violent:


or what will happen?. . .search facebook for wikileaks, and you'd be amazed by the number of real people with real faces pledging support for Julian Assange.

Is it a surprise that he was nominated New York times "man of the year"?

I like wikileaks page on facebook but DONOT PLEDGE support for Assange! It's just like being on GEJ/Atiku's page for criticism. It is strictly out of curriosity. . . i get regular update from wikileaks since they started leaking the info. I want to know more of the leaked wires not to support a man who may have sworn to see d third world war.

this is a lesson for nigeria. In nigeria the govt and its people just going and say anything.

First if all, on Robin Sanders , i think she did a good job in nigeria. the issue is nigeria is a difficult case for anyone. but i dont think  Julian Assange should be doing this.  it serve no good, it endanger people life and govt policy.


some information in govt should be kept private. i dont believe the public has to know everything in govt and there should be some issue that are of national security.

Donmeca:

I like wikileaks page on facebook but DONOT PLEDGE support for Assange! It's just like being on GEJ/Atiku's page for criticism. It is strictly out of curriosity. . . i get regular update from wikileaks since they started leaking the info. I want to know more of the leaked wires not to support a man who may have sworn to see d third world war.

Yeah i understand that could be true, but just read through forums and you'd be amazed by the number of Americans pledging an arm and a leg for Julian.

Even Australian government is pledging support for him!

Musiwa,:

this is a lesson for nigeria. In nigeria the govt and its people just going and say anything.

First if all, on Robin Sanders , i think she did a good job in nigeria. the issue is nigeria is a difficult case for anyone. but i dont think  Julian Assange should be doing this.  it serve no good, it endanger people life and govt policy.


some information in govt should be kept private. i dont believe the public has to know everything in govt and there should be some issue that are of national security.

To know that Pfizer and Shell have held your leaders by the 'short & curlies' is not a bad thing. The next question is where are the other multinationals holding Nigeria?

Freedom of information is a good thing.

violent:

Yeah i understand that could be true, but just read through forums and you'd be amazed by the[b] number of Americans pledging an arm and a leg for Julian.

Even Australian government is pledging support for him!
[/b]

violent:

The undeniable truth is, the justification of wikileaks will continue to be a debatable topic, not with[b] governments such as Russia and South America  supporting him[/b],[s] many people need just a reason to hate America,[/s] and Julian is providing 250,000 of such reasons, you can hardly castigate such a man.

If he died of mysterious circumstances tomorrow, the US will witness a massive wave of criticisms and condemnation from across the world and in America.

Nobody hates the US.they are only holding them responsible for violating what they preach ''freedom''

violent:

The undeniable truth is, the justification of wikileaks will continue to be a debatable topic, not with[b] governments such as Russia and South America  supporting him,[/b] many people need just a reason to hate America, and Julian is providing 250,000 of such reasons, you can hardly castigate such a man.If he died of mysterious circumstances tomorrow, the US will witness a massive wave of criticisms and condemnation from across the world and in America.

Just imagine Russia talking about freedom of speech, how many journalist have been killed in Russia recently for speaking out? Russia will always suppport anything anti-America.
The point u are missing here is this. . . this is not just about America, its about everybody who has one or two things to do with American diplomas and Govt, its about world security which America plays a big part, not only Americans that died in 9/11 or only UK citizens that were blown up on July 7. If pple stops sharing vital security info then we are in for a shock. Only criminals will benefit from the leak.

~Bluetooth:

Nobody hates the US.they are only holding them responsible for violating what they preach ''freedom''

Hold America responsible for what? For having diplomatic secret files? Every country does have diplomatic secret, do we go around and publishing it?

Why didn't they send James Bond to take him out before he had a chance to release the cables? Oh, I forgot, James Bond is British not American!

justwise:

Just imagine Russia talking about freedom of speech, how many journalist have been killed in Russia recently for speaking out? Russia will always suppport anything anti-America.
The point u are missing here is this. . . this is not just about America, its about everybody who has one or two things to do with American diplomas and Govt, its about world security which America plays a big part, not only Americans that died in 9/11 or only UK citizens that were blown up on July 7. If pple stops sharing vital security info then we are in for a shock. Only criminals will benefit from the leak.

