Sequel to Canada's Good Banks or Terminator 2: Judgement day

Julian Assange of Wikileaks fame, has just released the draft text of a secret, fifty country deal, to deregulate the banking industry. Dubbed the Trade in Services Agreement or TISA, the scheme would also allow the global sharing of our personal financial information.

It is said to be a push back against regulations imposed after the 2008 financial meltdown, when the public was forced to bail out the banks. If allowed to go through, it would set us up for a repeat performance.

Apparently Canada is one of the signatories.

This is not surprising.

Stephen Harper has always supported bank deregulation and often chided the Liberal government for being too cautious. We now know that it's a good thing they were. As Trish Hennessey says in her piece: The Quiet Erosion of Canada’s Regulation System:

Canada’s economy was shel­tered from the worst of the 2008 global economic meltdown because our bank regulations are tougher than they are in competing jurisdictions like the U.S. Fol­lowing our own high standards paid off, and protected Canadians from the eco­nomic devastation that brought entire nations such as Iceland and the U.S. to the brink of ruin.

Yet our federal government continues to quietly deregulate Canada. Our own Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, is warn­ing against strong regulatory practices. In a speech to the G20 in January 2010, Harper warned other nations against ‘ex­cessive’ financial regulations — a coun­terintuitive message, given strong regulations saved Canadians from the economic devastation our American counterparts are experiencing today.

And while there was a belief that made headlines, not only here but around the world, that Canada's banks did not require a bailout, many of us knew differently.

Finally, CBC revealed four years after the fact, that the Canadian public bailed out our banks for at least 114 billion dollars. This should have been a 2011 election issue, but few Canadians knew of it, primarily because our media has allowed the Harper government to write their own narrative.

Lending credence to Wikileaks report, as early as 2008, Ellen Gould revealed that the Harper government was pushing deregulation, not only in Canada, but everywhere.

On the international stage, Canada is a major proponent of financial liberalization.

At the WTO, Canada heads a group of delegations pressing developing countries to open their economies to the supposedly superior services of foreign financial institutions. The world's major financial conglomerates are claimed to have sophisticated risk management capabilities that can stabilize economies. You might think these days such a claim would not pass the laugh test, but that did not stop financial liberalization from being pushed at the WTO ministerial meeting held in July 2008.

The enormity of what's at stake in the WTO financial sector negotiations is revealed in a February 2006 bargaining request sent from Canada's Department of Finance to developing countries. Canada asked that foreign financial institutions be guaranteed rights to "establish new and acquire existing companies" in all financial sectors. This would mean among other things that countries would have to allow 100 per cent foreign ownership of their banks and insurance companies

... While successive Canadian governments have been strong advocates of financial liberalization, the unfolding financial crisis might have suggested now is the time to show a little caution and back off these WTO negotiating demands. Yet a WTO submission from Canada dated Dec. 5, 2007, berates other WTO members for their lack of "ambition" in the financial services negotiations. On behalf of the co-sponsors of the submission, Canada claimed: "further liberalization of financial services will help promote economic growth and improved standards of living for all WTO Members…"

It makes one wonder. just how bad would things have to get before the Harper government realizes further liberalizing the world's financial markets is not such a great idea?

Whether a great idea or not, it makes the existence of TISA not only possible, but probable.

This is something we should all be concerned about.

I mentioned before that I attended a luncheon where Canada's former Parliamentary Budget Officer, Keven Page, was the speaker.

Something he said still haunts me. When asked about Canada's economic outlook, he quipped that "from an airplane 40,000 feet above, our books look good."

It would appear that Harper is ready to throw us all out of that plane without a parachute.

What Will Harper Try to Give Away This Time in 'Buy America' Fix?

Obama's new job strategy once again includes a "Buy America" clause, specifically stating that unless there are savings of at least 25%, infrastructure projects must use only U.S. materials.

Last time this happened, Harper gave away the farm for a few ears of corn, making him the brunt of jokes. According to Wikileaks, members of the U.S. government involved in the deal would ask "so has he called today? What are we getting now? Ha, ha, ha."

And indeed the joke was on us.

However, after giving them so much last time, what do we have left? I heard that he's offering the Parliament Buildings, the CN Tower and an 8" x 10" autographed picture of himself with Pamela Sue Anderson. (his wall is full) They could just crop out his image.

We have to quit depending on the United States for our economic recovery. They are hurting themselves. We need a Canadian strategy and if this hurts our border security deal (that erases our borders), then maybe there's a God after all.

Harper's Arctic Winds Were Barely a Tropical Breeze

One of George Bush's last acts before leaving the White House was to lay claim to Arctic sovereignty.

One of the most expensive photo-ops charged to the Canadian taxpayer, was Stephen Harper's Arctic bluster.

