Thread: Wikileaks: Good or bad?

Originally Posted by commiecat

If someone in China, Pakistan or Russia were to leak information, it would also be published. They all have access to the Internet.

You honestly believe that!!!!!

Wow can I come live on Happy Happy Joy Joy planet with you

I gotta go hone razors at least there is one thing that exists on both our worlds

Originally Posted by richmondesi

Yeah, China would be totally fine with that type of activity. The problem is they monitor all the trunklines going into and out of China, censor virtually everything, and arrest dissidents...

That's rich

The type of people who know how to get the information and would leak it are also the type of people who can get around a web filter. There are anonymizers. There are VPNs. There are also web proxies. Oh yeah, and probably hundreds of articles explaining how to use these common tools.

Saying that China's firewall would at all prevent someone from leaking to Wikileaks is like saying that locking your car doors will prevent thieves from stealing your radio. The type of person who would steal your radio would also know how to get past a locked door.

Originally Posted by gssixgun

You honestly believe that!!!!!

Explain why you think that Wikileaks wouldn't publish articles about other countries, when they've already done so in the past?

I don't have an ideological stance on it but I somewhat agree with one of the articles in the economist about it. Leaking such information brings a new level of accountability of the government bureaucracy, the part that has never been held accountable.
Yes, it can certainly threaten the national security, it may be a treason, but that's just the usual trade-off between security and liberty.
As far as people being killed, the argument is that in the absence of leaks may be more/different people would be killed.
Labeling the leaks as terrorism seems nothing more than politicizing. Whoever leaked it knew what they were doing and should be prosecuted under the applicable laws, (and if we take a page from G.W.Bush's book possibly pardoned).

Originally Posted by richmondesi

Yeah, China would be totally fine with that type of activity. The problem is they monitor all the trunklines going into and out of China, censor virtually everything, and arrest dissidents...

That's rich

+1, make me think of Tiananmen Square. I was listening to the pundits on USA news stations talking about how "the people" were going to change China and bring some sort of democracy to the country. That was a day or so before the tanks rolled in and they started killing student protesters in the street of eternal peace. Some govs don't play when it comes to dissent.

I wonder whatever happened to the student who stopped the tanks??? Probably had a dawn meeting with a firing squad I suspect.



Mick

Bad, and PFC Manning if guilty should be dropped into the Korengal valley in Afghanistan with nothing but a Tattoo on his back in Pashto that says. I hate the Taliban.

Originally Posted by commiecat

If he's providing accurate information, then IMHO that is whistleblowing and he should be protected. Clearly we will disagree on this.

So then by that account when that lady agent in the CIA had her name released to the public was that whistleblowing and did you supported the White House at that time and want them protected????

I honestly don't have an opinion as to good or bad, but I have to actually ask--have any of you READ any of these? As far as I can tell, from reading myself and from reading public analysis from BBC, Al Jazeera and other non-Fox news sources, is that there is no real dangerous information. It's opinions, from diplomats, about what's happening in their countries. Not CIA agents, not deep cover operatives...diplomats. Public figures. Their identities are open, and their activities are clear.

What I found when I browsed a few of the hot-button places (Kabul, Ankara, Baghdad), was that the US is dealing with known narcotics traffickers (Karzai in Afghanistan) and an analysis of Turkey's foreign policy based on NEWSPAPER articles.

So when you say things like "This will lead to our operatives getting killed," I have to ask where you got that information, why you believe this, and who is feeding the fear? The international reactions I've seen thus far have been "Wow, that's embarrassing." Not "Wow, let's kill the Americans."

Originally Posted by gssixgun

You honestly believe that!!!!!

Wow can I come live on Happy Happy Joy Joy planet with you

I gotta go hone razors at least there is one thing that exists on both our worlds

The current leaks reflect quite poorly on Pakistan, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, et al.

Jim,

Those are good points, but it fails to take into account that there are thousands of cables that haven't been released yet, and of those that did, although I've read some I know I have not had time to read all of them... I know it's possible that someone has, but I doubt you're one of them. So, I'll defer to the government assessment that releasing some of these documents can endanger lives. Furthermore, one could argue that the embarrassing stuff could damage the credibility of the US to such a degree to endanger lives. There will be future conflicts, and there's no way for us to know the extent of how those embarrassing documents will affect the allies' of the US willingness to support us. Considering the current administration is up in arms about the leaks, I doubt this is a problem of Fox News type reporting...

Commiecat,

My point wasn't that it was impossible to get out, but it would mean certain death to whoever were caught doing it. The government's response to IP piracy was to start executing people infringing on copyrights... But, I'm sure they'd be much more tolerant of someone leaking classified information.