Wednesday 8 December 2010

WIKILEAKS: THE POLL...AND THE FUTURE

I’d like to thank everyone who took part in the poll (which I didn’t really announce, but just stuck there) on whether WikiLeaks were a good or bad thing.

A majority said that they thought a good thing (78% is pretty conclusive). One person could care less... representing 5% of the votes and 3 voted “bad” representing 15%.

I should have introduced the subject in an article, but the idea came to me when there was something else to post... so sorry about that. It may explain the very small number of voters.

I voted good, and I have been fulsome in my praise of Julian Assange. I was disappointed on the day that he gave away details of places, plants, installations, etc, which were vital to security and economy of America. That was wrong in my opinion. However, overall I’ve not changed my mind.

I believe that the extradition application is trumped up. They have chosen a “crime” that most people will find distasteful. The US government has cobbled together something too and may also ask for Assange. In theory as Sweden got in first they should have precedence, but as we all know American presidents or secretaries of states only have to make o
ne phone call to overturn British policy on any subject. That reminds me of the minds of Alan Johnston or Vince Cable.

The magistrate who refused his bail despite Assange having gone to the police voluntarily, despite his surety being £100,000, backed by well known people, and despite the prisons being full, says that he fears the man would flee the country. But that’s highly unlikely given that he would be obliged to surrender his passport, and surely the border guards must be aware of Mr Assnage’s face by now.

I suspect that he may be looking for a seat in the House of £300+ a day.

But despite Mr Assange’s custody, the leaks continue. Despite efforts to close the websites and starve the organization of cash, Wikileaks are now mirrored by hundreds of sites all over the world... plus an email, or a letter, to the newspapers covering the story would suffice to continue the leaks. They must all exist in paper form by now....somewhere.

The “Authorities” in the UK and around Europe, not to mention the USA, would do well to tread carefully. They seem to have no idea just how angry people are.

We have been lied to; our troops have been sent on pointless missions where they have died, relatively frequently in “friendly fire” incidents; despite our best efforts we appear to have been thought useless by America and Afghanistan alike.

Our banks have been bailed out with our money, which they are now refusing to use for our good; a few stupid people have ruined people’s lives and made others very much harder; our politicians have been stealing from us, and continue to do so; our government in London has been crawling up America’s backside and doing us down in the process. And now to cap it all we are suffering the worst winter weather in decades, just as fuel companies are lying to us about why they are putting up fuel prices by more than twice the rate of inflation.

No one believes a word any politician says now, and yet the London lot address each other as Honourable, Rt Honourable and bloody Noble when many of them are quite simply the dregs of humanity.

Something has changed, and I don't think it will change back.



Pics: (1) Julian Assange in a nicer place than he is tonight; (2) Wikileaks, our opportunity to see just how much lying they've been doing; (3) One seriously angry group of people done over by their governments and their banks in Eire. It's possibly their standards of living will have to fall as far as parity with the UK's! No wonder they are angry.

21 comments:

  1. I wonder how many of those Rt Hon members are aware of the carnage in these foreign disasters that they are complicit in. I posted this at SB's if you have a strong constitution google 'Death made in America' this is what the brave souls are losing there lives for. Piano wire can be obtained when required.

    Wikileaks: Stop the crackdown

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  2. I couldn't read it CH. I couldn't bear these photographs. Of course not looking won't make it go away; won't make the situation any better. Selfishly, I suppose, I just want to be able to sleep tonight.

    Putting Julian Assange in prison ain't going to stop diddly squat now. Something has started and people who thought they would always live the high life at the expense of others may find that that won't be happening any more.

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  3. I think it's comical the charges against Assange when we consider the number of rape allegations treated seriously in the UK and in moset developed countries across the world is minimal. They seem to be bartering on the rarity, trying to shore up their discourse about how women generally lie about rape and it's very rare whilst showing that only pinko scum like Assange are capable of it, and not every single bloody Tory lord and MP that's in favour of stringently anti-female legislation and favours a culture of victim-blame.

