Wikileaks and Julian Assange

[Eliminator Jr.]

Wikileaks and Julian Assange

Wikileaks, for those not in the know, is a whistle-blower website that publishes confidential "leaks" (secret government documents) online in order to bring important news and otherwise hidden information to the public. The website has stirred up a furore among both governments and the people. Most governments, including those of US and Australian, condemn the actions of the website and its leader, Australian citizen Julian Assange, with some politicians even going as far as to suggest he should be executed (Sarah Palin) or his passport possibly cancelled (PM of Australia Julia Gillard).

Recently he's been charged in Sweden with a crime called "secret rape", which doesn't exist in many other countries, but put simply, whether this crime is serious or not isn't really important. What's important is that he's being held in isolation in London after turning himself into the police facing extradition to Sweden to face charges. Many believe this is just the US government's way of eventually bringing him to America to face charges.

So basically guys, there's a big debate going about whether Wikileaks is moral or not. Wikileaks have released many documents on the Afghan War, for example the video earlier this year that showed a US Army helicopter firing on two journalists and others which stirred a whole lot of controversy. On the other hand, some documents have allegedly given away many strategic plans and locations of soldiers fighting terrorists in the Middle East. So on one hand you have people going "the government shouldn't be able to keep the fact that some of their soldiers shot innocent civilians" and arguing that all of these leaks are important to keep the power with the people and governments responsible, whereas others argue that these leaks are harmful and the website needs to be shut down. Currently there are close to a million documents leaked.

The website is currently struggling as many companies such as Paypal and Mastercard have stopped letting their users donate to Wikileaks and many of the web hosting servers they were on have either cut them off or been shut down.

(Not all documents are necessarily about the war though, like for example one was a document which revealed the planned internet blacklist proposed by the Australian government a while back, which revealed that on that list was a Queensland dentist and a dog-boarding kennel, meaning the blacklist was going to block out stuff it wasn't meant to (one of the reasons why so many people were against the internet censorship).)

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tl;dr What are your opinions on Wikileaks? What do you think of Julian Assange's current predicament? Do you believe that it's a threat to international security that these documents are leaked, or do you reckon that the government needs to be kept honest and responsible?

 

[Kura]

To be honest.. I've never even heard of Wikileaks ._. So I don't know exactly how valid the site is.. but if those documents are all true.. it has nothing to do with government trying to hide things and cover things up.. freedom of speech is a right in America, isn't it? Not slander.. because it's not fabricated.

 

[Captain Fabio]

I strongly believe in the freedom of speech.
I don't condone what he did and, if the government are deceiving their own people, then the people should know about it.
It is that simple in my eyes.

 

[Yuoaman]

I strongly believe in the freedom of speech.
I don't condone what he did and, if the government are deceiving their own people, then the people should know about it.
It is that simple in my eyes.

You believe in the freedom of speech, and believe the government should not deceive their people... but you say he did wrong by giving the people this information? The two conflicting opinions seem pretty contradictory, at least in my mind.

While I may not agree entirely with what WikiLeaks has done, a lot of that information had to get out. And the rape charge is simply pure ********, especially since he's being charged now rather than right after the supposed rape.

Also, the fact that that loony Sarah Palin called Assange out on treason makes me laugh. It isn't treason if he isn't a citizen of the country you silly woman.

 

[Captain Fabio]

You believe in the freedom of speech, and believe the government should not deceive their people... but you say he did wrong by giving the people this information? The two conflicting opinions seem pretty contradictory, at least in my mind.

While I may not agree entirely with what WikiLeaks has done, a lot of that information had to get out. And the rape charge is simply pure ********, especially since he's being charged now rather than right after the supposed rape.

Also, the fact that that loony Sarah Palin called Assange out on treason makes me laugh. It isn't treason if he isn't a citizen of the country you silly woman.

The government, in my eyes, have an obligation to serve their people and tell them how their country is being run.
Understandable, that conflicts with the governments freedom of speech is, but we elected them into the position. They serve us, not the other way around; though it doesn't seem like that a lot.

I agree with the rape charge (Yuoaman's point that is), utter rubbish!

 

[Zet]

Thankfully Gillard can't get rid of his passport as it is up to our foreign policy guy Kevin Rudd and he has no intention of throwing it away since he wants to provide the same support as any other Australian overseas would get. Though I hear the US is trying to charge him with espionage, even though he isn't the one going around stealing the cables.

