IMF hit by 'very major' cyber security attack

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says it has been targeted by a sophisticated cyber attack.

Officials at the fund gave few details but said the attack earlier this year had been "a very major breach" of its systems, the New York Times reports.

Candid.  Must be BIG.

In related news, Anonymous is back, baby..

WikiLeaks/Anonymous: BofA Back On..

Hacker Collective Anonymous To Release Documents Proving Bank Of America Committed Fraud This Monday  Emphasis provided by Tyler Durden, the author.

After Julian Assange crashed and burned in his threat to release documents that expose fraud at Bank of America, many thought he had been only bluffing, and that BofA is actually clean. Not so fast. A member of the hacker collective Anonymous, which singlehandedly destroyed "hacker defense" firm HB Gary, who goes under the handle OperationLeakS "is claiming to be have emails and documents which prove "fraud" was committed by Bank of America employees, and the group says it'll release them on Monday" reports Gawker. As to the contents of the possible disclosure: ""He Just told me he have GMAC emails showing BoA order to mix loan numbers to not match it's Documents. to foreclose on Americans.. Shame." If indeed this makes the case against BofA' foreclosure practices stronger, it certainly explains why the banking consortium is scrambling to arrange a settlement, and also why Bank of America recently split off its $2 trillion in mortgages into "good bank" and "bad bank" entities.

It all starts Monday?

WikiLeaks cables: Saudi Arabia cannot pump enough oil to keep a lid on prices

Oh Snap! And just like that, the Peak Oil debate comes roaring back to life.. Excerpts:

The US fears that Saudi Arabia, the world's largest crude oil exporter, may not have enough reserves to prevent oil prices escalating, confidential cables from its embassy in Riyadh show.

The cables, released by WikiLeaks, urge Washington to take seriously a warning from a senior Saudi government oil executive that the kingdom's crude oil reserves may have been overstated by as much as 300bn barrels – nearly 40%.
..
According to the cables, which date between 2007-09, Husseini said Saudi Arabia might reach an output of 12m barrels a day in 10 years but before then – possibly as early as 2012 – global oil production would have hit its highest point. This crunch point is known as "peak oil".

Thanks to WikiLeaks, Peak Oil visibility should skyrocket within the next month or so, lead first by the "I told you so" crowd.. And this time, they're not going to let the issue drop.

WikiLeaks: Hot Egyptian Nights, Volume One..

First, to set the stage, lets flash back to late November(Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2010).. WikiLeaks Fallout: Undermining Egypt as Mideast Mediator Excerpts:

The flood of classified U.S. diplomatic cables released on Sunday by WikiLeaks threatens to further undermine Egypt's already questionable role as a neutral mediator between Palestinian factions, embarrass the U.S. in one of its most important Middle Eastern allies and expose the authoritarian regime of President Hosni Mubarak to more criticism in the aftermath of a parliamentary election this past weekend that was marred by widespread accounts of fraud and abuse.

For Cairo, the country's current preoccupation with an election that fell on the same day as the WikiLeaks disclosure may serve to distract the public for the time being. Egyptian newspapers on Monday devoted some attention to the leaks, but focused on revelations regarding their neighbors and other countries — not Egypt. Meanwhile a Foreign Ministry spokesman declined to comment on the documents' impact — indicating that he was not up to speed on the details and was currently in Libya. But inevitably, analysts say, details of Egypt's hard-line stance on Hamas, as well as its close cooperation with Israel, will provide fresh fodder for Egypt's largest opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, which suffered serious losses in the weekend's poll.

One of Brotherhood's strongest talking points against Mubarak's deeply unpopular regime has been its allegedly close relationship with Israel — a neighbor still widely vilified by the Egyptian public. Thanks to the diplomatic cables, Egypt may now have to account for fresh details regarding its cooperation with the Jewish state, as well as its role as a regional peace broker. "I think the most important thing is the link between these documents that explain everything and the crackdown on democracy and the crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood," says Essam al-Erian, a member of the Brotherhood's politburo. "If there was a democracy in Egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood became more powerful, this would threaten this good relationship between Egypt and the Israelis."
..
What may be more worrying to the Egyptian government,however, is a blow to the state's credibility as a regional peace broker. For years, Mubarak's regime has presented itself as the only diplomatic actor capable of resolving the 2007 split between Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah that left Hamas in control of Gaza and Fatah in control of the West Bank. Palestinians deem reconciliation critical to the success of any peace deal with Israel, but many accuse Egypt of being a biased mediator and therefore unfit for the job. The disclosed documents appear to leave little doubt as to where Egypt stands.

