The following press release is from the Oxford Union:
The Oxford Union will be hosting the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence award presentation on 23 January 2013. The ceremony will feature several individuals well known in intelligence and related fields, including, via video-stream, remarks by Julian Assange, winner of the Sam Adams award in 2010.
The annual award presentation provides a rare occasion for accolades to “whistleblowers” — conscience-driven women and men willing to take risks to honor the public’s need to know.
This year’s Sam Adams recipient is Professor Thomas Fingar, who is now teaching at Stanford University. Dr. Fingar served from 2005 to 2008 as Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Analysis and Chairman of the National Intelligence Council.
In that role, Dr. Fingar oversaw preparation of the landmark 2007 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran, in which all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies concluded with “high confidence” that Iran had halted its nuclear weapon design and weaponization work in 2003. The Estimate’s key judgments were declassified and made public, and have been revalidated every year since.
Those pressing for an attack on Iran in 2008 found themselves fighting uphill. This time, thanks largely to Dr. Fingar and the professional intelligence analysts he led in 2007, intelligence analysis on Iran was fearlessly honest. A consummate intelligence professional, Fingar would not allow the NIE to be “fixed around the policy,” the damning phrase used in the famous “Downing St. Memo” of July 23, 2002 to describe the unconscionable process that served up fraudulent intelligence to “justify” war with Iraq.
We are delighted to be welcoming several previous Sam Adams awardees, including Coleen Rowley, Katharine Gun, Craig Murray, Thomas Drake, and Julian Assange (by video-stream) — as well as other Sam Adams associates from both sides of the Atlantic, including Ray McGovern, Brady Kiesling, Davdi McMichael, Elizabeth Murray, Todd Pierce and Ann Wright.
We feel that the Oxford Union, dedicated to upholding freedom of speech and providing a platform for all points of view, is a fitting venue. The traditional acceptance speech by Dr. Fingar will be followed by briefer remarks by a few previous Sam Adams awardees. They will be followed by Julian Assange who will speak for 20 minutes immediately before the Q&A, during which the audience will be invited to put questions on any topic to any of the presenters.
Assange is clearly a figure who generates controversy for reasons ranging from the allegations made against him in Sweden, to the perceived recklessness of some WikiLeaks activities. We would therefore encourage those who disagree with him, or with any of our other speakers, to participate in the Q&A session.
Last but not least, we are happy to note that Dr. Fingar, will be with us for the entire term. Professor Fingar has just begun teaching a course at the University of Oxford on global trends and transnational issues, as part of Stanford’s Bing Overseas Studies Program. He will also give guest lectures and public talks while here at Oxford (January-March 2013).
Professor Fingar holds a PhD in political science from Stanford. His most recent book is Reducing Uncertainty: Intelligence Analysis and National Security (Stanford University Press, 2011).
George Galloway at the Oxford Union on Julian Assange. If you listen to the quality of the participants you understand why there have been these protests of Assange’s impending appearance.
Its quite shocking how ill-informed these students are.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaeW_A1K7SY
Separately, it still puzzles me why their LGBTQ Society should involve itself. The Assange allegations have absolutely nothing to do with LGBTQ issues. Very queer.
Villager, absolutely agree, much fuss over very little , makes you wonder who steers their boat, who’s benefitting from their PR actions.
Maybe its the guaranteed BBC coverage and high public profile that these ‘celebrity guiled students’ are going to get on the 20th. is the real impetus.
I mean, how hard is it for Oxfords LGBTQ society to get such high profile these days? Surely, those trumped up reports next week by the PBC, the paedophile Broadcasting Corp., will do its best to kowtow to the slimey’s that conduct this crescendo and put some heat back into the stale bedrooms and dormitories of their society, oh what fun we all had on the back of Julian….
