Wikileaks

[lostbookworm]

This is a brilliant thing in my opinion. The whole Wikileaks Idea is a brilliant thing. Now, I want to hear you r views on it, your top cables, your views on Julian Assange, your views on peoples right to information that the government has been hiding and continues to try and hide.

For all those that don't know, Wikileaks is a massive whistleblowing site that has just blew the top off of the US Embassy. Type 'guardian us cables' and you'll get to the Guardian site which constantly uplaods the info, even though you can't access the main site.

[Jack]

I'm only interested if Climate Gate is on there...

[ManyIdeas]

I've been hearing a lot about WikiLeaks, but in all honesty, I really don't care. I may check it out, but I doubt there will be anything of interest to me there. Who knows? But for now I'll just... well... sit in anticipation for Christmas.

[crayons932]

I believe that in a democracy, information should be pulsing through thew community as much as possible, from as many different views as possible. The fact that the US was doing things illegally should be more than enough excuse to post such information. What did they expect when they put that stuff online? Its the internet, everything is everywhere. And in a true democracy, there wouldn't need to be a wikileaks because the government would be transparent and open to scrutiny by the people. We have the right to know the truth about the US illegal foreign diplomacy, no matter how bad it makes our country seem. Yes, our country has been performing illegal operations and backhanded deals, and we the people have a right to know about it. Thus, Assange is one of my personal heroes.

Also, perhaps the experience of Bradly Manning will expose some flaws in our military. He was openly gay and severely picked on. After finishing his training, he fell into a crowd of progressives in NYC, and gained some new viewpoints on the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and US foreign policy. The combination of this knowledge, his harsh treatments, and his breaking up with his boyfriend resulted in him stealing 250000 illegal documents disguised in a Lady Gaga CD (true story). Kudos to him for recognizing the harm being done to our democracy and releasing the information to the world.

Finally, some might argue that the releasing of this information will harm our diplomacy. Well, perhaps we deserve the repercussions for our (the US) actions. And yes, perhaps countries will not trust us in the future, because, well, they have a good reason not to.

[sayuri]

I couldn't care less what specific information is on wikileaks but I think the point it makes is great. It's nice to see that one person actually can have an impact on such a large scale. But as happy it makes me to see the US government get trolled I think the whole ordeal isn't that important. Of course the government keeps information from its people, it's the government. Same thing is true for anywhere. I mean, that's completely reasonable. Furthermore, laws are put in place to keep order. If the government breaks the law as a way to keep order, I don't see the problem. As for wikileaks, I can't see the lasting impact. Okay, so the government won't put confidential information on the internet. Not likely. They stop being sneaky little rats? HA. As far as I can tell there isn't a mob attacking the White House with pitchforks. People will forget about wikileaks eventually.

By the way, Julian Assange is a total BAMF.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoKcOOYFszs&feature=related

[crayons932]

couldn't care less what specific information is on wikileaks but I think the point it makes is great. It's nice to see that one person actually can have an impact on such a large scale. But as happy it makes me to see the US government get trolled I think the whole ordeal isn't that important. Of course the government keeps information from its people, it's the government. Same thing is true for anywhere. I mean, that's completely reasonable. Furthermore, laws are put in place to keep order. If the government breaks the law as a way to keep order, I don't see the problem. As for wikileaks, I can't see the lasting impact. Okay, so the government won't put confidential information on the internet. Not likely. They stop being sneaky little rats? HA. As far as I can tell there isn't a mob attacking the White House with pitchforks. People will forget about wikileaks eventually.

But we, the people of the US, have a right to know what is happening. In a democracy, the people have a right to know what the governement is doing. Since the government represents the people, if there is something the government is doing that is bad, we have a right to know and make changes based on that knowledge. And don't justify our misdoings with the statement that "Everyone does it." That in no way makes it right, it just means we have all the more reason to change it.

[Shaun]

We have a right to know up to a certain point. There are things I think all governments need to keep secret, but those things should be literally for the security of nation. A lot of the cables have been about our politicians saying stupid crap about other diplomats and the like, all of which I think is unacceptable for any politician or diplomat to be doing, especially when they represent Americans like myself.

My only problem with Assange and Wikileaks is that they do not appear to be doing this for noble reasons. Instead, they seem to be targeting only the U.S., without putting appropriate pressures on the dozens of other nations that also routinely violate U.N. treaties and do awful things to their people. To me, Wikileaks should have no qualms about targeting everyone that transgresses against humanity. So far, they've only targeted the U.S. and her allies, and there is no indication that they are going to target oppressive regimes like China or Iran. And that's fine, so long as they stop pretending like they are doing everyone a service. But since they are pretending, all they're doing is hurting everyone. A weaker U.S. internationally is not necessarily good for peoples in nations whose governments might be easily swayed by other government powers who certainly don't have the interests of the people in heart. That's not to say that the U.S. always has the interests of others at heart, but at least in our bid for power, we pretend like we want to give other people freedom to choose for themselves. We just happen to be pretty awful about it all.

So, in that respect, I think the "everyone does it" argument is important. Because unless you can prove that the U.S. is the only country doing these things, attacking only the U.S. amounts to a cultural war. What we need is a Wikileaks that points out what everyone is doing wrong. Full transparency.