WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, currently under house arrest in the UK, will be hosting an English-language talk show on RT, a Moscow-based channel formerly known as Russia Today.

Called “The World Tomorrow”, the TV show will have Assange interviewing “key political players, thinkers and revolutionaries”. Assange’s show is expected to kick off around the middle of March, and ten 30-minute episodes will be aired every week.

RT is keeping a tight lid on the specifics, such as Assange’s guests and the talking points, but the network did drop a few hints on what we can expect. According to RT, Assange will “get to talk about the issues of the day with those he believes will shape the world tomorrow”.

Assange himself also shed a bit more light on his TV show in a statement posted on WikiLeaks. He said:

“Through this series I will explore the possibilities for our future in conversations with those who are shaping it. Are we heading towards utopia, or dystopia and how we can set our paths? This is an exciting opportunity to discuss the vision of my guests in a new style of show that examines their philosophies and struggles in a deeper and clearer way than has been done before.”

[Image credit: Reuters]

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange getting his own TV show is a post from: The Inquisitr

Bradley Manning, the young soldier who has been held in what many call inhumane conditions since May 2010 without charges, will be making his first appearance in military court today after more than a year and a half of detention.

Manning will be 24 years old tomorrow, and stands accused of “aiding the enemy and violating the Espionage Act ” by leaking classified documents to disclosure portal Wikileaks. Manning first initiated contact with the site in November of 2009, and is believed to be responsible for leaking the damaging “Collateral Murder” video, in which a dozen people were shot and killed by American troops- including two unarmed Reuters journalists. Before his arrest, Manning confided in the man who would later turn him in, Adrian Lamo, about his motivations for releasing data like the “Collateral Murder” clip. Manning said:

“At first glance it was just a bunch of guys getting shot up by a helicopter. No big deal… about two dozen more where that came from, right? But something struck me as odd with the van thing, and also the fact it was being stored in a JAG officer’s directory. So I looked into it.”

The case today is the start of something known as an Article 32 hearing, which lasts about a week and will determine whether charges against Bradley Manning will be dropped or will proceed to a court martial. When probed by Lamo about the “incredible… awful things” he’d seen in compiling the data he later leaked, Lamo probed Manning about why he’d chosen to leak the secrets for free when he could have made “bank” selling them to enemies of the state. Manning replied:

“…because it’s public data… it belongs in the public domain…”

Manning could be sentenced to life in prison.

Bradley Manning Makes First Appearance in Military Court After 19 Months in Jail is a post from: The Inquisitr

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange will be allowed to stay in Britain a little bit longer. Two High Court judges in London ruled today that Assange had the right to petition the Supreme Court to hear his case against his extradition to Sweden over sex crimes allegations.

The Washington Post reports that Assange will have 14 days to lodge a written appeal to the Supreme Court. The court will then decide if it will hear Assange’s case.

The two High Court judges, John Thomas and Duncan Ouseley, said that Assange raised a question of “general public interest” and that Assange should be allowed to bring his case to the Supreme Court. After the ruling, Assange said:

“The High Court has decided that an issue that arises from my own case is of general public importance and may be of assistance in other cases and should be heard at the Supreme Court… I think this is the right decision and I am thankful. The long struggle for justice for me and for others continues.”

The Washington Post reports that if Assange had lost his ruling he would have been extradited to Sweden within 10 days.  Assange faces charges of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion in Sweden.

Assange’s lawyers argued that the warrant for his arrest was flawed because it was signed by a public prosecutor. The judges agreed but said that the chances of Assange winning his appeal are “extraordinarily slim.”

Claes Borgstrom, the lawyer who is representing Assange’s alleged victims, said that the High Court’s decision is just delaying the inevitable. Borgstrom told the CS Monitor:

“My clients have waited for over a year for a legal conclusion of this and now they will have to wait even longer. Then it will still end with Assange being transferred to Sweden. The rules are very clear about this.”

Do you think Julian Assange will be extradited to Sweden?

Julian Assange to Continue Extradition Fight is a post from: The Inquisitr

It’s emerged that Sir Richard Branson helped to bankroll a secret project that aimed to topple Robert Mugabe’s regime in Zimbabwe.

