2:51 AM on 3rd December 2010

WikiLeaks supremo Julian Assange could be arrested in Britain today over sex allegations.
Scotland Yard detectives were last night preparing to detain the 39-year-old over claims of rape and sexual assault in Sweden. An extradition warrant is expected to be passed to the Metropolitan Police today or early next week. They have apparently known for over a month where Australian-born Mr Assange, who is in hiding in south-east England, is staying. He supplied the force with his contact details upon arrival in Britain in October, said his London-based lawyer.

It today emerged that Mr Assange only escaped arrest yesterday because the Swedish authorities filled out an Interpol arrest warrant incorrectly. A Scotland Yard spokesman said: ‘If an international arrest warrant is legitimately issued and is passed to us and if we know where that person is then of course we would arrest them.’ The internet whistleblower will be the subject of an international manhunt when the Interpol ‘red notice’ is correctly issued. He was added to the worldwide wanted list amid growing fury in Washington at the mass release of more than 250,000 classified U.S. communiques. One aide said: ‘The inquiry into the criminal nature of the leaks is still at a preliminary stage in Washington, but Sweden clearly thinks the charges against him are serious enough for him to be extradited back there.’

There had been reports that the U.S. was investigating whether Mr Assange had committed treason, but as he is an Australian citizen such charges would not stick. Mark Stephens, Mr Assange’s lawyer, has questioned the timing of Interpol’s warrant, saying his client was being persecuted. Mr Assange lives a rootless life, has hardly any possessions and uses his Australian passport to stay with friends in various countries. Prosecutors in Sweden want to question him over alleged attacks on two women during a visit to Stockholm to give a lecture to the Social Democratic Party in August.

He is accused of attacking one woman in Stockholm and then sexually assaulting another woman in the town of Enkoping, 40 miles from the capital, three days later. Mr Stephens said his client had repeatedly offered to meet Swedish investigators either at the Swedish embassy in London or a UK police station. ‘The allegations against him are false and without basis,’ he added. Kristinn Hrafnsson, a spokesman for WikiLeaks, said Mr Assange and other staff were in hiding in an undisclosed location outside London. ‘If you have people calling for your assassination it is wise to keep a low profile,’ he said. ‘He is in a secret location working on the project. Julian says he is innocent and I believe him.’ He added that Mr Assange would disclose his location and clear his name ‘in due course’. The WikiLeaks founder has not been seen in public since a press conference in Geneva on November 5.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1334899/Scotland-Yard-arrest-wanted-WikiLeaks-boss-today.html?ITO=1490

December 3rd 2010 @ 06:00 GMT

EveryDNS has released this statement:

All systems are functioning normally. 

EveryDNS.net provided domain name system (DNS) services to the wikileaks.org domain name until 10PM EST, December 2, 2010, when such services were terminated. As with other users of the EveryDNS.net network, this service was provided for free. The termination of services was effected pursuant to, and in accordance with, the EveryDNS.net Acceptable Use Policy.

More specifically, the services were terminated for violation of the provision which states that “Member shall not interfere with another Member’s use and enjoyment of the Service or another entity’s use and enjoyment of similar services.” The interference at issues arises from the fact that wikileaks.org has become the target of multiple distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks. These attacks have, and future attacks would, threaten the stability of the EveryDNS.net infrastructure, which enables access to almost 500,000 other websites.

Thus, last night, at approximately 10PM EST, December 1, 2010 a 24 hour termination notification email was sent to the email address associated with the wikileaks.org account. In addition to this email, notices were sent to Wikileaks via Twitter and the chat function available through the wikileaks.org website. Any downtime of the wikileaks.org website has resulted from its failure to use another hosted DNS service provider.

http://wikileaks.ch/cablegate.html(US Cable Leaks) is unnefected by this action.

Man sues CIA over torture claims

A man who says he was a victim of the CIA’s alleged secret prisons is suing its former chief over torture claims. Khaled al-Masri says he was kidnapped in 2003 while on holiday in Macedonia, flown to Afghanistan and mistreated. His is a rare legal challenge to the US policy of “extraordinary rendition” – flying suspects to third countries without judicial process. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said this week the US does not practice or condone torture. Human rights groups say extraordinary rendition is a violation of international law. The US maintains that all such operations are conducted within the law. The landmark lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in a district court in Alexandria, Virginia. It claims that former CIA director George Tenet and other CIA officials violated US and universal human rights laws when they authorised agents to kidnap Mr Masri. The lawsuit says Mr Masri suffered “prolonged arbitrary detention, torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment”. Mr Masri, 42, a Lebanese-born German citizen, spoke at an ACLU news conference in Washington via a satellite video link from Stuttgart, Germany. He claims he was beaten and injected with drugs before being taken to Afghanistan and held for five months.

