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U.S. warns Britain over new WikiLeaks revelations that will 'expose corruption between allies'

Dark Demonic™ ★ The Original SodaHead Guru ★ November 26, 2010 23:15:11
  • 3 million documents set to go online
  • Bombshell leak thought to include U.S. assessments of Gordon Brown
  • Secret talks on return of Lockerbie bomber to Libya may also be leaked
  • Allegations 'include U.S. backing of Kurdish terrorists'
  • U.S. diplomats face being kicked out of countries in backlash
  • Corrupt politicians expected to be named and shamed

kurdish terrorists diplomats kicked countries backlash corrupt politicians expected shamed

Blowing the whistle: Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks (pictured earlier this month), is said to be preparing to release more sensitive documents


David Cameron was warned last night by America that damaging secrets of the ‘special relationship’ are about to be laid bare.

The U.S. ambassador to London made an unprecedented personal visit to Downing Street to warn that whistleblower website WikiLeaks is about to publish secret assessments of what Washington really thinks of Britain.

The website is on the verge of revealing almost 3million documents,
including thousands of sensitive diplomatic cables sent to Washington
from the American embassy in London.

The bombshell leak is thought to include U.S. assessments of Gordon Brown’s personality and his prospects of winning the General Election, and secret discussions on the return of the Lockerbie bomber to Libya.

Assessments of David Cameron’s election chances and his private assurances to U.S. officials may also be included, Government sources believe.

They fear they will emerge on Sunday in co-ordinated releases in newspapers in Britain, Germany and America.

The British government is so worried that last night it issued a D-Notice,
warning that publishing the secrets could compromise national security.

The website has previously released secret details of allied military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Revelations of American brutality in Iraq and Afghanistan created shockwaves, made WikiLeaks notorious and led to its founder Julian Assange - an Australian-born computer hacker - being vilified by governments around the world. He is now wanted for alleged rape in Sweden.

In total, around 2.7million confidential messages between the U.S.
government and its embassies around the world are to be released.


Expose: Wikileaks reported on its Twitter page that U.S. allies are being warned

Expose: WikiLeaks' posts on its Twitter page showing how the U.S. government, in anticipation of an imminent expose, is briefing its allies on what to expect


The U.S. State Department warned that the leaks would damage relationships around the world.

Spokesman P J Crowley said: ‘These revelations are harmful to the U.S. and our interests. They are going to create tension in relationships between our diplomats and our friends around the world.’

The U.S. ambassador to Britain, Louis Susman, was seen going into Downing Street and the Foreign Office yesterday to brief officials for what was described as ‘contingency planning’.

‘He came in to explain what they thought we could expect,’ said one Whitehall source.

Defence sources said British national security could be ‘put at risk’ by the release, as they are expected to contain details of the Iraq and
Afghanistan conflicts and pull-outs and revelations about secret service
practices and intelligence sources.

‘These revelations are harmful to the U.S. and our interests. They are going to create tension in relationships between our diplomats and our friends around the world’


Downing Street is braced for potentially hugely embarrassing disclosures about private U.S. assessments of Britain and its leaders.

There are fears of even the most apparently trivial secrets being hugely damaging.

One British official said they feared that mutual American and British contempt for the French would emerge.

‘Moaning about the French was practically a sport,’ he said.

Mr Cameron’s spokesman declined to discuss the nature of any confidential communications that could be released.

He said: ‘Obviously, the Government has been briefed by U.S. officials, by the ambassador. I don’t want to speculate about precisely what is going to be leaked before it is leaked.’

As well as Britain, the U.S. has warned the governments of Australia,
Canada, Denmark, Norway and Israel in advance of the release.


Gordon Brown

David Cameron

Libyan Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, who was found guilty of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing

Concern: Bombshell leaks are thought to include a U.S. assessment of Gordon Brown and David Cameron's election chances - and secret talks on the return of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Al Megrahi (right) to Libya

It has been claimed that a backlash by countries upset over the leaks may lead to U.S. diplomats being expelled.

The next release is expected to include thousands of diplomatic cables
reporting allegations of corruption against politicians in Russia,
Afghanistan and other Central Asian nations.

But there were no specific details as to the nature of the corruption allegations or which governments are involved.

However, according to the UK-based Arabic daily newspaper al-Hayat, the WikiLeaks release includes documents that show Turkey has helped Al Qaeda in Iraq - an extraordinary revelation which could kill off the country’s hopes of joining the EU.

‘HA HA, I HIT THEM'’: THE EXPOSES THAT SHOCKED THE WORLD

Until now WikiLeaks had published two batches of classified files.

