US Wikileaks investigators can't link Assange to Manning American media are reporting that investigators are unable to prove that WikiLeaks and its colourful figurehead Julian Assange obtained classified US files from jailed soldier Bradley Manning, allegedly the source of most of WikiLeaks' significant material. If true, this is likely to present serious obstacles to US-based …
If Wikileaks are now starting to roll in "donations" to their cause, isn't this a classic dot.com scenario....
"Hey! I have an idea everyone will love!"
"Okay, sounds great but can we make any money out of it?"
"Sure, once we get the momentum going I'm sure we can monetise it somehow!"
Hmmm, how many big websites have worked like this? No Facebook! Put your hand down, let someone else answer this time :D
If we didn't care about tracking sources then we'd just post the material to a generic website.
The Man just doesn't get it.....to every effect there's a single cause, to every organization, there's a single leader. It must be a reflection of his culture -- he lives in a hierarchical world where things are driven from the top down, from leader to underlings, so he sees the rest of the world through that prism.
...and, of course, Assange has absolutely nothing to do with the material. He's just the figurehead for a facility. Blaming him is like blaming paper suppliers for the publication of subversive material (its probably happened....).
Assuming the US authorities have thrown in the towel on linking Assange and Manning (which I find surprising given that it's only been May since they arrested Manning, but political timescales may be at play here with Obambi wanting Manning's court martial out of the way before the 2012 elections), consider what happens next.
As I see it, the US has two courses of action, both a defensive one and an offensive one. Firstly, the offensive one. Will the CIA, FBI et al just fold up there tents and forget about Assange? Not likely! He has painted a massive target on his back, and he and anyone linked to him and Wikileaks is probably going to be under surveillance for many years to come. I've no doubt fake documents (or even real but low-impact documents) will be "leaked" to track the other routes through to Wikileaks. They may leak fake documents in an effort to discredit Wikileaks. Assange and co will have to be uberparanoid that any future US military leaker is not some CIA plant just trying to entrap them. It may take years, but Assange has a glaring weakness in his massive ego, and it could lead to his downfall.
And then there is the defensive element, which is in dissuading any future leakers. That, unfortunately for Manning, includes making it very obvious that military leakers will be harshly punished. I expect Manning to get the stiffest sentence possible, which could be fifty years.
"Manning has been charged with an array of offences by military prosecutors, including the transfer of classified information onto a personal computer and the adding of unauthorised software to a classified computer system."
Good to know the systems are so secure that you can not only make withdrawals but software deposits too.
Get Crossley in here! He's good at extracting money from people even if they haven't ripped the software off, they were just standing near a PC with an IP address that might, possibly be something similar to the one that was maybe used!
If good old Crossley can get money by scaring old grannies and kids out their hard earned cash, putting the frighteners on a soldier stuck in solitary should be a doddle!
The US is just setting themselves up for future embarrassment. If your security is piss poor and the leaks expose your as selfish, unashamed, and often amateurish propaganda effort, then you should think about fixing the system and not fixing the leak. Get some integrity into the system.
So offer Manning a job and reform the ridiculous classification and propaganda efforts instead of waving the big stick at the small man. The government won't ever manage to get rid of all terrorists, or merely annoying citizens, no matter how many or how big the bombs / indictments they use. But if the system is working fine, then there should be little to worry about.
The case against Manning is a witch hunt. He is a whistle blower exposing a broken system. Lets just kill the messenger then --- it seems to be the American way.
So you're not a fan of mandatory access controls and data classification? A point worthy of debate, but hire Manning? Manningis a whistle blower? Do you even know what these terms mean?
You want to *employ* the man who cannot be trusted to keep Secret data secret, to 'reform the system'? The man *who* *cannot* *be* *trusted* ?
Whistleblowing is when you find something heinous that is not being dealt with through formal channels, and let the world know. Whistleblowing is not grabbing anything you can find without reading it and publishing it to hurt your employer because you got a bum deal.
Put down the crackpipe.
With all the powers that many governments have given themselves including the Canadian, United Kingdom and the U.S. of A. they don't even need to cobble together a believable version of tosh as all they need do is to declare the evidence to be 'secret'.
In Canada and the UK the defendants don't even get to see the 'evidence' against them.
Likely it is even worse in the U.S. and as for military 'justice' heaven help Bradley Manning - he is living in hell now, just wait if he gets convicted.
I remember escorting prisoners to military jails in the UK when I was in the Army. We, the escorts, gave the prisoners every indulgence we could afford on our meagre pay. The last thing we did was hold the victim just outside the prison for his last 'fag'.
The minute they crossed that massive white line the prisoners double marched until their sentences were completed.
No doubt the Marines have even more exquisite torture which they will subject Bradley Manning too.
And what is this revenge for? The memos I have read are simply embarrassing, hardly secrets, to the American government that reveal they are duplicitous, dishonest and lie to their electorate. Of course, 'embarrassment' hardly encompasses the aerial murder of those Reuters reporters, along with innocent children.
And the American governments wonder why they are so despised?
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