Chill Out Culture

The All Purpose Guide on How to Handle Criticism™ has been developed for when you’ve written very silly/racist/bigoted/mean things on social media and someone has the outrageous temerity to query you on them.

1.0 Scream “You gatekeepers!” and metaphorically roll eyes at sycophants.
1.5 Important update to improve book sales of defended icon: “You OBVIOUSLY haven’t read the book!”

2.0 Complain bitterly about being censored and silenced.
2.1 Whine piteously about how the critic is being “divisive”.
2.2 Quick security fix: “You’re singling out [Insert object of emotive bias] for criticism!”
2.3 Special multi-purpose combined update – “You have no sense of humor!” “it’s just a joke!!” “It’s only words on a screen.” “Get off your computer and do something important!”

3.0 Wail about “bullying” and launch into a satisfying tirade of ad hominem. They started it.

4.0 Moan about “call out culture” and call the patronising sods out back in a never-ending loop where “discourse” disappears up its own meta-orifice.

Coming soon …

5.0 …… Intellectual honesty?

This program is evolving open source software with a Creative Commons licence, so feel free to develop your own version – if you forget to credit the above version history, expect an interloper, who will test you on your proficiency with the program.

Callout Culture

Hi ho the diddlio
A-trolling I shall go,
First thing in the morning,
while i’m still a-yawning,
sizzling up some tender meat
racist ranters smell so sweet.

Oh white saviour –
the burden of empire
faithfully carried
on the backs of the willing,
Oh white saviour –
with rightness of whiteness
imperial bait and switch
rules still over the outflung colonies
with their vanguard ingrates.

Jinjirrie, December 2013.

Related Links

B-grade politics and reaction
CastleVainia: On a divisive consensus in favour of hating identity politics

Egyptians Reject the Tyrannical Status Quo

While Tahrir Square in Cairo remains the focus for pro-democracy protest, strikes to protest the Egyptian dictatorial regime are rolling across the fertile Nile Delta – even musicians are on strike.

Revolutionary rapper Lowkey comments:

“These democracy activists, as we speak that are in Liberation Square, are having their pictures taken by the State Security and State Television and by media all over the world and those activists are being targeted. They are being targeted with the full support of the United States. What the United States is trying to do at this stage is maintain the status quo, but change the face. They want a more acceptable face to the exact same status quo and the people are rejecting that status quo.”

While the US puts more stopgap suggestions to the Mubarak/Suleiman regime, Wael Ghonim expresses the wishes of the protesters. Move over, Malcolm Gladwell, here’s Wael Ghonim on the Egyptian Internet Revolution 2.0.

Egypt Links

The Palestine Cables: Egyptian VP Suleiman, Israel’s favorite, wants ‘Gaza to go ‘hungry’ but not ‘starve”
Exclusive: Mamdouh Habib interview on new US/Israeli Egyptian pet Omar Suleiman
US company helped Egypt spy on citizens
Labor Actions in Egypt Boost Protests
Egypt Revolution’s Actors: The Media (pt.1)
Obama and Egypt’s Future
Egypt takes aim at Al-Jazeera for protest coverage
Egypt: Strike! Strike! Strike!
Wael Ghonim: Negotiation days with Mubarak are over
Mubarak rumored to be planning ‘sick leave’ in Germany
Omar Suleiman warns of coup as tensions rise between Egyptian demonstrators, army
Egyptian workers take the lead
Iran refuses opposition permission to march in support of Arab uprisings
US Marines heading to Egypt?
Ben Ali and Mubarak: Brothers in arms
Meet Egypt’s Future Leaders
The Crumbling Anchors of Mubarak’s Support
Egypt’s army ‘involved in detentions and torture’
Musicians’ Union protest
US sets parameters for Egypt

Suleiman was quoted on Sunday as suggesting Egypt was not ready for democracy and a government statement said the emergency law would be lifted “according to the security conditions” — a phrase giving the authorities wide latitude.

As Egyptians staged one of their biggest anti-Mubarak protests yet, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs described Suleiman’s comments about democracy as “unhelpful.”

Mubarak, under pressure from more than two weeks of unprecedented demonstrations, has said he will not seek re-election in September but has refused to resign.