The civil rights group says the government has to be held to account over “extraordinary rendition”. “Kidnapping a foreign national for the purpose of detaining and interrogating him outside the law is contrary to American values,” said Anthony D Romero, executive director of the ACLU. “Our government has acted as if it is above the law. We go to court today to reaffirm that the rule of law is central to our identity as a nation.” The case was discussed earlier in Berlin by the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, and Secretary of State Rice. Mrs Merkel said the US acknowledged making a mistake in detaining Mr Masri. While refusing to comment on the case directly, Ms Rice said the US sought to rectify any mistakes made. Both told reporters that intelligence work was an essential part of the war on terror, but should not break international law. Before she left the US, Ms Rice admitted that terror suspects were flown abroad for interrogation but denied they were tortured. She said suspects were moved by plane under a process known as rendition, and that this was “a lawful weapon”.

cable 07BERLIN242, AL-MASRI CASE — CHANCELLERY AWARE OF USG CONCERNS

VZCZCXYZ0015
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHRL #0242 0371748
ZNY SSSSS ZZH
O 061748Z FEB 07
FM AMEMBASSY BERLIN
TO SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 6940

S E C R E T BERLIN 000242 

SIPDIS 

NOFORN 
SIPDIS 

FOR S/ES-O, EUR AND L 

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/06/2017 
TAGS: KJUS PTER PREL PGOV GM
SUBJECT: AL-MASRI CASE -- CHANCELLERY AWARE OF USG CONCERNS 

REF: A. BERLIN 230 

     ¶B. BERLIN 200 

Classified By: DCM John M. Koenig for Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) 

¶1.  (S/NF) In a February 6 discussion with German Deputy 
National Security Adviser Rolf Nikel, the DCM reiterated our 
strong concerns about the possible issuance of international 
arrest warrants in the al-Masri case.  The DCM noted that the 
reports in the German media of the discussion on the issue 
between the Secretary and FM Steinmeier in Washington were 
not accurate, in that the media reports suggest the USG was 
not troubled by developments in the al-Masri case.  The DCM 
emphasized that this was not the case and that issuance of 
international arrest warrants would have a negative impact on 
our bilateral relationship.  He reminded Nikel of the 
repercussions to U.S.-Italian bilateral relations in the wake 
of a similar move by Italian authorities last year. 

¶2.  (S/NF) The DCM pointed out that our intention was not to 
threaten Germany, but rather to urge that the German 
Government weigh carefully at every step of the way the 
implications for relations with the U.S.  We of course 
recognized the independence of the German judiciary, but 
noted that a decision to issue international arrest warrants 
or extradition requests would require the concurrence of the 
German Federal Government, specifically the MFA and the 
Ministry of Justice (MOJ).  The DCM said our initial 
indications had been that the German federal authorities 
would not allow the warrants to be issued, but that 
subsequent contacts led us to believe this was not the case. 

¶3.  (S/NF) Nikel also underscored the independence of the 
German judiciary, but confirmed that the MFA and MOJ would 
have a procedural role to play.  He said the case was subject 
to political, as well as judicial, scrutiny.  From a judicial 
standpoint, the facts are clear, and the Munich prosecutor 
has acted correctly.  Politically speaking, said Nikel, 
Germany would have to examine the implications for relations 
with the U.S.  At the same time, he noted our political 
differences about how the global war on terrorism should be 
waged, for example on the appropriateness of the Guantanamo 
facility and the alleged use of renditions. 

¶4.  (S/NF) Nikel also cited intense pressure from the 
Bundestag and the German media.  The German federal 
Government must consider the "entire political context," said 
Nikel.  He assured the DCM that the Chancellery is well aware 
of the bilateral political implications of the case, but 
added that this case "will not be easy."  The Chancellery 
would nonetheless try to be as constructive as possible. 

¶5.  (S/NF) The DCM pointed out that the USG would likewise 
have a difficult time in managing domestic political 
implications if international arrest warrants are issued.  He 
reiterated our concerns and expressed the hope that the 
Chancellery would keep us informed of further developments in 
the case, so as to avoid surprises.  Nikel undertook to do 
so, but reiterated that he could not, at this point "promise 
that everything will turn out well." 
TIMKEN JR

CIA flying suspects to torture?

March 6, 2005

(CBS)  You may not have heard the term “rendition,” at least not the way the Central Intelligence Agency uses it. But renditions have become one of the most important secret weapons in the war on terror. In recent years, well over 100 people have disappeared or been “rendered” all around the world. Witnesses tell the same story: masked men in an unmarked jet seize their target, cut off his clothes, put him in a blindfold and jumpsuit, tranquilize him and fly him away. They’re describing U.S. agents collaring terrorism suspects. Some notorious terrorists such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, the mastermind of 9/11, were rendered this way. But as Correspondent Scott Pelley reports, it’s happening to many others. Some are taken to prisons infamous for torture. And a few may have been rendered by mistake.

