julianassange
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President Obama commutes most of Chelsea Manning's sentence
President Barack Obama on Tuesday commuted the majority of Chelsea Manning's remaining prison sentence, and she is now scheduled to be released on May 17th, 2017, rather than in 2045. Manning is the former army intelligence analyst who provided hundreds of thousands of classified military files to Wikileaks in 2010, including a video of a US helicopter attack in Baghdad that killed two Reuters journalists. The video and accompanying data catapulted Wikileaks and its founder, Julian Assange, into the limelight.
Ecuador cut Assange's internet with a little push from the US
When Ecuador admitted that it cut off Julian Assange's internet connection at its embassy in London, the country's officials said it was their own decision. According to NBC News, though, the US might have something to do with it. American intelligence officials told the publication that the US urged Ecuadorian politicians to stop allowing Assange to do Russia's bidding from within their territory. Assange, as you know, founded WikiLeaks, which has been publishing emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee's computers. The government believes Russia has been orchestrating the cyber attacks and releasing sensitive data to influence the US presidential elections.
Ecuador confirms it cut Assange's internet for US election interference
Last night Wikileaks confirmed Ecuador -- whose London embassy its founder has been holed up in since June 2012 -- was responsible for cutting off Julian Assange's internet access. Now the Ecuadorean government has explained why it changed the WiFi password, claiming it's due to Wikileaks releasing documents meant to interfere with the US presidential election. Specifically, its statement says "The Government of Ecuador respects the principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of other states." As such, it has "exercised its sovereign right to temporarily restrict access to some of its private communications network."
ICYMI: Hand over your car to the robot overlords
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: A new parking structure will autonomously park cars without a single human's assistance. Meanwhile Colorado School of Mines is testing small-scale water treatment plants that could be used in neighborhoods rather than one city location. And Canadians sent the US a darling little 'keep your head up' video that has us saying aww! The machine mating video on YouTube can be found here. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
WikiLeaks claims a 'state party' cut Julian Assange's internet (updated)
If you believe WikiLeaks, someone is trying to silence founder Julian Assange. The truth-through-disclosure group is claiming that a "state party" has cut Assange's internet access at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. It isn't naming the culprit at this stage, but does say that it has "activated the appropriate contingency plans." In other words, Assange might not be completely isolated -- however, he probably won't be communicating quite so freely in the foreseeable future.
UN group says Assange should be allowed to walk free
A United Nations panel has sided with Julian Assange and classified his time in London's Ecuadorian Embassy as arbitrary detainment. In light of this, the group believes his "detention should be brought to an end" and rectified with some form of compensation. Yesterday, the WikiLeaks founder vowed to "accept arrest by British police" if the group ruled against him. Conversely, the Australian said he expected "the termination of further attempts to arrest me" if the final report was in his favour.
Edward Snowden helped embroider a Wikipedia page, for art
Magna Carta is regarded as one of the foundation documents of western democracy, and its 800th birthday is coming up next month. That's what prompted prize-winning artist Cornelia Parker to recruit some famous names, including Edward Snowden, to celebrate the creation of the document in a very unique way. Rather than re-create the original document, Parker decided to go off in a slightly different direction, by hand-stitching a version of the Wikipedia page on the topic. Sorry, what?
WikiLeaks opens its doors to whistleblowers (again)
After almost five years of internal turmoil and allegations, WikiLeaks is back in secret-sharing business. The site has re-launched a beta version that is accepting anonymous files starting today. Even though Julian Assange, the editor-in-chief of the site, continues to live in asylum at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, the online submission system intends to regain its reputation as a secure site for people looking to share information of political and historical significance.
Wikileaks: US government recording every call from Afghanistan
When The Intercept revealed mass NSA "full-take" call recording in the Bahamas and other nations, it declined to name another, sensitive country, citing US concerns about violence. Now Wikileaks has claimed that the nation in question is Afghanistan and said the NSA is bluffing about any possible danger to folks there. In the Wikileaks blog, Julian Assange said that the US has made such statements before and it has never seen any evidence of increased violence following leaks. On the other hand, it's easy to see why the US government wouldn't want such information public, given its war against terrorists in Afghanistan. But Assange countered that the press has no obligation to protect a country like the US if it engages in "ongoing crimes" against an entire nation. He added that's especially true when such calls are sometimes used to target drone strikes, which often kill innocent civilians. The US government has yet to comment on the matter.
