Snowjob on Rwanda genocide
“Hysteria,” we have noted, has become the fave buzzword of “leftists” who seek to deny genocide in Rwanda or in Kosova, delegitimize Chinese dissidents, or insult critics of icons like Assange. When it is not backed up by any argument, it is just a cheap rhetorical trick, and (thankfully) not a very effectual one. It is especially ironic when the one who uses this word accuses his target of name-calling. For the record, I used the term “genocide revisionism,” not “genocide revisionist” as a noun to apply to an individual. (However, if the shoe fits, please do wear it.)

Nor did I ever claim to be a champion of “balanced” journalism. When it comes to genocide, I am on the side of the victims.

Weinberg Hysteria
Bill Weinberg is hysterical as regards Africa — he regurgitates mainstream propaganda and then claims HE is world’s champion of independent “balanced” journalism. He people calls names (those vile genocide revisionists”) but he has no idea what happened in Rwanda, because he ate the mainstream propaganda lock-stock-and-machete. It’s too bad that Bill didn’t invest some of his life into understanding Africa, and his white supremacist ideas about it, like he did Latin America. Now he just parrots nonsense about it. Nothing progressive about that. I learned long ago that engaging with Bill Weinberg can be a nasty and painful affair — if he doesn’t believe what I believe. Ouch. No further commentary from me here. Let the name-calling invective begin.
keith harmon snow

The Associated Press runs a story dated Sept. 10, "AP review finds no WikiLeaks sources threatened," which the Assange fan club is of course touting as vindication. Yet the text doesn't contain a single reference to the one case where WikiLeaks may be implicated in serious repression: Belarus. Towards the end, the piece does quote some opposition figures from various countries around the world who are miffed that their names were made public by WikiLeaks. Venezuelan journalist Nelson Bocaranda said, "I feel betrayed by WikiLeaks," and the report noted the possibility that Syrian opposition activists named in leaked cables "may be" targeted by the regime in the current crackdown. This is hardly the vindication of WikiLeaks that the article's title would imply. But why single out Venezuela, a country where there is no significant repression of the opposition, and hypothetical cases in Syria, when there is evidence that needs to be examined of actual WikiLeaks complicity in state repression in Belarus? Why are the media seemingly determined to ignore this story?

More than 250,000 secret U.S. diplomatic cables are now available in full and unfiltered online, exposing scores of U.S. diplomatic sources and informants that were meant to be protected often for their own safety, according to the website WikiLeaks.

But this is not an official WikiLeaks release. Rather, what appears to be a string of errors has lead to both the raw file and the password that unlocks that file to be released into the public domain, without WikiLeaks control.

In a statement posted on Twitter, WikiLeaks said, “Guardian investigations editor, David Leigh, recklessly, and without gaining our approval, knowingly disclosed the decryption passwords in a book published by the Guardian.”

In February, Leigh released the book “WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy.” In it, he describes in detail how WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange gave him the password to unlock the massive archive of diplomatic cables.

The London-based Guardian newspaper responded to the WikiLeaks tweet with its own statement: “It’s nonsense to suggest the Guardian’s WikiLeaks book has compromised security in any way. Our book about WikiLeaks was published last February. It contained a password, but no details of the location of the files, and we were told it was a temporary password which would expire and be deleted in a matter of hours.

“It was a meaningless piece of information to anyone except the person(s) who created the database. No concerns were expressed when the book was published and if anyone at WikiLeaks had thought this compromised security they have had seven months to remove the files. That they didn’t do so clearly shows the problem was not caused by the Guardian’s book.”

WikiLeaks has published its full archive of 251,000 secret US diplomatic cables, without redactions, potentially exposing thousands of individuals named in the documents to detention, harm or putting their lives in danger.

The move has been strongly condemned by the five previous media partners—the Guardian, New York Times, El Pais, Der Spiegel and Le Monde—who have worked with WikiLeaks publishing carefully selected and redacted documents.

“We deplore the decision of WikiLeaks to publish the unredacted state department cables, which may put sources at risk,” the organisations said in a joint statement.

“Our previous dealings with WikiLeaks were on the clear basis that we would only publish cables which had been subjected to a thorough joint editing and clearance process. We will continue to defend our previous collaborative publishing endeavour. We cannot defend the needless publication of the complete data—indeed, we are united in condemning it.