After Biden spoke to Suleiman by telephone on Tuesday, the White House issued a statement listing four steps the United States wants Egypt to take:

1. “Restraining the Ministry of Interior’s conduct by immediately ending the arrests, harassment, beating, and detention of journalists, and political and civil society activists, and by allowing freedom of assembly and expression;

2. “immediately rescinding the emergency law;

3. “broadening participation in the national dialogue to include a wide range of opposition members; and,

4. “inviting the opposition as a partner in jointly developing a roadmap and timetable for transition.”

#Jan25 Telecommunication workers on strike
Egypt and Poli-Sci US academia
Obama consults Saudi King Abdullah on Egypt

“The President emphasized the importance of taking immediate steps toward an orderly transition that is meaningful, lasting, legitimate, and responsive to the aspirations of the Egyptian people.

“The President also reaffirmed the long-term commitment of the United States to peace and security in the region.”

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who is under siege after days of raging street protest is known to be close to King Abdullah, who has condemned efforts by what he said were “intruders” to interfere with Egypt’s stability.

‘We Focused Too Much on the Rulers’ – patronising EU racism about the arab revolt in Egypt
Richard Cohen: Egyptian democracy will be “a nightmare” – US racism against the arab revolt
Egypt army would intervene in case of chaos, minister says
Sheridan, faithful shill for Israel, lies and drums up fear of the MB in Murdoch gutter press
WikiLeaks: Suleiman told Israel he would ‘cleanse’ Sinai of arms runners to Gaza
The Revolt in Egypt is Coming Home – John Pilger
Hamas says Egypt ex-minister tied to church attack
The minister had tried to blame the bombing on a Palestinian group associated with AQ
Egyptian military & regime systematic discrimination against Copts
Prosecution investigates Interior Minister’s alleged involvement in church attack
Egypt says military intervention on table
J Street says it invited boycott advocate to its conference so as to pillory her

Palestine / Israel Links

The Palestine Papers, or How Everything You Thought You Knew about the Peace Process Was Wrong
Al Arakib villagers beaten and gassed as they protest the 16th demolition of their homes
Well Gideon, the poor people of Egypt may be ignorant in your view, but they are not stupid, nor ignorant of the scam that is pulled on them by their regime at the behest of imperialism.
AICafe 11.2: Practical Advocacy, BDS Actions in Europe
Israel bombs medical aid warehouse in Gaza EXCLUSIVE PICTURES
Education in East Jerusalem: A Prohibited Democratic Right
Center: Woman detained en route to brother’s cell
UK physician to TAU: Discipline pro-boycott academics
U.S. reaffirms commitment to Israel’s security
Center: Expired food at Israel prison
Temporary ban on Palestinians entering Egypt
Students protest Israeli diplomat Khaldi in Edinburgh
The glib ambassador – The Israeli envoy in Britain is wrong to condemn student protests
Israeli war criminal Barak whines about Egyptian democracy protests to Obama
Will Egypt Protests Boost Israel’s Budding Energy Market?
‘Army of Shadows’ Hillel Cohen
Wikileaks: The economic reasons behind the siege on Gaza
Personal data decision set to boost EU-Israel trade

Wikileaks Links

2011-02-09 Wikileaks responds to one of the Wikileaks tell all books

Other Links

Grassroots Support for Aristide’s Return
Turkey’s rising role in the Middle East and its foundering EU Accession – A star-crossed collision?
“All those involved in my treatment should be jailed for war crimes” Former Guantánamo Bay prisoner Mamdouh Habib speaks with WSWS
Torturing Democracy
‘Tortured’ British man in Iraq faces trial tomorrow
Young Activist Faces 10 Years in Prison After Trying to Save Public Lands From Oil and Gas Companies
Expelling journalists: a long-established FSB policy
The Iraq Briefing Book

In Solidarity, People Have the Power; Communication & Information are Tools

Ben AliBen Ali, cruel, corrupt dictator of Tunisia for the past 23 years, has fled to Saudi Arabia where he’s esconced with his kindred American-sponsored oppressors and nutjobs. Viva Tunisia, Abajo con La Bestia, Tierra y Libertad!

The blogonewspunditwitosphere is swarming with theoreticians, some suggesting Wikileaks played an integral role, others admiring social media, still others more measured and analytic, and others highlighting the dangers of social media for protestors.

