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The Forum > Article Comments > Why Wikileaks must be protected > Comments

Why Wikileaks must be protected : Comments

By John Pilger, published 26/8/2010

On July 26 Wikileaks released thousands of secret US military files on the war in Afghanistan.

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I must be getting very world-weary and cynical in my old age. But that's the second time in just over a week that John Pilger and I share a view.

The only problem I have with Wikileaks is that they should be prepared to be as open and as accountable as they expect the rest of the world to be.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/news/wikileaks-fears-funding-network-and-sources-may-be-targeted-says-assange/story-e6frg90x-1225908983516

If they are prepared to say to the world "Full Ahead Both, and damn the torpedos", then it is critically important that they live by the same rules.

At the moment, pressure can be brought to bear on the organization, and the few people who run it. If people are prepared to fund the process, then they should have the courage to stand alongside the operational team, and be counted. Otherwise, the relentless pressure of government apparatchiks will eventually drain the organization of its credibilty, and its effectiveness.

It would be far more difficult to level sedition charges or whatever against thousands of people simultaneously, in many different geographies.

There's another reason. As it stands, I - and quite a few others, I would imagine - won't contribute to their cause, because I don't know who else is doing so.

For all I know, I might be in some very dodgy company indeed.

And anyway, you'd have to be pretty naive to think that the "authorities" haven't already obtained a complete list. They're not all as incompetent as they are shown to be at the movies.

Open the books, Julian. And damn the torpedos.
Posted by Pericles, Thursday, 26 August 2010 3:15:14 PM
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Careful Pericles,your left wing slip is showing.

There is something not quite right about Julian.He has not really revealed anything outrageous about Afghanistan.eg Who is making $40 billion pa out of the heroine grown there which the Taliban had stopped pre-911? Some think he could be a shill to vent the public anger at the injustices they are now seeing and thus deflect the attention away from the real perpetrators.Could he just be a tool of the neo-cons?

see http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/08/05/beware-julian-assange-and-wikileaks-darlings-of-the-mainstream-media/
Posted by Arjay, Thursday, 26 August 2010 7:48:39 PM
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It is sickening to hear Australian politicians mouthing the American line that 'we have to engage in endless war to do away with terrorists'.

As Australian soldiers continue to come home in boxes, the Wikileaks information shows us the ugly truth about what is really happening in Iraq and Afghanistan.

America, an aggressive, imperial power, loves war. It makes money from war. It gets strategic advantage from war to say nothing about control of scarce resources.

Australia should cut its support for America's warmongering before it becomes as hated as America is!
Posted by David G, Friday, 27 August 2010 8:18:20 AM
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I doubt that, Arjay.

>>Could he just be a tool of the neo-cons?<<

If you look at his work more closely, you will see that he himself does not "reveal anything outrageous about Afghanistan", his site is simply the conduit through which stuff passes. He doesn't pretend to be an investigator.

If it is the site itself that is a "tool of the neocons", I suspect they would have financed it better.
Posted by Pericles, Friday, 27 August 2010 8:43:19 AM
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