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PostPosted: Mon Dec 06, 2010 11:41 am 
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Interesting take on this issue:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... inion_main


Full article at link:

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Whatever else WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has accomplished, he's ended the era of innocent optimism about the Web. As wiki innovator Larry Sanger put it in a message to WikiLeaks, "Speaking as Wikipedia's co-founder, I consider you enemies of the U.S.—not just the government, but the people."

The irony is that WikiLeaks' use of technology to post confidential U.S. government documents will certainly result in a less free flow of information. The outrage is that this is Mr. Assange's express intention.

This batch includes 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables, the kind of confidential assessments diplomats have written since the era of wax seals. These include Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah urging the U.S. to end Iran's nuclear ambitions—to "cut the head off the snake." This alignment with the Israeli-U.S. position is not for public consumption in the Arab world, which is why leaks will curtail honest discussions.

Leaks will also restrict information flows within the U.S. A major cause of the 9/11 intelligence failures was that agencies were barred from sharing information. Since then, intelligence data have been shared more widely. The Obama administration now plans to tighten information flows, which could limit leaks but would be a step back to the pre-9/11 period.

Mr. Assange is misunderstood in the media and among digirati as an advocate of transparency. Instead, this battening down of the information hatches by the U.S. is precisely his goal. The reason he launched WikiLeaks is not that he's a whistleblower—there's no wrongdoing inherent in diplomatic cables—but because he hopes to hobble the U.S., which according to his underreported philosophy can best be done if officials lose access to a free flow of information.

In 2006, Mr. Assange wrote a pair of essays, "State and Terrorist Conspiracies" and "Conspiracy as Governance." He sees the U.S. as an authoritarian conspiracy. "To radically shift regime behavior we must think clearly and boldly for if we have learned anything, it is that regimes do not want to be changed," he writes. "Conspiracies take information about the world in which they operate," he writes, and "pass it around the conspirators and then act on the result."

His central plan is that leaks will restrict the flow of information among officials—"conspirators" in his view—making government less effective. Or, as Mr. Assange puts it, "We can marginalize a conspiracy's ability to act by decreasing total conspiratorial power until it is no longer able to understand, and hence respond effectively to its environment. . . . An authoritarian conspiracy that cannot think efficiently cannot act to preserve itself."


So, is that true, do you think? His goal is to have less transparency to cripple what he sees as a conspiracy?

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PostPosted: Mon Dec 06, 2010 11:43 am 
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Good. I hope the Internet helps remove power from the U.S. government which is super inflated. I'm glad that people in government won't talk to each other as much, and I want it to be less efficient. I want the free market to dominate.


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PostPosted: Mon Dec 06, 2010 11:44 am 
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Huh. If true, all the more power to him. Perhaps Wikileaks could be more useful and effective than I'd thought. This promotes Assange to "entertaining shit-disturber" to "genuine hero," if it's accurate.

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PostPosted: Mon Dec 06, 2010 12:02 pm 
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Lex Luthor wrote:
Good. I hope the Internet helps remove power from the U.S. government which is super inflated. I'm glad that people in government won't talk to each other as much, and I want it to be less efficient. I want the free market to dominate.


Incompetence in the government will make it larger, not smaller. And I don't think it will have an impact on power. If the government can't communicate effectively, you'll have several agencies checking you for testicle grenades instead of just the TSA.


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PostPosted: Mon Dec 06, 2010 12:04 pm 
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Arathain Kelvar wrote:
Lex Luthor wrote:
Good. I hope the Internet helps remove power from the U.S. government which is super inflated. I'm glad that people in government won't talk to each other as much, and I want it to be less efficient. I want the free market to dominate.


Incompetence in the government will make it larger, not smaller. And I don't think it will have an impact on power. If the government can't communicate effectively, you'll have several agencies checking you for testicle grenades instead of just the TSA.


And then the terrorists win.

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PostPosted: Mon Dec 06, 2010 12:32 pm 
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Anarchist, or terrorist?

His goal seems to be not to break down and eliminate the government, but to force it to become more restrictive and more security focused. His posting of confidential information to the web are an attack on the government of the United States, but not one that will destroy the government, just embarrass the hell out of it.

I'm really curious about how Iran will react to the revelation that Saudi Arabia has plotted against them, secretly calling for the elimination of their nuclear program.

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PostPosted: Mon Dec 06, 2010 12:35 pm 
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Terrorists kill people or blow up buildings through acts of terror. He isn't a terrorist.


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PostPosted: Mon Dec 06, 2010 12:36 pm 
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Arathain Kelvar wrote:
f the government can't communicate effectively, you'll have several agencies checking you for testicle grenades instead of just the TSA.

