DOWNLOADS: (187)

PLAYS: (831)

Embed

From this Friday's Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO: Assange urges leak of US drone rules:

WIKILEAKS founder Julian Assange has urged US officials to leak secret documents on drone strikes, saying that the broad discretion to kill citizens shows a "collapse" in the American system.

Assange, who has angered US officials by releasing thousands of secret memos, used a rare US television appearance to condemn President Barack Obama's controversial green light to kill American citizens who conspire with al-Qaeda.

"I can't see a greater collapse when the executive can kill its own citizens arbitrarily, at will, in secret, without any of the decision-making becoming public," Assange told the HBO talk show Real Time with Bill Maher.

"That's why we need organisations like WikiLeaks. I encourage anyone in the White House who has access to those rules and procedures, work them on over to us. We'll keep you secret and reveal it to the public."

Assange spoke to host Bill Maher, a supporter of WikiLeaks, by video link from Ecuador's embassy in London, where he has been holed up since June to avoid extradition to Sweden. Britain has refused him safe passage to Ecuador. Read on...

Full transcript below the fold.

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (578)

PLAYS: (9422)

Embed

Judith Miller (now "Judy" for Fox News) makes a crack about Wikileaks' Julian Assange being a "bad journalist" because --wait for it--

JUDITH MILLER:... because he didn't care at all about attempting to verfiy the information that he was putting out or determine whether or not it would hurt anyone.

That's very interesting coming from Miller, an instrumental component in taking us into the Iraq War, and the subsequent deaths of tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and 4430 American troops.

Miller would later say about her role:

"[M]y job isn't to assess the government's information and be an independent intelligence analyst myself. My job is to tell readers of The New York Times what the government thought about Iraq's arsenal." Some have criticized this position, believing that a crucial function of a journalist is independently to assess information, to question sources, and to analyze information before reporting it.

Milller's fall from grace since has taken her to Fox News, and now down to the murky depths of NewsMax, according to Dave Weigel at Slate.

The New York Times reporter who quit the paper in 2005 -- a casualty of the Valerie Plame scandal and a target of attacks on her pre-war reporting about Iraq's weapons programs -- has a job in print journalism again. She's a contributing writer at Newsmax, the conservative web and print venture founded in 1998 by Christopher Ruddy and built into a multi-million dollar company. (Miller is on contract, not a full-time staffer, so she's continuing the Fox gigs etc.)

From Greg Mitchell who's been blogging on the WikiLeaks release at The Nation for the last month, CNN's Jessica Yellin responds to Glenn Greenwald -- inadequately:

Jessica Yellin responds to Glenn Greenwald critique (see below) at CNN blog -- but completely ignores his main point about her questions betraying a double standard on (or lack of awareness about) journalists routinely publishing top secret information thanks to leaks vs. WikiLeaks making such evidence available. Watch the video again -- claiming she was just asking provocative questions doesn't cut it.

Here's John's post from yesterday on the interview in case you missed it -- It's a sad day when journalists collaborate with the government, again!

DOWNLOADS: (671)

PLAYS: (2730)

Embed

Digby has more on this exchange on CNN's Parker Spitzer and Jeffrey Toobin tying himself in knots trying to defend Attorney General Eric Holder's statement that the US government might use the Espionage Act to go after Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, so go read her whole post over at Hullabaloo. I just wanted to highlight something Naomi Wolf said during that discussion on how dangerous it is if the government does end up taking that route.

SPITZER: And back to Woodward, where does Woodward fit in to this?

SHIRKY: So I think that Woodward is not a criminal for publishing leaked documents but I also think that Assange is not a criminal for publishing leaked documents. However, I also, also think that if I'm wrong about that, that the way in which I would be wrong is going through the court system. Not through an extra legal running of WikiLeaks off the network.

The damage to me -- Jeffrey to your earlier point about the slippery slope, the non-slippery slope argument is the State Department has currently committed itself to making it very difficult for autocratic governments to force information off the Internet. And we're suddenly providing not just a recipe but a rationale that's making everyone from Lubchenko (ph) to Kim Jong-il laugh.

TOOBIN: But see, you know, again, this is a slippery slope argument.

