Posts by BenWilson
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Or perhaps to reassure young Thai bands that all English acts are flatulent, past it and pose no threat.
Heh, I couldn't help but sing along to one popular song when I was there. The Thais pissed themselves laughing. Turns out the lyrics I was singing were "It hurts! It hurts, it really, really hurts!"
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Hard News: The Wellington Cables, in reply to Simon Grigg,
They love him for a reason!
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Hard News: The Wellington Cables, in reply to Simon Grigg,
Simon, as a resident insider, would you consider gifts from the monarchy in Thailand to be tainting to journalistic integrity?
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Visits courtesy of dictatorships won’t be acceptable and won’t be taken
Constitutional monarchies are surely still OK though :-)
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But if the State Dept sends a journalist to the US to cover one of their elections is there really a massive conflict of interest?
How about if the equivalent in Zimbabwe or Burma, or Fiji is doing the paying?
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I think it's interesting in this respect that you are all offering examples of leaks that come from the world of intelligence.
That's where most classified information is. As opposed to merely private.
Leaks about the workings of private organizations can be damning, too, even though the consent of the governed is less widely upheld there.
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OnPoint: Pay Attention, in reply to giovanni tiso,
Yes, as most things that are done for the first time are.
That's one POV, I guess. I tend to think you can make informed guesses prior to an experiment, particularly one with huge consequences. But, the experiment is begun, so I guess we'll just see.
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OnPoint: Pay Attention, in reply to giovanni tiso,
So it seems to me that citing historical leaks may not be helpful unless they are part of a similar design
If that's the case, then there's no evidence whatsoever to the claim that these leaks foster more open communication. It's hit-and-hope.
But I disagree - what has happened with historic leaks is all we have, so it's better than no information whatsoever, and some dogmatic philosophizing. And it's a mixed bag - has Israel become more open with their nuclear program? Or are people too scared to blow the whistle about it now, because it's pretty clear that they can get away with kidnapping anyone from anywhere who does?
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OnPoint: Pay Attention, in reply to giovanni tiso,
So this is really not a valid counter argument for what they do, it seems to me.
I'm not attempting to make a counter argument. You just asked the question whether anyone had tried with the leaks, in the context of the discussion about whether it has led to any real improvements in openness. There have been many leaks over the years... let's discuss the extent to which they helped. I mentioned Plame because it stuck in my mind as a really fucked up leak, just to contextualize how cynically the strategy can be used.
In fact, I think this supposed 'master key' that Assange has as an insurance policy against victimization, is just such a threat. He can dump the whole lot at a moment's notice, or a trusted key holder can do it on his behalf if he is silenced in some way. Even if "that way" happens to be that he is found to have violated important laws by a competent court.
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OnPoint: Pay Attention, in reply to Sacha,
Information security or disclosure is never going to deal with that dimension.
For sure. It was basically public knowledge at this point that the Bush team had deliberately lied their way into Iraq, but still he rode high in the polls.
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