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Former MI6 Chief Credits WikiLeaks With Helping Spark Revolutions
EnergyScholar writes "Sir Richard Dearlove, former Intelligence Chief of MI6, credits WikiLeaks with helping spark revolutions in the Middle East, in (what was supposed to be) an off-the-record speech. 'I would definitely draw parallels at the moment between the wave of political unrest which is sweeping through the Middle East in a very exciting and rather extraordinary fashion and also the WikiLeaks phenomenon. Really, what ties these two events together, and of course a number of other events, is the diffusion of power, away from the states and the empowerment of individuals, and small groups of individuals, by technology,' he said."
I thought this was one of the four horsemen if the apocalypse. Sigh...
I don't think that any causal relationship is being drawn by Richard Dearlove in the article: he merely says that they're driven by the same phenomena ("Diffusion of Power").
From the quotes in the article all the MI6 head said was that wikileaks and the revolutions both stem from the same empowerment of the public via technology, not that one caused the other.
I admit that I didn't watch the 20 minute video where it actual causality might be mentioned.
A real, actual (and retired) intelligence official, in private and off the record?
Sure, why not, he probably took an interest in the material they were releasing and realised there wasn't much that was actually a threat to national security. He's not interested in information control for its own sake and he's not a blowhard politician that interprets (or spins) everything as an attack.
I'm not a nurse at all. Or female.
If only it would have a similar effect in the USA.
~/ One man's opinions is a lifetime of pain.
But Wikileaks now is sick of the 'Vaporware Syndrome'. they are announcing their next leaks for month without releasing them.
It's a pity not many people have the balls to make such comments while they're in office. The saddest thing is that thinking is actually arguably impaired while people are in office. It's baffling, but people do the stupidest things when their level of assumed responsibility notches up. It's a paradox...
Does he mean to say that specific leaks have led to the movements seen in these countries? (If so, which?) Or that they now have a general feeling of moral support for freedom, justice, transparency and accountability for governments from the west? I'm not sure wikileaks can be credited entirely but what else was the catalyst for such widespread uprising? An intriguing speech nonetheless. Would love to hear more candid thoughts from people who held/are holding similar positions.
He said nothing about crediting Wikileaks with the wave of unrest in the Middle East. He said you could draw parallels between them. The rest is just the submitter's fantasy.
Torchwood, get on this!
Technology in general facilitated the revolutions (but didn't cause them).
Economic policy probably had more to do with it.
First, the nations involved are effectively if not explicitly dollarized. Second, the dollar has been weakened due to US economic policy. When you consider that these people spend a much higher percentage of their incomes on food and other basic items that are heavily impacted by inflation, Ben Bernanke probably deserves more credit (or blame, depending on the outcome) for these changes.
Really though, even that is stretching it a bit. Dictatorships as heavy-handed as those are probably just unsustainable anyway. There was no WikiLeaks or global economic crisis impacting Eastern Europe in the late 1980s. They were all just sick and tired after a few decades of oppression, and did something about it.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
The technology he's talking about has been wide spread since 2001 at least, and here we are a few years into their last major release and we've got revolutions the like of which we haven't seen in 40 years. If nothing else, wikileaks made our rulers look like idiots, and their army's stopped supporting them. Any revolution ends when the military starts shooting, and in a few cases the army said no. This despite they've done it before. So there.
And besides, this is the former HEAD of British intelligence. He wouldn't bother making parallels for the sheer fun of it. He's trying to make a point.
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"Sir Richard Dearlove, former Intelligence Chief of MI6, credits WikiLeaks with helping spark revolutions in the Middle East, in (what was supposed to be) an off-the-record speech. 'I would definitely draw parallels at the moment between the wave of political unrest which is sweeping through the Middle East in a very exciting and rather extraordinary fashion and also the WikiLeaks phenomenon. Really, what ties these two events together, and of course a number of other events, is the diffusion of power, away from the states and the empowerment of individuals, and small groups of individuals, by technology,' he said."
