I found the WikiLeaks dump interesting but not very surprising. The biggest news was how much Arab countries want us to attack Iran, but I already suspected that might be the case. But I am surprised (though I probably shouldn’t be) by the ferocity of the neocon attacks on Assange:
“Why can’t we use our various assets to harass, snatch or neutralize Julian Assange and his collaborators, wherever they are? Why can’t we disrupt and destroy WikiLeaks in both cyberspace and physical space, to the extent possible?” Kristol writes.
I don’t know what neutralize means here, but I’m guessing it means assassinate. And snatch presumably means kidnap.
Forgetting for a moment about whether one thinks WikiLeaks is good or bad for the world how could anyone fail to see what awful PR it would be for the US to kidnap or assassinate Assange right now? The worst I’ve heard about the recent document dump is that it makes the US “look bad”. How much worse would it look if the CIA grabbed or shot Assange?
This is so dumb I can’t wrap my head around it.
Cris
By the standards set in previous discussions, your very mention of assassinating Assange implies your endorsement of it.
DougJ
@Cris:
?
Shade Tail
DougJ:
Of course it’s dumb. It was written by William “the bloody” Kristol.
Napoleon
This is from the people who thought invading Iraq was a good idea when IMO anyone with a brain could see it was a ver bad idea.
Mudge
It is compound stupidity. Each stupid act or statement reinforces the next stupid act or statement.
Cris
@DougJ: Sorry. I’m just thinking of the earlier conversations (here, at dKos, and undoubtedly elsewhere) when Doughy Pantload asked “why hasn’t Assange been offed yet?” and everybody took it as an endorsement.
I mean, I really *really* hate to find myself defending JG, but he wasn’t calling for Assange’s disappearance, he was expressing surprise that it hadn’t happened.
Joseph Nobles
It’s not about assassinating Assange. It’s about making Obama look weak and take all the blame.
Calouste
Harass? That’s already happening
Midnight Marauder
I think you would better understand Kristol’s sentence if it was written in his natural conservative language.
And so forth, apropos, as such, etc.
cyntax
Alright, couldn’t tell from the hyperlink which neocon it was so went and looked (never get off the boat), and I’ll be if the “harass, snatch, or neutralize” wasn’t our very special Bill Kristol. I think he might be a bit peeved he didn’t place higher on Slate’s hack list.
But come on, that’s not surprising. I mean this guy is the original war fetishizer. Obviously the thought of renditioning Assange gives ole short bus Billy a boner (not insult anyone who actually takes said bus).
General Stuck
Not me. Assange is an anarchist and is thoroughly antithetical to what neocons and conservatives value most. Power and Control. And in the realm of governance and interactions of world governments, that is usually defined as state authority.
He is actually, imo, the natural and even quintessential enemy of the neocon wingnut, as is his sole mission to indiscriminately defeat the existence of state authority. I wasn’t sure about this until this recent release, but there it is.
The rest of us pragmatic souls of nuance are left to suffer both their enormous egos and eternal tugs of war.
Nellcote
Why don’t Wingers just put Blackwate/XE on retainer and get on with it?
JenJen
Just wait until the next doc drop early in 2011, when we get to find out exactly how wretched and evil the banks really are. I mean, I’ve read enough Taibbi to already be thoroughly convinced of this, but I have a feeling that we’ve only scratched the surface.
I’m kind of looking forward to it, honestly.
MadRuth
The ferocity of the neocon attacks probably has a lot more to do with Assange’s next target – an unnamed Major US Bank.
sukabi
@Cris: taken as an isolated statement, it may have been surprise… but the Doughy Pantload has often opined on how much better it would be if certain persons were eliminated with extreme prejudice… My guess is he was engaging in some “wishful thinking” as that won’t trigger those pesky visits from the SS or FBI…
REN
What makes anyone think the CIA would ever be fingered for such a thing even if guilty? Deniability is the first order of business in such events.
Jamie
if they make the issue the leaker, we won’t talk about the leak
Eric Martin
I don’t think “Arab countries” want us to attack Iran, necessarily.
Some Arab regimes purportedly do, but the notion remains rather unpopular in most Arab countries when polling the population writ large.
DougJ
@Cris:
It sounded an awful lot like an endorsement to me. He asked “why hasn’t the CIA killed him yet?”
