Assange probably 'enjoying the attention': Rimington

[struggle4progress]

RIDIE JABOUR
22 Aug, 2012 03:01 PM

... The former head of Britain's MI5 security service says WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is probably "enjoying the media attention" while taking refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, but the saga will likely lead to less openness from governments.

Dame Stella Rimington, 77, now a successful spy-thriller novelist, spoke at the International Council on Archives Congress in Brisbane this morning ...

She said America had fumbled by having a large database, labelling it 'secret' then making it available to hundreds of people, but the actions of Mr Assange in leaking thousands of the documents via WikiLeaks could have the opposite effect he had been aiming for.

"The indiscriminate leaking of all kinds of information into the public domain will undoubtedly have the effect that governments are going to look after the things they really need to keep secret," she said ...

http://www.brimbankweekly.com.au/news/world/world/general/assange-probably-enjoying-the-attention-rimington/2653738.aspx?storypage=0

[frylock]

1. getting an early start on your two-minute hate?

[struggle4progress]

4. I posted, without comment, four paragraphs from a current article

[frylock]

5. yeah, no shit?

i eagerly await the next ten anti-assange articles you'll post today, without comment.

[struggle4progress]

6. Exactly which of Rimington's comments do you find over-the-top and hateful?

[struggle4progress]

3. Secretive officials Assange's legacy

Josh Robertson
From: The Courier-Mail
August 23, 2012 12:00AM

... Former MI5 boss Dame Stella Rimington said the "downside" of WikiLeaks' release of secret US diplomatic cables was to prompt increasing "over-protectiveness" of information by government operatives who now increasingly used text messages and emails to keep their business out of national databases and archives.

"Certainly in my country, more and more of government seemed to be being conducted through emails and text messaging, which were designed not to end up on a database or in a national archive, and I think that's a bad thing altogether," Ms Rimington said.

She earlier told the International Council on Archives congress in Brisbane: "One thing is sure: that the actions of people like Julian Assange will make appropriate openness more difficult to achieve, as the instincts of officials and governments of all kinds will be towards greater secrecy and less, rather than more openness, to protect themselves in an increasingly questioning world" ...

http://www.couriermail.com.au/ipad/secretive-officials-assanges-legacy/story-fn6ck45n-1226456090411

[struggle4progress]

7. Ex-MI5 boss hits out at 'naive' Assange

... She says WikiLeaks is driving those in power to protect information in more complex ways, with governments increasingly conducting official business through text messages, emails and unrecorded discussions.

"We had what's been called 'sofa government' of deciding significant matters of public policy, even matters of whether or not to go to war, between very few close advisers sitting on sofas with no formal minute-taking, thus again avoiding accountability," she said.

"All this is a very long way away from the beautifully written minute books recording the decisions of 19th and 20th-century administrators" ...

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-08-22/ex-mi5-boss-hits-out-at-assange/4216002/?site=sydney

[struggle4progress]

8. Ex-MI5 boss blames US for leak of secret documents by WikiLeaks

... But she also stressed that the US government should have taken better steps to prevent Wikileaks from acquiring the information in the first place.

Rimington said the government took "no proper consideration" to what was genuinely secret and should be only available to a select few.

"One can criticise the United States for having a so-called secret database which was apparently available extensively ... including to a young soldier if the reports are true," she said.

The paper quoted Rimington, as saying that while the WikiLeaks saga could prompt the US government to come up with better databases, it would more likely encourage it to be even more secretive.

http://www.newstrackindia.com/newsdetails/2012/08/22/74-Ex-MI5-boss-blames-US-for-leak-of-secret-documents-by-WikiLeaks.html

[struggle4progress]

9. WikiLeaks' secrets weren't, says former MI5 chief

Dame Stella Rimington wants pollies' TXTs on the record
By Simon Sharwood, APAC Editor
Posted in Security, 22nd August 2012 07:25 GMT

... Speaking in Australia, where she today delivered an address to the International Council on Archives conference , Rimington told The Reg that one of the issues public sector archivists need to deal with is what they do given at a time when much communication takes place casually. Prime Ministerial TXT messages, for example, may be key to reconstructing events for which the public rightly wants them to be held to account and therefore belong in public archives.

Capturing such material, she said, needs careful consideration because some of it may be worthy of classification as secret. And when information is truly secret, she says it is treated with extreme care ...

Stressing that she has no inside knowledge of Assange-related escapades, Rimington said she understands – as does the rest of the world – that the dump of diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks came from Bradley Manning, who she described as “a young soldier.”

“If it is all such sensitive stuff why was it available to a young soldier,” she asked. “If you do have secrets you must look after them and limit access to them” ...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/08/22/wikileaks_secrets_werent_stella_rimington_says/

[just1voice]

10. What? I can't hear you? Could repeat yourself say, oh, about 1000 more times?

I guess a free press really rubs you the wrong way huh? Well not me, you can go ahead and post all the propaganda you want and I'll just keep speaking freely about what propaganda it is.

[struggle4progress]

11. You really should read some of Rimington's remarks to the archivists: they are quite interesting

She is worried that the archives of the future will contain considerably less information about what decisions were made, and how they were made, as a result of people trying to avoid being the target of Assange-style leaks and so carrying on the discussions out-of-sight by text message or other less transparent means

She also blames the Manning fiasco on the government itself

[tama]

14. Government transparency

is not about post-fact (war crimes, torture, etc. just for historians to study) but about pre-fact and avoiding getting fear mongered into new crimes against humanity and nature over and over again.

[Fumesucker]

12. I now think that you're actually an Assange supporter..

No one could be as unaware of the results of such a counterproductive strategy as you seem to be.

All you are doing, and now I assume it's deliberate, is hardening those who support Assange in their opinion.

Congratulations, your strategy is working just as you intended..

[polly7]

13. Another one trashed. nt.