A member of Iceland's parliament and prominent organiser for whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks has turned on the site's founder, Julian Assange, demanding that he step down over rape allegations made against him in Sweden.
Birgitta Jonsdottir told Internet news site The Daily Beast that she did not believe Assange's repeated assertion that the allegations of rape and molestation made against him were part of a US-backed smear campaign to distract attention from documents posted on the site laying bare US involvement in the war in Afghanistan and further promised revelations.
http://www.thinq.co.uk/2010/9/6/wikileaks-calls-assange-step-down/
Scenario One: Iraqi stability unravels over the next year, overwhelming the government’s 600,000 soldiers and cops. Scenario Two: Iraqi stability maintains its not-great-but-not-awful levels, and those soldiers and cops continue to need logistical and support aid. Does keeping 50,000 U.S. troops in Iraq make sense in either scenario?
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/09/military-logic-mia-in-iraq-troop-levels/
Julian Assange Julian Assange had been cited as saying the release of the allegations was "deeply disturbing"
Sweden has cancelled an arrest warrant for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange on accusations of rape and molestation.
The Swedish Prosecution Authority website said the chief prosecutor had come to the decision that Mr Assange was not suspected of rape but did not give any further explanation.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11049316
For the last few years, the war in Afghanistan seemed to be an afterthought in the U.S. media. That all changed in a hurry with the publication of tens of thousands of classified intelligence documents by the website WikiLeaks.
Those files were shared with several newspapers, each of which published extensive reports offering their interpretations of the documents. Suddenly, the chaos and violence of the Afghanistan War was back on the front pages and leading the network newscasts.
http://www.alternet.org/world/147806/wikileaks_did_more_to_impact_the_afghan_war_than_9_years_of_corporate_journalism?page=entire
The Nato coalition in Afghanistan has been using an undisclosed "black" unit of special forces, Task Force 373, to hunt down targets for death or detention without trial. Details of more than 2,000 senior figures from the Taliban and al-Qaida are held on a "kill or capture" list, known as Jpel, the joint prioritised effects list.
In many cases, the unit has set out to seize a target for internment, but in others it has simply killed them without attempting to capture. The logs reveal that TF 373 has also killed civilian men, women and children and even Afghan police officers who have strayed into its path.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/25/task-force-373-secret-afghanistan-taliban
More than 90,000 leaked US military records have been published on the website Wikileaks, reportedly revealing hidden details of the Afghanistan war.
Three major news publications which have been shown the documents say they include unreported killings of Afghan civilians.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10757344
see also:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/07/wikileaks-drops-90000-secret-war-docs-fingers-pakistan-as-insurgent-ally/
The shocking rates of infant mortality and cancer in Iraqi city raise new questions about battle
Children in Fallujah who suffer from birth defects which are thought to be linked to weapons used in attacks on the city by US Marines
Dramatic increases in infant mortality, cancer and leukaemia in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, which was bombarded by US Marines in 2004, exceed those reported by survivors of the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, according to a new study.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/toxic-legacy-of-us-assault-on-fallujah-worse-than-hiroshima-2034065.html
The US secret intelligence gathering systems have grown so much since 9/11 that no-one knows their exact cost, nor size, the Washington Post reports.
The newspaper says the system is now so massive and unwieldy that it is impossible to determine its effectiveness in keeping the US safe.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10681861
British troops in Afghanistan are to hand over responsibility for the Sangin area of Helmand province to US forces, the BBC understands.
The UK has suffered its heaviest losses in the area with 99 deaths since 2001.
British Defence Secretary Liam Fox is expected to tell MPs the move could happen by the end of the year.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk/10533771.stm
The looming security operations — er, “rising tide” — in southern Afghanistan are getting all the attention. But the American-led coalition may be in serious trouble in eastern Afghanistan as well. According to a just-departed U.S. commander in charge of a big chunk of the area, locals in four critical provinces believe that the Taliban have greater religious legitimacy and a stronger commitment to justice than Hamid Karzai’s government. Coalition forces who aid that government are seen as “naive at best,” and “‘co-conspirators’ at worst.”
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/07/in-afghanistans-east-taliban-seen-as-morally-superior-to-karzai/