Yes, our old friend Wikileaks has been at it again. This time it’s released a diplomatic cable from July 2007 that reveals how an initiative founded and largely funded by Branson aimed to get Mugabe to stand down.

The cable was written by America’s then-ambassador to South Africa Eric Bost, and exposes how Branson and various former African presidents, including Nelson Mandela, agreed to discuss the scheme in Johannesburg on July 17th and 18th, 2007.

The plot involved the group travelling to the Zimbabwean capital of Harare and offering Mugabe a $10 million sweetener to hand over power in a “calm” and controlled manner. As well as Mandela, Sam Nujoma (Namibia), Kenneth Kaunda (Zambia), Jerry Rawlings (Ghana), Joaquim Chissano (Mozambique), Daniel Arap Moi (Kenya) and Ketumile Masire (Botswana) reportedly agreed to participate.

Branson is one of the creators of the ‘Elders’ organisation, a body of former presidents set up to tackle global crises. This confidential memo is the first sign the group was attempting to instigate regime change.

The leaked note said the group was being assisted in their plot by Jonathan Moyo, Zimbabwe’s former information minister who was expelled from the country’s ruling Zanu-PF party in 2005 after he fell out with Mugabe. Indeed, Moyo even prepared a script for the group to present to the elderly tyrant.

Whether the group ever followed through with its plan and approached Mugabe is unknown.

Richard Branson Funded Campaign to Remove Robert Mugabe is a post from: The Inquisitr

For a man who traffics in the free and open spread of information, Julian Assange sure has a lot of restrictions on which information he would like to see released.

Assange- who has been under interminable house arrest in the UK after allegations of date rape in Sweden clipped the rolling stone-like Wikileaks founder’s wings- is the subject of a soon-to-be-released memoir cum autobiography published by firm Canongate. But Assange and the publisher have fallen out rather publicly as the former says the latter rushed the tome to print before Assange had a chance to vet the mostly ghostwritten manuscript.

Assange posted a searing, lengthy statement alleging that the book was not properly audited by the man himself before publication. He fumes:

‘The draft is published under the title, Julian Assange: The Unauthorised Autobiography, a contradiction in terms… It is a narrative and literary interpretation of a conversation between the writer and me. Although I admire Mr O’Hagan’s writing, this draft was a work in progress. It is entirely uncorrected or fact-checked by me.

‘The entire book was to be heavily modified, extended and revised, in particular, to take into account the privacy of the individuals mentioned in the book. This book was meant to be about my life’s struggle for justice through access to knowledge. It has turned into something else.”

Assange accuses:

“The events surrounding [Julian Assange: The Unauthorised Autobiography’s] unauthorised publication by Canongate are not about freedom of information—they are about old-fashioned opportunism and duplicity—screwing people over to make a buck.”

Part of the wrangling is over the book’s hefty advance, paid to Assange and, he says, seized to pay lawyers in Sweden- whose fees he finds excessive. Assange says he is not in a position to pay back the advance, but also wished to block publication until he is able to review the content. In a counter statement, Canongate contends:

“The fact is he was given five and a half months to read the manuscript and during this time he contributed not one written word by way of response. It became increasingly clear that he was never going to approve the book, despite signing a contract to write such a book and happily taking a significant amount of Canongate’s money.”

Will you be reading the Julian Assange “autobiography?”

Julian Assange, Canongate Spar Over Autobiography Release is a post from: The Inquisitr

WikiLeaks has released thousands of unpublished American diplomatic cables, compiling them into a searchable database that includes more than 250,000 leaked State Department reports.

Typically WikiLeaks has only released files in small batches and this recent mass upload move is being seen by some outlets as a gasp of air for WikiLeaks which has recently become a secondary story for media outlets who have chosen to report on more pressing and important matters.

The move is also likely in retaliation to the realization that the sites internet host Dynadot had complied with a Patriot Act order to produce information about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Federal prosecutors also are said to have asked for “customer or subscriber account information” that relates to Assange, Wikileaks and other matters related to the leaking of classified documents since November 2010.

