What is YOUR opinion on Wikileaks?

you know whats crazy...didnt web bot, on c2c, predict substantial whistleblowing activity for this half of the year? arrrgh where is that damn show

It is illegal for our government to hide evidence of wrongdoing by classifying information. That leaves us in a catch- 22 of sorts and that's why we need to protect whistle-blowers and the press when they expose government corruption

Originally posted by wcitizen

Originally posted by elfulanozutan0
reply to post by Emptiness Dancing

 

You're correct on that. When I read through the cables I just look at certain subjects, not all of the documents there expose corruption but a lot of them do. Like on 12/19, they released around 8 cables showing the U.S. lobbying foreign countries to accept GMOs made in America by Monsanto. Something is up with that. Plus using ambassadors for espionage, not quite diplomatic.

Bump to keep it going, I want a few more opinions.

Not just that. It has been exposed that they hiked food prices in Europe to force people into accepting GMO foods.

True - there is much "good intelligence" in the leaks. What has been leaked for the most part has been true. You don't hear of government entities denying the cables. Unfortunately, much of what has been leaked so far has NOT proven to be monumentally profound revelations but diplomatic communication confirmation of much of what we already suspected.

Also - to add - what is missing from the leaks. What has been scrubbed. I can't believe that with all that Israel has done in the past years with their black ops and with Palestine that there are virtually no, none, zero zip cables addressing their war crimes or even addressing Israel in a negative context. That, combined with that the cables seem to confirm the Israeli agenda against Iran, smells rancid as an Israeli Mossad disinformation campaign and a blackmail of the US operation to make America attack Iran or suffer further embarrassing disclosure of secrets and intelligence.

reply to post by elfulanozutan0


I take my Wikileaks with a grain of salt. I'm not sure if I trust them or not. Either way, at least some info is being given out.

reply to post by Emptiness Dancing


I bet there is going to be more information on the Israel/Palestine situation. Remember not even 2,000/250,000 documents have been leaked and I doubt that they would give out the juicy stuff first.

Dont mind Wikileaks leaking stuff. Dont mind the Government trying to conceal stuff. What is leaked, gets leaked. What stays hidden, stays hidden. Its all well and good with me.

Originally posted by Emptiness Dancing
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True - there is much "good intelligence" in the leaks. What has been leaked for the most part has been true. You don't hear of government entities denying the cables. Unfortunately, much of what has been leaked so far has NOT proven to be monumentally profound revelations but diplomatic communication confirmation of much of what we already suspected.

I don't think we can fully understand the impact of the cables, to be honest. The reason I think that is because those of us who are not involved in the diplomatic dealings don't have the full picture. I suspect that there may some countries may have become aware of 'double dealings' going on of which we are not aware. Imagine if they have, for example, been playing one country off against another - we wouldn't be aware of that from reading the cables, but the other countries involved would be.

Also - to add - what is missing from the leaks. What has been scrubbed. I can't believe that with all that Israel has done in the past years with their black ops and with Palestine that there are virtually no, none, zero zip cables addressing their war crimes or even addressing Israel in a negative context. That, combined with that the cables seem to confirm the Israeli agenda against Iran, smells rancid as an Israeli Mossad disinformation campaign and a blackmail of the US operation to make America attack Iran or suffer further embarrassing disclosure of secrets and intelligence.

We don't yet know what is in the rest of the cables. I guess it also depends on how we interpret the content of the cables. I read somewhere, for example, that it has exposed that it's the 'oil' countries are pushing for a war in Iran, which suggests they want war for financial interests. The person who wrote the article seemed to think this could lessen the support of other countries for a war.

It also shows how Russia absolutely does not believe Iran is a threat, and won't be for several years. There was another cable where a dialogue between Russian weapons specialists and a US team showed the US team badly prepared and insufficiently informed in the discussion re Iran's weapons, and it kind of exposed they were inflating their concerns based on insufficient fact. Details such as this may conceivably be much more important than we realise to other world governments.

reply to post by Zagari


Nope. As soon as it's out. It's done in American news. Out of sight out of mind.
Perfect example (also analogy) the bp oil leak. As soon as the leaks were stopped, you barely hear a word.

reply to post by boondock-saint


Did you even read what I posted?
I said they would be seeking to pass something like that regardless of WikiLeaks. At least Wikileaks has made the people aware of it. I can guarantee you no average citizen will look at WL and say well we should change the internet. Wikileaks is bringing the subject out in the open. If they didn't exist that bill (or one just like it) would have passed and no one would know about it (maybe ATS) instead of it being in the news. They have been talking about doing something like that for a while long before the cables started leaking. I heard a story about that bill or one just like it at the beginning of the year on NPR.

Is anybody here old enough to remember Gorbachev and Reagan?

Wikileaks stinks like Glasnost.

Unlike Glasnost, it is ostensibly NOT official US govt policy.

The backlash from Glasnost in the article linked is what worries me.

Especially since Assange does NOT have official State backing.

reply to post by elfulanozutan0

For me Wikileaks is complicated.
It has onion-like layers of people involved.

Ultimately, the very sad truth is that a super-power would not allow something to be released unless the top people want it released.

Until now there have been no gasping surprises.
No dictator or torture has been exposed that we didn't already know about.

They are causing mental confusion - perhaps like with '___' in the 1960s.
But they are playing a dangerous game.
With enough fishing, somebody will catch a real fish.

Till now the US diplomacy has been shown to do what everybody expects it to (despite minor rude remarks).
Perhaps we'll get a show-trial to further discourage dissent.
A favorite warning against con-artists is: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

My opinion is a bit complex. Overall I am VERY supportive of wikileaks.

Manning: I do believe he had good intent. However, personally I find that he- or whoever leaked these - just threw out the baby with the bathwater. I think when you are going to whistleblow, you should have at least read the document that you leak, and have made a conscious judgement on it.
I want to support him - I think he's probably a good soul, which makes that much harder for me to say that he leaked too discriminately for me to find him innocent. Ouch. I want to, but I can't forgive that.

US Govt Infosec: What a joke. Let's secure infrared with duck tape and hope no one has a flash drive AGAIN. It's the AGAIN that gets me. PCs not hardened AT ALL. And there had already been incidents. Of course after this, someone got the pentagon the same way. What are they doing? What's the problem?

US SALES DEPT: I mean state dept. Yeah. Makes me SICK. Someone should be defending themselves over some of this crap. Our legislature needs to get a handle on them and what their purpose is. Are we prostitutes for Monsanto or what? Is that the purpose of our senators and state dept? To starve people into buying Monsanto's poison?

Assange: Brilliant. Simply Brilliant. He likes women. A lot. They don't always like that he likes them so much.

The Media: Lazy, ineffective, more than possibly manipulative, and in bed with the govt. Democracy cannot survive like this.

American Public: Overall, too trusting of the media. Waking up but without a lot of information about the world, leaving the majority unable to process anything about this whole.darn.thing.

Dept. of Defense: Obviously trying to manipulate. They know that they are classifying too much but they still want to, that's why we get stories about 'nothing much in those documents' and then we get stories about how those documents have 'really hurt national security.'

Department of Justice: There's not a darn bit of justice there. If there WAS, the megacorporations would have been broken up long ago, and we'd probably not have this problem with the Sales Dept.

I really hope that you guys will appreciate that MY thoughts are MY own. People are actually capable of that. People do not have to spout off verbatim what some TV nitwit pundit said. That's mostly what I've heard from people. Sad.