected data through an anonymizing chain, in order to disguise the identity of its operators and the real location of the final storage, which is instead operated by the FinSpy Master."

= Story continued at URL above.

== Archives:
http://web.archive.org/web/201...
https://archive.today/XRT0p

Clean url:
http://wikileaks.org/gifiles/a...

https://wikileaks.org/tisa-fin...

Read it and weep!

@schnell: 'All treaties are negotiated in secret. Furthermore, at least in the US, no treaty is in effect until it is ratified by the Senate, at which point all the elements of the treaty will be public and heavily debated down to the last comma.' -- "The cover sheet records that the draft text will not be declassified until 5 years after the TISA comes into force or the negotiations are otherwise closed. Presumably this also applies to other documents aside from the final text. This exceeds the 4 years in the super-secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA)! It also contradicts the hard-won transparency at the WTO, which has published documents relating to negotiations online for a number of years." "Secrecy during the negotiation of a binding and enforceable commercial treaty is objectionable and undemocratic, and invites poorly informed and biased decisions. Secrecy after the fact is patently designed to prevent the governments from being held accountable by their legislatures and citizens." "The suppression of background documents (travaux preparatoires) also creates legal problems. The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties recognises they are an essential tool for interpreting legal texts. Non-disclosure makes it impossible for policy-makers, regulators, non-government supervisory agencies, opposition political parties, financial services firms, academics and other commentators to understand the intended meaning or apply the text with confidence."

Mod parent up!

@schnell: 'All treaties are negotiated in secret. Furthermore, at least in the US, no treaty is in effect until it is ratified by the Senate, at which point all the elements of the treaty will be public and heavily debated down to the last comma.'
--

"The cover sheet records that the draft text will not be declassified until 5 years after the TISA comes into force or the negotiations are otherwise closed. Presumably this also applies to other documents aside from the final text. This exceeds the 4 years in the super-secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA)! It also contradicts the hard-won transparency at the WTO, which has published documents relating to negotiations online for a number of years."

"Secrecy during the negotiation of a binding and enforceable commercial treaty is objectionable and undemocratic, and invites poorly informed and biased decisions. Secrecy after the fact is patently designed to prevent the governments from being held accountable by their legislatures and citizens."

"The suppression of background documents (travaux preparatoires) also creates legal problems. The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties recognises they are an essential tool for interpreting legal texts. Non-disclosure makes it impossible for policy-makers, regulators, non-government supervisory agencies, opposition political parties, financial services firms, academics and other commentators to understand the intended meaning or apply the text with confidence."

The development of global finance rules under the guise of ‘trade’ was the brainchild of senior executives of AIG, American Express, Citicorp and Merrill Lynch in the late 1970s. Their role, and subsequently a broader lobby called the Financial Leaders Group, is well documented. The former director of the WTO’s services division himself acknowledged in 1997 that: ‘Without the enormous pressure generated by the American financial services sector, particularly companies like American Express and Citicorp, there would have been no services agreement’.16

As the lobby evolved it was still led from Wall Street, but expanded to include the major insurance and banking institutions, investment banks and auxiliary financial services providers, from funds managers to credit-rating agencies and even the news agency Reuters. They were later joined by the e-finance and electronic payments industry, which includes credit, stored value and loyalty cards, ATM management, and payment systems operators like PayPal.

The industry lobbyists have also set the demands for financial services in TISA. The Chairman of the Board of the US Coalition of Service Industries is the Vice Chairman of the Institutional Clients Group at Citi. When the industry’s demands, as expressed in the consultation on TISA conducted by the US Trade Representative in 2013, are matched against the leaked text it becomes clear that they stand to get most of what they asked for. Extracts from their submissions are listed at the end of this document.

Why is it OK for for private businesses to negotiate worldwide treaties, but not let citizens have any say in the treaty? They are both private entities, not the government. But somehow, the financial sector is given special privilege in this regard.

