The worldwide diplomatic community is having a collective hissy fit lately and it is all due to Australian internet magnate, Julian Assange and his impressive new toy, WikiLeaks.
Armed with only a keyboard and the World Wide Web, this information-age Robin Hood gathers secrets from the rich, dark diplomatic forces and gives them to the recently enlightened Intelligence Poor. The dark forces aren’t amused.
This could get ugly.
For his trouble, Mr. Assange has been placed on Interpol’s most-wanted list, was arrested in London on Tuesday and is being confronted with criminal charges and death threats, including one from Canada.
Tom Flannagan, Prime Mnister Stephen Harper’s former campaign manager, called for Assange to be assassinated. He later apologized and withdrew his remarks but the WikiLeaks lawyers still want him investigated and charged. This is getting serious.
These are just the opening shots as the Internet comes of age in what is sure to be a media and political spectacle. The information superhighway is the new battle ground.
This has all the elements of a futuristic spy movie except this one is unfolding in real time in the real world. This folk hero of hyperspace, Mr. Assange, has gone public and plans to release a quarter million confidential memos and documents from all around the diplomatic world.
The international community is expressing outrage but the whole episode seems to be regarded as more of a nuisance and an inconvenience than a real problem. Each country is dealing with it in its own way. Some are ignoring it altogether.
However, many of the revelations so far involve American diplomats and Assange is learning that when you take on powerful adversaries, you get powerful reactions. The Americans know how to play hardball.
From all indications so far, Mr. Assange will be discredited, harassed, threatened and, as soon as it can be determined which laws he has actually broken, he may be tried and prosecuted.
In the meantime more secret documents are revealed daily and nobody seems to be able to stop it. All these secrets are rattling a lot of cages and everyone, including Mr. Assange, is getting nervous.
Through his lawyers and his website he has already initiated a bold defense by releasing the details of a bizarre “insurance policy”. This is where it starts to read like a dime store novel.
If anything happens to WikiLeaks or its fearless leader, Julian Assange, hundreds of thousands of encrypted pages containing uncensored, top secret information will be released to the world immediately. This sinister development has certainly raised the stakes. Who is this guy, Dr. Evil?
If we step back a little and look at some of the secret information it tends to be quite underwhelming. For instance, governments are whispering behind their backs that North Korea is behaving like a spoiled child and the situation is becoming ridiculous.
Is that supposed to be a big secret? Do they need a confidential memo to confirm that?
Secret number two – the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan have a serious problem with corruption and illegal activity. How is this still a secret after 10 years, billions of dollars and all those lives lost?
It looks like the main casualty so far has been the truth. In what passes for diplomacy, national and world leaders have developed a nasty habit of saying one thing in public and mumbling something completely different in their secret, diplomatic world of memos and communiqués.
Since we have no way of knowing who is actually telling the truth any more it is reasonable to assume that everybody is lying. This is a troubling development. How can we communicate with each other if we can’t believe a word we hear?
Mr. Assange claims to be solving this very problem. By leaking all those memos and documents he hopes to provide an intelligence service “for the people”. He claims that his motives are pure but his diplomatic foes are feeling victimized.
Julian Assange heads the pack as Time magazine’s Man of the Year but he doesn’t dare show his face right now. It’s a classic case of spy vs. spy.
It all seems pretty childish if you ask me. It’s like kids being caught passing notes in fourth grade. And when the teacher finds the note she reads it out loud for the rest of the class.
How embarrassing. Grown men and women behaving like children.
Somebody should tell their mothers on them. And that goes for Mr. Assange too.
Armed with only a keyboard and the World Wide Web, this information-age Robin Hood gathers secrets from the rich, dark diplomatic forces and gives them to the recently enlightened Intelligence Poor. The dark forces aren’t amused.
This could get ugly.
For his trouble, Mr. Assange has been placed on Interpol’s most-wanted list, was arrested in London on Tuesday and is being confronted with criminal charges and death threats, including one from Canada.
Tom Flannagan, Prime Mnister Stephen Harper’s former campaign manager, called for Assange to be assassinated. He later apologized and withdrew his remarks but the WikiLeaks lawyers still want him investigated and charged. This is getting serious.
These are just the opening shots as the Internet comes of age in what is sure to be a media and political spectacle. The information superhighway is the new battle ground.
This has all the elements of a futuristic spy movie except this one is unfolding in real time in the real world. This folk hero of hyperspace, Mr. Assange, has gone public and plans to release a quarter million confidential memos and documents from all around the diplomatic world.
The international community is expressing outrage but the whole episode seems to be regarded as more of a nuisance and an inconvenience than a real problem. Each country is dealing with it in its own way. Some are ignoring it altogether.
However, many of the revelations so far involve American diplomats and Assange is learning that when you take on powerful adversaries, you get powerful reactions. The Americans know how to play hardball.
From all indications so far, Mr. Assange will be discredited, harassed, threatened and, as soon as it can be determined which laws he has actually broken, he may be tried and prosecuted.
In the meantime more secret documents are revealed daily and nobody seems to be able to stop it. All these secrets are rattling a lot of cages and everyone, including Mr. Assange, is getting nervous.
Through his lawyers and his website he has already initiated a bold defense by releasing the details of a bizarre “insurance policy”. This is where it starts to read like a dime store novel.
If anything happens to WikiLeaks or its fearless leader, Julian Assange, hundreds of thousands of encrypted pages containing uncensored, top secret information will be released to the world immediately. This sinister development has certainly raised the stakes. Who is this guy, Dr. Evil?
If we step back a little and look at some of the secret information it tends to be quite underwhelming. For instance, governments are whispering behind their backs that North Korea is behaving like a spoiled child and the situation is becoming ridiculous.
Is that supposed to be a big secret? Do they need a confidential memo to confirm that?
Secret number two – the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan have a serious problem with corruption and illegal activity. How is this still a secret after 10 years, billions of dollars and all those lives lost?
It looks like the main casualty so far has been the truth. In what passes for diplomacy, national and world leaders have developed a nasty habit of saying one thing in public and mumbling something completely different in their secret, diplomatic world of memos and communiqués.
Since we have no way of knowing who is actually telling the truth any more it is reasonable to assume that everybody is lying. This is a troubling development. How can we communicate with each other if we can’t believe a word we hear?
Mr. Assange claims to be solving this very problem. By leaking all those memos and documents he hopes to provide an intelligence service “for the people”. He claims that his motives are pure but his diplomatic foes are feeling victimized.
Julian Assange heads the pack as Time magazine’s Man of the Year but he doesn’t dare show his face right now. It’s a classic case of spy vs. spy.
It all seems pretty childish if you ask me. It’s like kids being caught passing notes in fourth grade. And when the teacher finds the note she reads it out loud for the rest of the class.
How embarrassing. Grown men and women behaving like children.
Somebody should tell their mothers on them. And that goes for Mr. Assange too.
