I don't know how this will all play itself out in the future but anything that exposes the news that is kept from us by governments (who think they are working in our best interests) is a good thing.
I don't like the idea of Americans calling this man a traitor (he is not even a US citizen) and calling for the invasions of other nations to capture him.
I have fears that this event will lead to stricter censorship's placed on the Internet (which I believe should remain free).
Today he has several of his Swiss bank accounts that were meant to be used in his legal defence frozen at the request of the British government. That is also wrong. Nothing has been proven yet as to the illegalities Assange has been accused of and until they is a guilty sentence pronounced, he should be afforded all rights to a legal defence open to him. He should not have been summarily found guilty and had his accounts closed.
Because of what he does as a disseminator of information, he is forced to move his location daily and his life is constantly in danger by powerful people who don't want to hear the truth or, more importantly, don't want YOU or I to know the truth.
Like V said, "people shouldn't be scared of their governments, the governments should be afraid of it's people".
I will be watching this one closely.
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4 comments:
I know some are calling Jullian Assange a hero and a whistleblower, but in reality I think his motivation is notoriety. Why else would he parse out the documents in chunks to make it last longer?
The thing is, it's not just about governments embarrassed by their own dirty laundry. It's not just us Western World types reading private diplomatic communiques and having a laugh over what they really think about other countries. You have to know all the other countries are reading these as well and the dictators like Robert Mugabe and Moamar Khadafi who have had their secrets revealed are going to want to know who talked to these diplomats. You can be certain that they won't be gentle about it. There will certainly be prison, toture and executions involved. Some information that is given to diplomats is given by people who are taking a great risk. And it's not just military secrets, much of the information that the diplomats get is from ordinary people in repressive regimes who pass information about atrocities at great personal costs to themselves. This is the information that diplomats use to put pressure on these countries. Those people, the real whistle blowers, the real unsung heroes are now in great danger and many of them will be killed.
This is irresponsibility of the highest order and Julian Assange has blood on his hands as does all the mainstream papers who have passed on the information. We can sit back perfectly safe and laugh about it and claim that Assange is a hero who is being falsely persecuted, but he has really upset the apple cart in countries that are far less stable and priveleged than ours is.
If Julian Assange truly believes he is doing the world a service then he is sorely misguided. If he is seeking notoriety and personal aggrandizement, then he is loathsome.
The really sad part of it all is that it will not make the world more open. The direct result of this will be to put a very defenite wall up on this information. The intelligence sharing network that came into being after 9/11 will close down and those who took the risks to try to bring justice to their countries will either be killed or will have to go into hiding. Others will think twice before they dare do the same thing for fear of their secret being made public.
I can perfectly see your side of this well reasoned arguement. That is what I was hoping to hear when I asked the question.
He's a hero for doing what he did. My country is a cunt.
M.D. +1
I also find it particularly maddening that he's gone even further than releasing embarrassing backstage talk. Via the BBC:
"A long list of key facilities around the world that the US describes as vital to its national security has been released by Wikileaks."
Those vital targets include not only places in the US, but also in the UK, Africa, and other countries around the world.
I personally believe that his motivations go beyond just being an attention whore. I think its a much more basic motivation of hate.
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