When Wikileaks surged to global prominence six years ago, it was for its work posting hundreds of thousands of pages of secret government documents about the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, followed by a quarter million confidential cables by American diplomats. Working with major news organizations, including the New York Times, the Guardian and Der Spiegel, the site was associated both with accountability and a bold new version of “radical transparency.”
That has changed. With the publication of e-mails expressly aimed at damaging Hillary Clinton’s presidential candidacy, WikiLeaks has shifted from a global platform for whistleblowers to something less exalted—and lately, a bit strange. Julian Assange, the site’s founder, hinted darkly in a Dutch television interview on Tuesday that a young Democratic National Committee staffer who had been murdered in Washington on July 10 had been killed because he had provided information to WikiLeaks, which posted a $20,000 reward for information on the July 10 death of Seth Rich. “Whistleblowers go to significant efforts to get us material and often very significant risks,” Assange said. “There’s a 27-year-old who works for the DNC who was shot in the back, murdered, just a few weeks ago, for unknown reasons as he was walking down the streets in Washington.”
Assange offered no support for the incendiary suggestion—”We don’t comment on who our sources are,” he coyly replied, when the Dutch interviewer pressed for details on his guest’s insinuation. Nor was the suggestion welcomed by Rich’s family, which subsequently issued a statement praising the efforts of the D.C. police, who have said they are investigating the slaying as a mugging gone bad. Rich, who had worked at the DNC since 2014, was killed at 4 a.m. while walking home, and was on the phone with his girlfriend when the fatal encounter began. “Some are attempting to politicize this horrible tragedy, and in their attempts to do so, are actually causing more harm that good and impeding on the ability for law enforcement to properly do their job,” said the statement released by Brad Bauman, a Democratic communications consultant representing the family. “For the sake of finding Seth’s killer, and for the sake of giving the family the space they need at this terrible time, they are asking for the public to refrain from pushing unproven and harmful theories about Seth’s murder.”
The episode—coming on the heels of the DNC emails Assange held for release on the eve of the Democratic convention—is seen by critics of WikiLeaks as a sign that once-lauded enterprise no longer qualifies as an independent platform promoting openness. “It’s become something else,” says John Wonderlich, executive director of the Sunlight Foundation, a Washington nonprofit that advocates for transparency. “It’s not striving for objectivity. It’s more careless. When they publish information it appears to be in service of some specific goal, of retribution, at the expense of the individual.”
“On the death of staffer, that’s just to me so far over the line,” Wonderlich adds. “If they feel like they have a link to the staffer’s death, they should say it and be responsible about it. The insinuations, to me, are just disgusting.”
“On the death of staffer, that’s just to me so far over the line,” Wonderlich adds. “If they feel like they have a link to the staffer’s death, they should say it and be responsible about it. The insinuations, to me, are just disgusting.”
“I’m more afraid of WikiLeaks than I am of the NSA,” says one American privacy advocate, who would speak only without being further identified, partly out of concern about retribution. “When they first burst into our consciousness, they were acting like publishers and journalists. The idea that these rascals were turning the tables on the deep state had great emotional relevance to me. But they turned out not have any principles.”
Efforts to reach a WikiLeaks spokesperson, by phone, text and email, to comment produced no response. But both Assange and the site have been spirited to the point of anger in defending their enterprise. After a Turkish academic based in North Carolina took the site to task last month for a posting links that exposed the personal emails and phone numbers of some 20 million Turkish women, Wikileaks pushed back hard, tweeting: “A journalist that cannot take responsibility for their errors, in this case, a catastrophic error, will not work in journalism again.” And when Edward Snowden tweeted that Wikileaks’s “hostility to even modest” redaction of documents “is a mistake,” WikiLeaks accused the fugitive of trying to curry favor with the Democrat it has targeted: “Opportunism won’t win you a pardon with Clinton,” the site tweeted in reply.
Snowden has been living in Moscow since 2013, having accepted refuge from President Vladimir Putin—with the help of a WikiLeaks lawyer—after U.S. authorities issued an arrest warrant for his massive disclosure of National Security Agency operations. And Assange is on the run as well—albeit while staying in the same place: Since 2010, the Australian has holed up in Ecuador’s embassy in London, where this week authorities finally made arrangements to set a date for an interview with Swedish authorities investigating a sexual assault allegation that Assange calls punishment for his work. The two fugitives, both youthful and fair-haired and wanted for exposing government secrets, are frequently confused, as John Oliver found before traveling to Russia to sit down with Snowden. But they are quite different in their aims, says the privacy advocate who asked not to be named.
“Snowden is a reformer,” the advocate notes. “Assange really is an anarchist revolutionary who just wants to blow the whole thing up. In his view, whatever comes in its place will be better.”
