The Vultures are Circling as Amazon Drops WikiLeaks from Their Site

Some want him assassinated. Others just want him dead.

Julian Assange of WikiLeaks fame is a marked man, and the first to take shot at him is Amazon, who have dropped WikiLeaks from their site.

I just dropped Amazon from mine.

A bit more news from the WikiLeaks front:

Putin: Russia Still U.S. Partner Despite Leaked Cables

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin defended his country's progress in democracy and affirmed its cooperation with Washington in a wide-ranging interview. Putin told CNN that Russia is cooperating with the United States on key issues related to the Iranian and North Korean nuclear programs.

Putin May Have Offered Berlusconi a Share of Energy Deals, WikiLeaks Says

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin may have promised his Italian counterpart Silvio Berlusconi a percentage of profits on projects developed by OAO Gazprom with Eni SpA, a U.S. diplomatic cable posted on WikiLeaks.org shows. “The Georgian ambassador in Rome has told us” that his government “believes Putin has promised Berlusconi a percentage of profits from any pipelines developed by Gazprom in coordination with Eni,” U.S. Ambassador Ronald P. Spogli said in a cable sent on Jan. 26, 2009, according to the leaked document.

WikiLeaks cables: Berlusconi 'profited from secret deals' with Putin

US diplomats have reported startling suspicions that Silvio Berlusconi could be "profiting personally and handsomely" from secret deals with the Russian prime minister, Vladimir Putin, according to cables released by WikiLeaks. Exasperated by Berlusconi's pro-Russian behaviour, American embassy staff detail allegations circulating in Rome that the Italian leader has been promised a cut of huge energy contracts. The two men are known to be personally close, but this is the first time allegations of a financial link have surfaced.

The WikiLeaks Cables: Small Revelations That May Cause a Big Idea to Take Hold

Let's start with what the U.S. embassy cables released by WikiLeaks this weekend are not. They are not, as Hillary Clinton claimed, "an attack on America's foreign policy interests" that have endangered "innocent people." And they are not, as Robert Gibbs put it, a "reckless and dangerous action" that puts at risk "the cause of human rights." And they do not amount to what the Italian foreign minister, in one of the sorrier moments in the history of hyperbole (or is it hysteria?), deemed the "September 11 of world diplomacy.

WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Tells TIME: Hillary Clinton 'Should Resign'

Hillary Clinton, Julian Assange said, "should resign." Speaking over Skype from an undisclosed location on Tuesday, the WikiLeaks founder was replying to a question by TIME managing editor Richard Stengel over the diplomatic-cable dump that Assange's organization loosed on the world this past weekend. Stengel had said the U.S. Secretary of State was looking like "the fall guy" in the ensuing controversy, and had asked whether her firing or resignation was an outcome that Assange wanted. "I don't think it would make much of a difference either way," Assange said. "But she should resign if it can be shown that she was responsible for ordering U.S. diplomatic figures to engage in espionage in the United Nations, in violation of the international covenants to which the U.S. has signed up. Yes, she should resign over that."

WikiLeaks cables, day 4: summary of today's key points

Regardless of what is taking place in his personal life, Assange is performing a vital public service. He is allowing history to be properly written, rather than spun by our right-wing media.