The first was about the war in Afghanistan and gave a grim picture of the
day-to-day struggle against the Taliban and the frustrations of trying
to train the Afghan police.

The second covered the period in the occupation of Iraq between 2004 and
2009 and contained revelations that America failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse, rape, torture and murder by Iraqi police and soldiers.


Video expose on Wikileaks

The information also revealed that more than 15,000 civilians died in previously unknown incidents - U.S. and UK officials have insisted that no official record of civilian casualties exists but the logs record 66,081 non-combatant deaths out of a total of 109,000 fatalities.

In addition, the logs claim that in one incident a British rifleman shot dead an eight-year-old Iraqi girl as she played in the streets.

Before the June exposes, the whistleblowing service shocked the world with the publication of a video in April showing American soldiers laughing as a helicopter strike kills around a dozen civilians in Baghdad.

In the 17-minute black-and-white footage, pictured above, from an Apache
helicopter gunsight, the crew can be heard discussing the carnage as if
they were playing a video war game.

One soldier can even be heard shouting: 'Ha, ha, I hit 'em.' Another says: 'Look at those dead b******s.'



WHO IS JULIAN ASSANGE AND WHAT IS HIS WEBSITE WIKILEAKS ABOUT?

WikiLeaks was set up in 2007 by journalist and computer programmer Julian Assange.

The Australian, whose parents met at a protest against the Vietnam War,
says he wanted to allow whistleblowers to publish sensitive materials
without fear of being identified.

Mr Assange, pictured below at a press conference in July following his
first major expose, says his website's complex set-up is designed to
ensure that information sent to it becomes anonymous before it is passed
on to the web servers.


Julian Assange of WikiLeaks

Its servers are spread all over the world and do not keep logs, so governments cannot trace where the information is being sent and received from.

Even so, WikiLeaks encourages donors to post the material to them on CDs to its base in Iceland, over encrypted internet connections or from net
cafes.

The service, which also runs a network of lawyers to defend its publications and sources, claims that none of its informants have been traced so far.

Adding to this intrigue, Mr Assange's legal team have recently been busy
arguing over an international arrest warrant which has been issued for
the WikiLeaks boss by Swedish prosecutors over allegations of rape,
sexual molestation and unlawful coercion.

The allegations, which the 39-year-old has repeatedly denied, relate to two women he met while on a visit to Sweden in August.

Mr Assange’s London lawyer Mark Stephens, has said the claims were 'false and without basis’.



The Washington Post reported that the files will contain allegations that the U.S. has supported the PKK, a Kurdish rebel organization that has been waging a separatist war against Turkey since 1984.


The U.S. says it has known for some time that WikiLeaks held the cables.


No one has been charged with passing them to the website, but suspicion focuses on Bradley Manning, an intelligence analyst arrested in Iraq in June and charged over an earlier leak.


A Downing Street spokesman today declined to discuss the nature of any
confidential communications which may have been obtained by WikiLeaks.

But he said: 'Obviously, the Government has been briefed by U.S. officials, by the U.S. ambassador, as to the likely content of these leaks.


'I don't want to speculate about precisely what is going to be leaked before it is leaked.'


The U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv warned the country's foreign ministry that some of the cables could concern U.S.-Israel relations, the daily
newspaper Haaretz claimed.


WikiLeaks said on its Twitter feed earlier this week that its new
release would be seven times larger than the nearly 400,000 Pentagon
documents related to the Iraq war which it made public in October.

The U.S. State Department confirmed it has begun notifying foreign
governments and it fears serious diplomatic fallout over the expose.

'These revelations are harmful to the United States and our interests,' said a spokesman.

'They are going to create tension in relationships between our diplomats and our friends around the world.'

Senior military staff on both sides of the Atlantic are still furious over that release of 400,000 classified documents, the biggest military leak of all time.

They detailed what WikiLeaks founder Assange called 'compelling evidence of war crimes' by the U.S.-led coalition and the Iraq government and sparked calls for a full inquiry.

Should WikiLeaks go ahead with its promise, it will be the third time it has
published such information in the face of opposition from military top
brass around the world.



MYSTERY OF ASSANGE ‘LIFE INSURANCE’ TWEET

WikiLeaks is urging the public to download a mysterious ‘insurance’ file said to contain information to be released if Julian Assange is killed.

In a Twitter post today (pictured below) the whistleblowing service
published a link to the Pirate Bay file sharing site with the comment:
'Now is a good time to download some ‘history insurance’.


Expose: Wikileaks reported on its Twitter page that U.S. allies are being warned

The giant file, nearly 2GB in size, is said to contain thousands of secret U.S. documents aimed at embarrassing the nation’s government, and potentially causing harm to the United States’ relations with allies.