    However, that's slightly off topic, just somethign that's really bothered me the past few days. It's good to see wikileaks still going strong, and I have to admit, I don't think that anything that Assange has done is wrong, because he's questioning the powers of the government, not just on a 'this government is bad, we need good leaders' level, but on a wider, 'government is bad, people can lead themselves' level. Exposing a corrupt system, and not just a corrupt government.

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  4. Outstanding post. Humbling (for the likes of dumb me).

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  5. I also support Mr Assange...some of the Wikileaks stuff has been the most amusing thing this side of the coalition. And now that the icy blast of the nasty party and their pet poodle's right wing agenda begins to bite I think we can expect more.

    The coalition it seems is hitting its first rocky patch. It is a bit earlier than I expected! I must say I thought it would be the devolved elections and the AV fig leaf referendum. On that point I see a poll by the NUS(Scotland) has found that 48% of respondents who voted Lib Dem in the general election will be unlikley to do so in the Scottish one. Oops Tavish!

    Also I see that the Scottish Labour clique's transports spokesman Charlie Gordon has called on Stewart Stevenson to resign for listening to the wrong forecast from the BBC and having the temerity to do what no Labour minister ever does and apologise when he gets things wrong! I'm wondering if Elmer will second that demand later today!

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  6. I just worry about this wikileaks stuff. What if it endangers lives? Is this the right to know, or another example of the people simply wanting to know?

    I am one of the 15%, sorry to break the emerging consensus - but that is why I'm here :)

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  7. Laz...

    It’s rocking the old order. The “authorities” are trying to shut him down, and enlisting the aid of the likes of Paypal and Visa, and for their troubles people who support him are damaging their business.

    In a way, it’s a bit like the old fashioned strike, without having to stand outside in the cold.

    But just like the old fashioned strike changed things, so will this.

    Of course, left on their own, the Brits would go too far and spoil it by blocking websites because they use the wrong colour of toilet paper or hard soap, but fortunately this is an international effort. The worst excesses of both sides that we knew in the British trades union – management war will be softened by common sense from elsewhere.

    I just wonder whose arm is being twisted in Sweden...

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  8. Denver, old mate. So long since we've seen you on here. I hope you're well and that the snow isn't getting you down.

    I think you flatter to deceive there. It’s hardly brilliant and you’re hardly thick...

    Have you launched your new site yet? I’ll come and join!!

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  9. Munguin. I image that it's bye bye Liberals in the General Election to come. Now we have to start working out who will gain from their departure!

    It’s a bit like the funeral of great uncle Cedric. No one much liked him, but they are all scrambling over the few thousand he left.

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  10. Dear Dean...

    Of course you broke the emerging consensus. That’s what you do on Munguin’s Republic and I promise you, you are all the more cherished for it mate.

    I take your point about danger to lives and as I said I was really disappointed in the exposure of the strategic sites.

    But this is about getting rid of the secrecy that we DON’T need to have. The secrecy that allows people to go on living their ridiculous dream lives at our expense and to our detriment. We wouldn’t believe that opposition politicians said that Brown was as mad as a hatter, because that has become their job. I expect right now Miliband is saying the same sort of things about Camerclegg.

    But when our “best friend” says that our prime minister is seriously unstable, then surely that is something we should know, so that we can take steps to get rid of him.

    Maybe if we hadn’t had a seriously unstable prime minister we wouldn’t be in this mess.

    I’ve just read lance Price’s book on the Labour government, and I’m currently reading Lord Voldermort’s book. There is a lot that is different, but the one thing that ties up all the way through was that Gordon was a nutter. A complete lolly pop who wanted everything to revolve around him and who went out of his way to undermine the government and its works until he got the top job which was HIS, he had been cheated out of it. We all wondered about that, but it seems that candid reviews from outside were in accord with that.

    Wouldn’t you agree that we have the right to know that our prime minister is a nut job?

    And to go back to your original point; danger to life and limb, it seems that if we hadn’t had another prime minister who was so desperate to please the president, we probably wouldn’t have been at war. And many lives would have been saved. If we had it out in the open that Blair was, in fact Bush’s poodle, then maybe we could have saved lives.

