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23 Oct 2010 18:49

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World: Julian Assange: Wikileaks leader’s quirks add to his work’s appeal

  • They called me the James Bond of journalism. It got me a lot of fans, and some of them ended up causing me a bit of trouble.
  • Wikileaks founder Julian Assange • Making a pretty frank admission about his whole legal situation in Sweden, where he’s wanted on rape and molestation charges. Assange brought an even larger set of documents to the public eye Friday, revealing 391,832 secret documents yesterday, a leak more than five times as large as the recent Afghan War documents leak, which led to Bradley Manning’s detainment. Regarding Manning, who Assange has been matter-of-fact about in the past, he had something much weightier to say: “We have a duty to assist Mr. Manning and other people who are facing legal and other consequences.” Assange is a complex figure, perhaps one of the most interesting news figures around. And in his own weird way, he’s an essential part of the news right now. Even if some of his styles are questionable, some of the best journalism comes from these experimental methods. Ten years from now, Christian Bale should be all over this role. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 Sep 2010 20:31

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World: WikiLeaks leaders to Julian Assange: Step down, brah

  • I am not angry with Julian, but this is a situation that has clearly gotten out of hand. These personal matters should have nothing to do with WikiLeaks. I have strongly urged him to focus on the legalities that he’s dealing with and let some other people carry the torch.
  • Wikileaks organizer Birgitta Jonsdottir • Offering some insight into the Wikieaks organization’s stance on their leader. Short answer: They want him out, and have been pushing him to quit for two weeks. Jonsdottir, who also serves in Iceland’s parliament, has a pretty solid sum-up of the public face of Wikileaks at the end of this Daily Beast article: “Julian is brilliant in many ways, but he doesn’t have very good social skills. And he’s a classic Aussie in the sense that he’s a bit of a male chauvinist.” Ahahahaha, oh boy. TechCrunch suggests that Assange’s personal problems don’t make him a good leader. Hm. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Sep 2010 23:47

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Politics: Julian Assange: A yo-yo in the Swedish legal system

  • The rape investigation against Assange? Back on. Wikileaks has had a bit of trouble in the past two weeks with this whole Julian Assange thing. As more details have leaked to the press, it’s become clear that there may be something there, though many supporters will debate that fact. But why push rape charges, unpush them and then push them again? It just leads to inconsistency and damages the case in the public eye. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Aug 2010 21:20

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World: Wikileaks sex case: Did Julian Assange simply start getting creepy?

  • It is quite wrong that we were afraid of him. He is not violent and I do not feel threatened by him. The responsibility for what happened to me and the other girl lies with a man who had attitude problems with women.
  • One of Julian Assange’s anonymous accusers • Regarding the situation that led to the quickly-rescinded rape charges against the Wikileaks founder. The Guardian cites sources close to one of the women that claim the issue cropped up because Assange disagreed about condom use with the women, not because he was acting in a non-consensual manner. Gawker has named one of the women, but we won’t do the same here. That said, if that’s what happened (instead of a conspiracy, as Wikileaks has claimed), that’s pretty creepy. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 7 Comments • Permalink

21 Aug 2010 12:02

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World: Well, that was fast: Rape charges dropped against Wikileaks founder

  • 6 the number of hours that the stupid case had big media play source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Aug 2010 11:43

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World: “Dirty Tricks” or the real thing?: Julian Assange’s sex-assault charges

  • We were warned to expect ‘dirty tricks’. Now we have the first one.
  • Julian Assange • Regarding the arrest warrant against him on rape and molestation charges in Sweden. Whether or not this is true, the timing of all this seems awful strange, right? In case you’re wondering whether or not Wikileaks will be able to go on without its fearless leader, this statement should warm your heart: “While Julian is focusing on his defenses and clearing his name, WikiLeaks will be continuing its regular operations,” according to a post on Wikileaks’ Web site. (Update: Actually, it appears to have been dirty tricks. The charges were totally dropped against Assange, making this a hyperspeed false rape accusation.) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

08 Aug 2010 22:47

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U.S.: Wikileaks: Bradley Manning has a lot of friends on the outside

Bradley Manning has tons of supporters, and all of them look like nerds and conspiracy theorists. We mean that in the nicest way possible. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

25 Jul 2010 20:47

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Politics: Why Wikileaks does what it does – even if people don’t like it

  • We believe that transparency in government activities leads to reduced corruption, better government and stronger democracies. All governments can benefit from increased scrutiny by the world community, as well as their own people. We believe this scrutiny requires information.
  • A note on the Wikileaks Web site • Noting why they do what they do, despite the controversy it creates. Let’s face it. They’re very self-promotional. They know how to get their name out there. And they want to get a message out there. The message this time? “[The leak] shows not only the severe incidents but the general squalor of war, from the death of individual children to major operations that kill hundreds,” said Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Jun 2010 10:36

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U.S.: The reported source of that crazy Wikileaks video is in custody

  • Hillary Clinton, and several thousand diplomats around the world are going to have a heart attack when they wake up one morning, and find an entire repository of classified foreign policy is available, in searchable format, to the public.
  • SPC Bradley Manning • Regarding some of the documents he sent to Wikileaks. Manning was arrested two weeks ago for reportedly leaking a number of documents to the site, most notably this video, in which a number of innocent civilians are killed in a helicopter attack. Manning was turned in by a hacker, and has not been charged yet. But holy crap. This guy gave Julian Assange and his boys a lot of classified info. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

14 Apr 2010 11:23

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Politics: Stephen Colbert briefly drops out of character, hits Wikileaks hard

  • In this interview with the founder of Wikileaks, Stephen Colbert rips into the guy pretty hard around the 3 minute mark. He notes that the clip was called “Collateral Murder,” which offers a political angle to something he’s trying to push objectively. Colbert quickly drops back into his persona, but the effect is pretty impressive.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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