How do you inform the brainwashed they are reptilian minded Zombies without getting hurt

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=burning+of+the+books&go=Go

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_books_and_burying_of_scholars

Burning of the books and burying of the scholars (traditional Chinese: ; simplified
Chinese: ; pinyin: Fnsh Kngr) is a phrase that refers to a purported policy and a
sequence of events in the Qin Dynasty of Ancient China, between the period of 213 and 206 BC.
During these events, the Hundred Schools of Thought were pruned;legalism survived. One side effect
was the marginalization of the thoughts of the school of Mozi and the survival of the thoughts
of Confucius.
It is important to note, however, that few scholars today believe that Sima Qian's account of the bookburning in the Records of the Grand Historianthe source of our knowledge about this eventreflects
what actually happened.[1]
Contents
[hide]
1 Book burning
2 Burial of the scholars
3 See also
4 References
5 External links
[edit]Book burning
According to the Records of the Grand Historian, after Qin Shi Huangdi, the first emperor of China,
unified China in 221 BC, his chancellor Li Si suggested suppressing the intellectual discourse to unify
all thoughts and political opinions. This was justified by accusations that the intelligentsia sang false
praise and raised dissent through libel.
Beginning in 213 BC, all classic works of the Hundred Schools of Thoughtexcept those from Li Si's
own school of philosophy known as legalismwere subject to book burning.
Qin Shi Huangdi burned the other histories out of fear that they undermined his legitimacy, and wrote
his own history books. Afterwards, Li Si took his place in this area.
Li Si proposed that all histories in the imperial archives except those written by the Qin historians be
burned; that the Classic of Poetry, the Classic of History, and works by scholars of different schools be
handed in to the local authorities for burning; that anyone discussing these two particular books be
executed; that those using ancient examples to satirize contemporary politics be put to death, along
with their families; that authorities who failed to report cases that came to their attention were equally
guilty; and that those who had not burned the listed books within 30 days of the decree were to be
banished to the north as convicts working on building the Great Wall. The only books to be spared in
the destruction were books on war, medicine, agriculture and divination.[2]
[edit]Burial of the scholars
After being deceived by two alchemists while seeking prolonged life, Qin Shi Huangdi ordered more
than 460 scholars in the capital to be buried alive in the second year of the proscription, though an
account given by Wei Hong in the 2nd century added another 700 to the figure. As some of them were
also Confucian scholars, Fusu counselled that, with the country newly unified, and enemies still not
pacified, such a harsh measure imposed on those who respect Confucius would cause

instability.[3] However, he was unable to change his father's mind, and instead was sent to guard the
frontier in a de facto exile.
The quick fall of the Qin Dynasty was attributed to this proscription. Confucianism was revived in
the Han Dynasty that followed, and became the official ideology of the Chinese imperial state. Many
of the other schools had disappeared
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_burning
Book burning (also biblioclasm or libricide) is the practice of destroying,
often ceremoniously, books or other written material. In modern times, other forms of media, such
as phonograph records, video tapes, and CDs have also been ceremoniously burned or shredded. Book
burning is usually carried out in public, and is generally motivated by moral, religious,
or political objections to the material.
Book burning can be emblematic of a harsh and oppressive regime which is seeking to censor or
silence an aspect of a nation's culture. In some cases the works destroyed are irreplaceable and their
burning constitutes a severe loss to cultural heritage. Examples include obliteration of the Library of
Baghdad, the burning of books and burying of scholars under China's Qin Dynasty, the destruction
of Aztec codices by Itzcoatl, and the Nazi book burnings.
Book burning can be an act of contempt for the book's contents or author, and the act is intended to
draw wider public attention to this opinion. Examples include the destruction of the Sarajevo National
Library, the burning of Wilhelm Reich's books by the FBI, the 2010 Qur'an-burning controversy, and
the burning of Beatles records after a remark from John Lennon concerning Jesus Christ.
Contents
[hide]
1 Historical background
2 Notable book burnings
3 Burnings by authors
4 Books saved from burning
5 Burning for other reasons
6 In literature
7 Film and television
8 See also
9 References
10 External links
[edit]Historical background
From the 7th Century BC when Jehoiakim,King of Judah, burned part of the prophet Jeremiah's scroll,
(Jeremiah 36), to the present day, the burning of books has a long history as a tool wielded by
authorities both secular and religious, in efforts to suppress dissentingor heretical views that are
perceived as posing a threat to the prevailing order.
According to scholar Elaine Pagels, "In AD 367, Athanasius, the zealous bishop of Alexandria... issued
an Easter letter in which he demanded that Egyptian monks destroy all such unacceptable writings,
except for those he specifically listed as 'acceptable' even 'canonical' a list that constitutes the
present 'New Testament'".[citation needed] Although Pagels cites Athanasius's Paschal letter (letter 39)
for 367 AD, there is no order for monks to destroy heretical works contained in that letter.[1] Thus,
heretical texts do not turn up as palimpsests, washed clean and overwritten, as pagan ones do; many
early Christian texts have been as thoroughly "lost" as if they had been publicly burnt.
According to the Chronicle of Fredegar, Recared, King of the Wisigoths (reigned 586601) and first
Catholic king of Spain, following his conversion to Catholicism in 587, ordered that all Arian books
2

should be collected and burned; and all the books of Arian theology were reduced to ashes, with the
house in which they had been purposely collected.[2][3]
Nalanda, an ancient center of higher learning in Bihar, India was sacked by Turkic Muslim invaders
under Bakhtiyar Khalji in 1193. The great library of Nalanda University was so vast that it is reported
to have burned for three months after the invaders set fire to it, sacked and destroyed the monasteries,
and drove the monks from the site.[citation needed]
In his 1821 play, Almansor, the German writer Heinrich Heine referring to the burning of
the Muslim holy book, the Qur'an, during the Spanish Inquisition wrote, "Where they burn books,
so too will they in the end burn human beings." ("Dort, wo man Bcher verbrennt, verbrennt man auch
am Ende Menschen.")[citation needed] Over a century later, Heine's own books were among the
thousands of volumes that were torched by the Nazis in Berlin's Opernplatz.[citation needed]
In Azerbaijan, when a modified Latin alphabet was adopted, books published in Arabic script were
burned, especially in the late 1920s and 1930s.[4] The texts were not limited to the Quran; medical and
historical manuscripts were also destroyed.[5]

Book burning following the 1973 coup that installed the Pinochet regime in Chile

Books burned by the Nazis, on display atYad Vashem

Anthony Comstock's New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, founded in 1873, inscribed book
burning on its seal, as a worthy goal to be achieved. Comstock's total accomplishment in a long and
influential career is estimated to have been the destruction of some 15 tons of books, 284,000 pounds
of plates for printing such 'objectionable' books, and nearly 4,000,000 pictures. All of this material was
defined as "lewd" by Comstock's very broad definition of the term which he and his associates
successfully lobbied the United States Congress to incorporate in the Comstock Law.[citation needed]
In the 1950s several books by William Reich were ordered to be burned in the U.S. under judicial
orders.[6]
The Ray Bradbury novel Fahrenheit 451 is about a fictional future society that has institutionalized
book burning. In Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, the euphemistically-called "memory hole" is used to
3

burn any book or written text which is inconvenient to the regime, and there is mention of "the total
destruction of all books published before 1960".[citation needed]
The advent of the digital age has resulted in an immense collection of written work being catalogued
exclusively or primarily in digital form. The intentional deletion or removal of these works has been
often referred to as a new form of book burning.[citation needed]
Some supporters have celebrated book burning cases in art and other media. Such is the bas-relief
by Giovanni Battista Maini of The Burning of Heretical Books over a side door on the faade of Santa
Maria Maggiore, Rome, which depicts the burning of 'heretical' books as a triumph of
righteousness.[7]
[edit]Notable book burnings
Main article: List of book burning incidents
[edit]Burnings by authors
In 1588, the exiled English Catholic William Cardinal Allen wrote "An Admonition to the Nobility
and People of England", a work sharply attacking Queen Elizabeth I. It was to be published in Spanishoccupied England in the event of the Spanish Armada succeeding in its invasion. Upon the defeat of
the Armada, Allen carefully consigned his publication to the fire, and we only know of it through one
of Elizabeth's spies, who had stolen a copy.[8]
The Hassidic Rabbi Nachman of Breslov is reported to have written a book which he himself burned in
1808. To this day, his followers mourn "The Burned Book" and seek in their Rabbi's surviving writings
for clues as to what the lost volume contained and why it was destroyed.[9]
Carlo Goldoni is known to have burned his first play, a tragedy called Amalasunta, when encountering
unfavorable criticism.
Joe Shuster, who together with Jerry Siegel created the fictional superhero Superman, in 1938 burned
the first Superman story when under the impression that it would not find a publisher.[citation needed]
[edit]Books saved from burning

Symbol of the "New York Society for the Suppression of Vice", advocating book-burning
When Virgil died, he left instructions that his manuscript of the Aeneid was to be burnt, as it was a
draft version with uncorrected faults and not a final version for release. However, this instruction was
ignored.
Before his death, Franz Kafka wrote to his friend and literary executor Max Brod: "Dearest Max, my
last request: Everything I leave behind me... in the way of diaries, manuscripts, letters (my own and
others'), sketches, and so on, [is] to be burned unread."[10] Brod overrode Kafka's wishes, believing
4

that Kafka had given these directions to him, specifically, because Kafka knew he would not honour
them Brod had told him as much. Had Brod carried out Kafka's instructions, virtually the whole of
Kafka's work except for a few short stories published in his lifetime would have been lost forever.
Most critics, at the time and up to the present, justify Brod's decision.
A similar case concerns the noted American poet Emily Dickinson, who died in 1890 and left to her
sister Lavinia the instruction of burning all her papers. Lavinia Dickinson did burn almost all of her
sister's correspondences, but interpreted the will as not including the forty notebooks and loose sheets,
all filled with almost 1800 poems; these Lavinia saved and began to publish the poems that year. Had
Lavinia Dickinson been more strict in carrying out her sister's will, all but a small handful of Emily
Dickinson's poetic work would have been lost.[11][12]
At the beginning of the Battle of Monte Cassino in the Second World War, two German officers
Viennese-born Lt.Col. Julius Schlegel (a Roman Catholic), and Captain Maximilian Becker (a
Protestant) had the foresight to transfer the Monte Cassino archives to the Vatican. Otherwise the
archives containing a vast number of documents relating to the 1500-years' history of the Abbey as
well as some 1400 irreplaceable manuscript codices, chiefly patristic and historical would have been
destroyed in the Allied air bombing which almost completely destroyed the Abbey shortly afterwards.
Also saved by the two officers' prompt action were the collections of the Keats-Shelley Memorial
House in Rome which had been sent to the Abbey for safety in December 1942.
[edit]Burning for other reasons
In the Sikh religion, any copies of the Guru Granth Sahib which are too badly damaged to be used, and
any printer's waste which bears any of its text, are cremated. Such a cremation is called Agan Bhet, and
is a similar to that performed when cremating a deceased Sikh.[13][14][15][16]
[edit]In literature
A much-quoted line in Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita is "manuscripts don't burn"
(Russian: ). "The Master", a major protagonist in the book, is a writer who is
plagued by both his own mental problems and the oppression of Stalin's regime in 1930s Moscow. He
burns his treasured manuscript in an effort to hide it from the Soviet authorities and cleanse his own
mind from the troubles the work has brought him. The character Woland (a mysterious magician who
is in fact Satan) later gives the manuscript back to him, saying, "Didn't you know that manuscripts
don't burn?" There is an autobiographical element reflected in the Master's character here, as Bulgakov
in fact burned an early copy of The Master and Margarita for much the same reasons.
The first part of Don Quixote has a scene in which the priest and the housekeeper of the eponymous
knight go through the chivalry books that have turned him mad. In a kind ofauto de fe, they burn most
of them. The comments of the priest express the literary tastes of the author, though he offers some
sharp criticisms of Cervantes's works as well. It is notable that he saves Tirant lo Blanc.
At the conclusion of the novel "Auto da Fe" by Nobel-Prize winner Elias Canetti, the bibliophile
protagonist immolates himself on a pile of his own library.
The Japanese novel Toshokan Sensou is about the conflict between two military organizations after the
Japanese government passed a law that allows the censorship of any media deemed to be potentially
harmful to Japanese society, including book burning.
The short story "Earth's Holocaust" from Nathaniel Hawthorne's Mosses from an Old Manse, is about a
society that burns everything that it finds offensive, including its literature. Special attention is paid to
The Bible as the last book burned:
"Upon the blazing heap of falsehood and worn-out truth--things that the earth had never needed, or had
ceased to need, or had grown childishly weary of--fell the ponderous church Bible, the great old
volume that had lain so long on the cushion of the pulpit, and whence the pastor's solemn voice had
given holy utterance on so many a Sabbath day."

In Part II of the play Tamburlaine, by Christopher Marlowe, Tamburlaine (the protagonist) burns a
copy of the Qur'an after having conquered Asia Minor and Egypt. His book-burning and declaration of
independence from any deity leads to his fatal illness, and subsequently the end of the play.
In Anne of Green Gables, Anne watches in horror as her caretaker burns her book containing the poem
"Lady of Shallot" as punishment for reading instead of doing her chores.
Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian novel where books are outlawed and it is the job of a
"fireman" to burn them. In the introduction of the 1967 Simon and Schusterbook club edition,
Bradbury implies that the Nazi book burnings drove him to write the short story "The Fireman" which
was the precursor along with the foundation for his novelFahrenheit 451, stating, "It follows then that
when Hitler burned a book I felt it as keenly, please forgive me, as his killing a human, for in the long
sum of history they are one and the same flesh."[citation needed]
At the conclusion of Umberto Eco's "The Name of the Rose", the unique Medieval library which is at
the center of the book's plot is burned and totally destroyed.
A central event in the fantasy novel Titus Groan is the burning of the library of Earl Sepulchrave,
which was the earl's sole pleasure in life - leading to his madness and eventual death.
Iain Pears's book The Dream of Scipio is set in Provence, with the lives of three people at various
historical periods interweaving with each other. Each of these lives includes an incident of book
burning with a crucial importance. Manlius Hippomanes, a gallic aristocrat living in the time of
the collapse of the Roman Empire in the fifth century, makes cynical use of Christianity for personal
power and instills religious intolerance and antisemitism in his followers - and after his death, these
followers set up a bonfire and burn Hippomanes' entire library of Classical works, believing
themselves to be honoring his precepts. Olivier de Noyen, a poet and scholar active in the 14th
Century Papal Court atAvignon, had to watch his father burning his beloved copy of Cicero - but then
de Noyen re-wrote it from memory, and the incident determined him to devote his life to finding and
preserving the books of antiquity. Julien Barneuve, an intellectual active during the Second World
War, realizes the disastrous results of his collaboration with the pro-Nazi Vichy government and burns
himself to death in a hut - starting the fire by burning his own manuscript of a work praising
Hippomanes and condemning de Noyen.
In the future depicted in Brian Stableford's "The Halcyon Drift", one of the leading planets in the
Galaxy is "New Alexandria", whose inhabitants are dedicated to the preservation and extension of
knowledge, and are brought up to regard the destruction of books as the most heinous of deeds.
Nevertheless, a protagonist agrees to help the Khor-Monsa, an alien species, in destroying books and
records of their remote ancestors which were found in a drifting spaceshipsince the books contained
a shameful secret whose publication might have led to the present Khor-Monsa losing their social
status and becoming targets of discrimination.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_book_burnings
The Nazi book burnings were a campaign conducted by the authorities of Nazi Germany to
ceremonially burn books in Germany bypacifist, socialist, Jewish, and other authors whose ideologies
were seen to be subversive to the National Socialist administration.
Contents
[hide]
1 The book-burning campaign
2 Denazification
3 Depictions in film
4 See also
5 Bibliography
6 List of authors whose books were burnt
7 Notes
8 External links
[edit]The book-burning campaign
On April 6th, 1933, the Main Office for Press and Propaganda of the German Student
Association proclaimed a nationwide "Action against the Un-German Spirit", which was to climax in a
literary purge or "cleansing" ("Suberung") by fire. Local chapters were to supply the press with
releases and commissioned articles, sponsor well-known Nazi figures to speak at public gatherings,
and negotiate for radio broadcast time. On 8 April, the students association also drafted the Twelve
Theses which deliberately evoked Martin Luther and the historic burning of "Un-German" books at
the Wartburg festival on the 300th anniversary of the posting of Luther's Ninety-Five Theses. The
theses called for a "pure" national language and culture. Placards publicized the theses, which attacked
"Jewish intellectualism", asserted the need to "purify" German language and literature, and demanded
that universities be centres of German nationalism. The students described the "action" as a response to
a worldwide Jewish "smear campaign" against Germany and an affirmation of traditional German
values.
In a symbolic act of ominous significance, on 10 May 1933, the students burned upwards of 25,000
volumes of "un-German" books, presaging an era of state censorship and control of culture. On the
night of 10 May, in most university towns, nationalist students marched in torchlight parades "against
the un-German spirit." The scripted rituals called for high Nazi officials, professors, rectors, and
student leaders to address the participants and spectators. At the meeting places, students threw the
pillaged and unwanted books into the bonfires with great joyous ceremony, band-playing, songs, "fire
oaths," and incantations. In Berlin, some 40,000 people gathered in the Opernplatz to hear Joseph
Goebbels deliver a fiery address: "No to decadence and moral corruption!" Goebbels enjoined the
crowd. Yes to decency and morality in family and state! I consign to the flames the writings
ofHeinrich Mann, Ernst Glser, Erich Kstner.
The era of extreme Jewish intellectualism is now at an end. The breakthrough of the German
revolution has again cleared the way on the German path...The future German man will not just be a
man of books, but a man of character. It is to this end that we want to educate you. As a young person,
to already have the courage to face the pitiless glare, to overcome the fear of death, and to regain
respect for death - this is the task of this young generation. And thus you do well in this midnight hour
to commit to the flames the evil spirit of the past. This is a strong, great and symbolic deed - a deed
7

which should document the following for the world to know - Here the intellectual foundation of
the November Republic is sinking to the ground, but from this wreckage the phoenix of a new spirit
will triumphantly rise.
Joseph Goebbels , Speech to the students in Berlin

Berlin, Opernplatz, book burnings

Memorial for book burning in 1933; in the ground of Rmerberg Square in front ofFrankfurt city
hall, Hesse, Germany.

Book burning memorial at the Bebelplatzin Berlin.

Not all book burnings took place on 10 May as the German Student Association had planned. Some
were postponed a few days because of rain. Others, based on local chapter preference, took place on 21
June, the summer solstice, a traditional date of celebration. Nonetheless, in 34 university towns across
Germany the "Action against the Un-German Spirit" was a success, enlisting widespread newspaper
coverage.[citation needed] And in some places, notably Berlin, radio broadcasts brought the speeches,
songs, and ceremonial incantations "live" to countless German listeners.
Among the authors whose books student leaders burned that night numbered well-known socialists
such as Bertolt Brecht and August Bebel; the founder of the concept of communism, Karl Marx;
critical bourgeois writers like the Austrian playwright Arthur Schnitzler, and corrupting foreign
influences, among them American authors Ernest Hemingway, Jack London and Helen Keller,
English writer H. G. Wells; and notable Jewish authors such as Franz Werfel, Max Brod, and Stefan
Zweig. Especially notable among those works burned were the writings of beloved nineteenth-century
German-Jewish poet Heinrich Heine, who wrote in his 1820-1821 play Almansor the famous
admonition, Dort, wo man Bcher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen": "Where they
burn books, they will in the end also burn people."
[edit]Denazification
Main articles: Censorship in the Federal Republic of Germany, Allied Occupation Zones in Germany,
and Denazification
In 1946, the Allied occupation authorities drew up a list of over 30,000 titles, ranging from school
books to poetry and including works by such authors as von Clausewitz. Millions of copies of these
books were confiscated and destroyed. The representative of the Military Directorate admitted that the
order in principle was no different from the Nazi book burnings.[1]
Artworks were under the same censorship as other media;
"all collections of works of art related or dedicated to the perpetuation of German militarism or Nazism
will be closed permanently and taken into custody.".
The directives were very broadly interpreted, leading to the destruction of thousands of paintings and
thousands more were shipped to deposits in the U.S. Those confiscated paintings still surviving in U.S.
custody include, for example, a painting "depicting a couple of middle aged women talking in a sunlit
street in a small town".[2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_book-burning_incidents
Contents
[hide]

1 Antiquity
1.1 Library of Ashurbanipal (by Babylonians, Scythians and Medes)
1.2 Chinese philosophy books (by Emperor Qin Shi Huang and anti-Qin rebels)
1.3 Protagoras's "On the Gods" (by Athenian authorities)
1.4 Zoroastrian scriptures (by Alexander the Great)
1.5 Jewish holy books (by the Seleucid monarch Antiochus IV)
1.6 Aeneid (unsuccessfully ordered by Virgil)
1.7 Roman history book (by the aediles)
1.8 Torah scroll (by Roman soldier)
1.9 Sorcery scrolls (by early converts to Christianity at Ephesus)
1.10 Rabbi Haninah ben Teradion burned with a Torah scroll (under Hadrian)
1.11 Burning of the Torah by Apostomus (precise time and circumstances debated)
1.12 Epicurus's book (in Paphlagonia)
1.13 Manichean and Christian scriptures (by Diocletian)
1.14 Books of Arianism (after Council of Nicaea)
1.15 Library of Antioch (by Jovian)
1.16 "Unacceptable writings" (by Athanasius)
1.17 The Sibylline books (various times)
1.18 Writings of Priscillian
1.19 Etrusca Disciplina
1.20 Nestorius' books (by Theodosius II)
2 Middle Ages
2.1 Archives of Ctesiphon (during Arab conquest)
2.2 Repeated destruction of Alexandria libraries
2.3 Qur'anic texts with varying wording (ordered by the 3rd Caliph, Uthman)
2.4 Competing prayer books (at Toledo)
2.5 Abelard forced to burn his own book (at Soissons)
2.6 The writings of Arnold of Brescia (at France and Rome)
2.7 Nalanda University
2.8 Samanid Dynasty Library
2.9 Buddhist writings in the Maldives
2.10 Destruction of Cathar texts (Languedoc region of France)
2.11 Maimonides' philosophy (at Montpellier)
2.12 The Talmud (at Paris), first of many such burnings over the next centuries
2.13 The House of Wisdom library (at Baghdad)
2.14 Wycliffe's books (at Prague)
2.15 Codices of the peoples conquered by the Aztecs (by Itzcoatl)
3 Early Modern Period (from 1492 to 1650)
3.1 Library and archives of the Novgorod Republic (by Ivan III and Ivan IV)
3.2 Non-Catholic books (by Torquemada)
3.3 Decameron, Ovid and other "lewd" books (by Savonarola)
3.4 Arabic and Hebrew books (at Andalucia)
3.5 Tyndale's New Testament (in England)
3.6 Angelo Carletti's theological works (by Martin Luther)
3.7 Servetus's writings (burned with their author at Geneva, and also burned at Vienne)
3.8 "The Historie of Italie" (In England)
3.9 Maya sacred books (by Spanish Bishop of Yucatan)
3.10 "Obscene" Maltese poetry (by the Inquisition)
3.11 Arwi Books (by Portugese in India and Ceylon)
3.12 Bernardino de Sahagn's manuscripts on Aztec culture (by Spanish authorities)
3.13 Luther's Bible translation
3.14 Uriel da Costa's book (By Jewish community and city authorities in Amsterdam)
3.15 Marco Antonio de Dominis' writings (in Rome)
4 Early Modern Period (from 1650 until the turn of the 19th century)
4.1 Books burned by civil, military and ecclesiastical authorities between 1640 and 1660 (in Cromwell's England)

