The real danger of WikiLeaks
November 29th, 2010 § 5 Comments
The US’s response to the release of their diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks is expected: national security has been endangered and WikiLeaks should be censored. Most disturbing is the fact that the majority of the US mainstream press is pushing this line. Fortunately, some journalists are offering an alternative to this tired type of fear-mongering. Writes Simon Jenkins in The Guardian (emphasis is mine):
America’s foreign policy is revealed as a slave to rightwing drift, terrified of a bomb exploding abroad or of a pro-Israeli congressman at home. If the cables tell of the progress to war over Iran or Pakistan or Gaza or Yemen, their revelation might help debate the inanity of policies which, as Patterson says, seem to be leading in just that direction. Perhaps we can now see how catastrophe unfolds when there is time to avert it, rather than having to await a Chilcot report after the event. If that is not in the public’s interest, I fail to see what is.
Clearly, it is for governments, not journalists, to protect public secrets. Were there some overriding national jeopardy in revealing them, greater restraint might be in order. There is no such overriding jeopardy, except from the policies themselves as revealed. Where it is doing the right thing, a great power should be robust against embarrassment.
Similarly, Greg Mitchell of The Nation who has been blogging about “cablegate” points out an interesting comment made by Scott Shane of the New York Times during an interview with an Australian publication. (Australia has banned certain pages on Wikileaks’s website and is reportedly being pressured by the US to cancel Assange’s passport.)
Perhaps if we had had more information on these secret internal deliberations of governments prior to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, we would have had a better understanding of the quality of the evidence that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Secrecy is not always in the interests of governments or people.
It should be noted that the response of the pro-Israel crowd to the editing of the Wikileaks documents by the news publications it was provided to has been overwhelmingly favorable — AIPAC has even been tweeting it. Due to misleading headlines and poor analysis, the resulting message that most people have been getting (and news outlets have been reiterating) is that Arab states (as opposed to the real culprit the Israel lobby) are trying to push the US into a war with Iran, and that Iran is more of a threat than ever.
Writes Mitchell about a comment made by neoconservative journalist David Frum:
David Frum tweets: ”If Julian Assange’s goal is to protect Iran, as seems the case, I don’t think he’s done his cause much good.” Well, certainly the NYT, and some others, focused a lot on the Iran-bashing aspect of the release, and allegedly getting missiles from North Korea.
This is the real danger of WikiLeaks’s otherwise important work: in the absence of intelligent and unbiased analysis, the material can be manipulated into war propaganda.
WikiLeaks has announced that yesterday’s release was the beginning of more to come. Access what has been made available so far on their website.
“This is the real danger of WikiLeaks’s otherwise important work: in the absence of intelligent and unbiased analysis, the material can be manipulated into war propaganda.”
Wrong.
In the absence of information about what our government is REALLY doing, anything they pull out of their collective rectum can be manipulated into war propaganda. Wikileaks tries to fill in a few blanks. Analysis still requires a sound mind.
Yikes! I had the same impression — that Israel was basically being fortified by the information on the Arab states pushing for an Iran bombing.
But I also wondered about the context of some of these Arab statements. Are they just saying what they KNOW the U.S./Israel wants them to say??
That nation states are bickering over whom to bash isn’t the problem. That the elites are trying to do in the rest of us is. Wikileaks I’m sure is trying to point out the dangerous venality of the diplomacy game, but I’m wondering if us sheeple can comprehend it at this point.
The problem is that what is being released and publicized so far is being decided by ruling-class newspapers, probably all pro-Israel. It would be great is some gremlin inside wilileaks were to release all of the documents, unredacted. (People who cooperate with the U.S. Empire SHOULDN’T feel safe.
It is important to remember that not only is the Bush/Chaney/FOX/Koch/AEI gang the enemy, the Obama/Clintons /DLC/Feinstein/Rubin gang is equally the enemy. They are all working for the same people, and it isn’t you and me. It is time to take to the street and make ourselves seen. It is time to risk and take chances and get arrested.
Read this Op.Ed by Chris Hedges, then go out and let yourself be seen.
http://readersupportednews.org/off-site-opinion-section/57-57/4082-hope-real-hope-is-about-doing-something
While the US has been encircling Iran with bases and hundreds of thousands of troops in neighboring countries, they have the nerve to complain about revelation of their dishonesty and plotting with their puppet ‘Arab’ regimes in this effort!