Jon Karak
I guess Bill Kristol is still working out the details of his free market solution. Maybe a legion of ferocious Tax Cuts could bring Mr. Assange to heel.
DougJ
@Eric Martin:
I mean the leaders of many Arab countries.
lol
@MadRuth:
Bank of America.
Couldn’t happen to a nicer organization.
Just Some Fuckhead
Sounds like Kristol is on the way to launching PNIC, Project For a New Internet Censuree.
Spiffy McBang
As a counterexample, Burma’s government kept Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest for a damned long time and eventually a lot of people (though certainly not all) started to forget about her. It looked as awful as it was, but it probably served their interests better than letting her run around leading an active democracy movement.
Thing is, and this is why all these people are especially idiotic in regards to Assange, even if you could make the claim that disappearing Assange would serve the same short-term bad/long-term less bad interests of power in the U.S. as in the above example, you’d have to assume WikiLeaks would crater without Assange leading it. That’s a hell of an assumption to make about any worldwide, internet-based movement or organization.
Alex S.
And pastor Huckabee agrees.
I was rather hostile to these latest revelations, but I changed my mind because Wikileaks has targeted other countries as well. It just wasn’t such a big deal then. And since I read his agenda, as posted by a commenter in a previous thread today, I regard him as some kind of modern revolutionary – at his peak, right before his assassination.
arguingwithsignposts
Assange isn’t going anywhere. As I said in an earlier thread, better a live cartoon villain than a dead martyr to the cause.
Brachiator
DougJ:
Don’t you know that assassination is the “in thing” now? I mean, look what happened to the Iranian nuclear scientists:
By the way, there were reports this morning that the next big Wikileak would involve banks and big financial institutions.
goblue72
@General Stuck: The Matrix is self-regulating and self-correcting. It seeks a state of equilibrium. Thus, when the Matrix has generated a cabal of neo-cons and imperialist right-wingers such as we have, it is only a natural outcome that an information-age anarchist like Assange would appear.
My only wish would be for Assange to start wearing a Guy Fawkes mask like in “V for Vendetta”.
Calouste
Are we doing a poll on the first victim of the embassy cable leaks?
The leading candidate at the moment would be Mervyn King, head of the Bank of England, as disclosed by the Guardian:
Why does the head of the BoE say things like this to the American ambassador?
sukabi
@Midnight Marauder:
corrected for verbiage that is closer to what would be said if there wasn’t that pesky D in the WH.
New Yorker
Do you expect any less from the “intellectual” behind the Iraq War and the Sarah Palin VP candidacy?
soonergrunt
@Jon Karak: You win the internets.
Lavocat
This is what happens when countries who consider themselves exceptional opt to jettison the rule of law. If your country is busy committing all sorts of illegal acts, what’s one more? And, thus, the corrosion of the rule of law begins.
In for a penny, in for a pound.
El Tiburon
So many ways to go after this. It reminds me of how Fox News only reports on cute, blond girls who are kidnapped.
As a nation we have been kidnapping and killing going on a decade. But as they are brown Mooslims, what’s the diff?
DougJ, I’m not attacking you at all, but imagine if Julian Assange was Mohammed Abdul Mohammed? We would have 2 or 3 divisions in Sweden by now with a 24-pak of missile-carrying drones on the way.
General Stuck
@goblue72:
I agree with you in principle, but in real time, Assange is hurting his cause, the cause of focus and restraint. By going after the entire fucking world, he is giving ammo to his enemies, and creating new enemies that could be his ally.
From reading about the internals of wikileaks, there has been great dissent amongst his co conspirators for just this kind of focus and restraint. I don’t want any physical harm to come to the dude, but better leadership could bring me aboard as an admirer of wikileaks.
WyldPirate
For fucks sake. Isn’t Assange an “enemy of the US”?
Why can’t Obama just put out a hit on him? He’s done it for other citizens that have “declared war” on the US. Assange is clearly trying to harm the US and its interests.
Hell. He can do just like Bush and get someone on his White House Counsel staff to write a memo saying it’s OK. The republicans will understand. They won’t start any investigations or anything.
geg6
Well, he’s gunning for the banksters next. So the wingnuts must take him out before he takes down their moneyed overlords.