Good point. And that is why people need to get past their America issues to realize this is serious issue and world issue.

jaygetta:

Why didn't they send James Bond to take him out before he had a chance to release the cables? Oh, I forgot, James Bond is British not American!

That is really silly!

justwise:

Hold America responsible for what? For having diplomatic secret files? Every country does have diplomatic secret, do we go around and publishing it?

Infringing on Assange's fundamental human right.

~Bluetooth:

Infringing on Assange's fundamental human right.

These people are nuts

Can understand how they cant see the inherent good in what Assange's is doing

US has been doing it for a long time without consequence to them. Now some individual is trying to hold them accountable, they are crying foul

~Bluetooth:

Infringing on Assange's fundamental human right.

His right of publishing STOLEN secret info? Assange's fundamental human right STOPS where America's right to keep their diplomatic info secret starts. There is limit to every human right, now he is in detention, is he going to publish all the private discusion with his lawyers?
Is he going to tell us who donate money to him?Don't we have the right to know where his money is coming from since he is fighting for 'our' right?

This Assange, l hope he will not cause a third world war o

justwise:

His right of publishing STOLEN secret info? Assange's fundamental human right STOPS where America's right to keep their diplomatic info secret starts. There is limit to every human right, now he is in detention, is he going to publish all the private discusion with his lawyers?
Is he going to tell us who donate money to him?Don't we have the right to know where his money is coming from since he is fighting for 'our' right?

Maybe you should direct that to the UN that have declare his incarceration as undemocratic.Millions of information get to the internet on a daily basis and I have never heard  of anybody questioning the modes in which journalists or source of those information actually get them,so why is this case of Assange different ?

~Bluetooth:

Maybe you should direct that to the UN that have declare his incarceration as undemocratic.Millions of information get to the internet on a daily basis and I have never heard of anybody questioning the modes in which journalists or source of those information actually get them,so why is this case of Assange different ?

Give me a link where UN condemmed his arrest, by the way he was not arrested for leaking the info yet, he was arrested for allegged sexual crime.

The fact still remain that he published a stolen diplomatic info, yes there are millions of info online but America govt never put that info he published online for everybody to view.

~Bluetooth:

Maybe you should direct that to the UN that have declare his incarceration as undemocratic.Millions of information get to the internet on a daily basis and I have never heard  of anybody questioning the modes in which journalists or source of those information actually get them,so why is this case of Assange different ?

Are you by any chance trying to equate Assange's leaks to the millions of info that find their way to the net daily?

slap1:

Are you by any chance trying to equate Assange's leaks to the millions of info that find their way to the net daily?

Oh yes! Thats what the poster is trying to tell us. Shocking.

slap1:

Are you by any chance trying to equate Assange's leaks to the millions of info that find their way to the net daily?

Perhaps, I'm missing something here. What millions of info? If you can provide an instance of the "Millions of info" with the same revealing contents I'll be glad

Mobinga:

Perhaps, I'm missing something here. What millions of info? If you can provide an instance of the "Millions of info" with the same revealing contents I'll be glad

I was only quoting Mazi Bluetooth.

what has happened has happened. We can argue 4 long about whether he did the right thing or not.
Let see how things go. Lets see what they know about nigeria then we can asseses d level of harm done.
Wel i dont really get it, war has not being cause becos some high level documents where released just that those countries felt dat their soldiers were jobless and needed war.
I look at d pfizer and shell issue, should dat be kept a secret? Then the GEj private meeting, i guess this non of our business.
Anyway. May GOD help this country.

China Accuses U.S. of Cyberwarfare
By Kim Zetter  January 25, 2010  |  2:07 pm  |  Categories: Cyber Warfare, Cybersecurity

In the wake of a recent speech by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemning countries that censor the internet and engage in hacking, China has lobbed a return volley and accused the United States of hypocrisy and initiating cyberwarfare against Iran.

