I was reading Forbes today and came across this article:
http://blogs.forbes.com/andygreenberg/2010/11/29/…
What can I say, I'm a bit worried. What do you guys think?
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Wow, I am too. Does this mean we should keep interviewing, even with an offer in hand?
That would be crazy if you continue to interview. I'm just gonna go with the flow and hope it's not my bank, but even if it's not, the financial system will probably go to shit anyway depending on how big the bank is.
Good.
It doesnt say anywhere that its about to "fall". And it might just be a commercial and not an investment bank.
^
Seriously though, I can't help but wonder how smart this guy is to make such a threat. Messing with the Big Brother is one thing - messing with multinational corporations with hundred of billions if not a trillion dollar at stake is another matter all together...
If i were him, I'd get some bodyguards and hideout in Pakistan.
Very scary. This would have ramnifications for the entire economy, not just one bank (unless it's a tiny one).
One thing--If you read through the interview, he says they don't necessarily have anything "criminal" yet, just "unethical." Keep in mind this guy is a pretty big egomaniac and may just be playing it up. Also, he could easily be dead before this releases. Especially now that he's pissed off so many other countries (ex: he mentions having a lot on Russia).
Quote: How many dollars were at stake in this?
We’re still investigating. All I can say is it’s clear there were unethical practices, but it’s too early to suggest there’s criminality. We have to be careful about applying criminal labels to people until we’re very sure.
Mark my words: Dude is going to catch a bullet with his brain in the next 6 months
The only thing that is about to fall is Julian Assange, and he will be falling off a cliff.
Someone seriously needs to start taking bets on how long before he just disappears.
The leaks could just be Bear/Lehman stuff.
They asked if it's an "existing bank" and he said yes.
It could be Baml foreclosure stuff
It's gotta be about foreclosure nonsense. I've just got this feeling.
lmao...Sorry one guy is not going to take down wall street.
Wonder if he read Eddie's how to kill a bank series?
Would it matter if someone killed him though? This is way bigger than one man.
Either way, it's some serious Tyler Durden shit.
if he had any intelligence he'd set up a queue to autopost in the future, with him being the only one who can stop it.
Sounds like the plot to a future James Bond movie
If this guy can release classified documents about the war in Iraq and Afghanistan that significantly questions the US government's stability, I don't think one bank can do shit about this dude to be honest.
Killing Julian would be simply for pleasure. What the USA needs to do is fine out the scumbag who is leaking this shit. I really do not know why this is not being taken more seriously. These leaks are the work of a spy and disloyal American. Arrest them and press full charges.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Young+soldier+center+WikiLeaks+prob…
They caught him already.
Bradley Manning
He seams to be trying to take the role of a noble whistleblower, uncovering corruption and wrongdoing, but i would imagine that he is also putting at risk legitimate trade secrets, competitive strategies, etc., in which case he himself is unethically robbing these organisations of their rightful secrecy.
What he is really doing is aiding and abetting a criminal of the state. If you helped someone who spied on the USA and gave the info to China you would be a criminal. Same thing with Julian.
He is slowly pissing off every country. Eventually he will be caught and justice will be served.
Name one area, just one, where our national security has been compromised? I mean, do you know of any informant that has been endangered?
And no, telling the world we do nefarious evil shit doesn't count. The fact that we spy on the UN and use Yemen to engage in puppet wars is necessary to see the light of day.
At the very least, the leaks may have well forced our hand on Iran.
He actually doesn't hack or steal the information by himself. He just publicizes the information. The news outlets who publish the information are no different from him.
This guy claims to have a duty to release the news as it pertains to the world, to people that need to see it.
However, why are all the major stories in regards to the United States?
Does anyone think that the unnamed bank in question will try to pay to keep things quite? If you were in their shoes how much would you pay?
I thought the Afghanistan leaks would end up being damaging from several perspectives: the UCs/informants whose identities had been outted, further scrutiny of US wartime practices, and breakdowns in the relations with Pakistan/India-which have proven to be very touchy/feely. However, there was no real impact from the release of these documents. The same can be said of the Iraq documents. Why is there reason to believe that the release of documents regarding a private sector organization will have any impact? I don't perceive capitalist measures to be of more relevance than national security and foreign relations, so I ask what is the efficacy of this "news" source? The answer I keep coming to is slim to none. Allow Mr. Assange to continue his postulating as a righteous crusader for transparency. But let's take a step back and realize that the nation, and the globe at large, have come to expect a level of inequity in all actions. The only thing I could imagine he'd have regarding banks are a few inappropriate emails and thousands of mortgage documents. What else could account for the volume of information he claims the website has?
I know Julian Assange personally. The leak is focused on a series of Piper Jaffray emails. Something about dog-fighting rings.
Like Michael Vick?
Yeah, from what I have read is there is another leak. Who knows. All I know is that if Julian really wants to champion freedom and openness he should start releasing other countries information or at least make sure the info leaked is justified.
