So, this is unrelated to Japan, but I feel like writing a little about it since it’s been on my mind, and seems to be occupying most of my thoughts. How do we make decisions about events? When I was little, I would more or less go with what my parents said and thought was right and wrong, because they were my parents. They knew what they were talking about, right? Well, as we grow up we argue with our parents, usually about insignificant things, and we lose our trust in their judgment, either fully or to a small extent. What do we do then? We grow up and we develop our own morals and ways of thinking which guide our actions.
Now we get to something like this Wikileaks event. In regards to all things political, I feel like some people simply take sides because they trust people with similar morals and viewpoints as theirs to make decisions as they would make them, and to do the right thing. I can hardly blame people for thinking this way, because it makes sense, but as has been demonstrated time and time again in American politics, our elected representatives have a tendency of making decisions which don’t protect our liberties or best interests. A lot of them are also phenomenally reprehensible for various reasons. Moving on. Segregation and prohibition are good examples of failures to protect the liberties of American citizens. The failure to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is another good example. The Patriot Act is another excellent example, and, while not a piece of legislation, many politicians vehemently advised against the building of the Islamic Community Center several blocks away from Ground Zero, which is an attempt to suppress freedom of religion.
Some Facts (and a couple of opinions)
Having established some examples of our elected representatives being, quite frankly, dumbasses, we come to the Wikileaks event. What is the Wikileaks event, you ask? Well, to start off, as I understand, Wikileaks is a place where people can go with classified documents to leak them to reveal illegal or immoral doings by people in positions of power. That may not be an adequate description of the site’s purpose, but the site itself protects the identity of the supplier of documents and is an effective way to expose wrongdoing. Personally I think that Wikileaks is an important site, because it’s a way of exposing wrongdoings by people in positions of power while protecting whistleblowers. It’s a great way of protecting people’s liberties around the world and bringing attention to violations of those liberties around the world. You know, transparency, all that good stuff.
Well, about a week or two ago, Wikileaks began releasing classified U.S. diplomatic cables exposing various embarrassing things for the U.S. government. As a result of these cables being released, Wikileaks and Julian Assange, the editor in chief of Wikileaks came under fire from governments around the world, with the heaviest criticism coming from the United States government. That’s a very short summary, to whet your appetite, so let’s dive into what’s causing this controversy: the cables.
The cables that have been released so far (1000 or so have been released out of 250,000 total cables) show U.S. diplomats making condemning comments about various countries, and other communiques which shed light on our interactions with other countries. The most damning evidence comes from cables which expose the violation of the privacy of Representatives of the United Nations, and moving Guantanamo Bay prisoners to prisons in different countries, often by bribing the countries in question, instead of releasing the prisoners. There are a number of other revelations in the cables, but I believe these two to be the most significant for the matter at hand. So, we have our government violating several principles that our nation was founded on. Great.
Let’s move on to the effects that these cables have had on the U.S. Obviously, our diplomatic relations with other countries have suffered as a result of this, but the estimate is that those relations can be rebuilt. There have been reports that these cables have not caused anyone to be hurt, killed, or even relocated. Additionally, perhaps the most damning release for Mr. Assange was the release of a cable that listed places vital to U.S. national security. The exact locations and specifics of these places were edited out before being released, so while their names have been released, and as a result their general location with their names, they do not appear to face any immediate threats. So all in all, so far it appears as though the U.S. government is terribly embarrassed, and a blow was struck to diplomacy with other countries. Claims that people and resources have been put in danger remain without any hard evidence to back them up.
Now, on to the reactions to these cables. The most vehement reactions have, obviously, come from the United States, specifically, U.S. politicians. Many politicians are criticizing Assange for releasing these documents. Other politicians are calling for the designation of Wikileaks as a terrorist organization and it’s complete destruction. There is support to try and arrest Assange and convict him under the Espionage Act of 1917, and there are a number of people calling for the assassination or bodily harm of Assange and his family members. No warrant has yet to be issued by the United States for Assange’s arrest, but Wikileaks has been the victim of DDoS attacks and was dropped by its server. It was offered a place on Amazon’s servers, but was quickly dropped when pressure was put on Amazon by congressman Joe Liebermann. To be honest, I’m not entirely clear on the history of the website itself and its pitfalls since the latest leak. For more information, please see my friend’s blog post, which has a little more info on this particular aspect of this event: http://dotq.org/democracy
Rage
With that summary of the facts surrounding this event, I’d like to get to my boiling rage. My first comment is, why the hell aren’t we calling these politicians to account? We have evidence that our politicians have violated the privacy of United Nations representatives, which violates United States law and international treaties, and they have also infringed on the rights of those formerly imprisoned in Guantanamo by transporting them to different countries, in spectacularly shady ways (like negotiating a visit with Obama in exchange for taking a prisoner). No one has tried to call our politicians to account for these things. Our government may have a history or being scumbags, but that is no excuse not to make them answer for what they’ve done.
While important, this is almost incomparable to the fact that Freedom of Speech is being trampled on. First of all, Wikileaks has the freedom to publish any content that they receive from sources and to expose wrongdoing. To try and censor any of the material being released by Wikileaks, which the government is attempting to do, is an infringement on free speech. If Wikileaks solicited the information from someone, then they have technically committed a crime, but as was established in the Pentagon Papers case (which I’ll discuss further later in this post), the press has a right to publish classified information they may come into possession of. Furthermore, I believe that Wikileaks is justified in doing this, and they are in protected by the law in doing so. So, try to understand my anger at the fact that the very people who are incriminated in these documents are not only not being called to account for some of these things, they are in fact actively trying to shut down Wikileaks. There is something extremely wrong here. This is both an attempt to stop themselves from looking bad, and an infringement on Freedom of Speech. You know; what the government tried to do back in the case of the Pentagon Papers.
Having referenced them twice in this post, I think I should explain. Now, I know my generation is too young to remember this, but the Pentagon Papers, a scandal from the early 70’s, greatly resembles the current situation. If you are not familiar with the events surrounding the Pentagon Papers, please look them up so you have a better idea of what I’m talking about. Of course, the current situation with Wikileaks is different for various reasons, but the main point surrounding classified documents and the exposure of deception within the government is very similar. A document detailing the history of the Vietnam war was deemed sensitive, and was eventually leaked to the New York Times. The New York Times began publishing excerpts from the report which exposed lies about the Vietnam War. The government then attempted to censor the New York Times in a case that went to the Supreme Court. There, it was established that a (paraphrasing a little here) “free press is essential to exposing deception within the government.”
Ultimately, the decision to publish classified information is up to the media outlets in possession of these documents. I think Assange may have showed poor judgment in publishing some of these cables, specifically the one listing places that are supposedly vital to U.S. security. The publishing of such cables doesn’t seem to serve a specific purpose, and I think that was a poor decision on Assange’s part. However, many of the other cables he has posted contain information that we deserve to know. Assange is not entirely free from blame, but he is nowhere near as guilty or evil as he is being painted by the politicians and media of the world.
Having admitted that Assange made a bad call or two, I can get back to being outraged. In the past year we have seen documents leaked displaying facts about the Afghan and Iraq wars, painting a grim picture that is different from the picture painted by our media and our government (strangely, at those times no attempt was made to arrest Assange for espionage). Now we have a leak exposing further deception by our government, although other cables are not quite as revelatory, and we are seeing an attempt by the government to silence those publishing the information. As you can hopefully see, this situation is greatly similar to the Pentagon Papers events. However, while there are people trying to defend Wikileaks and Assange, the vast majority of people in America seem to be siding with our elected officials…who violated people’s human rights.
