WikiLeaks

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange breaks cover but will avoid America

US desperate to ask hacker what he knows of classified messages about Iraq and Afghanistan wars

 

Julian Assange of WikiLeaks spoke to the Guardian in Brussels after emerging from a month in hiding

The elusive founder of WikiLeaks, who is at the centre of a potential US national security sensation, has surfaced from almost a month in hiding to tell the Guardian he does not fear for his safety but is on permanent alert.
Julian Assange, a renowned Australian hacker who founded the electronic whistleblowers' platform WikiLeaks, vanished when a young US intelligence analyst in Baghdad was arrested.
The analyst, Bradley Manning, had bragged he had sent 260,000 incendiary US state department cables on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to WikiLeaks.
The prospect of the cache of classified intelligence on the US conduct of the two wars being put online is a nightmare for Washington. The sensitivity of the information has generated media reports that Assange is the target of a US manhunt.
"[US] public statements have all been reasonable. But some statements made in private are a bit more questionable," Assange told the Guardian in Brussels. "Politically it would be a great error for them to act. I feel perfectly safe … but I have been advised by my lawyers not to travel to the US during this period."
Assange appeared in public in Brussels for the first time in almost a month to speak at a seminar on freedom of information at the European parliament.
He said: "We need support and protection. We have that. More is always helpful. But we believe that the situation is stable and under control. There's no need to be worried. There's a need always to be on the alert."
Manning is being held incommunicado by the US military in Kuwait after "confessing" to a Californian hacker on a chatline, declaring he wanted "people to see the truth".
He said he had collected 260,000 top secret US cables in Baghdad and sent them to WikiLeaks, whose server operates out of Sweden. Adrian Lamo, the California hacker he spoke to, handed the transcripts of the exchanges to the FBI.
Manning was promptly arrested in Baghdad at the end of last month and transferred to a US military detention unit in Kuwait. He has been held for more than three weeks without charge.
Assange said WikiLeaks had hired three US criminal lawyers to defend Manning but that they had been granted no access to him. Manning has instead been assigned US military counsel.
While WikiLeaks declined to confirm receipt of the material from Manning, it has already released a film of a US Apache helicopter attack on civilians in Baghdad.
It has also posted a confidential state department cable on negotiations in Reykjavik over Iceland's financial collapse and is preparing to disclose much more material, including film of a US attack that left scores of civilians dead in Afghanistan.
The material is believed to derive from Manning, although WikiLeaks does not reveal its sources and its operations are designed to mask the source of the files it receives.
Prominent US whistleblowers and lawyers have advised Assange to stay out of the US and to be ultra-careful about his travel and public appearances. "Pentagon investigators are trying to determine the whereabouts of [Assange] for fear that he may be about to publish a huge cache of classified state department cables that, if made public, could do serious damage to national security," US web paper the Daily Beast reported 10 days ago.
"We'd like to know where he is – we'd like his co-operation in this," a US official was quoted as saying.
Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers – a top secret study about the Vietnam war – in 1973, spoke to the Daily Beast.
He said: "I would think that [Assange] is in some danger. Granted, I would think that his notoriety now would provide him some degree of protection."
Assange said: "Some fear for my life. I'm not one of them. We have to avoid some countries, avoid travel, until we know where the political arrow is pointing."
He added that WikiLeaks had been trying, "unsuccessfully so far", to contact Manning in Kuwait.
"Clearly, a young man is detained in very difficult circumstances with the allegation he is the whistleblower. We must do our best to obtain freedom for him."
Regarding his own predicament, Assange said the US state department had signalled it was not seeking any WikiLeaks people because the Pentagon's criminal investigations command had assumed the lead role in the case.
Apart from preparing much more material for release, WikiLeaks is planning to publicise a secret US military video of one of its deadliest air strikes in Afghanistan in which scores of children are believed to have been killed in May last year.
The Afghan government said about 140 civilians were killed in Garani, including 92 children. The US military initially said that up to 95 died, of whom about 65 were insurgents.
US officials have since wavered on that claim. A subsequent investigation admitted mistakes were made.
In April WikiLeaks released the Baghdad video, prompting considerable criticism of the Pentagon.
The film was edited and produced in Iceland where Assange spends a lot of his time and which last week prepared the most radical and liberal freedom of information legislation anywhere in the world.
Birgitta Jonsdottir, an Iceland MP and anti-war activist who led the drive for the new laws, co-produced the WikiLeaks version of the Baghdad video.
"I worked on it 18 hours a day through the Easter holidays," she said.
Jonsdottir, a close associate of Assange, said the WikiLeaks founder "went into hiding when the story of Manning's arrest was published".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jun/21/wikileaks-founder-julian-assange-breaks-cover