Cris
@DougJ: Well, @sukabi‘s point (that you should take a pundit’s words in the context of their overall output) has convinced me to walk back my already reluctant defense of Jonah.
srv
It’s after Thanksgiving now, so Fox is flipping between the evil War on Christmas and discussions on sanctioning Assange with extreme prejudice.
The dichotomy of the modern mediums.
grandpajohn
Ahhh Bill Kristols constantly evolving code of ethics on display, Seem I recall that during the Clinton years his mantra was that no one was above the law.
Zifnab
@Midnight Marauder:
I hear he’s in Tikrit. Maybe somewhere north, south, east, or west thereof. :-p
@General Stuck:
Better to keep that powder dry? Strike some kind of compromise? Find a happy middle ground?
Thank you Mr. Reid, but I’ve frankly had my fill of caution, focus, and restraint. BoA stock took a 3% tumble on news that it would be the target of Assange’s next info dump. The insiders are scared shitless. I can’t help but think Assange is doing a bang up job.
matoko_chan
@General Stuck: Assange is not hurting his cause you fucking retarded cudlip.
don’t you get it?
ALL THE SHIT BEING EXPOSED IS CONSERVATIVE SHIT.
of course conservatives hate him.
do you understand what Salam-Douthat stratification on cognitive ability is doing to the TP/GOP?
universities teach classes in hacking, have hacker teams.
hackers are high IQ. hackers are LIBERALS.
conservatism depends on being able to scam the base with lies and demogoguery.
if they cant control the information they are done as an ideology.
there are no hackers or geeks on Team Conservative.
think about why that is.
Hamilton-Lovecraft
Just tell the wingnuts that if government hasn’t done anything wrong, it shouldn’t have anything to hide.
General Stuck
@Zifnab:
I wasn’t talking about the BoA thing, if it happens, smartass. I was talking about the thoroughly idiotic and irresponsible releases on Afghan and State department cables. If you don’t agree, kiss me arse.
Cris
@matoko_chan: There are a whole lot of hackers and geeks on Team Libertarian, which is basically Team Conservative’s farm club.
General Stuck
@matoko_chan:
you are insane. that is all crudlip.
freelancer
@goblue72:
Have you and matoko_chan mailed out your “Save the Date!” notices yet?
Rick Taylor
You need to watch more Mission Impossible episodes.
goblue72
@General Stuck: Anarchy isn’t about focus and restraint. Anarchy is about the complete destruction of the systems and institutions of the state (and most of other forms of centralized control, such as capitalist corporations). In our modern age blending corporatized plutocracy with an increasingly police state, it is a natural enemy. That Wikileaks exists within the Internet is even more perfect – it is stateless, decentralized and without corporeal form – making it an even better guerilla force to oppose the neocons, wingers, and plutocrats.
Assange doesn’t want to nibble around the edges. He’s not a reformer. Maybe his co-conspirators are, but he clearly isn’t. He wants to blow it all up, Tyler Durden style.
Me, I’m over here on the sidelines cheering him on.
Zifnab
@arguingwithsignposts:
They’ve got a live cartoon villain. He wears a head rag and wanders the mountains of Pakistan, releasing threatening taps every US electoral cycle.
There’s nothing cartoony about Assange. The guy dumps highly valuable and genuinely damaging information all too often. I hope he’s playing it really carefully, because I have no doubt the neo-cons that still hold sway in the military and executive branch would lo-o-o-ve to put his head on a pike.
arguingwithsignposts
@matoko_chan:
Is everyone a retarded cudlip now, m_c? I knew it would be only a matter of time before you showed up here with your four dead horses of the emopocalypse.
WyldPirate
@General Stuck:
LOL.
Constipated or just grumpy, Stuck?
Eat some prunes you old geezer.
soonergrunt
The only idea dumber than the idea that US should try to assassinate Assange or damage his reputation, is the idea that the US IS actively trying to damage his reputation or assassinate him.
There’s absolutely no upside to doing anything to him and the potential for blowback far outweighs anything to be gained. That’s not to say that I don’t think the idea was floated by people in the State department or DoD, but it would’ve been shot down. Only the President can make the determination, and nothing can happen without briefing the gang of eight.
He’s probably the one guy on the face of the planet that we don’t dare touch.
Alex S.