10

4.2 Earl of Worcester's library (by New Model Army)

4.3 Book criticising Puritanism (in Boston)
4.4 Quaker books (in Boston)
4.5 Great Fire (London)
4.6 Hobbes books (at Oxford University)
4.7 Swedish National Archives
4.8 Mythical (and/or mystical) writings of Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (by rabbis)
4.9 Protestant books and Bibles (by Archbishop of Salzburg)
4.10 Amalasunta (by Carlo Goldoni)
4.11 The writings of Johann Christian Edelmann (by Imperial authorities in Frankfurt)
4.12 Books that offended Qianlong Emperor
4.13 Anti-Wilhelm Tell tract (at Canton of Uri)
4.14 Books by Voltaire
4.15 Vernacular Catholic hymn books (at Mainz)
4.16 Egyptian archaeological finds (threatened burning by French scholars)
5 Industrial Revolution period
5.1 "The Burned Book" (by Rabbi Nachman of Breslov)
5.2 Records of the Goa Inquisition (by Portuguese colonial authorities)
5.3 The Code Napolon (by German Nationalist students)
5.4 Early braille books (in Paris)
5.5 Library of St. Augustine Academy, Philadelphia (by anti-Irish rioters)
5.6 Chinese literary works (By Anglo-French troops in Beijing)
5.7 Edmond Potonie's papers (by French Police)
5.8 "Lewd" books (by Anthony Comstock and the NYSSV)
5.9 Emily Dickinson's correspondence (on her orders)
5.10 Ivan Bloch's research on Russian Jews (by Tsarist Russian government)
6 WWI and interbellum era
6.1 Leuven University Library (by World War I German Army)
6.2 Many books (by Communists in Russia)
6.3 Valley of the Squinting Windows (at Delvin, Ireland)
6.4 George Grosz's cartoons (By court order in Weimar Germany)
6.5 Irish National Archives (in Civil War)
6.6 Jewish, anti-Nazi and "degenerate" books (by the Nazis)
6.7 Theodore Dreiser's works (at Warsaw, Indiana)
6.8 Pompeu Fabra's library (by Spanish troops)
7 World War II
7.1 Norman Lindsay's artistic work (by anti-pornography US officials)
7.2 Leuven University Library (by World War II German occupation troops)
7.3 Chinese libraries (by World War II Japanese troops)
7.4 Works in the British Museum (by German bomber planes)
7.5 Andr Malraux's manuscript (by the Gestapo)
7.6 Various libraries in Warsaw, Poland (during World War II)
7.7 Books in the National Library of Serbia (by World War II German bomber planes)
7.8 Douai Municipal Library
7.9 Books in German libraries (by World War II Allied bomber planes)
8 Cold War era and 1990s
8.1 The books of Knut Hamsun (in post-WWII Norway)
8.2 Undemocratic, militaristic and Nazi books (In Post-WWII Denazification of Germany)
8.3 Books in Kurdish (in north Iran)
8.4 Comic book burnings, 1948
8.5 Books by Shen Congwen (by Chinese booksellers)
8.6 Judaica collection at Birobidzhan (by Stalin)
8.7 Communist and "fellow traveller" books (by Senator McCarthy)
8.8 Wilhelm Reich's publications (by U.S. Food and Drug Administration)
8.9 Brazil, military coup, 1964
8.10 Religious, Anti-Communist and Genealogy books (in the Cultural Revolution)
8.11 Leftist books in Chile after the 1973 coup d'tat
8.12 Burning of Jaffna library
8.13 The Satanic Verses (in the United Kingdom)
8.14 Oriental Institute in Sarajevo (1992)
8.15 National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992)
8.16 Abkhazian Research Institute of History, Language and Literature & National Library of Abkhazia (by Georgian troops)
8.17 The Nasir-i Khusraw Foundation in Kabul (by the Taliban regime)
9 21st Century

11

9.1 Berkley book burning

9.2 Abu Nuwas poetry (by Egyptian Ministry of Culture)
9.3 Independent Librarians (in Cuba)
9.4 Iraq's national library, Baghdad 2003
9.5 Various books (by the Cuban government)
9.6 Harry Potter books (in various American cities)
9.7 Inventory of Prospero's Books (by proprietors Tom Wayne and W.E. Leathem)
9.8 New Testaments in city of Or Yehuda, Israel
9.9 Non-approved Bibles, books and music in Canton, North Carolina
9.10 201011 Florida Qu'ran burning and related burnings
9.11 Operation Dark Heart, memoir by Anthony Shaffer (by The United States Pentagon)
9.12 The burning of the library in the Institute d'Egypt in Cairo
9.13 Suspected Colorado City incident
9.14 Qur'ans in Afghanistan
10 See also
11 References
12 External links

[edit]Antiquity
[edit]Library of Ashurbanipal (by Babylonians, Scythians and Medes)
In 612 BC the Assyrian capital Nineveh was destroyed by a coalition of Babylonians, Scythians and Medes.
During the burning of the Royal Palace, a great fire ravaged the Library of Ashurbanipal where the scholar
King Ashurbanipal had amassed a great number of texts and tablets from various countries. Modern historians
believe the library may have contained a considerable number of texts written on such mediums as leather
scrolls, wax boards, and possibly papyri - all of them vulnerable to fire. However, the considerable number of
clay cuneiform tablets became partially baked.[1] Thus, paradoxically, this potentially destructive event helped
preserve the tablets, which lay in the earth and were eventually found by 19th century archaeologists.
[edit]Chinese philosophy books (by Emperor Qin Shi Huang and anti-Qin rebels)
Main article: Burning of books and burying of scholars
Following the advice of minister Li Si, Emperor Qin Shi Huang ordered the burning of all philosophy books and
history books from states other than Qin beginning in 213 BCE. This was followed by the live burial of a large
number of intellectuals who did not comply with the state dogma.
Li Si is reported to have said: "I, your servant, propose that all historian's records other than those of Qin's be
burned. With the exception of the academics whose duty includes possessing books, if anyone under
heaven has copies of the Shi Jing, the Classic of History, or the writings of the hundred schools of philosophy,
they shall deliver them [the books] to the governor or the commandant for burning. Anyone who dares to discuss
the Shi Jing or the Classic of History shall be publicly executed. Anyone who uses history to criticize the present
shall have his family executed. Any official who sees the violations but fails to report them is equally guilty.
Anyone who has failed to burn the books after thirty days of this announcement shall be subjected
to tattooing and be sent to build the Great Wall. The books that have exemption are those on
medicine, divination, agriculture andforestry. Those who have interest in laws shall instead study from
officials."[2]
The damage to Chinese culture was compounded during the revolts which ended the short rule of Qin Er Shi,
Qin Shi Huang's son. The imperial palace and state archives were burned, destroying many of the remaining
written records that had been spared by the father.
Several other large book burnings also occurred in Chinese history. [3] It appears they occurred in every dynasty
following the Qin, but it is unknown how often.[4]
[edit]Protagoras's "On the Gods" (by Athenian authorities)
The Classical Greek philosopher Protagoras was a proponent of agnosticism, writing in a now lost work
entitled On the Gods: "Concerning the gods, I have no means of knowing whether they exist or not or of what
sort they may be, because of the obscurity of the subject, and the brevity of human life.[5] According to Diogenes
Laertius, the above outspoken Agnostic position taken by Protagoras aroused anger, causing the Athenians to
expel him from their city, where the authorities ordered all copies of the book to be collected and burned in the
marketplace. The same story is also mentioned by Cicero.[6] However, the Classicist John Burnet doubts this
account, as both Diogenes Laertius and Cicero wrote hundreds of years later and no such persecution of
Protagoras is mentioned by contemporaries who make extensive references to this philosopher. [7] Burnet notes
that even if some copies of Protagoras' book were burned, enough of them survived to be known and discussed
in the following century.

12

[edit]Zoroastrian scriptures (by Alexander the Great)

The Bundahishn an encyclopdiaic collection of Zoroastrian cosmogony and cosmology refers to
"Aleskandar" (Alexander the Great) as having burned the Avesta (Zoroastrian Scriptures), following his defeat of
"Dara" (Darius III). For this act of sacrilage, Alexander's name was regularly accompanied in Zoroastrian texts
by the appelation Gojastak orGojaste (The Damned). No such act by Alexander is recorded in Greek and Latin
accounts of his life these, however, tend to depict Alexander in a favorable light.
[edit]Jewish holy books (by the Seleucid monarch Antiochus IV)
In 168 BCE the Seleucid monarch Antiochus IV ordered Jewish 'Books of the Law' found in Jerusalem to be
'rent in pieces' and burned[8] part of the series of persecutions which precipitated the revolt of the Maccabees.
[edit]Aeneid (unsuccessfully ordered by Virgil)
In 17 BCE, Virgil died and in his will ordered that his masterpiece, the Aeneid, be burned, as it was a draft and
not a final version. However, his friends disobeyed him and released the epic poem after editing it themselves. [9]
[edit]Roman history book (by the aediles)
In 25 CE Senator Aulus Cremutius Cordus was forced to commit suicide and his History was burned by
the aediles, under the order of the senate. The book's praise of Brutus andCassius, who had
assassinated Julius Caesar, was considered an offence under the lex majestatis. A copy of the book was saved
by Cordus' daughter Marcia, and it was published again under Caligula. However, only a few fragments survived
to the present.[10][11][12]
[edit]Torah scroll (by Roman soldier)
Flavius Josephus[13] relates that about the year 50 a Roman soldier seized a Torah scroll and, with abusive and
mocking language, burned it in public. This incident almost brought on a general Jewish revolt against Roman
rule, such as broke out two decades later. However, the Roman Procurator Cumanus appeased the Jewish
populace by beheading the culprit.
[edit]Sorcery scrolls (by early converts to Christianity at Ephesus)
According to the New Testament book of Acts, early converts to Christianity in Ephesus who had previously
practiced sorcery burned their scrolls: "A number who had practised sorcery brought their scrolls together and
burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas."
(Acts 19:19, NIV)[14]
[edit]Rabbi Haninah ben Teradion burned with a Torah scroll (under Hadrian)
Under the Emperor Hadrian, the teaching of the Jewish Scriptures was forbidden, as, in the wake of the Bar
Kochva Rebellion, the Roman authorities regarded such teaching as seditious and tending towards
revolt. Haninah ben Teradion, one of the Jewish Ten Martyrs executed for having defied that ban, is reported to
have been burned at the stake together with the forbidden Torah scroll which he had been teaching. According
to Jewish tradition, when the flame started to burn himself and the scroll he still managed to say to his pupils: "I
see the scrolls burning but the letters fly up in the air" a saying considered to symbolize the superiority of ideas
to brute force. While in the original applying to sacred writings only, 20th Century Israeli writers also quoted this
saying in the context of non-religious ideals.[15][16]
In the same period a Torah scroll was also burned ceremoniously on Jerusalem's Temple Mount, in this case
without a human being added.[citation needed]
[edit]Burning of the Torah by Apostomus (precise time and circumstances debated)
Among five catastrophes said to have overtaken the Jews on the Seventeenth of Tammuz,
the Mishnah[17] includes "the burning of the Torah by Apostomus". Since no further details are given and there
are no other references to Apostomus in Jewish or non-Jewish sources, the exact time and circumstances of
this traumatic event are debated, historians assigning to it different dates in Jewish history under Seleucid or
Roman rule, and it might be identical with one of the events noted above (see Apostomus page).
[edit]Epicurus's book (in Paphlagonia)
The book Established beliefs of Epicurus was burned in a Paphlagonian marketplace by order of the charlatan
Alexander, supposed prophet of Ascapius ca 160[18]
[edit]Manichean and Christian scriptures (by Diocletian)
The Diocletianic Persecution started on March 31, 302, with the Roman Emperor Diocletian, in a rescript from
Alexandria, ordering that the leading Manicheans be burnt alive along with their scriptures.[19] This was the first
time a Roman Imperial persecution ever called for the destruction of sacred literature. [20] On the following year,
on February 23, 303, Diocletian ordered that the newly built Christian church at Nicomedia be razed, its
scriptures burned, and its treasures seized.[21]. Later persecutions included the burning of both the Christians
themselves and of their books. As related in later Christian Hagiography, at that time the governor

13

of Valencia offered the deacon who would become known as Saint Vincent of Saragossa to have his life spared
in exchange for his consigning Scripture to the fire. Vincent refused and let himself be executed instead. In
religious paintings he is often depicted holding the book whose preservation he preferred to his own life (see
illustration in Saint Vincent of Saragossa page.)[22]
[edit]Books of Arianism (after Council of Nicaea)

Burning of Arian books at Nicaea (illustration from a compendium of canon law, ca. 825, MS. in the Capitular Library, Vercelli)

The books of Arius and his followers, after the first Council of Nicaea (325 C.E.), were burned
for heresy. Arius was exiled and presumably assassinated following this, and Arian books continued to be
regularly burned into the 330s.[23]
[edit]Library of Antioch (by Jovian)
In 364, the Christian Emperor Jovian ordered the entire Library of Antioch to be burnt.[24] It had been heavily
stocked by the aid of his non-Christian predecessor, Emperor Julian.
[edit]"Unacceptable writings" (by Athanasius)
Elaine Pagels claims that in 367, Athanasius ordered monks in the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria in his
role as bishop of Alexandria to destroy all "unacceptable writings" in Egypt, the list of writings to be saved
constituting the New Testament.[25]
[edit]The Sibylline books (various times)
The Sibylline Books were a collection of oracular sayings. According to
myth,[26] the Cumaean sibyl offered Lucius Tarquinius Superbus the books for a high price, and when he
refused, burned three. When he refused to buy the remaining six at the same price, she again burned three,
finally forcing him to buy the last three at the original price. The quindecimviri sacris faciundis watched over the
surviving books in the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, but could not prevent their being burned when the
temple burned down in 83 BCE. They were replaced by a similar collection of oracular sayings from around the
Mediterranean in 76 BCE, along with the sayings of the Tiburtine sibyl, and then checked by priests for
perceived accuracy as compared to the burned originals.[27] These remained until for political reasons they were
burned by Flavius Stilicho (died 408).[28]
[edit]Writings of Priscillian
In 385, the theologian Priscillian of vila became the first Christian to be executed by fellow-Christians as
a heretic. Some (though not all) of his writings were condemned as heretical and burned. For many centuries
they were considered irreversibly lost, but surviving copies were discovered in the 19th century. [29]
[edit]Etrusca Disciplina
Etrusca Disciplina, the Etruscan books of cult and divination, were collected and burned in the 5th century. [30][31]
[edit]Nestorius' books (by Theodosius II)
The books of Nestorius, declared to be heresy, were burned under an edict of Theodosius II(435).[32][33] The
Greek originals of most writings were irrevocably destroyed, surviving mainly in Syriac translations.
[edit]Middle

Ages

[edit]Archives of Ctesiphon (during Arab conquest)

The Sassanid Empire's capital Ctesiphon was conquered by Arab armies under the military command of Sa'ad
ibn Abi Waqqas in 637, during the caliphate of Umar. Though the general population was not harmed, the
palaces were burned, leading to destruction of archives recording centuries of Sassenid history.
[edit]Repeated destruction of Alexandria libraries

14

Main article: Library of Alexandria#Destruction of the Library

The library of the Serapeum in Alexandria was trashed, burned and looted, 392, at the decree of Theophilus of
Alexandria, who was ordered so by Theodosius I. Around the same time, Hypatia was murdered. One of the
largest destructions of books occurred at the Library of Alexandria, traditionally held to be in 640; however, the
precise years are unknown as are whether the fires were intentional or accidental.[34][35]
[edit]Qur'anic texts with varying wording (ordered by the 3rd Caliph, Uthman)
Main article: Origin and development of the Qur'an#First standardization of Qur'an
Uthman ibn 'Affan, the third Caliph of Islam after Muhammad, who is credited with overseeing the collection of
the verses of the Qur'an, ordered the destruction of any other remaining text containing verses of the Quran
after the Quran has been fully collected, circa 650. This was done to ensure that the collected and authenticated
Quranic copy that Uthman collected became the primary source for others to follow, thereby ensuring that
Uthman's version of the Quran remained authentic. Although the Qur'an had mainly been propagated through
oral transmission, it also had already been recorded in at least three codices, most importantly the codex of
Abdullah ibn Mas'ud in Kufa, and the codex of Ubayy ibn Ka'b in Syria. Sometime between 650 and 656, a
committee appointed by Uthman is believed to have produced a singular version in seven copies, and Uthman
is said to have "sent to every Muslim province one copy of what they had copied, and ordered any other
Qur'anic materials, whether written in fragmentary manuscripts or whole copies, be burnt." [36]
[edit]Competing prayer books (at Toledo)
After the conquest of Toledo, Spain (1085) by the king of Castile, it was being disputed on whether Iberian
Christians should follow the foreign Roman rite or the traditionalMozarabic rite. After other ordeals, it was
submitted to the trial by fire: One book for each rite was thrown into a fire. The Toledan book was little damaged
after the Roman one was consumed. Henry Jenner comments in the Catholic Encyclopedia: "No one who has
seen a Mozarabic manuscript with its extraordinarily solid vellum, will adopt any hypothesis of Divine
Interposition here."[37]
[edit]Abelard forced to burn his own book (at Soissons)
The provincial synod held at Soissons (in France) in 1121 condemned the teachings of the
famous theologian Peter Abelard as heresy; he was forced to burn his own book before being shut up inside
the convent of St. Medard at Soissons.[38]
[edit]The writings of Arnold of Brescia (at France and Rome)
The rebellious monk Arnold of Brescia Abelard's pupil and colleague refused to abjure his views after they
were condemned at the Synod of Sens in 1141, and went on to lead the Commune of Rome in direct opposition
to the Pope, until being executed in 1155. The Church ordered the burning of all his writings, which was carried
out so thoroughly than none of them survives and it is unknown even what they were except for what can be
inferred from polemics against him.[39] Nevertheless, though no written word of Arnold's has survived, his
teachings on apostolic poverty continued potent after his death, among "Arnoldists" and more widely
among Waldensians and the Spiritual Franciscans.
[edit]Nalanda University
The library of Nalanda, known as Dharma Gunj (Mountain of Truth) or Dharmagaja (Treasury of Truth), was
the most renowned repository of Buddhist and Hindu knowledge in the world at the time. Its collection was said
to comprise hundreds of thousands of volumes, so extensive that it burned for months when set aflame by
Muslim invaders in 1193.[40]
[edit]Samanid Dynasty Library
The Royal Library of the Samanid Dynasty was burned at the turn of the 11th century during the Turkic invasion
from the east. Avicenna was said to have tried to save the precious manuscripts from the fire as the flames
engulfed the collection.[41][42][43]
[edit]Buddhist writings in the Maldives
Following the conversion of the Maldives to Islam in 1153 (or by some accounts in 1193), the Buddhist religion
hitherto state religion for more than a thousand years was suppressed. The copper-plate document known as
Dhanbidh Lmfnu gives information about events in the southern Haddhunmathi Atoll, which had been a
major center of Buddhism where monks were beheaded, and statues of Vairocana, the transcendent Buddha,
were destroyed. At that time, also the wealth of Buddhist manuscripts written onscrewpine leaves by Maldivian
monks in their Buddhist monasteries was either burnt or otherwise so thoroughly eliminated that it has
disappeared without leaving any trace.[44]
[edit]Destruction of Cathar texts (Languedoc region of France)

15

Detail of a Pedro Berruguete painting of a disputation between Saint Dominic of Guzman and theAlbigensians (Cathars) in which
the books of both were thrown on a fire, with St. Dominic's books miraculously preserved from the flames. See the whole picture.

During the 13th century, the Catholic Church waged a brutal campaign against
the Cathars of Languedoc (smaller numbers also lived elsewhere in Europe), culminating in the Albigensian
Crusade. Nearly every Cathar text that could be found was destroyed, in an effort to completely extirpate their
heretical beliefs; only a few are known to have survived.[45]
[edit]Maimonides' philosophy (at Montpellier)
Maimonides' major philosophical and theological work, "Guide for the Perplexed", got highly mixed reactions
from fellow-Jews of his and later times some revering it and viewing it as a triumph, while others deemed
many of its ideas heretical, banning it and on some occasions burning copies of it.[46] One such burning took
place at Montpellier, Southern France, in 1233.[citation needed]
[edit]The Talmud (at Paris), first of many such burnings over the next centuries
In 1242, The French crown burned all Talmud copies in Paris, about 12,000, after the book was "charged" and
"found guilty" in the Paris trial sometimes called "the Paris debate".[47] This burnings of Hebrew books were
initiated by Pope Gregory IX, who persuaded French King Louis IX to undertake it. This particular book burning
was commemorated by the German Rabbi and poetMeir of Rothenburg in the elegy (kinna) called "Ask, O you
who are burned in fire" () , which is recited to this day by Ashkenazi Jews on the fast of Tisha
B'av.
Since the Church and Christian states viewed the Talmud as a book hateful and insulting toward Christ and
gentiles[citation needed], subsequent popes were also known to organize public burnings of Jewish books. The most
well known of them were Innocent IV (12431254), Clement IV (12561268), John XXII (13161334), Paul
IV (15551559), Pius V (15661572) and Clement VIII (15921605).
Once the printing press was invented, the Church found it impossible to destroy entire printed editions of the
Talmud and other sacred books. Johann Gutenberg, the German who invented the printing press around 1450,
certainly helped stamp out the effectiveness of further book burnings. The tolerant (for its time) policies of
Venice made it a center for the printing of Jewish books (as of books in general), yet the Talmud was publicly
burned in 1553 and there was a lesser known burning of Hebrew book in 1568. [citation needed]
[edit]The House of Wisdom library (at Baghdad)
The House of Wisdom was destroyed during the Mongol invasion of Baghdad in 1258, along with all other
libraries in Baghdad. It was said that the waters of the Tigris ran black for six months with ink from the enormous
quantities of books flung into the river.[citation needed]
[edit]Wycliffe's books (at Prague)
In 1410 John Wycliffe's books were burnt by the illiterate Prague archbishop Zbynk Zajc z Hzmburka in the
court of his palace in Lesser Town of Prague to hinder the spread ofJan Hus's teaching.[48]
[edit]Codices of the peoples conquered by the Aztecs (by Itzcoatl)
According to the Madrid Codex, the fourth tlatoani Itzcoatl (ruling from 1427 (or 1428) to 1440) ordered the
burning of all historical codices because it was "not wise that all the people should know the
paintings".[49] Among other purposes, this allowed the Aztec state to develop a state-sanctioned history and
mythos that venerated the Aztec godHuitzilopochtli.

