For previous Wikileaks Information Threads check out cedar park's diaries.
Lisa Lockwood broke the disappointing but unsurprising news here on Daily Kos:
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is to be extradited to Sweden to face allegations of rape and sexual assault. Assange will appeal, his legal team confirmed. If this is unsuccessful, he will be extradited to Sweden in 10 days.
Delivering his ruling at a hearing at Belmarsh magistrates court in London, the chief magistrate Howard Riddle systematically dismissed each of the defence's arguments against Assange's extradition.
For more on the ruling check out the Guardians reporting (where we learn that the UK would also have to approve of an extradition to the US from Sweden) and Glenn Greenwald's brief discussion of the extradition on Democracy Now which you can watch here (followed by a discussion of the HB Gary story in case you've been living under a rock). For a timeline on the accusations, check out this Telegraphs article.
Previously Democracy Now had the brilliant Naomi Wolf debate with Jaclyn Friedman about the allegations Julian faces and its implications (can't get embed to work...if you do please let me know how!). Obviously a very contentious issue but don't miss this debate that's far more substantive than anything you'll ever see in traditional media. Here is a selection from the Guardian story on the case against Assange that Wolf and Friedman are discussing:
Assange's solicitor, Mark Stephens, said: "The allegations of the complainants are not credible and were dismissed by the senior Stockholm prosecutor as not worthy of further investigation." He said Miss A had sent two Twitter messages that appeared to undermine her account in the police statement.
Assange's defence team had so far been provided by prosecutors with only incomplete evidence, he said. "There are many more text and SMS messages from and to the complainants which have been shown by the assistant prosecutor to the Swedish defence lawyer, Bjorn Hurtig, which suggest motivations of malice and money in going to the police and to Espressen and raise the issue of political motivation behind the presentation of these complaints. He [Hurtig] has been precluded from making notes or copying them.
"We understand that both complainants admit to having initiated consensual sexual relations with Mr Assange. They do not complain of any physical injury. The first complainant did not make a complaint for six days (in which she hosted the respondent in her flat [actually her bed] and spoke in the warmest terms about him to her friends) until she discovered he had spent the night with the other complainant.
"The second complainant, too, failed to complain for several days until she found out about the first complainant: she claimed that after several acts of consensual sexual intercourse, she fell half asleep and thinks that he ejaculated without using a condom – a possibility about which she says they joked afterwards.
Today
Assange had a really interesting chat with Aftonbladet, Sweden's largest newspaper (h/t
Greg Mitchell):
Kommentar från Maria
What do you base your assumptions on that Sweden will send you to USA?
Julian Assange: This is an interesting question that few people have looked at with any depth. Onwards extradition - to the United States - entirely a matter of politics. The Swedish Prime Minister has refused to block such an extradition, saying, falsely, that it is a matter entirely for the judiciary, while at the same time pathetically pandering with his other commentary on the case. Infact, he has the power, in the Swedish extradition relationship with the US, to disqualify my extradition. He refuses. According to what I have been told of the protocol between Sweden and the UK, and the US and the UK, the Home Secretary of the UK, simiarly has such power to politically veto such an extradition. The British government, thus far, has refused to do so. Now, while it is convention that an extradition from the UK or Sweden to the US would require the US to agree to not execute or torture me or other european based WikiLeaks staff, any such diplomatic guarentee would be meaningless. Sweden went through that formalism with its CIA assisted extraditions to Egypt, which were immediately ignored. In the US many senior politicians have called for our assassination or life imprisonment. There are three bills before Congress and the Senate to do such things as declare us a "transnational threat", so all our staff can be treated like al-Quada - as "enemy combatants" and shipped off to Bagram or Guantanamo, etc. Nothing Sweden can politely ask for can stop this legislative risk.
Kommentar från Maja
What happens to your work with Wikileaks now? Are you releasing anything new soon?
Julian Assange: We are releasing new material every day. Major efforts throughout South America have appeared in the last week and we have had since the start of the year a special focus on the middle east, which is continuing.
Kommentar från cleo
Hi Julian. Do you see yourself involved in what happening in the Arabic World? Are their fight for freedom based on the document you have revealed?
Julian Assange: The heavy lifting in these revolutions has been done by long standing civil and political groups throughout the middle east. However we have tried to play a part in the region since last year. In particular, we are pround of the work of our media partner Al-Akhbar in Lebanon who published many important stories based on our material in Arabic. Al-Alkbar and WikiLeaks were then banned by the Ben Ali regime of Tunisia. Supportive computer hackers then redirected many Tunisian government websites to WikiLeaks and its cables exposing Ben Ali. Al-Alkbar suffered three critical cyber attacks and had its cable publishing eventually wiped out. The sophistication of the attacks point to state involvement. Subsequently, we worked with the Telegraph and on our own to aggressively expose Mubarak (Egypt), Soliman (Egypt), Bahrain and Libya.
Kommentar från Peter
Are you Wikileaks or will Wikileaks continue if you are in prision?
