News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo

[While this article contains a very important news story, I believe that
some of its wording is very misleading. In particular, it calls
Guantanamo a "prison for terrorism suspects" and that "prison at
Guantanamo hold [sic] about 305 men on suspicion of links to terrorism,
al-Qaeda or the Taliban". In fact, while the Bush administration has
claimed that the prisoners are not only terrorists but the "worst of the
worst", it turned out that the majority of them have no known links to
al-Qaida or the Taliban, and in many cases there are no grounds for
suspicion of terrorism or links to terrorism. Many of the prisoners
there are *not* "terrorism suspects" but have merely been claimed to be
so -- they were really only *alleged terrorism suspects*.--DC]

http://tinyurl.com/2pkga4
Gitmo troops vandalise Wikipedia
December 13, 2007 - 10:34AM

US military personnel at Guantanamo Bay called Fidel Castro a
transsexual and defended the prison for terrorism suspects in anonymous
web postings, an internet group that publishes government documents said
today.

The group, Wikileaks, tracked web activity by service members with
Guantanamo email addresses and also found they deleted prisoner
identification numbers from three detainee profiles on Wikipedia, the
popular online encyclopedia that allows anyone to change articles.

Julian Assange, who led the research effort, said the postings amount to
propaganda and deception.

"This is the American government speaking to the American people and to
the world through Wikipedia, not identifying itself and often speaking
about itself in the third person," Assange said in a telephone interview
from Paris.

Army Lt Col Ed Bush, a Guantanamo spokesman, said there is no official
attempt to alter information posted elsewhere but said the military
seeks to correct what it believes is incorrect or outdated information
about the prison.

Bush declined to answer questions about the Castro posting.

Assange said that in January 2006, someone at Guantanamo wrote in a
Wikipedia profile of the Cuban president: "Fidel Castro is an admitted
transexual," the unknown writer said, misspelling the word transsexual.

The US has no formal relations with Cuba and has maintained its base in
the south-east of the island over the objections of the Castro government.

Comments on news stories were posted by people using apparently
fictitious names to news sites -- and were prepared by the Guantanamo
public affairs office, according to Wikileaks.

A comment on a Wired magazine story about a leaked Guantanamo operations
manual that was recently posted on the Wikileaks website urged readers
to learn about Guantanamo by going to the public affairs website, adding
that the base is "a very professional place full of true American patriots".

Assange's group could not specifically identify who from Guantanamo made
about 60 edits to Wikipedia entries on topics that included not only the
prison but also subjects such as football, cars and television programs.

The prison at Guantanamo hold about 305 men on suspicion of links to
terrorism, al-Qaeda or the Taliban.

AP

--
Dan Clore

My collected fiction: _The Unspeakable and Others_
http://tinyurl.com/3akhhr
Lord Weÿrdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://www.geocities.com/clorebeast/
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo

Skipper: Professor, will you tell these people who is
in charge on this island?
Professor: Why, no one.
Skipper: No one?
Thurston Howell III: No one? Good heavens, this is anarchy!
-- _Gilligan's Island_, episode #6, "President Gilligan"