WikiLeaks, TOR, And The Ghost Net Network

[Bruce551]

Michael Moore

Posted: December 18, 2010 11:31 AM

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-moore/viva-wikileaks-sicko-was_b_798586.html

¡Viva WikiLeaks! Sicko Was Not Banned in Cuba

Yesterday WikiLeaks did an amazing thing and released a classified State Department cable that dealt, in part, with me and my film, 'Sicko.'

It is a stunning look at the Orwellian nature of how bureaucrats for the State spin their lies and try to recreate reality (I assume to placate their bosses and tell them what they want to hear).

The date is January 31, 2008. It is just days after 'Sicko' has been nominated for an Oscar as Best Documentary. This must have sent someone reeling in Bush's State Department (his Treasury Department had already notified me they were investigating what laws I might have broken in taking three 9/11 first responders to Cuba to get them the health care they had been denied in the United States).

Former health insurance executive Wendell Potter recently revealed that the insurance industry -- which had decided to spend millions to go after me and, if necessary, "push Michael Moore off a cliff" -- had begun working with anti-Castro Cubans in Miami in order to have them speak out and smear my film.

So, on January 31, 2008, a State Department official stationed in Havana took a made up story and sent it back to his HQ in Washington. Here's what they concocted:

XXXXXXXXXXXX stated that Cuban authorities have banned Michael Moore's documentary, "Sicko," as being subversive. Although the film's intent is to discredit the U.S. healthcare system by highlighting the excellence of the Cuban system, he said the regime knows the film is a myth and does not want to risk a popular backlash by showing to Cubans facilities that are clearly not available to the vast majority of them.

Sounds convincing, eh?! There's only one problem -- 'Sicko' had just been playing in Cuban theaters. Then the entire nation of Cuba was shown the film on national television on April 25, 2008! The Cubans embraced the film so much so it became one of those rare American movies that received a theatrical distribution in Cuba. I personally ensured that a 35mm print got to the Film Institute in Havana. Screenings of 'Sicko' were set up in towns all across the country.

But the secret cable said Cubans were banned from seeing my movie. Hmmm.

We also know from another secret U.S. document that "the disenchantment of the masses [in Cuba] has spread through all the provinces," and that "all of Oriente Province is seething with hate" for the Castro regime. There's a huge active underground rebellion, and "workers there readily give all the support they can," with everyone involved in "subtle sabotage" against the government. Morale is terrible throughout all the branches of the armed forces, and in the event of war the army "will not fight." Wow -- this cable is hot!

Of course, this secret U.S. cable is from March 31, 1961, three weeks before Cuba kicked our asses at the Bay of Pigs.

The U.S. government has been passing around these "secret" documents to itself for the past fifty years, explaining in painstaking detail how horrible things are in Cuba and how Cubans are quietly aching for us to come back and take over. I don't know why we write these cables, I guess it just makes us feel better about ourselves. (Anyone curious can find an entire museum of U.S. wish fulfillment cables on the website of the National Security Archive.)

So what do you do with about a false "secret" cable, especially one that involves you and your movie? Well, you wait for a responsible newspaper to investigate and shout what it discovers from the rooftops.

But yesterday WikiLeaks gave the 'Sicko' Cuba cable to the media -- and what did they do with it? They ran it as if it were true! Here's the headline in the Guardian:

WikiLeaks: Cuba banned Sicko for depicting 'mythical' healthcare system

Authorities feared footage of gleaming hospital in Michael Moore's Oscar-nominated film would provoke a popular backlash

And not one scintilla of digging to see if Cuba had actually banned the movie! In fact, just the opposite. The right wing press started to have a field day reporting a lie (Andy Levy of Fox -- twice -- Reason Magazine, Spectator and Hot Air, plus a slew of blogs). Sadly, even BoingBoing and my friends at the Nation wrote about it without skepticism. So here you have WikiLeaks, who have put themselves on the line to find and release these cables to the press -- and traditional journalists are once again just too lazy to lift a finger, point and click their mouse to log into Nexis or search via Google, and look to see if Cuba really did "ban the film." Had just ONE reporter done that, here's they would have found:

June 16, 2007 Saturday 1:41 AM GMT [that's 7 months before the false cable]

HEADLINE: Cuban health minister says Moore's 'Sicko' shows 'human values' of communist system

BYLINE: By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ, Associated Press Writer

DATELINE: HAVANA

Cuba's health minister Jose Ramon Balaguer said Friday that American filmmaker Michael Moore's documentary 'Sicko' highlights the human values of the island's communist-run government... "There can be no doubt this documentary by a personality like Mr. Michael Moore helps promote the profoundly human principles of Cuban society."

Or, how 'bout this little April 25, 2008 notice from CubaSi.Cu (translation by Google):

Sicko premiere in Cuba

25/04/2008

The documentary Sicko, the U.S. filmmaker Michael Moore, which deals about the deplorable state of American health care system will be released today at 5:50 pm, for the space Cubavision Roundtable and the Education Channel.

Then there's this from Juventudrebelde.cu (translation by Google). Or this Cuban editorial (translation by Google). There's even a long clip of the Cuba section of 'Sicko' on the homepage of Media Roundtable on the CubaSi.cu website!

OK, so we know the media is lazy and sucks most of the time.

But the bigger issue here is how our government seemed to be colluding with the health insurance industry to destroy a film that might have a hand in bringing about what the Cubans already have in their poverty-ridden third world country: free, universal health care.

And because they have it and we don't, Cuba has a better infant mortality rate than we do, their life expectancy is just 7 months shorter than ours, and, according to the WHO, they rank just two places behind the richest country on earth in terms of the quality of their health care.

That's the story, mainstream media and right-wing haters.

Now that you've been presented with the facts, what are you going to do about it? Are you gonna attack me for having my movie played on Cuban state television? Or are you gonna attack me for not having my movie played on Cuban state television?

You have to choose one, it can't be both.

And since the facts show that the movie played on state TV and in theaters, I think you're better off attacking me for having my films played in Cuba.

¡Viva WikiLeaks!

[eagle]

from Bruces's post:

But the bigger issue here is how our government seemed to be colluding with the health insurance industry to destroy a film that might have a hand in bringing about what the Cubans already have in their poverty-ridden third world country: free, universal health care.

Government colluding with the US health "industry". Its just another of the powerful industries created by the flourishing US capitalist system. Once industry reaches a certain stature it can afford to buy political favor. This has become an institutionalized system of bribery that they try to pass off as democracy. So huge have they become that they buy the media and spin reality to suit their needs. Unfortunately everyone will take the fall as their created reality collides with the real world.

[Bruce551]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/the-media-gets-it-wrong-o_b_797436.html

"In authoritarian countries, information networks are helping people discover new facts and making governments more accountable... technologies with the potential to open up access to government and promote transparency can also be hijacked by governments to crush dissent and deny human rights... As in the dictatorships of the past, governments are targeting independent thinkers who use these tools."

Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State

Now "making government accountable" is, as White House spokesman Robert Gibbs put it, a "reckless and dangerous action."

Sorry, WE the PEOPLE don't trust YOU anymore!!!!

[Stramash]

WikiLeaks Set To Reveal US-UFO War In Southern Ocean

Posted by EU Times on Dec 13th, 2010 // 56 Comments

A new report circulating in the Kremlin today prepared for President Medvedev by Russian Space Forces (VKS) 45th Division of Space Control says that an upcoming WikiLeaks release of secret US cables details that the Americans have been “engaged†since 2004 in a “war†against UFO’s based on or near the Continent of Antarctica, particularly the Southern Ocean.

