What do you think about WIKILEAKS?
By the way, anybody home?!

I edited your name above and deleted the duplicate post for SPAM control reasons.

My opinions regarding the recent Wiki-leak incident is pretty mixed. On one side, I'm all for a transparent government. On the other, I understand the need for privacy when it comes to discussing delicate matters. Likewise, I don't think it's necessarily a wise choice to publish documents which may very well endanger undeserved people.

All of this, IMO, falls into a very messy, very disputably fuzzy gray area.

What are your thoughts?

While I have intentionally not looked into the secrets wikileak has shared, I am against that sharing. I think we will all agree that there are some government secrets that should be kept classified (troop levels and locations, logistics for emergency situations, etc.). If you do not agree with that statement, then stop reading because that is the foundation of my argument. As such, there is some government entity that determines what information should or should not be classified. The media (in this case wikileaks, but NYT did it for the swift program and another program a couple years ago) has decided that ti is a better judge of that decision and chosen to share with the world things that the government agency had decided should remain classified. I personally don't trust a business set on sensationalism and breaking the story to make profits to make the right decisions when national security and/or peoples' lives are at stake. Do I believe that some newspapers have chosen not to publish classified information in the past? probably, but not often. Although technically illegal for them to willfully publish classified information, the protections in place and political ramifications (line between breaking the documented laws and freedom of speech) would make it a huge challenge to actually prosecute someone.

I am tired and this is probably not a complete thought, but I have to go to a meeting...

I am kind of disappointed that this was started by a spam bot. I was looking forward to a heated debate. No one argues with me anymore. It is kind fo depressing.

I'll argue with you. For the most part, this place feels like me talking to myself (which it is), so I guess part of me just wants to leave stuff with someone's name on it other than myself.

Honestly, I was thinking this morning about how cool it would be if the anonymous hackers or whomever targeted the big bailed-out wall street guys and shows us all their awesome lavish Christmas parties they were planning. That way we as a people could be pissed off again. Nothing would come of it. We'd just be pissed off.