Several major web-based news investigations and commentaries were published Dec. 29 regarding intrigues behind the WikiLeaks release of diplomatic documents and the subsequent investigation of WikiLeaks leader Julian Assange on sex and spy charges.
The most explosive in its implications was by investigative reporter Wayne Madsen, right, an author and former National Security Agency analyst. He published, “Sweden co-opted by CIA/Pentagon to launder WikiLeaks cables.” A small part of his article is excerpted below. The full text requires a modest monthly or yearly subscription. Our excerpt below primarily touches on the piece’s headline.
The full text overlaps with other areas we have been researching on behalf of JIP. It draws links between the Assange prosecutions and high-level news media, law enforcement and diplomatic figures in Sweden and such U.S. counterparts as Karl Rove, an advisor to both Swedish Prime Minister Fredric Reinfeldt and many prominent U.S. leaders, including former President Bush.
Madsen beat me into print with his story. But he would be the first to stay it’s only a start of an investigation into all aspects of the WikiLeaks case. JIP will be pursuing the leads independently. As further background, Madsen is a controversial author, reporter and broadcast commentator. He has appeared on most major networks, and is now most frequently on such international outlets as Russia Today. He’s published an 1,100-page book on privacy law, wrote a book on genocide in Rwanda based upon on-the-ground reporting there and demanded an audit of the National Press Club when he ran for president.
Perhaps most daring from a career standpoint, he mocked the "War on Christmas" as a trumped up issue when he appeared as a guest expert on the Fox News Bill O’Reilly Show. Earlier this month, Madsen gave a guest lecture on WikiLeaks at the Press Club to a group of investigative reporters. In the talk, Madsen said he was approached by a founding director of WikiLeaks to join its board but was blocked by Assange himself, in part because Madsen has long suspected that Assange is a "useful idiot" at best for various intellience agencies, if not a "charlatan." Whatever the facts on that, Madsen's accusations of government wrongdoing in the WikiLeaks case can hardly be ascribed to unthinking loyalty to the group or its leaders.
The other major development today was new information in the effort by columnists Glenn Greenwald of Salon and Jane Hamsher’s team at FireDogLake to challenge Wired magazine and its source Adrian Lamo on their reporting about Assange and what some claim was his source, the now-imprisoned Army Private Bradley Manning. Wired’s leadership launched a counter-attack against their critics. Greenwald and Hamsher responded with an escalation of their questioning.
Wayne Madsen Report (Subscription Required), Sweden co-opted by CIA/Pentagon to launder WikiLeaks cables, Wayne Madsen, Dec. 29, 2010. WMR has learned from a long-time Republican Party consultant that the CIA used Sweden to launder the transfer to WikiLeaks of carefully screened and redacted State Department cables and the subsequent release of the cables to pre-selected corporate news media entities. Sweden was chosen because of its so-called "press freedom and freedom of expression" traditions in an effort to make the release of the cables by WikiLeaks appear to be unconnected to a covert CIA and Pentagon psychological operations program designed to place further controls on the Internet.
Salon/Unclaimed Territory, Wired's refusal to release or comment on the Manning chat logs, Glenn Greenwald, Dec. 29, 2010. Last night, Wired posted a two-part response to my criticisms of its conduct in reporting on the arrest of PFC Bradley Manning and the key role played in that arrest by Adrian Lamo….Both predictably hurl all sorts of invective at me as a means of distracting attention from the central issue, the only issue that matters: their refusal to release or even comment on what is the central evidence in what is easily one of the most consequential political stories of this year, at least.
Wired, Putting the Record Straight on the Lamo-Manning Chat Logs, Evan Hansen and Kevin Poulsen Dec. 28, 2010. This is a two-part article, in which Wired.com editor-in-chief Evan Hansen and senior editor Kevin Poulsen respond separately to criticisms of the site’s WikiLeaks coverage….Armchair critics, apparently unhappy that Manning was arrested, have eagerly second-guessed our motives, dreamed up imaginary conflicts and pounded the table for more information.
FireDogLake, Citizen Journalism and the Lamo-Manning Chat Logs, Jane Hamsher, Dec. 29, 2010. Over the past few days, FDL [FireDogLake] readers have worked hard to transcribe every available recorded interview with Adrian Lamo, and their work has made manifestly clear that Lamo consistently makes contradictory claims for what appears in the chat logs. Further, Lamo has made statements that contradict Wired’s own reporting on the matter.
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