Not revealing the name of the country is censorship, Wikileaks' Julian Assange said

The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) has been recording and storing nearly all domestic and international phone calls from Afghanistan, according to Wikileaks' front man Julian Assange.

Wikileaks revealed the name of the country after The Intercept reported Monday that the NSA was actively recording and archiving "virtually every" cellphone call in the Bahamas and one other country under a program called SOMALGET. The Intercept said it did not name the second country because of concerns that doing so could lead to increased violence.

The voice interception program is part of a broader program called MYSTIC revealed in March when the Washington Post published documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

MYSTIC is used to collect phonecall metadata and is used in Mexico, Kenya and the Philippines, according to The Intercept. SOMALGET enables the NSA to gather and store the contents of every conversation in an entire country, it said.

The program gives the NSA the capability to record and store the phone calls of an entire nation for up to 30 days, according to the Washington Post. The paper decided not to identify the countries affected on request of the U.S. government.

While The Intercept revealed the identity of five of the Mystic target countries, Assange said the decision not to name Afghanistan was "censorship."

"Such censorship strips a nation of its right to self-determination on a matter which affects its whole population," ="https://wikileaks.org/WikiLeaks-statement-on-the-mass.html">he said on Wikileak's site. "By denying an entire population the knowledge of its own victimization, this act of censorship denies each individual in that country the opportunity to seek an effective remedy, whether in international courts, or elsewhere," he said.

To protect his source, Assange did not disclose how Wikileaks confirmed the identity of the second country. However, he said, it can also be independently verified through forensic scrutiny of imperfectly applied censorship on related documents released to date, and through correlations with other NSA programs.

The censorship of a victim state's identity directly assists the killing of innocent people, Assange said. The U.S. has been using mass interception programs as a key component in its drone targeting program that has killed "thousands of people and hundreds of women and children in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia in violation of international law," he added.

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Assange names country targeted by NSA's MYSTIC mass phone tapping program

World

WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange remains the subject of an active criminal investigation by the United States Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation, newly published court documents reveal. Papers released in US legal proceedings have revealed that a "criminal/national security investigation" by the US Department of Justice and FBI probe of WikiLeaks is "a multi-subject investigation" that is still "active and ongoing" more than four years after the anti-secrecy website began publishing secret US diplomatic and military documents. Confirmation that US prosecutors have not closed the book on WikiLeaks and Mr Assange comes as a consequence of litigation by the US Electronic Privacy Information Centre to enforce a freedom of information request for documents relating to the FBI's WikiLeaks investigation. Justice Department lawyers last month told the US District Court in Washington DC that there had been "developments in the investigation over the last year." In a document filed with the court on Monday, the US Government further affirmed that the "main, multi-subject, criminal investigation of the [Department of Justice] and FBI remains open and pending" making it necessary "to withhold law enforcement records related to this civilian investigation." In August 2013 US Army private Chelsea Manning, formerly Bradley Manning, was sentenced to 35 years imprisonment, with the possibility of parole in eight years, as a consequence of his conviction on espionage and other charges for leaking thousands of classified US military and diplomatic documents to WikiLeaks. During Private Manning's trial US military prosecutors made repeated references to Mr Assange, alleging that the WikiLeaks publisher guided and directed the soldier's disclosure of classified information. The US Department of Justice opened an investigation of WikiLeaks after Private Manning's arrest in May 2010. Australian diplomatic cables released to Fairfax Media under freedom of information laws later revealed that senior Justice Department officials privately described the investigation as being "unprecedented in scale and nature." Since June 2012 Mr Assange has resided at Ecuador's London embassy where he has been granted political asylum by Ecuador on the grounds that he is at risk of extradition to the US to face conspiracy or other charges. British police are on guard outside the embassy 24 hours a day, waiting to arrest Mr Assange so he can be extradited to Sweden to face questioning about sexual assault and rape allegations that were first raised in August 2010. The cost of the continuous police presence has now exceeded 5.9 million ($10.7 million). Mr Assange's lawyers have advised that his extradition to Sweden could facilitate his extradition to the United States. The British and Swedish governments have declined to provide assurances that Mr Assange would not be extradited to the US. Former Foreign Minister Bob Carr stated in June 2012 that Mr Assange had received more consular assistance than any other Australian over a comparable period. In his recently published diary, Mr Carr observed that "strictly speaking" he didn't know if this was actually the case and that he made the claim "to needle [Assange's] self-righteousness." "He's no more likely to be extradited by the Americans from there than from the United Kingdom," Mr Carr wrote. "Sure enough, my needling has an effect," Mr Carr added. "His mother is sounding off on AM the next morning claiming we should be defending him in Sweden as if it's our job to fight the court cases of Australians in trouble overseas." Mr Carr later told a Senate estimate committee hearing in February 2013 that he would not "over-service" Mr Assange's consular case and had told the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to make no further representations on the matter because it "doesn't affect Australian interests''. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has said she believes Australia has provided "appropriate consular support" to Mr Assange. "He chose to seek political asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy I have judged that the support that we have given to Mr Assange is appropriate in the circumstances," she said in an interview with an Indian newspaper.

