WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange gestures as he appears at a window of Ecuadorian Embassy in central London to make a statement to the media and supporters, Sunday, Aug. 19, 2012.
It’s an image for the ages: the shot of Julian Assange, the air-mattress guerilla, holding forth from the first-storey window of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. The sad, bail-jumping pope of Wikileaks addressing his paranoid flock: Shirt open, with the familiar shock of white hair, he read aloud to the few, dwindling and pathetic pilgrims below. This was not the denouement of a work by John le Carré or even Ian Fleming. It was instead a Mike Myers scene: Dr. Evil of Austin Powers fame. All that was missing was Assange stroking a reluctant pussycat. What a falling off there has been. A year or so ago, to those who see Amerikka as the enemy of all that is good and decent, Assange was a Superhero of High Leftism. He was a spiller of classified beans in the electronic age, a genius hacker turned world whistleblower. He and his childishly named Wikileaks were throwing millions of secret documents to the four open winds (but first to Britain’s Guardian and The New York Times, together with a host of lesser journals that would re-channel whatever the more esteemed organs would release). [More]
See Also: Julian Assange and the Inevitable Fall of Leftist Saviors
May It Be!
Our Children:
Bridge Over Troubled Waters
“God bless” the thought and the Irish are calling.
Goodnight again!
Today I’m picking on Assange, with reason. I’m thinking about that stale Pelosi quote as I write:
“But we have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy.”
Same, same Assange. He posted the stolen info he got from “Beetle Bailey” but as usual with many, he never bothered to read it because after all he’d have spent the rest of his life doing just that and must have known it (millions of files).
I can’t see Assange rooting around in the garbage for that one tiny gem (the “ahaa” moment). Let someone else find it.
He became involved because he couldn’t resist that vividly imagined “gotcha” and as it has all apparently turned out “lefty” media beat it to death with such energy that everyone concerned lost interest BEFORE they read it because they felt the left had a “gotcha” also — a “gotcha” which explains all.
Assange is the latest fool to poke his head up not realizing that nobody cares about him anymore. MOST Intelligent readers have never bothered because they aren’t that stupid, myself included.
In fact there never was a “gotcha” as Rex and others have clearly pointed out but there remains a problem. Just because there wasn’t a “first time” it does not “automagically” follow that there won’t be one on the second crack. That must be a huge concern for authorities trying to protect secret information and putting it on the net where anyone can hack into it .
My view: Assange and Manning (quite unwittingly) have pointed out the major weakness of the internet. With sufficient knowledge skilled hackers can access anything out there including your bank accounts (if you use the net) or your company files saved via “cloud computing”. Your home computer, much as you might like to believe is secure, is not. Check out “key loggers” on Google to find out why I say that.
I never use a computer of any type to access my bank account even though I take great pains to keep my anti-virus and firewalls up to date. None of this makes me feel any safer as I consider that anything I write on it can be read by others and so I govern myself by the following rule:
“Never type anything on a computer that you don’t want others to read.”
This follows my other rule (learned the hard way) and might be helpful to young police officers everywhere:
“Never write anything in your notebook that others may have access to.”
This rule goes to what Vic Towes pointed out yesterday.
Canadian courts have long ruled that a police notebook is nothing more than a “memory aid”. In my view it should be treated as such. Give nothing to the defence as a “freebie”. If a serious incident occurs most officers will have no difficulty recalling it and the court will make the final decision. Prepare your notes (and your reports) accordingly.
But also (on the stand) if the defence asks a question which might harm the case and the answer is “true” give them that point. It goes to increasing your credibility as you leave them little to fight with. Please note that if they are wrong and “just guessing” the officer controls the situation — NOT the defence. It should also be noted that most honest officers will pull a charge before court if something appears unfair to them (as new information appears) and so the questions will never arise. I’ve done that a number of times. In fact, I’ve gone after the complainant and jailed him as more was learned and I sleep well.
Regarding governments protecting secret information there is only one way to avoid all the pitfalls that can happen. Never use the internet or computers hooked to same to type a message or pass files from one to another. Write it out long hand and send it snail mail. There is no other way to avoid exposing sensitive information to public scrutiny.
Regarding Assange — I hope he get’s to Ecuador. The President may have a bone to pick with him regarding those leaks and maybe he’ll finally shut up as he ends up in the slammer for the rest of his life. He wouldn’t know would he because he never read the files he exposed? What did he release regarding Ecuador?
Good luck with that one but I guess he’s wondering. I don’t care. He has no clue as he jumps from the frying pan into the Ecuador fire.
I think Britain should let him go as the sound of “sudden silence” ensues. You can believe me on this. Ecuador has a reason for wanting to get their hands on him. Canada would also and if I had a choice I would choose Canada over Ecuador. But “shame on him” — he’s not very bright.
And that’s his problem.
Goodnight.
Don’t know much about Ecuador – but have read it is not a haven of enlightenment, freedom and democracy. He will be the “useless idiot” that they trot out to perform and parade as a trophy. Couldn’t happen to a better fella. lol Cheers.
It irritates me to no end that this swine has caused the deaths and torture of people that were helping us. I’d like to toss him into the hands of some 7th Century Muslims and let them go Medieval on his butt. Yep, don’t like the guy one bloody bit.
I’m not surprised, not even a little bit, to see supporters of governments and agencies that engage in (to be kind to them) shady practices and human rights abuses attempting to marganilize Assange and WikiLeaks. Nor am I surprised to see those same people clinging to lines like “the few, dwindling and pathetic pilgrims” that were debunked by reality virtually as soon as they were penned.
Who has been tortured and died Patsplace?
Information liberation is a fact of life – no one has the RIGHT to have their backroom deals concealed. It’s also not been proven that the Wikileaks scandal was any more harmful than, say, Robert Novak outing Valerie Plame or Fox News outing Matt Bissonnette.
That said, Assange is making this about himself, not the cause. The street team isn’t happy about it either.
May God bless and preserve those rough men who stand ready to take the lives of those who conspire to take freedom from us. May Assange and his imitators and supporters soon fall into their hands.