And in show biz..

Some upcoming movies you may not have heard about:

There's going to be a Wikileaks movie. James McAvoy was originally going to be Julian Assange, but becuase of a scheduling conflict he will be replaced by Inglorious Basterds'  Daniel Bruhl.

And..there's going to be a Kick Ass 2. (Kick Ass was one of the best comic book movies to come along in a long time, but it remains to be seen whether it can work without Nick Cage's character, who was killed off in the first installment. However the addition of Jim Carrey as Colonel Stars is promising.)



Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim is creating a lot of buzz and there's a new Star Trek movie in the works too..

Wikileaks founder Assange screws over friends and supporters - leaving them on the hook to pay for bail-term violations

Former BBC journalist Vaughan Smith, who hosted Assange at his country house for more than a year as the WikiLeaks founder fought extradition, was among the nine supporters who had argued that they should not be punished for trying to “serve the public interest” in the case.

But Chief Magistrate Howard Riddle on Monday ordered them to pay 93,500 pounds ($150,000) by Nov. 6, saying that while he accepted the supporters had acted in good faith, they had failed in their “basic duty” to ensure Assange surrendered.

“They must have understood the risk and the concerns of the courts,” he said in his ruling, ordering each of the nine to pay part of 140,000 pounds ($224,300) originally pledged.

Wilileaks show BBC may have been part of al-Qaida's propaganda network

A phone number of someone at the BBC was found in phone books and programmed into the mobile phones of a number of militants seized by the Americans. 

The number is believed believed to be based at Bush House, the headquarters of the BBC World Service...

The US assessment file said forces had uncovered many ‘extremist links’ to the BBC number – indicating that extremists could have made contacts with employees at the broadcaster who were sympathetic to extremists or had information on ‘ACM’ (anti-Coalition militia) activities.

I'm surprised a number at The Toronto Star hasn't turned up there too.

More at The Daily Mail

Wiki-Leaks on just how crazy Iranian President Ahmadinejad is (..Very!)

"Summary: During PolCouns's introductory call on new MEA Additional Secretary (UN and International Security) KC Singh, Singh shared his impressions from his recent posting as India's Ambassador in Tehran, emphasizing that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's perspective is skewed by his fervent anticipation of the imminent return of the prophesied twelfth Shia imam, making him prone to respond to threats by acting as a martyr.  The irrational nature of Iran's new regime requires a different approach from the current strategies of the US and EU-3, Singh argued.

..Singh argued that the US and the West must choose between completely peaceful engagement or application of force, but not alternate between engagement and threats. Citing former NSA Brzezinski's analysis of the failure of the Shah's regime to act with consistency, he said that verbal threats only ""inoculate"" the population against the threat, and force the Iranian regime to ""mutate"" into something more dangerous."

A very interesting analysis. Read the rest here.

Egypt Update: Mubarak out/ Omar Suleiman in

NBC news reports that Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak will resign tonight and will be succeeded by his newly appointed Vice President Omar Suleiman.

USA Today has reported that at 10:50 a.m. ET: Gen. Hassan al-Roueini, military commander for the Cairo area, tells thousands of protesters in central Tahrir Square: "All your demands will be met today."

Suleiman was the former head of Egypt's Intelligence Services and his succession would fall into a scenario described in a newly released wiki-leak of a US report about a meeting between an Israeli delegation and Egyptian leaders in 2008:

(S) In terms of atmospherics, Hacham said the Israeli delegation was "shocked" by Mubarak's aged appearance and slurred speech. Hacham was full of praise for Soliman, however, and noted that a "hot line" set up between the MOD and Egyptian General Intelligence Service is now in daily use. Hacham said he sometimes speaks to Soliman's deputy Mohammed Ibrahim several times a day. Hacham noted that the Israelis believe Soliman is likely to serve as at least an interim President if Mubarak dies or is incapacitated. (Note: We defer to Embassy Cairo for analysis of Egyptian succession scenarios, but there is no question that Israel is most comfortable with the prospect of Omar Soliman.)