Where do you stand on the issue of WikiLeaks and the use of the Patriot Act to gather information about the sites founder?

WikiLeaks Releases Thousands Of Previously Unpublished Diplomatic Cables is a post from: The Inquisitr

Former WikiLeaks employee Daniel Domscheit-Berg has revealed that before leaving the company he destroyed 3,500 unpublished files, shreadding them “in order to ensure that the sources are not compromised.”

According to  Domscheit-Berg  the files included Washington’s “no-fly list” and site founder Julian Assange says information on 20 right-wing groups was also compromised.

In a statement released to the press Assange says his former employee kept cozy ties with US intelligence and police while claiming that the former Wikileaks member committed “sabotage” and improperly used chat logs for his book Inside WikiLeaks, chat logs that paint Assange in a less than favorable light.

It’s not necessarily that Domscheit-Berg didn’t want files to be distributed across the internet, he opened his own whistleblower website called OpenLeaks but then ran into issues when Germany’s top hacker group kicked him out and accused him of exploiting their work to benefit OpenLeaks.

Really Assange? You’re going to bitch and moan that files were used against you without your permission and that it was in some way an invasion of your privacy? Some people simply can’t take a dose of their own medicine.

Former WikiLeaks Member Destroyed 3,500 Files Before They Could Be Published is a post from: The Inquisitr

Those poor poor hackers. All that hacking and no-one seems to care about all the data that gets hacked.

Well, that is about to change thanks to a co-operative effort between Anonymous and People’s Liberation Front (PLF) as they launch HackerLeaks.

Originally the brainchild of several PLF members that was first talked about following “Operation Orlando”; which was an attack against the city of Orlando after repeated arrests of “Food Not Bombs” members, it is styled after WikiLeaks. It is meant to be a centralized site where hackers can publicize the hacked data.

From their site:

In both security as well as overall strategy, HackerLeaks is closely modeled on WikiLeaks. Our firstpriority is to provide a safe, secure – and anonymous way for hackers to disclose sensitive information. Our team of analysts first carefully screens each submission for any possible trace of the senders [sic] identity. Our second commitment is to ensure that each and every leak receives the maximum exposure possible in order to achieve the most profound political impact for the risks taken by those submitting material. To that end, we work with media outlets all over the world.

via Geekosystem

HackerLeaks: A WikiLeaks for hackers is a post from: The Inquisitr

This is not a repeat from December, 2010.

Credit card giant Mastercard has again been downed by hacktivists for their “fiscal embargo” and “unlawful banking blockade against Wikileaks,” six months after the financial giants got together to shut out the controversial info-dump website. The initial embargo by financial institutions led to a massive international hacktivist attack on Visa, Mastercard and PayPal dubbed “Operation Payback” late last year.

Mastercard.com appears to be up again following the reported distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, and no mention of the service disruption was made by the company on their Twitter account to apprise customers of the situation. (However, Mastercard has tweeted at length about baseball-related discounts.) It is unclear whether further attacks on the financial institutions blockading Wikileaks are in the works, but the organization tweeted:

Hactivists take down MasterCard in protest over the continuing illegal WikiLeaks fiscal embargo mastercard.com

The unlawful banking blockade against WikiLeaks in 6th month: The culprits: VISA, MasterCard, PayPal, Bank of America, Western Union.

The unlawful banking blockade against WikiLeaks continues; we call for de-listing the banks involved http://t.co/LjFqBl6

Mastercard did not officially comment on the attack.

Mastercard Again Taken Down By Hacktivists In Wikileaks Vengeance is a post from: The Inquisitr

If now-former HBGary CEO Aaron Barr has learned one thing from his attempt to take on Anonymous, it’s that- as Stephen Colbert so succinctly put it- you should not stick your dick in the hornet’s nest. Or at least, expect to suffer many penis-stings.

Just coming in to this story now? Barr was targeted by the loosely-knit group after he told the Financial Times that the security firm planned to speak to the FBI about Anonymous’ activities. In the ensuing large scale raid, Barr’s iPad was wiped, his World of Warcraft character revealed, personal details of his life including marital woes were released, and a treasure trove of information was found in his personal email showing that the firm planned to discredit Wikileaks on behalf of a large financial institution believed to be Bank of America. The leaked emails also revealed an intent to “disrupt” Salon writer and vocal Wikileaks supporter Glenn Greenwald.