The file has been around since this summer and is heavily encrypted.

In the event of Mr Assange’s death (or some other unspecified reason), the
secret key would be released — exposing the documents to all who have
downloaded and obtained the key.

It is uncertain why WikiLeaks is now urging users to download the file,
but it just may be that they’re planning to release the key soon.

The first batch was about the war in Afghanistan and gave a grim picture of the day-to-day struggle against the Taliban and the frustrations of trying to train the Afghan police.

The second covered the period in the occupation of Iraq between 2004 and 2009 and contained revelations that America failed to investigate
hundreds of reports of abuse, rape, torture and murder by Iraqi police
and soldiers.

The information also revealed that more than 15,000 civilians died in previously unknown incidents - U.S. and UK officials have insisted that no official record of civilian casualties exists but the logs record 66,081 non-combatant deaths out of a total of 109,000 fatalities.

In addition, the logs claim that in one incident a British rifleman shot
dead an eight-year-old Iraqi girl as she played in the streets.

The information will almost certainly have come from the Bradley Manning, the dissident U.S. army intelligence analyst who earlier this year is alleged to have leaked the first tranche, some 90,000 logs chronicling bloody encounters and civilian killings in Afghanistan.

Adding to the controversy is the international arrest warrant which has been issued for Mr Assange by Swedish prosecutors over allegations of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion.

The allegations, which the 39-year-old Australian has repeatedly denied,
relate to two women he met while on a visit to Sweden in August.

Assange’s London lawyer Mark Stephens, has said the claims were 'false and without basis’.




More: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1333213/U-...

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Top Opinion

  • ὤTṻnde΄ӂ November 26, 2010 23:42:58
    ὤTṻnde΄ӂ
    +4
    I think it's funny that he's a hunted man and he is on the move all the time. He can't even speak up in a restaurant afraid Western Intelligence will find him. He knows his time is limited.
    “When it comes to the point where you occasionally look forward to being in prison on the basis that you might be able to spend a day reading a book, the realization dawns that perhaps the situation has become a little more stressful than you would like,” he said over the London lunch.
    LONDON — Julian Assange moves like a hunted man. In a noisy Ethiopian restaurant in London’s rundown Paddington district, he pitches his voice barely above a whisper to foil the Western intelligence agencies he fears. He demands that his dwindling number of loyalists use expensive encrypted cellphones and swaps his own as other men change shirts. He checks into hotels under false names, dyes his hair, sleeps on sofas and floors, and uses cash." More and more of his colleagues are deserting him. I think the man is dead meat.
    http://wfol.tv/stop-nato/5572...

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  • ☥☽✪☾DAW ☽✪☾ November 27, 2010 00:45:26
    ☥☽✪☾DAW ☽✪☾
    +1
    im actually dissapointed in my goverment i expected assassinations to take out wikileaks president and others dead to silence them all
    the hq of wikileaks to no apparant reason explode
    wikileak workers to vanish
    come on goverment kill these people shut them up
  • Usti Wa... ☥☽✪☾DAW... November 27, 2010 05:07:32
    Usti Waya BN-0
    +1
    You are kidding I hope. You can't want our government to kill journalist for exposing the truth. That is insane.
  • Flea Usti Wa... November 27, 2010 05:30:19
    Flea
    +2
    Family secrets are an amazing thing- people will go to incredible lengths to keep them hidden, particularly in dysfunctional families- and the world is plenty dysfunctional...
  • Usti Wa... Flea November 27, 2010 06:08:14
    Usti Waya BN-0
    +1
    That is true, but when it affects history and governments, sometimes the truth needs to be brought of the closet and exposed the guilty parties. Dysfunctional or not, the truth need to be told.
  • ☥☽✪☾DAW... Usti Wa... November 27, 2010 13:36:03
    ☥☽✪☾DAW ☽✪☾
    i want the us goverment and other goverments to pretty much start excuting these idiots who post classfield information to the world that endanger our troops and security to the us

