WikiLeaks release to feature corruption among world leaders, governments

[D-Mack]

According to "sources familiar with the State Department cables held by WikiLeaks," the imminent document dump will include reports from US diplomats on corruption within foreign governments and among world leaders.
Reuters reports that governments in Europe and Asia feature prominently in the document release, with Russia and Afghanistan being mentioned by name. However, there were no specifics reported as to the nature of the corruption allegations or which governments are involved.

Three sources familiar with the State Department cables held by WikiLeaks say the corruption allegations in them are major enough to cause serious embarrassment for foreign governments and politicians named in them.
They said the release was expected next week, but could come earlier. The U.S. government has strongly objected to past WikiLeaks revelations, which it said compromise national security and can put some people at risk.

The US government, for its part, seems to be aware of the general nature of the material WikiLeaks will be releasing. AP reported Wednesday:


http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/w...world-leaders/

Quite interesting that this will highlight corruption among "other" governments ... Time to buy some safe US Treasuries?

[Shakespear]

Re: WikiLeaks release to feature corruption among world leaders, governments

It will be "embarrassment" for probable 3-4 days.

[ThePythonicCow]

Re: WikiLeaks release to feature corruption among world leaders, governments

It will be "embarrassment" for probable 3-4 days.

Perhaps this is part of a larger effort to prepare Americans for withdrawing from that theatre, as with the Pentagon Papers and Viet Nam.

[Shakespear]

Re: WikiLeaks release to feature corruption among world leaders, governments

TPCow - Let's hope so because such a waste of money is more than the Republic can stand. I know that is obvious, but what the heck. Lots of people's Thanksgiving I suspect will be very very sad.

[ThePythonicCow]

Re: WikiLeaks release to feature corruption among world leaders, governments

TPCow - Let's hope so

Yes, indeed.

In the time of the Viet Nam War, I was on the "other" side, a member of the military, stationed in south east Asia (though far from any danger.) I despised Daniel Ellsberg, the releaser of the Pentagon Papers. Five years ago, I was still on the "other" side, adamantly supporting George W. Bush and his "War on Terror" (posting as ThePythonicCow on TheFreeRepublic.com.)

My views have changed since then.

[jiimbergin]

Re: WikiLeaks release to feature corruption among world leaders, governments

Yes, indeed.

In the time of the Viet Nam War, I was on the "other" side, a member of the military, stationed in south east Asia (though far from any danger.) I despised Daniel Ellsberg, the releaser of the Pentagon Papers. Five years ago, I was still on the "other" side, adamantly supporting George W. Bush and his "War on Terror" (posting as ThePythonicCow on TheFreeRepublic.com.)

My views have changed since then.

I was right there with you on the "other" side including on Freerepublic as jimbergin. I too am changing my views, although somewhat reluctantly.

[ThePythonicCow]

Re: WikiLeaks release to feature corruption among world leaders, governments

I was right there with you ...

[blazespinnaker]

Re: WikiLeaks release to feature corruption among world leaders, governments

The importance of WikiLeaks is less to reveal these secrets but to make the world realize that you can't do anything without it ending up on a website somewhere.

[ThePythonicCow]

Re: WikiLeaks release to feature corruption among world leaders, governments

The importance of WikiLeaks is less to reveal these secrets but to make the world realize that you can't do anything without it ending up on a website somewhere.

Interesting thought. I suppose this could "justify" the need for increased government control over the Wild West of Web.

[shiny!]

Re: WikiLeaks release to feature corruption among world leaders, governments

I suppose this could "justify" the need for increased government control over the Wild West of Web.

They certainly will if they can. Would it be possible to create a new Internet outside of gov't controls, that bypasses iCANN and the existing servers?

[radon]

Re: WikiLeaks release to feature corruption among world leaders, governments

Interesting thought. I suppose this could "justify" the need for increased government control over the Wild West of Web.

Absolutely

We can't have our constituents finding out how much of their money we really spend on bribes. I mean.....ahem, financial aid.

