Like many, I have been following the wikileaks saga for many weeks now. And like many, I am sitting on the fence about a lot of it. I agree with their underlying principle of freedom of the press and with the need for transparency in government. But I also worry, like many of their critics, about the fate of the informants and agents that might be revealed through their work.
There is something about the whole saga that I find disingenuous. They broke one relatively minor story in Africa, otherwise their targets seem to be almost exclusively in Europe or the United States. The big leaks, the ones that have gotten the majority of the attention, have been about the U.S. war in Iraq and our diplomatic politics.
On one hand I can see the argument that these countries, particularly the U.S. tend to take the moral high road in political discourse, and as such should be held to a higher standard, a higher standard in both conduct and transparency. If we say America does not condone torture and someone has evidence that we did in fact condone torture done by local police in Iraq, that evidence maybe should be brought to light.
The thing that keeps bothering me is this; our long tradition of freedom of press and due process means that for Julian Assange pointing a finger at the U.S. and saying "they condoned torture" contains far less risk than pointing a finger at Iraq and saying "they tortured". The U.S. has done things since 9/11 that I for one am not proud of. I hate the fact that we decided waterboarding was not torture. I hate that we hold 'enemy combatants' for extended periods without charging them with a crime.
But I know there are countries far worse then mine. Where are they in the wikileaks files? Why hasn't there been a big data dump about China's more than speckled human rights violations? What about Iran's crackdown on free speech during the last elections?
It strikes me that the U.S. is a pretty safe target for the likes of wikileaks. Sure we have sent an extradition request for Julian. If it's honored, which is highly unlikely, he'll face a huge public trial (thanks to due process) where he can argue for freedom of the press. If that doesn't get him off, its jail time. He's never been personally violent, so he'll probably go a minimum security jail at that.
Taking on China, Iran, Al-queda, or any of a hundred or so organizations or governments with long standing human rights violations, and no freedom of speech might prove a little more dangerous that Mr. Assange cares for. But it would impress me a heck of a lot more.
