Bradley Manning says United States is ‘obsessed with killing’

“I felt I accomplished something that would allow me to have a clear conscience.”

By DANIEL HALPER | WEEKLY STANDARD | MARCH 1, 2013

Bradley Manning pleaded guilty today to leaking classified material. “Army Pfc. Bradley Edward Manning pleaded guilty Thursday to 10 charges that he illegally acquired and transferred U.S. government secrets, agreeing to serve 20 years in prison for leaking classified material to WikiLeaks that described U.S. military and diplomatic efforts in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the globe,” reports the Los Angeles Times.

… He also admitted that he leaked confidential file assessments of detainees at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and five classified records from a U.S. bombing in the Farah Province of Afghanistan, which killed up to 30 civilians.

In all, the 5-1/2-year veteran once assigned to Operation Station Hammer near Baghdad in Iraq pleaded guilty to 10 counts, each drawing two years in prison.

Manning, however, pleaded not guilty to the more serious charges. “The 25-year-old soldier, however, pleaded not guilty to 12 more serious charges, including  espionage for aiding the enemy, meaning that his criminal case will go forward at a general court-martial in June. If convicted at trial, he risks a sentence of life in prison at Ft. Leavenworth, Kan.”

Though he ultimately gave the documents to WikiLeaks, he tried first to send them to the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Politico.

“Bradley Manning has revealed to his court-martial at Fort Meade, Maryland, that he tried to leak US state secrets to the Washington Post, New York Times and Politico before he turned in frustration to the new anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks,” reports the Guardian.

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Wikileaks Releases DoD Procedure Manual for Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib

By LUIS MIRANDA | THE REAL AGENDA | OCTOBER 26, 2012

WikiLeaks published early this morning hundreds of documents from the Department of Defense that describe the procedures established by the US government to be used with suspects detained by the American government who were sent to the prison Guantanamo Bay.

The first document to be put out is the manual of military procedures at Camp Delta in Guantanamo Bay which applied to both civilian and military personnel beginning in November 2002. This manual established administrative rules, regulations and code of confinement behavior for officials.

The organization founded by Julian Assange announced through a press release that, over the next month, the website will disseminate files about the detention policy in chronological order with the directions followed by military officials for more than a decade. Today, the founder of Wikileaks is under political asylum at the Ecuadorian Embassy and is seeking his extradition to South America in order to avoid persecution from the United States, Sweden and other nations that publicly seek revenge.

The documents released by Wikileaks include standard operating procedures of the detention camps Bucca and Abu Ghraib in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay and the manuals for interrogation and fragmentary orders (Fragos) on changes in detention policies.

These documents “show the anatomy of the monster created to conduct arrests after the attacks on September 11, which created a dark hole in which the law and the rights do not exist and where people can be detained without a trace and be treated at will by DoD and intelligence personnel,” said Assange in a statement.

“It shows the excesses of the early days of the war against an unknown ‘enemy’ and how these policies matured and evolved” resulting, he said, “in a permanent state of exception in which the United States is now a decade later “. That exception includes but is not limited to, the effective elimination of significant portions of the Constitution, through the partial or total suppression of the First, Second and Fourth Amendments, for example, which is now business as usual in North America.

Assange, who is in a complicated situation of asylum in the Embassy of Ecuador in London to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for alleged sexual offenses, notes the historical importance of these documents, as “Guantanamo has become an example for the systematic abuse of human rights, “he added.

The organization issued several policy documents on interrogation of detainees in Iraq for the years 2004, 2005 and 2008, which revealed techniques to instill fear or emotional pressure to detainees. WikiLeaks said that “although physical violence is prohibited, in writing, a consistent policy of terrorizing prisoners, combined with a policy of destroying records, has caused abuse and impunity”.

Also due out is the “Fragmentary Order”, released after the torture scandal at Abu Ghraib (Iraq) that “eliminates the requirement to keep a record of the interrogation sessions” in certain areas of the prison.
Furthermore, while noting that interrogations carried out in the Division and Brigade Internment should be recorded, it also states that the files should “disappear within 30 days.” A policy that has been overturned by the Obama administration.

The administration of President George W. Bush (2001-2009) enabled the military base of Guantanamo (Cuba) to detain suspected terrorists — without trial — after the attacks of September 11, 2001.

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Agora todos somos Jason Bourne

POR LUIS MIRANDA | THE REAL AGENDA | 25 AGOSTO 2012

Sentes que alguém está te observando, mas então olhas em volta e todos estão nao sua. Quem é, você pergunta. Bem, a pergunta a fazer é o que é? E a resposta é Trapwire. E assim mesmo. Agora todos somos Jason Bourne.

