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from the register:
Wikileaks is just weeks away from posting a huge cache of classified documents related to the US war in Iraq in what one journalist says will be history's biggest military leak. Iain Overton, editor of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, told Newsweek his non-profit organization is working with Wikileaks and several TV and print media outlets in advance of the release. It's not unlike the time Wikileaks published secret records concerning the war in Afghanistan, when it gave advanced copies to The New York Times, Der Spiegel and The Guardian on the condition they publish reports on an agreed-upon date. The airing, Overton told Newsweek, will be the “biggest leak of military intelligence” ever.
from philip shenon:
Anxious that Wikileaks may be on the verge of publishing a batch of secret State Department cables, investigators are desperately searching for founder Julian Assange. Philip Shenon reports. Plus, Daniel Ellsberg tells The Daily Beast: "Assange is in Some Danger." (This story has been updated to reflect new developments on Assange's whereabouts, including the cancelation of a scheduled appearance in Las Vegas.)
Pentagon investigators are trying to determine the whereabouts of the Australian-born founder of the secretive website Wikileaks for fear that he may be about to publish a huge cache of classified State Department cables that, if made public, could do serious damage to national security, government officials tell The Daily Beast.
The officials acknowledge that even if they found the website founder, Julian Assange, it is not clear what they could do to block publication of the cables on Wikileaks, which is nominally based on a server in Sweden and bills itself as a champion of whistleblowers.
“We’d like to know where he is; we’d like his cooperation in this,” one U.S. official said of Assange.
American officials said Pentagon investigators are convinced that Assange is in possession of at least some classified State Department cables leaked by a 22-year-old Army intelligence specialist, Bradley Manning of Potomac, Maryland, who is now in custody in Kuwait.
And given the contents of the cables, the feds have good reason to be concerned.updates: wikileaks founder has afghan massacre video* wikileaks 'confirms' it has video of US massacre in afghanistan*
wikileaks inspired 'new media haven' proposal passes in icelandic parliament*
3 weeks after manning arrest, still no charges in wikileaks probe*
from danger room:
Everybody is dumping on Facebook right now – & CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s non-apology apologies for giving away his customers’ personal information aren’t exactly helping matters. But in the military community, there’s an interesting twist on the Facebook-as-privacy-sieve debate. Turns out the names of soldiers dying in Afghanistan are sometimes appearing on Facebook before they’re officially released.
This is not a small deal in military circles. U.S. bases in Iraq and Afghanistan go into what’s called “River City” - with access to the outside Internet shut down - when one of their troops is killed in action. The idea is to give time to notify next-of-kin before word of the death leaks out.
Last Wednesday, however, King’s College of London PhD student Daniel Bennett was able to penetrate that veil of silence. With a few clicks of the social media search engine Kurrently, Bennett found Facebook chatter about the death of 20 year-old Pfc. Billy G. Anderson (pictured) in Afghanistan’s Badghis province. The Pentagon didn’t announce that Anderson had been killed until two days later, on Friday the 21st.
From what I can tell, this Facebook leak appears to have come from Anderson’s parents, indirectly. On Tuesday the 19th at 9:09am, Robin McAllister Vance wrote on her Facebook wall: “Please pray for the family of Billy Anderson. This is the son in law of Gina Lewis, who works with me in Accounting. They learned yesterday that Billy was killed in Afghanistan. Billy is survived by a young wife and baby girl.” But I’m guessing news of other battlefield deaths has spread on Facebook even faster, before families heard the news.
It’s exactly the kind of personal information that the armed forces have begged its troops for years not to disclose online. It’s exactly the kind of material that caused some branches of the military to block access to Web 2.0 sites from their networks for a while.
from business insider: Hacker group Anonymous (aka OperationLeaks on Twitter) just released what they say is a trove of damning documents on Bank of America. You can find them here: bankofamericasuck.com Remember, at this point, we can't verify whether they are legitimate or not, but Gawker's Adrien Chen, who has sources within Anonymous, suggest there's something real to the leaks. Anonymous says the emails deal with BofA's mortgage practices, but the source is not an employee of Bank of America proper - the source is a former employee from Balboa Insurance, a firm which used to be owned by BofA.
comprehensive cyber legislation approved* 
bbc: wikileaks site unfazed by arrest of US army 'source'* 
google: US demanded user info 3,500 times in 6 months* 
overdue since '21, next solar storm could disrupt much of world* 
