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Four U.N. staff dead after plane crash in Bolivia

Tue, 10 May 2011 15:49:37 GMT

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Bolivia

Sources [edit]

"Plane crash kills UN drugs monitors" — The Independent, May 9, 2011
"UN: Four workers killed in Bolivian plane crash" — CNN, May 8, 2011
"UN anti-drugs staff die as plane hits tree in Bolivia" — BBC News Online, May 7, 2011

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ACLU, EFF challenging US 'secret' court orders seeking Twitter data

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 15:08:20 GMT

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Logo of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Logo of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Late last month, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed objections to the United States Government's 'secret' attempts to obtain Twitter account information relating to WikiLeaks. The ACLU and EFF cite First and Fourth amendment issues as overriding reasons to overturn government attempts to keep their investigation secret; and, that with Birgitta Jonsdottir being an Icelandic Parliamentarian, the issue has serious international implications.

The case, titled "In the Matter of the 2703(d) Order Relating to Twitter Accounts: Wikileaks, Rop_G, IOERROR; and BirgittaJ", has been in the EFF's sights since late last year when they became aware of the US government's attempts to investigate WikiLeaks-related communications using the popular microblogging service.

Case background [edit]

2009 File photo of Bradley Manning.
Image: Daniel Joseph Barnhart Clark.

The key objective of this US government investigation is to obtain data for the prosecution of Bradley Manning, alleged to have supplied classified data to WikiLeaks. In addition to Manning's Twitter account, and that of WikiLeaks (@wikileaks), the following three accounts are subject to the order: @ioerror, @birgittaj, and @rop_g. These, respectively, belong to Jacob Apelbaum, Birgitta Jonsdottir, and Rop Gonggrijp.

Birgitta is not the only non-US citizen with their Twitter account targetted by the US Government; Gonggrijp, a Dutch 'ex-hacker'-turned-security-expert, was one of the founders of XS4ALL – the first Internet Service Provider in the Netherlands available to the public. He has worked on a mobile phone that can encrypt conversations, and proven that electronic voting systems can readily be hacked.

In early March, a Virginia magistrate judge ruled that the government could have the sought records, and neither the targetted users, or the public, could see documents submitted to justify data being passed to the government. The data sought is as follows:

Personal contact information, including addresses
Financial data, including credit card or bank account numbers
Twitter account activity information, including the "date, time, length, and method of connections" plus the "source and destination Internet Protocol address(es)"
Direct Message (DM) information, including the email addresses and IP addresses of everyone with whom the Parties have exchanged DMs

The order demands disclosure of absolutely all such data from November 1, 2009 for the targetted accounts.

The ACLU and EFF are not only challenging this, but demanding that all submissions made by the US government to justify the Twitter disclosure are made public, plus details of any other such cases which have been processed in secret.

The Manning connection [edit]

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Gun camera footage of the airstrike of July 12, 2007 in Baghdad, showing the slaying of Namir Noor-Eldeen and a dozen other civilians by a U.S. helicopter.
Image: WikiLeaks.

Bradley Manning, at the time a specialist from Maryland enlisted with the United States Army's 2nd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, was arrested in June last year in connection with the leaking of classified combat video to WikiLeaks.

The leaked video footage, taken from a US helicopter gunship, showed the deaths of Reuters staff Saeed Chmagh and Namir Noor-Eldeen during a U.S. assault in Baghdad, Iraq. The wire agency unsuccessfully attempted to get the footage released via a Freedom of Information Act request in 2007.

When WikiLeaks released the video footage it directly contradicted the official line taken by the U.S. Army asserting that the deaths of the two Reuters staff were "collateral damage" in an attack on Iraqi insurgents. The radio chatter associated with the AH-64 Apache video indicated the helicopter crews had mistakenly identified the journalists' equipment as weaponry.

The US government also claims Manning is linked to CableGate; the passing of around a quarter of a million classified diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks. Manning has been in detention since July last year; in December allegations of torture were made to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights regarding the conditions under which he was and is being detained.

Reports last month that he must now sleep naked and attend role call at the U.S. Marine facility in Quantico in the same state, raised further concern over his detention conditions. Philip J. Crowley, at-the-time a State Department spokesman, remarked on this whilst speaking at Massachusetts Institute of Technology; describing the current treatment of Manning as "ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid", Crowley was, as a consequence, put in the position of having to tender his resignation to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The United States Government versus WikiLeaks [edit]

Logo of WikiLeaks.

Despite his native Australia finding, in December last year, that Assange's WikiLeaks had not committed any criminal offences in their jurisdiction, the U.S. government has continued to make ongoing operations very difficult for the whistleblower website.

The result of the Australian Federal Police investigation left the country's Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, having to retract a statement that WikiLeaks had acted "illegally"; instead, she characterised the site's actions as "grossly irresponsible".

Even with Australia finding no illegal activity on the part of WikiLeaks, and with founder Julian Assange facing extradition to Sweden, U.S. pressure sought to hobble WikiLeaks financially.

Based on a State Department letter, online payments site PayPal suspended WikiLeaks account in December. Their action was swiftly followed by Visa Europe and Mastercard ceasing to handle payments for WikiLeaks.

The online processing company, Datacell, threatened the two credit card giants with legal action over this. However, avenues of funding for the site were further curtailed when both Amazon.com and Swiss bank PostFinance joined the financial boycott of WikiLeaks.

Assange continues, to this day, to argue that his extradition to Sweden for questioning on alleged sexual offences is being orchestrated by the U.S. in an effort to discredit him, and thus WikiLeaks.

State-of-the-(Black)-Art, or CyberWarfare [edit]

Logo of Twitter.

Wikinews consulted an IT and cryptography expert from the Belgian university which developed the current Advanced Encryption Standard; explaining modern communications, he stated: "Cryptography has developed to such a level that intercepting communications is no longer cost effective. That is, if any user uses the correct default settings, and makes sure that he/she is really connecting to Twitter it is highly unlikely that even the NSA can break the cryptography for a protocol such as SSL/TLS (used for https)."

