COMPLIMENTARY A MULTIWAVE PUBLICATION

THE LOS ANGELES PROfESSIONAL ExPRESS

LAProfessionalExpress.com Issue No. 1—14  Thursday, December 9, 2010

‘PROJECT PAYBACK’ ATTACKS MASTERCARD

MASTERCARD WEBSITE FROZEN BY ASSANGE
SUPPORTERS IN GRASSROOTS ‘REVENGE’ OPERATION
•MasterCard users unable to GLAD TO TELL YOU THAT http:// iLeaks, we fight for the same rea-
make payments as a result
•Revenge attack follows similar AND IT'S CONFIRMED! '#ddos
operation against Swiss Bank
•Hackers promise to target Twit-
ter over claims WikiLeaks com-
ments are being censored
•PayPal executive admits U.S.
State Department pressured site
to stop WikiLeaks payments
MasterCard users were today
facing problems with payments after
WikiLeaks supporters hacked into
the site in revenge for the card
company's decision to stop pro-
cessing donations.
Online activists calling them-
selves Anonymous have launched
'Operation: Payback' following the
move yesterday to cut off donations
to the whistleblowing website.
They appear to have staged a
'distributed denial of service' attack
and brought down the site, which
was unavailable this lunchtime.
There were reports today that
MasterCard users have been una-
ble to make payments. MasterCard
this afternoon confirmed a 'service
disruption' message on Twitter from
@Anon_Operation, read: 'WE ARE
www.mastercard.com/ is DOWN sons.
'We want transparency and we
#wikileaks Operation:Payback (is a counter censorship... This is why
b****!) #PAYBACK' we intend to utilize our resources to
Another, from AnonyWatcher, raise awareness, attack those
added - in a play on MasterCard's against and support those who are
advertising: 'There are some things helping lead our world to freedom
WikiLeaks can't do. For everything and democracy.'
else, there's Operation Payback.' It is the latest development in a
There were also unconfirmed technological war and comes after
reports that the group would also MasterCard's move on Monday to
target Twitter over claims the no longer process donations.
#WikiLeaks tag was not being up- At the time, the credit card firm
dated properly. said: 'MasterCard rules prohibit
WikiLeaks Europe - also on Twit- customers from directly or indirectly
ter - declared it was 'cyberwar'. engaging in or facilitating any action
The organization said: 'Group That that is illegal.' PayPal has also
Took Down Swiss Bank Site Have stopped processing payments to
Now Taken Down Mastercard.com.' WikiLeaks. Yesterday a PayPal
This type of attack, which is illegal, executive admitted the firm stopped
involves flooding a website with so processing WikiLeaks' payments
many requests that it becomes after being pressured by the US
overloaded and stops working. State Department.
PayPal, PostFinance and the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assan-
Swedish prosecutors office - where ge was refused bail yesterday by a
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange London court pending an extradition
faces sex allegations - also appear case over alleged sexual assaults in
to have been targeted. Sweden.
The Anonymous group said in a
statement: 'While we don't have By Edgar Tenenbaum | Staff Writer
much of an affiliation with Wik- WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (above) leads the poll for Time magazine's 'Person of the Year'

EDITORIAL: MORE STIMULUS MEANS FEWER JOBS

Today’s payroll report severely
disappointed on the downside and
left economists scratching their
heads to explain the weakness.
The explanation, however, is
plain as day. As I have been say-
ing for years, the US economy will
not create jobs as long as the Fed
keeps interest rates artificially low,
and Congress keeps stimulating
spending and consumer debt, pun-
ishing employers with mandates,
regulations, and taxes, crowding
out private investment with massive
government borrowing, and pre-
venting market forces from restruc-
turing our out-of-balance economy.
As new data comes in that con-
tinues to bolster my hypothesis, the
politicians in Washington continue
to follow the wrong diagnosis, while
ignoring evidence that their policy
prescription has failed. Rather than
reassessing the effectiveness of
their remedy, they are merely pre-
scribing more of the same.
