Wikileaks

[ioan]

Not sure where this thread is heading but I want to say that I see nothing wrong with these files being released. It is about time that people see where their money goes and what those in power are doing.

I wish people like you were given more power!
However it is more likely that control freaks and indoctrinated people like our Bob Riebe will get to it and hold on to it with their teeth. And they will call terrorist anyone who tries to show how much of a joke they are.

[BDunnell]

At least I am not brainwashed like you guys. Take care, take good care the whole world is after you Amis!

As much as you and I may dislike the excesses of right-wing American politics, I don't think there is any need at all for comments like that.

[ioan]

As much as you and I may dislike the excesses of right-wing American politics, I don't think there is any need at all for comments like that.

Someone who goes ahead calling others ignorant and obtuse deserves no better.

[Ghostwalker]

I wish people like you were given more power!
However it is more likely that control freaks and indoctrinated people like our Bob Riebe will get to it and hold on to it with their teeth.

i agree about the first sentence.
However people like Bob Riebe will claim that this is dangerous, threatening and etc becasue they've got something to hide.
This also is why people like the Aussie attorney general is trying to find something that they could use to "get rid" of J.A.

The same goes for the USA, the more they trying to stop WL the more suspicious people are getting to why they are so afraid about revealed material.

In a similar manner the two right-wing most parliament parties are trying to stop a law suggestion that would force all political parties to reveal where their funding are coming from.
The other six parliament parties have no problem with this so assumable the two parties refusing have something to hide.

[BDunnell]

Someone who goes ahead calling others ignorant and obtuse deserves no better.

He, though, cannot be considered representative of literally 'all Amis', as you put it.

[ioan]

However people like Bob Riebe will claim that this is dangerous, threatening and etc becasue they've got something to hide.

The Church also did try to hide the truth and knowledge for centuries, labelled the intelligent peoples as witches and burned them alive.
Knowledge is always dangerous if it can expose the cheaters.

[Bob Riebe]

At least I am not brainwashed like you guys. Take care, take good care the whole world is after you Amis!

As you wish, of course, if talk is cheap, yours comes out of the bargain basement.

[Mark in Oshawa]

I just find it amusing that people find Bob the extremist. Bob isn't extreme, he is just asking for a little common sense here. The reality is, all governments say and do things that are embarassing, and is there any real purpose to dumping it all in the public domain? As I am very quick to point out, when I see Wiki Leaks with the cables of the North Koreans, the Russians, the Chinese or Hugo Chavez for that matter; I will then accept that Wikileaks is performing a useful service.

The reality is, most of the stuff that was "leaked" was basically stolen.

As Bob pointed out, it is one thing to get it from a FOI, it is another to just assume you have moral authority on your side and dump it in Julian Assange's lap, where he will play traffic cop with the information to suit his own politcial end.

The world is complicated enough without smarmy know it all's with cloudy pasts like Assange playing games ...

[Bob Riebe]

The Church also did try to hide the truth and knowledge for centuries, labelled the intelligent peoples as witches and burned them alive.
Knowledge is always dangerous if it can expose the cheaters.

Prove that the burned the intelligent people for centuries, or is this more cheap flatulence from your keyboard.

Now competing dogmas did kill those from the other side and there were a few, very few, supposed witches burned in the U.S. but you said for centuries, please give specifics.

As this thread is about gov. leaks and you have now grabbed for a branch involving religion, you must be getting desperate.

[Malbec]

I just find it amusing that people find Bob the extremist. Bob isn't extreme, he is just asking for a little common sense here. The reality is, all governments say and do things that are embarassing, and is there any real purpose to dumping it all in the public domain? As I am very quick to point out, when I see Wiki Leaks with the cables of the North Koreans, the Russians, the Chinese or Hugo Chavez for that matter; I will then accept that Wikileaks is performing a useful service.

The reality is, most of the stuff that was "leaked" was basically stolen.

I realise I'm clearly in the minority here but I happen to believe that governments have the right to conduct many of their affairs (though not all) in secret to perform effectively. I'd put diplomatic communications in this category.

Clearly there's a need for the press to ensure that government stays within its remit through investigative journalism but I'm afraid this wikileak release isn't it. Had the leak demonstrated that US diplomats were in fact involved in shady assassinations, arm deals and torture then matters would be entirely different but all I see here are opinions shared between diplomats that are of little real interest to the public but could cause great harm to US (and our) relations with certain countries. Here I'm thinking of China's attitude towards North Korea or Pakistan's paranoia regarding the outside world and its nuclear weapons.

I'm just glad that the raw material was passed not to the public but to intermediary newspapers that have chosen to carefully filter the information to prevent too many details being released.