Off-topic:
Good news about TARP
goblue72
@freelancer: Just because you disagree with a commenter, is no reason to get insulting. Pound sand, asswipe.
General Stuck
@WyldPirate:
Hey Cole. how bout we disappear wildtthang, or buy some blog goats to police up his droppings.
arguingwithsignposts
@freelancer:
can’t be. m_c and wyldpirate are an item, iirc.
Just Some Fuckhead
The US can’t assassinate Assange. Because the next dump after he dies will be the incompetent fools discussing and planning his assassination.
General Stuck
@goblue72:
Well, that’s okay, but if he happens to succeed in blowing it all up, as in the world, the body bags that would ensue will make the neocons look like choir boys. Just so you know what yer cheering and all.
burnspbesq
@WyldPirate:
There’s no bounty on Assange because, contrary to your infantile ravings, Obama really isn’t just like Bush.
In the fullness of time, Bradley Manning will figure out that it’s in his interest to roll over on Assange, and he will then get what he deserves: an indictment, an extradition, a trial, and upon conviction, a suitable term as a guest of the United States Bureau of Prisons.
I fully agree with what Charles Johnson said the other day: I don’t remember voting for Julian Assange, either.
WyldPirate
@Just Some Fuckhead:
funny and possibly true.
Midnight Marauder
@soonergrunt:
I actually don’t think it’s that dumb of an idea that the United States is trying to damage Julian Assange’s reputation. I mean, Eric Holder is talking about trying to prosecute Assange under the 1917 Espionage Act.
I feel pretty confident in saying that the United States is not indifferent to Assange’s reputation, nor are they trying to actively improve his reputation.
arguingwithsignposts
@burnspbesq:
you’re assuming he doesn’t stay in a place without extradition treaties. And like I said, locking him up will stir up the Internet Hate Machine too.
It’s not like he’s the only person who has access to all these document dumps. And if he’s gone, there will be another one to take his place.
He may not be the OBL cartoon villain Zifnab pointed out above, but he’s going to be much harder to squash.
freelancer
@goblue72:
Whether I agree or disagree with your larger point is moot.
Not every headline is a genre-film metaphor or allegory waiting to happen. That is what I was mocking your post for. I’m guilty of the same thing from time to time, so don’t feel too wounded.
burnspbesq
@matoko_chan:
Fuuuuuuuuuuck. I should know better than to read BJ on a mobile device, where there is no pie filter.
No one can be as stupid as you purport to be. You’re a spoof.
cyntax
@General Stuck:
That seems a broad misinterpretation of his stated intent:
Now if you’re saying that his methodology can’t create more open forms of government and that all he’ll accomplish is “blowing it all up”–fair enough. But you’ll have to argue for your idea of where this will all end up.
soonergrunt
@burnspbesq: Whether Assange is indictable or criminally liable under US law is questionable at best, and I am not convinced.
He’s a vainglorious, overly-self-important asswipe with hard-on for damaging the US. But he doesn’t appear to have broken US law.
Manning, on the other hand, will spend a very long time in the USDB at Leavenworth. And rightly so.
arguingwithsignposts
@soonergrunt:
Given the amount of info he’s leaked, I’m surprised they don’t string *him* up.
WyldPirate
@burnspbesq:
Fuck you, you arrogant prick. Here’s some new words for your vocabulary–facetiousness and sarcasm. Look them up. You can thank me later.
And what the fuck is wrong with you, are you Sarah Palin or something? What is the US going to prosecute Assange for? The fact that the US State Department can’t secure their own goddamn data?
matoko_chan
@Cris: false. name one.
@General Stuck: and you’re old. dont you think they are trying to stop Assange? they cant find him.
the diplo cables got released early (just like Iraq dump) because the US gov mounted another DOS attack on wikileaks servers.
the ‘unipolar power’ is doin’ everything it can to stop Assange and failing.
even if Assange was assassinated, wikileaks would continue humm merrily along. lawl, the insurance file. i personally think the gharani massacre video is in there. awesome assassination deterrent.
that video is a soljah killer….blackhawk down redux.
its what i would do. :)
think about it……the US gov will all its power and might and fucking ‘american superpower exceptionalism’ cant stop wikileaks from releasing stolen intel.
hahahaha
the only way the US can stop wikileaks is to become China.
the hackers will always be one step ahead of whatever cyber-nazis the US can muster.
because they write the ice.
so they can melt it.
