Sweden Turns Blind Eye to: SÄPO Agent Alleged Killer of PM Olof Palme / Meanwhile ... Assange Banged Up In Britain 5 Years, No Charge, Bogus Sweden Police Allegations

SOURCE http://www.svd.se/bertil-wedin-i-am-not-the-murderer Bertil Wedin: ”I am not the murderer” Av Ola Billger 25 feb, 2014 Stieg Larsson gave the police a tip about him [ie Bertil Wedin] and South African agents named [ie Bertil Wedin] after the murder of Prime Minister Olof Palme. Still the Swedish investigators have not been able to arrange a formal interview with him in 27 years. The alleged go-between Bertil Wedin is today talking to SvD about the accusations. “After the murder I thought: will I be a suspect?” Constantly under investigation, several times pointed out. But never properly interviewed by the Police. The elegant and nowadays 73 years old Bertil Wedin came to the surface in the Palme inquiry almost immediately after the murder on February 28th interest because of his connections with Security Service of the South African Apartheid regime. Today SvD could reveal that the world-famous crime writer and journalist Stieg Larsson named Bertil Wedin in the autumn of 1987 as a possible go-between in the murder of Palme. Stieg Larsson had come across extensive documentation on Bertil Wedin which he compiled and sent to the Police in a memorandum. His partner Eva Gabrielsson says to SvD that all the time up to his death in 2004 Stieg Larsson had suspicions about Bertil Wedin. Other persons have also pointed at Wedin as a go-between, as the one planting the false trail about Kurdish PKK and for spreading negative propaganda about Palme for a long time after the murder. Since November 1985 he lives in north Cyprus, a nation recognised by nobody and who lacks extradition treaties with everyone. “Well, I disliked Olof Palme quite a lot, but I did not hate him”, he says. SvD is meeting with Bertil Wedin close to his home in Kyrenia. We are sitting in the elegant but slightly worn-down Dome Hotel, the same place where Wedin was interviewed by the world press in 1996 when he and the super spy Craig Williamson were alleged to be involved in the murder of Palme. The waiter is wearing a black tie, worn to a shine, and is chatting in a familiar tone with the guests. A mild breeze is sweeping in from the Mediterranean. Bertil Wedin’s eyes are ice-blue , cold and vigilant. “I have nothing to lose from the truth coming out since i am luckily enough not the murderer and had nothing to do with it all.” In spite of the fact that he has appeared in inquiries for 28 years, no formal interview has ever been conducted by Swedish Police. A telephone call is the closest the investigators have been. “A policeman called in 1996 after I had appeared in the press in connection with South Africa. He was a bit loud and easy-going and talked about a permit. I said ‘you don’t need a permit, just come.’ But they never came.” SvD is talking to him for three days going through Stieg Larsson’s memo page by page. In the document it is stated that Bertil Wedin had been a mercenary, had worked for BOSS, the South African Security Service since the 70’s and for was one of the “top pro killers” in Europe. “All these pieces of information are false…except then one about me living with my wife in Cyprus. OK?” One of the sources says that Wedin is “one of the nastiest persons” he has met in his many years working against right wing extremism. That he was supposed to have murdered several people, among them the anti-Apartheid activist Ruth First, one of Olof Palme’s friends, who was killed by a bomb. “I have heard about the letter bomb, of course, but it was completely unknown to me. And I think it is a terrible thing.” Wedin goes on reading, sniffing at the content and commenting some statements. I am aware of my reputation; right wing man and Conservative, not liking Palme and more, but I have done nothing of all this. “They say ‘no smoke without fire’ but there is nothing in this. I am aware of my reputation; right wing man and Conservative, not liking Palme and more, but I have done nothing of all this. Not a single thing. And no one has asked me to do anything either.” Stieg Larsson was not alone in his suspicions: there were several tips directly after the murder and ten years later South African security agents pointed a finger at Wedin as involved in the murder. Bertil Wedin left Sweden in 1975 and moved to Great Britain. He worked among other things as a journalist but was also paid by the South African Security Service. He was charged, accused of breaking into the office of an anti-Apartheid movement in London, but was later acquitted. Three months ahead of the murder of Olof Palme he moved with his family to northern Cyprus. “I wanted to lead another life. Many people I know in this sphere have sooner or later grown tired of it, wanted to do something else.” He says that he tried several times to give Swedish authorities a tip on who was behind the murder. He contacted embassies and the Palme inquiry, but nobody wanted to receive his information. “I had names that I believed were the [gunmen] or the name of the Master Mind”, Bertil Wedin says. However he does not want to disclose those names today. In the memo from Stieg Larsson it is stated that Bertil Wedin went to South Africa in February 1986, shortly before the murder of Olof Palme. Were you in South Africa at the time? “I was not.” He says he was in Cyprus when he heard the news from the BBC World Service on March 1st. “Later I thought: will I be a suspect?” The reason was that he was “a little anti-Palme”. Today, 28 years on, he is no longer particularly interested in talking to the Police, neither to offer tips, nor to straighten out question marks. “I would prefer not to. But I would consider it, of course, but it seems so meaningless. SOURCE http://www.svd.se/bertil-wedin-i-am-not-the-murderer --------------------- COMMENT Came across this Swedish Sapo agent, South African apartheid government spy fellow, Bertil Wedin, when I ran into an article about about star South African spy recruit / alleged NCA defector Olivia Forsyth (mentioned below). So, if I have this straight, there's a Swedish fellow (Bertil Wedin), that's been linked to a notorious