One of the covert missions happened in Stockholm, and the details have touched off a national scandal in Sweden. Two Egyptians living in Sweden, Mohammad Al-Zery and Ahmed Agiza, were arrested by Swedish police and brought to an airport. An executive jet was waiting with a crew of mysterious masked men. “America security agents just took over,” says Tomas Hammarberg, a former Swedish diplomat who pressed for and got an investigation into how the Egyptians disappeared. “We know that they were badly treated on the spot, that scissors and knives were used to take off their clothes. And they were shackled. And some tranquilizers were put in the back of them, obviously in order to make them dizzy and fall asleep.” An airport officer told 60 Minutes she saw the two men hustled to the plane.

She didn’t want to be identified, but she had no doubt about where the plane came from: “I know that the aircraft was American registration … because the ‘N’ first, on the registration.” The so-called “N” number marks an American plane. Swedish records show a Gulfstream G5, N379P was there that night. Within hours, Al-Zery and Agiza, both of whom had been seeking asylum in Sweden, found themselves in an Egyptian prison. Hammarberg says Sweden sent a diplomat to see them weeks later.The so-called “N” number marks an American plane. Swedish records show a Gulfstream G5, N379P was there that night. Within hours, Al-Zery and Agiza, both of whom had been seeking asylum in Sweden, found themselves in an Egyptian prison. Hammarberg says Sweden sent a diplomat to see them weeks later.

What did they tell the diplomat about how they were being treated? “That they had been treated brutally in general, had been beaten up several times, that they had been threatened,” says Hammarberg. “But probably the worst phase of torture came after that first visit by the ambassador. … They were under electric torture.” The Egyptians say Agiza is an Islamic militant and they sentenced him to 25 years. But Al-Zery wasn’t charged. After two years in jail, he was sent to his village in Egypt. The authorities are not allowing interviews. “The option of not doing something is extraordinarily dangerous to the American people,” says Michael Scheuer, who until three months ago was a senior CIA official in the counterterrorist center. Scheuer created the CIA’s Osama bin Laden unit and helped set up the rendition program during the Clinton administration. “Basically, the National Security Council gave us the mission, take down these cells, dismantle them and take people off the streets so they can’t kill Americans,” says Scheuer. “They just didn’t give us anywhere to take the people after we captured.” So the CIA started taking suspects to Egypt and Jordan. Scheuer says renditions were authorized by Clinton’s National Security Council and officials in Congress – and all understood what it meant to send suspects to those countries.
 
“They don’t have the same legal system we have. But we know that going into it,” says Scheuer. “And so the idea that we’re gonna suddenly throw our hands up like Claude Raines in ‘Casablanca’ and say, ‘I’m shocked that justice in Egypt isn’t like it is in Milwaukee,’ there’s a certain disingenuousness to that.” “And one of the things that you know about justice in Egypt is that people get tortured,” says Pelley. “Well, it can be rough. I have to assume that that’s the case,” says Scheuer. But doesn’t that make the United States complicit in the torture? “You’ll have to ask the lawyers,” says Scheuer. Is it convenient? “It’s convenient in the sense that it allows American policy makers and American politicians to avoid making hard decisions,” says Scheuer. “Yes. It’s very convenient. It’s finding someone else to do your dirty work.” The indispensable tool for that work is a small fleet of executive jets authorized to land at all U.S. military bases worldwide. Scheuer wouldn’t tell 60 Minutes about the planes that are used in these operations – that information is classified.

The CIA declined to talk about it, but it turns out the CIA has left plenty of clues out in the open, in the public record. The tail number of the Gulfstream was first reported by witnesses in Pakistan. In public records, the tail number came back to a company called Premiere Executive Transport Services, with headquarters listed in Dedham, Mass. But Dedham is a dead end. The address is a law office on the second floor of a bank — there’s no airline there. The flight log shows one flight took the 737 to Skopje, Macedonia, to Baghdad and finally Kabul, Afghanistan. 60 Minutes found a man who says he was on that flight. Khaled el-Masri was born in Kuwait, but he now lives in Germany with his wife and four children. He became a German citizen 10 years ago. He told 60 Minutes he was on vacation in Macedonia last year when Macedonian police, apparently acting on a tip, took him off a bus, held him for three weeks, then took him to the Skopje airport where he believes he was abducted by the CIA.