Qualifying this, he commented that "the vulnerable parts of the communication are the end points." To make his point, he cited the following quote from Gene Spafford: "Using encryption on the Internet is the equivalent of arranging an armored car to deliver credit card information from someone living in a cardboard box to someone living on a park bench."

Continuing, the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL) expert explained:

"In the first place, the weak point is Twitter itself; the US government can go and ask for the data; companies such as Twitter and Google will typically store quite some information on their users, including IP addresses (it is known that Google deletes the last byte of the IP address after a few weeks, but it is not too hard for a motivated opponent to find out what this byte was)."

"In the second place, this is the computer of the user: by exploiting system weaknesses (with viruses, Trojan horses or backdoors in the operating system) a highly motivated opponent can enter your machine and record your keystrokes plus everything that is happening (e.g. the FBI is known to do this with the so-called Magic Lantern software). Such software is also commercially available, e.g. for a company to monitor its employees."

Seal of the Catholic University of Leuven.

"It would also be possible for a higly motivated opponent to play "man-in-the-middle"; that means that instead of having a secure connection to Twitter.com, you have a secure connection to the attacker's server, who impersonates Twitter's and then relays your information to Twitter. This requires tricks such as spoofing DNS (this is getting harder with DNSsec), or misleading the user (e.g. the user clicks on a link and connects to tw!tter.com or Twitter.c0m, which look very similar in a URL window as Twitter.com). It is clear that the US government is capable of using these kind of tricks; e.g., a company has been linked to the US government that was recognized as legitimate signer in the major browsers, so it would not be too large for them to sign a legitimate certificate for such a spoofing webserver; this means that the probability that a user would detect a problem would be very low."

"As for traffic analysis (finding out who you are talking to rather than finding out what you are telling to whom), NSA and GCHQ are known to have access to lots of traffic (part of this is obtained via the UK-USA agreement). Even if one uses strong encryption, it is feasible for them to log the IP addresses and email addresses of all the parties you are connecting to. If necessary, they can even make routers re-route your traffic to their servers. In addition, the European Data Retention directive forces all operators to store such traffic data."

"Whether other companies would have complied with such requests: this is very hard to tell. I believe however that it is very plausible that companies such as Google, Skype or Facebook would comply with such requests if they came from a government."

"In summary: unless you go through great lengths to log through to several computers in multiple countries, you work in a clean virtual machine, you use private browser settings (don't accept cookies, no plugins for Firefox, etc.) and use tools such as Tor, it is rather easy for any service provider to identify you."

"Finally: I prefer not to be quoted on any sentences in which I make statements on the capabilities or actions of any particular government."

Views of a security expert [edit]

Wikinews also consulted French IT security researcher Stevens Le Blond on the issues surrounding the case, and the state-of-the-art in monitoring, and analysing, communications online. Le Blond, currently presenting a research paper on attacks on Tor to USENIX audiences in North America, responded via email:

Were the US Government to obtain the sought data, it would seem reasonable the NSA would handle further investigation. How would you expect them to exploit the data and expand on what they receive from Twitter?

Le Blond: My understanding is that the DOJ is requesting the following information: 1) Connection records and session times 2) IP addresses 3) e-mail addresses 4) banking info

By requesting 1) and 2) for Birgitta and other people involved with WikiLeaks (WL) since 2009, one could derive 2 main [pieces of] information.

Logo of the Tor project.

First, he could tell the mobility of these people. Recent research in networking shows that you can map an IP address into a geographic location with a median error of 600 meters. So by looking at changes of IP addresses in time for a Twitter user, one could tell (or at least speculate about) where that person has been.

Second, by correlating locations of different people involved with WL in time, one could possibly derive their interactions and maybe even their level of involvement with WL. Whether it is possible to derive this information from 1) and 2) depends on how this people use Twitter. For example, do they log on Twitter often enough, long enough, and from enough places?

My research indicates that this is the case for other Internet services but I cannot tell whether it is the case for Twitter.

Note that even though IP logging, as done by Twitter, is similar to the logging done by GSM [mobile phone] operators, the major difference seems to be that Twitter is subject to US regulation, no matter the citizenship of its users. I find this rather disturbing.

Using 3), one could search for Birgitta on other Internet services, such as social networks, to find more information on her (e.g., hidden accounts). Recent research on privacy shows that people tend to use the same e-mail address to register an account on different social networks (even when they don't want these accounts to be linked together). Obviously, one could then issue subpoenas for these accounts as well.

I do not have the expertise to comment on what could be done with 4).

WN As I believe Jonsdottir to be involved in the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative (IMMI), what are the wider implications beyond the "WikiLeaks witchhunt"?

Le Blond: Personal data can be used to discredit, especially if the data is not public.

Liberty, and the Electronic Frontier [edit]

Having been alerted to the ongoing case through a joint press release by the ACLU and EFF, Wikinews sought clarification on the primary issues which the two non-profits saw as particularly important in challenging the U.S. Government over the 'secret' court orders. Rebecca Jeschke, Media Relations Director for the EFF, explained in more detail the points crucial to them, responding to a few questions from Wikinews on the case:

WN As a worse-case, what precedents would be considered if this went to the Supreme Court?

Rebecca Jeschke: It's extremely hard to know at this stage if this would go to the Supreme Court, and if it did, what would be at issue. However, some of the interesting questions about this case center on the rights of people around the world when they use US Internet services. This case questions the limits of US law enforcement, which may turn out to be very different from the limits in other countries.

WN Since this is clearly a politicised attack on free speech with most chilling potential repercussions for the press, whistleblowers, and by-and-large anyone the relevant U.S. Government departments objects to the actions of, what action do you believe should be taken to protect free speech rights?

Jeschke: We believe that, except in very rare circumstances, the government should not be permitted to obtain information about individuals' private Internet communications in secret. We also believe that Internet companies should, whenever possible, take steps to ensure their customers are notified about requests for information and have the opportunity to respond.

