THAILAND'S MOMENT OF TRUTH - ZENJOURNALIST

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Manning described how he had "listened and lip-synced to Lady Gaga’s Telephone while exfiltratrating possibly the largest data spillage in american history". Secret U.S. intelligence traffic revealed "things that would have an impact on 6.7 billion people", he said. And he wanted the world to see what he had seen. (12:26:09 PM) bradass87: lets just say *someone* i know intimately well, has been penetrating US classified networks, mining data like the ones described… and been transferring that data from the classified networks over the “air gap” onto a commercial network computer… sorting the data, compressing it, encrypting it, and uploading it to a crazy white haired aussie who can’t seem to stay in one country very long =L (12:31:43 PM) bradass87: crazy white haired dude = Julian Assange Manning said the vast trove of secret documents he was leaking had "global scope, and breathtaking depth… its beautiful, and horrifying". (1:11:54 PM) bradass87: and… its important that it gets out… i feel, for some bizarre reason (1:12:02 PM) bradass87: it might actually change something Bradley Manning was arrested by U.S. military authorities on May 26, 2010, and after months in solitary confinement in a Marine Corps brig, including periods when he was forced to strip and stand naked every evening for inspection by prison guards, he now awaits a hearing to decide whether he will be court martialled on more than 20 charges, including "aiding the enemy", a capital offense. Prosecutors have said they will not seek the death penalty, but if convicted Manning will face life imprisonment, reduction in rank to the lowest enlisted pay grade, a dishonourable discharge, and loss of pay and allowances. Julian Assange is the founder of WikiLeaks, an organization dedicated to putting secret documents in the public domain in the belief that this promotes positive political change. Since February 2010, WikiLeaks has been gradually releasing documents and video from a massive archive of secret U.S. files. Assange has said he does not know Manning, and has never revealed the source of the material. Among the huge haul of information is what WikiLeaks calls 'Cablegate' - 251,287 confidential diplomatic cables, including 15,652 classified as secret, from 274 U.S. embassies, consulates and diplomatic missions around the world, dated from December 28, 1966, to February 28, 2010. WikiLeaks began selectively publishing the cables in November 2010, in cooperation with several Western newspapers. U.S. cables about Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and other regimes in the Middle East and North Africa have been credited with playing a role in galvanizing support for the "Jasmine Revolutions" that swept the region from late 2010, although the extent to which they impacted events is the subject of fierce controversy. To date, only around 5 percent of the cables in the database have been published. Assange is a controversial and polarizing figure. Over the past two years he has made an enormous and lasting global impact - and reinvigorated the profession of journalism at a time when it seemed to be slowly stumbling towards irrelevance - by reframing political and geopolitical debate around the fundamental issues of transparency, accountability and freedom of information. He restored belief in the existence - and value - of truth, a concept that had been increasingly forgotten in political discourse
and news reporting. And through technical genius and an audacious faith in his own ability to change the world, he stunned and unsettled the most venerable news organizations by scoring some of the most astonishing scoops of all time. However, like many driven, intense people with plenty of logical processing power but less emotional intelligence, Assange tends to be regarded by some of those he comes into contact with as overbearing and arrogant. This is particularly true of those who have worked closely with him; Assange’s management style is, by all accounts, brutally dictatorial, and a number of disillusioned former colleagues have angrily abandoned WikiLeaks, some of them loading up their laptops and thumb drives with secret documents on their way to the exit. WikiLeaks itself became the victim of leaks, and Assange clumsily compounded the irony by furiously denouncing those who had stolen his stolen information, and trying to force employees to sign a $20 million nondisclosure agreement. It was a telling parable on the addictive lure of secret knowledge: if power corrupts, and information is power, then those who seek to uncover hidden truths must be wary of the temptation to hoard them somewhere out of sight instead of bringing them out into the daylight where they belong. The information that spilled out of WikiLeaks during its periods of upheaval found its way to other news organizations. The Cablegate database was acquired by several, including my former employer Reuters, without Assange's permission. In the spring of 2011 I gained access to the documents. I went straight to the cables on Thailand. - - - - - Of all the world’s countries, Thailand is among those for which the publication of the U.S. embassy cables could have potentially the most profound impact. All nations have their secrets and lies. There is always a gulf between the narrative constructed by those in power, and the real story. But the dissonance between Thailand's official ideology and the reality is particularly stark and troubling. Suthep Thaugsuban, Thailand's deputy prime minister, blithely claimed in December 2010 that the cables would have no impact on the country: We don't have any secrets... What happens in Thailand, we tell the media and the people. His comments could scarcely be further from the truth. Thailand is a nation of secrets, and most of the biggest secrets are those involving the Thai monarchy. The palace is at the centre of an idealized narrative of the Thai nation and of what it means to be Thai, which depicts the country as a uniquely blessed kingdom in which nobody questions the established order. Thais are well aware that the truth is very different - they could hardly be otherwise, following the violent political crisis that has engulfed their country - and yet many continue to suspend their disbelief and, at least publicly, to profess their faith in the official myths. Most feel unable to voice the truth, due partly to immense social pressure in a society where to question the official story is to be regarded as "un-Thai", and partly to some of the strictest defamation laws in the world. At the heart of the legal structure protecting the official myth is the lèse majesté law. Article 112 of the Thai Criminal Code states: "Whoever defames, insults or threatens the King, Queen, the Heir-apparent or the Regent, shall be punished with imprisonment of three to fifteen years."
