Wikileak

[Dan]

WikiLeaks.org (website is down at the moment due to high traffic I guess).


What's your view on this? Should the documents be published or should they take down such websites for the sake of what the governments are saying protects lives. Though it has to be said, it leaks a lot of info about governments so they would claim any reason to take it down IMO.

Personally, the amount of time I spend per week protecting and keeping online any comments people wish to leave gives me the view that free speech should really be free. So I'm all for these guys publishing anything they can find that proves unethical practices within governments and the public generally.

The founder of wikileaks does denote that no actual details are used therefore life is not in danger. And the act of publishing such content, he suggests, is to stop unethical practices which should in turn stop deaths anyway.

Anybody got any views on this?

Edit: For those who wish to see what sort of documents can be found, here's a snapshot of the webpage until the website actually gets back online: broken link removed

 

[Yorkshire Tiling Services]

I agree in principle, but even here, total freedom of speech does not exist.
This is rightly so. Censorship is often required to keep order.
Otherwise there would be chaos !!

 

[Dan]

The website appears to be working now.

 

[Dan]

A warrant has been issued to arrest Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks.

Do you think this guy really should be arrested? I think he's doing a brilliant job of showing the world how it really works behind the scenes. And hopefully more thought will be given in the future before starting a war that can't be won.

Any views on this?

 

[diamondtiling]

I was just searching for this thread.

I am listening to the programme on Radio 4 right now, he is supposed to be in the South East.
They have just said that he has some 'insurance' that he will be bargaining with although nothing was mentioned. The establishment probably knows what that might be, will he disappear and be found floating in the Thames?
It happens.

 

[Dan]

His insurance is the fact that he's said that if he gets arrested, news organisations already have processes in place to obtain ALL the data with no protection for those in the cables in the way of removing their names and actual confidential details. So basically if he gets arrested, everybody mentioned in a cable will be in the media radar and that's even more embarrassing for the USA.

Switzerland have an arrest warrant out for him to do with alledged rape charges.
Their swiss bank account has been closed down, apparently due to wikileaks providing false details when opening the account.
Australia has an arrest warrant out for him, can't remember what that was exactly for.
And now Scotland Yard have been given the go ahead on an arrest warrant over here too.

I think he's doing a good thing. USA doesn't have a leg to stand on. And they're desperately trying to get every other countries backing on making sure this all stops but I can't see it happening to be honest, he's been clever in the way he's gone about it all.

 

[Dan]

Just thinking as well lol, if that cat lady got away with nearly killing that cat by claiming she was a victim of death threats and whatnot. Then surely Assange should be able to get police protection too?

 

[diamondtiling]

And now they are saying that Iran's nuclear sites are about to be attacked as a direct link to information from Wikileaks? Should he have let all that info out?

 

[mikethetile]

I was a bit concerned to read the leaks from tilers forum admin LOL

 

[Dan]

That's rubbish, anybody who wanted to attack iran's nuclear sites would already have the knowledge of their locations and systems they use etc. That's the US trying to think of as many reasons as to why the site should be shut down. They're really worried about what hasn't already been released me thinks.

This is the first time this has ever happened and nobody predicted it was about to all come out. I think it's a really good thing that he's trying to stop the dodgy behind the scenes deals that affect us civilians the most and generally are just there to generate profits for countries. Normally Oil related.

I think this will go on for some time now. Assange has a copy of the whole wikileaks website hosted in hundreds of locations and although they just got their wikileaks.org domain suspended by easydns.net, they instantly had another domain online ending .ch I think it is.

They're even giving people on twitter their IP address to the website so even without a domain name the content is accessible.

 

[diamondtiling]

So basically he is going to meet some nasty blokes one day and everyone will blame the other. Is he a hero or a fool?

 

[Dan]

Yeah his clock is ticking :lol: Hopefully he'll be all right and all this will continue. I think he's a hero myself. USA don't have a leg to stand on as yet. I think countries will publicly back the US over it all, but behind the scenes they'll be really annoyed about what some of the documents state the US are saying.

The whole war thing has been corrupt from day 1 with bush, and blair kissing his back side. They were the fools to assume they're above the rest of the world, Assange is just letting us know what's really going on.

 

[Scott]

I think he is a fool. Some of the info thats come out today should not be public knowledge. I wont sleep ay differently knowing any of it but some terrorist organisations have the potential to now attack other facilities that they not have considered.

 

[Dan]

If a terrorist wanted to find out where Iraq uranium enrichment plants were, or our BAE factories, or our main ports, or the Russian (might have been german?) Gas line that's meant to be the most important in the world, I think they'd have found them even without this recent leak to be fair. Though I agree this does put in order what the US considers to be their most valuable locations and not the most valuable for the world generally. So it's arguably not that important for any other countries security.

And lets face it, if the USA was a third world country and not the leading country, would we really need a list of the most valuable locations from a military point of view, and would we actually have terrorists trying to bomb us?

This guy is doing a good thing, he's trying to point out to people that it's the US that's causing wars and they do it for their own gain and not the benefit of the world generally. And it's not just terrorists that are to blame for it all.

 

[DHTiling]

I think he is a fool. Some of the info thats come out today should not be public knowledge. I wont sleep ay differently knowing any of it but some terrorist organisations have the potential to now attack other facilities that they not have considered.

I'm with you.. the quicker he is stopped the better..

If something did happen in the world then the nation will say why wasn't anything done sooner... We live in a mad mad world as it is, so why make it any easier for the terrorists with this info on that site..

The guy is a LOONY and should be locked up..

 

[Dan]

He's revealing a lot of corruption within the wars too, not just the stuff the media report on quickly. If afgan civilians stop being attached by Apachi's (under direct order of their superior in command!) then it'll stop the terrorists wanting to attack the US. There's a lot we don't know about this war and we're finding out now.

 

[diamondtiling]

I would tick the thanks box Dan but someone might be watching

:yikes:

 

[DHTiling]

The terrorists will never stop IMO.. So why make it any easier...

 

[kilty55]

corruption always has and always will be....i dont think we should be turning politics and sensitive material into some sort of reality game show real life style,some things we do not need to know about and wikileaks should have been stopped before all this went live imo

 

[Dan]

What the US are calling terrorists are not always terrorists. They're farmers and normal civilians that have had their country breached by the USA for reasons that are highly questionable. They get given a wage from the taliban and guns to protect their country. I'm not supporting the taliban here and neither do the farmers, I'm sure, but they've had their land battered with bombs and gunfire.

Releasing these cables wont make those farmers do anything different.

Its the training camps and the higher taliban leaders they need to get really.

 

[Olz]

What are the odds that he dies in a freak 'accident' before the end of next year, I wouldnt fancy the odds if I was him, and having had the benefit of knowing all this previously secret stuff you'd think he'd be even more aware of whats likley to happen to him. I wouldnt wish death on anyone.

I think that some things should remain secret, eg the workings of the likes of MI5 and MI6. But I think that its good that the governments might have to keep themselves in check from time to time incase the info is leaked.

I dont see what purpose releasing information about how one MP from another country thinks another MP from another country is a bit of a div serves to benefit anyone though, unless you would like to see the bond between two countries weakened for some reason.

 

[kilty55]

i agree with oli i think his times numbered i think hes very foolish doing what hes done for his own safety if anything

 

[kilty55]

FOOL mr T style

 

[Olz]

How do you look at the leaks on the wikileaks sites, can you only look at the four or five on their front page or is there an index somewhere of all of them?

 

[Dan]

Cable Viewer: Cable Viewer
Afgan War Logs: DiaryDig.org offline

Not made easy to search through but then there are a lot of files there and loads of different search demands such as by country, by organisation, by name, that sort of thing.