Between the Lines

Larry Dignan, Andrew Nusca and Rachel King

The argument in favor of defending WikiLeaks' right to exist

By | January 22, 2011, 6:02am PST

At a Churchill Club event in Santa Clara, Neville Roy Singham, Founder of Thoughtworks, makes a case for why the core values of the Internet, including freedom of press, are at risk in the wake of the WikiLeaks revelations.

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Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic.

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Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan has nothing to disclose. He doesn’t hold investments in the technology companies he covers.

Biography

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.

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So true.
Richard Flude 23rd Jan 2011
Wikileaks exposes massive incompetence. Strange the MSM, with their considerable budgets, were unable to uncover any of it.
Well what good has WikiLeaks done for us?
Well, it has played its part in the overthrowing of a dictator in Tunisia. How dare they help save a country from the tyranny of a dictator and, (fingers crossed), give rise to a new democracy.

Although it has shed some light on some slightly embarrassing truths, its more important that it is giving us the truth than it being embarrassing.
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The truth is always important because...
BobWarfield 22nd Jan 2011
... as Winston Churchill said:

A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.

Best,

BW
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Go ahead , play whack-a-mole, yesterday it was Cryptome, today Wikileaks, tomorrow .....

Almost all US media condemn Wikileaks, the more they shout, the clearer it is that they would lie to their readers.

They're putting up a big sign saying "we are not journalists and we will lie to you".

And in doing so, they are really elevating none US news outlets, because now, it's not difficult for people to read foreign news and see what the USA outlets don't want to print.
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So true.
Richard Flude 23rd Jan 2011
Wikileaks exposes massive incompetence. Strange the MSM, with their considerable budgets, were unable to uncover any of it.
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What most people would like is to keep the political agendas out and for the "process" to be more responsible. Releasing names of people other than the one who committed and/or approved the alleged crime/scam is completely irresponsible.

Also, Wikileaks is a completely separate entity from the personal life of Assange. The dude (allegedly) rape two women and everybody keeps using Wikileaks as an excuse for him not getting deported back to where he (allegedly) committed the crime.
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Nah,
guihombre 22nd Jan 2011
A woman is so gagging for it, she arranged to meet him, and at first meeting is having relations with him in the back of the cinema. Later she claims rape and coordinates the claim with the woman she displaced.... Looks like straight honeypot there to me.

Wikileaks donations were blocked by Visa, Mastercard, Paypal and all US banks. The domain name is yanked by EveyDNS, their hosting is yanked by Amazon. So there is clearly an effort to break it.

Appelbaum spoke on their behalf and now gets detained at each border crossing and searched. So they're targetting the staff too, most likely the reason for the Honeypot.

Next we have the leaks of the Cayman bank accounts of 40 senior political figures coming up. You can bet the farm any politicians with a Cayman Islands bank account will be fighting long and hard to suppress Wikileaks.

Watch them scream about terrorism, and Wikileaks-cyberwar in the run up to that leak.

So yes, there is clearly a systematic attack on Wikileaks and its staff.
@guihombre The story about the "slutty" vindictive women was put out by Assange lawyer's. That is a typical answer when parties are guilty .... try to assassinate the personal life of the raped victim in hopes that the stress would be too much and she would drop the accusation. Also, an innocent person would not try to hide in another country when he knew he was under investigation. An innocent person would show up on its own and not call a lawyer until it becomes necessary. And BTW, the accusation of rape happened MONTHS before the Wikileaks controversy started.

On the other part of the story, everything is based on the stories of people claiming stuff ... then you find that most of them are complaining about getting randomly stopped by TSA when traveling ... but they always made their flight.

The Caiman accounts ..... could be true, could be just a lie to divert attention from the rape case.
@wackose

wackose, it's not a 'story', it's simply the truth. Assange is being tried for 'sex by surprise'... i.e. not using a condom. Hell, forget 'tried'.... the police want to put him in irons and bring him to Sweden for a INTERROGATION!

Excuse me, but unless they have reason to arrest the man, they should put their investigators on a flight to the country which he is in and question him there, not in Sweden.

It seems like an attempt to get him into Swedish custody so that something 'bad' can happen to him or be done to him.
@Lerianis10 Funny how now a court ordered detention as a suspect with probable cause for rape, sexual assault, and coercion is being downgraded by fanatics to "sex by surprise".

Guess what? UNWANTED "sex by surprise" IS CALLED RAPE.
  • Flagged
@wackose

wackose, enough. That 'sex by surprise' charge that I stated is HOW THE PROSECUTOR WHO WAS FIRST ON THE CASE worded it, and how it is in released legal documents out of Sweden thus far.

So no, I am not a fanatic, and I am only putting out WHAT WAS SAID BY THE PROSECUTOR FROM SWEDEN!

