User talk:Geo Swan

Hello, Geo Swan, welcome to Wikisource! Thanks for your interest in the project; we hope you'll enjoy the community and your work here. If you need help, see our help pages (especially Adding texts and Wikisource's style guide). You can discuss or ask questions from the community in general at the Scriptorium. The Community Portal lists tasks you can help with if you wish. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me on my talk page. :)

Wikisource servers are in the United States, but we haven't yet had an issue with "Classified" information being nominated for deletion. To be honest, I'm somewhat "liberal" on my interpretation of what fits here (for example, I believed that the "final instructions" for the 9/11 hijackers, in a Public Domain hand-translation, was fit for here) - but I'm in the minority with that view, and a few more "hawkish" copyright national socialists (I got in trouble for "copyright nazi" earlier ;) ) tend to dominate the scene. But I very strongly encourage you to contact his lawyer, I wanted to host Juma Al Dossari's suicide note here but was unable to contact his lawyer, unfortunately :\ Sherurcij ^{(talk) (λεμα σαβαχθανει)} 03:42, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

Yup, something small like "CLASSIFIED" can be left in all-caps, but otherwise everything (short of e.e. cummings) is put into proper capital/lower-case lettering, even if it's not in the original document. l/1 is the curse of OCR programs, though trying my hand at w:SimpleOCR recently, I wish that were the only transcription error...egad, I think it took longer to correct its mistakes, than if I had just written it all out by hand anyways. The memos look good, and ready to be put up into the main articlespace, just make sure to name them consistently, and creating/using a Category:Guantanamo Bay or something similar would be a good idea. You might also want to create a Wikisource:Guantanamo similar to Wikisource:Pirates, Wikisource:Slavery and such :) Sherurcij ^{(talk) (λεμα σαβαχθανει)} 04:22, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

No worries, Wikisource doesn't really have an NPOV policy, as it's not a concern...I mean Protocol of the Learned Elders of Zion obviously isn't NPOV, but it isn't our writing - we merely report what others wrote, verbatim...and since we all focus on what interests us, nobody's going to complain that you're only uploading "Guantanamo documents that make the US look bad" or shit like that - as long as they're Public Domain, they're great. (Though of course, as mentioned like the suicide note, or statements from the prisoners themselves, some might argue thta those are "not the work of a federal employee in commission of their duties", and thus off-record and not PD"). Sherurcij ^{(talk) (λεμα σαβαχθανει)} 03:13, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

Additoinal point of interest likely to arise for you here, {{redact|9}} will result in a redaction-text 9 characters long. I got those  ing  s to make me this awesome template, and you have to admit...it's cool as hell. :) Also much better than just writing "REDACTED" in a document B-) Sherurcij ^{(talk) (λεμα σαβαχθανει)} 05:00, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

More "high-value detainees"

Don't know if you heard or not, but the US has confirmed a 15th "high value detainee", al-Iraqi, was tranferred to Gitmo today or yesterday. Sherurcij ^{(talk) (λεμα σαβαχθανει)} 04:19, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the heads-up. Yes, I had heard. When Bush announced that the transfer of the original 14 high-value detainees from the CIA to military custody he claimed that the transfer "emptied" the CIA's network of secret interrogation centres. Some commentators spoke about this as if he had closed the secret interrogation centres. And some critics pointed out that merely emptying them was different than closing them.

Well, with the transfer of this 15th guy we definitely know the secret sites were not closed down.

Was Al Iraqi really captured after the transfer of the 14 men? Some news sites are reporting, as a fact, that his capture was after September 6th, 2006. Some attribute this information unnamed sources who have insisted on anonymity. Given that the Bush administration has, routinely, had officials "leak" information, on the condition of anonymity, I place zero confidence in this assertion.

Other press reports don't cite a source for the claim Al Iraqi was captured after the September 6th emptying. They seem to be reporting a post September 6th capture based on solely on taking President Bush's claim the camps were emptied at face value.

Did the transfer of the fourteen men really empty the CIA's secret sites? If it did, what happened to Abu Al Shaykh Al Libi? Washington Post columnist Dana Priest hosts a weekly online discussion, and shortly after the September 6th transfer she chose to answer a question about Al Shaykh Al Libi. She believed that Al Shaykh Al Libi would be numbered among the 14 men, but under his real name, not his nomme de guerre. But he hasn't.

