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This article from 2011 is an interesting read, about the publishing of the password to the Wikileaks file in a Guardian book: https://web.archive.org/web/201109

by k1m 6y ago

This article from 2011 is an interesting read, about the publishing of the password to the Wikileaks file in a Guardian book: https://web.archive.org/web/20110925132344/http://nigelparry.com/news/guardian-david-leigh-cablegate.shtml https://web.archive.org/web/20110925132344/http://nigelparry...

dm319 6y ago
I'm going to have to read that, as came across it in this[1] article by his ghostwriter, who puts it down to Julian being paranoid. quote here: How far was he willing to go in order to fuck everybody off? The answer came on 1 September. Having canvassed his followers on Twitter, Julian decided to dump the whole cache of 250,000 US cables supplied to him by Bradley Manning on the internet. He blamed the Guardian – a tactic I recognise from many of his sorties – and especially David Leigh. He insisted Leigh had included a password in his book that could decrypt the files WikiLeaks had left online. Leigh has always said this is nonsense. The manoeuvre brought so many infamous Julian tropes together: the hatred of the US; the showing off about security while having no real sense of how it works (why were the files left online?); the ‘blame culture’ in which any enemy of his must be shown to have failed. [1] https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v36/n05/andrew-o-hagan/ghosting https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v36/n05/andrew-o-hagan/ghost...
- DiogenesKynikos 6y ago
  The unredacted cables were already available online before 1 September 2011, because two Guardian journalists published the password to the encrypted archive. The Guardian continues to deny its responsibility for making the unredacted cables available. It says that people at the Guardian believed the password to the file was "temporary" (how does a password to an encrypted archive stop working after a given time?), and that WikiLeaks should have deleted the file from the internet (it was already mirrored on different sites beyond WikiLeaks' control). I'm willing to believe that people at the Guardian were just technically incompetent and didn't know that publishing the password to the archive would make it available to everyone. But denying responsibility after the fact is just malicious. > Leigh has always said this is nonsense. The password is in the book, for everyone to see. Why do people lie about things that are so easily verifiable?
  - hwillis 6y ago
    ACollectionOfDiplomaticHistorySince_1966_ToThe_PresentDay# https://rixstep.com/2/20131001,00.shtml https://rixstep.com/2/20131001,00.shtml
- forcemajeure 6y ago
  I love this article and I think about it every time I see Assange in the news. Ignoring whatever you think of his actions and the political ramifications, it paints a vivid picture of a deeply flawed human.
  - HugeAcumen 6y ago
    ... And that picture is based completely on Assange being "autistic", "on the spectrum", "paranoid" and "narcissistic" - because he thinks his voice is important, that left wing media have been derelict in their duty and stabbed him in the back, and that powerful people are spying on him and want him assassinated. That all of those things :are true: just doesn't factor in to O'Hagan's assessment, at all. He doesn't even begin to explore the possibility. This speaks much more to O'Hagan's deep flaws than Assange's.
    - leephillips 6y ago
      There is also the little problem of Assange believing that Leigh was part of a Jewish conspiracy against him—not the only time that his antisemitism has revealed itself. https://www.thejc.com/news/uk/julian-assange-s-antisemitic-past-resurfaces-after-his-arrest-1.483145 https://www.thejc.com/news/uk/julian-assange-s-antisemitic-p...
      - HugeAcumen 6y ago
        I'm not seeing where your link makes any such claim. It quotes Assange as saying ‘forget the Jewish thing’, after he allegedly pointed out that a number of people :shown to have lied about him: were Jewish. BTW, 'The JC' were very big on the claim that Corbyn is an anti-semite, while effusive in their praise for Boris Johnson... Sorry but that's proper batty. I had a look at their US news page, and while they had a front-page story about a BUDDHIST swastika necklace, the :forced sterilisation: scandal seems to have passed them by. And if there's anything in their news about this trial and it's irregularities, and the significance to journalism, I haven't found it. You might not want to take them too seriously.
- HugeAcumen 6y ago
  Wooow - that essay aged like milk. Not that it was much good to begin with - the majority of his criticism is based on calling Assange "paranoid" and "narcissistic" - because he thought there were people trying to spy on him and assassinate him. Which there very much were. I was curious if O'Hagan is at all apologetic, now that Assange's "paranoia" has been conclusively justified, but at least on his Twitter he shows no interest in the topic whatsoever. Thanks for saving me any money I might ever have spent on his writing.
- pessimizer 6y ago
  > He insisted Leigh had included a password in his book that could decrypt the files WikiLeaks had left online. Leigh has always said this is nonsense. How is it notable that Leigh said something is nonsense that can easily be verified by anyone? This is a tactic I recognize from a lot of propaganda: when repeating something that is known to be factually inaccurate, attribute it to someone else. This work of art not only does that, but surrounds it with "tactic I recognise" "Julian tropes" and "'blame culture'". The last I put in double quotes, because I'm pretty sure it's not a quote, it's a thought being projected into Assange's head. Not even good propaganda.
- k1m 6y ago
  Christian Grothoff explains that the material was already available online in encrypted form. By the time Wikileaks made them public, people had already decrypted them thanks to Guardian journalists revealing the password in their book. Blame clearly lies with the Guardian journalists David Leigh and Luke Harding for being reckless with the password. > WikiLeaks made the unredacted cache available after they were available on the other sites, on 2nd September 2011 > The materials at that time were already available online "in a way that was virtually impossible to stop"

