Maximilien Forte at Zero Anthropology:
“Which Bastards?
When asked by Larry King on Monday, 26 July, who he meant to call “bastards” when he told Der Spiegel “I enjoy crushing bastards,” Assange specified he meant U.S. forces. Assange must also believe that those studying these documents will not focus as much on the atrocities committed by the Taleban, such as the devastating carnage caused by their IEDs and suicide bombers, and their apparent disregard for the scores of civilians that are killed as a result of going after one target with a massive bomb–The Guardian, with what is arguably the best coverage of the three newspapers to have obtained the documents a month in advance of their public release, has already covered this aspect quite quickly. In these same reports, the Taleban appear to be using hammers to kill mosquitoes. Left at that level of discussion, we have data, but not much understanding–for example, of why the Taleban have nonetheless gained strength and support, or why we may view their deadly attacks as something for which the U.S. and NATO share partial responsibility, for having overthrown and persecuted the Taleban after invading and occupying their country, thereby provoking a hostile and asymmetric reaction. It would be a silly or wicked person who would argue that Afghans have no right to fight back.
While I generally agree with Assange’s sentiments, to the extent that they are knowable, I do not share his optimism about the impact of these documents. Information is not power, and it is not meaning. To make sense of these documents requires interpretation and argumentation that goes beyond and outside the limits of what are, after all, reports reflective of an American optic, produced by combatants. Source criticism and cross checking will be paramount, and to the extent that is not done, Wikileaks may witness members of the public using the same documents to not only bolster the arguments to support continuation of this war, but even an escalation to direct hostilities with Iran (see The Guardian, and see the justified alarm expressed by Marc Lynch at Foreign Policy). There is also debate between The Guardian and The New York Times over the extent to which the reports can be trusted when it comes to Pakistan’s supposed role in aiding the Taleban and conducting covert operations against the government of Afghanistan and western forces–that dispute happened within the first day of reporting on the documents, and disagreement over their credibility did not stop the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan from verbally thrashing each other in public, again within 24 hours of the documents’ release. These reports overall contain enough to hurt those who are critics of U.S. foreign policy, as much as they will hurt those who support it. They contain as much potential for escalating and expanding conflict, as they contain for mobilizing popular support to stop it. I also understand that my commentary here may well be premature, but then so are all the current commentaries.
What Should Matter to Social Scientists?To bring this discussion closer to the concerns of anthropologists and social scientists generally, there are a few points that I feel need to be made. One concerns the extent to which these records are only a partial selection of all records produced by the U.S. military. That is a significant problem, because we cannot know if the items excluded would in some way modify any conclusions we reach about the records we have. Wikileaks received a total of about 110,000 records, and released about 92,000. It is hard to believe that a period covering six years of war could have produced only this amount. To my knowledge, Julian Assange has not been asked any questions about this issue. We therefore also do not know why these records were included and others excluded. This issue will come up again when I speak about what the records reveal about the workings of the Human Terrain System.
A second problem, and it is a major one, concerns Assange’s assertions that the items were redacted to minimize the risk of harm to the sources indicated in the records. From what we have seen already, just with reference to Human Terrain Teams alone and their sources, that is completely untrue. There is no evidence whatsoever of any kind of redaction. Moreover, when one deletes information for a record, one is supposed to mark the text in some way to say either “name deleted” or “sentence deleted,” etc., and I see no evidence of that. In addition, who comprises Wikileaks’ team of redactors, and on the basis of what knowledge and expertise, as either war fighters, or people with experience and knowledge of Afghanistan, could they make calls about what was “harmless” versus “harmful” information? Which specialists did they consult, and for how long did they have the records to study? Not a word about this, merely bland and general assurances.
Indeed, Assange’s statements about Wikileaks’ “harm minimization process” seem to only focus on the safety of his “bastards,” noting that the documents “do not generally cover top-secret operations” and that they “delayed the release of some 15,000 reports” as “demanded by our source” (source). This is an exchange Assange had with Der Spiegel on this issue:
SPIEGEL: The material contains military secrets and names of sources. By publishing it, aren’t you endangering the lives of international troops and their informants in Afghanistan?
Assange: The Kabul files contain no information related to current troop movements. The source went through their own harm-minimization process and instructed us to conduct our usual review to make sure there was not a significant chance of innocents being negatively affected. We understand the importance of protecting confidential sources, and we understand why it is important to protect certain US and ISAF sources [emphasis added].
SPIEGEL: So what, specifically, did you do to minimize any possible harm?
Assange: We identified cases where there may be a reasonable chance of harm occurring to the innocent. Those records were identified and edited accordingly.
