End on a High

Well we can't have too many depressive posts - er can we?

Anyway my bouquet goes to ANONYMOUS who have launched a DDOS attack on Zimbabwe government websites according to The Register

The organisation states:

"We are targeting Mugabe and his regime in the ZanuPF who have outlawed the free press and threaten to sue anyone publishing Wikileaks."

Good luck to them! Anything that interferes with the appalling Mugabe and his bunch of thugs gets a hearty cheer from me.

Until the next time

Oh Yes! Let's break a butterfly on a wheel...

Great: sentence a 16-year-old to four to six years in prison!

Disgusting.

Story here which includes the following:

Wim de Bruin, a spokesman for the prosecution service, said Dutch police were working with the FBI on an investigation into the hacking attack and expected to make several more arrests.

The FBI? really? surely not...

Until the next time.

Et tu VISA II

Well, well.

The supporters of Wikileaks have been quick to respond to to the actions of - amongst others - Paypal, Mastercard, Amazon and VISA. As most of you know by now, substantial "denial of service" operations have been taking place, which today succeeded in bringing down Mastercard's site.

This New York Times article includes a splendid line:

"The initial decision to deny service to WikiLeaks," he said, was “Mastercard’s alone,” and was not made under government pressure.

Ah! shades of Mandy Rice-Davies: "He would say that wouldn't he?"

Taking the spokesman's words at face value, I suppose it depends upon what one calls pressure; it can after all, be internal as well as external can it not?

Until the next time.

Et tu, Visa?

I am becoming increasingly sympathetic towards the Wikileaks organisation, especially with the news that VISA is "pulling the plug" following the lead given by Amazon, Paypal and Mastercard.

I am just longing to hear some sort of moralising crap from those appalling pirates VISA and Mastercard with their usurious interest rates.

Amazon, Paypal, VISA and Mastercard; four American companies. How funny that is!

Until the next time

A Little More Wikileaks

The news today of Julian Assange's arrest and the fact that he has been refused bail, despite prominent individuals offering sureties, makes it quite plain to this writer that the pressure is mounting. There are even rumblings about the US possibly seeking extradition though it is difficult to understand what possible legal charges could be laid against him.

This piece is prompted by news today of one of the leaks: that concerning contingency plans by NATO to defend eastern European countries in the event of Russian aggression.

I considered this to be hardly worth reporting; after all surely everybody - at least everybody who has ever read a book or two - understands that all nations have contingency plans for every conceivable, or even inconceivable, eventuality.

The "fourth estate" is precious indeed, but should not insult our intelligences with silly alarmism.

Until the next time.

Wikileaks

Given that Julian Assange's latest Wikileaks releases have occupied the headlines for the past few days, I felt obliged to scribble a few lines on the subject. These may not be original, but they are after all, my lines!

I am in a bit of a quandary on this one; I recently wrote a piece saying that Politics can be confusing and I am little muddled over Wikileaks. On the face of it, the idea of nasty dealings by governments and politicians being released is most attractive; after all why should these bastards get away with it, I thought to myself.

Today's news (Daily Telegraph) about the list of locations which are vital to the interests of the USA, made me pause for further thought.

Given that Amazon and Paypal have allegedly given in to US Government pressure to cease assisting Wikileaks, I am concerned that provocations such as those provided by Wikileaks could perhaps lead to Internet restrictions, which of course none of us wants.

After all, would you bloggers out there like to operate under the Chinese Government's censorious régime? Remember Google's experience last year... Of course we like to console ourselves with the classic thought "It couldn't happen here," but a few minutes' reflection on the already terrifying extent of the curtailment of our personal freedoms in Western Europe should be enough to tell that indeed it could!

The Telegraph article linked to above includes the following paragraph:

WikiLeaks has already been forced to change its domain name and hop-scotch to servers around the globe after successive companies and countries have responded to American pressure attacking its disclosures over the past week as illegal.

It has also come under repeated cyber-attack, through a tactic known as distributed denial of service in which thousands of computers connect to its servers in a concerted attempt to knock them off-line.

“What we are seeing here are dangerous moves towards a digital McCarthyism,” wrote the group’s founder Julian Assange in a statement on its website.

UPDATE:

The pressure seems to be increasing.

P.S. Normally I would add updates in a different colour, but once again HTM 'Ell refuses to let me do so...

Until the next time.