WN Twitter via the web, in my experience, tends to use https:// connections. Are you aware of any possibility of the government cracking such connections? (I'm not up to date on the crypto arms race).

Jeschke: You don't need to crack https, per se, to compromise its security. See this piece about fraudulent https certificates:

Iranian hackers obtain fraudulent https — EFF website.

WN And, do you believe that far, far more websites should - by default - employ https:// connections to protect people's privacy?

Jeschke: We absolutely think that more websites should employ https! Here is a guide for site operators: (See external links, Ed.)

Birgitta Jonsdottir responds [edit]

Finally, Wikinews approached the Icelandic politician, and WikiLeaks supporter, who has made this specific case a landmark in how the U.S. Government handles dealings with – supposedly – friendly governments and their elected representatives. A number of questions were posed, seeking the Icelandic Parliamentarian's views:

WN How did you feel when you were notified the US Government wanted your Twitter account, and message, details? Were you shocked?

Birgitta Jonsdottir's Facebook profile picture.

Birgitta Jonsdottir: I felt angry but not shocked. I was expecting something like this to happen because of my involvement with WikiLeaks. My first reaction was to tweet about it.

WN What do you believe is their reasoning in selecting you as a 'target'?

Jonsdottir: It is quite clear to me that USA authorities are after Julian Assange and will use any means possible to get even with him. I think I am simply a pawn in a much larger context. I did of course both act as a spokesperson for WikiLeaks in relation to the Apache video and briefly for WikiLeaks, and I put my name to the video as a co-producer. I have not participated in any illegal activity and thus being a target doesn't make me lose any sleep.

WN Are you concerned that, as a Member of Parliament involved in the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative (IMMI), the US attempt to obtain your Twitter data is interfering with planned Icelandic government policy?

Jonsdottir: No

WN In an earlier New York Times (NYT) article, you're indicating there is nothing they can obtain about you that bothers you; but, how do you react to them wanting to know everyone you talk to?

Jonsdottir: It bothers me and according to top computer scientists the government should be required to obtain a search warrant to get our IP addresses from Twitter. I am, though, happy I am among the people DOJ is casting their nets around because of my parliamentary immunity; I have a greater protection then many other users and can use that immunity to raise the issue of lack of rights for those that use social media.

HAVE YOUR SAY
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WN The same NYT article describes you as a WikiLeaks supporter; is this still the case? What attracts you to their 'radical transparency'?

Jonsdottir: I support the concept of WikiLeaks. While we don't have a culture of protection for sources and whistleblowers we need sites like WikiLeaks. Plus, I think it is important to give WikiLeaks credit for raising awareness about in how bad shape freedom of information and expression is in our world and it is eroding at an alarming rate because of the fact that legal firms for corporations and corrupt politicians have understood the borderless nature of the legalities of the information flow online – we who feel it is important that people have access to information that should remain in the public domain need to step up our fight for those rights. WikiLeaks has played an important role in that context.
I don't support radical transparency – I understand that some things need to remain secret. It is the process of making things secret that needs to be both more transparent and in better consensus with nations.

WN How do you think the Icelandic government would have reacted if it were tens of thousands of their diplomatic communications being leaked?

Jonsdottir: I am not sure – A lot of our dirty laundry has been aired via the USA cables – our diplomatic communications with USA were leaked in those cables, so far they have not stirred much debate nor shock. It is unlikely for tens of thousands of cables to leak from Iceland since we dont have the same influence or size as the USA, nor do we have a military.

WN Your ambassador in the US has spoken to the Obama administration. Can you discuss any feedback from that? Do you have your party's, and government's, backing in challenging the ordered Twitter data release?

Jonsdottir: I have not had any feedback from that meeting, I did however receive a message from the DOJ via the USA ambassador in Iceland. The message stated three things: 1. I am free to travel to the USA. 2. If I would do so, I would not be a subject of involuntary interrogation. 3. I am not under criminal investigation. If this is indeed the reality I wonder why they are insisting on getting my personal details from Twitter. I want to stress that I understand the reasoning of trying to get to Assange through me, but I find it unacceptable since there is no foundation for criminal investigation against him. If WikiLeaks goes down, all the other media partners should go down at the same time. They all served similar roles. The way I see it is that WikiLeaks acted as the senior editor of material leaked to them. They could not by any means be considered a source. The source is the person that leaks the material to WikiLeaks. I am not sure if the media in our world understands how much is at stake for already shaky industry if WikiLeaks will carry on carrying the brunt of the attacks. I think it would be powerful if all the medias that have had access to WikiLeaks material would band together for their defence.

WN Wikinews consulted a Belgian IT security expert who said it was most likely companies such as Facebook, Microsoft, and Google, would have complied with similar court orders *without advising the 'targets*'. Does that disturb you?

Jonsdottir: This does disturb me for various reasons. The most obvious is that my emails are hosted at google/gmail and my search profile. I dont have anything to hide but it is important to note that many of the people that interact with me as a MP via both facebook and my various email accounts don't always realize that there is no protection for them if they do so via those channels. I often get sensitive personal letters sent to me at facebook and gmail. In general most people are not aware of how little rights they have as users of social media. It is those of uttermost importance that those sites will create the legal disclaimers and agreements that state the most obvious rights we lose when we sign up to their services.

This exclusive interview features first-hand journalism by a Wikinews reporter. See the collaboration page for more details.

WN Has there been any backlash within Iceland against US-based internet services in light of this? Do you expect such, or any increase in anti-American sentiments?

Jonsdottir: No, none what so ever. I dont think there is much anti-American sentiments in Iceland and I dont think this case will increase it. However I think it is important for everyone who does not live in the USA and uses social services to note that according to the ruling in my case, they dont have any protection of the 1st and 4th amendment, that only apply to USA citizens. Perhaps the legalities in relation to the borderless reality we live in online need to be upgraded in order for people to feel safe with using social media if it is hosted in the USA. Market tends to bend to simple rules.

WN Does this make you more, or less, determined to see the IMMI succeed?