Prader Willi Syndrome

Prader Willi Syndrome is also known as PWS is a rare genetic disease. PWS symptoms may be different. Some of the most common symptoms are muscle weakness and the insatiable appetite, which leads to obesity. Other symptoms include problems and characteristics of behavior, speech problems, violations of OCD type, length short, incomplete S-EX-ual development, and more.
Disorders of the name of the doctors who first noticed in 1956 by Andrea Prader, Alexis Labhart and Willi Heinrich. Much remains unknown about this disorder. It is known that Prader-Willi syndrome genetic and should not be confused with a hereditary disease. Prader Willi Syndrome occurs only in the period of 1-10 000 and 1 in 25,000 live births.

http://usspost.com/prader-willi-syndrome-13617/

Comic-Con Is Back!

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(CBS)  CBS heroes and the anti-heroes of Showtime will make their mark at Comic-Con 2010 in San Diego.

It runs from July 21-25.

The CBS presence, through panels, a booth, autograph signings and a joint "Fandemonium" party with Entertainment Weekly, will provide Comic-Con fans with multiple opportunities to engage with CBS and Showtime Networks' popular stars and creative teams.

"The Early Show" will be there. S[ecial correspondent and "Superfan" Tyler McGill will mix with the ultimate fans of pop culture and report live from the convention on Friday, July 23. It will be his fourth special assignment for the show since his on-air debut last month, when he discussed his 218-mile walk from Boston to New York to win Celtics playoff tickets.

The Showtime and CBS panels will include a session on the three-time Emmy Award-nominated and Peabody Award-winning series "Dexter"; a special Showtime anti-hero panel featuring the stars and creative talent behind some of television's most subversive characters, including "Weeds," "Nurse Jackie" and "Californication"; a session on the highly-anticipated return of the iconic series "Hawaii Five-0"; and CBS's "Teching Out on TV" panel comprised of stars who play the beloved tech-geek characters on "NCIS," "NCIS: LA" and "Criminal Minds," to be joined by both the creator and technical expert behind "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation."

Entertainment Weekly and CBS will jointly celebrate all things pop culture -- including the fans -- at their "Fandemonium" event on Thursday, July 22. The party will bring together stars from CBS's primetime line-up, EW.com bloggers Michael Ausiello and Jeff "Doc" Jensen, and fans attending the convention for an evening of fun, food, drinks and a live Q&A moderated by Entertainment Weekly Managing Editor, Jess Cagle.

At the CBS booth, a fun mix of CBS and Showtime talent and producers will sign autographs. Among many giveaways and contests will be the chance to win a vacation getaway to the filming location of "Hawaii Five-0," on the island of Oahu. The cast will be on-hand exclusively to sign free, specially-produced Comic-Con-"Hawaii Five-0" collectors' posters.

Since no one would savor Comic-Con more than the brilliant and quirky characters on the phenomenally popular CBS comedy series "The Big Bang Theory," it's more than fitting that, in conjunction with Warner Bros. Television, the celebrated series' cast will interact with fans at the CBS booth, the Warner Bros. booth and the CBS/Entertainment Weekly "Fandemonium" party. On Friday, July 23, the cast will participate in Warner Bros. Television's "The Big Bang Theory" panel.

Those who can't attend Comic-Con can follow the extensive on-site video and text coverage on CBS Interactive's TV.com and Gamespot.com. TV.com's editorial team will provide round-the-clock coverage of the biggest news on the hottest television shows at the convention, including interviews and coverage broadcast from the CBS booth on the exhibit floor. GameSpot.com, covering Comic-Con from a video game perspective, will feature stage demonstrations as well as interviews with the biggest movers and shakers in the gaming industry.

Additionally, Showtime Networks' SHO.com is launching a dedicated Comic-Con micro site that will host the season five "Dexter" trailer and content from the anti-hero panel, both to be showcased after their respective panels.

Showtime's anti-hero messaging will be prominently featured throughout Comic-Con with high-impact advertising both inside and outside of the convention center. The official lanyards for the over 130,000 Comic-Con attendees will be branded by Showtime's anti-hero creative, and in a media company first, so will every shuttle bus at Comic-Con.

Showtime will also launch "Dexter Game On" DexterGameOn.com, an interactive game exclusively for Comic-Con where players will step into Dexter's mind and unlock content from season five.
As devoted "Dexter" fans know, all of Dexter's victims are marked with a small incision on their right cheek, and fans at Comic-Con can show their love for the series by sporting a "Dexter" cheek slash tattoo. SHOWTIME will distribute over 100,000 lick-'n-stick tattoos throughout all four days of Comic-Con.

Fans are encouraged to take pictures of themselves at various locations around the convention and upload them to the "Dexter Game On" site. As they play throughout the weekend, gamers have the chance to unlock exclusive content and pick up "Dexter"-themed merchandise including season four DVDs.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/07/16/earlyshow/leisure/main6684608.shtml

Merle Haggard on America

We Peaked Somewhere Around 1975

A few years ago, Merle Haggard was diagnosed with lung cancer and nearly became the latest country music legend to be felled by the unforgiving combination of hard living and age. Haggard beat the disease, returned to touring and now, at 73, he’s the subject of a PBS “American Masters” special airing tonight.
The documentary, “Merle Haggard: Learning to Live with Myself,”  portrays a man trying to come to terms with a life that took him from a train-hopping delinquent to an ex-con to a country music superstar, thanks to hits like “Mama Tried” and “Okie from Muskogee.” Haggard has always been a deeply personal songwriter, re-working the major events of his life — his father’s early death, his hardscrabble childhood, the years he spent in San Quentin — again and again in his songs. And in the PBS film he’s surprisingly emotional — more tortured poet than rabble-rousing tough guy.
Speakeasy caught up with Haggard on tour in Canada to talk about the film and his new album, “I Am What I Am.”
The Wall Street Journal: In the PBS film, you say that what motivates you is trying to write that one great song. Haven’t you already written several?
Merle Haggard: It’s sort of like an athlete. Nobody wants to fight their last fight. You always feel like you’ll do your best the next time. It’s the same with songwriting. I just feel like maybe there’s a great song that might cover everything that I’ve done.
Your songs often draw on your early years. Why do you continue to explore that period?
You used the word explore. I was very, very young and everything was left to explore. Same with the conditions of the world; they were so raw and untouched and almost virgin, even though it was just 50 years ago. We’ve changed so much on this planet.
The first song on your new album — “I’ve Seen it Go Away” –- implies that both America and country music have peaked.
Maybe it seems that way to everybody and to every time period. But it seems to me we peaked somewhere around 1975. It was still a two-lane country. It was more localized. There wasn’t an identical situation on every commercial street, such as a Wendy burger and McDonald and a Taco Bell and a BP. Individuality still was in play. Radio stations got their request from a local audience. I don’t know what it did to film — I’m not much involved with it — but it sure changed music when you couldn’t call the radio station and say can we please hear so and so.
On another song you sing “Love is always lovely when it’s new.” What’s old love like?
Well, I’ve only had that experience once in my life and it happens to be now. I’m married to a girl I’ve been with since 1986. I never stayed with anybody that long, and didn’t intend to do it this time in my life but I’ve been blessed with this wonderful family. When people get married they’re positive about what they believe in. It’s a lovely thing. As it passes by, in some cases it turns into an old love that’s maybe richer. But there’s one thing for certain: 99% of the time it’s always great when it starts.
You’ve said that playing the White House in 1973 was a career highlight. Was the experience tainted because Nixon was president?
I understand that we were there the day he got word that he was possibly in serious trouble. So I didn’t get to see much of the reaction that might have been there if it was a few days later. We played for about 300 dignitaries. You know, the CEO of American Steel and his wife and so forth. Nixon was able to stand with me and his wife and my wife and introduce everyone in that room to me, and tell me about his legal education while I was in prison and had four or five stories going on and remembered everyone’s children’s names. He was magnificent with his intelligence. Maybe he was short on common sense.
Does modern country music speak to you?
In most cases –- 99% of the time — the subject matter is so shallow. Should you write something that would touch a nerve, that would be the first thing the big programmer jerks [off the air]. He don’t want anything that’s going to cause somebody to look up from their computer and bitch. [Someone at a radio station] told me that. He said, we don’t want them crying in their beer. That eliminates a lot of emotion, which is the beginning of the country song, I thought.
How’s your current tour going?

The roads and the bridges and everything are in such bad shape now that you feel like you’ve been in a fight with Muhammad Ali by the time you’ve arrived at the place to play. I had a driver who said, how in the hell have you f***ing done this for 40 years? I said, I don’t know Ray. It’s hard. But it’s a labor of love. So here I am.

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/07/21/merle-haggard-on-america-we-peaked-somewhere-around-1975/

 

 

I-580 Oakland shooter Byron Williams was Tea Party sympathizer

According to Bob Egelko and Henry K. Lee of the San Francisco Chronicle, the man who terrorized Oakland (causing Adams Point residents to take to online chat rooms about the helicopter and shooting noise) was a parolee named Byron Williams who hated left-wing politicians and had on a bullet-proof vest.  In other words, a Tea Party sympathizer.
That he was on the Oakland stretch of I-580 may have been no accident, considering Oakland's a hot bed of left-wing political activity. Byron Williams also reads like a Tea Party sympathizer, and not exactly the warm and fuzzy kind. More like the kind that wants to harm you if you disagree with him.

