Excellent article. The whole controversy is sorting the sheep from the goats very satisfactorily. May I suggest that everyone and in particular "579" reads the American Declaration of Independence slowly and carefully before they make comments.

I would recommend Julian Assange for the Nobel Peace Prize. We haven't seen a better defender of democracy for years.

Wholly agree Brian - a well articulated piece.

"More important than their mildly anarchic dismantling of the pomposity and secrecy of western leaders, the leaks may well contribute to the slow, but unstoppable demise of the dwindling number of dictatorships for whom the control of information, and relentless lying, are essential tools of oppression."

There is great strength in that argument to support endeavours like Wikileaks and whistleblowers generally.

Access to information is the ammunition needed to sustain a strong democracy.

Pelican

You know what surprises me most about the leaked cables?

It's this.

There's nothing in there that surprised me. Mostly it confirmed suspicions I already had.

579

If the cables were that easy to steal we must suppose that any country with a half decent intelligence service must already have them. Apparently upwards of 100,000 people had access to the cables.

I think we are seeing cables that the Chinese intelligence service, the Russians and Al Qaeda saw months ago. In fact Assange and WikiLeaks has probably done the US Government a favour by showing them how easy it is to steal their cables.

Great article, many thanks to the author.

Lentaubman, I don't know how you can be so cynical about the contents of the cables - out of 250,00 only some 250 have been released thus far.

What matters as much as their content is the fact that Wikileaks has done this - they've informed the ordinary person without either the time or the necessary knowledge to access classified information. This is why the US government is so outraged and people want to kill Assange - they've lost control of the dissemination of information, and now everyone can know things those in power prefer to keep under the radar.

They operate on secrecy - about the most unimportant things - its the secrecy that matters to them and gives them power.Wikileaks has breached the secrecy.

The Australian Labour party, the party that stands for nothing. It's funny we vote for australian polys but our foreign policy is made by the US. Shame Gillard shame.

How is this for some lateral thinking; If Assange, were to operate as the free rebel agent his actions identify him as during the period of Australian engagement 1939-1945 for example, he would have been dealt with much more swiftly.

His actions display a huge disloyalty and not a lot of courage. Whatever we the citizen, think of our political leaders, I believe we have a duty to our Country and its security as a priority over displays of personal disapproval such as “Wikileaks”.

They have contributed little more than unnecessary high level embarrassment to Australia and its Allies, and for no gain.