Assange’s latest showed the duplicitous nature of American foreign affairs, not that that really surprised anyone whose read Confessions of an Economic Hitman or other unsanitized history. Now this. About time someone exposed the banks.
In a rare interview, Assange tells Forbes that the release of Pentagon and State Department documents are just the beginning. His next target: big business.
Early next year, Julian Assange says, a major American bank will suddenly find itself turned inside out. Tens of thousands of its internal documents will be exposed on Wikileaks.org with no polite requests for executives’ response or other forewarnings. The data dump will lay bare the finance firm’s secrets on the Web for every customer, every competitor, every regulator to examine and pass judgment on.
(For the full transcript of Forbes’ interview with Assange click here.)
When? Which bank? What documents? Cagey as always, Assange won’t say, so his claim is impossible to verify. But he has always followed through on his threats. Sitting for a rare interview in a London garden flat on a rainy November day, he compares what he is ready to unleash to the damning e-mails that poured out of the Enron trial: a comprehensive vivisection of corporate bad behavior. “You could call it the ecosystem of corruption,” he says, refusing to characterize the coming release in more detail. “But it’s also all the regular decision making that turns a blind eye to and supports unethical practices: the oversight that’s not done, the priorities of executives, how they think they’re fulfilling their own self-interest.”
#32 MSPodiatrist – “This goes double for corporations which reflect an amalgam of the lowest common denominator of their CEOs sense of morals, lorded over by bean counters, tax accountants and, not to forget the scum in a ring around the pond, lawyers.”
Hey! I represent that statement. Why, I’m insulated. Your nothing but a mormon. Your comment is nothing but verbal mastication you thespian.
Oh, that Julian!
#32 –
r.e. your last paragraph:
“*) A corporation is the equivalent to a small city state such as the Italian Doges ruled or to a Japanese fiefdom. A modern multi-national is equivalent to an empire that Alexander would have dreamt of.”
Right on. I’ve always thought that big corporations seemed like “little governments”, with their own petty bureaucrats, cultures of avarice and hoarded information, greed-head leaders who all too often are incompetent and so on.
(and then they put out all those advertisements announcing to the world, “But hey…we’re actually doing GOOD here!”).
Cue bronx cheer.
It would be fun to see a spread sheet analysis of the WikiLeaks. Of main interest: why is the item a secret to begin with? “Because the Government said so” may satisfy status quo jockeys like Animbus, but for any thinking person refreshed after a good night’s sleep in his own bed: not for the rested of us.
Hee, hee. Can there be a better definition of sheeple?
But as recognized, the “secret” is that there is no secret. Just something the MEDIA is focusing on. Loud Hubbub, then nothing to follow. As someone on tv commented, yes, there is some damage to various trust issues today, but new people will come on board, new leaders, and everyone’s hubris will begin anew.
Nothing new in the Hooman Comedy.
I do want to say that the Economic Hitman is a revealing bit of secretosity. Somewhat telling that the USA so agressively beats up, and effectively so, on third world countries, and then roles over for the Asian Tigers. With that “truth” revealed, what might explain it?
I can only surmise that it is NOT the USA government at play. No, its only the international corporations who benefit from both scenarios.
Telling. Another secret?
Just thinking of another spreadsheet: how many secrets can we think of BEFORE such a label gets hanged on them thru some Media Event?
1. Thought of it just now with the Breaking News that Sarah Palin is not qualified to be President. Ha. Ha. The nexus of popularity and politics does not confuse the two.
2. Big Banks still not re regulated. Countdown to the next failure has already begun.
3. The Rich getting Richer all to the general harm of the societies torn asunder by this rape.
4. Healthcare being removed from the lower rungs of the ladder.
5. Corporate control of the Media being further centralized and limited.
the list goes on. A few simple insights allow the truth to be seen: politicians lie/are self serving, the media reports the conflict not the merit, money corrupts, first reports are always wrong, etc.
