Do you support WikiLeaks?

[Hell-In-A-Handbasket]

The U.S. government has many checks and balances and was founded on that fact.

Without public accountability, the government will, has, and can do anything. And it will do what is in ITS OWN interest, not the public it serves

[jakem1]

For the posts I have seen since the Wiki leaks topics have hit neowin, people have decided to attack the US, I am sorry.. I am not the one who made the Diplomatic cables against your PM,President or whatever is your country.. Don't tell me my country is ****....

You may not have written the cables yourself but they were written by people who represent you and act in your name. If you don't like the way that your government's actions make your country look or you object to the things your government does then you should read the documents and express your outrage. As an American citizen you have the power to help change your government and the way it conducts its affairs around the world.

Don't blame Wikileaks for the crimes your people are committing, blame your government and its agents. Instead, you should be supporting Wikileaks by providing them with information when you uncover a crime or using the documents on the site to educate yourself and then take appropriate action.

[+M2Ys4U Subscriber¹]

I beg to differ. They are a bunch of obnoxious *******s who love to make war and stir up peace. Every country has secrets and they seem to target only US, making me wonder what their true intentions are.

If they are real heroes, please expose Chinese, North Korean and Russian secrets to the world so that we know which one is worst. I am sure these countries did more terrible things than anyone could ever imagine...

Wikileaks has leaked a lot of non-US information in the past (although their archive isn't online at the moment, annoyingly).

[Arkaic]

*Wait for Quattrone trolling this thread. :rolleyes:

Thank you for starting his job :whistle:

[Ryoken]

then you should see the world as we see it then, thanks to the US our country nearly went into recession for stuff our country didn't do, we dont order people to spy on the the heads of the UN.

First, yes, I bet you do spy on other countries at the UN and everywhere else. I know CSIS does.. It's their job, to gather information all the time, and any place they can.

Second, That's the world economy. Your country almost went into a recession because you were not prepared. Canada survived this just fine, our banks were fine as we always regulated them, and while we had some economic impact because our biggest trading partner was having issues, we were far from being devastated.

US played their part, but they are far from the only ones at fault for all the ills of the world not feeling the need to be responsible for their own economies..

[Wir3Tap]

Not really... I mean come on.. Yes Russia is ****ed up, and if Saudi Arabia wants Iran over throne not my fault... China is a bitch ass country.. Look how they are now acting when the US wants to knock Koreas door down.

This site is not where I Should have to put my political feelings, hell honestly I am not going to hold anyone accountable for their country or where they are from. Nor am I going to say they are bad for dealing with their government.. THIS IS A TECHNOLOGY SITE... Keep the political things in teh forums.

[spenser.d]

No. Its childish and stupid. If you need more of an explaination you can go find my post in one of the other threads created recently about them.

[Elessar]

No. Its childish and stupid. If you need more of an explaination you can go find my post in one of the other threads created recently about them.

Side comment, great quote in your signature. We can have the freedom to do what we please so long as it's in support for our country. Bravo...

[spenser.d]

Side comment, great quote in your signature. We can have the freedom to do what we please so long as it's in support for our country. Bravo...

Well if all you're going to do is bitch and moan about it, you should get out. Or do something about it, but that's probably not going to happen.

[Elessar]

Well if all you're going to do is bitch and moan about it, you should get out. Or do something about it, but that's probably not going to happen.

Regarding the quote; if we all blindly supported our country no matter what the cause was, we'd be far worse off. My point is/was that the government needs to be reminded that it is supported by the people, and as such, the people are not always going to support what the government does. I completely disagree with the Iraq war, does that mean I should have left?

[Subject Delta]

Well if all you're going to do is bitch and moan about it, you should get out. Or do something about it, but that's probably not going to happen.

Yep, heaven forbid that anyone should ask questions... blind obedience is the way forward :laugh:

[XIII]

Once again you post without knowing what you're talking about. If you visited Wikileaks before simply regurgitating opinions that you read in your local media you'd see that the site does contain documents from all over the world.

Also, it's hard to take people like you seriously when you justify your government's actions by comparing them to the actions of other, less reputable, countries. If America wants to market itself as being the land of the free it shouldn't behave like a petty dictatorship and you shouldn't blame Wikileaks for uncovering your government's failings.