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Assange targetted by FBI probe, US court documents reveal

World

WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange remains the subject of an active criminal investigation by the United States Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation, newly published court documents reveal. Papers released in US legal proceedings have revealed that a "criminal/national security investigation" by the US Department of Justice and FBI probe of WikiLeaks is "a multi-subject investigation" that is still "active and ongoing" more than four years after the anti-secrecy website began publishing secret US diplomatic and military documents. Confirmation that US prosecutors have not closed the book on WikiLeaks and Mr Assange comes as a consequence of litigation by the US Electronic Privacy Information Centre to enforce a freedom of information request for documents relating to the FBI's WikiLeaks investigation. Justice Department lawyers last month told the US District Court in Washington DC that there had been "developments in the investigation over the last year." In a document filed with the court on Monday, the US Government further affirmed that the "main, multi-subject, criminal investigation of the [Department of Justice] and FBI remains open and pending" making it necessary "to withhold law enforcement records related to this civilian investigation." In August 2013 US Army private Chelsea Manning, formerly Bradley Manning, was sentenced to 35 years imprisonment, with the possibility of parole in eight years, as a consequence of his conviction on espionage and other charges for leaking thousands of classified US military and diplomatic documents to WikiLeaks. During Private Manning's trial US military prosecutors made repeated references to Mr Assange, alleging that the WikiLeaks publisher guided and directed the soldier's disclosure of classified information. The US Department of Justice opened an investigation of WikiLeaks after Private Manning's arrest in May 2010. Australian diplomatic cables released to Fairfax Media under freedom of information laws later revealed that senior Justice Department officials privately described the investigation as being "unprecedented in scale and nature." Since June 2012 Mr Assange has resided at Ecuador's London embassy where he has been granted political asylum by Ecuador on the grounds that he is at risk of extradition to the US to face conspiracy or other charges. British police are on guard outside the embassy 24 hours a day, waiting to arrest Mr Assange so he can be extradited to Sweden to face questioning about sexual assault and rape allegations that were first raised in August 2010. The cost of the continuous police presence has now exceeded 5.9 million ($10.7 million). Mr Assange's lawyers have advised that his extradition to Sweden could facilitate his extradition to the United States. The British and Swedish governments have declined to provide assurances that Mr Assange would not be extradited to the US. Former Foreign Minister Bob Carr stated in June 2012 that Mr Assange had received more consular assistance than any other Australian over a comparable period. In his recently published diary, Mr Carr observed that "strictly speaking" he didn't know if this was actually the case and that he made the claim "to needle [Assange's] self-righteousness." "He's no more likely to be extradited by the Americans from there than from the United Kingdom," Mr Carr wrote. "Sure enough, my needling has an effect," Mr Carr added. "His mother is sounding off on AM the next morning claiming we should be defending him in Sweden as if it's our job to fight the court cases of Australians in trouble overseas." Mr Carr later told a Senate estimate committee hearing in February 2013 that he would not "over-service" Mr Assange's consular case and had told the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to make no further representations on the matter because it "doesn't affect Australian interests''. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has said she believes Australia has provided "appropriate consular support" to Mr Assange. "He chose to seek political asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy I have judged that the support that we have given to Mr Assange is appropriate in the circumstances," she said in an interview with an Indian newspaper.