No doubt the 9.8% unemploy-
ment rate (17% when counting the
under-employed or discouraged
workers) will spark another exten-
sion of unemployment benefits,
which will provide yet additional
incentives for the unemployed not
to work. In addition, we will likely
get another round of stimulus –
paid for with higher budget deficits
– that will further hinder the capital
investment and business formation
necessary to produce sustainable
jobs. Then, the inflation created by
the Fed to finance those deficits will
send consumer prices higher, mak-
ing life that much harder for all
Americans, regardless of their
employment status.
All the talk in Washington that
demand must be stimulated to
create jobs is farcical. The news
reports of mobs of shoppers tram-
pling over each other to fill their
carts shows there is plenty of de-
mand. What is truly lacking in our
economy is supply. Those mobs
are still filling their carts almost
exclusively with imported products.
If it were true that demand creates
jobs, we would be at full employ-
ment right now, but the truth is that
demand is meaningless without the
productive means to supply the
goods.
It’s ironic that extending unem-
ployment benefits, one of the rea-
sons unemployment remains so
high in the first place, is actually
being touted as a jobs bill. Keynes-
ian proponents argue that giving
money to unemployed people will
create jobs wherever they spend
their government cheese. This is
utter nonsense.
If printing money and dolling it
out to the unemployed could create
growth and jobs, why hasn’t it al-
ready worked? After all, we have
already extended benefits to 99
weeks. Where are all the jobs?
Also, if every dollar of unemploy-
ment benefits generates two dollars
of growth, as our legislators claim,
why not double or triple the bene-
fits? In fact, why limit them to the
unemployed? Just give the benefits
to everyone – then we will really get
this economy going.
Politicians cannot create eco-
nomic growth at will simply by dol-
ing out money. If it could, the Sovi-
ets would have won the Cold War.
Handing out cash does not create
additional production, it merely
changes who benefits from existing
production. Transferring purchasing
LA(id) Realationship Advice
From our Dearest Sex Advisor
power from producers to consum-
ers undermines economic growth Dearest Dear Sex Advisor, mate blowjob. Her scent sent a tentment due to following that which
and destroys jobs. fantastickle surge down my spine I love. You should do the same to
For now, production is being I procrasturbate way too much. that reminded me of the meaning of prevent yourself from becoming
supplied from abroad. But this What strategies do you recommend this terrible existench. The only dickstracted by the prospect of ma-
dynamic merely worsens our trade to mend this? advice I can give you is to not spend nipulating your genitals to the point
imbalance, putting our nation deep- your time engaging in iDol whorship of satiation.
er into debt. As the dollar losses -Entranced by my pants and to regard my cuntry with the The spyders are seArCHING
purchasing power, foreign goods utmost respect. We’re all traveling through the web for flies and they
will become more expensive and Dear Pantastic Vouyage, down the windy sociopath to no- can see the cobwebs in your eyes.
American living standards will plum- where that we want to be, so we
met. You have had sex with more than should aids each other as much as
What will it take for our leaders to 300 hundred guys. At least half of we can and cuntinue hiving of our- IndiVisibly,
realize that their solution is exacer- them have been homosexual at least selves to those who are less unfortu- Vitus S. Hearn
bating the problem they are trying half of the time. XX+XY = sex, oh nate. A swITCH must be made.
to solve? Unfortunately, I doubt why? Nobody knows the answer. My specialitease are jizzness and
they will learn until the situation The gun in my mouth was the ulti- cummerce. I have achieved cun- Frequently Asked Questions:
becomes intolerable for the majority
of voters. These jobs numbers
bring us one step closer to that
critical mass.
Unless politicians can be roused
from their stupor, we will soon
confront an imminent sovereign
debt and currency crisis that will
make the credit crisis of 2008 look
like a happy interlude. Hopefully,
when the first major shock strikes in
the US, as is currently happening in
Ireland and Portugal, it will finally
provoke a 180-degree change of
policy in Washington. Hopefully, it
won't be too late to spare millions
from a life of subsistence, or worse.
These are my hopes, but my fear is
that we are on the cusp on the
largest economic downfall in mod-
ern history.