Jonsdottir: More. People have to realize that if we dont have freedom of information online we won't have it offline. We have to wake up to the fact that our rights to access information that should be in the public domain is eroding while at the same time our rights as citizens online have now been undermined and we are only seen as consumers with consumers rights and in some cases our rights are less than of a product. This development needs to change and change fast before it is too late.

Ongoing U.S. Government versus WikiLeaks fallout [edit]

The U.S. Government continues to have issues internationally as a result of material passed to WikiLeaks, and subsequently published.

Within the past week, Ecuador has effectively declared the U.S. ambassador Heather Hodges persona-non-grata over corruption allegations brought to light in leaked cables. Asking the veteran diplomat to leave "as soon as possible", the country may become the third in South America with no ambassadorial presence. Both Venezuela and Bolivia have no resident U.S. ambassador due to the two left-wing administrations believing the ejected diplomats were working with the opposition.

The U.S. State Department has cautioned Ecuador that a failure to speedily normalise diplomatic relations may jeapordise ongoing trade talks.

The United Kingdom is expected to press the Obama administration over the continuing detention of 23-year-old Manning, who also holds UK citizenship. British lawmakers are to discuss his ongoing detention conditions before again approaching the U.S. with their concerns that his solitary confinement, and treatment therein, is not acceptable.

The 22 charges brought against Manning are currently on hold whilst his fitness to stand trial is assessed.

Sources [edit]

This article is a featured article. It is considered one of the best works of the Wikinews community. See Wikinews:Featured articles for more information.

Jim Wyss. "Ecuador asks U.S. ambassador to leave over statements exposed by WikiLeaks" — The Province, April 5, 2011
Dennis Fisher. "Attacking and defending the Tor network" — threatpost.com, March 29, 2011
Barton Gellman. "Twitter, Wikileaks and the broken market for consumer privacy" — time.com, January 14, 2011
Scott Shane. "U.S. subpoenas Twitter Over Wikileaks supporters" — New York Times, January 8, 2011
"PayPal says it stopped Wikileaks payments on US letter" — BBC News Online, December 8, 2010
Jerry Brito. "Birgitta Jónsdóttir on the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative" — The Technology Liberation Front, August 10, 2010
Detlef Borchers. "Hacking at Random: CCC demonstrates TEMPEST measurement of voting machines" — The H, August 16, 2009
"Encrypted GSM mobile cell phone launched in Germany" — Mathaba, November 20, 2003
Francisco van Jole. "Hacking at the end of the universe" — de Volkskrant, July 31, 1993 (Dutch)

External links [edit]

History of XS4ALL — XS4ALL
Government demands for Twitter records of Birgitta Jonsdottir — EFF
Full ACLU, EFF Brief — EFF
How to deploy https correctly — An EFF guide

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Reports say Bolivian president reelected

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:28:51 GMT

Monday, December 7, 2009

Bolivia

Sources [edit]

This article includes material from Bolivia's President Easily Wins Re-election by VOA News, which is in the public domain.

"Bolivia's President Easily Wins Re-election" — VOA News, December 6, 2009
"Morales claims Bolivia election win" — Al Jazeera, December 6, 2009

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American botanist Lou Jost discovers world's smallest orchid

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 07:00:00 GMT

Friday, December 4, 2009

Science and technology

Sources [edit]

Daily Mail Reporter. "Smallest orchid in the world found by accident (well it is only 2mm wide)" — Mail Online, December 1, 2009
"Picture of the day" — New Scientist, November 30, 2009
Lewis Smith. "Smallest orchid in the world is found" — The Independent, November 30, 2009
"Platystele jungermannioides" — Orchids Wikia, November 30, 2009

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Interview with US political activist and philosopher Noam Chomsky

Sat, 04 Apr 2009 10:25:35 GMT

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Political activist and philosopher Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky is a professor emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Linguistics and Philosophy. At the age of 40 he was credited with revolutionizing the field of modern linguistics. He was one of the first opponents of the Vietnam War, and is a self described Libertarian Socialist. At age 80 he continues to write books; his latest book, Hegemony or Survival, was a bestseller in non-fiction. According to the Arts and Humanities Citation Index Professor Chomsky is the eighth most cited scholar of all time.

On March 13, Professor Chomsky sat down with Michael Dranove for an interview in his MIT office in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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On NATO

Michael DranoveI just wanted to know if you had any thoughts on recent NATO actions and the protests coming up at the 60th NATO conference, I know you’re speaking at the counter-conference.

Could be I give so many talks I can’t remember (laughs).

On the NATO conference, well I mean the obvious question is why should NATO exist? In fact you can ask questions about why it should ever have existed, but now why should it exist. I mean the theory was, whether you believe it or not, that it would be a defensive alliance against potential Soviet aggression, that’s the basic doctrine. Well there’s no defense against Soviet aggression, so whether you believe that doctrine or not that’s gone.

When the Soviet Union collapsed there had been an agreement, a recent agreement, between Gorbachev and the U.S government and the first Bush administration. The agreement was that Gorbachev agreed to a quite remarkable concession: he agreed to let a united Germany join the NATO military alliance. Now it is remarkable in the light of history, the history of the past century, Germany alone had virtually destroyed Russia, twice, and Germany backed by a hostile military alliance, centered in the most phenomenal military power in history, that’s a real threat. Nevertheless he agreed, but there was a quid pro quo, namely that NATO should not expand to the east, so Russia would at least have a kind of security zone. And George Bush and James Baker, secretary of state, agreed that NATO would not expand one inch to the east. Gorbachev also proposed a nuclear free weapons zone in the region, but the U.S wouldn’t consider that.