Naomi Wolf wants sexual assualt victims to be named

Feminist author Naomi Wolf is now arguing in Britain's socialist-leaning newspaper, The Guardian, that sex assault victims, whose identities courts have shielded for the last generation, should now be revealed.

And why this sudden turnaround?

Because Wiki-leaks Julian Assange is the subject of sexual assault charges!

Also: On rape, the left still doesn't get it

"It's been known for some time that Assange was accused of using his body weight to force sex on one woman, ignoring her demand that he use a condom, and penetrating the other woman while she slept, also without a condom, despite her wishes; yet writer after writer has treated the whole thing as a big joke. It was "sex by surprise" – some arcane Swedish thing – wrote Dave Lindorff on Truthout. Also, Assange didn't tell the second woman about the first and didn't return her phone call. Hell hath no fury like a groupie scorned.

Appearing on Keith Olbermann's show after he put up $20,000 to help bail Assange out of a British jail, Michael Moore – apparently an expert on Swedish rape law – called the case "a bunch of hooey"

Iranian President Ahmadinejad bitch-slapped by Revolutionary Guard commander

Iranian President and Holocaust-denier Mahmood Ahmedinejad may be crazy, but a Wiki-leak cable shows that among the cadre of theocrats in the Iranian Mullah-ocracy, there is some evidence he may be a relative moderate compared to his fanatical colleagues. The same cable also gives further evidence that the Iranian president is a figurehead who is far from being the guy who calls the shots in Iran.

This report makes Ahmedinejad seem like the casino "owner" played by Kevin Pollack in Marty Scorsese's movie, who does what he's told and signs what he's told.

According to source, President Ahmedinejad surprised other SNSC members by taking a surprisingly liberal posture during a mid January post-Ashura meeting of the SNSC called to discuss next steps on dealing with opposition protests.

Source said that Ahmedinejad claimed that "people feel suffocated," and mused that to defuse the situation it may be necessary to allow more personal and social freedoms, including more freedom of the press.

According to source, Ahmedinejad's statements infuriated Revolutionary Guard Chief of Staff Mohammed Ali Jafari, who exclaimed "You are wrong! (In fact) it is YOU who created this mess! And now you say give more freedom to the press?!" Source said that Jafarli then slapped Ahmedinejad in the face, causing an uproar and an immediate call for a break in the meeting, which was never resumed.



Did Ahmadinejad and the Revolutionary Guard Commander eventually kiss and make up?

Wikileaks is a Zionist plot!

It was only a matter of time before some mental case accused wikileaks of being an Israeli plot. After all, if those sneaky Zionists can train sharks to eat Egyptians while ignoring Israelis, then setting up a bogus information site that leaks government secrets poses little challenge.

According to Haaretz, Gordon Duff, an editor of the looney tune conspiracy theorist website Veterans Today, wrote "a secret deal struck between WikiLeaks' ... Assange ... with Israeli officials, which ensured that all such documents were 'removed' before the rest were made public." He then added in an interview that "it sticks out like a sore thumb that WikiLeaks is obviously concocted by an intelligence agency. It's a ham-handed action by Israel to do its public relations."


A few more nut jobs chimed in on this theme as reported by Haaretz.

Syrian support for terror reaches dangerous level

A newly released wiki leak of a US State Department cable generated earlier this year shows that Syria plans to provide SCUD missiles to the Iranian-sponsored Lebanese terror group Hezbollah:

(S/NF) On February 22, 2010, BG Yossi Baidatz, Israel Defense Intelligence (IDI) Chief of Production and Analysis, advised Embassy Tel Aviv officers that IDI had information suggesting Syria intended to imminently transfer SCUD-D missiles to Hizballah in Lebanon.

Three days later, in a cable that had this summary below, the wording of the US communication to the Syrian Vice Minister is outlined  (click here to see)

More here about the deep concern on the part of the US about this matter and of Syria's deceit.

Per reftel and other information, the Government of Israel (GOI) is concerned that Syria intends to imminently transfer SCUD-D missiles to Hizballah in Lebanon. We share this concern. The transfer of such weapons would constitute a significant escalation of a potentially volatile situation that could threaten regional stability. Embassy is requested to demarche SARG officials at the highest possible level to communicate the points below and report responses via front channel cable. NEA will deliver the same points to the Syrian Ambassador upon his return to Washington. End summary.

