EXTRACTS | SUMMARY
[For quotation purposes, confirm original article]
PART II
RE: Book
The WikiLeaks Files: The World According to U.S. Empire (Verso, 2015)
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SOURCE
Assange: What WikiLeaks Teaches Us About How the U.S. Operates
By Julian Assange 8/28/15
http://www.newsweek.com/emb-midnight-827-assange-what-wikileaks-teaches-us-about-how-us-operates-366364
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National Security Religiosity
& the International Studies Association
large body of literature exists re:
structural or realpolitik analysis of key institutions of US power
such approaches alone, lack explanatory power, given:
range of ritualistic & even quasi-religious phenomena
surrounding the national security sector in USA
Rituals, familiar:
- flag-folding
- veneration of orders
- elaborate genuflection to rank
[grovelling / servility / on bended knee | fm Lat. genu (knee) flectere (to bend) - here]
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National Security Sector
| Priestly Class
WikiLeaks published documents bear: classification markings
type of national-security 'holy seal'
Reaction to WikiLeaks publication of documents
= two parallel campaigns:
One
- downplaying
- diverting attention
- reframing
Two
internal campaign (digestion / processing of event)
When documents bearing classification seal are made public
= documents transmuted by US DoS into forbidden objects
As 'forbidden objects'
- public/published classified US DoS docs
= become 'toxic' to the 'state within a state'
Over 5.1 million Americans (as of 2014)
= US 'state within a state' - ie those with active security clearances
As 'forbidden objects'
published classified US DoS docs
= also 'toxic' to extended periphery who aspire to USG economic or social patronage
Upon WikiLeaks disclosures:
= hysteria and non-corporeality {and unreality?}
religions & cults imbue their priestly class with additional scarcity value
- by keeping their religious texts secret from the public or the lower orders of the devoted
technique also permits priestly class
to adopt different psychological strategies
for different levels of indoctrination
national security sector ways embraced by those who have become sufficiently indoctrinated
= laughable to:
- public; or
- lower levels of 'clearance;'
What is laughable, hypocritical, or Machiavellian
= embraced by those sufficiently indoctrinated or co-opted
by those whose economic or social advantage lies in accepting that which they would normally reject
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Profaned Object - 'Contamination'
False USG Claim
Publicly, USG claimed falsely:
= that anyone without a USG security clearance distributing “classified” documents is violating the Espionage Act of 1917 (USA)
USG FALSE claims
= work in the opposite direction:
"orders the very people it publicly claims are the only ones who can legally read classified documents to refrain from reading documents"
... lest they be 'contaminated' by them
Exact documents:
- may be read by cleared staff when
- issued from classified USG repositories
- are, however, forbidden to same staff when
- exact documents emerge from a public source
US DoS mandates that:
cleared employees of the national security state are:
- to self-report any public domain contact with the newly 'profaned' object; and
- to destroy all traces of it;
US Irrational Response
classified cables (+ other docs)
published by WikiLeaks (& associated media)
= completely identical to the original versions (ie they are electronic copies)
By implication
'Holy' US DoS classified docs
- acquire non-physical property / that is a 'magical' property
- and this 'holy,' 'magical' property received upon USG classification:
is EXTINGUISHED by making document PUBLIC
Devotees of National Security State
- do not consider docs made public to be merely:
- devoid of 'magical' property (bestowed by classification 'holy' seal); or
- rendered a mundane object on publication
Devotees of National Security State
consider documents made public
as having become
= inhabited by another non-physical property: an evil one
Such religious thinking consequences:
- excuse used by USG to block millions of people
working for the 'state within a state' from reading:
= over 30 different WikiLeaks domains
= other outlets publishing WikiLeaks materials:
- The New York Times
- Guardian
- Der Spiegel
- Le Monde
- El País
2011 | USG Sent 'WikiLeaks Fatwa'
to every:
- federal govt agency
- every federal govt employee
- every federal govt security contractor
Declaration of Official 'Enemy' - Proclaiming
WikiLeaks disclosures
caused damage to national security
Declaration of 'Forbidden Object' - Proclaiming
classified information
'remains classified'
irrespective of availability on public websites
& availability via media disclosure
Proclamation | 'Confession'
contractors "shall report its existence immediately"
Proclamation | 'Cleansing'
Companies are:
- "to delete the offending material"
- & to clear even the "internet browser cache"
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ACADEMIA
INTERNATIONAL & PUBLIC RELATIONS
Columbia University
School of International & Public Affairs
following US DoS contact
warned students:
“not post links to these documents nor make comments on social media sites ..."