South African spymaster (Craig Williamson), whose South African government spy outfit was involved in violent acts of terrorism; and this Swedish guy's been fingered by a renown Swedish crime writer and journalist (Stieg Larsson), as allegedly having been involved in the assassination of Olof Palme (Swedish Prime Minister); and this Bertil Wedin guy has also been implicated as party to the crime of assassination by members of the South African government spying outfit. Yet Wedin, alleged mercenary, South African spy and alleged party to the assassination of a Swedish national icon, has never been formally interviewed by Swedish police. Odd, one would think, particularly given Sweden's zeal in conducting the international legal assault on WikiLeaks' publisher, Julian Assange, the subject of Swedish police allegations of 'sexual misconduct'. Since 1985, Wedin has retreated to the delights of Greek island life (where nobody has an extradition treaty with the unrecognised, North Cyprus, self-declared state). All that lovely Greek island sunshine would at least be a rather therapeutic consolation, when enduring something like 27 years of repeat investigations into one's tangled affairs. Except in Sweden. Sweden's not interested. That's the same sunshine that publisher/journalist Julian Assange, has now been deprived of for 3 years under siege at the Ecuador Embassy in London, pinned in place by Sweden's political and legal manoeuvres and Sweden's inaction.  Inaction seems bizarre at first - but it makes perfect and rather perverse sense, when you consider that inaction has been Sweden's legal and political strategy for blockading Assange in place for almost a 5 years stretch now, pending delivering him up to the US superpower by extradition. Detaining a journalist for 5 years pursuant to flimsy police allegations, with aid of a rubber-stamp European Arrest Warrant, is becoming internationally embarrassing and difficult to explain away. Just when you think there couldn't be anything more humiliating for Swedish justice (and the Swedish 'humanitarian' state) to explain, than nearly 5 years of Sweden doing its utmost to contravene international law (and, inexplicably, even basic, common sense), by blocking the passage of an individual granted political asylum (via the inaction / stalemate MO, by refusing to interview), we find yet more embarrassing, dirt under Sweden's jolly Ikea rug, just begging to be explained. More Swedish government dirt in the story of a Swedish Greek island expatriate, who has gone some 27 years - yes, folks, that's 27 years - without so much as a formal police interview, having been accused of being involved in the killing of a Swedish Prime Minister.  And accused by some of being the shooter. So, ... I take it we can't expect an international arrest warrant on the pretext of some kind any time soon, for immediate apprehension of a Sapo agent, foreign government spy, alleged mercenary, and an alleged assassin of Sweden's much-loved Prime Minister?  Don't suppose there'll be a Sapo or CIA kidnapping either? Yet, at breakneck speed in 2010, during the bombshell WikiLeaks publication of US secrets, Sweden obtained a European Arrest Warrant and Interpol Red Notice for Assange, on the strength of what sure sounds like nothing but, remarkably convenient, Swedish police allegations of 'sexual misconduct.' And before you could say 'Abba', Julian Assange was banged up in Britain - and has been since: for around 2 years under house arrest pursuant to a European Arrest Warrant; for 3 years under siege in the Ecuadorian Embassy; for about a total of 5 years effective detention without charge or interview; on trumped up police allegations of 'sexual misconduct', based on what amounts to 'alleged interviews' that weren't even properly carried out or properly recorded by Swedish law enforcement authorities. Meanwhile, an obliging UK (which has made a legal exception of Assange) has now incurred a cost of £11,884,830.00 British pounds (and counting). The British government's payrolled police-enforcer, brute footsoldiers, stand guard inside and outside the Ecuadorian Embassy, London, where Julian Assange has sought (and was granted) political asylum, in view of (a) political persecution and (b) threat to his life should he be apprehended and extradited to USA, by way of an extradition to Sweden. Please, remind me again what this is about?  'Sexual misconduct?'  Condoms? The UK crown prosecution service has also refused a request under the Freedom of Information Act in relation to communications over potential extradition arrangements, stating that it would affect Great Britain’s diplomatic relations with other countries. In the middle of last year, the UK’s extradition reform panel, which was appointed by the home secretary, met with Eric Holder, the US attorney general, and a number of members of the Defence Department in the United States. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/03/jass-m16.html The facts surrounding this legal and political assault on Assange and on WikiLeaks, and a number of suspicious violations, irregularities, and anomalies in the Swedish police investigation and government handling of such assault on publisher Assange speak for themselves. Yet, Sweden, the US and UK, would have you believe, it's 'nothing' at all to do with the release of: the Collateral Murder video on 5th April 2010 (depicting US war crimes); or the release of the Afghan War Logs: 2004-2010 (comprising 91,000 US reports), on 25 July 2010); and, really - no really - nothing at all to do with an enraged US political and military establishment, which deployed its resources, agents and influence to decommission Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, by any means whatsoever.  