Being well-enmeshed in the social media arena, I have perceived continuous international solidarity for the Tunisian revolution, with people’s liberation movements against injustice across the Middle East and elsewhere that tyranny blooms darkly. Yet while information, communication and cyberactivism essentially grease the wheels of change, it is suffering people under the boot who put their lives at risk on the front line, doing the really heavy lifting and organisation.

Few commentators outside the African/Middle East region have examined the impact of “Mohamed Bouazizi, the young Tunisian who set himself on fire in protest against unemployment and poverty” who “has become a symbol of Tunisian sacrifices for freedom”, or extolled the involvement of Tunisian trade unions, grassroots solidarity movements and opposition parties. As Qunfuz notes:

The dictator, thief and Western client Zein al-Abdine Ben Ali, beloved until a few hours ago in Paris and Washington, has been driven from Tunisia. His reign was ended not by a military or palace coup but by an extraordinarily broad-based popular movement which has brought together trades unions and professional associations, students and schoolchildren, the unemployed and farmers, leftists, liberals and intelligent Islamists, men and women. One of the people’s most prominent slogans will resonate throughout the Arab world and beyond: la khowf ba’ad al-yowm, or No Fear From Now On.

Egyptian blogger, Zeinobia, further dispels colonial western mythology which minimises the achievement of the Tunisian people.

No one has a hand in the success of this revolution except the people of Tunisia , no Islamists nor communists , it was a pure people’s action. Those who only woke up on the revolution last Friday have these lame excuses and explanations because they did not follow the matter since the 17th of December 2010. I am proud to say that I have followed it since the beginning ,this is a real people’s revolution. The people of the world do not understand what is happening because it happened too fast. The Tunisian people are highly educated , they have the highest level of literacy in the Arab world and Africa combined together , they know their rights very well and they have suffered a lot. They know what they know and did.

With a tangible, similar grassroots movement for liberation within Egypt and elsewhere, Mubarak and his fellow puppet dictators must be very nervous indeed. How will the neocolonial empire regard the potential tumbling of its house of cards? what of the actions of the Israeli coloniser if Egypt follows the Tunisian trajectory? would Israel then shift its convenient ‘existential threat’ tactic to focus on Egypt rather than Iran?

Remembering Muriawec’s Grand Strategy “Iraq is the tactical pivot, Saudi Arabia the strategic pivot, Egypt the prize” theorem which ignited some in the Pentagon and inspired neozioconservatives, what are these dark forces ruminating? will the empire choose to relinquish power and opt for sleazy neoliberal ‘polite rape’ or are we heading toward a stark regional standoff where it is increasingly exposed and isolated as the major hand supporting tyranny?

The imperial entity and its cronies supported the Tunisian dictatorship, as it was considered to be a reliable partner in the duplicitous ‘war on terrorism’.

During a 2004 visit by Ben Ali to the White House, in advance of Tunisia’s hosting of an Arab League summit, George Bush, the then US president, praised his guest as an ally in the war on terrorism, and praised Tunisia’s reforms in “press freedom” and the holding of “free and competitive elections”.

The same was repeated in 2008 by Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, who praised the improved “sphere of liberties” when human rights abuses were rampant in Tunisia. In once instance, at least 200 people were prosecuted against the backdrop of socio-economic protests in one southern mining town, Redhayef.

When certain European officials criticised Tunisia’s human rights record, they generally praised its economic performance.

For US and European leaders, Tunisia’s deposed president had been considered a staunch ally in the war on terrorism and against Islamist extremism.

In solidarity, we can keep reminding each other through many convenient means that the main game is for money, impunity, power positioning and control of resources against equal human rights, liberty and justice. Unless power is wrested from the ruling class, unless all are equally subject to the rule of law, the cards have merely been shuffled.

