Headline, October15, 2013

'''JULIAN ASSANGE : !!! 

THE WORLD'S

HONOUR OF OPENNESS !!! '''

Admire Julian Assange or revile him, he is the prophet of coming age of involuntary transparency. Having exposed military misconduct on a grand scale, he's now gunning for corporate America.

Does Assange have unpublished, damaging documents on pharmaceutical companies? Yes, he says. Finance? Yes, many more. Energy? Plenty, on everything from BP to an Albanian oil firm that he says attempted to sabotage its competitors.

Like informational  ''' IEDs '''  these damaging revelations can be detonated at will.

What do large companies think of the threat? If they are terrified, they're not saying. None would accept the invitation to talk. Nor would the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. 

WikiLeaks   ''is high profile, legally insulated and transnational,'' says former Commerce Department official James Lewis, who follows Cybersecurity for the Center for Strategic & International Studies. ''That adds up to a reputational risk that companies didn't have to think about some years ago.''

Already U.S. laws wrapped into financial reform in 2010, expand whistleblower incentives to offer six-and-seven digit rewards to staffers in any industry who report malfeasance. WikiLeaks adds another, new form of corporate data breach:

It offers the conscience-stricken and vindictive alike a chance to publish documents unfiltered, without censors or personal repercussions, thanks to privacy and encryption technologies that make anonymity easier than ever before.

WikiLeaks' technical and ideological has inspired copycats from Africa to China and rallied transparency advocates to push for a new, legal promised land in the unlikely haven of Iceland.

In a 2010 interview, -Assange looks tired, his eyes narrowed and the skin beneath them puffy, as if he's unused to even England's gloomy daylight. He has no permanent home. ''We are like a travelling production company; everyone moves somewhere, and we put on a production,'' he sighs.

''We haven't had any rest for a long time.'' In Sweden, where many of the group's servers are based, a warrant has now been issued for his arrest on rape charges. He's denied the accusations, arguing they amount to smear tactics.

He's also afraid to set foot in several other countries, including the U.S., fearing that officials will find reasons to detain him.

A spokeswoman says it has a  ''contingency plan,'' but without Assange there is no public face. Meanwhile, his sources have been drained by defections from his organization; some old friends and associates have taken issue with his autocratic style.

But none of this has stopped him from picking new fights. He promised a release of Bank documents that would be the largest assault by WikiLeaks on the corporate sector and Assange says the business community should expect plenty of sequels.

Same year, October, the site shut down its document submission system. Assange says that it was receiving more information than it could find resources to publish, thousands of additions a day at some points.

The total is more gigabytes of data than he can count. ''Our pipeline of leaks has been increasing exponentially as our profile rises,'' he says, drawing a curve upward in the air with one hand.

If even a fraction of the claims are borne out, he's already sitting on a crypt of data any  ''three-letter''   Spy Agency would kill for.

The world's most vocal transparency advocate,  -over the last many many years, has been busy embarrassing various governments, from Washington to the corrupt Kenyan regime of Daniel arap Moi, that many forget the scandals already on WikiLeaks trophy wall.

In January 2008 the site posted documents alleging that the Swiss bank Julius Baer hid clients profit from even the Swiss government, concealing them in what seemed to be shell companies in the Cayman Islands.

The bank filed a law suit aginst WikiLeaks for publishing data stolen from its clients. Baer later dropped the suit  -but managed to stir up embarrassing publicity for itself.

The honour and the Post continues.

With respectful dedication to the Students, Professors and teachers of Australia. See ya all ON the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:

'' !!! The Awful Truth !!! '''

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless