Should WikiLeaks be closed down and the people involved be prosecuted?

The patriot in me says “HELL YES” , but the web geek in me says “let’em fight a little longer”.

But this is such precarious footing in terms of the security of freedoms that I honestly would need to know in-depth consequences of their disclosures to really decide.

Another way of asking this question might be, are we witnessing one of the highest forms of bravery and heroism or is it treason?

this question is academic, you can’t close down wiki leaks anyways, get used to it. it really isn’t a big deal.

It’s an interesting problem of globalization… the guy who stole the documents and leaked them to wikileaks—that’s definitely illegal.

What wikileaks is doing isn’t much more than journalists have been doing for years, just a lot more data.

Under which law can it be closed down? Anda as such, who can legally close it down? Sure governments can pressure companies which provide donation access (ie paypal, mastercard), but that just indicates the extent of the problem with respect to the blurred distinction between corporate and government.

Wikileaks operates in multiple countries, and does not break the law (as far as I am aware) in any one of them (if it does, it just moves). Furthermore, it is a dispersed organizaiton with the material on mutliple mirror sites, etc.. As mammal indicates, it’s too late. THe harder the goevernments press, the more global supporters will ensure the information flow will continue. The only option is for governments to target the sources and increase their security…as best they can.

So at the heart of it, the only laws broken (unless they are changed….) are by those individuals who break the laws of their governments or otherwise legally protected sources, by releasing classified information to wikileaks.

Wikileaks is a secure distribution medium more akin to the original principle of a “free press” than any corporate or government news outlet currently operating. Wikileaks don’t have to operate within the mutually benefiting constraints of such “news” institutions,and I believe society in general is better off for it.

Those who are leaking the information to Assange are the guilty ones and I hope they are found and prosecuted. Assange is just looking for his 15 minutes of fame, unfortunately it is happening in such a way that already difficult world relations are becoming even more so. What has the man accomplished? What good is coming from his actions?

Everyone should support them and they should receive medals.

“What good is coming from his actions?”

Have a read down the page in the Leaks section at wikipedia if you like

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiLeaks

Wikileaks has been instrumental in revealing the under reporting of civilian casualties in war, corruption in corporations, toxic dumping, nucelar accident in Iran, etc..etc.etc.

Fascinating stuff.

In simple terms, the media should be there to protect people, not corporations, not government. Wikileaks is doing it where others can’t or won’t.

Yes. Starting with the lying bastard politicians who generated the material in the first place.

I don’t think they can or should be shut down. There was also a pretty good piece on NPR a while ago discussing what the difficulties in prosecuting anyone or anything in this case. Here’s the link to the NPR story. There’s both a written summary and a link to the radio story. It’s a just little under 4 minutes and worth a listen, I think.

Frankly, I think that the more transparency there is in government, the better policy we will get. Secrets only make things worse. A real patriot would want to weed out all secrets in the government.

btw i hope Amazon and Master Card of the universe gets hacked back into the stone age, so they have to resort to the horse and cart and some kind of primitive barter system. Filthy scum. Wiki-leaks is better than Internet porn, apparently the Internet has found it’s soul, finally at last, thank the Lord.

It is instrumental in pointing out that laws need to be changed, but I don’t think there are laws on the books that would permit shutting it down (It is outside the US anyway so how could we shut it down?).

It is a very fine line, but I think if it goes unchecked it will encourage more hacking of government sites.

I am discouraged that Al Quaeda says they are using it for analysis.

no. all information should be made public. basically it is free press.

As far as our laws go, I have heard that new laws are in the works.

By reading the leaked cables, one can learn that that the U.S. government has a lot of stupid secrets, that don’t need to be secret.

When our government gets its act together, THEN it will have the moral and logical basis for secrecy on some things.

Until then… let the information fly open, and travel far and wide.

Wikileaks should be praised.