By Peter Schiff | President of Euro
Pacific Capital and host of The
Peter Schiff Show

STRANGER THAN WE CAN SUPPOSE

Science has taught us, against all
intuition, that apparently solid
things, like crystals and rocks, are
really almost entirely composed of
empty space. And the familiar illus-
tration is the nucleus of an atom is a
fly in the middle of a sports stadium
and the next atom is in the next
sports stadium. So it would seem
the hardest, solidest, densest rock
is really almost entirely empty
space, broken only by tiny particles
so widely spaced they shouldn't
count. Why, then, do rocks look and
feel solid and hard and impenetra-
ble? As an evolutionary biologist I'd
say this: our brains have evolved to
help us survive within the orders of
magnitude of size and speed which
our bodies operate at. We never
evolved to navigate in the world of
atoms. If we had, our brains proba-
bly would perceive rocks as full of
empty space. Rocks feel hard and
impenetrable to our hands precisely
because objects like rocks and
hands cannot penetrate each other.
It's therefore useful for our brains to
construct notions like "solidity" and
"impenetrability," because such
notions help us to navigate our
bodies through the middle-sized
world in which we have to navigate.
Moving to the other end of the
scale, our ancestors never had to
navigate through the cosmos at
speeds close to the speed of light. If
they had, our brains would be much
better at understanding Einstein.
May I introduce Major General
Albert Stubblebine III, commander
of military intelligence in 1983. He
stared at his wall in Arlington, Vir-
ginia, and decided to do it. As fright-
ening as the prospect was, he was
going into the next office. He stood
up, and moved out from behind his
desk. “What is the atom mostly
made of?” he thought, “Space!” He
started walking. “What am I mostly
made of? Atoms!” He quickened his
pace, almost to a jog now. “What is
the wall mostly made of? Atoms! All
I have to do is merge the spaces.”
Then, General Stubblebine banged
his nose hard on the wall of his
office. Stubblebine, who command-
ed 16,000 soldiers, was confounded
by his continual failure to walk
through the wall. He has no doubt
that this ability will, one day, be a
common tool in the military arsenal.
That's from an article in Playboy,
which I was reading the other day.
(Laughter). I have every reason to
think it's true; I was reading Playboy
because I, myself, had an article in
it. (Laughter)
In a desert plain in Tanzania, in
the shadow of the volcano Ol
Donyo Lengai, there's a dune made
of volcanic ash. The beautiful thing
is that it moves bodily. It's what's
technically known as a barchan,
and the entire dune walks across
the desert in a westerly direction at
a speed of about 17 meters per
year. It retains its crescent shape
and moves in the direction of the
horns. What happens is that the
wind blows the sand up the shallow
slope on the other side, and then,
as each sand grain hits the top of
the ridge, it cascades down on the
inside of the crescent, and so the
whole horn-shaped dune moves.
Steve Grand points out that you and
I are, ourselves, more like a wave
than a permanent thing. He invites
us, the reader, to "think of an expe-
rience from your childhood -- some-
thing you remember clearly, some-
thing you can see, feel, maybe even
smell, as if you were really there.
After all, you really were there at the
time, weren't you? How else would
you remember it? But here is the
bombshell: You weren't there. Not a
single atom that is in your body
today was there when that event
took place. Matter flows from place
to place and momentarily comes
together to be you. Whatever you
are, therefore, you are not the stuff
of which you are made. If that
doesn't make the hair stand up on
the back of your neck, read it again
until it does, because it is im-
portant."
-Transcript from a speech given by
Dr. Richard Dawkins (Oxford)
SUICIDE BLAST KILLS 18 AND INJURES 31
PAKISTAN: As many as 18 people stalled in a vehicle parked at the Security in the area was stepped
lost their lives, while 31 others sus- main bus stand, but Bangash said, up to prevent any other terror at-
tained injuries, in the first suicide "Now we have found the head and tempt, and a search operation was
attack during the commencement of legs of the suicide bomber." The launched for capturing suspected
the Islamic month Muharam-UL- body of the suicide bomber was handlers of the suicide bomber,
haram in the Tirah Valley of the shifted to the hospital for a post added the Kohat police chief.
Kohat district located almost 150 mortem under the guard of security
kilometers away from capital Islam- forces. By Khalid Khan | Contributor
abad on December 8.
The suicide bombing took
place at the busy bus terminal in
main Tirah bazaar, Kohat police
chief Dilawar Bangash said.