Na semana passada, o WikiLeaks publicou dezenas de e-mails da Stratfor Global Intelligence Corporation, uma empresa de segurança privada de Austin, Texas. Os e-mails são parte de um corpus de documentos entregues ao site de Julian Assange no ano passado e no início deste ano por hackers do Anonymous.

O detalhe mais importante mencionado nos vazamentos, é a existência de um programa de computador chamado TrapWire, desenvolvido em 2004 pela Corporação Abraxas, uma organização fundada por vários ex-membros da CIA. A conexão entre TrapWire e a CIA, juntamente com descrições enigmáticas do programa foram publicados e, claro, os piores temores há muito tempo revelados por meios alternativos sobre a existência do Big Brother foram confirmados.

Na verdade, o programa utiliza câmeras de segurança de todos os tipos que estão disponíveis, controlados pelos agentes, para desenvolver uma descrição das pessoas que estão perto de um potencial alvo terrorista, bem como uma descrição detalhada dos veículos. O programa também grava “atividades de vigilância em potencial, como a fotografia, a medição e marcação”, como indicado pelo fabricante. Todas as imagens recolhidas por TrapWire vão ao seu banco de dados, onde são armazenados e analisados.

Este procedimento é muito reminiscente do filme americano A Identidade Bourne, que se tornou uma das franquias de maior sucesso em Hollywood. Outro filme que detalhou esta tecnologia foi Enemy of the State, que fez referencia ao sistema real de espionagem chamado Echelon. Como é sempre o caso, a realidade é mais estranha que a ficção, e Hollywood não faz mais filmes sobre cenários fictícios. Na verdade, seus filmes são sobre coisas que aconteceram no passado, ou que estão prestes a ser reveladas, como é o caso Trapwire.

A Internet é uma proliferação de teorias da conspiração como resultado de ataques cibernéticos sofridos pelo Wikileaks, logo após a publicação destes documentos. Agora nós sabemos que aquelas não eram teorias da conspiração, mas conspirações reais e que a mídia alternativa continua batendo a mídia corporativa quando trata-se de revelações sobre agendas secretas e do crescimento ilimitado do Estado centralizado.

O site fundado por Julian Assange foi atingido por hackers muitas vezes, mas desta vez o ataque foi mais forte do que de costume, e agora sabemos porquê. As novas revelações calaram de uma vez por todas a boca daqueles que chamam a mídia alternativa de “marginal”, especialmente agora que o governo dos EUA atestou ter dado sua aprovação para Trapwire. O software foi testado em 15 câmeras de vigilância em Washington e Seattle pelo Departamento de Segurança Interna. No entanto, as autoridades disseram que os testes que foram concluídos no ano passado não são promissores.

Você pode acreditar nisso?

Claro que não. Trapwire opera sistemas de vigilância em todas as cidades como uma plataforma integrada para monitorar todos os movimentos que as pessoas fazem em lugares públicos como parques, estações de ônibus, aeroportos, etc. Curiosamente, Abraxas, o criador do Trapwire, foi financiado com dinheiro do Departamento de Defesa e do Departamento de Segurança Interna. E assim mesmo. O DHS, que disse que Trapwire não era promissor, foi o que financiou o seu desenvolvimento e implementação.

Bienvenido Brother Julian

Ecuador accepts Wikileaks’ founder’s request for Asylum

BBC | AUGUST 16, 2012

Ecuador has granted asylum to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange two months after he took refuge in its London embassy while fighting extradition from the UK.

It said there were fears Mr Assange’s human rights might be violated.

Foreign minister Ricardo Patino accused the UK of making an “open threat” to enter its embassy to arrest Mr Assange.

Mr Assange took refuge at the embassy in June to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faces questioning over assault and rape claims, which he denies.

The Australian national said being granted political asylum by Ecuador was a “significant victory” and thanked staff in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

However, as the Foreign Office insisted the decision would not affect the UK’s legal obligation to extradite him to Sweden, Mr Assange warned: “Things will get more stressful now.”

Announcing Ecuador’s decision, Mr Patino launched a strong attack on the UK for what he said was an “explicit type of blackmail”.

The UK Foreign Office had warned, in a note, that it could lift the embassy’s diplomatic status to fulfil a “legal obligation” to extradite the 41-year-old by using the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act 1987.

That allows the UK to revoke the diplomatic status of an embassy on UK soil, which would potentially allow police to enter the building to arrest Mr Assange for breaching the terms of his bail.

Ecuador’s foreign minister said: “We can’t allow spokespeople from the UK to gleefully say they have been honest when they have threatened us in such a way.”

He referred to the UK’s note as an “open threat” and accused the UK of “basically saying we will beat you savagely if you don’t behave”.

