Wikileaks?

I think discussing politics was undesired, though I cant remember where thats from ^^
dont know if that includes wikileaks either. afterall its pure LOL at times :D the assessment of our foreign minister brings tears to my eyes View attachment 436

 

The US are so butthurt about the leaks that they really take long measures to screw things up for them, I mean the government forcing paypal, visa, mastercard to stop processing their payments, the australian government shutting down a _regular postbox_.

I think It's rather pathetic that no country / government stands up for Assange and give him his work-visa, I would love to see Sweden do it but our leaders are scared of the big brother US.

 

Well! i think governments keep secrets for very valid reasons: especially when it comes to technology and defensive weapon systems ! people need to start understanding how governments and politics work and how different your life would be without this structure we exist under* yes! at times it seems dystopian and backward but the people at the top are the same as you and i with the same fears and desires to live be safe/healthy ect. though these people are responsible for thousand of others that they need to "protect keep safe and healthy" with out us the engine that powers the structure would collapse and chaos would insue and everything you love would be gone! i believe given time things will slowly change its not only the governments that will evolve but the people also! along with technology and other life changing invention: because what it all comes down to is the most basic of natural laws survival!!

As for Wikileaks! it has its place in our global society but! if something huge was released that another country/government found was a threat to its people and survival! then people may understand why a government keeps secrets when they are looking at a huge mushroom cloud for a split second...................................

 

We had a poll up in the 'early days' of the forum with a vote about discussions of Religion & Politics. Back then it was voted down, and the majority of the members did now want those discussions to take place on a game-forum.

However, we did not write this decission into the rules, but Peter and I just agreed that we will.

Despite that, I will let this thread open for now and see how it evolves. If the discussion becomes too high and ugly, it will be closed again ;)

 

My personal view is Wikileaks are actually doing a pretty good job at leaking secrets we should be aware of in a sensible fashion, Despite what some media outlets are reporting they aren't just releasing any old secret document they can find, they are passing them on to 5 big newspapers first, who are cleaning them up, making sure sources are covered, no one can get hurt and then reporting on them at set times. Once they've done that the same information then appears on the wikileaks site. So Wikileaks are being as careful as they can to be accountable for their actions as well as making sure the important information gets to the public.

I believe the Pentagon has already stated that nothing they have released so far has actualy resulted in anyones life being put in danger. If that's really true then I take my hat off to Wikileaks for a job well done.

As for Amazon, Mastercard, Visa and paypal they should be ashamed of themselves, either way its not for them to decide and they are affecting the freedom of speech of everyone that uses their services.

 

It just goes to show that ultimatsly there really aren't any secrets. Before anything is undertaken, one should ask oneself " would I want to see this on the front page of the newspaper?"

 

As in other forums I visit I have to post the same answer.

What has Assange and his Wikileaks to do with EU? If I would like to discuss wikileak I would do it on another forum. This is a game forum not a political forum.

 

In case you didn't notice; this is the off-topic forum ;)

 

I also think wikileaks is doing a good job.

It's a shame governments are trying to persecute assange on what appear to be some trumped up charges...

Wikileaks is good for us citizens because it keeps politicians in check. Otherwise there is no proper force moderating their actions. The way I see it is all wikileaks are doing is putting the truth out there. Politicians rerally have nothing to fear about wikileaks if they are honest. However, it's because politicians are dishonest, two faced correction 10 faced gits that they worry about wikileaks.

That's a very simplified view but nevertheless one thats very potent.

If wikileaks survives this assualt hopefully we'll have better politicians which are more honest and do their jops better than the "crooks"/politicians we have these days...



Also governments seem to be attacking wikileaks quite viciously and don't seem to me all that different from a dictatorship. Can they still call themselves democratic? Personally I think not...

 

Assange is a self publicist who sort of deserves what he is getting. that may seem harsh and they are most lilky trumped up charges but alot of information is coming to light about Wikileaks.