Perhaps something else to mention would be this desire of our elected officials to arrest and convict Assange. There is talk of doing so under the Espionage Act of 1917, under which politicians think they could convict Assange for “intentionally harming the U.S.,” but that’s paraphrasing. Having already commented on the fact that Wikileaks is within its rights to publish this information, let me comment on the idea that Mr. Assange has committed espionage. The Espionage Act of 1917 makes it a crime to, “convey information with intent to interfere with the operation or success of the armed forces of the United States or to promote the success of its enemies,” or “convey false reports or false statements with intent to interfere with the operation or success of the military or naval forces of the United States or to promote the success of its enemies when the United States is at war, to cause or attempt to cause insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, refusal of duty, in the military or naval forces of the United States, or to willfully obstruct the recruiting or enlistment service of the United States.”
I apologize for the lengthy quotations, but they’re necessary to emphasize the fact that this act is only applicable to interfering with military actions, not diplomatic ones, which is really the only thing that’s been damaged, as we’ve established. Aside from diplomatic embarrassment, we’ve seen that no one has been hurt, killed, or relocated, and major military operations have not been endangered so far. Thus, we can conclude that there is no basis to arrest Mr. Assange under this act. Additionally, you would think that they would have tried to do this with the two previous document leaks, which did pertain to the U.S. military. I guess now that individual people are being embarrassed and not the entire government, they’re getting pissed off.
Devil’s Advocate
Perhaps I’m being too heavy-handed; maybe I’m stretching it by saying that these politicians have violated other human’s rights, but they have invaded the privacy of United Nations representatives. Perhaps they were merely transferring those Guantanamo Bay detainees who they had good reason to imprison, but then again, maybe they were keeping them there unlawfully and for no good reason. It’s hard to say because admittedly I haven’t read those cables yet, so I don’t have detailed information. At the very least we can say that our government invaded the privacy of U.N. representatives to a large extent, and they had some shady dealings with people involving the transfer of prisoners from Guantanamo. You’ll notice this section is short, because honestly, any other criticism or point I could make against Assange or Wikileaks is contradicted by the information already presented.
Conclusions: Why You Should Be Angry
To summarize: we have politicians, some of which are guilty of violating various tenets of our constitution such as a right to privacy and some basic rights of Guantanamo prisoners, arguing for the abolition of Wikileaks and imprisonment of Julian Assange, the former being an infringement on Freedom of Speech, and the latter having no basis in United States law. The worst part: hardly anyone seems to give a shit. That’s a little unfair since there are people who have criticized the government’s reaction to this leak, but a large number of people and governments are criticizing the leak and Assange.
Yes, our government has a history of deception and trying to cover it up, and it’s understandable not to be surprised, but in the words of an anonymous Duke student: If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.
“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
This sentence may be overly dramatic, but it encapsulates democracy so well (falsely attributed to Voltaire, this sentence was written by Evelyn Beatrice Hall). You may think Assange is a douchebag of the highest order, and you may not like the things that he is saying, but, while he is technically not a U.S. citizen, our constitution and legal precedent give him and Wikileaks the right to publish this information. Whether or not it’s a good idea to publish these cables is still unclear since there is a surfeit of cables yet to be released. Aside from this, the fact remains that Wikileaks has put no individuals in danger in the case of these leaks, or at least not yet, and the U.S. government has been embarrassed by these cables, but no one has died or been injured as a result of this. In fact, the Espionage Act, which appears to be the law under which people want to convict Assange, covers acts which subvert the U.S. military, and these cables have absolutely nothing to do with the actions of United States military.
Having thoroughly convinced myself that our government is in the wrong here, the next step is figuring out what to do. Get outraged. Check. But now what? You can do the usual stuff: write a letter or email to your representative, the president, etc. Spread your opinions and talk with other people. I guess the only thing we can do is express ourselves.
I always used to think that “The Sound of Silence” by Simon and Garfunkel was about the lack of critical thinking by people and their inability to speak against a trend. “People talking without speaking, people hearing without listening,” always felt like people talking without thinking and saying something meaningful, and people absorbing information but not thinking about it and accepting it. Apparently the song was inspired by the Kennedy assassination (who knew), but the song has renewed meaning for me in that it’s important for us to speak out; it’s how we bring about change and prevent deception and corruption. In this case this is extremely important, because it is all we can do. If there is more to be done, then by all means, do it, and inform me so I can help.
Remember: If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.
-Shimon