Mr Patino said Ecuador believed Mr Assange’s fears of political persecution were “legitimate”.

He said the country was being loyal to its tradition of protecting those who were vulnerable.

“We trust that our friendship with the United Kingdom will remain intact,” he added.

The announcement was watched live by Mr Assange and embassy staff in a link to a press conference from Quito.

The Foreign Office said it was “disappointed” by the statement issued by Ecuador’s foreign minister.

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WikiLeaks publishes security think tank emails

Reuters
February 27, 2012

The anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks began publishing on Monday more than five million emails from a U.S.-based global security analysis company that has been likened to a shadow CIA.

The emails, snatched by hackers, could unmask sensitive sources and throw light on the murky world of intelligence-gathering by the company known as Stratfor, which counts Fortune 500 companies among its subscribers.

Stratfor in a statement shortly after midnight EST (0500 GMT) said the release of its stolen emails was an attempt to silence and intimidate it.

It said it would not be cowed under the leadership of George Friedman, Stratfor’s founder and chief executive officer. It said Friedman had not resigned as CEO, contrary to a bogus email circulating on the Internet.

Some of the emails being published “may be forged or altered to include inaccuracies; some may be authentic,” the company statement said.

“We will not validate either. Nor will we explain the thinking that went into them. Having had our property stolen, we will not be victimized twice by submitting to questioning about them,” the statement said.

WikiLeaks did not say how it had acquired access to the vast haul of internal and external correspondence of the Austin, Texas company, formally known as Strategic Forecasting Inc.

Hackers linked to the loosely organized Anonymous hackers group said at the beginning of the year they had stolen the email correspondence of some 100 of the firm’s employees. The group said it planned to publish the data so the public would know the “truth” about Stratfor operations.

Stratfor describes itself as a subscription-based publisher of geopolitical analysis with an intelligence-based approach to gathering information.

WikiLeaks and Anonymous maintain the emails will expose dark secrets about the company. Stratfor said in its statement it had worked hard to build “good sources” in many countries, “as any publisher of global geopolitical analysis would do.”

In December, hackers broke into Stratfor’s data systems and stole a large number of company emails.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange told Reuters: “Here we have a private intelligence firm, relying on informants from the U.S. government, foreign intelligence agencies with questionable reputations and journalists.”

“What is of grave concern is that the targets of this scrutiny are, among others, activist organizations fighting for a just cause.”

Friedman, the chief executive, said on January 11 the thieves would be hard pressed to find anything significant in the stolen emails.

“God knows what a hundred employees writing endless emails might say that is embarrassing, stupid or subject to misinterpretation. … As they search our emails for signs of a vast conspiracy, they will be disappointed.”

MEDIA PARTNERS

People linked to Anonymous took credit for the data theft. “Congrats on the amazing partnership between #Anonymous and #WikiLeaks to make all 5 million mails public,” AnonSec Tweeted. AnonSec is one of several Twitter accounts used to promote and organize activities associated with Anonymous.

It was not immediately clear what impact the release of the emails might have on Stratfor, its employees, clients and information sources.

Previous releases from WikiLeaks, such as secret video battle footage and thousands of U.S. diplomatic cables about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, in 2010 have angered the U.S. government. WikiLeaks’ disclosures also have raised questions about the safety of confidential sources quoted in previously secret documents.

WikiLeaks said it was working with two dozen media organizations worldwide that have access to a database of the Stratfor emails. These include the U.S. newspaper publisher McClatchy Co. (MNI.N).

“We have begun reviewing the emails and will publish as warranted,” McClatchy’s Washington bureau chief, James Asher, told Reuters.

WikiLeaks said its other media partners include L’Espresso and La Repubblica newspapers in Italy, the NDR/ARD state broadcaster in Germany and Russia Reporter.

The group gave a sneak preview of the emails to The Yes Men, an activist group that targets what it views as corporate greed.

The Stratfor emails discuss an elaborate hoax the group staged to criticize Dow Chemical Co’s (DOW.N) handling of the Bhopal chemical disaster in India, according to Andy Bichlbaum, one of The Yes Men.

“What is significant is the picture it helps to paint of the way corporations operate,” Bichlbaum told Reuters. “They operate with complete disregard for rule of law and human decency.”

After Stratfor’s computers were hacked at least twice last December, the credit card details of more than 30,000 subscribers to Stratfor publications were posted on the Internet, including those of former U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger and former U.S. vice president Dan Quayle.

The FBI began investigating the matter in December.

Australian-born Assange, 40, is currently under house arrest in Britain and fighting extradition to Sweden for questioning over alleged sex crimes.

(Reporting by Stephen Grey. Additional reporting by Jim Finkle and Jim Wolf; editing by Philippa Fletcher and Todd Eastham)