Freedom of Speech and Freedom for Tyranny

Tyranny is far from being abolished in the modern world. With the creation of the Internet came the hope that those oppressed by totalitarian regimes would be able to fight for freedoms that they were denied. Organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation in the United States and other organizations Worldwide are helping in the fight for freedom through their tireless defense of Internet and everyday liberties.

Whistle-blower friendly Website, Wikileaks (visit their site), is one such organization. On their site the creators have built and constantly curate a repository for whistle-blowers to share confidential and sensitive documents with the World. There are countless documents on the servers submitted anonymously by people who disagree with what’s happening in governments and/or with businesses both nationally and globally.

The United States Government is not innocent when it comes to its interaction with the site. There have been attempts by the US government to shutdown the site, citing national security reasons. There is an ongoing investigation into the source or sources of the leaks to the site of confidential and embarrassing information and secrets.

This document is a classified (SECRET/NOFORN) 32 page U.S. counterintelligence investigation into WikiLeaks. “The possibility that current employees or moles within DoD or elsewhere in the U.S. government are providing sensitive or classified information to WikiLeaks.org cannot be ruled out. It concocts a plan to fatally marginalize the organization. Since WikiLeaks uses “trust as a center of gravity by protecting the anonymity and identity of the insiders, leakers or whistleblowers, the report recommends “The identification, exposure, termination of employment, criminal prosecution, legal action against current or former insiders, leakers, or whistleblowers could potentially damage or destroy this center of gravity and deter others considering similar actions from using the WikiLeaks.org Web site. [As two years have passed since the date of the report, with no WikiLeaks' source exposed, it appears that this plan was ineffective]. As an odd justification for the plan, the report claims that “Several foreign countries including China, Israel, North Korea, Russia, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe have denounced or blocked access to the WikiLeaks.org website. The report provides further justification by enumerating embarrassing stories broken by WikiLeaks—U.S. equipment expenditure in Iraq, probable U.S. violations of the Chemical Warfare Convention Treaty in Iraq, the battle over the Iraqi town of Fallujah and human rights violations at Guantanamo Bay.

Now, I understand the government’s reasoning for wanting to eradicate the Wikileaks problem, but as former professional journalist and current citizen journalist, I have to admit I’m concerned.

Wikileaks, though controversial, provides an avenue to uncover corruption. Wikileaks isn’t just a site to uncover corruption within the US Government, it’s existence is justified to provide an avenue to cover governmental and corporate corruption Worldwide. It helps keep those in power accountable.

We as a people both here in the United States and abroad need to stand up to our governments and protect outlets like Wikileaks alive. Because without accountability there is no way to insure democracy and freedom.