I love this quote from the article;

Additionally, the current draft also includes language inferring that, upon the finishing of negotiations, the document will be kept classified for five full years.

It makes it sound like the annex will not be seen for 5 years after it is in effect.
Here is the reason from the actual document;

This document must be protected from unauthorized disclosure, but may be mailed or transmitted over unclassified e-mail or fax, discussed over unsecured phone lines, and stored on unclassified computer systems. It must be stored in a locked or secured building, room, or container.

It refers to the current document as it is a draft. The final document will not have this clause as it will need to be debated before it can be passed by each country. WikiLeaks is again playing on the general lack of understanding of how complex treaties are and need to be negotiated.

The USA exercises military coercion against none of its trading partners.

They finance and give tactical support to the military coercion against the people of it's trading partners. Did you forget about Latin America a few years ago and about Pakistan nowadays?

Both the number and severity of wars has decreased dramatically in the last few decades.

Even though this is true, it's still very disrespectful to the over 100k Syrians killed thanks to the US (Leaked Stratfor email) and to the 60k Iraqis that were killed because of weapons that didn't exist (and making up new justifications to why that war happened is bs).
Talking about how humanity was worst in the past is a way of distracting and making little of very serious current issues.

It is silly to blame America for problems in North Korea or Somalia.

I didn't see him mentioning NK or Somalia.

... one issue based bullshit is not going to stop this. We had SOPA and CISPA and they are preparing CISPA round 3.

The internet is something 'everyone can agree on' but unfortunately most people trying to 'protect the internet' are too historically and politically illiterate to really do so. None of you who are hardcore capitalists are "protectors" of the internet, in fact why SOPA and TPP are trying to lock it down is BECAUSE they fear the masses rising up against corporate (capitalist) powers. That's why we got governments and corporations going gangusters on surveillance worldwide.

If you doubt this check the spyfiles

https://wikileaks.org/the-spyf...

Corporate power is global, and resistance to it cannot be restricted by national boundaries. Corporations have no regard for nation-states. They assert their power to exploit the land and the people everywhere. They play worker off of worker and nation off of nation. They control the political elites in Ottawa as they do in London, Paris and Washington.

Consider the G20 Protests in Toronto

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

This is just more part and parcel of state suppression of dissent against corporate interests. They're worried that the more people are going to wake up and corporate centers like the US and canada may be among those who also awaken. See this vid with Zbigniew Brzezinski, former United States National Security Advisor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Look at the following graphs:

http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesa...
http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesa...
http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesa...

And then...

WIKILEAKS: U.S. Fought To Lower Minimum Wage In Haiti So Hanes And Levis Would Stay Cheap
http://www.businessinsider.com...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Free markets?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

http://www.amazon.com/Empire-I...

"We now live in two Americas. One—now the minority—functions in a print-based, literate world that can cope with complexity and can separate illusion from truth. The other—the majority—is retreating from a reality-based world into one of false certainty and magic. To this majority—which crosses social class lines, though the poor are overwhelmingly affected—presidential debate and political rhetoric is pitched at a sixth-grade reading level. In this “other America,” serious film and theater, as well as newspapers and books, are being pushed to the margins of society.

In the tradition of Christopher Lasch’s The Culture of Narcissism and Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death, Pulitzer Prize-winner Chris Hedges navigates this culture—attending WWF contests, the Adult Video News Awards in Las Vegas, and Ivy League graduation ceremonies—to expose an age of terrifying decline and heightened self-delusion."

It's absolutely a shame. The dog and pony show of foreign leaders expressing shock and dismay in return for their electorate's goodwill is embarrassing. Angela Merkel grew up in East Germany, and didn't know phones could be tapped? Please.

Victoria Nuland, a State Department official, was recorded in a private phone call dismissively saying "Fuck the EU" and suggesting names for post-Yanukovych leadership America would be content in a phone call with the US Ambassador to Ukraine, and it's released to the press as if it were some kind of CIA plot to instill a puppet government! Who recorded it? How was it leaked? It was even edited to change the context! And it was basically shrugged off as "good Russian tradecraft".

