Douglas Caddy
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It has been reported today that Paul McMullan, a former investigative journalist with the News of the World, is willing to give evidence that Andy Coulson knew about phone-hacking and other illegal reporting techniques were rife at the newspaper.
Today MPs have approved a fresh parliamentary inquiry into phone hacking allegations. After a debate on the issue, MPs agreed the Standards and Privileges Committee should hold an inquiry into alleged unauthorised activity by the media. Unlike other Commons bodies, the Standards Committee had the power to compel witnesseses to give evidence.
News Media News of the World phone-hacking scandal News of the World phone hacking: now Paul Gascoigne is ready to sueTabloid newspaper's actions said to have hindered recovery of vulnerable footballer as he deals with alcohol and drug problems
Jamie Doward and Jenny Stevens
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 15 January 2011 21.43 GMT
Ex-England footballer Paul Gascoigne is the latest celebrity to sue the News of the World in the phone-hacking scandal. Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA Paul Gascoigne, the former England footballer, is to become the latest celebrity to sue the News of the World, alleging that he was a victim of the phone-hacking scandal that has rocked Rupert Murdoch's media empire.
His solicitor, Gerald Shamash, confirmed today that proceedings would be issued within days.
Shamash claimed that Gascoigne was in a vulnerable mental state and that his recovery had been hindered because of the stress of believing that his phone had been hacked. "It has made things even more difficult for his general wellbeing," he said.
Gascoigne has been fighting drink and drug problems for years and been in and out of rehabilitation clinics.
The Observer has now established that the comedian Steve Coogan has also issued proceedings and that Chris Tarrant, the television presenter, and the jockey Kieren Fallon are expected to launch legal actions soon.
There are now at least five law firms representing alleged victims of phone hacking. Lawyers from all five have confirmed that they expect more claims to be filed in the next few weeks.
So far, four people have settled claims against the newspaper before they reached court, including the celebrity publicist Max Clifford.
The increasing number of people who are suing or threatening to sue the paper has raised fresh questions about how widespread the practice of phone hacking was on the newspaper while it was edited by the prime minister's director of communications, Andy Coulson. Senior executives on the paper maintain that the practice was the work of a rogue reporter, Clive Goodman, who was jailed in 2007 for his part in the scandal. But many believe that hundreds or even thousands of phones were hacked by a private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire, while he was working for the newspaper.
Questions are being asked about the role of the Metropolitan police, which was obliged by the Crown Prosecution Service to inform suspected victims that their phones had been hacked.
Paul Farrelly MP, a member of the parliamentary culture, media and sport select committee that conducted an investigation into the allegations, said he was concerned that the Met had adopted a new policy towards requests for information from suspected victims.
Previously someone could request that the Met scour its files to establish whether their phone had been hacked. Now Scotland Yard asks for a suspected victim to outline on what grounds they believe their phone has been hacked before making a search.
"We found great fault with the police investigation and to that we can add the conduct of the Crown Prosecution Service [CPS], which simply rubber stamps the Met's totally inadequate handling of the affair," Farrelly said.
John Kelly, of the law firm Schillings, who is representing a number of people seeking damages from the newspaper, said it was important that a comprehensive list of victims was established.
"Unlawfully intercepting phone calls is a massive invasion of privacy," Kelly said. "We will not know the full extent of how widespread this activity was until we know exactly who was targeted. It's in everybody's interest for the Met and News Group to let people know if they may have been a victim. In the meantime, more claims will continue to be brought."
In answer to a freedom of information request, Scotland Yard has confirmed only that there were 91 individuals whose pin numbers, for their mobile phone message services, were found in material seized from Mulcaire.
In a sign of the growing disquiet at the Met's handling of the investigation, the director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer, announced on Friday that the CPS had agreed to conduct a "comprehensive assessment" of all material held by Scotland Yard relating to phone hacking.
Charlotte Harris, the solicitor representing the sports agent Sky Andrew, who is bringing a claim against the newspaper, said she trusted the assessment would be robust.
"The interpretation of whatever documents or other evidence should not be something that is done by the Metropolitan police alone," Harris said. "An independent eye is welcomed given the civil claims, the reported settlements, the suspension of Ian Edmondson and the new internal investigation by the News of the World."
News International, parent company of News Group Newspapers, said the News of the World would "continue to co-operate with any request from the police or the Crown Prosection Service
David Cameron: Andy Coulson deserves to be given a second chance
PM defends his communications director but refuses to deny claims that Coulson offered to resign
Hélène Mulholland, political reporter guardian.co.uk, Monday 17 January 2011 10.06 GMT
David Cameron said Andy Coulson 'should not be punished twice for the same offence'. David Cameron said today he has given Andy Coulson, his director of communications, a "second chance" following revelations about phone-hacking at News of the World when he was editor and warned that his aide should not be "punished twice for the same offence".
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, the prime minister stood by his communication chief as he failed to quash weekend reports that Coulson offered to resign for the damage to the government caused by his involvement in a newspaper phone-hacking row.
But he notably did not say, as he as done in previous comments about the affair, that he accepted his PR chief's assurances that he had been unaware of hacking during his editorship of the tabloid.
Cameron said that "bad things happened" when Coulson was editor of the News of the World, but resigned "when he found out about them", which the prime minister said was "the right thing to do".
"I almost think there is a danger at the moment that he is effectively being punished twice for the same offence. I judge his work by what he has done for us ... I gave him a second chance. I think in life sometimes it's right to give someone a second chance. He resigned for what went wrong at News of the World. I would just argue working for the government, I think he has done a good job."
He added: "Of course he was embarrassed, but he has had a second chance from me to do this job. I think he has done the job in a very good way."
According to the Mail on Sunday, Coulson has admitted that the allegations concerning the bugging of celebrities' phones while he was editor of the News of the World are making it harder for him to carry out his duties at No 10.But the paper said Cameron and the chancellor, George Osborne, had turned down his offer to resign, instead offering him total support in his battle to clear his name.
Coulson quit as editor of the News of the World in 2007 over the phone-hacking row, but has always maintained he did not know it was going on.
Since then, a string of allegations have surfaced that have cast doubt on the notion that phone tapping at the paper was down to one rogue reporter, Clive Goodman, acting alone.
Pressed on the claims today that Coulson offered to quit over recent developments, Cameron refused to divulge "private conversations" other than to say that Coulson was "extremely embarrassed" by the reports "as anyone who is human would be".
But the prime minister said that he judged his staff on whether they were doing a "good job", telling BBC Radio 4's Today programme that Coulson "can't be responsible for the fact that people write articles about him".
It emerged last week that the Crown Prosecution Service is due to undertake a comprehensive review of phone-hacking material, including examining evidence that has emerged since the trial of Goodman, formerly royal editor at the News of the World, and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, including revelations published by the Guardian which suggest that phone-hacking was rife at the paper.
Coulson has always maintained he knew nothing about Goodman's actions
NoW phone-hacking scandal: News Corp's 'rogue reporter' defence unravels
Glenn Mulcaire tells high court that News of the World's head of news asked him to hack voicemail messages
James Robinson guardian.co.uk, Monday 17 January 2011 20.48 GMT
Glenn Mulcaire said in the court statement that several other executives at the News of the World were aware that phone hacking was taking place.
News Corporation's defence that phone hacking at the News of the World was the work of a single "rogue reporter" was on the verge of collapse tonight after Glenn Mulcaire, the private detective at the centre of the case, said the paper's head of news commissioned him to access voicemail messages.
Mulcaire is understood to have submitted a statement to the high court this afternoon confirming that Ian Edmondson, the paper's assistant editor (news) asked him to hack into voicemail messages left on a mobile phone belonging to Sky Andrew, a football agent. Andrew is suing the paper for breach of privacy.
It is also understood that Mulcaire said in the court statement that several other executives at the News of the World were aware that phone hacking was taking place, although he does not name them.
A spokesman for the News of the World said: "This is a serious allegation that will form part of our internal investigation."
Edmondson was suspended by the paper before Christmas after he was named in court documents in a separate case against the News of the World brought by the actor Sienna Miller.
His computer has been impounded as part of the paper's internal investigation and the company is trawling through his emails. He is expected to be questioned after colleagues have been interviewed.
Mulcaire's decision to name Edmondson helps to explains why News Group acted so quickly to suspend him.
Mulcaire's lawyer, Sarah Webb, said: "It's in court documents. I'm not prepared to comment."
The admission by Mulcaire, whose legal fees are believed to be met by News of the World publisher, News Group, which is part of Rupert Murdoch's media empire, contradicts the paper's repeated claim that only a single journalist – the former royal editor Clive Goodman – knew about his activities. Executives at the paper, including its former editor Andy Coulson, now David Cameron's director of communications – have stuck to that version of events since Goodman and Mulcaire was jailed in 2007 for illegally intercepting voicemails left on mobile phones belonging to members of the royal household.
A Downing Street spokeswoman said: "We have nothing further to add."
Files seized by police in a 2006 raid on Mulcaire's home show that Mulcaire wrote "Ian" in the margins of a transcript he made of messages left on Miller's phone.
Miller's lawyers had contended that "Ian" referred to Edmondson, an executive at the paper who was hired by Coulson and worked closely with the former editor during his time at the paper.
Mulcaire had a habit of writing the first name of whoever had asked him to conduct hacking in the top left corner of his paperwork. His conviction in 2006 along with Goodman rested partly on the fact he had written "Clive" on his files.
Lawyers acting for Nicola Phillips, a publicist suing the paper for breach of privacy, won a high court ruling in November ordering Mulcaire to name the executives who ordered him to hack into phones.
He appealed against that ruling, however, on the grounds that he could incriminate himself by doing so, and the court of appeal has yet to hear his case.
It is unclear why Mulcaire has decided to name Edmondson now, although it is thought lawyers acting for several other litigants, including the comedian Steve Coogan and the Sky Sports commentator Andy Gray are preparing to make the same request. Murdoch has pledged "immediate action" against anyone found hacking again. News Corporation had fought a long battle to prevent details of the phone-hacking affair becoming public.