Perhaps even by way of 'allegations' put forward by the same Swedish law enforcement establishment, that is answerable to Swedish politicians who, in turn, have made a habit of answering to America and assisting the CIA behind closed doors, against Swedish law and the constitution. Sweden's unusually laissez fair attitude in respect of the accused Sweden Prime Minister Olof Palme alleged assassin (mercenary/Sapo agent), enjoying a peaceful Greek decades-long 'extended holiday' without so much as a formal Swedish police interview, stands in stark contrast to the legal, financial and personal nightmare (and grave threat to life and well-being) that WikiLeaks publisher, Julian Assange, faces. Author/Journalist Stieg Larsson's Memo detailing the connections he found between Bertil Wedin & the murder of Prime Minister Olof Palme Stieg Larssons PM om Palmemordet Här kan du klicka dig igenom det PM där succéförfattaren Stieg Larsson detaljerat beskriver de kopplingar han hittat mellan Bertil Wedin och mordet på Olof Palme. http://www.svd.se/stieg-larssons-pm_8988874 [Swedish] ------- Assange FAQ ------- https://justice4assange.com/ --------------------- MORE SouthAfrica / Book  Olivia Forsyth spy of apartheid era imprisoned by ANC in Angola escaped to British Embassy recruited by 'notorious' Craig Williamson infiltration of ANC supporters spying on lefties defection to ANC journalist One of the most notorious of the Eastern Cape spies was Agent RS407 Olivia Forsyth - code name "Lara" - who infiltrated activist groups at Rhodes University as a student and sang freedom songs while passing on information to the security police. In 1988 her cover was blown and she was detained and tortured in an ANC prison camp in Angola, from which she escaped. [iol] Craig Williamson former South African Police major / spy exposure 1980 /state-sponsored overseas bombings, killings etc = named in a South African court for Olof Palme's assassination https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Williamson SAPO connection journalist Bertil Wedin agent of Swedish secret service (SÄPO) / involved South Africa spy outfit Bertil Wedin Since 1985 been living North Cyprus North Cyprus not recognised by anyone but Turkey = has NO EXTRADITION TREATIES http://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/13573083.Former_Padgate_high_school_teacher_reveals_life_as_a_spy/ Bertil Wedin: contacts with SÄPO, South Africa, & the Turkish secret service A number of sources within the former South African secret services are now pointing out Bertil Wedin, the Swede who worked for Craig Williamson in London, as the man who actually shot Palme. Mr Wedin has a remarkable profile: He is a notorious right-wing extremist and professional soldier with a past as a Congo mercenary and an officer of the Swedish Army. He also worked as an informer for SÄPO (the Swedish state security police) in the 1970. In the 1980s, Wedin was recruited by the South African secret services and was eventually stationed in London as one of Craig Williamson’s men in the "Long Reach" operation. Since 1985 Wedin has lived in the Turkish part of Cyprus. He has worked for, among others the Turkish Ministry of Information and is said to have excellent contacts with the Turkish secret service MIT. Last, not least, Wedin is also a member of WAcl. [here] Craig Williamson infiltrated Swedish anti-apartheid agency In the 1970s, Craig Williamson, posing as a South African student opposed to apartheid, managed to get himself employed by the International University Exchange Fund (IUEF) in Geneva. The real purpose of this organisation, set up by the Swedish Social Democrats, was actually to channel secret Swedish financial assistance to the anti-apartheid movement, in particular to the ANC. In the Palme era, Sweden was the only Western country providing generous support to the ANC and Palme was an outspoken enemy of the Apartheid regime. In 1980, it came to light that Williamson was spying for the South African secret service and had managed to divert considerable sums destined for anti-apartheid groups to none other than the hit squads of the South African secret service. Through his infiltration of IUEF Williamson acquired excellent insider knowledge of Swedish politics and, above all, of some of Palme’s closest collaborators. He must also have understood Palme’s instrumental role in the fight against South African apartheid. [here] The Swedish connection In Sweden, speculation about possible involvement of extreme-right circles within the police and the military in Palme’s murder have flourished for ten years. The recent allegations made by a number of former members of the South African secret services have given rise to new questions in Sweden about this "police link". The number of hints pointing in this direction is alarming. [here]

ASSANGE - Sweden Legal Experts: Crime not substantiated / "How Sweden Collaborated With CIA on Renditions and Framing of Assange"

GOOGLE TRANSLATION [+ Bing Translate / EDITS as marked] [For discussion purposes only.  For quotes, refer to the original Swedish article.] SOURCE http://www.magasinetparagraf.se/bilden/forundersokningen-avseende-assange Now we publish the preliminary investigation of Julian Assange When I read the preliminary investigation of Assange's "sex crimes" I understand why police and prosecutors do not go to London and interrogate him. [Had they done so,] the investigation would be closed down with [a] clear [explanation]:  Crime not substantiated. The picture illustrating this article shows how in much of the world sees the State [of] Sweden's actions against Julian Assange. I have recently had access to the entire Swedish preliminary investigation of Julian Assange's alleged sex crimes. [We have] been hesitant [as to] if we would publish it or not. Not because it is confidential. There is often need for us [at] Paragraf [to] publish documents [leaders] of various kinds hide, but because it deals with intimate sexual details. And the two women who reported Assange thus, to some extent, [would] be hung out. But [as] the dirty games [have] now lasted month after month, [we have chosen to] publish it. Questions and answers A few short questions and answers describe what it is about: Assange picked up these two women? No, they picked him up and invited him to stay in their apartments. Did they come from if they do not want to sleep with him? No not at all. He used violence to have sex with them? No. Did he prefer to have sex without a condom? Yes, but it is not illegal. Had he deliberately broke a condom? It is a claim which he rejects, and how it was with the matter can not be demonstrated by the investigation. Became one of the women pregnant or infected by any disease? No. Why was it even a police investigation of sex crimes? Because the two women wanted to know if through police Assange could be compelled to get tested for HIV. The situation was not one to assert some form of sex crimes, let alone rape. But various police officers, attorneys / courtroom advocates and their employees convinced the women to [report] Assange [in respect] of sex crimes, including rape. Probably the women regret this today, when they reasonably understand in which power games they have fallen - and how they have been exploited by various forces.  