“They took me to this room, and they hit me all over and they slashed my clothes with sharp objects, maybe knives or scissors,” says el-Masri. “I also heard photos being taken while this was going on – and they took off the blindfold and I saw that there were a lot of men standing in the room. They were wearing black masks and black gloves.” El-Masri says he was injected with drugs, and after his flight, he woke up in an American-run prison in Afghanistan. He showed 60 Minutes a prison floor plan he drew from memory. He says other prisoners were from Pakistan, Tanzania, Yemen and Saudi Arabia. El-Masri told 60 Minutes that he was held for five months and interrogated by Americans through an interpreter. “He yelled at me and he said that, ‘You’re in a country without laws and no one knows where you are. Do you know what that means?’ I said yes,” says el-Masri. “It was very clear to me that he meant I could stay in my cell for 20 years or be buried somewhere, and nobody knows what happened to you.”

He says they were asking him “whether I had contacts with Islamic parties like al Qaeda or the Muslim Brotherhood or aid organizations, lots of questions.” He says he told the Americans he’d never been involved in militant Islam. El-Masri says he wasn’t tortured, but he says he was beaten and kept in solitary confinement. Then, after his five months of questioning, he was simply released. At that point, did anyone ever tell him that they’d made a mistake? “They told me that they had confused names and that they had cleared it up, but I can’t imagine that,” says el-Masri. “You can clear up switching names in a few minutes.” He says he was flown out of Afghanistan and dumped on a road in Albania. When he finally made his way back home in Germany, he found that his wife and kids had gone to her family in Lebanon. He called there to explain what happened. El-Masri says that his wife believed him: “I never lied to her, and my appearance showed that I had been in prison.” How did he explain what happened to him to his son? “I explained to him what happened to me. And he understood,” says el-Masri. “I said it was the Americans [who did this to me].”

“And if some of that useful information is gleaned by torture, that’s OK,” asks Pelley. “It’s OK with me,” says Scheuer. “I’m responsible for protecting Americans.” Scheuer says in the Clinton and Bush administrations, and in Congress, details of rendition flights were known to top officials. Now that the missions are coming to light, Scheuer says there is worry in the CIA that field agents will take the fall if any of the missions are later deemed illegal. Are CIA people feeling vulnerable to that? “I think from the first day we ever did it there was a certain macabre humor that said sooner or later this sword of Damocles is gonna fall because if something goes wrong, the policy maker and the politicians and the congressional committees aren’t gonna belly up to the bar and say, ‘We authorized this,'” says Scheuer.

Part 1

Part 2

The Metro (UK) Front page and pages 14-15

December 2nd 2010

Amazon is facing a backlash from its customers after kicking whistle blowing website WikiLeaks off its servers.  The Internet giant took action after coming under pressure from right-wingers in the US to stop hosting the site, which this week published tens of thousands of confidential diplomatic e-mails.  Jow Lieberman, chairman of the senate homeland security committee, called on other companies to end their links with the website.  He said: “WikiLeaks’ illegal, outrageous and reckless acts have compromised our national security and puts lives at risk around the world”  But Amazon now faces protests from free speech campaigners, who say it should be “punished with boycott” at what is its busiest trading period of the year.  The e-tailer began hosting WikiLeaks on its servers after the site’s host in Sweden came under cyber attack on Sunday.

Yesterday, the site had returned to its original Swedish host, leaving Amazon facing the wrath of its customers. One tweeted: “For the first time in my life, I have a disposable income in dollars.  Not one penny is going to Amazon.”  The right wing was not silenced either with outspoken Republican Mick Huckabee calling for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to be executed for treason.  (It must be noted only citizens can commit treason).  “I think anything less then execution is too kind a penalty.  They’ve put American lives at risks.  They have put relationships that will take decades to rebuild at risk, and they knoew full well that they were handling sensitive documents.” Mr Huckabee told reporters at a book signing.  Mr Huckabees’ demand came as a senior advisor to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper called for on-the-run WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to be killed.  “I think Assange should be assassinated, actually,” Tom Flanagan told Canadian TV.  “I think Obama should put out a contract and maybe use a drone or something,” he added.  Mr Flanagan later refused to retract the comment, adding: “I wouldn’t feel unhappy if Assange does disappear.”