"Mubarak hates Hamas and considers them the same as Egypt's own Muslim Brotherhood, which he sees as his own most dangerous political threat," Scobey said in the February 2009 cable. Another cable detailing a meeting between Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman and General David Petraeus, of the U.S. Central Command, in the same year revealed Suleiman was pessimistic about prospects of reaching a deal. "I consider myself a patient man, but I am losing patience," Suleiman told Petraeus. He said Egypt was committed to undermining Hamas and building popular support for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West.

And from December 9th.. US ambassador tells Hillary Clinton that president will win rigged election next year, his 30th in power

Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's long-serving president, is likely to seek re-election next year and will "inevitably" win a poll that will not be free and fair, the US ambassador to Cairo, Margaret Scobey, predicted in a secret cable to Hillary Clinton last year.
..
Scobey's candid view, in a cable dated May 2009, is that Mubarak, 82, who heads the Arab world's most populous and influential nation, is most likely to die in office rather than step down voluntarily or be replaced in a plausible democratic vote. "The next presidential elections are scheduled for 2011 and if Mubarak is still alive it is likely he will run again and, inevitably, win," Scobey writes.

So.. The United States knew, yet said nothing. I'm sure they've known for a very long time. That's probably common knowledge in Egypt. That knowledge might be one of the reasons the Egyptian people don't trust us.. Maybe? Maybe? Continuing on..

WikiLeaks Exposes New Egypt Docs Amid Protests. Will Anyone There See Them?

As Egyptian police fire tear gas canisters and rubber bullets at protesters in Cairo, WikiLeaks has been firing back with a stream of new State Department cables that reveal human rights abuses and political arrests in the country. But it shouldn’t expect those document dumps to fuel the mass movement there: As of Wednesday evening, Egypt’s government had shut off all four of its major Internet service providers, (ISPs) essentially instituting a nationwide digital blackout. (But the ones in November and December.. They probably got out there, right?)
..
The blackout means there’s little chance of anyone in Egypt seeing a new round of WikiLeaks’ secret State Department cables that the secret-spilling group has released and linked to on its Twitter feed, apparently specially timed to highlight the injustices of the Egyptian regime and America’s ties to it. Those cables reveal that “police brutality continues to be a pervasive, daily occurrence,” with police often hanging criminal suspects from their arms for days at a time, and that bloggers and journalists live in fear of arrest. One cable admits that under Mubarak’s rule, which has long received military and financial support from the U.S., “torture and police brutality in Egypt are endemic and widespread. The police use brutal methods mostly against common criminals to extract confessions, but also against demonstrators, certain political prisoners and unfortunate bystanders.”

Remember this fall when Secretary Clinton was flying all over the world, "apologizing"? Maybe they had an idea as to the political impact these cables might have on specific countries, Egypt included. These statements make more sense now, doesn't they?" Excerpts:

“This disclosure is not just an attack on America's foreign policy interests,” said Clinton. “It is an attack on the international community: the alliances and partnerships, the conversations and negotiations that safeguard global security and advance economic prosperity.”

“It puts people's lives in danger, threatens our national security and undermines our efforts to work with other countries to solve shared problems,” she told reporters at the State Department.

Clinton would not comment on the specific contents of the cables but said the administration “deeply regrets” any embarrassment caused by their disclosure. Many of them contain candid and often unflattering assessments of foreign leaders, both friends and foes.

Speculation has already started as to who gets credit for starting the Egyptian revolution; Bush or Obama. Fuck the actual Egyptians. They only did all the work and shed all the blood.. But if I were to guess, I'd say Julian Assange had more motivational influence on Egypt than either one of our last two Presidents. He's the only one to tell the people of Egypt the truth.

This Week In WikiLeaks: A Little Morsel Of Delicious UFO -and- Banking's Symphony Of Whistles Warms Up..

Report: State Dept Warned Embassy Staff Not to Mention Pentagon’s UFO Concerns I can't wait to see this one.. Excerpts:

According to the site, the cable is dated November 9, 2005 and is connected to the Kiev embassy. It admonishes embassy officials not to discuss “under any circumstances” the military’s policy toward UFOs.

The report also says that the cable specifically mentions Department of Defense “concerns” related to the possibility of UFOs entering orbit and warns officials not to confirm that the US commits resources to the possibility.
And:
The more interesting aspect is that the State Department was so obsessed with secrecy that they actually took time to caution officials not to “confirm” it in off-the-record conversations.

Juicy. In almost any situation, the more one insists a point, the more the others know otherwise. Meanwhile, another whistle blower handed over more data in a very public news conference.

A former senior Swiss bank executive said Monday that he had given
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange details of more than 2,000 prominent individuals and companies that he contends engaged in tax evasion and other possible criminal activity.