Like a rock idol As we have seen Assange in TV reports from different parts of the world it is always at least one woman at his side, looking admiringly at him. He treated a bit like a rock idol and surrounded consequently of groupies. In this case the intelligence groupies. The problem is that he also appears as a moment celebrated rock star in his relationships with women he ends up in bed with. The investigation shows that he is far from being a fine courting gentleman. The women have to pay his food and travel. And his attitude and approach regarding the erotic can probably be best described in the words: - Well, are we going to f*ck or how do you want it? He thus shows clearly that he is currently sharing a bed with, definitely not the woman of his life. Moreover, it seems to be so and so with the cleanliness. In short, might not be the most fun to have remained in his apartment after the first night's adventure. But there is nothing new under the sun. Who has not experienced it, whether we are men or women? The situation may be more or less unpleasant or even a bit unpleasant. But it has not happened anything illegal, however much we may regret at the erotic adventure. Warned Assange One of the journalists who heard the preliminary investigation tells how he warned Assange for what may result in him being honey trapped, thus ends up in a sexfälla [ie sex trap].  He does so because he sees how women swarming around Assange, and he responds specifically to how one of these women act. Now I do not believe a second that these women are part of a conspiracy against Assange. But it may be incredibly naive if you do not realize that different forces have taken advantage of the situation - and therefore these women. Should be closed down I have asked four experienced court lawyers to read the preliminary investigation and assess whether they can see no basis for prosecution. None of them is a lawyer. One could possibly consider a prosecution for assault, but was doubtful as to whether it would hold. The other three were unanimous in that the whole thing should be closed. So the same thing as the highly respected chief prosecutor Eva Finné reached when the case ended up on her table. Julian Assange may be a clumsy lover and sometimes behave arrogantly. He undeniably uses his stardom - but none of it is illegal. And one need not be specially conspiratorially inclined to realize that the current situation is the absolute best for the CIA and the US: He [has taken refuge] in an embassy of a state that stands for all that he opposed. And he refuses to go to Sweden for questioning about sex crimes he is suspected of. For the US, it could obviously not be better. That there he would be sentenced to life imprisonment or the like would put the US in a very difficult situation, both at home and internationally. The last thing that Julian Assange says when he is questioned in the investigation in Sweden: We can always continue if necessary. He has subsequently held on to. He has always been available for questioning in London - and it still is today. When I read the preliminary investigation I realize why there have been no more questioning. Why not some police officers and prosecutors have made their way to London and passed it out here: It would have resulted in the full closed. Or, expressed more legally and formally: Crime not substantiated. For some reason, do not want the State Sweden contribute to it. Published December 6, 2012 12:00 Dick Sundvall Below we publish the full investigation of Assange as a separate file. Previous article about the Assange case is available here: High time to interrogate Assange. Bifogade filer [attachments] AssangeSexAllegations.pdf (4.2 MB) SOURCE http://www.magasinetparagraf.se/bilden/forundersokningen-avseende-assange SEE ALSO Google Translate Link: https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=sv&u=http://www.magasinetparagraf.se/bilden/forundersokningen-avseende-assange&prev=search OTHER Dick Sundvall, editor born in 1946 in Uppsala, Sweden Swedish journalist, author and social commentator - here Father of:  Carl M. Sundvall Swedish journalist and former restaurant owner - here 'domstolsjurister'  - translates to 'court lawyers' or 'judiciary', depending on where you look.  'knulla' - is 'f*ck' or other variations / checked because I couldn't believe it was in the article.  Thought someone had been vandalising Google translate.  lol   --------------------- COMMENT Took the liberty of doing some of my own edits of the Google translation of the Swedish article (above), in the hope of getting something that reads more fluidly.  But after my initial enthusiasm, I got over attempting to minimally restructure without the requisite Swedish, and have let the garbled Google stand as is.  However, there's a link to the original Swedish and a link to the Google translation for further reference. Kind of weird revisiting a subject matter this personal.  Awkward.  Like maybe surreptitiously going through someone's personal effects, or ferreting through a person's garbage bin.  