16

[edit]Early

Modern Period (from 1492 to 1650)

[edit]Library and archives of the Novgorod Republic (by Ivan III and Ivan IV)
In the course of the Novgorod Republic's conquest and subjugation by the rising power of Muscovy, the
Republic's library and archives were destroyed, simultaneously with many of the republic's citizens being
massacred and tortured and its wealth being looted. The library's destruction can be variously dated either to
Novgorod's conquest by Ivan III in 1478, or to the 1570 Massacre of Novgorod perpetrated by his grandson Ivan
IV.[50]
[edit]Non-Catholic books (by Torquemada)
In the 1480s Tomas Torquemada promoted the burning of non-Catholic literature, especially the Jewish Talmud
and also Arabic books after the final defeat of the Moors at Granadain 1492.[citation needed]
[edit]Decameron, Ovid and other "lewd" books (by Savonarola)
Main article: Bonfire of the Vanities
In 1497, followers of the Italian priest Girolamo Savonarola collected and publicly burned books and objects
which were deemed to be "immoral", some but by no means all of which might fit modern criteria of
pornography or "lewd pictures", as well as pagan books, gaming tables, cosmetics, copies
of Boccaccio's Decameron, and all the works of Ovidwhich could be found in Florence.[citation needed]
[edit]Arabic and Hebrew books (at Andalucia)
In 1490 a number of Hebrew Bibles and other Jewish books were burned at the behest of the Spanish
Inquisition. In 1499 about 5000 Arabic manuscripts were consumed by flames in the public square at Granada
on the orders of Ximnez de Cisneros, Archbishop of Toledo.[51][52] Many of the poetic works were allegedly
destroyed on account of their symbolized homoeroticism.[53] The German Romantic poet Heinrich Heine wrote
about this, stating "Dort, wo man Bcher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen" (Where they burn
books, they will also, in the end, burn humans), a quote written on the monument for the Nazi book burnings
today.
[edit]Tyndale's New Testament (in England)
In October 1526 William Tyndale's English translation of the New Testament was burned in London by Cuthbert
Tunstal, Bishop of London.[citation needed]
[edit]Angelo Carletti's theological works (by Martin Luther)
Angelo Carletti di Chivasso's work on Scotist theology, widely taken up in the Catholic Church, so
infuriated Martin Luther that the Protestant founder had it publicly burned.
[edit]Servetus's writings (burned with their author at Geneva, and also burned at

Vienne)
In 1553, Servetus was burned as a heretic at the order of the city council of Geneva, dominated by Calvin
because a remark in his translation of Ptolemy's Geographia was considered an intolerable heresy. As he was
placed on the stake, "around [Servetus'] waist were tied a large bundle of manuscript and a thick octavo printed
book", hisChristianismi Restitutio. In the same year the Catholic authorities at Vienne also burned Servetus in
effigy together with whatever of his writings fell into their hands, in token of the fact that Catholics and
Protestants mutually hostile in this time were united in regarding Servetus as a heretic and seeking to
extirpate his works. At the time it was considered that they succeeded, but three copies were later found to have
survived, from which all later editions were printed.[citation needed]
[edit]"The Historie of Italie" (In England)
"The Historie of Italie" (1549), a scholarly and in itself not particularly controversial book by William Thomas, was
in 1554 suppressed and publicly burnt by order of Queen Mary I of England after its author was executed on
charges of treason. Enough copies survived for new editions to be published in 1561 and 1562, after Elizabeth
I came to power.[54]
[edit]Maya sacred books (by Spanish Bishop of Yucatan)
July 12, 1562, Fray Diego de Landa, acting Bishop of Yucatan then recently conquered by the Spanish
threw into the fires the sacred books of the Maya.[55] The number of destroyed books is greatly disputed. De
Landa himself admitted to 27, other sources claim "99 times as many" the later being disputed as an
exaggeration motivated by anti-Spanish feeling, the so-called Black Legend. Only three Maya codices and a
fragment of a fourth survive. Approximately 5,000 Maya cult images were also burned at the same time. The
burning of books and images alike were part of de Landa's effort to eradicate the Maya "idol worship", which he
considered "diabolical". As narrated by de Landa himself, he had gained access to the sacred books,
transcribed on deerskin, by previously gaining the natives' trust and showing a considerable interest in their
culture and language:[56][57]"We found a large number of books in these characters and, as they contained

17

nothing in which were not to be seen as superstition and lies of the devil, we burned them all, which they (the
Maya) regretted to an amazing degree, and which caused them much affliction."[58] De Landa was later recalled
to Spain and accused of having acted illegally in Yucatan, though eventually found not guilty of these charges.
Present-day apologists for de Landa assert that, while he had destroyed the Maya books, his own Relacin de
las cosas de Yucatn is a major source for the Mayan language and culture. Allen Wells calls his work an
ethnographic masterpiece,[59] while William J. Folan, Laraine A. Fletcher and Ellen R. Kintz have written that
Landas account of Maya social organization and towns before conquest is a gem. [60]
[edit]"Obscene" Maltese poetry (by the Inquisition)
In 1584 Pasquale Vassallo, a Maltese Dominican friar, wrote a collection of songs, of the kind known as
"canczuni", in Italian and Maltese. The poems fell into the hands of other Dominican friars who denounced him
for writing "obscene literature". At the order of the Inquisition in 1585 the poems were burned for this allegedly
'obscene' content.[61]
[edit]Arwi Books (by Portugese in India and Ceylon)
With the 16th Century extension of the Portugese Empire to India and Ceylon, the staunchly Catholic colonizers
were hostile to Muslims they found living there. An aspect of this was a Portugese hostility to and destruction of
writings in the Arwi languague, a type of Tamil with many Arabic words, written in a variety of the Arabic script
and used by local Muslims. Much of the Arwi cultural heritage was destroyed in that time, though the precise
extent of destruction might never be known.
[edit]Bernardino de Sahagn's manuscripts on Aztec culture (by Spanish authorities)
The 12-volume work known as the Florentine Codex, result of a decades-long meticulous research conducted
by the Fransciscan Bernardino de Sahagn in Mexico, is among the most important sources on Aztec culture
and society as they were before the Spanish conquest, and on the Nahuatl language. However, upon Sahagn's
return to Europe in 1585, his original manuscripts including the records of conversations and interviews with
indigenous sources in Tlatelolco, Texcoco, and Tenochtitlan, and likely to have included much primary material
which did not get into the final codex were confiscated by the Spanish authorities, disappeared irrevocably,
and are assumed to have been destroyed. The Florentine Codex itself was for centuries afterwards only known
in heavily-censored versions.[citation needed]
[edit]Luther's Bible translation
Martin Luther's German translation of the Bible was burned in Catholic-dominated parts of Germany in 1624, by
order of the Pope part of the exacerbation of Catholic-Protestant relations due to the Thirty Years' War, then in
its early stages.[citation needed]
[edit]Uriel da Costa's book (By Jewish community and city authorities in Amsterdam)
The 1624 book An Examination of the Traditions of the Pharisees, written by the dissident Jewish
intellectual Uriel da Costa, was burned in public by joint action of the Amsterdam Jewish Community and the
city's Protestant-dominated City Council. The book, which questioned the fundamental idea of the immortality of
the soul, was considered heretical from the Jewish and the Christian points of view alike.[citation needed]
[edit]Marco Antonio de Dominis' writings (in Rome)
The theologian and scientist Marco Antonio de Dominis came in 1624 into conflict with the Inquisition in Rome
and was declared "a relapsed heretic". He died in prison, which did not end his trial. On December 21, 1624 his
body was burned together with his works.[citation needed]
[edit]Early

Modern Period (from 1650 until the turn of the 19th century)

[edit]Books

burned by civil, military and ecclesiastical authorities between 1640 and

1660 (in Cromwell's England)
Sixty identified printed books, pamphlets and broadsheets and 3 newsbooks were ordered to be burned during
this turbulent period, spanning the English Civil War and Oliver Cromwell's rule.[62]
[edit]Earl of Worcester's library (by New Model Army)
During the English Civil War in 1646, Thomas Fairfax ordered the New Model Army to burn the private library of
the Earl of Worcester in Raglan Castle.[citation needed]
[edit]Book criticising Puritanism (in Boston)
The first book burning incident in the Thirteen Colonies occurred in Boston in 1651 when William Pynchon,
founder of Springfield, Massachusetts, published The Meritous Price of our Redemption, which criticised
the Puritans, who were then in power in Massachusetts. The book became the first banned book in North
America, and subsequently all known copies were publicly burned and Pynchon was deported back to
England.[citation needed]

18

[edit]Quaker books (in Boston)

In 1656 the authorities at Boston imprisoned the Quaker women preachers Ann Austin and Mary Fisher, who
had arrived on a ship from Barbados. Among other things they were charged with "bringing with them and
spreading here sundry books, wherein are contained most corrupt, heretical, and blasphemous doctrines
contrary to the truth of the gospelhere professed amongst us" as the colonial gazette put it. The books in
question, about a hundred, were publicly burned in Boston's Market Square.[citation needed]
[edit]Great Fire (London)
In 1666, during the Great Fire of London, many booksellers moved their books to the stone crypts of Old St.
Paul's Cathedral to escape destruction of their books, but falling masonry broke through into the crypt and let
the fire in and all the books were burned.[citation needed]
[edit]Hobbes books (at Oxford University)
In 1683 several books by Thomas Hobbes and other authors were burnt in Oxford University.[citation needed]
[edit]Swedish National Archives
In 1697, gross negligence caused the burning down of the Tre Kronor in Stockholm, including the National
Library and its archives, resulting in irreparable loss of much information about centuries of Swedish history.[63]
[edit]Mythical (and/or mystical) writings of Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (by rabbis)
During the 1720s rabbis in Italy and Germany ordered the burning of the kabbalist writings of the then
young Moshe Chaim Luzzatto. The Messianic messages which Luzzatto claimed to have gotten from a being
called "The Maggid" were considered heretical and potentially highly disruptive of the Jewish communities' daily
life, and Luzzatto was ordered to cease disseminating them. Though Luzzatto in later life got considerable
renown among Jews and his later books were highly esteemed, most of the early writings were considered
irrevocably lost until some of them turned up in 1958 in a manuscript preserved in the Library of Oxford.[citation
needed]

[edit]Protestant books and Bibles (by Archbishop of Salzburg)

In 1731 Count Leopold Anton von Firmian Archbishop of Salzburg as well as its temporal ruler embarked on
a savage persecution of the Lutherans living in the rural regions of Salzburg. As well expelling tens of thousands
of Protestant Salzburgers, the Archbishop ordered the wholesale seizure and burning of all Protestant books
and Bibles.[citation needed]
[edit]Amalasunta (by Carlo Goldoni)
In 1733, Venetian playwright Carlo Goldoni burned his tragedy Amalasunta due to negative reception by his
audiences.[citation needed]
[edit]The writings of Johann Christian Edelmann (by Imperial authorities in Frankfurt)
In 1750, the Imperial Book Commission of the Holy Roman Empire at Frankfurt/Main ordered the wholesale
burning of the works of Johann Christian Edelmann, a radical disciple ofSpinoza who had outraged
the Lutheran and Calvinist clergies by his Deism, his championing of sexual freedom and his asserting that
Jesus had been a human being and not the Son of God. In addition, Edelmann was also an outspoken
opponent of royal absolutism. With Frankfurt's entire magistracy and municipal government in attendance and
seventy guards to hold back the crowds, nearly a thousand copies of Edelmann's writings were tossed on to a
tower of flaming birch wood. Edelmann himself was granted refuge in Berlin byFriedrich the Great, but on
condition that he stop publishing his views.[64]
[edit]Books that offended Qianlong Emperor
China's Qianlong Emperor (17111799) embarked on an ambitious program the Siku Quanshu, largest
compilation of books in Chinese history (possibly in human history in general). The enterprise included,
however, also the systematic banning and burning of books considered "unfitting" to be included especially
those critical, even by subtle hints, of the ruling Qing Dynasty. During this Emperor's nearly sixty years on the
throne, the destruction of about 3000 "evil" titles (books, poems, and plays) was decreed, the number of
individual copies confiscated and destroyed variously estimated at tens of thousands or even hundreds of
thousands. As well as systematically destroying the written works, 53 authors of such works were executed, in
some cases by lingering torture or along with their family members (see literary inquisition#Qing, Qianlong
Emperor#Burning of books and modification of texts). A famous earlier Chinese encyclopedia, Tiangong
Kaiwu (Chinese: ) was included among the works banned and destroyed at this time, and was long
considered to be lost forever but some original copies were eventually discovered, preserved intact in
Japan.[65] Ironically, the Qianlong Emperor's own masterpiece the Siku Quanshu, produced only in seven
hand-written copies was itself the target of later book burnings: the copies kept
in Zhenjiang and Yangzhou were destroyed during the Taiping Rebellion, and in 1860, during the Second
Opium War an Anglo-French expedition force burned most of the copy kept at Beijing's Old Summer Palace.

19

The four remaining copies, though suffering some damage during World War II, are still preserved at four
Chinese museums and libraries.
[edit]Anti-Wilhelm Tell tract (at Canton of Uri)
The 1760 tract by Simeon Uriel Freudenberger from Luzern, arguing that Wilhelm Tell was a myth and the acts
attributed to him had not happened in reality, was publicly burnt inAltdorf, capital of the Swiss canton of Uri
where, according to the legend, William Tell shot the apple from his son's head.[citation needed]
[edit]Books by Voltaire
Voltaire, the pen name of Franois-Marie Arouet, was a writer whose works were burnt several times in prerevolutionary France. His "Lettres philosophique", published in Rouen in 1734 and giving his describing British
attitudes toward government, literature, and religion clearly implied that the British constitutional monarchy was
better than the French absolute one which led to the book being burned.
Later, Voltaire's Dictionnaire philosophique, which was originally called the Dictionnaire philosophique portatif,
had its first volume, consisting of 73 articles in 344 pages, burnt upon release in June 1764.[66]
An "economic pamphlet", Man With Forty Crowns, was ordered to be burnt by Parliament, and a bookseller who
had sold a copy was pilloried. It is said that one of the magistrateson the case exclaimed, "Is it only his books
we shall burn?"[67]
[edit]Vernacular Catholic hymn books (at Mainz)
In 1787, an attempt by the Catholic authorities at Mainz to introduce vernacular hymn books encountered strong
resistance from conservative Catholics, who refused to abandon the old Latin books and who seized and burned
copies of the new German language books.[68]
[edit]Egyptian archaeological finds (threatened burning by French scholars)
Many French scholars accompanied Napoleon's invasion of Egypt in 1799, where they made many important
finds. When forced to surrender to the British in 1801, the scholars initially strongly resisted the claim made by
the British to have the collections of the expedition handed over. tienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire ominously
threatened that, were that British demand persisted in, history would record "a second burning of a library
in Alexandria".[citation needed] The threat was, however, not carried out, and the finds were finally handed over and
ended up in the British Museum.
[edit]Industrial

Revolution period

[edit]"The Burned Book" (by Rabbi Nachman of Breslov)

In 1808, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov burned the only copy or copies of one of his own books for an unknown
reason. Many Hasidic Jews continue to search for "The Burned Book," as they call it, by looking for clues in his
other writings.[69]
[edit]Records of the Goa Inquisition (by Portuguese colonial authorities)
In 1812 the Goa Inquisition was suppressed, after hundreds of years in which it had been enacting various kinds
of religions persecution in the Portuguese colony of Goa, India. In the aftermath, most of the Goa Inquisition's
records were destroyed a great loss to historians, making it is impossible to know the exact number of the
Inquisition's victims.[70]
[edit]The Code Napolon (by German Nationalist students)
On October 18, 1817 about 450 students, members of the newly founded
German Burschenschaften ("fraternities"), came together at Wartburg Castle to celebrate the German victory
over Napoleon two years before, condemn conservatism and call for German unity. The Code Napolon as well
as the writings of German conservatives were ceremoniously burned 'in effigy': instead of the costly volumes,
scraps of parchment with the titles of the books were placed on the bonfire. Among these was August von
Kotzebue's History of the German Empires. Karl Ludwig Sand, one of the students participating in this gathering,
would assassinate Kotzebue two years later.[citation needed]
[edit]Early braille books (in Paris)
In 1842, officials at the school for the blind in Paris, France, were ordered by its new director, Armand Dufau, to
burn books written in the new braille code. After every braille book at the institute that could be found was
burned, supporters of the code's inventor, Louis Braille, rebelled against Dufau by continuing to use the code,
and braille was eventually restored at the school.[71]
[edit]Library of St. Augustine Academy, Philadelphia (by anti-Irish rioters)
On May 8, 1844, the Irish St. Augustine Church, Philadelphia was burned down by anti-Irish Nativist rioters
(see Philadelphia Nativist Riots). The fire also destroyed the nearby St. Augustine Academy, with many of the

20

rare books in its library though in this case the arsonists did not specifically target the books, but rather sought
to destroy indiscriminately everything belonging to Irish Catholic immigrants. [citation needed]
[edit]Chinese literary works (By Anglo-French troops in Beijing)
In 1860, during the Second Opium War, twenty captive Westerners were tortured and killed by the Chinese
government. In retaliation, the British High Commissioner to China, Lord Elgin, ordered the destruction of
The Old Summer Palace in Beijing, which was then carried out by French and British troops. The palace
complex had been built up by succeeding Chinese dynasties for nearly a thousand years, and many unique
works of art were destroyed or looted by the soldiers. Also unique copies of Chinese literary work and
compilations, stored there, were burned down as part of the general destruction.
[edit]Edmond Potonie's papers (by French Police)
In 1868 the French police, under Napoleon the Third, seized the extensive papers and Europe-wide
correspondence of the Parisian Pacifist and Social Reformer Edmond Potonie. The papers, which might have
been of considerable value to historians, have disappeared irrevocably and are assumed to have been
destroyed.[72]
[edit]"Lewd" books (by Anthony Comstock and the NYSSV)
Anthony Comstock founded the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice in 1873 and over the years
burned 15 tons of books, 284,000 pounds of plate, and almost 4 million pictures. Lobbying the United States
Congress also led to the enactment of the Comstock laws.[citation needed]
[edit]Emily Dickinson's correspondence (on her orders)
Following the death of noted American poet Emily Dickinson in 1890, her sister Lavinia Dickinson burned almost
all of her correspondences in keeping with Emily's wishes, but as it was unclear whether the forty notebooks and
loose sheets all filled with almost 1800 poems were to be included in this, Lavinia saved these and began to
publish the poems that year.[73][74]
[edit]Ivan Bloch's research on Russian Jews (by Tsarist Russian government)
In 1901 the Russian Council of Ministers banned a five-volume work on the socio-economic conditions of Jews
in the Russian Empire, the result of a decade-long comprehensive statistical research commissioned by Ivan
Bloch. (It was entitled "Comparison of the material and moral levels in the Western Great-Russian and Polish
Regions"). The research's conclusions that Jewish economic activity was beneficial to the Empire refuted
antisemitic demagoguery and were disliked by the government, which ordered all copies to be seized and
burned. Only a few survived, circulating as great rarities. [citation needed]
[edit]WWI

and interbellum era

[edit]Leuven University Library (by World War I German Army)

On August 25, 1914, in the early stage of the First World War, the university library of Leuven, Belgium was
destroyed by the German army, using petrol and incendiary pastilles, as part of brutal retaliations for the
extensive activity of "francs-tireurs" against the occupying German forces. Among the 300,000 books destroyed
were many irreplaceable books, including Gothic and Renaissance manuscripts.[75][76] At the time, this
destruction aroused shock and dismay around the world.
One of the notable losses was that of Rongorongo text E, which was one of only two dozen surviving examples
of the as yet undeciphered rongorongo script of Easter Island. Rubbings and possibly 3-dimensional replicas
were preserved in libraries and collections elsewhere.
[edit]Many books (by Communists in Russia)
Many books and writings were destroyed by the Communists during their rule in Russia. Aleksandr
Solzhenitsyn reports that large numbers were burnt.[77]
[edit]Valley of the Squinting Windows (at Delvin, Ireland)
In 1918 the Valley of the Squinting Windows, by Brinsley MacNamara, was burned in Delvin, Ireland.
MacNamara never returned to the area, his father James MacNamara wasboycotted and subsequently
emigrated, and a court case was even sought. The book criticised the village's inhabitants for being overly
concerned with their image towards neighbours, and although it called the town "Garradrimna," geographical
details made it clear that Delvin was meant.[citation needed]
[edit]George Grosz's cartoons (By court order in Weimar Germany)
In June 1920 the left-wing German cartoonist George Grosz produced a lithographic collection in three editions
entitled Gott mit uns. A satire on German society and the counterrevolution, the collection was swiftly banned.
Grosz was charged with insulting the army, which resulted in a court order to have the collection destroyed. The
artist also had to pay a 300 German Mark fine.[78]

21

[edit]Irish National Archives (in Civil War)

At the culmination of the April 1922 fighting in and around the Four Courts in Dublin, as the Republican forces
hitherto barricaded in the building were surrendering, the west wing was obliterated in a huge explosion,
destroying the Irish Public Record Office located at the rear, with nearly one thousand years of irreplaceable
archives being destroyed. Responsibility for this act was bitterly debated for years afterwards, the government
accusing the Republicans of having deliberately perpetrated the destruction of the archives while they rebutted
that it was completely accidental.[citation needed]
[edit]Jewish, anti-Nazi and "degenerate" books (by the Nazis)
Main article: Nazi book burnings

In 1933, Nazis burned works of Jewish authors, and other works considered "un-German", at the library of the Institut fr
Sexualwissenschaft in Berlin.

