+Miscellany | 319 days ago

Julian Assange, Far Less Than Priceless

By Michael Scherer

This week in London, an attorney for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been making the case against extradition for his client to Sweden to face potential charges of rape and molestation. Here is how Assange’s own lawyer summarized one of the incidents in court: “They fell asleep and she woke up by his penetrating her. She immediately asked if he was wearing anything. He answered: ‘You.’ She said: ‘You better not have HIV.’ He said: ‘Of course not.’ “

Keep that description in mind as you watch this video, which has been put out to raise money for, among other things, Assange’s legal defense:

+Barack Obama | 459 days ago

Understanding Muammar Gaddafi’s View Of Obama Through Wikileaks

By Michael Scherer

It has been quite a ride, watching the pop-political entertainment machine try to slice the Arab Spring into easy partisan talking points. Glenn Beck has his democracy-is-bad-for-Muslims, Google-is-pushing-dominos-to-the-caliphate theory. Sarah Palin came forward with a muddled call for more transparency from the White House, followed by a more direct shame-on-Obama-for-not-quickly-condemning-Libya-violence Facebook post, which came right [...]

+Uncategorized | 478 days ago

Did Obama Sellout Britain To Russia On Sub Nukes? Nope, Says State Department

By Michael Scherer

Conservative blogs and the British press are agog over a report in London’s Daily Telegraph that the U.S. provided certain information about the United Kingdom’s submarine-based nuclear missile stockpile to Russia as part of recent arms negotiations. Matt Drudge nearly blew a siren on the “Secret Deal” report, which includes no quotes from either U.S. [...]

+Uncategorized | 544 days ago

Re: The Full Julian Assange Interview

By Michael Scherer

I find this passage from the TIME interview the most interesting: One of the unintended consequences is the opposite effect, which is what we’ve seen with the Department of Defense, and even the State Department, here in the U.S., of trying to make secrets more impenetrable rather than less and trying to take precautions against [...]

+Uncategorized | 545 days ago

Julian Assange: Hillary Clinton “Should Resign”

By Adam Sorensen

TIME Managing Editor Rick Stengel interviewed WikiLeaks’s founder today via Skype and, among other things, Assange said he thought Secretary of State Clinton should step down “if it can be shown that she was responsible for ordering U.S. diplomatic figures to engage in espionage in the United Nations.” You can read the story here and [...]

+Hillary Clinton | 546 days ago

Hillary Clinton Punctures The WikiLeaks Myth

By Michael Scherer

In their preface to the latest document release, the good people of WikiLeaks presented themselves as modern day muckrakers, striking a blow against the rotten hypocrisy of America’s diplomatic establishment. This document release reveals the contradictions between the US’s public persona and what it says behind closed doors – and shows that if citizens in [...]

+Uncategorized | 547 days ago

It’s WikiLeaks’ World, We Are Just Along For The Ride

By Michael Scherer

Spies will spend a lifetime working to uncover a single piece of classified information. Reporters will spend months coaxing sources to reveal a single damning secret document. But that’s not how it works in the online age, where the illusion of anonymity rules and a million documents can be transferred in the time it once [...]

+White House | 665 days ago

Should The U.S. Kidnap WikiLeak’s Founder Julian Assange?

By Michael Scherer

I guess those who care about international press freedom can take comfort in the fact that Marc Thiessen no longer works for the government. On the Washington Post website, the former Bush Administration speechwriter and harsh interrogation booster, offers his view of WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange. In short, Thiessen calls for the U.S. [...]

+Uncategorized | 672 days ago

Another Wikileaks Exposure: The Lady Gaga-National Security Vulnerability

By Michael Scherer

When White House aides walk into the Situation Room, they are asked to leave their Blackberries and cell phones outside. The same is true for sensitive meetings in the Roosevelt Room, and dozens of other locations in and around the White House where classified business is conducted. So one would assume that soldiers in Iraq [...]

+Afghanistan | 673 days ago

The Wikileaks Afghan Document Dump

By Michael Scherer

The White House has reacted in full damage control mode to the release of classified documents detailing the U.S. military’s struggles in Afghanistan, which the New York Times calls “in many respects more grim than the official portrayal.” To see the New York Times summary of the documents, click here. To see the Guardian’s coverage, [...]