JWL
You’re concerned about a PR problem?
Why not wrap your head around this instead: The people of the United States were Big Lied into unleashing war in 2003, and those that committed that great treason remain entrenched in power.
Think Czechoslovakia in March of 1939, and ponder the consequences had Britain and France had not declared Poland’s sovereignty inviolate.
Which is to say, think in terms of cause and effect.
soonergrunt
@burnspbesq: She really is that stupid. She’s also a pathological liar, which is funny because she can’t seem to keep track of the lies as they pile up.
WyldPirate
@General Stuck:
What’s the matter, stuck? Getting a little hot in the kitchen? Need to call daddy to turn the fan on? ;)
Corner Stone
@Jamie:
It’s funny because you use the word “they”. A third of the people here are doing “their” jobs for them.
General Stuck
@WyldPirate:
Maybe I’ll call Animal Control instead.
burnspbesq
@arguingwithsignposts:
“And if he’s gone, there will be another one to take his place.”
I’m happy to take that chance. I believe that seeing Assange go away for a long time would have some deterrent effect on potential copycats.
matoko_chan
@burnspbesq: read it and weep, cudlip.
Can’t stop the signal.
soonergrunt
@arguingwithsignposts: He will have to be in solitary. There’s no way the administration could possibly protect him in general population.
It ain’t going to be easy for him.
Corner Stone
@cyntax:
IMO, it’s similar to the old saying about money, “bad money drives out the good”.
When only the bad sites are the secure ones, the good ones are going to go underground.
Or fight back.
curious
you shouldn’t try to wrap your mind around anything bill kristol writes, says, or whispers tremblingly into the deepest forest. at any rate, before sharing more of his brilliant strategies, he should really update us on how his plans for iraq are turning out. swimmingly, i presume?
General Stuck
@cyntax:
I don’t really care what his stated intent is, I am looking at what he is doing, or has done. And I was responding to another commenter with some degree with snark, who first raised the “blow it all up” hyperbole. I simply stated he is an anarchist. And I stand by that description.
follow back the links, I make that mistake too sometimes.
arguingwithsignposts
@matoko_chan:
Again with the cudlip. Geez, you’re unoriginal, are you going to call us all WECs now?
burnspbesq
@WyldPirate:
“What is the US going to prosecute Assange for?”
Conspiracy, aiding and abetting theft of government property, wire fraud. I can keep going if you want.
You’re out of your depth here. This is the Rucker Park of blogs, and your game is better suited for a junior high school playground on Long Island.
Bloix
Killing people never makes the US look bad. Killing people makes the US look good!
Mike M
If the US was truly the evil empire that some believe then Assange would have been “neutralized” long ago. Perhaps that fact is just more ammunition for those who think that Obama is a very weak president.
I’m not sure what Assange was trying to accomplish with his dump of US diplomatic cables other than disrupt US and allied interests, but it seems to me that, for the most part, the cables show that the career professionals at the State department are highly competent. In an organization so large, there have to be some questionable activities going on somewhere, but for the most part the cables show that the private discussions align quite closely with the US public policy positions. We were not, for example, fomenting war with Iran behind the scenes while preaching peace in public, or ready to bargain away our support of Israel for guaranteed access to oil somewhere, etc.
No doubt, the cable dump is an intelligence bonanza for US friends and foes alike. Few countries in the world could afford to collect this type of information through their own intelligence assets. I am in no position to assess the true damage this dump has done to the safety and effectiveness of our diplomats and other government employees around the world, but I am deeply concerned.
matoko_chan
@soonergrunt: and you are a moron that buys the whole god and country line while the oligarchs turn your fellow soljahs into hamburger so they can keep their bentlys.
dumbass cannon fodder.
if the US gov whacks Assange….. gharani goes viral.
i think that is a pretty good insurance policy.
the MAD of info warfare.
Can you say Blackhawk Down Redux?
coming soon to a theatre of war near you!
97 afghan children and teens splattered all over the landscape by american bombs.
american soljahs will die.
salacious crumb
exposing US secrets will not get you killed . Exposing Israeli secrets will.
arguingwithsignposts
@matoko_chan:
I hate to burst your bubble, m_c (okay, not really), but if the 100,000+ innocent dead in Iraq (not to mention the ones in Af-Pak) already haven’t done it, ain’t happening. Al-Jazeera has run that highlight reel for years, child.
Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
Let’s correct this once again. Arab dictators want the U.S. to attack Iran. The Arab general population does not. It’s important to make this distinction because the suggestion that “even the Arabs” want the U.S. to bomb Iran is propaganda currency.
Evolved Deep Southerner
@WyldPirate: Jesus Christ, here it comes. We can’t have a God damn thread anymore without it somehow being Obama’s fault. Bill Kristol writes an assinine column, but you can find a way to use it against Obama. He’s disappointed me on several fronts, but mother of God, I’ve got enough disappointments about enough things to at least spread it around a little. I’m convinced that if your picnic were rained out, you’d blame it on Obama or some policy of his.
You are a tiresome, tiresome fucker, WP. And you can say whatever you want in response and have the last word, because I’m not engaging with you or encouraging you in any way from here on out.
All I can say is that if you’re some kind of ratfucker paid to post here, you may not be doing your job especially well, but you’re working awfully hard at it. I’ll give you that much.
burnspbesq
@matoko_chan:
“Can’t stop the signal.”
Maybe not, but I don’t have to tune in to your channel if I decide that the programming sucks.
HE Pennypacker, Wealthy Industrialist
It’s easy to wrap your head around it if you consider that the asshat source is Bill Kristol.
The Sheriff's A Ni-
@goblue72: Ask Louise Michel and Nestor Makhno how that worked out for them.
goblue72
@freelancer: Or maybe you are just too dense to realize I wasn’t being literal in the first place and was engaging in a little bit of tongue in cheek humor. Maybe your crab had crawled too far up for you to realize.
matoko_chan
@arguingwithsignposts:
not on youtube.
keep in mind the US doesnt know what all Assange has.
but the gharani massacre video is going to be collateral murder to the n-squared.
Midnight Marauder
@burnspbesq:
That seems pretty naive to me. As the Forbes story on Assange mentions, copycats of Wikileaks have already sprung up around the world, from China to various parts of Africa. More importantly, arresting Julian Assange is not going to stop the torrent of data and information Wikileaks already possesses on every country and every industry from being published in some fashion.
The game is not the same anymore.
danielx
Coming from Bloody Bill Kristol, why would anyone be surprised, either at the bloodthirstiness or the stupidity? It’s probably not much of a threat to Assange. After years of Kristol’s public statements and recommendations on what should be done, it’s pretty much a given to read/hear what he says and then do the exact opposite. Follow this simple rule and you can’t go wrong.
arguingwithsignposts
@matoko_chan:
oh, right, us WEC cudlips don’t know about the YouTubes!
soonergrunt
@arguingwithsignposts: Oh, she’s running with that again? I undo the pie filter about once a month, to see if the useless people I put there have become less useless, and also to see if maybe I’m the one with issues. (It’s possible, after all). She was saying something about ‘the gahrani video’ as if it existed.
Given that Assange announced his possession of the Afghan and Iraq archive files by releasing the edited “collateral murder’ video*, and has said openly for over a year, that his primary goal is to damage the US government politically as much as possible, does anyone here really think for one minute if there were video of some massacre of +/- 100 people and that Assange had that video that he wouldn’t have already put it out there?
*Yes, Assange’s version of that gunship video was edited. It may hurt some fee-fees to learn that, and I’m sure some stupid fuck will go on and on about how I’m attacking Assange to divert attention and so on and on, but it is what it is, and frankly, Assange hasn’t really done anywhere near as much damage as he has openly said he hoped to do, so that argument is rather limp. Assange cut about a third of the original video out. We know this because DoD released the whole video shortly after Assange released his version. And no, the unedited version doesn’t do a whole hell of a lot to make the gunship crew look less evil. It does add the context that they were receiving semi-effective fire from the target area and that there were US troops in contact within a couple of hundred yards of the van that was shot up, but as I said, they look only slightly less evil.
cyntax
@General Stuck:
Can’t say he seems like an anarchist to me, since he’s advocating for more open forms of governement, not a lack of government.
