wikileaks

so i don't know how many of you have been following the wikileaks news. i'll give a brief synopsis up to this point. as i'm sure all of you know, wikileaks is at the heart of an international drama of epic proportions because of their unfailing commitment to publishing material world governments strive maintain sole possession of.

so which government has the most secrets? the united states of america! that's right, our own government has more secrets than any other. i have no proof of this (of course) because proving it would require someone have access to every government secret across the globe. i'm quite certain, though, we the are the proprietors of the world's most secretive government. this is rather ironic as we started off as the world's most transparent.

as a result, the world's (arguably) sole superpower we are the best positioned and most concerned with an organization that's publishing secrets. it's become quite clear in this case, we are leveraging this position to it's fullest. to see this, we merely need to check out what's happening with wikileaks' spokesperson, and editor and chief; julian assange.

a few months ago, mr. assange was in sweden for a conference. during his stay, he had sex with a couple women. apparently, they weren't too pleased as they attempted to file charges against him. the swedish courts, however, would have none of it and dismissed the case. this was, of course, before wikileaks started publishing extremely embarrassing, and possibly destabilizing material.

fast forward to today and we see sweden has issued an arrest warrant for julain assange. this has to do with the same case their courts dispensed with a few months ago. but that's not all. the swedes have also failed to present any evidence against mr. assange; nor have they even presented charges. they're demanding his extradition (from britain) to sweden. so chances are good there's still no case against him.

there's speculation the united states is behind this as sweden has been used in the past to dispose of terrorists we'd rather not hold here. though there are more obvious cases of our government applying pressure to wikileaks. amazon stopped hosting wikileaks, and paypal froze mr. assange's account. there's no evidence here either, but i'm convinced these attacks were also the result of government pressure.

so there are several interrelated questions that come out of all this: 'is this action warranted', 'is wikileaks a terrorist organization'.

as a soldier who's been charged with keeping government secrets, one would think my answers to these questions would be yes. after all, that's the stance our government is taking. they've called wikileaks and all the journalists associated with it information terrorists, and are utilizing most of the 'weapons' in their arsenal to negate the 'threat'.

at first, i have to admit i agreed with this assessment. i was in a war zone surrounded by fellow members of the military, and my access to news was severely limited by both logistics and time. the brainwashing factors were high. fortunately, i've returned to civilization, and re-gained access to the free media. (this is opposed to the mainstream media that often become cheerleaders for our government.)

now i've heard 'wikileaks' side' of the argument. i've heard how they've redacted their leaks to protect the 'little guys' it would have otherwise condemned to death. (did you know, for example, the government used their own unabridged copies of the material on wikileaks when they cited how many people were in jeopardy.) the only things threatened by the wikileaks' postings are our government and its officials.

i'm of a mind this is a good thing as the world's biggest terrorist organization is now our own government. we terrorize the people we imprison and torture it guantanamo bay (innocent until proven guilty? please, we won't even try them in a civilized court). we terrorize the iraqi and afghan people (i've seen the collateral damage; it's not something i'd want anywhere). we even terrorize our own citizens (hello transportation security administration in our airports).

government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have....the course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases.
- gerald ford

part of our government's growth and influence includes its ability to hold secrets that should not be kept. don't get me wrong here; there are secrets that absolutely need to be kept. what wikileaks has posted, however, do not fall into the category of necessary secrets.

i truly hope julian assange is released; as i hope the onslaught of wikileaks will end. however, reality tells me mr. assange will probably end up in some secret prison to be held without trial. and wikileaks? i imagine mr. assange is merely the first of many reporters to be repressed.

i don't wanna be afraid
i don't wanna run away
i don't want to be here fading
it's more that I can take
i'm never gonna be the same
i threw it all away
i don't want to be here fading
just let go! (look what you do to me)
let go! (look what you do to me)
- red 'let go'