But when the chest thumping settled, we learn through Wikileaks that it was nothing more than show.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper personally warned NATO’s secretary general to keep the alliance out of the Arctic or risk increasing tensions with Russia, according to “confidential” U.S. diplomatic cables obtained by APTN National News that also reveal American diplomats believe the prime minister is more bark than bite on northern sovereign.

This is a man who runs from his own people, do we really believe he would stand up to anyone he can't bully?

Little Johnny with a slingshot would probably have him wetting his pants.

The memos also reveal that any Arctic discussions were to be withheld until after the 2008 Canadian election, so that it didn't become an issue.

The US embassy cables also expose US concerns about Canada's territorial claims to the North West passage and to "seabed resources that extend to the edge of the continental shelf".

They show that in 2008 the US embassy in Ottawa asked Washington to delay a new presidential directive requiring "the United States to assert a more active and influential national presence to protect its Arctic interests". Officials were worried that if it was released before the Canadian federal election the Arctic would become a big election issue and "negatively impact US-Canadian relations". The directive was in fact delayed till after the Canadian election.

What other secrets are out there? Far too many I assume.

It's All About the Spin Baby. It's All About the Spin.

George Bush had included environmental concerns, as part of his 2000 election campaign, promising aggressive action to roll back carbon emissions.

Not long after being elected into office, his administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Christine Todd Whitman, announced: "This president is very sensitive to the issue of global warming.... There's no question but that global warming is a real phe­nomenon ...." (1)

I could have told the American people then that it was balderdash. Nonsense. Spin.

See, I live in Ontario and following politics, know who Christine Todd Whitman is. I should. She helped to inspire the neoconservative Common Sense Revolution of Mike Harris, that was indeed revolutionary, but totally lacking in sense, common or otherwise. It was just mean and short sighted.

But the Harris team worked with Republican strategist Mike Murphy, who had just come off a successful campaign for Whitman, as she became the freshly minted governor of New Jersey.

Whitman defeated a popular Democratic incumbent, Jim Florio, primarily on the basis of a Murphy-inspired campaign using a "common sense" slogan and pledging a 30 per cent tax cut. Since her victory, the activities of her government in implementing this plan had been carefully charted by Harris aide Bill King. In March 1994, Harris actually travelled to New Jersey to meet Whitman and discuss strategy. Two months later, the "Common Sense Revolution" with its 30 per cent tax cut was unveiled. (2)

You have to look at the big picture of neoconservatism. There are few traditional Republicans in the United States and few traditional Conservatives in Canada. Most are now part of a big tent. They move back and forth across the border, a border that they hope to soon erase, sharing strategy and war stories and feeding off each other.

Harper's Reform Party - Newt Gingrich

Reform Party- Mike Harris

Jason Kenney- Grover Norquist

Pierre Poilievre - Jim Sensenbrenner

Stephen Harper- George Bush, Frank Luntz, Art Finklestein (Nixon's former guru), etc., etc., etc.

There can be no Canadian sovereignty if neoconservatism has any chance of success. And we can have no environmental policy if it does succeed.

The Conservatives talk a good game, but simply using the right language is no guarantee that they will do what they say.

Bush's former treasury secretary, Paul O'Neill, had described ".. the threat of global warming as being equal to that of a nuclear holocaust. In 2001 a report from the nonpartisan National Acad­emy of Sciences concluded that carbon dioxide and other gases spewed from such man-made sources as factories, power plants, and motor vehicle exhaust pipes were indeed being trapped in the atmosphere and beginning to cause global warming. This study warned that global temperatures could rise anywhere from three to ten degrees Fahrenheit over the coming cen­tury, risking catastrophic damage around the globe." (1)

And yet Bush did more to reverse action to fight Global Warming than anyone before him. Stephen Harper now holds that dubious title, as he continues to sabotage any hopes of a binding international agreement.

So when WikiLeaks reveals that former environmental minister Jim Prentice, was "shocked" about how the world views the tar sands, I say"

Balderdash. Nonsense. Spin.

The gravity of Canada’s predicament first came clear to the respected cabinet minister during a trip to Bergen, Norway, where he attended a carbon capture and storage conference in late May, 2009. Norway, then in the run-up to a parliamentary election, was debating the involvement of government-owned Statoil in the Alberta oilsands, which had been deemed a source of “dirty oil.”

“As Prentice relayed it, the public sentiment in Norway shocked him and has heightened his awareness of the negative consequences to Canada’s historically ‘green’ standing on the world stage,” said a U.S. embassy cable that recounts the meeting.

This government knew full well how the world felt about the tar sands, and feigning ignorance just doesn't cut it. So when WikiLeaks also reveals that Prentice was going to "get tough" with the tar sands, I again say:

Balderdash. Nonsense. Spin.