Julian Assange: I have set structures in play. We will not be stopped.
Kommentar från Gustav F
Don't you believe that "white lies" are a necessety for a functional government? I.E. the US ambassadeur personal judgements of certain european leaders?
Julian Assange: The lies we have exposed are not white. They are the highest order concealment of criminality. If governments that conceal reality from their peoples can not function when those realities are revealed, that's fine by me. Let them be replaced with ones that do not.
I restrained myself to copying only 5 of the questions, but read the entire chat by following the
link.
In other news, Paypal has halted contributions to Bradley Manning's defense fund, Courage to Resist, although whether for technical or ideological reasons isn't clear as of yet:
According to Jeff Paterson, project director for Courage to Resist and steering committee member of the Support Network, PayPal says it will not release its hold on the account unless Courage to Resist authorises PayPal to withdraw funds from its checking account by default, a degree of access the company does not feel comfortable granting to PayPal. “They opted to apply an exceptional hurdle for us to clear in order to continue as a customer,” he said, despite having “clearly provided the legally required information and verification”.
Is it an exceptional hurdle? I wonder if CTR is being treated differently from other businesses that use Paypal? And in case you've missed it,
Fire Dog Lake has been providing exceptional coverage of the Bradley Manning case.
Make sure to check out the Wikileaks store.
Ok, now onto reporting on the leaks themselves:
Libya placed billions of dollars at U.S. banks:
Libya's secretive sovereign wealth fund has $32 billion in cash with several U.S. banks each managing up to $500 million, and it has primary investments in London, a confidential diplomatic cable shows. The cable, obtained by WikiLeaks and revealing the details of a January meeting between the head of the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) and the U.S. ambassador in Tripoli, comes as the United States and European governments explored the possibility of freezing assets belonging to the Libyan government.
LIA, the umbrella body for Libya's sovereign funds managing oil windfall revenues, is estimated to manage assets of around $70 billion with stakes in European bluechips such as Italian bank UniCredit and British publishing group Pearson.
LIA's Mohamed Layas told the U.S. ambassador at a January 20 meeting that the fund operated with high liquidity and was not concerned about the volatility in the oil market.
In related news,
Egyptian prosecutors have requested the freezing of Mubarak's foreign assets.
WikiLeaks Cables Suggest an Islamic Emirate in Eastern Libya Not Unlikely:
Libya’s deputy foreign minister, Khaled Khaim, has reportedly told European Union ambassadors in Tripoli that al-Qaeda has set up an Islamic emirate in Derna in Eastern Libya. He allegedly said a former Guantanamo Bay detainee is heading the emirate. Residents in Derna deny this has happened.
Despite the fact that this may not be true, prepare for this latest report from a Libyan official to become a self-perpetuating thread in the story of the Libyan revolution. As WL Central waits for more information on whether this Islamic emirate has been established or not, let's consider what Saif al-Islam Gaddafi and Leader Muammar Gaddafi have said since the uprising began (and the various WikiLeaks cables from Libya which we have available).
In Saif al-Islam Gaddafi’s address to the people of Libya on February 21, he spoke about his fear that an Islamic emirate would be established not in Derna but in Bayda. He said, “The British FM called me. Be ready for a new colonial period from American and Britain. You think they will accept an Islamic Emirate here, 30 minutes from Crete? The West will come and occupy you. Europe & the West will not agree to chaos in Libya, to export chaos and drugs so they will occupy us."
Days later, in an address that ran on Libya State TV on February 24, Leader Muammar Gaddafi claimed al-Qaeda is responsible, that Libyans are being manipulated by Osama bin Laden, and that they were under the influence of drugs.
Bouteflika had cancer, in remission:
A mystery illness suffered by Algeria's president is cancer, not the stomach ulcer suggested by state media, leaked U.S. diplomatic cables suggest.
But U.S. embassy messages from the WikiLeaks cache of 250,000 State Department documents, independently reviewed by Reuters, say the alleged cancer is in remission and Abdelaziz Bouteflika, 73, could live for several more years.
The documents also suggest the president, who was supported by the military when he was first elected head of state in 1999, has subsequently had uneasy ties with the military intelligence service, widely seen as Algeria's top power-broker.
The disclosures come as Bouteflika steps up attempts to stop anti-government protests around the Arab world spreading to his country. He promised on February 3 to create new jobs and allow more democratic freedoms, and on February 22 his government announced it would lift a 19-year-old state of emergency.
UK blocked $60m arms deal over fears of Iran link:
Britain blocked a $60m (£37m) sale of helicopters, armoured cars and machine guns to the small African state of Swaziland, fearing the weapons could end up in Iran, according to US diplomatic cables.
The cables leaked by WikiLeaks reveal that an export licence for the deal was refused to a UK arms broker, Unionlet, which is run by a former Ministry of Defence official.
Mark Ranger, the managing director, told the Guardian the proposed shipment of 925 Heckler & Koch assault rifles, five heavy machine guns, armoured personnel carriers and three Bell H1U1 helicopters was intended to be used by Swaziland on African peacekeeping missions for the United Nations.
