Undelete

...unless the Russians (or wikileaks) got the 30,000 emails before Hillary deleted them all!

Whistleblowers

The Guardian tries to anwers a number of questions I've been asking myself:

Why do whistleblowers go to Ecuador?
The country sheltering Julian Assange is now waiting to welcome Edward Snowden. What is the appeal of Ecuador (apart from the gorgeous scenery and idyllic climate)

Name: Ecuador
Age: 183.
Appearance: Safety
Ecuador the country? Yes, that Ecuador, the little democratic republic nestled between Colombia and Peru, known for its snow-capped mountains, dense rainforest and rich history spanning the ancient Incas and independence via colonial struggle and coups.
Oh. I was thinking of the Julian Assange place. That's also them. Ecuador has been sheltering the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at its embassy in London for more than a year.
And what's the latest? They could be about to get their hands on another whistleblower.
That Edward Snowden bloke? Yes, him. Ecuador's foreign minister, Ricardo Patiño Aroca, announced that the country has received an asylum request from Snowden on Sunday.
Does that mean he's definitely on his way there? His friends at WikiLeaks think so. They released a statement on Sunday saying he was "bound for a democratic nation via a safe route".
How mysterious. It went on: "Once Mr Snowden arrives in Ecuador his request will be formally processed."
Less mysterious. What can he expect from life in Ecuador? That depends where he ends up. The three regions – the Costa, Sierra and El Oriente – have their own celebrations, food and culture.
But broadly speaking? Festivals. Loads of festivals. Every city has at least one of its own.
And that's why whistleblowers choose Ecuador? Probably not, no. More likely because, while Ecuador has signed a bilateral extradition treaty with the US, it considers a few other documents more important.
Such as? Such as the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Geneva Convention. The Ecuadorian government cited both after they granted Assange diplomatic asylum on the grounds he "would not have a fair trial" if extradited to the US.
So Ecuador just happens to love granting asylum? No, not at all. In fact, new laws introduced last year – and earlier in 2010 – have made it far harder for refugees to seek asylum in the country.
But they make space for whistleblowers? If they blow the right whistles. Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa, is an outspoken critic of the US government.
What are you implying? Just that he's unlikely to lose too much sleep if his commitment to human rights involves tweaking US noses so hard it hurts.
Do say: "Land of the free, home of the brave …"
Don't say: "… wait, sorry, that's someone else's song."?

Cyberwar

Latest Report:

Cyberwar report: Israel, Finland best prepared for conflict
31st January 2012 16:01 GMT

Analysis: Israel, Finland and Sweden are more prepared than larger nations to fight a conflict in cyberspace, according to a McAfee-backed cyber-defence study.

The study, Cyber-security: The Vexed Question of Global Rules, is based on interviews with experts in the nascent field by by McAfee and Security & Defence Agenda, a defence think-tank. No metrics are involved in the study, which even McAfee admits is largely subjective. Brussels-based SDA based its conclusions on "in-depth interviews with some 80 world-leading policy-makers and cyber-security experts" in government, business and academia in 27 countries as well as an anonymous survey of 250 world leaders in 35 countries.

For the record, among the key findings of the report are the contention that the state of cyber-readiness of the US, Australia, UK, China and Germany all rank behind that of smaller countries such as Israel, Sweden and Finland. -more

Murdoch and Wikileaks

It was not that long ago that progressive media pundits and newspapers were treating Wikileaks as some kind of asset to democracy, and Julian Assange as some kind of hero. I fumed over the damage done by the publishing of criminally obtained secret documents. So now the hacking for newsworthy items is back in the news. Only this time it's Rupert Murdoch's people who've done it. And all hell has broken loose?!!??

If Assange was a hero, why isn't Murdoch? And if Murdoch is to be universally reviled, why not Assange?

And, while we're asking questions, has anyone commented on the fact that both Murdoch and Assange are Australians? Are there any conspiracy theorists out there who could come up with an explanation?

Hmmmm?

PSSSST!

Today's cartoon asks the question "If an American diplomat speaks in a forest and there's nobody from Wikileaks to leak us the truth, is there a noise?"

So what's next? Will the Americans be smart enough to start covertly feeding bogus leaks to leak sites? I say leak sites because the "latest news" is that some Wikileaks people have jumped ship and are about to set up a rival leak site to Wikileaks. It will be called Openleaks. At the time of this writing they are not "up" yet, but the URL is Openleaks.org

But can we believe the "latest news"? Wikileaks isn't leaking anything about it. And then again, why do we believe that Wikileaks' leaks are true?

Wikileak Revelations

The rapidly unfolding picture of the Middle East revealed by Wikileaks raises questions about Obama's Middle East policy. The cables show Saudi Arabia's king and other Arab leaders repeatedly urging the United States to attack Iran's nuclear program.

"Cut off the head of the snake," the Saudi ambassador to Washington, Adel al-Jubeir, quotes the king as saying during a meeting with General David Petraeus in April 2008."-more

When the secret reports were released, the first thing I thought was "Did Obama ever bother to read these cables?". The next thing I did was to draw this cartoon ...and added the punchline that if he hadn't read the cables before, he was, for sure, reading them now.

It would appear that Israel and most of her Arab neighbors are now drawn together by the Iranian threat. It would also appear that Obama chooses to ignore the new situation.

Your thoughts?