The works of some Jewish authors and other so-called "degenerate" books were burnt by the Nazis in the
1930s and 1940s. Richard Euringer, director of the libraries in Essen, identified 18,000 works deemed not to
correspond with Nazi ideology, which were publicly burned.
On May 10, 1933 on the Opernplatz in Berlin, S.A. and Nazi youth groups burned around 25,000 books from
the Institut fr Sexualwissenschaft and the Humboldt University; including works by Albert Einstein, Vicki
Baum, Bertolt Brecht, Heinrich Heine,Helen Keller, Thomas Mann, Karl Marx, Erich Maria Remarque, Frank
Wedekind, Ernest Hemingway and H.G. Wells. Student groups throughout Germany in 34 towns also carried out
their own book burnings on that day and in the following weeks. Erich Kstner wrote an ironic account
(published only after the fall of Nazism) of having witnessed the burning of his own books on that occasion.
Radio broadcasts of the burnings were played in Berlin and elsewhere, and 40,000 turned up to hear Joseph
Goebbelsmake a speech about the acts. See here for a partial list of authors whose books were burned.[citation
needed]

In May 1995,[79] Micha Ullman's underground Bibliotek memorial was inaugurated on Bebelplatz square in
Berlin, where the Nazi book burnings began. The memorial consists of a window on the surface of the plaza,
under which vacant bookshelves are lit and visible. A bronze plaque bears a quote by Heinrich Heine: Where
books are burned in the end people will burn.[80]
[edit]Theodore Dreiser's works (at Warsaw, Indiana)
Trustees of Warsaw, Indiana ordered the burning of all the library's works by local author Theodore Dreiser in
1935.[81]
[edit]Pompeu Fabra's library (by Spanish troops)
In 1939, shortly after the surrendering of Barcelona, Franco's troops burned the entire library of Pompeu Fabra,
the main author of the normative reform of contemporary Catalan language, while shouting "Abajo la
inteligencia!" (Down with intelligentsia!). .[82]
[edit]World

War II

[edit]Norman Lindsay's artistic work (by anti-pornography US officials)

In 1940 the Australian artist Norman Lindsay sought to make his artistic work safer from the recently
started World War II by sending 16 crates of paintings, drawings and etchings to safekeeping in the U.S.
However, many of these works were of frank and sumptuous nudes, very daring by the standards of the time.
When they were discovered due to the train they traveled in catching fire, they were impounded and burned as
"pornography" by American officials. Lindsay's older brother Lionel remembers Norman's reaction was, "'Don't
worry, I'll do more.' And he did."[83]

22

[edit]Leuven University Library (by World War II German occupation troops)

In May 1940, during Nazi Germany's offensive in Europe in World War II, the university library of Leuven,
Belgium was destroyed by the German army and 900,000 books burned. This was after 300,000 others had
burned when the library was attacked in World War One.[citation needed]
[edit]Chinese libraries (by World War II Japanese troops)
During World War II, Japanese military forces destroyed or partly destroyed numerous Chinese libraries,
including libraries at the National University of Tsing Hua, Peking (lost 200,000 of 350,000 books), the University
Nan-k'ai, T'ien-chin (totally destroyed, 224,000 books lost), Institute of Technology of He-pei, T'ienchin (completely destroyed), Medical College of He-pei, Pao-ting (completely destroyed), Agricultural College of
He-pei, Pao-ting (completely destroyed), University Ta Hsia, Shanghai (completely destroyed), University Kuang
Hua, Shanghai (completely destroyed), National University of Hunan (completely destroyed). In addition other
libraries had some or all of their collection removed to Japan, including the University of Nanking, Royal Asiatic
Society in Shanghai, University of Shanghai, and Soochow University[84]
[edit]Works in the British Museum (by German bomber planes)
In September 1940 during the Blitz in London, a plane commanded by Nazi Germany dropped a bomb on
the British Museum. It is not believed that it was intended to hit the Museum in particular, but 124 volumes were
destroyed and 304 other volumes were damaged past repair.
From May 1011, 1941, the Museum's book collections (now the British Library) were bombed again, this time
burning more than 150,000 books.[85]
[edit]Andr Malraux's manuscript (by the Gestapo)
During the Second World War the French writer and anti-Nazi resistance fighter Andr Malraux worked on a
long novel, The Struggle Against the Angel, the manuscript of which was destroyed by the Gestapo upon his
capture in 1944. The name was apparently inspired by the Jacob story in the Bible. A surviving opening part
named The Walnut Trees of Altenburg, was published after the war.[citation needed]
[edit]Various libraries in Warsaw, Poland (during World War II)

Works of Macrobius, ca. 1470 is one of the books burned by the Germans during the Planned destruction of Warsaw.[86]

Much of Warsaw, Poland was destroyed during World War II by the Nazis: an approximated 85% of buildings,
including 16,000,000 volumes. 10% of the buildings were destroyed in the Invasion of Poland that ignited the
war in 1939, 15% in the reorganization of Warsaw and the first Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, 25% in the second and
far more famous Uprising, and the last 35% due to systematic German actions after the Uprising was defeated.
14 libraries, not including the libraries in the University of Warsaw and the Warsaw Institute of Technology that
were also razed, were completely burned to the ground. German Verbrennungskommandos (Burning
detachments) were responsible for much of the targeted attacks on libraries and other centers of knowledge and
learning.
In October 1944, the National Library of Poland's manuscript collection was burned to erase Polish national
history.
The Krasiski Library had part of its building destroyed in September 1939, leading to its collections, which had
almost all survived, being moved in 1941. In September 1944, an original collection of 250,000 items was
shelled by German artillery, although many books were saved by being thrown out the windows by library staff.
In October, what had survived was deliberately burned by the authorities, including 26,000 manuscripts,
2,500 incunables (printed before 1501), 80,000 early printed books, 100,000 drawings and printmakings, 50,000
note and theatre manuscripts, and many maps and atlases.

23

The Zauski Library established in 1747 and thus the oldest public library in Poland and one of the oldest and
most important libraries in Europe was burned down during the Uprising in October 1944. Out of about
400,000 printed items, maps and manuscripts, only some 1800 manuscripts and 30,000 printed materials
survived. Unlike earlier Nazi book burnings where specific books were deliberately targeted, the burning of this
library was part of the general setting on fire of a large part of the city of Warsaw.
The extensive library of the Polish Museum, Rapperswil, founded in 1870 in Rapperswil, Switzerland, had been
created when Poland was not a country and was thus moved to Warsaw in 1927. Through 1944, most of the
library's 20,000 engravings, 92,000 books, and 27,000 manuscripts were burned. [citation needed]
[edit]Books in the National Library of Serbia (by World War II German bomber planes)
In World War II, bomber planes under orders by Nazi Germany specifically targeted the National Library of
Serbia in Belgrade. All the collections were destroyed, totaling 500,000 books, 1,424 Cyrillic manuscripts and
charters, 1,500 maps and prints, 4,000 journals, 1,800 newspaper titles, and Serbian historical
correspondences.[citation needed]
[edit]Douai Municipal Library
on August 11, 1944, the Bibliothque Municipale of Douai, France, was burned in an Allied bombing of the city
following the Normandy landings. The library had been founded byLouis XV in 1767 and included many rare and
valuable books. Also destroyed in the fire were many of the former holdings of the University of Douai and the
collections of the Jesuits of the College of Anchin, both of which had been transferred to the Municipal Library
during the French Revolution.
[edit]Books in German libraries (by World War II Allied bomber planes)
The firebombing of German cities during World War II caused extensive destruction of German libraries,
including the Library of the Technical University of Aachen (50,000 volumes), the Berlin Staatsbibliothek (2
million volumes), the Berlin University Library (20,000 volumes), the Bonn University Library (25% of its
holdings), the Bremen Staatsbibliothek (150,000 volumes), the Hessische Landesbibliothek in Darmstadt
(760,000 volumes), the Library of the Technical University in Darmstadt (two thirds of its collection), the Stadtund Landesbibliothek in Dortmund (250,000 of 320,000 volumes), the Schsische Landesbibliothek in Dresden
(300,000 volumes), the Stadtbibliothek in Dresden (200,000 volumes), the Essen Stadtbcherei (130,000
volumes), the Frankfurt Stadt- und Universittsbibliothek (550,000 volumes, 440,000 doctoral dissertations,
750,000 patents), the Giessen University Library (nine tenths of its collection), the Greifswald University Library
(17,000 volumes), the Hamburg Staats- und Universittsbibliothek (600,000 volumes), the Hamburg CommerzBibliothek (174,000 of 188,000 volumes), the Hannover Stadtbibliothek (125,000 volumes), the Badische
Landesbibliothek in Karlsruhe (360,000 volumes), the Library of the Technical University in Karlsruhe (63,000
volumes), the Kassel Landesbibliothek (350,000 of 400,000 volumes), the Murhardsche Bibliothek in Kassel
(100,000 volumes), the Kiel University Library (250,000 volumes), the Leipzig Stadtbibliothek (175,000 of
181,000 volumes), the Magdeburg Stadtbibliothek (140,000 of 180,000 volumes), the Marburg University Library
(50,000 volumes), the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich (500,000 volumes), the Munich University Library
(350,000 volumes), the Munich Stadtbibliothek (80,000 volumes), the Munich Benedictine Library (120,000
volumes), the Mnster University Library (360,000 volumes), the Nrnberg Stadtbibliothek (100,000 volumes),
the Wrttembergische Landesbibliothek in Stuttgart (580,000 volumes), the Library of the Technical University in
Stuttgart (50,000 volumes), the Wrzburg University Library (200,000 volumes and 230,000 doctoral
dissertations). The above is only a shortlist of the most notable losses, in all it's estimated that a third of all
German books were destroyed[87]
[edit]Cold

War era and 1990s

[edit]The books of Knut Hamsun (in post-WWII Norway)

Following the liberation of Norway from Nazi occupation in 1945, angry crowds burned the books of Knut
Hamsun in public in major Norwegian cities, due to Hamsun's having coolaborated with the Nazis.
[edit]Undemocratic, militaristic and Nazi books (In Post-WWII Denazification of

Germany)
Main article: Denazification
On May 13, 1946 the Allied Control Council issued a directive for the confiscation on all media that could
contribute to Nazism or militarism. As a consequence a list was drawn up of over 30,000 book titles, ranging
from school textbooks to poetry, which were then banned. All copies of books on the list were confiscated and
destroyed; the possession of a book on the list was made a punishable offence. All the millions of copies of
these books were to be confiscated and destroyed. The representative of the Military Directorate admitted that
the order was in principle no different from the Nazi book burnings.[88]

24

[edit]Books in Kurdish (in north Iran)

Following the suppression of the pro-Soviet Kurdish Republic of Mahabad in north Iran in December 1946 and
January 1947, members of the victorious Iranian Army burned allKurdish-language books that they could find,
as well as closing down the Kurdish printing press and banning the teaching of Kurdish.[89]
[edit]Comic book burnings, 1948
In 1948, children overseen by priests, teachers, and parents publicly burned several hundred comic books in
both Spencer, West Virginia, and Binghamton, New York. Once these stories were picked up by the national
press wire services, similar events followed in many other cities.[90]
[edit]Books by Shen Congwen (by Chinese booksellers)
Around 1949, the books that Shen Congwen (pseudonym of Shen Yuehuan) had written in the period 1922
1949 were banned in the Republic of China and both banned and subsequently burned by booksellers in the
People's Republic of China.[citation needed]
[edit]Judaica collection at Birobidzhan (by Stalin)
As part of Joseph Stalin's efforts to stamp out Jewish culture in the Soviet Union in the late 1940s and early
1950s, the Judaica collection in the library of Birobidzhan, capital of theJewish Autonomous Oblast on the
Chinese border, was burned.[citation needed]
[edit]Communist and "fellow traveller" books (by Senator McCarthy)
In 1953 United States Senator Joseph McCarthy recited before his subcommittee and the press a list of
supposedly pro-communist authors whose works his aide Roy Cohn found in the State Department libraries in
Europe. The Eisenhower State Department bowed to McCarthy and ordered its overseas librarians to remove
from their shelves "material by any controversial persons, Communists, fellow travelers, etc." Some libraries
burned the newly-forbidden books.[citation needed] President Dwight D. Eisenhower initially agreed that the State
Department should dispose of books advocating communism: "I see no reason for the federal government to be
supporting something that advocated its own destruction. That seems to be the acme of silliness." [citation
needed] However, at Dartmouth College in June 1953, Eisenhower urged Americans concerning libraries: "Don't
join the book burners. Don't be afraid to go in your library and read every book."[citation needed]
[edit]Wilhelm Reich's publications (by U.S. Food and Drug Administration)

The Mass Psychology of Fascism, one of Reich's books which was ordered burned.

Main article: Wilhelm Reich

Noted psychiatrist Wilhelm Reich was prosecuted in 1954, following an investigation by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration in connection with his use of orgone accumulators. Reich refused to defend himself, and a
federal judge ordered all of his orgone energy equipment and publications to be seized and destroyed. In June
1956, federal agents burned many of the books at Reich's estate nearRangeley, Maine. Later that year, and in
March 1960, an additional 6 tons of Reich's books, journals and papers were burned in a publicincinerator in
New York.[91] Reich died of heart failure while in federal prison in November 1957. [92]
[edit]Brazil, military coup, 1964

25

Following the 1964 Brazilian coup d'tat, General Justino Alves Bastos, commander of the Third Army, ordered,
in Rio Grande do Sul, the burning of all "subversive books". Among the books he branded as subversive was
Stendhal's The Red and the Black.[93]
[edit]Religious, Anti-Communist and Genealogy books (in the Cultural Revolution)
It is the Chinese tradition to record family members in a book, including every male born in the family, who they
are married to, etc. Traditionally, only males' names are recorded in the books. During the Cultural
Revolution (19661976), many such books were forcibly destroyed or burned to ashes, because they were
considered by the Chinese communist party as among the Four Old Things to be eschewed.[94] Also many
copies of classical works of Chinese literature were destroyed, though unlike the genealogy books these
usually existed in many copies, some of which survived. Many copies of the Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian
books were destroyed, though to be promoting the "old" thinking.
[edit]Leftist books in Chile after the 1973 coup d'tat
After the victory of Augusto Pinochet's fascist forces in the Chilean coup of 1973, bookburnings of Marxist and
other works ensued. Journalist Carlos Rama reported in February 1974 that up to that point, destroyed works
included: the handwritten Chilean Declaration of Independence by Bernardo O'Higgins, thousands of books in
the Editorial Quimant (a printing house) including the Complete Works of Che Guevara, thousands of books in
the part headquarters of the Chilean Socialist Party and MAPU, personal copies of works byMarx, Lenin, and
anti-fascist thinkers, and thousands of copies of newspapers and magazines favorable to Salvador
Allende including Chile Today.[95]
[edit]Burning of Jaffna library
Main article: Burning of Jaffna library
In May 1981 a mob composed of thugs and plainclothes police officers went on a rampage in minority Tamildominated northern Jaffna, Sri Lanka, and burned down the Jaffna Public Library. At least 95,000 volumes were
destroyed, including a very rare collection of ancient palm leaf volumes.[96]
[edit]The Satanic Verses (in the United Kingdom)
The 1988 publication of the novel The Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie, provoked angry demonstrations and
riots around the world by followers of political Islam, some of whom considered it blasphemous. In the United
Kingdom, book burnings were staged in the cities of Bolton and Bradford. In addition, five U.K. bookstores
selling the novel were the target of bombings, and two bookstores in Berkeley, California were firebombed.[citation
needed]

[edit]Oriental Institute in Sarajevo (1992)

On May 17, 1992, the Oriental Institute in Sarajevo (Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina) was completely
destroyed by Serbian shelling, with thousands of rare books and manuscripts inside. [citation needed]
[edit]National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992)
On August 25, 1992, the National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo, Bosnia and
Herzegovina was firebombed and destroyed by Serbian nationalists. Almost all the contents of the library were
destroyed, including more than 1.5 million books that included 4,000 rare books, 700 manuscripts, and 100
years of Bosnian newspapers and journals.[97]
[edit]Abkhazian Research Institute of History, Language and Literature & National

Library of Abkhazia (by Georgian troops)

Georgian troops entered Abkhazia on August 14, 1992, sparking a 14-month war. At the end of October, the
Abkhazian Research Institute of History, Language and Literature named after Dmitry Gulia, which housed an
important library and archive, was torched by the invaders; also targeted was the capital's public library. It
seems to have been a deliberate attempt by the Georgian paramilitary soldiers to wipe out the region's historical
record.[98]
[edit]The Nasir-i Khusraw Foundation in Kabul (by the Taliban regime)
In 1987, the Nasir-i Khusraw Foundation was established in Kabul, Afghanistan due to the collaborative efforts
of several civil society and academic institutions, leading scholars and members of the Ismaili community. This
site included video and book publishing facilities, a museum, and a library. [99] The library was a marvel in its
extensive collection of fifty-five thousand books, available to all students and researchers, in the languages of
Arabic, English, and Pashto. In addition, its Persian collection was unparalleled including an extremely rare
12th-century manuscript of Firdawsis epic masterpiece The Book of Kings (Shhnma). The Ismaili collection of
the library housed works from Hasan-i Sabbah andNasir-i Khusraw, and the seals of the first Aga Khan. With the
withdrawal of the Soviet forces from Afghanistan in the late 1980s and the strengthening of the Taliban forces,
the library collection was relocated to the valley of Kayan. However, on August 12, 1998, the Taliban fighters

26

ransacked the press, the museum, the video facilities and the library, destroying some books in the fire and
throwing others in a nearby river. Not a single book was spared, including a thousand-year-old Quran.[100]
[edit]21st

Century

[edit]Berkley book burning

In 2001, UC Berkeley students burned copies of Daniel Flyn's book on Mumia Abu-Jamal after verbally shouting
him down during his scheduled speech.[101]
[edit]Abu Nuwas poetry (by Egyptian Ministry of Culture)
In January 2001, the Egyptian Ministry of Culture ordered the burning of some 6,000 books of homoerotic poetry
by the well-known 8th Century Persian-Arab poet Abu Nuwas, even though his writings are considered classics
of Arab literature.[102][103]
[edit]Independent Librarians (in Cuba)
In 2003 "Independent Librarians" were put on trial in Cuba in some cases their books were ordered destroyed
by the court. For example, in the case of Julio Antoniao Guevara, the trial judge ordered: "As to the disposition
of the photographic negatives, the audio cassette, medicines, books, magazines, pamphlets and the rest of the
documents, they are to be destroyed by means of incineration because they lack usefulness." Among some of
the many thousands of materials burned or destroyed by the Cuban Department of Interior were books on the
U.S. Constitution, Martin Luther King, journalism manuals, a book called "Fidel's Secret Wars," and in one case,
even a book by Jose Marti, the Cuban hero of independence beloved by most Cubans and often quoted by
Castro. American writer Ray Bradbury strongly condemned these book burnings.[104]
[edit]Iraq's national library, Baghdad 2003
Following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Iraq's national library and the Islamic library in central Baghdad were burned
and destroyed. The national library housed rare volumes and documents from as far back as the 16th century,
including entire royal court records and files from the period when Iraq was part of the Ottoman Empire. The
destroyed Islamic library of Baghdad included one of the oldest surviving copies of the Qur'an.[105]
[edit]Various books (by the Cuban government)
In 2003, thousands of materials were burned, including in the case of Julio Antoniao Guevara a judgement that
stated that "As to the disposition of the photographic negatives, the audio cassette, medicines, books,
magazines, pamphlets and the rest of the documents, they are to be destroyed by means of incineration
because they lack usefulness." The Cuban Department of the Interior also burned journalism manuals, books on
the United States Constitution and Martin Luther King, Jr., a book called Fidel's Secret Wars, and even a book
by Cuban revolutionary hero Jos Mart.[106]
[edit]Harry Potter books (in various American cities)
There have been several incidents of Harry Potter books being burned, including those directed by churches
at Alamogordo, New Mexico and Charleston, South Carolina in 2006.[107] See Religious debates over the Harry
Potter series.
[edit]Inventory of Prospero's Books (by proprietors Tom Wayne and W.E. Leathem)
On May 27, 2007, Tom Wayne and W.E. Leathem, the proprietors of Prospero's Books, a used book store
in Kansas City, Missouri, publicly burned a portion of their inventory to protest what they perceived as society's
increasing indifference to the printed word. The protest was interrupted by the Kansas City Fire Department on
the grounds that Wayne and Leathem had failed to obtain the required permits. [108]
[edit]New Testaments in city of Or Yehuda, Israel
In May 2008, a "fairly large" number of New Testaments were burned in Or Yehuda, Israel. Conflicting accounts
have the deputy mayor of Or Yehuda, Uzi Aharon (of Haredi partyShas), claiming to have organized the
burnings or to have stopped them. He admitted involvement in collecting New Testaments and "Messianic
propaganda" that had been distributed in the city. The burning apparently violated Israeli laws about destroying
religious items.[109]
[edit]Non-approved Bibles, books and music in Canton, North Carolina
The Amazing Grace Baptist Church of Canton, North Carolina, headed by pastor Marc Grizzard, intended to
hold a book burning on Halloween 2009.[110][111] The church, being aKing James Version-exclusive church, held
all other translations of the Bible to be heretical, and also considered both the writings of Christian writers and
preachers such as Billy Graham and T.D. Jakes and most musical genres to be heretical expressions. However,
a confluence of rain, oppositional protesters [112] and a state environmental protection law against open burning
resulted in the church having to retreat into the edifice to ceremoniously tear apart and dump the media into a

27

trash can (as recorded on video which was submitted to People For the American Way's Right Wing Watch
blog[113]); nevertheless, the church claimed that the book "burning" was a success. [114]
[edit]201011 Florida Qu'ran burning and related burnings
Main article: 2010 Qur'an-burning controversy
Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida announced in July 2010 that he
threatened to burn 200 copies of the Qur'an on September 11, 2010, then did not do so.[115] However, after
promising not to, he proceeded to burn a Qur'an in the sanctuary of the church March 20, 2011 [116]
On September 11, 2010:
Mohammed Vawda publicized his intentions to burn a Bible in retaliation in Johannesburg, but was stopped by a
South African judge after a Muslim group brought Vawda to court[117]
Fred Phelps burned a Qur'an with the American flag at the Westboro Baptist Church[118]
Bob Old and another preacher burned a Qur'an in Nashville, Tennessee[119]
A New Jersey transit worker burned a few pages of a Qur'an at the Ground Zero Mosque in Manhattan[120]
Alex Stewart smoked a roll of pages from the Bible and the Qur'an in Brisbane[121]
Burned Qur'ans were found in Knoxville, Tennessee, East Lansing, Michigan, Springfield, Tennessee, and
Chicago, Illinois.[122][123][124]
[edit]Operation Dark Heart, memoir by Anthony Shaffer (by The United States

Pentagon)
On September 20, 2010 the Pentagon bought[125] and burned[126] 9,500 copies of Operation Dark Heart, nearly
all the first run copies for supposedly containing classified information.
[edit]The burning of the library in the Institute d'Egypt in Cairo
On December 19, 2011, protesters against the military government in Egypt, burnt the library in the Institute
d'Egypt in Cairo. Images of men on TV were shown dancing around the fire. They burnt thousands of rare
books, journals and writings. The cost of the material is estimated at tens of millions of dollars much that was
lost was considered priceless.[127]
[edit]Suspected Colorado City incident
Sometime during the weekend of April 1517, 2011, books and other items designated for a new public library in
the FLDS polygamous community Colorado City, Arizona were removed from the facility where they had been
stored and burned nearby.[128] A lawyer for some FLDS members has stated that the burning was the result of a
cleanup of the property and that no political or religious statement was intended, however the burned items were
under lock and key and were not the property of those who burned them. [129] As of May 31, Arizona officials are
investigating.
[edit]Qur'ans in Afghanistan
Main article: 2012 Afghanistan Quran burning protests
On February 22, 2012, 4 copies of the Qur'an were burned at Bagram Airfield due to being among 1,652 books
slated for destruction. The remaining books, which officials claimed were being used for communication among
extremists, were saved and put into storage.[130]

28

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humpty_dumpty
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.[1]
Humpty appears in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass (1872), where he
discusses semantics and pragmatics with Alice.
I dont know what you mean by glory, Alice said.
Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. Of course you donttill I tell you. I meant theres a nice
knock-down argument for you!
But glory doesnt mean a nice knock-down argument, Alice objected.
When I use a word, Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, it means just what I choose it to
meanneither more nor less.
The question is, said Alice, whether you can make words mean so many different things.
The question is, said Humpty Dumpty, which is to be master
thats all.
Alice was too much puzzled to say anything, so after a minute Humpty Dumpty began again. Theyve
a temper, some of themparticularly verbs, theyre the proudestadjectives you can do anything
with, but not verbshowever, I can manage the whole lot! Impenetrability! Thats what I say![15]
This passage was used in Britain by Lord Atkin and in his dissenting judgement in the seminal
case Liversidge v. Anderson (1942), where he protested about the distortion of a statute by the majority
of the House of Lords.[16] It also became a popular citation in United States legal opinions, appearing
in 250 judicial decisions in the Westlaw database as of April 19, 2008, including two Supreme Court
cases (TVA v. Hill and Zschernig v. Miller).[17]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 21 January 1950),[3] better known by his pen name George
Orwell, was an English author and journalist. His work is marked by keen intelligence and wit, a
profound awareness of social injustice, an intense opposition to totalitarianism, a passion for clarity in
language, and a belief in democratic socialism.[4][5]
Considered perhaps the twentieth century's best chronicler of English culture,[6] Orwell wrote fiction,
polemical journalism, literary criticism and poetry. He is best known for the dystopian novel Nineteen
Eighty-Four (published in 1949) and the satirical novella Animal Farm (1945)they have together
sold more copies than any two books by any other twentieth-century author.[7] His 1938 book Homage
to Catalonia , an account of his experiences as a volunteer on the Republican side during the Spanish
Civil War, together with numerous essays on politics, literature, language, and culture, are widely
acclaimed.