Okay, so that was the basis on which then shortly after the Soviet Union collapsed. Well, Clinton came into office what did he do? Well one of the first things he did was to back down on the promise of not expanding NATO to the east. Well that’s a significant threat to the Soviet Union, to Russia now that there was no longer any Soviet Union, it was a significant threat to Russia and not surprisingly they responded by beefing up their offensive capacity, not much but some. So they rescinded their pledge not to use nuclear weapons on first strike, NATO had never rescinded it, but they had and started some remilitarization. With Bush, the aggressive militarism of the Bush administration, as predicted, induced Russia to extend further its offensive military capacity; it’s still going on right now. When Bush proposed the missile defense systems in Eastern Europe, Poland and Czechoslovakia, it was a real provocation to the Soviet Union. I mean that was discussed in U.S arms control journals, that they would have to regard as a potential threat to their strategic deterrent, meaning as a first strike weapon. And the claim was that it had to do with Iranian missiles, but forget about that.

	Why should we even be debating NATO, is there any reason why it should exist?
—Noam Chomsky

Take say on Obama, Obama’s national security advisor James Jones former Marine commandant is on record of favoring expansion of NATO to the south and the east, further expansion of NATO, and also making it an intervention force. And the head of NATO, Hoop Scheffer, he has explained that NATO must take on responsibility for ensuring the security of pipelines and sea lanes, that is NATO must be a guarantor of energy supplies for the West. Well that’s kind of an unending war, so do we want NATO to exist, do we want there to be a Western military alliance that carries out these activities, with no pretense of defense? Well I think that’s a pretty good question; I don’t see why it should, I mean there happens to be no other military alliance remotely comparable — if there happened to be one I’d be opposed to that too. So I think the first question is, what is this all about, why should we even be debating NATO, is there any reason why it should exist?

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Labor actions as a revival of the Left

Michael DranoveWe’ve seen mass strikes all around the world, in countries that we wouldn’t expect it. Do think this is a revival of the Left in the West? Or do you think it’s nothing?

It’s really hard to tell. I mean there’s certainly signs of it, and in the United States too, in fact we had a sit down strike in the United States not long ago, which is a very militant labor action. Sit down strikes which began at a significant level in the 1930’s were very threatening to management and ownership, because the sit down strike is one step before workers taking over the factory and running it and kicking out the management, and probably doing a better job. So that’s a frightening idea, and police were called in and so on. Well we just had one in the United States at the Republic Windows and Doors Factory, it’s hard to know, I mean these things are just hard to predict, they may take off, and they may take on a broader scope, they may fizzle away or be diverted.

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On Obama's budget

Michael DranoveObama has said he’s going to halve the budget. Do you think it’s a little reminiscent of Clinton right before he decided to institute welfare reform, basically destroying half of welfare, do you think Obama is going to take the same course?

There’s nothing much in his budget to suggest otherwise, I mean for example, he didn’t really say much about it, about the welfare system, but he did indicate that they are going to have to reconsider Social Security. Well there’s nothing much about social security that needs reconsideration, it’s in pretty good financial shape, probably as good as it's been in its history, it's pretty well guaranteed for decades in advance. As long as any of the famous baby boomers are around social Security will be completely adequate. So its not for them, contrary to what’s being said. If there is a long term problem, which there probably is, there are minor adjustments that could take care of things.

So why bring up Social Security at all? If it’s an issue at all it’s a very minor one. I suspect the reason for bringing it up is, Social Security is regarded as a real threat by power centers, not because of what it does, very efficient low administrative costs, but for two reasons. One reason is that it helps the wrong people. It helps mostly poor people and disabled people and so on, so that’s kind of already wrong, even though it has a regressive tax. But I think a deeper reason is that social security is based on an idea that power centers find extremely disturbing, namely solidarity, concern for others, community, and so on.

	If people have a commitment to solidarity, mutual aid, support, and so on, that’s dangerous because that could lead to concern for other things.
—Noam Chomsky

The fundamental idea of Social Security is that we care about whether the disabled widow across town has food to eat. And that kind of idea has to be driven out of people’s heads. If people have a commitment to solidarity, mutual aid, support, and so on, that’s dangerous because that could lead to concern for other things. Like, it’s well known, for example, that markets just don’t provide lots of options, which today are crucial options. So for example, markets today permit you to buy one brand of car or another. But a market doesn’t permit you to decide "I don’t want a car, I want a public transportation system". That’s just not a choice made available on the market. And the same is true on a wide range of other issues of social significance, like whether to help the disabled widow across town. Okay, that’s what communities decide, that’s what democracy is about, that’s what social solidarity is about and mutual aid, and building institutions by people for the benefit of people. And that threatens the system of domination and control right at the heart, so there’s a constant attack on Social Security even though the pretexts aren’t worth paying attention to.

There are other questions on the budget; the budget is called redistributive, I mean, very marginally it is so, but the way it is redistributive to the extent that it is, is by slightly increasing the tax responsibility to the extremely wealthy. Top couple of percent, and the increase is very marginal, doesn’t get anywhere near where it was during the periods of high growth rate and so on. So that’s slightly redistributive, but there are other ways to be redistributive, which are more effective, for example allowing workers to unionize. It’s well known that where workers are allowed to unionize and most of them want to, that does lead to wages, better working conditions, benefits and so on, which is redistributive and also helps turn working people into more of a political force. And instead of being atomized and separated they’re working to together in principle, not that humans function so wonderfully, but at least it’s a move in that direction. And there is a potential legislation on the table that would help unionize, the Employee Free Choice Act. Which Obama has said he’s in favor of, but there’s nothing about it in the budget, in fact there’s nothing in the budget at all as far as I can tell about improving opportunities to unionize, which is an effective redistributive goal.

And there’s a debate right now, it happens to be in this morning's paper if Obama’s being accused by Democrats, in fact particularly by Democrats, of taking on too much. Well actually he hasn’t taken on very much, the stimulus package; I mean anybody would have tried to work that out with a little variation. And the same with the bailouts which you can like or not, but any President is going to do it. What is claimed is that he’s adding on to it health care reform, which will be very expensive, another hundreds of billions of dollars, and it’s just not the time to do that. I mean, why would health care reform be more expensive? Well it depends which options you pick. If the healthcare reforms maintain the privatized system, yeah, it’s going to be very expensive because it's a hopelessly inefficient system, it's very costly, its administrative costs are far greater than Medicare, the government run system. So what that means is that he’s going to maintain a system which we know is inefficient, has poor outcomes, but is a great benefit to insurance companies, financial institutions, the pharmaceutical industry and so on. So it can save money, health care reform can be a method of deficit reduction. Namely by moving to an efficient system that provides health care to everyone, but that’s hardly talked about, its advocates are on the margins and its main advocates aren’t even included in the groups that are discussing it.