    that would teach the people loose lips sink ships and dead men tell no tales
  • Usti Wa... ☥☽✪☾DAW... November 27, 2010 18:55:12
    Usti Waya BN-0
    +1
    This nation is not barbaric and will not execute someone practicing freedom of speech. What a evil answer wanting us to murder people.
  • ☥☽✪☾DAW... Usti Wa... November 28, 2010 12:43:53
  • Usti Wa... ☥☽✪☾DAW... November 28, 2010 18:37:46
    Usti Waya BN-0
    +1
    If they did things that were wrong, exposing them is the right thing to do. Even military leaders need to be held accountable. If they did nothing wrong, there would be no reason for wikileaks to print the mess. We will see when they start printing the papers tonight.
    Wikileaks is not hte enemy, DAW, to wish them dead is wrong.
  • ☥☽✪☾DAW... Usti Wa... November 28, 2010 21:06:59
    ☥☽✪☾DAW ☽✪☾
    secrets are secrets for a reason sometimes its better to not know
  • Usti Wa... ☥☽✪☾DAW... November 28, 2010 21:26:55
    Usti Waya BN-0
    +1
    We pay to support our government and deserve to know when they are lying to us. I am very eager to read these documents.
  • ☥☽✪☾DAW... Usti Wa... November 29, 2010 15:07:03
    ☥☽✪☾DAW ☽✪☾
    i look forward to seeing the people who leaked it read thier obituaries i hope its a funny death
  • Usti Wa... ☥☽✪☾DAW... November 29, 2010 19:02:50
    Usti Waya BN-0
    DAW, there is nothing funny about death. What has surfaced so far, may embarrass America and other nations, but nothing life threatening. I still agree with publishing the documents. Let the truth be known.
  • ☥☽✪☾DAW... Usti Wa... November 29, 2010 21:42:12
    ☥☽✪☾DAW ☽✪☾
    then when he does theres a bullet with his name on it for life
  • Usti Wa... ☥☽✪☾DAW... November 29, 2010 22:14:37
    Usti Waya BN-0
    And just where does this bullet come from? Some nut case. He did not wire tap the Pentagon, the documents were given to him and wikileaks. Do you really think a journalists would sit on this information. Get real. It is news and we, as citizens, deserve the truth. Just stop the ignorant talk of killing this journalist. There will be many others to take his place. I hope he has a long and prosperous life.
  • Angi November 27, 2010 00:37:59
    Angi
    +2
    I wonder which country will be surprised. May be no one will be. A lot of people know that special relationships are not concrete like politicians like to make out. Some of it is just spin. Also what does this wikileaks bloke hope to gain by all this.
  • Lance November 27, 2010 00:33:01
    Lance
    +1
    Not that US foreign policy has ever harmed it's allies. Of course none of the loans to the Hitler regime ever contributed to WWII. Nor did US forces target the acquisition of scientific sites over civilian. Strangely convenient that the Red Army were left to take Berlin; perhaps the US command structure were worried that their Russian allies had not sustained sufficient casualties?
    And, of course, no UK troops died as a result of funding to Israeli and IRA terrorists. I don't recall the IRA repaying 'war loans' the way that the UK has either.
  • Liza Jane November 26, 2010 23:47:35
  • Usti Wa... Liza Jane November 27, 2010 05:08:29
    Usti Waya BN-0
    +2
    Well said, Liza.
  • ὤTṻnde΄ӂ November 26, 2010 23:42:58
    ὤTṻnde΄ӂ
    +4
    I think it's funny that he's a hunted man and he is on the move all the time. He can't even speak up in a restaurant afraid Western Intelligence will find him. He knows his time is limited.
    “When it comes to the point where you occasionally look forward to being in prison on the basis that you might be able to spend a day reading a book, the realization dawns that perhaps the situation has become a little more stressful than you would like,” he said over the London lunch.
    LONDON — Julian Assange moves like a hunted man. In a noisy Ethiopian restaurant in London’s rundown Paddington district, he pitches his voice barely above a whisper to foil the Western intelligence agencies he fears. He demands that his dwindling number of loyalists use expensive encrypted cellphones and swaps his own as other men change shirts. He checks into hotels under false names, dyes his hair, sleeps on sofas and floors, and uses cash." More and more of his colleagues are deserting him. I think the man is dead meat.
    http://wfol.tv/stop-nato/5572...
  • Kane Fernau November 26, 2010 23:34:42
    Kane Fernau
    +1
    The video of the helicopter video was a proven to be edited and not complete..
  • Dark De... Kane Fe... November 26, 2010 23:40:42
    Dark Demonic™ ★ The Original SodaHead Guru ★
    +2
    Here is the full unedited version.



    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/105...
  • Kane Fe... Dark De... November 27, 2010 02:53:33
    Kane Fernau
    +2
    Be sure to click on all the links, especially the video showing the terrorists carrying weapons. http://americanpowerblog.blog...
  • Dark De... Kane Fe... November 27, 2010 09:37:00
    Dark Demonic™ ★ The Original SodaHead Guru ★
    +2
    They did have weapons. Thanks for the link. :o)
  • Kane Fe... Dark De... November 27, 2010 16:25:19
    Kane Fernau
    +1
    I'm impressed you acknowledged the truth. I may not be right all the time but I don't intentionally lie.
  • Dark De... Kane Fe... November 27, 2010 17:20:11
    Dark Demonic™ ★ The Original SodaHead Guru ★
    +2
    I'm the same way.

