Pentagon Manhunt founder Julian Assange Wikileaks

[Cees Binkhorst]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Wow, een spionageroman recht voor onze ogen.

Groet / Cees

Pentagon Manhunt
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-06-10/wikileaks-founder-julian-assange-hunted-by-pentagon-over-massive-leak/
by Philip Shenon
June 10, 2010 | 10:03pm

BS Top - Shenon Wikileaks Julian Assange Anxious that Wikileaks may be
on the verge of publishing a batch of secret State Department cables,
investigators are desperately searching for founder Julian Assange.
Philip Shenon reports. Plus, Daniel Ellsberg tells The Daily Beast:
"Assange is in Some Danger."

(This story has been updated to reflect new developments on Assange's
whereabouts, including the cancelation of a scheduled appearance in Las
Vegas.)

Pentagon investigators are trying to determine the whereabouts of the
Australian-born founder of the secretive website Wikileaks for fear that
he may be about to publish a huge cache of classified State Department
cables that, if made public, could do serious damage to national
security, government officials tell The Daily Beast.

The officials acknowledge that even if they found the website founder,
Julian Assange, it is not clear what they could do to block publication
of the cables on Wikileaks, which is nominally based on a server in
Sweden and bills itself as a champion of whistleblowers.

“We’d like to know where he is; we’d like his cooperation in this,” one
U.S. official said of Assange.

American officials said Pentagon investigators are convinced that
Assange is in possession of at least some classified State Department
cables leaked by a 22-year-old Army intelligence specialist, Bradley
Manning of Potomac, Maryland, who is now in custody in Kuwait.

And given the contents of the cables, the feds have good reason to be
concerned.

_breakAd_

As The Daily Beast reported June 8, Manning, while posted in Iraq,
apparently had special access to cables prepared by diplomats and State
Department officials throughout the Middle East, regarding the workings
of Arab governments and their leaders, according to an American diplomat.

The cables, which date back over several years, went out over
interagency computer networks available to the Army and contained
information related to American diplomatic and intelligence efforts in
the war zones in Afghanistan and Iraq, the diplomat said.

American officials would not discuss the methods being used to find
Assange, nor would they say if they had information to suggest where he
is now. "We'd like to know where he is; we'd like his cooperation in
this," one U.S. official said of Assange.

• Daniel Ellsberg: 'Assange Is In Danger' Assange, who first gained
notoriety as a computer hacker, is as secretive as his website and has
no permanent home.

He was scheduled to speak Friday in Las Vegas at an International
Reporters and Editors conference. But the group’s executive director,
Mark Horvit, tells The Daily Beast that Assange canceled the
appearance—he was on a panel to discuss anonymous sources—within the
last several days as a result of unspecificed “security concerns.”
Horvit said he communicated with Assange through email and did not know
where he might be.

Last week, Assange was scheduled to join famed Pentagon Papers leaker
Daniel Ellsberg for a talk at New York's Personal Democracy Forum.
Assange appeared via Skype from Australia instead, saying lawyers
recommended he not return to the United States.

Julian Assange, in April 2010, discussing confidential sources in the
digital age

Assange was in the United States as recently as several weeks ago, when
he gave press interviews to promote the website’s release of an
explosive 2007 video of an American helicopter attack in Baghdad that
left 12 people dead, including two employees of the news agency Reuters.

Wikileaks has not replied directly to email messages from The Daily Beast.

However, in cryptic messages he sent this week via Twitter, Wikileaks
referred to an earlier Daily Beast article on the investigation of
Manning and said that it “looks like we’re about to be attacked by
everything the U.S. has.”

In an earlier post, the site said that allegations that “we have been
sent 260,000 classified U.S. embassy cables are, as far as we can tell,
incorrect.”

This morning, a new Wikileaks tweet went out: "Any signs of unacceptable
behavior by the Pentagon or its agents towards this press will be viewed
dimly."

