Jared Cohen - The New Digital Age

“Sources speak with their feet”: Julian Assange in discussion with the authors, June 2011.

WikiLeaks lost its principal website URL: James Cowie, “WikiLeaks: Moving Target,” Renesys (blog), December 7, 2010, http://www.renesys.com/blog/2010/12/wikileaks-moving-target.shtml.

“mirror” sites: Ravi Somaiya, “Pro-Wikileaks Activists Abandon Amazon Cyber Attack,” BBC, December 9, 2010, http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-11957367.

Alexei Navalny, a Russian blogger: Matthew Kaminski, “The Man Vladimir Putin Fears Most,” Wall Street Journal, March 3, 2012, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203986604577257321601811092.html; “Russia Faces to Watch: Alexei Navalny,” BBC, June 12, 2012, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18408297.

donate toward its operating costs via PayPal: Tom Parfitt, “Alexei Navalny: Russia’s New Rebel Who Has Vladimir Putin in His Sights,” Guardian (Manchester), January 15, 2012, http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2012/jan/15/alexei-navalny-profile-vladimir-putin.

set of leaked documents: “Russia Checks Claims of $4bn Oil Pipeline Scam,” BBC, November 17, 2010, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11779154.

the Party of Crooks and Thieves: Tom Parfitt, “Russian Opposition Activist Alexei Navalny Fined for Suggesting United Russia Member Was Thief,” Telegraph (London), June 5, 2012, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/9312508/Russian-opposition-activist-Alexei-Navalny-fined-for-suggesting-United-Russia-member-was-thief.html; Stephen Ennis, “Profile: Russian Blogger Alexei Navalny,” BBC, August 7, 2012, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16057045.

arrested, imprisoned, spied on and investigated for embezzlement: Ellen Barry, “Rousing Russia with a Phrase,” New York Times, December 9, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/10/world/europe/the-saturday-profile-blogger-aleksei-navalny-rouses-russia.html. Robert Beckhusen, “Kremlin Wiretaps Dissident Blogger—Who Tweets the Bug,” Danger Room (blog), Wired, August 8, 2012, http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/08/navalny-wiretap/. “Navalny Charged with Embezzlement, Faces up to 10 Years,” RT (Moscow), last updated August 1, 2012, http://rt.com/politics/navalny-charged-travel-ban-476/.

his name recognition: Parfitt, “Alexei Navalny: Russia’s New Rebel Who Has Vladimir Putin in His Sights,” http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2012/jan/15/alexei-navalny-profile-vladimir-putin.

banned from appearing on state-run television: Kaminski, “The Man Vladimir Putin Fears Most,” http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203986604577257321601811092.html.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky: “Mikhail Khodorkovsky,” New York Times, last updated August 8, 2012, http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/k/mikhail_b_khodorkovsky/index.html; Andrew E. Kramer, “Amid Political Prosecutions, Russian Court Issues Ruling Favorable to Oil Tycoon,” New York Times , August 1, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/02/world/europe/russian-court-issues-favorable-ruling-to-oil-tycoon.html. At the time of the publication of this book, Khodorkovsky remained in prison. There was some speculation that President Vladimir Putin might commute the thirteen-year prison sentence.

Boris Berezovsky: Svetlana Kalmykova, “Oligarch Berezovsky Faces New Charges,” Voice of Russia (Moscow), May 29, 2012, http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_05_29/76399306/.

badly doctored photograph: “Russian Blogger Navalny Unmasks ‘Kremlin’ Photo Smear,” BBC, January 10, 2012, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16487469.

formally charging him with embezzlement: Ellen Barry, “Russia Charges Anticorruption Activist in Plan to Steal Timber,” New York Times, July 31, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/01/world/europe/aleksei-navalny-charged-with-embezzlement.html.

The charges, carrying a maximum sentence: Ibid.

150,000 Sony customer records released by the hacker group LulzSec in 2011: Mathew J. Schwartz, “Sony Hacked Again, 1 Million Passwords Exposed,” InformationWeek, June 3, 2011, http://www.informationweek.com/security/attacks/sony-hacked-again-1-million-passwords-ex/229900111.

Assange told us he redacted only to reduce the international pressure: Julian Assange in discussion with the authors, June 2011.

“zero tolerance” approach: Charlie Savage, “Holder Directs U.S. Attorneys to Track Down Paths of Leaks,” New York Times, June 8, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/09/us/politics/holder-directs-us-attorneys-to-investigate-leaks.html?pagewanted=all.

unknowingly live-tweeted the covert raid: Reed Stevenson, Reuters, “Sohaib Athar Captures Osama bin Laden Raid on Twitter,” Huffington Post, first posted May 2, 2011, last updated July 2, 2011, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/02/osama-bin-laden-raid-twitter-sohaib-athar_n_856187.html.

Among the tweets: Ibid.; Sohaib Athar, Twitter post, May 1, 2011, 12:58 a.m., https://twitter.com/ReallyVirtual/status/64780730286358528. (Five of the tweets Sohaib Athar sent the night of the bin Laden raid: 1) “Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1AM (is a rare event)” (his first tweet on the matter). 2) “Go away helicopter—before I take out my giant swatter :-/.” 3) “A huge window shaking bang here in Abbottabad Cantt. I hope its not the start of something nasty :-S.” 4) “@m0hcin the few people online at this time of the night are saying one of the copters was not Pakistani …” 5) “Since taliban (probably) don’t have helicopters, and since they’re saying it was not ‘ours,’ so must be a complicated situation #abbottabad.” See Rik Myslewski, “Pakistani IT Admin Leaks bin Laden Raid on Twitter,” Register, May 2, 2011, http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/05/02/bin_laden_raid_tweeted/.

Connectivity is relatively low: See low mobile penetration of countries at the bottom of the Press Freedom Index such as Eritrea and North Korea in “Mobile-Cellular Telephone Subscriptions Per 100 Inhabitants,” International Telecommunication Union (ITU), ICT Data and Statistics (IDS), accessed October 15, 2012, http://www.itu.int/ITUD/ict/statistics/, and “Press Freedom Index 2011/2012,” Reporters Without Borders (RSF), accessed October 15, 2012, http://en.rsf.org/press-freedom-index-2011-2012,1043.html.

Warlords operating: “ICC/DRC: Second Trial of Congolese Warlords,” Human Rights Watch, News, November 23, 2009, http://www.hrw.org/news/2009/11/23/iccdrc-second-trial-congolese-warlords; Marlise Simons, “International Criminal Court Issues First Sentence,” New York Times, July 10, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/11/world/europe/international-criminal-court-issues-first-sentence.html.

Presidential Records Act: “Presidential Records Act (PRA) of 1978,” National Archives, Presidential Libraries, Laws and Regulations, accessed October 12, 2012, http://www.archives.gov/presidential-libraries/laws/1978-act.html; “Presidential Records,” National Archives, Basic Laws and Authorities, accessed October 12, 2012, http://www.archives.gov/about/laws/presidential-records.html.

Hamza Kashgari posted an imaginary conversation with the Prophet Muhammad: Mike Giglio, “Saudi Writer Hamza Kashgari Detained in Malaysia over Muhammad Tweets,” Daily Beast, February 10, 2012, http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/02/08/twitter-aflame-with-fatwa-against-saudi-writer-hamza-kashgari.html.

deleted them within six hours of posting: Asma Alsharif and Amena Bakr, “Saudi Writer May Face Trial over Prophet Mohammad,” Reuters, February 13, 2012, http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/13/us-saudi-blogger-idUSTRE81C13720120213.