SRI LANKA WAR-CRIMES ACCOUNTABILITY: THE TAMIL

Friday, 15 January 2010, 12:23
S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 COLOMBO 000032
SIPDIS
DEPARTMENT FOR SCA/INSB
EO 12958 DECL: 01/15/2020
TAGS PGOV, PREL, PREF, PHUM, PTER, EAID, MOPS, CE
SUBJECT: SRI LANKA WAR-CRIMES ACCOUNTABILITY: THE TAMIL
PERSPECTIVE
REF: A. 09 COLOMBO 1180  B. COLOMBO 8
COLOMBO 00000032 001.2 OF 003

Classified By: AMBASSADOR PATRICIA A. BUTENIS. REASONS: 1.4 (B, D)
¶1. (S)

SUMMARY: There have been a few tentative steps on accountability for crimes allegedly committed by Sri Lankan troops and civilian officials during the war with the LTTE. President Rajapaksa named a committee to make recommendations to him on the U.S. incidents report by April, and candidate Fonseka has discussed privately the formation of some form of “truth and reconciliation” commission. Otherwise, accountability has not been a high-profile issue — including for Tamils in Sri Lanka. While Tamils have told us they would like to see some form of accountability, they have been pragmatic in what they can expect and have focused instead on securing greater rights and freedoms, resolving the IDP question, and improving economic prospects in the war-ravaged and former LTTE-occupied areas. Indeed, while they wanted to keep the issue alive for possible future action, Tamil politicians with whom we spoke in Colombo, Jaffna, and elsewhere said now was not time and that pushing hard on the issue would make them “vulnerable.” END SUMMARY.

ACCOUNTABILITY AS A POLITICAL ISSUE
———————————–
¶2. (S) Accountability for alleged crimes committed by GSL troops and officials during the war is the most difficult issue on our bilateral agenda. (NOTE: Both the State Department Report to Congress on Incidents during the Conflict and the widely read report by the University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) also detailed many incidents of alleged crimes perpetrated by the LTTE. Most of the LTTE leadership was killed at the end of the war, leaving few to be held responsible for those crimes. The Government of Sri Lanka (GSL) is holding thousands of mid- and lower-level ex-LTTE combatants for future rehabilitation and/or criminal prosecution. It is unclear whether any such prosecutions will meet international standards. END NOTE.) There have been some tentative steps on accountability on the GSL side. Soon after the appearance of the State Department report, President Rajapaksa announced the formation of an experts’ committee to examine the report and to provide him with recommendations on dealing with the allegations. At the end of the year, the president extended the deadline for the committee’s recommendations from December 31 until April. For his part, General Fonseka has spoken publicly of the need for a new deal with the Tamils and other minorities. Privately, his campaign manager told the Ambassador that Fonseka had ordered the opposition campaign to begin work planning a “truth and reconciliation” commission (ref B).

¶3. (S) These tentative steps notwithstanding, accountability has not been a high-profile issue in the presidential election — other than President Rajapaksa’s promises personally to stand up to any international power or body that would try to prosecute Sri Lankan war heroes. While regrettable, the lack of attention to accountability is not surprising. There are no examples we know of a regime undertaking wholesale investigations of its own troops or senior officials for war crimes while that regime or government remained in power. In Sri Lanka this is further complicated by the fact that responsibility for many of the alleged crimes rests with the country’s senior civilian and military leadership, including President Rajapaksa and his brothers and opposition candidate General Fonseka.

THE TAMIL PERSPECTIVE
———————
COLOMBO 00000032 002.2 OF 003
¶4. (S) For different reasons, of course, accountability also has not been a top priority for most Tamils in Sri Lanka. While Tamils have told us they would like to see some form of accountability, they have been pragmatic in what they can expect and have focused instead on securing greater rights and freedoms, resolving the IDP question, and improving economic prospects in the war-ravaged and former LTTE-occupied areas. Indeed, while they wanted to keep the issue alive for possible future action, Tamil leaders with whom we spoke in Colombo, Jaffna, and elsewhere said now was not time and that pushing hard on the issue would make them “vulnerable.”

¶5. (S) The one prominent Tamil who has spoken publicly on the issue is Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP, self-proclaimed presidential candidate, and Prabhakaran relative M.K. Sivajilingam. Breaking from both the TNA mainstream and the pro-government Tamil groups, he launched his campaign because he believed neither the government nor the opposition was adequately addressing Tamil issues. Sivajilingam has focused on creating a de-centralized federal structure in Sri Lanka with separate prime ministers for the Sinhalese and Tamils, but he also has spoken about accountability, demanding an international inquiry to get justice for the deaths and suffering of the Tamil people.

¶6. (S) Other Tamil politicians have not made public statements on accountability and are generally more pragmatic in their thinking. In our multiple recent discussions with TNA leader R. Sampanthan, he said he believed accountability was important and he welcomed the international community’s — especially the diaspora’s — interest in the issue. But Sampanthan was realistic about the dim prospects for any Sri Lankan government to take up the issue. Granting that governments in power do not investigate their own, Sampanthan nevertheless said it was important to the health of the nation to get the truth out. While he believed the Tamil community was “vulnerable” on the issue and said he would not discuss “war crimes” per se in parliament for fear of retaliation, Sampanthan would emphasize the importance of people knowing the truth about what happened during the war. We also have asked Sampanthan repeatedly for his ideas on an accountability mechanism that would be credible to Tamils and possible within the current political context, but he has not been able to provide such a model.

