President President Barack Obama should resign if it can be shown that he approved spying by US diplomatic figures on UN officials, the founder of WikiLeaks said in an interview published Sunday. Excuse me, Ernst Julian, if you claim immunity from our laws, you are in no position to dictate our leadership. Bambi is not especially popular here at the Burg, but he is OUR president and we, not some megalomaniac blackmailer, will decide whether he needs to go.
"The whole chain of command who was aware of this order, and approved it, must resign if the US is to be seen to be a credible nation that obeys the rule of law. The order is so serious it may well have been put to the president for approval," Julian Assange told Spanish daily El Pais. By this logic, Julian Stavro should resign from the human race, since he has been spying on practically everybody.
"Obama must answer what he knew about this illegal order and when. If he refuses to answer or there is evidence he approved of these actions, he must resign," he added during an Internet chat interview published online. Au contraire, arch-villain of the innertubes, I would demand the resignation of any president who refused to spy on that wretched hive of scum and villainy at the UN.
WikiLeaks threw US diplomacy into chaos when it started releasing more than 250,000 classified State Department cables on November 28, creating an international firestorm as American diplomats' private assessments of foreign leaders and politics have been publicly aired.
According to one of the documents, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asked for UN personnel's telephones, emails, credit card details and frequent flier numbers.
The United States and other governments said the release of the documents broke their laws.
Assange gave the interview to El Pais on Saturday from an undisclosed location. a cave under George Galloway's Portuguese villa.
The 39-year-old Australian is believed to be in Britain, and a report said he could be arrested this week. For more info, see Narcissistic personality disorder
I am in favor of starting an Assange death pool; not advocating, mind you; just estimating. We could make it interesting by including both date and method. I will take February 1st by polonium capsule.
#3
It's probably wishcasting, but I'm hoping somebody (Russians, etc.) just gaslights this guy and drive him over the edge. It shouldn't be hard- he's close; just break into his secret hideout and rearrange all the furniture.
#5
After reading Slashdot that 5 Lamestream media orgs r helping him, I'm wondering if part of this wasn't to get him to resign cos he's such a disaasta.
The response to the leaks may not be going like they had hoped?
#11
I'm not normally big on defending Obama, but I WILL defend him for spying on the United Nations. I mean, duh! It's common sense. Equilateral Guinna probably spies on the UN.
#14
Can someone enlighten me. The stuff I read about Hillary was her trying to get freely available data on important people rounded up so they had more complete information. It certainly didn't sound like actual spying to me. Did I read wrong?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/06/2010 17:06 Comments ||
Top||
#18
atomic conspiracy is 100% correct. Obama may not be popular but he is YOUR president and YOU will be the only ones to decide when and how he needs to go.
and yes, it's safe to assume US spies on the UN and that is a GOOD thing, I agree.
so has wikileaks done any damage in this instance? no.
so then, what's the problem? It's good to have a discussion, one that wouldn't see the light of day without wikileaks.
I would remind you all that without Wikileaks there would also have been no Climate-Gate - we wouldn't have known how the UN cooked the books on climate change. All those documents were posted anonymously on Wikileaks too.
This has irreparably damaged some relationships, and worse, it has made our diplomats unable to trust the communications channels, so overseas diplomacy becomes difficult because they cannot send sensitive information back to the leadership in DC - thereby crippling the ability of our elected leaders to conduct foreign policy that helps insure the safety and prosperity of the US.
Also, there are reports that they revealed some North Korea defectors, which means any relatives of theirs back in NKor land are now at the tender mercies of Kim Jong Il's communist punishment police.
anon1, you may wish to rethink your "done no damage" ans your continued defense of the indefensible, you fucking fool.
#20
so has wikileaks done any damage in this instance? no.
Anon1 is more than just foolish she is a PRINCIPLED SOCIOPATH. Assange probably is, too, in addition to NPD.
Is that a smidge false nice-nice by anon1? She refers to "in this instance" as an insolated case to gain a veneer of civility, but all who have read her prior posts knows she likes what Assange has in store for the world, even if death, disruption, and torture of completely innocent people are the result.