Wikileaks announces Julian Assange TV show, world governments fire up their DVRs
Ready or not, Julian Assange is heading toward a TV set near you. Wikileaks announced this week that its controversy-embroiled founder will be getting his own TV show, in which he'll be interviewing "key political players, thinkers and revolutionaries." Information on the series is light at present -- the largely unknown Quick Roll Productions will apparently play a role in its creation. The show is set to begin airing in the middle of March and will run as ten 30 minute weekly episodes. Assange for one, clearly has grand ambitions for the series, stating that it "will explore the possibilities for our future in conversations with those who are shaping it. Are we heading towards utopia, or dystopia and how we can set our paths?" Check out a preview of Dancing with the Leaks after the jump.
WikiPad ties up glasses-free 3D with game controls, all in a happy Android ICS package
We're not lacking for tablets to check out when CES opens -- for real -- later today. And here's another one that we're intrigued to see whether it makes it past the point of vaporware. The features sound pretty persuasive, with a glasses-free 3D display, gaming controls -- including dual-analog sticks -- and, apparently, Ice Cream Sandwich. The WikiPad is pegged for launch this spring through its (at the moment, pretty empty) site below. The Julian Assange endorsement is presumably still pending.
WikiLeaks' Spy Files shed light on the corporate side of government surveillance
WikiLeaks' latest batch of documents hit the web this week, providing the world with a scarily thorough breakdown of a thoroughly scary industry -- government surveillance. The organization's trove, known as the Spy Files, includes a total of 287 files on surveillance products from 160 companies, as well as secret brochures and presentations that these firms use to market their technologies to government agencies. As Ars Technica reports, many of these products are designed to get around standard privacy guards installed in consumer devices, while some even act like malware. DigiTask, for example, is a German company that produces and markets software capable of circumventing a device's SSL encryption and transmitting all instant messages, emails and recorded web activity to clients (i.e., law enforcement agencies). This "remote forensic software" also sports keystroke logging capabilities, and can capture screenshots, as well. Included among DigiTask's other products is the WifiCatcher -- a portable device capable of culling data from users linked up to a public WiFi network. US-based SS8, Italy's Hacking Team and France's Vupen produce similar Trojan-like malware capable of documenting a phone or computer's "every use, movement, and even the sights and sounds of the room it is in," according to the publication. Speaking at City University in London yesterday, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said his organization decided to unleash the Spy Files as "a mass attack on the mass surveillance industry," adding that the technologies described could easily transform participating governments into a "totalitarian surveillance state." The documents, released on the heels of the Wall Street Journal's corroborative "Surveillance Catalog" report, were published alongside a preface from WikiLeaks, justifying its imperative to excavate such an "unregulated" industry. "Intelligence agencies, military forces, and police authorities are able to silently, and on mass, and [sic] secretly intercept calls and take over computers without the help or knowledge of the telecommunication providers," wrote Wikileaks in its report. "In the last ten years systems for indiscriminate, mass surveillance have become the norm." The organization says this initial document dump is only the first in a larger series of related files, scheduled for future release. You can comb through them for yourself, at the source link below.
Wikileaks to be hosted by Swedish Pirate Party, apparently Angelfire wasn't really working out
You know, we can't get enough of that Swedish Pirate Party. Not only is it fighting tirelessly for freedom, truth, and government transparency, but it just happens to have the most bad-ass name of any political party that we know. And now, deputy party leader Anna Troberg has announced that it's agreed to host WikiLeaks' servers from an undisclosed location, somewhere in the country. This isn't the first time the organization has stepped in to aid a beleaguered website -- you might recall how it announced that it would provide bandwidth for the Pirate Bay way back in May. For the time being, it looks like Julian Assange and co. (or at least their data) has found a safe haven, although it remains to be seen just how tolerant Sweden will be of the whistleblowers. Good luck, kids!