¶7. (S) Mano Ganesan, MP and leader of the ethnic Tamil Democratic People’s Front (DPF), is a Colombo-based Tamil who counts as supporters many of the well-educated, long-term Colombo and Western Province resident Tamils, and was an early supporter of Fonseka. The general made promises that convinced him that if Fonseka were to win, ethnic reconciliation issues would then be decided by parliament, not the Executive President. On accountability, Ganesan told us that while the issue was significant XXXXXXXXXXXX accountability was a divisive issue and the focus now had to be on uniting to rid the country of the Rajapaksas.

¶8. (S) TNA MP Pathmini Sithamparanathan told us in mid-December that the true story of what happened in the final weeks of the war would not go away and would come out eventually, but she also said now was not the time for war crimes-type investigations. Finally, on a recent trip to Jaffna, PolOff found that local politicians did not raise accountability for events at the end of the war as an issue of immediate concern, focusing instead on current bread-and-butter issues, such as IDP releases, concerns about Sinhala emigration to traditional Tamil regions, and COLOMBO 00000032 003.2 OF 003
re-developing the local economy.

COMMENT
——-
¶9. (S) Accountability is clearly an issue of importance for the ultimate political and moral health of Sri Lankan society. There is an obvious split, however, between the Tamil diaspora and Tamils in Sri Lanka on how and when to address the issue. While we understand the former would like to see the issue as an immediate top-priority issue, most Tamils in Sri Lanka appear to think it is both unrealistic and counter-productive to push the issue too aggressively now. While Tamil leaders are very vocal and committed to national reconciliation and creating a political system more equitable to all ethnic communities, they believe themselves vulnerable to political or even physical attack if they raise the issue of accountability publicly, and common Tamils appear focused on more immediate economic and social concerns. A few have suggested to us that while they cannot address the issue, they would like to see the international community push it. Such an approach, however, would seem to play into the super-heated campaign rhetoric of Rajapaksa and his allies that there is an international conspiracy against Sri Lanka and its “war heroes.” BUTENIS

War crimes lawyers seek arrest of Sri Lankan president in Oxford

Lawyers working for Tamil activists are attempting to obtain a war crimes arrest warrant against Sri Lanka‘s president and senior member of his entourage who have arrived in Britain. Mahinda Rajapaksa, whose government defeated the separatist Tamil Tigers last year amid humanitarian protests about the treatment of civilians trapped in the war zone, is due to speak at the Oxford Union on Thursday. The visit comes as Tamil supporters claim to have acquired a video showing a former Tamil Tiger colonel being interrogated by Sri Lankan forces. His family allege he was killed after surrendering. Rajapaksa is also expected to meet the defence secretary, Liam Fox. Last year the UK revoked a number of arms exports licences to Sri Lanka in response to the conflict. The Sri Lankan head of state’s visit, postponed from last month, is likely to trigger mass protests. Tamil demonstrators were at Heathrow airport for his arrival on Monday evening; more are expected in Oxford later this week.

Last month David Cameron endorsed calls for an independent investigation into the end of the Sri Lankan civil war in 2009. He told the Commons: “Everyone has read the papers and seen the TV footage, but we need an independent investigation” to work out whether there had been human rights abuses. A spokesman for the public relations firm Bell Pottinger, which represents Rajapaksa, denied that he had cancelled his trip to the UK last month becuse of fears that he might face an arrest warrant. “He had to give a keynote speech at the UN,” the spokesman said, “and visit Shanghai. He had a busy international schedule. He’s here now to speak to the Oxford Union.” Rajapaksa last spoke at the Oxford Union in 2008. His second visit tomorrow, according to his spokesperson, will mean that he is the first serving head of state to address the union twice. The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, has established a three-man committee to investigate ways of dealing with the war crime allegations.

— UNCUT — Sri Lankan Army execution video

Congress warned of harm from WikiLeaks release

The US state department has warned Congress it expects a damaging release of sensitive diplomatic documents by theWikiLeaksanti-secrecy website. The department said the release may create tensions with other governments. Congressional committees were notified of the likelihood of a damaging release of diplomatic cables in coming days, a spokesman said. The Pentagon has also told the US Senate and House armed services committees that the New York Times, the Guardian and Der Spiegel “are each currently working with WikiLeaks to co-ordinate the release of the documents”.