According to this report, the United States went to its highest alert level on June 10, 2004 after a massive fleet of UFO’s “suddenly emerged†from the Southern Ocean and approached Guadalajara, Mexico barely 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) from the American border. Prior to reaching the US border, however, this massive UFO fleet is said in this report to have “dimensionally returned†to their Southern Ocean “home baseâ€.

The fears of the Americans regarding these Southern Ocean UFO’s began, this report says, during the unprecedented events of July 11, 1991 (referred to as 7/11) when during the Solar Eclipse these mysterious aircraft appeared by the hundreds over nearly all of Mexico, even their Capital city. Most notable about the events of 7/11 were that as millions of Mexicans were watching on their televisions the National broadcasts of these UFO’s over Mexico City, the American media refused to allow their people to view it.

Since 2004, this report continues, fleets of Southern Ocean UFO’s have continued to emerge from their bases, with the latest such event being this Friday past when another of their massive fleets was sighted over the South American Nation of Chile.

The “immediate danger†to our World when these massive UFO fleets emerge from the Southern Ocean, this report warns, are the massive waves caused by their sudden eruption from what are believed to be their underwater base, or bases. In the past week alone, the Clelia II, an Antarctic cruise ship with 160 people onboard, was nearly capsized when hit by waves generated by these UFO’s emerging from the Southern Ocean, and just today the Number One Insung has been reported sunk with only 20 of its 42 member crew said saved due to the same cause.

Interesting to note in this report is its confirming our October 14th report US Shuts Down New York City Airspace Over UFO ‘Threat’ that these same Southern Ocean UFO’s were responsible for the closing of the airspace over New York City this past fall (October 13th) when they “appeared†openly and were witnessed by tens of thousands of people, and which, coincidentally, occurred during the same time frame as the mysterious Crystal Skulls of the ancient South American peoples were being exhibited there too.

Even more interesting to note is that the mysterious earthquakes being reported in the Gulf of Aden (where another “extraterrestrial†event is currently ongoing and we had reported on in our December 1st report Mysterious ‘Vortex’ Warned Is Creating Global Weather Catastrophe) are now being reported occurring in the Southern Ocean too.

This report goes on to state that after WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange warned last week that he would begin releasing secret US cables relating to these Southern Ocean UFO’s, and the Americans “war†against them, he was immediately arrested by British Police on trumped up charges issued by the Swedish government which in our December 8th report, Global Rebellion Erupts After “Unprotected Sex Meets Disrobed Governmentsâ€, we noted were engineered against him as a “classic†CIA “Honey Trapâ€.

Note: Since our last report on the EU-US frame-up of Assange it is now being reported that one of his two accusers, Anna Ardin, has fled Sweden and is now in hiding in the Palestinian territories.

To if Assange, or his WikiLeaks website, will survive to see the whole release of these Southern Ocean UFO files it is not to our knowing, nor does this report say.

What is in our knowing, however, and when coupled with the information we reported on in our December 10th report Massive Earthquake Fears Rise After Mysterious Object Moves Nearer To Earth, suggests that the timing of these events, as we near the December 20/21 Total Lunar Eclipse, and as Mercury turns retrograde and joins Mars as it forms a conjunction with Pluto, that the ending of this year, 2010, truly marks the ending of this age as prophesied by the ancients.

In the Sorcha Faal’s seminal work published in 2007, Battle Begins For Throne of This World: The Return of the Einherjar Warriors, she notes that in these “last days†the “guideposts†to what the future will hold for humanity does, indeed, rest hidden to the discerning reader in the words handed down to us by the ancients, none being more important in this case than those of Nostradamus, who in writing of this coming Lunar Eclipse and feared conjunctions warned:

“The arms to fight in the sky a long time,

The tree in the middle of the city fallen:

Sacred bough clipped, steel, in the face of the firebrand,

Then the Monarch of Adria fallen.†Quatrain 3:11

Most ominously for our World today, “the tree in the middle of the city†has, indeed, “fallen†with news from Glastonbury that the 2,000-year-old Holy Thorn Tree, one of Christianities oldest and most revered symbols, has been cut down by vandals. With the great tree now “fallenâ€, the battle for this Earth now moves to the “sky†until the “Monarch of Adria†(Pope Benedict XVI) has “fallen†too.