If he finds some secret documents showing American concentration camps or something then I completely support releasing it. All he is doing is trying to embarrass or hurt US interests.
Suppose the USA decided to not be involved. Does anyone think the UN would of kicked Saddam out of Kuwait? Would South Korea be able to stop North Korea without our help? Are Americans completely wrong in not wanting Iran to get nuclear weapons? Is life better in N Korea, China, Cuba, Venezuela? I can understand people being pissed at this country, but the level of hate or joy being displayed is ridiculous.
This might have something to do with it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_activities_in_Iran
Engdahl asserts in his book that Khomeini's coup was engineered
By Britain to get a better oil contract renewal and By "the senior ranks of the U.S. liberal establishment"
Interesting
Yep. And I bet that if the US were invaded and the government overthrown to give some Iranians better coal deposit leases we would be pissed FOREVER.
If the US would stop playing international supercop dickhole politics we wouldn't be having problems. Hell, we still have Afghanis shooting at us with the stingers we gave them to fight off the Russians who we were playing puppet war with.
the CIA engineered the last coup to reinstate the Shah in Operation Ajax so it is certainly possible, mind you things tend to go south when your dealing with radicals... whodathunkit?
Can't wait till this sucker releases a bunch of Chinese state secrets.
Can't wait till this sucker releases a bunch of Chinese state secrets.
They've already released shit on an oil scandal in Peru, a far-right white-power political party in England, internal Kaupthing docs right before they collapsed showing how fucked they were, shit on Scientology, and they claim to have Russia and China in their sights next. I don't think he's just going after the American government, they just release the most incendiary shit they have.
As for the private sector shit, at worst, it's a disgruntled employee putting trade secrets on the internet. At best, we have a legitimate whistleblower who sent evidence of truly illegal shit to a scummy guy rather than the US govt for whatever reason (not going to speculate on the precise reason).
If I had some secret shit I would definitely send it to wikileaks rather than going to the feds. The feds will either have you testify, in which case you're on record testifying against your employer, or they fucking bury you because the corp has some corrupt bureaucrat in his pocket. You know Julian is doing it either because of fame or altruistic reasons and he'll publish the shit and keep your identity secret. Pretty clear cut case.
Assange, and everyone who aids him, are scum. End of story.
Bullshit. Fight the power!
The USA acts in its best interest. Whenever gas goes north of $3.00 a gallon I hear endless cries. People either suck it up or stop condemning OUR government for trying to protect our interests. Last time I checked this country was still dependent on fossil fuels.
Every time we try and build new nukes people bitch. We try and drill the Marcellus Shale and people bitch. People think wind power/solar/ethanol/etc are all a waste and a bitch.
Regardless. Whatever we did in Iran still does not mean we should not being trying to stop that nation from acquiring nuclear weapons.
This may be a little off the original post, but I think it bears repeating. With the latest financial legislation that has been issued, whistleblowers are being paid 6-7 figures for their contribution. If Wikileaks wants to release the same information for free, what is the difference (besides potential savings to taxpayers)?
If what he claims to be true is so horrifying, it would eventually come to light through the new whistle blowing incentive program instead.
"A whistleblower is a person who raises a concern about alleged wrongdoing occurring in an organization or body of people. Usually this person would be from that same organization. The alleged misconduct may be classified in many ways; for example, a violation of a law, rule, regulation and/or a direct threat to public interest, such as fraud, health/safety violations, and corruption. Whistleblowers may make their allegations internally (for example, to other people within the accused organization) or externally (to regulators, law enforcement agencies, to the media or to groups concerned with the issues)."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whistleblower
I have no problem with someone reporting information to the appropriate source and it being taken care of legally. The issue is that just about all of the information leaks has not shown illegal actions, but has been defaming. The only thing even remotely questionable that has been released was the apache video. Outside of being highly inflammatory and biased I do not think it showed any violation or law or rules of engagement.
These leaks are meant to hurt and humiliate, plain and simple. We all sign NDA's at a bank. Should deal details be released? Should trade secrets be released? Proprietary algo's? I mean where does this wiki shit end.
Other than feeding an ungrateful populations desire for juicy gossip, there leaks have not done a damn thing.
Wikileaks is a media outlet concerned with these issues and highly effective in exposing them to the public. What's your point?
So spying on the secretary general of the United Nations or using Yemen to conduct secret wars is neither a violation of law or rules of engagement?
Name one deal, trade secret, or proprietary algorithm that wikileaks has leaked. Name one deal, trade secret, or proprietary algorithm that wikileaks has used for financial gain (outside of the publicity garnered by exposing corruption or unethical behavior).
Well, you're talking about it, aren't you?
There is no secret war. The bombings are under the authority of the Yemenian government. I also don't consider collecting information to be the same as spying.
