As a US law professor said on the radio this morning, it’s proved easier to block payments to Wikileaks than to block payments to suspected terrorist groups.

Ridiculous.

Though I’m sure Visa’s terms of service will probably allow it to withdraw service at its sole discretion, blah blah, so the suit won’t get far.

“the hacking group Anonymous”

Oh FFS Sunny, not you to. This was a bunch of script kiddies installing a free piece of opensource software available on Sourceforge and hitting “go”

Today’s revelations show the oil giant Shell claiming it had inserted staff into all the main ministries of the Nigerian government, giving it access to politicians’ every move in the oil-rich Niger Delta. Unbelievable.

Capt Renault: “I’m shocked, shocked to hear of corruption in the Nigerian oil business!”

It would be unbelievable if they hadn’t. I mean, we’re talking about Shell and Nigeria here.

Obama can handle WL Change? Hope so!

We NEED transparency for our global society that we created an cannot control.To many crises.
We’d never gone to Iraq if we read the cables first?

Redesign democracy now. It’s E-government, not E-commerce tat changes our world (stupid!).
How can a few wise leaders alone solve complex global issues pending ?
Shutting down WL is as naive as banning books. At least the cork out of the bottle.

Discuss it is the only option. Come on free press, write about the roadmap to E-power-democracy-morevote!

Re Shell and Nigeria.

What on earth would you expect to happen? As PJ O’Rourke said, when legislators get to decide what is bought and sold the first people to be bought and sold will be legislators.

Given that the Nigerian oil business is hardly structured around or protected by the rule of law I would be absolutely astonished if a company investing tens of billions in that industry did NOT have spies and agents all over the various ministries.

“As a US law professor said on the radio this morning, it’s proved easier to block payments to Wikileaks than to block payments to suspected terrorist groups.

Ridiculous.”

Have you not got the memo from troll central. Wikileaks is a terrorst group according to the American corporate state. Anyone who does not obey American corporate interest is a terrorist.

sally,

Possibly true (albeit troll central is in confusion this morning – they don’t know who to support and are suggesting instead posting humorous anecdotes in order to remind people that trolls still exist).

Personally I think that the best line of enquiry is to find out why these companies took the action they did, and who authorised it. It strikes me as crassly stupid really – the actions of someone who believes that by having a word in someone’s ear you can achieve something without being noticed. Unfortunately, I am beginning to associate that sort of behaviour with the Obama administration, and I suspect this came from within that (probably not from the top – President Obama can’t be that ignorant about the power of the internet considering how much play he made of internet support). Anyone got any ideas how you would find this information out (FOI requests in Britain perhaps – anything similiar in the US)?

Glad to see this case going to court.

Amongst all the shouting and the incredibly dubious speculation about the rape charges, there are some very important and nuanced debates being conducted by us American morons .

One widely discussed/developed strand that I find particularly interesting and thought-provoking was that generated by Shirky’s article. I quote two bits:
“I am conflicted about the right balance between the visibility required for counter-democracy and the need for private speech among international actors. Here’s what I’m not conflicted about: When authorities can’t get what they want by working within the law, the right answer is not to work outside the law. The right answer is that they can’t get what they want.

The Unites States is — or should be — subject to the rule of law, which makes the extra-judicial pursuit of WikiLeaks especially nauseating. (Calls for Julian’s assassination are even more nauseating.”

and

“I don’t think such a law (referring to SHIELD) should pass. I think the current laws, which criminalize the leaking of secrets but not the publishing of leaks, strike the right balance. However, as a citizen of a democracy, I’m willing to be voted down, and I’m willing to see other democratically proposed restrictions on WikiLeaks put in place. It may even be that whatever checks and balances do get put in place by the democratic process make anything like WikiLeaks impossible to sustain in the future…

The key, though, is that democracies have a process for creating such restrictions.Over the long haul, we will need new checks and balances for newly increased transparency — WikiLeaks shouldn’t be able to operate as a law unto itself anymore than the U.S. should be able to. In the short haul, though, WikiLeaks is our Amsterdam. Whatever restrictions we eventually end up enacting, we need to keep WikiLeaks alive today, while we work through the process democracies always go through to react to change.”

There are many other issues that are being addressed in the debates over ‘there’; I listed some on a post in response to one of the non-Assange-focused OPs, but have now lost sight of it. Hope this one is useful.

5: “Re Shell and Nigeria.

What on earth would you expect to happen? As PJ O’Rourke said, when legislators get to decide what is bought and sold the first people to be bought and sold will be legislators.

Given that the Nigerian oil business is hardly structured around or protected by the rule of law I would be absolutely astonished if a company investing tens of billions in that industry did NOT have spies and agents all over the various ministries.”

So: 1) the laws are bad or poorly enforced; 2) yet laws have the potential to influence the market; 3) therefore it makes sense for a market actor to gain influence within the law-making process; 4) in order that the laws might be made or enforced in a way not contrary to their interests. Is that what you mean? Because if so, I dare suggest that 1 is a consequence of 4, or at least Shell’s 1 is a consequence of somebody else’s 4.

Of course, Shell might be a benevolent giant, making sure that their money and agents create a fair market and a just society…even if it costs them money. Right?

The Shell info was interesting. I was also very disturbed by the role civil servants had in putting a stop to Brown’s policy of reducing Britain’s nukes. It seems that the leadership of the permanent civil service continue to exercise a reactionary role independent of the elected government. Those familiar with Yes Minister won’t be too surprised by this, nor by the apparent civil service endorsement of Tory cuts plans while talks with the Lib Dems were ongoing, nor by the racist attitudes of a senior civil servant towards the people exiled from Diego Garcia. Still, it is outrageous.

Re Katrin Axelsson. She seems to be coming close to endorsing the conspiracy theory view of things. But contrary to what she says, it is more common than not for bail to be denied to accused rapists. Moreover, this case involves a foreign national facing extradition, so can’t be compared to your run-of-the-mill case (if there is such a thing). (And while I appreciate that Assange went to the police station voluntarily to be arrested, if you were him and if you’d been bailed and if you really believed all the conspiracy theories, wouldn’t you at least consider whether to try fleeing the country?)

Those wanting to donate to wikileaks online can still apparently do so via Flattr, a payment service set up by a member of the Pirate Bay team (see http://www.thelocal.se/30722/20101209/ ).

However, I am concerned to read that Bradley Manning has yet to receive promised funds for his defence ( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/12/09/bradley_manning_wikileaks_no_help/ ). No doubt the US government would like to discredit wikileaks, but this latest complaint is from Manning’s lawyer – so it will be nice if wikileaks responds.

Everyone is welcome:
http://anonymouspayback.wordpress.com/2010/12/09/how-to-join-the-anonymous-payback-operation/
http://pastebin.com/NWcysTVQ
http://antikryptos.wordpress.com/2010/12/09/twitter-stream-from-operation-payback/