Setting aside the weirdness of the subject matter up for public scrutiny, it's rather an exciting article because (a) it appears in the Swedish press and (b) it would appear to indicate just how flimsy a legal file the Swedish prosecution has relied upon in this Clayton's 'investigation' / non-investigation of almost 5 years detention without charge - or even preliminary interview. The article's raw, Google translation's a scream. The translation comes out like maybe a 1950s Mills & Boon gone rock mag / tabloid: "rock idol and surrounded consequently of groupies" ... "always at least one woman at his side, looking admiringly at him" From what I've previously read, Assange can't have been too bad a house-guest (as the article above seems to read), as his hostess (a woman involved in the police allegations) clearly declined an offer for Assange to continue his stay at another residence in Sweden: " ... crayfish party in Assange’s honour. Alternative lodgings are offered to Assange, but [AA] invites him to continue residing at her flat. A guest at the party stated: "It was a very hearty evening" and when he offered for Assange to stay at his apartment, [AA] replied, "he can stay with me."  [here] Some of what stood out for me is this: Of four (4) legal experts ('domstolsjurister' / 'court lawyers' or 'judiciary' - status unclear to me) examining the State's preliminary investigation documentation: three (3) were unanimous in that the whole thing should be closed. one (1) believed the State could possibly consider a prosecution for assault, but was doubtful as to whether it would hold.  three (3) examining legal experts reached the same conclusion as:  highly respected chief prosecutor Eva Finn, who dismissed this in the first place. Assange has always been available for questioning in London. As the article states, "the current situation is the absolute best for the CIA and the US," which has now been investigating Assange and WikiLeaks, in secret (ie classified / no documentation released pursuant to freedom of information laws), for the last five (5) years.  And the penalties the US would seek are as follows: USG Assange Charges Five Types: espionage conspiracy to commit espionage computer fraud & abuse theft of secrets general conspiracy Were the above x1 charge each = 45 yrs But they're multiples of each type of charge. Also:  Espionage Act has life imprisonment & death penalty provisions. So this is pretty high stakes for the US (and for Assange, of course).  Given Sweden's history of obliging the Americans and the CIA, one does wonder just how obliging the Swedes are in this instance. As the article says, it's easy to see why Sweden has avoided progressing the flimsy (and highly suspect) 'investigation' by consistently dodging even taking the first and vital step to moving this along by simply questioning Assange in London. Checked out the 'preliminary investigation' documents attachment and referred to in the article.  It's 100 pages of Swedish PDF, so it means nothing to English readers - unless they're keen enough to bash it out as written & Google translate the input.  At 100 pages of this file, you'd have to be really keen.  GET A LOAD OF THIS, PEOPLE:   How Sweden Collaborated With CIA on Renditions and Framing of Assange Dec 19, 2012 at 5:54 pm By Rafik Saley, Okoth Osewe, and John Goss EXTRACTS   By his own admission, Sweden’s Ambassador to Australia Mr. Sven-Olof Petersson had advance knowledge of the CIA rendition flight that took place on December 18, 2001 from Stockholm to Egypt. This flight ended in Egyptian nationals Ahmed Agiza and Muhammad al-Zery being illegally rendered and tortured. Mr. Petersson’s admission comes from a statement to the Swedish Parliament’s Constitutional Committee, confirming that he attended a briefing on December 17, 2001 at which the rendition process was finalized. Moreover, the Constitutional Committee’s report shows that he knew about the renditions at the end of November and probably even in mid-November. In fact, it was he who kept Minister of Foreign Affairs Anna Lindh updated on the progress of deportation arrangements with the CIA in November 2001.[i] Petersson was then Sweden’s Director General for Political Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.[ii] Illegal and unconstitutional decisions of this sort, made behind closed doors, show contempt for the Swedish legal system, which has been further denigrated by attempts to get Wikileaks founder Julian Assange flown to Sweden on flimsy allegations of a sexual nature, from where, concerned parties believe the CIA would pick him up and put him on trial in the United States. Ironically, it was through Wikileaks that the world learned about the diplomatic tiff between the US and Sweden that brought an end to Swedish rendition in 2006.[iii] FULL ARTICLE http://newsjunkiepost.com/2012/12/19/how-sweden-collaborated-with-cia-on-renditions-and-framing-of-assange/#sthash.VTKJNK95.dpuf -------  Assange FAQ ------- https://justice4assange.com/

JULIAN ASSANGE - WikiLeaks - Oslo Freedom Forum 2010

WIKILEAKS JULIAN ASSANGE Oslo Freedom Forum 2010 April 27, 2010 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDvfQ5gZ-Jw TRANSCRIPT [Check audio prior to quoting]  JULIAN ASSANGE Oslo Freedom Forum 2010 April 27, 2010 VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDvfQ5gZ-Jw I am very pleased to be amongst so many people I can respect. I don't think I have ever been in a room with so many people that I think hold to my values. That is really an extraordinary honour and I am very grateful to the organisers for inviting everyone and me. And I see in the front row we have Anwar Ibrahim, who I met in Malaysia last year at a by-election for the opposition. Just after speaking to Anwar – a few hours later that night – I was detained by the secret police in Malaysia. So when you speak to him, be careful. So we've heard a lot here about the problems in the developing world and in the work that I have done, certainly, I have covered many of those, and we are censored in all the rogues' gallery states: China, Iran, Israel. I don't want to talk however, today, too much about that, because censorship in the West is also a problem and censorship in the West is used to legitimise censorship in other countries, and abuses in the West of Enlightenment ideals – which we should all hold dear – and the corrosion of those ideals, not only impoverishes Western countries, it is also used as an excuse for terrible abuses in other countries. In particular, the countries that follow the common law that was set up by the British Empire. For example, abuses of libel law that are in Africa are used to imprison some fine journalists, in severe conditions, based upon precedents that are set in UK. So I'm not