Monday, 7 March 2011

Courage is Contagious (Part 2)

[For Part 1, click here]

Pressure on Supporters
            In regards to the effects of WikiLeaks, Javier Moreno wrote, “Power hates to see the truth exposed.” It is quite apparent that WikiLeaks has posed quite a threat to governments the world over. Major US officials and journalists such as Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, Bob Beckel, Rush Limbaugh, and Jeffery T. Kuhner have all openly called for the assassination of Julian Assange. Clinton and Obama have spoken of their disdain for WikiLeaks and its actions. The pressure on WikiLeaks employees has also increased as the Department of Justice served a subpoena, demanding access to multiple employees’ Twitter accounts, which contained their IP addresses, email accounts, and banking information. Even volunteers who only served with WikiLeaks for a time have had their laptops and cellphones taken away at US airports.
            As a non-profit organization, WikiLeaks depends on donations via their website to stay running. Up until recently, people were able to donate to the site through MasterCard, Visa, and Papal, but all three companies recently, suspiciously, rescinded their support. Under the pretense that WikiLeaks was violating their Terms of Agreement, these major credit companies left the site, forcing it to only be able to receive donations by mail orders or bank transfers. This blatant act of government pressure on these credit companies inconvenienced supporters, but has not slowed them down.
            The pressure on proponents of WikiLeaks continues as an email was recently hacked and released from Aaron Barr, CEO of technology and security consulting firm, HBGary Federal. The email discusses the idea of tracking and intimidating anyone who has ever given money to WikiLeaks. In his email, Barr states, “We need to get people to understand that if they support the organization we will come after them. Transaction records are easily identifiable.” With threats resulting in consequences as widespread as this, the possibility of a War on Information is becoming that much more plausible.
The pressure is not even limited to direct supporters of WikiLeaks. The US administration has clearly instructed its employees not to read the cables. The Library of Congress and US Air Force have actually tried to block the site from their computers with threats of discipline if anyone reads them. Universities have told students that if they even go to the website they are giving up any opportunity of obtaining a job at a government position. Assange stated that, “Information that organizations are spending economic effort into concealing, that’s a really good signal that when the information gets out, there’s a hope of it doing some good.”

Why It Affects You
            WikiLeaks’ slogan is “Courage is Contagious”, a motto that is both appropriate and relevant. It is important that governments rule with accountability and, up until recently, that accountability has been incredibly limited.  These leaks are not released in order to attack a certain nation or person, but to address and react to corruption. It is about sending a message to the US and other world power leaders that they cannot use fear and secrets to scare nations into submission. It is about stopping bullying and it is about democracy. Consider this monologue from V for Vendetta:

Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to [your government leader]. He promised you order, he promised you peace, and all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent.

These chilling words are strikingly accurate in our modern day. They require more than a humbled nod; they call for a shift of mentality and perspective. By conceding to whatever the media informs you and not questioning or challenging information, you are not just being apathetic, you are becoming part of the problem.
            There is no question that information is power. To find an example of this, all you have to do is look at the current events in Africa and Asia. Much of the current dissention caused in Tunisia was due in part to the release of information leaked on the governments’ actions. Once Tunisia overthrew their government, the revolution became contagious. The people of Egypt became empowered with the concept of change and succeeded in uprooting their leader as well. The momentum has spread as anti-government protests are currently being held in Algeria, Bahrain, Iran, Libya, and Yemen. While these revolutions are not due solely because of WikiLeaks, it is undeniable that they have played an important role. The world is currently in a state of transition and, as separated as we often feel in our North American homes, this shift will soon come to affect us.

Why WikiLeaks is Dangerous
            It is no secret that with great power comes great responsibility and the employees of WikiLeaks are sitting on a precipice. They have been condemned for putting individual lives in danger, for being too loose with their releases. While it seems like their methods are rash, they are not without restraint. Prior to being placed on the Internet, the leaks are held back and edited to remove individual names. To date there have been no specific allegations that anyone has been caused harm in direct response to the leaks. They present the cables as raw data, without bias or prejudice and have never posted anything with the security clearance of Top Secret. There have never been any claims that the leaks have been forged or altered in any way, even their opponents do not question their authenticity. Glenn Greenwald notes that WikiLeaks is “doing nothing more than publishing classified information showing what the U.S. Government is doing:  something investigative journalists, by definition, do all the time.”
            The leaks are dangerous, but so is anything that deals with international relations. Gary Richmand points out:

Recent history shows that it was the decision to invade Iraq and Afghanistan made by Brown, Blair, Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld that has not just endangered lives but caused the actual deaths of thousands. Is it too much to speculate that if WikiLeaks had been able to leak the machinations of WMD that lives might have been saved? There are times when secrecy saves lives, yes. There are times when transparency saves them. The trick is to get the balance right.