Would the Bush administration have quietly handed over a guy as senior as Al Shaykh Al Libi to his home country? I think this is highly unlikely. I think the most reasonable explanation, if we take President Bush's assertion that the secret sites were emptied, is that Al Shaykh Al Libi secretly died in custody. Suicide? Succumbed from wounds? Killed by a fellow captive? Alternatively, maybe he escaped?

How full is the CIA's network of secret interrogation camps? Well, I would say that w:Kamilya Mohammedi Tuweni qualifies as someone who was in the CIA's network of secret camps. The "private villa" the press reports refer to, would be called a "safe house" if the enemy ran it.

Cheers! Thanks again for the heads-up! — Geo Swan 16:36, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Well it's not clear to me reading Declaration of Stephen Abraham, Lieutenant Colonel, United States Army Reserve, June 14th, 2007 that it's at all related to Al-Odah v. USA, so I think it should probably be listed under the (eventual) al-Odah vs. USA heading (listed with a couple of ::''s of course). As it stands, I think WS:Guantanamo is fine without being broken into smaller sections - the more you bury pages within pages within pages, the less likely you are to have people find them. I'm not sure who the other two people you're referring to are, but the more the merrier - I'm actually free all of this week and most of next week, if any time in the next two weeks works for you, I can almost certainly work around it. Sherurcij ^{Collaboration of the Week}_{have you done your part?} 10:16, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

PS, you've probably seen the link, but figured I might as well link-dump this on you. They'd all be Public Domain made in the official commission of their duties as federals agents. Sherurcij ^{Collaboration of the Week}_{have you done your part?} 10:19, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Using Header template

If you want some more detailed guidance about using the Header template go to the Header talk page. See especially the section called "usage"--Metal.lunchbox 03:07, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

I know it's not your usual, but since I lack any PDF->txt software on this comp, if you're able to wikify this court proceeding focused largely on UBL's satPhone useage and phonecalls, I think it would make a great addition. Sherurcij ^{Collaboration of the Week:}_{this week: Ernest Hemingway} 06:58, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Sorry, I don't have any PDF->text software either. I sure would like to get some. Someone else did a PDF->txt conversion on 52 of the 53 transcripts. Unfortunately I had already manually typed in most of the allegations before I found that file. I downloaded those files, and didn't take a close look at them at first. Now I can't find the site where I downloaded them.

Some of the documents I have uploaded to wikisouce I manually transcribed.

Cheers! Geo Swan 08:27, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

Re: meeting, not a problem, I won't know my schedule till Monday night, I'll let you know then. Sherurcij ^{Collaboration of the Week: Author:Maxim Gorky} 05:48, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Would love any help with Author:Osama bin Laden, with public domain translations of the works. It seems the December 2001 videotape had a DOD translation that was never released, the DOD instead released a private translation done by the Language Institute or whatever - other than that, I can't find any government/military translations - your help would be appreciated :\ Sherurcij ^{Collaboration of the Week: Author:William Gordon Stables} 21:25, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

As payment, I offer you these ;) Sherurcij ^{Collaboration of the Week: Author:William Gordon Stables} 21:38, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

This is the transcript from the videotape with the guy who didn't stand up when he entered the room?

I watched this the day it was released — breaking news. My recollection was that the translation CBC provided was quite different from the official translation.

• As I watched the video that day, I listened to OBL and his friend giggle, I thought to myself — "these two guys are as high as kites." They finished putting the hookah, where they smoked some has.
• I remember thinking that knowing OBL was a pot-head would be very useful in trying to counter his efforts.
• I remember OBL bragging to his friend about how, following the attack of 9-11, a lot Europeans had chosen to conver to Islam. What made him think this? There was a spike in Koran sales following 9-11. Of course this spike merely showed healthy curiousity — it was not a sign of conversion — understanding misconceptions like this would be very useful. But this material was missing from the official transcript.

I had a serious of discussions with a guy with patriot in his wiki-id. He kept making unsupportable assertions about OBL's friend, who had since been identified. The reason he didn't stand to greet OBL was not that he was a very important money-man. He had been crippled in combat, and couldn't stand up.

Anyhow, I spent some time looking for that transcript then. That was a year or so ago. I'll look again. But I am not hopeful.

