WikiLeaks about to hit the fan

By doing so, we gave people like you a tool to cry war crimes and international laws violations at the drop of a hat.

Nope. I think that the truth deserves to be known in every single case, all the time. Always. It is a fundamental part of my philosophy. If releasing the truth is damaging to an individual, group or nation, the real problem isn't the release but the actions behind it.

Quote:

Nope. I think that the truth deserves to be known in every single case, all the time. Always. It is a fundamental part of my philosophy. If releasing the truth is damaging to an individual, group or nation, the real problem isn't the release but the actions behind it.

You know, I believe you, Cy. Your record shows that, except for, well, you know. Therein lies the conundrum.

I am against your attempts to turn every single conversation - every single one - into an indictment of America as a terrorist state. I agreed with you long ago that we've done and are still doing bad things, but I'm not interested in your opinion that the US is the worst country on Earth, or any of that junk.

but I'm not interested in your opinion that the US is the worst country on Earth, or any of that junk.

I assure you that neither I nor anyone here could care less.

BillW wrote:

Do you really think they will go viral?

Why not?

Assange has repeatedly stated that his efforts are not to encourage governmental transparency but to disrupt and shut down government operations.

I don't doubt that he believes his efforts are targeted only at operations which work against the best interests of the governed, but then he has acknowledged that, for him, "collateral damage" to innocents is unfortunate but acceptable in the advancement of his mission. This acknowledgment was made for "collateral damage" that encompassed physical injury and death, do you think he would shrink from invasion of privacy?

It is a goal of anarchists to bring the machinary of government to a grinding halt. To convince the governed that not only can they not trust their governments, they cannot rely upon them.

Can anyone be confident that Assange won't decide that the release of massive amounts of information relative to personal health records or financials, despite the possibility for "collateral damage," is a good way to achieve his goal?

Even if we accept that his mission is foundationally legitimate, why should we trust him to decide upon the appropriate targets?

He charges governments with control and mainpulation of information to serve their interests and intentions. Isn't he guilty of the same crime?

Having obainted the hundreds of thousands of sensitive documents, he didn't simply provide the whole world with total access to his entire database. He developed and is executing a plan for periodic and select releases based on timing and subject matter and employing chosen publishing sources.

What precisely his plan is, I certainly can't say, but there is a plan and there are motives and manipulation. I don't know why we should feel more secure with him having the information to dispense as he sees fit, as opposed to our governments. Those of us who are citizens of democratic nations have had far more of a say in the appointment of governmental keepers of this information than in the selection of Julian Assange as the private keeper.

Whether or not one can directly link Assange to the damage caused by some hacker releasing the names and account numbers of hundreds of thousands of MasterCard customers, he certainly bears some responsibility for setting a wave of information anarchy in motion.

Hawkeye has already suggested that the internet may be the greatest victim of the WikiLeak's efforts and, as ironic as this would be, he is correct.

For years now, government's and corporations have not devoted the time and resources required by the threat of the cyber crooks, thugs and vandals that fall under the general heading of "hackers."

It would not be surprising at all to see the WikiLeaks affair result in an increase in governmental control of the internet. Assange is not opening the door to a brave new world of information freedom, he is helping to increase and improve the methods for restricting the flow of information.

Bill keeps telling y'all that the USA is a terrorist nation, a country that commits war crimes but ya just won't listen to him.

The releases damage nothing. The original actions are the damaging part. It's really important to keep this clear.

And we're all a bunch of ewoks? Cute but largely useless? Sweden is Boba Fett or Jabba the Hutt? Robinson and Pilger fight it out for the roles of Luke and Obi-Wan?

What a fun game you've invented Eorl!

As I think, the whole concept of war crimes is bullshit I do not think that I had stated the US is guilty of thems or a terrorist nation or whatever your silliness of the day is.

Israel once attacked a clearly mark US naval ship in international waters and kill US sailors in so doing.

They did this in the view that it was needed to serve their best interests during wartime and to me it was not a war crime as it the situation had been reverse I would had expected the US or any other nation state to do the same.

The sinking of the French fleet in harbor by the British during WW2 was a similar happening.

The whole concept of war crimes is silly and counter produced and should have been end stop after WW2.