Oil leaks = wikileaks by Roxanne Amico

by Roxanne Amico
Dandelion Salad
Spiritmorph Studio
July 28, 2010

Updated: July 29, 2010

Remember Sesame Street? Remember the song, “One of these things is not like the other” ? On that theme, I’d call this post, “One of these things is just like the other!”

Since the Wikileaks story about the US gov’t’s failed criminal war on Afghanistan broke this past weekend, I’ve been following the trail of the “truth hemorrhage “… Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks said, in this der Speigel interview, “…There is a legitimate role for secrecy, and there is a legitimate role for openness.

Unfortunately, those who commit abuses against humanity or against the law find abusing legitimate secrecy to conceal their abuse all too easy. People of good conscience have always revealed abuses by ignoring abusive strictures. It is not WikiLeaks that decides to reveal something…” Sounds familiar to the eye trained on the unrelenting war on the planet, as exemplified by BP’s crimes and their work (and failure) to destroy the evidence, such as the results of the horrific use of dispersants, and the fact that The Q-4000 rig is burning off 6,000 barrels of oil a day, burning which creates sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides in the air and when they merge with moisture, creating acid rain. Acid rain is so acidic it can eat away brick and concrete with time. Speaking of brick and concrete walls, it’s a poetic coincidence that at the same time that the Wikileaks/Afghanistan story is breaking, the story of the 2004 assault on Fallujah and its effect on civilians being “worse than Hiroshima” breaks yet another wall of lies… Assange’s life was threatened by the US a month ago when his leak was leaked, and that, too, was familiar to Iraq War whistleblower David Kelly, who was murdered, also revealed in this article on Sunday… And like the Sesame Street song, the bloody trail leads from places as far away as Sudan all the way home to the scum bags who think they rule the world…

Far, far better than Sesame Street, though, is the fact that Wikileaks reported that they have a theme song which inspires their work, a song that gets my fullest reconsideration for the power of its BANG in this particular context…

21 Links and Excerpts below…

–Roxanne

***

1. Published on Monday, July 26, 2010 by Spiegel Online (Germany) WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange on the ‘War Logs’: ‘I Enjoy Crushing Bastards’ “…There is a legitimate role for secrecy, and there is a legitimate role for openness. Unfortunately, those who commit abuses against humanity or against the law find abusing legitimate secrecy to conceal their abuse all too easy. People of good conscience have always revealed abuses by ignoring abusive strictures. It is not WikiLeaks that decides to reveal something…” http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,708518,00.html

2. Wikileaks editor Julian Assange says there is ‘more to come’ after Afghanistan leak…Posted: 26/07/10 By: Rachel McAthy and Joel Gunter “… “I am always asked what the most single damning revelation is,” he said….”That is not the real story of this material. The real story is that it is war, it’s one damned thing after another. It’s the continuous small events, the continuous deaths of children, insurgents, allied forces (…) This is the story of the war since 2004 and like most of the accidents that occur in the world, they are as a result of cars not buses, most of the deaths in this war are the event of the everyday squalor of war, not the big incidents.”…”Through this material we see what war is like everyday, as well as the big event (…) This is the beginning, the end and the middle, the whole context, with some exceptions. If anything can give us some kind of intellectual understanding, this is it,” he added….”There is no perfect information, but in the end the truth is all we have.”…” http://www.journalism.co.uk/2/articles/539793.php

3. BP Oil Poisons the Gulf of Mexico’s Food Chain [ 68309 ] -Dahr Jamail…NEW ORLEANS, United States, Jul 20, 2010 (IPS/IFEJ)…”…”Do you know how the pelicans die of oil?” asked Dean Wilson, executive director of Atchafalaya Basinkeeper. “They open their wings, thinking they are drying them in the sun, and they just cook in the sun. Thousands of birds are dying like that because of the greed of a foreign company.”…” BP Oil Poisons the Gulf of Mexico’s Food Chain by Dahr Jamail

4. A group of aid agencies claim several international oil companies may have been involved in war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan….By Miles Ashdown…”…Human Rights Watch found that oil revenues enabled the Sudanese government to triple its helicopter fleet with twelve new attack helicopters in 2001 which were allegedly used to clear out the population from oil rich areas so that the oil companies could move in…“We’re talking about rape, torture, arson and arbitrary bombing by high-altitude bombers as well as by helicopters, driving people into uninhabitable areas where many people died of hunger and disease,” says Wesselink, who worked on the ECOS report entitled ‘Unpaid Debt’…”
http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/oil-companies-allegedly-involved-sudan-war-crimes-0