29

Orwell's influence on contemporary culture, popular and political, continues decades after his death.
Several of his neologisms, along with the term "Orwellian"now a byword for any oppressive or
manipulative social phenomenon opposed to a free societyhave entered the vernacular.
In his essay Politics and the English Language (1946), Orwell wrote about the importance of honest
and clear language and said that vague

writing can be used as a powerful tool

of political manipulation. In Nineteen Eighty-Four he described how the state controlled

thought by controlling language, making certain ideas literally unthinkable. The adjective Orwellian
refers to the frightening world of Nineteen Eighty-Four, in which the state controls thought and
misinformation is widespread. Several words and phrases from Nineteen Eighty-Four have entered
popular language.
Newspeak is a simplified and obfuscatory language designed to make independent thought impossible.
Doublethink means holding two contradictory beliefs simultaneously.
The Thought Police are those who suppress all dissenting opinion. Prolefeed is homogenised,
manufactured superficial literature, film and music, used to control and indoctrinate the populace
through docility. Big Brother is a supreme dictator who watches everyone.
From Orwell's novel Animal Farm comes the sentence, "All animals are equal, but some animals are
more equal than others", describing theoretical equality in a grossly unequal society. Orwell may have
been the first to use the term cold war, in his essay, "You and the Atom Bomb", published in Tribune,
19 October 1945. He wrote: "We may be heading not for general breakdown but for an epoch as
horribly stable as the slave empires of antiquity. James Burnham's theory has been much discussed, but
few people have yet considered its ideological implications; this is, the kind of world-view, the kind
of beliefs, and the social structure that would probably prevail in a State which was at once
unconquerable and in a permanent state of 'cold war' with its neighbours."[83]
Orwell was a communicant member of the Church of England, he attended holy communion
regularly,[102] and allusions to Anglican life are made in his book A Clergyman's Daughter. At the
same time he found the church to be a "selfish...church of the landed gentry" with its establishment
"out of touch" with the majority of its communicants and altogether a pernicious influence on public
life.[103] Yet, he was married according to the rites of the Church of England in both his first marriage
at the church at Wallington, and in his second marriage on his deathbed in University College Hospital,
and he left instructions that he was to receive an Anglican funeral.[104] In their 1972 study, The
Unknown Orwell, the writers Peter Stansky and William Abrahams note that at Eton Blair displayed a
"sceptical attitude" to Christian belief, and that: "Shaw's preface to his recently published Androcles
and the Lion in which an account of the gospels is set forth, very different in tone from what one
would be likely to hear from an Anglican clergyman" was "much more to Blair's own taste." [105]
The ambiguity in his belief in religion echoed the dichotomies between his public and private lives:
Stephen Ingle wrote that it was as if the writer George Orwell "vaunted" his atheism while Eric Blair
the individual retained "a deeply ingrained religiosity". Ingle later noted that Orwell did not accept the
existence of an afterlife, believing in the finality of death while living and advocating a moral code
based on Judeo-Christian beliefs.[63][106]
In 1928, Orwell began his career as a professional writer in Paris. His first article, Censorship in
England, was an attempt to account for the 'extraordinary and illogical' suppression of plays and novels
on the grounds of public decency, then practised in Britain. His own explanation was that the rise of
30

the 'puritan middle class', who had stricter morals than the aristocracy, tightened the rules of censorship
in the 19th century. Orwell's first article to be published in his home country, A Farthing Newspaper,
was a critique of the new French daily, the Ami de Peuple. This paper was sold much more cheaply
than most others, and was intended for ordinary people to read. However, Orwell pointed out that its
proprietor Franois Coty also owned the rightwing dailies Le Figaro and Le Gaulois, which the Ami de
Peuple was supposedly competing against. Orwell suggested that cheap newspapers were no more than
a vehicle for advertising and anti-leftist propaganda, and predicted that like India, France might soon
see 'free newspapers' which would drive many legitimate dailies out of business.[109]
On anarchism, Orwell wrote in The Road to Wigan Pier: "I worked out an anarchistic theory that all
government is evil, that the punishment always does more harm than the crime and the people can be
trusted to behave decently if you will only let them alone." He continued, however and argued that "it
is always necessary to protect peaceful people from violence. In any state of society where crime can
be profitable you have got to have a harsh criminal law and administer it ruthlessly."

In his reply (dated 15 November 1943) to an invitation from the Duchess of Atholl to speak for the
British League for European Freedom, he stated that he didn't agree with their objectives. He admitted
that what they said was "more truthful than the lying propaganda found in most of the press" but added
that he could not "associate himself with an essentially Conservative body" that claimed to "defend
democracy in Europe" but had "nothing to say about British imperialism". His closing paragraph
stated: "I belong to the Left and must work inside it, much as I hate Russian totalitarianism and its
poisonous influence in this country."[116]
Orwell joined the staff of Tribune as literary editor, and from then until his death, was a left-wing
(though hardly orthodox) Labour-supporting democratic socialist.[117] On 1 September 1944, about the
Warsaw's insurrection, Orwell expressed in Tribune his hostility against the influence of the alliance
with the USSR over the allies: "Do remember that dishonesty and cowardice always have to be paid
for. Do not imagine that for years on end you can make yourself the boot-licking propagandist of the
sovietic regime, or any other regine, and then suddenly return to honesty and reason. Once a whore,
always a whore." According to Newsinger, although Orwell "was always critical of the 194551
Labour government's moderation, his support for it began to pull him to the right politically. This did
not lead him to embrace conservatism, imperialism or reaction, but to defend, albeit critically, Labour
reformism."[118] Between 1945 and 1947, with A. J. Ayer and Bertrand Russell, he contributed a series
of articles and essays to Polemic, a short-lived British "Magazine of Philosophy, Psychology, and
Aesthetics" edited by the ex-Communist Humphrey Slater.[119][120]
Writing in the spring of 1945 a long essay titled "Antisemitism in Britain", for the Contemporary
Jewish Record, Orwell stated that anti-Semitism was on the increase in Britain, and that it was
"irrational and will not yield to arguments". He argued that it would be useful to discover why antiSemites could "swallow such absurdities on one particular subject while remaining sane on others".[121]
He wrote: "For quite six years the English admirers of Hitler contrived not to learn of the existence of
Dachau and Buchenwald. ... Many English people have heard almost nothing about the extermination
of German and Polish Jews during the present war. Their own anti-Semitism has caused this vast crime
to bounce off their consciousness."[122] In Nineteen Eighty-Four, written shortly after the war, Orwell
31

portrayed the Party as enlisting anti-Semitic passions against their enemy, Goldstein. Nevertheless, he
opposed the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine, taking an anti-colonialist stance against
Zionism.[citation needed]
Orwell publicly defended P.G. Wodehouse against charges of being a Nazi sympathiser, a defense
based on Wodehouse's lack of interest in and ignorance of politics.
The British intelligence group Special Branch maintained a file on Orwell for more than 20 years of
his life. The dossier, published by The National Archives, mentions that according to one investigator,
Orwell had "advanced Communist views and several of his Indian friends say that they have often seen
him at Communist meetings". MI5, the intelligence department of the Home Office, noted: "It is
evident from his recent writings 'The Lion and the Unicorn' and his contribution to Gollancz's
symposium The Betrayal of the Left that he does not hold with the Communist Party nor they with
him."[123]
Orwell was noted for very close and enduring friendships with a few friends, but these were generally
people with a similar background or with a similar level of literary ability. Ungregarious, he was out of
place in a crowd and his discomfort was exacerbated when he was outside his own class. Though
representing himself as a spokesman for the common man, he often appeared out of place with real
working people. His brother-in-law Humphrey Dakin, a "Hail fellow, well met" type, who took him to
a local pub in Leeds, said that he was told by the landlord: "Don't bring that bugger in here again".[124]
Adrian Fierz commented "He wasn't interested in racing or greyhounds or pub crawling or shove
ha'penny. He just did not have much in common with people who did not share his intellectual
interests".[125] Awkwardness attended many of his encounters with working-class representatives, as
with Pollitt and McNair.[126] but his courtesy and good manners were often commented on. Jack
Common observed on meeting him for the first time, "Right away manners, and more than manners
breeding showed through".[127]

In 2003, the centenary of Orwell's birth resulted in the two most up-to-date biographies by Gordon
Bowker[158] and D. J. Taylor, both academics and writers in the United Kingdom. Taylor notes the
stage management which surrounds much of Orwell's behaviour,[10] and Bowker highlights the
essential sense of decency which he considers to have been Orwell's main driver.[159][160]

32

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikileaks

WikiLeaks is an international, online, self-described not-for-profit[2] organisation publishing

submissions of secret information, news leaks,[5] and classified media from anonymous news
sources[2] and whistleblowers.[6] Its website, launched in 2006 under the Sunshine Press
organisation,[7] claimed a database of more than 1.2 million documents within a year of its
launch.[8] Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist, is generally described as its founder, editorin-chief, and director.[9] Kristinn Hrafnsson, Joseph Farrelland Sarah Harrison are the only other
publicly known and acknowledged associates of Julian Assange.[10] Hrafnsson is also a member of
the company Sunshine Press Productions along with Assange, Ingi Ragnar Ingason and Gavin
MacFadyen.[11][12]
The group has released a number of significant documents which have become front-page news items.
Early releases included documentation of equipment expenditures and holdings in the Afghanistan
war and corruption in Kenya.[13] In April 2010, WikiLeaks published gunsight footage from the 12
July 2007 Baghdad airstrike in which Iraqi journalists were among those killed by
an Apachehelicopter, known as the Collateral Murder video. In July of the same year, WikiLeaks
released Afghan War Diary, a compilation of more than 76,900 documents about the War in
Afghanistan not previously available to the public.[14] In October 2010, the group released a package
of almost 400,000 documents called the Iraq War Logs in coordination with major commercial media
organisations. This allowed the mapping of 109,032 deaths in "significant" attacks by insurgents in
Iraq that had been reported to Multi-National Force Iraq, including around 15,000 that had not
been previously published.[15][16] In April 2011, WikiLeaks began publishing 779 secret filesrelating
to prisoners detained in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.[17]
In November 2010, WikiLeaks collaborated with major global media organisations to release U.S.
State department diplomatic cables in redacted format. On 1 September 2011, it became public that an
encrypted version of WikiLeaks' huge archive of unredacted U.S. State Department cables had been
available via Bittorrent for months, and that the decryption key (similar to a password) was available to
those who knew where to look. WikiLeaks blamed the breach on its former partner, The Guardian, and
that newspaper's journalist David Leigh, who revealed the key in a book published in February
2011;[18] The Guardian argued that WikiLeaks was to blame since they gave the impression that the
decryption key was temporary (something not possible for a file decryption key).[19] Der
Spiegel reported a more complex story[20] involving errors on both sides. The incident led to widely
expressed fears that the information released could endanger innocent lives.[21][22]
Contents
[hide]
1 History
1.1 Founding
1.2 Purpose
2 Administration
2.1 Hosting
2.2 Name servers
2.3 Verification of submissions
2.4 Legal status
2.5 Insurance files
2.6 Financing
3 Leaks
3.1 200608
3.2 2009
3.3 2010
33

3.4 201112
3.5 Announcements of upcoming leaks
4 Backlash and pressure
4.1 Operational challenges
4.2 Response from media
4.3 Response from governments
4.4 Response from corporations
4.5 U.S. diplomatic cables leak responses
4.6 Response from the financial industry
5 Internal conflicts
5.1 Restructuring
5.2 Defections
6 Reception
7 Spin-offs
8 See also
9 Notes
10 References
11 Further reading
12 External links
[edit]History
[edit]Founding

Julian Assange was one of the early members of the WikiLeaks staff and is credited as the site's
founder.
The wikileaks.org domain name was registered on 4 October 2006.[3] The website was unveiled, and
published its first document, in December 2006.[23][24] WikiLeaks has been predominantly
represented in public since January 2007 by Julian Assange, who is now generally recognised as the
"founder of WikiLeaks."[25] According to Wired, a volunteer said that Assange described himself in a
private conversation as "the heart and soul of this organisation, its founder, philosopher, spokesperson,
original coder, organizer, financier, and all the rest."[26]
WikiLeaks relies to some degree on volunteers and previously described its founders as a mix
of Asian dissidents, journalists, mathematicians, and start-up company technologists from the United
States, Taiwan, Europe, Australia, and South Africa[27] (hence its name), but has progressively moved
toward a more traditional publication model and no longer accepts either user comments or edits. As of
June 2009, the site had over 1,200 registered volunteers[27] and listed an advisory board comprising
Assange, his deputy Jash Vora and seven other people, some of which denied any association with the
organisation.[28][29]
Despite using the name "WikiLeaks", the website is no longer wiki-based as of May 2010.[30] Also,
despite some popular confusion[31]due to both having the term "wiki" in their names, WikiLeaks
34

and Wikipedia have no affiliation with each other ("wiki" is not a brand name);[32][33] Wikia, a forprofit corporation loosely affiliated with the Wikimedia Foundation, did purchase several WikiLeaksrelated domain names (including wikileaks.com and wikileaks.net) as a "protective brand measure" in
2007.[34]
[edit]Purpose
The WikiLeaks website says their goal is "to bring important news and information to the public... One
of our most important activities is to publish original source material alongside our news stories so
readers and historians alike can see evidence of the truth."
Another of the organisation's goals is to ensure that whistleblowers and journalists are not jailed for
emailing sensitive or classified documents. The online "drop box" (currently not functioning) was
designed to "provide an innovative, secure and anonymous way for sources to leak information to our
journalists."
In an interview on The Colbert Report, Assange discussed the limit to the freedom of speech, saying,
"[it is] not an ultimate freedom, however free speech is what regulates government and regulates law.
That is why in the US Constitution the Bill of Rights says that Congress is to make no such law
abridging the freedom of the press. It is to take the rights of the press outside the rights of the law
because those rights are superior to the law because in fact they create the law. Every constitution,
every bit of legislation is derived from the flow of information. Similarly every government is elected
as a result of people understanding things".[35]
The project has drawn comparisons to Daniel Ellsberg's leaking of the Pentagon Papers in 1971.[36] In
the United States, the leaking of some documents may be legally protected. The U.S. Supreme
Court has ruled that the Constitution guarantees anonymity, at least in the area of political
discourse.[36] Author and journalist Whitley Strieber has spoken about the benefits of the WikiLeaks
project, noting that "Leaking a government document can mean jail, but jail sentences for this can be
fairly short. However, there are many places where it means long incarceration or even death, such as
China and parts of Africa and the Middle East."[37]
[edit]Administration
According to a January 2010 interview, the WikiLeaks team then consisted of five people working
full-time and about 800 people who worked occasionally, none of whom were
compensated.[38] WikiLeaks has no official headquarters. In November 2010 the Wikileaks
endorsed[39] news and activism site Wikileaks Central was set up and was administrated by
editor Heather Marsh who oversaw 70+ writers and volunteers.[40] She resigned as editor in chief,
administrator and domain holder of Wikileaks Central on 8 March 2012.[41]
[edit]Hosting
WikiLeaks describes itself as "an uncensorable system for untraceable mass document
leaking".[42] The site is available on multiple servers and different domain names following a number
of denial-of-service attacks and its severance from different Domain Name System (DNS)
providers.[43][44]
Until August 2010, WikiLeaks was hosted by PRQ, a Sweden-based company providing "highly
secure, no-questions-asked hosting services". PRQ is said to have "almost no information about its
clientele and maintains few if any of its own logs".[45] Currently, WikiLeaks is mainly hosted
by Bahnhof in a facility that used to be a nuclear bunker.[46][47]Other servers are spread around the
world with the central server located in Sweden.[48] Julian Assange has said that the servers are
located in Sweden (and the other countries) "specifically because those nations offer legal protection to
the disclosures made on the site". He talks about the Swedish constitution, which gives the information
providers total legal protection.[48] It is forbidden according to Swedish law for any administrative
authority to make inquiries about the sources of any type of newspaper.[49] These laws, and the
hosting by PRQ, make it difficult for any authorities to take WikiLeaks offline; they place an onus of
proof upon any complainant whose suit would circumscribe WikiLeaks' liberty, e.g. its rights to
35

exercise free speech online. Furthermore, "WikiLeaks maintains its own servers at undisclosed
locations, keeps no logs and uses military-grade encryption to protect sources and other confidential
information." Such arrangements have been called "bulletproof hosting."[45][50]
On 17 August 2010, it was announced that the Swedish Pirate Party would be hosting and managing
many of WikiLeaks' new servers. The party donates servers and bandwidth to WikiLeaks without
charge. Technicians of the party would make sure that the servers are maintained and working.[51][52]
After the site became the target of a denial-of-service attack on its old servers, WikiLeaks moved its
site to Amazon's servers.[53] Later, however, the website was "ousted" from the Amazon
servers.[53] In a public statement, Amazon said that WikiLeaks was not following its terms of service.
The company further explained, "There were several parts they were violating. For example, our terms
of service state that 'you represent and warrant that you own or otherwise control all of the rights to the
content... that use of the content you supply does not violate this policy and will not cause injury to any
person or entity.' It's clear that WikiLeaks doesn't own or otherwise control all the rights to this
classified content."[54] WikiLeaks then decided to install itself on the servers of OVH in
France.[55] After criticism from the French government, the company sought two court rulings about
the legality of hosting WikiLeaks. While the court in Lille immediately declined to force OVH to shut
down the WikiLeaks site, the court in Paris stated it would need more time to examine the highly
technical issue.[56][57]
WikiLeaks is based on several software packages, including Tor[58] and PGP.[citation
needed] WikiLeaks was implemented on MediaWiki software between 2006 and October
2010.[59] WikiLeaks strongly encouraged postings via Tor because of the strong privacy needs of its
users.[60]
On 4 November 2010, Julian Assange told Swiss public television TSR that he is seriously considering
seeking political asylum in neutral Switzerland and setting up a WikiLeaks foundation to move the
operation there.[61][62] According to Assange, Switzerland and Iceland are the only countries where
WikiLeaks would feel safe to operate.[63][64]
[edit]Name servers
WikiLeaks had been using EveryDNS's services, which led to DDoS attacks on the host.[clarification
needed] The attacks affected the quality of service at EveryDNS, so the company withdrew its service
from WikiLeaks. Pro-WikiLeaks supporters retaliated by launching a DDoS attack against EveryDNS.
Because of mistakes in the blogosphere, some supporters accidentally mistook EasyDNS for
EveryDNS and a sizable internet backlash against EasyDNS ensued. Afterwards EasyDNS decided to
provide WikiLeaks its name server service.[65]
[edit]Verification of submissions
WikiLeaks states that it has never released a misattributed document. Documents are assessed before
release. In response to concerns about the possibility of misleading or fraudulent leaks, WikiLeaks has
stated that misleading leaks "are already well-placed in the mainstream media. WikiLeaks is of no
additional assistance."[66] The FAQ states that: "The simplest and most effective countermeasure is a
worldwide community of informed users and editors who can scrutinise and discuss leaked
documents."[67]
According to statements by Assange in 2010, submitted documents are vetted by a group of five
reviewers, with expertise in different fields such as language or programming, who also investigate the
background of the leaker if his or her identity is known.[68] In that group, Assange has the final
decision about the assessment of a document.[68]
[edit]Legal status
[edit]Legal background
The legal status of WikiLeaks is complex. Assange considers WikiLeaks a whistleblower protection
intermediary. Rather than leaking directly to the press, and fearing exposure and retribution,
whistleblowers can leak to WikiLeaks, which then leaks to the press for them.[69] Its servers are
36

located throughout Europe and are accessible from any uncensored web connection. The group located
its headquarters in Sweden because it has one of the worlds strongest shield laws to protect
confidential source-journalist relationships.[70][71]WikiLeaks has stated it does not solicit any
information.[70] However, Assange used his speech during the Hack In The Box conference in
Malaysia to ask the crowd of hackers and security researchers to help find documents on its "Most
Wanted Leaks of 2009" list.[72]
[edit]Potential criminal prosecution
The U.S. Justice Department opened a criminal probe of WikiLeaks and founder Julian Assange
shortly after the leak of diplomatic cables began.[73][74] Attorney General Eric Holder affirmed the
probe was "not sabre-rattling", but was "an active, ongoing criminal investigation."[74] The
Washington Post reported that the department was considering charges under the Espionage Act, a
move which former prosecutors characterised as "difficult" because of First Amendment protections
for the press.[73][75] Several Supreme Court cases have previously established that the American
constitution protects the re-publication of illegally gained information provided the publishers did not
themselves break any laws in acquiring it.[76] Federal prosecutors have also considered prosecuting
Assange for trafficking in stolen government property, but since the diplomatic cables are intellectual
rather than physical property, that approach also faces hurdles.[77] Any prosecution of Assange would
require extraditing him to the United States, a step made more complicated and potentially delayed by
any preceding extradition to Sweden.[78] One of Assange's lawyers, however, says they are fighting
extradition to Sweden because it might lead to his extradition to the United States.[79] Assange's
attorney, Mark Stephens, has "heard from Swedish authorities there has been a secretly empanelled
grand jury in Alexandria [Virginia]" meeting to consider criminal charges in the WikiLeaks case.[80]
In Australia, the government and the Australian Federal Police have not stated what Australian laws
may have been broken by WikiLeaks, but Prime Minister Julia Gillard has stated that the foundation of
WikiLeaks and the stealing of classified documents from the US administration is illegal in foreign
countries.[81] Gillard later clarified her statement as referring to "the original theft of the material by a
junior US serviceman rather than any action by Mr Assange."[82] Spencer Zifcak, President of Liberty
Victoria, an Australian civil liberties group, notes that with no charge, and no trial completed, it is
inappropriate to state that WikiLeaks is guilty of illegal activities.[83]
On threats by various governments toward Assange, legal expert Ben Saul argues that founder Julian
Assange is the target of a global smear campaign to demonise him as a criminal or as a terrorist,
without any legal basis.[84] The U.S. Center for Constitutional Rights has issued a statement
highlighting its alarm at the "multiple examples of legal overreach and irregularities" in his arrest.[85]
[edit]Insurance files
On 29 July 2010 WikiLeaks added a 1.4 GB "Insurance file" to the Afghan War Diary page. The file
is AES encrypted and has a SHA1 checksum of
"cce54d3a8af370213d23fcbfe8cddc8619a0734c".[86][87] There has been speculation that it was
intended to serve as insurance in case the WikiLeaks website or its spokesman Julian Assange are
incapacitated, upon which the passphrase could be published, similar to the concept of a dead man's
switch.[88][89] Following the first few days' release of theUS diplomatic cables starting 28 November
2010, the US television broadcaster CBS predicted that "If anything happens to Assange or the
website, a key will go out to unlock the files. There would then be no way to stop the information from
spreading like wildfire because so many people already have copies."[90] CBS correspondent Declan
McCullagh stated, "What most folks are speculating is that the insurance file contains unreleased
information that would be especially embarrassing to the US government if it were released."[90]
On 22 February 2012, there was another insurance file release, this time 65 GB in size.[91][92]
The insurance files are not to be confused with another encrypted file containing diplomatic
cables, whose password has been compromised. The insurance files' passwords have not been
compromised and their contents are still unknown.
37

