Tuesday, December 7, 2010

WikiLeaks Wins, US and World Deception Lose

Of course, Julian Assange and WikiLeaks are the newsmakers of the decade, or maybe century. Transparency advocates rule the roost now.

All this prior restraint and paranoia, I believe, shows an empire in quick decline. The dirty wars, the Vietnam lies, assassinations, United Fruit Company mayhem, HUAAC, the Iraq logs, what have you. The empire's time is up, or so says so many in the thinking community. Here are the headlines from sane media sources:

WikiLeaks and Our Boorish "In Your Face" Diplomacy
Friday 03 December 2010

by: William Astore Huffington Post Op-Ed

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WikiLeaks Fallout: Why More Secrecy Might be Worse
Friday 03 December 2010

by: Nancy A. Youssef McClatchy Newspapers
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The cables: what really counts
Posted By David E. Hoffman Sunday, December 5, 2010 - 8:47 PM
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US cable: China leaders ordered hacking on Google
By GILLIAN WONG, Associated Press Gillian Wong, Associated Press – Sun Dec 5, 6:47 am ET
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Published on Friday, December 3, 2010 by Deeplinks Blog / EFF
Amazon and WikiLeaks - Online Speech Is Only as Strong as the Weakest Intermediary
by Rainey Reitman and Marcia Hofmann
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Published on Friday, December 3, 2010 by The Guardian/UK
WikiLeaks Cables: CIA Drew up UN Spying Wishlist for Diplomats
Agency identified priorities for information on UN leaders
Cables reveal further evidence of intelligence gathering
by Ewen MacAskill and Robert Booth
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Published on Friday, December 3, 2010 by The Guardian/UK
Julian Assange Answers Questions in Online Q&A
The founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, is answering readers' questions about the release of more than 250,000 US diplomatic cables. We will post his responses as we receive them
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Here's the story on college students being warned about WikiLeaks look-ins:

from this site: www.thetechherald.com

Talking about WikiLeaks’ cablegate can hinder job placements
by Steve Ragan - Dec 4 2010, 09:00


If you are thinking about working for the government, but have recently used social media platforms to link to or discuss WikiLeaks’ cablegate materials, you can likely kiss that potential career path goodbye.


An email forwarded by a student enrolled at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia is making the rounds on the Internet this weekend. The email, which is said to have originated from the Columbia University’s Office of Career Services, warns anyone aspiring for a government job that WikiLeaks is off limits.

Hi students,

We received a call today from a SIPA alumnus who is working at the State Department. He asked us to pass along the following information to anyone who will be applying for jobs in the federal government, since all would require a background investigation and in some instances a security clearance.

The documents released during the past few months through Wikileaks are still considered classified documents. He recommends that you DO NOT post links to these documents nor make comments on social media sites such as Facebook or through Twitter. Engaging in these activities would call into question your ability to deal with confidential information, which is part of most positions with the federal government.

Regards,
Office of Career Services

In addition, a comment on The Arabist blog, where the news of the email originated, said that similar letters are being sent to Georgetown graduates as well.

Assuming the email is on the up-and-up, we’re going to call this a serious overreaction. Granted, the U.S. State Department has the right to be choosey about whom they hire, but holding WikiLeaks related wall posts on Facebook against an intern is backwards.

We’re not the only ones; Mike Masnick from Techdirt has similar feelings.

“Pretending that you shouldn't even discuss a rather important and topical story of interest to those who actually do care about diplomacy and public policy, isn't just a "put your head in the sand" approach, it's actively discouraging the folks who might have the most insight and interest into these subjects from getting a job where they might be of assistance.”

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