Rudolf Elmer, who ran the Caribbean
operations of the Swiss bank
Julius Baer for eight years until he was
dismissed in 2002, refused to
identify any of the individuals or companies,
but he told reporters at a news conference that about 40 politicians and
"pillars of society" were among them.

He told The Observer newspaper over the weekend that those named in the
documents come from "the U.S., Britain, Germany, Austria and Asia -- from all
over," and include "business people, politicians, people who have made their living in the arts and multinational conglomerates -- from both sides of the Atlantic."

Elmer handed two computer disks to Assange at the news conference..

And:

WikiLeaks and Bank Julius Baer previously clashed in early 2008 when the anti-secrecy organization published hundreds of documents pertaining to its offshore activities. The bank succeeded, briefly, in gaining a court order to shut down the WikiLeaks.org website. The injunction was subsequently overturned and the case dropped.
The offshore banking industry has come under increasing pressure amid accusations that places like the Caribbean, with looser financial laws, allowed investors to avoid taxes and that some banks helped to create complex webs of companies and trust funds there to confuse tax authorities abroad.

And still, no cables about Bank of America. Yet. Which shoe drops first?

WikiLeaks Etc.. Rupert's Rough Week

WikiLeaks has ‘insurance files’ on News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch, Assange claims Oh Snap! Pronouncement from Julian Assange regarding the Insurance File and at least one of it's subjects is The Rupert Murdoch Media Empire Experience Excerpts from first link:

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said in a recent interview that he is holding back "insurance files" which could embarrass Rupert Murdoch and his international media empire at News Corporation.

The secrets website was also holding of over 500 US State Department cables about one broadcasting organization in particular, he added.

Assange made the disclosure while speaking to New Statesman, saying the files "will be released" if something happens to him or his organization.

"There are 504 US embassy cables on one broadcasting organisation and there are cables on Murdoch and News Corp.," he said.
And:
Appearing on the BBC, Assange's lawyer defended the move. "They need to protect themselves," Mark Stephens said. "This is what they believe to be a thermo-nuclear device effectively in the electronic age."

Do tell.. The other major Murdoch shenanigans this week include the possible demise of myspace, Murdoch's 580 million dollar investment/ albatross. Poor Rupert, I guess he'll have to take comfort in his other billions.. Unless, of course, those cables are what Julian Assange says they are: True Insurance.

In that case, in the future, if the whole WikiLeaks deal goes down twisted, "Poor Rupert" might actually be more appropriate..

WikiLeaks: China's Doing What We Thought China's Doing..

Meh. WikiLeaks: China Hiding Military Buildup, Intentions Excerpts:

The public line out of Beijing has always been simple: China's military is for the defense of the homeland.

The reality, however, may be more complicated. Newly released leaked U.S. diplomatic cables claim China is probably hiding both the size of its military buildup, as well as, on occasion, its intentions.

Australia's national intelligence agency conducted a strategic assessment of China's military spending, and concluded that the communist countries military buildup "threatens regional stability," reports the Australian daily The Age.

A leaked cable states that the agency found that China spent $90 billion on its military in 2006 - double the $45 billion budget publicly announced by Beijing, The Age reports.

While this is just a fraction of the nearly $500 billion the U.S. spends annually on its military, it is still noticeable for the fact that they were probably not publicly forthright about their military spending.

Allow me to respond to the four highlighted passages: 1, 2, and 3: Duh: Ya think? And 4: But America is?

C'mon.. If we've learned anything about how large government/ corporations/ entities work, NONE OF THEM are remotely close to transparent! To think the average citizen in the U.S. (as opposed to any other average citizen in any other country)has more knowledge of our military's black ops or secret spending or the second, third, or fourth set of books involved in how the entire operation(any operation) functions is naive, bordering on stupid/insane. I'm not knocking WikiLeaks for releasing this, nor am I knocking the military for operating in this manner; It's just the way things have always been done. Not that that makes current operations all right, but if we don't have a realistic assessment of systems function, we cannot fix given system without crippling it.

Thank you, WikiLeaks, for the confirmation, however un-necessary, and to CBS News: For God's sake, step it up and give me some real news, please..

WikiLeaks: Yeah, Still Happening..

U.S. envoy to Libya ensnared in WikiLeaks uproar
Was government WikiLeaks’s Bank of America source?

Julian Assange has never explicitly said that WikiLeaks's next target is
Bank of America, but fear that it might be was enough to send the bank’s stock
tumbling in November after he hinted a major, damaging disclosure about an
American bank would be forthcoming. (The idea that BoA was the target came from a year-old interview in which he said he had access to a hard drive of a BoA
executive.)
Now The New York Times looks into all the preventive action the
bank is taking just in case, as well as the internal attempts to find the leak.
The going theory, which the Times sets up and then mostly knocks down, is that
the leak was coming from within the House.