Pentagon investigators say that particular post may have been an effort
by Wikileaks to throw them—and news organizations—off the track as the
site prepared the library of State Department cables for release,
officials said.

“It looks like they’re playing some sort of semantic games,” one
American official said of Wikileaks. “They may not have 260,000 cables,
but they’ve probably got enough cables to make trouble.”

• Philip Shenon: The State Dept.’s Worst NightmareIn another cryptic
Twitter message, the site said that while the State Department might be
alarmed about the prospect of the release of classified cables, “we have
not been contacted.”

American officials were unwilling to say what would happen if Assange is
tracked down, although they suggested they would have many more legal
options available to them if he were still somewhere in the United States.

Manning has reportedly admitted that he downloaded 260,000 diplomatic
cables and provided them to Wikileaks. In Internet chat logs first
revealed by Wired magazine, Manning also took credit for leaking the
2007 video to the website.

“Hillary Clinton and several thousand diplomats around the world are
going to have a heart attack when they wake up one morning and find an
entire repository of classified foreign policy is available,” Manning
wrote of the diplomatic cables, according to Wired.

Wikileaks has not confirmed that Manning is a source of any information
posted on the site. “We do not know if Mr. Manning is our source, but
the U.S. military is claiming he is, so we will defend him,” Wikileaks
said in another Twitter message.

Manning was turned in to the Pentagon by a former computer hacker based
in California, Adrian Lamo, after Manning approached Lamo for counsel.
Manning is believed to have contacted Lamo after reading a recent
profile of him in Wired.

In the chat log revealed by Wired, Manning bragged to Lamo about having
downloaded a huge library of State Department cables, as well as the
2007 video of the helicopter attack, and having provided the material to
Wikileaks.

Manning took credit for having leaked a classified diplomatic cable that
has already appeared on the site—a memo prepared by the United States
embassy in Reykjavik, Iceland, that described a meeting there between
American and Icelandic officials over that country’s banking meltdown.

The January 2010 memo may have been of special interest to Wikileaks
given the site’s close ties to Iceland, where Assange has based himself
at times and where he worked with local lawmakers to draft free-speech
laws that give broad freedom to journalists to protect their sources.

A profile this week in The New Yorker magazine depicted Assange
feverishly at work with Icelandic colleagues in Reykjavik in March as he
organized the release of the 2007 video of the helicopter attack. The
edited video was given the title Collateral Murder, and its release
infuriated officials at the Defense Department.

With its network of whistleblowers, Wikileaks has published documents
and videos on its site that have outraged other foreign governments. To
protect the site from attack by intelligence agencies, Assange has
placed Wikileaks on several Internet servers, making it all but
impossible for any government to shut down the site entirely.


FarLeftFist

This is one hell of a movie plot, Tom Clancy where are you.
Flag It
|
Permalink
|
Reply
|
(6)
Show Replies
Collapse Replies
1:46 am, Jun 11, 2010
rigboo2

Wow, I sure hope he made it out of the United States OK.

Lou
www.anon-posting.at.tc
Flag It
|
Permalink
|
Reply
8:43 am, Jun 11, 2010
kingfish46815

Diplomatic cables are encrypted at an embassy or State before being put
on the wire and as such not decipherable without State"s specialized
equipment on site at the point of transmission and receipt- what did
this guy give out if he gave out anything at all.
Flag It
|
Permalink
|
Reply
9:51 am, Jun 11, 2010
truthfullyspeaking

Ah, yes, the government and their scams.

Such as the US government income tax scam.

WHAT IS TAXED . COM
Flag It
|
Permalink
|
Reply
10:11 am, Jun 11, 2010
mcmchugh99

It definitely sounds like something out of the X-Files, or the Pentagon
Papers case.