The Guardian revealed in July 2009 that News Corp had paid the PFA chief executive, Gordon Taylor, and two others a total of £1m in a secret out-of -court settlement in exchange for dropping a hacking case. The documents relating to the case were then sealed by the court. The celebrity publicist Max Clifford received £1m last year in a similar settlement.
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http://quixoticjoust.blogspot.com/?spref=fb
This Jan. 16, 2011 blog entry, which is a transcript of a dated interview with a former writer for Forbes Magazine who learned too much, clears up some of the mysterious events for which there have been no apparent answers. It boggles the mind in its revelations.
The announcement today that a former bank employee has turned over to WikiLeaks information on over 2000 secret Swiss bank accounts presents a new and updated angle on matters detailed in the interview.
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It has been reported today that Paul McMullan, a former investigative journalist with the News of the World, is willing to give evidence that Andy Coulson knew about phone-hacking and other illegal reporting techniques were rife at the newspaper.
Today MPs have approved a fresh parliamentary inquiry into phone hacking allegations. After a debate on the issue, MPs agreed the Standards and Privileges Committee should hold an inquiry into alleged unauthorised activity by the media. Unlike other Commons bodies, the Standards Committee had the power to compel witnesseses to give evidence.
News Media News of the World phone-hacking scandal News of the World phone hacking: now Paul Gascoigne is ready to sueTabloid newspaper's actions said to have hindered recovery of vulnerable footballer as he deals with alcohol and drug problems
Jamie Doward and Jenny Stevens
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 15 January 2011 21.43 GMT
Ex-England footballer Paul Gascoigne is the latest celebrity to sue the News of the World in the phone-hacking scandal. Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA Paul Gascoigne, the former England footballer, is to become the latest celebrity to sue the News of the World, alleging that he was a victim of the phone-hacking scandal that has rocked Rupert Murdoch's media empire.
His solicitor, Gerald Shamash, confirmed today that proceedings would be issued within days.
Shamash claimed that Gascoigne was in a vulnerable mental state and that his recovery had been hindered because of the stress of believing that his phone had been hacked. "It has made things even more difficult for his general wellbeing," he said.
Gascoigne has been fighting drink and drug problems for years and been in and out of rehabilitation clinics.
The Observer has now established that the comedian Steve Coogan has also issued proceedings and that Chris Tarrant, the television presenter, and the jockey Kieren Fallon are expected to launch legal actions soon.
There are now at least five law firms representing alleged victims of phone hacking. Lawyers from all five have confirmed that they expect more claims to be filed in the next few weeks.
So far, four people have settled claims against the newspaper before they reached court, including the celebrity publicist Max Clifford.
The increasing number of people who are suing or threatening to sue the paper has raised fresh questions about how widespread the practice of phone hacking was on the newspaper while it was edited by the prime minister's director of communications, Andy Coulson. Senior executives on the paper maintain that the practice was the work of a rogue reporter, Clive Goodman, who was jailed in 2007 for his part in the scandal. But many believe that hundreds or even thousands of phones were hacked by a private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire, while he was working for the newspaper.
Questions are being asked about the role of the Metropolitan police, which was obliged by the Crown Prosecution Service to inform suspected victims that their phones had been hacked.
Paul Farrelly MP, a member of the parliamentary culture, media and sport select committee that conducted an investigation into the allegations, said he was concerned that the Met had adopted a new policy towards requests for information from suspected victims.
Previously someone could request that the Met scour its files to establish whether their phone had been hacked. Now Scotland Yard asks for a suspected victim to outline on what grounds they believe their phone has been hacked before making a search.
"We found great fault with the police investigation and to that we can add the conduct of the Crown Prosecution Service [CPS], which simply rubber stamps the Met's totally inadequate handling of the affair," Farrelly said.
John Kelly, of the law firm Schillings, who is representing a number of people seeking damages from the newspaper, said it was important that a comprehensive list of victims was established.
"Unlawfully intercepting phone calls is a massive invasion of privacy," Kelly said. "We will not know the full extent of how widespread this activity was until we know exactly who was targeted. It's in everybody's interest for the Met and News Group to let people know if they may have been a victim. In the meantime, more claims will continue to be brought."
In answer to a freedom of information request, Scotland Yard has confirmed only that there were 91 individuals whose pin numbers, for their mobile phone message services, were found in material seized from Mulcaire.
In a sign of the growing disquiet at the Met's handling of the investigation, the director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer, announced on Friday that the CPS had agreed to conduct a "comprehensive assessment" of all material held by Scotland Yard relating to phone hacking.
Charlotte Harris, the solicitor representing the sports agent Sky Andrew, who is bringing a claim against the newspaper, said she trusted the assessment would be robust.
"The interpretation of whatever documents or other evidence should not be something that is done by the Metropolitan police alone," Harris said. "An independent eye is welcomed given the civil claims, the reported settlements, the suspension of Ian Edmondson and the new internal investigation by the News of the World."
News International, parent company of News Group Newspapers, said the News of the World would "continue to co-operate with any request from the police or the Crown Prosection Service
David Cameron: Andy Coulson deserves to be given a second chance
PM defends his communications director but refuses to deny claims that Coulson offered to resign
Hélène Mulholland, political reporter guardian.co.uk, Monday 17 January 2011 10.06 GMT
David Cameron said Andy Coulson 'should not be punished twice for the same offence'. David Cameron said today he has given Andy Coulson, his director of communications, a "second chance" following revelations about phone-hacking at News of the World when he was editor and warned that his aide should not be "punished twice for the same offence".
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, the prime minister stood by his communication chief as he failed to quash weekend reports that Coulson offered to resign for the damage to the government caused by his involvement in a newspaper phone-hacking row.
But he notably did not say, as he as done in previous comments about the affair, that he accepted his PR chief's assurances that he had been unaware of hacking during his editorship of the tabloid.
Cameron said that "bad things happened" when Coulson was editor of the News of the World, but resigned "when he found out about them", which the prime minister said was "the right thing to do".
"I almost think there is a danger at the moment that he is effectively being punished twice for the same offence. I judge his work by what he has done for us ... I gave him a second chance. I think in life sometimes it's right to give someone a second chance. He resigned for what went wrong at News of the World. I would just argue working for the government, I think he has done a good job."
He added: "Of course he was embarrassed, but he has had a second chance from me to do this job. I think he has done the job in a very good way."
According to the Mail on Sunday, Coulson has admitted that the allegations concerning the bugging of celebrities' phones while he was editor of the News of the World are making it harder for him to carry out his duties at No 10.But the paper said Cameron and the chancellor, George Osborne, had turned down his offer to resign, instead offering him total support in his battle to clear his name.
Coulson quit as editor of the News of the World in 2007 over the phone-hacking row, but has always maintained he did not know it was going on.
Since then, a string of allegations have surfaced that have cast doubt on the notion that phone tapping at the paper was down to one rogue reporter, Clive Goodman, acting alone.
Pressed on the claims today that Coulson offered to quit over recent developments, Cameron refused to divulge "private conversations" other than to say that Coulson was "extremely embarrassed" by the reports "as anyone who is human would be".
But the prime minister said that he judged his staff on whether they were doing a "good job", telling BBC Radio 4's Today programme that Coulson "can't be responsible for the fact that people write articles about him".
It emerged last week that the Crown Prosecution Service is due to undertake a comprehensive review of phone-hacking material, including examining evidence that has emerged since the trial of Goodman, formerly royal editor at the News of the World, and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, including revelations published by the Guardian which suggest that phone-hacking was rife at the paper.
Coulson has always maintained he knew nothing about Goodman's actions
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I suspect a story that is breaking today will have major consequences for political and business leaders throughout the Western world.
A former Swiss banker, Rudolf Elmer, has passed on data containing account details of 2,000 prominent people to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. The data covers multinationals, financial firms and wealthy individuals from many countries, including the UK, US and Germany, and covers the period 1990-2009.
Mr Assange also said some information was likely to be handed over to the authorities. The data included the offshore accounts of about 40 politicians. Maybe Tony Blair will be one of those exposed. It is believed that the data will shed light on tax evasion and the hiding of proceeds of criminal acts.
Swiss whistleblower Rudolf Elmer plans to hand over offshore banking secrets of the rich and famous to WikiLeaksHe will disclose the details of 'massive potential tax evasion' before he flies home to stand trial over his actions
Ed Vulliamy The Observer, Sunday 16 January 2011
Rudolf Elmer in Mauritius: “Well-known pillars of society will hold investment portfolios and may include houses, trading companies, artwork, yachts, jewellery, horses, and so on.”
The offshore bank account details of 2,000 "high net worth individuals" and corporations – detailing massive potential tax evasion – will be handed over to the WikiLeaks organisation in London tomorrow by the most important and boldest whistleblower in Swiss banking history, Rudolf Elmer, two days before he goes on trial in his native Switzerland.
British and American individuals and companies are among the offshore clients whose details will be contained on CDs presented to WikiLeaks at the Frontline Club in London. Those involved include, Elmer tells the Observer, "approximately 40 politicians".
Elmer, who after his press conference will return to Switzerland from exile in Mauritius to face trial, is a former chief operating officer in the Cayman Islands and employee of the powerful Julius Baer bank, which accuses him of stealing the information.
He is also – at a time when the activities of banks are a matter of public concern – one of a small band of employees and executives seeking to blow the whistle on what they see as unprofessional, immoral and even potentially criminal activity by powerful international financial institutions.
Along with the City of London and Wall Street, Switzerland is a fortress of banking and financial services, but famously secretive and expert in the concealment of wealth from all over the world for tax evasion and other extra-legal purposes.
Elmer says he is releasing the information "in order to educate society". The list includes "high net worth individuals", multinational conglomerates and financial institutions – hedge funds". They are said to be "using secrecy as a screen to hide behind in order to avoid paying tax". They come from the US, Britain, Germany, Austria and Asia – "from all over".
