The WikiLeaks Hoax, Part II
This may well be true. But contrast this treatment to the treatment that WikiLeaks reserved for a story one year earlier on internet activity, including Wikipedia edits, traceable to U.S. military computers at the Guantánamo Bay detention center. Note that the story involved no leak whatsoever. The activity in question was traceable because — unlike the BND’s online activity — it had never in fact been hidden. The domain name associated with the IP address of the computers was jtfgtmo.southcom.mil: namely, for the “Joint Task Force Guantánamo” of the U.S. military’s Southern Command. Nonetheless, the headline on the WikiLeaks article crows, “Wikileaks busts Gitmo propaganda team.”
The author of the piece happens to have been none other than Julian Assange, the future “WikiLeaks founder” who at the time was identified merely as a WikiLeaks “investigative editor.” In accusing the U.S. military of propaganda, it is clear that Assange had already discovered his own propagandistic calling. Thus, in a classic example of the incestuous self-referential nature of disinformation, the piece cites a blog post from NY Daily News correspondent James Gordon Meek as confirmation that the “job” of one JTF member was “posting positive comments on the Internet about Gitmo.” Assange even puts the phrase in bold, as if it had some special importance. But in fact the phrase is nothing more than Meek’s notably chummy clin d’œil toward the allegations in the original WikiLeaks article.
The full list of the Wikipedia edits made from the “busted” Gitmo IP address is available here. Note that the U.S. Southern Command was so rattled by being “busted” by Assange that it has continued to use the IP address. This behavior also contrasts with that of the BND, which — with the help of Deutsche Telekom — rapidly ditched its outed IP addresses after they were published on WikiLeaks.
Readers may judge for themselves whether the edits bear the hallmarks of a propaganda operation. Unsurprisingly, many have to do with military topics; some directly concern Guantánamo; and others are on totally unrelated subjects like South Park and Pokémon. A Wikipedia entry such as that on Michael Winterbottom’s anti-Gitmo film The Road to Guantanamo would seem to be ripe for editing by a Gitmo-based “propaganda team.” And, lo and behold, we discover that on October 29, 2007 — only weeks before being “busted” by Julian Assange — the Gitmo IP address was indeed used to edit the entry — namely, in order to change the word “organisations” to the American-English spelling “organizations.”
Perhaps the last major leak to turn up on the old WikiLeaks site was a classified German report on a German-ordered airstrike in Kunduz, Afghanistan, in which numerous civilians were killed. About two weeks later, the site went down. The new site has yet to rediscover the old site’s taste for classified German material.
The pleas of financial duress notwithstanding, the fact is we do not know why the site went down. Nor do we know why it returned in such a radically altered form, with the very heart of the old WikiLeaks project, the “secure submissions” form, essentially cut out of it. In fact, we know virtually nothing about the WikiLeaks organization or even if there really is such an organization.
What the world needs now are some useful leaks about WikiLeaks. Disaffected participants in the old project undoubtedly would have some tales to tell. As the current site’s motto puts it, “Courage is courageous.”
Why is ths not in the National Newspapers??? It is good investigative reporting. Ohhh, the MSM does not investigate….:)
That was a whole lot of nothing. Are you trying to imply, in a very circumspect way, that the German government, or more specifically, the German intelligence service has a hand in running Wikileaks now? And that, furthermore, the entire purpose of this is to discredit and sabotage the US war effort in Afghanistan, despite the fact that there are, in fact, almost 5,000 German troops in Afghanistan? I mean really, where are you going with this article?
Interesting that you answered your own questions. Do you have any actual substantive comments?
Agreed.
There’s a story here, he just didn’t get it, and that last paragraph, “What the world needs now are some useful leaks about WikiLeaks.”
Ouch.
I remember when the wikileaks server farm was sabotaged (they had backups, and well designed plans to relocate, and so were back up again quickly, and it *could* have been an accident), following the story on http://slashdot.org. Unfortunately, the search function on slashdot doesn’t seem to go back that far. To me, it seemed that that was the point at which Julian became the main guy.