Once a few insights are accepted, it only takes a brief mention from the occasional aberrant news posting somewhere for all these secrets to have been well revealed. Its picking the undigested corn kernels out of the sh*t that passes as news these days.
Its all right there. Look!
Assange needs to just release everything they have. The 2TTH squad is rolling out and it might not be too long before they find him.
Palin has no interest in being president.
The job is “too hard”.
She just wants the $100,000 fee she gets for speaking, and for pretending she wants to be president.
Duh.
Money spent on security may be money wisely spent but I think this man already has the downloads he is planning on posting next.
It wasn’t treason because he isn’t an American but he isn’t going to last. The powers that be in many nations are afraid of what he might spill next or steamed that he has confirmed things they didn’t want confirmed and they are going to shut him down.
God I hope it it Goldman Sacs.
But I sadly doubt GS will ever be touched. They could openly stomp kittens, molest children, rape nuns, and bankrupt America, and they are untouchable.
Alfred,
You’ll need to ice down your groin after that stretch for a liberal conspiracy theory.
One criticism of Assange that I agree with is that he seems to be obsessed mostly with the US.
How about China? Or Israel? Or Pakistan? Or Saudi Arabia?
Now THOSE countries could use some bright light shone on them.
Oh — one American memo-dump I’d love to see is Fox News.
Which Big Bank? Likely it’s one with the Initials “B” and “A”, or “C” and “M”, or just “C” (and starts with “Citi-“). But anyway. Whoever it turns out to be, they’re going to have to do an awful lot of damage control Tv ads, to make everyone forget the WikiLeaks. The same way Bank of America and Chase Manhattan did all those Tv ads, after their robot foreclosure practices recently came to light. But hey! Forget what scoundrels they are, they now have great new banking services, to win you over. When they’re not making you a homeless person.
I understand that Bill O’Reilly is really pissed off at WikiLeaks. As if he really cares that the Obama administration is embarrassed by confidential State Dept. memo disclosures. He probably didn’t even know what WikiLeaks was, until one of this handlers told him. And why he should be angry at them. He’s such a puppet.
What the leaks apparently reveal, that got these wags so steamed, is some idle chatter by US diplomats about their foreign heads of State hosts. And you have to ask yourself, why it took these “leaks” to hear anything bad about these people? Is US international news so politically sanitized?! You can bet that the news bureaus over in Russia, and other places don’t hesitate to criticize and defame the US officials. And what we’ve learned by these “revelations” is how many of these heads of State are pretty flawed. And what the US (and other countries) has do deal with, in negotiating thru these characters. The US Ambassadors probably get a better view of their nature, than their own country’s people ever do. Of course some countries either won’t care how drunk or sleazy their leaders are. Or they just won’t believe the leaked info about them.
The thing is, I don’t see why the US should be in the business of keeping their dirty laundry hidden. Or why are ambassadors even bothering to make such personal assessments a matter of record, for the State Department. For future blackmail purposes? All this heat about Wikileaks exposing this international gossip. And nothing about the people responsible for creating the gossip, in the first place. Neat piece of misdirection, huh?
Bill O’Reilly and friends, misinformation merchants all.
BTW, NONE of what was “leaked” has been reported as “Top Secret”. So the message item starts out with a piece of misinformation itself, in the form of its crafted jpeg. It should be labeled “Confidential”. And then perhaps “JUICY GOSSIP”, below that. In Mission Impossible style fonts.
Not to worry, that info will never see the light of day. Already Interpol has issued an arrest warrant for Assange for a “sex charge” out of Sweden. He will no doubt be “suicided” once in custody. There are too many secrets the power brokers of the world don’t want you to see.
All the interviews and articles I’ve seen about Assange make him seem like the classic James Bond villian. Educated, impeccable diction but deranged.
James: “Well played Assange. Exposing me for the chauvinistic pig I am. But, as soon as we find your secret cave lair, we will put an end to your evil doings.”
Assange: “In my role as Wikileaks editor, I’ve been involved in fighting off many legal attacks. To do that, and keep our sources safe, we have had to spread assets, encrypt everything, and move telecommunications and people around the world to activate protective laws in different national jurisdictions.”
I wonder if the reason WikiLeaks is so anti-US is because the information released is all in English? What if the dirt from other countries is just waiting to be translated?
I’ve only heard of 2-3 of the wikileaks subjects and imports, but “so far” I haven’t seen anything that is “anti-USA”–in fact just the contrary. So far–our public diplomatic face is very consistent with the info that has been released. That “assumes” no one thought YEMEN was launching drones against Al Queada? No one thought THAT right? Or that the House of Saud did not want air strikes on Iran?
Let’s see, what is the most horrible that can be imagined? Bush knew there were no WMD in Iraq? Bush let Osama escape from Afghan?? USA is paying off the Taliban Terrorists not to attack us at the same time we are negotiating for a longer term peace?
What could it be that is not already known???
If you aren’t a stooge or a tool, the truth is fairly observable.
Is there a list anywhere of media outlets, reporters, or bloggers, who were upset over the leaking of Valerie Plame’s identity, who are upset about WikiLeaks?
Bank of America
Say Mickey–what equivalency/difference are you looking for between our own President releasing secret information meant to harm an innocent man by putting his wife and her contacts at risk all for the President’s imagined political gain, and the release of information by a WORLD HERO fighting government corruption/duplicity??
Without those lists at your ready, I assume you are a stooge?
What exactly is in the latest Wikileaks that is either surprising, or makes the U.S. look particularly bad? I haven’t yet been able to find anything specific that would explain why so many people are soiling their tighty-whiteys.
The overall impression of WL that I get is that it’s a front for the world’s greatest egomaniacal nut job.
Of course WL is going after US and US based mutinational organizations.
Who the f*ck cares what some self-anointed chief of some tribe in some god-forsaken, bug infested Hell-hole in the Amazon get up to?
Also the US is the most open to criticism (its not entirely its fault sometimes,) and has FOIA laws so that the populace has something to build on. (See question above.)
The fact that are politicians have no respect for us is OUR fault. (Vote to try four years without a government by write in ballot next election and see what that does? THROW ALL OF THE BUMS OUT! It’ll teach ’em a lesson.)
Political leaders of other “soit-disant” civilized nations are scared of their populace.
We’re just a bunch of sheeple so you know we’re just going to get spit on, sheared, prodded, exposed, left out naked in the cold and eventually they’re going to toss our corpses under a bus.
They Italians showed their displeasure at Mussolini by hanging his shot-up body upside down in a stockyard.
The French sentenced Pétain to death in 1944.
There is a long history of peasant uprisings in Europe.
We’re in a similar situation to Burma(aka Myanmar) with a leadership which doesn’t even present to lead; they just sentence us to what ever crimes they make up.
The procedures, Hell the very definition of democracy about probable cause and protection against unreasonable search and seizure are being violated every day by the TSA and some imbeciles out there are supposedly “all for it” (just like the alleged “party atmosphere” in Theresienstadt, a Jewish Ghetto established by the SS in World War II.)
Your only crime is that you’re too poor to fly in a private plane.
F*ck that!
I see Time “Person of the Year” honors for him in the near future..
#56 You are comparing apples to oranges, at least if you don’t frame the issue in a narrow way.
I think the leakers in both Plame case and the Wikileaks case, Libby\Cheney and the army private, should be prosecuted. They made a voluntary oath and broke it.
Throwing those reporters in jail on contempt charges is a black mark on the US courts. Freedom of the Press would seem to include not locking up journalists for doing their jobs.
In this case, you can’t screw Assange because he runs something that isn’t exactly a newspaper. He has been doing this for a long time, and nobody complained when he published the secret stuff of dirty money banks and violent little authoritarian states.
Wikileaks publishes stuff about public figures and governments. It is all delayed, usually by months and sometimes by years.