Julian Assange answers your questions

The founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, answers readers’ questions about the release of more than 250,000 US diplomatic cables

Calling Time on Assange

The other face of Wikileaks: Kristinn Hrafnsson

from Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin

Amazon and WikiLeaks – Online Speech is Only as Strong as the Weakest Intermediary

Co-authored by Rainey Reitman and Marcia Hofmann

The First Amendment to the Constitution guarantees freedom of expression against government encroachment – but that doesn’t help if the censorship doesn’t come from the government.

Guardian: U.S. politicians told Amazon to remove Wikileaks

When Wikileaks twittered that Amazon’s removal of its website from its servers was a “free speech” issue, it seemed an odd turn of phrase: after all, Amazon is a private company and is free to host what it likes. The Guardian has just reported, however, that it did indeed remove Wikileaks after being pressured to do so by the U.S. government. Ewan MacAskill writes that U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman offered a prepared statement, announcing Wikileaks’ removal from Amazon’s server, as the plug was pulled.

Amazon: Wikileaks has no right to publish the leaks

from Boing Boing by Rob Beschizza

Fate of Spain’s Internet/copyright law depends on El Pais releasing relevant Wikileaks cables NOW

from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow

Wikileaks cables reveal that the US wrote Spain’s proposed copyright law

Spain’s Congress is about to vote on a new and extremely harsh copyright/Internet law. It’s an open secret that the law was essentially drafted by American industry groups working with the US trade representative.

Have leaks damaged Europe’s leaders?

Professor Tom Flanagan: Glib about Murdering Julian Assange

Last night, on CBC News, University of Calgary political scientist Tom Flanagan, a former key adviser to Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper, said that he wished Julian Assange would be assassinated and ?disappeared,? joining a growing list of North American, right wing, commentators and politicians calling for the same, and doing so at the same time as they do. This not too surprising, since Flanagan is himself an American import, brought in by fellow Americans in Calgary. Today, probably after an avalanche of email, and after walls of text denouncing Flanagan appeared in almost every social network site, he issued a weak pseudo-apology: ?I regret that I made a glib comment about a serious issue?.If Mr. Assange is arrested on the recently announced Interpol warrant, I hope [he] receives a fair trial and due process of law.? Those who sat in on the same panel, chuckled. One, Scott Reid, a former Liberal adviser to former prime minister Paul Martin said Flanagan was being ?his usual colourful and provocative self ? and was ?obviously talking tongue in cheek.? Obviously? Not at all. Reid continued his defense of extremism:  ?Not for a second did I think he was suggesting seriously that someone?s life be put at risk. He?s a great guy with strong opinions. Not a mean guy with lunatic opinions.?

Assange: UFOs discussed in WikiLeaks files

The truth, apparently, is in there. Here’s what Julian Assange had to say in a web chat with Guardian readers today

achanth
Mr Assange,
have there ever been documents forwarded to you which deal with the topic of UFOs or extraterrestrials?

WikiLeaks fights to stay online after US company withdraws domain name | Media | guardian.co.uk

Lebanese leaders hate Hezbollah as much as Gulf leaders hate Iran – By David Kenner

from Wiki Leaks by David Kenner

Petraeus: If we wanted Middle Eastern oil, we could’ve just bought it

from Wiki Leaks by Steve LeVine

EU officials give first analysis of WikiLeaks impact

from EUobserver.com – Headline News

Britain requests details of Julian Assange case, fueling speculation he is there

LONDON – Speculation was growing Friday that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is hiding somewhere in Britain after British police requested additional information from Swedish authorities seeking his arrest.