I really do hope this silly court case will end soon and Assange can walk around a free man.

 

[>Feelings<]

The rape charge bullcrap is made up. I support Julian Assange at this.

And what international security? There's no current threat to international security. It's all an excuse.
And they put the rape charge because people would be moved against him most by that.

I guess when secret's out, that's what happens...
Funny thing is, I have thought about this controversy and believed it in the past.

 

[TRIFORCE89]

But, this doesn't show that the government is trying to hide things. These diplomatic cables are just private opinions of the diplomats.

Government transparency is great in all, but we're expecting every government worker to disclose absolutely everything now? Is that what Twitter has done to us? It's like if the lady at the DMV office doesn't announce to the world that someone ticked her off, oh heaven forbid - WWIII is on.

This stupid. Nothing that we needed to know was being hidden. There was no whistleblowing. Nothing here is really surprising either. But we keep secrets for a reason. There's people I don't like. I don't tell it to their face. Because they could then punch me in the face. Revealing such things can damage relations and can put the lives of some of those diplomats at risk.

It's stupid and self-serving. He's causing more harm than good.

 

[Corvus of the Black Night]

I believe in the freedom of speech to the extent where you're being a dick. Which it's pretty obvious Assange has crossed when he leaked places of security interest online (who cares about that... besides TERRORISTS?!) and when he threatened to leak other security threats... that's kinda dickish. It's kinda like when people lose their jobs for saying stupid things. Just because there's freedom of speech doesn't mean you have freedom to "everyone likes you" because you were a dick.

 

[Livewire]

Sarah Palin needs to be shipped off to a tiny Island in the Pacific and left there.

As for Assange, I'm interested to see if he'll leak the rest of the information. So far it's just diplomatic stuff- nothing truly enlightening or groundbreaking, but maybe that's his Grande finale. But I believe the rape charges are total BS. Somebody in a big government position is lying to get Assange into custody somewhere. But I don't think a jury would convict, because Assange has become a cult hero in a matter of days.

 

[Jolene]

Wikileaks has done a lot of important things like once it released information about how prisoners are badly treated in Guantanamo Bay.

 

[Corvus of the Black Night]

Sarah Palin needs to be shipped off to a tiny Island in the Pacific and left there.

She already has a show where she runs the risk of being mauled to death by a bear.

Wikileaks has done a lot of important things like once it released information about how prisoners are badly treated in Guantanamo Bay.

And suitable places for terrorists to attack to kill hundreds...

 

[Ivysaur]

With people like this around, I don't really see a good future for him. He's all over the news here in Europe (with the four biggest newspapers showing all the secret cables, with interesting stuff like how they tried to get some American criminals off the hook here in Spain), and they have released 4gb of info that will be uncoded if something were to happen to him. It will be fun.

But now the fun is online, with Paypal, Visa and Mastercard blocking her bank accounts and Amazon removing Wikileaks domain from the net... and 4chan attacking all of the previous ones for attacking the freedom of speech.

After all, he's just the mailman. He wasn't the one who put a pathetic security system on the US embassies around the world nor the one who leaked the cables out of the Government area.

 

[Alice]

The rape charge bullcrap is made up.

Agreed. It's waaaaaaaay too convenient.

I think Assange went about this the wrong way though... there's no reason to post files that actually compromise our security/put our soldiers in danger. He had the potential to become somewhat of a white knight if he had just posted the right stuff, but in the end he's acting like more of a terrorist. He's just 'high' on the attention that he's getting for all of this, and is doing whatever he can to keep it going.

I don't think he should be arrested/killed, no. (Although I'd be surprised if he isn't murdered.) But he was the wrong man for the job, and wikileaks needs to end.

 

[Shanghai Alice]

I don't care so much about what the website does, I just think the guy's a deluded ass.

Reading a few things of his, he's really loving the "The big, stupid, evil American government is out to get me. I iz an hero."

 

[Netto Azure]

Well I am quite on the fence on this issue. While yes it's great to see the inner workings of diplomacy are working. The diplomatic fallout just scares me a bit.

 

[beauty. proletariat]

The government will always be required to keep secrets for the country's sakes.

Know that every politician is a politician because he / she wants his / her country to prosper. And sometimes that requires keeping secrets.

But I do believe that we need foundations such as The Sunshine Press to keep our government in check.

Both Julian Assange and The Sunshine Press, in my eyes, are standing on thin ice. It's just never going to break whilst there is support.