Former environment minister Jim Prentice privately told U.S. Ambassador David Jacobson more than a year ago that he was prepared to impose new regulations on the oil sands if the industry and province did not improve their environmental performance, newly released Wikileaks documents reveal.

The WikiLeaks cable also hinted at "tensions between Prentice and Lisa Raitt. That's where the real story is. When the embarrassing tape of a conversation between Raitt and her aide, was made public, we discovered where Prentice's allegiances were:

Money earmarked to support wind energy producers was diverted to research and development in the oil patch in backroom budget wrangling, the minister of natural resources said in a conversation with an aide in January.Lisa Raitt told aide Jasmine MacDonnell that she suspects Environment Minister Jim Prentice took the money for wind power and redirected it to his Clean Energy Plan – a $1-billion fund for research and development in the oil sands.

The revelation is likely to intensify criticism of the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper as unfriendly to the environment.Mr. Prentice is the MP for Calgary-Centre North, home to much of Canada's oil industry. (3)

Like the Bush Administration, the Harper government says the right things, but then does the polar opposite.

I for one am sick of being played. How about you?

Sources:

1. The Book on Bush: How George W. (mis) Leads America, By Eric Alterman and Mark Green, Penguin Books, 2004, ISBN: 0-670-03273-5, Pg. 13-14

2. Hard Right Turn: The New Face of Neo-Conservatism in Canada, Brooke Jeffrey, Harper-Collins, 1999, ISBN: 0-00 255762-2 4, Pg. 166

3. Wind money given to oil producers instead, Raitt tape suggests, By Stephen Maher, Chronicle Herald, June 10, 2009

What Do Julian Assange's Love Letters Have to do With Anything?

News this week on the WikiLeaks front is the circulation of love letters written by founder Julian Assange, to a 19-year-old girl several years ago.

Apparently this means that he is not credible.

Last time I checked love sickness was not an incurable disease. But it does speak to how desperate his opponents are.

Assange could be in more serious trouble though as investigations are becoming more aggressive.

He has made a formidable enemy in the United States, who don't take kindly to the truth being revealed.

So stay tuned. Next week the Americans will be exposing Assange's grade school report cards. Apaprently he got an "F" for not playing nice with others.

The Stars Have Come Out in Support of Julian Assange

Many of the rich and famous are rallying around WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange and are contributing to his bail.

Movie directors, authors, journalists, and other renown individuals have offered to pay money from their own pockets to meet the £200,000 bail ordered by the court for the release of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, reported the British daily, The Telegraph, on Wednesday.

Among those who have offered to pay is famous film director Ken Loach who pledged 20,000 pounds, telling the Guardian, "“I think the work he has done has been a public service. I think we are entitled to know the dealings of those that govern us.” Novelist, historian and political commentator Tariq Ali also said he had offered a sum of money for the release of Assange in order to demonstrate his “solidarity”.

Michael Moore has also come through, and explains why he is doing it.

Yesterday, in the Westminster Magistrates Court in London, the lawyers for WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange presented to the judge a document from me stating that I have put up $20,000 of my own money to help bail Mr. Assange out of jail.

Furthermore, I am publicly offering the assistance of my website, my servers, my domain names and anything else I can do to keep WikiLeaks alive and thriving as it continues its work to expose the crimes that were concocted in secret and carried out in our name and with our tax dollars.

We were taken to war in Iraq on a lie. Hundreds of thousands are now dead. Just imagine if the men who planned this war crime back in 2002 had had a WikiLeaks to deal with. They might not have been able to pull it off. The only reason they thought they could get away with it was because they had a guaranteed cloak of secrecy. That guarantee has now been ripped from them, and I hope they are never able to operate in secret again.

He is doing a service, even if just reminding the media, that there is news out there. They just need to go after it.

A Little Competition in the Information Industry. Bring it On!

A new information site is opening on Monday, by an ex-employee of Julian Assange.

The more the merrier. It will be such a treat to us news hounds.

WikiLeaks soon won't be the only secret-spilling game in town. A former co-worker of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange plans to launch a rival website Monday called Openleaks that will help anonymous sources deliver sensitive material to public attention.

In a documentary by Swedish broadcaster SVT, to be aired Sunday and obtained in advance by The Associated Press, former WikiLeaks spokesman Daniel Domscheit-Berg said the new website will work as an outlet for anonymous
sources.

In the meantime, CBC has a searchable database.

A searchable database of unreleased Canadian cables.

And.

Enjoy.

WikiLeaks Stronger Than Ever Despite Founder's Troubles

WikiLeaks is not going away any time soon. With promises of revelations about Wall Street due out in the New Year, I imagine a few people are getting pretty nervous.

The army of cyber warriors are growing.

There are demonstrations everywhere.

The AVAAZ petition now has over 540,000 names and Assange's supporters are more motivated than ever.