General Stuck
@cyntax:
His thoroughly indiscriminate style belies such distinctions, imo. But to each his own.
polyorchnid octopunch
There’s one thing I can tell you; the US has mobilized tremendous internet resources in an attempt to shut down wikileaks. I admin the mail servers at a major national ISP in Canada. We typically receive many tens to hundreds of thousands of connections a day from various botnets attempting to send us spam. Right around the time that wikileaks started suffering from their current DDoS attack, those connections dropped to almost nil. I have communicated with some of my peers at other ISPs around the continent, and we’ve all experienced the same thing.
There is only one possible conclusion, really; the US government’s security apparatus has hired organised criminal networks to take down wikileaks. Yep… your taxes are going to pay the people who have nearly managed to render the email system unusable and compromise many thousands of computers a day in the furtherance of their criminal profits. The quick turnaround can only mean that the money that was offered was inducement enough to get them to tell their current customers (mostly penis pills, diploma mills, and lonely Nigerian gazillionaires) that they’re just going to have to wait a while before they can get back to fleecing the credulous.
Keith G
@WyldPirate:
Again?
eemom
the following things disappoint me:
(1) that DougJ chose Kristol, of all people, as the centerpiece for a post about the topic du jour. What, was Sully unavailable?
(2) that anybody actually believes a wikileaks bank document dump is gonna do jack shit to any bank.
eemom
also too, here’s another example of two posts on the same topic running into each other. On reconsideration, I think we ought to go back to the “where did I go wrong” thread.
matoko_chan
@soonergrunt: umm…..Danger Room posted about the Garani video. it exists.
and Assange says he has it.
and he has decrypted it.
he has delivered so far.
sooner, are you really such an moron that you think its fine for the US to do renditions, torture, fight meaningless unwinnable wars and cover all that up?
i dont.
i had more tickets than you and i would have done what Manning did. and im sure we are not alone.
because it was the right thing to do.
Catsy
@matoko_chan: This is a message for the little person currently piloting matoko_chan. Please pass a message to her advising that she has gone off her meds and should take them straight away.
soonergrunt
@polyorchnid octopunch: Oh, wow. Except that, umm, no.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11/30/wikileaks_ddos_again/
Jester is a well known, rather lightly skilled script kiddie.
matoko_chan
@polyorchnid octopunch: yup. but you see…..that is why the diplo docs got released early.
DDOS can only do so much– the docs are already out to the media.
that is all that happens, early release. the only way the US gov can beat Wikileaks is by becoming China.
GG.
i approve this message.
:)
matoko_chan
@soonergrunt: so what?
the script kiddies attacked wikileaks on oct 24 too, trying to stop the Iraq doc drop…..the same guys that hacked 4chan for a cuple hours…xyrix and angyl and cele. boi was m00tie pissed.
DIDITFORTHELULZ skiddies.
of course the US is paying them, AND the spammers, but wikileaks has mirror sites and had already mailed off the diplo docs to the media, der spiegel, the telegraph, etc.
Fail.
WyldPirate
@Keith G:
Fuck off. Who are you, the goddamned politeness police?
matoko_chan
@soonergrunt: dont you get it Sooner? the Unipolar Power did everything it could to stop the release and FAILED.
America got its ass kicked by communist insurgents in Vietnam, got its ass kicked by islamic insurgents in Iraq, and now is gettin its ass kicked by cyber-insurgents in cyberspace.
the only way the US can beat Assange on his turf is by becoming China.
are we going to support that?
matoko_chan
@Catsy: fuck off hag.
:)
Anne Laurie
@soonergrunt: __
Technically, it’s not lying if she actually believes whatever silly thing is coming out of her PC piehole rightthisveryminute. It’s the technique that makes nine-year-old girls of all ages & sexes the very most excellent best divas of them all! ! !
(Which is why I don’t usually mind matoko-chan… not only was I almost that silly, many years ago, but I did enough baby-sitting to remember that some of the worst drama queens eventually grow up to be useful members of society.)
Although I doubt she’s ever read “Space-Time for Springers”.
matoko_chan
@Anne Laurie: oh Anne Laurie is so right.
i just need moar desu, right, sensai-san?
Glennsyank13
Who gives a shit about all these “leaks”. What difference does it make?
THE
matoko, do you really expect the bombsight camera from a B1 to show any detail?
I predict it will show (at best) a building,
a large flash of light as the bomb explodes.