Read more from the original source:
Assange targeted by FBI probe, US court documents reveal

World

WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange remains the subject of an active criminal investigation by the United States Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation, newly published court documents reveal. Papers released in US legal proceedings have revealed that a "criminal/national security investigation" by the US Department of Justice and FBI probe of WikiLeaks is "a multi-subject investigation" that is still "active and ongoing" more than four years after the anti-secrecy website began publishing secret US diplomatic and military documents. Confirmation that US prosecutors have not closed the book on WikiLeaks and Mr Assange comes as a consequence of litigation by the US Electronic Privacy Information Centre to enforce a freedom of information request for documents relating to the FBI's WikiLeaks investigation. Justice Department lawyers last month told the US District Court in Washington DC that there had been "developments in the investigation over the last year." In a document filed with the court on Monday, the US Government further affirmed that the "main, multi-subject, criminal investigation of the [Department of Justice] and FBI remains open and pending" making it necessary "to withhold law enforcement records related to this civilian investigation." In August 2013 US Army private Chelsea Manning, formerly Bradley Manning, was sentenced to 35 years imprisonment, with the possibility of parole in eight years, as a consequence of his conviction on espionage and other charges for leaking thousands of classified US military and diplomatic documents to WikiLeaks. During Private Manning's trial US military prosecutors made repeated references to Mr Assange, alleging that the WikiLeaks publisher guided and directed the soldier's disclosure of classified information. The US Department of Justice opened an investigation of WikiLeaks after Private Manning's arrest in May 2010. Australian diplomatic cables released to Fairfax Media under freedom of information laws later revealed that senior Justice Department officials privately described the investigation as being "unprecedented in scale and nature." Since June 2012 Mr Assange has resided at Ecuador's London embassy where he has been granted political asylum by Ecuador on the grounds that he is at risk of extradition to the US to face conspiracy or other charges. British police are on guard outside the embassy 24 hours a day, waiting to arrest Mr Assange so he can be extradited to Sweden to face questioning about sexual assault and rape allegations that were first raised in August 2010. The cost of the continuous police presence has now exceeded 5.9 million ($10.7 million). Mr Assange's lawyers have advised that his extradition to Sweden could facilitate his extradition to the United States. The British and Swedish governments have declined to provide assurances that Mr Assange would not be extradited to the US. Former Foreign Minister Bob Carr stated in June 2012 that Mr Assange had received more consular assistance than any other Australian over a comparable period. In his recently published diary, Mr Carr observed that "strictly speaking" he didn't know if this was actually the case and that he made the claim "to needle [Assange's] self-righteousness." "He's no more likely to be extradited by the Americans from there than from the United Kingdom," Mr Carr wrote. "Sure enough, my needling has an effect," Mr Carr added. "His mother is sounding off on AM the next morning claiming we should be defending him in Sweden as if it's our job to fight the court cases of Australians in trouble overseas." Mr Carr later told a Senate estimate committee hearing in February 2013 that he would not "over-service" Mr Assange's consular case and had told the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to make no further representations on the matter because it "doesn't affect Australian interests''. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has said she believes Australia has provided "appropriate consular support" to Mr Assange. "He chose to seek political asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy I have judged that the support that we have given to Mr Assange is appropriate in the circumstances," she said in an interview with an Indian newspaper.

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Assange targetted by FBI probe

May 19, 2014, 8:23 PM 68,982

REUTERS/Anthony Devlin

The @WikiLeaks Twitter handle is widely considered to be run by its founder, Julian Assange.

America's National SecurityAgency (NSA) can "vacuum up and store the actual content of every conversation" in the Bahamas and an unnamed country, the new publicationThe Intercept reportedMonday,based on documents leaked by Edward Snowden.

Intercept editor Glenn Greenwald who wrote about documents leaked by Snowden when he was a columnist at The Guardian said the publicationdidn't reveal the country because it was "very convinced" that doing so would lead to "deaths."

The Intercept

This graphic shows the countries targeted in the program detailed by The Intercept.

