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28 Jan 2011 02:12

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World: Three interesting findings from Wikileaks’ Egypt-focused cables

  • tactics Obama’s people have tended to be harsher about Egypt in private than in public, a change from the more critical Bush years.
  • blogs While the Egyptian government claims they don’t block free speech, they may be forced to act when “people are offended by blogs.”
  • torture Diplomats noted one case where a number of detainees were both shocked and deprived of sleep, making them zombie-like. source
  • » Obama’s not-very-harsh words: It’s clear that Obama’s comments on Egypt, made during a YouTube town-hall style thingy, try to tow that public/private line noted above. “I’ve always said to him that making sure that they are moving forward on reform – political reform, economic reform – is absolutely critical to the long-term well-being of Egypt,” Obama said. “And you can see these pent-up frustrations that are being displayed on the streets.” Dear Obama administration: There’s a point where a chummy relationship doesn’t work anymore.

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