It is not surprising, that during the latest WikiLeaks release, the DNC Email Archive, Julian Assange is under constant attack for his work. In a recent interview with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now he says to gathered supporters:
“It’s going to be a very big publishing year for WikiLeaks and I am really happy about that, in many different types of publications and so actually I implore everyone here to get ready to gather around us, that extended periphery and protect our ability to publishing, to pay our staff, to give us information to be published, or information that can be used to defend ourselves. It is necessary and it will be very necessary over the coming months.”
Let’s do it! The wonderful @SomersetBean has given us a wonderful graphic to mark JA’s Arbitrary Detention, Let’s use it!
And here is a handy list of resources for WLsup to defend him and WikiLeaks 🙂
Julian Assange: Voting Because You Fear the Other Candidate Is ‘Extortion’
Published 2:26 pm EDT, August 6, 2016 Updated 2:42 pm EDT, August 6, 2016
Julian Assange addressed the Green Party this morning in a powerful live-feed video. Technical difficulties at first made it look like the interview might not happen at all. Assange even asked someone off camera: “Did they not test this?” Eventually they were able to overcome the difficulties and have a lengthy Q&A. These are highlights from his speech.
Here’s what you need to know.
Assange Said Voting to Keep the Other Candidate Out Is a Type of Extortion
Assange told the Green Party that voting for one candidate solely to keep the other out of office was a form of extortion.
“What the Clinton campaign at the moment is trying to say is… Maybe we’re connected to arms dealers and to Saudi Arabia and yes maybe we subverted the integrity of the Democratic primary… But you’ll just have to swallow that or else you’ll get Donald Trump. That’s a form of extortion…
He added:
“It’s very important not to allow the political process to suffer from extortion or even yourself to be susceptible to extortion… It’s important for those people who feel their principles have been violated in the way the Democratic primary process has been run or how Chelsea Manning been in prison for 35 years… to go OK, there’s a cost to violating principles, even if there’s also a cost to yourself, even if you don’t like the risk that Donald Trump becomes President. One has to have a line somewhere, otherwise as each election cycle proceeds you’re pushed further and further into the corner.”
He also addressed the DNC leaks from WikiLeaks and the implications involved.
What they show is not only was there a sort of internal view … about how to undermine Bernie Sanders and support Hillary Clinton… But rather there were formal instructions made to DNC staff to execute a campaign of black propaganda against Bernie Sanders…”
He continued:
“For example, Luis Miranda the communications chief instructed his staff to put out … allegations that Bernie Sanders supporters were engaged in acts of violence. Similarly there were discussions to expose or rather claim that BS was an atheist and this would harm him in the south. … Then there’s aspects to do with how financing was being bounced around between the DNC and state parties and the Hillary Clinton Victory Fund. To my mind the most ongoing interesting material is the influence peddling structure of the DNC…”
Assange Said WikiLeaks Was Not Trying to Harm Hillary Clinton
Assange addressed rumors that WikiLeaks was actively trying to harm Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
When we published the DNC leaks, the New York Times … said that I intended to harm Hillary Clinton. This is what we’ve been doing for 10 years. That was a completely fabricated story… We are in interested in power and publishing the truth about power so people can work out however they choose to reform power…
He encouraged third-party activists to keep fighting.
“What is happening now with the Green party and Gary Johnson and Bernie Sanders’ campaign is very important but it must be seen past the moment, past this political moment… (This is a) moment to build a movement and build pressure. Having built it, then, one can … hold accountable and check the abuses of government during the next four years… (Clinton and Trump) are two (of) the most unpopular pair of presidential candidates in U.S. history. … They are going to continue to generate oversight and resistance which will not only create a fertile field for Gary Johnson and Jill Stein to grow their support, but will create a very fertile field to understand and hold the government to account.”
He added that although he believes Clinton will most likely win, he doesn’t prefer either candidate:
“I was asked this question, did i prefer Clinton or Trump? The answer is do i prefer cholera or gonorrhea? … It’s a very sad situation. Given the reality has always been, the president pretty quickly merges with the bureaucracy that’s around it… Corporate lobbyists are enormous compared to political parties.”
He added that he was concerned with Google being one of those lobbyists and its connection to the White House. He was concerned that closer relations might hurt the way we communicate down the line.
Assange: Jill Stein Will Be Attacked More After the Convention
Assange noted that Stein will be facing greater attacks in the coming months from the media.
I’ve just seen the attacks have started to ramp up on Jill Stein. They are going to go thru the roof. Those attacks are going to be ferocious… You’ll learn lessons from that on how the media works and how one can defend your principles and ideas in the face of that… To defend civil liberties and the Internet, the first thing is to practice it.”