And if you look through it case after case there are a lot of questions like that. I mean, take unionization again, this isn’t in the budget but take an example. Obama, a couple of weeks ago, wanted to make a gesture to show his solidarity with the labor movement, which workers, well that’s different (chuckles) with the workers not the labor movement. And he went to go visit an industrial plant in Illinois, the plant was owned by Caterpillar. There was some protest over that, by human rights groups, church groups, and others because of Caterpillar’s really brutal role in destroying what’s left of Palestine. These were real weapons of mass destruction, so there were protests but he went anyway. However, there was a much deeper issue which hasn’t even been raised, which is a comment on our deep ideological indoctrination. I mean Caterpillar was the first industrial organization to resort to scabs, strikebreakers, to break a major strike. This was in the 1980’s, Reagan had already opened the doors with the air controllers, but this is the first in the manufacturing industry to do it. That hadn’t been done in generations. In fact, it was illegal in every industrial country except apartheid South Africa. But that was Caterpillar’s achievement helping to destroy a union by calling in scabs, and if you call in scabs forget about strikes, in other words, or any other labor action. Well that’s the plant Obama went to visit. It’s possible he didn’t know, because the level of indoctrination in our society is so profound that most people wouldn’t even know that. Still I think that it’s instructive, if you’re interested in doing something redistributive, you don’t go to a plant that made labor history by breaking the principle that you can’t break strikes with scabs.

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On the Ron Paul Libertarians

Michael DranoveI live out in Georgia, and a lot of people there are ultra-right wing Ron Paul Libertarians. They’re extremely cynical. Is there any way for people on the left to reach out to them?

I think what you have to do is ask, what makes them Ron Paul Libertarians? I don’t happen to think that makes a lot of sense, but nevertheless underlying it are feelings that do make sense. I mean the feeling for example that the government is our enemy. It’s a very widespread feeling, in fact, that’s been induced by propaganda as well.

So pretty soon it will be April 15th, and the people in your neighborhood are going to have to send in their income taxes. The way they’re going to look at it, and the way they’ve been trained to look at it is that there is some alien force, like maybe from Mars, that is stealing our hard earned money from us and giving it to the government. Okay, well, that would be true in a totalitarian state, but if you had a democratic society you’d look at it the other way around You’d say "great, it's April 15th, we’re all going to contribute to implement the plans that we jointly decided on for the benefit of all of us." But that idea is even more frightening than Social Security. It means that we would have a functioning democracy, and no center of concentrated power is ever going to want that, for perfectly obvious reasons. So yes there are efforts, and pretty successful efforts to get people to fear the government as their enemy, not to regard it as the collective population acting in terms of common goals that we’ve decided on which would be what have to happen in a democracy. And is to an extent what does happen in functioning democracies, like Bolivia, the poorest country in South America. It’s kind of what’s happening there more or less. But that’s very remote from what’s happening here.

Well I think Ron Paul supporters can be appealed to on these grounds, they're also against military intervention, and we can ask "okay, why?" Is it just for their own security, do they want to be richer or something? I doubt it, I think people are concerned because they think we destroyed Iraq and so on. So I think that there are lots of common grounds that can be explored, even if the outcomes, at the moment, look very different. They look different because they’re framed within fixed doctrines. But those doctrines are not graven in stone. They can be undermined.

Additional comments
On the elite's view of the poor
On Fromm's alienation of man

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Sources [edit]

This exclusive interview features first-hand journalism by a Wikinews reporter. See the collaboration page for more details.

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Bolivia's Evo Morales wins referendum on a new leftist constitution

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 17:34:33 GMT

Bolivia

Morales' ascent to presidency [edit]

In March 2005, then-President Mesa resigned. The President of Senate Hormando Vaca Díez assumed office as the country's temporary President. Mesa resigned because of the announcement of highway blockages by Evo Morales and leaders of both the coca growers and the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS). The blockages were meant to pressure the Legislative so that the Hydrocarbons Law, which would raise taxes levied on hydrocarbon extraction from 18% to 50%, could be approved.

Former Bolivia President Carlos Mesa

The MAS is a political party formed basically by coca-growing campesinos (farmers or farmworkers), communists, admirers of Fidel Castro and indigenous people. The party is against the U.S. government and the alleged American influence in the region, neoliberalism and globalization.

In December 2005, Morales won the presidential election in Bolivia to serve a five-year term. In the 2005 election, his victory marked the country's first election of an indigenous head of state, but this claim gendered controversy due to the number of mestizo presidents who were elected or appointed before him. He was openly criticized by such figures as Mario Vargas Llosa, who accuses the President of fomenting racial divisions in an increasingly mestizo Latin America.

Morales ran on a campaign of restoring coca farming in Bolivia, in spite of the U.S. program aimed at reducing the ability to grow coca to curb the cocaine industry. Morales is an Aymara Indian and former coca farmer himself, and has described his victory as a signal that "a new history of Bolivia begins, a history where we search for equality, justice and peace with social justice."

Morales is an admirer of Fidel Castro and he says he is also inspired by the President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Morales supports the creation of an anti-imperialist block formed by Latin-American and Arabian countries against the U.S., which is being organized by the Brazilian President.

2008 unrest in Bolivia [edit]

In August 2008, Bolivian unrest began against Morales and calls for greater autonomy for the country's eastern departments grew. Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando, Tarija and Chuquisaca called strikes and protests to oppose the central government's plan to divert part of the national direct tax on hydrocarbons in favor of its Renta Dignidad pension plan. Brief clashes occurred in the Santa Cruz de la Sierra between police and armed youths enforcing the strike. Violence between Morales' supporters and opponents resulted in at least 30 deaths.

