Wikileaks - Right or Wrong?
 

Curious to know the thoughts of the bored, not about Mr Assange, but on whether the current Wikileaks "cablegate" is warranted and justified or illegal and potentially harmful to human life and a crime of espionage.

Re: Wikileaks - Right or Wrong?
 

Millhouse is not a supporter.


edit - Wikileaks has it's place and releasing the information about the dumping of the chemicals on the African coast that was covered up was it. What is being done now is just stupid.

Re: Wikileaks - Right or Wrong?
 

I support them despite not seeing any explosive news from their leaks.

Re: Wikileaks - Right or Wrong?
 

As good old Socrates had it - "the unexamined life is not worth living". If one takes that to it's logical conclusion, what is true for the individual must also hold true for the collective. Ergo, one should expect one's Government to stand naked without fear of close scrutiny, in as much as one ought demand the same from oneself. Let's all get naked, people....

Re: Wikileaks - Right or Wrong?
 

As far as I can see wikileaks and Assange are simply doing what any decent investigative journalist used to do...

back in the days when there was a 'free press' unconstrained by the ugly restrictions of 'commercial concerns'.

If you believe in the concept of pluralistic democracy, (and its a fundamental assumption of most of the western world) - then proper investigative journalism is ESSENTIAL.

I tip my hat to J.Assange for having balls of steel and being prepared to martyr himself in his stand against the global repression of information.

Heres a fine example of the kind of information he's brought to light. warning - if you can watch this and no feel sick there may b something wrong with you:
http://collateralmurder.com/

Re: Wikileaks - Right or Wrong?
 

This is wild now.. they have set up a poison pill.. if anything happens to him or the organization, documents will be automatically released.

Re: Wikileaks - Right or Wrong?
 

DT article today. Wikileaks released emissaries from the Brit ambassador in Libya saying if we didn't release Megrahi then "Libya would cut us off at the knees" from an economic perspective.

Pretty much confirms that there's no such thing as principles left anymore. Everything is up for sale, including a country's integrity and belief in the values that supposedly constitute who we are.

The long term consequences of wikileaks - a more jaded and bitter populace and greater mistrust of government.

Re: Wikileaks - Right or Wrong?
 

Theft.

Re: Wikileaks - Right or Wrong?
 

Almost correct - except it was the underhand deceit of governments that has been rightfully exposed by wikileaks that will lead to a short term mistrust of government that will have to rebuild its constituents trust by acting in an open and more transparent manner and in the interests of its constituents...

all wikileaks has done is publish the truth of the thoughts and actions of others. In a factual and scientific, researched manner with the full support of some of the most respected newspaper and journalists. This should not be and never was a crime....

I support Wikileaks.

Re: Wikileaks - Right or Wrong?
 

The problem with wikileaks is that some of it is relevant whereas other parts aren't.

Releasing the thousands of emissaries between ambassadors, state departments/foreign offices and the diplomatic corps makes it far harder for future diplomats to gather information. Wikileaks is destroying this necessary secrecy and the long term implications could be profound if fact finding is completely hindered by greater distrust.

While I genuinely admire the concept of an open society where the government and its agents hold no secrets from the general populace, I also accept that because the world is an imperfect place, the government, even our government, may at times have to act in an imperfect manner (within reason). Espoinage, undercover agents and spying is one area where I tolerate government secrecy and classified information.

Re: Wikileaks - Right or Wrong?
 

**** em, "the truth will out"

funny though how it was a lot of angry rhetoric and not much else until assange announced the next leak is bank of america, then the shit hit the fan.

the kkk can have paypal and visa but wikileaks cant


the absolute best bit of all is the the us announced it plans for international press freedom day yesterday! you just couldnt make it up

Re: Wikileaks - Right or Wrong?
 

My worry is that nobody will have the guts to say or do anything confidential any more in case it gets leaked. I prefer the old, traditional style of diplomacy...lying and deceit.