The UK Guardian has great coverage. So much information, so little time.

A grassroots movement for freedom of the press. Gotta' love it.

Our Fight for Information Will Survive the Assault on Julian Assange

With the case against Julian Assange weakening, as at least one of his accusers appears to have backed down, we have been assured that even if Assange goes to prison, WikiLeaks will continue to keep citizens informed.

What is interesting, is the reaction to WikiLeaks and it's founder.

The governments' response is predictable, especially in the U.S., but Assange is quickly gaining a folk hero status.

As one letter in the London Independent confirms: Keep Assange From the Lynch Mob

The US wants to extradite Julian Assange from Sweden to try him for "espionage". Assange is not a terrorist, nor is he a spy. He is simply the founder of an organisation publishing information that not only embarrasses the US and its allies, but makes the public aware of how duplicitous our governments are. He cannot be charged or tried by any government on these grounds – unless of course we wish to see a return to Stalinist Russia or Nazi Germany.

The hysterical reaction to WikiLeaks and its very careful release of information is worrying. More than one high-profile person in the US and elsewhere have voiced their desire to see Assange killed. One would hope that Britain does not support assassination. It certainly doesn't support the death penalty, but, that aside, this country should not and cannot legally be party to "rendering" Assange to Sweden in the knowledge that he will then be sent to the US, where he could face assassination or execution.

His army continues to grow, made up of people from all ages and social strata, including a 16-year-old, recently arrested for hacking into the MasterCard site.

The root cause of this war is corporate media and the silencing of journalists. If that climate did not exist, we would never have heard of Julian Assange, and he would never have felt the need to go to such lengths to inform the global public.

And this bloodless war will not end until we once again have a free flow of information.

The media inadvertently created this folk hero, and now they have no idea how to control him, without drawing attention to their own failings.

"There are only two forces that can carry light to all the corners of the globe... the sun in the heavens and the Associated Press down here." - Mark Twain

I Just Cancelled my Sun Media Newspaper and I Feel so Empowered

After complaining every day about the content of the Kingston Whig Standard, after being taken over by Sun Media, I decided to finally do something about it.

I called them this morning and cancelled my subscription.

After buying the paper for 38 years, I simply can no longer justify giving them any more of my money.

I'm too techno-challenged to do any hacking for WikiLeaks, but in my own small way, I feel like I'm part of the army, even if just a humble messenger.

A revolution against corporate media and secretive governments. Ironically, it used to be the media who exposed government secrets. Now they simply help to keep them.

I've had it. I'm done.

It's not bad enough that the Whig via Sun is bringing the likes of Ezra Levant and Peter Worthington into my home, but they are now complicit in an assault on CBC. Canadians only voice.

And the horrible Dean Del Mastro, the man I call Shrek's evil twin, is now musing about completely defunding our only chance at any semblance of unbiased reporting.

AVAAZ has a petition to save WikiLeaks. Please sign it.

WE CAN DO THIS. A change is coming.

Take a stand. Cancel your corporate newspaper.

If There is a Cyberwar Julian Assange Didn't Start It!

On the dust jacket of the book Rupert, by William Shawcross, there is a brief description of the rise to power of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, the man behind Fox News and our own Fox News North.

From Shawcross: "One Man Has Built an Information Empire That Stretches Around the Earth-from Adelaide [Australia] to Hollywood. Now he Stands at the Threshold of Unprecedented Global Power":

Admire or fear him, you can't ignore Rupert Murdoch. Chances are, no matter where you are, he influences your life through his newspapers, magazines or TV network. He is perhaps the world's most successful businessman, a baron of the global village—and his power is growing every day ... In a brief time, Murdoch has transformed himself from the owner of a single newspaper in an Australian backwater to the titan of News, one of the world's largest, most sophisticated communications empires. Of the six international media giants (Time Warner, Sony, Bertelsmann, Berlusconi, Disney and News), only News is owned and controlled by one man. Only News stretches completely around the earth. And only News has Murdoch, the tycoon whose life has been, in the words of Shawcross, "an unending assault upon the world ... a series of interlocking wars" ... always buying and trading for more power.

Those words were written more than a decade ago and since then Murdoch's media kingdom has only gotten bigger and more powerful.

And before he decided to move into Canada to poison our political atmosphere, we already had Conrad Black and Izzy Asper.

Connie was behind much of the success of the neoconservative movement. After buying up most of the Canadian media, he used people like Mark Steyn and David Frum to shift it to the right. Stephen Harper was also an invited scribe, in an attempt to persuade Canadians that wealthy people only had our best interests at heart.

He also directly promoted Stockwell Day, even allowing Ezra Levant to hold fundraisers for Day at his house. Meanwhile, he himself, hosted $1000.00 a plate dinners, where Day was able to schmooze those who could afford to pay $1000.00 for a meal.

