U.S. State Department Letter to WikiLeaks (and a few other items...)

[The Straight Story]

The Legal Adviser
United States Department of State
Washington, D.C. 20520
November 27, 2010
Via Electronic Mail

Ms. Jennifer Robinson

Attorney for Mr. Julian Assange

WikiLeaks
179 Great Portland Street
London WIW 5LS

Dear Ms. Robinson and Mr. Assange:

I am writing in response to your 26 November 2010 letter to U.S. Ambassador Louis B. Susman regarding your intention to again publish on your WikiLeaks site what you claim to be classified U.S. Government documents.

As you know, if any of the materials you intend to publish were provided by any government officials, or any intermediary without proper authorization, they were provided in violation of U.S. law and without regard for the grave consequences of this action. As long as WikiLeaks holds such material, the violation of the law is ongoing.

It is our understanding from conversations with representatives from The New York Times, The Guardian and Der Speigel, that WikiLeaks also has provided approximately 250,000 documents to each of them for publication, furthering the illegal dissemination of classified documents.

Publication of documents of this nature at a minimum would:

* Place at risk the lives of countless innocent individuals – from journalists to human rights activists and bloggers to soldiers to individuals providing information to further peace and security;
* Place at risk on-going military operations, including operations to stop terrorists, traffickers in human beings and illicit arms, violent criminal enterprises and other actors that threaten global security; and,
* Place at risk on-going cooperation between countries – partners, allies and common stakeholders – to confront common challenges from terrorism to pandemic diseases to nuclear proliferation that threaten global stability.

In your letter, you say you want – consistent with your goal of “maximum disclosure” – information regarding individuals who may be “at significant risk of harm” because of your actions.

Despite your stated desire to protect those lives, you have done the opposite and endangered the lives of countless individuals. You have undermined your stated objective by disseminating this material widely, without redaction, and without regard to the security and sanctity of the lives your actions endanger. We will not engage in a negotiation regarding the further release or dissemination of illegally obtained U.S. Government classified materials. If you are genuinely interested in seeking to stop the damage from your actions, you should: 1) ensure WikiLeaks ceases publishing any and all such materials; 2) ensure WikiLeaks returns any and all classified U.S. Government material in its possession; and 3) remove and destroy all records of this material from WikiLeaks’ databases.

Sincerely,

s/ Harold Hongju Koh
Harold Hongju Koh
Legal Adviser

http://publicintelligence.net/u-s-state-department-letter-to-wikileaks/


The U.S. Supreme Court Considers Whether Police Can “Make Their Own Exigency” in the Fourth Amendment Context
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/colb/20101208.html

Ohio Appeals Court Upholds Warrantless GPS Tracking
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/33/3338.asp

U.S. Seeks To Broaden Patriot Act On Foreign Asset Seizures
http://thecrimereport.org/2010/11/25/u-s-seeks-to-broaden-patriot-act-on-foreign-asset-seizures/

Operation “HotWatch” tracks credit card use
http://blogs.ajc.com/bob-barr-blog/2010/12/10/operation-%E2%80%9Chotwatch%E2%80%9D-tracks-credit-card-use/?cxntfid=blogs_bob_barr_blog

Patriot Act
Allows law enforcement officials to obtain a search warrant anywhere a terrorist-related activity occurred. Before the Patriot Act, law enforcement personnel were required to obtain a search warrant in the district where they intended to conduct a search. However, modern terrorism investigations often span a number of districts, and officers therefore had to obtain multiple warrants in multiple jurisdictions, creating unnecessary delays. The Act provides that warrants can be obtained in any district in which terrorism-related activities occurred, regardless of where they will be executed. This provision does not change the standards governing the availability of a search warrant, but streamlines the search-warrant process.

Allows victims of computer hacking to request law enforcement assistance in monitoring the "trespassers" on their computers. This change made the law technology-neutral; it placed electronic trespassers on the same footing as physical trespassers. Now, hacking victims can seek law enforcement assistance to combat hackers, just as burglary victims have been able to invite officers into their homes to catch burglars.

http://www.justice.gov/archive/ll/highlights.htm

Monitoring Attorney-Client Communications

On October 31, 2001, the Attorney General issued a regulation that authorized the monitoring of communications between inmates in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons and their attorneys including those who have not been convicted of any crimes.

DHS Terrorist Use of Social Networking Facebook Case Study

DHS-FBI “Inspire” Al-Qaeda Magazine Second Edition Warning

http://publicintelligence.net/

[Angry Dragon]

1. NEWS UPDATE

It will now be required that all babies born in the United States of America will have micro chips embedded before they are allowed to be taken out of any hospital or clinic after their birth. This will ease tracking any persons that are in this country illegally.

Nothing to see, be on your way............

[Ichingcarpenter]

2. Run Rabbit Run

Pink Flyod

[Poll_Blind]

3. They're trying to pretend WikiLeaks is Bradley Manning. There's nothing stopping them from...

...pretending The New York Times is Bradley Manning as well. Absolutely nothing. Merely their desire to do so. This letter confirms something I had strongly suspected but wasn't 100% sure about- that each the New York Times, Der Speigel and The Guardian have a complete set of the cables. I would bet that El Pais and Le Monde also have them in their possession but told the American government to piss off.

PB

[Ghost Dog]

4. Thanks for mentioning El País and Le Monde there,

brother/sister. Brother.