Clark; Would you, when time allows, vet this. I need your keen analytical skills on the issue of Newtown massacre. Thanks, in advance.
http://memoryholeblog.com/2013/01/06/sandy-hook-school-massacre-timeline/
The gays would be well advised not to be suckered into backing the USreali position (on Assange,Palestine,Iran,etc) otherwise they will surely end up being on the receiving end of another Hitlers wrath (again!). Agent Cameron is simply pushing gay marriage to garner their vote in the upcoming war on Iran. The “Friends” across all parties and gays together should be enough to carry an Iran war resolution in the Commons. After the Scots referendum in 2014 but before the Turkish elections in 2015,that could result in Erdogans exit a la Saakashvilli of Georgia.
“George Galloway at the Oxford Union on Julian Assange. If you listen to the quality of the participants you understand why there have been these protests of Assange’s impending appearance.
Its quite shocking how ill-informed these students are.”
Well these are members of the Oxford Union who are responsible for inviting Assange to speak.
The protest has spread beyond the LGBTQ. Could cancellation be looming?
http://www.cherwell.org/news/world/2013/01/17/assange-controversy-at-wadham-and-ousu
Moderators – not sure which is best page to put this startling new evidence in, so I’ve also put it in the top page. Please feel free to delete whichever post you feel is abusing the rules 🙂
Some journalists have been digging into the reasons behind the US DoJ’s persecution of Aaron Swartz. First, there’s this:
http://www.emptywheel.net/2013/01/13/two-days-before-cambridge-cops-arrested-aaron-swartz-secret-service-took-over-the-investigation/
Not conclusive of anything much, but the involvement of the Secret Service in Swartz’s JSTOR case is odd. I understand it’s well off their patch. Then there’s this:
http://www.emptywheel.net/2013/01/18/was-aaron-swartz-effort-to-foia-bradley-mannings-treatment-why-doj-treated-him-so-harshly/
In December 2010 through early 2011 Aaron Swartz was persistently FOIing David House’s visits to Bradley Manning in Quantico. That article includes a handy timeline to bear in mind when reading this Wall Street Journal article, dated 9 February 2011:
Assange probe hits snag:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703313304576132543747598766.html
The Empty Wheel blog is starting to put two and two together, here:
http://www.emptywheel.net/2013/01/19/the-six-week-delay-in-the-swartz-investigation/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=the-six-week-delay-in-the-swartz-investigation
And then comes this:
https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/292503580135538688
https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/292503892569239552
https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/292504484016439296
https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/292504975865692160
Holy Hell!
Thanks for that Arbed, seems that Wikileaks is in turmoil without its main man, why else would they denigrate their trust base with these releases, after Aaron Schwartz suicide?
Another question must now be asked, is wikileaks self destroying itself for a reason? Are they expecting facts to come out that will put us all in a spin?
Or is this whole line of tweets a string of thought spun with us in mind? the proverbial cat into pigeons?
This indeed getting interesting and I bet there are some links to be discovered pitching Karl Rove into this murky, but slowly clearing, Fata Morgana?
Thanks Arbed, now back to the hovering….
‘Hoovering’.dooh
Hi Nevermind,
I think the comments I’ve seen on Twitter about Wikileaks busting Swartz’ anonymity and therefore self-destructing themselves are coming from people who are not that familiar with the detail of the Wikileaks Grand Jury investigation. Alexa O’Brien’s timeline “US vs Wikileaks” is the best source for those details.
My reading of Wikileaks going public about the close connection between Swartz and themselves – a respectful time after his funeral when whether he has anonymity or not cannot hurt him anymore – is that it’s been done to alert the general public about what was really behind the case against him, ie it’s to help those who want the truth and who want justice, real justice, for Swartz and the cause he believed in so much.
“why else would they denigrate their trust base with these releases, after Aaron Schwartz suicide?”
Have you considered that maybe what they are disclosing are actually relevant facts surrounding what many think is a very suspicious suicide ?
http://www.google.co.uk/search?sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&tbo=d&site=&source=hp&q=aaron+swartz+suscipious+suicede&btnG=Search&oq=&gs_l=&pbx=1&sei=Z5X6UJ6jKceb0QWOnYHwDA&gbv=2
Yes I have considered that option Macky and I’m not trying to make out Wikileaks is a placement of some or other state organisation, merely pointing out that they’re not helping to endear themselves to a larger public.
