The Fifth Estate, an unlikely thriller that chronicles the emergence of anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks and its enigmatic founder Julian Assange, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
English actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays Assange, called the debut at Toronto the “perfect marriage” of a festival, known for its popular participation, and a film, about what he called “people journalism.”
The festival is also considered a harbinger of the awards season. Films that have fared well in Toronto, like Slumdog Millionaire, have gone on to win best picture Oscars.
Some 366 films, including 146 world premieres, will screen over 11 days. Transparency and secrecy in the Internet age have emerged as prevalent themes in the programme, led by The Fifth Estate.
The film, made and distributed by Disney/Dreamworks, was chosen to kick off Toronto weeks after former government contractor Edward Snowden leaked US surveillance data with the help of WikiLeaks and Assange.
“As we have seen in the Edward Snowden case, this is a story that continues to be central, and we have also seen that people of great intelligence and goodwill disagree,” director Bill Condon told the Toronto audience.
Condon said The Fifth Estate was not a judgement about WikiLeaks or Assange, but a portrayal of a complex issue that raises more questions than answers about the struggle between transparency, privacy and the security implications.
Julian Assange has hit out at a Hollywood film about his secret-spilling website WikiLeaks, calling the movie “a massive propaganda attack”.
Speaking to students at Britain’s prestigious Oxford University by video link from the Ecuadoran embassy in London, Mr Assange revealed that he had acquired a copy of the script for The Fifth Estate, due to be released in November.
“It is a lie upon lie. The movie is a massive propaganda attack on WikiLeaks and the character of my staff,” Mr Assange said to the university’s Oxford Union debating club.
Now Ecuador is reported to have agreed to grant Asylum for Julius Assange of Wikileaks.
And Britain has threatened to punish Ecuador ,including sanctions.
It is time Britain has stopped hanging on to the coat tails of the US and start acting independently as a Nation.
The grouse of the US against Assange is that he has exposed the US.
The trumped-up charge of rape is silly.
Is this the Britain who gave The Magna Carta to the World?
Where is France in this issue , a nation that gave Liberte,Egalite to the World?
Story:
Ecuador has granted asylum to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange two months after he took refuge in its London embassy while fighting extradition from the UK.
It said there were fears Mr Assange’s human rights might be violated.
Foreign minister Ricardo Patino accused the UK of making an “open threat” to enter its embassy to arrest him.
Mr Assange took refuge at the embassy in June to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faces questioning over assault and rape claims, which he denies.
The Foreign Office said the decision on Mr Assange’s application for political asylum would not affect the UK’s legal obligation to extradite him to Sweden.
It tweeted: “We remain committed to a negotiated solution that allows us to carry out our obligations under the Extradition Act.”
Political asylum is not available to anyone facing a serious non-political crime – such as the allegations levelled against Mr Assange.
But does his new status mean he can now leave his Swedish problems behind? No. Asylum does not equal immunity from prosecution – and Julian Assange needs safe passage through UK territory that he won’t get.
Mr Assange knows he can’t leave without risking arrest by officers waiting outside. The police can’t enter the embassy unless the government revokes its status.
Embassy vehicles are protected by law from police searches – but how could he get into an Ecuadorian car without being apprehended? And what happens after he’s in the car? At some point he will have to get out again. Stranger things have happened.
In 1984 there was an attempt to smuggle a Nigerian man from the UK in a so-called “diplomatic bag” protected from inspection. The bag was in fact a large crate – and customs officers successfully intercepted it at the airport.
The UK government will still seek to arrest him and it will not grant him safe passage. If he steps out, he will be arrested.
Announcing Ecuador’s decision, Mr Patino said the country believed Mr Assange’s fears of political persecution were “legitimate”.
He said the country was being loyal to its tradition of protecting those who were vulnerable.
“We trust that our friendship with the United Kingdom will remain intact,” he added.
The announcement was watched live by Mr Assange and embassy staff in a link to a press conference from Quito.