An editorial in the People’s Daily — the primary mouthpiece for China’s Communist Party — accused the United States of doublespeak and of using “online warfare” to instigate violent unrest in Iran with Twitter and YouTube following that country’s national elections in June.

“We’re afraid that in the eyes of American politicians, only information controlled by America is free information, only news acknowledged by America is free news, only speech approved by America is free speech, and only information flow that suits American interests is free information flow,” said the Sunday editorial, according to the Guardian newspaper.

The editorial was taking aim at a speech by Clinton last Thursday in which[b] she said that access to information, and the internet, is a basic human right. She said that countries around the world were erecting virtual walls in place of the physical walls that generally characterize oppressive regimes.

Clinton urged U.S. media companies to challenge foreign governments’ demands for censorship and surveillance.[/b]

Clinton did not mention China specifically but also said that “Countries or individuals that engage in cyberattacks should face consequences and international condemnation.”

She was speaking in the wake of an announcement from Google that it had decided to stop censoring search results on its Chinese-language search engine and may vacate China altogether after discovering that it, and nearly three dozen other companies, had been the target of a coordinated hack attack that originated in China.

The People’s Daily, however, didn’t take the speech calmly.

“Behind what America calls free speech is unclothed political scheming. How did the unrest after the Iranian election come about?” said the paper. “It was because online warfare launched by America, via YouTube video and Twitter microblogging, spread rumours, created splits, stirred up and sowed discord between the followers of conservative reformist factions.”

Last June, the U.S. State Department asked Twitter to postpone scheduled maintenance that would have increased its server capacity but also would have closed down the system for a short time during the daytime hours in Iran, preventing Iranian protestors from using the social-networking service to organize and chronicle a government crackdown.

“When we worked with our network provider yesterday to reschedule this planned maintenance, we did so because events in Iran were tied directly to the growing significance of Twitter as an important communication and information network,” Twitter co-founder Biz Stone disclosed in a blog post at the time. “It made sense for Twitter and for NTT America to keep services active during this highly visible global event.”

Iranian voters took to the streets to protest the election between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and defeated challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi, accusing the government of having rigged the election. The unrest resulted in unknown numbers of deaths and arrests. Iranian protestors used numerous social networking services to communicate with others inside and outside the country about the events in their country.

A State Department spokesman at the time denied that the U.S. was intruding on Iran’s domestic affairs.

“This is about giving their voices a chance to be heard. One of the ways that their voices are heard are through new media,” spokesman Ian Kelly told Reuters.

China began blocking YouTube last March in anticipation of protests on the anniversary of uprisings in Tibet. It also began blocking Twitter in June, prior to the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square uprising. Reuters reports that Facebook has also been down in the country since July.

I hope people can read the words of H.clinton on freedom of the internet.why are they after Assange now?

@Kobojunkie; I'm not usually here discussing issues, I'd rather just read and learn (or watch id*iots like you constantly make a fool of themselves in futile bids to sound intelligent). So, I made light of an issue that ure so passionate about (why I don't know) now I'm silly? Man, u need to just shut ur irritating a*s.s up and stay miles away from me! You are by far the most irritating poster on here. Always making the dumbest points and never conceding when u r wrong (which is 99% of the time). I believe its even beneath me to engage in a back and forth with you because you're clearly insane. Your Hausa self wasn't even born here, so why are u crying even more than the bereaved?

~Bluetooth:

I hope people can read the words of H.clinton on freedom of the internet.why are they after Assange noe ?

Did you read that article b4 posting it? In China many websites are blocked, same with Iran. Pple don't have the right to access certain web pages in China or write things against the Govt let alone STEALING Govt secret info. Why did you think google left China? BBC is blocked in China,

That is what H.Clinton is talkig about, get the difference b4 posting.

The info wikileak is publishing is classified info stored in a database, it wasn't an online materia AND every country has one of such secret databases.