Reading the bulk of her posts on the subject, it is clear that she thinks wikileaks should be held as harmless, accross the board. To "A principled sociopath" like Anon1 long as an act fits the principal deemed right, actual human life, suffering, death are abstract concepts the less than compassionate like herself toss to the wind. Someone who wants to be 'right' at all costs cannot be reasoned with. Best way to diffuse a sociopath is ignore her waffling between civil sounding social graces and cruelty.
Posted by: Fire and Ice ||
12/06/2010 18:32 Comments ||
Top||
#21
Interesting how the administration remained silent when Wikileaks was attacking DOD, but immediately sprang into action when Wikileaks began attacking the US State Dept.
#22
OldSpook, are you literate? I wrote ... no damage "in this instance"
so what if the US spies on the UN. Who gives a crap? the whole world is probably cheering about that as everyone knows what a corrupt little useless organ the UN is.
Fire and Ice: Yes, i think wikileaks is ultimately a force for good in the world.
You love it when it is releasing stuff on your enemies, but you hate it when it is releasing stuff on the US and allies.
Well at least everyone hates them equally
that is the usual test of impartiality.
Wikileaks has the power to reveal corruption around the globe.
Take it away and we become the controlled puppets of the very sophisticated PR machines of our two-party systems (at least in the US, UK and Australia).
Since when did freedom of information become the enemy?
Since when was revealing truth and facts a traitorous act.
In fact it is being true to the highest principles on which our societies are founded and will only make us stronger if we respond to the challenge in a positive manner.
Societies that have a controlled population kept in the dark, and a ruling class that does what it likes are never as strong as open societies.
Surely the victory of the US over the USSR in the cold war settled that concept for good.
#23
Fire and Ice: Yes, i think wikileaks is ultimately a force for good in the world
I could not disagree more. Honesty is NOT always the best policy. The only reason a society, any society, functions is because individuals, groups, and politicians do not practice radical honesty. If every person everywhere said exactly what they were thinking to others, or everyone broadcasted their secret recipes, classified docs, shoe size and social security numbers it would be a bloodbath. No one, at any time in history has survived by being completly upfront. Especially where matters of soldiery and warfare are concerned.
The question of divulge vs. not divulge is the million dollar question. It won't get answered here, today, on Rantburg, by you and I. But history has proven that in order for the social fabric to remain free from complete anarchy and violence, honesty is NOT the best policy. Wikileaks is screwed, so is Assange, and so is PFC Manning.
Posted by: Fire and Ice ||
12/06/2010 19:21 Comments ||
Top||
#24
Global corruption is ALREADY well-known and thoroughly documented for anyone who bothers to investigate. Wikileaks wasn't necessary for that. The problem is the useful information is obscured by hype, lies, and distractions. Global warming is the only real threat we face.
#25
Honesty is not always the best policy, I agree. It was best said the "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different cultures and races, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation.
#27
Someone tell me Julian Assange would do wikileaks if he had to come up out of his own pocket to fund it? Please someone convince me. Otherwise, I know money is changing hands, and fiscal interests are also in play. There is nothing noble about buying and selling of information when it is an ill gotten gain. Just like if my doctor sold my medical chart to my employers without my permission, or someone forged my signature for the greater good. Dangerous precedents are being set. Assange is a deviant not a moral crusader.
Posted by: Fire and Ice ||
12/06/2010 20:04 Comments ||
Top||
#28
"you are wrong"
Bingo. See, right there I know Anon1 is incapable of being dissauded from her insistence that Wikileaks is good. Any time someone states you are "wrong" then obviously, the maker of this blanket statement must be "right" and if I am correct, their next justification for their view will be some nebulous reason like "its good for the world" but without any explanation by way of example, history, or fact, just lots of opinion. So,then, it just ain't anything but a chicken wing on a string.
Im sorry, VIOLATION TIME EXPIRED. You have just given up your rational playing piece in favor of "I am right you are wrong."
It doesn't matter if I presented arguments and facts, anecdotes, all night about why Wikileaks is harmful, Anon1 won't be budged. Therefore, I won't waste my breath.
