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Old News or No News?

The scene was strange. The CNN kept saying it couldn’t validate the data published by WikiLeaks on the Iraq War. Yet, On October 23, 2010, this data kept being repeated and analyzed by the Cables News Network ad nauseum. In small letters at the bottom of the screen, viewers were constantly reminded nothing could be validated. The BBC also kept analyzing the event. The same was true for most mainstream media outlets. Mainstream media quoting a website and transforming it into a main player in the international arena – for months now – is odd news. Especially when considering the nature of the news.

Practically all the items seemed to be smear campaigns in favor of the American government or just old news. Let’s take a look at a few samples:

Iran
One of the released papers claimed the American hikers waiting for trial in Iran were captured by that country within Iraqi territory. This is remarkable. I don’t buy the story of the hikers. Simply, you don’t take vacations by traveling to the heart of a war zone. Moreover, hiking is a smart activity: you need to learn the terrain and something about the local culture. The hikers cannot claim they didn’t know the dangers of the area before reaching it. So, we have well prepared persons traveling to a war zone and walking between two large armies which have a complex relation between them. Can this be innocent? If this is not innocent, then what were they doing there? Collecting information? Meeting informants? Creating networks? Flying kites? The Iranian version – that they are spies – is by far more credible. Under the circumstances, the leak in WikiLeaks looks intentional and backed by the American government in order to put pressure on Iran during the imminent trial of these persons.

Israel
On December 6, Haaretz - an Israeli newspaper which practically is the Voice of the Shin Beth claimed WikiLeaks exposed the truth about the Middle East. The so-called truth was that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was a secondary issue. That alone is enough to wholly discredit the whole WikiLeaks affair.

Thailand
WikiLeaks disclosed American diplomatic cables which look like a smear campaign against the heir to the kingdom. These type of rumors are not new in Thailand (see The Cross of Bethlehem), but now Americans raised their gravity by attempting to link the heir to Thaksin Shinawatra, the deposed former Prime Minister. Most Thais would see this as highly offensive regardless of their political position. Strangely enough, this serves American long term plans for the area.

Bolivia
Most Bolivians were laughing hard at the WikiLeaks disclosure about Iran being interested in recently found uranium. This has been published openly in the local media since 2007. Of course, most international readers do not read Bolivian newspapers and were thus awed by WikiLeaks audacity, accuracy and novelty. However, this was just another bit of no-news.

Bolivian Newspapaer | WikiLeaks Old News

Why, God, Why?

”You made an unbalanced comment there,” the editor of The Cross of Bethlehem told me at certain stage. “You must present the Israeli Administration side as well,” she added when my skepticism on her first comment became evident.

”Why? Does the American press present the Taliban’s positions?” I countered.

It would be too easy to transform this article into a personal attack against Julian Assange, WikiLeaks editor. Yet, I won’t do that. He may be a CIA agent, or just being used for the target I’m about to describe. I’ll assume he’s clean and that WikiLeaks is being used by the CIA. This is easy: WikiLeaks accepts anonymous contributions. As far as I know all the material published by WikiLeaks is disinformation provided by the CIA. What is clear is that WikiLeaks serves long term goals of the US Government: the unbalanced data presented testifies that. Also formal sources claim that. On December 8, the Australian government communicated via Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd that the United States, not the WikiLeaks founder, was to blame for the unauthorized release of U.S. diplomatic cables and said those who originally leaked the documents were legally liable.

”You are wrong! The data is damaging American credibility around the world! The CIA won’t shoot its own leg!” some readers may be thinking now.

Is that so? Beyond the limits of the North Atlantic, America is seen as an unreliable nuclear aggressor by most humanity. A few more cables won’t change that.

On an Imminent American Terror Attack

Is that all? Are we just witnessing a giant smear campaign by the American government against the rest of the world? There are worrying signs there is more to come. In recent days there are many news reporting attacks and counter-attacks over the internet. Banks close internet access to WikiLeaks; companies censoring other WikiLeaks services suffer cyber-attacks attributed to WikiLeaks fans but more suitable to a government-funded cyber terror unit. Now is time to recall an event dating a couple of years back.

Lawrence Lessig, a respected Law Professor from Stanford University told an audience at the 2008 Fortune's Brainstorm Tech conference in Half Moon Bay, California, that "There's going to be an i-9/11 event" which will act as a catalyst for a radical reworking of the law pertaining to the internet. Lessig also revealed that he had learned, during a dinner with former government Counter Terrorism Czar Richard Clarke, that there is already in existence a cyber equivalent of the Patriot Act, an "i-Patriot Act," and that the Justice Department is waiting for a cyber terrorism event in order to implement its provisions. Lessig is the founder of Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society. He is founding board member of Creative Commons and is a board member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and of the Software Freedom Law Center. He is best known as a proponent of reduced legal restrictions on copyright, trademark and radio frequency spectrum, particularly in technology applications. These are not the ravings of some paranoid cyber geek.

The Patriot Act, as well as its lesser known follow up the Domestic Security Enhancement Act 2003, also known as USA Patriot Act II, have been universally decried by civil libertarians and Constitutional scholars from across the political spectrum. They have stripped back basic rights and handed what have been described by even the most moderate critics as "dictatorial control" over to the president and the federal government. Many believed that the legislation was a response to the attacks of 9/11, but the Patriot Act was prepared way in advance of 9/11 and it sat dormant, awaiting an event to justify its implementation. In the days after the attacks it was passed in the House by a majority of 357 to 66. It passed the Senate by 98 to 1. Congressman Ron Paul told the Washington Times that no member of Congress was even allowed to read the legislation. Exactly the same freedom restricting legislation has already been prepared for the cyber world.

Is WikiLeaks the precursor and pretext for yet another American terror attack on our liberties?

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