Page 1 and 2: THAILAND’S MOMENT OF TRUTH A SECR
Page 3 and 4: PROLOGUE: “THE DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMI
Page 5 and 6: In June 2006, King Bhumibol marked
Page 7: Within months of the Diamond Jubile
Page 11 and 12: through military rule and the strug
Page 13 and 14: In many cases, it is difficult if n
Page 15 and 16: Another element of the crackdown wa
Page 17 and 18: have just accepted defeat and given
Page 19 and 20: Bhumibol eventually passes. … The
Page 21 and 22: ousing demagogues. The Yellow Shirt
Page 23 and 24: its claim to be a serious work of h
Page 25 and 26: of his pocket, I didn't know he had
Page 27 and 28: - - - - - In the 1920s, a young Bri
Page 29 and 30: knees when in the presence of a pri
Page 31 and 32: he would paddle off from the Grand
Page 33 and 34: Through disciplined training, astut
Page 35 and 36: victory over the communism that thr
Page 37 and 38: politicians in the current generati
Page 39 and 40: On February 23, 1991, Thai generals
Page 41 and 42: At 6 a.m. on the morning of May 20,
Page 43 and 44: is the monarchy. Occasionally, the
Page 45 and 46: IV, and unable to eat. Subsequent o
Page 47 and 48: has meant to the fabric of national
Page 49 and 50: II. “LOVE OF FLYING AND WOMEN”
Page 51 and 52: From King Rama to the Crown Prince,
Page 53 and 54: Asked by the magazine if he was hur
Page 55 and 56: with his second mistress in the ret
Page 57 and 58: The other way is to do too much, us
Page 59 and 60:
Men - a brief primer": The 19 elder
Page 61 and 62:
From the end of the 1990s, before h
Page 63 and 64:
Thaksin added that he believed that
Page 65 and 66:
of family. At one point in the conv
Page 67 and 68:
November 13. We began by talking ab
Page 69 and 70:
Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya
Page 72 and 73:
III. “FEAR AND LOATHING FOR THE Q
Page 74 and 75:
PAD and the police. Even some figur
Page 76 and 77:
Queen Sirikit aspired to be not jus
Page 78 and 79:
The cable quotes a separate source
Page 80 and 81:
come back from the same market wher
Page 82 and 83:
information about militants. COMMEN
Page 84 and 85:
southern conflict: the infamous 200
Page 86 and 87:
media”: GEN Anupong, PM Abhisit,
Page 88 and 89:
large blue diamond stolen by a Thai
Page 90 and 91:
the country's delicately beautiful
Page 92 and 93:
Within his own royal court, Bhumibo
Page 94 and 95:
The ladies-in-waiting who are left,
Page 96 and 97:
y rival cohorts and disgruntled off
Page 98 and 99:
in the past. But a bitter Samak tol
Page 100 and 101:
In January 2009, after the pro-Thak
Page 102 and 103:
The Privy Council is comprised of 1
Page 104 and 105:
Sumet and Disathorn may not be hous
Page 106 and 107:
Niphol and the party, Kraisak fumed
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THAILAND'S MOMENT OF TRUTH - ZENJOURNALIST

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