SHIRKY: No.

TOOBIN: It is, it is. Because the fact that someone takes United States government documents, secret, no foreign distribution, and says that shouldn't be on the Internet. To say that North Korea shouldn't have a free press, to say that Russia shouldn't allow journalists to -- I mean, I think it is easy to draw a distinction between the two.

WOLF: Jeff, can I talk about the Espionage Act because that's really what's at stake now that they've invoked it. I predicted in my book "The End of America" that sooner or later, journalists would be targeted with the Espionage Act in an effort to close down free speech and free criticism of government. And we have a precedent for that. In 1917, the Espionage Act was invoked to go after people like us who are criticizing the first World War. Publishers, educators, editors. Wait, and people were put in prison. They were beaten. One guy got a 10-year sentence for reading the First Amendment. And that intimidation effectively closed down dissent for a decade in the United States of America.

The Espionage Act has a very dark and dirty history. And when you start to use the Espionage Act, to criminalize what I'm sure you've handled classified documents in your time as a serious journalist, you know perfectly well that every serious journalist has seen or heard about classified information and repeated it. When you start to use the Espionage Act to say reporting is treachery, reporting is spying, it's espionage, you criminalize journalism. And that's the history that our country has shown.

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (1092)

PLAYS: (8456)

Embed

SNL's Bill Hader was back again this week as Julian Assange, this time around taking a shot at Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg winning Time Magazine's "Person of the Year."

Tonight, I take a moment to congratulate Time Magazine on the excellent selection of Mark Zuckerberg as Person of the Year. Time Magazine, always on the cutting edge... discovering Facebook only weeks after your grandmother.

What are the differences between Mark Zuckerberg and me? Let's take a look. I give you private information on corporations for free and I'm a villain. Mark Zuckerberg gives your private information to corporations for money, and he's man of the year.

Thanks to WikiLeaks, you can see how corrupt governments operate in the shadows and then lie to those who elect them. Thanks to Facebook, you can figure out which Sex and the City character you are.

I’m a Samantha, but if the Swedish police ask, I’m a Charlotte.

If you want to make a movie about Mark Zuckerberg interesting, you’ll have to make stuff up. In order to make a movie about me, just to rate it R, you’ll have to leave stuff out.

DOWNLOADS: (321)

PLAYS: (1735)

Embed

Julian Assange, founder of secrets website WikiLeaks, was released on bail in London Thursday evening.

Authorities had held the former hacker in Wandsworth prison since Dec. 7 when he was detained on sex assault charges.

"It's great to smell the fresh air of London again," he told reporters as he left the jail.

Assange thanked his supporters around the world, his lawyers and members of the press who were not "all taken in and considered to look deeper in their work."

He also thanked the British justice system. "If justice is not always an outcome, at least, it is not dead yet," he said.

"During my time in solitary confinement in the bottom of Victorian prison, I had time to reflect on the conditions of those people around the world who also are also in solitary confinement, also on remand in conditions more difficult that those faced by me," he told his supporters and members of the press.

"Those people also need your attention and support."

"And with that, I hope to continue my work and continue to protest my innocence in this matter and to reveal, as we get it, which we have not yet, the evidence from these allegations. Thank you," Assange concluded without taking any questions.

DOWNLOADS: (331)

PLAYS: (715)

Embed

From CNN's Parker Spitzer, author Naomi Wolf debated CNN's legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin on the WikiLeaks release and whether Jullian Assange ought to be treated any differently than the news outlets that published the information his site passed on to them. Jeffrey Toobin sadly did a whole lot of water carrying for the US government during this debate to the point where it made me wonder, as it did Klein, if he was willing to throw his own employer under the bus for his views. CNN was more than happy to get ratings from reporting on the leaks. It seems they're happy to make the profits from it with none of the risk after watching Toobin defend the network here.

SPITZER: Joining us in "The Arena" for more on what today's ruling means, Naomi Wolf, road scholar, author of "The End of America," and CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin.

Thank you for joining us.

Look, Naomi, let me begin with you. You have been intensely critical of the Swedish government for even bringing the case. You're basically saying had he not been the individual who released these documents --

NAOMI WOLF, AUTHOR, "THE END OF AMERICA": Absolutely.

