Julian Assange's message

I decided to post this here as I'm not sure if my American friends will see this otherwise:

Don't shoot messenger for revealing uncomfortable truths

WIKILEAKS deserves protection, not threats and attacks.

IN 1958 a young Rupert Murdoch, then owner and editor of Adelaide's The News, wrote: "In the race between secrecy and truth, it seems inevitable that truth will always win."

His observation perhaps reflected his father Keith Murdoch's expose that Australian troops were being needlessly sacrificed by incompetent British commanders on the shores of Gallipoli. The British tried to shut him up but Keith Murdoch would not be silenced and his efforts led to the termination of the disastrous Gallipoli campaign.

Nearly a century later, WikiLeaks is also fearlessly publishing facts that need to be made public.

I grew up in a Queensland country town where people spoke their minds bluntly. They distrusted big government as something that could be corrupted if not watched carefully. The dark days of corruption in the Queensland government before the Fitzgerald inquiry are testimony to what happens when the politicians gag the media from reporting the truth.

WikiLeaks coined a new type of journalism: scientific journalism. We work with other media outlets to bring people the news, but also to prove it is true. Scientific journalism allows you to read a news story, then to click online to see the original document it is based on. That way you can judge for yourself: Is the story true? Did the journalist report it accurately?

Democratic societies need a strong media and WikiLeaks is part of that media. The media helps keep government honest. WikiLeaks has revealed some hard truths about the Iraq and Afghan wars, and broken stories about corporate corruption.

People have said I am anti-war: for the record, I am not. Sometimes nations need to go to war, and there are just wars. But there is nothing more wrong than a government lying to its people about those wars, then asking these same citizens to put their lives and their taxes on the line for those lies. If a war is justified, then tell the truth and the people will decide whether to support it.

If you have read any of the Afghan or Iraq war logs, any of the US embassy cables or any of the stories about the things WikiLeaks has reported, consider how important it is for all media to be able to report these things freely.

WikiLeaks is not the only publisher of the US embassy cables. Other media outlets, including Britain's The Guardian, The New York Times, El Pais in Spain and Der Spiegel in Germany have published the same redacted cables.

Yet it is WikiLeaks, as the co-ordinator of these other groups, that has copped the most vicious attacks and accusations from the US government and its acolytes. I have been accused of treason, even though I am an Australian, not a US, citizen. There have been dozens of serious calls in the US for me to be "taken out" by US special forces. Sarah Palin says I should be "hunted down like Osama bin Laden", a Republican bill sits before the US Senate seeking to have me declared a "transnational threat" and disposed of accordingly. An adviser to the Canadian Prime Minister's office has called on national television for me to be assassinated. An American blogger has called for my 20-year-old son, here in Australia, to be kidnapped and harmed for no other reason than to get at me.

And Australians should observe with no pride the disgraceful pandering to these sentiments by Julia Gillard and her government. The powers of the Australian government appear to be fully at the disposal of the US as to whether to cancel my Australian passport, or to spy on or harass WikiLeaks supporters. The Australian Attorney-General is doing everything he can to help a US investigation clearly directed at framing Australian citizens and shipping them to the US.

Prime Minister Gillard and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have not had a word of criticism for the other media organisations. That is because The Guardian, The New York Times and Der Spiegel are old and large, while WikiLeaks is as yet young and small.

We are the underdogs. The Gillard government is trying to shoot the messenger because it doesn't want the truth revealed, including information about its own diplomatic and political dealings.

Has there been any response from the Australian government to the numerous public threats of violence against me and other WikiLeaks personnel? One might have thought an Australian prime minister would be defending her citizens against such things, but there have only been wholly unsubstantiated claims of illegality. The Prime Minister and especially the Attorney-General are meant to carry out their duties with dignity and above the fray. Rest assured, these two mean to save their own skins. They will not.

Every time WikiLeaks publishes the truth about abuses committed by US agencies, Australian politicians chant a provably false chorus with the State Department: "You'll risk lives! National security! You'll endanger troops!" Then they say there is nothing of importance in what WikiLeaks publishes. It can't be both. Which is it?

It is neither. WikiLeaks has a four-year publishing history. During that time we have changed whole governments, but not a single person, as far as anyone is aware, has been harmed. But the US, with Australian government connivance, has killed thousands in the past few months alone.

