Wikileaks Posts Over 90,000 Afghan War Documents

[Sonic Youth]

Forget Assange. He's just a distraction, and the governments of the world are more than happy to see that it stays that way. He's just the face of Wikileaiks, not Wikileaks itself. And yeah, I get the feeling he's very much the prick that the media is tirelessly making him out to be.

No, the true outrage is the American government's treatment of the real leaker, Bradley Manning. Yes, he probably did commit a crime, should we take the trouble to try him in a court of law. But as of now, he has been charged with nothing, convicted of nothing, yet he's spent seven months (and counting) in solitary confinement without the luxury of a pillow to sleep on. Naturally, he's far less well known than Julian Assange, and that's to his detriment since it's much easier to indefinitely detain non-celebrities in our American gulags.

The inhumane conditions of Bradley Manning's detention
By Glenn Greenwald

Bradley Manning, the 22-year-old U.S. Army Private accused of leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks, has never been convicted of that crime, nor of any other crime. Despite that, he has been detained at the U.S. Marine brig in Quantico, Virginia for five months -- and for two months before that in a military jail in Kuwait -- under conditions that constitute cruel and inhumane treatment and, by the standards of many nations, even torture. Interviews with several people directly familiar with the conditions of Manning's detention, ultimately including a Quantico brig official (Lt. Brian Villiard) who confirmed much of what they conveyed, establishes that the accused leaker is subjected to detention conditions likely to create long-term psychological injuries.

Since his arrest in May, Manning has been a model detainee, without any episodes of violence or disciplinary problems. He nonetheless was declared from the start to be a "Maximum Custody Detainee," the highest and most repressive level of military detention, which then became the basis for the series of inhumane measures imposed on him.

From the beginning of his detention, Manning has been held in intensive solitary confinement. For 23 out of 24 hours every day -- for seven straight months and counting -- he sits completely alone in his cell. Even inside his cell, his activities are heavily restricted; he's barred even from exercising and is under constant surveillance to enforce those restrictions. For reasons that appear completely punitive, he's being denied many of the most basic attributes of civilized imprisonment, including even a pillow or sheets for his bed (he is not and never has been on suicide watch). For the one hour per day when he is freed from this isolation, he is barred from accessing any news or current events programs. Lt. Villiard protested that the conditions are not "like jail movies where someone gets thrown into the hole," but confirmed that he is in solitary confinement, entirely alone in his cell except for the one hour per day he is taken out.

In sum, Manning has been subjected for many months without pause to inhumane, personality-erasing, soul-destroying, insanity-inducing conditions of isolation similar to those perfected at America's Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado: all without so much as having been convicted of anything. And as is true of many prisoners subjected to warped treatment of this sort, the brig's medical personnel now administer regular doses of anti-depressants to Manning to prevent his brain from snapping from the effects of this isolation.

Just by itself, the type of prolonged solitary confinement to which Manning has been subjected for many months is widely viewed around the world as highly injurious, inhumane, punitive, and arguably even a form of torture. In his widely praised March, 2009 New Yorker article -- entitled "Is Long-Term Solitary Confinement Torture?" -- the surgeon and journalist Atul Gawande assembled expert opinion and personal anecdotes to demonstrate that, as he put it, "all human beings experience isolation as torture." By itself, prolonged solitary confinement routinely destroys a person’s mind and drives them into insanity. A March, 2010 article in The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law explains that "solitary confinement is recognized as difficult to withstand; indeed, psychological stressors such as isolation can be as clinically distressing as physical torture."

For that reason, many Western nations -- and even some non-Western nations notorious for human rights abuses -- refuse to employ prolonged solitary confinement except in the most extreme cases of prisoner violence. "It’s an awful thing, solitary," John McCain wrote of his experience in isolated confinement in Vietnam. “It crushes your spirit." As Gawande documented: "A U.S. military study of almost a hundred and fifty naval aviators returned from imprisonment in Vietnam . . . reported that they found social isolation to be as torturous and agonizing as any physical abuse they suffered." Gawande explained that America’s application of this form of torture to its own citizens is what spawned the torture regime which President Obama vowed to end:

This past year, both the Republican and the Democratic Presidential candidates came out firmly for banning torture and closing the facility in Guantánamo Bay, where hundreds of prisoners have been held in years-long isolation. Neither Barack Obama nor John McCain, however, addressed the question of whether prolonged solitary confinement is torture. . . .