Nobody is saying that all government information should be revealed, but it is time that the public is made more aware than it is now. Even if the pendulum must swing in the opposite direction, it is essential that people become aware of the illusion of our governments. Apathy and submission have become greater factors in war in our lifetime than weapons of mass destruction. Governments are battling for perspectives and attitudes above anything else.
            So what is stopping Assange from playing God? If one man, one company, has access to secrets the world over, isn’t that just a shift of power? Yes and no. WikiLeaks is not an independent source. Without people sending in their information they have no way of acquiring the classified material. It is also a non-profit organization, which directly relies on the finances of supporters. Assange has claimed that if people stopped supporting the company, the site would be down within a few months. It is not a foolproof system, but it is the closest we have come to a democracy as it is entirely dependant on the people. With people holding WikiLeaks accountable and WikiLeaks holding the government accountable, we may, and have already begun to, see change happening for the better.

Conclusion
            It is exhilarating to see a shift of power with this much potential in our lifetime. As Assange referenced, this is not about taking down America, it is about standing up against corruption and dishonesty. Norwegian MP Snorre Valen, who recently nominated WikiLeaks for a Nobel Peace Prize, wrote, “It is not, and should never be, the privilege of politicians to regulate which crimes the public should never be told about, and through which media those crimes become known.” WikiLeaks is based on the power of information which is why it so important that it is fully understood. Government officials and the media would love to pretend none of this ever happened, encouraging the public into historical amnesia. Even if Wikileaks is shut down tomorrow, it will have taught us to not take what we are told blindly, but to actually go out and research. It is important that people empower themselves with knowledge because without it we become victims. If powers and events such as WikiLeaks are not discussed, we are giving away our freedom of speech on a silver platter and allowing our other freedoms to follow soon after.

For reports of the Twitter subpoena and fear in America:
For the story and shocking video about Ray McGovern:

For the email and slideshow pertaining to WikiLeaks attacks:

The Snorre Valen quote:

The Gary Richmond quote:

The Julian Assange quote:
On the ‘Dancing Boy’ Scandal:

The Glenn Greenwald quote:

The Javier Moreno quote:
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/english/Why/PAIS/chose/to/publish/the/leaks/elpepueng/20101223elpeng_3/Ten

Saturday, 5 March 2011

Courage is Contagious (Part 1)


[So this post originally began as just a simple, "Hey, this is interesting, you should check it out!" and then it kind of morphed into a full on essay over the course of a couple months. The more I researched, the more I realized how passionate I felt about this issue (just ask my poor dear friends and girlfriend who have had to listen to me rant about it on a daily basis). I realize that it's long (I've split it into two parts to make it more manageable) but I really believe that it's something that people need to know about. Enjoy.]


Courage is Contagious:
Why WikiLeaks is Changing the World and Why You Need to Know

Capable, generous men don't create victims, they try and save people from becoming victims. That is what they are tasked to do. If they do no do that they are not worthy of respect or they are not capable.
- Julian Assange
Introduction
            “If our own government was responsible for the deaths of almost a hundred thousand people… would you really want to know?” This is a question posed by a fictional character in James McTeigue’s V for Vendetta yet one that is incredibly pertinent today. WikiLeaks, currently one of the hottest and most misunderstood topics in international current events, faces this question head on. Its founder and editor-in-chief Julian Assange has been labeled everything from an international hero to a terrorist. While North American news attempts to downplay the effects of this growing revolution, WikiLeaks is quickly becoming the most influential power source in our lifetime. With political corruption and deceit rampant the world over, people are searching for truth and WikiLeaks may just hold the key.

What is WikiLeaks?
            WikiLeaks is a non-profit organization that acts as an online electronic drop box. People from all over the world are able to submit classified material, which is then sorted, categorized and published, allowing the submitter to remain anonymous. The site is directed by Julian Assange and employs people from all over the world.
The website began in 2006 but did not really begin receiving international attention until its Collateral Murder post in April 2010. In July 2010, it released almost 77,000 classified field reports of the war in Afghanistan now commonly referred to as the Afghan War Diaries. In October, it released almost 400,000 reports called the Iraq War Logs that account for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties. Its latest release began in November 2010 and continues on today, containing hundreds of thousands of US state department diplomatic cables. As WikiLeaks continues to release documents and cables on international relations, Assange has foreshadowed that its next “megaleak” will contain reports on major banks and businesses in America.
The original site, www.wikileaks.org, has been shut down, the victim of direct online hacking. In order to keep the information flowing, over 2,000 mirror sites have been created that consistently publish the leaks. Cables are also being published by major newspapers around the world including The Guardian (British), The New York Times (American), Le Monde (French), Der Spiegel (German), and El PaĆ­s (Spanish). These newspapers act as a defense for WikiLeaks because if it is ever charged for publishing the material, the New York Times et al will have to be charged as well. Assange has also made note that an encrypted file has also been sent out so that if WikiLeaks or its founders are detained permanently from releasing leaks then a key will be dispatched allowing others to continue publishing the documents.

