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A few quickfire thoughts about Wikileaks

December 9th, 2010 by David Bradley >> 9 Comments

A rapid response to a Whohub question addressed to me.

It isn’t wrong. They provide an invaluable conduit for freedom of speech. I am not so keen on the way they are trickle feeding the media the current splurge of information, but whistleblowers of all kinds are needed to help us stamp out corruption across the globe. It’s best that we know what our politicians are saying behind closed doors, who cares about their hurt feelings, we pay them to run our countries not to gossip and bitch about each other.

The criticism of the release of so-called “vulnerable” US strategic sites is quite bizarre. Apparently, the list of people who had permission to read the various releases that we have seen in the last few weeks is something like 3.5 million, that’s essentially public domain. None of this information is news to anyone who wanted to know.

The withdrawal of access by the likes of Amazon, Mastercard, Paypal and Visa from Wikileaks accounts and the seizure of the wikileaks.com domain are a disgrace, no laws have been broken, no due legal process has taken place to allow any of this to be legitimate.

Assange’s arrest and imminent extradition to Sweden for alleged sex crimes and possible subsequent removal to the US to face whatever spurious charges they can trump up, is, it seems to me, the thrashing of very embarrassed governments whose own people have handed over documents that reveal nothing particularly important but simply show up their petty behaviour and stupidity.

Does anyone seriously believe any politician isn’t a total and utter a…

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By the way if you’re looking for wikileaks.com you won’t find it, the US authorities had it removed from the internet illegally, but there are lots of mirrors listed at http://wikileaks.ch on http://www.wikileaks.ch/mirrors.html


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  • Kim Woodbridge // Dec 9, 2010 at 4:38 pm

    Thank you! Well said.

    What I really really don’t get is the anger toward Assange when the anger should be directed at the politicians. And do what they will with him – this isn’t going away.

  • David Bradley // Dec 9, 2010 at 4:41 pm

    The bit the politicians and anti mob don’t seem to get is that this is an open resource that anyone can mirror. Wikileaks really isn’t going away and the sooner politicians get that through their thick skulls the better, we can then move on to a slightly better world where they are fully answerable to their electorate.

  • Mike Spear // Dec 9, 2010 at 5:09 pm

    hmmm…. I fear I’m going to be in the minority here. I think WikiLeaks has released some good material over many months and I see no reason to shut it down.
    BUT ( isn’t there always one of those …. )
    The recent fuss is a lot of name calling and accusations with not a heck of a lot behind it on anyone’s part.
    Sure there was a list of possible terror targets released that got politicians all in a knot. But there also weren’t any secret sites in there that no on had thought of before.
    Several major sites like Amazon cut off WikiLeaks. Well in the debate about ‘freedoms’, that is the company’s choice. So how do WikiLeaks supporters repond? By cutting off my online access to my account information.
    As for trumped up charges against Mr. Assange I have no idea if they are trumped up. Amazingly however his supporters do know that and like all the diplomats with red faces, keep the proof to themselves.
    Ulitmately though the question is whether we are better off with the release? No.
    Are we worse off? No.
    Have we all now come up with our own definitition of free speech and freedom of choice? You betcha.

    More at http://mediamargins.com/wikileaks-serves-up-popcorn

    Mike

  • Gordon Hudson // Dec 9, 2010 at 5:29 pm

    Very well said. I’m in 100% agreement! As far as I’m aware, Wikileaks don’t “steal” the information they leak, so they are merely the vehicle by which it is made public….
    If they are going to nail Wikileaks up for this, then why don’t they nail the CEO of Colt Firearms up for all the shooting deaths related to their guns?
    It’s not that much of a stretch really…

  • David Bradley // Dec 9, 2010 at 5:49 pm

    I think we were actually in agreement, Mike. Like I said cablegate is nothing more than embarrassing rather than something serious. But, I do think we’re slightly better off in that the issues are being aired. As to the dDOS attacks on financial sites, I don’t condone those, they are a pain in the arse, but I think they’re being carried out by the same kinds of thugs who were always first on the soccer pitch when “their” team lost headbutting rival fans and wielding bike chains and Stanley knives…

  • Mike Spear // Dec 9, 2010 at 6:10 pm

    That ‘thug’ mentality however is not something to be dismissed or treated as simply a bit of butt pain.
    Julian Assange fans it with his Barnum and Bailey style showmanship, social media grabs on to it and tweets and retweets their little beaks off, and mainstream media are running clips from the Anonymous twats like one I just heard about how the cyberwar is overcoming “time and space”.
    If I was managing the PR script on the diplomatic stage right now I would simply sit back and watch as any usefullness of the leaks I think has been lost in the hype.

  • David Bradley // Dec 9, 2010 at 7:28 pm

    I wasn’t dismissing it, I was simply using it as a comparison. Soccer thugs are not necessarily soccer fans just as those hammering internet sites are not necessarily wikileaks supporters.

  • DH // Dec 21, 2010 at 7:52 am

    Julian can step up and claim credit for the next round of killings between the PLO and Hammas.

  • David Bradley // Dec 21, 2010 at 8:58 am

    You think? You prefer to live in a world where we pay taxes to people to run our nations who then spend their time bitching about each other behind closed doors rather than dealing with serious issues such as malaria, poverty, drought? The head of a software compare has done more to address those problems than any politician or diplomat. If Wikileaks hurries the demise of the self-obsessed fools purportedly in charge of things, all the better.