Outside Ecuador’s embassy in London, the BBC’sJames Robbins said news was slowly spreading through Mr Assange’s assembled supporters and they were delighted.
Stratfor is US( Austin,Texas) based organisation specialising in the gathering of intelligence on behalf of its Clients,Corporates and Governments.
The Intelligence thus gathered is used by these to evaluate, decide and draw their strategies.
The organisation is reported to be run by Ex CIA personnel.
I do not know how far this is true.
The organisation has a website that would forward you its reports.
You have to sign in for the reports at their portal.
Some information provided there are shocking.
In the meanwhile Julian Assange of Wikileaks has accused Stratfor of compromising individual Freedom and violating Privacy.
The same job is being done on a grand scale by WikiLeaks, targeting Governments.
Case of Kettle calling the pot Black or the other way around?
Both WikiLeaks and Stratfor have one thing in common, Publicity and Money.
“February, WikiLeaks began publishing The Global Intelligence Files – more than five million emails from the Texas-headquartered “global intelligence” company Stratfor. The emails date from between July 2004 and late December 2011. They reveal the inner workings of a company that fronts as an intelligence publisher, but provides confidential intelligence services to large corporations, such as Bhopal’s Dow Chemical Co., Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and government agencies, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Marines and the US Defense Intelligence Agency. The emails show Stratfor’s web of informers, pay-off structure, payment-laundering techniques and psychological methods, for example :
“[Y]ou have to take control of him. Control means financial, sexual or psychological control… This is intended to start our conversation on your next phase” – CEO George Friedman to Stratfor analyst Reva Bhalla on 6 December 2011, on how to exploit an Israeli intelligence informant providing information on the medical condition of the President of Venezuala, Hugo Chavez.
The material contains privileged information about the US government’s attacks against Julian Assange and WikiLeaks and Stratfor’s own attempts to subvert WikiLeaks. There are more than 4,000 emails mentioning WikiLeaks or Julian Assange. The emails also expose the revolving door that operates in private intelligence companies in the United States. Government and diplomatic sources from around the world give Stratfor advance knowledge of global politics and events in exchange for money. The Global Intelligence Files exposes how Stratfor has recruited a global network of informants who are paid via Swiss banks accounts and pre-paid credit cards. Stratfor has a mix of covert and overt informants, which includes government employees, embassy staff and journalists around the world.
The material shows how a private intelligence agency works, and how they target individuals for their corporate and government clients. For example, Stratfor monitored and analysed the online activities of Bhopal activists, including the “Yes Men”, for the US chemical giant Dow Chemical. The activists seek redress for the 1984 Dow Chemical/Union Carbide gas disaster in Bhopal, India. The disaster led to thousands of deaths, injuries in more than half a million people, and lasting environmental damage.
Stratfor has realised that its routine use of secret cash bribes to get information from insiders is risky. In August 2011, Stratfor CEO George Friedman confidentially told his employees : “We are retaining a law firm to create a policy for Stratfor on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. I don’t plan to do the perp walk and I don’t want anyone here doing it either.”
Stratfor’s use of insiders for intelligence soon turned into a money-making scheme of questionable legality. The emails show that in 2009 then-Goldman Sachs Managing Director Shea Morenz and Stratfor CEO George Friedman hatched an idea to “utilise the intelligence” it was pulling in from its insider network to start up a captive strategic investment fund. CEO George Friedman explained in a confidential August 2011 document, marked DO NOT SHARE OR DISCUSS : “What StratCap will do is use our Stratfor’s intelligence and analysis to trade in a range of geopolitical instruments, particularly government bonds, currencies and the like”. The emails show that in 2011 Goldman Sach’s Morenz invested “substantially” more than $4million and joined Stratfor’s board of directors. Throughout 2011, a complex offshore share structure extending as far as South Africa was erected, designed to make StratCap appear to be legally independent. But, confidentially, Friedman told StratFor staff : “Do not think of StratCap as an outside organisation. It will be integral… It will be useful to you if, for the sake of convenience, you think of it as another aspect of Stratfor and Shea as another executive in Stratfor… we are already working on mock portfolios and trades”. StratCap is due to launch in 2012. ”
Some information relating to India found in Stratfor.