Saturday, August 13, 2016
Man Killed After Being Struck By Four Cars On M66 Motorway
A man has been killed after being struck by four vehicles on the M66 in Greater Manchester.
Detectives believe the man was walking along the northbound lanes of the motorway between junctions two and three when he was hit by an Audi A5.
The victim was then struck by three vehicles on the southbound carriageway.
Greater Manchester Police were called to the motorway at about 1.57am on Saturday, but the man was pronounced dead at the scene.
Officers have arrested a 19-year-old man on suspicion of driving under the influence, and he remains in police custody.
Sergeant Helen Hallworth, from the Serious Collision Investigation Unit, has appealed for any dashcam footage from motorists who were driving in the area at the time, as it will assist her team in investigating the "tragic death".
She added: "We believe we have identified this man and we have now spoken to his next of kin.
"However, we still need witnesses who may have seen this man walking up the motorway to contact us as a matter of urgency."
:: Police are asking anyone with information to call 101, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Bill Clinton: Hillary Made Mistake Over Personal Email Server
Bill Clinton has said it was a mistake for Hillary Clinton to use a personal email server while secretary of state even though her predecessors and her successor did the same.
The former president said his wife should have known she would be subjected to different rules if she ever ran for the White House.
Mr Clinton defended the Democratic presidential candidate during a question-and-answer in Las Vegas, arguing it did not occur to diplomats sending emails at the time that they should be concerned with records classification.
The former president defended the Democratic candidate at an event in Las Vegas
He also insisted the private email server controversy was not "a cause for distrust".
"If it were a cause for distrust, it's inconceivable that all these prominent national security people ... would've endorsed her," he added.
Mrs Clinton's email system, which she used during her four years in office, has continued to be a source of controversy during the presidential race.
She maintains it was set up for convenience, but critics claim it was because it gave her total control over her correspondence and what information should be released, such as to the congressional committee investigating the 2012 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi.
Mrs Clinton's legal team turned over more than 30,000 emails from her server to the State Department last March, but only after deleting another 30,000 messages that were deemed private and personal.
Meanwhile, Mrs Clinton has released her tax return and criticised her Republican rival Donald Trump for failing to do the same.
The document showed she and her husband reported an income of $10.6m (£8m) in 2015.
Clinton campaign communications director Jennifer Palmieri said: "Donald Trump is hiding behind fake excuses and backtracking on his previous promises to release his tax returns.
"What is he trying to hide?"
But Trump senior communications adviser Jason Miller said people would rather see the deleted emails from Mrs Clinton's private server.
He said: "We want to see the records the night of Benghazi that explain why secretary Clinton didn't send in reinforcements as soon as the attack had begun."
Bill Clinton: Hillary Made Mistake Over Personal Email Server
Bill Clinton has said it was a mistake for Hillary Clinton to use a personal email server while secretary of state even though her predecessors and her successor did the same.
The former president said his wife should have known she would be subjected to different rules if she ever ran for the White House.
Mr Clinton defended the Democratic presidential candidate during a question-and-answer in Las Vegas, arguing it did not occur to diplomats sending emails at the time that they should be concerned with records classification.
The former president defended the Democratic candidate at an event in Las Vegas
He also insisted the private email server controversy was not "a cause for distrust".
"If it were a cause for distrust, it's inconceivable that all these prominent national security people ... would've endorsed her," he added.
Mrs Clinton's email system, which she used during her four years in office, has continued to be a source of controversy during the presidential race.
She maintains it was set up for convenience, but critics claim it was because it gave her total control over her correspondence and what information should be released, such as to the congressional committee investigating the 2012 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi.
Mrs Clinton's legal team turned over more than 30,000 emails from her server to the State Department last March, but only after deleting another 30,000 messages that were deemed private and personal.
Meanwhile, Mrs Clinton has released her tax return and criticised her Republican rival Donald Trump for failing to do the same.
The document showed she and her husband reported an income of $10.6m (£8m) in 2015.
Clinton campaign communications director Jennifer Palmieri said: "Donald Trump is hiding behind fake excuses and backtracking on his previous promises to release his tax returns.
"What is he trying to hide?"
But Trump senior communications adviser Jason Miller said people would rather see the deleted emails from Mrs Clinton's private server.
He said: "We want to see the records the night of Benghazi that explain why secretary Clinton didn't send in reinforcements as soon as the attack had begun."
Bill Clinton: Hillary Made Mistake Over Personal Email Server
Bill Clinton has said it was a mistake for Hillary Clinton to use a personal email server while secretary of state even though her predecessors and her successor did the same.
The former president said his wife should have known she would be subjected to different rules if she ever ran for the White House.
Mr Clinton defended the Democratic presidential candidate during a question-and-answer in Las Vegas, arguing it did not occur to diplomats sending emails at the time that they should be concerned with records classification.