by k1m 6y ago

dm319 6y ago

I'm going to have to read that, as came across it in this[1] article by his ghostwriter, who puts it down to Julian being paranoid. quote here: How far was he willing to go in order to fuck everybody off? The answer came on 1 September. Having canvassed his followers on Twitter, Julian decided to dump the whole cache of 250,000 US cables supplied to him by Bradley Manning on the internet. He blamed the Guardian – a tactic I recognise from many of his sorties – and especially David Leigh. He insisted Leigh had included a password in his book that could decrypt the files WikiLeaks had left online. Leigh has always said this is nonsense. The manoeuvre brought so many infamous Julian tropes together: the hatred of the US; the showing off about security while having no real sense of how it works (why were the files left online?); the ‘blame culture’ in which any enemy of his must be shown to have failed. [1] https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v36/n05/andrew-o-hagan/ghosting https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v36/n05/andrew-o-hagan/ghost...

DiogenesKynikos 6y ago
The unredacted cables were already available online before 1 September 2011, because two Guardian journalists published the password to the encrypted archive. The Guardian continues to deny its responsibility for making the unredacted cables available. It says that people at the Guardian believed the password to the file was "temporary" (how does a password to an encrypted archive stop working after a given time?), and that WikiLeaks should have deleted the file from the internet (it was already mirrored on different sites beyond WikiLeaks' control). I'm willing to believe that people at the Guardian were just technically incompetent and didn't know that publishing the password to the archive would make it available to everyone. But denying responsibility after the fact is just malicious. > Leigh has always said this is nonsense. The password is in the book, for everyone to see. Why do people lie about things that are so easily verifiable?
- hwillis 6y ago
  ACollectionOfDiplomaticHistorySince_1966_ToThe_PresentDay# https://rixstep.com/2/20131001,00.shtml https://rixstep.com/2/20131001,00.shtml
forcemajeure 6y ago
I love this article and I think about it every time I see Assange in the news. Ignoring whatever you think of his actions and the political ramifications, it paints a vivid picture of a deeply flawed human.
- HugeAcumen 6y ago
  ... And that picture is based completely on Assange being "autistic", "on the spectrum", "paranoid" and "narcissistic" - because he thinks his voice is important, that left wing media have been derelict in their duty and stabbed him in the back, and that powerful people are spying on him and want him assassinated. That all of those things :are true: just doesn't factor in to O'Hagan's assessment, at all. He doesn't even begin to explore the possibility. This speaks much more to O'Hagan's deep flaws than Assange's.
  - leephillips 6y ago
    There is also the little problem of Assange believing that Leigh was part of a Jewish conspiracy against him—not the only time that his antisemitism has revealed itself. https://www.thejc.com/news/uk/julian-assange-s-antisemitic-past-resurfaces-after-his-arrest-1.483145 https://www.thejc.com/news/uk/julian-assange-s-antisemitic-p...
    - HugeAcumen 6y ago
      I'm not seeing where your link makes any such claim. It quotes Assange as saying ‘forget the Jewish thing’, after he allegedly pointed out that a number of people :shown to have lied about him: were Jewish. BTW, 'The JC' were very big on the claim that Corbyn is an anti-semite, while effusive in their praise for Boris Johnson... Sorry but that's proper batty. I had a look at their US news page, and while they had a front-page story about a BUDDHIST swastika necklace, the :forced sterilisation: scandal seems to have passed them by. And if there's anything in their news about this trial and it's irregularities, and the significance to journalism, I haven't found it. You might not want to take them too seriously.
HugeAcumen 6y ago
Wooow - that essay aged like milk. Not that it was much good to begin with - the majority of his criticism is based on calling Assange "paranoid" and "narcissistic" - because he thought there were people trying to spy on him and assassinate him. Which there very much were. I was curious if O'Hagan is at all apologetic, now that Assange's "paranoia" has been conclusively justified, but at least on his Twitter he shows no interest in the topic whatsoever. Thanks for saving me any money I might ever have spent on his writing.
pessimizer 6y ago
> He insisted Leigh had included a password in his book that could decrypt the files WikiLeaks had left online. Leigh has always said this is nonsense. How is it notable that Leigh said something is nonsense that can easily be verified by anyone? This is a tactic I recognize from a lot of propaganda: when repeating something that is known to be factually inaccurate, attribute it to someone else. This work of art not only does that, but surrounds it with "tactic I recognise" "Julian tropes" and "'blame culture'". The last I put in double quotes, because I'm pretty sure it's not a quote, it's a thought being projected into Assange's head. Not even good propaganda.
k1m 6y ago
Christian Grothoff explains that the material was already available online in encrypted form. By the time Wikileaks made them public, people had already decrypted them thanks to Guardian journalists revealing the password in their book. Blame clearly lies with the Guardian journalists David Leigh and Luke Harding for being reckless with the password. > WikiLeaks made the unredacted cache available after they were available on the other sites, on 2nd September 2011 > The materials at that time were already available online "in a way that was virtually impossible to stop"