This is the dark side of American exceptionalism. . . . Our willingness to discard these standards for American prisoners made it easy to discard the Geneva Conventions prohibiting similar treatment of foreign prisoners of war, to the detriment of America’s moral stature in the world. In much the same way that a previous generation of Americans countenanced legalized segregation, ours has countenanced legalized torture. And there is no clearer manifestation of this than our routine use of solitary confinement . . . .

It's one thing to impose such punitive, barbaric measures on convicts who have proven to be violent when around other prisoners; at the Supermax in Florence, inmates convicted of the most heinous crimes and who pose a threat to prison order and the safety of others are subjected to worse treatment than what Manning experiences. But it's another thing entirely to impose such conditions on individuals, like Manning, who have been convicted of nothing and have never demonstrated an iota of physical threat or disorder.

In 2006, a bipartisan National Commission on America's Prisons was created and it called for the elimination of prolonged solitary confinement. Its Report documented that conditions whereby "prisoners end up locked in their cells 23 hours a day, every day. . . is so severe that people end up completely isolated, living in what can only be described as torturous conditions." The Report documented numerous psychiatric studies of individuals held in prolonged isolation which demonstrate "a constellation of symptoms that includes overwhelming anxiety, confusion and hallucination, and sudden violent and self-destructive outbursts." The above-referenced article from the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law states: "Psychological effects can include anxiety, depression, anger, cognitive disturbances, perceptual distortions, obsessive thoughts, paranoia, and psychosis."

When one exacerbates the harms of prolonged isolation with the other deprivations to which Manning is being subjected, long-term psychiatric and even physical impairment is likely. Gawande documents that "EEG studies going back to the nineteen-sixties have shown diffuse slowing of brain waves in prisoners after a week or more of solitary confinement." Medical tests conducted in 1992 on Yugoslavian prisoners subjected to an average of six months of isolation -- roughly the amount to which Manning has now been subjected -- "revealed brain abnormalities months afterward; the most severe were found in prisoners who had endured either head trauma sufficient to render them unconscious or, yes, solitary confinement. Without sustained social interaction, the human brain may become as impaired as one that has incurred a traumatic injury." Gawande's article is filled with horrifying stories of individuals subjected to isolation similar to or even less enduring than Manning's who have succumbed to extreme long-term psychological breakdown.

Manning is barred from communicating with any reporters, even indirectly, so nothing he has said can be quoted here. But David House, a 23-year-old MIT researcher who befriended Manning after his detention (and then had his laptops, camera and cellphone seized by Homeland Security when entering the U.S.) is one of the few people to have visited Manning several times at Quantico. He describes palpable changes in Manning's physical appearance and behavior just over the course of the several months that he's been visiting him. Like most individuals held in severe isolation, Manning sleeps much of the day, is particularly frustrated by the petty, vindictive denial of a pillow or sheets, and suffers from less and less outdoor time as part of his one-hour daily removal from his cage.

This is why the conditions under which Manning is being detained were once recognized in the U.S. -- and are still recognized in many Western nations -- as not only cruel and inhumane, but torture. More than a century ago, U.S. courts understood that solitary confinement was a barbaric punishment that severely harmed the mental and physical health of those subjected to it. The Supreme Court's 1890 decision in In re Medley noted that as a result of solitary confinement as practiced in the early days of the United States, many "prisoners fell, after even a short confinement, into a semi-fatuous condition . . . and others became violently insane; others still, committed suicide; while those who stood the ordeal better . . . [often] did not recover sufficient mental activity to be of any subsequent service to the community." And in its 1940 decision in Chambers v. Florida, the Court characterized prolonged solitary confinement as "torture" and compared it to "[t]he rack, the thumbscrew, [and] the wheel."

The inhumane treatment of Manning may have international implications as well. There are multiple proceedings now pending in the European Union Human Rights Court, brought by "War on Terror" detainees contesting their extradition to the U.S. on the ground that the conditions under which they likely will be held -- particularly prolonged solitary confinement -- violate the European Convention on Human Rights, which (along with the Convention Against Torture) bars EU states from extraditing anyone to any nation where there is a real risk of inhumane and degrading treatment. The European Court of Human Rights has in the past found detention conditions violative of those rights (in Bulgaria) where "the [detainee] spent 23 hours a day alone in his cell; had limited interaction with other prisoners; and was only allowed two visits per month." From the Journal article referenced above:

International treaty bodies and human rights experts, including the Human Rights Committee, the Committee against Torture, and the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture, have concluded that solitary confinement may amount to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment in violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Treatment or Punishment. They have specifically criticized supermax confinement in the United States because of the mental suffering it inflicts.

