Assange, TRUTH and the Moral Bottomless Pit that is America - International Injustice/Law

Assange, TRUTH and the Moral Bottomless Pit that is America
by quill Friday, Dec 10 2010, 7:35pm
international / injustice/law / commentary

[Revised]

Need we ask what these behaviours characterise, a mass murdering, terrorist, criminal nation that would attack anyone that reveals the ugly TRUE NATURE of the 'beast' for the world to see? Indeed, the accuracy of the compromising information was/is confirmed by the fact that it was sourced from the 'beast's' own secret archives.

In Denial characteristic of homicidal sociopaths, the USA would openly attack and accuse their accusers. Oblivious to the fact that the world is keenly aware of U.S. HYPOCRISY and double standards it seems the only people convinced by the latest tactic to avoid the Courts and responsibility are rustic, uninformed Americans. Nevertheless, the USA presses on regardless, compromising itself to a far greater extent than any perceived enemy would hope to achieve. I mean, give the world a break with the trumped-up sex charges levelled against Julian Assange of WikiLeaks. A man that serves the public interest by publishing the TRUTH.

The global community needs to be informed of every terrorist group or Nation. Julian Assange has simply published official data that has been withheld from the public. Details of U.S. war and other crimes have been described by official observers and/or the culpable themselves. Assange also promises to release compromising data on a major U.S. Bank, corporate rogues and other Wall St criminals working against the best interests of humanity and the planet.

Today’s newswire carries a story of plans by criminal American interests to charge Julian Assange under a 1917 espionage act; such charges would be ‘sealed envelope’ charges, not to be disclosed publicly – HOW BLOODY CONVENIENT!

So, in secret proceedings, the world's leading terrorist State would attempt to crucify a man who has done nothing more than reveal the LIES and CRIMINALITY of the nation that now pursues, persecutes and would silence him forever – that’s ‘JUSTICE’ for you/all!

In the absence of action and SUPPORT from traditional institutions of religion and the unions, the prerogative has fallen on the PEOPLE DIRECTLY to challenge the criminals that have hijacked our democracies and would crucify the men and women that would restore LAW, honour, credibility and democracy to our societies.

Well,
WE WOULDN’T HAVE IT ANY OTHER WAY! The onus is ours once AGAIN, history in the making; would we restore Justice, Law, Order and Representative Democracy in our respective nations or resign ourselves to slavery, as the criminal cabals desperately wish?

The very first step is to DEMAND the arrest of the REAL WAR and ECONOMIC CRIMINALS that WikiLeaks has helped to expose. In a SHOW of unstoppable, peaceful force march on your respective Capitals in support of YOURSELF, Julian Assange and all those that have lost their lives in the fight against criminal elites that would make a mockery of TRUTH, FREEDOM and DEMOCRACY -- everything we hold dear in our lives.

Indeed, what we witness and would create today will be considered a historic people’s EVOLUTION or a tragic failure by future generations.

The brazen criminals responsible for all the destruction, murder and chaos in the world today ARE KNOWN TO US – IT IS TIME TO ACT and RESTORE THE LIBERTIES AND FREEDOMS PREVIOUS GENERATIONS FOUGHT SO HARD TO ESTABLISH. WE owe it to them, ourselves and future generations to remove the blight that has infected our societies and governments – if a clean sweep of high office is required, then so be it!

Support TRUTH and prevent the crucifixion of Julian Assange at the hands of criminals in high office.

Peace and Justice for ALL.

Report from the Scotsman follows:

In a twist in the ongoing battle to punish Visa, Mastercard, Amazon and PayPal for cutting off donations to WikiLeaks, those seeking revenge by volunteering the power of their computers in the battle, no longer have to download software. Instead they can just visit the right webpage and let JavaScript, the lingua franca of the interactive web, do the work for them.

Those who have been joining in the so-called Operation Payback attacks Wednesday, Thursday and Friday on the companies have been mostly relying on a downloadable tool. Few who are part of Anonymous are actual “hackers,” and instead join in the attacks by running specialized software provided by more technically adept members. Instructions for which sites to target and when are passed around dedicated online chat channels and websites, creating a sort of online insurgency.