Clients include "business people, politicians, people who have made their living in the arts and multinational conglomerates – from both sides of the Atlantic". Elmer says: "Well-known pillars of society will hold investment portfolios and may include houses, trading companies, artwork, yachts, jewellery, horses, and so on."
"What I am objecting to is not one particular bank, but a system of structures," he told the Observer. "I have worked for major banks other than Julius Baer, and the one thing on which I am absolutely clear is that the banks know, and the big boys know, that money is being secreted away for tax-evasion purposes, and other things such as money-laundering – although these cases involve tax evasion."
Elmer was held in custody for 30 days in 2005, and is charged with breaking Swiss bank secrecy laws, forging documents and sending threatening messages to two officials at Julius Baer.
Elmer says: "I agree with privacy in banking for the person in the street, and legitimate activity, but in these instances privacy is being abused so that big people can get big banking organisations to service them. The normal, hard-working taxpayer is being abused also.
"Once you become part of senior management," he says, "and gain international experience, as I did, then you are part of the inner circle – and things become much clearer. You are part of the plot. You know what the real products and service are, and why they are so expensive. It should be no surprise that the main product is secrecy … Crimes are committed and lies spread in order to protect this secrecy."
The names on the CDs will not be made public, just as a much shorter list of 15 clients that Elmer handed to WikiLeaks in 2008 has remained hitherto undisclosed by the organisation headed by Julian Assange, currently on bail over alleged sex offences in Sweden, and under investigation in the US for the dissemination of thousands of state department documents.
Elmer has been hounded by the Swiss authorities and media since electing to become a whistleblower, and his health and career have suffered.
"My understanding is that my client's attempts to get the banks to act over various complaints he made came to nothing internally," says Elmer's lawyer, Jack Blum, one of America's leading experts in tracking offshore money. "Neither would the Swiss courts act on his complaints. That's why he went to WikiLeaks."
That first crop of documents was scrutinised by the Guardian newspaper in 2009, which found "details of numerous trusts in which wealthy people have placed capital. This allows them lawfully to avoid paying tax on profits, because legally it belongs to the trust … The trust itself pays no tax, as a Cayman resident", although "the trustees can distribute money to the trust's beneficiaries".
Now, Blum says, "Elmer is being tried for violating Swiss banking secrecy law even though the data is from the Cayman Islands. This is bold extraterritorial nonsense. Swiss secrecy law should apply to Swiss banks in Switzerland, not a Swiss subsidiary in the Cayman Islands."
Julius Baer has denied all wrongdoing, and rejects Elmer's allegations. It has said that Elmer "altered" documents in order to "create a distorted fact pattern".
The bank issued a statement on Friday saying: "The aim of [Elmer's] activities was, and is, to discredit Julius Baer as well as clients in the eyes of the public. With this goal in mind, Mr Elmer spread baseless accusations and passed on unlawfully acquired, respectively retained, documents to the media, and later also to WikiLeaks. To back up his campaign, he also used falsified documents."
The bank also accuses Elmer of threatening colleagues.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/17/wikileaks-latest-developments
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I suspect a story that is breaking today will have major consequences for political and business leaders throughout the Western world.
A former Swiss banker, Rudolf Elmer, has passed on data containing account details of 2,000 prominent people to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. The data covers multinationals, financial firms and wealthy individuals from many countries, including the UK, US and Germany, and covers the period 1990-2009.
Mr Assange also said some information was likely to be handed over to the authorities. The data included the offshore accounts of about 40 politicians. Maybe Tony Blair will be one of those exposed. It is believed that the data will shed light on tax evasion and the hiding of proceeds of criminal acts.
Swiss whistleblower Rudolf Elmer plans to hand over offshore banking secrets of the rich and famous to WikiLeaksHe will disclose the details of 'massive potential tax evasion' before he flies home to stand trial over his actions
Ed Vulliamy The Observer, Sunday 16 January 2011
Rudolf Elmer in Mauritius: “Well-known pillars of society will hold investment portfolios and may include houses, trading companies, artwork, yachts, jewellery, horses, and so on.”
The offshore bank account details of 2,000 "high net worth individuals" and corporations – detailing massive potential tax evasion – will be handed over to the WikiLeaks organisation in London tomorrow by the most important and boldest whistleblower in Swiss banking history, Rudolf Elmer, two days before he goes on trial in his native Switzerland.
British and American individuals and companies are among the offshore clients whose details will be contained on CDs presented to WikiLeaks at the Frontline Club in London. Those involved include, Elmer tells the Observer, "approximately 40 politicians".
Elmer, who after his press conference will return to Switzerland from exile in Mauritius to face trial, is a former chief operating officer in the Cayman Islands and employee of the powerful Julius Baer bank, which accuses him of stealing the information.
He is also – at a time when the activities of banks are a matter of public concern – one of a small band of employees and executives seeking to blow the whistle on what they see as unprofessional, immoral and even potentially criminal activity by powerful international financial institutions.
Along with the City of London and Wall Street, Switzerland is a fortress of banking and financial services, but famously secretive and expert in the concealment of wealth from all over the world for tax evasion and other extra-legal purposes.
Elmer says he is releasing the information "in order to educate society". The list includes "high net worth individuals", multinational conglomerates and financial institutions – hedge funds". They are said to be "using secrecy as a screen to hide behind in order to avoid paying tax". They come from the US, Britain, Germany, Austria and Asia – "from all over".
Clients include "business people, politicians, people who have made their living in the arts and multinational conglomerates – from both sides of the Atlantic". Elmer says: "Well-known pillars of society will hold investment portfolios and may include houses, trading companies, artwork, yachts, jewellery, horses, and so on."
"What I am objecting to is not one particular bank, but a system of structures," he told the Observer. "I have worked for major banks other than Julius Baer, and the one thing on which I am absolutely clear is that the banks know, and the big boys know, that money is being secreted away for tax-evasion purposes, and other things such as money-laundering – although these cases involve tax evasion."
Elmer was held in custody for 30 days in 2005, and is charged with breaking Swiss bank secrecy laws, forging documents and sending threatening messages to two officials at Julius Baer.
Elmer says: "I agree with privacy in banking for the person in the street, and legitimate activity, but in these instances privacy is being abused so that big people can get big banking organisations to service them. The normal, hard-working taxpayer is being abused also.
"Once you become part of senior management," he says, "and gain international experience, as I did, then you are part of the inner circle – and things become much clearer. You are part of the plot. You know what the real products and service are, and why they are so expensive. It should be no surprise that the main product is secrecy … Crimes are committed and lies spread in order to protect this secrecy."
The names on the CDs will not be made public, just as a much shorter list of 15 clients that Elmer handed to WikiLeaks in 2008 has remained hitherto undisclosed by the organisation headed by Julian Assange, currently on bail over alleged sex offences in Sweden, and under investigation in the US for the dissemination of thousands of state department documents.
Elmer has been hounded by the Swiss authorities and media since electing to become a whistleblower, and his health and career have suffered.
"My understanding is that my client's attempts to get the banks to act over various complaints he made came to nothing internally," says Elmer's lawyer, Jack Blum, one of America's leading experts in tracking offshore money. "Neither would the Swiss courts act on his complaints. That's why he went to WikiLeaks."
That first crop of documents was scrutinised by the Guardian newspaper in 2009, which found "details of numerous trusts in which wealthy people have placed capital. This allows them lawfully to avoid paying tax on profits, because legally it belongs to the trust … The trust itself pays no tax, as a Cayman resident", although "the trustees can distribute money to the trust's beneficiaries".
Now, Blum says, "Elmer is being tried for violating Swiss banking secrecy law even though the data is from the Cayman Islands. This is bold extraterritorial nonsense. Swiss secrecy law should apply to Swiss banks in Switzerland, not a Swiss subsidiary in the Cayman Islands."
Julius Baer has denied all wrongdoing, and rejects Elmer's allegations. It has said that Elmer "altered" documents in order to "create a distorted fact pattern".
The bank issued a statement on Friday saying: "The aim of [Elmer's] activities was, and is, to discredit Julius Baer as well as clients in the eyes of the public. With this goal in mind, Mr Elmer spread baseless accusations and passed on unlawfully acquired, respectively retained, documents to the media, and later also to WikiLeaks. To back up his campaign, he also used falsified documents."
The bank also accuses Elmer of threatening colleagues.
-
I suspect a story that is breaking today will have major consequences for political and business leaders throughout the Western world.
A former Swiss banker, Rudolf Elmer, has passed on data containing account details of 2,000 prominent people to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. The data covers multinationals, financial firms and wealthy individuals from many countries, including the UK, US and Germany, and covers the period 1990-2009.
Mr Assange also said some information was likely to be handed over to the authorities. The data included the offshore accounts of about 40 politicians. Maybe Tony Blair will be one of those exposed. It is believed that the data will shed light on tax evasion and the hiding of proceeds of criminal acts.
Swiss lawmakers angry at alleged US spying program
Jan 17, 6:53 AM (ET)
GENEVA (AP) - Swiss lawmakers are calling for the ouster of U.S. diplomats implicated in an illegal surveillance program in Switzerland as authorities probe whether such activities took place.
The Swiss Justice Ministry says there is evidence that the U.S. mission to the United Nations in Geneva conducted an unauthorized surveillance detection program similar to ones allegedly run in Norway and Denmark.
The Swiss government had denied U.S. authorities permission in 2006 and 2007 to conduct such programs for security reasons in Geneva and at the U.S. embassy in Bern.
Yet a U.S. diplomatic cable leaked by WikiLeaks describes the surveillance of a Muslim couple parked across from the U.S. mission in Geneva in 2005.
American officials say they won't comment on a security issue.
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The Martin Luther King Conspiracy Exposed in Memphis
by James Douglass
Probe Magazine
The following appeared in the May-June 2000 issue of Probe magazine, (Vol.7, No.4) and is mirrored from http://ctka.net/pr500-king.html with permission of the author.