Subjecting a detainee like Manning to this level of prolonged cruel and inhumane detention can thus jeopardize the ability of the U.S. to secure extradition for other prisoners, as these conditions are viewed in much of the civilized world as barbaric. Moreover, because Manning holds dual American and U.K. citizenship (his mother is British), it is possible for British agencies and human rights organizations to assert his consular rights against these oppressive conditions. At least some preliminary efforts are underway in Britain to explore that mechanism as a means of securing more humane treatment for Manning. Whatever else is true, all of this illustrates what a profound departure from international norms is the treatment to which the U.S. Government is subjecting him.

More here:
http://www.salon.com/news....ex.html



Edited By Sonic Youth on 1292568627

[Greg]

Former WikiLeaks worker: rival site under way

By LOUISE NORDSTROM, Associated Press Louise Nordstrom, Associated Press – Fri Dec 10, 9:29 am ET

STOCKHOLM – Wikileaks soon won't be the only secret-spilling game in town.

A former co-worker of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange plans to launch a rival website Monday called Openleaks that will help anonymous sources deliver sensitive material to public attention.

In a documentary by Swedish broadcaster SVT, due to be aired Sunday and obtained in advance by The Associated Press, former WikiLeaks spokesman Daniel Domscheit-Berg said the new website will work as an outlet for anonymous sources.

"Openleaks is a technology project that is aiming to be a service provider for third parties that want to be able to accept material from anonymous sources," Domscheit-Berg said rare interviews conducted in Berlin.

Ever since WikiLeaks burst on the international news agenda last spring there's been speculation about possible copycat sites.

In Berlin, Domscheit-Berg was not available to talk Friday as he was focusing on a book about his time at Wikileaks.

SVT reporter Jesper Huor said Openleaks will be launched on Monday from a base in Germany as part of a yet-undisclosed foundation, run by a board of directors.

The timing of the new site comes as pressure mounts for both WikiLeaks and its 39-year-old Australian founder Assange after the start of publication of some 250,000 secret U.S. diplomatic cables last month.

The WikiLeaks site has come under attack, while Assange, who is now in a British jail fighting extradition to Sweden on sex crime allegations, has been threatened. Swiss Postfinance, MasterCard Inc., Visa Inc., PayPal Inc. and others have cut ways to send donations to the group, impairing its ability to raise money.

Assange, a 39-year-old former computer hacker from Australia, has denied the Swedish accusations.

Domscheit-Berg, who during his time with WikiLeaks often went under the pseudonym Daniel Schmitt, said he quit the project after falling out with Assange over what he described as the lack of transparency in the group's decision-making process.

"If you preach transparency to everyone else you have to be transparent yourself. You have to fulfill the same standards you expect from others, and I think that's where we've not been heading in the same direction philosophically anymore," he said in the documentary.

Domscheit-Berg said the main problem was how the WikiLeaks website began handling bigger leaks, such as the disclosures of some 400,000 classified U.S. war files from Iraq and 76,000 from Afghanistan earlier this year.

Too many resources went into these disclosures, he said.

"I think the wisest thing to do would have been to do this slowly, step by step, to grow the project. That did not happen," he said.

___

Associated Press writers Raphael G. Satter in London and Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin contributed to this report.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101210/ap_on_hi_te/eu_wikileaks_rivals

[Greg]

Wikileaks Shows - Arabs Want Iran Bombed - US Critical of World Leaders 28 nov 2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEUq7C74XRY

[Sonic Youth]

I was wondering where you were.

It's funny. When the leaks from a few months ago revealed how American soldiers were killing civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, it only elicited a few grumbles. But when it's revealed that Putin is called the "Alpha Dog" or that Merkel is thought of as "uncreative" or that Gadaffi travels with a "voluptuous blonde", now suddenly Wikileaks is bad for national security and must be shut down.



Edited By Sonic Youth on 1291064297

[Greg]

Obama aides condemn WikiLeaks; Obama orders review

Update at 2:15 p.m. -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton condemned the WikiLeaks release of once-classified diplomatic documents as nothing less than an attack on the United States and its allies.

"This disclosure is not just an attack on America's foreign policy interests," Clinton said, "it is an attack on the international community: the alliances and partnerships, the conversations and negotiations that safeguard global security and advance economic prosperity."