A third problem has to do with source criticism, source confirmation, and Assange’s call for crowdsourcing. Anthropologists should relate to this issue personally. Imagine that someone gets hold of your fieldnotes, and releases a part of them. No analysis, no contextualization, no doubts about the veracity of what an informant told you is in those notes. They are released, and then members of a broad public take hold of their interpretation, and take what is reported as the truth of a situation. Wouldn’t this make you freak out? Are any of our books and journal articles a mere transcription of our fieldnotes? So who is this “crowd” that will make solid arguments from these notes? How will they check their veracity? Do they know who wrote these reports, under what conditions, under what limitations, and with what motivations? Will they travel to Afghanistan and cover the ground covered by these military units? What other documents will they use to confirm these reports, or will they trust them blindly? These are already some of the issues being raised about the alleged Iran-Al Qaeda connection, and Pakistan’s role in supporting the Taleban.”
Many thanks for the kind link Lila, and I have just started to read your posts on Wikileaks with some more leisure now.
Very best wishes,
Max.
My pleasure, Max.
I thought the post on Wikileaks was right on.
I hope you’ll post a more detailed assessment when you’ve gone through the documents.. I don’t have the time to read through all of it. I feel that someone who has no affiliation to the powers that be should…
I’d be very interested to read John Stanton’s opinion too.
Excellent posts concerning Wikileaks.
In my experience anything seemingly anti-establishment that starts getting an inordinate amount of exposure and discussion in the MSM activates my BS Detector.
I, for one, do not trust Wikileaks or it’s founder, Assange.
Aloof, contemptuous, and seemingly arrogant to a fault. Just what we need to become the poster boy for the ‘Alternative Media’.
interesting article, source:
http://zameer36.newsvine.com/_news/2010/11/10/5446685-wikileaks-is-zionist-disinformation-by-jonathan-azaziah
Wikileaks Is Zionist Disinformation By Jonathan Azaziah
Disinformation is defined as misinformation that is deliberately disseminated in order to influence or confuse rivals. It is used by governments to mislead and brainwash their citizen populations, instigate wars, and blackmail foreign regimes. It is the ultimate instrument of the media. The most effective disinformation is that which is comprised of falsehood as well as facts. Wikileaks, founded by Julian Assange, fits this description perfectly, right down to the letter. Seemingly overnight, it has become one of the biggest whistle- blowing agencies in modern history. In reality though, it is one of the biggest disinformation projects in modern history, and it may be the most dangerous because it is masquerading as an organization of truth. The information released by Wikileaks isnt new; it isnt groundbreaking; it doesnt hurt the US as much as people think, its fractional really; and it is overloaded with as much as propaganda as the day-to-day Zionist media is. This propaganda is benefitting someone. And that someone is the illegal usurping entity of Israel. Even the Israeli government itself thinks so (1).
Afghanistan Drivel
The first major leak released earlier this year by Assange was about occupied Afghanistan in the form of more than 92,000 documents. These docs included secret files about civilian killings by the US and NATO along with boogeyman stories about the long-dead Osama Bin Laden, garbage regarding the Taliban acquiring ground-to-air missiles, and plenty of lies about Pakistans intelligence agency, the ISI (2). There wasnt a single document about the Israeli training of the Taliban (3), the massive drug profiteering by the Mossad (4), the CIA (5) and the US-puppet Hamid Karzai and his brother (6), Karzais connections to Unocal and Zionist war criminal Henry Kissinger (7), the clandestine Israeli business operations set up to take control of the oil fields in neighboring Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan (8), or the Russian-Jewish mafia, fully protected by the Zionist entity, selling guns to US-backed Afghan warlords (9). Why werent any of these massively important, critically damning events and operations mentioned? Because by doing so, it would incriminate the already internationally condemned Zionist regime. Journalists, bloggers and activists, from occupied Afghanistan and abroad, have been reporting on the vast civilian casualties in Afghanistan since US intervention began more than 30 years ago. Wikileaks revealed nothing that wasnt already known; however, it did reinforce Zionist propaganda regarding the illegal war on terror.