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It has been reported today that Paul McMullan, a former investigative journalist with the News of the World, is willing to give evidence that Andy Coulson knew about phone-hacking and other illegal reporting techniques were rife at the newspaper.
Today MPs have approved a fresh parliamentary inquiry into phone hacking allegations. After a debate on the issue, MPs agreed the Standards and Privileges Committee should hold an inquiry into alleged unauthorised activity by the media. Unlike other Commons bodies, the Standards Committee had the power to compel witnesseses to give evidence.
News Media News of the World phone-hacking scandal News of the World phone hacking: now Paul Gascoigne is ready to sueTabloid newspaper's actions said to have hindered recovery of vulnerable footballer as he deals with alcohol and drug problems
Jamie Doward and Jenny Stevens
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 15 January 2011 21.43 GMT
Ex-England footballer Paul Gascoigne is the latest celebrity to sue the News of the World in the phone-hacking scandal. Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA Paul Gascoigne, the former England footballer, is to become the latest celebrity to sue the News of the World, alleging that he was a victim of the phone-hacking scandal that has rocked Rupert Murdoch's media empire.
His solicitor, Gerald Shamash, confirmed today that proceedings would be issued within days.
Shamash claimed that Gascoigne was in a vulnerable mental state and that his recovery had been hindered because of the stress of believing that his phone had been hacked. "It has made things even more difficult for his general wellbeing," he said.
Gascoigne has been fighting drink and drug problems for years and been in and out of rehabilitation clinics.
The Observer has now established that the comedian Steve Coogan has also issued proceedings and that Chris Tarrant, the television presenter, and the jockey Kieren Fallon are expected to launch legal actions soon.
There are now at least five law firms representing alleged victims of phone hacking. Lawyers from all five have confirmed that they expect more claims to be filed in the next few weeks.
So far, four people have settled claims against the newspaper before they reached court, including the celebrity publicist Max Clifford.
The increasing number of people who are suing or threatening to sue the paper has raised fresh questions about how widespread the practice of phone hacking was on the newspaper while it was edited by the prime minister's director of communications, Andy Coulson. Senior executives on the paper maintain that the practice was the work of a rogue reporter, Clive Goodman, who was jailed in 2007 for his part in the scandal. But many believe that hundreds or even thousands of phones were hacked by a private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire, while he was working for the newspaper.
Questions are being asked about the role of the Metropolitan police, which was obliged by the Crown Prosecution Service to inform suspected victims that their phones had been hacked.
Paul Farrelly MP, a member of the parliamentary culture, media and sport select committee that conducted an investigation into the allegations, said he was concerned that the Met had adopted a new policy towards requests for information from suspected victims.
Previously someone could request that the Met scour its files to establish whether their phone had been hacked. Now Scotland Yard asks for a suspected victim to outline on what grounds they believe their phone has been hacked before making a search.
"We found great fault with the police investigation and to that we can add the conduct of the Crown Prosecution Service [CPS], which simply rubber stamps the Met's totally inadequate handling of the affair," Farrelly said.
John Kelly, of the law firm Schillings, who is representing a number of people seeking damages from the newspaper, said it was important that a comprehensive list of victims was established.
"Unlawfully intercepting phone calls is a massive invasion of privacy," Kelly said. "We will not know the full extent of how widespread this activity was until we know exactly who was targeted. It's in everybody's interest for the Met and News Group to let people know if they may have been a victim. In the meantime, more claims will continue to be brought."
In answer to a freedom of information request, Scotland Yard has confirmed only that there were 91 individuals whose pin numbers, for their mobile phone message services, were found in material seized from Mulcaire.
In a sign of the growing disquiet at the Met's handling of the investigation, the director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer, announced on Friday that the CPS had agreed to conduct a "comprehensive assessment" of all material held by Scotland Yard relating to phone hacking.
Charlotte Harris, the solicitor representing the sports agent Sky Andrew, who is bringing a claim against the newspaper, said she trusted the assessment would be robust.
"The interpretation of whatever documents or other evidence should not be something that is done by the Metropolitan police alone," Harris said. "An independent eye is welcomed given the civil claims, the reported settlements, the suspension of Ian Edmondson and the new internal investigation by the News of the World."
News International, parent company of News Group Newspapers, said the News of the World would "continue to co-operate with any request from the police or the Crown Prosection Service
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The secret key to the Watergate break-in
When Washington, D.C. Police Detective Carl Shoffler arrested the five Watergate burglars on June 17, 1972 at 2:30 AM, he claimed that he found one key on the person of the burglar known as Eugenio Martinez. He asserted that the key was taped on the front of a notebook found on Martinez and that he subsequently inscribed his own notes about what he had found relating to the arrests. The notebook, bearing his initials with the key taped on it, was later placed in the U.S. National Archives, where it sat for almost two decades before being noticed.
This key was the subject of an A&E Investigative Report broadcast in 1992 with the title of “Key to Watergate.” Here is the link to the A& E Investigative Report:
http://www.nixonera.com/library/watergate.asp
Officer Shoffler is interviewed in the report.
Late in the afternoon of June 17 – the day of the arrests – Shoffler returned to the Washington, D.C. apartment that he shared with his confidential informant, Robert Merritt. It was Merritt who had tipped Shoffler off on June 3 to the planned break-in at Watergate based on information that had been provided to Merritt on June 1 by one of his confidential informant sources. Rather than report this information to the proper law enforcement authorities as was his duty, Shoffler instead clandestinely chose to use a wiretap method of triangulation that he had learned at the National Security Agency’s Vint Hill Farm Station in Virginia to secretly entrap and set up the burglars.
Shoffler’s role in doing this is disclosed for the first time in the new book, Watergate Exposed: How the President of the United States and the Watergate Burglars Were Set Up, by Robert Merritt, Top Confidential Informant to the FBI and Washington, D.C. Police, as told to Douglas Caddy, original attorney for the Watergate Seven. The book is available from amazon.com.
Shoffler lied in his official report on the burglars’ arrest. In actuality there were two keys involved and he removed both keys, not just one, from Eugenio Martinez. The key that he removed and disclosed was a key to the desk of a secretary at the Democratic National Committee. The key that he failed to disclose was one fashioned to look like a safe deposit box key that he had arranged to have placed in the secretary’s desk prior to the break-in as part of his plan to set up the burglars.
When he employed his triangulation wiretapping after June 3 he led the burglars to believe that so-called safe deposit key inside the secretary’s desk would lead them to a treasure trove of vitally important documents. Possession of the documents would ensure the victory of President Nixon in his re-election campaign and bestow other political benefits. Shoffler, using his wiretap triangulation, also managed to persuade the burglars to move the planned break-in date from June 18 to June 17, which was his birthday so as to give himself a birthday present. He did so without the burglars being aware that the conversation that they had wiretapped detailing the so-called safe deposit key in the secretary’s desk was a conversation orchestrated by him and had no connection to the offices of the Democratic National Committee.
After Shoffler returned to his and Merritt’s apartment that afternoon of June 17, he showed Merritt the key that he had withheld from the arrest record, the so-called safe deposit box key, which he had arranged to be planted beforehand in the secretary’s desk. He told Merritt that Martinez was hiding both keys in one of his hands at the time of the arrests and that he physically forced Martinez to surrender both keys. Shoffler later destroyed this second key. Its existence heretofore has been unknown.
As the A&E video clearly shows, the investigation of the actual break-in on June 17 was given sparse attention in contrast to the thorough investigation given the cover-up that followed, whose investigative aim was to remove Nixon from office.
In the months that followed the arrests, Shoffler would in conversations with Merritt repeatedly refer to the team of burglars of Liddy, Hunt, McCord and the four Cuban-Americans as his “little duckies.” He later expanded this pejorative category to everyone involved in the Watergate saga – President Nixon, the Senate Watergate Committee, the Watergate Special Prosecution Force, the media, etc. -- as being his “duckies.” He said, “It is like shooting ducks sitting in a pond with a blindfold on.” Since he held the ace card in clandestinely setting up the burglars, Shoffler could direct its ultimate outcome from working behind the scenes. In fact shortly after he made the arrests Shoffler telephoned the Washington Post and reported what had occurred. This inaugurated a relationship with the Post during which Shoffler continually provided information that he obtained from his wiretapping of key figures in the scandal although he did not disclose to the Post his method of obtaining the information. Shoffler was the primary Deep Throat.
In viewing the video, special attention should be given to Shoffler’s eye movements, facial expressions, body language, and oral statements. He boasted to Merritt that, as a military intelligence agent, he had been trained to lie without being detected. However, a careful watching of him being interviewed shows that he was not a total master at doing this.
In his burning quest to become the celebrity known as the most famous policeman in the world, Shoffler designed a secret plan that forced a sitting president from office, destroyed the faith of the American people immeasurably in their system of government, and launched a bitter political partisanship that has divided the country ever since. It boggles the mind that a single individual could have so changed the course of history, but this is what Shoffler, in his own way an evil genius, accomplished.
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Laughable that anyone would believe this "project" was canceled because "the left" objected to the details and the historical point of view it was presenting.
About the only part of the announcement that seems reliable is that there were no objections to any of the content raised by potential advertisers of the eight part series.
Objections or "pressure" exerted from "the left" should have almost no influence on a project intended to distort history from its inception. This project was of the extreme right, for the extreme right, so "the left" whoever they are, were never part of the equation. It is equally farfetched to believe that the interests of historical accuracy have prevailed in preventing a high profile distribution of this propaganda media production.
I suspect the most likely reason that this is postponed is because it did not poll well with test audiences set up to view it, and no timely and inexpensive editing or limited re-do was proposed to solve the weaknesses identified in the polling results.
The publicly stated reasons this is indefinitely postponed read like a fairytale. The "left" suddenly has the clout to stop some wingers from making money distribution their winger misinformation? Tell me more, please! Where is this alterantive universe where stuff like that happens?