In Trevor Harrison's book; Requiem for a Lightweight: Stockwell Day and Image Politics, he discusses how the media created Day, and "explores the growing problem of rational democractic politics in an age of celebrity, image, and instant culture".

Izzy Asper was very much behind Stephen Harper and the Reform party, even writing some of the party's policy, in exchange for throwing the massive weight of Canwest Global behind the man.

Which brings us to Julian Assange.

He has captured the public's imagination in a way that few have been able to. It's a David and Goliath story, as he is standing against the media moguls, whose primary goal is to spin, contrive and poison.

And he is amassing an army of the willing, who with simple slingshots have taken down Visa and MasterCard, and are ready to topple more, even if only for a few hours.

The India Economic Times describes this army, who call themselves Anonymous.

While most countries have ploughed much more attention and resources into cyber security in recent years, most of the debate has focused on the threat from militant groups such as al Qaeda or mainstream state on state conflict. But attempts to silence WikiLeaks after the leaking of some 250,000 classified State Department cables seem to have produced something rather different -- something of a popular rebellion amongst hundreds or thousands of tech-savvy activists. "The first serious infowar is now engaged," former Grateful Dead lyricist, founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation John Perry Barlow told his followers on Twitter last week.

"The field of battle is WikiLeaks. You are the troops." Some of the more militant elements on the Internet clearly took him at his word. A group calling itself Anonymous put the quote at the top of a webpage entitled "Operation Avenge Assange", referring to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange .

And in Australia, the native son [Rupert coincidentally is also from Australia], has tongues wagging and pride showing:

At a start of the year, I dare say relatively few of Julian Assange's compatriots would even have heard of the Queenslander who founded Wikileaks. Twelve months on, however, he is rivalling Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman for the unofficial title of the world's most famous Australian. Clearly, he is the most talked about and consequential. This week his face peers out from the cover of Time magazine, always a useful measure of global significance.

Is this really the start of a rebellion against corporate media and American Imperialism, now that it has been exposed in all of it's ugliness?

A source of comfort for those of us suffering from a news deficiency? Who are tired of spin and media created politicians?

If it is, it's been a long time coming.

Julian Assange and the Revenge of the Muckrakers

The term Muckrakers was first used by Theodore Roosevelt to describe a group of investigative journalists, who exposed the ailments of society, from dirty working conditions to dirty politicians.

They did what was necessary to get their stories, meeting sources in back allies and risking bodily harm if caught.

Later 'Muckrakers' became 'Newsmongers', with the same commitment to ferreting out the story.

Today's media moguls don't encourage muckraking (unless it's against the stars). Rupert Murdoch of Fox News fame, even went so far as to say that Watergate should never have been exposed. Clearly he would have killed the story.

Then along came Julian Assange. I don't think anyone has ever done so much to protect the free flow of information as this man.

They've thrown everything at him. PayPal, Amazon, Visa and Mastercard, but he's still standing and the news continues to flow.

His arrest has only made him a martyr to the cause and his fans are increasing.

The people's revenge to corporate media.

Johann Hari at the Huffington Post says Julian Assange Has Made Us All Safer -- and Been a Great Gift to US National Security:

Every one of us owes a debt to Julian Assange. Thanks to him, we now know that our governments are pursuing policies that place you and your family in considerably greater danger. It's only because of his leaks that we know the US government has secretly launched war on yet another Muslim country, sanctioned torture, kidnapped innocent people from the streets of free countries and intimidated the police into hushing it up, and covered up the killing of 15,000 civilians -- five times the number killed on 9/11. Each one of these acts has increased the number of jihadis. We can only change these policies if we know about them --and Assange has given us the black-and-white proof.

My hero.

Attention Assangenites! Our Leader Has Been Arrested But All is Not Lost.

Hee, hee. My bad.

I think we could create a cult. I've never been in a cult before. Heck, it might be fun.

Assange has been arrested, but thousands of volunteers will keep the leaks leaking, and he has enormous support.

As one of his financial backers claimed recently:

"I was prepared to do it (offer £20,000 as surety) because there was a possibility of an injustice being perpetrated against Julian Assange personally. He has been a doing the job of a journalist and he deserves the support of people who believe that the free flow of information is the bedrock of a democracy."

The free flow of information as the bedrock of democracy. Proof that Harper's suppression of information is an attempt to destroy democracy.

"As the World Spirals". A New Global Soap Opera

Critics are calling WikiLeaks a soap opera. It's "gossipy" some say. Nothing to see here.

If that's the case, why are they so afraid of Julian Assange?

The Jerusalem Post claims: In the name of decency and democracy, the founder of WikiLeaks is holding the world hostage.

I prefer to think that the world was held hostage by embedded journalists, used to sell the war, not report on it; and media outlets who do more to suppress information than reveal it.