Well, I don't completely agree with what the U.S. did but it is still better than many other countries out there. If you want to compare, you need to have a standard. U.S. is not a good standard but it is still an O.K. standard. Admittedly, pure democracy is only in fiction. You can't never have a utopia. I am just saying that U.S. is already better than many other countries and it does protect the interest of its people despite its flaws. Try living in China and you will see what I said was right...

[-KJ]

I don't really support them. That said, I also am not against them.

They certainly are stirring things up. But some things are better left kept and unstirred.

[spenser.d]

Yep, heaven forbid that anyone should ask questions... blind obedience is the way forward :laugh:

There's a difference between asking questions and being an annoying idiot. I don't agree with a fair bit of what our government does, but I still support America.

[Soulsiphon]

Absolutely support their activities.

[PGHammer]

Well if all you're going to do is bitch and moan about it, you should get out. Or do something about it, but that's probably not going to happen.

Part of the reason that WL is supported is because (and yes, I've noticed the locations of a lot of those supporting WL) it's not their country having its secrets exposed.

This latest set of leaks, however, while embarrassing for the United States in the sense that it was our diplomatic traffic being exposed, actually proves that our diplomats are pretty smart folks, and makes the PRC, North Korea, et. alia. look even worse.

The United States is far from perfect (and by and large we don't claim to be, either) - however, what warts we DO have are often deliberately blown way out of proportion out of a sense of "Curse you for being better than we are!"

Before the United States, the measuring stick was the British, and what warts the Brits had got the same treatment (consider how the Brits' issues with us were treated by the rest of Europe, not just France - do you honest think there wasn't quite a bit of behind-the-back sniggering at the Brits' expense?).

Like it or not (and, by and large, the United States, both government and citizens thereof, don't like it), the United States is the measuring stick by which other nations' citizens measure other nations (including their own) against, and what nation and/or the citizens thereof likes not measuring up?

It's another battle in the culture war.

Being seen as Number One is no fun.

[0trunk]

There's a difference between asking questions and being an annoying idiot. I don't agree with a fair bit of what our government does, but I still support America.

No there isn't.

[Gone]

if anyone has secrets its the US

What really happened at Roswell?

[Nihilus]

There's a difference between asking questions and being an annoying idiot. I don't agree with a fair bit of what our government does, but I still support America.

Well you can support your country by fighting the government's decisions if you don't agree with them :/ Sometimes that might mean making those bad decisions public. In fact, didn't some American president say it was your responsibility to do so?

Having said that, I don't really support or oppose wikileaks. IMHO I can't really see them making much difference in the grand scheme of things.

I do however dislike Julian Assange conspiracy theorists somewhat. Those that think he should get off scott free because any charges against him are "obviously" a government plot.

[GuJu]

yes.

[Digitalx]

I think it's great that they done it. It's better when people can make their own assessment of things happening or being said "off the record" by these tardy politicians who think nobody will ever see them. I've got mate in SIGINT so a lot of it isn't really new to me at least the asia-pacific related items anyway but yeah.

[Flawed]

Absolutely. Without the oversight of the public, government corruption knows no bounds.

[Eric Veteran]

Yes. No more secrets.

[PGHammer]

Well, I don't completely agree with what the U.S. did but it is still better than many other countries out there. If you want to compare, you need to have a standard. U.S. is not a good standard but it is still an O.K. standard. Admittedly, pure democracy is only in fiction. You can't never have a utopia. I am just saying that U.S. is already better than many other countries and it does protect the interest of its people despite its flaws. Try living in China and you will see what I said was right...

That's why I said what I said about the culture wars.

In the case of those diplomatic cables that got leaked, the embarrassment factor was that it was OUR cables that got leaked. The contents of those cables, if anything, show that our diplomats are pretty sharp knives (they could certainly spot snowjobs/BS when they saw it).

What the "everyone should always tell the truth" crowd seems to forget is the sometimes-bloody consequences of such a policy. There are quite a number of truth-challenged leaders of countries out there; worse, some of them have WMDs. They would have less compunction of blowing away someone calling them a liar than a three-time convicted murderer would of blowing away a cop rather than going back to jail.