[touchring]

Re: WikiLeaks release to feature corruption among world leaders, governments

It will be "embarrassment" for probable 3-4 days.

Perhaps for the US. But in a lot of countries, very senior leaders are believed to be incorruptible. Imagine the chaos it will create in China if multiple ministers are found receiving money. It may trigger another Tiananmen.

[Verrocchio]

Re: WikiLeaks release to feature corruption among world leaders, governments

Imagine the chaos it will create in China if multiple ministers are found receiving money. It may trigger another Tiananmen.

Um, don't think so. On the contrary, the Chinese would be much more surprised, even shocked, if they somehow found out that the top cadres were squeaky clean.

[tsetsefly]

Re: WikiLeaks release to feature corruption among world leaders, governments

I hope they dont only focus on corruption in America, but throughout the world...

[ThePythonicCow]

Re: WikiLeaks release to feature corruption among world leaders, governments

They certainly will if they can. Would it be possible to create a new Internet outside of gov't controls, that bypasses iCANN and the existing servers?

Good question.

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is too far removed to matter here. ICANN sets the policies that determine the organizations that set the policies that determine how other organizations (registrars) may allocate Internet (IP) addresses to domain names. That process results, for example, in allocating IP address 72.47.224.11 to the name www.itulip.com.

But ICANN did not allocate that IP address. Some other company did, a couple of layers removed. Nor can ICANN specifically deallocate that address.

Governments (whether China, the United States, North Korea, or other would-be tyrants) are not focusing their efforts to control the Internet on ICANN. Rather they are focusing their efforts on the lower lever infrastructure companies, such as the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) including inter alia Comcast, Verizon, and RoadRunner, and on other companies, within their borders or wherever their "enforcement" can reach (for the U.S.A., that seems to be Planet Earth), which provide routing, hosting and name services.

The latest threat to our Internet freedom is Senate Bill 3804, the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (aka COICA, aka S3804.) Last week, this bill was unanimously approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee. It is now before the main body of the Senate. It has not yet been considered by the House of Representatives or the President.

This bill, S3804, would require that any

service provider, as that term is defined in section 512(k)(1) of title 17,
United States Code, or other operator of a domain name system server shall take
reasonable steps that will prevent a domain name from resolving to that domain name's
Internet protocol address;

In the above text, "that domain name" refers to any domain name (e.g. "iTulip.com") on a list defined by the government, as established by this act.

I emphasized "or other operator of a domain name system server" above for personal reasons. I am such an operator. I have a DNS Server running on my PC.

This bill, S3804, raises grave concerns. See for example Concerns Regarding S. 3804, Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act. It also has broad support from industry (see for example DSL Reports discussion) and bi-partisan support (that Senate Committee vote was unanimous) in Washington.

Most of us use the "domain name system server" (aka DNS Server) provided by our ISPs. A few of us prefer to use other DNS Servers, such as Level 3 (4.2.2.1), Google (8.8.8.8) or OpenDNS (208.67.222.222), or run our own DNS Servers. Almost any business with a non-trivial internal network runs its own DNS Server, serving both as the master for its own intra-corporate network and as a caching server for external references. Anyone running a DNS Server, even my own DNS Server, would be in violation of the law if we did not cooperate in banning domain names on this U.S. Federal "don't fly" list.

If the U.S. government put, for example, iTulip on it's list, then its mapping to 72.47.224.11 would disappear from the DNS Servers I use (OpenDNS and Level 3 being my favorite to cache from), and then some minutes later disappear from my own DNS Server. If I overrode that change and added that mapping back into my own DNS Server, I would be in violation of Federal law. If I then used that override to enable me to access iTulip.com, it would be immediately obvious that I was in such violation, as I would possess more or less the only computer on the planet still sending Internet packets (with my return IP address necessarily and prominently contained in them) across the Internet to iTulip.com.

Whether or not to openly flaunt the U.S. Federal government, on a decision it has just made and might expect resistance to, is a personal matter on which I cannot advise others. However I would suggest you have your personal affairs in order first, with a contact for a good lawyer and alternative means in place to care for anyone depending on your labor or income.