Leaking

„A freedom of speech, as long as you don`t say too much…“

The number one news all over the world these days is 250,000 secret documents Julian Assange published on the web site WikiLeaks. Information he provided caused a lot of politicians all over the world to seethe inside, but most of all, he showed an inadequacy of the intelligence and security systems of major players on the world scene, USA, EU and China. Russia will probably soon be joining them.

Of course, the media exploded with information that showed how even close political and military allies have second thoughts about each other and are watching and spying on eachother whenever they can. Most of those documents showed the US government as two faced liars; even high level politicians were pretty embarrased by the fact that they ordered diplomatic representatives to spy and report about personal details of politicians in the countries of residence. This feels like a punch below the belt from the USA allies` point of view, or a backstab, if you prefer that expression.

There is a story that I always like to tell when I am discussing politicians. Some time ago, one famous Japanese expert in international economy was asked an interesting question. A person who interviewed him asked him to explain why, in trade negotiations, when there are western trade experts facing Japanese ones, the western almost always got the short end of a stick. He said that the answer is simple: In western countries, the best students stay at colleges, middle ones become economists and the worst go into politics. In Japan, the best students become economists, the middle ones stay in college and the worst ones end up as politicians 😆 I am sorry but I forgot his name, it would be nice to find that interview and quote it here. :up:

But unlike the information WikiLeaks published before about intentional or unintentional killings of civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq (by allied forces or whatever they call themselves), friendly fire casualties, torturing in Guantanamo or extrajudicial killings in Kenya, the latest documents sound like idle gossip. I can`t really understand how information such as what tranquilizers president of Argentina is taking or if Nicolas Sarkozy, a president of France is jumping on the nerves of Angela Merkel, a Chancellor of Germany, or if Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish PM has eight secret Swiss bank accounts. It sounds comical to read that Putin and Medvedev, PM and president of Russia are compared to Batman and Robin :doh: According to USA diplomats, Putin wields less power than his "alpha dog" image in the media portrays :left: What does that information show? That international diplomacy has double standards? That politicians are liars? That some of them are crooked and ready to suck up to more powerful allies and friends? Well, it is pretty close to what a professional politician meant, since ancient Greek times to present days. There is nothing new here. Politicians are just like other people with all the positive and more likely, negative attributes we all have, but with the power to change the lives of all of us. And this is where the real value of that information lies. Politicians are sensitive to their public image and image of country they represent – of course, because their jobs depend on it. WikiLeaks put pressure on that spot and scored a lot. But, it all reminds me of an old joke about a husband cleaning the appartment and pushing all the dirt under the carpet; one day a child pulls up the carpet and the wife sees what is there and all hell breaks loose.

According to Wikipedia, Australian journalist, publisher and internet activist Julian Paul Assange founded Wikileaks in 2006. He published information about controversial procedures in Guantanamo Bay prison and became a target of a hate campaign (The Guardian) in USA, after publishing US diplomatic cables. About his work in WikiLeaks he wrote, "The more secretive or unjust an organization is, the more leaks induce fear and paranoia in its leadership and planning coterie.”

This is a fairly accurate explanation of what are we witnessing these days. So, no wonder, Swedish authorities suddenly issued an arrest warrant against Assange for alleged sex offenses and Interpol put him on a list of most wanted persons. The Wiki Leaks website also became a target of massive distributed denial-of-service attack (DoS), and internet data storage providers decided to refuse to provide storage for Wiki Leaks presentation and databases. PayPal even blocked money donations. Paranoid reactions? Sarah Palin, USA republican representative and Tom Flanagan, former key advisor to the current Canadian PM Stephen Harper, have gone the farthest; Palin said that Assange should be persecuted like Osama bin-Laden and Flanagan suggested that President of USA Barack Obama should put a contract out on Assange’s life or send out a drone to kill him. The very next day he retracted his statement saying: "I never seriously intended to advocate or propose the assassination of Mr. Assange. But I do think that what he's doing is very malicious and harmful to diplomacy and endangering people's lives, and I think it should be stopped." Yeah, right….

The story about Julian Assange and Wiki Leaks is not over yet and probably not for some time. Especially after USA warned some allies, stating that more “secret US files will cause international embarrassment and may even damage some bilateral relations.” In my opinion, if someone really wanted to stop him, he lost his chance years ago. Now, when he gets all the media and public attention, it seems very hard, an almost impossible task. But it is hard to tell what Assange`s future will be like. He wanted to achieve something and, according to my experience, it is usually not what appears to be on the front sides of newspapers. We just need to be patient and wait. The story will be continued. For sure.

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I didn`t want to start with conspiracy theory here for at least two reasons:
-first, I don`t believe in everything I hear; few days ago someone told me that it is probably some kind of “internal American set up among CIA and Pentagon”; and that Assange is maybe some new Jason Bourne :doh: World has became paranoid enough without me contributing to that 😛
-second, Sanshan would criticize me and I appreciate her opinion a lot; somehow she seems to get to the heart of things without (seemingly) much effort from her part;
Sometimes I think and rethink too much and this is where conspiracy theories are born :psmurf: So I often tell myself: look at the facts, get to the point, don`t make theories, be as short as possible when posting. 😆

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About WikiLeaks and Serbia, there were some documents published about how our politicians are seen in the eyes of western diplomats; nothing new we didn`t already know. The chief of the Serbian branch office of Interpol said that if Assange appears in Serbia, he will be arrested and since he is accused for non-political crime 🙄 there will be no problems for extradition. The same newspapers made a poll on their website and over 90% of people were against arresting.