Local police spokesman Fazal
Naeem said the bomber ap-
proached the door of a bus
carrying passengers and deto-
nated his explosives.
While talking to media, the
Kohat police chief also said that
the suicide bomb carried more
than 10 kilograms (22 pounds)
of explosive material and that
the suicide bomber appeared to
be about 17 years old and from
the tribal areas. Earlier it ap-
peared that the bomb was in-
 COMPLIMENTARY
THE LOS ANGELES PROfESSIONAL ExPRESS
LAProfessionalExpress.com
WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE WORLD NOW?
Leaks In Review — A solemn summation of revelations from leaked State Department cables
Realpoli k refers to a brand of
polics in which real-me cir-
cumstances and pragmac ap-
proaches form the bases of deci-
sion making. The approach
stands in apposite to ones based
on a stern commitment to an
ideological view on how the
world should operate.
Leaving aside those leaked
cables which reveal U.S. naonal
security vulnerabilies, the dip-
lomac cables disseminated by
worldwide media outlets to date
reveal unhedged analysis of
numerous naon-states’ devel-
opment, straight-talk about their
diplomac representaves and,
of course, back-room only opin-
ions on their leaders, most of
whom are publicly addressed by
American heads of state in quite
different tones.
The following explores a di-
versity of internaonal polical
topics which have surfaced
through the leaked cables thus
far. The cables, candid as they,
present a refreshing view of the
world from a realpoli k perspec-
ve.
AFGHANISTAN
Cables revealed that U.S. offi-
cials are fully aware of Afghani-
stan’s corrupon, and its perme-
aon from President Hamid Kar-
zai’s office down to provincial
governors and beyond. In a De-
cember 27, 2009 cable, the U.S.
Embassy privately accused Pak-
a Governor Khan Hamdrad of
arresng contractors and prem-
ising their release upon a bribe.
Hamdrad then funneled some of
the bribe money to local insur-
gent groups, which the Embassy
noted as “acvely undermining
the Afghan’s counterinsurgency
policy.”
The Afghan hawala system –
an honor based means of money
transfer – facilitates money
conveyances for bribes and nar-
co-trafficking, for example. By
paying a small commission, a
person in one city can deposit
money at one hawala with in-
strucon for its disposion at
another hawala, and li7le to no
accounng for the monies is
required at either locaon.
In a single day leading up to
the Afghani presidenal elec-
on in July 2010, transfers total-
ing USD 75-million were pur-
portedly made from Afghani-
stan to Dubai, U.A.E. Dubai
frequently serves as a financial
safe haven or back-up residence
for state bureaucrats and lead-
ers in unstable parts of the sub-
connent, southwest Asia and
the Middle East.
Around the same me, then-
Afghan Vice-President Ahmad
Zia Massoon entered U.A.E. with
USD 52-million cash. He was not
required to reveal the source or
final desnaon of the cash and
retained it almost in its enrety.
Total, in a period of three and
one half years, the Afghan Fi-
nance minister reported earlier
this year that approximately USD
4.2 billion had been transferred
out of Afghanistan through its
Kabul airport halawa, alone.
In other cables, the U.S. Am-
bassador noted that President
Karzai to be “insecure” and a
“paranoid and weak individual.”
He connued, “Indeed his ina-
bility to grasp the most rudi-
mentary principles of state-
building and his deep seated
insecurity as a leader combine
to make any admission of fault
unlikely, in turn confounding
our best efforts to find in kind a
responsible partner.”
In response to these cable,
one pundit stated that the U.S.
must take this opportunity to
distance itself from Karzai, and
even begin to threaten to public-
ly call him out on his poor lead-
ership. Contemporaneously, the
U.S. must develop a moderate
leader with the wherewithal to
confront corrupon in Afghani-
stan— not benefit from it. The
U.S. must deploy its own re-
sources to balance those of Kar-
zai’s corrupt aristocracy, and
demonstrate to Afghanis that
democracy is in fact be7er than
rule by the Taliban. To date,
Afghani’s cannot be blamed if
they have not yet bought into
Karzai’s illusory democracy.
SAUDI ARABIA
& yip] Erdogan’s full knowledge.”
