Wikileaks: A Story of Change

Wikileaks a Story of Change and the Fight Against It





         Beginning quietly in 2006, Wikileaks was one of the first of its kind. A place for anyone leak information that they believe is necessary in the fight against corruption and it's effects. Even with the first document it released it showed a story of death and murder. Through this, one salient point was raised and stands true. Within this world of shadowy corporations, human right violations, blatantly lying government's Wikileaks is a tool necessary within the world to keep governments and corporations transparent and answerable to the people.

This continued, the leaking of information many deemed necessary to keep honesty within corporations, banks, governments. This was the place to make a stand. The place to fight the ever growing corruption, lies, and deceit that permeated society. Wikileaks exploded onto the public conscience with the release of the video “Collateral Murder” showing the wanton carelessness for lives shown by the US Army and government. For the first time in a long while, citizens were shown the utter brutality and disgracefulness of war as Apache helicopter pilots indiscriminately gunned down civilians in war torn Iraq. What followed this was the single largest leak of classified information to have ever happened. Hundreds of thousand of documents were released showing the real side of the Iraq War, what the government did not want to be seen. And from this came the startling realization that governments were scared to be held accountable. With illegal imprisonments, the forced removal of domains, the pressures upon other governments by the US, citizens were shown that this was the true face of its government. The internet world revolted. Cyberattacks, if anything a cyberwar, abounded as the denizens of the internet rejected it's government's condemnation of its one true place for rebellion with hundreds of attacks across the internet.(Burns)  Movements and activists sprung up, many still active today. Much of the current news in the world is in some way tangentially related to Wikileaks.

With the release of these classified cables, Wikileaks had placed a target on its back. As soon as the website released its largest leak yet, Visa, Mastercard, and Paypal all stopped allowing payment to Wikileaks. Visa and Mastercard would not allow people to donate with their cards and Paypal, a site that allows people to donate to the KKK on its website,( will not allow people to give money to a nonviolent corporation whose only goal is to leak information given to them by other sources.  Wikileaks does not actively go after sources, everything they receive they receive through others giving it to them. They offer no payments and as such this restriction of donations has made the continual leaking of information steadily harder as legal expenses for Assange and the continuing cost of servers and server maintenance has made Wikileaks a group with fewer options. “[Wikileaks] is facing dire economic times” (Davis).  And with the failings of its other fund raising efforts the entire existence of the website is in danger, with Wikileaks being unable to even continue to publication of it's documents. The future of Wikileaks appears to be in jeopardy pending litigation over Visa and MasterCard refusals to allow the processing of transactions that relate to Wikileaks.

The companies in these problems, while not blameless, are not truly at fault. They have little option with the ability of the government to place sanctions upon the companies and create unsustainable environments for the companies. The lion's share of the blames lies squarely upon the shoulders of the government, particularly the US government who has perceived Wikileaks as a major threat to its security. And while it may make sense business-wise for them it is not a moral thing. Many proponents of this reaction do not seem to understand the implications of this. The US government has exerted influence over corporation's to cease the function of a website that is based solely upon one of the founding principles of the country. The right to free speech is a tenet that the entire country should be behind, and this can not be a selective principle, because despite this not pleasing the US government it is still a place that should not have these sanction put upon them. Many nations are, in fact, more upset over the US's actions that have been taken against Wikileaks and alleged Wikileaks supporters. Bradley Manning, the original “leaker” for cable gate, has been kept in utterly despicable and terrible conditions. Amnesty International states:

         Since July he has been confined for 23 hours a day to a small cell, with no personal          possessions and with limited access to writing and reading materials. All visits, including those          with his family or lawyer, take place in a non-contact setting during which Amnesty          International has been told he is shackled at the wrists and legs.

         Bradley Manning continues to be subject to a Prevention of Injury (POI) classification which          means he is deprived of sheets and a separate pillow and must be checked every five minutes          during the day. He is also prevented from exercising in his cell and rarely receives any outdoor          exercise, contrary to United Nations rules for the treatment of prisoners. (Amnesty          International).

The government of the land of the free and home of the brave has kept a prisoner not yet convicted of a single charge within conditions that contrary to the United Nations rules of treatment.

         Another person affected by this is the face of Wikileaks, Julian Assange. The man who is considered the face of the largest whistle blower organization ever has been hounded and hunted across the world. An originally Australian citizen Assange has been accused of sexual assault in Sweden and has been extradited after the American government pressured Sweden to pursue his extradition and pressured the UK government to allow his extradition. In fact the US government has considered asking for extradition of a foreign national for the publication, not the actual act of getting the information just the publication, of US information. The most telling part of American power and the governments terror in the face of accountability is that the Australian government has been receptive, having already allowed his extradition to Sweden with little fight, despite his citizenship.(Antiwar) This reaction to the leaks is terrifying. In the  1971 the release of the Pentagon Papers showed the Americans government's systematic lying to every single member of the American public. The Wikileaks documents have done something akin to this, showing the pettiness and terrible actions of the United States, and the reaction to this has been nothing. There has barely even been a ripple to this, nor the subsequent Human Rights Violations and lies by the government following this processes occurrence. The defense of the state has been astounding with many American's condemning a organization that is wholly dedicated to one of it's truest tenets. This is the most disturbing part of the entire process.

         Wikileaks is not even the leaker of the information that has been published. Wikileaks is just the publisher. Imagine if the New York Times had done this. In fact, the New York Times did do this in 1971 with the release of the Pentagon Papers. The New York Times is still here to this day. The attacks on Wikileaks are not just an attack upon a single organization, they are an attack upon the freedom of press, the freedom of speech and the freedom of an American to hold his government accountable for the action it takes. History books will be written about what has been done over this recent month and we need to take a stand. The real threat that has been shown through this is not Wikileaks, it is the passive acceptance of the restriction of our right. The question posed by this, though, does anyone want to live in a world where our basic rights are slowly and surely taken from us?





















Bibliography



"US Officials Look to Extradite Assange From Sweden -- News from Antiwar.com." News From          Antiwar.com. Web. 19 Dec. 2011. <http://news.antiwar.com/2010/12/08/us-officials-look-to-          extradite-assange-from-sweden/>.



"Bradley Manning Still Held In Harsh Conditions." Human Rights Now - Amnesty International USA          Blog. 24 Mar. 2011. Web. 19 Dec. 2011. <http://blog.amnestyusa.org/waronterror/bradley-          manning-still-held-in-harsh-conditions/>.



Burns, John F. "Cyberattackers Focus on Enemies of WikiLeaks’s Assange -          NYTimes.com." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 08 Dec.          2010. Web. 19 Dec. 2011. <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/09/world/09wiki.html>.



Davis, Charles. "Without Credit Card Donations, WikiLeaks Facing Funding Crisis |          NationofChange." NationofChange | Progressive Journalism for Positive Action. 23 Oct. 2011.          Web. 19 Dec. 2011. <http://www.nationofchange.org/without-credit-card-donations-wikileaks-          facing-funding-crisis-1319383759>.



Masnick, Mike. "Visa & MasterCard: KKK Is A-OK, But Wikileaks Is Wicked | Techdirt."Techdirt. 7          Dec. 2011. Web. 19 Dec. 2011. <http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101207/09264812164/visa-          mastercard-kkk-is-a-ok-wikileaks-is-wicked.shtml>.