Up until now, I've kept myself out of this whole WikiLeaks thing. Mainly because I don't like saying WikiLeaks. I think it sounds ridiculous. But I do have an opinion on this whole thing and I also have a point to make. Shocking, I know. But bear with me.So, this Julian Assange character likes to obtain classified or secret 
documents from various governments or institutions and then publish said information online. His most recent target has been the United States. It's not really all that clear to me what his goal is, as he is an Australian and doesn't seem to have any direct dealings with the United States. He is against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I think that has a lot to do with it. I also think that he's delusional if he thinks that he's going to be able to put a stop to these wars with his reckless release of information. Extremely delusional.
documents from various governments or institutions and then publish said information online. His most recent target has been the United States. It's not really all that clear to me what his goal is, as he is an Australian and doesn't seem to have any direct dealings with the United States. He is against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I think that has a lot to do with it. I also think that he's delusional if he thinks that he's going to be able to put a stop to these wars with his reckless release of information. Extremely delusional. 
Just the other day, The Australian ran a piece by Mr. Assange entitled "Don't shoot messenger for revealing uncomfortable truths". It is within this piece that Mr. Assange rambles on about how people need to know the truth. In some ways, he is correct. The people of a country should not be lied to by their government. That doesn't mean that the people need to know every bit of information that goes on behind the scenes. It's not something that is unique to America. Every country has information that is classified. I don't get what he doesn't understand about that. 
But it's in this piece that Mr. Assange proclaims his "innocence". According to him, it's not like these releases of classified information are hurting anyone. He's just putting the truth out there. In fact, he states "WikiLeaks has a four-year publishing history. During that time we have changed whole governments, but not a single person, as far as anyone is aware, has been harmed." Not so fast WikiWeenie.Back in August, Mr. Assange was the subject of a piece by a one Carole Cadwalladr over at The 
Guardian. In that piece, Mr. Assange talks about "...the Kenyan 2007 elections when a WikiLeak document "swung the election"." Really? According to him, yes. Really. The document of which he speaks "...exposed massive corruption by Daniel Arap Moi, and the Kenyan people sat up and took notice. In the ensuing elections, in which corruption became a major issue, violence swept the country." Huh. Anything else? Glad you asked! He then claimed "1,300 people were eventually killed, and 350,000 were displaced. That was a result of our leak." Ohhhh. So close!
Guardian. In that piece, Mr. Assange talks about "...the Kenyan 2007 elections when a WikiLeak document "swung the election"." Really? According to him, yes. Really. The document of which he speaks "...exposed massive corruption by Daniel Arap Moi, and the Kenyan people sat up and took notice. In the ensuing elections, in which corruption became a major issue, violence swept the country." Huh. Anything else? Glad you asked! He then claimed "1,300 people were eventually killed, and 350,000 were displaced. That was a result of our leak." Ohhhh. So close!Look, I don't know what document he's talking about and I'm not interested in looking into it. But I absolutely believe him that people lost their lives because of his leak. He knows what he's doing and it isn't to promote "open government". If anything, other than being a pain in the ass, he's promoting anarchy. And while I'm really unhappy with the way that this guy has chosen to go about things, I'm even more unhappy with the fact that classified documents were so easily accessible in the United States that it was possible for a lowly Private First Class to download them all onto CDs and hand them over to Assange. I do agree with him that he's the "messenger", but give me a break, that doesn't mean that he's blameless in all of this.
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3 comments:
I love that you hate saying Wikileaks! Haha! I have such mixed feelings on this subject!he is an idiot. He is an anarchist and wants to colapse the govt. I think that unvieling secrets of this nature is important, dangerous, reckless, and his right. The lowly Private however? Court-martial.
Your weakest, most unfunny blogpost in some time.
Hey, Jules!
There are certain things that I am OK with being secret within a government. One of the documents that he released was a list of all of the targets that would be the most damaging if they were hit by terrorists. Bridges, pipelines, buildings, etc. It was like a Christmas gift (if they believed in Jesus) to the terrorists. That sort of stuff needs to stay classified.
I have a hard time coming down too hard on Mr. Assange (even though I think he is a giant blowhole) because, in a way, he is just the messenger. It's this Pfc. Bradley Manning who I want to see executed for treason. And that aside, I cannot believe that our government has sensitive documents like that which are able to be accessed by a lowly private. What kind of security are they using over there? Not much, from what I can figure.
And Anonymous...
Well, at least you were nice about it. Usually, people just call me an idiot, so I appreciate your civil tone.
While I could probably apologize for the weakness and the lack of humor, I'm not so sure it's warranted. I've been doing this every single day without fail for over three years now. I was bound to not be up to snuff on one of them. And you did say that it has been "some time" since I was this weak. I'm good with that.
But maybe you'll be happy to know that one of the topics that I'm considering for tomorrow's post is about a Grimm fairy tale that was altered with porn but still marketed to children. That sounds like loads of laughs. Gimme another chance. Sometimes I'm tired. Sometimes it's late. Sometimes I'm distracted by re-runs of Family Guy.
Thanks for reading!
~ Mare
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