[edit]Financing
WikiLeaks is a non-profit organisation, largely supported by volunteers, and it is dependent on public
donations. Its main financing methods include conventional bank transfers andonline payment systems.
Annual expenses have been estimated at about 200,000, mainly for servers and bureaucracy, but
might reportedly reach 600,000 if work currently done by volunteers were paid for.[38]
WikiLeaks' lawyers often work pro bono, and in some cases legal support has been donated by media
organisations such as the Associated Press, the Los Angeles Times, and the National Newspaper
Publishers Association.[38] WikiLeaks' only revenue stream is donations, but it has considered other
options including an auction model to sell early access to documents.[38] In September 2011,
Wikileaks began auctioning items on eBay to raise funds, and Assange told an audience at Sydney's
Festival of Dangerous Ideas that the organisation might not be able to survive.
[edit]Funding model
The Wau Holland Foundation helps to process donations to WikiLeaks. In July 2010, the Foundation
stated that WikiLeaks was receiving no money for personnel costs, only for hardware, travelling and
bandwidth.[93] An article in TechEye stated:
As a charity accountable under German law, donations for WikiLeaks can be made to the foundation.
Funds are held in escrow and are given to WikiLeaks after the whistleblower website files an
application containing a statement with proof of payment. The foundation does not pay any sort of
salary nor give any renumeration [sic] to WikiLeaks' personnel, corroborating the statement of the
site's former German representative Daniel Schmitt [real name Daniel Domscheit-Berg][94] on
national television that all personnel works voluntarily, even its speakers.[93]
However, in December 2010 the Wau Holland Foundation stated that 4 permanent employees,
including Julian Assange, had begun to receive salaries.[95]
On 24 December 2009, WikiLeaks announced that it was experiencing a shortage of funds[96] and
suspended all access to its website except for a form to submit new material.[97]Material that was
previously published was no longer available, although some could still be accessed on
unofficial mirrors.[98] WikiLeaks stated on its website that it would resume full operation once the
operational costs were covered.[97] WikiLeaks saw this as a kind of strike "to ensure that everyone
who is involved stops normal work and actually spends time raising revenue".[38] While the
organisation initially planned for funds to be secured by 6 January 2010,[99] it was not until 3
February 2010 that WikiLeaks announced that its minimum fundraising goal had been achieved.[100]
On 22 January 2010, PayPal suspended WikiLeaks' donation account and froze its assets. WikiLeaks
said that this had happened before, and was done for "no obvious reason".[101] The account was
restored on 25 January 2010.[102] On 18 May 2010, WikiLeaks announced that its website and
archive were back up.[103]
In June 2010, WikiLeaks was a finalist for a grant of more than half a million dollars from the John S.
and James L. Knight Foundation,[24] but did not make the cut.[104] WikiLeaks commented via
Twitter, "WikiLeaks was highest rated project in the Knight challenge, strongly recommended to the
board but gets no funding. Go figure."[105] WikiLeaks said that the Knight foundation announced the
award to "'12 Grantees who will impact future of news' but not WikiLeaks" and questioned whether
Knight foundation was "really looking for impact".[104] A spokesman of the Knight Foundation
disputed parts of WikiLeaks' statement, saying "WikiLeaks was not recommended by Knight staff to
the board."[105] However, he declined to say whether WikiLeaks was the project rated highest by the
Knight advisory panel, which consists of non-staffers, among them journalist Jennifer 8. Lee, who has
done PR work for WikiLeaks with the press and on social networking sites.[105]
In 2010, WikiLeaks received 635,772.73 in PayPal donations, less 30,000 in PayPal fees, and
695,925.46 in bank transfers. 500,988.89 of the sum was received in the month of December,
primarily as bank transfers as PayPal suspended payments 4 December. 298,057.38 of the remainder
was received in April.[106]
38

The Wau Holland Foundation, one of the WikiLeaks' main funding channels, stated that they received
more than 900,000 in public donations between October 2009 and December 2010, of which
370,000 has been passed on to WikiLeaks. Hendrik Fulda, vice president of the Wau Holland
Foundation, mentioned that the Foundation had been receiving twice as many donations
through PayPal as through normal banks, before PayPal's decision to suspend WikiLeaks' account. He
also noted that every new WikiLeaks publication brought "a wave of support", and that donations were
strongest in the weeks after WikiLeaks started publishing leaked diplomatic cables.[107][108]
On 15 June 2011, WikiLeaks began accepting donations in Bitcoin.[109][110]
The Icelandic judiciary decided that Valitor (company related to visa and mastercard) was violating the
law when it prevented donation to the site by credit card. A justice ruled that the donations will be
allowed to return to the site after 14 days or they would be fined in the amount of U$ 6,000.[111]
[edit]Leaks
Main article: Information published by WikiLeaks
[edit]200608
WikiLeaks posted its first document in December 2006, a decision to assassinate government officials
signed by Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys."[24] In August 2007, The Guardianpublished a story about
corruption by the family of the former Kenyan leader Daniel arap Moi based on information provided
via WikiLeaks.[112] In November 2007, a March 2003 copy of Standard Operating Procedures for
Camp Delta detailing the protocol of the U.S. Army at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp was
released.[113] The document revealed that some prisoners were off-limits to the International
Committee of the Red Cross, something that the U.S. military had in the past repeatedly
denied.[114] In February 2008, WikiLeaks released allegations of illegal activities at the Cayman
Islands branch of the Swiss Bank Julius Baer, which led to the bank suing WikiLeaks and obtaining an
injunction which temporarily shut down wikileaks.org.[115] The California judge had the service
provider of WikiLeaks block the site's domain (wikileaks.org) on 18 February 2008, although the bank
only wanted the documents to be removed but WikiLeaks had failed to name a contact. The site was
instantly mirrored by supporters, and later that month the judge overturned his previous decision
citing First Amendment concerns and questions about legal jurisdiction.[116][117] In March 2008,
WikiLeaks published what they referred to as "the collected secret 'bibles' of Scientology," and three
days later received letters threatening to sue them for breach of copyright.[118] In September 2008,
during the 2008 United States presidential election campaigns, the contents of a Yahoo account
belonging to Sarah Palin (the running mate of Republican presidential nominee John McCain)
were posted on WikiLeaks after being hacked into by members of Anonymous.[119] In November
2008, the membership list of the far-right British National Party was posted to WikiLeaks, after briefly
appearing on a blog.[120] A year later, on October 2009, another list of BNP members was
leaked.[121]
[edit]2009
In January 2009, WikiLeaks released 86 telephone intercept recordings of Peruvian politicians and
businessmen involved in the 2008 Peru oil scandal.[122] In February, WikiLeaks released
6,780 Congressional Research Service reports[123] followed in March by a list of contributors to
the Norm Coleman senatorial campaign[124][125] and a set of documents belonging to Barclays
Bank that had been ordered removed from the website of The Guardian.[126] In July, it released a
report relating to a serious nuclear accident that had occurred at the Iranian Natanz nuclear facility in
2009.[127] Later media reports have suggested that the accident was related to the Stuxnet computer
worm.[128][129] In September, internal documents from Kaupthing Bank were leaked, from shortly
before the collapse of Iceland's banking sector, which led to the 20082012 Icelandic financial crisis.
The document shows that suspiciously large sums of money were loaned to various owners of the
bank, and large debts written off.[130] In October, Joint Services Protocol 440, a British document
advising the security services on how to avoid documents being leaked, was published by
39

WikiLeaks.[131] Later that month, it announced that a super-injunction was being used by the
commodities company Trafigura to gag The Guardian (London) from reporting on a leaked internal
document regarding a toxic dumping incident in Cte d'Ivoire.[132][133] In November, it hosted
copies of e-mail correspondence between climate scientists, although they were not originally leaked to
WikiLeaks.[134][135] It also released 570,000 intercepts of pager messages sent on the day of the 11
September attacks.[136] During 2008 and 2009, WikiLeaks published the alleged lists of forbidden or
illegal web addresses for Australia, Denmark and Thailand. These were originally created to prevent
access to child pornography and terrorism, but the leaks revealed that other sites covering unrelated
subjects were also listed.[137][138][139]
[edit]2010
In mid-February 2010, WikiLeaks received a diplomatic cable from the US Embassy in Reykjavik
relating to the Icesave scandal, which they published on 18 February.[140] The cable, known
as Reykjavik 13 was the first of the classified documents WikiLeaks published among those allegedly
provided to them by US Army Private Bradley Manning. In March 2010, WikiLeaks released a secret
32-page U.S. Department of Defense Counterintelligence Analysis Report written in March 2008
discussing the leaking of material by WikiLeaks and how it could be deterred.[141][142][143] In
April, a classified video of the 12 July 2007 Baghdad airstrike was released, showing
two Reuters employees being fired at, after the pilots mistakenly thought the men were carrying
weapons, which were in fact cameras.[144] In the week following the release, "wikileaks" was the
search term with the most significant growth worldwide in the last seven days as measured
by Google Insights.[145] In June 2010, Manning was arrested after alleged chat logs were turned in to
the authorities by former hacker Adrian Lamo, in whom he had confided. Manning reportedly told
Lamo he had leaked the "Collateral Murder" video, in addition to a video of the Granai airstrike and
around 260,000 diplomatic cables, to WikiLeaks.[146] In July, WikiLeaks released 92,000
documents related to the war in Afghanistan between 2004 and the end of 2009 to The Guardian, The
New York Times and Der Spiegel. The documents detail individual incidents including friendly
fire and civilian casualties.[147] At the end of July, a 1.4 GB "insurance file" was added to the Afghan
War Diary page, whose decryption details would be released if WikiLeaks or Assange were
harmed.[88] About 15,000 of the 92,000 documents have not yet been released on WikiLeaks, as the
group is currently reviewing the documents to remove some of the sources of the information.
WikiLeaks asked the Pentagon and human-rights groups to help remove names from the documents to
reduce the potential harm caused by their release, but did not receive assistance.[148] Following
the Love Parade stampede in Duisburg, Germany, on 24 July 2010, a local resident published internal
documents of the city administration regarding the planning of Love Parade. The city government
reacted by securing a court order on 16 August forcing the removal of the documents from the site on
which it was hosted.[149] On 20 August 2010, WikiLeaks released a publication entitled Loveparade
2010 Duisburg planning documents, 20072010, which comprised 43 internal documents regarding the
Love Parade 2010.[150][151]Following on from the leak of information from the Afghan War, in
October 2010, around 400,000 documents relating to the Iraq War were released. The BBC quoted The
Pentagonreferring to the Iraq War Logs as "the largest leak of classified documents in its history."
Media coverage of the leaked documents focused on claims that the U.S. government had ignored
reports of torture by the Iraqi authorities during the period after the 2003 war.[152]
[edit]Diplomatic cables release
Main articles: United States diplomatic cables leak, contents, and reactions
On 28 November 2010, WikiLeaks and five major newspapers from Spain (El Pas), France (Le
Monde), Germany (Der Spiegel), the United Kingdom (The Guardian), and the United States (The
New York Times) started to simultaneously publish the first 220 of 251,287 leaked confidential but
not top-secret diplomatic cables from 274 US embassies around the world, dated from 28 December
40

1966 to 28 February 2010.[153][154] WikiLeaks plans to release the entirety of the cables in phases
over several months.[154]
The contents of the diplomatic cables include numerous unguarded comments and revelations
regarding: critiques and praises about the host countries of various US embassies; political
manoeuvring regarding climate change; discussion and resolutions towards ending ongoing tension in
the Middle East; efforts and resistance towards nuclear disarmament; actions in the War on Terror;
assessments of other threats around the world; dealings between various countries;
US intelligence and counterintelligence efforts; and other diplomatic actions. Reactions to the United
States diplomatic cables leak varied. On 14 December 2010 the United States Department of
Justice issued a subpoena directing Twitter to provide information for accounts registered to or
associated with WikiLeaks.[155] Twitter decided to notify its users.[156] The overthrow of the
presidency in Tunisia has been attributed in part to reaction against the corruption revealed by leaked
cables.[157][158][159]
[edit]201112
Main articles: Guantanamo Bay files leak, Global Intelligence Files leak, Syria Files, and Detainee
Policies
In late April 2011, files related to the Guantanamo prison were released.[160] In December 2011,
WikiLeaks started to release the Spy Files.[161] On 27 February 2012, WikiLeaks began publishing
more than five million emails from the Texas-headquartered "global intelligence"
company Stratfor.[162]
On 5 July 2012, WikiLeaks began publishing the Syria Files, more than two million emails from
Syrian political figures, ministries and associated companies, dating from August 2006 to March
2012.[163]
On Thursday, 25 October 2012, WikiLeaks began publishing The Detainee Policies, more than 100
classified or otherwise restricted files from the United States Department of Defense covering the rules
and procedures for detainees in U.S. military custody.[164]
[edit]Announcements of upcoming leaks
In May 2010, WikiLeaks said it had video footage of a massacre of civilians in Afghanistan by the US
military which they were preparing to release.[165][166]
In an interview with Chris Anderson on 19 July 2010, Assange showed a document WikiLeaks had on
an Albanian oil-well blowout, and said they also had material from insideBP,[167] and that they were
"getting enormous quantity of whistle-blower disclosures of a very high calibre" but added that they
had not been able to verify and release the material because they did not have enough volunteer
journalists.[168]
In October 2010, Assange told a leading Moscow newspaper that "The Kremlin had better brace itself
for a coming wave of WikiLeaks disclosures about Russia".[169][170] Assange later clarified: "we
have material on many businesses and governments, including in Russia. It's not right to say there's
going to be a particular focus on Russia".[171]
In a 2009 Computerworld interview, Assange claimed to be in possession of "5GB from Bank of
America". In 2010, he told Forbes magazine that WikiLeaks was planning another "megaleak" early in
2011, from inside the private sector, involving "a big U.S. bank" and revealing an "ecosystem of
corruption". Bank of America's stock price fell by 3% as a result of this
announcement.[172][173] Assange commented on the possible impact of the release that "it could take
down a bank or two."[174][175] In August 2011, Reuters announced thatDaniel Domscheit-Berg had
destroyed approximately 5GB of data cache from Bank of America, that Assange had under his
control.[176]
In December 2010, Assange's lawyer, Mark Stephens, told The Andrew Marr Show on BBC
Television that WikiLeaks had information it considered to be a "thermo-nuclear device" which it
would release if the organisation needs to defend itself against the authorities.[177]
41

In January 2011, Rudolf Elmer, a former Swiss banker, passed on data containing account details of
2,000 prominent people to Assange, who stated that the information will be vetted before being made
publicly available at a later date.[178]
[edit]Backlash and pressure

A truck bearing a slogan and WikiLeaks logo as a prop at the Occupy Wall Streetprotest in New York
on 25 September 2011.
[edit]Operational challenges
Assange has acknowledged that the practice of posting largely unfiltered classified information online
could one day lead the website to have "blood on our hands."[24][179] He expressed the view that the
potential to save lives, however, outweighs the danger to innocents.[180] Furthermore, WikiLeaks has
highlighted independent investigations which have failed to find any evidence of civilians harmed as a
result of WikiLeaks' activities.[181][182] A surveillance-resistant social network, Friends of
WikiLeaks (FoWL), was launched by supporters of the organization in May 2012 to perform
advocacy.[183][184][185]
[edit]Response from media
Chinese journalist Shi Tao was sentenced to 10 years in 2005 after publicising an email from Chinese
officials about the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.[186] An article in The New
Yorker said:
One of the WikiLeaks activists owned a server that was being used as a node for the Tor network.
Millions of secret transmissions passed through it. The activist noticed that hackers from China were
using the network to gather foreign governments information, and began to record this traffic. Only a
small fraction has ever been posted on WikiLeaks, but the initial tranche served as the site's
foundation, and Assange was able to say, "[w]e have received over one million documents from
thirteen countries."[24][187]
Assange responded to the suggestion that eavesdropping on Chinese hackers played a crucial part in
the early days of WikiLeaks by saying "the imputation is incorrect. The facts concern a 2006
investigation into Chinese espionage one of our contacts was involved in. Somewhere between none
and handful of those documents were ever released on WikiLeaks. Non-government targets of the
Chinese espionage, such as Tibetan associations were informed (by us)".[188]
[edit]Response from governments
[edit]Australia
On 16 March 2009, the Australian Communications and Media Authority added WikiLeaks to their
proposed blacklist of sites that will be blocked for all Australians if the mandatory internet filtering
scheme is implemented as planned.[189][190] The blacklisting had been removed by 29 November
2010.[191]
[edit]People's Republic of China

42

The WikiLeaks website claims that the government of the People's Republic of China has attempted to
block all traffic to web sites with "wikileaks" in the URL since 2007, but that this can be bypassed
through encrypted connections or by using one of WikiLeaks' many covert URLs.[192]
[edit]Germany
The home of Theodor Reppe, registrant of the German WikiLeaks domain name, wikileaks.de, was
raided on 24 March 2009 after WikiLeaks released the Australian Communications and Media
Authority (ACMA) censorship blacklist.[193] The site was not affected.[194][195]
[edit]Iceland
After the release of the 2007 Baghdad airstrikes video and as they prepared to release film of
the Granai airstrike, Julian Assange has said that his group of volunteers came under intense
surveillance. In an interview and Twitter posts he said that a restaurant in Reykjavk where his group
of volunteers met came under surveillance in March; that there was "covert following and hidden
photography" by police and foreign intelligence services; that an apparent British intelligence agent
made thinly veiled threats in a Luxembourg car park; and that one of the volunteers was detained by
police for 21 hours. Another volunteer posted that computers were seized, saying "If anything happens
to us, you know why ... and you know who is responsible."[196] According to the Columbia
Journalism Review, "the Icelandic press took a look at Assanges charges of being surveilled in Iceland
[...] and, at best, have found nothing to substantiate them."[197]
In August 2009, Kaupthing Bank secured a court order preventing Iceland's national
broadcaster, RV, from broadcasting a risk analysis report showing the bank's substantial exposure to
debt default risk. This information had been leaked by a whistleblower to WikiLeaks and remained
available on the WikiLeaks site; faced with an injunction minutes before broadcast, the channel ran
with a screen grab of the WikiLeaks site instead of the scheduled piece on the bank. Citizens of Iceland
were reported to be outraged that RV was prevented from broadcasting news of
relevance.[198] Therefore, WikiLeaks has been credited with inspiring the Icelandic Modern Media
Initiative, a bill meant to reclaim Iceland's 2007 Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans
frontires) ranking as first in the world for free speech. It aims to enact a range of protections for
sources, journalists, and publishers.[199][200] Birgitta Jnsdttir, a former WikiLeaks volunteer and
member of the Icelandic parliament, is the chief sponsor of the proposal.
[edit]Thailand
The Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation (CRES) is currently censoring the
WikiLeaks website in Thailand[201] and more than 40,000 other webpages[202] because of the
emergency decree declared in Thailand at the beginning of April 2010 as a result of political
instabilities.[203]
[edit]United States
On 17 July 2010, Jacob Appelbaum spoke on behalf of WikiLeaks at the Hackers on Planet
Earth conference in New York City, replacing Assange because of the presence of federal agents at the
conference.[204][205] He announced that the WikiLeaks submission system was again up and running,
after it had been temporarily suspended.[204][206][207]Assange was a surprise speaker at a TED
conference on 19 July 2010 in Oxford, and confirmed that the site had begun accepting submissions
again.[167]
Upon returning to the US from the Netherlands, on 29 July, Appelbaum was detained for three hours at
the airport by US agents, according to anonymous sources.[208] The sources told Cnet that
Appelbaum's bag was searched, receipts from his bag were photocopied, and his laptop was inspected,
although in what manner was unclear.[208] Appelbaum reportedly refused to answer questions without
a lawyer present, and was not allowed to make a phone call. His three mobile phones were reportedly
taken and not returned.[208]On 31 July, he spoke at a Defcon conference and mentioned his phone
being "seized". After speaking, he was approached by two FBI agents and questioned.[208]
43

Access to WikiLeaks is currently blocked in the United States Library of Congress.[209] On 3