Snowden receives a large amount of praise for having, and from people with, a very, very American distrust of government. To lump in political favors for foreign governments with that praise is reprehensible, especially knowing that they can be used as political leverage against America for years, if not decades. At some point you have to question his motivations for it and what he was looking to gain from it.

Chelsea Manning is even worse. Here are two cables detailing events and predictions about Ukraine:

http://wikileaks.org/cable/200...
http://cablegatesearch.net/cab...

They are both remarkably accurate considering the timeframe. It's unlikely that Russian strategists would be unable to come up with these ideas on their own, but it serves as confirmation in a world of geopolitics where that is a priceless commodity.

even if it couldn't have predicted the original flash point.

Funny you should say that, the diplomatic cable leaks showed that high level western diplomats in Syria were concerned about a civil war erupting due to the severe "fertile crescent" drought fuelling internal migration from rural areas to the cities (10% of Syria's total population simply abandoned their farms due to lack of water). The drought caused food prices to rise sharply and food riots became a regular occurrence in cities across the middle east and North Africa.

"flash point" - Have a look at why that protester set fire to himself in the public square and why it resonated so strongly across the Arab world, it wasn't because they all logged on to FB and suddenly realised their governments were tyrannical. Predicting this sort of social unrest is like predicting an earthquake in LA, you can be pretty confident that your prediction will come to pass but have no idea when.

what has Wikileaks released recently?

The GI files just finished being published. They, for example, tell us that around 2011 there was "not much of a free Syria army", but that they were financing, arming and training people to "commit guerrilla attacks, assassination campaigns, try to break the back of the Alawite forces, elicit collapse from within". Even worst, it also tells us that "They dont believe air intervention would happen unless there was enough media attention on a massacre, like the Ghadafi move against Benghazi".

So basically, while it makes no sense for Assad to use chemical weapons against his people, it shows that since 2011 the USA consider this a necessity for their attacks. Here is the full leaked email

There were many other revelations from the Global Intelligence files, but I think this is the most important one since over 100,000 people already died from the "civil war" the USA is creating in Syria.

The other recent leak was the TPP IP, this is Forbes report on it: US Fails To Close TPP Deal As Wikileaks Exposes Discord

And FYI, many of the "Manning Papers" (Cablegate) were published around the world and of course not on the land of the free, not just because American journalists are being persecuted, but also because they matter more for those countries.

"Do you have some sort of source for that?"

Well, I'd imagine the fact they broke the US' own rules of engagement is about as authoritative as it gets? -

http://wikileaks.org/wiki/US_Rules_of_Engagement_for_Iraq

"Because I was working directly WITH Apache pilots and maintainers who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan and they all agree that the pilots did follow proper procedure for the discharge of weapons."

Of course they would. US military doctrine is to close rank and protect your fellow soldier. This has about zero relevance though - I'd rather trust those who don't have a vested interest in arguing that they should be free to shoot what they want, when they want.

"They were providing close air support for troops on the ground that were under active engagement. It does not matter if the Apache itself is under direct threat from any potential RPG. The ground troops were under direct threat."

There's so many things wrong with your statement here:

- The troops could not be under active engagement because the cameraman had a camera, not an RPG

- The troops were not under direct threat when the Apache fired because they were not near enough the scene at that point

What the Apache pilot did was attempt pro-active killing under the suspicion they might be a threat when they were in range. That's not the same as protecting allies under "active engagement". See my cop example - should cops shoot anyone with a gun in their vehicle, just in case they might be a threat? It's absurd, it's nonsense.

"Obviously you do not know what the rules of engagement were at that time in Iraq."

Obviously you don't. But obviously I do. See above link. What you went on to describe doesn't even fit into rules of engagement. Rules of engagement don't describe what civilians can and can't do, only what makes a valid target and civilians are explicitly never a target otherwise the US' rules of engagement would be in direct breach of the geneva convention and that would make any US soldiers following it war criminals.