Canadians and Americans in particular, who have been suffering from a news deficiency, are turning to WikiLeaks as the only purveyor of truth.

ABC calls WikiLeaks a blueprint for things to come:

The inner processes of statecraft have never been so completely exposed as they have been in the last week. The nation state has been revealed as some sort of long-running and unintentionally-comic soap opera. She doesn’t like him; he doesn’t like them; they don’t like any of us! Oh, and she’s been scouting around for DNA samples and your credit card number. You know, just in case.

None of it is very pretty, all of it is embarrassing, and the embarrassment extends well beyond the state actors - who are, after all, paid to lie and dissemble, this being one of the primary functions of any government - to the complicit and compliant news media, think tanks and all the other camp followers deeply invested in the preservation of the status quo. Formerly quiet seas are now roiling, while everyone with any authority everywhere is doing everything they can to close the gaps in the smooth functioning of power. They want all of this to disappear and be forgotten. For things to be as if WikiLeaks never was.

The concentration of corporate media, designed to manipulate public opinion, has been broken. For those of us frustrated with lack of viable information, we are overjoyed. Our cup is overflowing.

And guess what? We're smart enough to sort through the gossip and decide for ourselves what is important and what is not. The media should be doing the same thing, instead of attempting to spin the story to minimize the political damage.

Arthur Brisbane in the New York Times asks: What if the Secrets Stayed Secret?

The image of Mr. Assange as ringmaster is deeply disturbing, especially since he seems to so relish his worldwide notoriety. The image of great news organizations as performers in the ring, though, is even more alarming to me. These are what some would view as the journalistic “problems” of this latest chapter in the WikiLeaks story: The exposed secret cables seem to threaten what little stability there is in the world. Extreme damage control by the United States is now urgently needed across a broad diplomatic front. And, to cap it off, many view the episode as an exercise in master manipulation of the news media by someone whose aims are obscure.

As unsettling as these issues are, it is appropriate to take a deep breath and consider the alternative. What if, instead of publishing what it knew, The Times had chosen to pass on WikiLeaks’s 250,000-plus secret documents? What if The Times had mulled it all over and determined that the release of such sensitive information would endanger the government’s efforts to advance American interests in the world, and so concluded reluctantly that the newspaper would have to suppress the story?

Journalistic “problems” notwithstanding, it’s simply inconceivable that The Times would choose this path. The Times, like other serious news organizations in democracies, exists to ferret out and publish information — most especially information that government, business and other power centers prefer to conceal. Arming readers with knowledge is what it’s about, and journalists are motivated to pursue that end.

'Arming readers with knowledge is what it’s about, and journalists are motivated to pursue that end.' Do you hear that Canwest, Sun, Globe and Mail, and all the others who have been complicit in stifling rather than reporting the news?

Look over here. It's us. Your former readers who now have to look elsewhere for content and substance. Who have now joined the ranks of the Assangenites (cool word, huh?) and given up on you.

So to my "comrades" (hee, hee), enjoy the updates. And to our so-called media: read 'em and weep.

Julian Assange Upset With Harper Pal Flanagan's Comments

Canada gets another black eye as Stephen Harper's mentor, Tom Flanagan suggested last week that WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, should be assassinated.

Dimitri Soudas is trying to distance his boss from the man, but Tom Flanagan has had a great deal of influence on Harper and has contributed far more to the success of the reform movement than just about anyone else in the party.

... in an online question-and-answer session with the U.K.-based Guardian newspaper Friday, Assange was asked how he felt about Flanagan's remarks that he thought U.S. President Barack Obama should put a contract out on him. "It is correct that Mr. Flanagan and the others seriously making these statements should be charged with incitement to commit murder," Assange replied.

And others at the University of Calgary are demanding that he be reprimanded.

At least 35 alumni of the University of Calgary, where Flanagan teaches political science, signed a letter posted online asking university president Elizabeth Cannon to "condemn Dr. Flanagan in the harshest possible terms" and to censure him for damaging the reputation of the school and its alumni. The letter's author is Kris Kotarski, a 29-year-old writer and editor who pens a biweekly column for the Calgary Herald.

Maybe it's time to dust off that Firewall Letter and remind Canadians just who Stephen Harper really is.

State Department Tells Employees: Shaddap You Face

In Russia today, government employees were ...

No wait.

In Cuba today, government employees were ....

No wait.

In China today, government employees were ...

Hmmm ..... Really?

I guess it was actually in the land of the free and the home of the brave where students and government employees were told not to read or pass on WikiLeak documents.

Otherwise they may never be seen or heard from again.

Democracy Now has some great updates.

WikiLeaks Must be Protected as the Only Record of Our History

I mentioned in an earlier post, a man by the name of Don Brown. He would be the first non-American to be recognized by the Pulitzer Prize committee, because of his fight for freedom of the press.