In September 2008, Bolivian authorities declared a state of emergency in Pando, where Bolivian troops took control of the airport in the region's capital, Cobija. Amid preparations to retake the city, 20 people were killed. In October 2008, the government and the opposition held talks following which resulted in the signing of a compromise agreement which set the referendum on 25 January 2009 and early elections on December 6, 2009.

Morales in turn promised that he would not run again in 2014 after his likely reelection in 2009, despite the fact that he would be allowed to do so under the new constitution. The new constitution was drafted by the Constituent Assembly in 2007. The referendum set forth two questions: whether to approve the new constitution and whether to limit private estates to 1,000 or 5,000 hectares.

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Sources [edit]

Learn more about Evo Morales and the 2009 constitutional referendum on Wikipedia.

Terry Wade. "Bolivia's Morales wins referendum, faces long fight" — Reuters, January 26, 2009
Dan Keane. "Bolivian voters back pro-indigenous constitution" — Associated Press, January 26, 2009
Simon Romero. "Bolivians Ratify New Constitution" — New York Times, January 25, 2009
"Bolivia, opposition agree on referendum, Morales term limit" — Agence France-Presse, October 20, 2008

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Bolivian troops told to seize natural gas fields

Mon, 01 May 2006 23:05:40 GMT

Monday, May 1, 2006

President Evo Morales

Bolivian President Evo Morales has ordered that all foreign-owned natural gas fields be turned over to the national government of Bolivia.

President Morales signed a decree that orders troops to seize the fields "immediately" to ensure gas production. The decree also says that companies have 180 days to sign over their fields or leave the country.

The fields are owned by such companies as the United States' Exxon-Mobil Corporation, Brazil's Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Spanish-Argentine Repsol YPF SA, and Great Britain's BG Group PLC and BP PLC.

"The looting by the foreign companies has ended. We are not a government of mere promises, we follow through on what we propose and what the people demand. We want to ask (the Armed Forces) that starting now, they occupy all the energy fields in Bolivia along with battalions of engineers," said Mr Morales after signing the decree.

"The time has come, the awaited day, a historic day in which Bolivia retakes absolute control of our natural resources," added President Morales.

One of Morales' vows in his presidential campaign was to "recover" the country's natural resources by renationalizing them. President Morales explained, on a visit to Brazil in January, that renationalising the industry would not mean expelling foreign companies or expropriating foreign property. "Foreign companies have every right to recover investments and make profits, but profits should be balanced".

Bolivia has the second largest supply of natural gas in South America after Venezuela.

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Sources [edit]

"Update 8: Bolivia Military Told to Occupy Gas Fields" — Forbes, May 1, 2006

"Update 3: Bolivia Leader Orders Army to Gas Fields" — Forbes, May 1, 2006

"UPDATE 3-Bolivia nationalizes natgas sector, occupies fields" — Reuters, May 1, 2006

"Bolivia gas under state control" — BBC, May 1, 2006

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Brazil, Bolivia promise cooperation

Sun, 15 Jan 2006 04:37:06 GMT

Saturday, January 14, 2006

Today's Wikinews

May 22

Collaborate!

Meeting yesterday at Itamaraty, Brazil's Foreign Ministry, Bolivian President-elect Evo Morales and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva outlined plans for broad cooperation between the two countries during Morales' upcoming term in office, which begins on the 22nd of this month. Lula's special assistant for International Issues, Marco Aurélio Garcia, mentioned in particular that Bolivia might be interested in development of its petroleum resources with the help of Brazil's Petrobras, as well as in increasing social programs and seeking to deepen its relationship with other governments.

According to Garcia, there are plans to form a bilateral commission to guide cooperation between the two nations in the coming years.

Public statements from the two leaders have characterized the meeting in glowing terms. After the talks, Morales described a "relationship of brotherhood," saying that he looks forward to the help of Brazil, whom Morales says, "leads the region." Asked about whether the close bonds between the growing number of leftist governments in Latin America constitued the development of an anti-United States counterweight in the region, Morales responded, "We are for a culture of dialogue...We are not going to create a bloc against the U.S."

Sources [edit]

Cristiane Jungblut and Monica Tavares. "Lula promete ‘cooperação total’ e apoio político ao presidente eleito da Bolívia" — Jornal O Globo, January 14, 2006

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Bolivia's new president-elect brands Bush 'the only terrorist'

Sat, 31 Dec 2005 03:27:53 GMT

Friday, December 30, 2005

U.S. President George W. Bush

Bolivia's new president-elect Evo Morales has branded George W. Bush a "terrorist", and has referred to Condoleezza Rice as "Mrs Condolences" in an exclusive interview for Qatar's News Channel Al-Jazeera.

Before departing for an official visit to Cuba, Morales denounced what he calls a "dirty war" undertaken by Bush against him and said that "Bush was the only terrorist because he is the only one who militarily interferes in the domestic affairs of other countries. That's state terrorism, but those who claim their rights are not terrorists", he reiterated in what has been regarded as an escalation of his anti-Washington rhetoric.

At the same time, he said in Chapare during the celebration of his victory, that the plan "zero coca" carried out by the US to eradicate coca in Bolivia is terminated. "We are winning the green battle, coca is defeating the American dollar" he said.

Venezuela's Hugo Chavez is another head of state who has previously labeled George W. Bush a "terrorist".

Sources [edit]

"Evo Morales llama «terrorista» a Bush y promete a los campesinos que «habrá coca»" — La Nueva España, December 30, 2005
"Evo Bolivian brands Bush a 'terrorist': Arab TV" — The Washington Post, December 20, 2005
"Bolivia's Morales brands Bush a "terrorist"" — Reuters, December 20, 2005
"US envoy urges Venezuela to tone down attacks" — Reuters, December 15, 2005

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Bolivia rejects Chile's OAS candidate

Fri, 11 Nov 2005 07:39:53 GMT

Wednesday, February 2, 2005

Bolivia have rejected Chile's Organization of American States (OAS) candidate for the Secretary General José Miguel Insulza, saying that he is not a consensus candidate. According to Bolivia the only consensus candidate is Mexican Luis Ernesto Derbez.

