Why the Wikileaks Party visit to Syria was so delusional

My weekly Guardian column is published below: The sight of Australian citizens associated with the WikiLeaks party… sitting and chatting… with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad… during their… recent… “solidarity… mission”, along with their comments about the regime, is a damning indictment on a party that ran a… dismal election campaign… in 2013 and has never bothered to explain… its subsequent collapse. For WikiLeaks supporters…

Why the US truly fears Ed Snowden and Wikileaks

It has nothing to do with endangering national security (ignore the bleating of far too many corporate journalists who simply repeat talking points from their intelligence sources) but the profound shame of US hegemony being challenged and revealed. Here’s Henry Farrell and Martha Finnemore in Foreign Affairs: The U.S. government seems outraged that people are…

Why defending Wikileaks and Ed Snowden should be easy call

Stunning piece by John Cassidy in The New Yorker: More unnerving is the way in which various members of the media have failed to challenge the official line. Nobody should be surprised to see the New York… Post… running the headline: “ROGUES’ GALLERY: SNOWDEN JOINS LONG LIST OF NOTORIOUS, GUTLESS TRAITORS FLEEING TO RUSSIA.” But where are…

Rare Australian voice backing whistle-blowers/Wikileaks/transparency

There’s really nobody in the Australian Parliament quite like Greens Senator Scott Ludlam, a constant voice against excessive government surveillance and the national-security state. His speech this week is a cracker, covering Michael Hastings, Bradley Manning, Wikileaks and Edward Snowden. If only more politicians saw their role like Ludlam, questioning the ever-increasing role of the…

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