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?

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..

Bradley Manning Is So Much More Intelligent Than The Official Line Portrays Him..

WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning "designed Facebook" as a schoolboy, friends say

This person sounds much more.. capable of the know how needed to engineer such a massive transfer of information, and the thoughtfulness to understand and stand up for his beliefs and motivations. Excerpts:

Bradley Manning, the prime suspect in the leaking of top secret documents to the WikiLeaks website, was such a computer expert that he designed a version of Facebook years before modern social networking sites took off, friends have disclosed.

Friends remember the teenager as a shy schoolboy who was determined to speak his mind and “had his own sense of right and wrong”.

"He produced a website with another schoolmate. It was pre-Facebook. It was like a community site. It didn’t really lift off, but it was a good idea.

"It was pretty much a social networking site before its time. You could log in and find out about local news."
..
..Those who befriended Manning when he arrived in Wales aged 13, after his parents divorced, suggested that he had always possessed some of the character traits which may have prompted the biggest-ever leaks of confidential information from the US government.

Mr Dyer told Channel 4 News that Manning had quickly established a reputation for computer expertise at his West Wales comprehensive.
..
He said: “He's always had this sense that 'I'm going to right a big wrong'. He was like that at school.

Mr Dyer insisted that Manning never meant any harm but was simply determined to stand his own ground.

"He has his own sense of what is right or wrong,” he added. “It’s not directed against another person in particular. He's certainly not malicious in any of his actions."

This portrait of Manning doesn't really fit the Lady Ga Ga narrative pushed when the story initially broke. Will his early friends stand by and not respond to the "Manning is treasonous" talk thrown around the punditsphere? I find the differing reactions to the event so far very interesting. The calls for Assange's arrest, execution(Very Christlike, Mike, by the way..), assassination, re-classification as terrorist, and yet, fascination with the cables they might have interest in...**Like this:

I would not want to be in Mr. Assange's shoes right now. Assange gave an interview to Forbes earlier this month. Wikileaks is supposed to be unveiling a major U.S. banking scandal in early 2011, consisting of thousands of documents obtained from a major U.S. financial firm (Goldman Sachs ??? Those are some documents I wouldn't mind seeing). **

Ron Paul, though, gets it right.. "In a free society we're supposed to know the truth," Paul said. "In a society where truth becomes treason, then we're in big trouble. And now, people who are revealing the truth are getting into trouble for it."

I can't attribute this yet, but something I picked up this week's readings was this: If the government can know all of your secrets and peer into so many aspects of your private life, why shouldn't they be held by the same standard? Do not forget, they indeed work for us; not us for them. Whether or not you agree with Bradley Manning's actions, it does sound like he stands behind his convictions and probably hasn't changed his mind about what he has brought about. This story becomes more compelling with each passing day..

Wikileaks done blew it all up, at least on the Internet..

Tens of thousands of alleged Afghan war documents go online. Since this is, as one conspiracy site points out, a national security issue, I won't link to Wikileaks or reproduce the content. If you want it bad enough, you can look it up.

Make no mistake, if the majority of these documents are accurate, it will undoubtedly alter our foundational perception of anything connected to the entire region. Pakistan and the Taliban working together? Of course. Massively underreported civillain causalties? Yes. From here on out, our collective understanding of the last 10 years should begin to change..