The UK government refused to grant a licence to the December 2008 purchase order, which was signed by Swaziland's principal defence secretary John Kunene. The criteria cited in the official strategic export controls document is "possible use for internal repression", which includes concerns weapons may be passed on to other nations.
(h/t
WL Central)
On another related note check out this NY Times article detailing international corporations doing business with Iran that receive US contracts from March of 2010.
Strange bedfellows? SUDAN WELL-EQUIPPED AND READY TO SUPPORT THE RETURN OF GUANTANAMO DETAINEES:
The GoS told USG officials on 4-5 March that
it is well-equipped and prepared to support the transfer of
further Guantanamo (GTMO) detainees to Sudan, to include
those individuals who are of higher threat to national
security than those previously transferred. The National
Intelligence and Security Service (NISS), as the key player
for monitoring and ensuring the reintegration of returned
detainees into Sudanese society, has proven that it is very
capable in its abilities to keep returned detainees from
reestablishing Islamic extremist links. NISS, and the GoS as
a whole, has respected the USG-GoS Detainee Transfer
Framework developed in 2007. The GoS reiterated its full
commitment to this framework and is stands ready to absorb
further detainee transfers. END SUMMARY.
2. (S) On 3-6 March, a joint DoD-DoS team traveled to
Khartoum to meet with GoS intelligence, justice and foreign
affairs officials in order to discuss the status of
recently-returned Guantanamo detainees in Sudan and the
prospect for the transfer of further detainees to Sudan.
During their visit, Jay Alan Liotta, Principal Director for
Detainee Affairs, US Department of Defense, and Anthony
Ricci, Detainee Coordinator, S/WCI, met with representatives
from the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS),
the Ministry of Justice (MOJ), and the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs. CDA Fernandez attended all GoS meetings with Liotta
and Ricci. (Note: The most recent detainee transfers
occurred in December 2007 and involved the return of Benny
Ah-Amir (ISN 710) and Hassan Adel Hussein (ISN 940). End
note.)
----------------------------
NISS PROVES IT CAN DELIVER
----------------------------
3. (S) The first and most critical meeting for the team was
with the NISS. With a very able team of intelligence
operatives Qleagues, and neighbors. A NISS Deputy
stressed that his agencys contact with the former detainees
family members was critical, explaining that the families are
a positive influence that help keep transferees from
returning to their suspicious and dangerous past. One case
officer commented that he meets with his returned detainee
once a week.
(h/t
WL Central)
Next is a chilling cable detailing the claims of Sami al-Hajj for being held and interrogated because he was a member of Al-Jazeera, a cruel reminder of US duplicity in suppression of information: EX-GTMO DETAINEE SAMI AL-HAJJ SEES HEROS WELCOME IN DOHA:
Former Al Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Hajj,
recently released from Guantanamo, arrived in Doha with great
fanfare on May 31 via a chartered Qatar Airways flight from
Khartoum. Greeted by Al Jazeera Chairman Hamid bin Thamer
al-Thani, members of the AJ Board of Directors, and hundreds
of well-wishers, al-Hajj received more than an hour of live
coverage on Al Jazeeras Arabic channel. He delivered a
short speech in which he claimed to have endured torture at
Guantanamo, and to have witnessed U.S. soldiers denigrating
Islam. He also claimed that the USG pressured him to spy for
it against Al Jazeera. Al-Hajj said he did not hate the
American people, and that several Guantanamo guards had even
"become friends." Al Jazeera officials said in public and in
private that al-Hajj will remain an employee of Al Jazeera,
but in a capacity yet to be determined. Post expects al-Hajj
to become a poster child for Al Jazeeras much-flogged
devotion to media freedom, and to appear frequently on the
channel to discuss his experiences at Guantanamo. END SUMMARY
2. (U) Sudanese citizen Sami al-Hajj, who had been
imprisoned at Guantanamo for over six years after his arrest
and transfer to U.S. custody on the Afghan-Pakistan border,
arrived at Doha International Airports ministerial lounge
amid balloons, banners, cheering crowds, and a phalanx of
cameras. Al-Hajj had been transferred from Guantanamo to
Khartoum in May, an event that received prominent coverage by
Al Jazeera and the Qatari press. During his May 31 arrival
in Doha, where Al Jazeeras global headquarters is located,
the network devoted more than one hour of live coverage on
its main Arabic channel. Upon arrival and a welcome by
senior Al Jazeera leaders, al-Hajj gave a short speech, in
which he charged that he had endured "torture and inhumane
treatment by those who call themselves a democratic people,"
and that the outpouring of support from well-wishers around
the world was an indication of "support for freedom of speech
and free journalism." Al Jazeera Managing Director Wadah
Khanfar said al-Hajjs return was a "triumph of freedom."
(h/t
WL Central)
For previous information threads check out cedar park's page here. And if you have the time make sure to check out Bob Sloan's excellent diary on slave labor. Peace!