Vote Number 1 Julian Assange!

How strange: Julian Assange announces plan to run for the Australian Senate.
AAP
news.com.au
March 17, 2012
http://www.news.com.au/national/how-strange-julian-assange-announces-plan-to-run-for-the-australian-senate/story-e6frfkvr-1226302505248#ixzz1pMQIlASf

They are still talking about the Ruddocalypse, after all this time

Did Gillard and her colleagues believe that Rudd and the events of June 2010 would fade from the collective memory and fall back into the pages of history books? Dumb call.

I don't get why it is still such a live question as to when Gillard started planning her coup. Fowler unsuccessfully tried to get an answer out of the PM about some new evidence that she had planned well in advance, destroying the story that she was a party to the coup only as a last resort. It was reported by Patricia Karvelas on the front page of the Oz way back in December 2010 that months before the spill the "faceless man" Don Farrell told the US embassy that Gillard was campaigning for the leadership, according to a Wikileaks diplomatic cable release. I wrote about the lack of apparent impact of this story shortly after it was published. At the time it appeared that the ABC had not reported the story.

The Comeback Kid?
By Andrew Fowler and Peter Cronau
Four Corners
ABCTV
February 10th 2012
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2012/02/10/3427070.htm

"Julia Gillard 'after top job a year before coup': WikiLeaks"
By Patricia Karvelas
The Australian
December 17, 2010
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/julia-gillard-after-top-job-a-year-before-coup-wikileaks/story-fn59niix-1225972416553
http://www.news.com.au/national/julia-gillard-after-top-job-a-year-before-coup-wikileaks/story-e6frfkvr-1225972601117?from=public_rss

Wikileaks hacked?

WikiLeaks Now Victim Of Its Own Leak.
by Tom Gjelten
NPR.
September 3rd 2011
http://www.npr.org/2011/09/03/140154900/wikileaks-now-victim-of-its-own-leak

If Julian Assange walks free, he still faces arrest in Australia.
by AP
news.com.au
September 3rd 2011
http://www.news.com.au/technology/julian-assange-faces-arrest-in-australia/story-e6frfro0-1226128705202#ixzz1WsxbwEzu

Julian Assange's tart retort to Robert McClelland, Attorney-General of Australia

"Australian Attorney-General Robert McClelland bemoans having his department being publicly caught out ratting out 23 Australians to the US embassy without due process. If Mr McClelland is unhappy about being caught out, perhaps he should consider cancelling my Australian passport again. It has not after all proven terribly useful to me the last 267 days of my detention without charge. Or perhaps he could do us all a favour - cancel his own passport and deport himself."

Nolan, Tanya (2011) Officials worry WikiLeaks could endanger lives. The World Today. ABC Radio National. August 31, 2011.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-08-31/officials-worry-wikileaks-could-endanger-lives/2864140?section=world

The Most Dangerous Man in the World worth a read

I haven’t been able to find the time to read Andrew Fowler’s new biography of Wikileaks creator Julian Assange from cover to cover, but the stuff that I have read has impressed me. It appears that Fowler has been able to draw from many important sources, including the man himself, for his book. The events in Assange’s life outlined in this book and also in the interview with Fowler by Paul Barclay give many clues about the possible origins of Assange’s attitudes towards the state, feminism and women. The book also gives an IQ score for Assange, and in my opinion one shouldn’t underestimate how much having such a high level of intellectual functioning can alienate a person from society in general. It is my opinion that Assange is a fine example of a famous person who appears to have a number of autistic traits, but whose life story is such that it is not possible to determine whether it is an essentially autistic neurology or a high IQ combined and an isolated childhood that made the person a definite outsider.

An amusing quote referring to Julian Assange by Fowler in an interview broadcast on Big Ideas:
“I like him at the moment - I haven’t spent enough time with him, quite clearly.”

Fowler, Andrew (2011) The Most Dangerous Man in the World: The inside story on Julian Assange and the WikiLeaks secrets. Melbourne Universty Press, 2011.
http://catalogue.mup.com.au/978-0-522-85866-2.html

Barclay, Paul (2011) The Most Dangerous Man In The World. Big Ideas. Radio National ABC. April 14th 2011.
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bigideas/stories/2011/3190587.htm
[an interview with Andrew Fowler about his book about Julian Assange, audio can be downloaded]

John Pilger discussing whistleblowing with Assange on TV tonight

On Sunday April 10th 2011 on SBS1 on Australian TV a documentary by veteran politically-left Australian journalist John Pilger titled Revealing the hidden truths of war: the war you don't see will be broadcast. I believe this documentary includes an interview or discussion between Julian Assange and Pilger. I believe John Pilger will be one of many speakers at a Marxism conference in Melbourne in April.
http://www.sbs.com.au/documentary/
http://www.marxismconference.org/

