Apparently some right wing whackaloons are advocating the death sentence for the Wikileaks people. Really?
Okay, I'm on record with my condemnation of the wikileaks posts. However, I understand that leaks are a vital asset to keeping our government transparent (see, Eric, we're not all that far apart). My main beef with them is that they put people in jeopardy for no good reason. That is, the leaks didn't give us anything new, say like the Pentagon Papers which proved several things about the progress of the Vietnam War that the Nixon (and Johnson) administration(s) denied. Like the bombing of Cambodia. As I remember, nobody was really denying any of the "secrets" in the wikileaks documents. And all they did was get people who helped us into serious trouble (including maybe being targeted by the Taliban for elimination).
So, I'm up for jail time, or maybe a oneway ticket to Western/Southern Afghanistan for an all expenses paid week long trip. But the death penalty to meet with some of the people they outed? Not really seeing it. They just need to learn their job and that "just putting it out there" has consequences.
1 comment:
We're not that far apart: my biggest issue with the Wikileaks docs is it's becoming increasingly clear that they've been negligent and irresponsible in reviewing information before release. I'm (generally*) in favor of releasing documents even if they tell us nothing new--but why one wouldn't redact identifying information about schlubs before releasing it is a little beyond me, particularly when the essence of the data would remain unchanged, i.e. it doesn't seem like identifying information is relevant in some of these documents.
That criminal negligence, however (I agree), wouldn't be a capital offense even if I found the death penalty acceptable in any case.
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*I'm trying to keep it simple. My predisposition towards openness shouldn't be taken as an objection to having documents reviewed on a case-by-case basis and withheld until harms of release no longer outweigh any benefits.
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