:shock: :shock:

[Admin_2]

Jesus...the wikileaks stuff you can easily access outside of Thailand is shocking. Obviously I can't post it here, but I just watched the video about the crown prince's party for his dog, and Jeab and still have our jaws dropped.

:shock: :shock:

[Bruce551]

I don't have a lot to say about WikiLeaks, but I do want to make a few points.

1. Encryption isn't the issue here. Of course the cables were encrypted, for transmission. Then they were received and decrypted, and -- so it seems -- put into an archive on SIPRNet, where lots of people had access to them.

2. Secrets are only as secure as the least trusted person who knows them. The more people who know a secret, the more likely it is to be made public.

3. I'm not surprised that these cables were available to so many people. We know that access control is hard, and that it's impossible to know beforehand what information someone will need to do their job. What is surprising is that there wasn't any audit logs kept about who accessed all these cables. That seems like a no-brainer.

4. This has little to do with WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks is just a website. The real story is that "least trusted person" who decided to violate his security clearance and make these cables public. In the 1970s he would have mailed them to a newspaper. Today he uses WikiLeaks. Tomorrow he will have his choice of a dozen similar websites. If WikiLeaks didn't exist, he could have put them up on BitTorrent.

5. I think the government is learning what the music and movie industries were forced to learn years ago: it's easy to copy and distribute digital files. (really 555) That's what's different between the 1970s and today. Amassing and releasing that many documents was hard in the paper and photocopier era; it's trivial in the Internet era. And just as the music and movie industries are going to have to change their business models for the Internet era, governments are going to have to change their secrecy models. I don't know what those new models will be, but they will be different.

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/09/real-world_acce.html

[Admin_2]

WikiLeaks Set To Reveal US-UFO War In Southern Ocean

Posted by EU Times on Dec 13th, 2010 // 56 Comments

I took a lot of acid back in the 90's, and even I find this hard to believe. If and when these actual cables do come out, it's probably going to be very unclear as to what they were talking about.

"War" could mean anything. Regardless, it does have me wanting to see wtf they are talking about.

[eagle]

Some good news about resistance to GMOs in the world. Happy Holidays !

http://counterpunch.com/cummins12242010.html

[Stramash]

WikiLeaks Set To Reveal US-UFO War In Southern Ocean

Posted by EU Times on Dec 13th, 2010 // 56 Comments

I took a lot of acid back in the 90's, and even I find this hard to believe. If and when these actual cables do come out, it's probably going to be very unclear as to what they were talking about.

"War" could mean anything. Regardless, it does have me wanting to see wtf they are talking about.

Think the important part of that story was that the reports were circulating in the Kremlin about these cables. I have a feeling heroic amounts of vodka were involved...

[Admin_2]

Thailand blocks 1,203 more sites including ones from Hillary Clinton and...Charlie Chaplin??

"The 1,203 newly blocked websites are located in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and Vietnam.

Every blocked site has the internally noted reason of "lese majeste" -- criticizing the King -- however, it is obvious that many sites were blocked for quite different reasons. It would appear, in fact, that the judiciary did not examine most sites before issuing orders but instead rubber-stamped government requests.

A total of 860 YouTube videos have been blocked, far in excess of the blocking conducted by The Official Censor of the Military Coup; a further 200 pages mirroring those videos are also blocked. Curiously, Hillary Clinton's campaign videos, and 24 Charlie Chaplin videos are also on the censorship lists.

Although we have not yet found the opportunity to examine each website censored, an eclectic mix of censorship has been revealed resulting in overblocking of many benign webpages.

