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Tag: Julian Assange

Published on Leave a comment on One tweet that stripped Narendra Modi’s fluff factory naked

When you speak truth to power, you inspire others to stand by you. When you fabricate lies and engineer perceptions for profit, they come back to bite you.

It began with an innocent reply of a gullible Modi supporter who thought to assert Modi's honor with a claim that is popularly doing the rounds. That Assange had called Modi INCORRUPTIBLE. Is Assange corrupt? Well, Assange may not be corrupt, but the person who told you he said that could be, yes?

Wikileaks burst Modi's claim of incorruptible
Wikileaks burst Modi's claim of incorruptible

But then this was hardly news. Even when Modi made the claims of "America and Wikileaks declaring after their investigations that Modi was incorruptible... not just not corrupt, but incorruptible" there were news reports of this absurd interview even at that time that pointed out the utter inaccuracy of his claim.

The cables simply reported the beliefs of politicians (in this case Congress) the Ambassador interacted with and no investigations or comparisons. They were neither the opinion of United States of America nor Wikileaks. But facts are never a strong suit of the serial faker rising to fame faster as "Feku" than any of his many titles. Every public appearance brings embarrassment over some or the other lie he peddles - be it history or geography or economy or... an endorsement his party now claims he doesn't need. If he chose to present a cable reporting perceptions of him in India as a true endorsement of him by the United States or Wikileaks, here was an entire bevy of media to merely report what he said. Not for the hridaysamarat (Emperor of Hearts) would be the "well researched" exposes by a pliant media (read open browser, read cable out to camera, tell people how to verify).

Modi's official website flaunts the lies with pride.

Modi's claims about Wikipedia and the US on his official website
‘On one side it is being said, ‘Indian government is completely corrupt’. Then there are reports by America and WikiLeaks, which refer to the state of Gujarat where the leader is un-corruptible,’ ~ Modi's official website

Gujarat Assembly Elections came and went without these lies contested.

 We actually had news media publishing his claims with the contradicting quote of the cable (with link to original NEVER provided for viewer to check). As if the cable contradicting Modi was not an issue that needed clarification or confrontation.

And yet all it took to shred the pretence was one tweet from Wikileaks when they saw the credibility that was being claimed in their name and in the name of Assange. And all of a sudden, Indian media is pretending it just noticed this. Right.

So anyway, yours truly had an inadvertent role to play in this. There is a site called Fek le! which I started after getting fed up of the disinformation provided by the Narendra Modi brigade. It is a fake news site, which uses as "authentic sources" only satire websites, comedy shows, BJP's disinformation products and anyone else acting too ridiculous to take seriously. Routinely BJP supporters come up with some ridiculous propaganda, I take the juciest (or most harmful) and report it with further fabrications and exaggerations on the satire site as entirely true with the tag "BJP Photoshop Laghu Udyog" - which can be a security service, research organization or whatever the tall claim would qualify them as. When pictures of Julian Assange endorsing Modi in Hindi started circulating, it was too good to pass, and of course Fek Le! reported them.

Turns out brains rotted by brainwashing have real poor comprehension skills, because that fake post got BELIEVED by some Namo supporting website and republished in their news round up or something. It is an occasional side effect of satire sites to get picked up by news websites with lazy staff, but this was unbelievable. Julian Assange speaking in Hindi out of loyalty to Narendra Modi, saying that America is scared of Narendra Modi and tagged with "BJP Photoshop Laghu Udyog" AND on a site called Fek Le! I mean how gullible, can anyone be? Plenty, as it turns out.

The fake photo from my site (probably, or the original, where I got it from on Twitter) started circulating again along with its versions I hadn't seen, but were existing all through to the point Wikileaks set the record straight.

I logged in late last night to discover that everyone was tagging me with Wikileaks handle that had minced no words in denying the tall tales or "feks". I was thrilled, only to discover that Wikileaks had linked to the photo on my website. And I set the record straight. Fek Le! only reproduces disinformation already in circulation and all the images and videos on it (so far) have been made by someone else. Usually the people getting "idolized" in the article. The site combats disinformation by exaggerating it, and making it ridiculously obvious and the occasional sprinkling of "news sources" and "documentary films" from satire websties or comedy shows.

But feels great to have contributed a long overdue journalistic and political confrontation .... and all because of a satire website tracking political disinformation. I do hope that this will help bring down some of the false propaganda in time for this elections.

