or how I learned to love bad journalism.
Around 8pmest every night
60 Minutes Overtime
Steve Kroft did a laughable job and this person interviewing him in that Overtime video is even funnier.
How sad for our country that this is considered journalism. Glenn Greenwald has a say:
Steve Kroft: yet another journalist most offended by those who shed light on what politically powerful people do in secret
half a minute ago via web
That's one reason they hate the real thing: RT @rjt686 "60 Minutes...they pretend to be what Wikileaks actually is."
Steve Kroft: Like watching a 5yr old interview their teacher.
The Torture Career of Egypt's New Vice President: Omar Suleiman and the Rendition to Torture Program Great roundup of what we know about him. Really, click and read.
Al Jazeera English Blacked Out Across Most Of U.S.
Canadian television viewers looking for the most thorough and in-depth coverage of the uprising in Egypt have the option of tuning into Al Jazeera English, whose on-the-ground coverage of the turmoil is unmatched by any other outlet. American viewers, meanwhile, have little choice but to wait until one of the U.S. cable-company-approved networks broadcasts footage from AJE, which the company makes publicly available. What they can't do is watch the network directly.
Other than in a handful of pockets across the U.S. - including Ohio, Vermont and Washington, D.C. - cable carriers do not give viewers the choice of watching Al Jazeera. That corporate censorship comes as American diplomats harshly criticize the Egyptian government for blocking Internet communication inside the country and as Egypt attempts to block Al Jazeera from broadcasting.
The result of the Al Jazeera English blackout in the United States has been a surge in traffic to the media outlet's website, where footage can be seen streaming live. The last 24 hours have seen a two-and-a-half thousand percent increase in web traffic, Tony Burman, head of North American strategies for Al Jazeera English, told HuffPost. Sixty percent of that traffic, he said, has come from the United States.
What you missed in Wikileaks Informationthread 49: Omar Suleiman And Etc.
Who Is Omar Suleiman?
Viewing cable 09CAIRO1349, GENERAL PETRAEUS' MEETING WITH EGIS CHIEF SOLIMAN
Viewing cable 09CAIRO746, ADMIRAL MULLEN'S MEETING WITH EGIS CHIEF SOLIMAN
Viewing cable 07CAIRO1417, PRESIDENTIAL SUCCESSION IN EGYPT
WaPo: WikiLeaks' Julian Assange: 'Anarchist,' 'agitator,' 'arrogant' and a journalist
The WikiLeaks Revolt
A claim that WikiLeaks cables on Egypt released not this week but in early December, and published by indie paper there, had something to do with current revolt.
In Informationthread 48 we read these:
Cable: Egypt action against poet, bloggers, novelist and journalists
Cable: Egypt's Emergency Law
Cable: Police torture in Egypt
Cable: Police brutality and poor prison conditions in Egypt
Mubarak skeptical of U.S. reform push: leaked cables
Amid Digital Blackout, Anonymous Mass-Faxes WikiLeaks Cables To Egypt
Guardian Liveblog on Egypt
Vodafone confirms role in Egypt’s cellular, Internet blackout
And, just for Steve Kroft:
US Constitution Article 1, Section 9, Clause 3 No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.
Near v. Minnesota
Near v. Minnesota, 283 U.S. 697 (1931), was a United States Supreme Court decision that recognized the freedom of the press by roundly rejecting prior restraints on publication, a principle that was applied to free speech generally in subsequent jurisprudence. The Court ruled that a Minnesota law that targeted publishers of "malicious" or "scandalous" newspapers violated the First Amendment to the United States Constitution (as applied through the Fourteenth Amendment). Legal scholar and columnist Anthony Lewis called Near the Court's "first great press case."[1]
It was later a key precedent in New York Times Co. v. United States (1971), in which the Court ruled against the Nixon administration's attempt to enjoin publication of the Pentagon Papers.
New York Times Co. v. United States
New York Times Co. v. United States, 403 U.S. 713 (1971), was a United States Supreme Court per curiam decision. The ruling made it possible for the New York Times and Washington Post newspapers to publish the then-classified Pentagon Papers without risk of government censure.
President Richard Nixon had claimed executive authority to force the Times to suspend publication of classified information in its possession. The question before the court was whether the constitutional freedom of the press under the First Amendment was subordinate to a claimed Executive need to maintain the secrecy of information. The Supreme Court ruled that First Amendment did protect the New York Times' right to print said materials.
As Assange told Time: "It is not our goal to achieve a more transparent society; it's our goal to achieve a more just society."
Basic Links
Wikileaks cable page
Unofficial Wikileaks information site
Greg Mitchell's amazing Wikileaks blog at The Nation
Aftenposten english Wikileaks torrent - I can't seem to find an updated page for this. Please let me know if you can.
Glenn Greenwald
Wikirebels
@Youtube
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
@Swedish TV
In full
Al Jazeera English discussion
It's about 22mins long and well worth it. Again, here is the exchange that I think is VERY important at about the 10min mark:
When the host asks Baruch Weiss, a former U.S. Government lawyer,
if leaking classified information is a crime in the United States, he says:
"I'm going to say it twice because noone will believe me the first time, but the answer is usually no. No.
There is no statute on the books in the United States that says 'Thou shalt not leak classified information.' There is no statute of that sort. Congress tried to pass one during the Clinton administration and Clinton Vetoed it and for a very good reason. And the good reason is, that in the United States there is a huge over-classification problem. There is a huge amount of material that should not be classified that is."
Julian Assange: A Wanted Man
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
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Audio of Greenwald interviewing Lamo - Transcript also at Informationthread 20
Robert Meeropol, the son of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg—the only U.S. citizens to be executed under the Espionage Act, in what’s been described as the most controversial death sentence in U.S. history. This week, Meeropol released a widely read statement in support of WikiLeaks called, "My Parents Were Executed Under the Unconstitutional Espionage Act-Here's Why We Must Fight to Protect Julian Assange."
Part 1
Transcript and Part 2 at Informationthread 22
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On Dec 31, Democracy Now! dedicated the full hour today to Wikileaks and Julian Assange. You can find the full transcript at the Democracy Now! link and the Daniel Ellsberg transcript at Informationthread 23
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
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For more on Bradley Manning
Informationthread 11
Informationthread 13
Informationthread 15
Informationthread 28
For more info on DOJ/Twittergate :
Informationthread 37
Informationthread 36
Informationthread 35
Informationthread 34
Informationthread 33
Informationthread 32
Informationthread 31
Democracy Now! Interviews Birgitta Jónsdóttir
Part 1
Part 2
Transcript at Informationthread 36
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The Agenda tv show interviews Birgitta Jonsdottir
>
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Democracy Now! Dr. Atul Gawande: Solitary Confinement is Torture Transcript at Informationthread 28
Update
I will include more as they trickle in:
Greg Mitchell on Kroft
7:40 Feeble "60 Minutes" effort by Steve Kroft--among other things, acted like the media also publishes classified info all the time. Assange hit several questions out of the park, and likely encouraging more leaks and money to WikiLeaks. This seems to be consensus on Twitter from people who have followed this issue closely.
7:45 Plus: "60 Minutes" needs to correct error-- Assange did NOT decide to share cables with NYT -- the Guardian did against his wishes.
8:10 In "overtime" segment, CBS posts video on interviewing Assange -- Kroft much more favorable than in interview and even says flatly that, yes, he does feel Assange IS a journalist and IS a publisher. Says stereotypes about Assange mainly false. Interviewed for six hours, disrupted by having to go to police station. Many more extras here.