Along with the obligatory YouTube videos and their mirror sites alleged to be lese majeste in Thailand, numerous blocks to Thai webboard pages, particularly at popular discussion sites including Prachatai (45 separate pages) and Same Sky (56 separate pages). Of course, all webboards in Thailand, including those just mentioned, moderate discussions and self-censor to avoid closure. It is interesting that Thai bureaucrats still find reasons to censor.

Also blocked are weblogs referencing Paul Handley's unauthorised Biography of Thailand's King Bhumibhol, The King Never Smiles, and its translation into Thai along with Thai Wikipedia entries.

The webpages of respected Thai Buddhist social critic, Sulak Sivaraksa who is currently on bail for his fourth accusation of lese majeste, and Matthew Hunt, respected Thai journalist, anticensorship activist and FACT signer, are also blocked as are pages of the respected international newsmagazine, The Economist.

Typically, web censorship in Thailand is conducted in secret. We think there is a right to know inherent in a free society. We call for transparency and accountability in government and freedom of expression, freedom of communication and freedom of association as fundamental human rights.

On December 21, a new ICT minister was appointed to Cabinet, Ranongruk Suwanchawee. She must be held accountable for censorship."

[Bruce551]

Thailand blocks 1,203 more sites including ones from Hillary Clinton and...Charlie Chaplin??

"The 1,203 newly blocked websites are located in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and Vietnam.

Every blocked site has the internally noted reason of "lese majeste" -- criticizing the King -- however, it is obvious that many sites were blocked for quite different reasons. It would appear, in fact, that the judiciary did not examine most sites before issuing orders but instead rubber-stamped government requests.

A total of 860 YouTube videos have been blocked, far in excess of the blocking conducted by The Official Censor of the Military Coup; a further 200 pages mirroring those videos are also blocked. Curiously, Hillary Clinton's campaign videos, and 24 Charlie Chaplin videos are also on the censorship lists.

Although we have not yet found the opportunity to examine each website censored, an eclectic mix of censorship has been revealed resulting in overblocking of many benign webpages.

Along with the obligatory YouTube videos and their mirror sites alleged to be lese majeste in Thailand, numerous blocks to Thai webboard pages, particularly at popular discussion sites including Prachatai (45 separate pages) and Same Sky (56 separate pages). Of course, all webboards in Thailand, including those just mentioned, moderate discussions and self-censor to avoid closure. It is interesting that Thai bureaucrats still find reasons to censor.

Also blocked are weblogs referencing Paul Handley's unauthorised Biography of Thailand's King Bhumibhol, The King Never Smiles, and its translation into Thai along with Thai Wikipedia entries.

The webpages of respected Thai Buddhist social critic, Sulak Sivaraksa who is currently on bail for his fourth accusation of lese majeste, and Matthew Hunt, respected Thai journalist, anticensorship activist and FACT signer, are also blocked as are pages of the respected international newsmagazine, The Economist.

Typically, web censorship in Thailand is conducted in secret. We think there is a right to know inherent in a free society. We call for transparency and accountability in government and freedom of expression, freedom of communication and freedom of association as fundamental human rights.

On December 21, a new ICT minister was appointed to Cabinet, Ranongruk Suwanchawee. She must be held accountable for censorship."

The Thai middle class is apathetic and brain dead, they just want to go shopping at Siam Paragon...

How is it that the practice of Authoritarian "Extremist Censorship" by the ICT is allowed to happen with very little protest from MC Thai people.

[GoodKarma]

Julian Assange threatens to name Arab leaders with CIA ties if he is arrested or killed

http://www.businessinsider.com/julian-assange-threatens-to-name-arab-leaders-with-cia-ties-2010-12

[koolbreez]

I now wonder how much of the $1.2 million Assange has been offered for his autobiography book deal he will donate to keep Wikileaks running. From the looks of it, he is keeping the whole amount for his retirement.

It puts a whole new light on how much money should be donated for his legal defenses. It has also never been brought out how much money he makes from running the site, but he doesn't seem to be hurting financially.

