i dont really think hes either.

Personally I think this is what the interweb should be all about - breaking down the walls. To be fair, Assange really just provides the conduit. The actual leaks come from the inside where people leak these secrets for their own agendas.

I think we should ask ourselves what the repercussions are of the truth being published? Perhaps international diplomacy and the intrigues that go with it need to be pushed to a thing of the past in our global village.

The US government didn't seem to cop much flak for the Plame Affair.

Maybe this is a brave new world?

Can we really fear the truth that much?

"If [governments] want to avoid embarrassment, they shouldn't shut down freedom of information. They should stop acting embarrassingly." Julian Burnside, QC. [Queen's Council Barrister, Australia]. Assange is just providing a platform for freedom of information to be realised upon.

Hero.

Don't buy it when people say "The information being leaked is a security risk." That's a lie. Governments aren't trying to keep the information on wikileaks out of the hands of terrorists. They're trying to keep it out of your hands; out of the hands of voters. Assange is not necessarily a hero, but he's certainly not a villain. (Of course if the sexual assault charges turn out to be true, then he really is a villain, just for reasons that have nothing to do with wikileaks.)

http://www.avaaz.org/en/wikileaks_petition/?rc=fb

Yes, he is a hero. If you look at his writings leading up to these events, he knowingly and deliberately provoked events to this pass. He knew he would be made to personally suffer consequences as the face and lightening rod of the movement, and I imagine he has prepared himself to become a martyr if it comes to that. If the US Gov were smart they'd send a secret service retinue to protect his ass and make sure he doesn't get martyred.

Here's an interesting commentary regarding the abuse of secrecy in the US Government and the Wikileaks response: http://www.npr.org/2010/12/10/131958488/the-nation-our-national-secrecy-habit

not what the media makes him out to be. neither, just a man.

OK, define hero somebody. If it's subjective, as i suspect, then I suppose the most you can ever say is that many people consider him to be a hero. And in this case, it's true.

villian

I reckon he's just some poor sod who thought he'd go down the freedom of speach road thinking it to be a damned fine way of attracting girls, and things have got slightly more intense than be bargained for.

In terms of the impact of his actions though, I'd say he has currently done more good than harm, although that can easily change...

Putting aside the rape allegations.

People are rarely one or the other. I suspect that his intentions are good, and I think he may reconsider dumping material in the future and instead just publishing things that are in the public interest rather than just interesting to the public. Assange doesn't exist in a vacuum of course, it is easy for newspapers to fund him and then report what wikileaks has reported.

I think we may have seen the opening scearmises of the first cyber war, one which governments will struggle to win, yes they will be able to close down wikileaks at some point, but others will replace it and we all know that 1 hacker with a grudge could bring down big parts of the internet. It could develop into a well funded gorilla war, and as we all know the first casuality of war will be the truth.

And I think he's more of a villain not only by what he's done, but by what he's inspired others to do. This whole group Anonymous that he's inspired to hack and bring down websites is doing more destruction than he is. They took down the government of Sweden's website for a short while. I mean, come on

He's an ass. I want the CIA to have free reign and do black ops where ever and when ever they want without the fear of being outed. :P

He strikes me as self-absorbed, pursuing a vendetta, and honestly I don't actually doubt that something sexually (and legally) questionable happened with him in Sweden.

Have you read his old blog(ish) posts that they dug up on the web?

He's vain, thinks he's a genius, and is kinda sorta misogynistic.

Sorry I don't have the link... I forgot the link. don't feel like hunting it down but i promise its out there. lol.

And seriously just what about these cables did the holy American citizenry realllly need to know?

Why doesn't wikileaks go back to doing good, exposing corruption in Kenya and the like?

What "corruption" has Assange exposed with these cables?

I was supportive of his posting of that helicopter video in Iraq that killed those Reuters people. I am supportive of publishing PARTS of the war documents (not the parts that name names though... that's fucked up.)

But really... hacking Palin's email?
Publishing diplomatically sensitive calbes?

To what end? What do the American people, or the people of the world, gain? Now it will only be THAT much harder to stop Iran getting a nuke, and governments of the world will only become less transparent.

Great job, Assange the internet messiah.

Whatever. He's a dick, see above post. I don't think he gives two shits about furthering mankind.

Nihilism, pure and simple.

