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Thread: Julian Assange and Wikileaks

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    feel like funkin' it up gwahir's Avatar
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    Default Julian Assange and Wikileaks

    To be honest, I'm surprised there wasn't a thread for this topic yet.

    I'm about to go to bed, so I won't start the discussion off with my own views (which, frankly, will be fairly predictable), but I'll ask a few questions:

    1. How relevant are Assange's sex charges to the whole discussion of Wikileaks?

    2. How fair or unfair are the governmental backlashes against Wikileaks and Assange (especially from the U.S. government and Australia; I think those two have made the most noteworthy responses)?
    ----2a. What about the threats and calls to violence made by many high profile U.S. Right-wingers? (Please inform me if similar such statements have been made by anyone outside of the U.S.-Right... I'd be just as appalled, I just haven't seen any.)

    3. Has Wikileaks done anything wrong?

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    Journeyman Cocksmith Mr. E's Avatar
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    1. They are not relevant because I don't believe they are at all true. INTERPOL is not in the business of hunting down people guilty of sexual misconduct. I don't think it is a coincidence that the former Undersecretary of Enforcement of the United States Treasury happens to be the head of INTERPOL and that INTERPOL happened to take a break from shutting down genocide, terrorism, and drug trafficking to go after one random sexual misconduct suspect.

    2. I am torn on whether the governmental backlash Assange has faced is fair or not. On the one hand, all he is doing is taking information about our own governments and putting them up for public consumption. On the other hand, he is having an unnecessary negative effect on international relations, making governments paranoid, revealing the identities and locations of war informants and operatives which puts them in significant danger, and providing sensitive information (potentially out of context of action) to what is generally a dumb populace (I am on of those 'a person is smart, people are dumb' kind of people, but let's not get into that as I'm sure I'll get eaten for thinking that way).

    2a. No point in getting into this, as it is basically the subject of your other thread. My opinion remains the same. However, I will say that the only thing I've heard of Palin saying is that he should be hunted down like we're hunting down Osama Bin Ladin, but if/when the American military ever finds Bin Laden they aren't just going to shoot him, they will bring him back for trial and all that like they did with Hussein. I think that statement was more of a call to the government to action than telling people to go try to kill him. Again it is an issue of interpretation, but even if you consider violence with the same message as her rhetoric to be her fault it is not like any American crazy can get to him anyway. I haven't read much else on right wing threats, but I don't generally follow those crazies anyway and have been on vacation since December up until a few days ago.

    3. Um....tricky tricky. Like I said, it is bad that they released the information on the identities and locations of war operatives and informants. I do think that that is very wrong, and if Assange is to be punished for anything it should be that. As far as most of the other things that have gotten out, I consider it to be a little irresponsible (inciting international paranoia isn't exactly the best way to help countries work together and listen to each other), but not the end of the world. I think if he were to have edited his releases to not betray any information that could get foreign operatives and informants attacked or killed then he should have been left alone, only deterred through increased information security on the part of governments.

    Alas though, he didn't, and I do believe he should be at least tried for that, but I don't think he should be labeled a terrorist. I am not familiar enough with any laws related to any government's information security to say that he should be brought up on anything further, but I'm sure he has broken numerous of those for any country he's said anything about, which I believe governments have the right to try him for also. I am torn on information security laws as a whole though. On the one hand some things obviously need to be kept confidential or people will die and I think that information should always be protected. At the same time, though, I think all governments would work better if they didn't have much to hide in the first place.
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    =========== KT.'s Avatar
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    1. I don't believe the sex charges are relevant at all to the discussion of the legality of Wikileaks, even if they are true.

    2. I feel as though the government/public backlash is misplaced. Assange only provided a forum. He didn't steal the information. If anything the US government should be blaming itself that the information was released. The government classifies way too many files and at the same time gives way too many people clearance to view these files. And apparently, until all that sensitive information was leaked, the government also made it entirely too easy to copy/transfer these classified documents. I'd rather Wikileaks reveal the security flaws by releasing classified information now than spies secretly exploiting the classified information for years.

    3. From what I know I don't believe that Wikileaks has broken any US laws (freedom of the press) but whether Wikileaks has done anything morally wrong is ambiguous. I generally favor Wikileaks but I can see the other side of the argument.

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    A very manly muppet Mad Pino Rage's Avatar
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    1. How relevant are Assange's sex charges to the whole discussion of Wikileaks?
    They aren't relevant. Just a tactic used by people too high up in the American governments and big corporations to protect their threatened interests.


    2. How fair or unfair are the governmental backlashes against Wikileaks and Assange (especially from the U.S. government and Australia; I think those two have made the most noteworthy responses)?
    I think a lot of people high up in the government and private sector have worked tirelessly to lean hard on Assange and Wikileaks. I hope they fail to do any significant damage to setback Assange or the road that's been opened up by him and many other like minded individuals and groups.


    ----2a. What about the threats and calls to violence made by many high profile U.S. Right-wingers? (Please inform me if similar such statements have been made by anyone outside of the U.S.-Right... I'd be just as appalled, I just haven't seen any.)
    Generally, everything they say is absurd and what they have said at the height of this controversy was no less than normal.




    3. Has Wikileaks done anything wrong?
    Maybe. I'm not sure. I think we do deserve a lot more transparency in our government. What we don't know we can't have a say. I'd like to know what's going on in my world and who's doing what to it.

    Reading this lead me to a good article on Rolling Stone interviewing Assange. His extradition trial is February 1st, so I think he'll be getting a little more converage now that much of the attention has died down.

    http://www.rollingstone.com/politics...118?print=true

    Julian Assange: The Rolling Stone Interview

    Under house arrest in England, the WikiLeaks founder opens up about his battle with the 'Times,' his stint in solitary and the future of journalism

    by: Michael Hastings


    Click to read the whole interview


    Ego or not, he's an incredibly smart and gifted man. I can't cast aside my own thoughts that maybe he has some ulterior motives that may seem shady, and I say that because I'm not completely sure about him. I think what he is apart of and that he is at the center of it he's doing a good job of not coming off as a nutcase.

    People in the government are trying really hard to pressure Bradley Manning to cough something up on Assange. At one point they were making him get naked everyday and searching him because they believed he was suicidal. I suspect the recent passing of the National Defense Authorization Act was in part due to this. The provision to indefinitely detain without trial enemy military combatants - such as what the government is labeling Manning - was probably supported to prevent further whistle blowing. I really do hope Manning and Assange come out on top.
    Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.
    Albert Einstein

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    Sexual Deviant Vengeful Scars's Avatar
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    Also Mystery, way to drop the ball on calling out the Osama trial
    lik dis if u cry evertim
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