Another Slate Post

In response to

The Oldest Hack in the Book

Darsh Rasborsek
I have seen reports that businesses have been unable, at times, to process PayPal accounts this week. I suspect the establishment players are are not wanting to officially acknowledge how vulnerable they are to these attacks. Also, the brick though a window analogy is limited - not only do these attacks stop business functioning on the Internet, but the attackers are also totally getting away with it. This is a new development - we are used to transacting our business within a space where the state and its agents monopolize the means of violence. And this is not a simple act of violence, but a planned, organized mass action. If this was happening on the street the perpetrators would face tear gas, rubber bullets and a line of charging horses. But the guys from anonops continue to develop and promote their campaign without any repercussions, so far.

I have had a disappointing response to this: no one has commented at all, in fact the comments to the article have all dried up.

Yesterday, 4:13:52 PM AEST

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A reality check on Assange's arrest

in response to ABC drum article

A reality check on Assange's arrest

dave1008 :

10 Dec 2010 10:50:58am

As someone who finds myself supporting WikiLeaks more and more, I want to find a way to defend Assange without maligning or attacking the women who have accused him of rape. And while I do admit to feeling some glee (I'm not saying I approve, I am just noticing my feelings here) at the cyber-attacks on PayPal, Visa and MasterCard, the attacks on the women involved make me highly squeamish and I wish the people that are attacking them would aim their fire elsewhere.
But some elements of the case seem highly dodgy. I do want to find a way to talk about that without getting slapped-down as a misogynist. And yeah, some of that talk includes questioning what constitutes rape and should bring criminal charges, as opposed to what constitutes being a jerk.

Reply Alert moderator

• Christine H :

  10 Dec 2010 11:43:31am

  I think the role of PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, and Amazon is a key element of the case. I'm not sure what I think of the cyber-attacks on those companies, but I do think the fact that they have withdrawn services from an organization to punish it for its political activities is HUGE. Those companies, along with the banks, play such a huge role in the transfer of money that further refusals to provide services to their political opponents could seriously hamper free speech and political fundraising. Countries need to put laws in place to prohibit companies from withholding essential services--including those involving the transfer of money and data--from their political opponents.

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• Mike :

  10 Dec 2010 11:45:42am

  I do not applaud nor condemn the cyber war taking out Visa, Mastercard and PayPal. However it does reflect public opinion on these corporations caving in to pressure from the US government.
  
  It is outrageous that you can use Visa, Mastercard and PayPal to give money to the KKK but not to Wikileaks.

  Reply Alert moderator

• Dave Kimble :

  10 Dec 2010 1:13:14pm

  Some of the non-misogynist allegations about Assange's accuser Anna Ardin is that she is some kind of CIA agent. There is some truth to this. Go to http://www.miscelaneasdecuba.net/web/article.asp?artID=1315 , which is an anti-Castro website and read her article (in Swedish) "What Happens When Castro Dies?" which discusses regime change in Cuba. You can get it translated at http://translate.google.com Then ask yourself whether it is likely the CIA funds the website and has links to Ardin. No one will ever know for sure, of course, but she is not completely beyond their influence.

in response to

Julian Assange and the slow stupefaction of the state

Jonathan Holmes is one of the few commentators able to grasp at what Assange is attempting. But I would add a few caveats:
1. Just as a degree of secrecy and confidentiality is essential for diplomats to do their work, it is also essential that organisations like WikiLeaks challenge and disrupt that secrecy and confidentiality from time to time: once you form a closed circle of information (a conspiracy) a group-think tends to occur that favours repetition of the the kind of information already known and acceptable to the conspirators. Also, challenges to that conspiracy hold the conspirators accountable to people (citizens) outside the conspiracy.
2. The traditional media, far from challenging official flows of information, have more and more of become gatekeepers and mouthpieces for official propaganda. WikiLeaks pushes the traditional media back towards their historical role as a challenge to authority.
3. WikiLeaks emerges at a time when the Internet is making information harder and harder to control, and even questions the idea that the kind of loose conspiracies that have formed the basis of of diplomatic work in the past are even possible anymore. Here the "problem" is not Assange or even WikiLeaks, but the ineluctable march of the Internet. This is the story just keeps on giving - just look at the developing conjunction of WikiLeaks with Peer-to-Peer networking

Post in Slate

My first post was in response to:

Turn yourself in, Julian Assange

Hitchen's is right - the whole point of WikiLeaks is is to destabilise diplomacy as it has been has been practiced. Part of that process is to delegitimise the official discourse that diplomacy operates in our interests as citizens. WikiLeaks shows that diplomacy, in fact, upholds a corrupt network of self-interest between conspirators. 3 days ago, 2:26:23 PM AEST – Flag – Reply Liked byLise Bretton
Michael Pastushkov Friendly reminder: WL didn't create those cables. Given that, who do you think "shows that diplomacy [as it was and perhaps is conducted today], in fact, upholds ... " 3 days ago, 3:49:14 PM AEST – Flag –
Reply hyperlocavore Garsh would you feel the same if they had dumped five gigabytes of documentation of "an ecology of corruption" at your mother's bank? Or is it just exposing crimes of state you object to.... 3 days ago, 4:08:52 PM AEST – Flag –
Reply Darsh Rasborsek Hitchens is right in saying that WikiLeaks is a threat to diplomacy, but I am glad to see diplomacy threatened. 3 days ago, 9:21:41 PM AEST – Flag –
Reply Darsh Rasborsek Well, yeah, the cables themselves show that. 3 days ago, 9:18:32 PM AEST – Flag – Reply

I pretty much stand by what I said there, but I'm a bit disappointed because it seems like people didnt understand what I was saying.

Walking

Walking without anyone knowing where I am, no one can reach me: my mobile dead and I am free. Feeling the connection to my life stretching. But I just can't keep walking forever, it always draws me back; to myself, my life. One day I'll have the strength to break it, to keep walking.

Beginnings

So, the campaign against WikiLeaks has had me commenting at various online sites. It's all vanity I know: but it has taken some time and energy - so I have started this site in order to collect my thoughts, for myself at least.