US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates admitted in a letter to the US congress that no sensitive intelligence sources or methods had been compromised by the Afghan war logs disclosure. The Pentagon stated there was no evidence the WikiLeaks reports had led to anyone being harmed in Afghanistan. NATO in Kabul told CNN it couldn't find a single person who needed protecting. The Australian Department of Defence said the same. No Australian troops or sources have been hurt by anything we have published.

But our publications have been far from unimportant. The US diplomatic cables reveal some startling facts:

► The US asked its diplomats to steal personal human material and information from UN officials and human rights groups, including DNA, fingerprints, iris scans, credit card numbers, internet passwords and ID photos, in violation of international treaties. Presumably Australian UN diplomats may be targeted, too.

► King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia asked the US to attack Iran.

► Officials in Jordan and Bahrain want Iran's nuclear program stopped by any means available.

► Britain's Iraq inquiry was fixed to protect "US interests".

► Sweden is a covert member of NATO and US intelligence sharing is kept from parliament.

► The US is playing hardball to get other countries to take freed detainees from Guantanamo Bay. Barack Obama agreed to meet the Slovenian President only if Slovenia took a prisoner. Our Pacific neighbour Kiribati was offered millions of dollars to accept detainees.

In its landmark ruling in the Pentagon Papers case, the US Supreme Court said "only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government". The swirling storm around WikiLeaks today reinforces the need to defend the right of all media to reveal the truth.

by Julian Assange

Source: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/wikileaks/dont-shoot-messenger-for-revealing-uncomfortable-truths/story-fn775xjq-1225967241332

Merry Christmas you suckers .....

Heard this song on the radio this morning - thought it was quite amusing.

Merry Christmas you suckers,
You miserable men,
That old festive season is with you again,
You’ll be spending your money on cartloads of junk,
And from here to new year you’ll be drunk as a skunk.

Merry Christmas you suckers,
It’s perfectly clear,
That you fall for it all a bit sooner each year,
If it goes on like this you will find pretty soon,
That you’re singing “White Christmas” as early as June.

This Christmas card racket,
Will cost you a packet,
Each season it seems to expand,
The cards are so clever,
Though nothing whatever,
To do with the subject in hand

You’ll be taking the kids round to multiple stores,
To be frightened to death by some old Santa Claus,
Then its parties with spirits and vino and beer,
Merry Christmas you suckers,
And a happy new year.

Merry Christmas you suckers,
You bleary-eyed lot,
You’ll never get rid of that headache you’ve got,
But I hope you feel splendid you certainly should,
With your stomachs distended with turkey and pud.’

Merry Christmas you suckers,
Jump into your cars,
Roar off to your neighbours,
To sink a few jars,
Though your vision is double just keep smiling through,
There are others in trouble a lot worse than you.

Beyond any question acute indigestion,
Will plague you and make you unwell,
You won’t take the warning,
You’ll wake up each morning,
Undoubtedly feeling like hell,

But stick to it suckers,
Go swallow a pill,
For this is the season of peace and goodwill,
While we patiently wait for that nuclear blast…
Merry Christmas you suckers, it may be your last.
----------------------

The song is by Paddy Roberts and, as far as I can determine, from 1962.

The song was released in the US with the title "And a Happy New Year".

It would be interesting to see a rewrite updating some of the 1960s concepts - like Christmas cards - aren't they all electronic now :) and the threat of a nuclear blast ... maybe "global warming" should take its place.

It could have been worse ....

While the freezing conditions sweeping parts of Europe (and America, if some of my friends are to be believed) are not a laughing matter, I did enjoy this story:

Reluctant rescue for seven people trapped inside British pub for nine days

IN what sounds like a beer drinker's dream, seven people were trapped inside a British pub for nine days by a ferocious snowstorm and 16-foot (4.8m) snow drifts.

Five staff members and two local residents were barricaded in the Lion Inn in Blakey Ridge, Kirbymoorside, North Yorkshire from November 26, but under the most optimal of conditions: plenty of food and drink and since the pub is also a bed and breakfast, there were even beds to sleep in, the Mail on Sunday said.

A snowplow finally made its way over the North York moors to the pub on Saturday, allowing those inside to leave, the BBC reported.

"It was really novel at first and quite exciting," the Mail quoted waitress Katie Underwood, 18, as saying before they finally made it out.

"It's been freezing, but we've been lucky that it's a pub and B&B we're trapped in.

.."We've got plenty of coal for our fire, which has been great, and there are rooms upstairs so we have somewhere to sleep, and plenty of food."

The Lion Inn's home website says, "The bar is well known for its good selection of quality real ales" and notes it is recommended by, among others, The Good Pub Guide and the Good Beer Guide.