He didn't say Wikileaks is responsible for the revolutions. The editor read that... In reality, the former MI6 chief says there are parallels between Wikileaks and the revolutions in the Middle East, where a small number of people are able to affect great change through technology.
:(
And all you have to read is the summary... now we will have "former MI6 chief said Wikileaks caused the Middle East revolutions!" posts in all Wikileaks stories from now on.
So are they saying wikileaks is good? I'm confused.
It has it's uses.
Fair enough.
Point still stands though - a retired head spook is far less likely to go full retard about the wikileaks stuff than a serving politician.
I'm not a nurse at all. Or female.
ok so they won't lactate then. but you can still have boobs if you're a fatass.
this is mostly an american site. lots of yanks are big fatass slobs. it has something to do with blaming mcdonalds for their failure to take care of their own self.
It's not good if you're a world leader and have something to hide. I'm sure Mubarak isn't crazy about it.
If you mod me down the terrorists will have won
This is why I don't trust most UK media outlets. I have seen too much of this drivel from the Register.
In case you haven't noticed, most revolutions suck. That's why the founders institutionalized revolution in the form of elections, and gave us cherished tools like freedom of speech and association with which to peacefully foment revolutions now and then.
So. Instead of just asking for revolution, why don't you name the shape and form of your desired change, broadcast it, and see if anybody else wants to associate with you.
Chances are, most don't. That's a major clue that your vision for revolution sucks.
Really, we got lucky to have the people in power that we had, when our revolution occured. Not only were these guys smart, they were wise and moral. It was the perfect combination that just doesn't come along often enough when things change like that.
In fact, there are already a lot of people working to bring about revolution in the USA, in the manner in which the founders envisioned. They're marching, they're blogging, they're voting. We already live in revolution. The revolution will not be revolutionized.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Nonsequir. The issue is whether the speaker is saying Wikileaks lead to revolutions or is, in any other way, "good". He didn't.
In other words entropy favors the down-slope.
I'm sorry, but I'd shoot myself for having that name...
The quoted section is not crediting Wikileaks, but rather crediting a general movement and then citing Wikileaks as another EXAMPLE of the sort of things happening in said movement. He's pointing out correlation moreso than causation -- that is to say, they share the same causation.
No, *you're* a nonsequir!
God, take your stupid "capitalization changes everything you stupid sheeple" nonsense elsewhere, please.
And look up herd immunity while you're at it.
Faggot much?
Pylons?
Point still stands though - a retired head spook is far less likely to go full retard about the wikileaks stuff than a serving politician.
I would suggest you go and actually view the entire video linked by El Reg and apply your point accordingly. I suspect you'll find your opinion of "full retard" will swing in full direction to the retired head spook as he becomes critical of Assange.
I've been saying this about WL from day one.
WL > Tunisia uprising > Middle East firestorm
If your peers are vaccinnated, how are they supposed to have viral infections for you to catch?
In case anyone missed it. Tunileaks sparked the revolution in Tunisia, by providing american-quality documentation of the corruption in the Tunisian leadership.
If you missed this, do take a look at Tunileaks.com
The nations in question were suffering from food riots in 2008 the last time the oil price spiked.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007%E2%80%932008_world_food_price_crisis
Inflation is the cause.
You can thank Helicopter Ben and Peak Oil.
Deleted
This is why I don't trust most UK media outlets. I have seen too much of this drivel from the Register.
The Register is hardly representative of the UK media in general. Some of it is much worse than that.
A couple of weeks ago I went to a talk by Sir Richard Dearlove called, "National Security - how much secrecy does the State need?"
His view was that the State does need secrecy (about the same level of secrecy as it has had for the past 50 years) and so his opinion of Wikileaks was not positive. He parrots the same "trust us" vibe as everyone else who represents the government intelligence agencies.
I do not think that his intention with these comments was to credit Wikileaks with anything.
For me, this is the first sensible thing said by anyone who has played a role in politics / warfare.
