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The Forum > Article Comments > The futility of regret > Comments

The futility of regret : Comments

By Kellie Tranter, published 5/5/2015

In 2013 Ms Bishop did at least confirm that the Coalition considered WikiLeaks' activities 'to fall within the realms of journalistic endeavour' but qualified that.

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Dear "joedon"

Thanks for your vacuous Tweet but something more thoughtful might have been better. Are you just one more of Assange "The Lad's" well-heeled Girl Group?

Back to the Lad's character - or lack there-of.

Nick Cohen - one of the Lad's growing army of former friends and ex-followers, sums up the Lad http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/sep/18/julian-assange-wikileaks-nick-cohen :

"The grass or squealer usually blabs because he wants to settle scores or ingratiate himself with the authorities. Assange represents a new breed, which technology has enabled: the nark as show-off. The web made Assange famous. It allows him to monitor his celebrity – I am told that even the smallest blogpost about him rarely escapes his attention. When he sees that the audience is tiring, the web provides him with the means to publish new secrets and generate new headlines. Under the cover of holding power to account, Assange can revel in the power the web gives to put lives in danger and ensure he can be what he always wanted: the centre of attention."

Are there any Men left who remain doting followers of the Lad?
Posted by plantagenet, Friday, 8 May 2015 10:19:15 AM
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Hi Plantagenet,

Why the hate-on for Assange?
Most of what you have written is an attack on his character, not the merits or otherwise of his work in Wikileaks.

Journalists have repeatedly failed to question governments and investigate wrong doing. Millions of people protested against the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Much of the evidence our governments put forward to say Hussein was a threat was not credible, and history has shown this to be true. But you wouldn't know it by reading mainstream newspapers.

As Mark Twain said, "If you don't read the newspaper you are un-informed, if you read the newspaper you are mis-informed" not much has changed.

Without whistleblowers and Wikileaks we would not know that:

The US instructed diplomats to acquire credit card and other private details of UN leadership.

That the US used British bases like Diego Garcia for extraordinary renditions flights (rendition = kidnap, detention and interrogation of suspects without legal process) and to get around cluster bomb bans.

2 Reuters employees were among a dozen killed in cold blood, and then a father and two children in a van shot were shot at when they came to their aid in the Collateral Murder video.

US authorities failed to investigate reports of abuse, torture and even killing by Iraqi police and soldiers.

Afghan President freed convicted drug smugglers due to their political connections.

British government trained Bangladeshi paramilitary group which human rights organizations have called a death squad.

Saudi Arabia is one of the largest funders of international terrorism

Secret US military action in Pakistan and Yemen.

Assange may not be perfect, but surely we have a right to know if our governments are lying to us.

Do any of the secrets listed above match up with governments that respect liberty, freedom, democracy or justice? Actions speak louder than words.

In this age where Whistleblowers like Edward Snowden, Matthew Diaz, Barrett Brown, Jeremy Hammond, John Kiriakou, Jeffery Sterling face terrible sanctions or in the case of Michael Hastings and Aaron Swartz even death for telling the truth, I think we need more truth-telling, not less.
Posted by BJelly, Saturday, 9 May 2015 11:32:42 AM
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BJelly

Julian is no longer Robin Hood. The public couldn't care less about him.

Even the Snowden publicity industry is having trouble selling interest, books and films.
Posted by plantagenet, Saturday, 9 May 2015 4:09:51 PM
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Hi Plantagenet,

Again, you make more ad hominem attacks, while saying nothing about what Assange or Snowden have done - that is curious to me.

Who cares if they are popular or not? What they have done has been revolutionary. Ordinary people have been allowed to peak behind the curtain and much of what we suspected has turned out to be true, and there were other abuses of power like the PRISM program, we were totally clueless about.

Thanks to Snowden, people living in western liberal democracies now know our countries have become surveillance states. We know everything we do can be tracked if we have a smart phone - with this device security agencies can track our every move, every phone call can be listened to, every email or text looked at, our phones can be remotely turned on and they can listen to our most private moments.

New anti-terror legislation put to parliament this year, has given police the power to conduct warantless searches of people's homes. ASIO now has the power to copy, delete or modify data on computers they are monitoring. With powers like these, I can't see anything going wrong can you?(sarcasm off) This should be shocking to people, this should wake people up, but it hasn't. We are still content to slumber.

Most people may not be paying attention, but the US courts have ruled that the NSA mass phone surveillance revealed by Snowden was unlawful.
Posted by BJelly, Saturday, 9 May 2015 5:23:06 PM
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Hi BJelly

Yes thats Edward.

But the article and the discussion in this thread mainly concern Julian. Julian would probably do well to step out of the Embassy long before a rightwing Republican becomes President. US Presidential Elections tend to swing from Democrats to Republicans.

Julian would get a better deal under Obama.

If/when a rightwing Republican becomes President there exists the risk that Ecuador could be pressured to temporarily reduce the Diplomatic Immunity of the Embassy.
Posted by plantagenet, Saturday, 9 May 2015 6:07:35 PM
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Hi Plantagenet,
I'm not so sure about that. Despite Obama's rhetoric of transparency and respecting the rule of law, his administration has been one of the most secretive, and has gone after more whistleblowers than any other. He has authorized the killing of US citizens in Yemen, including children. He is no Mr nice guy.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jun/02/drone-wars-secrecy-barack-obama
Posted by BJelly, Saturday, 9 May 2015 9:31:35 PM
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