Iraq Malarkey
The next major leak by Assanges organization, which has gained more notoriety than the previous leak, was about occupied Iraq in the form of nearly 400,000 documents. Like the occupied Afghanistan disinformation, it included secret files about mass civilian killings by US forces, torture by war criminal Nouri al-Maliki and his forces (which according to Wikileaks, US military officials attempted to halt) (10), US government failings in reprimanding Blackwater (XE) for committing murder (11), and brutal executions by the American and British occupiers mixed with more tripe about fictitious Al-Qaeda, nonsense about Iran training militant Iraqi militias and Iranian drones flying over Iraq (12), Iran smuggling guns, munitions, and explosives into Iraq (13), ridiculous accusations of the Lebanese Resistance movement Hezbollah training Iraqis in the art of kidnaping (14), slanderous attacks on Irans Revolutionary Guard, and other absurd assertions about the Islamic Republic involved in the murder of innocent Iraqis. The Wikileaks Iraq war logs also reveal civilian casualties numbered at 66,081 (15). The logs also reveal that Iraqi WMDs actually did exist, as US soldiers found chemical weapons labs, terrorist toxin specialists, and chemical weapons caches (16).
There was nothing secret about American and British forces murdering, torturing and raping innocents in occupied Iraq. Like Afghanistan, Iraqi and international journalists, bloggers, and activists have been reporting the murder of civilians in Iraq since the beginning of the illegal occupation, with much more effectiveness than Wikileaks. The US military didnt attempt to halt the puppet al- Malikis torture of unlawfully imprisoned Iraqis, they partook in it. They led the way after they signed off on it. They were the primary perpetrators (17). Secret prisons are still operating at this very moment where US forces barbarously torture innocent Iraqis (18). The US hired Blackwaters contractors to instill fear and execute terrorism against the people of Iraq, of course it didnt reprimand them. Erik Princes private army of terror was only doing what it was told to by the US government.
The concept of Hezbollah training foreign militias to meddle in state affairs is absolute lunacy; Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah himself has stated on numerous occasions that if Hezbollah wanted to overthrow the Lebanese government, they wouldve done so already (19). Their objectives (as evidenced by their actions), are to protect the Lebanese people, provide them with security and uphold their dignity. Hezbollah hasnt undermined its own government, it is asinine to think it would undermine the government of another nation. The propaganda targeting Iran is pathetic; there are enough guns in Iraq thanks to American support of Saddam Hussein to last lifetimes (20), there was no need for Iran to provide weapons to Iraqi militias through smuggling. The only drones that were flying in Iraqs skies belonged to the repulsive Zionist entity, not Iran (21). The other accusations sound like concoctions dug up from the dungeons of Zionist think tanks and lobby organizations salivating for the destruction of the Islamic Republic, not the work of whistle-blowers attempting to expose corruption and disseminate truth. These accusations further the Zionist case for striking Iran militarily. These accusations are promoting more war, not peace.
Wikileaks must not have gotten the memo about civilian casualties in occupied Iraq. They are nowhere near 66,081. They have eclipsed the 1.5 million mark. Anything less than this, especially a number as low as the one presented by Wikileaks, is classic misreporting aimed at protecting the United States government and its collaborators. That is an insult to the 5 million Iraqi orphans and the 5 million Iraqi refugees. It is a slap in the face to the dead Iraqis whose names will never be known because they were incinerated by US and Israeli weaponry. And the notion that US soldiers found WMDs in Iraq, after the Iraq has WMDs myth has been debunked as Zionist-designed propaganda over and over again, is frankly, infuriating. The only WMDs that exist in Iraq are the mark-77, white phosphorus, and thousands of tons of depleted uranium used in Basra, Baghdad, and Fallujah by the terrorist army of the US and strategically placed Mossad agents of Israel (22).
Targeted On Behalf Of Israel
Where are the leaks on the 55 Zionist companies profiting from Iraqi blood being spilled (23)? Where are the leaks on Iraqs artifacts being stolen by Zionist agents (24)? Where are the leaks on hundreds of Mossad agents operating in Mosul (25)? Where are the leaks on the Mossad bomb-making facility in Kirkuk (26)? Where are the leaks on the Mossad murderers stationed in several villages around the devastated area of Fallujah (27)? Where are the leaks on the depleted-uranium- tipped IEDs of Zionist-owned Zapata Engineering that have massacred thousands in Najaf, Karbala and Tal Afar, just to name a few (28)? Where are the leaks on the Israeli arms dealers supplying weapons to CIA-trained death squads (29)? Where are the leaks on Zionist war criminal Paul Wolfowitz importing Shin Bet torture experts to train the US military (30)? Where are the leaks on Mossad conducting interrogations and torture in Iraq jails, including Abu Ghraib (31)? Where are the leaks that will actually tie the illegal war, which was exclusively designed by Zionists, to Israel? They dont exist because Wikileaks isnt concerned with uncovering the truth regarding the real criminals; theyre concerned with leading the public away from the truth to keep them under control. Its COINTELPRO all over again.