This time, though, if the leakers are prosecuted and the case goes
through the federal courts, I'm afraid they really will go to prison. It
won't be the same as it was back in the days of Daniel Ellsberg, even
though I'm sure there is a lot of very damaging information yet to come
out about the Iraq War.
Flag It
|
Permalink
|
Reply
|
(3)
Show Replies
Collapse Replies
11:01 am, Jun 11, 2010
cnugent

This guy does not see an American court. Can you say rendition and vanished?
Flag It
|
Permalink
1:23 pm, Jun 11, 2010
Johnnyappleseed

Holder and crew are busy with BP, no time for spies and subversives, so
put a bug in their computer system, can be done I'm sure.
Flag It
|
Permalink
1:33 pm, Jun 11, 2010
Rss Johnsen

Without people digging out the truth you'll never get damaging reports.
The Pentagon and the CIA terrorists will just hide it all. For instance
what ever became of that damning video of the helicopter having a great
time hunting down the men on the street and killing them including two
Reuters photographers. Can you find this video? Has the news forgotten
all about these murders?
Flag It
|
Permalink
8:35 pm, Jun 11, 2010
John Redman

Rent or otherwise check out the film, staring Walter Matheau, Hopscotch.
You won't regret it
Flag It
|
Permalink
|
Reply
5:17 pm, Jun 11, 2010
hockeydog

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jun/11/wikileaks-founder-assange-penta
gon-manning

Watch the video from the helicopter itself. Click on this link from
today's Guardian - This will wrench your heart.
Flag It
|
Permalink
|
Reply
7:01 am, Jun 12, 2010
jomamas

Dude has balls... and I'm glad somebody is holding our governments at
least somewhat accountable, however, this dude is doing a great
disservice by highlighting all the questionable things that only our
leaders are doing.

What needs to do is be 'fair and balanced' and release Chinese, Russian,
Israeli, Iranian, Saudi, Somalian information of the same kind.

The West and yes, America, has the moral high ground on most issues -
that doesn't make us better than other people, and it definitely doesn't
make us 'always right', and it doesn't even vindicate any kind of 'ism'
over the other - but for god's sake, we're mostly fighting 'evil' even
if we do get it wrong a lot these days. Just because some soldiers are
a*holes doesn't mean that we're doing the wrong thin overall.

I wonder what this guy would do if his country were being invaded by the
Chinese Army. Would he give out state secrets then?

The moral clarity a dude must have to be able to do this, to defy his
own people and kind, is disturbing.

Flag It
|
Permalink
|
Reply
|
(4)
Show Replies
Collapse Replies
1:55 am, Jun 11, 2010
FarLeftFist

What does he care about the USA, he's Australian. The 2nd douchey
Australian right behind Murdoch.
Flag It
|
Permalink
|
Reply
3:45 am, Jun 11, 2010
kayjay

Wikileaks is just that -- leaks. He can't choose what is sent to him,
and doesn't seem to discriminate in what he puts up. Sadly it seems that
Chinese and Russian whistleblowers aren't as successful as American and
western ones.

Add to that that it's predominantly an English language website and that
leaves America as the most likely source of leaks. I hope he continues
to be successful in fighting over-secretive governments and can set such
an example that perhaps Chinese, Iranian and Russian counterparts will
start to do the same (although, obviously, at much much greater risk).
Flag It
|
Permalink
|
Reply
|
(1)
Show Replies
Collapse Replies
4:25 am, Jun 11, 2010
KirkToons

Plaudits!

You have brilliantly pointed at the heart of the matter.
Flag It
|
Permalink
3:05 am, Jun 12, 2010
rufus888

".... we're mostly fighting 'evil' even if we do get it wrong a lot
these days...."

The largest site of "pure evil" on the planet right now is Israel, and
has been for a looong time. We sure aren't fighting these butchers hard
enough, so your theory sorta sux. Viva Wikileaks!
Flag It
|
Permalink
|
Reply
9:43 am, Jun 11, 2010
koyaanisqatsi

The West and "America"--actually the U.S.A. (once again, nimrod, America
is not a country!)--has lost the moral high ground, if we ever held the
moral high ground. The U.S., together with Israel, are the two biggest
exporters of terrorism in the world, and have ceded the right to exist.

