Him releasing 'secrets' isn't going to do it. It's no secret that there's varying levels of society. There's what you and me live. There's what the police to federal police live. Then there's the military. Then there's the government and their behind the scenes wheeling and dealing. Then there's the people behind the government. This is no secret.

What do you want, access to EVERY piece of information that comes across the border? Join ASIO if you want to know that stuff. What Wikileaks are doing is ANTI-social. It doesn't do anything other than make information MORE insular.

StG sorry can not agree here, on any thing you said.
20 years ago a truck rolled over near every day here.
A towey had police in his pocket, paid big money up front to hire them while off duty, to reload goods.
And in truth steal as much as they could.
Lets say a group of workers who worked in the clean up, became involved, at first found truck loaded up.
Then took a share.
After a while that working group had to work some other place, out of sight for a few hours.
And just some times locks on undamaged containers got broken in to.
Those who became whistle blowers never recovered, see even us, we treat people who search for truth poorly.
and we should not do so.

Great story bro.

StG you still haven't answered my question- how do you expect a democracy to be able to function as such- or even call itself such, if people have no right to free press on issues of public importance, involving elected public servants spending public money and setting public policy?

Last night ABC TV Wikileaks under the microscope, any one see it?
I must admit I had never seen the bit about those dreadful wounds due to chemical used and covered up.
Never knew guilty party got a court order stopping its release and banning media telling about it!!
Saw again the film of that helicopter MURDER willful Murders in Innocent, wounded people.
In the middle east now, today, we most of us, look at change and HOPE for success for the protesters.
We want an end to murders,unless it is our side murdering.
Wikileaks if not murdered may just improve the world including the west.
Dictatorships are not all run by dictators America, its alias, are atempting a dictatorship one that wants to bury its faults not change them, a dictatorship in fact in controlling our right to know the truth.
Others,if we win,will look back to these days as the time we moved closer to a better world.

Wikileaks is really about providing information to people to make informed decisions rather than relying on digested and edited information fed to us by the media, governments and corporations. The premise is not that there is a great conspiracy and that all these institutions are corrupt. That is a ridiculous assumption.

It has to do with the rights of citizens and a more than reasonable demand to keep to account those who represent 'their' interests.

Get rid of the fertile grounds for corruption and you will make it much more difficult. WL is a publisher of raw data but there is some decision making about safety in releases. There are many other sites that reveal political donations or sites like Crikey with their 'Dictator Watch' which reveals the growing wealth of dictators in places like Libya.

Corruption thrives when information is concealed or veiled under the cover of war on terror (just for example). That is not to diminish any 'war on terror' as there is enough evidence to suggest the threat in many cases is not overstated.

Basically it comes down to placing more trust in ordinary people to be able to make reasonable judgements and make choices on who should represent them. Barring the obvious need for secrecy in some quarters, why should a small elite decide who should know and who shouldn't particularly where there is some monetary or career aspirational self interest.

The argument that the populace is too ignorant only serves in perpetuating ignorance rather than raise the bar - a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. Open access to information increases rather than decreases the opportunities for journalistic or individual analysis and creates a richer ground for informed media pieces.