Xymphora's neat little round up of the big bombshells here..

And what it all means..

WikiLeaks' Most Terrifying Revelation: Just How Much Our Government Lies to Us

Do you believe that it is in Americans' interest to allow a small group of U.S. leaders to unilaterally murder, maim, imprison and/or torture anyone they choose anywhere in the world, without the knowledge let alone oversight of their citizens or the international community? And, despite their proven record of failure to protect America -- from Indochina to Iran to Iraq -- do you believe they should be permitted to clandestinely expand their war-making without informed public debate? If so, you are betraying the principles upon which America was founded, endangering your nation, and displaying a distinctly "unamerican" subservience to unaccountable authority. But if you oppose autocratic power, you are called to support Wikileaks and others trying to limit U.S. Executive Branch mass murder abroad and failure to protect Americans at home.

WikiLeaks has been forced to take a media back burner at the moment. I'm sure Julian Assange accounted for such a possibility. What will he do to counter this turn of events? What's his next move? Is this a brief pause before another round of whistle blowing fireworks?

Julian Assange: Secret, SECRET Agent

Who is Julian Assange, and who does he work for?  That's easy.  He's obviously an asset of Israel.
And he's also, obviously, a Nazi. 

The mythology of Julian Assange continues to grow in opposite directions. Assange is a fascinating character, but I find the reactions and behavior of the opposing forces he has created equally as fascinating.  Palin as Lightning Rod?  Fat fuckin' chance.  Assange is the one who incites or inspires, and it is what he's created and creating that is the informational/technological/global political zeitgeist of our time, the time directly before our arrival at The Crossroads   of   Modern   History..

WikiLeaks Comment: The Blast Shack

By Bruce Sterling for Webstock.  Xymphora's comment on Sterling's article is correct; "Bruce Sterling on Assange is worth reading but it isn't anything near as good as it ought to be." 

Sterling makes some terrific observations regarding the rapidly morphing monolith in progress Julian Assange, the process of diplomacy, hacker mentality, the real difficulty in his future prosecution, and some other thought provoking perspectives(Like the incompatible notions of transparency and discretion.  Sounds simple enough, right?  Think about how both are equally valued in our political system.  WikiLeaks has forced, sometime in the future, debate about which we value more, or how to more efficiently compromise both these principles to the maximum displeasure of most citizens..) that will effect policy, politics, and technology from here on out.

My problem with Sterling's work is seemingly at first tangential (And can be partially overlooked due to how many word perfect summations he offers), but still, it bothers me.  He dismisses Bradley Manning's motivations and technical ability fairly casually, as he has met many other hackers from similar backgrounds(Sterling is from that community, too), applying a general cyber/geek personality (consumed with boredom and a bit unstable) overview to Manning, but I disagree.  While his assessment of Assange feels right(Based on everything I've personally seen..), Sterling seems too jaded to acknowledge Manning as "True Believer," (as opposed to simply bored..)and and fundamentally misunderstands why Manning did what he did.(As an aside, it's not hard to find reference to Manning's consistent-since-childhood, unique, moral resolute-ness, which is why Sterling's misfire is so baffling:  With a little research, a completely different portrait of Manning appears, less desperate, less awkward, more concerned with the essence(s) of Right and Wrong (I also find it interesting he's a Sagittarius..) than Sterling bothers to admit or convey.  Probably Sterling is not familiar with this type(as they probably few in number in his circles of association), he cannot contend with the idea that Bradley Manning believed (as True Believers would be liable to believe) leaking these cables was the morally correct thing to do.  While Sterling understands Assange, Manning and his motives eludes him. 

This is not necessarily important to Sterling's narrative, which ultimately describes Julian Assange as:  Ray Croc, McDonald's-izing the process of mass distribution of information/leaks, the human embodiment of the Internet,  the global diplomatic homewrecker who has forever altered  how our State Department proceeds and is seen, and how, despite his cynical expectations, Assange's actions could have a perverting, un-intended consequences effect on the U.S. and global populace regarding State to State interaction.  Sterling's understanding of (and empathy for) Assange, clearly stated:

I don’t say these cruel things about Julian Assange because I feel distant from him, but, on the contrary, because I feel close to him. I don’t doubt the two of us would have a lot to talk about. I know hordes of men like him; it’s just that they are programmers, mathematicians, potheads and science fiction fans instead of fiercely committed guys who aspire to topple the international order and replace it with subversive wikipedians.
..
Well… every once in a while, a situation that’s one-in-a-thousand is met by a guy who is one in a million. It may be that Assange is, somehow, up to this situation. Maybe he’s gonna grow in stature by the massive trouble he has caused. Saints, martyrs, dissidents and freaks are always wild-cards, but sometimes they’re the only ones who can clear the general air. Sometimes they become the catalyst for historical events that somehow had to happen. They don’t have to be nice guys; that’s not the point. Julian Assange did this; he direly wanted it to happen. He planned it in nitpicky, obsessive detail. Here it is; a planetary hack.