The fight against Terror is a global battle, and it takes great co-ordination and commitment to stop people who will stop at nothing to kill and maim innocent men and women. If Mutallab had succeeded in blowing himself up, many Nigerians would have gone down in that plane. It's not an American thing.

Assange releasing documents that points out strategic targets, releasing documents that can strain the relationships between partners in the fight against terror, what purpose does that serve? For example, why release a private, classified memo from a top US General who claims to be unimpressed with efforts by the British army in quelling Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan? Even if its true, what purpose would that serve but to alienate the remaining serving british servicemen who are fighting terror?
What purpose is it to release documents and cables intensely critical of the Government in Afghanistan, especially when the allegations of corruption are most likely true? What positive benefit could alienating the US and the Afghan govt be to the fight against Al Qaeda?
With an emerging China (which has a dubious history of human rights records, and a disdain for democracy) and with an increasingly hostile nuclear armed North Korea threatening all out war in the Korea Peninsula, what benefit is there in weakening the US alone?

And these are just the tip of the iceberg.

Assange has gone too far. That is my opinion.

What is making me laugh is d fact dat pips are arguing based on dir knowledge of general law e.g receiving stolen goods n not based on specific American law (which is where dey say dey want 2 charge him 4 espionage).
The particular law dey want 2 use is d Espionage Act dat clearly states dat it is illegal 2 obtain secret (confidential) government information n dat d sensitive info is against d interest of America. However, d 4th Amendment clearly states dat a person can't be indicted 4 publishing as long as he didn't directly steal dem. The main point is dat he published dem n didnt steal dem. That's why all d oda print media r covered.
Anywayz, all these are moot until dey actually charge him. I feel he should have screened wat was released n kept d more sensitive ones aside.

On Human Rights Day, UN shines spotlight on role of rights defenders


10 December 2010 – The United Nations marked Human Rights Day today by shining the spotlight on the hundreds of thousands of “largely unsung heroes,” the human rights defenders who risk dismissal, harassment, torture, jail and even death for their activities.

“Laws to protect and promote human rights are indispensable,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a message. “But quite often, progress comes down to people, courageous women and men striving to protect their own rights and the rights of others, determined to make rights real in people’s lives.

Diverse in background, sometimes part of a civil society organization, or a journalist or a lone citizen, they all share a commitment to expose wrongdoing and stand up, speak, and today tweet, in the name of freedom and human dignity, he added.

“Far too often, their work entails tremendous risk. Defenders are harassed, stripped of their jobs and wrongfully imprisoned. In many countries, they are tortured, beaten and murdered. Their friends and family members are also subjected to harassment and intimidation,” he said, calling on all States to ensure the freedom of expression and freedom of assembly that makes their work possible.

“Let us remember that everyone – no matter their background, training or education – can be a human rights champion. So let us use that power. Let us each be a human rights defender.”

It was a plea echoed by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay. “We can all be human rights defenders, and – given how much we owe to others for the rights many of us now take for granted – we all should be human rights defenders,” she said in a message. “At the very least, we should do our utmost to support those who do defend human rights.”

She, too, noted that human rights defenders come from all walks of life, “ranging from princesses and politicians, to professionals such as journalists, teachers and doctors, to people with little or no formal education.

“There are no special qualifications. All it takes is commitment, and courage,” she said, underscoring the risks they run and citing Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was murdered outside her apartment in 2006, and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) human rights defender Floribert Chebeya Bahizire, who was found dead in his car earlier this year.

“But many of those less well-known defenders who are murdered for their belief in human rights remain unknown to the wider world,” she stressed.

“On this[b] Human Rights Day, I call on Governments to acknowledge that criticism is not a crime, and to release all those people who have been detained for peacefully exercising their fundamental freedoms to defend democratic principles and human rights.”[/b]

General Assembly President Joseph Deiss noted in his message that the 192-member body “strongly benefits” from the work of human rights defenders.

“They bring a grassroots perspective to our debates, they galvanize action, they advance issues and they play a pioneering role; they thus lay the ground for the intergovernmental processes that take place at the General Assembly,” he stated.