Anonymous’ DDoS tool allow members to connect to a botnet voluntarily, rather than mobilizing hijacked zombie machines, as traditional DDoS tools do. It is called LOIC, which stands for “Low Orbit Ion Cannon,” and evolved from an open source website load-testing utility. A new feature called Hivemind was added, which connects LOIC to anonops for instructions, and allows members to add their machines to an attack at will.

However, installing that software is no longer necessary as an Anonymous member has created an online page that will do the hard work for you.

Once you press the attack button, the webpage repeatedly and rapidly asks the target’s webserver for a given file, preferably a large image. A link to the tool was repeatedly passed around the chat rooms where the attacks are being organized.

The tool’s author is unknown, and a quick perusal of the JavaScript shows that it’s a fairly basic bit of programming.

That said, the development illustrates that it’s now an easy matter for anyone to join in such attacks. All you’ll need to know is the right webpage to visit and how to click on a big button.

However, the tool does not let you hide your IP address, and anyone considering using the tool should be aware that three Anonymous members, across two different online campaigns, have been arrested, and two convicted, for participating in denial of service attacks.

[Perhaps wait until all identifying features are hidden, VPN or Proxy technology is required or alternatively, Internet cafes cloak their users. You can attack while responding to emails etc in another window. Edited.

© 2010 Condé Nast Digital

Detention of WikiLeaks founder is focus of demonstrations today as speculation grows over legal move by US authorities.

Protests will be held around the world today against the detention of Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks.

Demonstrations are planned in the capitals of Spain, the Netherlands, Colombia, Argentina, Mexico and Peru to demand Assange's release, the re-establishment of the WikiLeaks domain name and the restoration of Visa and Mastercard credit services to allow supporters to donate money to the whistleblowing site.

A statement on the Spanish-language website Free WikiLeaks said: "We seek the liberation of Julian Assange in United Kingdom territory." The website called on protesters to gather at 6pm (17.00 GMT) in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Seville and three other Spanish cities.

It also calls for "the re-establishment of the WikiLeaks (wikileaks.org) internet domain," and the restoration of Visa and MasterCard credit card services to enable the "freedom to move money" because no one has "proved Assange's guilt", nor charged WikiLeaks with any crime.

Assange is in Wandsworth prison in south London after being refused bail on Tuesday. Sweden is seeking his extradition over allegations of sexual assault.

His lawyers said yesterday they were preparing for a possible indictment by the US authorities.

Jennifer Robinson said her team had heard from "several different US lawyers rumours that an indictment was on its way or had happened already, but we don't know".

According to some reports, Washington is seeking to prosecute Assange under the 1917 act, which was used unsuccessfully to try to gag the New York Times when it published the Pentagon Papers in the 1970s. However, despite escalating rhetoric over the past fortnight, no charges have yet been lodged, and government sources say they are unaware any such move is being prepared.

Robinson said Assange's team did not believe the US had grounds to prosecute him but understood that Washington was "looking closely at other charges, such as computer charges, so we have one eye on it".

Earlier this week, the US attorney general, Eric Holder, said the US had been put at risk by the flood of confidential diplomatic documents released by WikiLeaks and he authorised a criminal investigation.

© 2010 Guardian News and Media Limited

If the scandals that have plagued corporate America in the past two years haven't gotten you thinking about your own company's vulnerabilities, then the latest revelations out of WikiLeaks certainly should.

In an interview with Forbes' Andy Greenberg, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange declared that half the documents that have been fed to the organization are from corporations, and that sometime early next year his organization plans what presumably will be the first of many corporate disclosures. It will begin with information about one of the nation's leading banks. The target is rumored to be Bank of America, and the bank's stock tumbled 3% shortly after the rumors were publicized.

Got your attention now?

WikiLeaks is promising to give a voice to the disenfranchised, disgusted and disillusioned within Corporate America, those who have knowledge of company behavior ranging from distasteful to criminal. "Companies turn people into leakers by their failure to listen, look and respond," says business consultant and author Margaret Heffernan, whose forthcoming book, Willful Blindness: Why We Ignore the Obvious at Our Peril, will tackle the issue.

In other words, it will no longer be a company's general counsel who will decide if and when something is disclosed to the public. Now, it's any insider with a flash drive who's troubled or disgruntled by an organization's conduct.