I don’t have a lot of cheery hope to offer about his all-too-compelling gesture, but I dare to hope he’s everything he thinks he is, and much, much, more.

I have problems with Sterling's assessment because he assigns the future power of the entire WikiLeaks phenomenon to Assange and a cynical legion of hackers just like him, and therefore can't see or factor the serendipitous power of other True Believers, how they will(and have) react(ed), and how the other Bradley Manning's of this unfolding event will influence the global direction of what these two very different men have wrought.
What-  Will happen-  Next?

Julian Assange & Eris

Interesting analysis into the astrological motivations behind Julian Assange and his creation, WikiLeaks, from Dark Star Astrology.  The article focuses on the planet Eris, the mythological Goddess of Strife/Dischord.  Excerpts:

..I think personally his efforts to expose the corruption of governments are something to be applauded and am not surprised that Uranus should feature strongly in his chart. Jamie’s interpretation of Sun square Uranus describes him pretty well.“Their need to express their distinctive ego through their personality and career can often cause conflict with others because it can come across as abrupt, rebellious or just weird. There is no doubt however, that the tension of the square aspects pushes these people to achieve brilliance in creative self expression…of a different kind.”

But there is a Plutonic edge to him also, the uncovering the festering toxicity of the elite makes him an activist. He is not simply a rebel without a cause which can be one of the failings of the Uranus square. It goes much deeper.

What makes him stand out from other Uranian weirdo’s is the fact his Sun is caught in a T square between Uranus opposing a Eris/Chiron conjunction of just 44’
..
I really do see the archetype of Eris very strongly in him. Eris is the Goddess of discord. Even her discovery caused ructions as there was a dispute over what name to call her and then further controversy over the reclassification of planets leading to Pluto’s demotion. All very fitting for her birth into the collective consciousness.
..
 Eris is all about exposing vanity and petty one-upmanship.. (Diplomatic Cables, no?)
So in a chart Eris is where you are made the scapegoat, it’s the ugly duckling that doesn’t fit into the “Cool” gang  It’s where you throw eggs at politicians, where you scream “The Emperor has no clothes!”. Uranus doesn’t give a monkeys if he doesn’t fit in. If fact most of the time he is blissfully unaware that he is experienced as bonkers. Eris on the other hand cares very much. Her attitude is “One day I’ll show you”. She wants payback on all the playground teasing, she wants divine retribution. Conversely where Uranus is sometimes self-conscious, awkward and uncomfortable in social situations, Eris relishes in her “outlaw” status, milking it for all its worth. Unfortunately this bravado only serves to alienate her even more.

Eris’s general attitude is one of “If you can’t join them, beat them!”. She can be jealous and vengeful also, just as Ereshkigal was towards her sister Innana in the Mesopotamian version of the Persephone myth. Innana being the Venus/Aphrodite archetype. Eris is the shadow, like Pluto. She seems to be a cross between Pluto and Uranus, but dipped in Martian red warpaint. She is a Dark Goddess, but with less of the Neptune mysticism of Lilith. She is far more upfront and bolshy. Lilith is more seductive and bewitching, while Eris is ruthless predator when it comes to ensnaring her man.
And:
Eris..  takes the law into her own hands and is extremely ambitious. Like Anne Boleyn she wants to be Queen and could never be content with being a mere mistress. She will fight for the underdog and see that justice is done. She wants fairness and cannot abide hypocrisy. She is the ultimate Warrior Queen. Being a Goddess she does not do things in the normal linear masculine way, she challenges the concept of power, she encourages you to stand up to the bullies and turn the tables. She is the only match for Pluto because she can play him at his own game, twisting it to suit her own agenda. She ducks and dives, stealing Pluto’s invisible helmet at times. There she bides her time waiting for the optimum moment to shock her audience. The she will suddenly rip off her disguise to reveal flaming red tresses and her fearsome fiery whistle-blowing breath.
And:
Right now Julian has Tr Saturn opposing his Eris/Chiron conjunction. This is seriously blocking his ability as a warrior and maverick. Corrected by precession, Saturn is has only just made this aspect. It was exact on the 29th of November. By the end of December he should get his mojo back again..