My testicles have been cited as the source of many explosions, so this is not unexpected.

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PostPosted: Mon Dec 06, 2010 12:39 pm 
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Micheal wrote:
His goal seems to be not to break down and eliminate the government, but to force it to become more restrictive and more security focused.


More restrictive internally to prevent leaks. This could mean returning to a pre-9/11 style of government agencies not cooperating. This ultimately means less effective government monitoring and control over its people.

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PostPosted: Mon Dec 06, 2010 12:48 pm 
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Talya wrote:
Micheal wrote:
His goal seems to be not to break down and eliminate the government, but to force it to become more restrictive and more security focused.


More restrictive internally to prevent leaks. This could mean returning to a pre-9/11 style of government agencies not cooperating. This ultimately means less effective government monitoring and control over its people.


So much for the culture of openness we were promised.

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PostPosted: Mon Dec 06, 2010 12:52 pm 
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Müs wrote:
Talya wrote:
Micheal wrote:
His goal seems to be not to break down and eliminate the government, but to force it to become more restrictive and more security focused.


More restrictive internally to prevent leaks. This could mean returning to a pre-9/11 style of government agencies not cooperating. This ultimately means less effective government monitoring and control over its people.


So much for the culture of openness we were promised.


Government has not become more open with its citizens. It's just become more open with other layers of government, leading to more attempts to control its citizens. Just look at the DHS going after IP violators on the net. That's not why the DHS was formed, it's completely outside its reason for being, but no, they keep thinking they can control people. Sure as I know anything, I know this - they will keep trying. They'll swing back to the belief that they can make people better. And I do not hold to that. So no more running. I aim to misbehave.

Wait a sec, where was I?

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PostPosted: Mon Dec 06, 2010 12:57 pm 
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Talya wrote:
Wait a sec, where was I?


You were confusing an entertaining and whitty movie with something of actual substance and real worth.


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PostPosted: Mon Dec 06, 2010 1:03 pm 
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Aizle wrote:
You were confusing an entertaining and whitty movie with something of actual substance and real worth.


The movie is entertaining and witty because it speaks to real issues --namely, the idea that government can and should attempt to control and shape society. Which is always very, very bad. It speaks to the reason for government to exist. Government should not there to control or guide, but to serve. The people do not want, nor need, an example. Nobody should be looking out for their greater good, nobody should be shepherding the population. There is a reason most citizens don't vote - government does all their thinking for them. It's despicable. Federal and state Governments should be less a factor in influencing society than most municipal governments are today. They are there to provide infrastructure and protect rights only. Beyond that, they need to shut the **** up, sit down, and get the hell out of our lives. They need to be licking our boots and grovelling for our approval, rather than pretending to "know best." Because they don't know best. The individual is the only one who ever knows best...and that's for the individual alone.

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But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me

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Last edited by Talya on Mon Dec 06, 2010 1:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: Mon Dec 06, 2010 1:10 pm 
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Back to the original topic, I really hope that advancing information technology will help curb government power even more. It definitely helped in breaking up the Soviet Union and fall of the Berlin Wall (which I'm guessing Aizle regards as a bad thing).


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PostPosted: Mon Dec 06, 2010 2:53 pm 
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Talya wrote:
Wait a sec, where was I?

Living in another country outside the enforcement of US Federal Law/Policy?

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PostPosted: Mon Dec 06, 2010 3:05 pm 
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It would seem that the majority of Gladers have some issue with Julian Assange and wikileaks. So, I have to ask ...

Where does free speech end?

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PostPosted: Mon Dec 06, 2010 3:07 pm 
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Hopwin wrote:
Talya wrote:
Wait a sec, where was I?

Living in another country outside the enforcement of US Federal Law/Policy?

Not entirely...

Wikipedia wrote:
In contrast, the U.S. has often persuaded countries to change or even break relevant laws, as alleged in the extradition dispute with Canada on Charles Ng.[citation needed] The case of Charles Ng went before the Supreme Court of Canada, where it was decided that extradition to the United States did not violate Mr. Ng's rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. However, subsequent Canadian case law has overruled the Ng decision. Accordingly in Canada, a prisoner cannot be extradited to a country allowing the death penalty unless assurances have been made to prevent the execution of such.


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PostPosted: Mon Dec 06, 2010 3:22 pm 
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Lex Luthor wrote:
Hopwin wrote:
Talya wrote:
Wait a sec, where was I?

Living in another country outside the enforcement of US Federal Law/Policy?

Not entirely...