Extreme afterimage burn, for the next few minutes until the IR optics cool down.
By which time the B1 is miles away.
OTOH this story you will love:
Australia’s conservative, Liberal National Party is giving IQ tests to its wannabe candidates.
soonergrunt
@Anne Laurie: Well, did you ever pretend to work in a controlled-access facility that you never mentioned until someone else mentioned it, and then got the terminology wrong, got the conditions and procedures wrong, and then, when trying to cover yourself, either told another obvious lie, and in so doing revealed another claim you had made previously to have most likely been a lie?
I have worked in several of these types of facilities in various places in the world, and I work part time in one now.
The last time I had such an epic fail of lie, I was about 20, and the story I was telling was all about how I was a special forces sniper/demo/whatever-the-fuck-it-was and I was trying to get into a young lady’s pants.* I’m pretty sure that wasn’t the operative motivation for m-c here. At least, I hope not.
*That young lady’s brother actually WAS a special forces demo guy. It didn’t end well for me.
Montanareddog
@eemom:
You’re probably right but you never know. Dutch consumers did it a year ago to a predatory mortgage bank (admittedly much smaller than, say, BoA)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8323991.stm
Montanareddog
Doug
I would be less concerned by the PR aspect myself than by the fact that it would be a grotesque crime, analogous to the targetting of inconvenient journalists in, say, Russia
soonergrunt
@Montanareddog:
There’s nothing in US law that makes the targeted killing of another person outside US borders specifically illegal, so while it probably wouldn’t be an actual crime, per se, it would be criminally stupid.
Of course, there’s always the line of thinking that stupid people the world over are going to blame us if anything happens to him anyway, so we might as well get it over with if possible. I do not subscribe to this point of view, but I won’t shed a tear when the Russians or the Israelis whack him.
matoko_chan
@soonergrunt: sooner, we worked in different theaters, for different customers, and at different levels of access.
and that is all im going to say. if you know anything about clearance protocol you know you are not supposed to talk about yours.
the highest classification of all the wikileaks docs is secret.
the whole nontroversy is pretty simple to me.
either you think Adams and Ellsworth did the right thing and stopped an unjust meaningless and unwinnable war in Vietnam, or you dont.
the Pentagon papers derailed the LBJ admin troop buildup of 206,000 troops…..the A-stan and Iraq have but a stop to any build in MENA, and they will speed our departure, or at least force the SOFA and Obama’s A-stan departure to stay on track.
Assange and his “client” want to stop american wars of foreign intervention, wars that have become isomorphic with Vietnam as they drag into their first decade.
What is the mission Sooner?
i will agree that the diplo cables are just a bonus haul that the “client” was able to access, or was given, and not central to the main purpose. However, the diplo cables are an Iranian warfront killer.
the american people are simply not going to support doing KSA and Egypts scutwork, even tho they are mostly stupid enough to fall for neocon/israeli fuckery in general.
that is why the neocons and the warpimps are so furious over the cables.
there is a sell-by date on all of this Iran stuff, and the neocons know it. Black and brown americans, young americans, dont give a shit about Israel. when the demographic timer goes off, the warpimps wont be able to pull it off.
i think they are done now, and the diplo cables helped.
there will be some caterwauling and thrashing around, but i dont see how they can pull it off now. three fronts in this economy was quite a stretch….the diplo cables just made it impossible.
matoko_chan
@THE: the video in question is a post-op debrief on what went wrong including the bombing run and airborne and ground recon footage.
the us gov actually considered releasing it and deemed it was too dangerous to our 180k troops in harms way in A-stan and Iraq.
now they have no say.
matoko_chan
Sooner, i dont see what is so hard for you to assimillate here.
the bad guys, the republican neocon warpimps want you and your fellow soldiers to bleed and die in meaningless unwinnable wars so they can keep power and make $.
its pretty obvious to me who the good guys are.
Adams and Ellsworth, Manning and Assange.
What is the mission again Sooner?
THE
matoko,
did you see Hans Rosling’s latest and coolest video?
I am watching the unraveling of the North Atlantic part of the Western economic system very closely.
The eurozone is in deep shit, not just the USA and UK.
The West is facing a massive decline in the years ahead matoko.
East-South Asia is the only haven at the moment and even our economies are showing some weakness right now, as China tightens.