US embassy cables leak sparks global diplomatic crisis

Sunday 28 November 2010 18.13 GMT

The United States was catapulted into a worldwide diplomatic crisis today, with the leaking to the Guardian and other international media of more than 250,000 classified cables from its embassies, many sent as recently as February this year. At the start of a series of daily extracts from the US embassy cables – many designated “secret” – the Guardian can disclose that Arab leaders are privately urging an air strike on Iran and that US officials have been instructed to spy on the UN leadership. These two revelations alone would be likely to reverberate around the world. But the secret dispatches which were obtained by WikiLeaks, the whistleblowers’ website, also reveal Washington’s evaluation of many other highly sensitive international issues. These include a shift in relations between China and North Korea, high level concerns over Pakistan’s growing instability and details of clandestine US efforts to combat al-Qaida in Yemen.

The cables published today reveal how the US uses its embassies as part of a global espionage network, with diplomats tasked to obtain not just information from the people they meet, but personal details, such as frequent flyer numbers, credit card details and even DNA material. Classified “human intelligence directives” issued in the name of Clinton or her predecessor, Condoleezza Rice, instruct officials to gather information on military installations, weapons markings, vehicle details of political leaders as well as iris scans, fingerprints and DNA. The most controversial target was the UN leadership. That directive requested the specification of telecoms and IT systems used by top officials and their staff and details of “private VIP networks used for official communication, to include upgrades, security measures, passwords, personal encryption keys”. PJ Crowley, the state department spokesman in Washington, said: “Let me assure you: our diplomats are just that, diplomats. They do not engage in intelligence activities.

They represent our country around the world, maintain open and transparent contact with other governments as well as public and private figures, and report home. That’s what diplomats have done for hundreds of years.” The acting deputy spokesman for Ban Ki Moon, Farhan Haq, said the UN chief had no immediate comment: “We are aware of the reports.” The dispatches also shed light on older diplomatic issues. One cable, for example, reveals, that Nelson Mandela was “furious” when a top adviser stopped him meeting Margaret Thatcher shortly after his release from prison to explain why the ANC objected to her policy of “constructive engagement” with the apartheid regime. “We understand Mandela was keen for a Thatcher meeting but that [appointments secretary Zwelakhe] Sisulu argued successfully against it,” according to the cable. It continues: “Mandela has on several occasions expressed his eagerness for an early meeting with Thatcher to express the ANC’s objections to her policy. We were consequently surprised when the meeting didn’t materialise on his mid-April visit to London and suspected that ANC hardliners had nixed Mandela’s plans.”

The US embassy cables are marked “Sipdis” – secret internet protocol distribution. They were compiled as part of a programme under which selected dispatches, considered moderately secret but suitable for sharing with other agencies, would be automatically loaded on to secure embassy websites, and linked with the military’s Siprnet internet system. They are classified at various levels up to “secret noforn” [no foreigners]. More than 11,000 are marked secret, while around 9,000 of the cables are marked noforn. More than 3 million US government personnel and soldiers, many extremely junior, are cleared to have potential access to this material, even though the cables contain the identities of foreign informants, often sensitive contacts in dictatorial regimes. Some are marked “protect” or “strictly protect”. Last spring, 22-year-old intelligence analyst Bradley Manning was charged with leaking many of these cables, along with a gun-camera video of an Apache helicopter crew mistakenly killing two Reuters news agency employees in Baghdad in 2007, which was subsequently posted by WikiLeaks. Manning is facing a court martial.

In July and October WikiLeaks also published thousands of leaked military reports from Afghanistan and Iraq. These were made available for analysis beforehand to the Guardian, along with Der Spiegel and the New York Times. A former hacker, Adrian Lamo, who reported Manning to the US authorities, said the soldier had told him in chat messages that the cables revealed “how the first world exploits the third, in detail”. He also said, according to Lamo, that Clinton “and several thousand diplomats around the world are going to have a heart attack when they wake up one morning and find an entire repository of classified foreign policy is available in searchable format to the public … everywhere there’s a US post … there’s a diplomatic scandal that will be revealed”. Asked why such sensitive material was posted on a network accessible to thousands of government employees, the state department spokesman told the Guardian: “The 9/11 attacks and their aftermath revealed gaps in intra-governmental information sharing.

Since the attacks of 9/11, the US government has taken significant steps to facilitate information sharing. These efforts were focused on giving diplomatic, military, law enforcement and intelligence specialists quicker and easier access to more data to more effectively do their jobs.” He added: “We have been taking aggressive action in recent weeks and months to enhance the security of our systems and to prevent the leak of information.”