He worked during the days of William Aberhart, the Social Credit premier of Alberta. This party was the predecessor to Reform and subsequently, the Conservative Party of Canada.

In 1935, Aberhart had put into place The Accurate News and Information Act, and according to Time Magazine:

Without crudely borrowing the name of Germany's "Ministry of Propaganda & Public Enlightenment," Premier Aberhart announced that Alberta Government news will hereafter be "dished out in platters" by a bureau with exclusive monopoly of statements from the Premier & Cabinet so that ''there will be no more scoops." (1)

Brown ignored this arbitrary law and continued to do what journalists do. He reported the truth. He would be jailed, stalked, and threatened with physical violence, but he stuck to it, and so did many others.

The Supreme Court eventually overturned this measure as being unconstitutional.

Don Brown, the reporter who led the charge and his paper, the Edmonton Journal were awarded a bronze plaque from the Pulitzer Prize committee, the first time it honoured a non-American newspaper. And ninety-five other papers, including the Calgary Albertan, Edmonton Bulletin, Calgary Herald, Lethbridge Herald, and Medicine Hat News, were presented with engraved certificates. (2)

At the same time in Germany, journalists were not so lucky. Much like today in this country, they were told what to write and if they went off script, lost their jobs. Some were even imprisoned.

Recently in Canada, Greg Weston was fired from The Sun for exposing the Fake Lake story, and Rick Salutin from the Globe and Mail for reminding Canadians that Stephen Harper was a Straussian. And at the G-20 weekend from hell, journalists were targeted, beaten and arrested.

Canadian Heather Mallick wrote of her ordeal, after angering Fox News, reminding us of how horrible Fox News North will be. Her story is worth a read, especially if you don't believe that progressive journalists are being victimized.

I wanted to share something else, about our lack of media in Canada (less than 1% now independent) Ruth Andreas-Friedrich was a journalist in Nazi Germany. She would belong to a small group of Germans who worked throughout the regime, harbouring and securing safe passage for Jewish refugees and "enemies of the state".

In her journal, she speaks of what it was like for her, having to measure every word.

It's a queer thing. Every day millions of pounds of printed paper go rolling out of this building, vomiting a torrent of National Socialist propaganda over mankind. And yet there's hardly one person under our roof who agrees with what he writes, sets, prints, edits, or carries from office to office. As long as the walls have no ears, people mutter by two's or in small groups behind every door.

The few hundred-percenters are known; they are toadied to—and shunned. People warn you of them, stop talking or change the subject whenever they come into the room. And no one dares tell them to their faces what he thinks, what is bothering him, and what he trembles at. Those among us with acrobatic consciences hold the view that anyone with eyes cannot help reading between the lines how fiercely our pens rebel at writing down the prescribed lies.

I can't help myself. I don't see anything between the lines. If there's any pulse in them at all, it's certainly no more than the beat of a chicken heart. But after all, where is courage to come from when it will cost you your neck to show any? (3)

I am absolutely appalled by our newspapers today and the stories they miss. I have to read the UK Guardian and the New York Times, among others, to learn what's happening in Canada.

I've often wondered if journalists are embarrassed by their work now. If they see it as a "torrent of propaganda", or if they have just become desensitized.

They write only what the government allows them to write.

Not that we don't have some very good journalists in Canada, but they are becoming a dying breed.

And this is why we need to protect WikiLeaks. Julian Assange is a wanted man because he is documenting history. That used to be the job of the journalist. Don Brown knew that and so did Ruth Andreas-Friedrich.

Why WikiLeaks will not be silenced

Shadowy government agencies around the world are probably scratching their heads this morning, as they try to come up with yet another way of silencing WikiLeaks, the whistleblowing website that delights in publishing confidential documents and briefing notes, to the great embarrassment and irritation of those in authority.

The site is showing remarkable resilience. Despite being under constant distributed denial of service attacks that are resulting in intermittent availability, Wikileaks has survived being kicked off Amazon’s servers (after alleged pressure from the US government), and having support for its domain name withdrawn by its provider.

It will take more than that to put Julian Assange off his stride. Wikileaks has simply moved its services to Switzerland, Sweden and France, and remains, for the most part, up and running.

Say YES to WikiLeaks. Say NO to Fox News North.

Sources:

1. Social Credit Improved, Time Magazine, September 16, 1935

2. The Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of Social Credit in Alberta, By John J. Barr, McClelland and Stewart Limited, ISBN 077101015X, Pg. 112-113

3. Berlin Underground: 1938-1945, By Ruth Andreas-Friedrich, Henry Holt and Company, 1947, Pg. 7

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.

Ezra Levant Also Wants Julian Assange Dead

Ezra Levant reminds me of the Energizer Bunny ... on crack.

