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Published 2011/06/08 | 
Excellent article from RIXSTEP.com…
Someone came round with a copy of DDB’s book in English. No one here would have bought a copy of it. The content is of no practical value and the money would go to a suspect source and to a publisher owned by the insidious Bonnier Group known for vicious attacks on The Pirate Bay and WikiLeaks.
But this was a ‘free’ copy and reading it generated no further revenues for anyone. And now that we’ve all read it, it’s time to reflect on the bizarre journey we’ve all been through.
1. Sad!
Keeping to an impartial plane as much as possible, we can only say the book is a sad experience. It’s not so much hatred or disgust with Daniel Domscheit-Berg that one feels as it’s outright pity.
We also took the time to lift out key passages of the book and send them to someone in our German network who’d already read the book in its original language. Had the translator at Crown Publishing applied a layer of unrequested Leberkäse grease to the narrative? No. The translation was close to ‘word for word’. So the actual tone of the original is intact in the translation.
The book is so creepy and funny in that regard that we’re now working on a special article citing ‘the worst of the worst’ – sound bites that will absolutely stagger you. It’s really a puzzler how Dreamworks could ever consider using the book as source material – even if all they want to make is a low budget soap opera or a slapstick cartoon.
And it’s the tone of the narrative – a bit like the testimony of Sofia Wilén – that sticks with you the longest. After all the cautious admissions of unethical behaviour and outright theft, this is what will stay in your mind.
DDB says already in his ‘author’s note’ that he joined WikiLeaks in 2007. DDB met Julian Assange at the CCC convention in Berlin in December 2007 but it was only afterwards he became a member of the WikiLeaks ‘team’. DDB writes about how he visited the WikiLeaks chat forums, repeatedly expressed a desire to contribute, but got no joy. Not until December 2007.
So if DDB sneaks himself in there as a member of WikiLeaks in 2007, it’s within the final week of the year.
For he really started when Julian returned with him to Wiesbaden on 1 January 2008 when they both were down with the flu and stayed under the covers for the first few days.
2. Prologue
DDB’s prologue reads like a Sofia Wilén testimony. Already here the reader gets a taste of what’s to come.
‘I read for hours. At some point I fell asleep, still in my jeans and sweater, with woolen slippers from my grandmother on my feet.’
And right away you get the impression DDB was always a pretender to the throne.
‘You’re suspended, Julian had written me weeks ago. As if he alone were the only one who could decide!’
Whoa. And it’s clear the separation from his loved one caused DDB considerable pain. Yet if the alert reader steps back from the narrative and looks at what transpired and asks how else WikiLeaks could have reacted, said reader comes up with nothing. No organisation would ever have permitted what DDB has done.
See Also
The eXiled: Revenge of the Second Banana
Rixstep Industry Watch: Schmitt Leaves WikiLeaks?
Rixstep Industry Watch: Schmitt Suspended from WikiLeaks
Rixstep’s Red Hat Diaries: Jules & The Amateurs
WikiLeaks: Support WikiLeaks
The Police Protocol (Translated)
Rixstep: Assange/WikiLeaks RSS Feed
Radsoft: Assange/WikiLeaks RSS Feed
Published 2011/04/05 | Collateral Murder
Overview
5th April 2010 10:44 EST WikiLeaks has released a classified US military video depicting the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad — including two Reuters news staff.
Reuters has been trying to obtain the video through the Freedom of Information Act, without success since the time of the attack. The video, shot from an Apache helicopter gun-sight, clearly shows the unprovoked slaying of a wounded Reuters employee and his rescuers. Two young children involved in the rescue were also seriously wounded.
Short version
Full version
WikiLeaks’ Collateral Murder: U.S. Soldier Ethan McCord’s Eyewitness Story
The military did not reveal how the Reuters staff were killed, and stated that they did not know how the children were injured.
After demands by Reuters, the incident was investigated and the U.S. military concluded that the actions of the soldiers were in accordance with the law of armed conflict and its own “Rules of Engagement”.
Consequently, WikiLeaks has released the classified Rules of Engagement for 2006, 2007 and 2008, revealing these rules before, during, and after the killings.
WikiLeaks has released both the original 38 minutes video and a shorter version with an initial analysis. Subtitles have been added to both versions from the radio transmissions.
WikiLeaks obtained this video as well as supporting documents from a number of military whistleblowers. WikiLeaks goes to great lengths to verify the authenticity of the information it receives. We have analyzed the information about this incident from a variety of source material. We have spoken to witnesses and journalists directly involved in the incident.
WikiLeaks wants to ensure that all the leaked information it receives gets the attention it deserves. In this particular case, some of the people killed were journalists that were simply doing their jobs: putting their lives at risk in order to report on war. Iraq is a very dangerous place for journalists: from 2003- 2009, 139 journalists were killed while doing their work.
Update: On July 6, 2010, Private Bradley Manning, a 22 year old intelligence analyst with the United States Army in Baghdad, was charged with disclosing this video (after allegedly speaking to an unfaithful journalist). The whistleblower behind the Pentagon Papers, Daniel Ellsberg, has called Mr. Manning a ‘hero’. He is currently imprisoned in Kuwait. The Apache crew and those behind the cover up depicted in the video have yet to be charged. To assist Private Manning, please see bradleymanning.org.
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