Cheers! Geo Swan 07:48, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

KR

Thought I sent you an eMail, but anyways — I'm out of town in January until the 9th, and after that I'm free only on weekdays till 3, all day Saturday, and Sundays after 4 - if you're going to see it some time in that arena, I'd love to come along - but don't worry if you can't accomodate me. Sherurcij ^{Collaboration of the Week: Author:Abu Hamid al-Ghazālī} 04:21, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

ZK

Saturay,January 12 any time after 6pm Sunday, January 13 any time after 6pm Saturday, January 19, any time after 4pm Sunday January 20 any time after noon. Sherurcij ^{Collaboration of the Week: Author:Haile Selassie} 00:21, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Torture manual

Unfortunately the manual would be covered under Canadian Crown Copyright, which subsists for 50 years after publication. There is a slow movement afoot on Wikisource to push more Canadian content onto the servers despite "not quite PD status", focusing at this time on legislation which is goverened seperately from other Crown Copyright works in that the licensing does allow for it to be "reproduced" so long as "every care is taken to maintain accuracy" and "it is not represented as an official copy" - so things like R. v. Morgentaler can be added with the unique template you see at the bottom. Unfortunately, it wouldn't work for the torture manual. Sherurcij ^{Collaboration of the Week: Author:Ovid} 05:45, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

Ah. OK. Thanks!

I left a query for you about your interpretation of "primary" and "secondary" sources and how that affects {{afd}} attempts on the Guantanamo articles.

Cheers! Geo Swan 20:26, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

No, as a newspaper they are allowed to publish it under fair dealing Sherurcij ^{Collaboration of the Week: Author:Ovid} 21:05, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

We could really use a Wikisource:Invasion of Afghanistan index, similar to the Wikisource:September 11th, Wikisource:Invasion of Iraq and Wikisource:Guantanamo. Feel free to create it, and use Google to look for already pre-existing works that might be related on Wikisouce, to list :) Sherurcij ^{Collaboration of the Week: Portal:Branch Davidians} 18:53, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Dropped you an eMail, speedy response would be appreciated :) Sherurcij ^{Collaboration of the Week: Portal:Branch Davidians} 00:45, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Thank you - I'm glad to have a preliminary itinerary - looks like I'd be heading through BWI on Wednesday - since Friday would be a wash in Toronto anyways, I may stay over the weekend with my colleague in the area. I'll book my tickets as soon as TJ confirms the trip is as scheduled. Looks like we have some more meetings ahead of us this week. Sherurcij ^{Collaboration of the Week: Author:Sabine Baring-Gould} 22:57, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

OK

Counsel visit email exchange — June 14th 2007 seems to be missing an eMail from Keubler, he never responds to the request for ISN#. Also, there seem to be some OCR errors, I fixed a couple of Iuly/July errors, but I'd appreciate if you'd take another look. Thanks! I've eMailed ZK asking for a release on OK's letters home, we'll see how that turns out. Sherurcij ^{Collaboration of the Week: Author:Honoré de Balzac} 02:15, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

I was a bit surprised by the 155lbs myself, but there we have it. I was also curious about the mention of Rahman's marriage, the only time I've seen him in-person he didn't seem to have anyone other than his immediate family and some children I didn't recognise (too old to be his, ~4-8 years old) — but I could easily be mistaken, perhaps he is married. *shrugs* Sherurcij ^{Collaboration of the Week: Author:Honoré de Balzac} 22:53, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

Obviously ZK agreed that I could license the letters however I'd like, so I went with CC-BY and now they're uploaded (except one I can't find in its entirety). Do you have the PDF for the affidavit? I'm trying to start uploading all relevant PDFs to Commons under Category:Omar Khadr so that people can proofread/verify all they'd like Sherurcij ^{Collaboration of the Week: Author:Aeschylus} 16:33, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

I downloaded the affadavit from http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking_dade/story/461231.html

Here is the actual pdf http://media.miamiherald.com/smedia/2008/03/18/14/Redacted_Khadr_Affidavit_22_Feb_2008.source.prod_affiliate.56.pdf

http://media.miamiherald.com/smedia/2008/03/15/23/khadrrulings.source.prod_affiliate.56.pdf

Cheers! Geo Swan 16:47, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

Please tell me you're uploading these rulings as we speak? I see we even get a glimpse of the Morris/Cheney proceeding, that should motivate you. Per the Motion to Admit Foreign Attorneys and others, I found it easiest to simply create a screenshot of the charge header/footer,upload to Commons, and only transcribe the actual text. Sherurcij ^{Collaboration of the Week: Author:Aeschylus} 17:28, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

featured text

Hi, you have contributed a lot of interesting documents, and one of them could easily meet the requirements of our featured texts. Do you have any preference which should be a featured text candidate ? John Vandenberg ^(chat) 01:08, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