Barr slunk away from his position today, saying he felt hopeful HBGary could recover from being totally pwned by the hacktivist group:

“I need to focus on taking care of my family and rebuilding my reputation,” Barr said in a phone interview. “It’s been a challenge to do that and run a company. And, given that I’ve been the focus of much of bad press, I hope that, by leaving, HBGary and HBGary Federal can get away from some of that. I’m confident they’ll be able to weather this storm.”

Aside from embarrassing Barr and HB Gary, the leaked information called the ethics of the company into question and cast the firm in an undeniably unflattering light.

[Threatpost]

HBGary CEO resigns after total pwnage by Anonymous is a post from: The Inquisitr

Following the arrest of five people in Britain for their alleged involvement in the much talked about DDoS attacks in December 2010 against a number of websites for their involvement in cutting the cash flow to WikiLeaks. The companies originally targeted by the Anonymous group were MasterCard, Visa, and PayPal.

Well it seems that the group isn’t going to take this lying down as they have issued a press release (pdf) stating that they see the arrest of the five people in England as a declaration of war by the U.K. government against Anonymous. Here is the press release in full:

OPEN LETTER FROM ANONYMOUS TO THE UK GOVERNMENT
Dear UK government,
We are Anonymous. It has come to our attention that you deemed it necessary to arrest five of our fellow anons for their participation in the DDoS attacks against PayPal, Mastercard, and others, that have been carried out in our name in retaliation for those organisations’ actions against WikiLeaks.

We understand you are planning to charge these fellow anons with offences under the 1990 Computer Misuse Act, which prohibits impairing the operation of a computer or the readability of data. Anonymous believes, however, that pursuing this direction is a sad mistake on your behalf. Not only does it reveal the fact that you do not seem to understand the present-day political and technological reality, we also take this as a serious declaration of war >from yourself, the UK government, to us, Anonymous, the people.

First and foremost, it is important to realize what a DDoS attack exactly is and what it means in the contemporary political context. As traditional means of protest (peaceful demonstrations, sit-ins, the blocking of a crossroads or the picketing of a factory fence) have slowly turned into nothing but an empty, ritualised gesture of discontent over the course of the last century, people have been anxiously searching for new ways to pressure politicians and give voice to public demands in a manner that might actually be able to change things for the better. Anonymous has, for now, found this new way of voicing civil protest in the form of the DDoS, or Distributed Denial of Service, attack. Just as is the case with traditional forms of protest, we block access to our opponents infrastructure to get our message across. Whether or not this infrastructure is located in the real world or in cyberspace, seems completely irrelevant to us.

Moreover, we would like to take this opportunity to set the record straight on the difference between a DDoS attack and hacking, as these concepts often seem to be confounded when media and policy-makers talk about Anonymous. Hacking as such is defined by the law as ‘unauthorised access to a computer or network’, whereas a DDoS attack is simply a case of thousands of people making legitimate connections to a publicly accessible webserver at the same time, using up the entire bandwidth or processing power of the given server at once and thereby causing a huge ‘traffic jam’.

It is clear then, that arresting somebody for taking part in a DDoS attack is exactly like arresting somebody for attending a peaceful demonstration in their hometown. Anonymous believes this right to peacefully protest is one of the fundamental pillars of any democracy and should not be restricted in any way. Moreover, we have noted that similar attacks have also been carried out against Wikileaks itself, yet so far, nobody has been arrested in connection with these attacks, nor are there even any signs
of an investigation into this issue at all. Yet, we know exactly who was responsible for that attack. Anonymous believes it is unfair and hypocritical to attempt to put these 5 arrested anons to trial without even attempting to find those who DDoS’ed a website which you oppose. We can therefore only assume that these arrests are politically motivated, and were being carried out under pressure from the US government. Anonymous can not, and will not, stand idle while this injustice is being done.