I hate to see the USA made to look like a fool and that is what is happening. Now you may think that is a good thing but I don’t. Who as individuals, or businesses, employees, governments etc. has no dirty laundry that is better left hidden away. Here in Australia, Kevin Rudd is now pissed off because someone in the US diplomatic corps labeled him as a “control freak.” It is a true description of the man but has humanity well and truly been served by having it exposed?

At the very least, Assange should have been a bit more selective about what great secret he has released for the good of the world. Because a lot of the bs he has released has no value to anyone but is very detrimental to world relations between not just the USA and whomever but many other countries as well. But when you see yourself as a savior, you don’t feel the need to exercise restraint.

Of course it shouldnt it be.
Did you know we bombed Yemen and killed 21 children just a few days before the “underwear bomber?”
Did you know we have been bombing Pakistan?
We have a lot to learn from this and the way government and private business function, they have a lot to fear.

Secret dealings, I have no prob. with. It is good to know what is really going on.

I think it is bad that they also released vulnerabilities in infrastructure and trade, which can be used by terrorists.

I think he should be commended for what he is doing. And why should he be prosecuted? I am not savvy on law, but from the little I know, Assange was never American, and never came to America seeking citizenship, therefore he never swore to uphold our laws or interests . . .

So if he is reporting like every other reporter out there would do if they had access to the data he has, I don’t see why he should be prosecuted. America probably has a nice legal team. If they had something on him, I’m sure they’d proclaim it from a mountain and try and press charges.

On a different note: I wish I had billions, I’d tell Visa and Mastercard and Paypal to fuck off, and I’d set up an infrastructure for people to donate money to his cause. I think that if he is inspirational enough to convince people to give him their money in support, it’s a chicken-shit thing to do, for them to cut him off. Hell, I’d even buy my own damn servers for him to use to spread these documents. Not because I agree, but because people should have the right to choose what they want to support.

Prosecute the person who gave the documents, do not prosecute or bother the messenger.

To the people saying Assange should use discretion:

If he were to use discretion, it would show that he has motives. Just show all of what he has, and he’s no longer a politically motivated chump.

I said this before: I completely support the exposure of lies, corruption and other illegal behavior. But the latest Wikileaks coup is unethical to say the least:

“The controversial whistleblower site published the cable late on Sunday, listing potential targets that experts told British daily The Times were a gift for terrorist organisations. The list of critical infrastructure and key resources located abroad detailed hundreds of pipelines, important data cables, and businesses belonging to international industrial and pharmaceutical giants. If destroyed, these sites could damage US interests, the diplomatic communique said.

In Germany such sites included the BASF headquarters in Ludwigshafen, which was described as the world’s largest integrated chemical complex, and Hamburg’s port. Other crucial sites include the northwestern coastal city of Norden and the North Sea island of Sylt, where two important underwater data and communication cables connecting North America and Europe reach land. The list was the result of a February 2009 order from Washington for officials to compile a list of international assets critical for the United States.

The plants of industrial giant Siemens were also listed for essentially irreplaceable production of key chemicals and the production of hydroelectric dam turbines and generators. Other companies included Dräger Safety in the northern German city of Lübeck, critical to gas detection capability, and Junghans Fienwerktechnik in the southern city of Schramberg, critical to the production of mortars. A number of German pharmaceutical companies that produce critical vaccines, medications and medical tests, including insulin and a small pox vaccine, were also included on the list.”

http://www.thelocal.de/national/20101206-31623.html

There are people in Germany who live or work near these sites. And many of them are now very worried or even terrified.

This is psychological warfare. Wikileaks has become an ally of Al-Qaeda. Besides killing people, their goals include spreading fear.

The problem is: there are no laws against spreading fear.

Kudos @mattbrowne – very eloquently put and so true. GA

Agreed.

It made no sense to release that material.

Interestingly there are no cables from 2000 to 2002…

Poor guy, he’s gonna get fried big time. The whole thing is very very weird.