Kevin Rudd issued a denial the morning after

Australia's Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd has issued a denial regarding the accusations in Julian Assange's question for Australia's PM Julia Gillard, broadcast on the Q & A TV program last night.
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8224020/rudd-denies-wikileaks-info-exchange-claim

Full transcript of Julian Assange's question to the Prime Minister of Australia Julia Gillard on Australian TV on Monday March 14th 2011

The TV show is Q & A, broadcast on the evening of Monday March 14th 2011 in Australia on ABC television, Australia's government-funded TV station. Julian Assange is shown in a non-live, edited video from Norfolk UK, where he is under house arrest. Assange is shown in a shot of his upper body. Shortly before the showing of the video of Assange PM Gillard had been telling the audience that the Australian government has been looking after Julian Assange in just the same way that it looks after any Australian who has gotten into legal trouble overseas. PM Gillard has just returned from an arse-kissing tour of the United States in which she made a speech to the US Congress that made the US House Speaker John Boehner cry, (which isn't really that amazing at all).

Julian Assange -

"Prime Minister, you just got back from Washington, but what Australian citizens want to know, is which country do you represent? Do you represent Australians and will you fight for Australian interests? Because it's not the first time that you or a member of your cabinet has been into a US government building and exchanged information. In fact, we have intelligence that your government has been exchanging information with foreign powers about Australian citizens working for WikiLeaks."

The shot then changes to a closer shot of Assange's head and shoulders. This is a pre-recorded, edited piece of video.

"So Prime Minister, my question to you is this; when will you come clean about precisely what information you have supplied to foreign powers about Australian citizens working or affiliated with WikiLeaks? And if you cannot give a full and frank answer to that question, should perhaps the Australian people consider charging you with treason?"

Assange delivered his question in the style of an evil genius from a James Bond movie issuing veiled threats (pretty much his usual style).

PM Julia Gillard -

I did not take a full transcript of her reply. She had a rather patronizing smile while listening to Assange's question, and stayed cheerful while addressing his question. She said:

"I honestly don't know what he is talking about."

She denied exchanging information about people at WikiLeaks. She admitted that "we" do sometimes exchange information with foreign powers in matters such as following up "transnational crimes". She also said:

"No one in the US raised with me Mr Assange, no one."

When she made this statement she did her characteristic exposed palms patting downward gesture, rather like the gesture that one might make to a dog or a toddler who was jumping up and getting out of control.

Some thoughts that come to my mind after viewing this are:

Assange possibly intended to add to the many minor controversies about Australia's high-profile Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd in the part of Assange's question about people nipping into US government buildings to leak information. Would this be a big deal if it were true? I guess it depends on the information.

What information might our government be receiving in return for leaking information to the yanks?

Is Assange issuing a threat to Gillard or Rudd or some other party?

Is WikiLeaks transforming from a whistleblowing organization into a blackmailing organization?

Link to Australian press story about Assange's question: http://www.smh.com.au/national/tough-qa-assange-hints-at-treason-by-pm-20110314-1buo3.html?from=smh_sb

Q & A http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/

Daniel Domscheit-Berg discussing Julian Assange on Lateline

Daniel Domscheit-Berg has been interviewed on Australian TV discussing Julian Assange. A picture was created of an Australian leader who is highly intelligent, autocratic, eccentric, "not really a team player", someone who doesn't quite belong in human society, a control freak who operates on fear and anger, who prefers to surround himself with compliant and uncritical people, and a bloke who let fame go to his head.

And just for good measure, Domscheit-Berg dropped a big hint in the direction of the autistic spectrum, without actually saying the word "autistic":
"So, on one hand he's a very intelligent person and he's very good with, for example, understanding systems, which is I think key to why WikiLeaks was created in the first place, and understanding of how a system works, how society works, how the media works and all these things. But on the other hand, he's not really good, as I found out, with dealing with humans and accepting criticism, for example."

I wonder, has Mr Domscheit-Berg been taking lessons from David Marr?

WikiLeaks' Assange 'paranoid and autocratic'
Lateline.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 16/02/2011
Reporter: Tony Jones
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2011/s3140943.htm

Gillard scrutinised by Four Corners

It has been around six months since Gillard took over the role of Prime Minister of Australia in the coup that removed Kevin Rudd, and after all this time we see a serious journalistic story broadcast which poses the question "... does she have what it takes to lead the Labor Party and the country?" If people are still asking this question, I think the answer must be obvious.

The Real Julia?
Reporter: Liz Jackson
Four Corners. ABCTV.
Broadcast: 07/02/2011
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2011/s3129028.htm

Paul Howes' book not really a disappointment, because I didn't expect much anyway

I have been reading the recent book by the "faceless man" Paul Howes titled Confessions of a faceless man. Originality is clearly not a trait that defines Mr Howes. This claustrophobic book gives the reader the viewpoint of Howes during the 2010 election, and it is a visit to a world of power, but also a limited and personal world. Mr Howes displays a lack of self awareness and social awareness in that he does not seem to realise that the whole world doesn't care who he likes or doesn't like, and doesn't attach the same importance to social ties and group membership that he does.