“The decision to publish by Julian Assange was his, and his alone.”

“torture state”?
In quotes? Leave me alone and go read some Amnesty International reports.

A “dissident” is one who dissents, typically under an authoritarian regime. We have used the word a great deal this year to refer to opponents of the US-backed Mubarak dictatorship in Egypt. One red herring down.

Lukashenko himself cited WikiLeaks as providing the information on who to round up in the crackdown following the stolen elections. Another red herring down.

Sweden is neutral, not even a NATO member, and the case against Assange could be legitimate, so it is hardly “indisputable” that it is “collaborating” with US imperialism in this context. Another red herring down.

The vile spewings of Edward Hermann and Keith Harmon Snow are poisoning the progressive milieu in the US with genocide revisionism and I make no apology for my “passion” in opposing them.

I challenge you to name another progressive website that has covered the domestic torture state as aggressively as World War 4 Report. I’l be waiting. Till then, stop cluttering up my blog with tiresome red herrings.

No you haven’t!
You have not made clear what information, presumably from unreleased wikileaks files, Julian Assange is alleged to have shared, via Israel Shamir, with Lukashenko’s ‘torture state’. (Is it more of a ‘torture state’ than, e.g., the United Snakes?) If they only revealed information about communications with U.S. diplomats by people already known as opponents of the Lukashenko government, then it’s hardly likely to lead to more torture or repression overall.

I put ‘dissidents’ in quotes because the word is used almost exclusively to describe people who oppose governments that the imperialists also oppose. (I don’t remember leftist opponents of any imperialist-aligned regime ever being referred to as ‘dissidents’, although it probably has happened on rare occasion). The word should perhaps be written as ‘dissidents®’. (If it doesn’t display correctly, the last character is the circle-R.) And no, it is not like ‘allegedly Palestinian’, In the former case, it is the word, ‘dissident’, that is problematic, while in the latter it is the application of the word, ‘Palestinian’, to certain anonymous persons.

Although I think it would be correct to describe Sweden as an imperialist country, the issue is its collaboration with U.S. imperialism, which I think is indisputable.

BTW, Bill, although you did post a summary report last week on the California prisoners’ hunger strike, the brutal treatment of prisoners in California and the U.S. generally doesn’t seem to arouse in you even a fraction of the passion you display in response to people like Edward Hermann or Keith Harmon Snow who allegedly let their single-minded anti-imperialism distort their arguments. And no, I’m not questioning your right to criticize sloppy arguments by anti-imperialists, but I am questioning how you apportion your passions and energies.

I already did, Aaron
Why don’t you try scrolling back and reading? I have repeatedly laid out the facts of WikiLeaks’ active or passive collaboration with the Lukashenko regime. I am not going to write it all out yet again because you are too lazy to scroll back. I fail to see why you put “dissidents” in quotes (is that like “allegedly Palestinian“?). And if you think the dissidents should be ratted out to Lukashenko’s torture state because they passed on information about the human rights climate in Belarus to the US State Department, you are a moral monster and we have nothing more to talk about.

As for Assange’s “imperialist persecutors”—would that be Swedish imperialism?

Since YOU have the time, Bill, please clarify!
What information are you accusing Assange of giving, directly or indirectly, to Lukashenko? If the information about ‘dissidents’ in the cables was the result of the U.S.’ spying on such ‘dissidents’, I would agree that it shouldn’t be made available to those who might use it against them. However, if it consists of reports of what such ‘dissidents’ voluntarily told people known to be working for the U.S. government, it should be made public. In general, nobody anywhere should be allowed to feel safe from exposure when exchanging information with agents of the U.S. ruling class.

I will, BTW, continue to defend Julian Assange against his imperialist persecutors without spending a lot of time worrying about all his merits and demerits, political or personal. I will continue to spend my time trying to expose and undermine the crimes of imperialism and its collaborators. Let the imperialists spend their own far greater resources in attacking the real or alleged crimes of those who find themselves in opposition to, or merely in conflict with, the Empire — unless those crimes are, as in the case of Chavez’ deportation of FARC supporters to Colombia, crimes that the imperialists support and that leftists and all anti-imperialists should denounce.

Right, screw the Belarussian dissidents
Isn’t it funny how nobody on the “left” has the “time” to even get up to speed on them—as they all rally around the man who betrayed them into Lukashenko’s torture chambers.