I, for one, welcome our new technology overlords
This comment was written with the intention to opt out of advertising.
Anybody else read what he said in Patrick Stewart's voice?
I can't understand the people who constantly chant "government by the people", yet at the same time, call for Assange to be jailed and Wikileaks to be destroyed. WAKE UP -- Wikileaks is EXACTLY what "government by the people" needs, since government by the people is impossible if government fails to disclose precisely what they did "for the people".
If a man claims to be serving your interests and charges you a fee for those services, but refuses to disclose exactly what services are provided and when, would you buy into it? Of course not. Logically, he isn't serving your interests at all -- he's ripping you off. Wikileaks is letting us know that we're being ripped off. Repeat: Wikileaks is letting us know that we're being ripped off. We should be THANKING them, not mindlessly parroting the words of career politicians.
The register is the sun of the tech world - don't base your entire opinion of UK media on it. Having said that, there are plenty of other reasons not to trust our press 100% but the papers are usually honest about their angle and don't pretend to be 'fair and balanced'.
If I have nothing to hide, you have no reason to search me
Now lets toss the guy in a prison cell because he 'raped' someone.
It is interesting, reading the comments about Wikileaks, to see how little the commenters know about history.
Perhaps he should draw parallels between bad diplomacy, two faced communications, political corruptions that wikileaks only reported and revolutions. Damn, does most of the world population engage in dodging responsibility in spite of being caught?
Perhaps we are DEVOlving as Dr. Mothersbaugh postulated.
*Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
for the increased gas prices that they're currently attributing to the Mideast revolts.
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it's not about ANYTHING we've been told about. this last-gasper greed/fear/ego based control freak murder&mayhem glowbull warmongering scenario appears to be a serious mutation (by a very small #) of our intended evolution. as with any illness......
to attempt to impede/distract from our intended path, man'kind' (the mutants) proffers it's anointed/appointed (lots of flags/weird logos/panderious sex etc..) 'representatives' as the advisers/advocates of of our comfort, safety & 'correct' thinking? mr. assange merely completed at least part of his 'task'. nothing more or less.
Your spelling of non sequitur is worse than watching a crying duck ride a underpowered motorcycle.
Don't blame me, I voted for Cthulhu.
Let me clear up your confusion.
If you spent a hundred fortunes, feeding the homeless, clothing children, curing diseases, if you did ten thousand times what Mother Theresa has been credited with - BUT, your philosophy in life cause you to do something that a political party hates - you would still be EVIL!!! When you fail to embrace the ideology of any given party, or government, you will be painted evil, no matter how much good you may have accidentally done in your life.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
No what is sad is that to be labeled evil now you simply don't support the status quo which is what our current corporatist state loves with all its little black heart. I mean if they hadn't fallen even though their regimes were truly evil I'm sure the US Gov would be happily sending billions of our dollars to monsters like the Shah and Mubarak just to "ensure stability" no matter how much blood and suffering that stability caused.
So it is actually really simple: anyone who doesn't support the status quo and the top 1% no matter what is an evil socialist pinko terrorist scum. And as long as things tomorrow stay the same as today, so the top 1%ers can leach more money from the system and pad their already 60%+ take of the economy, no matter how much misery they bring? Well then it is all good because it brings "stability" to the system don't ya know?
That is why as much as I hate to say this I agree with Glen Beck 110%. For the good of the US and the world it is time for the US to "Be Switzerland" and stay the hell out of everyone's business and tend to our own. Bring home the troops, shut down the piles of overseas bases, stop trying to be the world's policeman and let them take care of themselves. The past 80 years have seen the USA prop up one truly mad dog scumbag after another with the taxes of the American people all so some company can get bananas 10c cheaper and it is time to end. Take the billions we are blowing on the military and invest it in our own people and renewable energy and let the mid east sort itself out.
Like the misery that has been the drug war the current path has been shown to be nothing but bloodshed and suffering for the masses for the enrichment of the few, and it is time for it to end. Any Tea partier or other third candidate that wants to be pres? Run on the "Be Switzerland" platform, as the American people are tired of being taxed to pay for monsters. It is time to stay home, it is time to "Be Switzerland".