Related Links

Arab Activism: Brought to you by a White Man
2011-01-15 What the US state cables on Tunisia said
The Press Release The ADC Did Not Release On The Revolution In TUNISIA
Tunisian poet Echebbi’s words hold warning for tyrants of Arab world
Timeline: Tunisia’s civil unrest
Tunisians cautious on concessions
Talk Morocco on the Tunisian Uprising
Social media and the Tunisian revolution
What if Tunisia’s revolution ended up like Iran’s?
Could Tunisia Be The Next Twitter Revolution? Ctd
Wikileaks disclosures play key role in Ben Ali’s outing
For the Arab World, a Potent Lesson
“Centrism” and the Rule of Law
Was What Happened in Tunisia a Twitter Revolution?
The First Middle Eastern Revolution since 1979
#Tunisia a small country, without natural resources, but… #sidibouzid
This Is The Wikileak That Sparked The Tunisian Crisis
Tunisia: the Uprising Has a Hashtag
Tunisian president toppled
Tunisia’s bitter cyberwar
‘First Wikileaks Revolution’: Tunisia riots blamed on cables which revealed country’s corruption
The rebirth of Arab activism
Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution: Unprecedented, but uncertain
Tunisia Uprising 2010/11
Ousted president in Saudi Arabia
Profile: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali – Tunisian president flees amid a wave of deadly social protests in a dramatic end to his 23 years in power.
photo of police in uniforms pillaging & looting shops #sidibouzid
Tonight we are all Tunisians
The First WikiLeaks Revolution?
Pro-U.S. President Flees Tunisia: That WikiLeaks Angle
Joy as Tunisian President Flees Offers Lesson to Arab Leaders
Not Twitter, Not WikiLeaks: A Human Revolution
Tunisia: Can We Please Stop Talking About ‘Twitter Revolutions’

Today’s Palestine / Israel Links

Israeli bulldozers do the talking
Israeli occupation to build a hotel on the ruins of the Qashala cemetery
Israel grouchy with its collaborating oppressors? blocks delivery of Russian armored vehicles to Palestinian territories
Latest Chapter in Mideast Tension Is Dennis Ross vs. George Mitchell
AIPAC’s Man, Dennis Ross, Now In Charge of Middle East
World-renowned computer scientist suffers harrowing mid-air IQ drop
Palin doesn’t threaten pogroms
Glenn Beck’s Jewish Obsession Plus More On Iran Sanctions Idiocy
CPJ condemns Israeli security for humiliating screening
Leading UK store backs settlement boycott
Salah Ad-Din Al-Husseini, Prominent Palestinian poet dies in Cairo
Orthodox publication openly calls for death camps
Pro-Israel Control of Obama’s Middle East Policy

Today’s Wikileaks Links

Blacklisting WikiLeaks
John Pilger’s Investigation Into the War on WikiLeaks and His Interview With Julian Assange
NSW Greens MP explains why Wikileaks matters
Belarusian Helsinki Commitee & Frontline, HR organisations, targeted by Lukashenka
Government-controlled newspaper accuses EU countries of plotting Lukashenka’s overthrow
More opposition activists have homes searched by KGB
More Shamir shenanigans, and someone else is noticing:
This is how many of us feel about Wikileaks
WikiLeaks covers Belarus’ banking sector
“… Below is the full version of the document provided to the online Naviny.by newspaper by representative of the WikiLeaks media organization Israel Shamir.”
Unpublished Wikileaks Cables Appear on State-Backed Belarussian Website
Belarus: Widespread searches and judicial harassment of human rights defenders following Presidential Elections
Unredacted WikiLeaks Cables Leaked to Internet

Other Links

The United States as Jared Loughner: How the State Sanctifies Murder
Brazil’s environment chief resigns over controversial Amazon dam
More than 610 killed in Brazil flooding, mudslides
Alastair Campbell diaries: How Blair’s Bible reading prompted Iraq ‘wobble’
PHR’s new report, Broken Laws, Broken Lives, “for the first time medical evidence to confirm first-hand accounts of men who endured torture by US personnel in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo Bay. These men were never charged with any crime.”
USA Today Edits the Count of the Dead in Iraq
Obama in Tucson: Shame, Hypocrisy and Deceit
Australian floods: Why were we so surprised?
Kuwait: Physical assault, arbitrary detention and fears of unfair trial against human rights defender Dr Obaid Alwasmi
No Victors in Lebanon
Aboriginal languages in NSW

Viral Anonops Paperstorm Campaign

Download Wikileaks posters and other paraphenalia for Operation Paperstorm.

While you are at it, please vote here for signs to go on buses in Seattle highlighting Israeli war crimes.