Now we know why he hated Paul the Octopus - Ahmadinejad the Soccer Jinx

A wikileaks document reveals the following:

Summary: As emotions run high following a week of adversarial debates between Iran's four presidential candidates, the outcome of the national soccer team's World Cup qualifying match against the UAE could add to voters' dissatisfaction with Ahmadinejad just 36 hours before they head to the polls. President Ahmadinejad has worked hard to associate himself with Iran's beloved national team - Team Melli❠- a tactic that backfired in March when he was accused of "jinxing" the team, which suffered a last-minute defeat to Saudi Arabia just after Ahmadinejad entered the stadium. That event, coupled with an unexpected loss by the national wrestling team with Ahmadinejad in attendance earlier in the year, set off a firestorm of SMS messages and internet jokes holding the President personally responsible for the team's defeats, and has led numerous IRPO contacts to predict - only partially in jest - that a loss to the UAE team in Tehran on June 10 could further weaken Ahmadinejad's standing among soccer-crazed Iranians.

No wonder Paul, the successful World Cup-predicting octopus, made Ahmadinejad's list of top ten evils - jealousy by the Iranian madman.

WikiLeaks explain how Iranian Revolutionary Guards evaded terror group designation

A classified cable from 2007, released recently by wiki-leaks. revealed that the Iranians had promised security cooperation in Iraq, but only if their Revolutionary Guards did not receive a terror group designation:

"Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) xxxxxxxxxxxx told London Iran Watcher xxxxxxxxxxxx  that Iran's cooperation on security in Iraq, though not yet evident, would be forthcoming, but in the same breath argued that a U.S. terrorist designation of the IRGC would prevent any such cooperation."

There has, for a long time, been a movement to have the Iranian Revolutionary Guards listed as a terror group in the west. There are clear terror links to them and they have a history of support for terrorism.

The leak helps explain why that designation may not yet have occurred.

The cable also confirmed the role of Iran in formenting terror and violence in Iraq and Afghanistan:

"for the USG to hold its hand on designation came xxxxxxxxxxxx engaged with the invited group at length on Tehran's view of U.S.-Iran relations, Iraqi security, and the nuclear issue. xxxxxxxxxxxx candid remarks, which included extremely vigorous exchanges with xxxxxxxxxxxx alternated between aggressive characterizations of Iran's relations in the Persian Gulf, admissions of the IRGC's presence and role in Iraq and Afghanistan, and apparently earnest statements of Iran's desire for cooperation with the United States."

Yet despite their remaining off the US State Department's list of terror groups, the Iranians failed to keep their word, as a subsequent cable in 2009 reveals:

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps - Quds Force (IRGC-QF) officers are active in Iraq, conducting traditional espionage and supporting violent extremists as well as supporting both legitimate and malign Iranian economic and cultural outreach. Iraqis and their government have demonstrated increasing willingness to push back against malign Iranian influence in the last year. Working with the Iraqis, we have succeeded in stopping some IRGC-QF activity through military operations and diplomatic engagement, while we prevented some IRGC-QF officers from entering Iraq through explicit warnings that we would target them unilaterally.


You can read the entire 2007 wiki leak below (click each one to enlarge)

Pt 1

Pt 2

Pt 3

Pt 4

Laughs from wiki-leaks

One of the more amusing revelations that the latest batch of wiki-leaks releases has provided is that the US State Department does television reviews of bad CBC dramatic programing (I'll include Little Mosque on the Prairie in the 'drama' category, since that show hasn't managed to evoke any more laughs than an ingrown toenail).

The US official who wrote the reports definitely has a future as a TV reviewer if he or she ever wants to get out of the dreary world of diplomacy.

The CBC show The Border comes under the heading of  "Canada's answer to 24 w/o that Sutherland guy" and the CBC miniseries H20 as "Give us your water, oh, what the heck, we'll take your country too."

Maybe the CBC should headhunt this person for a producer's job. Whoever it is obviously has more talent than the current CBC dramatic department.

You can see the rest of the wiki-leak in question here.