 

[Eliminator Jr.]

But, this doesn't show that the government is trying to hide things. These diplomatic cables are just private opinions of the diplomats.

Government transparency is great in all, but we're expecting every government worker to disclose absolutely everything now? Is that what Twitter has done to us? It's like if the lady at the DMV office doesn't announce to the world that someone ticked her off, oh heaven forbid - WWIII is on.

This stupid. Nothing that we needed to know was being hidden. There was no whistleblowing. Nothing here is really surprising either. But we keep secrets for a reason. There's people I don't like. I don't tell it to their face. Because they could then punch me in the face. Revealing such things can damage relations and can put the lives of some of those diplomats at risk.

Wikileaks has revealed how US soldiers used Iraqi civilians as human bomb detectors. source
Wikileaks revealed that unharmful websites were also on Australia's planned internet censorship. source
Wikileaks revealed how the CIA kidnapped an innocent German and tortured him for months, then attempting to stop Germany from arresting its operatives. source
Wikileaks detailed December 2006, the bloodiest month in Iraq's war, with 103 civilians dying every day. source

Nothing that we needed to know, right? Wikileaks has probably damaged many relations, but what's more important, these relations or doing what's right? This next thing is from the top of my head but yeah now there's apparently some UN or European investigation into the torture of Iraqis and stuff by the US, which may not have happened without Wikileaks revealing what the US has done in Afghanistan.

I believe in the freedom of speech to the extent where you're being a dick. Which it's pretty obvious Assange has crossed when he leaked places of security interest online (who cares about that... besides TERRORISTS?!) and when he threatened to leak other security threats... that's kinda dickish. It's kinda like when people lose their jobs for saying stupid things. Just because there's freedom of speech doesn't mean you have freedom to "everyone likes you" because you were a dick.

Has Wikileaks killed anyone yet? In interviews, Assange has said that the data Wikileaks have released is not of any tactical value because they're all at least 9 months old. He's said himself "we have withheld approximately 15,000 reports for further harm minimization process. We don't see anything here that is of tactical significance". So basically, current information that could be used in planning attacks on our soldiers hasn't been released.

Also, nobody (not the government or any proper media outlet) has provided any proof that harm has been caused by these releases. By releasing data on the war and letting people scrutinise the actions of the US military, Wikileaks could actually be saving lives right now.

 

[Livewire]

Wikileaks has revealed how US soldiers used Iraqi civilians as human bomb detectors. source
Wikileaks revealed that unharmful websites were also on Australia's planned internet censorship. source
Wikileaks revealed how the CIA kidnapped an innocent German and tortured him for months, then attempting to stop Germany from arresting its operatives. source
Wikileaks detailed December 2006, the bloodiest month in Iraq's war, with 103 civilians dying every day. source

Nothing that we needed to know, right? Wikileaks has probably damaged many relations, but what's more important, these relations or doing what's right? This next thing is from the top of my head but yeah now there's apparently some UN or European investigation into the torture of Iraqis and stuff by the US, which may not have happened without Wikileaks revealing what the US has done in Afghanistan.



Has Wikileaks killed anyone yet? In interviews, Assange has said that the data Wikileaks have released is not of any tactical value because they're all at least 9 months old. He's said himself "we have withheld approximately 15,000 reports for further harm minimization process. We don't see anything here that is of tactical significance". So basically, current information that could be used in planning attacks on our soldiers hasn't been released.

Also, nobody (not the government or any proper media outlet) has provided any proof that harm has been caused by these releases. By releasing data on the war and letting people scrutinise the actions of the US military, Wikileaks could actually be saving lives right now.

I doubt Wikileaks is saving anybodies life, either. Leaking confidential military and diplomatic material won't magically make the US, Australia, or any other nation stop what they were doing on a dime. And aside from getting the information out there, I'm not sure it even changes anything. I doubt that Julian Assange, or a single whistle blowing website can singlehandedly blackmail the United States Government, or any other government into accountability. Plus, it seems the powers that be have already found a way to silence Assange with controversial and well timed rape charges.

 

[Headfirst For Halos]

All I hear when people say "FREEDOM OF SPEECH!" is "Bawww!!! Guvmints are evilz!1!1!"

More on subject about Mister Dissenter here, I think he just wants a trophy saying "I went against the guvmints! Aren't I coolz!?"

I hate people like this. Seriously, he needs something better to do. Like removing the tinfoil hat from his head.