The former president defended the Democratic candidate at an event in Las Vegas
He also insisted the private email server controversy was not "a cause for distrust".
"If it were a cause for distrust, it's inconceivable that all these prominent national security people ... would've endorsed her," he added.
Mrs Clinton's email system, which she used during her four years in office, has continued to be a source of controversy during the presidential race.
She maintains it was set up for convenience, but critics claim it was because it gave her total control over her correspondence and what information should be released, such as to the congressional committee investigating the 2012 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi.
Mrs Clinton's legal team turned over more than 30,000 emails from her server to the State Department last March, but only after deleting another 30,000 messages that were deemed private and personal.
Meanwhile, Mrs Clinton has released her tax return and criticised her Republican rival Donald Trump for failing to do the same.
The document showed she and her husband reported an income of $10.6m (£8m) in 2015.
Clinton campaign communications director Jennifer Palmieri said: "Donald Trump is hiding behind fake excuses and backtracking on his previous promises to release his tax returns.
"What is he trying to hide?"
But Trump senior communications adviser Jason Miller said people would rather see the deleted emails from Mrs Clinton's private server.
He said: "We want to see the records the night of Benghazi that explain why secretary Clinton didn't send in reinforcements as soon as the attack had begun."
Bill Clinton: Hillary Made Mistake Over Personal Email Server
Bill Clinton has said it was a mistake for Hillary Clinton to use a personal email server while secretary of state even though her predecessors and her successor did the same.
The former president said his wife should have known she would be subjected to different rules if she ever ran for the White House.
Mr Clinton defended the Democratic presidential candidate during a question-and-answer in Las Vegas, arguing it did not occur to diplomats sending emails at the time that they should be concerned with records classification.
The former president defended the Democratic candidate at an event in Las Vegas
He also insisted the private email server controversy was not "a cause for distrust".
"If it were a cause for distrust, it's inconceivable that all these prominent national security people ... would've endorsed her," he added.
Mrs Clinton's email system, which she used during her four years in office, has continued to be a source of controversy during the presidential race.
She maintains it was set up for convenience, but critics claim it was because it gave her total control over her correspondence and what information should be released, such as to the congressional committee investigating the 2012 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi.
Mrs Clinton's legal team turned over more than 30,000 emails from her server to the State Department last March, but only after deleting another 30,000 messages that were deemed private and personal.
Meanwhile, Mrs Clinton has released her tax return and criticised her Republican rival Donald Trump for failing to do the same.
The document showed she and her husband reported an income of $10.6m (£8m) in 2015.
Clinton campaign communications director Jennifer Palmieri said: "Donald Trump is hiding behind fake excuses and backtracking on his previous promises to release his tax returns.
"What is he trying to hide?"
But Trump senior communications adviser Jason Miller said people would rather see the deleted emails from Mrs Clinton's private server.
He said: "We want to see the records the night of Benghazi that explain why secretary Clinton didn't send in reinforcements as soon as the attack had begun."
Bill Clinton: Hillary Made Mistake Over Personal Email Server
Bill Clinton has said it was a mistake for Hillary Clinton to use a personal email server while secretary of state even though her predecessors and her successor did the same.
The former president said his wife should have known she would be subjected to different rules if she ever ran for the White House.
Mr Clinton defended the Democratic presidential candidate during a question-and-answer in Las Vegas, arguing it did not occur to diplomats sending emails at the time that they should be concerned with records classification.
The former president defended the Democratic candidate at an event in Las Vegas
He also insisted the private email server controversy was not "a cause for distrust".
"If it were a cause for distrust, it's inconceivable that all these prominent national security people ... would've endorsed her," he added.
Mrs Clinton's email system, which she used during her four years in office, has continued to be a source of controversy during the presidential race.
She maintains it was set up for convenience, but critics claim it was because it gave her total control over her correspondence and what information should be released, such as to the congressional committee investigating the 2012 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi.
Mrs Clinton's legal team turned over more than 30,000 emails from her server to the State Department last March, but only after deleting another 30,000 messages that were deemed private and personal.
Meanwhile, Mrs Clinton has released her tax return and criticised her Republican rival Donald Trump for failing to do the same.
The document showed she and her husband reported an income of $10.6m (£8m) in 2015.
Clinton campaign communications director Jennifer Palmieri said: "Donald Trump is hiding behind fake excuses and backtracking on his previous promises to release his tax returns.
"What is he trying to hide?"
But Trump senior communications adviser Jason Miller said people would rather see the deleted emails from Mrs Clinton's private server.
He said: "We want to see the records the night of Benghazi that explain why secretary Clinton didn't send in reinforcements as soon as the attack had begun."
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