Furthermore, the maximum sentence these 5 anons could be given under the Computer Misuse Act is 10 years imprisonment and a fine of up to £5000. We want you to realize just how ridiculous these sentences are, especially given the exact nature of a DDoS attack and its lack of permanent damage to the target website. To hand out these kinds of harsh sentences (even to minors!) would effectively ruin their life, taking away their chance at higher education or even any kind of proper future, simply because they participated in a peaceful cyber-protest and stood up for their rights. A fine as high as £5000 would also put an incredible strain on the minors’ families. We hope that you consider changing the legal framework for what is, at worst, a minor offence.

And last but not least: The fact that thousands of people from all over the world felt the need to participate in these attacks on organisations targeting Wikileaks and treating it as a public threat, rather than a common good, should be something that sets you thinking. You can easily arrest individuals,
but you cannot arrest an ideology. We are united by a common objective and we can and WILL cross any borders to achieve that. So our advice to you, the UK government, is to take this statement as a serious warning from the citizens of the world. We will not rest until our fellow anon protesters
have been released.

Awaiting your action,

Anonymous

via @eldon

Anonymous declares war on the U.K. is a post from: The Inquisitr

The title of this posts was inspired by an excellent post over at Threat Level by Ryan Singel but is says exactly what my thoughts were when I first read a few days ago that Twitter went public about receiving subpoenas from the US Department of Justice demanding that Twitter turn over user information from a select number of people connected to WikiLeaks.

Not only did they go public but they also reached out to all the people whose information the DoJ had subpoenaed and let them know what was happening and that they had ten days to file arguments against the information being released. If they did nothing then after the ten days Twitter would hand over the information.

Now this may not seem like much but remember these subpoenas were sealed and came with a gag order which means Twitter had to go to court in order to get the gag order lifted, which they did, and won.

This is the email that was sent out by Twitter to those the DoJ was subpoenaing (via Geekosystem):

Kessel, Jan-07 11:20 am (PST):

Dear Twitter User:

We are writing to inform you that Twitter has received legal process requesting information regarding your Twitter account, @rop_g. A copy of the legal process is attached. The legal process requires Twitter to produce documents related to your account.

Please be advised that Twitter will respond to this request in 10 days from the date of this notice unless we receive notice from you that a motion to quash the legal process has been filed or that this matter has been otherwise resolved.

To respond to this notice, please e-mail us at <removed>.

This notice is not legal advice. You may wish to consult legal counsel about this matter. If you need assistance seeking counsel, you may consider contacting the Electronic Frontier Foundation <contact info removed> or the ACLU <contact info removed>.

Sincerely,

Twitter Legal

I particularly like the last part of the email:

This notice is not legal advice. You may wish to consult legal counsel about this matter. If you need assistance seeking counsel, you may consider contacting the Electronic Frontier Foundation <contact info removed> or the ACLU <contact info removed>.

Nice touch Twitter and for once it is nice to send kudos your way.

Wow, Twitter must be beta testing a spine is a post from: The Inquisitr

Wikileaks has been taking a lot of crap following it’s recent data dump of US diplomatic cables. From having it’s domain yanked to having it’s money supply chain cut off. Most recently Bank of America has indicated that it plans of cutting off any transfers of any kinds that are indicated to be for Wikileaks.

In the lead up to this it appears that Bank of America is going on a domain buying spree snapping up any domains that relate to how the company or company executive suck or blow. From Domain Name Wire:

For example, the company registered a number of domains for CEO Brian Moynihan: BrianMoynihanBlows.com, BrianMoynihanSucks.com, BrianTMoynihanBlows.com, and BrianTMoynihanSucks.com. Just to be sure, it also picked up the .net version of these names and some .orgs as well.

I count hundreds of such domain name registrations on December 17 alone. They were registered through an intermediary that frequently registers domain names on behalf of large companies.

Some of the other names are for CFO Charles Noski, Chairman of the Board Charles Holliday, and board member Charles Rossotti (who is also Senior Advisor, The Carlyle Group).

What is perhaps even more interesting is that in the follow up to the whole Cablegate data dump even military men like Secretary of  Defense downplayed the whole leak. Yet prior to a reported upcoming dump about the banking system Wikileaks is facing its most intense attach by the very companies that they supposedly will be releasing a whole bunch of secrets about.

