Home » Posts tagged 'wikileaks' (Page 15)
Tag Archives: wikileaks
Assange: Google Is Not What It Seems
Assange: Google Is Not What It Seems
In June 2011, Julian Assange received an unusual visitor: the chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt, arrived from America at Ellingham Hall, the country house in Norfolk, England where Assange was living under house arrest.
For several hours the besieged leader of the world’s most famous insurgent publishing organization and the billionaire head of the world’s largest information empire locked horns. The two men debated the political problems faced by society, and the technological solutions engendered by the global network—from the Arab Spring to Bitcoin.
They outlined radically opposing perspectives: for Assange, the liberating power of the Internet is based on its freedom and statelessness. For Schmidt, emancipation is at one with U.S. foreign policy objectives and is driven by connecting non-Western countries to Western companies and markets. These differences embodied a tug-of-war over the Internet’s future that has only gathered force subsequently.
Try Newsweek for only $1.25 per week
In this extract from When Google Met WikiLeaks Assange describes his encounter with Schmidt and how he came to conclude that it was far from an innocent exchange of views.
Eric Schmidt is an influential figure, even among the parade of powerful characters with whom I have had to cross paths since I founded WikiLeaks. In mid-May 2011 I was under house arrest in rural Norfolk, England, about three hours’ drive northeast of London. The crackdown against our work was in full swing and every wasted moment seemed like an eternity. It was hard to get my attention.
But when my colleague Joseph Farrell told me the executive chairman of Google wanted to make an appointment with me, I was listening.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Julian Assange has Spent 959 Days, or 1.3 Million Minutes, in Ecuador Embassy
Julian Assange has Spent 959 Days, or 1.3 Million Minutes, in Ecuador Embassy
Julian Assange, the founder of anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, is still holed up in the Embassy of Ecuador in London.
In case you didn’t know, it’s been two and a half years–959 days or about 1,380,960 minutes–since he sought refuge at the embassy. He was facing extradition to Sweden over allegations of sexual assault.
Since then, it’s cost the U.K. government about $15 million to maintain a guard at the embassy, located in central London, reported LBC radio on Tuesday. On average, it costs more than $15,000 per day to guard the embassy.
Bernard Hogan-Howe, the chief of London’s Metropolitan Police, admitted the policing is “sucking resources” from the department.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Activist Post: Updated Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP)
Activist Post: Updated Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP).
WikiLeaks has released a second updated version of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Intellectual Property Rights Chapter. The TPP is the world’s largest economic trade agreement that will, if it comes into force, encompass more than 40 per cent of the world’s GDP. The IP Chapter covers topics from pharmaceuticals, patent registrations and copyright issues to digital rights. Experts say it will affect freedom of information, civil liberties and access to medicines globally. The WikiLeaks release comes ahead of a Chief Negotiators’ meeting in Canberra on 19 October 2014, which is followed by what is meant to be a decisive Ministerial meeting in Sydney on 25–27 October.
Despite the wide-ranging effects on the global population, the TPP is currently being negotiated in total secrecy by 12 countries. Few people, even within the negotiating countries’ governments, have access to the full text of the draft agreement and the public, who it will affect most, none at all. Large corporations, however, are able to see portions of the text, generating a powerful lobby to effect changes on behalf of these groups and bringing developing country members reduced force, while the public at large gets no say.
…click on the link above to read the rest of the article…