5. Scum Bags: http://www.minimumsecurity.net/stephaniemcmillan/codegreen/?p=358

6. Sunday, Jul 25, 2010 19:26 ET…The WikiLeaks Afghanistan leak…By Glenn Greenwald… “…Whatever else is true, WikiLeaks has yet again proven itself to be one of the most valuable and important organizations in the world. Just as was true for the video of the Apache helicopter attack in Baghdad, there is no valid justification for having kept most of these documents a secret. But that’s what our National Security State does reflexively: it hides itself behind an essentially absolute wall of secrecy to ensure that the citizenry remains largely ignorant of what it is really doing. WikiLeaks is one of the few entities successfully blowing holes in at least parts of that wall…” http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/07/25/wikileaks?source=newsletter

7. Afghanistan war logs: Massive leak of secret files exposes truth of occupation…• Hundreds of civilians killed by coalition troops• Covert unit hunts leaders for ‘kill or capture’
• Steep rise in Taliban bomb attacks on Nato• Read the Guardian’s full war logs investigation… Nick Davies and David Leigh…guardian.co.uk, Sunday 25 July 2010 22.03 BST “…Some of these casualties come from the controversial air strikes that have led to Afghan government protests, but a large number of previously unknown incidents also appear to be the result of troops shooting unarmed drivers or motorcyclists out of a determination to protect themselves from suicide bombers….At least 195 civilians are admitted to have been killed and 174 wounded in total, but this is likely to be an underestimate as many disputed incidents are omitted from the daily snapshots reported by troops on the ground and then collated, sometimes erratically, by military intelligence analysts….” http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/25/afghanistan-war-logs-military-leaks

8. USA-WMD: America’s Covert Hiroshima in Iraq…Written by Chris Floyd Sunday, 25 July 2010 21:54…”…Years ago, I wrote about the use of chemical weapons in the American assault on the Iraqi city of Fallujah in 2004. I was attacked at the time for my “wild accusations” by many people, across the political spectrum, even by stalwart dissidents, who felt that such “exaggerations” undermined the “effectiveness” of the anti-war movement, preventing it from being taken “seriously” by the “serious” players in the power structure. Later, of course, American military officials — and serving soldiers — admitted using white phosphorus and other chemical weapons in the assault….Over the years, small-scale medical studies have pointed to the horrific effects of these USA-WMD attacks. Now, a new comprehensive medical study has shown that the “dramatic increases in infant mortality, cancer and leukemia” in Fallujah since 2004 have “exceeded those reported by survivors of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945,” The Independent reports….The effects of these secret “wonder-weapons” were astounding…: The study, entitled “Cancer, Infant Mortality and Birth Sex-Ratio in Fallujah, Iraq 2005-2009”, is by Dr Busby, Malak Hamdan and Entesar Ariabi, and concludes that anecdotal evidence of a sharp rise in cancer and congenital birth defects is correct. Infant mortality was found to be 80 per 1,000 births compared to 19 in Egypt, 17 in Jordan and 9.7 in Kuwait. The report says that the types of cancer are “similar to that in the Hiroshima survivors who were exposed to ionising radiation from the bomb and uranium in the fallout”….” http://www.chris-floyd.com/articles/1-latest-news/1996-usa-wmd-americas-covert-hiroshima-in-iraq.html

9. Published on Saturday, July 24, 2010 by The Independent/UK Toxic Legacy of US Assault on Fallujah ‘Worse Than Hiroshima’ The shocking rates of infant mortality and cancer in Iraqi city raise new questions about battle…by Patrick Cockburn… “…In the assault US commanders largely treated Fallujah as a free-fire zone to try to reduce casualties among their own troops. British officers were appalled by the lack of concern for civilian casualties. “During preparatory operations in the November 2004 Fallujah clearance operation, on one night over 40 155mm artillery rounds were fired into a small sector of the city,” recalled Brigadier Nigel Aylwin-Foster, a British commander serving with the American forces in Baghdad….He added that the US commander who ordered this devastating use of firepower did not consider it significant enough to mention it in his daily report to the US general in command. Dr Busby says that while he cannot identify the type of armaments used by the Marines, the extent of genetic damage suffered by inhabitants suggests the use of uranium in some form. He said: “My guess is that they used a new weapon against buildings to break through walls and kill those inside.”…The survey was carried out by a team of 11 researchers in January and February this year who visited 711 houses in Fallujah. A questionnaire was filled in by householders giving details of cancers, birth outcomes and infant mortality. Hitherto the Iraqi government has been loath to respond to complaints from civilians about damage to their health…”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/toxic-legacy-of-us-assault-on-fallujah-worse-than-hiroshima-2034065.html

