Noam Chomsky on the Wikileaks cables: One of the major reasons for government secrecy is to protect the government from its own population. … So Hillary Clinton and Benjamin Netanyahu surely know of the careful polls of Arab public opinion. The Brookings Institute just a few months ago released extensive polls of what Arabs think…
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Can we trust the press to be totally honest over Wikileaks (hint: no)
I wish this interview was more comforting. The idea of a Murdoch editor talking about resisting potential Australian government requests not to publish certain Wikileaks cables requires a suspension of disbelief, not least because he argues about not challenging anything that “could imperil the lives of Australian soldiers, men and women serving overseas in a…
Wikileaks may not be quite as bad as al-Qaeda
Another day and so much more Wikileaks news. Currently snowed under with work related to the information dump, so here are a number of relevant links to keep things flowing (here, here, here, here, here, here and here). This is perhaps the funniest and more tragic response thus far: American Conservative standard bearer Sarah Palin…
Handy reminder of reporter’s role in the Wikileaks story
Great piece by Simon Jenkins at the UK Guardian that reminds journalists our job is to expose secrets and not protect governments. Unless, of course, you’re on the official drip-feed: Is it justified? Should a newspaper disclose virtually all a nation’s secret diplomatic communication, illegally downloaded by one of its citizens? The reporting in the…
The Wikileaks cable drop begins
This is how the US views the world (reporting by the Guardian): The United States was catapulted into a worldwide diplomatic crisis today, with the leaking to the Guardian and other international media of more than 250,000 classified cables from its embassies, many sent as recently as February this year. At the start of a…
Who is really the bad guy in the Wikileaks story?
US investigative journalist Michael Hastings tweets: Thought experiment: if [Wikileaks’ Julian] Assange had exposed thousands of secret docs from China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, etc, would we consider him a hero or villain?
How scared are Western governments over Wikileaks?
US blogger firedoglake reports: Skdadl, who has been tweeting up a storm on the upcoming WikiLeaks dump, noted that the British government has issued D-notices regarding the upcoming dump, which is basically a non-binding request on editors to brief the government before doing a story. “The news came to light in two Tweets from WikiLeaks…
US aims to destroy Wikileaks
Looks like it’s game on: The United States has rejected talks with WikiLeaks over its planned release of confidential US documents, saying the whistleblower website is holding them in violation of US law. The US State Department set out its position in a letter to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his attorney that was released…
Using Wikileaks to sue the US
The enduring power of Wikileaks: Iraq’s Baath party, forcibly removed from power by the US-led invasion of 2003, believes leaked American military documents could help it sue the US government over the war. Baathist officials are planning to meet with international law experts in March to discuss the possibility of taking legal action against Washington,…
Wikileaks may embarass the Pentagon and no tears are shed
A reminder, in case it was needed, that the actions of the US need to be exposed rather than hidden. Our job, as citizens, is to demand transparency from governments, not meekly accept “top secret” because officials say so: The Pentagon warned the U.S. Senate and House Armed Services Committees that the website WikiLeaks.org “intends…