Source: http://www.news.com.au/world/reluctant-rescue-for-seven-people-trapped-inside-british-pub-for-nine-days/story-e6frfkyi-1225966313520#ixzz17IIB2rUE

Well gun legislation is certainly working ...

Not ....

From today's news:

Gun runners of Sydney revealed

THE three gun runners didn't care who was buying their lethal weapons or what they were going to do with them. All they wanted was the cash.

In cafes, backs of cars, even in the car park of a Wollongong hotel in daylight, Aristos Dionys, Michael Zarakas and Andrew Kafizas traded thousands of dollars for machineguns and assault weapons - the tools of trade for professional killers.

Lucky for Sydney, the man handing over the money and buying the guns was an undercover police officer.

What started as a whisper - or, as police say, "acting on information received" - led to a five-month operation which busted one of the biggest gun hauls in Australia.

In nine clandestine meetings police bought 12 weapons, including a Bren machinegun and Mauser semi-automatic pistols.

Dionys, 58, of Fairy Meadow, the main supplier, middle man Zarakas, 43, also of Fairy Meadow, and "go-to" man Kafizas, 58, of Wollongong, all pleaded guilty last week to charges of conspiring to supply prohibited weapons.

Dionys got a minimum sentence of 10 years and six months, Kafizas five years and Zarakas eight years.

The operation showed how much money can be made in the trade of illegal guns.

The trio were charging thousands of dollars for sophisticated weapons. A Mauser c96 pistol was worth $8500. Another semi-automatic pistol cost $4250 plus $600 "commission " to the contact man, Zarakas, who referred to himself in a police interview as the "Don Corleone of Wollongong".

Automatic pistols like Mausers and Glocks can fetch anything from $3000 to $8000. Machine guns and assault weapons up to $18,000. The final haul by police was more than 100 weapons, including military style machineguns, assault weapons, ammunition, semi-automatic pistols, rifles, night scopes and silencers.

Head of the operation Detective Senior-Constable Brad Reh said: "They contacted us each time. What we saw was how often they came to us with what seemed a steady supply of weapons."

Police made secret recordings of the three gun runners talking about "cars" and "fuel" - code for guns and ammunition.

Just before the last "sting" police got a call from Kafikis.

"We have something pretty big for you," he said.

That turned out to be a Bren sub-machinegun - mounted on tanks during World War II and capable of firing 500 rounds per minute, with a range of 1.5km.

The asking price: $18,000.

When police arrested the men they were pretty happy with the 12 guns they had caught them selling. During a search of Dionys' car, a detective found a business card in the ashtray for a storage facility in Padstow.

When asked about the card and the facility a very vague Dionys said he stored "ammunition and stuff" there. What police found was an arms cache of 109 weapons ranging from sub-machineguns to double-barrel shotguns. One, a hand-held, Turkish-made 9mm machine pistol was capable of firing 800 rounds a minute and is favoured by many militia and paramilitary organisations.

"Finding that card to the storage facility was gold. It could have easily been ignored but the team followed it up and from there we have made a significant in-road into the illegal gun trade," Wollongong crime manager Acting Inspector Brad Ainsworth said.

"You can only guess whose hands they would have ended up in. The dealers themselves lived in the Wollongong area but the guns were stored in south-western Sydney."

NSW police and federal police are now investigating the source of the guns - although most had the serial numbers defaced and the crims aren't talking.

"We got rid of a couple of machineguns and a whole lot of weapons destined for the streets," Insp Ainsworth said.

"These men were recklessly selling weapons for gain. They had no idea for what they were to be used or who was getting them."

-----------------------

Many of the guns detailed in this story have been illegal since 1997 at least, so where did they come from?

Act like an adult

I was chatting to some guys on GBC about the removal of the "Don't ask don't tell" policy in the American armed forces.

I made the comment that "I just wish everyone would act like an adult" - which brought merriment and scoffing!

Well, obviously my workplace believes that people need help understanding how to act as adults at Christmas / End of year functions - we first received this email:

Message to all Employees

At this time of the year, it is appropriate to provide a reminder and guidance about the expected behaviour of all employees at Christmas and End of Year functions.

The intention of this communication is not to place undue restrictions on Christmas or End of Year functions or celebrations - but to serve as a reminder of employee’s responsibilities during these functions.

