Cablegate roundup!

Nigeria: Wikileaks’ latest leaks focus on Pfizer- Nigeria lawsuit

from Global Voices Online by Ndesanjo Macha

Brazil: President Lula defends WikiLeaks’ Assange

from Global Voices Online by Marta Cooper

Brazil: WikiLeaks and the ?Electronic Intifada?

from Global Voices Online by Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

Predicting the future of WikiLeaks: Follow the media!

from Net Effect by Evgeny Morozov

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The New York Times asked me to do a short piece for their Room for Debate forum on WikiLeaks. Go read the whole piece; below is a paragraph that I’d like to discuss in more detail on this blog:

One possible future for WikiLeaks is to morph into a gigantic media intermediary — perhaps, even something of a clearing house for investigative reporting — where even low-level leaks would be matched with the appropriate journalists to pursue and report on them and, perhaps, even with appropriate N.G.O.’s to advocate on their causes. Under this model, WikiLeaks staffers would act as idea salesmen relying on one very impressive digital Rolodex.

U.N. rights chief slams China, defends Assange

from Wiki Leaks by Colum Lynch

Navi Pillay, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, pressed China to release this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, expressing hope that China will “come to recognize” the positive contribution the pro-democracy activist can make on Chinese society.

Pakistani media publishes fake WikiLeaks scoops

from Wiki Leaks by Joshua Keating

Lula expresses ‘solidarity’ with WikiLeaks

from Wiki Leaks by Charles Homans

Inside the Zimbabwean diamond racket

from Wiki Leaks by Charles Homans

WikiFamous: Ten world figures who are getting their 15 minutes in the limelight

from Wiki Leaks

Parsing the impact of Anonymous

from Net Effect by Evgeny Morozov

The current chapter in the WikiLeaks saga has finally forced me to come out of my blogging semi-retirement! While I’m still trying to make sense of everything that has happened in the last ten days, here are some analytical notes on Anonymous and the challenges facing the Obama administration as it mulls an appropriate response to WikiLeaks.

Shell oil infiltrates Nigeria’s government ministries

from Wiki Leaks by Elizabeth Dickinson

President Clinton on Technology, WikiLeaks & the World?s Problems

from Mashable! by Jennifer Van Grove

Information is the Antidote to Fear: Wikileaks, the Law, and You

from EFF.org Updates by bankston

Eritrea’s economic “death spiral” led by an “unhinged dictator”

from Wiki Leaks by Elizabeth Dickinson

Eritrea has been called the North Korea of Africa, and with good reason. A March 5, 2009 cable summarizes the mess: “Young Eritreans are fleeing their country in droves, the economy appears to be in a death spiral, Eritrea?s prisons are overflowing, and the country?s unhinged dictator [Isaias Afwerki] remains cruel and defiant.”

Can an “Arab force” save Lebanon? (Hint: No).

from Wiki Leaks by David Kenner

Facebook and Twitter Slam the Door on Would-Be WikiLeaks Avengers

from Mashable! by Jolie O’Dell

Brazil “deeply suspicious,” prone to conspiracy theories about U.S. intentions

from Wiki Leaks by Elizabeth Dickinson

Under the administration of President Luiz Inacío Lula da Silva, Brazil has taken its foreign policy game to the next level. In Latin America, that’s meant nothing short of a transformation — from a big-but-not-impressive country to a genuine regional hegemon. In fact, these days, Brasilia sees Washington as a threat to its growing influence in Latin America.

Hackers Take Down Visa.com in the Name of WikiLeaks

from Mashable! by Brenna Ehrlich

Inside Saudi Arabia’s party scene – By David Kenner

from Wiki Leaks by David Kenner

What is Julian Assange?

from Wiki Leaks by Blake Hounshell

Assange and Australia: It’s complicated

from Wiki Leaks by Charles Homans

WikiLeaks US embassy cables: live updates | News | guardian.co.uk

Sudanese thought Israeli airstrike was American

from Wiki Leaks by Joshua Keating

In January and February of last year, Israeli jets carried out a series of airstrikes on smugglers in Eastern Sudan, thought to be transporting weapons bound for the Gaza Strip. The Israeli government never explicitly claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Prime Minsiter Ehud Olmert said shortly afterward, “Everyone can use their imagination. Those who need to know, know there is no place where Israel cannot operate.”