Published on Leave a comment on Wikileaks wins against banking blockade

Long overdue news. Wikileaks, which had gotten targeted in many ways by the US government over its exposes of war crimes was literally being starved of funds by the refusal of credit card companies to process donations to them. This Press Release from them is very good news. Strike one for whistleblowers!

In a case against Valitor, formerly VISA Iceland, Reykjavík District Court just ruled the company had violated contract laws by blocking credit card donations to Wikileaks. After WikiLeaks' publications revealing U.S. war crimes and statecraft in 2010, U.S. financial institutions, including VISA, MasterCard, Bank of America, erected a banking blockade against WikiLeaks wholly outside of any judicial or administrative process. The blockade stripped away over 95% of donations from supporters of WikiLeaks, costing the organization in excess of USD 20M.

The court ruled that the donation gateway should be reopened within 14 days otherwise Valitor will be penalized with a fine of 800 000 ISK daily. WikiLeaks is persuing several actions against the blockade and a European Commission preliminary investigation into the blockade was started last July. A Commission decision on whether to pursue the financial services companies involved in the blockade is expected before the end of August.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, said "This is a significant victory against Washington's attempt to silence WikiLeaks. We will not be silenced. Economic censorship is censorship. It is wrong. When it's done outside of the rule of law its doubly wrong. One by one those involved in the attempted censorship of WikiLeaks will find themselves on the wrong side of history."

I had said when the persecution of Wikileaks began that India was walking down the wrong path. How i had hoped that mine could be the country to offer Assange asylum. At least with this news, other, more ethical countries may take the chance...

5

Published on 5 Comments on To Pakistani journalists

To all of you anonymous, known, yet to be known harbringers of truth.

India Pakistan anything is not easy. Be it praise, care or even blame. So here I am, an Indian, telling you in this moment at least that I care.

Not my place to recommend anything. Not qualified. Not as journalist, neither as someone who has seen so much danger. Never seen blast or touched gun. I almost feel guilty writing this. So take with salt. But I thought of it, so sharing.

Beginning with saying how much I admire you for still having the guts to question things, break stories, risk life and limb in pursuit of truth. In a time when we are losing belief in the credibility of journalists in my country, where we wonder about bribes and lobbies and what nots, it is a stark contrast to see the extents to which you go to, in full knowledge of possible danger to your life. Perhaps danger also brings out the best in each of us.

I think you guys should have some kind of strategy. Each of you has been scarred by these deaths. You know the pain. Perhaps the ones doing really risky work can protect identities somehow? Fake or protected author info on some articles, or possibly breaking difficult stories in many places at same time?

I don't know, but I have come to read your words and I care.

Saleem Shahzad died today. I had read his words and admired the kinds of inside information he was leveraging. Today he is dead. I feel sad. I see your sorrow in the torrent of tweets (on Twitter) and other places. I have no words to offer. That is my frustration.

I think you guys are pretty much the only hope Pakistan has left. The only ones with the reach to people and objectives of changing society for the better. You owe it not only to yourself, but to your country, and this region to be strong and safe. I don't think careful is working anymore. SS was picked from a supposedly safe area.

This candles in the dark thing is not working. Too easy to puff out. You need to be a wildfire. To have back ups, possibly Julian Assange style information bombs if something happens? Perhaps the answer is in being bold and being bold in unstoppable quantities? I don't wish to see you in danger and courting risks, but increasingly it appears as though only the bold have been able to make any dent in anything or even be relatively safe.

I don't know. Thinking aloud mostly.

I want you to know I care.

Published on Leave a comment on Wikileaks: The battlelines find form

What remains to be seen is how this history will be written. The 'masses' are getting their dose of scandal and assuming that 'someone' will fix things now that they are blown wide open. But is this true? The country waging wars to impose democracy on assorted regions with assorted psyches about authority is standing boldly as a dictatorship and there is not a single squeak from any other world authority, including the UN, who seem content with asking for some explanations on comparatively trivial matters. Queries that are apparently utterly ignored by the US government.