Wikipedia wrote:
In contrast, the U.S. has often persuaded countries to change or even break relevant laws, as alleged in the extradition dispute with Canada on Charles Ng.[citation needed] The case of Charles Ng went before the Supreme Court of Canada, where it was decided that extradition to the United States did not violate Mr. Ng's rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. However, subsequent Canadian case law has overruled the Ng decision. Accordingly in Canada, a prisoner cannot be extradited to a country allowing the death penalty unless assurances have been made to prevent the execution of such.


A high-profile suspected terrorist versus a self-styled intraweb pirate?

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PostPosted: Mon Dec 06, 2010 3:32 pm 
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Khross wrote:
It would seem that the majority of Gladers have some issue with Julian Assange and wikileaks.


The poll that's up doesn't appear to support this statement.


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PostPosted: Mon Dec 06, 2010 3:33 pm 
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That dear Khross, is why my vote was and remains, No, but they have the right to do it.

No, I do not agree with Mr. Assange's actions, and I feel that WikilLeaks is an attention getting site hell bent on embarrassing the USA. Has it been releasing classified documents from anywhere else? I truly do not know the answer to that question.

I do however, reassert my belief that the real target for the federal government is the person who leaked the documents to Mr. Assange. Since Mr. Assange is not a citizen of this country (he is Australian) he has basically guaranteed he will never have the freedom to visit this country without facing arrest for, at a minimum, conspiracy charges. I am curious as to what Australia's laws on freedom of speech are like, perhaps Lydiaa could tell us more.

Freedom of speech gives you the right to say whatever you want. It does not protect you from slander or libel suits should you be committing those offenses.

The question remains, how much right does the the government of the USA have to prevent foreign citizens releasing documents classified at some confidential or secret level by our government? The answer is probably little to none. Proving conspiracy in this case might be difficult.

By the way Talya, Ng was a sexual offender and serial killer. He and his partner Leonard Lake (who committed suicide before capture) raped, tortured, filmed and executed their victims. Hardly an international terrorist of the stripe we normally think about. Canada held him for years on shoplifting, resisting arrest and wounding a police officer, he served time for those offenses in one of your Canadian prisons, then after a long extradition process was returned to the United States where he was tried for those murders and is currently on death row. It was a relatively local event here, I followed it for a long time.

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PostPosted: Mon Dec 06, 2010 3:37 pm 
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In Australia, you aren't even allowed to buy games with red blood. That's all I know about their free speech.

TF2 censored in Australia to not show gore:

Spoiler:
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 06, 2010 3:59 pm 
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Micheal wrote:
I do however, reassert my belief that the real target for the federal government is the person who leaked the documents to Mr. Assange. Since Mr. Assange is not a citizen of this country (he is Australian) he has basically guaranteed he will never have the freedom to visit this country without facing arrest for, at a minimum, conspiracy charges. I am curious as to what Australia's laws on freedom of speech are like, perhaps Lydiaa could tell us more.


Once again, as has been pointed out, Assange broke no American laws, even if he were American and lived in America. The NY Times could have published those cables with legal impunity. The ONLY difference is that were he an american, they could compel him to testify who leaked the information to him (because that person DID break the law.) The only people bound to protect classified information are those who have agreed to an NDA to do so.

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By the way Talya, Ng was a sexual offender and serial killer. He and his partner Leonard Lake (who committed suicide before capture) raped, tortured, filmed and executed their victims. Hardly an international terrorist of the stripe we normally think about. Canada held him for years on shoplifting, resisting arrest and wounding a police officer, he served time for those offenses in one of your Canadian prisons, then after a long extradition process was returned to the United States where he was tried for those murders and is currently on death row. It was a relatively local event here, I followed it for a long time.

I never mentioned Ng. I suspect that was for someone else.

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PostPosted: Mon Dec 06, 2010 4:16 pm 
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Oops, right, it was Hopwin. Sorry.

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PostPosted: Mon Dec 06, 2010 4:51 pm 
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I dont have a problem with him so much as I think people tend to either outright vilify him or romanticize what he's doing. I dont think much of the guy. I'm sure he'd be against the free speech of my stealing his bank account and PIN information and publicizing it, or his current address, private letters to girlfriends and so on. Or better yet, the government wiretapping him and releasing that info.

I also dont see what he feels he is accomplishing by making this stuff public.

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PostPosted: Mon Dec 06, 2010 5:42 pm 
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Micheal wrote:
I'm really curious about how Iran will react to the revelation that Saudi Arabia has plotted against them, secretly calling for the elimination of their nuclear program.


It'd be funny if war broke out in the Middle East over this.


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