Cable speculates that soccer loss could undermine Ahmadinejad

from Wiki Leaks by Blake Hounshell

WikiLeaks avengers unlikely to hurt Amazon or Visa, expert says

from EUobserver.com – Headline News

The Labour/left blogosphere in the UK and Wikileaks

from Jon Worth by Jon

MAIN FOCUS: Arrest ups pressure on Assange | 08/12/2010

from euro|topics

Wikileaks boss Julian Assange was arrested in London on Tuesday on charges of rape. Commentators suspect US pressure behind the arrest, as punishment for Assange’s publishing of secret US documents.

The WikiLeaks debate continues

from Editors Weblog – all postings by Emma Heald


The fallout from the latest WikiLeaks release continues, with new details being released daily and new battles between hackers supporting WikiLeaks and those who are  attempting to stifle the site financially.

Assange arrest: Swedish, Swiss, Spanish and German reactions

from cafebabel.com by euro topics

WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange was arrested in London on 6 December on charges of rape. Commentators suspect US pressure behind the arrest, as punishment for Assange’s publishing of secret US documents. European press review

Cablegate: ‘Lame Duck’ Oettinger kicked up to Brussels

from EUobserver.com – Headline News

WikiLeaks and the EU: Beggaring thy neighbours

from Brussels Blog by Peter Spiegel

Among the more revealing EU-related disclosures in the WikiLeaks trove are not about Washington?s view of the European Union, but rather about how members of the EU view each other. One of the more colourful dispatches that have come out thus far is an April 2004 account of an otherwise dull Brussels evening event in which a US

Wikileaks: Espionage charges against Assange said to be “imminent”

from Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin

Photos of pro-Wikileaks, pro-Assange protesters in Pakistan

from Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin

I know they’ve arrested some Dutch teen in connection with the “Operation Payback” attacks on Wikileaks’ censors, but guys, I think we’ve found the true face of Anonymous.

2600 Magazine condemns DDoS attacks against Wikileaks censors

from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow

2600: The Hacker Quarterly, has published a public statement opposing the Anonymous denial-of-service attacks on the services that abetted the censorship of Wikileaks. 2600‘s position is that the inexcusable moral cowardice of Visa and Mastercard and PayPal, etc, do not justify the use of brute force. Additionally, 2600 says that DDoS attacks are tactically unsound, as they create sympathy for these companies, and are used as a pretense for more attacks on Internet freedom. Finally, 2600 wants to strong disassociate “hackers” from people who merely run a piece of push-button DoS software, and to ensure that the security specialists, experimenters, hobbyists and others who make up its community are not unfairly associated with the DDoS attacks.

Wikileaks: Anonymous stops dropping DDoS bombs, starts dropping science

from Boing Boing by Sean Bonner

If this image is to be believed?and I have no reason not to, other than that I found it on the internet?the rebel squadrons behind Anonymous (attn. “news” hacks – that would be an entirely different group from Wikileaks and/or Wikipedia) are about to change their approach. So far, as we’ve witnessed, they have been launching point-and-click distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks at companies perceived as the enemies of Wikileaks. Those targets included Mastercard, Paypal, and Visa (companies that froze donation funding), and Amazon (which denied hosting services). The new approach suggests more sophisticated thinking. This new mission, apparently, is to actually read the cables Wikileaks has published and find the most interesting bits that haven’t been publicized yet, then publicize them.

First impressions of Dilma Rousseff: “stubborn,” “tough,” “workaholic”

from Wiki Leaks by Joshua Keating

Reflections on Manuel Zelaya – By David Kenner

from Wiki Leaks by David Kenner

How sensational are the Cablegate revelations?

from Hurriyet Dailynews by HDN
Some commentaries this week simply suggested the Cablegate revelations do not tell us what we did not already know so the leaks do not need to be sensationalized.

Ugandan government accused of getting in bed with Italian oil company

from Wiki Leaks by Steve LeVine

North Koreans sighted at Burma’s suspected nuclear facility

from Wiki Leaks by Charles Homans

Serbs hint that Russia is helping war crimes fugitive

from Wiki Leaks by Joshua Keating

More stellar corporate behavior in Nigeria

from Wiki Leaks by Elizabeth Dickinson

Pfizer, the pharmaceutical giant, told U.S. officials that it had hired a private investigator to dig up dirt on Nigeria’s attorney general in order to pressure him to drop a lawsuit against the firm. An April 20, 2009 cable recounts a conversation between embassy officials and Pfizer Country Manager Enrico Liggeri in Lagos:


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