10. Wikileaks on Hiding the War; and, American Security? Rethinking Afghanistan Pt. 6…Posted on July 26, 2010 by Juan… “…Of course, leaks aren’t necessary to know about bombings of civilians. The Afghans complain bitterly about such strikes. The Pentagon is investigating an air strike this weekend that is said to have killed 45 civilians. BBC reports of a relative of the victims, Haji Rahim, that he said, “They can see something as small as an insect just four inches on the ground, so how were they not able to see all of those women and children when they bombed them?…” http://www.juancole.com/2010/07/american-security-rethinking-afghanistan-pt-6.html

11. Iraq war whistleblower was probably assassinated [ 68276 ] -By Christopher King…Redress , July 26, 2010…Christopher King calls on Britain’s coalition government to release the postmortem report – so far kept secret – on the death of Iraq war whistleblower and UN weapons inspector David Kelly, who allegedly committed suicide but is suspected of having been murdered by US or Israeli agents….One of the first things to settle is the death of the UN weapons inspector in Iraq, Dr David Kelly, who was hounded by the Blair government for correctly saying that its propaganda in selling the Iraq war was “sexed up”. He was then found dead near his home, having allegedly committed suicide. The circumstances are suspicious and his postmortem report is secret….” http://uruknet.info/?p=m68276&fb=1

12. Leaked files lay bare war in Afghanistan…By Greg Jaffe and Karen DeYoung…Washington Post Staff Writers…Monday, July 26, 2010… “…Most of the voluminous store of classified reports reflects the daily grind of life in Afghanistan as covered in news reports for the past several years. In them, junior officers complain about poorly equipped Afghan forces, corrupt Afghan government officials and a U.S. war effort that at times seemed to be seriously wanting for resources….In one document, a team of civil affairs soldiers reports donating money for an orphanage that is supposed to help about 100 fatherless children and finding later that only about 30 boys and girls were being helped. Also missing were the stores of rice, grain and cooking oil that the troops had provided. “We found very few orphans living there and could not find most of the HA [humanitarian assistance] we had given them,” the report states….” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/25/AR2010072502092.html

13. WikiLeaks “…[T]oday released over 75,000 secret US military reports covering the war in Afghanistan….The Afghan War Diary an extraordinary secret compendium of over 91,000 reports covering the war in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2010. The reports describe the majority of lethal military actions involving the United States military…The Afghan War Diary is the most significant archive about the reality of war to have ever been released during the course of a war. The deaths of tens of thousands is normally only a statistic but the archive reveals the locations and the key events behind each most of these deaths. We hope its release will lead to a comprehensive understanding of the war in Afghanistan and provide the raw ingredients necessary to change its course…Most entries have been written by soldiers and intelligence officers listening to reports radioed in from front line deployments. However the reports also contain related information from Marines intelligence, US Embassies, and reports about corruption and development activity across Afghanistan…The Diary is available on the web and can be viewed in chronological order and by by over 100 categories assigned by the US Forces such as: “escalation of force”, “friendly-fire”, “development meeting”, etc. The reports can also be viewed by our “severity” measure-the total number of people killed, injured or detained. All incidents have been placed onto a map of Afghanistan and can be viewed on Google Earth limited to a particular window of time or place. In this way the unfolding of the last six years of war may be seen….” http://wardiary.wikileaks.org/

14. The New Pentagon Papers: WikiLeaks Releases 90,000+ Secret Military Documents Painting Devastating Picture of Afghanistan War “…The documents provide a devastating portrait of the war in Afghanistan, revealing how coalition forces have killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents, how a secret black ops special forces unit hunts down targets for assassination or detention without trial, how Taliban attacks have soared, and how Pakistan is fueling the insurgency…” http://www.democracynow.org/2010/7/26/the_new_pentagon_papers_wikileaks_releases