Rush Limbaugh's a Tea Party hero

Is this what we're coming too? A Northern California man who's mother says was upset by "the way Congress was railroading through all these left-wing agenda items." Another Tea Party-type nut?
Doesn't that sound something like Joe Stack, the man who flew his plane into the Austin, Texas IRS Building earlier this year and who was called a Tea Party sympathizer? Or how about the Tea Party Express' Mark Williams, who just last week wrote a racist blog post against the NAACP? Someone white, male, generally middle-aged, at times not economically successful or comfortable, and angry, and who wants to take a gun or a plane (or a blog) to wreck society? All because they say they don't like the left wing political agenda (whatever that is, since the left can't seem to agree on things), when the real issue is they can't get a good job?   Rush Limbaugh, this is your fault.
As I've written before, the USA's got to fix this economy, and the only fast way is with another stimulus package. But I will put a finer point on it: the GOP has two problems: it's becoming known by the company it draws in loony-bin angry older white men like Rush Limbaugh and who want to harm people either mentally or physically, and really because their own economic lot isn't great (except for Rush, who makes a half-billion off hate), and the GOP is not helping President Obama fix the economy. So the GOP and the Tea Party, and its extremist expressions of hate for liberal politics are in a way responsible for encouraging the actions of i-580 Shooter (now he has a title) Byron Williams, and for Joe Stack too.
The GOP better look at itself and start being part of the solution, because it and Fox News are helping to produce domestic terrorists at an alarming rate. Republicans can't just ignore the Tea Party Express, it must totally repudiate it, and the actions of its most hateful members. Fox News has to stop being the place where people like Byron Williams and his Mom get their half-basked anti-American-government ideas, and, I assert, become so riled up they take action against America and its people.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/abraham/detail??blogid=95&entry_id=68175#ixzz0uBBdLNo3

Silibil ‘N Brains – The Fake ‘American’ Rappers Who Fooled Everyone

The Fake ‘American’ Rappers Who Fooled Everyone
Gavin Bain and Billy Boyd were two college friends from Dundee, Scotland, trying to make a name for themselves in rap music. But despite a talent for spinning rhymes, they couldn’t make it past the local scene. They even traveled to London for open auditions to become the next Eminem, but were told that they sounded more like a rapping version of the thick-accented pop group The Proclaimers.
Bain and Boyd returned disappointed that no one would take them seriously. So they adopted new identities, Bain as Brains McLoud and Boyd as Silibil, and invented an elaborate back story: They were from a small town in California, got kicked out of school and ran out of money in the U.K., where they were currently working to make it as the rap group Silibil ‘N Brains. They based their personas on their favorite comedians — Jim Carrey, who is actually Canadian, and Chris Tucker — and rapped with American accents. That made all the difference, Bain tells Weekend All Things Considered host Guy Raz.
“These lyrics were just the same when we did them again in American accents,” he says. “There was nothing different, and all of a sudden, people were saying, ‘Oh, wow. They’re just as good as Eminem.’ But in the Scottish accent, they’re saying, ‘Oh, no. They don’t have any talent.’ ”
The group eventually signed a $350,000 record deal with Sony U.K. and recorded three albums. They dropped small clues to their true identities in their lyrics, as in “Losers,” which subtly mocks the people who bought their story.
“We kind of liked to put little hints about what we were actually doing,” Bain says, “because we knew as soon as the record came out, we were going to come clean and that would make sense. It was a very naive plan.”
One lie in particular took on a life of its own. Bain and Boyd claimed to be close friends of Eminem and D-12, but when their manager told them that Silibil ‘N Brains would be joining the rappers on their U.K. tour, they didn’t know what to do. Bain says they couldn’t avoid them on the whole tour, so they decided to go for it.
“We walked over and we started throwing high-fives and cuddling them and acting like we were the best of friends. And they just went along with it,” he says. “To everyone else, it just really looked real.”
When Lies Become Life
Bain and Boyd dodged that bullet, but there were numerous other close calls — some of which appear in Bain’s book California Schemin’. When the group appeared on MTV’s TRL, fans and friends starting flooding message boards about their Scottish origins. Bain says he and Boyd worked to shut down the sites and keep their secret under wraps.
“It just got carried away,” Bain says. “There was so much money involved. The plan was originally to come out, but… when it got big enough… we stood to be sued [by the record company].”
The stress of the lies had Bain and Boyd at each other’s throats, Bain says. They even stopped talking to their friends and parents.
“We were so in love with these characters,” he says. “We couldn’t get out of the character. It was complete insanity.”
Eventually, the pressure became too much. Bain says they had a violent fight about keeping up the facade. Boyd wanted to leave the group and marry his girlfriend back in Scotland, but Bain didn’t want to jeopardize the group. The next day, Boyd was gone, leaving just one half of Silibil ‘N Brains.
Although his music deal fell apart, Bain continued to live in character as Brains McLoud for the next two years. He lived on welfare and struggled with alcohol and drug abuse. Soon, he had overdosed.
“I always said when I was younger, if I hadn’t been happy with music by the time I was 25, then I would kill myself,” he says. “And that date had really crept up.”
Bain lived through his near-death experience and found several odd jobs. He worked as an escort agent and even conned his way into a job as a shoe salesman for an American company, using his American accent.
“For me, I still thought this American character I was playing — it was more beneficial to be him,” Bain says.
Finally, in 2007, Bain came out with the truth in a debut performance with his new band, Hopeless Heroic. He says it was the first time he’d been on stage sober. The reaction was mixed, but Bain says it was an inspirational story for some.
“That was the aim of it,” he says. “That was the message, to get people off their asses and doing what they want to do and never give up.”