Wiki is sitting on a trove of bank information. They are also talking about expanding their "leaks". I brought those points up to make people think about where the line should be drawn. Julian and wiki have no culpability. There is no one to sue, to arrest, to get justice from if these releases are illegal or cause harm. This is a serious issue.
These leaks are attacking this country. I am speaking out against the criminal Julian and his organisation. That is all.
The cables names Saudi donors as the biggest financiers of terror groups, and provide an extraordinarily detailed account of an agreement between Washington and Yemen to cover up the use of US planes to bomb al-Qaida targets. One cable records that during a meeting in January with General David Petraeus, then US commander in the Middle East, Yemeni president Abdullah Saleh said: "We'll continue saying they are our bombs, not yours."
The cables published today reveal how the US uses its embassies as part of a global espionage network, with diplomats tasked to obtain not just information from the people they meet, but personal details, such as frequent flyer numbers, credit card details and even DNA material.
Classified "human intelligence directives" issued in the name of Clinton or her predecessor, Condoleezza Rice, instruct officials to gather information on military installations, weapons markings, vehicle details of political leaders as well as iris scans, fingerprints and DNA.
The most controversial target was the UN leadership. That directive requested the specification of telecoms and IT systems used by top officials and their staff and details of "private VIP networks used for official communication, to include upgrades, security measures, passwords, personal encryption keys".
.
Yes, Yemen and Saudi know about us flying sorties in Yemen. They authorize it and take claim for it. No problem there. Yemen is the hot bed of terrorist activity.
Diplomats are instructed to keep an eye out. They are not replacing CIA spies. Diplomats are not pulling 007 shit. Maybe people within their offices are undercover spies, but the Ambassador to Peru is not hacking computers.
Also, what is the issue with this? It is called information gathering. Now we cannot do it. I am sure a lack of info is going to make us much safer.
No, you don't get it. The people who were pulling this stuff WERE our diplomats in the UN, cause they certainly don't let known spies in there.
For all we know the Ambassador to Peru IS hacking computers. That is why this information is so important, and so damning.
You do realize that no one lets a spy in anywhere right? That's what makes them a spy
Wikileaks is a fantastic idea. The execution has not been good so far, but the potential is fucking enormous.
Who wouldn't want to know about a corrupt banks practices BEFORE a market crash? Or a governments illegal actions towards the very citizens they are trying to protect? Or the unlisted side effects of a pharmaceutical companies new drug?
Seems like good stuff to me.
betting bank of america, citi, or jpm
I can't wait for this guy to get whacked. His eyes only bullshit can't last forever...........someone give Jason Bourne a call.
IlliniProgrammer's crazy libertarian thoughts:
1.) Julian Assange absolutely needs to have the constitutional, legal right to do this.
2.) Sunshine may not always be a good thing, but it's always got a big silver lining. The biggest news in today's release about the federal government is the non-news. No crazy conspiracies that we're hiding. Oh, and China think's North Korea's crazy and Saudi Arabia wants to bomb Iran. No other real news or surprises, unlike the Pentagon Papers.
3.) There's a whole lot fewer conspiracy theories about bankers if we're not hoping and praying the guy catches a bullet. In some ways, the guy is performing a public service by showing the world what goes on behind the scenes and minimizing the spread of unwarranted conspiracy theories.
4.) He really needs to use a lot more discretion about what he actually releases to maximize the impact but minimize the collateral damage.
5.) Whatever documents he has, the Rothschild vault- where they're storing $57 Trillion worth of gold- is still a carefully guarded secret. ;-) .
Scrooge McDuck will never tell.
As widely reported, he could be tried under the Espionage Act, so it can be argued that he already doesn't have the legal right to do this. Besides, we need to maintain some perspective here - the integrity of our government's private correspondence as it relates to matters of national security is more important than the satiation of our curiosity or the aggrandizement of Assange's ego.
He says it's a US Bank, the only ones I can think of are Goldman, BofA, MS and JPM. If I had to take a guess I'd say it's going to be goldman as they already do a bunch of shady shit.
It's probably Evercore, Greenhill or Perella Weinberg. Too big to fail?
your forgetting Citi, but since the government has such a large stake, I doubt it's them. I think MS or GS is a solid bet.
I wonder who are behind this guy.
Probably hooked on phonics
lol zing
From the interview: He said the bank release will not be as big (as in consequential) as the Iraq releases. He said "it could take down a bank or 2". Also remember he said they had nothing "criminal" yet, just unethical. When asked if it was the largest US bank he said "no comment." Also said: It will "give a true and representative insight into how banks behave at the executive level in a way that will stimulate investigations and reforms, I presume." Basically, whatever it is is something related to bank executives and unethical practices-not necessarily criminal. I suggest reading the full interview if you haven't.
He didn't ever say it was a major bank did he?
Goin with a wild guess: M&T Bank
Bank of Ireland...
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