Maybe the announced releases will set the record straight and show how much we have been hoodwinked by the state terrorists.
Yes. There is a great deal to be speculated upon. Three facts though.
1.) Swartz gave an interview in which he expressed sympathy with Wikileaks.
2.) He was avalanched with a threatened sentence of 35 years; $1 million in fines (far greater than homocide) and this is exactly how they deal with Confidential Informants when they want someone else.
3.) Secret Service took over the investigation.
Hmm, what an interesting an unconnected series of facts leaving us with no where to go
Nevermind and Ben,
I’d put my money on it being to do with the 8 February 2009 Wikileaks release they retweeted immediately after the above 4 tweets about Aaron Swartz. That release was a fully up-to-date archive of Congressional Research Service reports:
https://wikileaks.org/wiki/Change_you_can_download:_a_billion_in_secret_Congressional_reports
and the reason I think Wikileaks is guessing Aaron Swartz was the source for that (they can’t prove it because their submission system was set up to anonymise leaks by pinging [technical term, that 🙂 through dozens of different domain servers, shedding metadata as it goes, and keeping no logs) is this article I read a few days ago in the Naked Capitalism blog:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/01/aaron-swartzs-politics.html
Aaron Swartz interned in Congress in 2009.
The other thing to bear in mind is that it was the Secret Service who were on Aaron’s tail. It’s really worth studying the detail of those links to the Empty Wheel blog I’ve posted above. There’s a wealth of clues in them for peeps who’ve been researching the whole Wikileaks saga and know the background quite well.
The Secret Service, of course, report directly to Barack Obama – at least I think I’m right in saying ‘directly’. They’re in charge of the President’s personal security detail, arn’t they?
This is getting very big, and very juicy. I’m kinda hopeful that this is the turning point, the moment when people start realising just how merciless – and morally bankrupt – the whole Get Wikileaks/Extradite Assange witch hunt is.
Arbed; SS has a broad spectrum of duties….a case in point from personal experience.
In 2005 a friend of mine, who has a sister involved in Texas Democratic Party had a phone conversation with him, in which she blithely made a reference to a wish for natural death for GWB.
He immediately told her not to go there, and got off the phone. A week later he got a visit from SS who threatened him with detainment in GITMO. Just sayin’
Arbed;
In addition, one used to be able to go the Library of Congress, check out scads of material, without any trace of your presence.
Now you register with your Social Security # and each item you review is scanned into the file connected to your SS#.
The excellent Marcy Wheeler at the Empty Wheel blog appears to be drawing the same conclusions that I am:
First, there’s this where she analyses the US Govt requests for Swartz’s private data held by Google, Twitter and Amazon, despite those companies apparently having nothing to do with the JSTOR case:
http://www.emptywheel.net/2013/01/14/what-kind-of-fishing-trip-did-the-government-conduct-into-aaron-swartz-amazon-data/
then she notices the coincidental timing of these subpoenas with similar requests being made in relation to known Wikileaks associates:
http://www.emptywheel.net/2013/01/19/the-fishing-expedition-into-wikileaks/
Thanks for this from marcy Wheeler, she is excellent at digging and corroborating evidence.
So Aarons death does have a massive question mark over it and one wonders whether his office and flat could bring up some DNA that is not down to his friends and partners.
Maybe he even has had a nest egg somewhere, information cached on a USB stick or with a friend, no doubt many people are digging away at it, because he was a solidly great bloke going by Matt’s description of him.
The world has lost a jewel.
FYI; link from EW’s comment
“I was the expert witness on Aaron’s side of US vs Swartz, engaged by his attorneys last year to help prepare a defense for his April trial. Until Keker Van Nest called iSEC Partners I had very little knowledge of Aaron’s plight, and although we have spoken at or attended many of the same events we had never once met.”
http://io9.com/5975592/aaron-swartz-died-innocent-++-here-is-the-evidence
Nevermind; Paraphrasing my comment at EW…..