SPITZER: -- then --

WOLF: Absolutely.

SPITZER: This law would not have been brought to bear against him in this way.

WOLF: Exactly. Exactly.

SPITZER: And this is government from the U.S. to Sweden and Britain, basically saying we're going to shut you down.

WOLF: Exactly. That's right. I am saying that.

SPITZER: And you're saying that's wrong?

WOLF: Well, obviously, I can't say conclusively until the man has had his day in court.

SPITZER: Right.

WOLF: And the women, too, need to have their day in court.

SPITZER: Jeffrey --

WOLF: But I am saying it -- from 23 years of looking at how rape is treated, this is so anomalous that it sure --

(CROSSTALK)

PARKER: OK.

SPITZER: You're a (INAUDIBLE), does that bother you?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: No, not a bit. I mean, you know, Sweden has the right to enforce their laws however they want.

WOLF: Selectively?

TOOBIN: The idea -- the idea that Sweden of all of a sudden has become a wing of the FBI or the American Republican Party is totally inconsistent.

WOLF: Just not -- that's so naive of you. Of course United States brings pressure to bear against governments like Britain which is a total lack --

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (709)

PLAYS: (6744)

Embed

We should have known that Saturday Night Live would not have passed up the opportunity to have a bit of fun with WikiLeaks and Julian Assange and they did just that during the opening segment this weekend where they pictured Assange teaming up with gossip site TMZ.

DOWNLOADS: (254)

PLAYS: (1072)

Embed

The founder of the whistleblower website responsible for releasing thousands of secret documents should be treated as an enemy of the US, according to a former Republican Speaker of the House.

Newt Gingrich became the latest conservative Sunday to suggest that WikiLeak's Julian Assange deserves to be hunted and executed Sunday by calling him an "enemy combatant."

"I approach this very seriously," Gingrich told Fox News' Chris Wallace. "Information warfare is warfare. Julian Assange is engaged in warfare."

"Information terrorism, which leads to people getting killed is terrorism. And Julian Assange is engaged in terrorism," he continued.

"He should be treated as an enemy combatant and WikiLeaks should be closed down permanently and decisively," Gingrich said.

The former House Speaker added that the Obama administration deserved much of the blame for the leaked documents.

"This is a system so stupid that it ought to be a scandal of the first order," he said. "This administration is so shallow and so amateurish about national security that it is painful and dangerous."

Gingrich, who is now a paid pundit at Fox News, is just the latest conservative to call for violence in response to the WikiLeaks releasing 250,000 secret US diplomatic cables.

Townhall's John Hawkins wrote a column last week entitled "5 Reasons The CIA Should Have Already Killed Julian Assange."

Fox News contributor Sarah Palin took to her Facebook page to suggest that Assange deserved the same treatment as terrorists and insurgents.

"Why was he not pursued with the same urgency we pursue al Qaeda and Taliban leaders?" she asked.

Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told NBC's David Gregory Sunday that Assange is a terrorist.

"I think the man is a high tech terrorist…he’s done enormous damage to our country and to our relationships with our allies around the world, and he should be prosecuted," McConnell said.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee was caught on video at a book signing at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, Calif. saying that the person that leaked the documents to WikiLeaks should be executed.

"Whoever in our government leaked that information is guilty of treason," Huckabee said. "I think anything less than execution is too kind a penalty."

Palin, Huckabee and Gingrich are all paid Fox News contributors who are thought to be contenders for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

Gingrich indicated Sunday that he was likely to make a presidential bid.

"We're much more inclined to run than not run," he said.

Time for your weekly podcast with The Professional Left, our own Driftglass and Bluegal. Have a great weekend everybody and enjoy the podcast.

You can listen to the archives at http://professionalleft.blogspot.com/ and make a donation there if you'd like to help keep these going. And as Bluegal noted in her post: DG mentions Anderson Cooper's interview with a Texas Birther, which is here.

UPDATE from Blue Gal: The podcast hit its 100,000th listener earlier today. Thanks to everyone who listens, and to C&L and Heather for their terrific support!