December 2010 the White House Office of Management and Budget sent a memo forbidding all
unauthorised federal government employees and contractors from accessing classified documents
publicly available on WikiLeaks and other websites.[210] The U.S. Army, the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, and the Justice Department are considering criminally prosecuting WikiLeaks and
Assange "on grounds they encouraged the theft of government property",[211] although former
prosecutors say doing so would be difficult.[75] According to a report on the Daily Beast website, the
Obama administration asked Britain, Germany, and Australia among others to also consider bringing
criminal charges against Assange for the Afghan war leaks and to help limit Assange's travels across
international borders.[212] Columbia University students have been warned by their Office of Career
Services that the U.S. State Department had contacted the office in an email saying that the diplomatic
cables which were released by WikiLeaks were "still considered classified" and that "online discourse
about the documents 'would call into question your ability to deal with confidential information.'"[213]
All U.S. federal government staff have been blocked from viewing WikiLeaks.[214]
As in individual responses, government officials had mixed feelings. Although Hillary Clinton refused
to comment on specific reports, she claimed that the leaks "put people's lives in danger" and "threatens
national security."[23] Former United States Secretary of Defense Robert Gates commented, "Is this
embarrassing? Yes. Is it awkward? Yes. Consequences for U.S. foreign policy? I think fairly
modest."[23]
[edit]Response from corporations
[edit]Facebook
WikiLeaks claimed in April 2010 that Facebook deleted its fan page, which had 30,000
fans.[215][216][217] However, as of 7 December 2010 the group's Facebook fan page was available
and had grown by 100,000 fans daily since 1 December,[218] to more than 1.6 million fans. It was also
the largest growth of the week.[219] Regarding the presence of WikiLeaks on Facebook, Andrew
Noyes, the company's D.C.-based Manager of Public Policy Communications, has stated "the
Wikileaks Facebook Page does not violate our content standards nor have we encountered any material
posted on the page that violates our policies."[220]
[edit]U.S. diplomatic cables leak responses
According to The Times (London), WikiLeaks and its members have complained about continuing
harassment and surveillance by law enforcement and intelligence organisations, including extended
detention, seizure of computers, veiled threats, "covert following and hidden photography."[165] Two
lawyers for Julian Assange in the United Kingdom told The Guardian that they believed they were
being watched by the security services after the U.S. cables leak, which started on 28 November
2010.[221]
Furthermore, several companies severed ties with WikiLeaks. After providing 24-hour notification,
American-owned EveryDNS dropped WikiLeaks from its entries on 2 December 2010,
citing DDoS attacks that "threatened the stability of its infrastructure".[43][222] The site's 'info' DNS
lookup remained operational at alternative addresses for direct access respectively to the WikiLeaks
and Cablegate websites.[223] On the same day, Amazon.com severed its ties with WikiLeaks, to which
it was providing infrastructure services, after an intervention by an aide of U.S. Senator Joe
Lieberman.[224][225][226] Amazon denied acting under political pressure, citing a violation of its
terms of service.[227] Citing indirect pressure from the U.S. Government, Tableau Software also
dropped WikiLeaks' data from its site for people to use for data visualisation.[228][229]
In the days following, hundreds of (and eventually more than a thousand)[230] mirrors of the
WikiLeaks site appeared, and the Anonymous group of Internet activists called on supporters to attack
the websites of companies which opposed WikiLeaks,[231] under the banner of Operation Payback,
previously aimed at anti-piracy organisations.[232] AFPreported that attempts to shut down the
44

wikileaks.org address had led to the site surviving via the so-called Streisand effect, whereby attempts
to censor information online leads to it being replicated in many places.[233]
On 3 December, PayPal, the payment processor owned by eBay, permanently cut off the account of
the Wau Holland Foundation that had been redirecting donations to WikiLeaks. PayPal alleged that the
account violated its "Acceptable Use Policy", specifically that the account was used for "activities that
encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct others to engage in illegal activity."[234][235] The Vice
President of PayPal later stated that they stopped accepting payments after the "State Department told
us these were illegal activities. It was straightforward." Later the same day, he said that his previous
statement was incorrect, and that it was in fact based on a letter from the State Department to
WikiLeaks.[236]On 8 December 2010, the Wau Holland Foundation released a press statement, saying
it has filed a legal action against PayPal for blocking its account used for WikiLeaks payments and for
libel due to PayPal's allegations of "illegal activity".[237]
On 6 December, the Swiss bank PostFinance announced that it had frozen the assets of Assange that it
holds, totalling 31,000. In a statement on its website, it stated that this was because Assange
"provided false information regarding his place of residence" when opening the
account.[238] WikiLeaks released a statement saying this was because Assange, "as a homeless
refugee attempting to gain residency in Switzerland, had used his lawyer's address in Geneva for the
bank's correspondence".[239]
On the same day, MasterCard announced that it was "taking action to ensure that WikiLeaks can no
longer accept MasterCard-branded products", adding "MasterCard rules prohibit customers from
directly or indirectly engaging in or facilitating any action that is illegal."[240] The next day, Visa
Inc. announced it was suspending payments to WikiLeaks, pending "further investigations".[241] In a
move of support for WikiLeaks, XIPWIRE established a way to donate to WikiLeaks, and waived their
fees.[242] Datacell, the Icelandic-based IT company under swiss control that enabled WikiLeaks to
accept credit card donations, announced that it would take legal action against Visa Europe and
Mastercard, in order to resume allowing payments to the website.[243]
On 7 December 2010, The Guardian stated that people could donate to WikiLeaks
via Commerzbank in Kassel, Germany, or Landsbanki in Iceland, or by post to a post office box at
the University of Melbourne or at the wikileaks.ch domain.[244]
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay stated that Visa, Mastercard, and Amazon
may be "violating WikiLeaks' right to freedom of expression" by withdrawing their services.[245]
On 21 December, media reported that Apple had removed an application from its App Store, which
provided access to the embassy cable leaks.[246]
As part of its 'Initial Assessments Pursuant to ... WikiLeaks', the US Presidential Executive Office has
issued a memorandum to the heads of Executive Departments and Agencies asking whether they have
an 'insider threat program'.[247][248]
On 14 July 2011 WikiLeaks and DataCell ehf. of Iceland filed a complaint against the international
card companies, VISA Europe and MasterCard Europe, for infringement of the antitrust rules of the
EU, in response to their withdrawal of financial services to the organisation. In a joint press release, the
organisations stated: "The closure by VISA Europe and MasterCard of Datcells access to the payment
card networks in order to stop donations to WikiLeaks violates the competition rules of the European
Community."[249]DataCell filed a compaint[250] with the European Commission on 14 July 2011.
[edit]Response from the financial industry
Since the publications of CableGate, WikiLeaks has faced an unprecedented global financial blockade
by major finance companies including Mastercard, Visa and PayPal although there has been no legal
accusation of any wrongdoing.
In October 2010, it was reported that Moneybookers, which collected donations for WikiLeaks, had
ended its relationship with the site. Moneybookers stated that its decision had been made "to comply
45

with money laundering or other investigations conducted by government authorities, agencies or

commissions."[251]
On 18 December 2010, Bank of America announced it would "not process transactions of any type that
we have reason to believe are intended for Wikileaks," citing "Wikileaks might be engaged in activities
... inconsistent with our internal policies for processing payments". WikiLeaks responded in a tweet by
encouraging their supporters who were BoA customers to close their accounts. Bank of America has
long been believed to be the target of WikiLeaks' next major release.[252]
Late in 2010, Bank of America approached the law firm Hunton & Williams to put a stop to
WikiLeaks. Hunton & Williams assembled a group of security specialists, HBGary Federal, Palantir
Technologies, and Berico Technologies.
During 5 and 6 February 2011, Anonymous hacked HBGary's web site, copied tens of thousands of
documents from HBGary, posted tens of thousands of company emails online, and usurped Barr's
Twitter account in revenge. Some of the documents taken by Anonymous show HBGary Federal was
working on behalf of Bank of America to respond to WikiLeaks' planned release of the bank's internal
documents. Emails detailed a supposed business proposal by HBGary to assist Bank of America's law
firm, Hunton & Williams, and revealed that the companies were willing to break the law to bring down
WikiLeaks and Anonymous.
"CEO Aaron Barr thought he'd uncovered the hackers' identities and like rats, they'd scurry for cover.
If he could nail them, he could cover up the crimes H&W, HBGary, and BoA planned, bring down
WikiLeaks, decapitate Anonymous, and place his opponents in prison while collecting a cool fee. He
thought he was 88% right; he was 88% wrong."[253]
In October 2011 Julian Assange said the financial blockade had destroyed 95% of WikiLeaks' revenues
and announced that it was suspending publishing operations in order to focus on fighting the blockade
and raising new funds.[254]
On 18 July 2012 Wikileaks, shunned by the financial industry and almost broke, announced that it had
found a new way to accept donations again. Accordingly, the Fund for the Defense of Net
Neutrality (FDNN) had agreed to channel contributions via Carte Bleue, and WikiLeaks claimed that
contractual obligation would prevent Visa and MasterCard blocking participation in such
transactions.[255]
[edit]Internal conflicts
[edit]Restructuring
Some supporters were unhappy[citation needed] when WikiLeaks moved from a community-based
Wiki model to a more centralised organisational structure. The "about" page originally read:[256]
To the user, WikiLeaks will look very much like Wikipedia. Anybody can post to it, anybody can edit
it. No technical knowledge is required. Leakers can post documents anonymously and untraceably.
Users can publicly discuss documents and analyze their credibility and veracity. Users can discuss
interpretations and context and collaboratively formulate collective publications. Users can read and
write explanatory articles on leaks along with background material and context. The political relevance
of documents and their verisimilitude will be revealed by a cast of thousands.
However, WikiLeaks established an editorial policy that accepted only documents that were "of
political, diplomatic, historical or ethical interest" (and excluded "material that is already publicly
available").[257] This coincided with early criticism that having no editorial policy would drive out
good material with spam and promote "automated or indiscriminate publication of confidential
records."[258] It is no longer possible for anybody to post to it or edit it, in any country, as the original
FAQ promised. Instead, submissions are regulated by an internal review process and some are
published, while documents not fitting the editorial criteria are rejected by anonymous WikiLeaks
reviewers. By 2008, the revised FAQ stated that "Anybody can post comments to it. [...] Users can
publicly discuss documents and analyse their credibility and veracity."[259] After the 2010 relaunch,
posting new comments on leaks was no longer possible.[30]
46

[edit]Defections
Within WikiLeaks, there has been public disagreement between founder and spokesperson Julian
Assange and Daniel Domscheit-Berg, the site's former German representative who was suspended by
Assange. Domscheit-Berg announced on 28 September 2010 that he was leaving the organisation due
to internal conflicts over management of the site.[94][260][261]

Julian Assange (left) with Daniel Domscheit-Berg. Domscheit-Berg was ejected from WikiLeaks and
started a rivalwhistleblower organisation named OpenLeaks.
On 25 September 2010, after being suspended by Assange for "disloyalty, insubordination and
destabilization", Daniel Domscheit-Berg, the German spokesman for WikiLeaks, told Der Spiegel that
he was resigning, saying "WikiLeaks has a structural problem. I no longer want to take responsibility
for it, and that's why I am leaving the project".[262][263][264] Assange accused Domscheit-Berg of
leaking information to Newsweek, claiming the WikiLeaks team was unhappy with Assange's
leadership and handling of the Afghan wardocument releases.[264] Domscheit-Berg left with a small
group to start OpenLeaks.com, a new leak organisation and website with a different management and
distribution philosophy.[262][265]
While leaving, Daniel Domscheit-Berg copied and then deleted roughly 3,500 unpublished documents
from the WikiLeaks servers,[266]including information on the US government's 'no-fly list' and inside
information from 20 right wing organizations, and according to a WikiLeaks statement, 5 gigabytes of
data relating to Bank of America, the internal communications of 20 neo-Nazi organisations and US
intercept information for "over a hundred internet companies."[267] In Domscheit-Berg's book he
wrote: "To this day, we are waiting for Julian to restore security, so that we can return the material to
him, which was on the submission platform".[268] In August 2011, Domscheit-Berg permanently
deleted the files for which he claimed "in order to ensure that the sources are not compromised".[269]
Herbert Snorrason, a 25-year old Icelandic university student, resigned after he challenged Assange on
his decision to suspend Domscheit-Berg and was bluntly rebuked.[264] Iceland MP Birgitta
Jnsdttir also left WikiLeaks, citing lack of transparency, lack of structure, and poor communication
flow in the organisation.[270] According to The Independent (London), at least a dozen key supporters
of WikiLeaks left the website in 2010.[271]
[edit]Reception

47

Graffiti in Bilbao.
Main article: Reception of WikiLeaks
WikiLeaks has received praise as well as criticism. The organisation has won a number of awards,
including The Economist's New Media Award in 2008 at the Index on Censorship
Awards[272] and Amnesty International's UK Media Award in 2009.[273][274] In 2010, the New
York Daily News listed WikiLeaks first among websites "that could totally change the
news",[275] and Julian Assange received the Sam Adams Award[276] and was named the Readers'
Choice for TIME's Person of the Year in 2010.[277] The UK Information Commissionerhas stated that
"WikiLeaks is part of the phenomenon of the online, empowered citizen".[278] In its first days,
an Internet petition calling for the cessation of extra-judicial intimidation of WikiLeaks attracted over
six hundred thousand signatures.[279] Supporters of WikiLeaks in the media and academia have
commended it for exposing state and corporate secrets, increasing transparency, supporting freedom of
the press, and enhancing democratic discourse while challenging powerful
institutions.[280][281][282][283][284][285][286]
At the same time, several U.S. government officials have criticized WikiLeaks for exposing classified
information and claimed that the leaks harm national security and compromise international
diplomacy.[287][288][289][290][291] Several human rights organisations requested with respect to
earlier document releases that WikiLeaks adequately redact the names of civilians working with
international forces, in order to prevent repercussions.[292] Some journalists have likewise criticised a
perceived lack of editorial discretion when releasing thousands of documents at once and without
sufficient analysis.[293] In response to some of the negative reaction, the UN High Commissioner for
Human Rights has expressed her concern over the "cyber war" against WikiLeaks,[294] and in a joint
statement with the Organization of American States the UN Special Rapporteur has called on states
and other actors to keep international legal principles in mind.[295] According to journalist Catherine
A. Fitzpatrick, WikiLeaks is motivated by "a theory of anarchy," not a theory of journalism or social
activism.[296]
[edit]Spin-offs
Release of US diplomatic cables was followed by the creation of a number of other organisations based
on the WikiLeaks model.[297]

48

OpenLeaks was created by a former WikiLeaks spokesperson. Daniel Domscheit-Berg said the
intention was to be more transparent than WikiLeaks. OpenLeaks was supposed to start public
operations in early 2011 but despite much media coverage it is still not functioning.
In December 2011, Wikileaks launched Friends of Wikileaks, a social network for supporters and
founders of the platform.[298]
Brussels Leaks was focused on the European Union as a collaborative effort of media professionals
and activists that sought to "pull the shady inner workings of the EU system out into the public
domain. This is about getting important information out there, not about Brusselsleaks [or any other
'leaks' for that matter]."
TradeLeaks was created to "do to trade and commerce what WikiLeaks has done to politics." It was
founded by Australian Ruslan Kogan. Its goal is to ensure "individuals and businesses should attain
values from others through mutually beneficial and fully consensual trade, rather than force, fraud or
deception." Unfortunately the site itself appears to have become discounted by its users, as evidenced
by the highest rated article being "Tradeleaks tampering with leak vote count mechanism".
Balkan Leaks was founded by Bulgarian Atanas Chobanov in order to make the Balkans more
transparent and to fight corruption as "There are plenty of people out there that want to change the
Balkans for good and are ready to take on the challenge. We're offering them a hand."
Indoleaks is an Indonesian site that seeks to publish classified documents primarily from the
Indonesian government.
RuLeaks is aimed at being a Russian equivalent to WikiLeaks. It was originally launched to provide
translated versions of the WikiLeaks cables but the Moscow Times reports it has started to publish its
own content as well.[299]
PPLeaks and PSOELeaks are related to the Spanish Partido Popular and PSOE leaks and scandals.
Leakymails is a project designed to obtain and publish relevant documents exposing corruption of the
political class and the powerful in Argentina.[300][301][302]
Honest Appalachia,[303] launched in January 2012, is a website based in the United States which
hopes to reach out to potential whistleblowers in West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina, and serve as a replicable model for similar projects
elsewhere.[304][305]

49

From: lawmen@googlegroups.com
[mailto:lawmen@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Bob Hurt
Sent:
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 4:16 AM
To: 'Lawmen'
Subject:
[Lawmen: 3525] Attorney Brad Henschel on becoming an attorney and the practice of law
I thought you might appreciate this attorneys perspective on the practice of law and what it takes to
become an attorney.
Bob Hurt

2460 Persian Drive

#70
Clearwater, FL
33763 +1
(727) 669-5511
Scholar
Fund Jurisdictionary Law
Newsletter Archives Downloads GetZooks!

50

From: Brad Henschel

Sent:
Monday, March 22, 2010 8:38 PM
To: lawsters@googlegroups.com; Bob
Hurt; Lawmen; John Findley
Subject: Re: Rich Cantwell's scurrilous screed about lawyers
I went to law school in 1984 in order to help others with Tax problems and following the great
example of Larry Becraft. I was 39 at the time.
It was really difficult, especially at age 39 to go back to school. I had to go day and night and I had to
study ALL THE TIME to get all the confusing information being presented to me. I found out later the
teaching methods used in law schools, known was the socratic method was different from paralegal
schools were the paralegals were simply told the truth of the course instead of just reading cases to
learn what the law really
was about, as was done in Law school. The cost was expensive even at UWLA, a State Bar but not
ABA approved law school. I had 325 classmates, 1/2 being women. Only about 40-43 graduated and
of them 20, including me, passed the State Bar Exam. 20 out of 325 people. Those 325 people were
ALL better educated than I was. Most of them were already successful business people. One brought
instant printing to the US from Japan. Another was a real estate investor who drove his rolls royce to
school. These two dropped out.
Another was the paralegal for King of Torts lawyer in San Francisco - she flunked out in Civil
Procedure class.
Another was a government employee.
- He moved to Texas never having passed the Bar Exam and he told me that information face to face.
Another was the former Iranian Health Minister. Another was the daughter of a lawyer who quit 8
weeks ahead of graduation because she didn't want to be a lawyer, her father pressured her into it, so
she quit. - She had the highest grade average in the school.
Learning the law is only 1/2 of the equation. Then you have to apply it, that's another learning curve.
The pressure on lawyers is so extreme and the loss of sleep so pervausive that lawyers usually die
before age 50. Cancer is rampant among lawyers as is mental illness due to the pressures.
IF you worked two jobs at minimum wage you would have more money and work less than most
lawyers work.
Most of my law school classmates only wanted to make money. I wanted to learn the law and be good
at it. When they saw me coming they would run away so they wouldn't have to talk law with me.
I won a lot of cases before the Bar entered my life. Then I learned about how the Bar is really in
place to prevent disruption to the large law firms, many of whom are now victims themselves of the
economy.
The law is like every other occupation, it has great people and it has scum and everything in between.
The Bar is used to silence people like Richard Fine.
But mainly the general public doesn't understand legal ethics

?
They are mainly the antithesis of real world ethics. Clients think a bar complaint will force the attorney
to be
better. Richard Fine was disbarred after exposing judicial corruption of the highest order.
The Bar and the legislature covered it up.

51

(Fails to inform Richard also incarcerated solitary confinement)

Like Hess
Clients in CA are now facing a lack of affordable attorneys or no attorneys to provide legal services to
them as the CAL bar took out thousands of attorneys, leaving these people without legal representation
and left them at the mercy of the government and it's lawyers. - Brad Henschel, JD, now an inactive
member of the State Bar of CA.
HENSCHEL NOTICE OF PRIVACY & CONFIDENTIALITY:
This message is private and confidential.
It contains confidential and privileged information which is both privileged & confidential under state
and federal law and/or exempt from disclosure under law, including but not limited to the Electronic
Communications Privacy Act, 18 USC 2510-2521. NO reader may disclose, distribute or copy this
email. If you get this e-mail in error, notify me immediately by electronic-mail reply and delete this
original message. No recording, printing or sharing of this email, which has been sent over telephone
lines, is allowed, and recording it is
illegal. Cal. Penal Code 632.
From: Bob Hurt
<bob@bobhurt.com>
To: Lawmen
<lawmen@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Mon, March 22, 2010 4:48:32
PM
Subject: Rich Cantwell's scurrilous screed about lawyers
Rich:
In your screed below, you denounce the MAJORITY of attorneys but supply NO facts to support your
allegation. Because the lawyers bathwater has become dingy you seem to want to drown them, spank
them, or toss them out. That seems a little crazy to me.
We Need Attorneys.
Lawyers comprise virtually the ONLY PEOPLE IN THIS NATION who can handle litigation
competently, so the non-lawyer world generally cannot do without them. Even the lawyers admit that
only a fool represents himself in court, and because of vexatious litigant laws, methods of blocking
evidence from juries, and frivolous argument standards, even THEY cannot get justice in courts. They
pay a fortune for education, pay a fortune to maintain offices, pay a fortune in personal time doing
legal research, and pay a fortune for online and other law research services. They risk terrible sanctions
and contempt citations whenever they stand up against deluded, incompetent, or corrupt judges, risk
absolute destruction of their careers by professional foes in the bar, and then suffer substantial losses of
income to clients who stiff them. Many, if not most, attorneys work 70-hour weeks, live on the edge of
financial disaster, and take 5 to 10 years to build up a law practice that will allow them enough time
and money to take their families on vacation every year. In spite of all that, most attorneys do pro bono
work, giving of themselves to help those they consider deserving and unable to afford legal services.

52

So why do you seek to excoriate them with colossally unfair generalizations like those in your obloquy
below? Methinks thou doth protest too much. Way too.
Licensing.
Furthermore, you err in your pronouncements about licensing. The Constitution of Florida in Article V
Section 15 empowers the Supreme Court to regulate the practice of law: The supreme court shall have
exclusive jurisdiction to regulate the admission of persons to the practice of law and the discipline of
persons admitted. It integrated the bar in 1949 partly for that purpose. It has established,
through the bar, rules for an independent examiner to determine the qualifications of applicants for
membership. Upon successful qualification, the bar issues a bar number and card to the new member,
and the Supreme Court clerk issues the LICENSE as attorney and counselor at law which the new
attorney typically frames and hangs on the wall in the law office. You have seen many of these
licenses, and if you visit the Florida Bar web site you will find the bar number (the equivalent of the
license number) for every attorney and jurist bar member in Florida.
A Note about Smart People.
You seem to imply that smart people (like most attorneys) screw other people (the relatively stupid, I
presume). You fail to note that in many, if not most, cases a screwing simply cannot be helped. Should
a teacher grind the education of a classroom of students to a snails pace in order to accommodate the
stupid children in the classroom? Before busing that did not present much of a problem
because smart people generally lived in different school districts from stupid people, owing to their
relative abilities to buy nice houses in nice neighborhoods. Now, after busing, schools have honors
classes to segregate the smart from the stupid. No matter what, stupid kids dont end up with as good
an education as smart kids for the same reason that a pint jar cannot hold the amount of water that a
quart jar can hold: inherent capacities simply cannot be exceeded.
So, naturally, smart people generally exhibit more sense in managing money and their other affairs,
and that can make them seem to take advantage of stupid people, particularly in a free-enterprise
capitalist economic system. OUR particular system has in the past 100 years become burdened with
thousands of laws and regulations that protect the stupid from the smart and the weak from the strong.
But at the same time, our nations states have eliminated every vestige of eugenics laws that might
eventually have obviated those protectionist laws. What do I mean here? Our land needs fewer stupid
people in it, by at least an order of magnitude. Then caveat emptor wont seem like such a dirty term
because far fewer people will seem screwed. And I mean that everybody, not just attorneys, need to
learn the equivalent of the first two years of law school in their public education.
Legitimate Complaints, with Solutions. Regardless of the licensing issue, you dont have a valid
point to make in your anti-lawyer tirade, even though you could make some very valid points. Please
allow me to make some of them for you:
1.
Bar
Integration Destroys Republic.
a.
The integration of the bar with the Supreme court makes every bar member a member
of the Judicial Branch of government. The Florida Constitution requires in Article II
Section 3 that The powers of the state government shall be divided into legislative,
executive and judicial branches. No person belonging to one branch shall exercise any
53

powers
appertaining to either of the other branches unless expressly provided
herein. It does not permit bar members outside the judiciary except as Attorney
General and State Attorneys and their assistant attorneys. All legislator attorneys and
staff attorneys in the Legislative and Executive branches operate in violation of the
Constitution and to that extent create a judicial oligarchy because the Supreme Court
can and does exercise dominion over all of them. That violates CUSA Article IV
Section 4 which provides in pertinent part The United States shall guarantee to every
State in this Union a Republican Form of Government.
b.
Solution: de-integrate the bar and turn the regulation of the practice of law over to the
Executive branch.
2.
Attorneys dont regulate judges, but tolerate judicial immunity.
a.
Attorneys form the pool from which judges rise to office, and so attorneys comprise the group best
suited to lead in judicial reform for eliminating judicial corruption. They have the requisite skills and
the proximity to judges, so they know better than any public other than victims of corruption which
jurists have become corrupt or downright evil. They have let the people down because they dont use
their bar to police the judiciary. In case you havent noticed, the bar governors and grievance
committees ignore grievances against jurists. But they can and should work to revoke the bar licenses
of corrupt judges, for that would disqualify the judges from office (the state constitutions typically
make bar membership a qualification for becoming a jurist). Many attorneys fail to hold the courts
accountable or engage in guerilla activism against crooked judges. By guerilla I mean a form of
activism like hiring a Private Investigator to dig up the dirt on a judge, and then hiring a Public
Relations agency to expose that dirt to the press and the public through blogs, etc, without the attorney
coming under fire for bring disrepute to the profession.
b.
Solution:
litigate and lobby against judicial immunity and for empowerment and independence of grand juries to
investigate government employee crimes.
3.
Unfair
Business Practices.
a.
Some law firms overcharge for services rendered and overbill clients by charging for
services not rendered. Some attorneys suffer from incompetence or laziness and dont
give clients their best effort at advocacy. As a consequence, many people who need
advocacy simply cannot afford the service, and of those who manage to afford it, many
dont get adequate advocacy, and lose the case as a result. Pro bono work does not
balance this out. The bar seems to turn a blind eye to much of this, and the public has
no clue whether the attorney for hire will do a good job or not.