Lastly, I'm going to harken back to the so-called "WMD Scandal" regarding the last months of Saddam's regime. While a lot of folks are screaming that Saddam had no WMDs, it certainly wasn't for lack of effort (quite a number of captured documents state that categorically) - the folks deliberately playing that shell-game fooled everyone - fooled the US, the Brits, and, most importantly, fooled Saddam himself. Would those of you that are saying we should have left the man alone DESPITE his known thuggery have felt any better had he actually GOTTEN the WMDs he sought? Would you be saying that we should have left Hitler alone despite his massacres (and not just those of Jews) - he was seeking WMDs as well. UNfortunately, sometimes sneakiness and underhandedness is a NECESSARY part of national policy. Distasteful? Certainly. Messy? Certainly. However, like it or not (JFK found it just as distasteful as other Democratic Party Presidents), it is needed (Kennedy was the President that sponsored the creation of the SEALS and Special Forces of the US Army).

[Ghost5525]

I beg to differ. They are a bunch of obnoxious *******s who love to make war and stir up peace. Every country has secrets and they seem to target only US, making me wonder what their true intentions are.

If they are real heroes, please expose Chinese, North Korean and Russian secrets to the world so that we know which one is worst. I am sure these countries did more terrible things than anyone could ever imagine...

I honestly don't see anywhere they have leaked anything regarding massive intel dumps of the brits, french, etc... its the US. And even if they did have this information no one wants to hear what secrets the Brits have...instead lets mock and snicker at the leak of US intel and diplomatic discussions between embassy people. A obvious point to make is he's planning to leak US Banking stuff...now i'm pretty sure the US isnt the only one doing this stuff.

You may not have written the cables yourself but they were written by people who represent you and act in your name. If you don't like the way that your government's actions make your country look or you object to the things your government does then you should read the documents and express your outrage. As an American citizen you have the power to help change your government and the way it conducts its affairs around the world.

Don't blame Wikileaks for the crimes your people are committing, blame your government and its agents. Instead, you should be supporting Wikileaks by providing them with information when you uncover a crime or using the documents on the site to educate yourself and then take appropriate action.

Ya know, you're right what we SHOULD do is not only court martial this Bradley Manning but he should be tried for treason and giving secret and confidential information to non military and outside sources. You know what america does with people who commit treason...we kill them. This 22 year old traitor should be killed for compromising America's interest and putting American soldiers and sources in danger and possibly got them killed. As far as this ******* running Wikileaks, he should be brought up on Espionage charges, go to the EU governments and tell them, if you want to continue working together with us...take it down. There is nothing positive this site is doing except ****ing off foreign leaders and destabilizing the world.

Part of the reason that WL is supported is because (and yes, I've noticed the locations of a lot of those supporting WL) it's not their country having its secrets exposed.

This latest set of leaks, however, while embarrassing for the United States in the sense that it was our diplomatic traffic being exposed, actually proves that our diplomats are pretty smart folks, and makes the PRC, North Korea, et. alia. look even worse.

The United States is far from perfect (and by and large we don't claim to be, either) - however, what warts we DO have are often deliberately blown way out of proportion out of a sense of "Curse you for being better than we are!"

Before the United States, the measuring stick was the British, and what warts the Brits had got the same treatment (consider how the Brits' issues with us were treated by the rest of Europe, not just France - do you honest think there wasn't quite a bit of behind-the-back sniggering at the Brits' expense?).

Like it or not (and, by and large, the United States, both government and citizens thereof, don't like it), the United States is the measuring stick by which other nations' citizens measure other nations (including their own) against, and what nation and/or the citizens thereof likes not measuring up?

It's another battle in the culture war.

Being seen as Number One is no fun.

The view from the top isn't so great when everyone from the bottom wants you fail. Regardless of that, we wear that banner proudly and want the world to have the same freedoms as us. If you want to hate us for simply wanting that for EVERY human being be it in Russia, Europe, Asia, Africa, India, Iraq, Iran...then hate us but we have the best of intentions...