15. TRUTH RISES AGAIN: WIKILEAKS SHREDS SECRECY OF THE AFGHAN WAR…“Truth Crushed To Earth Will Rise Again,” William Cullen Bryant (and later a song title on the third album by House of Pain.”) I first heard this quote when spoken by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr back in the day. He also quoted poet James Russell Lowell who wrote, “Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne, Yet that scaffold sways the future..”…THE WAR STANDS EXPOSED IN ALL OF ITS DEADLY VICIOUSNESS…provides a devastating portrait of the failing war in Afghanistan, revealing how coalition forces have killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents, Taliban attacks have soared and Nato commanders fear neighbouring Pakistan and Iran are fuelling the insurgency.”…Speaking at the TED Global conference, Assange said that “we are overwhelmed by our growth” and the site can’t keep up with the volume of the new material because it doesn’t have enough people to verify it. He later told reporters that “there are many things which are very explosive.”…The War Logs were digital, allegedly given to WikiLeaks by an American soldier, Bradley E. Manning. He has been arrested and is being called a “political prisoner” by WikiLeaks….The documents have revealed unreported incidents of Afghan civilian killings and information about secret operations against Taliban leaders, as well as highlighting US fears that Pakistan’s intelligence service was aiding the Afghan uprising….US authorities have known for weeks that they have suffered a hemorrhage of secret information on a scale which makes even the leaking of the Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam war look limited by comparison….Behind today’s revelations lie two distinct stories: first, of the Pentagon’s attempts to trace the leaks with painful results for one young soldier; and second, a unique collaboration between the Guardian, the New York Times and Der Spiegel magazine in Germany to sift the huge trove of data for material of public interest and to distribute globally this secret record of the world’s most powerful nation at war….THE SONG THEY LOVE…On their website, the brave journalists of Wkileaks reveal they also have a song that has inspired them…. [If I had a hammer, by Pete Seeger!] http://www.newsdissector.com/blog/2010/07/22/the-11-pens-of-barack-obama-and-the-future-of-reform/

16. & 17. Interviews with wikileaks co-founder Julian Assuange: https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2010/07/25/afghanistan-war-logs-massive-leak-of-secret-files-exposes-truth-of-occupation-interview-with-julian-assange/

18. Weight of pages, but the best is yet to come…PAUL MCGEOUGH…July 27, 2010… “…To date, the logs’ single new revelation on the conduct of the war is that the Taliban appears to have heat-seeking, surface-to-air missiles – one of which brought down a US helicopter….However, the logs’ greater service to disclosure and transparency is the extent to which they reveal how the governments with troops in Afghanistan sanitise their public account of how badly the war has been going…” http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/weight-of-pages-but-the-best-is-yet-to-come-20100726-10snc.html

19. US on PR offensive against Wikileaks as 92,000 Afghan war docs spill out…By Agence France-Presse…Sunday, July 25th, 2010 — 8:31 pm
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0725/pr-offensive-wikileaks-92000-afghan-war-docs-spill/

20. http://twitter.com/search?q=%23wikileaks

21. http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Inspirational_Material

Songs

* If I had a hammer – WikiLeaks song. words and music by Lee Hays and Pete Seeger. (c) TRO-Ludlow Music, Inc.

If I had a hammer
I’d hammer in the morning
I’d hammer in the evening
All over this land
I’d hammer out danger
I’d hammer out a warning
I’d hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters
All over this land

If I had a bell
I’d ring it in the morning
I’d ring it in the evening
All over this land
I’d ring out danger
I’d ring out a warning
I’d ring out love between my brothers and my sisters
All over this land

If I had a song
I’d sing it in the morning
I’d sing it in the evening
All over this land
I’d sing out danger
I’d sing out a warning
I’d sing out love between my brothers and my sisters
All over this land

Well I’ve got a hammer
And I’ve got a bell
And I’ve got a song to sing
All over this land
It’s the hammer of justice
It’s the bell of freedom
It’s the song about love between my brothers and my sisters
All over this land

***

Updated:

Here are six short updates to this Tues’s post.