The target of Wikileaks first release was the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The objectives of the operation were to give credibility to war criminal Obamas illegal drone strikes that have murdered over 1,000 civilians (32), raise the possibility of a future overt occupation, and cover up the meddling of Israel in occupied Afghanistan. It is vital to note that the de-stablization of Pakistan has been a Zionist objective since the declaration of al-Nakbah architect, David Ben-Gurion (33). The target of Wikileaks second release was the Islamic Republic of Iran. The objective of this operation was to slander two of the very few entities on earth resisting Israel, Hezbollah and Iran; as well as cover up the Zionist fingerprints all over the mutilation of Iraq. The IAEA has already inadvertently foiled the Zionist plan to attack Iran based on the nuclear premise, confirming that the Iranian nuclear program is peaceful in nature and has nothing to do with weaponization (34). The Zionist hasbara experts needed to try something new; through Wikileaks, the accusations of the Zionist Bush administration against Iran have resurfaced under the guise of whistle-blowing. What a sham.
Conclusion
A final note needs to be made about Julian Assange, the man who has been praised as a freedom fighter, a revolutionary and a friend of the oppressed people. In a recent interview, he stated, “I’m constantly annoyed that people are distracted by false conspiracies such as 9/11, when all around we provide evidence of real conspiracies, for war or mass financial fraud (35).” Its shameful that Assange is annoyed by those seeking truth regarding the reason 1.5 million innocents are dead in occupied Iraq, 1.2 million innocents are dead in occupied Afghanistan, and thousands of more innocent men, women and children are dead in occupied Palestine, Lebanon, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. 9/11 is anything but a false conspiracy; there is overwhelming evidence that American and Israeli officials didnt just have foreknowledge of the event, but planned the attack and carried it out. It was a Mossad-CIA false flag used to protect the Zionist entity from any future military threat and expand the parasitic hegemony of the US and the illegitimate Tel Aviv regime throughout the world via the Zionist-inspired war on terror (36). Someone insulting the seekers of 9/11 truth, slandering the righteous movement of Hezbollah, spreading propaganda about Iran which adds to the demonization campaign levied against the Islamic Republic by the Zionist lobby and the Zionist media, and deliberately leaving out Israeli crimes in occupied Afghanistan and Iraq is no freedom fighter; such a person is a liar and a propagandist.
Wikileaks most recent leak about occupied Iraq was delivered to several mainstream news outlets including Al-Jazeerah, the Zionist New York Times, Der Spiegel of Germany, which has smeared Hezbollah in the past by despicably accusing the Resistance of selling narcotics (37), Zionist-controlled Le Monde of France which has also smeared Hezbollah recently (38) and The Guardian of the UK, in packages, as if it was some sort of gift for a holiday. This isnt a leak. This isnt an expose. This is a press release. This is a media spectacle. This is a circus to cover up real crimes. Those interested in seeing a real leak, in addition to real courage, should read the story of Mordechai Vanunu, who blew the whistle on Israels nuclear program and has spent the last 26 years in and out of Israels inhumane prisons, including 18 years consecutively with 11 of those years in solitary confinement (39).
Iraq was annihilated for the Zionist regime, as was Afghanistan. When discussing the destruction of these nations, and the murder of millions of their people, it is integral to the understanding of the crimes committed to discuss the Israeli role in these crimes. Any person or institution failing to do so is ignorant, a coward or a collaborationist. None of these persons have any place in the movement to restore the occupied lands to the indigenous people and bring their tormentors to justice. By supporting Wikileaks, you are not fighting the occupier. You are not honoring the martyrs. You are not combating imperialism. And you are not striking back at the oppressor. You are supporting Israel and the cover-up of the activities of its criminal network. Wikileaks is Zionist poison. Wake up.
