Barn doors and horses

A useful primer on wikileaks: Everything You Need to Know About Wikileaks - Technology Review. As for whether Wikileaks, in and of itself is a good thing, that's obviously a matter of opinion. I happen to think that while it, in this case, only causes harm to national security (and, more importantly, tells other nations that they can't be trusted to keep anything they say to us in confidence, with the corresponding blow to international diplomacy), I don't think it rises to the level of treason, or for that matter any other crime. After all, it seems to exist outside US borders, the leaked cables were given to newspapers outside the US, and even if they were within the US, the Pentagon Papers proved that once something is leaked, the media can go to town printing such information and not face legal harm. Usually.

That being said, though, just because Sarah Palin et al. are incorrect in wanting Mr. Assange arrested and executed, I'm hardly going to hold him up as some sort of information Robin Hood. I'm not at all sure what benefit there is to airing diplomatic dirty laundry. Especially when much of it isn't something a reasonable person wouldn't have thought of on their own. Thanks, but I already could guess that the US and China hijacked Copenhagen, or that Arab states would be unhappy with Iran (which, you might have noticed, is not an Arab state) . There's nothing really groundbreaking, more than gossipy things. What really bugs me is the damage done to trust. Obviously, sometimes world leaders say things to others that they would prefer not to have others find out. Sometimes, not even their own people. This is how realpolitik works. And so, it's a bit bothersome to think that other nations might be more guarded in their approach to the US, knowing that their secrets could be leaked again. Yes, that's always a risk, but until it really happens, you can at least reasonably think that it won't.

Not to mention that, having a security clearance myself, it pisses me off to think that someone would willfully violate the legal obligations that clearance imposes, for whatever reason. But that's just me. In any event, the cat is well and truly out of the bag. Of course the State Department and others are attempting to stem the tide--how could they not, after all? But this is largely a pro forma attempt, and no-one really expects the papers not to publish.

Of course, the misguided attempts by some to retaliate against those who either give in to government pressures, or simply act on their own, not to continue lending support to wikileaks, I fear will only end up hurting even more. The recent DDOS attacks on Visa, Mastercard, etc., are wonderful ammunition for those who think the internet needs more regulation. And perhaps there is some merit to that sort of argument, but the fact remains that the cyberattacks have accomplished nothing at all to the good, and might in fact do great harm to the idea of a free, open internet. Irony can be pretty ironic sometimes, can't it?