Who is Julian Assange?
            As stated previously, Assange is the director of WikiLeaks and therefore the targeted figurehead. He is Australian, but currently resides in England. Immediately prior to the release of the US cables in November, two ladies in Sweden informally charged him with sexual assault. “Sexual assault” in this case is a subjective term, as the crime he is being charged with is having consensual sex with a torn condom. Upon hearing of the charges Assange agreed to go in and talk to authorities about the issue, but the Swedish government refused this and instead placed his name on Interpol’s Most Wanted list. He was arrested and later released on bail after the judge decided that there was no real evidence found for the case. Currently he is being detained in England, waiting and challenging his prosecutor to even meet him in court. His prosecutor refuses to be cross-examined. It does not take a creative imagination to put together the facts that a man who is wanted by thousands of government officials around the world, including many high-end US politicians, is suddenly desperately needing to be detained for doing something that, legally speaking, is complete hokum.
            Regardless of Assange’s innocence, the verdict remains far from the purpose of WikiLeaks. The media has attempted to place the focus of its reporting on WikiLeaks on this sex scandal, when really the two are hardly connected. WikiLeaks is an international symbol that stands as a threat to the shroud of mystery that governments have long conducted disreputable business under, and one mans personal life should not be the deciding factor in its validity. It is unfortunate that Assange allegedly slipped up even slightly before the wake of this big release, but it does not condemn the corporation as a whole. This scandal acts as a reminder of the importance of acquiring more news sources than your typical, privately owned, television network. The media should act as a source of information, not as a distraction.

What We Need to Know
            The reason WikiLeaks is so important is because of what it reveals about our own governments. Prior to the release of the US cables, the United States government sent out diplomats to hundreds of countries around the world in order to brace them for what may be released. After the leak, politicians and journalists all over the world insisted that the cables were of little value, reassuring us that they contained nothing that we did not already know. As more and more cables were released, analysts who were downplaying the effects of the leaks were quickly silenced and the media chose to focus on the Assange scandal instead. Titles such as “US has been violating international law by spying on UN officials," “US bombing Yemen without congressional approval," and “US deceived British parliament over the use of banned weapons” proved difficult to downplay.
            Among other things, the leaks have revealed that none of the Western powers actually believe that the war in Afghanistan will result in a credible nation with a viable democracy, further highlighting the futility of this war. The leaks point to corruption in Pakistan and its nuclear arsenal, to obscene Afghan presidential theft from overseas aid, to terrorist funding in Saudi Arabia that is being ignored because of their connections to the USA. One report, now known as the “Afghan Dancing Boy”, tells of how an American contractor has been appeasing the local Pashtun people of Afghanistan by supporting the practice of bacha bazi, a Persian term for child prostitution. The leaks revealed that a private American military company DynCorp has been arranging the meetings and venues where boys have been purchased and exploited by the Pashtun people. Regardless of your interest in politics, it is in your right to know that a government that is representing you is prostituting innocent children with military dollars. Since Canadian internal affairs are so closely linked to that of that States’, we should be just as concerned as Canadian citizens.
            The cables being released are not just attacks against the USA. Governments all over the world are being revealed as much more fraudulent than they originally appeared. Countries that once reveled in America’s embarrassment over the cables have begun to feel the effects as well. WikiLeaks is not about taking down one country, it is about promoting truth in general. The reason America is attacked more intentionally is because many of the sources supplying the leaks are from American soil and also because the US has built a government around the ideals of freedom and justice. Democracy claims the illusion of transparency and should therefore be judged more harshly.
A current event with veteran Ray McGovern directly addresses this deceit. In a news conference where Hillary Clinton is condemning other governments’ restriction of the freedom of expression, McGovern was dragged out and beaten for silently protesting the conference. Clinton’s false smile does not falter and she continues on with her speech, watching as the 71-year-old man is taken out in front of her. This tangible proof of the illusion of our governments is why we as citizens should be concerned.

Who is Bradley Manning?
The Collateral Murder video was WikiLeaks’ first major leak, which contained previously unreleased video footage from a US Apache helicopter in 2007. It shows Reuters journalist Namir Noor-Eldeen, driver Saeed Chmagh, and several others as the Apache shoots and kills them in a public square in Eastern Baghdad. After the dust settles a van containing children attempts to rescue the victims, but they are shot at as well. A dozen people were killed, all of which were labeled by the US military as “insurgents”.
            Bradley Manning, a name that you will not hear a lot in typical televised media, is the 23-year old US Private who submitted this video to WikiLeaks. After its release, Manning’s computer was hacked and he was subsequently arrested and is now being detained in Virginia. He has spent almost a year in maximum custody solitary confinement, the greatest form of psychological torture, all under the artifice of his own protection. He is currently awaiting a pre-trial hearing for a 50-year sentence and could remain in confinement for at least another year until the hearing occurs. While being imprisoned he has been forced to strip naked and stand outside his cell for hours on end, something no other detainees in the brig have been forced to endure. Manning has been declared as a prisoner of conscience, a man who has been persecuted for the non-violent expression of his conscientiously-held beliefs. It is important that the public is informed of this unsung hero and his appaling circumstances. 

(More to come tomorrow...)

The Collateral Murder video:
  
A detailed list of secrets Wikileaks has already revealed.

A petition to free Bradley Manning (see “sign with no postage donation”): http://www.standwithbrad.org/

For an account of Assange’s sexual allegations:

For a satirical account of Assange’s sexual allegations:

For information on Bradley Manning: