WikiL, Look Out: The Truth Has Imprisoned, Not Freed an Informer
(written for gregpalast.com)
With all of the "inside" information entrusted to him and exposed to a grateful public, investigative reporter and "Truth Sleuth" Greg Palast is unimpressed with WikiLeaks.
That's putting it mildly.
He is unimpressed because WikiL and its editor-in-chief , Julian Assange, are collecting much publicity and many accolades for information disclosed to them by someone who is paying for it dearly, Bradley Manning.
Reported to federal authorities last May by former hacker Adrian Lamo, in whom he was, according to Lamo, confiding by email, the 23-year-old U.S. army intelligence analyst faces up to 52 years in prison for allegedly publicizing U.S. embassy classified cables--250,000 of them; actually WikiLeaks is leaking them gradually to the public, having gratefully accepted the information Manning sent.
And what a ruckus is unfolding. Hillary Clinton, the chief ambassador of us all, is furious and promises aggressive steps against all those involved in the leak. Russia is up in arms. Sweden has issued an international arrest warrant for alleged rape, which Assange denies. Sarah Palin is foaming at the mouth.
Publicity about Assange, now spokesman for WikiL, is snowballing throughout the media, which are not in a concealment mode as they have been previously on various notorious occasions (e.g. the Florida election 200 debacle, which Palast attempted to publicize well before the heinous "12/12" Supreme Court decision).
Greg Palast joins a host of strange bedfellows in his opposition to WikiL, but for different reasons: he is first of all inflamed about the hypocrisy of the New York Times, which stood behind former reporter Judith Miller when she was given front-page headlines reporting on the WMD being harbored in Iraq.
"The New York Times spent gazillions on the legal defense of that Defense Department camp follower Judith Miller and editorialized in high dudgeon that she should not be jailed.
"But for Pvt. Bradley Manning, nothing. The Times greedily feasted on his information, sold many an ad, and left Manning's carcass to rot in a military dungeon. IS THERE NO SHAME?"
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For WikiLeaks co-founder John Young, 74, an architect who quit the operation after three weeks, having antedated the group by ten years with his own similar site, Cryptome.org, and is now alienated, finding WikiLeaks too "leaky": "You cannot provide any security over the Internet, much less any other form of communication," he said, nullifying the group's promise to keep all sources confidential.
Leaking the notorious leaker, he accused WikiL of "acting like a cult. They're acting like a religion. They're acting like a government. They're acting like a bunch of spies. They're hiding their identity. They don't account for the money" [their ambition to raise $5m when first founded also alienated Young, who opined that no group can activate their goals, in that a tidal wave of contributions always corrupts and diverts].
Manning criticized the government classification system for its "weak servers, weak logging, weak physical security, weak counter-intelligence, inattentive signal analysis . . . a perfect storm [for hackers to penetrate and disseminate]."
Young does not foresee 54 years of confinement in Manning's future. "The cables seem to be what's being plumped as a crucial thing, but we don't know if they exist or not," he said in an interview with Cnet.
In other words, lots of proof is in order that may not be forthcoming. There was no further speculation about what is in store for Manning.
Greg Palast is incensed that WikiL is collecting all the credit for Manning's heroic moxy. Manning had hoped that his leaks would lead to
"worldwide discussion, debates, and reforms. If not " than we're doomed as a species. I will officially give up on the society we have if nothing happens. The reaction to the video gave me immense hope " CNN's iReport was overwhelmed " Twitter exploded."
Said Palast:
"NO ONE gives a s--- about this heroic man who is rotting in Obama's prison cell. Not Assange (who did nothing to protect him, and does nothing now), nor the Left happy to use his information nor the New York Times which is happy to take the bows for material Manning risked his freedom for.
"I salute Pvt. Manning.
"It is Manning, not Assange, who will save this world."
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