sure how many people here are familiar with the basics of my work, and I'll try and go very briefly through that, so you can understand where I'm coming from. As a journalist and as a programmer, and as someone who was involved in embryonic internet, in bringing the internet to the people and bringing that great tool of information and publishing freedom to people, I saw that we could achieve a lot of reform with a little bit of work. And you, of course, all know this. And you should remember Solzhenitsyn's words that “in the right moment one word of truth outweighs the world.” Solzhenitsyn was referring to a world of lies. But this still is true, for information across the world, and it’s also true of the information in the West, that, in some cases, one classified video can possibly stop a war, and maybe fifty definitely can. So we tried to pull together a system to automate that process, to get as much new material, sensitive material, restricted material - material that we thought would achieve political reform - into the historic record and keep it there.  We have, in the process, become the publisher of last resort. We, in the past three years, have been attacked over 100 times legally, and have succeeded against all those defences by building an international, multi-jurisdictional network. By using every trick in the book that multinational companies use to route money through tax havens, instead, we route information through different countries to take advantage of their laws, both for publishing and for the protection of sources.  And that endeavour has been successful in putting over a million restricted documents into the historical record that weren’t there before. That’s more pages of information than is in Wikipedia, we have gotten into the intellectual record that had been restricted.  So, you may be ... well, you won’t, but I’m sure Lech will - In 1953, after Stalin died, Beria, the NKVD chief (the chief of the secret police), fell out of favour and was executed. And the great encyclopedia of the Soviet Union had an entry on Beria, three pages, and the publisher sent out a replacement to say that this must be removed, and be replaced by an expanded version of the Bering Strait, that body of water between Vladivostok and Alaska. And into every library that bit of paper passed, and it was pasted in some cases by some librarians - not in others - into the Soviet encyclopedia - ripped out in other cases, but always the glue still visible.  But that's not true anymore in the West, because archives of information have been centralised on computers. The Guardian’s archives are only in one place. They're not in libraries all across the nation that people look for; they're only looked for on the Internet. And because of copyright legislation, they're not copied elsewhere to other places on the Internet. So when something disappears from the archives - the electronic archives of the West to which all information is moving in to - it is gone forever. It is not only ceased to have existed; it is ceased to have ever existed. And when you go to those web pages that have been removed from Western papers, you won’t see the tear-lines - you will just see “page not found” - you won’t see anything in the index at all. We are now approaching the state of Orwell’s dictum - perfect dictum - that “he who controls the present controls the past”. He who controls the internet servers, controls the intellectual record of mankind, and by controlling that, controls our perception of who we are; and by controlling that, controls what laws and regulations we make in society.  So the specific example that I'd like to give - and there are many, many hundreds of these (and, no doubt, most of you are not aware of them) - is a litigious billionaire by the name of Nadhmi Auchi, the fifth richest man in the UK at one stage, whose birthday painting was signed by 146 members of the House of Commons. A very well-connected man: connected politically, connected in business, and connected in the social establishment of the UK. He attempted to remove, through legal threats, articles about his conviction for corruption in France in 2003, in the Elf Aquitaine scandal. And he just sent legal threats; he never went to court. And The Guardian removed four articles about that case from its records, that were over five years old, and it never told its readers. They were removed from their index - when you follow links to them, you’ll just see “page not found.” And so did The Times, and so did The London Independent, and so did major internet companies in the United States. But that’s just one example of a litigious billionaire, and there are hundreds.  In the UK right now, there are 300 secret gag orders. Those are gag orders that not only prevent the press from reporting corruption and abuse; they prevent the press from reporting that the press has been gagged. This is not the liberal democracy that we had all dreamed of. This is an encroaching, privatised censorship regime. And just like everything else in the West that becomes privatised and fiscalised, censorship also is not only a mechanism that is implied by the state. It is something that can be hijacked by wealthy plutocrats, by big companies, to use the coercive mechanisms of the State through the judicial system - through unequal access to the judicial system, through patronage networks - to have material removed permanently from the historical record.  So, in the West - and we are, after all, in Norway - we should not be too proud about our sense that there is no state censorship, because we have privatised state censorship. We have made it more complex and not as obvious. It is not a brute hammer anymore. It is a sophisticated device, like money laundering through Caribbean tax shelters is a sophisticated device, where the brutality is hidden in its complexity.  Similarly, when we see the path that countries like the United States - which once had a proud tradition of freedom of the press - is going down, we have to question whether it is really holding those values anymore, and what we should do about it. Because, if we don’t have Western countries as a beacon on the hill for Enlightenment values, what countries are left to hold that value?  