[Admin_2]

I now wonder how much of the $1.2 million Assange has been offered for his autobiography book deal he will donate to keep Wikileaks running. From the looks of it, he is keeping the whole amount for his retirement.

It puts a whole new light on how much money should be donated for his legal defenses. It has also never been brought out how much money he makes from running the site, but he doesn't seem to be hurting financially.

He doesn't make much from running that site for sure. Sadly, retiring on 1.2 million doesn't mean that he will be living a nice life for the rest of his years. If invested well, it will be enough.

[beej]

I now wonder how much of the $1.2 million Assange has been offered for his autobiography book deal he will donate to keep Wikileaks running. From the looks of it, he is keeping the whole amount for his retirement.

It puts a whole new light on how much money should be donated for his legal defenses. It has also never been brought out how much money he makes from running the site, but he doesn't seem to be hurting financially.

He doesn't make much from running that site for sure. Sadly, retiring on 1.2 million doesn't mean that he will be living a nice life for the rest of his years. If invested well, it will be enough.

Damn, its pretty easy to blow $1.2 million, peanuts.

[Dr_Mike]

I now wonder how much of the $1.2 million Assange has been offered for his autobiography book deal he will donate to keep Wikileaks running. From the looks of it, he is keeping the whole amount for his retirement.

It puts a whole new light on how much money should be donated for his legal defenses. It has also never been brought out how much money he makes from running the site, but he doesn't seem to be hurting financially.

He doesn't make much from running that site for sure. Sadly, retiring on 1.2 million doesn't mean that he will be living a nice life for the rest of his years. If invested well, it will be enough.

Damn, its pretty easy to blow $1.2 million, peanuts.

Will he be able to hide the rest of his life with a mere 1.2 million now that he has a bounty on his head from all those countries he "leaked" on?

I'd call the wiki guy gay, but he'd try to hit me with his purse.

[beej]

I'd call the wiki guy gay, but he'd try to hit me with his purse.

????????????

[SoBeIt]

Thailand blocks 1,203 more sites including ones from Hillary Clinton and...Charlie Chaplin??

"The 1,203 newly blocked websites are located in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and Vietnam.

Every blocked site has the internally noted reason of "lese majeste" -- criticizing the King -- however, it is obvious that many sites were blocked for quite different reasons. It would appear, in fact, that the judiciary did not examine most sites before issuing orders but instead rubber-stamped government requests.

A total of 860 YouTube videos have been blocked, far in excess of the blocking conducted by The Official Censor of the Military Coup; a further 200 pages mirroring those videos are also blocked. Curiously, Hillary Clinton's campaign videos, and 24 Charlie Chaplin videos are also on the censorship lists.

Although we have not yet found the opportunity to examine each website censored, an eclectic mix of censorship has been revealed resulting in overblocking of many benign webpages.

Along with the obligatory YouTube videos and their mirror sites alleged to be lese majeste in Thailand, numerous blocks to Thai webboard pages, particularly at popular discussion sites including Prachatai (45 separate pages) and Same Sky (56 separate pages). Of course, all webboards in Thailand, including those just mentioned, moderate discussions and self-censor to avoid closure. It is interesting that Thai bureaucrats still find reasons to censor.

Also blocked are weblogs referencing Paul Handley's unauthorised Biography of Thailand's King Bhumibhol, The King Never Smiles, and its translation into Thai along with Thai Wikipedia entries.

The webpages of respected Thai Buddhist social critic, Sulak Sivaraksa who is currently on bail for his fourth accusation of lese majeste, and Matthew Hunt, respected Thai journalist, anticensorship activist and FACT signer, are also blocked as are pages of the respected international newsmagazine, The Economist.

Typically, web censorship in Thailand is conducted in secret. We think there is a right to know inherent in a free society. We call for transparency and accountability in government and freedom of expression, freedom of communication and freedom of association as fundamental human rights.