Re: Wikileaks - Right or Wrong?
 

If anyone thinks this will result in more open politics or government then frankly they are naive - it will result in more closed doors and the distribution of material to an ever smaller group of people - i.e. it will have the exact opposite effect to its intentions.

Re: Wikileaks - Right or Wrong?
 

Fair enough, he could easily 'have an accident'

I think it's brilliant what he's done, its scaring the shite out of politicians all over the world, in this day and age they now know that these sort of things can get out. Superb.

Re: Wikileaks - Right or Wrong?
 

I'm afraid all my PMs and cybersex convos will all be out in the open...Many homes will be wrecked...

Re: Wikileaks - Right or Wrong?
 

US House of Representative Ron Paul, of Texas , has come out in support of Wikileaks. Ron Paul , even though a member of the Republican party is mostly Libertarian and does not align with the modern NeoConservative Republican party .

"In a free society we're supposed to know the truth," Paul said. "In a society where truth becomes treason, then we're in big trouble. And now, people who are revealing the truth are getting into trouble for it."


http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_1...05-503544.html

Re: Wikileaks - Right or Wrong?
 

Assange was arrested in the UK:

Swedish officials recently issued an arrest warrant for the 39-year-old Australian, who is wanted on suspicion of rape, sexual molestation, and unlawful coercion in the country, and Assange was arrested in London on Tuesday morning in connection with those charges.

Assange is currently appearing before the Westminster Magistrate's Court, at which point it will be decided whether or not his extradition to Sweden will be required.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_1...32-503544.html

Re: Wikileaks - Right or Wrong?
 

The women in question are not accusing him of rape.

Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/wor...#ixzz17XyL60Fc

He is being charged for " Sex by surprise " .

Since when does Interpol give such prominence for a crime whos fine is $715.

http://www.aolnews.com/world/article...probe/19741444

Re: Wikileaks - Right or Wrong?
 

My first thoughts on wikileaks when they started releasing stuff was that it is boring and although the release of the diplomatic cables is controversial it will have very little effect on how governments act in the future, but then suddenly the US started complaining and taking action (and various lapdogs in the shape of international companies; most notably paypal, amazon, mastercard and visa) have started behaving rather badly.

How on earth will we (the so-called free western world) be able to criticise anyone for lack of freedom of press ever again? In my opinion the US are shooting themselves in the foot big time with how they have reacted. If they had been more laid back the whole thing would have blown over in terms of weeks. Now however....

And I do wonder whether the reason they are so upset is the threat of exposing stuff at Bank of America rather than these ridiculous cables between diplomats.

I do agree with what other members of the bored have said that what wikileaks are doing is very similar to what any good investigative journalist would have done albeit on a much bigger scale since they are soliciting for the material rather than digging around in the dark..

Re: Wikileaks - Right or Wrong?
 

Anon have retaliated against the corporations that did the government's bidding.Mostly DDOS attacks.

Re: Wikileaks - Right or Wrong?
 

Power to the people!

(And the voice of the people says "More salt, please...").....

Re: Wikileaks - Right or Wrong?
 

The question is like asking "Should a naughty school boy with a big pile of stink bombs be allowed to let them off over the next few months/years?".

It was wrong to hand these over to wikileaks in the first place, but now they are in the public domain, the question is almost irrelevant. It is more of an embarrassment than risk to international relations/security etc (release of military signals would be a different matter).

The more relevant impact their slow release will have in international relations is that it will likely alter how diplomacy is conducted behind closed doors and introduce a lower level of trust into these meetings. And make diplomatic Political Officers (who write the cables) more nervous about what they write to summarise these meetings.

Most importantly though it has likely scuppered a good portion of my PhD field research :(

Re: Wikileaks - Right or Wrong?
 

In the current world of smoke and mirrors it's quite refreshing .There's nothing in it we didn't already know or even think.

The most damaging aspect for them is that they can't 'spin' it or manipualte it to their own ends.