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New Wikileaks cables reveal U.S. targeting Julian Assange
THE WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange remains the target of a US government criminal investigation and the subject of US-Australian intelligence exchanges, Australian diplomatic cables obtained by the Herald reveal.
Australian diplomats have closely monitored the US Department of Justice investigation into WikiLeaks over the past 18 months. The embassy in Washington reported ”a broad range of possible charges are under consideration, including espionage and conspiracy”.
The diplomats dismiss Mr Assange’s claims that the US investigation is politically motivated retribution for WikiLeaks’ publication of leaked US military and diplomatic reports. They instead highlight US prosecutors’ claims that the alleged leaker, Bradley Manning, dealt directly with Mr Assange and ”data-mined” secret US databases ”guided by WikiLeaks’ list of ‘most wanted’ leaks”.
Victory: Activist Sue Obama, Judge Rules NDAA Unconstitutional
In a stunning turnaround for an act of Congress, a judge ruled Wednesday that a counterterrorism provision of the National Defense Authorization Act, an annual defense appropriations bill, is unconstitutional. Federal district Judge Katherine B. Forrest issued an injunction against use of the provision on behalf of a group of journalists and activists who had filed suit in March, claiming it would chill free speech./p>
In her decision published Wednesday, Forrest, in the Southern District of New York, ruled that Section 1021 of NDAA was facially unconstitutional — a rare finding — because of the potential that it could violate the 1st Amendment.
“Plaintiffs have stated a more than plausible claim that the statute inappropriately encroaches on their rights under the First Amendment,” she wrote, addressing the constitutional challenge.
Seven individuals, including Pulitzer Prize-winning former New York Times foreign correspondent Chris Hedges, MIT linguist Noam Chomsky and “Pentagon Papers” activist Daniel Ellsberg, had sued President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, and a host of other government officials, stating they were forced to curtail some of their reporting and activist activities for fear of violating Section 1021. That section prohibits providing substantial support for terrorist groups, but gives little definition of what that means. Environmental activists were also poised to join the suit if it expanded.
The suit demands that Congress cut or reform this section of the law, which allows the U.S. military to indefinitely detain without charges anyone — including U.S. citizens — who may have “substantially supported” terrorists or their “associated forces,” without defining what those terms mean. President Obama signed the bill on Dec 31, 2011, with a signing statement saying that the law was redundant of powers already provided to the government under the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (passed after 9/11), and that these powers would not be used against U.S. citizens. The next administration may decide differently, however.
According to a diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks, U.S. troops willfully massacred an Iraqi family in the town of Ishaqi in 2006, handcuffing and then shooting 11 people in the head including a woman in her 70′s and five children ages five and under.
McClatchy is reporting that the soldiers then called in an air strike on the house to cover up evidence of the killings.
This account differs sharply from an official version of the 2006 incident, which indicated that coalition forces captured an al Qaeda in Iraq operative in the house, which was destroyed in a firefight. The WikiLeaks cable, however, corroborates accounts by Ishaqi townspeople and includes questions about the incident by Philip Alston, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.
The cable is dated twelve days after the incident, which took place March 15, 2006. In it, Alston says that autopsies performed in Tikrit on bodies pulled from the wreckage of the farmhouse indicated that all of the dead had been handcuffed and shot in the head.
If true, this action, although not as egregious as the My Lai massacre of March 16, 1968, wherein 347-504 unarmed civilians were shot to death by U.S. forces during the Vietnam conflict, still speaks volumes about war and the atrocities committed for war’s sake.
Read the original article (warning: graphic images)
Oh my God.
holy shit. Montreal, today.
this is what happens when you ban protesting
“It is important to expect nothing, to take every experience, including the negative ones, as merely steps on the path, and to proceed.”
—Ram Dass
Confucius Say
i didn’t know mountain dew had that much cocaine
UNCONFIRMED: THE FOLLOWING WERE REPORTEDLY ASSASSINATED BY THE FREE SYRIAN ARMY (AL-SA7ABA BATTALION) IN DAMASCUS BY WAY OF POISONING (PLACED IN FOOD).
- Assef Shawkat - Head of Syrian Intelligence (Bashar’s brother in-law)
- Mohammed Sha’ar - Interior Monister
- Dawood Rajha - Defense Minister
- Hassan Turkmani - Deputy of the Vice President
- Major General Hisham Kikhtyar - National Security Branch
- Mohammed Saeed Bkhetan - Deputy General Secretary of the Baath Party
The men are all part of the the so-called “Crisis Administration” that was set-up shortly after the Syrian Revolution began. They meet weekly in Damascus. It is believed that this group of men are the ones responsible for the Assad regime’s response to the peaceful protests in Syria and that their recommendations are then taken to Bashar Al Assad for confirmation and approval.
The bodies are supposedly in the Shami Hospital in Damascus and major elements of Maher Al Assad’s 4th division have been recalled to Central Damascus from the suburbs.
Here is a video (with english subtitles) with the FSA claiming responsibility for the operation.
Thanks @AlexanderPageSY @RafifJ @arwamenla @usgrant63
The Piano House
