Government War on Wikileaks? Bring It On
Posted by Kevin Carson on Aug 6, 2010 in Commentary • 8 commentsWhen I wrote my last column on Wikileaks (“Wikileaks: Our Weapon Shop of Isher,” C4SS, July 30), I didn’t expect to do a follow-up. But this seems to be shaping up, if the folks in the U.S. government really turn out to be as stupid as they’re suggesting, into the first really full-scale showdown between network and hierarchy.
There have actually been calls (Marc Thiessen, “Wikileaks must be stopped,” Washington Post, Aug. 2) for the “kidnapping and rendition” of Julian Assange. Now, you’d hope even the U.S. national security state wouldn’t be quite that stupid.
But Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell has issued a demand for Wikileaks “to return all versions of these documents to the U.S. government and permanently delete them from its website, computers and records.” Translation: I’m gonna stamp my foot and make unenforceable demands in my best Barney Fife voice, because if I don’t I’ll look, you know, impotent. When asked how the government intends to compel obedience to its demand in the likely event it was ignored, Morrell simply stated “we’ll cross the next bridge when we come to it.”
Keep in mind that Assange fled Australia when the Obama administration requested the Australian government’s assistance in detaining and interrogating him. And as a matter of general principle, the U.S. government asserts the right to “arrest” people, under the power of “extraordinary rendition,” without the approval of the government on whose soil the arrest takes place.
While you’d like to hope the USGov isn’t that stupid, there are ominous signs that the government’s escalating things into a confrontation from which there’s no dignified way to back out without a severe loss of face.
The thing is, though, they’d have to be stupid almost beyond belief to take drastic measures against Assange’s person or against the Wikileaks site. A reader of my previous Wikileaks column pointed me to news that Assange has taken out an insurance policy of sorts (“Wikileaks posts insurance policy,” Antemedius, July 31). The story disappeared, interestingly, but its Google cache is still preserved). It’s an enormous file — 1.4GB, ten times larger than the other files combined — heavily encrypted and simply labeled “Insurance.” Speculation as to its content centers on the hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables that Manning claims to have leaked. It seems quite plausible that Assange has a dead-man switch for distributing the encryption key to everyone who’s downloaded the file in the event anything happens to him or Wikileaks.
So if this thing comes to a head, it’ll be the Shot Heard Round the World for the Network Revolution. And when it’s over, the hierarchies won’t come out looking very good — understatement of the decade. If the encrypted file contains what it’s purported to contain, and anything happens to Assange, this will blow up in the Obama administration’s faces like an atomic bomb. Make that a hundred gigaton H-bomb with a cobalt casing. And when it’s over, state and corporate hierarchies the world over will know that their “secret” internal communications are liable to enter the public domain at any time, without warning. And there’s nothing they can do to stop it.
We’re watching Big Brother.
C4SS (c4ss.org) Research Associate Kevin Carson is a contemporary mutualist author and individualist anarchist whose written work includes Studies in Mutualist Political Economy, Organization Theory: A Libertarian Perspective, and The Homebrew Industrial Revolution: A Low-Overhead Manifesto, all of which are freely available online. Carson has also written for such print publications as The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty and a variety of internet-based journals and blogs, including Just Things, The Art of the Possible, the P2P Foundation and his own Mutualist Blog.
Kevin,
I enjoy your writing, but (always that but, isn’t there?), when you said, “And as a matter of general principle, the U.S. government asserts the right to “arrest” people, under the power of “extraordinary rendition,” without the approval of the government on whose soil the arrest takes place.” you left out that POTUS also reserves the ‘right’ to murder anyone at any time without the supposed protections of due process.
Kevin -
FYI, the story “Wikileaks posts insurance policy” Antemedius, July 31, has not disappeared, but you may have seen a 404-page not found error temporarily – we've been in the process of moving Antemedius to a new server the past couple of days.
Wikileaks posts insurance policy is here: http://www.antemedius.com/content/wikileaks-posts…
Thanks, Vern.
