So this has been around for quite a while now, so I'm sure you've heard of them, but there is an organization that goes by the name of Wikileaks. Their main function in life right now seems to be to undermine the United States government in every possible way they can by hacking into news and government databases, hijacking classified information and releasing the information to the worldwide public, such as a video of U.S. soldiers killing iraqi people, 251,287 confidential files about the U.S. government's foreign activities (AKA how the U.S. feels about foreign countries and their top secret affairs in other countries, amongst other things. Things that could cause serious problems, in other words.), and war diaries that show where our soldiers are, where they've been, and pretty much everything you can know about the military's involvement in the war in Iraq.
Regardless of your opinion about the organization, no one can deny the terrifying delivery and use that media can have if placed in certain hands. Not only that, but because of they way they rout their systems, they, so far, cannot be stopped no matter how much the government tries to shut them down. Truly frightening. That's enough of me, though.
What are your thoughts?
4 comments:
Julian Assange speaks as though he’s doing the American people a great service by revealing to them the inner workings of their government. Yet the American people deserve not to know some things. We often say that in a democracy, the people deserve to know the truth. But they also deserve a government that is capable of keeping secrets. They deserve a government that can have honest and forthright – and that means confidential – communication between its diplomats. There is no reason why the American people need to know that one of its diplomats declared that Dmitri Medvedev is the “Robin” to Vladimir Putin’s “Batman,” or that another called Kim Jong-Il is “flabby.”
But obviously there is much the revelation of which would make our government less effective. It helps crime prevention if the police are able to develop their cases in secrecy. It helps counter-terrorism if terrorist organizations do not know the many methods that are used against them. It helps our national security if we are able to develop military technologies of which our enemies know little or nothing. It helps in international affairs — just like it helps in any context where you are trying to make a thousand deals with a thousand different parties — if you do not reveal to everyone the terms of every agreement you form.
Some of the leaks reveal interesting things. The full consequences of the intelligence dump will not become clear for a long time, until it has been thoroughly searched and picked apart. But there is no purpose served, other than embarrassing the American government and throwing a wrench in its gears, by revealing confidential cables with unflattering words for foreign leaders.
It does raise an interesting issue, though: what kind of information ought to be publicly available, and what kind should not?
The government is structured the way it is for a reason. They don't have different classifications of documents just as a way to upset people. Documents that aren't released to the public are kept secret for a reason. There are too many people who want to stick their noses in business that is not theirs. At the same time, people who have access to the knowledge are too quick to hand it out to someone when they become disgruntled in the slightest, creating a double edged sword. How do you keep the people with the knowledge satisfied while keeping the people seeking to publish such information from enticing the knowledge holders?
At some point, I believe that the government should regulate what pages are allowed to be viewed. The problem then becomes: How far would the government take that ability? Because there would be no way to regulate the regulators, I think there is no feasible implementation of government regulation. In a society that prides itself on the freedom of its citizens, taking away that freedom would be extremely detrimental.
I believe that the people who divulged the information to Wikileaks should be charged with treason, especially the most recent one that contained information that threatened national security. By trying to create a stir, Wikileaks may have broken down international diplomacy. Anyone could go on and read the information that they posted. The operation goes way beyond the realm of freedom of speech and information. Perhaps that is the only way to discourage people like this is to prosecute them?
Wikileaks is frightening in how it has so much information but at the same time are their sources real? They say they are but there are times when I feel they could be making it up or are getting false records. It is disturbing that they are unable to block wikileaks as they have so many mirrors and different servers to work from (including outside the U.S.) and the internet cannot be unplugged. It's so difficult to realize what is real or not these days because of technology. People can crop photos, use programs that can alter things, splice video clips so that you can't tell that a large portion of video was skipped and so forth. Yes, the people do have a right to know what is going on but wikileaks hasn't really pledged its allegiance to the US or any government either.
A part of me does not understand how the government cannot block hackers from getting these vital pieces of information. It seems like they would take every precaution to make sure information does not get into the wrong person's hands.
I agree with Larkin in that the government should be honest and forthright but also have the capability to keep secrets. Though this can be a very grey area, Wikileas should never be a problem for the United States government. They should be able to release the information they would like to release, at the right time. This is the only way to keep citizens at peace, but also finish what needs to be done.
Post a Comment