Assange is in it for the lolz. It's as simple as that.

Now, some of the stuff that was leaked, as Thucy said, was good. But, most of it has done nothing but make international diplomacy harder and will ultimately make governments less transparent.

Yeah I think, the more I hear of him, that he might be some kind of sociopath.

Or narcissist.

heh, this thread is starting to reek of jealousy. Here, read this series: http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/

It basically shows that the secret agencies and activities in the US have bloomed beyond control, and no one is controlling the money or their activities. IMHO, what wikileaks is doing is legal (I suspect the US gov agrees with me, as they've made no formal charges) and productive. For me, the content is basically irrelevant, it is the fact that it is getting increasingly difficult to keep a secret that makes an impact on the system, and it draws attention to the extent to which the US Gov now has a fourth branch of government which operates with almost complete autonomy and almost no oversight. That said, contrary to what many of you are suggesting without any criteria, a lot of the information reveals methods and philosophy that are not appropriate for a country with the image and rhetoric of the United States. And I don't give a fuck about Assange's personal qualities or any of your speculations about whether he did or did not wear a condom when he fucked those two Swedish girls.
With regard to Anonymous, which for those of you who like to keep the conversation on topic is decidedly OFF, Wikileaks has distanced themselves from their actions. Anonymous takes responsibility for Anonymous actions. That said, the US gov launched an ongoing DDoS attack on Wikileaks' website without making any justification for the attack. They had their financial network cut by pressuring private companies by the mere suggestion that Wikileaks' activities were "deemed" illegal. Still no formal charges have been forthcoming. So, just to be clear, what you people are advocating is that the Gov should be able to attack a privately run organization on a whim without offering the slightest justification. You're reasoning: he's a dick, a misogynist, an ass, and a villain. Excellent work folks.

WikiLeaks is all fine and good, Assange is good. However, the recent diplomatic cables should have remained secret, because that's integral to diplomacy. If anything, diplomatic cables are the only things that should remain secret.

Having information available to the public is only not in the public interest if people choose to act on it. Just knowing stuff is not, in and of itself, illegal or dangerous or "bad". We can punish people who use the information on wikileaks to commit illegal acts. We can't punish people for knowing stuff or for spreading that information around. To quote school house rock "Knowledge is power". Power isn't a bad thing, the question is, how do you use that power? And frankly, governments have been using their power irresponsibly.

Oh and Thucy, so basically what you've said is, wikileaks is fine as long as it says bad things about countries that aren't the United States (Wow! The Kenyan government is corrupt! Who'd have thought?), but as soon as it starts to actually upset the status quo, it suddenly becomes evil?

Uh no... re read my post.

I was ok with the Iraq war video and parts of the Iraq and Afghanistan leaks, not the parts that endanger people or hinder operations. I would be against that for ANY country.

I am the last person you will catch favoring America over other countries. Anti-universalism disgusts me. So nice try.

I would be perfectly happy to see many more leaks about the US government, as long as they are actually advancing the public good. Exposing, for example, government graft or corrupt government officials is fucking fine by me.

But that's not what these cables do. And that's not what naming the Iraqi informants who were previously safely anonymous does either.

Please try not to misinterpret me in the future.

With regard to jealousy, that's laughable. I pity the position Assange is now in. His life is basically ruined, unless this is truly what he wanted to do with his life, in which case congratulations. Threw his life away to make a silly point that had the opposite intended effect. W/e.

Thucy +1

I agree with Thucy. If Wikileaks was actually exposing corruption, then I'd support it, but its not. And mcbry, no justification for attacking an organization which is the channel for the leaking of tens of thousands of government top secret documents? Give me a break. While it technically hasn't done the crime, there is guilt by association. Same thing if you're in a car with a friend and your friend has heroin on him. If you are pulled over, even if you didn't touch, possess, or transport it, you'll be arrested too.

Notice, by the way that I do not think that Assange is a terrorist, do not think that Wikileaks is a bad thing (or idea).

But don't let that diminish the objections I mentioned earlier and my doubts about Assange's character.

As to whether he's done something illegal... I don't really know; I'm no law expert. That's not my concern really. Because I'm more concerned with doing the right thing than obeying the law. He did the wrong with with "cablegate," which is unfortunate given that he had been doing the right thing for most of wikileaks' short history.

Anyway back to minecraft.