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Human Rights Groups Join Criticism of WikiLeaks
e065c8515d206cb0e190 writes "Several human rights organizations contacted WikiLeaks and pressed them to do a better job at hiding information that endangers civilians within their leaked documents. From the article: 'The letter from five human-rights groups sparked a tense exchange in which WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange issued a tart challenge for the organizations to help with the massive task of removing names from thousands of documents, according to several of the organizations that signed the letter. The exchange shows how WikiLeaks and Mr. Assange risk being isolated from some of their most natural allies in the wake of the documents' publication. ... An [Amnesty International] official replied to say that while the group has limited resources, it wouldn't rule out the idea of helping, according to people familiar with the reply. The official suggested that Mr. Assange and the human-rights groups hold a conference call to discuss the matter.'"
It's time that people understand that information wants to be free. And we the people should want information to be free.
One of the secrets released was that the Taliban are quite a bit more violent and willing to kill innocents than has been reported. It has sums of civilian casualties created by the NATO (US) forces and the Taliban. Yeah, these guys are scum bags.
More importantly, wasn't Obama supposed to have the most transparent administration?
But most importantly, government secrets in the open are inherently good for the People. Why is there not an understanding of this? 9/11 did not teach us how bad the terrorists were. We already knew that. Instead, we should have learned that government cannot, under any circumstances, be trusted.
Hoist Number One and Number Six.
What about the Afghan people who were being denied any opportunity to progress by the Taliban regime? And who now have the opportunity to progress in many parts of the country. Women can work again, girls can go to school again, in 2004 the Afghan people voted for the first time in decades, and followed that five years later with a second presidential election. (I'm not a fan of the result of that election, Karzai needed to be ousted.)
You make it sound like the U.S. invasion introduced war, death and hardships to the Afghan people. No, it was the Soviets who invaded in 1979 that started the 30+ years of war and terror in that country. Prior to the invasion they had a fairly modern system of government that gradually leaned further and further to the left until they embraced communism. Then the tribal and religious leaders outside the capitol started pushing back, at that point the Soviets invaded and the war began. The U.S. has not done it perfectly, very very far from it. But the results to date are a vastly improved society with greater levels of freedom than they've seen in decades if ever, with the exception of within the area's we've let the Taliban control due to insufficient troop strength (thanks to the Iraq diversion.)
If you're going to criticize at least get your facts straight. You claim to be so moved by the vets in(and missing from) your classroom. Yet we all have a much better idea of whats happening than you do. We didn't start the war in Afghanistan, but we are planning on finishing it, even if it does take several more years. When we leave, a democratically elected government capable of policing and defending itself will be in place.
Generations of Afghans (their generations are much shorter than ours) have only known war. We are trying to end that, but it takes combat to end a war.
Bradly Manning is a traitor and should face the full penalty for his crimes, his leaks have cost and will cost the lives of brave Afghans working to push the Taliban out and keep them out. And that will deter other Afghans from assisting in the effort, thus delaying and prolonging the effort. He is no hero and deserves no respect. Agree or disagree with the war, his actions served only to prolong it and will result in many more deaths.
I'm too lazy to compose a creative sig.
Yes.
Our reaction to 9/11 (shredding the Constitution, two pointless wars in the Middle East) has done far more damage to our own country than the 9/11 attacks ever did. Dick Cheney (110,000 civilian deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan) is more of a war criminal than Osama bin Laden (2,995 victims killed on 9/11). Waging war against two countries is not an appropriate or proportionate response to the terrorist actions of a group whose leadership was based in one of those countries (carried out by thugs who were mostly from Saudi Arabia).
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...and for the record, even though Assange's death toll will never come close to rivalling the Pentagon's, I would still support him if it did. His cause is that important in my eyes.
Would that still hold if it was YOUR family members, friends, etc. that were murdered as a result of Assange's actions?