This particular issue of leaks has much less to do with national
security than Pentagon embarrassment, as if they'd actually be
embarrassed about _anything_. Leak, Julian, leak...the world should know
what and who we really are! Then, run, Julian, run...better to vanish
yourself than to be tortured, brutalized, and vanished by the U.S! Burn
the trash heap we call the U.S. to the ground.
Flag It
|
Permalink
|
Reply
|
(3)
Show Replies
Collapse Replies
2:44 pm, Jun 11, 2010
fred88

"The U.S., together with Israel, are the two biggest exporters of
terrorism in the world, and have ceded the right to exist."

You are either dumbest moron to use the internet, or an overpaid troll
of this jihadis.

The only thing more vile than your comments is that more people haven't
kicked you in the head over them.

Then again, you are a perfect example of the delusions of the left in
this country.
Flag It
|
Permalink
3:40 pm, Jun 11, 2010
koyaanisqatsi

@fred88 You're an idiot. I'm a right-wing Tea Party member. Yep, it's
true. Other than that, why don't you actually provide an opposing view,
rather than engaging in personal, ad hominem attacks? You all bark, no bite?
Flag It
|
Permalink
4:18 pm, Jun 11, 2010
DD3075

koyaanisqatsi "...I'm a right-wing Tea Party
member."................................. B.S., unless you attend as an
agitator.
Flag It
|
Permalink
8:13 pm, Jun 11, 2010
octavio

If the USA and George W Bush borrowed one trillion dollars
just to capture Saddan Hussein alive;we should be able to do the same in
Sweden.Just put Cheney in charge of torturing everybody
in Sweden.Until we are allowed to capture Julian Assange and
they let us destroy the damn server.

secret agents think that this Assange has a few chunks of
information.Did not the USA military said that close to 1/4 of a million
tips of information was leaked by Manning?What is going on? Are the
clumsy liars of British Petroleum in charge
of the investigation?

The CIA has a history of screwing up most of their assignments.Now it is
obvious that the USA military is less competent than the CIA.

What is going on?Are all bureaucrats watching porn in the internet
instead of doing their job?

Is all of this bull shit a reflexion of the ethics of our bribe takers
USA senators?

Is this stupidity demonstrating that Barack Obama is a black Bush? Obama
is in charge of the military.Obama keeps defending the homosexuals in
the military with the DADT ---
don't ask,don't tell --- bull shit.Instead of correcting the existing
corruption in all the US institutions.Especially doing something
about passing a real campaign contribution reform bill and a real
immigration reform bill.

Is this military stupidity a reflexion of US politics,which amounts to a
cesspool of fraud? I think it is.If we were prosecuting our corrupt
leaders --- which we never do --- we would not have this embarrassing
security breaches.

Sure,the USA does not discuss methods of investigation.We know that
torturing is performed behind closed doors.Just because Obama says that
we do not torture anymore.It means
that it is true.First we should had executed Bush and Cheney
et cetera.Then the public would be inclined to believe that we do not
torture any more.

If a lot of what Manning down loaded shows that the US is
corrupted.Then it is time for a change.Manning can easily
become the best whistle blower ever and a national hero.

We know that capitalism destroys every thing.It is time to become a
socialistic/democratic society.Look in the dictionary socialism is good
for the 300 million average Joe's.

In summary Manning and Assange are way ahead of corrupt USA officials.

**********
Dit bericht is verzonden via de informele D66 discussielijst (D66 at nic.surfnet.nl).
Aanmelden: stuur een email naar LISTSERV at nic.surfnet.nl met in het tekstveld alleen: SUBSCRIBE D66 uwvoornaam uwachternaam
Afmelden: stuur een email naar LISTSERV at nic.surfnet.nl met in het tekstveld alleen: SIGNOFF D66
Het on-line archief is te vinden op: http://listserv.surfnet.nl/archives/d66.html
**********