If there is one thing worse than a veiled dictatorship, it is a veiled dictatorship that no longer needs to keep up a pretense and things in America seem to be getting uglier by the day. Some things off the top of my head, which seem extremely dangerous for world safety and peace:

  • Hillary Clinton conveyed her regrets to the UN. Please notice the use of words. We can regret anything without being accountable for it. There was no apology. In fact, there has  been no apology for anything (ever?). Why is this on top rather than the more horrific things? Because its an alarm about how easily it was swallowed without any questioning.
  • Sweden, which has an extraction arrangement with the US has suddenly developed from a country with sorry figures for the proscecution of rape to one that issues international red alerts and arrest warrants for the questioning of a suspect who can't even be called a suspect, since there are no charges. Suspected of what? Yet Julian Assange spent 9 days in prison for being a flight risk - this in spite of the fact that he hadn't hidden from the police in either country and had left Sweden legally and was open to communication on the matter. He was denied bail at first, and then when he was granted bail, it was delayed by another two days because of some mysterious process where it got contested. Sweden lawyers say they didn't contest it, but the UK guys did. Apparently the UK has an interest in keeping him out of commission, which was quite evident in the nature of his imprisonment. For someone imprisoned only to prevent flight, why deny him company, exercise, communication... his lawyer had to struggle to meet him. Why? Why was he prevented from seeing the TIME magazine (His face was on the cover, but apparently the entire magazine was destroyed, not just the cover)? The Swedish lawyer protested that Julian coming to Sweden will only complicate America's access to him, as they will now require the agreement of two countries. Are we fools? He can't be held in the UK for long, since they have nothing on him, while it is Sweden that does. And who in the world thinks that Julian needs to be brought to the US for US to have access to him? This is the country that has used the UK fields for renditions against the express stated directions of the Queen herself. This is also the country that is already fixing for other countries to hold its prisoners. All it needs is for Julian to be off the streets, which is not possible without a really monstrous farce in the UK (where he also has a lot of support), while a really big farce has been possible to rig up in Sweden. As simple as that.
  • A multitude of companies have cut off services to Wikileaks in an economic stranglehold, while its virtual existence has been threatened in other ways ranging from removing its domain name to censoring the reading of the documents it released. We have already experienced two days on this site where the account was suspended for hosting  a mirror. All these companies Mastercard, Visa, Paypal, EveryDNS, Amazon, Bank of America.... and our very own Mochahost have done this without any legal directive, based solely on their own choice to interpret their Terms of Service to fit their action.
  • Censorship of Wikileaks in the US is rampant ranging from implied threats to career choices with the government to outright blocking of over 25 media sites including newspapers.
  • Politicians and public figures have called for Wikileaks to be declared a terrorist organization, for Assange to be pursued like Osama bin Laden, for his assassination, etc. Utterly illegal. Crass. And no one has managed to get any of this retracted. Not the citizens, not other politicians. To me, it sounds remarkably similar to terrorist videos - this guy has wronged unacceptably - kill him. Yep. Its a so called democracy's leaders delivering such evil speech.
  • Bradley Manning, who is suspected to be the source of the leaks, but not charged of anything has been imprisoned in solitary confinement under conditions described as torture WITHOUT CHARGE.
  • A splinter group of Wikileaks claims to promote its values by not making leaks public, but offering them selectively to (state-controlled) media. Yeah right. Who got sold? Check out the contact page when the site launches.

On the other hand, we have public figures standing up solidly for Wikileaks and Assange. People offering their homes, reputations and money to see him out on bail. Anonymous citizens of the world beginning with rage and illegal DDoS attacks called Payback, but maturing into more and more thoughtful and determined responses. Politicians, journalists, national heroes speaking out in condemnation of America's disproportionate and illegal response. Street protests.

Yet, things are pretty much where they stand. America is suppressing information to its citizens and employees, and projecting Wikileaks as a rogue/terrorist/virtual guerilla type organization. People are objecting. Small battles are happening on many fronts. Bradley is still in prison, but Assange is out for now, at least.

It is time to be a part of history to whatever extent we are able. To have a stake and exercise it in shaping our world and the legacy we leave our children. To participate in whatever way you can. Some suggestions (in increasing order of difficulty):

  • Be informed. If you do nothing else, you owe yourself this - a firm basis for your stand and understanding.
  • Share good articles or information you think the world should pay attention to on your Facebook profiles, Twitter, Buzz, whatever.
  • Speak out. In real life discussions. Online. Write articles, opinions on Facebook... if you don't currently write, but would like to write something, but don't have a place, feel free to submit it here.
  • Join the Anonymous operation Paperstorm. Print out cables and hand them out, stick them on walls...
  • Influence your society and government to insist on transparency, lawful behaviour and human rights.

Seeing as how no country in the world (or the UN) has really confronted the US on anything about the injustice we see unfolding, no matter where you live, current events are going to cascade on your freedoms - by virtue of becoming acceptable - its only a matter of time.