Posts Tagged ‘US’
November 28th, 2010
Index on Censorship has obtained copies of correspondence between whistleblowing website Wikileaks and the US embassy in the United Kingdom, which took place between Friday and Sunday. They reveal Wikileaks editor in chief’s last-minute attempt to seek the cooperation of the United States government in redacting information from the latest controversial release of documents.
Mark Stephens of Finers Stephens Innocent, who represents Julian Assange in the UK, is a trustee of Index of Censorship.
26 November
Julian Assange, Editor in Chief, WikiLeaks
to
US Ambassador to London, Louis Susman
Subject to the general objective of ensuring maximum disclosure of information in the public interest, WikiLeaks would be grateful for the United States Government to privately nominate any specific instances (record numbers or names) where it considers the publication of information would put individual persons at significant risk of harm that has not already been addressed. PDF
27 November
Harold Hongju Koh, Legal Adviser, United States Department of State
to
Julian Assange, Editor in Chief, WikiLeaks
We will not engage in a negotiation regarding the further release or dissemination of illegally obtained U.S. Government classified materials. PDF
28 November
Julian Assange, Editor in Chief, WikiLeaks
to
US Ambassador to London, Louis Susman
I understand that the United States government would prefer not to have the information that will be published in the public domain and is not in favour of openness. That said, either there is a risk or there is not. You have chosen to respond in a manner which leads me to conclude that the supposed risks are entirely fanciful and you are instead concerned to suppress evidence of human rights abuse and other criminal behaviour. PDF
November 26th, 2010
Governments, organisations and media across the world have been put on alert as whistleblowing site Wikileaks looks set to release millions of diplomantic communications. Emily Butselaar reports
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July 27th, 2010
The whistleblowers’ website goes mainstream — reconfiguring ideas of journalism, transparency, openness and security in the internet age. Jillian C York reports
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July 26th, 2010
On Sunday (25 July) whistleblower website
Wikileaks made public over 90,000 classified US military files on the war in Afghanistan, making it one of the biggest leaks in US history. The documents give a real time account of the conflict between January 2004 and December 2009 from the perspective of US personnel. Amongst other things they reveal that coalition forces have killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents, that a secret “black” unit exists to kill or capture Taliban leaders without trial and that NATO officers fear Iranian and Pakistani intelligence are providing support for insurgents. The documents were released to
the Guardian,
New York Times and German magazine
Der Spiegel for analysis several weeks ago and whilst Wikileaks did impose a publishing embargo until July 25, they did not influence how the news reports were formulated and did not reveal the source of the leak to the news organisations. The
White House has not disputed the accuracy of the reports but “strongly condemned” the disclosure, believing that it could “threaten national security”.
June 8th, 2010
Federal officials
have arrested an Army intelligence analyst who boasted that he had given a classified US combat video and top secret State Department records to whistleblower site
Wikileaks. Brad Manning is alleged to have leaked
a video depicting a fatal helicopter attack on Iraqi civilians, including Reuters journalists. A former hacker said he turned Manning in out of concern for US national security. According to Manning’s family, the intelligence analyst is being held in custody in Kuwait but has not yet been charged.
Wikileaks has claimed it does not know the identity of the person who leaked the video.
April 27th, 2010
Police in California have been
accused of breaking the state’s journalist shield law. On Sunday, officers
seized computers belonging to Jason Chen, the editor of technology blog Gizmodo, which released details of
Apple’s latest iPhone. State law prohibits the confiscation of journalists’ property in order to discover their sources. But prosecutors are considering charging Chen and the person who sold him the iPhone under a
law that prohibits the sale of stolen goods and the use of stolen property. Chen paid a middleman $5000 for a prototype of the device, which was
left in a California bar by an Apple employee.
February 10th, 2010
Miliband forced to reveal secret torture evidence in Binyam Mohamed case. Index on Censorship party to key test of open justice
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August 26th, 2009
Stars and Stripes military newspaper has reported that US army commanders in Afghanistan are rejecting requests from reporters who want to “embed” with troops because their prior coverage was considered to be negative. Read more here