On December 21, a new ICT minister was appointed to Cabinet, Ranongruk Suwanchawee. She must be held accountable for censorship."

The Thai middle class is apathetic and brain dead, they just want to go shopping at Siam Paragon...

How is it that the practice of Authoritarian "Extremist Censorship" by the ICT is allowed to happen with very little protest from MC Thai people.

I know and we call ourselves..

Democracy country...

[Dr_Mike]

I'd call the wiki guy gay, but he'd try to hit me with his purse.

????????????

Take care "beej" You'll be missed.

I've asked the admin and moderator to delete my account here.

Cheers and see you around.

[Admin_2]

I'd call the wiki guy gay, but he'd try to hit me with his purse.

????????????

Take care "beej" You'll be missed.

I've asked the admin and moderator to delete my account here.

Cheers and see you around.

Just send admin Bill a message, he can take care of you.

[English_Bob]

Thailand blocks 1,203 more sites including ones from Hillary Clinton and...Charlie Chaplin??

Not to rock the boat, but I just Youtube'd Charlie Chaplin and the first 10 videos were fine. Then Hillary Clinton - and those were also fine.

Now usually, if something is blocked in Thailand, I get diverted to the micgovt website...

[Admin_2]

I guess it was just a few videos and not all of them. Possibly they need an excuse to get more funding...

[LakeGeneve]

I now wonder how much of the $1.2 million Assange has been offered for his autobiography book deal he will donate to keep Wikileaks running. From the looks of it, he is keeping the whole amount for his retirement.

It puts a whole new light on how much money should be donated for his legal defenses. It has also never been brought out how much money he makes from running the site, but he doesn't seem to be hurting financially.

He doesn't make much from running that site for sure. Sadly, retiring on 1.2 million doesn't mean that he will be living a nice life for the rest of his years. If invested well, it will be enough.

KB, why do you say "from the looks of it" & assume he is keeping the whole amount? That seems like pure speculation.

In all the articles I read 2 weeks ago, he was quoted as saying that 500 000 would be going towards his legal costs and keep Wikileaks alive given the block on some donations sites. In fact, the way I read it he is writing the book primarily to pay for potential legal expenses and to keep the site running:

He told the Sunday Times that he was forced to sign a deal worth more than 1m for his autobiography due to financial difficulties. "I don't want to write this book, but I have to," he said. "I have already spent 200,000 for legal costs and I need to defend myself and to keep WikiLeaks afloat."

Previously Assange told the Guardian that WikiLeaks does not have enough money to pay its legal bills, even though "a lot of generous lawyers have donated their time to us".

Legal costs for WikiLeaks and his own defence were approaching £500,000, he said. The decisions by Visa, MasterCard and PayPal to stop processing donations have cost the organisation 425,000, enough to fund WikiLeaks' publishing operations for six months. At its peak the organisation was receiving 85,000 a day, he said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/26/julian-assange-book-deals

Given that he has been under potential constant state threat, living out of a suitcase of the last couple of years and most importantly given what he has done with Wikileaks; I think he is perfectly entitled to blow some money from the book on some selfish R&R whenever this is all over.

[admin]

A rather well written story about Wikileaks, Julian Assange, and the fact that many news sources (even very liberal ones), - not to mention many within Wikileaks - have issues with how he's going about releasing these documents.

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2011/02/the-guardian-201102?currentPage=1

In my mind this has always been tightly married to intent. If the intent is to release information because you think no information should be kept secret, while I may believe that to be a naive, stupid, and reckless course of action, at least I can respect you for having a conviction and standing behind it.

I can even offer some props to you if you think that information should be free but you also recognize that innocent people could be hurt and you take the time to redact references that could be unnecessarily harmful to people who are relatively innocent or just trying to do the right thing.

But I think this article confirms what I first felt about Assange which is that he is a manipulative, controlling figure. No better or worse than the people he is exposing secrets about.