How Caroline Kennedy, Maria Shriver Helped Kill 'Kennedys' Miniseries
The Hollywood Reporter
8:11 PM 1/9/2011 by Matthew Belloni
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/caroline-kennedy-maria-shriver-helped-69764
Pressure from the Kennedy family played a key role in the History channel's decision to pull the plug on its controversial miniseries The Kennedys.
As The Hollywood Reporter first reported, the eight-part miniseries, starring Greg Kinnear and Katie Holmes and masterminded by conservative 24 co-creator Joel Surnow, was abruptly yanked from the History schedule Jan. 7 before a planned airdate in the spring. In a statement to THR, a rep for History parent A&E Television Networks said that "after viewing the final product in its totality, we have concluded this dramatic interpretation is not a fit for the History brand."
None of History's advertisers or sponsors complained about the miniseries. But behind the scenes, members of the Kennedy family strongly lobbied AETN to kill the project since it was announced in December 2009, according to a source close to the situation. In recent weeks, those efforts intensified.
AETN is owned by a consortium including the Walt Disney Co., NBC Universal and Hearst. The source said that Disney/ABC Television Group topper Anne Sweeney, who serves on the AETN board and is said to hold tremendous sway over its decisions, was personally lobbied by Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy. Caroline Kennedy has a book deal with Disney's Hyperion publishing division, which announced in April 2010 that it will publish a collection of previously unreleased interviews with the late Jackie Kennedy timed to the 50th anniversary of the first year of JFK's presidency this fall.
Caroline has agreed to edit the untitled book, write an introduction and to help promote it, including making an appearance on Disney/ABC's Good Morning America, among other outlets.As part of the promotion for the book, Caroline is expected to reveal some of the 6.5 hours of previously unheard audiotapes of the former First Lady that form the basis of the book.
But that level of cooperation might have been unlikely if History had gone ahead with the Kennedys project, which was championed by AETN president and CEO Abbe Raven and History and Lifetime president and general manager Nancy Dubuc.
Kennedy scion Maria Shriver also has close ties to NBC Universal, where she worked for years as an employee in its news division. She is said to have voiced her displeasure with the project to outgoing NBCU execs Jeff Zucker and Jeff Gaspin. Gaspin serves on the AETN board, as does Scott Sassa for Hearst.
Shriver also is a friend of Sweeney, who serves on the board of the Special Olympics, founded by Shriver's mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver. Sweeney and Shriver both attend the same church in the Los Angeles area, and a source said Shriver criticized the Kennedysproject to Sweeney after a leaked early script was attacked in the New York Timesas "vindictive" and "malicious" by a former JFK aide (though the final shooting script is said to have been vetted for accuracy by History's in-house historians).
A rep for Sweeney referred THR to the AETN statement. AETN declined to comment further.
The Kennedys is still scheduled to be broadcast in Canada on March 6 and will air in foreign countries as well. AETN has allowed producers Asylum Entertainment and Muse Entertainment to shop the miniseries to another U.S. network. Producers have targeted Showtime, which in 2003 broadcast the controversial presidential project The Reagansafter CBS refused to air it.
Showtime topper David Nevins, who worked on 24 when he ran Imagine Television and is close with Surnow, is said to be watching the miniseries this weekend.
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This story is based on the release of official documents as a result of the actress, Sienna Miller, suing Murdoch's News Corporation. The documents clearly show that senior officers in the police invistigation of Glenn Mulcaire and Clive Goodman, were fully aware that another senior journalist at the News of the World, Ian Edmondson, was involved in the illegal phone hacking of famous people. Yet he was not even interviewed by the police. Another example of the control that Rubert Murdoch has over the police and the British government. David Cameron is unable to sack Andy Coulson, the prime minister's director of communications and the editor of the News of the World during the phone-hacking scandal, because he is Murdoch's man at 10 Downing Street.
Jailed phone-hacker's rising legal bills trigger speculation
There are suggestions that the publishers of the News of the World are covering the costs of Glenn Mulcaire
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan/11/phone-hacker-legal-glenn-mulcaire/print
By Dan Sabbagh
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 11 January 2011 21.48 GMT
Glenn Mulcaire, the former private investigator jailed for intercepting voicemails on phones used by aides to Princes William and Harry at the behest of the News of the World, has run up a legal bill of hundreds of thousands of pounds as he battles a string of ongoing phone-hacking lawsuits.
The expensive defence, estimated to be in excess of £500,000, has triggered speculation that the costs are being paid by the publishers of the tabloid newspaper, whose controlling shareholder, Rupert Murdoch, has said he would take "immediate action" against anybody found to be caught hacking again.
Mulcaire's costs are likely to rise quickly as a string of actions from more public figures suing both him and the newspaper are expected to follow in the next few weeks, adding to the pressure on a south Londoner described as unemployed and receiving jobseeker's allowance in a court judgment in February of last year.
Mulcaire's legal team refuses to say who is paying his bills. When Sarah Webb, his lawyer, was asked if it was known whether News International – owners of News Group Newspapers, the publisher of NotW – was paying his fees, she replied: "No, we don't know that." News International declined to comment.
Mulcaire's defence is a critical part of the legal battles surrounding the phone-hacking case. In November he was asked to say specifically who at the newspaper had ordered him to intercept the calls of celebrities such as Sienna Miller and Elle MacPherson, as well as politician Simon Hughes.
Shortly after, Mulcaire's lawyers asked the court of appeal to review a November judgment in a phone-hacking case involving celebrity publicist Nicola Phillips, asking him to reveal exactly who at NotW instructed him to hack in to the voicemails of public figures. The cost of a court of appeal case could reach £300,000, lawyers say.
Following court actions, notes seized by the Metropolitan police from the office of Mulcaire have been gradually made available to public figures trying to bring legal actions against NotW. Tomorrow another part of Mulcaire's material will be made available to representatives of Sky Andrew, the sports agent, who is bringing his own case against the newspaper.
According to high court documents filed in a case brought on behalf of actress Sienna Miller, Mulcaire had a habit of writing the first name of whoever it was that asked him to conduct hacking in the top left-hand corner of his paperwork. Miller's claim states that Mulcaire repeatedly wrote "Ian" when he hacked into the phones of Miller and her associates – where Ian is alleged to be Ian Edmondson, the assistant editor (news) at the tabloid, who was suspended last month following that claim.
Now Phillips wants Mulcaire to confirm the identities of the men mentioned by their first names in Mulcaire's notes relating to her case – but Mulcaire's legal team argues that the former private investigator could be at risk of incriminating himself if he did so. If Mulcaire were compelled to give evidence in court, his testimony is likely to be decisive in the remaining phone hacking actions.
He worked under contract for the News of the World until 2006 – and took careful notes of who at the newspaper commissioned his services. Detailed paperwork from his office was seized by the Met as part of their investigation into Mulcaire and former royal editor Clive Goodman. Both men were jailed in January 2007 for plotting to intercept voicemails belonging to royal aides, with Mulcaire receiving a six-month sentence.
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Monday, Apr. 01, 1946
Time Magazine
National Affairs: PEARL HARBOR: HENRY STIMSON'S VIEW
In its fifth month of prospecting, the Pearl Harbor Committee at last unearthed a rich find—a broad, deep vein of comment and discussion of the 1941 tragedy by ex-War Secretary Henry L. Stimson, studded with pure history in the form of notes from his diary. Significant excerpts:
Nov. 5. Matters are crystallizing . . . Japan is sending to us someone who, I think, will bring us a proposal impossible of acceptance. . . .
Nov. 6. I left for the White House and had about an hour's talk with the President—on the whole a good talk. . . . We talked about the Far Eastern situation and the approaching conference with the messenger who is coming from Japan. The President outlined what he thought he might say. He was trying to think of something which would give us further time. He suggested he might propose a truce in which there would be no movement or armament for six months. . . .
I told him I frankly saw two great objections: first, that it tied up our hands just at a time when it was vitally important that we should go on completing our reenforcement of the Philippines; and, second, that the Chinese would feel that any such arrangement was a desertion of them.
Nov. 7. Cabinet meeting this afternoon. The President opened with telling the story of Lincoln and his Cabinet—how he polled the Cabinet and found them all polling NO and then he said, "The Ayes have it."
With that he started to have what he said was the first general poll of his Cabinet and it was on the question of the Far East—whether the people would back us up in case we struck at Japan down there and what the tactics should be.
He went around the table—first Hull and then myself, and then around through the whole number and it was unanimous in feeling the country would support us. He said that this time the vote IS unanimous, he feeling the same way. . . .
Nov. 25. General Marshall and I went to the White House, where we were until nearly half past one. At the meeting were Hull, Knox, Marshall, Stark, and myself.
The President brought up the event that we were likely to be attacked, perhaps (as soon as) next Monday, for the Japanese are notorious for making an attack without warning, and the question was what we should do. The question was how we should maneuver them into the position of firing the first shot without allowing too much danger to ourselves. . . .
When I got back to the Department I found news from G-2 that a Japanese expedition had started. Five divisions had come down from Shantung and Shansi to Shanghai and there they had embarked on ships—thirty, forty or fifty ships—and have been sighted south of Formosa. I at once called up Hull and told him about it and sent copies to him and to the President. . . .
Nov. 27. The main question has been over the message that we shall send to MacArthur. . . . On talking with the President this morning over the telephone, I suggested and he approved the idea that we should send the final alert; namely, that he should be on the qui vive for any attack. . . .
Nov. 28. G-2 had sent me a summary of the information in regard to the movements of the Japanese in the Far East and it amounted to such a formidable statement of dangerous possibilities that I decided to take it to the President before he got up.
He branched into an analysis of the situation himself as he sat there on his bed, saying there were three alternatives and only three that he could see before us—first, to do nothing; second, to make something in the nature of an ultimatum again, stating a point beyond which we would fight; third, to fight at once.
I told him . . . . I did not think anyone would do nothing in this situation, and he agreed with me. I said of the other two my choice was the latter one. . . .
