Julian Assange has filed documents that will allow the WikiLeaks founder to run for the Australian senate, clearing the way for a campaign dedicated to ”the democratic requirement of truthfulness from government, according to Read More
It was really just a matter of time before Julian Assange’s tumultuous life hit the silver screen. Well guess what: Filming commenced today on The Fifth Estate, Dreamworks’ Wikileaks movie scheduled to appear in theaters November 15.
My goodness, you can already see the gleam of Oscar gold in their eyes. Read More
Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act have revealed that the United States considers WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange an enemy of the state. Soldiers who contact Mr. Assange or WikiLeaks could be charged with communicating with an enemy. Members of the military found guilty of such communication could be sentenced to death in a military court of law.
Technically, this status puts Mr. Assange and his site on the same legal footing as the Taliban.
As Australia’s National Times reports, the government’s view of the whistle-blowing organization and its founder was revealed in documents regarding an investigation into an Air Force officer’s actions while stationed overseas: Read More
With an ill-advised tweet posted Wednesday, WikiLeaks may have won the tacky self-interest sweepstakes. The tweet, which was quickly deleted, suggested a deadly attack aimed at the American Embassy in Benghazi, Libya was justified by Julian Assange’s refugee status inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
The Guardian assumed the tweet was written by Mr. Assange. Whoever posted the statement, they clearly weren’t looking much further than their own navel, writing: Read More
Early this morning, a pro-WikiLeaks op-ed purporting to be penned by former New York Times executive editor Bill Keller cropped up online. It was a stunningly convincing piece of web fraud, its design practically identical to the New York Times‘s own homepage, with every link leading to an actual Times article or section. The only hint that it wasn’t real was the URL: instead of showing as nytimes.com/pages/opinion, it read “opinion-nytimes.com.” It’s a tiny difference, but a monumentally important one.
The article itself, which staunchly defends WikiLeaks and the importance of qualifying it under the First Amendment, is certainly stylistically similar to the real writings of Mr. Keller. Some of the wording is rather clunky, but that seems to lend the piece the impression that its message was so dire that it was written in an emotional hurry. The faux article tries so hard to be convincing that it even borrows wording from an email Mr. Keller wrote recently to GigaOm about WikiLeaks. Read More
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange really doesn’t want to be extradited to Sweden for allegations of sex offenses, where he may be handed over to U.S. authorities. In a tweet at 2:40 p.m., @WikiLeaks said that the Australian activist “has requested political asylum and is under the protection of the Ecuadorian embassy in London.” In a followup tweet they added, “We will have more details on the Ecuadorian situation soon.”
Ecuador’s foreign minister confirmed to USA Today that Mr. Assange is at Ecuador’s U.K. embassy where he is seeking political asylum. Read More
Wikileaks dropped a bomb on Texas-based “global intelligence company” Stratfor late Sunday with “The Global Intelligence Files,” a dump of over 5 million hacked emails containing confidential information about Stratfor’s informers, psych ops, pay-offs and the methods they use to make the payments. Anonymous has proudly taken credit for the hack via @YourAnonNews: Read More
The Wall Street Journal introduced a Wikileaks competitor today. But the fine print makes it clear they won’t keep whistle-blowers names confidential if the law comes calling. Read More
Cold as Schmidt Here’s a little digital memento from AllThingsDigital’s D: Dive Into Mobile conference: This is what it looks like when, rather than answering your question, Google chairman Eric Schmidt slices to the proverbial bone.
Speaking of Mr. Schmidt, goodies from his upcoming book, The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business are beginning to trickle out. Today WikiLeaks released the transcript of a five-hour conversation between Mr. Schmidt and Julian Assange, used for the book. It opens with some really riveting stuff. Mr. Schmidt: “Well do you want us to start eating?” Mr. Assange: “Well, we can do both.” Guess there’s not much time for leisurely meals in the life of a WikiLeaker. Read More
Recent weeks have brought a string of revelations about high-profile hacks originating in China. The latest: The Washington Post says that just about every think tank and federal agency in D.C. has been infiltrated by hackers trying to get a little insight into how Washington works. ”They’re trying to make connections between prominent people who work at think tanks, prominent donors that they’ve heard of and how the government makes decisions,” one expert told the Post.
Well, former Mississippi governor Haley Barbour and his partner-in-lobbying Ed Rogers have a little news for these here foreign computer geeks. Hence their joint op-ed this week in Foreign Policy: “You Can’t Hack a Steakhouse.” Nosiree! Read More