According to a report from Fox Business Bank of America has setup a “war room” to combat this next round of bank related leaks. Looks like they could be far more interesting than a bunch of infighting from backstabbing diplomats.

Bank of America prepares for Wikileaks backlash by snapping up “You Suck” domains is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Central Intelligence Agency is not surprisingly keeping an eye on Wikileaks, creating a “Wikileaks Task Force.” (Known within the agency simply as “WTF.”)

The WTF’s job is to comb through the hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks and assess how the now-publicly available information could cause larger problems. Among US government agencies, the CIA was relatively unscathed by Cablegate, and very little information even namechecking the notoriously tight-lipped CIA was present in the cables. (One notable CIA-related cable was a request for UN diplomats to gather intel.)

Interestingly, it seems from the Washington Post‘s piece that a reticence to commit sensitive information to digital media may have saved the CIA’s ass when it comes to Wikileaks. Per the article, the agency reviewed moving data to shareable digital formats, but opted against such measures due to inherent security risks:

As recently as two years ago, the agency rejected a request to make more of its intelligence reports available on the SIPRNET, the classified network used by the Pentagon to pass information around the world.

“We simply said we weren’t going to do it,” another former CIA official said. “The consensus was there were simply too many people potentially who had access.”

In light of the Wikileaks drama, a former high-ranking CIA official speaking on the condition of anonymity said of the decision:

“It’s just a huge vulnerability… Nobody could carry out enough paper to do what WikiLeaks has done.”

CIA launches WTF- ‘Wikileaks Task Force’ is a post from: The Inquisitr

An unofficial paid Wikileaks app has been removed by Apple from the iTunes store, but no reason for the axing was cited.

The app aggregated both “leaks” and Twitter updates to iPhones and iPod Touches, as described in its iPhone listing:

“The Wikileaks app gives instant access to the world’s most documented leakage of top secret memos and other confidential government documents.”

The app was ostensibly approved by Apple and hit on December 17th. It cost $1.99, and half the app’s proceeds were said to be marked to support Wikileaks. The Wikileaks app’s developer says the app was removed “without reasons” per a standard message received by Apple, and a message received by the developer indeed states just that the status of the app “has changed to ‘Removed from Site.”"

Although official word on why the app has disappeared is lacking, speculation on the reasons behind the removal of the Wikileaks app is rife. The Guardian says:

The main Wikileaks.ch site is back online now and accessible in the US. But what the app provided was an interface that provided access to the content combined with a way to make a donation. Making donations has become much more convoluted since PayPal, Mastercard and Visawithdrew services. Amazon also cut off Wikileaks by terminating its hosting agreement (it would be interesting to see what else is still hosted by them?) – giving the impression that this is an orchestrated campaign rather than a series of independent business-focused decisions.

The app was available for five days before it got the boot.

Apple yanks Wikileaks app from iTunes, offers no explanation is a post from: The Inquisitr

As Julian Assange remained jailed without charges in Britain awaiting a bail hearing this, the popular narrative regarding Wikileaks shifted massively.

While the previous week centered more on censorship and (in case you forgot) the content of the leaking diplomatic cables, the nature of the charges of which Assange has yet to be accused took center stage this week. Confusion about what the charges could entail reigned, and despite the absence of formal charges against Assange, lefty bloggers dissolved into two distinct camps.

1.) This is an OUTRAGE, Assange was accused of RAPE, and anyone who breathes a word in the opposite direction is a RAPE APOLOGIST;

and 2.) This is an OUTRAGE, Assange hasn’t been charged with anything and this whole brouhaha is a clear attempt to smear him/honeytrap/CIA/FREEDOM OF SPEECH!