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
It's more likely that the democracies in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with their improved standard of living and freedoms, have more to do with it than WikiLeaks.
I rarely read replies, it's my opinion and if you thought about your opinion a little more, I'm OK with that.
what ties these two events together, and of course a number of other events, is the diffusion of power, away from the states and the empowerment of individuals, and small groups of individuals, by technology
If you have not already you should read David Brin's Earth. His version of th 21st century with ubiquitous personal media and world wide networking was amazingly prescient.
In fact, every politician and journalist should go out and read this.
XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
I find the post totally misharacterized.
If you watch the video it seems clear to me what he said was basically that he couldn't deny it! Wikipedia undeniably had an effect and what has been exposed so far hasn't been quite so bad and has in fact to the surprise of his ilk let to possibly something good. But he still bashed Assange left and right in his disdain for him and his policies and politics, basically reiterating the company line.
Overall I felt the confrontation at the end of the video with the pretty woman was pointless. It would have been better spent talking about the topic he was there to address. That topic being the theoretical balance between government privacy, leaks, and free speech through technology.
If you mean to say the revolution will happen through the system we have, then you are mistaken. There are vested interests who are past masters at gaming the system we have. That's why whether Republicans or Democrats hold power in Washington, everything continues to get worse for the vast majority of Americans. Those vested interests have recently decided they're gonna go for broke, and wipe out the most hospitable nest for their kind that has ever existed in human history (READ: the United States). Where they think they're going to go, I don't know. Has China promised them a better deal? Is North Korea more to their liking?
I do know that the American people, despite the debilitation of the past 50 years, do retain their fundamental orneriness. They are a reasonably well-educated and motivated bunch with a deeply set sense of justice and fair play. If you cross that, they will rouse themselves with all the strength, creativity, and daring of their forefathers and bring injustice down. America the country is down on its last legs. America the people, and the spirit, is rising.
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
The wikileaks cables DID contain information exposing the extent of the corruption of the top Tunisian officials. Shortly before protest of the corruption of top Tunisian officials began. So I will go ahead and say that wikileaks most likely did make at least a minor contribution to the revolution in Tunisia. And that in turn was the first domino to fall, and now most of North Africa and the middle east is attempting to throw off the shackles of their tyrants.
come on Slashdot, we get it already. You hate facebook and love giving wikileaks and twitter too much credit for all the stuff going on in the Middle East.
Seriously, wikileaks is kind of old news and has no affect on the middle east. Whats that? a document leaked showing dictators are brutal *shocks*
You chose your name here well, especially the latter part (idiot). So please - quit your foaming at the mouth ranting/raving tantrums. The rest of us like to post and read here minus your frothing replies, lol!
As Étienne de la Boétie put it, even dictators rely on the consent of the governed.
Tyrannical rulers must be generous enough to their closest advisers, military, and secret police to avoid having guns turned back at the ruler.
But even a small population of enforcers cannot keep the people under the ruler's thumb if they don't like the arrangement.
Ever notice how every ruler of a one-party state has his (always a male!?) picture all over the place with enthusiastic slogans and proclamations of the ruler's beneficence? Why spend the time and money if the ruler didn't care what the people thought about him?
And no matter what type of government you have, the schools always serve students the state-sponsored Kool-Aid. The young are brought up to revere their leaders (especially the founders or first anti-Colonials who brought the current government into power after the last assholes screwed everything up). Students learn to appreciate and respect the way the government provides for them through thick and thin, even if you are not allowed to openly speak about the negatives that inevitably arise in a society of fallible human beings, or even if the economy fails to provide for basic needs.
No matter where you live, and what type of government you live under, it will not last forever. . . One day, after the current assholes have screwed everything up, a new form of government will come to fix it. . . until they become the assholes that screwed everything up (in about ten generations, give or take).