BTW, I can sympathize with the German position – especially before starting the war, but not to the point of sabotaging efforts once the best hope for Afghans became a stable government (just about any kind would be better than the Taliban).
I know there has to be a wikileaks connection to Soros somewhere
In case anyone is wondering how Julian Assange, the apparent leader of WikiLeaks, is feeling about the recent batch of leaks, we have this item: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/08/16/wikileaks-founder-describes-possibility-casualties-acceptable-risk/.
In short, he doesn’t give a rat’s behind about any of the local informants in Afghanistan. He’s already rationalized any guilt away with the calculation that whatever happens to the informants named in the documents is sure to be outweighed by the lives saved by the leaks.
I’m still waiting to hear how lives will be saved by these leaks. I’m guessing that he assumes an outraged public will demand the US leave Afghanistan and thus save the Taliban from further loss of life.
I seem to remember that he gave assurances that all information about informants had been edited out before he posted them on WikiLeaks. It sounds like he missed a few edits, assuming he bothered to edit at all….
Has this guy ever leaked ANYTHING about people, groups or countries that might be considered enemies of the West like the Taliban, Al Qaida, North Korea, etc.? Or is he another one of those hypocrites who claims to be against all injustice, while making disclosures on only Western countries?
I remember a lot of that kind of hypocrisy over the years. I’m thinking of the people who opposed the US involvement in Vietnam on the grounds that it was an internal matter to be settled strictly between the Vietnamese. They demanded that the US leave Vietnam while remaining utterly silent about the Soviet and Chinese assistance that was vital to the North Vietnamese war effort.
And then there were the protestors who claimed to be against all nuclear weapons but who only ever protested American or British weapons and never once so much as sent a POSTCARD to the Kremlin complaining about THEIR nukes, let alone demonstrated in the streets of Moscow.
I’m getting a distinct impression that Assange is one of the same kind of hypocrites.
“Or is he another one of those hypocrites who claims to be against all injustice, while making disclosures on only Western countries?”
Change “Western Countries” to “America” and what you have is the garden variety liberal democrat.
“Conceitus Ignoramus”
Mr. Rosenthal has the special gift of being able to track back to German origins pretty much every mischief that happens in the world should he so desire (check his earlier articles published on this site).
While of course one cannot exclude that he occasionally may get something right, his overall approach is obsessive and paranoid, and his attitude similar to that of the knee-jerk anti-Israeli Muslim or the visceral leftist anti-American.
I learnt recently from a book talk about a Mosque in Munich that that was the first foothold ever the Muslim Brotherhood established in the West. http://itunes.apple.com/de/podcast/a-mosque-in-munich-nazis-cia/id130062462?i=83351526
also I wonder whether the Icelanders don’t aspire to become the ultimate safe heaven for outfits like Wikileaks
and thanks to Mr. Rosenthal for explaining why Nick Cohen said that Wikileaks provided great service to him in the past
Given that our entire disaster of a government is being driven off the cliff by former members of the SDS and Black Panther groups, I would think it would be pretty to guess what is going on with the Wikileaks crap:
…certain parts of the German government and media are being run by descendants or former members of the Bader-Meinhoff gang that was connected just as the SDS to the old USSR.
It’s just the same batch of punk-a$$ commies who want to kill off the West, put the whole world under the jackboot of elitist commie scum, and who have been planning and working to get themselves in position to do so for the last 40 years.
Joe McCarthy was righteous. So was Reagan.
We just let them guilt-trip us into blindness about the truth long enough for them to take over.
Turning the Middle Eat into a soldier-killing bloody debacle that is totally mismanaged on our side and totally supporting our enemies is a part of getting rid of the US military – especially if it means that some bunch of nuts like Iran gets and uses the bomb against the West can be promoted – the whole THERE MUST BE REVENGE FOR HIROSHIMA thing.
All of the “noble desires” of the Ayers-Dourne crowd of pampered, stupid, violent, self-hating/worshipping 60′s kids are being brought to fruition.
…pretty easy to guess…
hm.. i have forgotten. do you remember the second of the vid when the heli shooter said “look at these bastards there…” http://wp.me/psdI6-O3