WikiLeaks: Vatican dropped Holocaust deal

MSNBC's take is a bit ambiguous, but this could be a really big deal..  Excerpts:


The Vatican abandoned plans to join an international Holocaust remembrance body amid tensions over the role of the war-time pope, a newspaper reported citing a U.S. diplomatic cable obtained by WikiLeaks.
..
It says there are 16 million documents from the papacy of Pope Pius XII, who the Guardian described as a "a controversial figure for his failure publicly to denounce the Holocaust in 1941 or 1942, when the Vatican was first informed of what was going on."
And:
Elan Steinberg, vice president of American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants, said in an emailed statement last month that Benedict's comments (In defense of the war time Pope's actions)"fill us with pain and sadness and cast a menacing shadow on Vatican-Jewish relations."


If Pius became a saint, that would create an "unfathomable breach" in Catholic-Jewish relations, Steinberg added. "Pius' silence during the Holocaust was a profound moral failure," he said.




Let's see:  Elements of WikiLeaks, The Vatican, The Pope, The Jews, and The Holocaust, all in one story.  Boring..  Stop boring me with your boring, beginning to be validated conspiracy theories..

WikiLeaks: A Few Highlights..

WikiLeaks cables: US suspected Allen Stanford long before ECB deal

..US diplomats were so concerned about rumours of "bribery, money-laundering and political manipulation" surrounding Allen Stanford that they avoided contacting him or being photographed with him.

The extent of the widespread concern among embassy staff in Bridgetown, Barbados, where Stanford invested millions of dollars in Caribbean cricket before his empire came crashing down after being accused of an $8bn fraud of "shocking magnitude" and arrested by the FBI, will raise fresh questions about the wisdom of the England and Wales Cricket Board in getting into bed with him in June 2008.

The concerns are revealed in a cable dated 3 May 2006..  Emphasising the chance nature of the encounter, the cable notes: "Allen Stanford is a controversial Texan billionaire who has made significant investments in offshore finance, aviation, and property development in Antigua and throughout the region. His companies are rumoured to engage in bribery, money-laundering and political manipulation."

Who's Allen Stanford? Well, pre-prison, he was a corrupt Texas billionaire. He's changed careers now, but is unhappy with his status as penitentiary punching bag.. I guess I'd have more sympathy for him if he wasn't such a gigantic, horrible asshole. But, such is life, right?

WikiLeaks cables: Bulgarian nuclear project 'dogged by safety concerns'  Because nuclear energy is the best industry for shoddy, half assed workmanship..
The cables claim that despite its due diligence, RWE's confidence had turned to "buyer's remorse" within weeks. In the cable, the US ambassador cited local contacts as saying there was a rush to start construction so that the project would keep RWE on board. RWE had reportedly said that it would not provide funding until it sees the "first concrete poured", signalling the start of construction. Belene project experts privately expressed "serious concerns" that if safety practices continued to be ignored "it could pose a huge risk". RWE's partner, the state-owned Bulgarian electricity company, NEC, which held 51% of the project, declined to comment on any of the allegations.
 
Is Apple scared, or looking for a fight?

WikiLeaks: After BofA Refuses To Process Wikileaks' Payments, Wiki Warns Americans To Put Their Money "Somewhere Safer"

Uh-Oh!  From Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge:

Bank of America just fired the preemptive escalation shot in its duel with Wikileaks. Late on Friday, America's biggest mortgage lender, and the firm that is now getting sued left and right for various mortgage transgressions, announced it is joining MasterCard, Paypal and Visa in ceasing transactions for Wikileaks. While this decision will certainly not improve Operation Anonymous' empathy toward the North Carolina bank, it may just precipitate overt retaliation by Assange, who is now rumored to be in possession of data that could prove harmful to BAC. Which is why this sudden escalation out of left field by the bank strikes as surprisingly odd: BofA's upside is very limited while its downside could be 100% - even if Wikileaks is bluffing, why provoke them. And as expected, Wikileaks has already retaliated: in two sequential tweets it advised its 568,117 (and very rapidly growing) subscribers to pull their money out of Bank of America, and also to close all their accounts with the firm, urging them to put their money "somewhere safer." What is curious is to see whether this sudden escalation, in what has now become synonymous with a quest for preserving the first amendment for a substantial deal of people (and freedom of speech globally), will have a far broader impact than the comparable "Pull Your Money" out of the Big Banks venture that was attempted by Huffington Post over a year ago, with unsatisfactory results. If people suddenly personify Bank of America with a First Amendment threat, arguably the one freedom most cherished in America, which is precisely what Assange is trying to do, all bets for the Countrywide acquirer may soon be off.

The seeds were also sown earlier this month in France with Eric Cantona's December 7th Bank Run fail.  I think history will look at Cantona's efforts more as a template than in judgement for the non-starter event its first attempt (But certainly not last)proved to be.  We seem to be at a point in history where random variable people and events could expand or escalate local-to-global situations beyond expectations ever supposed even in the recent past, through the viral, random, and variable nature of the Internet itself.