Since Aaron’s attorneys were denying there was an offer of reduced sentence, and Ortiz (DOJ) came out yesterday (?) saying 6 months was offered, and this being confirmed by defense, it seems, not wildly speculative, that a deal was reached, making Aaron either a Witness for Prosecution against Wikileaks, or a CI. The young man was of high ethical standards, and may have found his position untenable; hence the suicide. This kind of coercion is a staple of our fine Legal System.
Ben 5.51pm,
That’s a horrific but sadly unsurprising story.
What a bunch of thugs and goons they are.
Jives; It’s sad our thinking must always drift toward cynical conclusions. It seems like a reflexive response like hitting your knee with a rubber hammer. No wonder we are sometimes called ‘jerks’ for exploring the conspiracies aplenty.
“it seems, not wildly speculative, that a deal was reached, making Aaron either a Witness for Prosecution against Wikileaks, or a CI”
I think this may be wrong. There was no deal reached by the time of Aaron’s death. The prosecution’s offer was plead guilty to all 13 felony charges and do 6 months in jail, or we up the ante (I think I’ve seen mention that the US DoJ would have asked for 7 years if it had gone to trial). The prosecutors were warned not long before Aaron’s death that he was suicidal. Their response was along the lines of “we’ll put him in jail then”.
Aaron did not wish to plead guilty to ANY felony charges. It’s heavy shit being a felon in the US.
All this is not to say that he had not been subpoenaed in the Wikileaks Grand Jury. Glenn Greenwald (while he was still at Salon) stated that the very first witness subpoenaed to the WL Grand Jury (in April 2011, I believe, two months before David House, Tyler Watkins and Nadia Heninger appeared there 15th/16th June 2011) was “an unnamed Cambridge, Mass. resident”. In a later post Greenwald confirmed that this first witness had refused to testify anything other than confirm his name.
David House posted to the net what he claimed was his testimony [Ben, is it even legal for witnesses to publish Grand Jury testimony? I know it’s a criminal offence for prosecutors and jurists]. It consisted of “I invoke [the fifth amendment right to not self-incriminate]”, “I invoke”, “I invoke” etc. It is not known whether he was granted immunity, which would force him to either testify or go to jail. He has become heavily anti-Wikileaks in recent months. Originally, House spoke publicly about being approached by the FBI with offers of money to become an informant on the “Cambridge hacker set” (of which both Bradley Manning and Aaron Swartz were a part). Many people now think David House has become an FBI informant. And he’s not doing much to dispel that idea:
https://twitter.com/anewmath/status/289946013832196098
A man who sees friendship as a commodity, something you can use as trade. Nice friend. Now, why would he be so keen to “ingratiate [him]self with Julian Assange”, I wonder?
…and:
https://twitter.com/anewmath/status/291797617841688576
See Quinn Norton’s (Aaron Swartz’ ex-girlfriend who was subpoenaed by the Grand Jury in his JSTOR case) comment right at the top of this twitter thread. By the logic of that, David House’s own comment and the fact his published testimony is invoking the Fifth, he should be in jail.
Arbed I agree with your analysis, but I’m not a lawyer and do not know the ins and out of modern communication being reliable as evidence, but it looks very likely that Aaron was the first to be interviewed. The SS must have known then that he was communicating with Wikileaks.
Can I cheer you all up with this little snippet, some light entertainment after this heavy day of sleuthing.
A chap has managed to ‘deliver’ a letter to someone at Norfolk county hall, on a Saturday…;) he has managed to walk up and down the building with his staffi, the whole place empty, bar one chap in Transport. It is hilarious how open local Government still is. He left comments and beer cans in offices.
Thanks god he was not malicious, if he would have taken some snap shots in the procurement office, some tenders or equally sensitive commercial information, he could have done a lot of damage.
Enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tkq8I1Mv2P4
Arbed;
“There was no deal reached by the time of Aaron’s death.”