You may - those of you who are familiar here with World War II - may remember the statement that was put by the Nazis on front of concentration camps that “work brings freedom,” an idea that Himmler had when he himself was in prison.  But, in my investigations of exposing documents - which include many abuses by the United States military, which include the main manuals for prison camps like Abu Ghraib, Bagram, and Guantanamo - I have seen pictures on the front of those camps of their slogans. So, guess which camp has, “Honor Bound To Defend Freedom” on the front of it? The defence of freedom as a value is on the front of Guantanamo Bay. And I say, as a perversion of the truth, that that slogan is worse than “work brings freedom.” And we in the West should be aware of that perversion, and understand that the alliance that once existed between liberals and libertarians, and the military-industrial complex, in opposing Soviet abuses in the Cold War, is gone. That once-upon-a-time people who stood up for Enlightenment values, domestically, in Western countries, that stood up for human rights and freedom of the press, domestically, in Western countries - libertarians, liberals, and the press itself - were in a tacit alliance with war hawks. They were in a tacit alliance with those people who opposed the Soviet Union merely for geopolitical reasons, and that alliance was to pick up a moral stick and to beat the abuses - the terrible abuses - of the Soviet Union in relation to censorship. But as of 1991, that artificial alliance - that temporary alliance - has dissipated; and, so, now we see a split and a reversion back to a different standard where the natural interests of authority, the natural interests of intelligence agencies, the natural interests of the military is in stifling press reportage of abuse, and it has been reasserted in Western countries.  (How am I going with time? Right there? Excellent, OK.)  So, in as broad a framework of what we do, it is to try and build an historical record - an intellectual record - of how civilisation actually works in practice - now, from the inside, everywhere, in every country around the World. Because all our decisions, individual decisions, our political decisions, are based upon what we know. Humanity is nothing but what we know and what we have. And what we have can be replaced, and degrades quickly. And what we know is everything, and it is our limit of what we can be. So before we embark on any particular political stratagem, we first have to know where we are; because, if we do not know where we are, it is impossible for us to know where we're going. Likewise, it is impossible to correct abuses unless we know that they are going on. I ask you to think about the words of Machiavelli; think about them in their negative, when he said:  “Thus it happens in matters of state; for knowing afar off (which it is only given to a prudent man to do) the evils that are brewing, they are easily cured. But when, for want of such knowledge, they are allowed to grow untl that everyone can recognize them, there is no longer any remedy to be followed." [Niccoló Machiavelli, The Prince. 1537] So secret planning, is secret usually for a reason: because, if it's abusive, it is opposed. So it is our task to find secret abusive plans and expose them where they can be opposed before they are implemented. Because if they're exposed by their implementation, by people suffering from that abuse, then the abuse has already occurred and it's too late.  [End - 17:51 – APPLAUSE ]  *Note  also adapted from following transcript:  https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1t8ZyXKI3C2cuCLdkQ2etrhy4DmyLEFABqThx4L8Xdfg ------------------ Anwar Ibrahim - here Enlightenment - here Sir Nadhmi Auchi, British-Iraqi billionaire - here Elf Aquitaine (French oil company) Scandal - here  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - here & here Abu Ghraib torture & prisoner abuse - here  Bagram torture & prisoner abuse - here Guantanamo CIA torture & prisoner sexual abuse  - here Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria - here  Narodnyĭ Kommissariat Vnutrennikh Del (People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs - NKVD) - here Niccolò Machiavelli, Italian diplomat and author of The Prince, a handbook for unscrupulous politicians  - here ------------------ NOTE:  Wikipedia links should not be solely relied on, as entries are shaped to suit political views and/or aims of whoever is editing given entries.  ------------------ COMMENT Came across this online.  Decided to transcribe.  Only got to just over a paragraph through, when I decided to check online to see if this was already done.  Was. Found a link to a Google doc and sort of married up what I'd started with the rest of what had been done, listened to the audio & tweaked a tiny bit to my satisfaction. The 'check audio before quoting' strategy is a good one, so I've whacked a note in here to that effect ... just in case.  Although I'm pretty sure this is accurate. Thought it was funny that Machiavelli has made an 'appearance' again in the last 24 hours or so.  First, in the Chinese newspaper, which was perhaps hinting at American Machiavellianism regarding US spying on Japan.  And now Mach's made another 'appearance' by way of a quote regarding the value of early action to ward of 'evils that are brewing'.  The values thing had me thinking about mine.  Uh-oh.  Mine are all over the place.  Mine are also more local than universal.  The humanitarian mould doesn't fit me.  I'm more about me, me, me, and ... ummm, me.  The part about censorship in the West being used to legitimise censorship elsewhere was good. In my opinion, the US (and the West, really) has never cared at all about freedom, democracy, human rights etc.  It is just politic to make out like one does - to create that impression - in order to keep the rabble in check while the monied masters, by and large, continue to rule absolutely.  And it's definitely useful to feign care for those ideals, when attacking foreign governments one wishes to depose, for entirely selfish, commercial, military and political gains.  It has always been nothing but smoke & mirrors.

