Thursday, January 13, 2011

To the Governments/Politicians of the U.S.

I've just found this interview with Assange with a French program, where in the middle of the interview he ran off to help a man up who fell on the sidewalk. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4htJuM6xZ9M

A terrorist would not help random people, so maybe it is time for you over in the States to realize that Assange isn't a terrorist, but someone who wants to help others in any way possible. Be it like in the video, or be it with telling the truth about the wrongdoings of politicians/governments/companies over there or here, or anywhere.

In an older interview Assange also wished a Merry Christmas - a terrorist would not do that either.

11 comments:

  1. Assange and Wikileaks don't want to help anyone but themselves. They believe in 100% transparency for everyone but those that leak information to them. They don't care about the rest of the world, or the consequences their actions have.

    Amnesty International has even gone on record stating that Wikileaks has put the life of innocent people in danger.

    I have no comment on the rape charge, but I should think that Assange should be guilty with accessory to murder for what I stated above. How can you defend him when he's done things of this magnitude?

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  2. Wikileaks doesn't even know who submits the data to them, unless the whistleblowers make some silly mistakes. Data that is to be submitted is going through the Tor network, which goes through various countries before it arrives at Wikileaks' desk.

    In the case of Bradley Manning, who supposedly has leaked the Collateral Murde video amongst other things, I do see it more of his fault to tell it to ex-hacker and now government-ass-kisser Adrian Lamo.

    And about Wikileaks having put the lives of innocent people in danger... I cannot tell for sure, but what I *do* know is, that the American Government (or any other governments for that matter) who send out their people into war) has not only put lives in danger, but actually TAKEN hundreds of thousands of innocent lives. So why do you defend them? ;)

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  3. Where did I say I defend the American government? I didn't, so don't put words in my mouth.

    But for the record, I defend my government (Canadian) because I elected them, and thus they have a duty to defend me, my safety, and my rights. Which, hey, they don't do a half-bad job of doing it.

    Wikileaks is under no obligationt to protect me. If a document with my name on it got into their hands, they'd release it. If a document with your name got into their hands, they'd release it. They already proved how little they care for individual privacy when Sarah Palin's emails were broadcast worldwide. Don't get me wrong, I dislike her as much as anyone, but the fact is that she was entitled to her privacy, which wikileaks obviously violated.

    Also, they claim to have a "nuclear bomb" of information for release should something happen to them. Doesn't that scare you? If they aren't bluffing, something like that could tear the world apart, and any deaths would be the DIRECT fault of wikileaks.

    I won't pretend that governments are 100% pure, but wikileaks is just as bad, probably worse, because like I said, they aren't held to any standard but their own. So why does this make them the best thing since sliced bread?

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  5. I'm more afraid of what our government does than about what Wikileaks could do. If my name is on any of their papers, then that is nothing really special, since our government wants us to be as transparent as possible, some countries have special ID cards now, which optionally even include your fingerprints, and which you can use online - also look at the sheer number of places that belong to the state that have all kinds of information about you - and you think Wikileaks is scary.

    So for now, from the Wikileaks point of view, Assange hasn't done anything wrong, nor has he harmed anyone yet.

    I can't speak of the swedish accusations against him, since I don't know (or care for that matter) whether he had unprotected and unwanted sex with those women or not.

    But I do know that (in the age of High-Tech Terrorists) it should be possible to either ask Assange via a live video conference or online conference about those accusations, or even for the swedish lawyers to board a plane and fly to England and ask there. ;)

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  6. That's not really how the justice system works, but that's beside the point.

    I do think Wikileaks is scary. They -do not care- about what harm they will do. They aren't beholden to any rules or any laws. Did you completely miss the parts where I said that Amnesty International condemned them and they leaked private information about a private citizen?

    I'd bet anything that my government is much more secure than Wikileaks, both in hardware and personnel. Therefore, I'd trust them to keep me safe, compared to an organization that seems to be doing its damnedest to kill people. You can dodge the issue all you want by saying the governments of the world kill people as well, and I won't lie that they don't, but you need to admit that Wikileaks has as well, instead of lifting them to deity status.

    You're backing the wrong horse, mate. They don't care who they hurt or why.

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  7. Well, if you know so much about Wikileaks' wrongdoings, then give me namesand proof of people who were killed by, or because of, Wikileaks.

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  8. The soldiers who were put in danger because of leaked troop movements, and the informants who weren't properly redacted in other documents.

    I admit it's circumstantial evidence at best, but I feel it's powerful enough to qualify. It's logical, IMO, to conjecture that leaked troop movements and missing some names for redaction, would cause some harm. Even if there really, truly hasn't been one death, it's really just a matter of time before a mistake slips through the cracks. Wikileaks is made of humans, and humans make mistakes. Don't you think that's reason enough to at LEAST call them into question?

    I'm curious, why do you think Wikileaks is doing the world such a service? I've read some of the recently leaked diplomatic cables, and it's nothing to be excited over. Watergate was more powerful than that, and that happened before the internet was even invented.

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  9. As you rightly said, most of the cables are nothing to be excited over, yet the U.S. government is making a big deal out of the fact THAT those cables have been leaked, and wants to ideally kill or atleast imprison both leakers and publishers.

    So if the information in the cables isn't really that important, why threaten leakers and publishers in the first place?

    And of course Wikileaks employees are only human, and are bound to make mistakes at some point or another. But so is everyone else.

    And, let's take as an example the Collateral Murder video, where dozens of people were shot by that helicopter crew. Sure, war is war, and orders are orders. But to my knowledge the orders the troops had around there was to only killed armed people who were stirring up trouble. And i doubt that either the Reuters reporters nor the family father who was taking his kids to school had any intentions of causing trouble at all. So why did the helicopter shoot. Why did innocent people, civilians, die? Does it make the US Army to another Wikileaks that doesn't care how many people it kills? Just some thoughs... ;)

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  10. Honestly, if someone leaked all of my inner thoughts and the like, I'd be pretty pissed off too. I think it's more of the principle of the thing, honestly.

    I hate to use this excuse, but war is hell, and shit happens. They shouldn't have done that, of course, and I wish to hell it didn't happen, but...it's just a sad fact of armed conflict, and one I hope to see banished soon.

    And with that, I must thank you for this intelligent discussion. I can't go on as I have exams coming up, and a trip to pack for. Good luck with whatever situations life throws at you, and hey, maybe I'll see you around.

    -Nick

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  11. Good luck with your exams Nick (let me know how the results are). :)

    I also agree about war being hell. My grandparents served in World War 2 (I'm German btw) and they also had to deal with the aftermaths of it.

    If it was up to me, there would not be any war, but neither do I make the rules, nor would the people with the guns in their hands listen to me. So I usually just try to make the best of what our world throws at us.

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