There are some key points that the business would like to highlight to you:

Regardless of whether Christmas / End of Year functions are held outside of hours and / or outside of the workplace - if the function is organized or sponsored by or on behalf of the Company, then it is more than likely that the function will be deemed to be work related, therefore all company functions will have a designated start and finish time.

The Company and individuals can be held liable for the actions of employees and third parties (partners, clients etc) who are in attendance at such functions;

The Company and individuals can be held liable for the behaviour of our employees who attend other functions (such as a client or customer's Christmas / End of Year function) as a representative of the Company;

The Company's commitment to Zero Harm which carry obligations to provide a workplace that is safe and without risk to health - apply to Christmas / Office / End of Year functions - this extends to protecting employees (& third parties) from bullying, harassment, victimization and violence from co-workers, clients and management;

Usual Company Policy such as Appropriate Workplace Behaviour apply at Company organised functions. Disciplinary action can and will be taken for breaches of Company Policy at Company organised functions.

The use of Technology (mobile phone video cameras etc.) used to record and subsequently share vision on social media outlets (you tube, Facebook etc) is discouraged and may breach privacy legislation.

Employees are encouraged to think in advance about how they will travel to and from the event safely.

Where alcohol is available at functions responsible consumption is mandated.

If you have any questions about this communication or about the organization of Christmas / End of Year functions, please direct them to myself ...

Mmm, okay I thought, it's probably good thinking on behalf of the Company to get this out there.

Today, however, I receive this:



Really, seriously?!?

Pleased with the outcome

Following on from yesterday's blog, I have just had the Deputy Principal from the school call me.

Apparently Miss 9 gave her her revised Santa List and explained the situation clearly and articulately and prior to calling me the Deputy Principal had already had a discussion with the class teacher about the situation.

Miss 9 has been asked to rewrite her letter again adding in a few details as to why she wants each item, which I think is fair enough. Apparently the Deputy Principal had a chat with her as to why people might say things and how it is important to explain her point of view with reference to where other people are at.

The teacher has been encouraged to think about bit more about things from different perspectives and not let her pre-conceptions colour the work assignments she gives the children.

I was pleased that I really had a very minor part in this, and that Miss 9 was able to explain to the Deputy Principal what had happened and why she wasn't happy with it.

I'm also very pleased that we have such a good Deputy Principal at the school!

[UPDATE: Spoke to Miss 9 this evening. She reckons that her teacher let her put up the list without a rewrite. I asked her if the teacher seemed upset or anything regarding this situation and she said that no, she seemed fine - so that's good.[/UPDATE]

Got to have a chat with the school :(

Miss 9 and I having a discussion after school:

Miss 9: "We wrote a Christmas wish list today. I put down three things - we were only allowed to put down three things"

Me: "What things did you put on your list?"

Miss 9: "Well I put down a DS because I've wanted one for years, and - as we weren't allowed to put down knives - I put down a cookbook ..."

Me: "Woo, back up a bit, what do you mean you weren't allowed to put down knives?"

Miss 9: "Miss [Redacted] said we weren't allowed to put down weapons - like knives and guns"

Me: "Okay I'll call the school tomorrow and talk to the Deputy Principal."

Later on in the evening a boy from her class and his mum were over for a cuppa and after I told her about this, she asked her son what he put on the list. He apparently put down a "Nerf Gun" so it will be interesting to see what happens with that.

He also mentioned that she had asked the class to verbalise what they wanted on their lists before they did the written part of the exercise. Apparently Miss 9 did verbalise that she wanted more knives - and the teacher's response AFTER THIS was that "knives, guns and other weapons aren't allowed on the list". (The teacher knows of Miss 9's interest in cooking and knows that she got a knife roll and some knives for her birthday).

Mmmm, I wonder what she cuts her food with!

Will let you know how things go with the school tomorrow.

I also asked Miss 7 if she was given a list of things that she couldn't put on her list - apparently she wasn't as she actually put down 5 different toy guns and 2 Barbie dolls!

[UPDATE: Apparently Miss 9 has said "pocket knife" when asked by the teacher in class - prompting the "knives, guns and other weapons aren't allowed on the list" response. I believe that I pocket knife is a valid request - doesn't mean she's getting one though.

I asked Miss 9 what she wanted to do about this situation this morning. She said she would like to write a 'real list' for Santa and take that to school. So she did (with three items - filleting knife, pocket knife and a giant cookbook). I asked her to give it to the Deputy Principal and explain in her words why and I said I would follow that up with a call.

I am now waiting on the Deputy Principal to return my call. [/UPDATE]