WikiLeaks Archives - Page 2 of 4 - Kit O'Connell: Approximately 8,000 Words

‘WikiLeaks Did Not Disclose “Gays” To The Saudi Govt’: Whistleblower Site Fires Back Against Media Attacks

A police offier interrogates the drive of the "WikiLeaks Truck," an activist effort to raise awareness about governent transparency, near Occupy D.C. on January 17, 2012. (Flickr / Chris Wieland)

September 1, 2016

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‘WikiLeaks Did Not Disclose “Gays” To The Saudi Govt’: Whistleblower Site Fires Back Against Media Attacks

Posted in Archive, Journalism, and MintPress News

WikiLeaks has filed a formal complaint accusing The Associated Press of violating journalistic ethics in a recent report that claimed the transparency site was responsible for “outing” private data belonging to Saudi citizens.

The Aug. 23 investigation by AP reporters Raphael Satter and Maggie Michael accused WikiLeaks of releasing the private data of “scores” of residents of the Gulf kingdom as part of the The Saudi Cables. This collection, which the site launched in June 2015, consists of over 122,000 files leaked from Saudi foreign affairs ministry.

In the report, Satter and Michael lodge serious accusations, including that WikiLeaks published private medical data relating to “sick children, rape victims and mental health patients.”

Lawsuit Warns $234B In Aid To Israel Violates US Law Against Supporting Secret Nuclear States

Dozens of missiles await use at an Israeli Defense Forces training day. November 24, 2015. (Flickr / Israel Defense Forces)

August 16, 2016

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Lawsuit Warns $234B In Aid To Israel Violates US Law Against Supporting Secret Nuclear States

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

A lawsuit warns that U.S. aid to Israel violates a law meant to prevent nuclear weapons proliferation, even as the United States prepares to increase the already massive Israeli aid program.

Filed Aug. 8 by Grant Smith, director of the Institute for Research: Middle East Policy, or IRMEP, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the suit alleges that U.S. aid to Israel violates two amendments to the 1961 Foreign Assistance Act, known as the the Symington and Glenn Amendments, which collectively ban support for countries engaged in clandestine nuclear programs.

In the lawsuit, Smith alleges that violating these amendments means that Israel has received approximately $234 billion in illegal aid since the passage of the International Security Assistance and Arms Export Control Act of 1976.

WikiLeaks: Trump Advisor Paul Manafort Tied To Ukrainian Government, US Intelligence

Donald Trump's campaign manager, Paul Manafort, appears on ABC News on July 20, 2016 during coverage of the Republican National Convention. (Flickr / Disney / ABC Television Group)

August 3, 2016

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WikiLeaks: Trump Advisor Paul Manafort Tied To Ukrainian Government, US Intelligence

Posted in Archive, Journalism, and MintPress News

Although the Clinton campaign accuses Donald Trump of maintaining ties with the Russian government, another key figure on the Republican candidate’s team may have an agenda of his own in Eastern Europe.

Diplomatic cables from the WikiLeaks archive and a mainstream media investigation suggest that Trump’s current campaign advisor, Paul Manafort, had previously collaborated with U.S. intelligence agencies and served as a key advisor to the Ukrainian government, including its president, Viktor F. Yanukovych, who fled the country after a right-wing coup in 2014.

Yanukovych “owed his election to, as an American diplomat put it, an ‘extreme makeover’ Mr. Manafort oversaw,” Steven Lee Myers and Andrew E. Kramer reported in the Times on Sunday.

DNC 2016: Protesters React To ‘Shameful’ DNC Leaks, Voice Support For Jill Stein (VIDEO)

At the “March for Our Lives” event in Philadelphia at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, a man holds signs accusing the Clinton’s of being “superpredators.” July 25, 2016. (Kit O’Connell)

July 27, 2016

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DNC 2016: Protesters React To ‘Shameful’ DNC Leaks, Voice Support For Jill Stein (VIDEO)

Posted in Archive, Journalism, and MintPress News

A leak of thousands of internal party emails has cast a shadow over the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

On Friday, WikiLeaks released 20,000 emails from the Democratic National Committee, apparently hacked from internal servers, although claims that the Russian government was involved remain unproven. Debbie Wasserman Schultz has been hired by Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign following her resignation as party chairwoman in the wake of the leak.

MintPress News interviewed Bernie Sanders supporters at Philadelphia City Hall on Tuesday evening about their reaction to the leaks. For many in the pro-Sanders camp, the emails confirm something many had long suspected: that the Democratic Party actively helped Clinton secure the party’s nomination.

WikiLeaks’ Assange Enters Year 5 Of Confinement, War On Whistleblowers To Continue Indefinitely

Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on Aug. 18, 2014. (Wikimedia Commons / Cancillería del Ecuador)

June 23, 2016

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WikiLeaks’ Assange Enters Year 5 Of Confinement, War On Whistleblowers To Continue Indefinitely

Posted in Archive, Journalism, and MintPress News

On Sunday, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange marked the fourth anniversary of the day he entered the Ecuadorean Embassy in London on asylum.

Many, including fashion designer Vivienne Westwood and philosopher and political analyst Noam Chomsky, voiced their support for Assange and their hopes for his eventual freedom. But Assange is just one of many victims of the U.S. war on whistleblowers, an unprecedented crackdown on government transparency that’s unlikely to end any time soon.

Assange entered the embassy on June 19, 2012 under threat of extradition to Sweden for questioning over allegations of improper sexual behavior toward two women. Swedish officials have refused to guarantee that Assange will not be extradited to a third country, and until recently, they’ve also refused invitations to question him at the embassy. Though the case against him has weakened over time, Assange still fears he could face decades in prison, or even the death penalty, if he were extradited from Sweden to the U.S., where a secretive, federal grand jury could indict him for hosting classified, leaked information on WikiLeaks.

WikiLeaks: Brazil’s Acting President Michel Temer Is US Diplomatic Informant

In this June 13, 2010 photograph, Michel Temer speaks on a microphone while standing alongside Dilma Rousseff. (Wikimedia Commons / Agência Brasil - EBC)

May 13, 2016

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WikiLeaks: Brazil’s Acting President Michel Temer Is US Diplomatic Informant

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

Brazil’s new acting president is a known U.S. informant who has provided Washington with insider information about the Brazilian government on multiple occasions.

Michel Temer’s ties to the U.S. government, as revealed by WikiLeaks’ Public Library of U.S. Diplomacy, add to the growing body of evidence that the parliamentary impeachment of Brazil’s democratically-elected president, Dilma Rousseff, was supported by allies in Washington.

Temer, who has served as Brazil’s vice president since 2011, took power Thursday after Brazil’s parliament suspended Rousseff pending the results of impeachment proceedings.

Via Twitter, WikiLeaks highlighted two diplomatic cables from the U.S. Embassy in São Paulo that document Temer’s history of sharing insider information with Washington from his position as the leader of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, or PMDB, Brazil’s largest political party.