It's time to realize that the only fanatic here, is you!
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Freedom of the Press is one thing...
itpro_z 22nd Jan 2011
...but how does that extend to publishing secret or confidential data? Governments and corporations have the right to keep some of their data private, do they not? What Wikileaks is doing is nothing more than theft of private data. If it is OK for Wikileaks to do this, then no data is private and we have no right to privacy whatsoever, and that is not a world that I wish to live in.
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Conflation
guihombre 22nd Jan 2011
I think you're just conflating the person who leaked the information with the journalists printing the leaks.
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They are connected
itpro_z 22nd Jan 2011
Yes, the person who stole the data is a thief and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, but Wikileaks is serving the role of the fence who takes the stolen goods and passes them on. I am a supporter of Freedom of the Press, as it is a free press that keeps us informed and holds our governments responsible for their actions. That said, I also recognize the need for privacy, both at the personal level and among corporations and governments. What Wikileaks is publishing is not whistleblower type data providing evidence of corruption or crime, but everyday communications between agencies and nations. Now we hear that a retired bank exec is going to turn over financial data on the wealthy. I would not want my data made public in this fashion and I am sure the wealthy feel the same. As I said above, is there no right to privacy in this world?

Wikileaks is pursuing a political agenda, nothing more.
@itpro_z

Nope, not a thief.... a WHISTLEBLOWER, which gives even people in the military protections and it is DOES NOT mandate that they have to go to a congressman instead of a journalist (which Assange is a journalist).
@itpro_z
I wonder where you would have stood when the Pentagon Papers were leaked. Would you have been one of those calling for Daniel Ellsberg's head, and had him thrown int oa dark hole and thorown away the key? After all, he stole top secret documents and gave them to unauthorised personnel, such as Senators and eventually the Media when the politicians refused to act. I've heard US politicians in the current debate making parallels saying buth should get capital punishment, executed in other words. Bradley, who stole and leaked the current documents, has been thorwn into solitary confinements for the last few months, all without being convicted of anything yet. The right to personal privacy is an entirely different thing to exposing government deceit of the public, or even war crimes. Naturally they will classify that Top Secret. Wikileaks has been discriminatory in what they publish, so far mainly embarrassing facts has been exposed, certainly nothing truly harmful to any individual, And showing tacit government approval of modern-day sex slavery in certain countries by way of looking the other way is certainly something the public has a right to know, something that is illegal everywhere. And what if the reasons for the Iraq war hadn't been exposed as a lie as it was, would that information not be relevant to the public? Just as the Pentagon papers exposed the lie of the Vietnam War?
Yes, Ellsberg acted politically in copying and handing the Pentagon Papers to journalists, and yes Bradley did the same in copying the intelligence communications and handing them to Wikileaks.
As for the Caman Islands records, if the people who are on those records have nothing to hide, they don't have to fear publication. You know what the Caman Islands are used for, laundering and hiding large sums of cash, from the tax man and the law.
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What amazes me is
Quebec-french 23rd Jan 2011
IS the same situation would have happen elsewhere china, russia ,France /EU , south america ......

The average american citizen would be up on its chair and defending Assange, because after all what have happen here is the purest form of what american are addicted too .... A pure unfiltered ,untampered,raw to the bone FREEDOM.

Wikileak also prouve that like always the USa goverment lied Vietnam the golf of Tomkin , the wmd in irak and so on . it prove the way that uSA see and treat other country which is not very cool btw.

As far for the banker he gave info on how and who hide money for taxes form there government ....

In the end it prove 2 thing
1 some people are hypocrite because they are for freedom of speech and liberty ( but there own not liberty for all )
2 that information have no border and in this new ear thing move fast and lies are put in bright day light .


Maybe a big reality check should be in order for many person here. if the same would have happen else where and USA would not have been stained with it what would have been your reaction ....

in the watergate the Time was seen as a heroes why now it different . Is usa is now so far gone in its own lies and propaganda that is blind to the fact .......

@itpro_z
you said that you would not wish to live in a world like that ..... is a world full of lies and under table deal is better ....
I agree we need to be vigilant to keep the internet free. How is stealing the government's secrets and publishing them different from stealing your credit card information and social security numbers and publishing them?
If Assange had shot his own videos revealing secrets that would be journalism. But he apparently conspired with and definitely illegally released government classified material which is breaking the law. There is a difference.
@hunterpaw

Need I remind you that because of these leaks we found out that American corporations were using Afghani children as sexual bartering tokens with Afghani tribal elders and others!

I swear.... this is MUCH DIFFERENT THAN stealing your credit card information and social security numbers, and then publishing them.

As people say today: SQUIRREL! The definition of that is something that is meant to invoke emotions that has NO place in the discussion at hand, and is just meant to 'muddy the waters'.
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Humm
CobraA1 23rd Jan 2011
Humm - appears to me that the info can be both bad and good. Some things are best kept secret, while others should be exposed. Unfortunately, I don't think WikiLeaks was very good at telling the difference between the two.

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