WikiLeaks: keeping the bastards honest

Atomic puts on its political pants (they're flares) with a short guide to why WikiLeaks is important, alongside some essential links.

You know that great bit in the Firefly movie, Serenity, when Mal goes against all his instincts to fight the power of the Alliance and let the worlds know about the real secret behind the Reavers? Powerful stuff, alright, and there’s even a great catchphrase to go with it.

You can’t stop the signal.

It’s a real air-punch of a moment, but it’s a moment that’s now humming with a wholly different resonance – because we now know exactly what real governments would do in response to such a heroic act. All we need to do is look at WikiLeaks and Julian Assange, and the calls for his kidnapping/assassination coming from US leaders, and our own government’s cowardly kowtowing response to same.

Thankfully there are wiser heads out there who understand the gravity of the situation. One of these is virtual reality pioneer and all-round awesome guy Mark Pesce, who’s just written a great analysis of the Wikileaks situation over on the ABC’s Drum Unleashed Website. He posits that the importance of Assange’s site isn’t so much in its inherent importance or success, but rather in what it represents for those sites that come after.

In exactly the same way - note for note -the failures of WikiLeaks provide the blueprint for the systems which will follow it, and which will permanently leave the state and its actors neutered. Assange must know this - a teenage hacker would understand the lesson of Napster. Assange knows that someone had to get out in front and fail, before others could come along and succeed. We’re learning now, and to learn means to try and fail and try again.

It’s an impressive leap of intuition, but – to us at least – it rings very true. This is the start of something big, a real genie-out-of-the-bottle moment in history, and we either docilely lets states get away with the bullying of private citizens and journalists, or make a stand against it.

The Australian Pirate Party is taking the latter route, and has announced it’s taking part in the effort to keep the site mirrored across the vasty spaces of the internet.

“This has been done to safeguard the freedom of the press and expression and to protest the lack of condemnation of the increasingly shrill calls for violence against Assange”, said a release disseminated today.

The Pirate Party makes the case that WikiLeaks is no different to any other journalistic outlet, and should be protected as such. Rodney Serkowski, Party President said in the release. "Instead of pursuing Wikileaks at the behest of the US Government, the Australian Government must move to protect Wikileaks and organisations like it, and the important function it provides within the democratic process. Without knowledge of the government's operations, without knowledge of the realities, of the circumstances and the effects of policy, how can electors be expected to make an informed choice on election day?"

If you want to personally help with the mirroring effort, you can find out how to help Wikileaks here.

At the end of the day, Serenity’s impassioned claim that ‘you can’t stop the signal’ is no different to another classic cry that any adherent to the classic hacker ethic should hold as a truth.

Information wants to be free. If you agree, then help support WikiLeaks.