"Did you have the audio muted on the video? You could hear the ground personnel in contact with the close air support. You could also see these groups actively engaging the troops on the ground."

I think you watched completely the wrong video because what you're describing is not what was on the unedited feed.

Seriously, check your facts before you post in future. Between pretending things are in the video which aren't, and pretending that the rules of engagement aren't now widely publicised you've merely exposed yourself as spouting as much nonsense as Cold Fjord.

Many people seem to be missing the fact that most leaks are educational slideshows. This means that many people were being taught on how to use the leaked programs. So no, they were not in a so compartmentalized institution that most or many of them didn't know about their crimes. What would be the use of the programs if people weren't using them?
And many people seems to be missing also the fact that monitoring US civilian communications is not the only crime they've committed. Spying on friendly nations, on journalists, fighting against freedom of speech and supporting self-censorship, supporting criminal organizations and mass murder abroad (like in Syria here for hightlights or in Somalia, Dirty Wars is an ok documentary), commercial espionage that has nothing to do with national security, not preventing the US invasion of Iraq under the WMD tale and therefore the deaths of over 115.000 Iraqis and over 4000 American soldiers are just the beginning of the list.

1. What you are suggesting is the wrong approach. If nobody want's to work there and the ones that already do start leaving, the country and the world will get better. Otherwise they'll just keep doing worst. Actually that's what they are doing at the moment since the report is of low morale and not on mass resignations.
2. The leaks that are being published are mostly of educational slideshows, this means that many people were being taught on how to use the programs. What would be the use of the programs if the thousands of employees and millions of clearance having people were not using them?
3. Monitoring US civilian communications is not the only crime they've committed. Spying on friendly nations, on journalists, supporting criminal organizations abroad (like in Syria or in Somalia, Dirty Wars is an ok documentary), commercial espionage that has nothing to do with national security, not preventing the US invasion of Iraq under the WMD tale and therefore the deaths of over 115.000 Iraqis and over 4000 American soldiers are just the beginning of the list.

And I forgot to remember the people in Syria, since they are financing, hiring and training terrorists to "commit guerrilla attacks, assassination campaigns, try to break the back of the Alawite forces, elicit collapse from within"

Have a look on this wikileaks file https://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/1671459_insight-military-intervention-in-syria-post-withdrawal.html to leave no doubt.

Or any of the former satellites of the CCCP for that matter. The authoritative list is here.

On that list was a station out in the middle of the Indian Ocean that caught my eye - Diego Garcia, and how it was depopulated by the British to enable the US to set up shop for military purposes. The following cable and corresponding wikipedia article was quite an interesting read on yet another hegemonic adventure undertaken by the US govt. I wonder how long before the European Court of Human Rights will take to decide the case. Odds anyone for the outcome?

Wikileaks has leaked the secret text TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership). It reveals the TPP creates patents on surgery, limits access to medine, makes patents broader and tougher, extends copyright even longer, restricts fair use, makes damages even larger makes circumventing DRM illegal (but with exemptions for government spying) and creates a parallel judicial system for prosecuting IP infringement.

is simply a police state, in the velvet-clad incarnation of a surveillance state. [ This goes true, alas, also for certain western European states, most of all Britain and the Netherlands- ]

Fear, indeed, may be a good label to stick upon some of the deeper undercurrents that began flowing through, or rather: under, western culture since september 2001. As bad a motivator as it is, fear is a powerful one. Couple that with consumption and the benumbedness of the lower socio-economic strata ( in the US case I think explicitly of the urbanized black population in its pit of misery ) and you have the most effective tool there is, for less-than-well-intended or simply *stupid* politicians. to bring society under minute control. All the while, most John Does in that same society will still think they live in a "free" country, even bragging about it.