KUWAIT
In March 2010 discussions
regarding what to do with Guan-
tanamo bay inmates from Per-
sian Gulf states, Saudi King Ab-
dullah suggested to Obama
administraon counter-
terrorism chief John Brennan
that the U.S. “implant[] detain-
ees with an electronic chip con-
taining informaon about them
and allowing their movements
to be tracked with Bluetooth,”
one cable stated, “This was
done with horses and falcons.”
Brennan replied, “Horses don’t
have good lawyers” and ex-
plained the legal obstrucons to
such a proposal.
The cables reveals perplexity
faced by Middle Eastern states in
dealing with insurgents that
would-be returned to their na-
ve lands under the proposed
Guantanamo closure. Recall,
many Iraqi and Afghani insur-
gents emigrated from other
naons to carry out jihad in
those countries.
In a February 2009 meeng
Kuwait’s Interior Minister im-
plored the U.S. Ambassador,
“You know be7er than I that we
cannot deal with these people. I
can’t detain them . . . If they are
ro7en, they are ro7en and the
best thing to do is get rid of
them. You picked them up in
Afghanistan; you should drop
them off in Afghanistan, in the
middle of the war zone.”
Kuwait’s concerns were not
meritless. On November 3,
2005, one Abdullah al-Ajmi
(Internment Serial No. 220) was
repatriated to Kuwait from
Guantanamo Bay. There, he was
acqui7ed on all charges. In April
2008, according to the Defense
Intelligence Agency, Al-Ajmi
carried out a suicide a7ack in
Iraq which killed seven people.
Fingerprints collected from a
dismembered hand matched up
to those recorded off Al-Ajmi at
Guantanamo Bay.
YEMEN
Two cables in parcular ap-
pear to pose the greatest threat
of srring up the leadership of Al
-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
(AQAP). That branch of the ter-
rorist group is most notorious
for the recently a7empted cargo
-bombing and Christmas-day
underwear bomb on U.S.-bound
airplanes.
One cable from January 2010
evidences U.S. General David
Petraeus and Yemeni President
Ali Abdullah Saleh discussion
regarding a recent airstrike on
AQAP in Yemen, which uninten-
onally brought about civilian
collateral damage. The Yemeni
government carried out the
airstrike according to public
reports. During their conversa-
on, Saleh is quoted as saying
to Petraeus, “We’ll connue
saying the bombs are ours, not
yours.” The cable also reports
that Saleh’s aid interrupted with
a joke about Saleh lying to his
own parliament about the air
assault.
In a second cable, summariz-
ing an exchange between Saleh
and Brennan, Saleh expresses
his concern regarding the illegal
flow of drugs and weapons from
neighboring Djibou, but not
whiskey, “provided it’s good
whiskey.” Islam forbids the con-
sumpon of alcohol. In 2009,
AQAP executed a Yemeni gov-
ernment official who they dis-
covered had smuggled whiskey
into Yemen.
RUSSIA
State Department cables re-
veal pervasive corrupon in Rus-
sia, and also the adeptness of
U.S. diplomac analycal capa-
bilies. The wires describe a
“three-ered structure” in Mos-
cow’s crime circuit with (i) the
Mayor at the top, (ii) the police
and intelligence officials at the
second er, (iii) and “ordinary
criminals and corrupt inspec-
tors” at the bo7om.
“Moscow business owners
understand that it is best to get
protecon from the MVD
[Interior Ministery] and FSB
[federal intelligence service]
(rather than organized crime
groups) since they not only have
more guns, resources and power
than criminal groups, but they
are also protected by the law.”
One cable noted that organized
crime groups are no longer in
high demand.
Diplomac correspondence
also documented the then
mayor of Moscow, Yuri M. Lu-
zhkov’s growing influence and
corrupon. On the one hand,
the Mayor provided a larger
base for the ruling party, chaired
by President Medvedev and
Prime Minister Vladimir Pun.
On the other hand, The New
York Times reports that his cor-
rupon “was so profligate that
witnesses saw suitcases, pre-
sumably full of cash, being car-
ried into the Kremlin under
guard.”