…which, as you can imagine, hasn’t been all that productive. The latest casualty in the Julian Assange Rape Allegations Flamewar of 2010 is Keith Olbermann, who drew the ire of one of the most rabid subsets of bloggers- feminists- after allowing Michael Moore to speak on his show regarding his partial bailing out of Assange. I’m sure there’s a “bingo card” somewhere that will insult me for this, but engaging with this area of the blogosphere is particularly headache inducing. It’s a bit shoutier than most, and the rhetoric is peppered with an off-putting condescension that even for the internet is stunning and unique in its audacity. It also insists upon itself loudly, rapidly dismissing counterpoints with all caps usage of the words “DOUCHE” and “RAPE APOLOGIST.” (When noted feminist Naomi Wolf broke ranks in defense of Assange, she was lazily lambasted by Bitch Magazine as a “douche,” despite her reasoned critique of the use of women’s issues to pursue larger, unrelated political goals. Kind of proving that that strategy, as a whole, works.)

So it really comes as no surprise that when confronted with the accusation of being an all-caps RAPE APOLOGIST, Olbermann fled Twitter in heartbreak, shame and frustration. Part of the frustration surrounding the Julian Assange brouhaha is that it is impossible to defend Assange without being accused of defending rape, rapists or being a DUDEBRO. While it is possible, as many feminist bloggers point out, to defend Wikileaks and want to see Assange prosecuted, the opinion that the timing and motivation behind the charges is suspect is PATRIARCHAL RAPE APOLOGY and will not be tolerated.

Olbermann posted a brief Twitter explanation behind his flight, which only served to heighten the furor and prompt a mostly-inactive Salon writer to pen a piece titled- I kid you not- “Keith Olbermann quit Twitter because of me.” Which seems a bit high-handed and self-absorbed considering the amount of outrage spewing forth from both sides of the Assange supporter and detractor saga, not even considering the disgusting level of self-promotion into which the post happily, shamelessly descends. It seems pretty likely Olbermann left Twitter because of the sheer cacaphony and ugly accusations behind the campaign, not one user who managed to invent a hashtag that caught on. (I hate to break it to you, Sady Doyle, but 11-year-olds with Bieber fever do that every single day.)

In Olbermann’s measured and thoughtful five-tweet long response, he addressed himself but not Michael Moore (the original outrage target)- serving only to increase the clusterfracas:

Rape has touched my family, directly and savagely, and if anybody thinks I have addressed it without full sensitivity, then that assessment is the one that counts, and I apologize. But these accusations that I “revealed” an accuser’s identity by retweeting Bianca Jagger’s link, or that I ‘shamed’ an accuser by asking a question about the prosecution of a man governments are trying to bury, or that I do not ‘understand’ charges that have yet to be presented in their final form, reflect exactly the the kind of rushing to judgment of which I’m accused, and merit the same kind of apology I have just given.

If you’re interested in following the Moore/Olbermann Twitter saga, the anti-Olbermann and Moore tweeters have firmly latched onto the hashtag #mooreandme, and it continues. As for Olbermann, responding to the level of invective with which he is being pummeled is a herculean task, and I can’t blame him for taking a break from Twitter.

Have you been following the controversy on Twitter or any particular blogs? Do you fall into either outrage camp, or are you on Team Don’t Give a Fuck?

Keith Olbermann driven off Twitter by feminist outrage is a post from: The Inquisitr

Alt, all-caps text: STUDENTS ARE CALLING PRESIDENT JOHNSON EN MASSE TO PROTEST THE BOMBING AND IT’S JAMMED THE WHITE HOUSE SWITCHBOARD. COULD THEY COLLAPSE OUR CRITICAL PHONE SYSTEMS? HAS THE FIRST TELEPHONE WAR BEGUN? STAY TUNED FOR MORE ON THIS DANGEROUS NEW TECHNOLOGY.

[XKCD]

XKCD rags on Anonymous is a post from: The Inquisitr

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was granted bail in London today after being held without bond for a week in Wandsworth prision pending a possible extradition on a range of sex charges.

39-year-old Assange was bailed ahead of a January 11th hearing, but conditions for his release were tight: £240,000 in bond, surety from two individuals, surrender of his passport, a 10 PM curfew, and daily check-ins with police. Even if prosecutors decline to appeal the decision, it is unlikely Assange will be released this evening.