“The Indian military is planning a 20,000-troop war drill, one of its largest, near the India-Pakistan border, an Indian army spokesman said Feb. 27, AFP reported. The spokesman said the maneuvers, which will include 200 Russian-made tanks and the country’s latest warplanes, will occur in the Indian state of Rajasthan from March to May. According to an army statement, frontline combat vehicles, artillery, tanks, fighter jets, helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles, air defense weapons and military radar will be used.”
The website claims the e-mails, dated between July 2004 and late December 2011, “reveal the inner workings of a company that fronts as an intelligence publisher, but provides confidential intelligence services to large corporations, such as Bhopal’s Dow Chemical Co.” Here is a sample of what “informants” were telling Dow about the Bhopal tragedy.
E-mail from morson@stratfor.com to Stratfor officials, on 23 December 2010: This e-mail appears to profile the leaders of Students for Bhopal Advisory Board, a US-based activist group. The Stratfor analyst describes the Board as “representing the North American grassroots supporters of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal”. The e-mail profiles the seven leaders of the Board in detail, describing their views and what they have done for Bhopal victims.
E-mail from Ann Sigsby, senior analyst, Allis Information Management to Dow officials, on 21 December 2010: Sigsby talks about PTI, the news agency, doing a report on ‘Bhopal gas verdict, compensation issues made headlines in MP’ as part it annual review of top annual stories. Sigsby tells Dow officials there were “multiple pickups through India media websites” of the PTI story. The e-mail talks of The Hindu’s front page carrying an article on the BJP criticizing the Congress for allowing William Anderson, Union Carbide chief during the gas tragedy “to get away”.
E-mail from Ann Sigsby, 3 March 2011, to Dow officials: “Things are much quieter today on the Bhopal issue,” Sigsby begins her mail. Sigsby refers to two Indian newspapers writing articles about a protest against Dow participating in a trade show. It quotes a New York Times reporter’s article questioning whether companies were influencing the Indian origin governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal. Dow had reportedly contributed $100,000 to a charitable foundation run under Jindal’s wife’s name. The NYT article noted that Dow had not been fined for a December 2009 chemical spill in St. Charles parish, despite the state proposing a fine for the companies.”
You enter a foreign country illegally drop Arms for insurgency/possibly to destabilize an established Government/carry out other country’s bidding to manipulate another country,yet you are not extradited on the round that ‘will be tortured in prison’
Very Humane indeed that the gentleman would suffer inconveniences in the jail.
The CBI should have assured the Court that he will be kept lodged in a Five Star Hotel and provided booking details.
On the other side you find Sweden charging Assange of WikiLeaks for not using a Condom with call girls and Britain has followed up the case and jailed him before setting him free on a bail to be furnished at a pace even A.Raja of 2 G scam in India would have found difficult to comply with.
Story:
Danish citizen Kim Davy cannot be extradited to India to face trial for his alleged involvement in the sensational dropping of arms in Purulia in 1995 with the High Court in Denmark today rejecting a plea by the government there.
The plea by the Danish government to allow 49-year-old Davy, who is also known as Niels Holck, to be extradited in the Purulia case was dismissed on the ground he would risk “torture or other inhuman treatment” in India….
This is as always a bit peculiar. The fascinating thing with the outside worlds view of the swedish cases is the thing that is absurd. For starters, the girls (“the great conspirators”) weren’t even trying to get him convicted for the assault, they just asked the police if it where possible to charge someone with rape if they didn’t use a condom even though it was previously agreed they would. When the police got the question they immediately pushed charges against Assange (based on a swedish law that enables anyone to push charges in a certain range of cases, rape is one of them burglary, for example, is not.).
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