[At a War Cabinet meeting at noon] it was now the opinion of everyone that if this [Japanese] expedition was allowed to get around the southern point of Indo-China and to go off and land in the Gulf of Siam . . . it would be a terrific blow at all of the three Powers, Britain at Singapore, The Netherlands, and ourselves in the Philippines.
It was the consensus of everybody that this must not be allowed. Then we discussed how to prevent it. It was agreed that if the Japanese got into the Isthmus of Kra, the British would fight. It was also agreed that if the British fought, we would have to fight. . . . If this expedition was allowed to round the southern point of Indo-China, this whole chain of disastrous events would be set on foot. . . .
It became a consensus of views that rather than strike at the Force as it went by without any warning on the one hand, which we didn't think we could do, or sitting still and allowing it to go on, on the other, which we didn't think we could do—that the only thing for us to do was to address it a warning that if it reached a certain place, or a certain line, or a certain point, we should have to fight.*
The President's mind evidently was running towards a special telegram from himself to the Emperor . . . I said there ought to be a message by the President to the people of the United States . . . reporting what we would have to do if the danger happened. I pointed out that he had better send his letter to the Emperor separate as one thing and a secret thing, and then make his speech to Congress as a separate and more understandable thing to the people of the United States. . . .
The President asked Hull and Knox and myself to try to draft such papers. . . .
Dec. 2. The President is still deliberating the possibility of a message to the Emperor, although all the rest of us are rather against it, but in addition to that he is quite settled, I think, that he will make a message to the Congress and will perhaps back that up with a speech to the country. He said that he was going to take the matters right up when he left us.
Dec. 7. Just about 2 o'clock, while I was sitting at lunch, the President called me up on the telephone and in a rather excited voice asked me, "Have you heard the news? . . . They have attacked Hawaii. They are now bombing Hawaii. . . ."
My first feeling was of relief that the indecision was over and that a crisis had come in a way which would unite all our people.
Re-reading his diary, Henry Stimson summarized:
With the aid of "hindsight," I [have] reached the opinion that the War Plans Division of the General Staff would have placed itself and the safety of the country in a sounder position if it had transmitted to General Short more information than it did. . . .
[Yet] General Short had been told the two essential facts: 1) a war with Japan is threatening, 2) hostile action by Japan is possible at any moment. Given these two facts, both of which were stated without equivocation in the message of Nov. 27, the outpost commander should be on the alert to make his fight. . . .
To cluster his airplanes in such groups and positions that in an emergency they could not take the air for several hours, and to keep his antiaircraft ammunition so stored that it could not be promptly and immediately available, and to use his best reconnaissance system, the radar, only for a very small fraction of the day and night, in my opinion betrayed a misconception of his real duty which was almost beyond belief. . . .
I have tried to review these various responsibilities with fairness to both the outpost commander and the Staff officers at home. I am particularly led to do so because of the difficulty of reproducing now the background and atmosphere under which the entire Army was then working.
Our General Staff officers were working under a terrific pressure in the face of global war which they felt was probably imminent. Yet they were surrounded, outside their offices and almost throughout the country, by a spirit of isolationism and disbelief in danger which now seems incredible. . . .
* The War Cabinet agreed that the U.S. must fight if Japan 1) attacked U.S., British or Dutch territory, or 2) moved her forces in Indo-China west of 100° longitude or south of 10° latitude.
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Find this article at:
• http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,792673,00.html
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WikiLeaks: US demanding our Twitter account info
By RAPHAEL G. SATTER
The Associated Press
Saturday, January 8, 2011; 10:36 AM
LONDON -- U.S. officials have issued a subpoena to demand details about WikiLeaks' Twitter account, according to court documents obtained Saturday. WikiLeaks says other American Internet companies may also have been ordered to hand over information about its activities.
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia ordered San Francisco-based Twitter Inc. to hand over private messages, billing addresses and connection records of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and other alleged associates - including the U.S. Army intelligence analyst suspected of handing classified information to the site and a high-profile Icelandic parliamentarian.
Assange blasted the order, saying it amounted to harassment.
"If the Iranian government was to attempt to coercively obtain this information from journalists and activists of foreign nations, human rights groups around the world would speak out," he said in a statement.
A copy of the court order, dated Dec. 14 and sent to The Associated Press by Icelandic lawmaker Birgitta Jonsdottir, said the information sought was "relevant to an ongoing criminal investigation" and ordered Twitter not to disclose its existence to Assange or any of the others targeted.
But a second document, dated Jan. 5, unsealed the court order. The reason wasn't made explicit but WikiLeaks said it had been unsealed "thanks to legal action by Twitter."
Twitter has declined to comment on the topic, saying only that its policy is to notify its users, where possible, of government requests for information.
Those named in the order include Pfc. Bradley Manning, the U.S. Army private suspected of being the source of some of WikiLeaks' material, as well as Jonsdottir, a one-time WikiLeaks collaborator known for her role in pioneering Iceland's media initiative, which aims to make the North Atlantic island nation a haven for free speech.
The U.S. is also seeking details about Dutch hacker Rop Gonggrijp and U.S. programmer Jacob Appelbaum, both of whom have previously worked with WikiLeaks.
Assange has promised to fight the order, as has Jonsdottir, who said in a Twitter message that she had "no intention to hand my information over willingly." Appelbaum, whose Twitter feed suggested he was traveling in Iceland, said he was apprehensive about returning to the U.S.
"Time to try to enjoy the last of my vacation, I suppose," he tweeted.
Gonggrijp expressed annoyance that court officials had misspelled his last name - and praised Twitter for notifying him and others that the U.S. had subpoenaed his details.
"It appears that Twitter, as a matter of policy, does the right thing in wanting to inform their users when one of these comes in," Gonggrijp said. "Heaven knows how many places have received similar subpoenas and just quietly submitted all they had on me."
WikiLeaks also voiced its suspicion that other organizations, such as Facebook Inc. and Google Inc., had also been served with court orders, and urged them to "unseal any subpoenas they have received."
Google's London office did not immediately return a call and an e-mail seeking comment. Facebook did not immediately return an e-mail seeking comment either.
U.S. officials have been deeply angry with WikiLeaks for months, for first releasing tens of thousands of U.S. classified military documents on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, then more recently posting thousands of classified U.S. diplomatic cables. U.S. officials say posting the military documents put informers' lives at risk, and that posting diplomatic cables has made other countries reluctant to deal with American officials.
WikiLeaks denies U.S. charges that its postings could put lives at risk, saying that Washington merely is acting out of embarrassment over the revelations contained in the cables.
Although its relations with the U.S. government have been ugly, WikiLeaks and its tech-savvy staff have relied on American Internet and finance companies to raise funds, disseminate material and get their message out.
WikiLeaks' frequently updated Facebook page, for example, counts 1.5 million fans and its Twitter account has a following of more than 600,000. Until recently, the group raised donations via PayPal Inc., MasterCard Inc., and Visa Inc., and hosted material on Amazon.com's servers.
But the group's use of American companies has come under increasing pressure as it continues to reveal U.S. secrets - with PayPal and the credit card companies severing their links with site. Amazon.com booted WikiLeaks from its servers last month.
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See also: http://www.juancole.com/
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If any Forum member has a copy of the Executive Order issued by JFK in June 1963 that implemented several billion dollars of debt-free money, which challenged the supremacy of the Federal Reserve, it would be helpful if it were posted for all to see.
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http://www.unknowncountry.com/dreamland/latest
Saturday January 8, 2011
Our Money is NOT Real
"Real money is not what we have in this country. Real money is issued by the state against the economic power of the country. What we have is monetized debt. Its purpose is to inject a level of profit into the system: the interest that government must pay to finance the debt. The one thing that congress will not debate is what we really need to do: return to state-issued money. This was true until the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913. " –Joseph Farrell
Listen as Jim Marrs interviews Joseph Farrell about the hidden history of what Joseph Farrell calls "the banksters," the bank-gangsters who have been running our world since time immemorial. You will be deeply shocked by the extent to which we have been enslaved by these people. They have suppressed technologies that might free us from the burden of purchasing expensive and polluting fossil fuels. They have burdened us with what is essentially a false debt that insures that they will continue to profit and we will continue to pay down the halls of time.
Debt-loaded money creates social instability. Debt-free money can be inflation controlled and is intrinsically more stable. An example is the money of ancient Egypt, which was debt-free money and provided the foundation of the most stable civilization the world has ever known.
Debt-loaded money needs occasional economic crises to support bank profits. Witness the current recession and the massive, immensely profitable "bailouts" the banks have enjoyed while the people have been left to lose their homes and jobs.
Thank you, banksters.
As Joseph Farrell puts it in "Babylon Banksters", his powerful new book, "It's high time to have done with them."
Joseph's website is GizaDeathStar.com.
Jim Marrs' website is JimMarrs.com.
Note: Joseph Farrell will be interviewed this Sunday, Jan. 9, on coasttocoastam, the radio program with the largest nighttime audience.
The End of Freedom and the Li Family of China
For subscribers, Whitley and Joseph Farrell go deeper. Joseph explains that the current system is approaching its final goal of absolute domination of the individual. But what does that entail? What is going to happen to us if they succeed, and how can we ensure their failure? Find out about the powerful, hidden Li Family of China, and how a formula created by Dr. David X. Li set the stage for the financial catastrophe that has put us where we are today. This interview is as deep a look inside the hidden corridors of high finance as any that has ever appeared on Unknowncountry.com--or anywhere else, for that matter.
Don't know about Dr. Li and his family and his formula? You need to!
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It has been reported today that Paul McMullan, a former investigative journalist with the News of the World, is willing to give evidence that Andy Coulson knew about phone-hacking and other illegal reporting techniques were rife at the newspaper.
Today MPs have approved a fresh parliamentary inquiry into phone hacking allegations. After a debate on the issue, MPs agreed the Standards and Privileges Committee should hold an inquiry into alleged unauthorised activity by the media. Unlike other Commons bodies, the Standards Committee had the power to compel witnesseses to give evidence.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan/06/news-of-the-world-ed-balls-phone-hacking
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It has been reported today that Paul McMullan, a former investigative journalist with the News of the World, is willing to give evidence that Andy Coulson knew about phone-hacking and other illegal reporting techniques were rife at the newspaper.
Today MPs have approved a fresh parliamentary inquiry into phone hacking allegations. After a debate on the issue, MPs agreed the Standards and Privileges Committee should hold an inquiry into alleged unauthorised activity by the media. Unlike other Commons bodies, the Standards Committee had the power to compel witnesseses to give evidence.
British Tabloid Editor Suspended Over Phone-Hacking Allegation
By ROBERT MACKEY
January 5, 2011
The British tabloid The News of the World has suspended a senior editor accused of authorizing the illegal interception of the actress Sienna Miller’s voice-mail messages.
A spokeswoman for the newspaper told reporters in London that Ian Edmondson, the tabloid’s news editor, had been suspended last month.
The Guardian, the British broadsheet, reported that Mr. Edmondson was suspended “shortly after the Guardian obtained court documents which alleged he had asked private investigator Glenn Mulcaire to hack into phones belonging to actress Sienna Miller and her staff.” Ms. Miller is suing News Group Newspapers, a division of Rupert Murdoch’s publishing empire that includes News of the World.
As my colleagues Don Van Natta, Jo Becker and Graham Bowley reported in The New York Times Magazine last year, at least five people who claim that their phones were hacked by the newspaper have filed suit.
The Guardian notes that Mr. Edmondson was appointed news editor by the tabloid’s former editor, Andy Coulson, who is now Prime Minister David Cameron’s top media adviser. As The Lede explained last year, Mr. Coulson has repeatedly denied allegations that he knew about the phone-hacking by his reporters at The News of the World, even though he resigned after the paper’s royal correspondent was jailed for the practice in 2007.
Here is the full text of The News of the World’s statement on the matter, from Britain’s Press Association:
A serious allegation has been made about the conduct of a member of the News of the World staff. We have followed our internal procedures and we can confirm that this person was suspended from active duties just before Christmas.
The allegation is the subject of litigation and our internal investigation will take place in tandem with that. If the conclusion of the investigation or the litigation is that the allegation is proven, appropriate action will be taken. The News of the World has a zero tolerance approach to any wrong-doing.
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April Glaspie Wikileaked
Did the US Really Give Saddam Fake OK to Invade Kuwait?
By PATRICK COCKBURN
January 5, 2011
http://www.counterpunch.org/patrick01052011.html
Twenty years ago there was a witch-hunt in Washington over why nobody had forecast that Saddam Hussein would invade and occupy Kuwait. A chief casualty of this was April Glaspie, the US ambassador in Baghdad, who had met for two hours with the Iraqi leader on 25 July 1990, a week before the invasion. During this meeting she was alleged to have "given a green light for the invasion" or at least not made clear that the US would use military force to reverse an Iraqi takeover of Kuwait.
Transcripts of varying levels of credibility have been released over the years, but this week WikiLeaks published Glaspie's cable to the US State Department reporting her discussion with Saddam. What comes shining through is that the Iraqi leader never made clear that he was thinking of annexing the emirate as Iraq's 19th province. Notorious though he was for his bloodcurdling and exaggerated threats, for once he was not threatening enough. Everybody suspected he was conducting a heavy-handed diplomatic offensive to squeeze concessions, financial and possibly territorial, out of the Kuwaitis. Almost nobody predicted a full-scale invasion and occupation of Kuwait, in large part because this was an amazingly foolish move by Saddam, bound to provoke a backlash far beyond Iraq's power to resist.
I have always sympathized with diplomats and intelligence agents unfairly pilloried for failing to foresee that a country, about which they claim expert knowledge, is going to commit some act of stupidity much against its own interests.
History is full of examples of experts being dumbfounded by countries acting contrary to their own best interests. Stalin is often denigrated for disbelieving Soviet spies who told him that the German army was going to invade the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941. No doubt his paranoid suspicion that Britain was trying to lure him into a war with Hitler played a role. But another factor was that Stalin simply did not believe that Hitler would commit such a gross error as attacking him before finishing off Britain and thus start a war on two fronts, something that the Nazi regime had previously taken great pains to avoid.
A more recent example of a country's leaders blindly shooting themselves in the foot was the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 2006. I had been spending a lot of time in Iraq and was in Jordan when it happened. I had seen repeated Israeli incursions into Lebanon fail bloodily in the years since 1978. I could not believe the Israeli military were once again going to try their old discredited tactic of mass bombardment and limited ground assault in a bid to intimidate the world's toughest guerrillas.
Israelis tend to be more cynical about the abilities of their own military commanders than the rest of the world and, looking at the Israeli chief of staff on television, I thought of the old Israeli saying: "He was so stupid that even the other generals noticed." Even so, I could not rid myself of the idea that the Israelis must have something new up their sleeve. I was quite wrong and the war was a humiliating failure for Israel.
In Saddam's case it would be wrong to think of him as a stupid, though he had an exaggerated idea of his own abilities and place in history. He was a cunning, ruthless man who knew everything about Iraqi politics and how to manipulate or eliminate his rivals. Outside Iraq he was far less sure-footed, having spent little time abroad, and disastrously overplayed his hand by invading Iran in 1980 and Kuwait 10 years later.
He could be advised but only up to a point. A Soviet diplomat who knew him well told me: "The only safe position if you are one of the other Iraqi leaders is to be 10 per cent tougher than the boss." In his discussion with April Glaspie, he comes across as hyper-sensitive to foreign media criticism and prone to see actions contrary to his interests as part of a giant conspiracy against him.
Given that the famous cable reveals nothing very damaging to the US or April Glaspie, why did the State Department keep her and her messages to Washington under wraps for so long? This inevitably generated a widespread belief that such secrecy must mean that the US government had something to hide. The real explanation was probably that, once Saddam and Iraq were being demonized after the invasion of Kuwait, the State Department thought that the publication of a polite and non-committal conversation between the US ambassador in Baghdad and Saddam would look like weak-kneed encouragement to the aggressor.
It is a problem for journalists that states often launch cover-ups even when they have nothing very grisly to conceal. This is partly because the local police chiefs or middle-ranking security men may strongly suspect that their leaders have been up to no good but do not want to find out about it.
In 1999, for instance, I arrived in Moscow just after a series of devastating bomb explosions there and in other cities that had killed 300 civilians. These atrocities led to the second Chechen war and enabled Vladimir Putin to get a grip on power which he has never since relinquished.
It was widely suspected by Russians at all levels that that the Kremlin had a hand in these highly convenient attacks. There were undoubted signs of a cover-up by the police which journalists latched on to as a sign of government involvement. But Russian security men may have been concealing or destroying evidence because no local police chief wanted to risk his job by appearing too eager to investigate his own bosses. The Chechen rebels were quite stupid enough to carry out on the bombings themselves and thereby provide the Kremlin with an excuse to renew the war.
Experts, whether they are assessing the stability of the Soviet Union or the likelihood of Saddam invading Kuwait, are always in danger of being proved wrong because their expertise is based largely on precedent. The way people have behaved before is generally a good guide to how they will behave in future. But what can be foreseen can also be averted, and turning points in history therefore tend to happen by surprise. Diplomats, academics and journalists who had claimed to know what was happening in the Soviet Union or Iraq end up with a humiliating amount of egg on their faces.
The April Glaspie cable reveals little that was not known before. She did not tell Saddam not to invade Kuwait because neither she nor anybody else thought he would be stupid enough to do so.
The criminal error of the US, Britain, the Arab states and much of the rest of the world in dealing with Saddam before the invasion has never in fact been a secret. They were so eager to prevent him being defeated by Iran, which he had invaded, that they helped him become the greatest military power in the Gulf. They allowed him to use poison gas against Iran and winked at his slaughter of 180,000 Kurdish civilians. If he was a monster they created him.
Patrick Cockburn is the author of "Muqtada: Muqtada Al-Sadr, the Shia Revival, and the Struggle for Iraq. This year, finally, CounterPunch Books will be republishing Claud Cockburn’s famous I Claud, Memoirs of a Subversive.
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As reported by Prof. Juan Cole below:
"Wikileaks has released the July 25, 1990 cable by US Ambassador to Iraq April Glaspie in which she reported her meeting with Saddam Hussein over the Kuwait crisis. Saddam had summoned her.
The cable’s text supports Glaspie’s accounts of the meeting and exonerates her from the charges by her political enemies in the US Congress that she inadvertently gave Saddam a green light to invade Kuwait."
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Interesrting, Douglas, I took the statement as meaning he would be killed by someone like a JR type.
edit typo
In this interview a retired worker on U.S. Government classified projects gives his views on a number of interesting topics, including how certain targeted persons are "terminated."
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o recap "Obama justice": If you create an illegal worldwide torture regime, illegally spy on Americans without warrants, abduct people with no legal authority, or invade and destroy another country based on false claims, then you are fully protected.
But if you expose any of the evils secretly perpetrated as part of those lawless actions--by publishing the truth about what was done--then you are an Evil Criminal who deserves the harshest possible prosecution.''
Very succinctly put.
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/24/wikileaks/index.html
I believe it is quite likely that in the past certain unknown persons among the 3,000,000 individuals authorized to read the U.S. Government cables downloaded the 250,000 cables and, in contrast to what Assange and WikiLeaks have done in placing these in the public arena, instead secretly sold the complete file to the Russian government and also to the Chinese government (and perhaps other governments/entities), thereby reaping vast sums of money for doing so.