The only thing that would help here were revolution, a revolution of courage. I think of citizens, united in new parties, declaring independence - of or in smaller states. Although for a very unjust cause, the southern states were fighting for just reasons and stood on justified ground. Their attempt at breaking away from the Union could be repeated with peaceful means. Next year, Scotland will be voting on formal independence from the UK - an historical opportunity to get those hateful cameras off their streets, and GCHQ out of their backyard. In the Netherlands, it will needs be done with different means, as breakaway is nearly impossible in such small entities.

All in all, though, I wonder how millions of reasonably smart citizens can undergo the current climate of repression [ see Sarah Harrison's comment on calling a duck a duck ] without a tinge or mere inkling of revolt ?

And in case people don't understand how footnotes works in Wikipedia, a direct link to the 'other' Wiki's page with her order:

WARNING: if you work for the US Government, it is vitally important that you perform your unending duty to Think of the Poor, Poor, CIA Operatives. (Well, except for that traitorous-because-she-married-an-honest-man Valerie Plame.) As part of that ongoing mission, it is critical that you remain uninformed, so DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK THAT FOLLOWS.

http://www.wikileaks.org/cable/2009/07/09STATE80163.html

Replying to my own thread, which I realize is bad manners...I want to avoid a flamewar joined by Google employees and I refuse to respond to them individually (I also wouldn't reason with the Stasi). The parent post is upvoted by my peers for a reason...we're living in a totalitarian surveillance network in which Google is the primary player and I think we're finally realizing how much the most public advocate of FOSS has become a spook agency in conjunction with the NSA. Let's shun them as we should, for embracing (and making piles of money off of) FOSS and then acting against the interests of freedom. As the weeks go by, we'll continue to learn how Google has betrayed even our most basic freedoms. Beyond that, they've done some work on the ground, the same work a spy agency would have done in the past. Who's holding the shit-bag now?

That's not quite working out as well as planned.

But it's not to say we shouldn't do what we can.

I dispute that these vigilantes should decide what should be "declassified" or what isn't.... I just strongly object to the methods being used by the anti-secrecy crowd, and I don't trust their motivations at all.

That is a fair enough opinion and nobody can argue with it, it is good to have a healthy dose of skepticism about any information that is presented to us via any channel. However what is more difficult to dispute is when a leaked document reveals heinous war crimes - should focusing on the messenger still be more important than a message of that significance? Also remember that Washington leaks information all the time (for example the Bin Laden operation) - why are leaks that expose crimes be worse than leaks that make the president look good? To most people that just reeks of hypocrisy.

The usual reply to this logic is "what war crimes, there were no war crimes exposed - but look over there - Assange is a narcicist and Manning is a traitor!!". However even a basic search and read of the documents they destroyed their lives to bring to us show that this claim is absolutely false:

Revelations from the Afghanistan and Iraq war logs detailed the use of paramilitary death squads, complicity in the torture of Iraqi citizens, the indiscriminate killing of civilians by private military contractors and many other abuses. Meanwhile, the leaked State Department cables brought to light scores of secret drone strikes in countries we are not even at war with, and uncovered the collusion between the U.S. and Yemini governments to lie about American responsibility for the massacre of 41 people in the Al-Majalah region. They also revealed U.S. interference with judicial efforts in Spain to investigate the Bush administration's torture practices. In Tunisia, leaks exposing the opulence and corruption of Ben Ali's government were a catalyst for the revolution that brought down the repressive regime and ignited other pro-democracy movements throughout the Arab world. The list could go on but the point is simple: it would have been a disservice to democracy to withhold this important information.

You are wrong in your irony. Wikileaks is not an anti-secrecy organization. They are a media organization (by their own account). They are against secrecy when it's being used to conceal dishonesty and unjust practices by governments (often to mislead the population). Wikileaks' own leak submit system relies heavily on secrecy to protect the sources from persecution, so you are pretty late with your remark.

A little postscript: This time around it was the US that got busted, I'm hoping for similar leaks in the whole world. We need more transparancy.

http://wikileaks.org/syria-files/
"The data is more than eight times the size of 'Cablegate' in terms of number of documents,
and more than 100 times the size in terms of data."