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  11. Julian Assange should be awarded Nobel peace prize, suggests Russia

    Dean What if it endangers lives? Governments interfeering in other governments behind the scenes cost lives maybe if they stopped that it might save more.

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  12. Tris,

    I agree, the disclosure of the strategic sites was unfortunate, but I'd go further and label it criminal. It is providing a roadmap for terrorists, and is not - as I know you agree - something about right to know. It was released out of spite after the arrest of Mr Assange.

    As for the rest of it, I frankly don't care about most of it. Tittle tattle from the diplomatic arena. But what worries me about some of the disclosures, is that, if politicians cannot talk confidentially with each other via email, or recorder, or a note taker -- they will do so secretly, with no means of monitoring their exchanges. Do we really want that kind of development?

    No, I sure don't. And, as I say, most of this is pathetic tittle tattle, so, is this really a case of public right to know, or just another example of the public wanting to know?

    If the former, fine, but I rather think it is the latter - which isn't.

    As for the Brown stuff, come on, everybody knew the guy wasn't the full shilling - do you need the US diplomatic arm to tell us what we already knew about McCavity?

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  13. Cynical,

    You do have a point there mate. One development I am shocked by was the bugging of the Secretary Generals offices - an international criminal offense. The bugging and abuse of UN diplomatic neutrality by the US [and others, including us sadly], maybe does cost lives.

    That is a good example of a public right to know. But is this a typical example of the bulk of the wikileak material? Or an isolated example of right to know?

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  14. Tris,

    I agree, the disclosure of the strategic sites was unfortunate, but I'd go further and label it criminal. It is providing a roadmap for terrorists, and is not - as I know you agree - something about right to know. It was released out of spite after the arrest of Mr Assange.

    As for the rest of it, I frankly don't care about most of it. Tittle tattle from the diplomatic arena. But what worries me about some of the disclosures, is that, if politicians cannot talk confidentially with each other via email, or recorder, or a note taker -- they will do so secretly, with no means of monitoring their exchanges. Do we really want that kind of development?

    No, I sure don't. And, as I say, most of this is pathetic tittle tattle, so, is this really a case of public right to know, or just another example of the public wanting to know?

    If the former, fine, but I rather think it is the latter - which isn't.

    As for the Brown stuff, come on, everybody knew the guy wasn't the full shilling - do you need the US diplomatic arm to tell us what we already knew about McCavity?

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  15. Tris,

    I agree, the disclosure of the strategic sites was unfortunate, but I'd go further and label it criminal. It is providing a roadmap for terrorists, and is not - as I know you agree - something about right to know. It was released out of spite after the arrest of Mr Assange.

    As for the rest of it, I frankly don't care about most of it. Tittle tattle from the diplomatic arena. But what worries me about some of the disclosures, is that, if politicians cannot talk confidentially with each other via email, or recorder, or a note taker -- they will do so secretly, with no means of monitoring their exchanges. Do we really want that kind of development?

    No, I sure don't. And, as I say, most of this is pathetic tittle tattle, so, is this really a case of public right to know, or just another example of the public wanting to know?

    If the former, fine, but I rather think it is the latter - which isn't.

    As for the Brown stuff, come on, everybody knew the guy wasn't the full shilling - do you need the US diplomatic arm to tell us what we already knew about McCavity?

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  16. I think Dean, we have the right to know that quite a few people in positions of power thought that Gordon Brown was a nut job...

    Fancy a nut job running the UK...

    Well, on reflection, can you imagine how lovely it would be NOT to have a nut job on the job.

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  17. Dean just wait for the corrupt practices in the banking system get released and how governments are complicit in allowing these criminal activities to continue. If there was more transparency then Assange would be in another job.

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  18. Tris,

    You needed wikileaks to realise McCavity was a nutjob?!

    .... no comment ... lol ;)

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  19. Well perhaps it was a bad example, Dean.... Yeah ;¬)

    But there are other things that we should know about. Things that would have saved lives.

    Of course what we have to remember is that Julian didn't actually leak anything. He simply took what was leaked and put it out.

    The Americans have top secrets that half teh population seems to know. They leak like a drunk ...

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  20. You're right CH. They don't want all that coming out.

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