McCain: Southern Iraq like ‘Chicago in the ’20s’

An April 2008 cable describes a meeting between Sen. (then presidential candidate) John McCain and then British Conservative Party leader David Cameron. Much of the discussion focuses on Iraq, where McCain said he felt the security situation was improving, but still had concerns about developments in the South, particularly Basrah:

Daily brief: Karzai seen as “weak” by own cabinet, U.S.

from Wiki Leaks by Katherine Tiedemann, December 3, 2010

Brazil: Blogosphere reacts to WikiLeaks

By Raphael Tsavkko Garcia · Translated by Raphael Tsavkko Garcia · View original post [pt]

The leak of more than 250 000 documents denouncing the practice of espionage by the U.S. government also caused an uproar in Brazil, where dozens of documents ended up putting the Defence Minister, Nelson Jobim, in a delicate situation. Natalia Viana, from Opera Mundi, details [pt] the number of leaked documents about Brazil and says that there is still much more to come:

Barbados: What’s in Wikileaks?

from Global Voices Online by Janine Mendes-Franco

WikiLeaks Downed By Its DNS Service Provider

from Mashable! by Stan Schroeder

North Korea has underwater nuclear facilities? Kim Jong Il a drug addict?

Exhibit A in the case for not believing everything you read in the WikiLeaks cables is this September 2008 dispatch from the U.S. Consulate in Shanghai.

The editorial genius of U.S. diplomats

As Christopher Beam of Slate noted this week, the U.S. diplomatic cable may deserve recognition as its own genre of literature. But the headlines are pure tabloid. Indeed, WikiLeaks’ publication this week of several hundred U.S. diplomatic communications has cast a spotlight on the secret art of writing diplomatic cables, but its their titles that makes them such an enticing read. Promising glimpses into Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi‘s phobias or the latest shenanigans of the Cuban-Venezuelan access of mischief, they seem to scream out: Read me!

Senior official: ‘This has been a bad week for American diplomacy’

The State Department is settling in for a rough period, putting forth a longer-term strategy for dealing with the damage done by the ongoing WikiLeaks disclosures and starting the repair work on hundreds of relationships. The timing of the diplomatic embarrassment comes just as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is traveling around the globe.

Why Amazon Dropped WikiLeaks

from Mashable! by Jolie O’Dell

U.S. officials think Berlusconi is ‘feckless, vain, and ineffective’ – By Charles Homans

from Wiki Leaks by Charles Homans

Under Sarkozy, Francafrique “still kicking”

from Wiki Leaks by Elizabeth Dickinson

Aliyev is “not Michael Corleone, he’s Sonny”

from Wiki Leaks by Charles Homa

North Korean diplomat: Six-party talks are dead, Bill Clinton and Kim Jong Il have ‘good personal understanding’

This September 2009 cable from the U.S. Embassy in Mongolia provides a rare opportunity to hear a North Korean official speaking candidly. According to the document, the Mongolian Foreign Affairs Ministry’s deputy director for Asian affairs, J. Sukhee, briefed U.S. Embassy officials about talks between North Korea’s Vice Foreign Affairs Minister Kim Yong Il and the Mongolian president. The talks apparently focused heavily on North Korea’s nuclear program and U.S.-North Korea relations. In particular, Kim seemed to dismiss the idea of continuing the six-party talks:

Sri Lanka: WikiLeaks And The Lankanosphere

Berlusconi skimming off the top of Gazprom deals?

Here’s the inflammatory 2009 cable on Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s relationship with Russia which was first reported by the Guardian. The cable contains suggestions that Berlusconi is personally profiting from energy deals with Russia and reports that Italy’s Russia policy is handled entirely by the prime minister himself:

Why diplomats secretly love WikiLeaks – By Steve LeVine

Azerbaijan: First Lady responds to Cablegate criticism?

By Onnik Krikorian

As Azerbaijan braces itself for yet more revelations from classified U.S. Embassy cables released this week by Wikileaks, some interesting developments are occurring on Twitter. In particular, after some less than favorable descriptions of Ilham Aliyev, president of the oil-rich former Soviet republic, as well as his wife, by U.S. diplomats, an account presenting itself as that of the country’s First Lady appeared less than a day later.

Singapore: Wikileaks and the ?flabby old chap? comment

By Mong Palatino

Apparently, Singapore?s former Prime Minister and currently Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew thinks North Korea leader Kim Jong-il is a ?flabby old chap who prances around stadiums seeking adulation.? This was revealed when Wikileaks uploaded thousands of documents exposing classified communication between the US State Departments and its embassies around the world.
The unintended lesson of WikiLeaks
National Post
Otherwise, we’re focused on Iran, Pakistan and Turkey. Bye”? That’s the other side of WikiLeaks: Not only are we way over-invested in the Palestinian