251,287. That’s the number of confidential U.S. diplomatic cables that WikiLeaks claims to have obtained. 1,897. That’s the number of confidential U.S. diplomatic cables that, according to WikiLeaks’s own count, have thus far been published on its website. But whereas WikiLeaks has withheld the documents from the public, five handpicked old media organizations have enjoyed [...]
Earlier this month, Roman Polanski’s would-be “political thriller” The Ghost Writer won “best picture” at the European Film Academy awards. The film is a kind of amalgam of “good European” pieties and delirious anti-American phantasms: chief among the latter being the notion that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair was controlled by the CIA. Polanski’s [...]
An update to my earlier report (“Tax Deductible WikiLeaks”) on WikiLeaks’s German fundraiser, the Wau Holland Foundation. In response to articles in the German press suggesting that the foundation could have its “charitable” status revoked on account of its connections to WikiLeaks, the relevant authorities have issued a denial specifying that they see “no grounds” for examining [...]
From the amount of media attention he is presently receiving, it would appear that Julian Assange must be the “man of the year.” But the sole source for almost everything that the public knows – or thinks it knows – about the reputed founder of WikiLeaks is none other than Julian Assange himself. One element [...]
Last weekend, PayPal announced that it was freezing the PayPal account used by WikiLeaks. In a statement, PayPal explained that WikiLeaks was in violation of the company’s acceptable use policy, which “states that our payment service cannot be used for any activities that encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct others to engage in illegal activity.” But [...]
In reflections on the occasion of German President Christian Wulff’s recent voyage to Israel, Henryk Broder depicts how contemporary Germans want to “mediate” in the Middle East conflict: namely, by defending Palestinians and saving Israelis…from themselves. See my new translation on Pajamas Media here.
The superiority of Germany’s so-called “social market economy” is an article of faith for virtually all of Germany’s major political parties (with the possible exception of the “post-communist” Left Party, which would prefer an outright socialist one). In a series of seminars held recently in Berlin, Ankara, and Abu Dhabi, Germany’s Konrad Adenauer Foundation examined [...]