One note from the U.S. Em-
bassy concluded, “Ulmately,
the tandem [Medvedev and
Pun] will put Luzhkov out to
pasture.” Shortly thereaPer,
President Medvedev dismissed
Luzhkov from his post. Other
cables described rumors in the
presidenal administraon re-
garding P.M. Pun’s loss of con-
trol, esmang that approxi-
mately 60 percent of his orders
were not being followed by sub-
ordinates.
U.K.
State Department cables derided
the United States’ closest ally,
the United Kingdom, regarding
its efforts or lack thereof in the
Helmand Province of Afghani-
stan. Helmand Governor Man-
gal described his disappoint-
ment: “I do not have anything
against them (the Brish) they
must leave their bases and en-
gage with the people.” General-
ly, the Mangal and the U.S. cri-
cized the U.K. for not building
on U.S. achievements in Hel-
mand by further expanding the
previously established security
zones.
The cables also highly embar-
rass the U.K.’s staffing model:
“the U.K. had only 4,000 troops
in Afghanistan’s largest province,
equaling one-third of the troop
density of RC East.” It proceeds,
“the Brish were aiming for
‘good enough.’ (this is the
phrase that is being used more
oPen by the UK civilian and mili-
tary leadership.)”
NIGERIA
In the most recently released
cables, from October, 2009 Shell
Oil V.P. in Africa Ann Pickard
discussed the Dutch company’s
fear of China and Russia intrud-
ing on their dominion in Nigeria.
Pickard expressed disappoint-
ment that Nigerian ministries
were revealing Shell’s oil figures,
and appezing Chinese and Rus-
sian competors. Pickard stated
she knew all that took place in
the government because the
Company “seconded people to
all the relevant ministries.”
Johnny Carson, a senior U.S.
diplomat to Africa shared Pick-
ard’s concern and relayed to
D.C., “China is a very aggressive
and pernicious economic com-
petor with no morels . . . [and]
is not in Africa for altruisc rea-
sons. China is in Africa for China
primarily.”
One cable from the U.S.’s
Nigerian Embassy expressly
WIKILEAKS IS OWED NO FREEDOM OF SPEECH
—An Exclusive Professional Express Editorial—
Imagine this: You visit a duly
licensed medical doctor who as-
sures you that all medical infor-
mation shared or revealed during
your treatment period will be privi-
leged; that is, it will not be revealed
to anybody, including a court, unless
your medical history is at issue in a
legal case or you apply for new
health insurance coverage.
The doctor issues a caveat: if
you test positive for Human Immu-
nodeficiency Virus (HIV) during your
blood work, your name and test
results will be sent to a state dis-
ease prevention control agency (as
is common in many states) charged
with monitoring the spread of HIV/
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syn-
drome (AIDS). That agency will
allocate resource towards aware-
ness and prevention programs
based on the state’s infection rate.
You test positive for HIV. The
test results, accurate or erroneous
because your label was placed on
someone else’s vile, are attached to
your personal information and sent
to the state agency. The doctor
assures you that your medical priva-
cy remains protected.
An employee at the state agency
– perplexed by the continued spread
of HIV/AIDS – decides to act in what
he believes is in the public interest.
He downloads the personally-
identifying information of all persons
with HIV/AIDS and disseminates the
list to a major media source. His
motive: if everybody knows the
identities of those with HIV/AIDS,
then all will be on notice to not en-
gage in unprotected sexual relations
with those persons.
A MULTIWAVE PUBLICATION
Issue No. 1—14  Thursday, December 9, 2010
By Zein E. Obagi, Jr. | International Columnist
states, “Pickard has repeatedly
told us she does not like to talk
to [American] officials because
the [U.S. Government] is
‘leaky’.” She called it, and yet
didn’t.
TURKEY & ISRAEL
Turkish-Israeli relaons, sour
already, worsen aPer leaks.
Cables revealed claims by Israel
that Turkey permi7ed “weapons
-related material for Iran’s nucle-
ar program [. . .] transit Turkey,
with prime minister [Recep Tay-
The claims, however, were rela-
vely unsubstanated at the
me. Contact the writer by emailing
Israel’s ambassador to Turkey zo@laprofessionalexpress.com
stated to then U.S. Ambassador
Eric Edelman, “[Erdogan] is a
fundamentalist. He hates us
religiously.” These claims were
confirmed to the U.S. by sources
inside and outside the Turkish
government who know Erdogan.
