On 2011-03-18 19:44 , Paul Stenquist wrote:
I find the left's enthusiasm for wikileaks to be rather simplistic.
Privacy is necessary in personal life, in business dealings, and -- yes -- in
government as well. Government officials have to be able to correspond in
confidence at times. Strategies to defend against terrorism have to remain
confidential. And don't forget that wikileaks released the names of Afthan
citizens who had tried to help defeat the Taliban, putting them in grave
danger. Even Assange's cohorts said that action was despicable.
Earlier, someone said it's only the U.S. that has a problem with wikileaks .
That's not at all true. Almost all European nations have spoken out against the
groups actions. There are government officials both in the U.S. and other
countries who have and will violate the people's trust. But when exposing the
few puts the many at risk, it's a bad deal.
all governments have to drink the kool-aid; i suspect what was being
expressed was that European public opinion has a significantly different
statistical spread than US opinion
regarding putting people at risk, the US government and others have been
shown to be willing to exploit secrecy for things that put people at
risk: torture, killing, starting wars, run-of-the-mill exploitation ...
so it seems to be both a question of gradation and trade-offs; exposure
of secrets is (thankfully) far from the exclusive domain of wikileaks
If wikileaks has accomplished anything good, it would be that it has led the
government to tighten security. The U.S. serviceman who provided much of the
classified information that was released will spend most of his life in jail.
we can guess the outcome, but at the moment he's undergoing pre-trial
torture, so he may lose the capability of rationally describing his actions
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