Jim Kouri
Wikileaks' Julian Assange calls for Obama to step down
By Jim Kouri
In an effort to take the offensive, WikiLeaks' Julian Assange demanded that President Barack Obama resign from office if it's shown that he authorized — or ordered — U.S. State Department officials to conduct covert surveillance on the United Nations.
In an Internet chat on Sunday, Assange said, "The whole chain of command who was aware of this order, and approved it, must resign if the U.S. is to be seen to be a credible nation that obeys the rule of law. The order is so serious it may well have been put to the president for approval."
Assange stated, "Obama must answer what he knew about this illegal order and when. If he refuses to answer questions or there is evidence he approved of these actions, he must resign."
WikiLeaks upset American diplomacy after the web site released classified State Department cables at the end of November that revealed American diplomats' private assessments of foreign leaders and their politics. Prior to the State Department document dump, Assange's Wikileaks web site published thousands of Defense Department classified material.
Assange also sent copies of the stolen documents to several news organizations such as the New York Times. In response to the U.S. government attempting to shut down its activities after forcing a change of its domain name, WikiLeaks is now making all its available archives for download.
The suspect in the leaking of classified military files to Assange, SPC Bradley Manning, voiced his disgust with US Army commanders and U.S. "society at large" on his Facebook page just prior to his alleged downloading of thousands of secret documents, according to the British news media.
According to one story appearing in Britain's The Telegraph, Manning, who served as a US Army intelligence analyst, became depressed after a break-up with his homosexual companion. He also wrote: "Bradley Manning is not a piece of equipment," and quoted a joke about "military intelligence" being an oxymoron.
Manning, who is openly homosexual, began his gloomy postings on January 12, saying: "Bradley Manning didn't want this fight. Too much to lose, too fast."
The 22-year old Manning is awaiting court martial as the primary suspect in the leaking of more than 90,000 secret documents to Wikileak.org creator Julian Assang, who in turn posted the documents on his web site. The secret documents subsequently appeared in major U.S. newspapers in a security breach which Pentagon officials say has endangered the lives of serving soldiers and Afghan civilians.
Pentagon investigators plan to delve into Manning's background to ascertain if they missed any warnings when he applied to join the US Army. According to The Telegraph, in May 2010, when he was serving at a US military base near Baghdad, he changed his status to: "Bradley Manning is now left with the sinking feeling that he doesn't have anything left."
© Jim Kouri
December 7, 2010
In an effort to take the offensive, WikiLeaks' Julian Assange demanded that President Barack Obama resign from office if it's shown that he authorized — or ordered — U.S. State Department officials to conduct covert surveillance on the United Nations.
In an Internet chat on Sunday, Assange said, "The whole chain of command who was aware of this order, and approved it, must resign if the U.S. is to be seen to be a credible nation that obeys the rule of law. The order is so serious it may well have been put to the president for approval."
Assange stated, "Obama must answer what he knew about this illegal order and when. If he refuses to answer questions or there is evidence he approved of these actions, he must resign."
WikiLeaks upset American diplomacy after the web site released classified State Department cables at the end of November that revealed American diplomats' private assessments of foreign leaders and their politics. Prior to the State Department document dump, Assange's Wikileaks web site published thousands of Defense Department classified material.
Assange also sent copies of the stolen documents to several news organizations such as the New York Times. In response to the U.S. government attempting to shut down its activities after forcing a change of its domain name, WikiLeaks is now making all its available archives for download.
The suspect in the leaking of classified military files to Assange, SPC Bradley Manning, voiced his disgust with US Army commanders and U.S. "society at large" on his Facebook page just prior to his alleged downloading of thousands of secret documents, according to the British news media.
According to one story appearing in Britain's The Telegraph, Manning, who served as a US Army intelligence analyst, became depressed after a break-up with his homosexual companion. He also wrote: "Bradley Manning is not a piece of equipment," and quoted a joke about "military intelligence" being an oxymoron.
Manning, who is openly homosexual, began his gloomy postings on January 12, saying: "Bradley Manning didn't want this fight. Too much to lose, too fast."
The 22-year old Manning is awaiting court martial as the primary suspect in the leaking of more than 90,000 secret documents to Wikileak.org creator Julian Assang, who in turn posted the documents on his web site. The secret documents subsequently appeared in major U.S. newspapers in a security breach which Pentagon officials say has endangered the lives of serving soldiers and Afghan civilians.
Pentagon investigators plan to delve into Manning's background to ascertain if they missed any warnings when he applied to join the US Army. According to The Telegraph, in May 2010, when he was serving at a US military base near Baghdad, he changed his status to: "Bradley Manning is now left with the sinking feeling that he doesn't have anything left."
© Jim Kouri
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