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27 Comments

po1s3n Dec 6, 2010 5:14 PM	felt like such a spy reading that website
pkroeze Dec 6, 2010 5:37 PM	what he does is bloody dangerous for soldiers on the field and also for diplomatic negotiations, so i'm not a supporter of him and his site... sure the governments need to be kept in line but the way he does it is not the right way
wayke Dec 6, 2010 5:58 PM	What is the Right way when governments are cheating people out of tax dollars on personal agendas
Jeruselem Dec 6, 2010 6:17 PM	The record industry tried to take down Napster and in the end they did, but BitTorrent replaced Napster and ... the effort to stop piracy ultimately failed. There's Wikileaks now but there's bound be someone else out there with a replacement.
codecreeper Dec 6, 2010 6:18 PM	Must have to say i am neither one way or the other. But sometimes the truth needs to be told ,its just matter of how you do it?
ShiroKage Dec 6, 2010 6:21 PM	have you read any of the leaks pkroeze? or are you just regurgitating what the government is telling you? aren't soldiers on the field always in danger? i could go on but your mind is probably already made up and closed on the topic...
Hoonbernator Dec 6, 2010 6:29 PM	I'm a bit of both ways here... First and foremost I believe in freedom of information, and the right to tell. Wikileaks is a fantastic medium that protects the identities of those who are "doing wrong" i.e. those who are leaking the information with the intent of it being published. BUT. There needs to be some journalistic sensitivity and even (dare I say it) censorship. The context of a quote is of the utmost importance and some lowly burocrate calling a world leader a tosser is paramount to two guys in a bar dissing their boss because they can. Who cares! It's not the official stance, they are still professional at work... The importance for the moment is that these Wikileaks are getting blown out of perspective and proportion. We need some censorship because some operations are ongoing and leaking realivant information is a risk to many. Yes, we need to know what our governments are doing on our behalf. Yes we need to know when they break the rules or go against the ideals of the nation. We don't need to read the internal gossip of the governments if it plays no purpose. To this end I think Wikileaks is great, but it needs a real journalistic touch to make sure the right information comes out in the right way at the right time.
Mordecai Dec 6, 2010 6:32 PM	I just love the fact Julian Assange is wanted for rape in Sweden for having consensual sex with a female over the legal age. Clearly thats got nothing to do with all these leaks thumbs up
Hoonbernator Dec 6, 2010 6:46 PM	I dunno Mordecai... I think this is simply showing how thorough the Swedish investigative policework is. You should see how they chase shoplifters o_0;;
philo-sofa Dec 6, 2010 6:52 PM	I'm certainly much more comfortable with Wikileaks determining what information to disseminate and what to keep secret - they're obviously more responsible and legitimate than our own democratically elected governments. I was in fact especially pleased to see such acknowledgedly undesirable information be used as a sword of Damocles to be set free should Mr Assange be put under threat - after all such major world issues pale in comparison to the continued l337ness of a single Australian. In fact the sheer wisdom of trusting such issues to a series of random people is shown by all the leaks being from the USA which is undboubtedly totally evil unlike every other country (everyone else is perfect). I'm sure oppressive regimes have nothing to hide and no ability to do so and am just waiting for the frailties of North Korea, details of Chinese genocides in Tibet and so on to be revealed and am like totally certain that the aged hipster anti-McDonalds activist(s) that make up Wikileaks would be as keen to reveal them as they would America's shortcomings. The truth is though that David is right, Pandoras box is open - such information sharing websites won't go away, and they can be a force for good, particularly with such a corrupt world out there. The issue is we do have to get it right and that means not only supporting such sites existence but demanding that we get it right with the next iteration (or at least more and more right with each one). Those that want to see a Wikipeaks-like site that's responsible, mature and impartial, those who see the utter glaring faults in Mr Assanges creation cannot be silent, nor should they be so or the community get trapped into meaningless flaming between them and 'pro info-freedomers'. Force has to be applied from both sides to shape a truly worth successor that fulfils Wikileaks' huge promise, without its flaws. It's only when we have such an unbiased and responsible organ that we'll have what each side either wants, or really should want. And if nothing else such a situation will issue pressure towards the West tightening its operational security on truly important matters (because if Private 'bradass87' can extract the info, I'm sure an organised intelligence agency can too lol), whilst exerting similar pressure towards our societies reverting to declassifying those issues which don't truly warrant security.
Redhatter Dec 6, 2010 6:52 PM	What the US and other governments are doing is akin to shooting the messenger. All WikiLeaks is, conceptually, is a conduit. If they want to stop the stuff getting out, they need to plug their holes first. Mark Pesce makes a very valid point in that, shutting down WikiLeaks is only going to spur on others to do the same thing — only they now have some notes on how to go about it. Leave WikiLeaks alone, it can't leak unless they do.
jdog Dec 6, 2010 8:45 PM	the world needs people and websites like this!
Bundy 2.0 Dec 6, 2010 10:23 PM	Red is right, if these things are leaking they will continue to leak regardless of who is the 'publisher' of such leaks.
Metasynaptic Dec 6, 2010 10:38 PM	This is kind of stupid. Assange hardly did this alone. Committing a rendition or the like on him hardly halts the issue. If you don't like the consequence of a secret getting out, don't keep the secret in the first place. Find a better way of doing things.
smakme7757 Dec 7, 2010 2:03 AM	Yeap Wikileaks is doing a good job at upsetting a lot of powerful people! I like it :)
panto Dec 7, 2010 4:48 PM	One man has the world's governments by the balls through the capability to publicize their own words and actions. Brilliant.
Avliden Dec 8, 2010 7:00 AM	www.infowars.com
Avliden Dec 8, 2010 7:14 AM	Was just thinking, if someone in the world was threatening to unwravel my plan for global domination... And I knew he was in a particular country... Id make him.. Disapear. Now, I can think of many decrete ways of doing this in my sick and twisted mind that would be acceptable. A simple car wreck, we will have a few conspiracy theorists, as always. But with everyones ever degrading attention spans they would forget when the next iShit shows up. Maybe I would follow him untill he was walking down a decently long set of stairs. Little push.. Maybe I smash his head against the pavement to finish the job. Whoops he tript and hurt himself. Now my ideas are shitty morning before coffee ideas. What could a government or corperation do with seemingly infinite resources? anyway..
iamthemaxx Dec 8, 2010 5:22 PM	pkroeze - actually no that's not right. After the first release there has been no known/confirmed deaths or otherwise due to the material that was released.
petermcc Dec 8, 2010 6:02 PM	Nice post and thanks for the link to the Drum. To see folk still trying to say he endangers people's lives shows a certain gullibility especially after the same claims first time around were later discovered to be just so much BS. Let's hope folk start actually reading and thinking before trotting out the same old excuses. Once they do that our politics will be a good deal smarter and hopefully the Voters too.
Meowkitty Dec 9, 2010 8:51 AM	This weeks meadia reporting Kevin Rudd - A control freak Ministers "leak" information all over the place foreign governments trash talk each other. all attributed to wikileaks. come on, that should be attributed to "no shit sherlock".
Hawkeye Dec 9, 2010 9:50 AM	Yeah, but today's announcement that Senator Arbib has been helping compile reports to the US on our government? Hell, that's worth knowing.
Meowkitty Dec 9, 2010 10:47 AM	depends on the nature of the reports. Bill Shorten is less than convinced. http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/mark-arbib-not-a-spy-says-bill-shorten/story-e6frfku0-1225968099445 but still, that may be the 1st real bit of interst in a media frenzy of meh revelations.
Hawkeye Dec 9, 2010 11:20 AM	Yeah, I wouldn't call what he did 'spying' but look at this comment from Mr Shorten: "I think that the commentary I've seen this morning in the newspapers is dinner party gossip masquerading as US intelligence." Hate to say this... but dinner party gossip is OFTEN an intelligence source.
Meowkitty Dec 9, 2010 2:03 PM	I don't think anyone believes that politics is like West Wing. The alternative is to think it's like The Hollowmen or Yes Miniter. That's how I think of it, it makes me less angry at government.
Hawkeye Dec 9, 2010 2:24 PM	Yeah, as much as The Hollowmen was comedy, it was very clever, very knowing comedy - and all too believable!
TeZ Dec 12, 2010 8:59 PM	I am 100% behind Assange, this is going to be big, so big in fact that it could even be a turning point of humanity. Am I joking? no I'm not. Let the Truth Echo accross every valley of our planet and let the wrong-doers know that they can not hide no matter their socio economic standing. Very exciting times ahead Indeed.

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Atomic Magazine

Issue: 137 | June, 2012

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