Machiavellian USA Spying on Japan - Consistent With US Bid for Total Control on Economic & World Stage

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2015-08/02/c_134472389.htm Commentary: U.S. spying on Japan proves it has never treated allies as equals English.news.cn 2015-08-02 16:37:13 [More] BEIJING, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The recently exposed U.S. spying on Japan, one of its most loyal "allies," has once again proved to the world that U.S. foreign polices are still based on realpolitik and it only sees other countries as objects to control, no matter whether they are "friends" or foes. The Wikileaks website on Friday posted National Security Agency (NSA) reports and a list of 35 Japanese targets for telephone intercepts of senior Japanese government officials including the Japanese Cabinet Office, the Bank of Japan, the country's finance and trade ministries and major Japanese trading companies. However, the world is not completely caught off guard when the Wikileaks websites posted NSA reports revealing the United States is also spying on Japan. The United States is often criticized for applying double standards on various issues, but the world's "freedom leader" has been very realistic and consistent when it comes to eavesdropping: from the potential rivals such as Iran and Russia to close allies such as France and Germany. So there is no reason to believe it should treat Japan differently. The United States has been trying to maintain its dominance in global politics, economy and military power. And one of the most important reasons for the United States to spy on other countries is that it wants total control -- to be in total control. Namely, it needs to be "omniscient." Spying on the telephone conversations and emails of other countries' leaders is not only immoral but is also in violation of international law. But the United States did it anyway, because it knew perfectly well that even if it got caught, no one would be there to punish the only super power in the world. The United States' licentious spying on other countries once again proves how hypocritical its course of defending freedom and democracy is. The truth is that the United States has never treated its "allies" on an equal footing, but sees itself as their superior, having the right to do whatever it wants on them. It is also noteworthy that stepping up of espionage activities against other countries actually coincides with the rise of emerging markets and the unification of Europe, which, in the eyes of the United States, is gradually encroaching upon its dominance over economy as well as other fields. The United States is afraid of losing its status as the single pole in the present unipolar world, and the almost reckless spying means, however futile it would be, that it attempts to turn the tide around. But no matter how much the United States has benefited from knowing other countries' secrets, it will always lose more for the distrusts and mutual suspicions it has stirred up among countries. Seeing how the United States treats its "allies," the world can have a better measurement of the values it actually "upholds."  [Ouch] http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2015-08/02/c_134472389.htm Realpolitik = "politics or diplomacy based primarily on power and on practical and material factors and considerations, rather than explicit ideological notions or moral or ethical premises." "Realpolitik is sometimes used pejoratively to imply politics that are coercive, amoral, or Machiavellian." [wikipedia]  --------------------- COMMENT I love articles from alternate sources. So all that insane spying is to keep the US in control economically and otherwise. But having been caught out, although the US is in violation of international law, there's nobody to sanction the US because the US (Wall Street, Federal Reserve, IMF, World Bank etc) is in financial control, I guess. 'Machiavellian' is a description that definitely fits the US.  Think fake WMDs, Gulf of Tonkin, coups, supporting terrorists etc.

HORNET Onion Routing - Tor Rival?

http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/news/4500250948/Tor-anonymity-called-into-question-as-alternative-browser-surfaces HORNET -- a Tor alternative? In other Tor news, researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and University College London introduced an alternative onion network dubbed HORNET. Short for high-speed onion routing at the network layer, it offers the same promise of anonymous browsing but with better scaling, stronger privacy and higher speed -- researchers claimed it can process anonymous traffic at over 93 Gbps. Researchers also said each HORNET node can process anonymous traffic for "a practically unlimited number of sources." Like Tor, HORNET uses a group of relay nodes to mix and encrypt traffic -- and hide users' locations and IP addresses -- in layers to ensure anonymity. However, researchers say it is not plagued with the decreased speed that Tor and other anonymity networks regularly experience. The low-latency onion routing system "uses only symmetric cryptography for data forwarding yet requires no per-flow state on intermediate nodes," researchers wrote. "Unlike other onion routing implementations, HORNET routers do not keep overflow state or perform computationally expensive operations for data forwarding, allowing the system to scale as new clients are added. "It is designed to be highly efficient; instead of keeping state at each relay, connection state (such as onion layer decryption keys) is carried within packet headers, allowing intermediate nodes to quickly forward traffic for large numbers of clients." Because the system does not store per-session states, it also providers "stronger security guarantees" than other onion network options. The researchers also claimed it is less vulnerable to identity-revealing attacks such as session linkage and packet correlation. However, it is not completely immune to attack; confirmation attacks leveraging flow analysis, timing analysis and packet tagging can potentially be successfully executed to determine identity. "However," researchers wrote, "HORNET raises the bar of deploying such attacks for secretive mass surveillance: the adversary must be capable of controlling a significant percentage of ISPs often residing in multiple geopolitical boundaries, not to mention keeping such massive activity confidential." Users should not jump on the bandwagon yet, however; HORNET has not yet been peer-reviewed. http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/news/4500250948/Tor-anonymity-called-into-question-as-alternative-browser-surfaces MORE Tor Browser Challenger: HORNET stands for High-speed Onion Routing at the NETwork layer http://cointelegraph.com/news/115001/hornet-high-speed-protocol-for-a-fully-encrypted-anonymous-internet Researchers claim they’ve developed a better, faster Tor HORNET, a high-speed onion routing network, could be deployed on routers as part of the Internet. http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/07/researchers-claim-theyve-developed-a-better-faster-tor/ --------------------- COMMENT Potential vulnerability points mean nothing to me. I just think it's cool something new is out. Wonder who gets to review Hornet and if there's any built-in backdoors? LOL Tor anonymity network - here.