54

b.
Solution:
Lobby for laws to require attorneys to give clients satisfaction questionnaires and make
the results public.
4.
Legal
Services Monopoly.
a.
Attorneys seem loathe to campaign against the unfair Unlicensed Practice of Law
statutes with which the bar and state attorneys attack private citizens who help one
another with legal matters. They have helped create a legal services monopoly that has
led to their overcharging for legal services. Attorneys really should become leaders in
the communities of their residence, guiding people in ways to keep our governments
constitutional. Many dont seem to participate nearly to the extent they should or could.
b.
Solution:
Lobby for change in UPL to apply only to specifically defined activities that actually
require knowledge gained in law school or other special certification.
The law should allow anybody to practice an area of law upon a demonstration of
competent knowledge in that area.
You
have probably noticed that I offered solutions to each problem. Lawyers cannot implement three of the
solutions by themselves. They need public support. You could help educate the public about their need
to provide that support. You could encourage attorneys to do the lobbying.
Many Attorneys Deserve Our Appreciation. Bottom
line, instead of flaying the flesh off the stooped backs of overworked Patriot Attorneys, you ought to
bless them for their general goodness and generosity, and encourage more to join their ranks and help
them excise and bring to justice crooked judges and over-zealous prosecutors.
What law professionals do you know who have created web sites and led movements to educate
patriots in the law and constitutional principles, and to mobilize people to effective political activism?
Can you name any? I can name three:
1.
Larry Becraft
http://hiwaay.net/~becraft - for at least 20 years, Larry has at some expense hosted a web site that
does not sell his legal services, but educates people in the law and guides patriots away from harmful
myths that will land them in prison, and guides students toward sound principles of economics.
Larry spent hundreds of hours scanning and converting to searchable text the Statutes at Large for the
income tax laws and the related Code of Federal Regulations, put them on DVDs, and makes them
available via the web and on disk to serious students. He operates a radio show at his own expense
weekly to educate people about tax issues and patriot myths, encouraging people to learn and use the
law, and participate in honest government.

55

2.
Tom Cryer
http://truthattack.org
for the past 2+ years, Tommy has led patriots in attacking the errors of the IRS, making a public,
political issue of those errors (such as the Stop Thief rallies at post offices at tax time) and educating
people about income tax laws and issues. He has posted all of Larrys searchable laws and codes on his
web site, making them freely available to everyone. He co-hosts the radio show with Larry, as a public
service, free.
3.
Jon Roland
http://constitution.org
Jon does not practice as an attorney, but as an educator and law philosopher he devotes his life to
helping our governments adhere to the Constitution and our people become better Citizens. He
interacts with many attorneys and leaders in the Patriot movement to encourage people to become
activists in reforming our government and courts. His web site constitutes a treasure trove of related
educational information, including Larrys searchable laws.
I love these men. I invoke Gods most precious blessings upon them. I honor them for their devotion to
truth and their selfless contributions to our nations underlying greatness. I dont examine them under a
microscope for their peccadilloes, vices, and sins. I dont expect perfection of them. But, I do
encourage them toward whatever perfection they can achieve in their short lives on this whirling rock.
I encourage you to do the same.
Bob Hurt

2460 Persian Drive

#70
Clearwater, FL
33763
+1 (727)
669-5511
Scholar
Fund Jurisdictionary Law
Newsletter Archives Downloads GetZooks!
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56

*** Note****
I looked into it further to find that Richard Fine was not only dismissed from the Bar, but put behind
bars and has been in solitary confinement for over 18 months now without charges laid against him
presumably holding him there until the Bilderberg New World Order is in place having been meeting
since 1954 began their initiative in 2007 with the world financial collapse that we ain't seen nothing
yet.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/free-fine/
Please join the Facebook Cause: FREE THE LA-FIPs (Los Angeles
Falsely Imprisoned Persons)
http://www.causes.com/causes/222335/about
INTRODUCTION - MULTI-IDIOMAS
English Intro:
Richard Fine - 70 year old, former US prosecutor, had shown that judges in Los Angeles County had
taken "not permitted" payments (called by media "bribes"). On February 20, 2009, the Governor of
California signed "retroactive immunities" (pardons) for all judges in Los Angeles. Less than two
weeks later, on March 4, 2009 Richard Fine was arrested in open court, with no warrant. He is held
ever since in solitary confinement in Los Angeles, California. No judgment, conviction, or sentencing
was ever entered in his case.
Richard Fine attempted to have his habeas corpus reviewed by the United States courts, from the US
District Court, through the US Court of Appeals, to the Supreme Court of the United States; however,
all United States courts involved in the matter denied Richard
DOCUMENTS
The two records below, produced by the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, and by
the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department as the legal foundation for the holding of Richard Fine
are alleged as fraud, each on its own. Moreover, the production of contradictory records by the two
justice system agencies of Los Angeles County is alleged as additional fraud to top it off.
1) View the FALSE AND DELIBERATELY MISLEADING records provided by Sheriff Lee Baca in
letter to Los Angeles County Supervisor, Michael Antonovich, in response to request for access to the
California public records that were the non-existing warrant and booking records of Richard Fine. For
over a year, Sheriff Lee Baca insists on providing false records - claiming that Richard Fine was
arrested on location and by authority of the "San Pedro Municipal Court". No such court has existed
for almost a decade:
http://inproperinla.com/10-01-08-antonovich-ltr-repeat-mailing-w-attch-env-s.pdf
2) View the FALSE ON ITS FACE March 4, 2009 Judgment and Order of Contempt. Such judgment
record is missing any authentication at all. It was stamped on its face "FILED" with the date of March
4, 2009, but signed on its last page by Judge Yaffe and dated March 24, 2009. Such judgment was
never entered as required by California Code to make it "effectual for any purpose":
57

http://inproperinla.com/00-00-00-la-sup-ct-marina-v-county-09-03-04-false-fine-judment-record-copyfrom-us-dist-ct-habeas-corpus-doc-16-response-by-la-sup-ct-filed-may-1-2009.pdf
MISSING DOCUMENTS
The case of Richard Fine documented a pattern of publication of false records in online public access
systems, and denial of access to or missing true judicial records:
1) The Los Angeles Superior Court in Marina v LA County (BS109420) published a false online
"Case Summary", but denied access to the Register of Actions (California civil docket) in the case
management system of the court.
2) The Sheriff of Los Angeles County in re: Richard I Fine, (Inmate #1824367) published false
online arrest and booking records in its "Inmate Information Center", but denied access to the true Los
Angeles County Booking Record of Inmate Richard Fine.
3) The US District Court, Los Angeles in Fine v Baca (2:09-cv-01914) published a false online
"PACER docket", which the Clerk of the Court refuses to certify, but denied access to the NEFs
(Notices of Electronic Filing - the authentication records) in the case, and to the paper record, which
was Richard Fine's commencing record - the petition for a writ of habeas corpus, which was allegedly
adulterated at the US District Court.
4) The US Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit in Fine v Sheriff (09-71692) and Fine v Sheriff (09-56073)
published false online "PACER dockets", but denied access to the NDAs
(Notices of Docket Activity - the authentication records), and also to critical records filed by
respondents in the appeal.
5) The US Supreme Court in Fine v Baca (09-A827)
published a false online "docket" noting denials on both March 12, 2010 and April 23/26, 2010, which
were not supported by the Court records in the case. Any evidence of valid judicial review of the
Application was missing from the Court file.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/35193676/
http://www.scribd.com/doc/33772313/
http://www.scribd.com/doc/34940014/
http://www.scribd.com/doc/34834530/
http://www.scribd.com/doc/35014599/
http://www.scribd.com/doc/35149271/
COMPLAINTS
Below are links to two complaints filed with the office of US Attorney, Central District of California for public corruption and deprivation of rights in the case of Richard Fine:
58

1) View complaint filed with US Attorney Office, alleging public corruption and deprivation of rights
by the California Judicial Council and California Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald George, relative
to their conduct in the habeas corpus at the US District Court:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/33879469/
2) View the Complaint filed July 8, 2010 against Judge David Yaffe and Sheriff Lee Baca - for Public
Corruption and Deprivation of Rights in re: Imprisonment of Richard Fine:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/34057033/
3) View the Complaint filed July 1, 2010, against Counsel Danny Bickell, of the US Supreme Court,
alleging public corruption and deprivation of rights relative to his conduct in the Application Fine v
Baca (09-A827).
http://www.scribd.com/doc/33772313/
PETITION
WE ASK SHERIFF LEE BACA TO USE HIS DUE AUTHORITY AND PROPERLY ADDRESS
THE LEGAL, CIVIL, AND HUMAN RIGHTS OF AN AMERICAN, INMATE RICHARD
FINE (CJ INMATE 1824367). WE PRAY SHERIFF LEE BACA REVIEW THE ARREST AND
BOOKING RECORDS, AND IF FOUND NOT CONFORMING WITH THE FUNDAMENTALS OF
THE LAW - INITIATE CORRECTIVE ACTIONS AND IMMEDIATELY RELEASE ATTORNEY
RICHARD FINE. WITH IT, THE SHERIFF MAY MARK A NEW BEGINNING FOR THE LOS
ANGELES COUNTY JUSTICE SYSTEM, WITH DIGNITY OF THE LEGAL, CIVIL, AND
HUMAN RIGHTS OF ALL...
Executive Summary:
Instant petition is filed with Los Angeles County Sheriff LEE BACA, to use his due authority and
properly address the legal, civil and human rights of an American, inmate RICHARD FINE
(#1824367).
Reconstructed Chronology:
- Prior to the March 4, 2009 proceeding, a request was forwarded by the court of Judge David Yaffe to
the Sheriff Department to have the Warrant Detail present in the proceeding, with the understanding
that the proceeding would end with the sentencing and jailing of Attorney Richard Fine for contempt.
- On March 4, 2009 Judge David Yaffe indeed pronounced such sentence in open court, as evidenced
in the Court Reporter's transcript. Through such oral directives, Judge Yaffe misled the Sheriff's
Warrant Detail to arrest Attorney Richard Fine at 11:05 am - albeit - with no written, valid, and
effectual warrant at all.
- On March 4, 2009, at 11:05 am, the Sheriff's Warrant Detail arrested Richard Fine in open court, at
the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, City of Los Angeles, albeit - with no warrant
at all.
- On March 4, 2009 Judge Yaffe then left the courtroom, and likewise - left the Warrant Detail with no
record as an adequate legal foundation for the arrest. Instead, Judge Yaffe proceeded to create a
second, contradictory record in the court file. The court file to this date does not reflect any sentencing
or jailing at all. In fact, the March 4, 2009 proceeding was entirely omitted from the record!
59

- On March 4, 2009, at 12:32 pm, the Sheriff's Warrant Detail, having no record as foundation for the
arrest and jailing, recorded the arrest and booking of Richard Fine as if they had taken place on
location, and pursuant to the authority of the non-existent "San Pedro Municipal Court." Such records
were a false and deliberately misleading records, and out of compliance with the law. They had no
valid court order or judgment as its foundation. No such court had existed for almost a decade! The
false and deliberately misleading booking record is the main subject of instant petition.
- On March 4, 2009, at 4:31 pm, papers were received by the Sheriff's Department through an
anonymous fax transmission, unauthenticated, and with no cover sheet, from "Judicial Services". Such
papers reflected yet a third, again false and deliberately misleading set of retroactive records for the
arrest and booking of Richard Fine. Such records included invalid records: (a) The March 4, 2009
Remand Order and (b) the March 4, 2009 Judgment for contempt.
On such background it was understandable why Sheriff Lee Baca refused to respond to Attorney
Richard Fine's habeas corpus petition, and likewise - why Sheriff Lee Baca has refused to allow access
to the California public records, which are the arrest and booking record of Richard Fine.
Pleading: We pray Sheriff Lee Baca review the arrest and booking records, and if such records are
found failing to conform with the fundamentals of the law - take corrective actions and immediately
release Attorney Richard Fine. With it, the Sheriff may mark a new beginning for the Los Angeles
County justice system, with dignity of the legal, civil, and human rights of
all.
Joseph Zernik, PhD
Jz12345@earthlink.net
Human Rights Alert (NGO)
o:spt="75" o:preferrelative="t" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" filled="f"
stroked="f">
style='width:201pt;height:103.5pt'>
o:href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_4QooSf0l1yE/S7GNMg5PW6I/AAAAAAAABRQ/sdbzbE4EqpM/
S1600-R/HRA%20Logo.jpg"/>
Human Rights Alert is dedicated to discovering, archiving, and disseminating evidence of Human
Rights violations by the justice systems of the State of California and the United States in Los Angeles
County, California, and beyond. Special emphasis is given to the unique role of computerized case
management systems in the precipitous deterioration of integrity of the justice system in the United
States.

Frank, You signed on May 25, 2010.

Your signature has been
delivered to:
Sheriff Lee Baca, Los Angeles County, California
60

About

What have the

experts said over the past decade?
* "Innocent people remain in prison"
* "...the LA Superior Court and the DA office, the two other parts of the
justice system that the Blue Panel Report
recommends must be investigated relative to the integrity of the system, have
not produced any response that we know of...
LAPD Blue Ribbon Review Panel Report (2006)
* judges tried and sentenced a staggering number of people for crimes they
did not commit."
Prof David Burcham, Dean, Loyola Law School, LA (2000)
* This is conduct associated with the most repressive dictators and police
states and judges must share responsibility when innocent people are
convicted.
Prof Erwin Chemerinksy, Dean, Irvine Law School (2000)
Please see additional information and sign the petition:
FREE RICHARD FINE
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/free...
Positions
1.
Richard Fine is held under false records - he must be immediately released
2.
Official reports show that thousands were falsely imprisoned as part of the Rampart scandal (19982000) - they must be immediately released.
3.
Review of the computerized records of the Sheriff's Department documented routine ongoing false
imprisonments - they must be stopped.
4.
US and/or international investigation must be instituted of the widespread public corruption in Los
Angeles County, California.

61

How large is the cause?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_books_and_burying_of_scholars
Burning of the books and burying of the scholars (traditional Chinese: ; simplified
Chinese: ; pinyin: Fnsh Kngr) is a phrase that refers to a purported policy and a
sequence of events in the Qin Dynasty of Ancient China, between the period of 213 and 206 BC.
During these events, the Hundred Schools of Thought were pruned;legalism survived. One side effect
was the marginalization of the thoughts of the school of Mozi and the survival of the thoughts
of Confucius.
It is important to note, however, that few scholars today believe that Sima Qian's account of the bookburning in the Records of the Grand Historianthe source of our knowledge about this eventreflects
what actually happened.[1]
Contents
[hide]
1 Book burning
2 Burial of the scholars
3 See also
4 References
5 External links
[edit]Book burning
According to the Records of the Grand Historian, after Qin Shi Huangdi, the first emperor of China,
unified China in 221 BC, his chancellor Li Si suggested suppressing the intellectual discourse to unify
all thoughts and political opinions. This was justified by accusations that the intelligentsia sang false
praise and raised dissent through libel.
Beginning in 213 BC, all classic works of the Hundred Schools of Thoughtexcept those from Li Si's
own school of philosophy known as legalismwere subject to book burning.
Qin Shi Huangdi burned the other histories out of fear that they undermined his legitimacy, and wrote
his own history books. Afterwards, Li Si took his place in this area.
Li Si proposed that all histories in the imperial archives except those written by the Qin historians be
burned; that the Classic of Poetry, the Classic of History, and works by scholars of different schools be
handed in to the local authorities for burning; that anyone discussing these two particular books be
executed; that those using ancient examples to satirize contemporary politics be put to death, along
with their families; that authorities who failed to report cases that came to their attention were equally
guilty; and that those who had not burned the listed books within 30 days of the decree were to be
banished to the north as convicts working on building the Great Wall. The only books to be spared in
the destruction were books on war, medicine, agriculture and divination.[2]
[edit]Burial of the scholars
After being deceived by two alchemists while seeking prolonged life, Qin Shi Huangdi ordered more
than 460 scholars in the capital to be buried alive in the second year of the proscription, though an
account given by Wei Hong in the 2nd century added another 700 to the figure. As some of them were
also Confucian scholars, Fusu counselled that, with the country newly unified, and enemies still not
pacified, such a harsh measure imposed on those who respect Confucius would cause
instability.[3] However, he was unable to change his father's mind, and instead was sent to guard the
frontier in a de facto exile.

62

The quick fall of the Qin Dynasty was attributed to this proscription. Confucianism was revived in
the Han Dynasty that followed, and became the official ideology of the Chinese imperial state. Many
of the other schools had disappeared.
[edit]See also
Book burning
Destruction of Four Olds
Literary Inquisition
Cultural Revolution
[edit]

There were no dates in this history, but scrawled this way and that across every page were the words
Benevolence Righteousness and Morality
finally I began to make out what was written between the lines.
The whole volume was but a single phrase,
Eat People

NEWS
Never Ending War Story
NO
Near Over
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_God
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) teaches that the coming Reign of God will be a kingdom
of love, peace, and justice.[23]
Justice is defined as a virtue whereby one respects the rights of all persons, living in harmony and
equity with all.[24]
The Kingdom of God began with Christ's death and Resurrection and must be further extended by
Christians until it has been brought into perfection by Christ at the end of time.
[25] The Christian does this by living the way Christ lived, by thinking the way Christ thought,[23]
and by promoting peace and justice.[26] This can be accomplished by discerning how the Holy Spirit
(God) is calling one to act in the concrete circumstances of one's life.[26]
Christians must also pray, asking God for what is necessary to cooperate with the coming of God's
Kingdom.
[27] Jesus gathered disciples to be the seed and the beginning of God's Reign on earth, and Jesus sent
the Holy Spirit to guide them.[28] Jesus continues to call all people to come together around him[29]
63

and to spread the Kingdom of God across the entire world.[30]

However, the ultimate triumph of Christ's Kingdom will not come about until Christ's return to earth at
the end of time.[31]
During Christ's second coming, he will judge the living and the dead.
Only those who are judged to be righteous and just will reign with Christ forever.[32] Christ's second
coming will also mark the absolute defeat of all evil powers, including Satan.[33]
Until then, the coming of the Kingdom will continue to be attacked by evil powers as Christians wait
with hope for the second coming of their Savior.[34]
This is why Christians pray to hasten Christ's return by saying to him "Maranatha!" which means
"Come, Lord Jesus!".[35]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End_time
While some who believe in the literal interpretation of the Bible insist that the prediction of dates or
times is futile, some other writers believe that Jesus foretold of signs which would indicate that the
"end of days" was near. Some of these signs include earthquakes, natural disasters, civil problems,
"wars and rumors of wars," and other catastrophes. Of the precise time, however, it will come like a
"thief in the night" (1 Thess. 5:2).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resurrection#External_links
Zombies became a popular device in modern horror fiction, largely because of the success of George
A. Romero's 1968 film Night of the Living Dead[17] and they have appeared as plot devices in various
books, films and in television shows. Zombie fiction is now a sizeable sub-genre of horror, usually
describing a breakdown of civilization occurring when most of the population become flesh-eating
zombies a zombie apocalypse.
The monsters are usually hungry for human flesh,

often specifically brains.

Sometimes they are victims of a fictional pandemic illness causing the dead to reanimate or the living
to behave this way, but often no cause is given in the story.

Only politicals permitted to Genocide

HESS
Turns out Hess no Hiss
Rudolf Walter Richard Hess (written He in German) (26 April 1894 17 August 1987)
Was a prominent Nazi official acting as Adolf Hitler's Deputy in the Nazi Party. On the eve of war
with the Soviet Union, he flew solo to Scotland in an attempt to negotiate peace with the
United Kingdom, but instead was arrested.
He was tried at Nuremberg and sentenced to life in prison at Spandau Prison, Berlin, where he died in
1987.

64

PEACE!!!
None Of That in our
ABBY
Ass Back Bereavement Yarn
Hess' attempt to negotiate peace and subsequent lifelong imprisonment have given rise to many theories about his
motivation for flying to Scotland, and conspiracy theories about why he remained imprisoned alone at Spandau, long after
all other convicts had been released.
On 27 September and 28 September 2007, numerous British news services published descriptions of conflict between his
Western and Soviet captors over his treatment and how the Soviet captors were steadfast in denying repeated entreaties for
his release on humanitarian grounds during his last years.[1][2][3][4][5][6]

The preamble to the CPPCG states that instances of genocide have taken place throughout history,[2] but it was not until
Raphael Lemkin coined the term and the prosecution of perpetrators of the Holocaust at the Nuremberg trials that
the United Nations agreed to the CPPCG which defined the crime of genocide under international
law.
There was a gap of more than forty years between the CPPCG coming into force and the first prosecution under the
provisions of the treaty.
To date all international prosecutions of genocide, the Rwandan Genocide and the Srebrenica Genocide, have been by ad
hoc international tribunals.[6]
The International Criminal Court came into existence in 2002 and it has the authority to try people from the states that have
signed the treaty, but to date it has not tried anyone.
Since the CPPCG came into effect in January 1951 about 80 member states of the United Nations have passed legislation
that incorporates the provisions of the CPPCG into their municipal law, and some perpetrators of genocide have been found
guilty under such municipal laws, such as Nikola Jorgic, who was found guilty of genocide in Bosnia by a German court
(Jorgic v. Germany).

Was Jorgic an innocent Hess with a Kiss from the HISSSic?

Critics of the CPPCG point to the narrow definition of the groups that are protected under the treaty, particularly the lack of
protection for political groups for what has been termed politicide
(politicide is included as genocide under some municipal jurisdictions).[7] One of the problems was that until there was a
body of case law from prosecutions, the precise definition of what the treaty meant had not been tested in court, for

"in part"

example, what precisely does the term

mean?
As more perpetrators are tried under international tribunals and municipal court cases, a body of legal arguments and legal
interpretations are helping to address these issues.
Another criticism of the CPPCG is that when its provisions have been invoked by the United Nations Security Council,
they have only been invoked to punish those who have already committed genocide and
been foolish enough to leave a paper trail.
It was this criticism that led to the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1674 by the United Nations Security
Council on 28 April 2006 commits the Council to action to protect civilians in armed conflict and to protect populations
from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.

65

Genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious,
or national group.[1]
While a precise definition varies among genocide scholars, a legal definition is found in the 1948
United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
(CPPCG). Article 2 of this convention defines genocide as "any of the following acts committed with
intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group,
as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction
in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly
transferring children of the group to another group."[2]
Because of the influence of Joseph Stalin,

this definition of genocide under international law

does not include political

groups.
[3][4][5]

Another criticism of the CPPCG is that when its provisions have been invoked by the United Nations
Security Council, they have only been invoked to punish those who have already committed genocide
and

been foolish enough to leave a paper trail.

It was this criticism that led to the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1674 by the United
Nations Security Council on 28 April 2006 commits the Council to action to protect civilians in
armed conflict and to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes
against humanity.
Genocide scholars such as Gregory Stanton have postulated that conditions and acts that often occur
before, during, and after genocide such as dehumanization of victim groups, strong organization of
genocidal groups, and denial of genocide by its perpetrators can be identified and

1
actions taken to stop genocides before they happen.
Critics of this approach such as Dirk Moses assert that this is unrealistic and that, for example,

666
"Darfur will end when it suits the great powers that have a stake
in the region".
http://www.scribd.com/doc/53187051/To-United-Nations
http://www.scribd.com/doc/152839290/Does-This-Mean-WW-III-Before-September
66

If only we had a
COC JIJ
Court of Competent Jurisdiction Independent Judiciary

www.T4J.frank13.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6uFJuho2eo

David Icke - The Reptilians, the Schism, Obama and the New world
Order

67