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Wikileaks

somtam2000

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mahout
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Good fodder for Saturday night banter ... so what do you reckon regarding Wikileaks? Are they doing the world a favour or making the world more dangerous?

#1 Posted: 4/12/2010 - 18:56

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caseyprich

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I haven't kept that up on the issues, but downloaded this weeks podcast of On the Media (www.onthemedia.org) - they are show perhaps best describe as media criticism out of WNYC Public Radio. Most of the show is dedicated to an analysis of Wikileaks. I'm afraid almost anything I'd have to say would just be seeping poorly through my filter.

#2 Posted: 4/12/2010 - 21:34
neosho

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So far most of it just seems to be gossip stuff. No startling revelations. Hard to say how some will use the information. Instead of blaming Wikileaks the US should look at it's own security a little better. The first batch was attributed to a private. How would someone of that rank with little time in service have access to such sensitive information. I would hate to be Assange right now though. He has successfully irritated a lot of governments. A lot of the rightwingers in America are calling for his head.

#3 Posted: 5/12/2010 - 07:55
eastwest

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Good point.

I must say that I failed to see the point of publishing the latest batch. It's interesting gossip but it just shows that the foreign affair people do a decent job and they should be able to discuss foreign leaders like that. I do agree with the criticism that it needlesly jeopardizes international relations. Who knows what the N-korean lunatic will do after having read his analysis..

As for the previous things they published I think it's good that some of the truth came out. The previous postings might keep governments sharp and more open about some things. They have my support for that stuff as long as they don't put lives directly at risk.

#4 Posted: 5/12/2010 - 20:52
somtam2000

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I think it has been a bit of a mixed bag so far -- by that I mean some of it has made for interesting reading, but there hasn't been much so far that has really been all that surprising. Governments don't always tell the truth, diplomats spy on each other and weapons get sold to punters who probably shouldn't be getting them. Gross simplification I know, but nothing too earthshattering.

Earlier in the week WL alluded to another cache of files regarding a major US bank. I think, should that be released, it would be much more interesting. I assume it will demonstrate some kind of corporate evilness that you come to expect from the banks, but will be interesting to see if the govts that are currently busy trying to shutdown WL would then act to prosecute on the basis of docs WL release

Coming to a cinema near you no doubt.

#5 Posted: 5/12/2010 - 22:32

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neosho

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My feelings on the issue is still kind of a mixed bag. I seen an interview this week with Bob Woodward of Watergate fame in which he stated that Sec. of Defense Rumsfield had written a letter to Cheney, Powell and others in the summer of 01, that it was time to formulate a plan to do something about Iraq. This was right before 911. Now had that information been out there at the time, it might have changed the course of history.
I'm looking forward to the bank scandal though.

#6 Posted: 6/12/2010 - 08:35
MADMAC

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I have a couple of problems with wikileaks.

The first one is that they release information even if it puts peoples lives at risk. They don't seem to have any kind of ethical filter.

Two, they defacto target almost exclusively western democracies. This is the best form of government we have on the planet, and by damaging its principals we are doing a favor to regimes such as North Koreas and Irans. Why aren't they targetting these detestable regimes? Because they can't.

Much of what they have released appears to have been done so with the intent to embarass governments. I don't see anything constructive in that.

#7 Posted: 8/12/2010 - 01:38

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neosho

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I agree with you on the first one Madmac, and no there hasn't seen to be anything constructive about it. I've always felt there are some things the average person on the street does not need to know. As far as I know, Wikileaks doesn't target anyone. The information is uploaded freely by someone else. Which pretty much absolves them of a crime. The detestable regimes would would quickly execute anyone they thought was involved with disclosing these kind of secrets. Probably an incentive not to post, I would think.

#8 Posted: 8/12/2010 - 08:38
MADMAC

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Indeed Neosho. Expose journalism can be useful, because it is specifically targetting abuses within the system, which allows a free and open society to correct those abuses and make its country a better place for its citizenry. But the shotgun approach just doesn't do that. It kills the illegimate and the legitimate together and it seems to me the consequences are harmful to all.

#9 Posted: 8/12/2010 - 18:57

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