One last thought from Clif High at Half Past Human(Which deserves a more detailed comment at a later time) regarding the upcoming WikiLeaks/BofA bloodbath..  And there will be blood..  *But* It might not be Bank of America at all, or it might be BofA AND the New York Fed..

The rumors of the next round of Wikileaks 'releases' (hint hint on language)...include not only the promise of deep banking secrets which many people speculate to be centered on Bank of America, while others, perhaps more in the know, are thinking it is actually to be 30/thirty plus years worth of 'secrets' to be revealed about the NY Federal Reserve Bank. The ramifications of either are severe for the banking system which is already stressed to levels never before encountered as it stumbles headlong into the upcoming currency collapse. Note that leverage and derivatives are now being piled upon each other as the fraud of the global 'reserve' banking system comes undone as a direct result of its nature (criminal) being taken to its logical extreme by those persons trapped in the myth of acquisition (e.g. where the 'ego/i' thinks that if it acquires more, and continues to acquire, then everlasting life (for the ego) shall result).

I think people are beginning to understand, with the help of these concrete, but fast developing examples, how information knowledge is power, and how that power is tearing apart the collective perceptions of this reality, thereby altering the course of what would have been Our Future, into a new course of what Our Future will be.

And hopefully, that future contains the total destruction of corporate systems and structures, new types of energy, and aliens, lots of friendly aliens..

WikiLeaks cables: BP suffered blowout on Azerbaijan gas platform

Striking similarities to Deepwater Horizon, eighteen months later.  Same kinda boom, same kinda glug glug, same kinda secrecy.. I'm super-glad they learned from their mistakes.  Idiocy, Neglect, or Evil?  The apparatus at the top is still in place, so does it even matter what the underlying corporate rationale is, much less why? 

BP is greedy and sucks, and they don't care who knows.

Wikileaks did not commit a crime, House Judiciary chairman says

From Raw Story: 

"As an initial matter, there is no doubt that WikiLeaks is very unpopular right now. Many feel that the WikiLeaks publication was offensive," (Representative John)Conyers said, according to prepared remarks. "But being unpopular is not a crime, and publishing offensive information is not either. And the repeated calls from politicians, journalists, and other so-called experts crying out for criminal prosecutions or other extreme measures make me very uncomfortable."

After all the knee jerk responses, the actual legal realities begin to settle in..

Kosovo PM is head of human organ and arms ring, Council of Europe reports

Two-year inquiry accuses Albanian 'mafia-like' crime network of killing Serb prisoners for their kidneys.
Facebook WHAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTT! Excerpts in italics:

Kosovo's prime minister is the head of a "mafia-like" Albanian group responsible for smuggling weapons, drugs and human organs through eastern Europe, according to a Council of Europe inquiry report on organised crime.

Hashim Thaçi is identified as the boss of a network that began operating criminal rackets in the run up to the 1998-99 Kosovo war, and has held powerful sway over the country's government since.

The report of the two-year inquiry, which cites FBI and other intelligence sources, has been obtained by the Guardian. It names Thaçi as having over the last decade exerted "violent control" over the heroin trade. Figures from Thaçi's inner circle are also accused of taking captives across the border into Albania after the war, where a number of Serbs are said to have been murdered for their kidneys, which were sold on the black market.

Legal proceedings began in a Pristina district court today into a case of alleged organ trafficking discovered by police in 2008. That case – in which organs are said to have been taken from impoverished victims at a clinic known as Medicus – is said by the report to be linked to Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) organ harvesting in 2000. It comes at a crucial period for Kosovo, which on Sunday held its first elections since declaring independence from Serbia in 2008. Thaçi claimed victory in the election and has been seeking to form a coalition with opposition parties.
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Thaçi's links with organised crime date back more than a decade, when those loyal to his Drenica group came to dominate the KLA, and seized control of "most of the illicit criminal enterprises" in which Kosovans were involved south of the border, in Albania.

During the Kosovo conflict Slobodan Miloševic's troops responded to attacks by the KLA by orchestrating a horrific campaign against ethnic Albanians in the territory. As many as 10,000 are estimated to have died at the hands of Serbian troops.

While deploring Serb atrocities, Marty said the international community chose to ignore suspected war crimes by the KLA, "placing a premium instead on achieving some degree of short-term stability". He concludes that during the Kosovo war and for almost a year after, Thaçi and four other members of the Drenica group named in the report carried out "assassinations, detentions, beatings and interrogations". This same hard line KLA faction has held considerable power in Kosovo's government over the last decade, with the support of western powers keen to ensure stability in the fledgling state.

