A group of computer hackers said yesterday they accessed a Yahoo! e-mail account of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, publishing some of her private communications to expose what appeared to be her use of a personal account for government business.
The hackers posted what they said were personal photos, the contents of several messages, the subject lines of dozens of e-mails and Palin's e-mail contact list on a site called WikiLeaks.org. That site claimed that it received the electronic files from a group identifying itself only as "Anonymous." "At around midnight last night some members affiliated with the group gained access to governor Palin's email account, 'gov.palin@yahoo.com' and handed over the contents to the government sunshine site Wikileaks.org," said a message on the site.
Rick Davis, the campaign manager for Sen. John McCain, issued a statement Wednesday afternoon condemning the incident. "This is a shocking invasion of the Governor's privacy and a violation of law," Davis said. "The matter has been turned over to the appropriate authorities and we hope that anyone in possession of these e-mails will destroy them. We will have no further comment." - wp
...Two Yahoo! email accounts belonging to Palin were hacked early Tuesday by a group calling itself 'Anonymous'. Screen shots of her inbox were posted online, as well as a screenshot showing an email of an apparently personal nature from a Palin appointee to the governor. ... - abc
Even Karl Rove, the champion of justice he is, is outraged and wants action, he said, " This is really bad." So figuring out someones yahoo password is bad, outing a CIA agent....meh. - tsd
Wow, someone really knocked Wikileaks off the Internet. I found 159 different sites which at one time all had copies of the site. All dead. Here is some info about Wikileak (now down) from the wayback machine.
"News is what someone doesn't want you to know. Everything else is advertising.
Wikileaks is developing an uncensorable Wikipedia for untraceable mass document leaking and analysis. Our primary interests are oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, but we also expect to be of assistance to those in the west who wish to reveal unethical behavior in their own governments and corporations. We aim for maximum political impact; this means our interface is identical to Wikipedia and usable by non-technical people. We have received over 1.2 million documents so far from dissident communities and anonymous sources.
We believe that transparency in government activities leads to reduced corruption, better government and stronger democracies. Many governments would benefit from increased scrutiny by the world community, as well as their own people. We believe this scrutiny requires information. Historically that information has been costly - in terms of human life and human rights. Wikileaks will facilitate safety in the ethical leaking movement.
Wikileaks opens leaked documents up to a much more exacting scrutiny than any media organization or intelligence agency could provide. Wikileaks will provide a forum for the entire global community to examine any document for credibility, plausibility, veracity and falsifiability. They will be able to interpret documents and explain their relevance to the public. If a document comes from the Chinese government, the entire Chinese dissident community can freely scrutinize and discuss it; if a document arrives from Iran, the entire Farsi community can analyze it and put it in context. Our first sample analysis is available from the news page, providing a look into the future of what Wikileaks can provide.
In its landmark ruling on the Pentagon Papers, the US Supreme Court ruled that "only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government." We agree.
The ruling stated that "paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people and sending them off to distant lands to die of foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell."
We believe that it is not only the people of one country that keep their government honest, but also the people of other countries who are watching that government. That is why the time has come for an anonymous global avenue for disseminating documents the public should see.
... Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' Vanity asks the question, 'Is it popular?' But, conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because one's conscience tells one that it is right. — Martin Luther King, Jr."
Looks like they got censored. I don't like the idea of breaking the law to catch people breaking the law. There has to be a better, legal, way to expose corruption.
1 comment:
Hello US Secret Service. Interesting comment. I believe in the system we have enough to think you don't need to break the law to fight corruption... in the USA. It just takes time and persistence, Freedom of Information request results, and the courage of some whistle blowers. In other countries like China where there is no democracy, however, I wonder how they are supposed to do it? The official answer seems to be that leaders in non-democracies are above corruption, and must be fully trusted. Since these leaders are human, we know this to be false. The "We are your parents and we will protect you." idea works great only as long as the parents are not tempted to abuse their power. But, parents are human too. Which is why transparency in government is important. We need working checks and balances and I hope that you are fighting to preserve those as well. If only the police police the police, corruption can and does happen from time to time.
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