WWI

Yeah, what you've done is perfectly fine. It's like taking a book of "Poetry by Keats", and publishing the poems individually. "Speeches" made inside a larger work are fine to give their own page - I've been debating doing the same for Ammar al-Baluchi (Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, this week's focus for me). Btw, you've got mail. Sherurcij ^{Collaboration of the Week: Author:Percival Lowell} 00:49, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

Sysoped

You are officially appointed as an admin. Congratulations on the extra buttons!--BirgitteSB 01:11, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

Congrats! There's a few nonsense pages; 1, 2, 3 if you want to test your new tools. :-) giggy _(:O) 08:28, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

Hi! Replied on my talk page. giggy _(:O) 09:28, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

Thanks

thanks for putting that Alberto Mora statement of July 7 2004 up here. very useful and important document.

FYI

The year parameter in {{header}} adds the Category:YYYY works. No need to add it separately. — billinghurst sDrewth 12:06, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

Addendum. There have been a few recent modifications to {{header}}, including the integration of sister links into the header. — billinghurst sDrewth 12:08, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

Come on, as an administrator it would be helpful for you to keep up with some of the improvements to {{header}} and {{author}} and using them in the works that you add. — billinghurst sDrewth 13:50, 27 February 2011 (UTC)

Afghanistan's Political parties in 2005

Did you consider making at list at wikipedia, the heavily linked page would be more useful if integrated, checked, improved and maintained there. cygnis insignis 19:19, 2 January 2011 (UTC)

For example, the light blue sister links I clicked are in fact 'redlinks'. cygnis insignis 19:22, 2 January 2011 (UTC)

I would agree with cygnis insignis, it seems an unusual addition to Wikisource main namespace, especially in light of the commentary about lists at Wikisource:What Wikisource includes. Alternatively with some modifications, it may be something that could be used in the Portal: namespace for linking to various works, either internal or external to WS. Also as a side note, the year = YYYY parameter adds the a work to [[Category:YYYY works]], so there is no need to add the category manually unless there is some extra factor that is needing to be noted. — billinghurst sDrewth 12:02, 3 January 2011 (UTC)

Executive Order 13567

Just an FYI... thought you may be interested (released today). — George Orwell III (talk) 01:49, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

More to {{header}}

We have more concise fields in the {{header}} template, now, eg. https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikisource/en/w/index.php?title=Summary_of_Evidence_for_Combatant_Status_Review_Tribunal_—_Al_Khalifa%2C_Salman_Ibrahim&action=historysubmit&diff=2517730&oldid=2514930 Billinghurst (talk) 13:40, 20 March 2011 (UTC)

SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE. Surely as a fellow administrator you can get with the program, it is not that hard.

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikisource/en/w/index.php?title=Initial_Debriefing_of_Mohammed_JAWAD&action=historysubmit&diff=2613798&oldid=2605243 Billinghurst (talk) 13:58, 29 March 2011 (UTC)

You have new messages

Hello, Geo Swan. You have new messages at Jeepday's talk page.
You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

Wikisource User Group

Wikisource, the free digital library is moving towards better implementation of book management, proofreading and uploading. All language communities are very important in Wikisource. We would like to propose a Wikisource User Group, which would be a loose, volunteer organization to facilitate outreach and foster technical development, join if you feel like helping out. This would also give a better way to share and improve the tools used in the local Wikisources. You are invited to join the mailing list 'wikisource-l' (English), the IRC channel #wikisource, the facebook page or the Wikisource twitter. As a part of the Google Summer of Code 2013, there are four projects related to Wikisource. To get the best results out of these projects, we would like your comments about them. The projects are listed at Wikisource across projects. You can find the midpoint report for developmental work done during the IEG on Wikisource here.

Global message delivery, 23:21, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

How active do you intend to be in the future?

Greetings, Geo Swan. You currently have the adminship bit on this project, which is up for renewal this month. It has been noted that your activity here has declined, and I was wondering if you intend to continue as an active editor and administrator here. Cheers! BD2412 T 21:11, 1 January 2016 (UTC)

Please to note that having triggered three negative votes for retention of admin rights, this has now been noted to the broader community for their input. — billinghurst sDrewth 06:05, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

• It is true, I haven't been very active recently. But I plan to be more active, in 2016. Geo Swan (talk) 14:30, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

Hi there,

I've closed your admin confirmation as unsuccessful, and requested removal of the bit. I suggest that if/when you become active here again, restoration of the admin bit should be a formality. Thanks for your many years of admin service!

Hesperian 03:33, 1 February 2016 (UTC)