Of course, all Western governments knew what was happening and who was responsible.  Intelligence Agencies aren't stupid, as there's precious little they don't know.  Obvious, but it must be stated..  Democracy and Human Rights are great things to speechify about, but they are the first directives to be shitcanned by promises of influence, power, and money involving whatever nation/state is abusing them, and what we in the West want from them.

Although this wasn't a WikiLeaks revelation, there's a good possibility we will learn of many more of these administration-sanctioned activities from other governments, not to mention the possibility of learning more Kosovo related criminality..  WikiLeaks has already had an effect in Croatia last week, so with more months of scheduled releases, there's a good chance we'll see much more evidence of government related criminal acts.  Maybe this is why they're so batshit about getting Assange:  They know what's to come. 

WikiLeaks: Saw It Coming..

WikiLeaks backlash: The first global cyber war has begun, claim hackers  Excerpts:

He is one of the newest recruits to Operation Payback. In a London bedroom, the 24-year-old computer hacker is preparing his weaponry for this week's battles in an evolving cyberwar. He is a self-styled defender of free speech, his weapon a laptop and his enemy the US corporations responsible for attacking the website WikiLeaks.
And:
Before WikiLeaks, Operation Payback's initial target was America's recording industry, chosen for its prosecutions of music file down loaders. From those humble origins, Payback's anti-censorship, anti-copyright, freedom of speech manifesto would go viral, last week pitting an amorphous army of online hackers against the US government and some of the biggest corporations in the world.

Charles Dodd, a consultant to US government agencies on Internet security, said: "[The hackers] attack from the shadows and they have no fear of retaliation. There are no rules of engagement in this kind of emerging warfare."

The battle now centres on Washington's fierce attempts to close down WikiLeaks and shut off the supply of confidential US government cables. By Thursday, the hacktivists were routinely attacking those who had targeted WikiLeaks, among them icons of the corporate world, credit card firms and some of the largest online companies. It seemed to be the first sustained clash between the established order and the organic, grassroots culture of the net.

But the clash has cast the spotlight wider, on the net's power to act as a thorn not only in the side of authoritarian regimes but western democracies, on our right to information and the responsibility of holding secrets. It has also asked profound questions over the role of the net itself. One blogger dubbed it the "first world information war".

This is happening, and it's been planned longer and more sophisticated than you think.  I'm interested to see how the American government and corporate interests respond to attacks world wide, not just from American hackers, and how each side will respond to the other's attacks and how the hackers' increased and increasing cohesion will factor into future strategies..

I'm guessing it'll be bad timing for some entity that Stuxnet was introduced right before this first world wide cyber war..

WikiLeaks Roundup, December 11, 2010

Latest WikiLeaks Reveal Embarrasses Vatican

Julian Assange, “The Truth Will Always Win”

“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.

WikiLeaks cables: Russia 'was tracking killers of Alexander Litvinenko but UK warned it off'

Russia was tracking the assassins of dissident spy Alexander Litvinenko before he was poisoned but was warned off by Britain, which said the situation was "under control", according to claims made in a leaked US diplomatic cable.

The secret memo, recording a 2006 meeting between an ex-CIA bureau chief and a former KGB officer, is set to reignite the diplomatic row surrounding Litvinenko's unsolved murder that year, which many espionage experts have linked directly to the Kremlin.

 ‘The Fourth Estate is dead,’ former CIA analyst declares

Traditional lines of communication between the people and the press have fallen into such disrepair in America that a whole new approach is necessary to challenge the military-industrial-governmental complex, according to a former CIA analyst sympathetic to WikiLeaks.

"The Fourth Estate is dead," Ray McGovern, of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, told Raw Story in an exclusive interview. "The Fourth Estate in his country has been captured by government and corporations, the military-industrial complex, the intelligence apparatus. Captive! So, there is no Fourth Estate."

WikiLeaks supporters’ group to republish cables

A loose grouping of cyber activists supporting WikiLeaks has abandoned its strategy of online attacks on organizations seen as hostile to the site in favor of spreading the leaked documents far and wide online.

Internet activists operating under the name "Anonymous" temporarily brought down this week the websites of credit card giants MasterCard and Visa -- both of which had stopped processing donations to WikiLeaks.
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In an overnight blog post, Anonymous announced a change of strategy, saying it now aimed to publish parts of the confidential U.S. diplomatic cables as widely as possible and in ways that made them as hard as possible to trace.

WikiLeaks cables: Former Croatia PM flees over corruption claims

WikiLeaks: Ron Paul Has Something To Say..

Video: Ron Paul Tells The Truth About WikiLeaks In front Of Congress,

Granted, he's no Jeri Blank, but who is?  Of course these two aren't related; I just miss "Strangers With Candy."