A group of 55 independent UN independent human rights experts used the Day to call on States to recognize and respond to the continued targeting of rights defenders by non-State actors, which have lead to the deaths of community leaders, lawyers, journalists, women defenders, social activists and many others working to stop discrimination and injustice.

“They do not bear arms, they do not use violence, defenders use only their voices and persistence to challenge injustice peacefully,” said Najat Maalla M'jid, Chair of the Committee representing the UN experts. “However, too often it is human rights defenders themselves who require protection from human rights abuses.”

In a joint statement to mark the Day, the experts – who report to the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council in an independent and unpaid capacity – praised all those individuals and organizations that reveal injustice, discrimination and human rights violations that would otherwise remain hidden, stating: “We could not function without them.”
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=37015&Cr=human&Cr1=rights

violent:


or what will happen?. . .search facebook for wikileaks, and you'd be amazed by the number of real people with real faces pledging support for Julian Assange.

Is it a surprise that he was nominated New York times "man of the year"?

abi o

@Bluetooth

Do you know why Assange is in detention?

Ok where do I start from, first of all I know the US would come up with something tricky to charge Assange with but my guess is its going to be so weak that they would sound like the Burmese goverment trying to charge a freedom of speech fighter and here is why.

The United States probably shot itself in the foot already by advocating freedom of information around the world, so fighting Assange now would really make them first class hypocrites, this guy is not with a gun or did not blow people up, he only published what certain people said and not necessarily united states policy, it is the thoughts of individuals and thats all it is, only a silly government would come up to cry foul because in truth they all have dirty secrets which is why no one has come out to condemn the US officals -so far. Now the only way they can charge Assange is under the espionage act which was enacted a little too early and just before the age on computers and the internet, no way those guys would have seen this coming, coupled with the First Amendment by the supreme court it makes the case really dicey and again here is why.

The prosecution also has to get around the fact that the cables reveal confidential information surrounding foreign policy and diplomacy, rather than military secrets. They would have to prove that the cables are a threat to national security- this a colossal burden of proof, which could mean disclosing more classified information to a jury in order to demonstrate the danger. Even if they were to manage all this there is the problem of getting Julian extradicted, most countries' extradition treaties do not cover crimes viewed as political and this certainly almost falls into that category.

Moving on to the after effects of what chasing Assange around the world could do which is make him some sort of internet God, if he enjoys the status bin laden does for the islamic entities then the world should be preparing for a cyber war which could cost billions of dollars, for instance a 16 year has been arrested in holland for being part of the group that brought down master card and visa "Anonymous" he will face charges as a minor but damage done would not be worth it. In my opinion leave the dude alone and resort to espionage to bring him down simple, the way they fight terrorism, just fight him like that and slowly bring his operations to a halt instead of making a martyr out of him.

Releasing the cables were reckless and irresponsible true, but the actions of some diplomats as revealed by the cable are nothing to write home about either. Plus the revelations about the Nigerian government is an advantage for a country like ours where these freedom is no where to be found.


My verdict - leave the dude alone, the only thing people can really do is be surprised for a while and we will surely move on.

What is going on folk, I'm yet to see leaks on UFO or they don't just exist, Assange make sure you leak UFO secret documents before going to jail, but don't worry in Jail your armies of anonymous hackers will surely breaks into your jail and free you.

But on a serious note, governments of nations don't really suppose to have any secrets they are hidden from us. shikena

end comments:::::::::::: go to log out immediately.

justwise:

@Bluetooth

Do you know why Assange is in detention?

for an offence that has come up and dropped several times;after he has stood his ground that he didnt commit the offence

~Bluetooth:

for an offence that has come up and dropped several times;after he has stood his ground that he didnt commit the offence

Stood his ground where? If he is innocent, why is he afraid of going to Sweden to defend himself? He can't claim to be innocent without going to court to prove it. An allegation was made against him and he should go to Sweden to defend it only then can he claimed to be innocent.