~ The End ~
Sources:
(1) Wikileaks Reports Could Halt Irans Nuclear Drive by Yaakov Katz, Jerusalem Post
(2) Wikileaks, Afghanistan and Pakistan by Muhammad Abdullah Gul
(3) Framing Pakistan: How The Pro-Israel Media Enables Indias Surrogate Warfare by Maidhc O Cathhail
(4) Intel Expert Says 9/11 Looks Like A Hollywood Show by Christopher Bollyn
(5) The Spoils Of War: Afghanistans Multibillion Dollar Heroin Trade by Michel Chossudovsky
(6) Wikileaks Is Israel, Like We All Didnt Know by Gordon Duff, Veterans Today
(7) Profile: Unocal by History Commons
(8) The Great Game: The War For Caspian Oil And Gas by Christopher Bollyn
(9) Drugs For Guns: How The Afghan Heroin Trade Is Fueling The Taliban Insurgency by Jerome Starkey, The Independent; Red Mafiya: How The Russian Mob Has Invaded America by Robert Friedman (rip)
(10) Iraq War Documents Shed Light On Civilian Deaths, Prisoner Abuse by David Wood
(11) Iraq War Logs: Private Militarization Run Amok by Pratap Chatterjee, The Guardian
(12) US Shot Down Iranian Drone In Iraq, Wikileaks Confirms by Adam Weinstein
(13) Iraq War Logs Detail Irans Aid For Militias by Michael R. Gordon and Andrew W. Lehren, The New York Times
(14) Wikileaks Tip Irans Hand In Iraq by Samuel Segev, Winnipeg Free Press
(15) Iraq War Leaks: No US Investigation Of Many Abuses by Al-Masry Al- Youm
(16) Wikileaks Show WMD Hunt Continued In Iraq With Surprising Results by Noah Shachtman
(17) Iraq Today: Afflicted By Violence, Devastation, Corruption And Desperation by Stephen Lendman
(18) Lawless Arrests, Detentions And Torture In Iraq by Stephen Lendman
(19) Sayyed Nasrallah: Bellemare, UN Protecting False Witnesses by Al- Manar
(20) Ho Hum, More Wikileaks Chickenfeed by Gordon Duff, Veterans Today
(21) Israeli Drones Said Operating Over Iraq And Afghanistan by Yossi Melman, Haaretz
(22) The Zionist Murderers Of Iraq by Jonathan Azaziah
(23) 55 Zionist Companies Working In Iraq Under Assumed Names by Yaqen News Agency, translated by Muhammad Abu Nasr
(24) Israel Hopes To Colonize Parts of Iraq as Greater Israel by Wayne Madsen
(25) Facts Vs. Beliefs Todays Ancient Warfare by Jeff Gates
(26) Resistance Kills Mossad Agents In Iraq by The Egyptian Gazette
(27) Israels Battle In Fallujah by Rashid Khashana, Al-Hayat
(28) Iraq IEDs: Mossad/Zapata Engineering Conspiracy? by Cloak and Dagger; Israeli Made IEDs and US Zapata Engineering made IED Triggers Are Killing US, Canadian And NATO Soldiers by NB Gazette
(29) Israeli Officer Sells Weapons To Terrorists In Iraq by Press TV; CIA Death Squads Operating In Iraq by Henry Michaels
(30) Seymour Hersh And The Missing Zionist-Israeli Connection by James Petras
(31) Mossad Does Interrogations in Iraqi Jails: Human Rights Group by China Radio International English; What Were Mossad Agents With Fraudulent New Zealand Passports Doing In Iraq? by Jerry Mazza
(32) US Drone Strikes Kill 18 In Pakistan by Press TV
(33) Mossad And India Spy Agency Team Up, Target Pakistan by Tariq Saeedi
(34) IAEA Report: Zero Evidence Of Iran Nukes. US Orwellian Corporate Media: Iran Building Nukes? by Carl Herman, The Los Angeles Examiner
(35) Wanted By The CIA: The Man Who Keeps No Secrets by Matthew Bell, The Independent
(36) 9/11: Israels Grand Deception by Jonathan Azaziah
(37) Hezbollah Denies Der Spiegels Cheap Fabrications by Al-Manar
(38) Le Monde: A Group Affiliated With Hezbollah Takes Photos Of The Hague by NOW Lebanon
(39) The Woman From Mossad: The Story Of Mordechai Vanunu And The Israeli Nuclear Program by Peter Hounam
Source http://mycatbirdseat.com/2010/11/wikileaks-is-zionist-poison/
I have to much going on at once, sorry for the multiple postings.
Here’s a thought or two about the comment above:
This is beginning to remind me of the way some people are saying all the airline bombing attempts have all been manufactured by the F.B.I. for the purpose of enhancing and expanding the powers of the state.
Are the Wikileaks simply another form of more of the same?
It seems that way after reading Gitano’s comment on the other post. Also, it’s funny/sad that websites are now thought of as committing crimes, another product of the distorted thinking that comes out of the War on Some Drugs where houses commit crimes, requiring them to be seized?:
Gitano said…
47
Tic, tic, tic…….
On Thursday (11/18), the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved a bill that would give the Attorney General the right to shut down websites with a court order if copyright infringement is deemed “central to the activity” of the site — regardless if the website has actually committed a crime. The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA) is among the most draconian laws ever considered to combat digital piracy, and contains what some have called the “nuclear option,” which would essentially allow the Attorney General to turn suspected websites “off.”
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/11/coica-web-censorship-bill/