Dec. 4 News Round-Up: Wikileaks Attacks?

Listed below is our editor's selection of news and opinion articles relevant to the Justice Integrity Project mission, primarily from independent news outlets:

OpEd News, Is the USA Attacking Wikileaks.org With Denial of Service Attacks? Rob Kall, Dec. 3, 2010. It has been reported that Wikileaks.org was taken down because of massive denial of service attacks. This raises the question, "Who is coordinating these attacks?" Some experts have speculated that some hackers who were annoyed by Wikileaks unleashed these attacks. I don't buy it. There's something more interesting going on here. I think the US government may be involved and that raises a lot of questions.

Washington Post/Tikkun, Save Obama's presidency by challenging him on the left, Rabbi Michael Lerner, Dec. 4, 2010. [T]here is a real way to save the Obama presidency: by challenging him in the 2012 presidential primaries with a candidate who would unequivocally commit to a well-defined progressive agenda and contrast it with the Obama administration's policies....Far from weakening his chances for reelection, this kind of progressive primary challenge could save Obama if he moves in the desired direction. And if he holds firm to his current track, he's a goner anyway.

American Scholar, Unauthorized, But Not Untrue: The real story of a biographer in a celebrity culture of public denials, media timidity, and legal threats, Kitty Kelley, Winter 2011. Shortly after my book Oprah: A Biography was published last April, one of Oprah Winfrey’s open-minded fans wrote to her website saying she wanted to read the book. Oprah’s message-board moderator hurled a thunderbolt in response: “This book is an unauthorized biography.” The word unauthorized clanged on the screen like a burglar alarm. Suddenly I heard the rumble of thousands of Oprah book buyers charging out of Barnes & Noble—empty-handed. Editor's Note: Kitty Kelley has accepted an invitation for the MTL "Washington Update" radio show co-hosted by JIP Director Andrew Kreig on a date TBA. We are proud to share her unique expertise regarding the marketplace for ideas and information. OpEd News, A Government Caught Up in Mendacity and Lies, Paul Craig Roberts, Dec. 2, 2010. The reaction to WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, tells us all we need to know about the total corruption of our "modern" world, which in fact is a throwback to the Dark Ages. Some member of the United States government released to WikiLeaks the documents that are now controversial. The documents are controversial because they are official US documents and show all too clearly that the US government is a duplicitous entity whose raison d'etre is to control every other government.

Media Matters, Is Roger Ailes the one protecting Andrew Napolitano at Fox News? Eric Boehlert, Dec. 2, 2010. As Media Matters has been detailing for the last week, the silence emanating from Fox News has been deafening regarding the fact that on-air personality Andrew Napolitano has recently expressed support for the 9/11 truther conspiracy, suggesting the United States government is hiding facts about the terrorist attack.

Salon/Unclaimed Territory, The moral standards of WikiLeaks critics, Glenn Greenwald, Dec. 1, 2010. Time's Joe Klein writes this about the WikiLeaks disclosures: I am tremendously concernced [sic] about the puerile eruptions of Julian Assange....If a single foreign national is rounded up and put in jail because of a leaked cable, this entire, anarchic exercise in "freedom" stands as a human disaster. Assange is a criminal. He's the one who should be in jail.

Mother Jones, Obama and GOPers Worked Together to Kill Bush Torture Probe, David Corn, Dec. 1, 2010. A WikiLeaks cable shows that when Spain considered a criminal case against ex-Bush officials, the Obama White House and Republicans got really bipartisan....In its first months in office, the Obama administration sought to protect Bush administration officials facing criminal investigation overseas for their involvement in establishing policies the that governed interrogations of detained terrorist suspects.

Above the Law, Could Just Reading Wikileaks Get You Nixed From Working as a Federal Attorney? Elie Mystal, Dec. 2, 2010. As if law students did have enough to worry about when trying to get a job, career services at Boston University School of Law has pointed out another potential pitfall that may terrify its students. According to BU, merely reading the Wikileaks could cause you to fail security clearances necessary to get some types of government jobs.

Harper’s No Comment, The Madrid Cables, Scott Horton, Dec. 1, 2010. In Spain, the WikiLeaks disclosures have dominated the news for three days now.... Attention has focused on three separate matters, each pending in the Spanish national security court, the Audiencia Naciona.... These cables reveal a large-scale, closely coordinated effort by the State Department to obstruct these criminal investigations.

Detroit Free Press, U.S. Rep. John Conyers says he's sorry, will repay government for son's use of congressional vehicle, John Wisely, Nov. 30, 2010. U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., said he will reimburse the federal government for nonofficial use of his congressional vehicle by his son John Conyers III. The younger Conyers told Detroit police last week that someone stole two laptop computers and 1,000 concert tickets from the 2010 Cadillac Escalade after he parked it near Brush and Congress in downtown Detroit about midnight Nov. 24. "I have just learned about the inappropriate use of a congressional vehicle by my son over the Thanksgiving holiday," Conyers said in a statement Tuesday. "I am sorry it happened and will make sure that it does not happen again."

OpEd News, Judy White's Giving Thanks for Prison Visit: It's All Relative, Joan Brunwasser, Nov. 29, 2010. Judy White (right): "The Federal Bureau of Prisons may be the most hypocritical of all the federal agencies. They claim to "encourage" the prisoners "to maintain family and community ties," and state that BOP policy recognizes the importance of "maintaining family and community ties," which is codified in the Code of Federal Regulations, BOP Program Statements, etc. At the same time, they make it difficult or impossible on the prisoners and families through placing the prisoners far from those very families and communities. And, for Gary in particular, they seem to go to great lengths to insure that, at the end of every visit, a low point having just said goodbye, they subject him -- not everyone -- to being strip-searched, purely to inflict abuse and make sure he has an added cost of seeing his family."