    I can admit if and when I make mistakes, nobody's perfect. :o)
  • Anti-Con November 26, 2010 23:24:45
    Anti-Con
    +4
    Corrupt politicians to be named?

    Perhaps there will be some surprises, but anyone who lives in either of those two nations is pretty sure about who is corrupt already.
  • Dark De... Anti-Con November 26, 2010 23:36:04
    Dark Demonic™ ★ The Original SodaHead Guru ★
    +6
    Personally I'm glad it's all coming out in the open. The very fact that both countries are panicking over the Wikileaks documents is enough to show they're guilty of something bad.

    Governments should be held accountable for their actions or inactions, that's why I don't understand the so-called "patriots" who are against this. I mean I understand that some people may be put in danger and things may get a little hairy, but if they weren't doing anything wrong in the first place they'd have nothing to worry about, right?

    Nobody should be above the law. Not even our countries leaders.
  • Anti-Con Dark De... November 27, 2010 02:11:48
    Anti-Con
    +2
    ABSOLUTELY!!

    They won't change anything until they are affected personally. Bring it to their doorsteps.
  • Usti Wa... Anti-Con November 26, 2010 23:43:51
    Usti Waya BN-0
    +3
    What do ya want to bet, the right leaning will be very, very pissed and call it lies? I say let the truth be known.
  • Anti-Con Usti Wa... November 27, 2010 02:12:01
    Anti-Con
    +2
    That's their MO.
  • Rusty Shackleford November 26, 2010 23:21:27
    Rusty Shackleford
    +3
    If I were President, wikkileaks would be bombed out of existence and the webmaster killed or captured.
  • Usti Wa... Rusty S... November 26, 2010 23:39:04
    Usti Waya BN-0
    +3
    Really? Suddenly you don't support freedom of speech and knowing the true history? What a shame. Good, bad or indifferent, the truth needs to be exposed and known.
  • Rusty S... Usti Wa... November 26, 2010 23:46:15
    Rusty Shackleford
    +3
    This is not about freedom of speech and you know it. It is an act of war and it should be treated as such.

    Julian Assange is an enemy of the United States of America.

    You libs amaze me, Scooter Libby mentions that Valerie Plame works for the CIA, true but she was NOT covert, and all hell breaks loose. Wikileaks releases countless classified documents jeopardizing who knows how many American lives, and you support it.
  • Usti Wa... Rusty S... November 26, 2010 23:56:46
    Usti Waya BN-0
    +3
    Revealing the historical truth and exposing a current CIA agent is no where near the same thing. This is history and the truth deserves to be told. Lying about the historical facts is lying and you Christians are against lying aren't you? Let's learn the truth so the next generation won't make the same mistakes. Teaching historical lies is wrong just like teaching our children this nation was built on Christianity. This nation was built on freedom. Nothing to do with god.
  • Rusty S... Usti Wa... November 26, 2010 23:58:31
    Rusty Shackleford
    +3
    So you do support releasing these classified documents?
  • Usti Wa... Rusty S... November 27, 2010 00:03:30
    Usti Waya BN-0
    +3
    Yes, I do. Let the truth be told. If Wikileaks doesn't publish them, some one else will. After they are released, let the people judge them and all concerned. IT is not something that will change history and it is not of current status. It is not exposing a current spy, so get on with exposing them.
  • Artist Usti Wa... November 27, 2010 02:36:57
    Artist
    +1
    Perhaps there's some truth about obama in these documents. If so, Assange is Dead Man Walking...
  • Usti Wa... Artist November 27, 2010 02:55:16
    Usti Waya BN-0
    +2
    You're the one toting a gun my dear, not Obama. He can handle things civilly. Murder is not his style. Besides, I believe him to be a good man, good husband, good Father, and great president. That hasn't happened in a very long time.
  • Artist Usti Wa... November 27, 2010 15:14:47
    Artist
    obama 'owns' (unfortunately) the biggest guns on the planet. He'd better be a good husband...have you seen his wife? Scary. As to father, that's no ones business but his. And as to 'great president', surely there are enough posts on here, news stories from all over and of course the latest vote that says otherwise. Of course let's not forget his overall performance without commentary...worse President ever.
  • Usti Wa... Artist November 27, 2010 18:56:36
    Usti Waya BN-0
    +2
    His wife is beautiful and worse president ever is a tie, Reagan or Bush Jr.

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