That’s correct, AFAIK. The deal had not been consummated, but it was on the table, despite the denial of such by Defense attys, prior to Ortiz coming out publicly. It’s true that a major fly in the ointment was making Aaron, a felon, but why would atty’s deny reduced sentence had been proffered? It’s a puzzle. Before Aaron’s suicide, they seem to have been in the catbird seat, and could have their way (as always with Grand Juries). They may have been concerned that the trial jury would have found the charges did not justify 35 years in Federal lock-up, and may have tainted their case with a hung jury, or not guilty. Marcy responded to my comment with agreement(Ben @ 7:04), but as cuch, is in no way, the final word. My take, if speculation and instinct has any place here, that the energy and motivation for such egregious prosecutorial misconduct, must have had a bigger prize, in mind.
@Nevermind, to the contrary I think Wikileaks in revealing their connection with Aaron Swartz are practising what they preach, full transparency; yes they do guarantee anonymity for people who supply information, but this is to prevent the said person from suffering any repercussions; obviously this is no longer a consideration when sadly the person has died, and in fact if they had not disclosed this link, they would in effect have been concealing material evidence in a suspicious death, even a possible murder case; those that try to argue that it was wrong to disclose this connection because of harming Aaron’s reputation/legacy, have not understood Aaron’s selfish & passionate struggle for a free internet, and those that try to argue that is was wrong because of upsetting his family, have not released that his family were fully supportive of his internet cause, so in both cases this revelation far from damaging his legacy, will only add to it.
Further I cannot help suspecting that those who are denigrating Wikileaks over this, are those Anti-Assange & Wikileaks bashers, who always jump on anything in order to further their agenda.
Arbed;“Aaron did not wish to plead guilty to ANY felony charges. It’s heavy shit being a felon in the US”
I thought exactly the same, especially when I noticed this link on Aaron’s person blog;
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/01/30/120130crat_atlarge_gopnik
On a general note, I actually won’t be surprised if there was a correlation between
the high level of often deadly violent crime in the US, including the regular gun massacres, and the perceived fate worse than death of being sent to a prison there, in that a) cornered armed criminals will fight to the death rather than be captured, b) people who have nothing to lose, may not even contemplate carrying a crime as way out of their problems, for fear of being caught, and instead of committing just other anonymous suicide, try to hit back at Society by causing as much carnage as possible via a mass murdering suicide rampage.
More tidbits on Aaron…
http://cryptome.org/
Well, there’s things that never will be right I know,
And things need changin’ everywhere you go,
But ’til we start to make a move to make a few things right,
You’ll never see me wear a suit of white.
Ah, I’d love to wear a rainbow every day,
And tell the world that everything’s OK,
But I’ll try to carry off a little darkness on my back,
‘Till things are brighter, I’m the Man In Black.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t51MHUENlAQ
God bless Johnny Cash and Aaron Swartz–may his spirit inspire Freedom in every way
“Open Access
In 2002, Swartz stated that when he died he wanted all the contents of his hard drives made publicly available.[93]
A long-time supporter of Open Access, Swartz once wrote
The world’s entire scientific and cultural heritage, published over centuries in books and journals, is increasingly being digitized and locked up by a handful of private corporations. Want to read the papers featuring the most famous results of the sciences? You’ll need to send enormous amounts to publishers like Reed Elsevier. There are those struggling to change this. The Open Access Movement has fought valiantly to ensure that scientists do not sign their copyrights away but instead ensure their work is published on the Internet, under terms that allow anyone to access it. “
And finally, also from wiki
Anonymous’ MIT hack
Members of Anonymous hacked the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Web domain and replaced the title page with a tribute to Swartz, calling on members of the internet community to use Aaron’s death as a rallying moment for the open access movement. The banner included a list of demands for improvements in the US copyright system, and included an essay attributed to Aaron, entitled Guerilla Open Access Manifesto.[108]
Add to that Villager; Hypatia and cohorts were casualties of the same mentality at the Library of Alexandria, where scrolls and bodies littered the landscape.