I swear if there was ever a better poster child for ADD, I'd hate to meet them. But this purveyor of nonsense is at it again.

According to Eric Mang: Ezra Levant wondering why Assange not dead

The Ottawa Sun published a bilious, vile piece by Ezra Levant. Levant is known for saying provocative, lacking-in-fact statements. Contrarians challenge the status quo, knock down prevailing opinions and the brilliant ones do so with erudition and an examination of evidence. Levant is no contrarian.

The opening line of his op-ed screed asks, rather airily: "Why isn't Julian Assange dead yet?" He goes on to paint Assange, founder of Wikileaks, as being on the "other side" and declares that Assange is "anti-American". Levant, like many others of his ilk, seek to silence dissent by careful application of "anti". Levant spends the remainder of his venomous column issuing pointless "facts" about Assange's childhood.

This after Harper mentor Tom Flanagan, was suggesting that the man be assassinated. (Assange not Levant) Be sure to views the video below with Assange speaking of how the world needs these WikiLeaks. I couldn't agree more.

A few related stories:

US envoy hopes WikiLeaks leaks won't hit Pakistan ties

WikiLeaks has claimed that the US and Britain had deep concerns about Pakistan's nuclear capability falling into wrong hands and the country had refused requests for inspection visits from the US and Britain.

Noam Chomsky: WikiLeaks Cables Reveal "Profound Hatred for Democracy on the Part of Our Political Leadership"

In 1971, Chomsky helped government whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg release the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret internal U.S. account of the Vietnam War. Commenting on the revelations that several Arab leaders are urging the United States to attack Iran, Chomsky says, "latest polls show] Arab opinion holds that the major threat in the region is Israel, that’s 80 percent; the second threat is the United States, that’s 77 percent. Iran is listed as a threat by 10 percent," Chomsky says. "This may not be reported in the newspapers, but it’s certainly familiar to the Israeli and U.S. governments and the ambassadors. What this reveals is the profound hatred for democracy on the part of our political leadership."

"We Have Not Seen Anything Yet": Guardian Editor Says Most Startling WikiLeaks Cables Still To Be Released

"In the coming days, we are going to see some quite startling disclosures about Russia, the nature of the Russian state, and about bribery and corruption in other countries, particularly in Central Asia," says Investigations Executive Editor David Leigh at the Guardian, one of the three newspapers given advanced access to the secret U.S. embassy cables by the whistleblower website, WikiLeaks.

Harper’s ‘political trouble’ prompted last-minute D-Day invitation: WikiLeaks

It's no secret French President Nicolas Sarkozy wanted to keep last year's D-Day commemoration a Franco-American event, leaving out countries that sent thousands of soldiers to fight the Nazis on the beaches of Normandy. Now, leaked U.S. diplomatic cables suggest political crises in Canada and Britain, not their sacrifices during the war, were behind the last-minute invitations for Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Britain's then-prime minister Gordon Brown.

WikiLeaks: India declines comment, defends U.S. ties

India on Tuesday said it has a multi-faceted and forward-looking strategic partnership with the U.S. and there was a regular, open and candid dialogue between the two countries. While reacting to release of diplomatic cables by whistle-blower Website WikiLeaks, the Ministry of External Affairs said, “We would prefer not to comment on the issue of Wikileaks, which purportedly are an account of privileged internal U.S. government assessments and correspondence.

Leaked files: North Korea over by 2018

South Korean top government officials have told the United States that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il was unlikely to live beyond 2015, and predicted that the reclusive regime will collapse within three years after his death, according to the Web site WikiLeaks. In an official U.S. telegram disclosed by WikiLeaks on Monday, South Korea's Unification Minister Hyun In Taek told U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell on July 20 last year that although Kim Jong Il remained firmly in control of the regime for now, he was unlikely to live beyond 2015.

WikiLeaks: Demystifying “Diplomacy”

Compared to the kind of secret cables that WikiLeaks has just shared with the world, everyday public statements from government officials are exercises in make-believe. In a democracy, people have a right to know what their government is actually doing. In a pseudo-democracy, a bunch of fairy tales from high places will do the trick.

Don't you love this?

The Man Behind Stephen Harper Calls for the Assassination of Wikileaks Director

The neocons must really be worried about what could come out in these leaks, when the man behind Stephen Harper, Tom Flanagan, calls for an assassination.

I realize this was an off the cuff remark, but it speaks through panic.

He appeared to be a little off his game.

There are calls for his removal from the University of Calgary where he teaches. You can contact that university's president, Elizabeth Cannon, by phone 403-220-5617 or
email: president@ucalgary.ca

Could these leaks cause a war? Not likely. Not one already planned at any rate. The feelings of the Arabs may be news to us, but they are fully aware of how they feel about each other. This is only validation.