Friday December 24, 2010
Throughout this year I've devoted substantial attention to WikiLeaks, particularly in the last four weeks as calls for its destruction intensified. To understand why I've done so, and to see what motivates the increasing devotion of the U.S. Government and those influenced by it to destroying that organization, it's well worth reviewing exactly what WikiLeaks exposed to the world just in the last year: the breadth of the corruption, deceit, brutality and criminality on the part of the world's most powerful factions.
As revealing as the disclosures themselves are, the reactions to them have been equally revealing. The vast bulk of the outrage has been devoted not to the crimes that have been exposed but rather to those who exposed them: WikiLeaks and (allegedly) Bradley Manning. A consensus quickly emerged in the political and media class that they are Evil Villains who must be severely punished, while those responsible for the acts they revealed are guilty of nothing. That reaction has not been weakened at all even by the Pentagon's own admission that, in stark contrast to its own actions, there is no evidence -- zero -- that any of WikiLeaks' actions has caused even a single death. Meanwhile, the American establishment media -- even in the face of all these revelations -- continues to insist on the contradictory, Orwellian platitudes that (a) there is Nothing New™ in anything disclosed by WikiLeaks and (b) WikiLeaks has done Grave Harm to American National Security™ through its disclosures.
It's unsurprising that political leaders would want to convince people that the true criminals are those who expose acts of high-level political corruption and criminality, rather than those who perpetrate them. Every political leader would love for that self-serving piety to take hold. But what's startling is how many citizens and, especially, "journalists" now vehemently believe that as well.
Continue reading here.
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Lately, there has been a rash of vitriolic and furious denunciation of WikiLeaks by a host of pundits, from (so-called) journalists to politicians. Some have even called for Julian Assange, the man at the centre of the saga, to be assassinated or disappeared by the CIA on the grounds that WikiLeaks is a terrorist organisation (no, I'm not joking). Another man, a young Army Private called Bradley Manning, who is alleged to be one of Assange's sources, is being held in solitary confinement under conditions tantamount to torture. Meanwhile, governments around the world are scrambling to minimise the damage inflicted on whatever was left of their reputations. Check back on Glenn's webpage for more information about WikiLeaks and related stories as it comes in.
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