Sunday, December 11, 2011

Julian Assange and Wikileaks

      It's almost three years since I first became aware of the work of Julian Assange and the group of people who have joined his inspired commitment to break the censorship blockade. This has been the most significant blow against the efforts of the wealthy classes to prevent equitable access to a decent life for all the earth's people. Here is the posting to my website that celebrated his achievement.

Fighting against keeping us ignorant
 
by George Salzman   <doctorsci@gmail.com>
initially posted 20 February 2008 — reposted 11 December 2011


 
To stand in silence is to be complicit in the face of
what should be unthinkable horrors
 
Dr. Stephen Soldz wrote, 1

      One of the most important web sites in recent months has been Wikileaks.org. Created by several brave journalists committed to transparency, Wikileaks has published important leaked documents, such as the Rules of Engagement for Iraq [see my The Secret Rules of Engagement in Iraq], the 2003 and 2004 Guantanamo Camp Delta Standard Operating Procedures, and evidence of major bank fraud in Kenya [see also here] that apparently affected the Kenyan elections. Wikileaks has upset the Chinese government enough that they are attempting to censor it, as is the Thai military junta.

      Now censorship has extended to the United States of America, land of the First Amendment. As of Friday, February 15, those going to Wikileaks.org have gotten Server not found messages. Today I received a message explaining that a California court has granted an injunction written and requested by Cayman Island’s Bank Julius Baer lawyers. It seems that the bank is trying to keep the public from accessing documents that may reveal shady dealings. Wikileaks was only given a couple of hours notice “by email” and was not even represented at the hearing where a U.S. judge took such a drastic step attempting to totally shut down an important information outlet. The result was this totally unprecedented attempt to totally wipe out the existence of Wikileaks:

      “Dynadot shall immediately clear and remove all DNS hosting records for the wikileaks.org domain name and prevent the domain name from resolving to the wikileaks.org website or any other website or server other than a blank park page, until further order of this Court.”

      There have, of course, been previous attempts by the U.S. Government and others to block publication of particular documents, most famously in 1971 when the Nixon administration attempted to stop publication by the New York Times of excerpts from the Pentagon Papers, leaked by Daniel Ellsberg. But trying to close down an entire site in this way is truly unprecedented. Not even the Nixon administration, when they sought to block publication of the Pentagon Papers, considered closing down the New York Times in response.

      Keeping a population ignorant is a critically important tool for social oppression. The above information, which I posted on my 'old' website on 22 April 2008, was but another effort to seek truth and understanding. Also part of that search for truth and understading was my previous post on my 'old' website,


Open letter to a disillusioned Israeli Jewess,
28 January 2008, posted 15 February 2008
 
      Doreen Dotan is an intense person who says straightforwardly what she thinks, even if it is likely to cause an adversary some discomfort. I admire that quality, that insistence on honest discourse. She and I disagree strongly on some critically important issues. But her honesty apparently offered me an opportunity to learn the current perspective of some Israeli Jews who live in the occupied parts of Palestine . . . To see entire item, (htm), For print version, (htm)
 

NOTES
1 Stephen Soldz. Dr. Soldz <ssoldz@bgsp.edu> posted to his blog on 18 February 2008 an article that needs to be widely distributed. It is at http://psychoanalystsopposewar.org/blog/2008/02/18/us-court-attacks-web-freedom-enjoins-wikileaksorg-out-of-existence/ and has been posted also at http://wikileaks.cx/wiki/US_court_attacks_web_freedom. It is also on my “An anarchist physicist’s notes”, where all the active links are included, at https://lists.riseup.net/www/arc/aapn/2008-02/msg00003.html.
      Dr. Soldz is identified on a page of the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis website at http://www.bgsp.edu/statements/ps_ssoldz.html as follows: Ph.D., Cert. Psya., Director, Center for Research, Evaluation and Program Development; Full Professor, Instructor, BGSP. His website, separate from his blog, is at http://soldzresearch.com/stephensoldz .
 


George Salzman is a former American Jew living in Oaxaca, Mexico, an ex-physics prof, Univ of Massachusetts-Boston.
 


All comments and criticisms are welcome.  <doctorsci@gmail.com
 

      If you know folks who want to ‘save the world’, starting with global open communication — no censorship, I’ll be glad to add them to my Notes of an anarchist physicist listserv [noap]. To subscribe write me, including your first and last names, please, or send a blank e-mail to noap-subscribe@lists.riseup.net.

*     *     *
Return to the latest postings page of website II,
      at http://site.www.umb.edu/faculty/salzman_g/s/01.htm
Return to the home page of website II,
      at http://site.www.umb.edu/faculty/salzman_g/s/00.htm
Return to the ‘Latest’ postings page of website I,
      at http://site.www.umb.edu/faculty/salzman_g/Latest.htm
Return to the opening page of website I,
      at http://site.www.umb.edu/faculty/salzman_g/index.htm
 
This page first posted 20 February 2008.
Last update: 11 December 2011