This book has done nothing to dispel my fear that petty personal antipathies were an important factor behind what they did to Rudd. Howes makes quite a few unsupported derogatory claims about Rudd's character in this book. It is alarming that Howes has shown in this book how willing he has been to assume that Rudd was the source of the infamous leaks that damaged the ALP during the 2010 election, assuming the worst about a man. I have found no account in the book of Howes attempting himself to investigate the truth of this matter.

I find it interesting that a man who has assumed so many adult responsibilities at an early age (Howes is a married father of three and the head of a major union at the age of 30, and left home to live independently at the end of year 9, forsaking an education), is so fond of using the term "grown-ups" when taking a snipe at people. I think Mr Howes might have unresolved issues of some type with early origins, and I wonder how much trouble those issues might have caused for everyone to date. Howes is an unusual man - every bit as unusual as Rudd, and I am surely not the only person who has noticed that Howes and Rudd seem to be opposite types - Rudd the socially clunky academic star and Howes with his street-smarts but no education. David Marr should have done a job on Mr Howes, but who would bother to write an essay about a faceless man?

I think it is also interesting that Howes tends to favour using terms such as "bizarre", "odd" and "strange" in reference to things or utterances of others that seem to be mistakes or questionable. Howes seems to be a man who would rather drop innuendos about possible mental heath issues of others instead of stating plain judgements. In this book Howes shows his herd-mentality with his fondness of the mental health diagnosis du jour of Australian commentators - he speculates about narcissistic personality disorder in relation to Latham and Rudd. This says so much more about Howes than it does about anyone else.

I find it interesting how little there is written in this book about those troublesome people beyond the world of the ALP, the media and the union movement. I'm talking about voters, the public. They don't get much of a mention in this book, except for references to undefined people who sent Howes abusive messages through his Twitter account. Howes' term for Twitter is "the shit room" for an obvious reason. I've read much of the book but I still haven't found any bit where Howes tackles the big question about Rudd's relationship with the ALP - the question of why the voters were so very willing to vote for Rudd in 2007, but in other actual elections haven't shown nearly the same electoral enthusiasm for the rest of the ALP for a very long time. Mr Howes seems to be so very wrapped up in his tight and collegiate but limited and sharply defined world that he has forgotten that the business of political parties is courting and winning votes, and then governing.

Another thing that is noticeably almost absent from this book is mention of the other "faceless men". I find it hard to believe that this absence is a reflection of the reality of the time that was supposedly chronicled in this election diary. I guess Howes did not want to paint a picture that looks like an evil conspiracy.

In December 2010 the Australian newspaper reported that Paul Howes is one of the protected sources / US embassy informants named in WikiLeaks cable number 08CANBERRA609. Mention of this matter is yet another thing that is absent from this book, but this is hardly surprising.

I'm sure many people reading this book will be wondering how the people in politics and the media described in this book get anything much done while they spend so much time drinking or recovering from drinking, but I'm sure this will surprise no one, considering the long association that the ALP has had with alcoholics and drunken bonding. It's another world.

If you are really interested in Paul Howes this book is worth a read, because it gives an insight into the psychology of the man, who is probably typical of other ALP figures. Howes' passion for defending the rights of refugees is displayed prominently in this book. But if you are hoping to discover any major new information about the events of June 2010, you will be disappointed.

Julia does not approve

"I know there are a lot of people who are fans of Wikileaks. Let me make it very, very clear: I am not."
- Prime Minister Julia Gillard, December 17th 2010

What is that saying? If you have nothing to hide you've got nothing to worry about.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/i-am-not-a-fan-of-wikileaks-says-australias-prime-minister-julia-gillard/story-e6frf7jx-1225972774385

Isn't this news? Isn't this BIG news?

This story was on the front page of the Australian newspaper today, Friday December 17th 2010. When I saw the paper at the Woolies supermarket today I thought "Gosh! She lies like a rug! What a scheming cow! Is it news that a pollie lies like a rug? Maybe not, but still the issue is rather important. I think it is news, but this evening I didn't notice the story on the TV news. I can't find the story on the ABC's news website and it is buried deep within the bowels of the Australian's website. WTF?

I'm also wondering why I can't find the cable that the story was based upon, cable number 09CANBERRA545, at the WikiLeaks website. The website of the Australian newspaper have published it, which can be found here:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/australian-wikileaks-cables/story-fn59niix-1225971723172

"Julia Gillard 'after top job a year before coup': WikiLeaks"
By Patricia Karvelas
The Australian
December 17, 2010
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/julia-gillard-after-top-job-a-year-before-coup-wikileaks/story-fn59niix-1225972416553
http://www.news.com.au/national/julia-gillard-after-top-job-a-year-before-coup-wikileaks/story-e6frfkvr-1225972601117?from=public_rss