He encouraged the delegates watching the feed:
“Become your own media in practice in small ways and big ways… Keep your principles and sense of clarity on those principles.”
For a better feel of how the speech was received by the audience at the Green Party Convention watch the video made by Claudia Stauber which you can find here:
For a good video and audio of Julian Assange’s speech (technical defficulties prevented audio from the Green Convention) see here:
CNN politics reports Jill Stein’s comments about JA here:
Well, WikiLeaks has become the rebel library of Alexandria. It is the single most significant collection of information that doesn’t exist elsewhere, in a searchable, accessible, citable form, about how modern institutions actually behave. And it’s gone on to set people free from prison, where documents have been used in their court cases; hold the CIA accountable for renditions programs; feed into election cycles, which have resulted in the termination of, in some case—or contributed to the termination of governments, in some cases, taken the heads of intelligence agencies, ministers of defense and so on. So, you know, our civilizations can only be as good as our knowledge of what our civilisation is. We can’t possibly hope to reform that which we do not understand.
Video, Audio and Transcript all from the original source above.
In the aftermath of a devastating email-hacking incident involving top Democratic party officials, WikiLeaks is preparing to release new information “on a range of important issues.” According to organization founder Julian Assange, WikiLeaks is now immersed in formatting the information to be easily accessible to journalists and the general public. Judy Woodruff interviews Assange for details.
JUDY WOODRUFF: While the Republican Party has seen its share of conflicts this week, recent events have also unearthed discord within the ranks of the Democrats as well.
The hacking of Democratic National Committee e-mails, experts say by the Russian government, and the posting of e-mails on WikiLeaks, led to the resignation of DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and other top officials, and exposed rifts within the party.
But the revelation also caused speculation about how WikiLeaks got them and why they released them.
So, we decided to talk to Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he has been holed up for four years to avoid extradition to the U.S.
I spoke with him a short while ago.
Julian Assange, welcome.
You said this week that WikiLeaks is going to be releasing more of the information that was hacked from the Democratic National Committee in different batches. So when will the next batch come?
JULIAN ASSANGE, Founder, WikiLeaks: I’m afraid I must correct you, Judy. I didn’t say that we would be releasing information that has been hacked from the DNC.
We said that we have a significant amount of information, and the information itself is significant, and it pertains to Hillary Clinton’s campaign. And we will be releasing it in several batches as we are finished with the journalistic work on each batch.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, are you saying this is different from what was hacked from the DNC and the Democratic Congressional Committee?
JULIAN ASSANGE: You have DNC leaks, which is what we do, and you have DNC hacks, which is an issue that goes back several years.
There’s been a lot of confusion, which has been pushed by the Hillary Clinton campaign to try and confuse hacking of the DNC by a wide variety of actors over the last two years, and our publication of 20,000 e-mails from the DNC.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, let me just pursue that, though. In terms of what WikiLeaks has, you have said you’re analyzing the material and you’re looking at which media partners to work with to get — I think you said maximum uptake from it.
Can you tell us anything tonight about what’s in that material?
JULIAN ASSANGE: It’s a wide range of material. It covers a number of important issues. There’s a variety of natural batches and some thematic constellations that we’re working on.
It’s interesting material. We have done enough work now that we are comfortable with the material’s authenticity. And so now it’s a matter of completing the format, layout to make it easy and accessible and so that journalists can easily extract material from it, extract stories from it, and also the general public.
JUDY WOODRUFF: What would you consider a successful outcome from all this? We know that already four top officials from the Democratic National Committee have resigned. What would you consider the successful outcome, the most damage that could be done from this?
JULIAN ASSANGE: Well, WikiLeaks began 10 years.
We take leaks, principally from whistle-blowers, of material that is of diplomatic, political, ethical or historical significance, typically about corruption or war. And we verify it. And we publish it and we write analysis about it.
And we also engineer globe-spanning media collaborations in order to get the best understanding of that material. And we place it in our library, which is available to everyone, has more than 10 million documents in it now which we feel that otherwise would not have come before the public, and that performs an ongoing role leading to great works in investigative journalism, successful court cases, civil litigation, criminal process, and, of course, also contributes to public understanding during the moments of political competition.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, let me ask you about that, about the — what you consider a successful outcome here, because we know you have made clear your strong feelings about Hillary Clinton.
You wrote back in February — and I’m quoting now — “She’s a war hawk who gets an unseemly emotional rush out of killing people. She shouldn’t be let near a gun shop, much less an army. She certainly shouldn’t become president.”
So, I think, why shouldn’t the American people assume there’s a political motive here?
JULIAN ASSANGE: Well, let’s flip it the other way around. Let’s say that I personally, the editor — my personal opinion is different to my function as an editor.
But let’s say that, personally, I loved Hillary Clinton. Would WikiLeaks still publish this material? Of course it would. Otherwise, we would be censoring it. That’s our mandate. It’s actually interesting to think about what media organizations wouldn’t publish such material if it was given to them.
I think that’s a very interesting question. So, my position, as an analyst is that, yes, that Hillary Clinton is a war hawk. But the statement was made within the context of the early phases of the Democratic primaries. It is by no means an endorsement of Donald Trump.
JUDY WOODRUFF: But you still would oppose her becoming president, which is what you wrote?
JULIAN ASSANGE: Well, I — my personal analysis is that, if you are concerned about U.S. foreign policy and getting into foolish wars, then Hillary Clinton is not your woman. On the other hand, I mean neither is Donald Trump.
JUDY WOODRUFF: But, bottom line, why shouldn’t the American people look at this and say, this is an effort to undermine the Clinton campaign, the Democratic Party?
JULIAN ASSANGE: Well, I can reveal to you the source of the information today. The source of the information is the Democratic Party. It is Debbie Wasserman Schultz. It is the chief financial officer. It is the communications officer, Luis Miranda, in fact all these people who have just been fired, and another (INAUDIBLE) so that’s the source of the information that’s known.
As to who the intermediaries are, that’s another question. It’s also a little bit concerning to see the sort of McCarthyist attempt to frame Trump as some kind of Russian conspirator.
I think both presidential candidates are extremely problematic. But a kind of McCarthyist hysteria, trying to depict one of the candidates as somehow a Manchurian Candidate, I think is a bit disturbing. And then also a push for journalists to reveal their sources, as a journalist, it’s disgusting.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, I wanted to give you a chance to say what you believe, Julian Assange.
But WikiLeaks, we know, argues for transparency. It’s part of your very mission. And so isn’t this an extension of that, transparency about where this explosive material came from, how it fell into your hands?
JULIAN ASSANGE: As I said, we know exactly where it came from. It came from materials that were just published. We know exactly where it came from. It came from the DNC.
JUDY WOODRUFF: You’re saying the future batches will be material from Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the former head of the DNC, and others? Is that — am I hearing you correctly?
JULIAN ASSANGE: No, we haven’t said what it is precisely that we are going to publish. We’re working on it. We obviously want it to be a bit of a surprise, because it encourages public uptake and interest, which is what all — all material seeks.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Julian Assange, we thank you for talking with us.
Due to Turkish government taking over certain media and the general fear and censorship in Turkey today it is extremely difficult to identify any media that will do serious analysis of the WikiLeaks pending release. Any sources I mention here are just what I have identified as available with my limited knowledge of the field, as the day goes by, hopefully I will be able to add perhaps a wider range of reporting.
http://wiki.project-pm.org/wiki/Persona_management
Persona management entails the use of software by which to facilitate the use of multiple fake online personas, or “sockpuppets,” generally for the use of propaganda, disinformation, or as a surveillance method by which to discover details of a human target via social interactions. Various incarnations of this capability have been discovered in the form of patents, U.S. military contracts, and e-mail discussions among intelligence contractors.
Contents [hide]
1 Known Aspects
2 Firms known to be involved
3 Text of 2010 USAF Solicitation
4 See Also
Known Aspects
In the wake of the HBGary investigation, it was discovered that the federal contractor had bid on a call for applications by the USAF to develop persona software for apparent propaganda and/or infiltration purposes. CENTCOM later admitted to using such capabilities abroad, but denies using them in the English language or in a way that would explicit target U.S. citizens, an action which would be illegal. Global Business Solutions and Associates LLC, Uk Plus Logistics, Ltd., NevinTelecom, Bunker Communications and Planmatrix LLC., were also among those bidding to provide such software, according to documents discovered by Raw Story. The contract was later discovered to have been won by Ntrepid, which still later was confirmed to be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cubic Corporation and led in large part by execs and employees of the latter firm.
On October 15th, 2010, HBGary Federal CEO Aaron Barr emailed Mantech CEO Robert Frisbie about considering Palantir Technologies for help “..on some of the integration for link analysis and data correlation. We will likely be able to get into some of the persona management logic..” Barr here attached the PDF titled Social Media Persona Development. At some point, Barr also deployed a primitive single persona, intended to represent an intelligence contracting employee and USAF veteran, on Facebook and Twitter. During his attempt to infiltrate Anonymous, Barr also planned to create at least two fake personas with the intention of using the first to “discredit” the second in order to gain influence within the movement. In both instances, Barr seems to have relied on manual trickery rather than employing specialized software of the sort that’s been developed elsewhere.
