Wikileaks Friend or Foe?

“The battle lines are being drawn. What happens to Wikileaks (and its founder) as a result of the website publishing secret documents may forever change our freedom relating to the Internet. I believe it’s important for each of us to take a side. Here’s my take:

Preceding the American Revolution our forefathers printed news bulletins opposing Great Britain’s rule and secretly distributed them to the American population. It was what they needed to do to gain acceptance for the revolution which eventually lead to our independence from Britain. In Germany in 1941 and 1942 a group of intellectuals who called themselves The White Rose issued underground publications that opposed Hitler. If enough Germans had been allowed to read their publications history may have turned out different, thousands of lives may have been saved. Instead, Hitler put a stop to their communications, tracked down the six leaders of the White Rose and had them executed.

In the history of the world the only way any group has ever gotten out from under the suppressive grasp of a corrupt or unfair leader, or political party, has been by the common person having the ability communicate to others, whether by word-of-mouth, printed material or, as it may apply today, via cyberspace.

Arguably, Freedom of Speech is our most valuable constitutional right.

But what happens when “secret” documents are stolen and communicated broadly for anyone to read, as in the case of Wikileaks? Does Wikileaks have a “right” to publish such documents? Do we have a “right” to read those documents? After all, the documents that Wikileaks published were originally written only for specific people to read. What if someone hacked into your email account and published your emails online for anyone to read, should the publishing of your emails be allowed as a right of Freedom of Speech?

In case you’ve been living under a rock lately, Wikileaks is a whistle blowing website that has a history of publishing secret documents. Not just government documents but private business documents, documents about individuals, and church documents. Wikileaks works under the umbrella of Freedom of Speech.

Wikileaks seems to feel they have a right to publish any piece of communication anywhere on the planet and share it with anyone and everyone.

So, on one hand you have Freedom of Speech as a right that can potentially keep populations out of the oppressive grasp of not-so-well-intended political leaders, and on the other hand you have the right of individuals and governments to protect their “speech” from being read by the masses.

As with all freedoms, the Freedom of Speech has its price.

Freedom of Speech is a double edged sword. In the case of the secret government documents Wikeleaks has published, on one side it gives the average person a direct look at what our government is doing behind the scenes, and how it is spending our money. On the other side, publishing these documents could be a risk to national security and could put lives at risk.

Presently, the battle lines are being drawn: there’s those in on the side of Wikileaks, and those on the side of the government who wants to penalize Wikileaks.

Freedom of Speech is an issue here, but there is a deeper issue I think we need to look at.

The reason many want the secret government documents published is because presently in our society there is a massive mistrust of the government. After 9/11 we invaded two countries. The purpose of the Afghanistan invasion was to find the terrorists responsible for 9/11 and “root them out of their caves and bring them to justice.” Nine years later the man allegedly most responsible for 9/11, Osama Bin Laden, has not been found, nor has any other terrorist been found, captured, tried and convicted in direct relationship to 9/11. The other country we invaded was Iraqi. We did this because Saddam Hussein was supposedly building Weapons of Mass Destruction. Of course, no WMD were ever found. Many people feel the “war on terror,” and the invasion of Iraqi in search of Weapons of Mass Destruction were just excuses to get us into war. Many Americas also feel 9/11 was a False Flag operation designed to instigate anger and fear among Americans: the impetus needed to send our troops to Afghanistan as well as create the Patriot Act and other liberty eroding practices.

Presently the U.S. has military operations in 130 countries around the world. Aren’t we supposed to be a peace loving nation? I could go on. The bottom line is there’s plenty of reason not to trust our government. Americans are demanding transparency. Rather than getting watered down, often false reports from our political leaders and major media, people want to look behind the curtain and see for themselves what’s really happening.

There are many conspiracy minded people who believe that Wikileak’s release of the secret documents could have been stopped or avoided by the government, but wasn’t because the government wants to hang Wikileaks in a public arena. In other worlds, the Wikileaks debacle is another sort of False Flag operation. Just as 9/11 gave the government the perfect excuse to invade Afghanistan, etc., Wikileaks will give the government the perfect excuse to monitor the Internet and restrict our Freedom of Speech via the Internet. Such people believe that the Thought Police are right around the corner, and they just may be right.

When we judge what is right or wrong concerning Wikileaks, I think we have to evaluate it based on what would potentially be the greatest good and the greatest harm to the most people. Personally, I feel the Internet may be our last hope for real Freedom of Speech. Most of the television and radio airwaves are controlled by about 20 private business and corporations. Newspaper are run by special interest groups. The Internet is the one avenue that allows the “common person” to communicate to other people without restriction.

If you string up Wikileaks you had better also hang every major media outlet that is publishing the secret documents for the world to read. The average person doesn’t weed through the thousands of documents on Wikileaks, journalists read those documents and then publish bits in pieces for the rest of us to read.
The government and others condom Wikileaks because the publication of the documents are a threat to our Security. Those that feel that Wikileaks should be able to publish the documents do it in the name of Freedom.

I’m going to go with Thomas Jefferson on this one. Quote: “Those who surrender freedom for security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”

I’m choosing Freedom. I’d love to hear your opinion.