Posted by: Fire and Ice ||
12/06/2010 20:15 Comments ||
Top||
#29
Wall Street Journal editorial today quotes Assange on his motives - to trigger such a crackdown within the US on info exchange that the government (which he calls a 'conspiracy') can no longer function efficiently.
That sounds like damage to me. The real issue isn't what's in the cables and other leaks, although those HAVE gotten people killed already. The real issue is that Assange wants to destroy the effective functioning of this country and its government.
#30
Which makes us more vulnerable to terrorist attack by Islamic fundamentalists. Which gets innocent civilians killed. But ANON1, doesn't CARE, as long as its not her Aussie abode or family or fellow Australian that gets the kick back. And the way she talks, she is willing to bet lives that it won't be hers.
Posted by: Fire and Ice ||
12/06/2010 20:38 Comments ||
Top||
#31
anon1, how about this. Say you stumble into a romantic affair with a married man. Neither of you were looking for it, but mutual love blossoms anyway, and he'd rather be married to you. But in the end, he feels responsible for his family. You understand and want no harm to come to them, but you get your heart broken. To cope, you write a detailed journal about it, come to grips, eventually find love again and marry.
Then someone breaks into your house and steals the journal. One of these principled "information should be free" types. Publishes it on the internet and emails the link to the wife, for good measure. Outraged - even though her husband did the right thing - she leaves, takes the kids, and tells them he's an evil bastard. They're young enough to believe anything Mom says and never want to see him again.
A family is broken and children are without a father. A man you cared for is destroyed, and hates you. Your husband reads the files and learns things about you he can't live with. Another man you cared for is destroyed, and leaves you. Half the world reviles you as a homewrecker and the other half salivates over what a wanton slut you are and wants to score with you too. If you're lucky, no one gets murdered or commits suicide.
So. No harm done? This benefited . . . who? TO what end? You'd be fine with it all because at least the truth is free? Riiiight. No, you're fine with it so long as it's not your ox getting gored.
So go ahead and fall for Julian's sociopathic schtick as some kind of romantic renegade. But I don't think I'm alone when I say: please go suck his cock somewhere else.
#36
Nah, if he dies, he becomes some kind of martyr, or heaven help us all....another Che-type figure, but without the striking good looks. I don't wanna see that horse's ass on a million college kids' t-shirts.
Better to let the Swedes drag him in, give him a record as a rapist/kiddie molester/pervert that he will never live down, and toss him in a cell where he will eventually suffer (to him) a fate worse than death....to be forgotten once we get another story about Britney or one of those "Teen Mom" tramps.
#37
Besides, Assflange was not entirely and idealist. He sold some of the info on regular basis to interested parties. One of the WL co-founders couldn't stomach it and left WL in 2007 because of it.
#39
And... thought ClimateGate files found their way to WL, eventually, they were first released through a Russian server unrelated to WL, as Bright Pebbles correctly notes.
#41
Swamp Blondie, martyr for whom? For < several K starry eyed teenagers pecking on their keyboards in mommy's basement?
I wish. There's more than a few people who I once thought were rational that have bought into Assange's BS, just like anon1, and sincerely believe he's doing this just for the purest of motives.
Look, if a bunch of college professors could turn a murdering psychopath into a romantic figure, surely they could turn this self-important narcissistic twit into some kind of freedom fighter against eeeeevillll US oppression......
Breaking news from the AP:
In a long overdue move, based in no small part on the current episode of Wikileaks, the U.S. Government has finally settled on a secure location for ALL Top Secret US Government documents. A place so secure that even people with the highest of clearances cannot gain access.
All classified documents will now be stored at the same location of Barack Hussein Obama/Barry Sortero's Birth Certificate, College Transcripts, SSN application and off-shore campaign contributors list.
That should finally solve the problem of any more classified documents ever seeing the light of day!
#6
Jim's been drinking too much moonshine.
Or not enough.
Sorry guys I've seen too much Government stupidity to think it was any kind of a joke, Seems stupid enough to be reality.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/06/2010 20:45 Comments ||
Top||
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
