WikiLeaks?

[crm17]

I am kinda pissed at WikiLeaks. This is no Pentagon Papers. There does not appear to be any goal here. That reduces it to passing around love notes you found, which might be interesting but is dead wrong. Not to mention illegal and harmful. I have seen almost no discussion of why. The news organizations who were given access have generally stated

Comments

[docorion]

Hm. I might agree with you, if there were anything really secret in there. By and large, it's diplomatic gossip. No one is really surprised (or at least, no one with a knowledge of history should be). Arab suspicion of Persia? Yawn. Diplomats talk smack about their bosses? Booooring.

Really, the only "bad" thing to come from this is that several governments have been embarrassed, most notably our own. We need to cowboy up; we are still the big dog, despite embarrassment. Other governments will whine for a while about how the US can't keep a secret in a bushel basket, but in the end, they treat with us for their own, often good, reasons. Not least in order to gain access to our largesse. Those reasons have not gone away. They'll get over it. To paraphrase Heinlein, the people in charge need a dumping on their heads every now and then; it lets in air and light.

[crm17]

The video in the first batch was true whistleblowing. That I can accept.

The whole last batch, as far as I can see, is harmful without being helpful. Yes mostly embarrassment, but also had negative effects in Iran and N Korea.

The government is too quick to label material as secret, and there is far too much of it, but it is still true that some things need to be discussed in private.

I *probably* wouldn't get fired if all the emails I ever sent were published. But it would be wrong and it would hurt. Now if I was concealing a crime or a great wrong, I lose much of my claim to privacy rights, but I still should be protected from illegal search.

This is not a selected sharing to show crime, this is a dump of everything with no specific purpose. I feel that is dead wrong, illegal, and possibly treasonous. I feel all of that even though it is doubtful you will find a stronger proponent of individual free speech and openness in government.