PaperstormToday’s Wikileaks Links

Julian Assange Calls ABC News Reporter ‘Tabloid Schmuck’ And Walks Off When Asked About Rape Charges
Freed Assange launches attack on ‘illegal and aggressive’ US investigation
Assange denounces ‘business McCarthyism’
Wikileaks and the Moral Dualism of the U.S. State Department
Robert Fisk: Stay out of trouble by not speaking to Western spies
Not-So-Gentle Persuasion: US Bullies Spain into Proposed Website Blocking Law
Joe Biden v. Joe Biden on WikiLeaks – Glenn Greenwald slices through absurd US prevarications
Why Israel has not figured in Wikileaks yet – unfortunately titled post by Asad Abukhalil as there are several cables dealing with Israel and Palestine which I’m annotating on this site.
John Pilger: Swedes are smearing him and encouraging the US – this article refers to the Guardian annotation of Swedish allegations.
Is Julian Assange being railroaded or will European Court on Human Rights derail the train
WikiLeaks’ lesson on Haiti
US embassy cables: ICC prosecutor alleges Bashir secret fortune of $9bn
US embassy cables: US sought to press new EU chief on rendition
WikiLeaks cables: Julian Assange says his life is ‘under threat’
Bank of America Suspends Payments to WikiLeaks
The Anonymous WikiLeaks protests are a mass demo against control
Opinion: WikiLeaks and its anti-Semitic spokesmen
WikiLeaks founder not welcome at Davos forum
‘Hope Is Action’: Hedges and Ellsberg Arrested at White House Protest
WikiLeaks’ Assange gets leaked on
Julian Assange’s Secret Patron
Wikileaks: MPAA, RIAA and BSA Lobbied for HADOPI
WikiLeaks Reveals U.S. Twisted Ethiopia’s Arm to Invade Somalia
Julian Assange like a hi-tech terrorist, says Joe Biden
Wikileaks Show Why Washington Won’t Allow Democracy in Haiti
US Pressured Italy to Influence Judiciary with CIA Renditions

Today’s Australian Wikileaks Links

Policy failure puts Fiji on brink of ruin
US pressure over Saddam scientist
Julian Assange Don’t Shoot the Messenger stamps
Aussie “journalist” repeats “get Iran” mantra of her Zionist lobby friends

Today’s Palestine / Israel Links

The orphaned Israeli left
U.S. military chief: We are ‘very ready’ to counter Iran – more US lies about Iran’s intentions
UN: Israel demolished 47 Palestinian structures in one week
New York-based rabbi: Letter forbidding rental to Arabs endangers Jews abroad
Bantustan on track : Palestinian PM: Plan to declare statehood by 2011 remains on track
Hasbara joke of the day : Clinton a danger to Israel
Book review: “Spy Trade” details history of Israel lobby in the US
Arab states preparing UN resolution against Israeli settlements
Marrickville Council first to support the boycott Israel campaign
On Clinton’s sycophantic, racist speech on Israel
MNA Khadir in Quebec urges boycott of shoe store selling shoes made in apartheid Israel
Ladysmith Black Mambazo plans to break the boycott against Israel and play there – disgraceful
US Senators can’t handle the truth about apartheid Israel – Seeking Boycott of Durban 111
‘Israeli War Crimes’ signs to go on Metro buses
Obama’s failure has served to expose Israeli intransigence here and abroad
Palestinian farmer watches settlers burn 19 of his sheep, killing 12
Disorganized Priorities (as usual) – housies have other things to do.
Israel/West Bank: Separate and Unequal : HRW Report on Israeli apartheid
NGO Monitor’s scurrilous response to the HRW report
Palestinians embark on the ‘Intifada of Graves’ – the evil Israeli occupier objects to Palestinians burying their dead on Palestinian land
Zionism is the chauvinist poison which renders Israel as a deadend toxic ghetto.
Settlers Destroy Farms and Trees Near Nablus, Unleash Dog on 66-year-old
“Boycott Sabra and Tribe Hummus” guerilla advertising spotted in San Francisco
The State of Israel Against Freedom of Expression
High Court ruled tax breaks based on location discriminate against Arab communities but government ignored ruling
Kosovo organ donor ring: the Israeli connection
S. African politicians ‘beaten up by IDF’ – Parliament members say ‘shoved’ by soldiers during anti-Israel protest in village near Bethlehem last week.
Netanyahu: Peace process deadlock not the reason for attacks on Israel
Refugees’ flat torched in Ashdod – Burning tire thrown at apartment’s door; five Sudanese nationals lightly hurt
Israel can’t defeat Hezbollah – Israeli expert
Human Rights Watch report: West Bank ‘separate but unequal’ – dastardly NGO Monitor glowering at the end

