WikiLeaks about to hit the fan

...While referring to a 2006 leaked cable, in which the then US ambassador to India, David Mulford, allegedly describes politics in Kashmir as “filthy as Dal lake,” the Hurriyat faction has lambasted “American journalists” for the comparison.

The amalgam added that the “terminology used in the Wikileaks disclosures is painful and misplaced, and amounts to violating journalistic ethics.”

“The comparison reflects the arrogant, pretentious and dominating attitude of the American journalists towards international affairs,” it said in a statement issued here. ....

While referring to a 2006 leaked cable, in which the then US ambassador to India, David Mulford, allegedly describes politics in Kashmir as “filthy as Dal lake,” the Hurriyat faction has lambasted “American journalists” for the comparison.

Wiki disclosures at 'odds with press freedom': Hurriyat (M)
(Kashmir Dispatch, September 7, 2011)

Post: # 4,723,871 wandeljw

My thoughts are generally simple-minded.

EDIT: I agree with Dan Tynan that releasing names of dissidents is dangerous. He also points out that we may never find out the actual harm because oppressive regimes keep their executions secret.

Ghanaians have overrated wikileaks - Kweku Baako
(Akuamoah Boateng/Adom News/Ghana/ September 7, 2011)

The Managing Editor for the New Crusading Guide newspaper, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako says Ghanaians have overrated information contained in the Wikileaks cables.

According to Kweku Baako the wikileaks cables should be interrogated before it can be considered as factually reliable, since one cannot make a judgement based on the information from the wikileaks cable.

Abdul Malik Kweku Baako said this in an interview on Adom Fm’s Dwaso Nsem on Tuesday.

Kweku Baako said “what I see is a very uneducated, ignorant attempt to do uncritical mass consumption of whatever is contained in the wikileaks and then the repugnant selective application of the leaks for partisan propaganda purposes.

"So that distortion and uneducated approach has constituted a mess and for that matter we are messing ourselves up”.

He said “the wikileaks cable should not be consumed as the gospel truth and it does not mean we should be selective in applying it for parochial propaganda purposes”, adding “we are doing a lot of injustice to ourselves as a nation”.

On Kwesi Pratt’s denial of telling US Embassy officials that Nana Akufo-Addo used to smoke marijuana, Kweku Baako said he had called Kwesi Pratt a day before newspaper publications of the wikileaks during which Kwesi Pratt denied the claim.

But speaking on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem on Monday, 5th September 2011, Kwesi Pratt said he could not remember telling the Americans Nana Akufo-Addo smoked marijuana.

Kweku Baako however, said Kwesi Pratt Jnr. has a high retentive memory which makes it difficult for him (Baako) to believe that Kwesi Pratt Jnr. could forget something he said three years ago.

Dr. Emmanuel Akwetey, Executive Director for the Institute for Democratic Governance has blamed the mess created by the leaked cables on the inability of the Ghanaian especially leaders, to guard against comments and statements they make to diplomats.

Dr. Akwetey noted with sadness the politicisation of the publications which he said had resulted from the polarisation of issues.

“This senseless politics is affecting us, if we continue to leak out our secrets because of divisiveness, how will we manage the information?” he questioned.

adding “we are doing a lot of injustice to ourselves as a nation”.

According to Kweku Baako the wikileaks cables should be interrogated before it can be considered as factually reliable, since one cannot make a judgement based on the information from the wikileaks cable.

The black-and-white video images of the dusty streets of Baghdad are grainy and shaky but they are clear enough to show American helicopter gunships carrying out an unprovoked attack that killed a dozen Iraqis, including two employees of the Reuters news agency.

In the leaked footage, taken from an Apache gunship, pilots could be heard revelling after the shooting, with comments like "Oh yeah, look at those dead bastards" and "Ha, ha, I hit them". After the firing of a Hellfire missile, a pilot is heard saying: "Look at that bitch go!" And news that two girls had been badly injured was greeted with: "Well, it's their fault for bringing their kids into a battle."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/the-pictures-that-prove-us-helicopter-gunships-opened-fire-on-iraqi-civilians-1937595.html

Dick Marty rendition report condemns 'cult of secrecy'
7 September 2011 Last updated at 16:05 GMT/BBC news


Bradley Manning (undated photo) Bradley Manning was arrested in 2010

A report for Europe's human rights watchdog has called for greater scrutiny of secret services and support for whistleblowers.

The Council of Europe investigated how countries like Britain, Germany, Romania and Lithuania assisted the US with the rendition of terror suspects.

It said a "cult of secrecy" had helped Western governments cover up abuses.

Defending "whistleblowers", it singled out US soldier Bradley Manning, accused of passing secrets to Wikileaks.

He had "acted as a whistleblower and should be treated as such", CoE rapporteur Dick Marty wrote in the report, which was due to be submitted to the CoE's Parliamentary Assembly.

The soldier is currently in a US military prison awaiting trial for passing restricted material to the controversial website.

But the report praised Mr Manning, and Wikileaks itself, for uncovering evidence of rendition.

The CoE represents 47 member-states, including both EU countries and Russia and other ex-Soviet states.

Mr Marty's report focused on the record of Western states, explaining that it was based on investigations into European links to the controversial US policy of "rendition" for terrorism suspects.

The CIA allegedly flew terror suspects around the world for interrogation in the years after 9/11, holding them in secret prisons in Europe and elsewhere.

'No licence to kill'

In his 48-page report - entitled Abuse of State Secrecy and National Security - Mr Marty looked at the level of control exercised by European states over their security services.

Quote:

"We therefore join Amnesty International in expressing our worries as to the treatment he [Bradley Manning] receives”

He urged all states to use independent parliamentary committees to oversee the work of their secret services, saying this was of "vital importance for the rule of law and democracy".

Mr Marty argued that Western governments were using the notion of state secrecy to shield their intelligence services from accountability for serious violations committed during anti-terrorist operations.

"We consider that this is simply unacceptable..." he wrote. ....<cont>

With the limited information I have about Manning, he's one of the good guys; brave enough to reveal the criminal activities of our government - knowing full well what the consequences could be. He has my admiration. He deserves something one step above the Medal of Honor.

....The extraordinary rendition program landed some people in CIA black sites - and others were turned over for torture-by-proxy to other regimes. Egypt figured large as a torture destination of choice, as did Suleiman as Egypt’s torturer-in-chief. At least one person extraordinarily rendered by the CIA to Egypt — Egyptian-born Australian citizen Mamdouh Habib — was reportedly tortured by Suleiman himself.

..... Frustrated that Habib was not providing useful information or confessing to involvement in terrorism, Suleiman ordered a guard to murder a shackled prisoner in front of Habib, which he did with a vicious karate kick. In April 2002, after five months in Egypt, Habib was rendered to American custody at Bagram prison in Afghanistan - and then transported to Guantanamo. On January 11, 2005, the day before he was scheduled to be charged, Dana Priest of the Washington Post published an exposé about Habib’s torture. The US government immediately announced that he would not be charged and would be repatriated to Australia.....

...the limited information I have about Manning

You still don't get it, Ms O.