Assange’s mother told press that her son made statements prior to the hearing indicating he believes more sinister forces were at play in pursuing charges against him unrelated to Wikileaks:

Ahead of the hearing, Assange remained defiant, telling his mother from his cell that he was committed to publishing more secret US cables. “My convictions are unfaltering. I remain true to the ideals I have expressed. This circumstance shall not shake them,” Assange said, according to a written statement of his comments supplied to Australia’s Network Seven by his mother Christine.

“We now know that Visa, Mastercard, Paypal and others are instruments of US foreign policy. I am calling for the world to protect my work and my people from these illegal and immoral attacks.”

A lawyer for Assange argued that there was doubt “whether this actual category of rape would be rape under English law.”

Julian Assange granted bail by UK court is a post from: The Inquisitr

Anyone who has been following the whole Wikileaks story will know the organization is facing an incredible adversary who has no compunction in using whatever means possible to shut Wikileaks down. That doesn’t mean that Wikileaks isn’t without its defenders as we are hearing of mirrors for the Wikileaks files showing up around the world on thousands of web connected computers, hell you can even create a mirror on your android device.

While much of this defense of Wikileaks is of the passive nature there is one group at least that is going on the offensive by attacking the companies that have tried to cut Wikileaks off at the knees. These companies range from Amazon (even though they’re still willing to host Kindle versions of the files) to Visa, Mastercard and PayPal.

Chief among these shadowy groups is one known as Anonymous and it is this group that has been leading the charge to bring the opposing companies like PayPal to their knees. Now for the most part this is done through what is called Distributed Denial of Service, or DDoS, which means that the target company has their networks literally flooded with massive amounts of data which leads to their networks crashing.

Generally these attacks are taken against the public facing sites which makes the sites inaccessible for varying periods of time but as effective as that might be it is only short term and really has very little effect beyond the buzz it creates. However these groups are filled with some really smart and tech savvy people and it was inevitable that they would figure out a better method of attack – the money pipeline.

Over the past couple of years we have seen one thing become a backbone of the Web and the services that communicate with each other and the consumer. Whether it be personal data or consumers buying products all this data is going through a type of pipeline called APIs (application programming interface) and they are akin in a lot of ways to being a nervous system of the Web.

Well it appears, according to a post by Brad McCarty at The Next Web, that Anonymous have figured out that attacking the endpoints of these could have a much more drastic effect on their target companies than any other kind of DDoS and are using this method against PayPal.

It is one thing to figuratively splash paint on a corporate headquarters which is really what much of the typical DDoS attacks are like but it is another thing entirely to target the very lifeblood of a company – their financial transaction pipeline. This of course is exactly what the PayPal API is – their lifeblood between them and the consumer.

What this does though, especially if successful over an extended period of time, is how that those APIs that an increasing number of companies are integrating into their system is potentially a major weak point. A weak point that when attacked in the manner that Anonymous is attacking PayPal could have disastrous affect on the entire web.

twitter image courtesy of The Next Web

Latest Anonymous attack shows a huge potential weakness in the Web – APIs is a post from: The Inquisitr

In the follow up to Wikileaks making files available for anyone in the world to mirror Marshall Kirkpatrick from ReadWriteWeb did some checking over on Pirate Bay to see how well the torrents for the Wikileaks files were doing. Needless to say that as much as the United States government might want to put that genie back in the bottle it is obvious by the numbers that this isn’t going to happen.

Here’s a few of the numbers that Marshall pulled together:

• There are, as of this writing, 113 different torrents with the words Wikileaks Cablegate in the title listed
• At the time of Marshall’s post there were 109 people leeching a Wikileaks Cablegate file and 5801 total seeds
• The first full archive file was seeded two and a half hours after @wikileaks first announce their availability on Twitter
• 721 people are currently helping seed the first day’s archive file.
• 26 different Wikileaks Cablegate torrents were uploaded yesterday.

And as Marshall also points out – this is just the tip of the iceberg:

According to the Wikileaks.ch site, just 1193 out of the 251,287 total documents included in Cablegate have been released so far. That’s less than 0.5% of what’s on its way.

Try as hard as they might by putting pressure on businesses or governments there is no way that the US government can stop this, but good luck trying.

United States wants to put Wikileaks back in the bottle – Good luck with that. is a post from: The Inquisitr