Edelman wrote to D.C. in 2004
that Erdogan has “Islamist
tendencies” and described the
P.M. as suscepble to “Islamist
theories.”
Edelman also remarked that
Erdogan has “overbearing
pride,” an “unbridled ambion
stemming from the belief God
has anointed him to lead Tur-
key,” “an overweening desire to
stay in power,” and a “distrust of
women.”
Due to the Turkish-Israeli
enmity srred by the cables,
Israel now looks to Greece for
joint military exercises, with one
senior military official com-
menng to McClatchy Newspa-
pers, “In the days of be7er rela-
ons, we held a number of exer-
cises in Turkish waters and in
their airspace.” Historically,
The major media source, sympa-
thetic to the employee’s goal, pub-
lishes the list across the world.
Those on the list are powerless,
embarrassed and uniquely identified
by their infection in their workplace,
at home and amongst friends.
*****************************************
Many reading the foregoing
passage would readily admit that the
major media source should not have
made the list public. Some would
even find their actions culpable even
though all that the media source did
was publish something it received.
Nevertheless, a cord inside us
strikes as wrong because the infor-
mation was stolen and violates
another’s right to privacy.
The recent Wikileaks releases of
cables has challenged our princi-
ples, and internally conflicted many
of us regarding a long-heralded
unalienable right – freedom of
speech. Like the unauthorized
dissemination of private medical
information, however, the worldwide
dissemination of Cable
09STATE15113, more commonly
known as “Critical Infrastructure and
Key Resources Located Abroad,” is
wrongful because the information
contained therein was stolen and,
furthermore, its disclosure creates a
terror target list. The publication of
that cable and others has nothing to
do with freedom of speech.
Like many, when the story re-
garding the leak of U.S. State De-
partment cables first broke, I found
Army Pfc. Bradley Manning culpa-
ble, but had no serious disdain for
Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange.
I felt refreshed that the initial release
Israeli operaons in Turkish air-
space have been understood as
dress rehearsals for any future
strikes on Iran.
Per senior foreign Turkish
officials, it appears that the two
countries’ relaons will remain
in a state of detriment unl Isra-
el apologizes for its May 31 flol-
la raid which killed Turkish civil-
ians. Israeli commandos per-
ceived the civilians to be armed.
Since that me, Turkey has re-
called its ambassador to Israel.
Finally, the cables raised seri-
ous quesons about Erdogan’s
sources of income and overseas
bank accounts.
Last week, Erdogan demand-
ed an apology from the U.S. for
all of the aforemenoned accu-
saons, stang “The U.S. is re-
sponsible in the first degree for
the slanders its diplomats make
with their incorrect interpreta-
ons. There are lies and incor-
rect informaon in [the cables].”
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Like sands
in the hour-
glass . . .
It is only a
matter of
time before
Mr. Assange
finds his
ass in a
United
States jail.”
of cables could usher in a new era
of realpolitik, wherein the U.S. would
just “say it straight” to the world.
Despite the botch-up that permitted
the leaks in the first instance, I felt
assured that the entire world com-
munity still looked to the U.S. for
essential decision making and prob-
lem solving.
Then, the aforementioned cable
disclosed the location and suscepti-
bility of every U.S. national interest
across the globe to N. Korea, Iran
and jihadists alike. That disclosure
severely compromised and contin-
ues to compromise the work of
millions of armed servicepersons
and diplomats who over the last
century have sacrificed their lives to
provide not only Americans with our
present quality of life, but also the
scores if not hundreds of developing
nations that our country assists
every day.
Now, locations including where
oceanic cables make landfall, an
anti-snake venom factory in Austral-
ia, key satellite communication
sites, important water infrastructure
and more sites which are essential
to our global communities’ well-
being are open targets to world
culprits.
Wikileaks has declared new type
of war on the United States. Why
would anybody think that any Ameri-
can response should be tempered
by notions of freedom of speech?
The author is James Clark, a re-
nown nationally-syndicated column-
ist with the Professional Express.
jclark@laprofessionalexpress.com