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Gitmo Thug US Troops Vandalize Wikipedia, Attack Fidel, Defend Gulag
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
AP via The Age, Australia - Dec 13, 2007
http://www.theage.com.au/news/web/gitmo-troops-vandalise-wikipedia/2007/12/13/1197135602444.html
Gitmo troops vandalise Wikipedia
US military personnel at Guantanamo Bay called Fidel Castro a
trans***ual and defended the prison for terrorism suspects in anonymous
web postings, an internet group that publishes government do***ents
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seeks to correct what it believes is incorrect or outdated information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
tran***ual," the unknown writer said, misspelling the word trans***ual.
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.
*
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