The reason behind Bolivia's rejection of the Chilean candidate is the ongoing dispute between Chile and Bolivia that began with the War of the Pacific in 1879 and resulted in Bolivia losing it's maritime border (and thus maritime access) at Atacama. Bolivia is still demanding maritime access, something Chile refuses to give. Bolivia thus believes that Mr Insulza would be incapable of finding a solution to what Bolivia feels is it's legitimate demand for maritime access were he to become the OAS Secretary General. While Bolivia believes that the OAS is the right multilateral forum to address this issue Chile claims that it is an issue between Bolivia and Chile, and should not concern other nations, a viewpoint that Mr Insulza has himself expressed.

The Bolivian ambassador to the OAS María Tamayo Arnal pointed out that in 1979 and 1989 the OAS approved resolutions stating that Bolivia's lack of maritime access was of hemispherical interest.

Sources [edit]

LaPrensahn

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Bolivian Congress refuse president's resignation

Sat, 02 Jul 2005 04:42:16 GMT

Thursday, March 10, 2005

The National Congress of Bolivia refused the resignation of the Bolivian President Carlos Mesa. The congress members of the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) and the Indian Movement Pachakuti didn't support the decision.

Carlos Mesa.
(Image missing from commons: image; log)

The President of Bolivia Carlos Mesa officially resigned last Sunday, March 6. At the occasion he explained his decision saying:

I cannot continue governing and being threatened for a national blockade that strangles the country, for ultimata, strikes, threats and actions, that don't do anything else besides destroying our productive apparatus, our confidence, our future [...] The positions of the most important figures of Bolivian politics, and of some regional and syndical social organizations are taking Bolivia to a confrontation point that puts in risk, in my opinion, our future and our viability.

Evo Morales.

Mesas resignation was influenced by the pressures of Evo Morales, both the leader of coca growers (cocaleros) and MAS. Morales caused the resignation of the former Bolivian president Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada in October 2003.

The MAS resist the efforts of the Bolivian government to eradicate coca. The use of coca is an old tradition of Bolivian Indians, as tea, medicine, and during social events. The cultivation of coca is a financial resource to Bolívia. Bolivia is considered the world's third-largest cultivator of coca, after Colombia and Peru.

However the coca is also the raw material for cocaine. Coca products are exported to drug cartels in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, European Union, and the USA as reported by arrested drug dealers.

The MAS is pressuring the government so the new Hydrocarbons Law can be approved. The law aims to raise the taxes levied on hydrocarbon extraction. Mesa said that the law as stated is not viable.

Mesa has the support of part of Bolivian population. According to the analysts Carlos Valverde and Jorge Lazarte, Morales lost credibility with this crisis.

The opinion of Morales is that his public image has not deteriorated. He says that the Bolivian population will continue to support him. He also accuses Mesa of trying to favor the interests of oil companies, contrary to the interests of Bolivia. He announced that he will continue to organize protests against the government.

Labour unions and indigenous groups continue the blockage of roads in Bolivia to express their dissenting opinion against the government.

Sources [edit]

"Mesa to stay on as Bolivia leader" — BBC News, March 9, 2005
"Bolivia unions intensify protests" — BBC News, March 10, 2005
"The World Factbook - Bolivia" — CIA, February 10, 2005
"Congreso ratificó a Carlos Mesa y comienza nueva era de poderes" — El Mundo (Bolivia), March 10, 2005
Julio Penãloza Bretel. "El Presidente se queda, pero el bloqueo continúa" — El Tiempo (Bolivia), March 9, 2005
"Mesa negoció, logró un acuerdo y fue ratificado por el Parlamento" — La Razón (Bolivia), March 9, 2005
"El presidente de Bolivia, Carlos Mesa, oficializó su renuncia" — El Tiempo (Colombia), March 7, 2005
"Bolivia President Mesa Resigns as Protests Spread" — Reuters, March 6, 2005
"Detentos comandam rede de tráfico de dentro das celas" — O Estado de São Paulo, September 4, 2004
Felipe Werneck. "PF descobre refinaria de coca no Rio" — O Estado de São Paulo, August 23, 2004

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English Wikinews RSS feed.

Four U.N. staff dead after plane crash in Bolivia

Sources [edit]

ACLU, EFF challenging US 'secret' court orders seeking Twitter data

Case background [edit]

The Manning connection [edit]

The United States Government versus WikiLeaks [edit]

State-of-the-(Black)-Art, or CyberWarfare [edit]

Views of a security expert [edit]

Liberty, and the Electronic Frontier [edit]

Birgitta Jonsdottir responds [edit]

Ongoing U.S. Government versus WikiLeaks fallout [edit]

Related news [edit]

Sources [edit]

External links [edit]

Reports say Bolivian president reelected

Sources [edit]

American botanist Lou Jost discovers world's smallest orchid

Sources [edit]

Interview with US political activist and philosopher Noam Chomsky

Sources [edit]

Bolivia's Evo Morales wins referendum on a new leftist constitution

Morales' ascent to presidency [edit]

2008 unrest in Bolivia [edit]

Related news [edit]

Sources [edit]

Bolivian troops told to seize natural gas fields

Sources [edit]

Brazil, Bolivia promise cooperation

Sources [edit]

Bolivia's new president-elect brands Bush 'the only terrorist'

Sources [edit]

Bolivia rejects Chile's OAS candidate

Sources [edit]

Bolivian Congress refuse president's resignation

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Sources [edit]

	There will be tensions for a while, I say a decade... but we will have built a state on three principles: the economy under state control, equality, and the territorial decentralization of power.
—Bolivian Vice-President Álvaro MarceloGarcía Linera, on reactions to the new constitution.