US Cables by Dates (1991 to 2003 is NOT present) Cables range from 1966 to 2010

1966/12
1972/02
1979/08
1986/05
1989/12
1990/01
2004/01 2004/12
2005/03 2005/05 2005/06 2005/12
2006/04 2006/08 2006/12
2007/01 2007/02 2007/03 2007/04 2007/05 2007/06 2007/07 2007/08 2007/11
2008/01 2008/03 2008/04 2008/05 2008/07 2008/08 2008/09 2008/10 2008/12
2009/01 2009/02 2009/03 2009/04 2009/05 2009/06 2009/07 2009/08 2009/09 2009/10 2009/11 2009/12
2010/01 2010/02

http://cablegate.wikileaks.org/

South Korea says it has returned fire after North Korea fired dozens of artillery shells at one of its border islands, killing two marines. The South’s military was placed on its highest non-wartime alert after the shells landed on Yeonpyeong island. The North said it did not fire first in the incident. Two South Korean marines and four civilians were also injured. Analysts say this is one of the most serious clashes since the Korean War ended without a peace treaty in 1953. There have been occasional cross-border clashes since, but the latest incident comes at a time of rising regional tension. North Korea’s reclusive leader Kim Jong-il is thought to be ill and trying to ensure the succession of his youngest son.

A spokesman for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korean shells had started falling in the waters off the island of Yeonpyeong at 1434 (0534 GMT). At least 50 landed directly on the island, most hitting a South Korean military base there. The South’s military immediately fired back some 80 shells in self-defence, Col Lee Bung-woo added. A resident on the island told the AFP news agency that dozens of houses were damaged by the barrage, while television pictures showed plumes of smoke rising above the island. “Houses and mountains are on fire and people are evacuating. You can’t see very well because of plumes of smoke,” a witness on the island told YTN television station. “People are frightened to death.” Local government spokesman Yoon Kwan-seok said the shelling lasted for about an hour and then stopped abruptly. Four residents were hurt.

“The whole of Yeonpyeong island was blacked out following the North Korean attacks,” he was quoted as saying by the Yonhap news agency. “All of the island’s 1,600-odd residents were evacuated to a shelter.” The South Korean military has also deployed fighter jets to Yeonpyeong, which lies about 3km (1.8 miles) south of the disputed inter-Korean maritime border and 100km (60 miles) west of the Korean Peninsula. Later, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak warned North Korea that his country would “sternly retaliate against any further provocations”. “North Korea’s shelling of Yeonpyeong island constitutes a clear armed provocation. Furthermore, its reckless shelling of civilian targets is unpardonable,” his office said in a statement. “North Korean authorities must take responsibility.”

The US Senate has approved a $4.6bn (£2.9bn) payment to Native Americans and black farmers who complained of government discrimination. The legal settlement would benefit black farmers who sued for alleged bias by US agriculture officials. It would also settle a 15 year-old suit by Native Americans who said the government cheated them out of of oil, gas and grazing royalties. The legislation now needs approval by the House of Representatives. Many of the claims date back to the 19th century. At least 300,000 Native Americans claimed that since 1887, the US interior department swindled them out of royalties.

The suit, called the Cobell lawsuit for lead plaintiff Elouise Cobell, dragged on for 15 years and encompassed 3,600 court filings and 80 judicial rulings, the Associated Press reported. “Personally I still think we’re owed $100bn, but how long do you drag this thing out?” said Ms Cobell, a member of the Blackfeet Tribe from Browning in the state of Montana. “Do you drag it out until every beneficiary is dead? You just can’t do that.” The US government settled the suit last year, agreeing to pay $3.4bn; the Senate bill would fund the settlement. The black farmers would receive $1.2bn to settle the so-called Pigford suit in which they said local US agriculture department officials discriminated against blacks in awarding loans and other aid. “Twenty-six years’ justice is in sight for our nation’s black farmers,” said John Boyd, head of the National Black Farmers Association.

Bush Administration Claims vs. The Facts

The Bush administration made a series of claims prior to the Iraq War, each intended to support the idea that Saddam Hussein was a grave and imminent threat. None of these claims were true. The epilogue of the film, LEADING TO WAR, presents refutations to eight of these claims. Here, each of these claims is examined in detail, using government and press reports, to show how the Bush administration presented intelligence to support these claims, despite the fact that behind closed doors Bush officials knew this intelligence to be disputed or even false.

Eight Pre-War Claims Refuted:

• No weapons of mass destruction of any kind were found in Iraq.
• No mobile biological weapons labs were found in Iraq.
• Iraq did not seek to acquire yellowcake uranium from Africa.
• The aluminum tubes were not suitable for nuclear weapons development.
• Mohamed Atta, the lead 9/11 hijacker, did not meet with Iraqi intelligence in Prague.
• Iraq did not provide chemical weapons training to al-Qaeda.
• There was no collaborative relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda.
• The implication that Iraq was involved in the attacks of 9/11 was untrue.