Consequence invoked (leverage) that accompanied warning:
"Engaging in these activities would call into question your ability to deal with confidential information, which is part of most positions with the federal government."
An array of govt depts & other entities, incl
Library of Congress
blocked internet access to WikiLeaks
US National Archives
= even blocked searches of its own database for “WikiLeaks”
Pentagon prosecutors
re Manning trial (alleged source Cablegate cables)
= unable to receive important emails from judge & defence
Rather than remove filter,
Pentagon implemented clumsy new procedure:
- check the filter daily for blocked WikiLeaks-related emails
- set-up of alternate, special e-mail addresses for prosecution
US National Security Sector Religious Hysteria
= laughable to those outside the US national security sector
US National Security Sector Religious Hysteria
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
= serious poverty of analysis of WikiLeaks publications
in US in international relations journals
OTHER SCHOLARS
scholars in disciplines
eg law, linguistics, applied statistics, health & economics
= not deterred
eg - Entropy statistics journal
DeDeo et al. (US or UK nationals)
write that:
WikiLeaks | Afghan War Diary
“is likely to become a standard set for both the analysis of human conflict and the study of empirical methods for the analysis of complex, multi-modal data.”
[entropy = (Communications & Information) a measure of the efficiency of a system, such as a code or language, in transmitting information - fm. Gk - here]
COURTS & INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNALS
- extensive use of WikiLeaks materials esp. cables
- in courts, incl. domestic courts
INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNALS
- extensive use of WikiLeaks materials
from: European Court of Human Rights to International Criminal Tribunal
CONTRAST POVERTY OF COVERAGE
IN USA INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS JOURNALS
in light of 1,000s of citations in the courts & in other academic areas
= poverty of coverage, not merely odd
= suspicious
Such international relations journals
DOMINATE study of international relations GLOBALLY
= should be natural home for analysis of WikiLeaks 2-billion word diplomatic corpus
US-based International Studies Quarterly (ISQ)
major international relations journal
= adopted a policy against accepting manuscripts based on WikiLeaks material
*even where it consists of quotes*
ISQ
= acknowledged it's currently:
in an untenable position until such time as there is a change in policy by International Studies Association (ISA)
International Studies Association (ISA)
= over 6,500 members worldwide
= dominant scholarly association in the field
= publishes:
- Foreign Policy Analysis
- International Political Sociology
- International Interactions
- International Studies Review
- International Studies Perspectives
ISA
= almost HALF of 56 members on its governing council: professors 'international service' type academic USA university departments
*Such university departments:
= feeder schools for the US DoS and other internationally-oriented areas of govt
ISA President (2014-15)
= Prof Amitav Acharya
School of International Service
American University in Washington, DC
ISA
= banned single most significant US foreign policy archive from appearing in its academic papers
= otherwise, presumably, against its institutional & academic ambitions
ISA ban
= calls into question its entire output
= undermines an output that has influenced how the world understands role of US in international order
Type of Academic Fraud
= closing of ranks within the scholar class around the interests of Pentagon & DoS
= exclusion of primary sources for non-academic reasons is to lie by omission
= distortion of the field of international relations (& related disciplines)
by proximity of its academic structures to the US govt
= such close-proximity academic structures
lack even even have the independence of the frequently deferential New York Times
Distortion of Study of International Relations
& Censorship of WikiLeaks
= significant opportunity: to present an analysis of international relations free of censorship of classified materials
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Other
= "an Islamic religious ruling, a scholarly opinion on a matter of Islamic law. A fatwa is issued by a recognized religious authority in Islam." | here
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COMMENT
Not sure what is meant by 'non-corporeality' ... some kind of disembodied hysteria? lol
Or, maybe something immaterial and therefore invalid?
Not sure if I'm on the right track.
Going with unreality re 'non-corporeality' mentioned in article (as follows):
"hysteria and non-corporeality"
Article's a good read.
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