Other Links

Afghans: Victimized by Conflict, Occupation, Extreme Deprivation and Genocide
US drones slaughter 54 in Pakistan
Who is worthy of ‘self determination’ in Iraq
Scale of Walsh cover-up by church breathtaking
10,000 Belarusians protesting against election
Uladzimir Niakliaeu, leader of the opposition movement “Za Praudu” (“For Truth”) and several of his people were badly beaten today by people in dark camouflage.
Minsk, Protests
Bite Me : An evolutionary case for cannibalism.

Hypo-ethical

On The Drum, Jonathan Holmes has broached the Fairfax vessel and uncovered its seedy motives for ignoring the ‘scientific journalism’ process made possible by Wikileaks and extolled by Assange.

Third, Julian Assange has made another claim for WikiLeaks, which he says sets it apart from other media organisations. According to this op-ed in The Australian last week:

WikiLeaks coined a new type of journalism: scientific journalism. We work with other media outlets to bring people the news, but also to prove it is true. Scientific journalism allows you to read a news story, then to click online to see the original document it is based on. That way you can judge for yourself: Is the story true? Did the journalist report it accurately?

Well, WikiLeaks clearly doesn’t insist on ‘scientific journalism’ being practised by all the media outlets with which it’s working. The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald are still publishing story after story by Philip Dorling – stories that have deeply embarrassed or compromised Kevin Rudd, Mark Arbib, Joel Fitzgibbon, and Stephen Gumley, to name just a few, not to mention the US Embassy in Canberra. But we can’t judge for ourselves if Dorling has reported accurately or fairly, because Fairfax hasn’t posted a single cable online.

On Monday I sent an email to SMH editor-in-chief Peter Fray, asking him why not. His response (read it in full here) makes it clear that the primary reason is to protect not the public, but Fairfax’s commercial, interest:

…the volume of material in The Australian referenced cables means we are still mining the source documents. There are, for instance, several potential stories in each cable; to put the material online would be to give access to our competitors in the local market.

That’s not a line of reasoning that has prevented The Guardian, the New York Times, Der Spiegel, Le Monde or any other of WikiLeaks’s collaborators from posting cables online to support their stories; and it would seem to be in direct contravention of the principles espoused by Julian Assange. Perhaps he’s been too preoccupied by other matters recently to have noticed.

Philip Dorling has undoubtedly scored a major scoop for Fairfax. Most of the stories he’s writing – and there are goodness knows how many to come – are fascinating, especially to politics and foreign policy junkies. But we’re having to take them on trust, and we shouldn’t have to. And very few are telling us stuff we didn’t already know (Kevin Rudd’s a control freak; Defence Procurement is a mess; China doesn’t like the Defence White Paper): what they are telling us is that the US Embassy knew it too, often before we did. Surprise, surprise.

The Australian puts in its bib bleating “We would have loved the leaks given to Fairfax papers but we note the problems they have had sieving wheat from chaff”, patting itself and the rest of the mainstream media on the back for raising Wikileak’s circulation, and filtering the information on behalf of an inept public. This is the sort of contemptuous attitude which further encourages one to distrust Australian dead wood media generally. The UK Guardian has managed to keep its pact with its readers, while Australians are deemed inadequate.

Geoffrey Robertson, QC is to defend Julian Assange tonight in old Blighty, and this will not be televised but live-blogged at the Guardian. Around the globe, demonstrations for Wikileaks and Julian Assange proliferate, and ‘all-out cyberwar’ is presaged following the trial.