And the types of information WikiLeaks is disclosing can be more damaging--and memorable--than a traditional corporate crisis. A "transactional crisis," in which something ranging from discomforting to catastrophic strikes a company, may occur because of an accident or event that could not have been foreseen. Such an event, ranging from Mark Hurd's resignation from HP over a sexual harassment investigation to the BP oil spill, carries its own set of baggage. How an organization fares in its aftermath depends on how quickly, compassionately and comprehensively it responds.

However, Wikileaks is ushering in a new form of the "reputational crisis," in which the very way an organization and its leaders operate, think and respond is made public. In his Forbes interview, Assange referred to it as "the ecosystem of corruption," adding that it's "all the regular decision making that turns a blind eye to and supports unethical practices: the oversight that's not done, the priorities of executives, how they think they're fulfilling their own self-interest."

To put it in recent, non-WikiLeaks terms, think about what people remember about two recent major corporate crises. In the case of the financial markets meltdown and the BP oil spill, it wasn't just what a credit default swap was, or how many gallons of BP oil poured into the Gulf of Mexico. People also recall Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein declaring that his firm was doing "God's work," and former BP CEO Tony Hayward proclaiming that, "I want my life back."

These types of careless comments, along with the kinds of corporate WikiLeaks disclosures Assange promises, show the true underbelly of an organization and can do the most damage.

Preparing for or avoiding a "disclosure crisis." Companies can accept the inevitability of an unsavory leak and prepare for how to best react to it, or they can take action now to minimize the likelihood that insiders will feel the need to disclose company secrets. Either way, below are some steps to ponder:

Establish and maintain a culture of civility and transparency. The old saying, "If you're not prepared to read it on the front page of a newspaper, don't put it in an e-mail," has now been expanded to, "If you're not prepared to send it around the world, and for it to be seen by your boss, colleagues, regulators, investors and your family, don't put it in an e-mail."

Establish zero tolerance regarding obscenities, crude jokes or topics of intolerance in company communications--even those about your most cutthroat competitor. If your organization is agnostic about "doing the right thing" and you question the necessity of this step, keep in mind that reputations, market share and stock prices can drop with the stroke of a computer key in today's "Wikiworld."

View dissent within your organization as a positive thing. Yes, it's tough to do, but necessary. "A company where there's no dissent is at serious risk," Heffernan says. Because dissenters can pinpoint your areas of greatest risk, doing so will help an organization identify its most acute vulnerabilities.

Make needed reforms now, then let stakeholders know what you did--and why. After its Upper Big Branch mine exploded in West Virginia and killed 29 workers, Massey Energy finally stopped trying to pass the blame and took action. It closed its unsafe Freedom Energy Mine No. 1 in Kentucky, and controversial CEO Don Blankenship stepped down. Unfortunately, it took eight months before the company made those reforms, and its reputation and balance sheet already were in tatters.

Listen to your employees, and address their concerns. Business thinks it's had it rough during the Great Recession. However, many employees--both those who managed to hang onto their jobs and those who didn't--have had it worse. Yes, times are tough, but don't be short-sighted. Heffernan has described the phenomenon of employee "pressure points" and what happens when individuals finally become fed up. Don't give your employees a reason to reach their boiling point.

Prepare, prepare, prepare. We've never encountered an executive whose crisis response performance didn't improve appreciably after a well thought-out training program. Include hypothetical scenarios about difficult leaks in your crisis communications drills and exercises, which should take place at least annually. And prepare your leaders to face the public and stakeholders. Their credibility will be tested like never before, and the reputation of your organization may very well depend on your executives' performance.

Get comfortable with the uncomfortable. Forbes cybersecurity reporter Greenberg has coined the term "forced transparency" to define the reality that WikiLeaks and its copycats now leave companies and governments no choice but to voluntarily--if grudgingly--share information that previously was secret.

Yes, Assange is currently in police custody in the U.K., and governmental officials worldwide are demanding his head, but he's the symptom, not the cause. Technology is making it more and more difficult for those in power to control information--particularly information that shows their institutions have behaved distastefully, hypocritically or even criminally.

A disclosure crisis, like all types of corporate crises, will lay bare an organization and its leadership. But if you learn how to function when your company is stressed, business continuity is possible under duress.

© 2010 Forbes.com LLC

[The above is published for its information value only; we should never forget that Corporatists are responsible for hijacking our Democracies, instigating all the wars of the 21st Century and creating the Global Economic collapse -- "The only good executive is a dead executive." Ed.]

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