Firstly, they apparently make money selling information to newspapers etc. Secondly they have not yet contributed to the legal defense fund setup for the wistleblower that gave them the information in the first place. Third, Assange claims to have an insurance policy which amounts to blackmail, if anything happens to him hundreds of thousands of documents are to be released - one has to ask why are they not anyway? (see point one...) Forth, several members of the core wikileaks team have left recently due to the way Assange runs the organisation.

having spent a good few months courting controversey, he has released information that in itself is not actually very interesting, its the nature and obvious source of the data that has so upset the US. it has shown their internal communications to be insecure and they have a poor policy of use and etiquette of the official email system. some of the discussions just arernt appropriate for recording, they are opininons best left to water cooler or bar chats.

he's built up more and more headlines about himself, his organisation for no other purpose i can see in retrospect than advertising. hey, come to Wikileaks the source of lots of juicy info, we've even got US diplomatic services emails! little surprise the US is pissed. other governments are too, because they dont know (or prehaps do know) what embaressing info he has on them.

meanwhile other wistle-blowing sites quietly publish infomation with no fanfare and we read it in the papers soon after. the valuable purpose Wikileaks once served has been diverted as Assange has tried to become the story, part of a conspiracy. you reap what you sow.

 

If Assange is so found of oppeness why do he hide from the Swedish rape prosecution? Put all info on the table even your personal faults. (Now I know this is the off-topic section)

 

wait, wait, WHAT?! AMAZON? as in amazon who sell pedofile how-tos due to freedom of speach of the author? way to go, hypocrites

 

If Assange has no fear of being found guilty, then why is he contesting extridiction?

IMO, he's simply an attention whore. He doesn't care who is injured by his escapades, be it with his penis or his web site.

One thing I do find interesting about this whole mess is that there's not much chatter about whoever got those documents to Assange. If it was indeed the US Army souce some of the media cites, then they would fall under the US Uniform Code of Military Justice rather than civilian law.

Article 106a of the UCMJ states that espionage such as this can be punishible by death under some circumstances. I'm no legal expert, but from a look at the text of 106a, it does look like prosecution could ask for it, but the court would have to reply with a unaminous decision for an execution to take place.

I held a Secret clearance once during my stint in the military. I find this breach of security incredulous. Not the content, mind you, but that it happened at all. Given todays US military is all volunteer, I find it amazingly dissapointing that the vetting process for security clearances has failed to this degree.

 

Yeah Amazon dropped wikileaks from their cloud server after they were called by a US senator. They said it was because Wikileaks violated their terms of service by publishing information they did not own the copyright too but Government information doesn't have copyright in the same way.

 

If all that is true about Assange wonder if wikileaks can exist without him and wonder if wikileaks would publish Incriminating info on Assange? Would be quiet poet or ironic turn of events if they did do that!

Wikileaks as a modern information source (untainted by middlemen) is good in principle and should be bigger than one man i.e. Assange...

Aridash you mentioned there are other whistle blowing sites. Never heard of them what are they? perhaps some of them are better than wikileaks? how come the media never mention those other sites?

 

The victims (note, nothing is proven.) told the media about the rape BEFORE they went to the police, the first time they tried to charge him they were dropped because lack of evidence, they tried again and now (without any more evidence.) they are back again.
While I am in no position to judge whether the rape charges are true or false, I do think the whole situation is way more messier than it has to be.

Oh and assange turned himself in.

Wikileaks is nonprofit, assange is living out of his own pocket, there are no volunteers who are getting paid for what they are doing, the people who left wikileaks left because their identity had been compromised, not out of protest of how assange is running things.

Wikileaks has never sold any cables, any information etc etc, the newspapers can get the cables and information THEMSELVES for FREE just like everyone else, google cablegate and voila, you can to!
Wikileaks has no ads on their webpage, wikileaks has no means of making money at all, all their donations go to A, lawyers and B, server costs.

Get your facts straight, and no, o'reilly show is not unbiased, and neither is most of the US news-shows.


The US are guilty of war-crimes, they rape, murder, torture civillians, I've seen pictures of how US soldiers have forced prisoners to sodomize themselves with bananas and being forced to have oral sex with other prisoners as if they were slaves.
The fact that the US have killed their targets, Saddam example but still haven't pulled out goes to show there is more to this war than it should be.. Oh wait, Oil..

I can't believe you are even trying to make Assange seem like a criminal when your army is breaking the geneva convention.
Oh and if you don't believe me, I can provide you with some pretty graphical links, I would never post them openly here without allowance, they are far too horrible..