[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 País (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:
1 comment:
Baaaah, I want to comment, but I don't want to internet talk about this. I'm not sold on WikiLeaks. I think diplomacy is critical and WikiLeaks damages diplomacy ... which demands secrecy. There's stuff that's hidden that shouldn't be (the boys being sold that you talked about) but there's stuff that should be hidden, too (diplomats' frank assessments of their international colleagues, for example).
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