Hard News: Wikileaks: The Cable Guys
790 Responses
First ←Older Page 1 … 23 24 25 26 27 … 32 Newer→ Last
-
And here are the Kiwi cables themselves, not formatted as well as Wikileaks or The Guardian are doing theirs, but still readable.
Oddly, I couldn't find the link on Stuff. I noticed it at the bottom of one of the stories in the paper and had to type it in.
-
I've parsed 'em out and listed them by cable, date and subject.
-
Nicely done.
-
Thanks Danyl. The cable on NZ journalists travel to the US is useful information. It’s good to know the soft-power tactics in use. There’s nothing inherently wrong with study tours, I think, but I’d rather know about them than not. I’ll leave the deeper analysis to those with a broadcasting bent… hint
-
3410,
New Zealand's collaboration with United States intelligence agencies was "fully restored" in August 2009 but both governments decided to keep the decision secret.
Question: Can anyone recall the (NZ) Govt. having explicitly denied, in the last 16 months, that this is the case?
-
I think the point is rather that it was never announced. And it ought to have been, given that sovereignty rests with the citizens.
-
Paul Williams, in reply to
Indeed so that we might then discover what precisely that means?
-
Russell Brown, in reply to
There’s nothing inherently wrong with study tours, I think, but I’d rather know about them than not.
That’s the nub of it, really. I/S just tweeted “Kathryn Ryan, Guyon Espiner, Audrey Young all grads of US IV journo conversion program,” which is a bit lurid.
Most countries offer study or research visits aimed at least in part at creating a favourable impression (or "a deeper understanding") amongst the journalists concerned. We’re among them.
It’s not necessarily a big deal and it has professional benefits for the journalists concerned. It’s silly to suppose that someone like Audrey Young was “turned” courtesy of one trip to America.
But these things need to be declared.
-
3410,
I think the point is rather that it was never announced.
Of course - and that's disgraceful enough. I'm just wondering whether it's been officially denied.
-
Simon Lyall has spotted something that perhaps the SST should have.
08WELLINGTON356 explicitly names the “Deputy Director of New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS)” which is illegal as explained by the Ministry of Justice site:
-
nzlemming, in reply to
Hmmm. NZSIS tend to take that very seriously. However, given that the Gummint will want to reduce public interest in the cables, rather than stoke it, I suspect a quiet phone call will be the upshot rather than prosecution.
-
Hi all.
Figured this one deserved its own thread:
-
Meanwhile, The Guardian has a story covering both the "infowar" hackers -- who still seem to lack a strategy beyond retaliatory damage -- and useful commentary from an Aftonbladet journalist:
In Sweden, among the country's community of hackers and left-leaning political activists, the timing is viewed as coincidental rather than conspiratorial.
"The Americans are very lucky indeed that Assange screwed around in Sweden, a society which takes rape allegations very seriously,'' said Åsa Linderborg, culture editor of the leftwing Aftonbladet tabloid. ...
"Plenty of women are attracted by his underdog status and the supposed danger of spending time with him. He has several women on the go at once. One person told me he screws more often than he eats,'' Linderborg said.
There's also some speculation about anti-Wikileaks hacker The Jester's connections to US agencies, which isn't surprising.
-
Craig Ranapia, in reply to
There's also some speculation about anti-Wikileaks hacker The Jester's connections to US agencies, which isn't surprising.
Funny how "infowar" isn't quite so cool when it stops being asymmetrical, isn't it?
-
Sacha, in reply to
It’s silly to suppose that someone like Audrey Young was “turned” courtesy of one trip to America.
But these things need to be declared.
Or she could write a story about the local cables without mentioning her own involvement at all. Ethics, eh?
Cables from the United States embassy in Wellington obtained by WikiLeaks show that Labour and National Governments agreed to US demands to secrecy around specific improvements in defence and intelligence relationship.
And they indicate concern that the Labour Government was slow at embracing a new defence relationship proposed in 2007.
But none of the cables leaked so far contain anything like the political embarrassment the release of Australian-related cables last week caused.
-
Steve Parks, in reply to
Since the inane chatter that nothing of importance has come out of these cables seems to persist
Yes, as Mike Hosking put it in a question to former CIA agent Ray McGovern in this interview, what has WikiLeaks given us apart from "diplomatic tittle tattle"? Quite a lot, actually. (Though it seemed not to sink in too quickly for Mike, who felt the need to ask basically the same question again.)
-
[moved to new thread]
-
So Assange is Oscar Wilde's old cell. I'm not sure if there's an odd irony in that or if somebody simply wasn't thinking it through.
-
Russell Brown, in reply to
Or she could write a story about the local cables without mentioning her own involvement at all. Ethics, eh?
Woah. That was the catch-up story on a Sunday afternoon. They’ve now reproduced verbatim the relevant part of the cable.
We don’t know what any of the journalists did, who they spoke to, what they wrote as a result or, indeed, whether or not they declared the trip at the time.
All wealthy countries do this sort of media outreach, and it’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s certainly interesting to see the way the ambassador describes it, but that doesn’t mean anyone has done anything wrong.
-
Hmm, now, where have I heard all this before?
The peoples right to know all the magic stuff that is beyond their daily experience.
Before Guttenburg started printing bibles Kings were regarded as deities, the mere touch of a sixpence blessed by King Charles was enough to cure one of scroffula for life, albeit a short life. Once the secrets of mystical religion with all its Latin mumblings were available to common folk people started to think they knew the mind of God personally, rather than through the manipulation of the Church. This gave way to the puritan, those that would look down on the godlessness of others, like those lazy Polynesinans who didn’t see the need of struggling to earn a living because of the devils bread fruit.
This is what the internet promised, “The Information Superhighway” no more magical thinking, we do have a right to know what is going on in our world but do we have the ability to truly comprehend the consequences?.
Assange is a fool but he is our fool, while the world is run by fools we need one on our side. -
Simon Grigg, in reply to
Hmm, now, where have I heard all this before?
Indeed. Henry Porter in The Guardian today:
Nothing is new. In 1771, that great lover of liberty, John Wilkes, and a number of printers challenged the law that prohibited the reporting of Parliamentary debates and speeches, kept secret because those in power argued that the information was too sensitive and would disrupt the life of the country if made public. Using the arcane laws of the City of London, Alderman Wilkes arranged for the interception of the Parliamentary messengers sent to arrest the printers who had published debates, and in doing so successfully blocked Parliament. By 1774, a contemporary was able to write: "The debates in both houses have been constantly printed in the London papers." From that moment, the freedom of the press was born.
-
Sacha, in reply to
doesn’t mean anyone has done anything wrong
Sure, but it seems pretty basic to disclose to readers when you're mentioned in the source document your story is about. Potential *perception* of conflict of interest is enough in other circles, so why not here?
Original story still says nothing about that even though as you note they have added links to raw text of the 8 cables.
-
Steve Parks, in reply to
And more 'it's just inane chatter' claims:
Paul Holmes is an award-winning Herald on Sunday columnist, just so you know.
-
Sacha, in reply to
Wondered how long it would take for someone to link to that sad senile stream of concsiousness
-
If wikileaks claims no other victories I'm throwing my lot in with them just for this:
THE point of Wikileaks became clear last night after viral attacks on credit card websites stopped someone from buying Chris de Burgh's The Storyman.
Pro-Wikileaks activists brought down the Visa and Mastercard sites just as Martin Bishop, from Stevenage, was about to do a 'one click' purchase of the Irish singer's 2006 assault on basic human decency.
US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said: "I would like to apologise to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange for threatening to have him slightly killed. I now see what he was trying to achieve and I applaud him.
Post your response…
This topic is closed.