Patent 20090313274, created in an apparent join effort by IBM and the U.S. military (four members of which are listed as inventors), describes specific workings of a reasonably advanced persona management system, or at least a component thereof, providing software-based linguistic capabilities in order to retain “linguistic integrity” from conversation to conversation.
DARPA’s July 2011 BAA (Broad Agency Announcement) entitled Social Media in Strategic Communications indicates that such software will increasingly form a broad programmatic area of military operations, rather than being acquired piecemeal or in covert dealings, as has been the case in the past.
Firms known to be involved
Cubic Corporation/Ntrepid/Abraxas
C5i
Mantech
HBGary Federal
USAF
Text of 2010 USAF Solicitation
Solicitation Number: RTB220610 Notice Type: Sources Sought Synopsis: Added: Jun 22, 2010 1:42 pm Modified: Jun 22, 2010 2:07 pmTrack Changes 0001- Online Persona Management Service. 50 User Licenses, 10 Personas per user. Software will allow 10 personas per user, replete with background , history, supporting details, and cyber presences that are technically, culturally and geographacilly consistent. Individual applications will enable an operator to exercise a number of different online persons from the same workstation and without fear of being discovered by sophisticated adversaries. Personas must be able to appear to originate in nearly any part of the world and can interact through conventional online services and social media platforms. The service includes a user friendly application environment to maximize the user’s situational awareness by displaying real-time local information. 0002- Secure Virtual Private Network (VPN). 1 each VPN provides the ability for users to daily and automatically obtain randomly selected IP addresses through which they can access the internet. The daily rotation of the user s IP address prevents compromise during observation of likely or targeted web sites or services, while hiding the existence of the operation. In addition, may provide traffic mixing, blending the user s traffic with traffic from multitudes of users from outside the organization. This traffic blending provides excellent cover and powerful deniability. Anonymizer Enterprise Chameleon or equal
0003- Static IP Address Management. 50 each Licence protects the identity of government agencies and enterprise organizations. Enables organizations to manage their persistent online personas by assigning static IP addresses to each persona. Individuals can perform static impersonations, which allow them to look like the same person over time. Also allows organizations that frequent same site/service often to easily switch IP addresses to look like ordinary users as opposed to one organization. Anonymizer IP Mapper License or equal
0004- Virtual Private Servers, CONUS. 1 each Provides CONUS or OCONUS points of presence locations that are setup for each customer based on the geographic area of operations the customer is operating within and which allow a customer?s online persona(s) to appear to originate from. Ability to provide virtual private servers that are procured using commercial hosting centers around the world and which are established anonymously. Once procured, the geosite is incorporated into the network and integrated within the customers environment and ready for use by the customer. Unless specifically designated as shared, locations are dedicated for use by each customer and never shared among other customers. Anonymizer Annual Dedicated CONUS Light Geosite or equal
0005- Virtual Private Servers, OCONUS. 8 Each Provides CONUS or OCONUS points of presence locations that are setup for each customer based on the geographic area of operations the customer is operating within and which allow a customer?s online persona(s) to appear to originate from. Ability to provide virtual private servers that are procured using commercial hosting centers around the world and which are established anonymously. Once procured, the geosite is incorporated into the network and integrated within the customers environment and ready for use by the customer. Unless specifically designated as shared, locations are dedicated for use by each customer and never shared among other customers. Anonymizer Annual Dedicated OCONUS Light Geosite or equal
0006- Remote Access Secure Virtual Private Network. 1 each Secure Operating Environment provides a reliable and protected computing environment from which to stage and conduct operations. Every session uses a clean Virtual Machine (VM) image. The solution is accessed through sets of Virtual Private Network (VPN) devices located at each Customer facility. The fully-managed VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) is an environment that allows users remote access from their desktop into a VM. Upon session termination, the VM is deleted and any virus, worm, or malicious software that the user inadvertently downloaded is destroyed. Anonymizer Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Solution or equal.
Contracting Office Address: 2606 Brown Pelican Ave. MacDill AFB, Florida 33621-5000 United States
Place of Performance: Performance will be at MacDIll AFB, Kabul, Afghanistan and Baghdad, Iraq. MacDill AFB , Florida 33679 United States
See Also
Persona Development
Cognitive Infiltration
SMISC: Social Media in Strategic Communication (DARPA-BAA-11-64, PDF) – 14.07.2011
greekemmy 