Clinton added: "It puts people's lives in danger, threatens our national security and undermines our efforts to work with other countries to solve shared problems."

Update at 12:20 p.m. -- Attorney General Eric Holder also had harsh words for WikiLeaks today, and said the government has launched a criminal investigation of the matter, USA TODAY's Kevin Johnson reports:.

Holder said Monday that release of the documents "risked'' the security of diplomats and other U.S. officials. Let me be clear, this is not saber-rattling,'' Holder said of the government investigation. The attorney general declined, however, to elaborate on whether the website was engaged in criminal wrongdoing.

Update at 10 a.m. -- The Obama administration has ordered agencies to review the way they handle secret, sensitive information.

"Any unauthorized disclosure of classified information is a violation of our law and compromises our national security," says a memo from Jack Lew, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget.

Referring to new disclosures by WikiLeaks, Lew wrote: "Our national defense requires that sensitive information be maintained in confidence to protect our citizens, our democratic institutions, and our homeland. Protecting information critical to our nation's security is the responsibility of each individual who is granted access to classified information."

Earlier post: Not a good day to be a U.S. diplomat.

President Obama and his aides are going to have to work overtime to limit the damage from the latest document dump by WikiLeaks, touching on such sensitive topics as the threat of military action against Iran, the specter of nuclear terrorism, and the Afghanistan war.

More than 25,000 once-classified documents detail once-secret U.S. diplomatic initiatives and critical opinions of other world leaders ranging from German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai.

In and of themselves, the revelations aren't that surprising, and many have been reported before -- but seeing them in black and white threaten a rolling series of diplomatic crises.

The WikiLeaks release is the "Sept. 11 of world diplomacy," said Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini.

Among the revelations:

-- Arab leaders have urged the United States to take military action against Iran over its nuclear program.

-- The U.S. has offered Obama visits and other enticements to other governments if they took detainees from the terrorist prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (which remains open).

-- The U.S. has tried -- unsuccessfully -- to remove enriched uranium from Pakistan, lest it fall into the hands of terrorists seeking nuclear weapons.

-- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and her predecessor, Condoleezza Rice, have asked aides to do low-level spying on delegates to the United Nations.

-- Karzai has "demonstrated that he will dissemble when it suits his needs" and "appears not to understand the level of our knowledge of his activities."

-- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is compared to Hitler.

-- The president of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh, agreed to say that U.S. missile strikes on local al Qaeda operatives came from within Yemen.

-- German Chancellor Merkel -- who is slated to receive a Presidential Medal of Freedom from Obama next year -- is "risk averse and rarely creative," says one diplomat.

-- Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has become a mouthpiece for Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, following "lavish gifts" given to Berlusconi.

-- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev -- with whom Obama signed an arms cut deal now pending in the U.S. Senate -- "plays Robin to Putin's Batman."

-- French President Nicolas Sarkozy is "an emperor with no clothes."

In a statement, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs condemned the WikiLeaks release, and sought to put the diplomatic cables into context.

"By its very nature, field reporting to Washington is candid and often incomplete information," Gibbs said. "It is not an expression of policy, nor does it always shape final policy decisions."

Gibbs also noted it is not a good thing for candid private discussions with world leaders to be published in the newspapers: "It can deeply impact not only U.S. foreign policy interests, but those of our allies and friends around the world."

Gibbs added:

"To be clear -- such disclosures put at risk our diplomats, intelligence professionals, and people around the world who come to the United States for assistance in promoting democracy and open government. These documents also may include named individuals who in many cases live and work under oppressive regimes and who are trying to create more open and free societies."

(Posted by David Jackson)

http://content.usatoday.com/communi....1

[Greg]

There are now more Wikileaks releases, detailing American torture in Iraq and Iranian involvement in Iraq.

[Sonic Youth]

Put the words "war", "leak" and "papers" in the same news story, and people think it's more significant than it really is. Except for Dick Cheney's secret hit-list, it's only a bunch of on-the-ground incident reports. So far, on a macro-level, there's nothing here we didn't already know. And Wikileaks could use more bandwidth space. I'm having a lot of trouble accessing their site.

Poor Cryptomb.org. They've been doing this for nearly fifteen years, but I guess the "wiki" brand name makes all the difference.

[Greg]

Wikileaks ruffles White House feathers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVx65ZXNF1Y


Afghan War Diary, 2004-2010:

http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Afghan_War_Diary,_2004-2010