MemeStreams | MemeStreams Discussion

Create an Account

This page contains all of the posts and discussion on MemeStreams referencing the following web page: Assange responds to readers online - Page 3 - CNN. You can find discussions on MemeStreams as you surf the web, even if you aren't a MemeStreams member, using the Threads Bookmarklet.

Assange responds to readers online - Page 3 - CNN
by Rattle at 12:29 pm EST, Dec 4, 2010

JAnthony
Julian.
I am a former British diplomat. In the course of my former duties I helped to coordinate multilateral action against a brutal regime in the Balkans, impose sanctions on a renegade state threatening ethnic cleansing, and negotiate a debt relief programme for an impoverished nation. None of this would have been possible without the security and secrecy of diplomatic correspondence, and the protection of that correspondence from publication under the laws of the UK and many other liberal and democratic states. An embassy which cannot securely offer advice or pass messages back to London is an embassy which cannot operate. Diplomacy cannot operate without discretion and theprotection of sources. This applies to the UK and the UN as much as the US.
In publishing this massive volume of correspondence, Wikileaks is not highlighting specific cases of wrongdoing but undermining the entire process of diplomacy. If you can publish US cables then you can publish UK telegrams and UN emails.
My question to you is: why should we not hold you personally responsible when next an international crisis goes unresolved because diplomats cannot function.
Julian Assange
If you trim the vast editorial letter to the singular question actually asked, I would be happy to give it my attention.

It seems like no matter which way this issue is raised to the Wikileaks people, it is never directly addressed. This is why many in the FOI and transparency community can't get behind Wikileaks and Assange.

RE: Assange responds to readers online - Page 3 - CNN
by Decius at 5:39 pm EST, Dec 5, 2010

Rattle wrote:
It seems like no matter which way this issue is raised to the Wikileaks people, it is never directly addressed. This is why many in the FOI and transparency community can't get behind Wikileaks and Assange.

I'm not at all impressed with this "question" from JAnthony and I don't know why its making the rounds. Its a bunch of unsupported rhetorical assertions that rest on the arrogant assumption that they are all forgone conclusions culminating in a ridiculous "question" that is actually a thinly veiled act of rock throwing. Its easy to throw rocks at wikileaks. Its not insightful.

Obviously, Assange does not agree with JAnthony about the value of diplomatic secrecy. Obviously, anarchists do not believe that western diplomats serve the best interests of the people they represent, and the delta lies within that secrecy. These particular anarchists believe that strongly enough to have taken considerable action as a consequence of their beliefs.

JAnthony's message presumes as a forgone conclusion that all of this is wrong. However, this IS actually the question at hand, and if it were a foregone conclusion we wouldn't be having a discussion about it at all.

I'm not saying JAnthony is wrong, mind you. I'm just saying this message doesn't help convince me in any respect to his case, and he and his should stop assuming that convincing isn't necessary.

Its worth saying, on the other hand, that even if you agree with the anarchists, that doesn't imply that the actions of Wikileaks are necessary or even helpful to their cause. That is a whole other ball of wax.