Just saw an AP story where Wikleaks is reported about to release more documents.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/wikileaks_new_files
I have to admit a very funny moment when I first saw the above story this morning. I was at a coffee shop while a parade was taking place outside and as I started reading the story the good ole’ Shriner clowns went by to the tune of “Who Let The Dogs Out?” I’m sure this is an ongoing question all around Washington as everyday passes. I had a good laugh and everyone in the shop thought I was enjoying the clowns.
It truly was a Neo moment where I felt I was the only one unplugged from the mainframe. Sadly I think that feeling can be accurate at times.
"The contents of the ‘insurance’ file is no secret. It’s a bunch of lists of intelligence operatives, police informants, undercover police officers and so forth, including a wealth of personal detail (e.g., home addresses of everyone from CIA station chiefs through to judges, IRS agents, swat goons and undercover cops)."
How do you know this?
The thing about the intelligence game (and politics generally), is that it is full of not-very-bright, not-very-well-paid folks who are also nasty by nature; they get disgruntled easily, and do things in the heat of the moment that have a ‘long tail’.
They live in a world characterised by balances of ‘terror’ (the ability to humiliate rivals). They also need to ducment everything that gives them an ‘edge’.
So… get the ear of a disgruntled minion and you’ll get the secrets of the masters. Give disgruntled minions a place to vent, and you will be INUNDATED with material.
The contents of the ‘insurance’ file is no secret. It’s a bunch of lists of intelligence operatives, police informants, undercover police officers and so forth, including a wealth of personal detail (e.g., home addresses of everyone from CIA station chiefs through to judges, IRS agents, swat goons and undercover cops).
If that file is circulated, no major government will have any uncompromised intelligence-gathering functionality to speak of – either internally or externally.
There are 1200 people in 32 countries who have to validate their continued safety every 36 hours, otherwise the decrypt key goes out from 35,000 different servers. Try sweeping 1200 unknown targets within a 36 hour period while simultaneously figuring out how to stop the release… go on, Jack Bauer, you $50k-a-year hack.
This is the most beautifully designed “Fuck You, Government” in internet history.
Each of the 15 governments – and 84 government agencies – concerned have been shown excerpts, and they know that the material is genuine… and if anything happens to anyone, the decryption key gets broadcast and some of the 6-million odd people who have downloaded the file will decrypt it.
And it’s a ‘dead man’ mechanism – nobody can be deleted from the ‘Must Verify’ list except by themselves (so there is no chance of anybody being chucked under a bus).
Imagine that – the CIA, DIA, ASIO, INR, ISI, DGSE and even the Mossad, all know their hands are tied tighter than a teenage boy at a Washington rape party.
The latest rhetoric from Washington has involved them ASKING Wikileaks to ‘do the right thing’ and take down the Afghan material and not to post the next 15000 elements (which are more explosive). They’ve asked politely, since their silly hasbara attempt to smear WL was leaked (by WL) and then failed except among the dumbest of the fruitbats.
And now that a lot of WL folks have a guarantee of personal safety, some of the ‘front man’ pressure can be alleviated from Julian Assange – that poor bugger has had a hell of a time for three months.
And the iceberg goes deeper – there are already about three dozen ‘deep leak’ organisations that have no public face/website that are aggregating material that’s going to sterilise a bunch of the intelligence community’s hold over the political classes (which takes place by good old blackmail, since folks who hanker after political powr are degenerate by nature and will participate in any depravity if they think it will enhance their careers).
Put simply: a bunch of the dirty secrets that are being used to keep politicians in line, is going to be made public reasonably soon (within 6 months – there is a LOT of material, and that means there is a big job to ensure that the sources can’t be identified).
I have said this in a bunch of places around the intertubes: there was only ever one eventual outcome once the good guys decided to have a crack at undermining the baddies’ information set… the good guys win.
I ownder how many politicians will commit suicide once their behaviour is exposed? Many, I hope.
Cheerio
GT
Damn well done, and all hail discordia! – but personally I hope they are not going to get away this easily. I’d want them to be arrested and put to people’s courts, where I’d want them to rat on all their colleagues, and then I’d want them judged. But that’s just my personal taste. Death is no friend o’mine ^^
GT: Like Anonymous, I'm interested in some general idea of where you got this info. Can you give me a link? I'd certainly be esctatic if it were true. (It might go some way toward satisfying Peter's — and my own — lust for revenge).