After a heated discussion among WikiLeaks, Greenwald, Intercept editor in chief John Cook, and American WikiLeaks hacker turned Der Spiegal contributor Jacob Appelbaum, WikiLeaks tweeted that it would reveal the name of the second country being spied on by the NSA.

That threat implies that WikiLeaks knows the other country which would be possible only if the rogue publishing organizationdeduced it from the redaction or has access to the Snowden documents.

The most plausible way for WikiLeaks to have access to a Snowden cache is if Appelbaum, who led the reporting on several Der Spiegel articles based on NSA documents (which may or may not be from Snowden), shared information with his friend and WikiLeaks editor in chief Julian Assange. Applebaum tweeted thatThe Intercept's redaction was "a mistake."

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WikiLeaks Threatens To Reveal Information That Glenn Greenwald Says Could Lead To 'Deaths'

Politics intelligence

WikiLeaks has threatened to unilaterally release the name of an as-yet unnamed country in which every cell phone call is recorded by the National Security Agency, despite the decision by other news outlets to withhold that information for fear of stoking violence.

That announcement comes after a war of words over Twitter between WikiLeaks and journalists at The Intercept, which reported Monday that the NSA collects cell phone metadata in Mexico, the Philippines and Kenya, and records and keeps for up to a month all cell phone calls in the Bahamas and one unnamed country. The Intercept declined to release the name of that country, the outlet says, due to credible concerns that doing so could lead to increased violence. The Intercept report is based on documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

@GGreenwald @johnjcook We will reveal the name of the censored country whose population is being mass recorded in 72 hours. WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) May 19, 2014

The Intercept is a media group launched earlier this year by a group of journalists including two of those originally granted access to the Snowden documents, Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras. The existence of this specific NSA recording program, code named MYSTIC, was previously reported by The Washington Post, which declined to name any of the countries involved.

WikiLeaks threat to publish the identity of the redacted country, if credible, suggests the organization has obtained access to documents leaked by Snowden or has been informed of the countrys identity by someone with access to the documents. Snowden has said he did not leak documents directly to WikiLeaks, but the key players in both organizationsGreenwald, Poitras, WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief Julian Assangeare well acquainted with one another.

According to the report, the NSA obtained access to the Bahamas cell phone networks by piggy backing on access legally obtained by the Drug Enforcement Agency, with the DEAs cooperation. The Intercept declined to report the code name for a private firm that allows access to cell phone data in the Bahamas due to a specific, credible concern that doing so could lead to violence.

The program, codenamed SOMALGET, is part the NSAs umbrella program MYSTIC, under which, The Intercept reports, the agency also collects metadata on the telecommunications of several other countries, including Mexico, the Philippines, and Kenya, similar to the telecom surveillance the NSA conducts in the United States.

Rather than the anti-terrorism work routinely used to justify the NSAs surveillance activities, SOMALGET, according to NSA documents quoted by The Intercept, exists primarily as a part of the drug war to monitor international narcotics traffickers and special-interest alien smugglers.

In a statement to TIME, NSA spokesperson Vanee Vines did not deny the existence of the program but said, The fact that the U.S. government works with other nations, under specific and regulated conditions, mutually strengthens the security of all. Vines confirmed that the scope of the agencys mandate extends well beyond counterterrorism efforts.

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WikiLeaks Threatens To Reveal Unnamed Country From Snowden Documents

Drug addiction in Jurez represents a daily drug-trafficking market of about $2.3 million, according to files disclosed by online whistleblower WikiLeaks.

The leaked file cites a Mexican official who is referred to only as "MX-1." During a meeting with U.S. and Mexican officials, the official identified as MX-1 said "that Jurez has a drug abuse problem which amounts to about 30 million pesos a day."

"It's a 30 million peso a day market for Jurez, with anywhere from 2,000 to 2,500 individuals," MX-1 said. "He (MX-1) added, for example, they know that most of the people that are participating in the kidnappings are addicts," according to the leaked file.

At the current exchange rate, 30 million pesos is about $2.3 million in U.S. currency.

Guillermo Valenzuela, Aliviane Inc.'s director of community affairs, said he suspects that the number of addicts quoted in the leaked document (2,000-2,500) likely refers to heroin users, only because the total number of addicts is much higher based on other sources.

"My understanding is that Jurez and Tijuana now have the largest number of addicts in Mexico," Valenzuela said. "We can't provide a dollar figure for what the market for drug addicts represents in El Paso, because we've never had such a study funded."

Aliviane operates the largest rehabilitation center in El Paso.

Mexican health officials reported three years ago that Jurez had approximately 45,000 addicts, and about half of those abused illegal drugs.

During the Arturo Gallegos Castrellon drug and murder conspiracy trial in February, witnesses testified that a drug cell operating in El Paso handled millions of dollars in drug proceeds on a monthly basis.

Another witness in the trial said his group had amassed $11.8 million from drug proceeds, and that it took two days to count the cash.

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WikiLeaks highlight concerns about Juárez drug abuse, Mexican drug wars

The Pentagon is moving toward transferring Pvt. Chelsea Manning from a military prison to a civilian prison so the WikiLeaks leaker canreceivehormone treatment after beingdiagnosed by military doctors withgender dysphoria, a marked incongruence between ones experienced/expressed gender and assigned gender.

Formerly known as Bradley Manning, the privatewas court-martialed last year and sentenced to 35 years for forwarding a cache of classified documents toWikiLeaks.

After anAugust 2013 espionage conviction for leaking more than 700,000 documents and video, Manningannounced that shewould live as a woman with the name Chelsea going forward. A non-military judge approved the name change last month.Hormone therapy, which she has requested, will assist her in her transition. Currently, that therapy is not an option in military prisons.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, the Associated Press reported, has approved the Army developing a plan to move Manning to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, where gender treatment is offered. Defense officials told the AP that the Army will soon meet with the Justice Department to discuss the situation before making any final decisions.

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Pentagon moving to get WikiLeaks leaker Manning gender treatment

Google Fusion Tables: How The Guardian Mapped WikiLeaks
Full video from Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism available http://fora.tv/2014/04/27/workshop_making_data_come_alive_with_google_maps Vanessa Schneider, Geo Media Program Manager at...

By: ForaTv

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Google Fusion Tables: How The Guardian Mapped WikiLeaks - Video

U.S. LGBT Artist rendering of how Chelsea Manning sees herself. Alicia NealChelsea Manning Support Network

Updated at 5:36 p.m.

Chelsea Manning, the transgender soldier serving a 35-year sentence for leaking state secrets to WikiLeaks, has rejected a Pentagon plan to move her to a civilian facility in order to receive the hormone therapy she requested 10 months ago.

The Department of Defense was considering transferring Manning, formerly known as Bradley, from a military prison at Fort Leavenworth to a facility run by the civilian Federal Bureau of Prisons, the Associated Press reported earlier Wednesday, citing two anonymous defense officials. In the past, inmates in the Bureau of Prisons system have received hormone therapy for gender identity disorder.

For almost a year, the military declined to act on the request for hormone therapy, standard medical treatment for transgender individuals. Military prisoners have not requested such treatment in the past, according to the AP, and transgender individuals are unaffected by the repeal of Dont Ask, Dont Tell and barred from serving openly in the armed forces.

In a strongly-worded statement released Wednesday, Mannings attorney David Coombs blasted what he called the Pentagons strategic leak, calling it a transparent attempt to pressure Chelsea into dropping her request for needed treatment under the artificial guise of concern for her medical needs.

Coombs said his client would be unsafe in a civilian federal prison.

The Pentagons leak, he said, is intended to strong-arm Chelsea into backing down in her requests for medical treatment, ironically using the same method (leaking information) that sent Chelsea to prison for 35 years. Manning was sentenced in 2013 for leaking more than 700,000 military and diplomatic documents to WikiLeaks while stationed as an Army intelligence analyst near Baghdad.

The Pentagons position on transgender personnel has garnered attention in recent days, after Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Sunday hes open to re-evaluating the militarys ban on openly transgender servicemembers. AP reports that the military is considering transferring Manning. If true, that could suggest that such a review should not be expected any time soon.

On Tuesday, Hagel told reporters there is nothing concrete in the works about reconsidering the policy.

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Chelsea Manning Doesn’t Want Move to Civilian Prison