Bradley Manning – ZERO ANTHROPOLOGY

Bradley Manning and the Meaning of Bravery

As anticipated as a conviction was, today’s news of the federal state winning convictions against Bradley Manning on all counts except the excessive, absurd, and unjustifiable charge of “aiding the enemy,” is still very sad news. For Bradley Manning, the consequences could still be extreme, with some estimating that he could face a maximum total […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

An Open Letter to the Media on the “Irony” of Snowden’s Request for Asylum in Venezuela and Ecuador

The supposed “irony” of whistle-blower Edward Snowden seeking asylum in countries such as Ecuador and Venezuela has become a media meme. Numerous articles, op-eds, reports and editorials in outlets such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, NPR, and MSNBC have hammered on this idea since the news first broke […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Encircling Empire: Report #22—Freedom, Democracy, Human Rights, and Ice Cream

Freedom, democracy, and human rights–concepts deployed by the officialdom and corporate media of American Empire as if they were to be understood as singular and universal, with the U.S. cast as the zenith of achievement on these fronts, are concepts that heavily mark many of the unfolding events that have transpired since the last report. […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Bradley Manning: The U.S. on Trial for War Crimes

The following statement by Julian Assange was first posted on the WikiLeaks website. In addition to this, please see the Bradley Manning Trial FAQ, the “Opening statements on Bradley Manning’s intentions: trial report, day 1” on the Bradley Manning support Network website, and “Bradley Manning’s personal statement to court martial: full text.” Assange Statement on the […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Journalist, Hacker, Spy, Racketeer

What if Wikileaks, from the start, had announced itself as an anonymous group of hackers whose work aimed at producing an open access archive of leaked, stolen, and otherwise illegally obtained and illegally reproduced documents? Chances are that in a conflict with the U.S. or any other government, Wikileaks’ activists would have found themselves in […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

The Excuse is Wikileaks. The Object is Freedom of Speech. The Subject is Authoritarianism.

If you were asked which regime is described by the following actions and characteristics, what would you answer? A regime that produces a death list of citizens abroad to be executed by its secret intelligence service, without arrest, without trial by a jury. A regime that conducts surveillance at home and then uses that information […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Wikileaks Roundup: Man of the Year, Assange the Swede, Blocked at Harvard, Telling the Truth

A short selection of Wikileaks-related articles from the past week or so that range from the amusing to the distressing: Who is more popular than Barack Obama, Sarah Palin, and the Chilean miners combined? And leading in votes for TIME Magazine’s 2010 Person of the Year award, ahead of Lady Gaga, and Jon Stewart and […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Wikileaks’ Iraq War Logs: The U.S. Government’s Crisis of Legitimacy

Further to the Pentagon’s response to the Wikileaks Iraq War logs, Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and senior military adviser to President Obama, apparently had no qualms about posting the following in Twitter–posted without remorse, apology, or disgrace over the release of documentation (from his own troops) of multiple U.S. war […]