I also believe that one of the purposes for incarcerating Assange in the prison in the U.K. and once there moving him to an isolated cell was clandestinely to obtain samples of his urine and feces in order to compile a DNA profile on him for the purpose of causing him an early death. He broke a tooth on the prison food and wrapped the broken fragment in tissue. This was later stolen from his cell when he was not in it. [According to one cable, Sec. of State Clinton once ordered the U.S. Ambassador to obtain a sample of the DNA of the President of Paraquay.] Today Assange voiced the fear that if he were incarcerated in the U.S. he would die "like Jack Ruby," which is to say he would be given a substance from a needle that contained a fast acting form of cancer.
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WikiLeaks cables: US officials voiced fears India could be target of biological terrorism
Senior Indian diplomat told US in 2006 that concerns about biological weapons were 'no longer academic'
Jason Burke Delhi
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 16 December 2010 21.30 GMT
US diplomats are concerned that India could be the target of a biological terror attack, with fatal diseases such as anthrax being released into the country before spreading around the world, confidential cables from the US embassy in New Delhi reveal.
A senior Indian diplomat told the US in 2006 that concerns about biological weapons were "no longer academic", adding that intelligence suggested terror groups were increasingly discussing biowarfare.
"[Diplomat YK] Singh reported that Indian intelligence is picking up chatter indicating jihadi groups are interested in bioterrorism, for example seeking out like-minded PhDs in biology and biotechnology," a cable sent to Washington reports.
"He compared the prospects for nuclear terrorism ('still in the realm of the imaginary') to bioterrorism ('an ideal weapon for terrorism ... anthrax could pose a serious problem ...it is no longer an academic exercise for us')."
Another cable warns that "advances in the biotech sector and shifting terrorist tactics that focus on disrupting India's social cohesion and economic prosperity oblige the [government of India] to look at the possibility of terror groups using biological agents as weapons of mass destruction and economic and social disruption".
It also warns terrorists could easily find the material they need for bioterrorism in India and use the country as a base for launching an international campaign involving the spread of fatal diseases.
"The plethora of indigenous highly pathogenic and virulent agents naturally occurring in India and the large Indian industrial base – combined with weak controls – also make India as much a source of bioterrorism material as a target," diplomats warned.
"Release in an Indian city could facilitate international spread ... Delhi airport alone sees planes depart daily to numerous European, Asian, Middle Eastern and African destinations, as well as non-stop flights to Chicago and Newark.
"Terrorists planning attacks anywhere in the world could use India's advanced biotechnology industry and large biomedical research community as potential sources of biological agents.
"Given the strong web of air connections Delhi shares with the rest of the world and the vulnerabilities that might be exploited at airports, a witting or unwitting person could easily take hazardous materials into or out of the country."
Though its author admitted the chance of such an attack was slim, the cable referred to Indian government intelligence, passed to the US, indicating that Islamic extremist groups were "seeking to recruit or employ biology/biotech PhD graduates from within India".
The cable focused particularly on the lack of preparedness of Indian authorities for such an attack, assessing Indian government assurances that the country could defend itself against bioterrorism to be "unconvincing".
Scientists attached to the US embassy had been shown photographs taken by a senior Indian army officer from "frontline field laboratories for diagnostics of infectious diseases" which "demonstrated a host of poor laboratory security and safety practices, including families sleeping in labs and disposable gloves being washed for re-use or being disposed of as non-hazardous biological waste," the cable reported.
The dispatch is one of many dealing with the threat of terrorism in India sent by diplomats in New Delhi both before and after the attacks on Mumbai, the country's commercial capital, which were carried out by the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) group in November 2008. Earlier cables focus more on the radicalisation of Muslims within India.
One is optimistic. "India's over 150 million Muslim population is largely unattracted to extremism. India's growing economy, vibrant democracy, and inclusive culture, encourage Muslims to seek success and social mobility in the mainstream and reduces alienation," it said.
Though the Muslim community in India "suffers from higher rates of poverty than most other groups in India, and can be the victims of discrimination and prejudice ... the vast majority remain committed to the Indian state and seek to participate in mainstream political and economic life", the cable continued. "Only a small number of young Muslims have ... gravitated toward pan-Islamic and pro-Pakistan organisations, which sometimes engage in acts of violence".
Post-Mumbai, Pakistan-based groups received the most attention. Cables reveal US diplomats making repeated efforts to reassure their often frustrated Indian counterparts that Washington was working hard to pressure Islamabad to shut down the threat posed to India by Pakistan-based groups.
Last January, weeks after the Mumbai attack, Richard Boucher, the visiting US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, argued about the group with the Indian national security adviser, Shiv Shankar Menon.
"The two men were in full agreement on the need to ensure that Pakistan eliminate Laskhar-e-Tayiba, but disagreed on some tactics," a cable reporting the meeting said.
It continued: "Boucher urged Menon to "tone down" the Indian rhetoric and avoid any military movements that could be misinterpreted. Menon defended India's strategy of publicly pressuring Pakistan's security services, saying they had not yet made the strategic decision to cut ties with Lashkar-e-Tayiba, and that the civilian government was powerless to force this change."
The cable reports Menon telling Boucher: "Let's not insult one another by telling a story that the Pakistan army was not involved ... They're either unwilling to take action, or incapable, or both; any way you look at it, they're involved."
In February this year, P Chidambaram, the Indian Minister of the Interior, told Robert Mueller, the director of the FBI, that Pakistan had "done damn near nothing" to prosecute Mumbai-related terror suspects, according to the cables.
The cables also reveal the constant effort of the US authorities to prevent states such as Syria and Iran from obtaining sensitive material from Indian suppliers.
In 2007, the Indian authorities responded to a request from Washington to block a shipment of a large quantity of graphite to Iran, deemed potentially useful to Tehran's missile programme and in December 2008 American diplomats asked Delhi to block the sale to Damascus of components that they feared would contribute to the development of chemical weapons.
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Wikileaks and Political Corruption
in Political Conspiracies
Posted
What Might Be Lurking in WikiLeaks' "Thermonuclear Device"?
January 18, 2011
http://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/2011/01/what-might-be-lurking-in-wikileaks.html
It appears increasingly likely that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will be extradited to Sweden and turned over to the United States for criminal charges of a dubious nature.
That brings heightened urgency to this question: What is contained in the "thermonuclear device" of government files that WikiLeaks has vowed to release if harm comes to the organization or its leader?
Little is known about the files that WikiLeaks possesses but has not released, so we can only make an educated guess. But a source tells Legal Schnauzer that the files could include information about Bush-era crimes, including political prosecutions, stolen elections, U.S. attorney firings, and more.
One hint came when Assange said in a recent interview that he has "insurance files" on Rupert Murdoch and his global media company, News Corporation. But we've seen signs that WikiLeaks' "big bomb" goes way beyond anything involving Rupert Murdoch.
The strongest insight we've seen came in a recent Time magazine profile of Assange in its Person of the Year issue. WikiLeaks, it turns out, obtained sensitive information by piggybacking on the work of Chinese hackers. Time explains:
The worst--or best, in the view of advocates for radical transparency--could be yet to come. John Young, a New York City architect who left the WikiLeaks steering committee after clashing with Assange, says the group members are storing "a lot more information underground than they are publishing on the surface." Some of it comes from a hacker-on-hacker sting in 2006, when data jockeys at WikiLeaks detected what they believed to be a large-scale intelligence operation to steal data from computers around the world. The intruders were using TOR, an anonymous browsing technology invented by the U.S. Navy, to tunnel into their targets and extract information. The WikiLeaks team piggybacked on the operation, recording the data stream in real time as the intruders stole it.
In an encrypted e-mail dated Jan. 7, 2007, decrypted and made available to TIME by its recipient, one of the participants boasted, "Hackers monitor chinese and other intel as they burrow into their targets, when they pull, so do we. Inxhaustible supply of material?... We have all of pre 2005 afghanistan. Almost all of india fed. Half a dozen foreign ministries. Dozens of political parties and consulates, worldbank, apec, UN sections, trade groups."
The theft scandalized some WikiLeaks insiders, and Assange has held back from publishing most of its fruits. But shortly before his arrest in London, he issued a veiled threat that "comes straight out of cypherpunk fiction," according to Christopher Soghoian, a well-known security researcher.
Last July, it turns out, as controversy erupted over its release of the Afghanistan war logs, WikiLeaks had posted, without explanation, a 1.4-gigabyte encrypted file called "insurance.aes256." Some 100,000 people around the world have downloaded it. On Dec. 3, Assange said in an online chat with readers of the Guardian newspaper that the file contains the entire diplomatic archive, most of which has yet to be released, and additional "significant material from the U.S. and other countries." He added, "If something happens to us, the key parts will be released automatically."
From a domestic standpoint, the most intriguing information might be the reference to "political parties" and "trade groups." Could that mean the Republican Party during the George W. Bush years? Could that be one reason GOP guru Karl Rove seems particularly determined to see that Assange is "hunted down"? Could "trade groups" include the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has been a powerful force in the GOP's electoral strategies.
Our source finds it particularly interesting that the WikiLeaks files were obtained on the backs of Chinese hackers. This brings to mind SMARTech, the Chattanooga-based company whose servers hosted 2004 presidential-election results for Ohio, plus Bush-administration e-mails that went outside of official White House channels.
According to several published reports, SMARTech CEO Jeff Averbeck has ties to Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and possibly has routed information through servers at those federal facilities. Says our source:
If I was working in Chinese intelligence, I think Oak Ridge Labs would be an inviting target for hacking. If SMARTech has used those lines, the Chinese might have obtained all kinds of information about stolen U.S. elections. I would want the NASA and TVA servers, as well, and who knows what the Chinese might have found there? With information about stolen elections and more, the Chinese could blackmail the U.S. government for about a century. I suspect Assange has stuff we haven't even thought of.
The next court date in Assange's extradition battle is February 7. Meanwhile, we can ponder these questions: Is it possible that WikiLeaks will force the U.S. government into rediscovering its conscience? Wouldn't it be ironic if we wind up having to thank Chinese hackers for helping to get our democracy back on track, to essentially save us from the criminality of the Bush years?