http://newmusicreviews.net/silibil-n-brains-the-fake-american-rappers-who-fooled-everyone/

Mel Gibson Roars Oral Sex Demands in Newest Tape

In RadarOnline.com's fourth blistering Mel Gibson audio rant, the actor literally roars (think tape two) for oral sex while threatening to burn the house down.

"I deserve to be b***n first! Before the f***ing Jacuzzi! Okay? I'll burn the goddamn house up, but b**w me first!" Gibson, 54, thunders, so enraged that he's left panting for breath.

Oksana Grigorieva, 40, also apparently sought the number of Gibson's therapist, giving him more ammo to unload. "Don't you ever speak to him! Find your own g*****n therapist! Because you've got problems more than me!"

Oksana maintains supreme calm throughout the new three-minute tape.
Gibson seems to be raging over an incident that occurred with Grigorieva the evening before (honestly, it's hard to tell). "I should've woken you up and said f****ng b**w me b***h!" Mel explodes. "I should've f***in' woken you up and said, 'B**w me!' You would've liked that better, yeah? But you need the g****n sleep!"

Oksana defends herself, saying she waited in bed for him but fell asleep. This sends Mel careening off the deep end once more: "Waited and waited! What, two and a half f***ing minutes?! You're f***ing snoring. Don't you dare."

The couple have restraining orders filed against each other and are warring for custody of 8-month-old daughter Lucia. "You're a liar and you're dishonest and you're f***ed up! So you stay the f*** away from me! Take care of your f***ing son and I better have my daughter! I just want my daughter and a maid! It's a lot less f***ing trouble! They clean up after themselves, they make your g*****n bed, which you did not! You don't have to worry about emotional blackmail or any of the other bull***t you put me through. I just need a nice woman to look after my beautiful daughter."

In the previous tapes, Gibson admits to punching Oksana and threatens to kill her -- "I'll put you in the f*****g rose garden you c**t! You understand that? Because I'm capable of it." Sources tell TMZ that incidents also occurred in February and that Grigorieva spoke to deputies on Monday.

The pair broke up in April after dating for a little over a year. At the time, Grigorieva was quoted as merely saying, "We have split up, suddenly and recently ... Unfortunately, I cannot give you the reason. But you will find out everything quite soon."

The couple made their first public appearance only a few weeks after Gibson's wife of over 30 years, Robyn, filed for divorce. Gibson has seven children from that marriage. Grigorieva has a son, Alexander, from a previous relationship with actor Timothy Dalton.

http://www.popeater.com/2010/07/14/mel-gibson-tapes-rant/?sem=1&ncid=searchusnews00000004&s_kwcid=TC|11111|mel%20gibson%20tape||S||6021996513

Obama Deception Censored

Fall of the Republic Director Angry

The Obama Deception movie created by filmmaker Alex Jones (Fall of the Republic) has been posted on YouTube and created a stir these past weeks. But you may have a hard time finding it now because the Obama Deception movie has been censored and taken off YouTube.
“This was a criminal act, and You Tube needs to investigate, track the IP and find out who did it,” said Alex Jones.
The video from Google has not been taken off yet. Watch it from here.


http://dailypostal.com/2010/07/18/obama-deception-censored-fall-of-the-republic-director-angry/