1. The awesome Kasama Project published “on oil leaks = wiki leaks”, (WITH a link the Sesame Street song, “One of these things is not like the other”, so go listen and laugh while you weep and RISE UP, about how these things ARE so much like the others… 😉 Here’s the link: http://kasamaproject.org/2010/07/27/oil-leaks-wiki-leaks/

ALSO, check out this short video of Julian Assange, of Wikileaks, talking about his project and intent: Wikileaks Dares Expose Vast U. S. War Crimes…Posted  on July 25, 2010: https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2010/07/25/afghanistan-war-logs-massive-leak-of-secret-files-exposes-truth-of-occupation-interview-with-julian-assange/ In this video, Assange says that the importance of the event of this leak at this time in the context of the internet, compared to the Pentagon Papers, is that “People can give back” And he is wearing a T-shirt with a statement, in Norwegian “grave deg ned i tide” ( translation to: “dig down in time”)

2. The fabulous Dandelion Salad (DS) posted “on oil leaks = wiki leaks”. Here’s the link to that: https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2010/07/28/oil-leaks-wikileaks-by-roxanne-amico/ ALSO, DS has this from Greg Palast with Laura Flanders on GRIT tv: Greg Palast: Fighting Toxic Oil Companies Posted on July 29, 2010 by dandelionsalad…with Greg Palast Featured Writer Dandelion Salad …29 July, 2010 GRAND ISLE, LA – JULY 25: Oil stained rocks is seen near an oil retention boom on July 25, 2010 near Grand Isle, Louisiana. BP CEO Tony Hayward will reportedly be replaced after numerous mistakes handling the Gulf of Mexico spill. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)…Laura Flanders… https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2010/07/29/greg-palast-fighting-toxic-oil-companies/

3. I forgot to include this in the original post (there IS a HYPER-link to it, but I forgot to include it in the round-up at the bottom): Dr. Riki Ott concludes that there are three choices for people in the Gulf Coast region…1) Leave,…2) Stay and wear a respirator, or…3) Suffer long-term health consequences…. Riki Ott PhD, is a … community activist and former commercial salmon “fisherm’am” with a degree in marine toxicology, specilizing in oil pollution…. Censored Gulf poison news: Gulf Coast people have 3 choices. Dr. Riki Ott… July 19, 3:35 AM Human Rights Examiner Deborah Dupre’… “… James C Fox released hi latest video with Dr. Ott’s public health alarm so that BP employees, other workers, plus all Gulf Coast residents can learn what mainstream news has blacked out. By learning the truth, people are better equipped to take responsible action to protect self and children from real and present dangers in the region from toxic oil and dispersants…” http://www.examiner.com/x-10438-Human-Rights-Examiner~y2010m7d19-Censored-Gulf-poison-news-Dr-Riki-Ott-3-choices-for-Gulf-Coast-people This is a continuing story, with people bleeding internally, and BP working to cover this over. WIKILEAKS for the GULF Hemorrhage!!

4. Greenpeace activists shut down BP gas stations all over London… Blogpost by LisaV – July 27, 2010 at 11:53 AM: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/climate/greenpeace-activists-shut-down-bp-gas-station/blog/13004

5. HEALTHY PEOPLE, HEALTHY PLANET…Because at 160,000 years, the party is just getting started. The Oil Spill…7/28/2010 10:57:56 AM…By Lierre Keith “…A conquered people calls for a boycott. A sovereign people would shred BP’s corporate charter, seize their assets, and put the money of the world’s fourth largest corporation toward restoring the Gulf: the land, the people, the community….” http://www.motherearthnews.com/healthy-people-healthy-planet/oil-spill-storytellers.aspx

6. And the grand finale: “Both the US and UK governments receive hundreds of millions of dollars from the company in tax payments each year. News that BP will be able to write off against tax the cost of plugging the well, cleaning up the spill and compensating the thousands of people who have been affected is likely to anger politicians of all political hues….BP oil spill: taxpayers face clean-up costs www. guardian. co. uk BP will be able to book a $10bn tax credit against the costs of cleaning up the Gulf oil spill, meaning US and UK taxpayers will be picking up part of the bill…” http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jul/27/bp-oil-spill-taxpayers-clean-up-costs

see

Julian Assange: Evidence of War Crimes in Afghan War Logs

The New Pentagon Papers: WikiLeaks Releases 90,000+ Secret Military Documents

Afghanistan war logs: Massive leak of secret files exposes truth of occupation + Interviews with Julian Assange

Julian Assange: Why the world needs WikiLeaks

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BP Response Crew Faces “Catastrophic” Conditions by Dahr Jamail

BP Hires Prison Labor to Clean Up Spill While Coastal Residents Struggle | The Nation

Day 91: Bev’s take + Our stake in the story by Roxanne Amico