Hearing

@newsbrooke Heather Brooke
In an amazing nod to the fact we live in digital age, judge has said we can tweet #assange. So I will be along w @AlexiMostrous #

Today’s Wikilinks

Julian Assange to appear in court to appeal for release
RBS chairman said directors ‘failed to live up to their duties’
Mervyn King plotted banks bailout by four cash-rich nations
Wikileaks Events and protests
In Defense of DDoS
Iceland may ban MasterCard, Visa over WikiLeaks censorship
A brilliant fan-made video
J’Accuse: Sweden, Britain, and Interpol Insult Rape Victims Worldwide
The US Government’s pursuit of WikiLeaks could be its undoing
‘Draconian’ whistleblowing laws need an overhaul, says academic
George Monbiot: These astroturf libertarians are the real threat to internet democracy
Why Wikileaks is now splitting the liberal elite
Criminal Prohibitions on the Publication of Classified Defense Information
Wikiriver – wikileaks newsfeed

Today’s Australian Wikilinks

‘Defend Wikileaks’ Australian rallies & meetings
More than 1000 WikiLeaks protesters have vowed to march through Sydney today despite being refused permission by police.
Julian Assange’s overdue library book
WikiLeaks ‘a risk’: Defence Minister Smith

Rallies defend Wikileaks and the ‘right to know’
Lowy Institute Rory Medcalf “The website is bad for diplomacy and encourages voyeurism”. Newspeak for public scrutiny of politicians?
Sydney rally – http://yfrog.com/h2spfuj, http://yfrog.com/gyqxnnj, http://yfrog.com/h05m8aj, http://yfrog.com/h03k2jgj, http://yfrog.com/gy29tjj, http://yfrog.com/h0hz6hj, http://yfrog.com/h34yxnj, http://yfrog.com/h4w6otj, http://twitpic.com/3fsstd, http://twitpic.com/3fsoon, http://twitpic.com/3fsr4k, http://twitpic.com/3fsrl4

WikiLeaks protesters stopped by riot police – Sydney
Defending Wikileaks faces Oprah-obsessed police force

Melbourne rally – http://yfrog.com/h2oy3bnj, http://yfrog.com/h3nc7apj, http://yfrog.com/h4mgqbtj, http://yfrog.com/h2lm8nj, http://yfrog.com/h3si1lj, http://yfrog.com/h3wcmjj, http://yfrog.com/h37ioaj, http://yfrog.com/h05m8aj, http://yfrog.com/0cv2bz, http://yfrog.com/gyty5bj, http://yfrog.com/gy8qvuj, http://yfrog.com/h0qlngj, http://yfrog.com/h0kxqtj, http://yfrog.com/h4xksdj
LCA reins in profession over WikiLeaks outrage

Today’s Palestine / Israel Links

Rescuing Zionism at Palestinian expense – Ali Abunimah shows how the US has chosen racism and Israel over Palestinian human rights and justice.
Gaza Health Ministry: 137 of required medicines out of stock
Stormy weather adds to plight of Gaza’s refugees
US editorial says Israel similar to North Korea
Knesset Approves New Law Preventing Detainees From Meeting Lawyers For Six Month
EU shelves recognition of Palestine
Chances of two-state solution in Palestine seen fading away – sorry, already gone
Internal pressure on Netanyahu mounts over prospect of apology to Turkey
Hamas reiterates all of Palestine claim
2011 ‘difficult’ for Mideast peace: Rudd – ‘Israel’s “settlement activity should cease and it must cease”‘.
Rudd: “What we need to see is not another peace process. What we need to see is a peace outcome.” Let’s have a justice outcome, please Kev. Equal rights, an end to occupation and recognition of right of return.
Israel’s War On Jerusalem Children
Scott Horton Interviews Max Blumenthal
Two more leftwing activists summoned to a meeting with Israel’s General Security Service
Asia2Gaza protest against Israel at Palestine square in Tehran
Israel and the Misrule of Law
Israel refuses entry to Palestinian firefighters being honored for Carmel fire assistance
Arab actor: Boycott Israeli cinema
Tourists in Washington: anatomy of an European Mideast failure
The Internet Goes to War

Other Links

Richard Holbrooke Dead: Diplomat Dies At 69
Police drag protester from wheelchair – the Beeb outdoes itself for squalid interviewing.
Jody McIntyre’s inspired reporting on Electronic Intifada.
How Holbrooke Lied His Way into a War
Tony Blair’s ex-roommate shut down inquest into death of David Kelly