Get News & Views Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
The Truth Will Always Win
In 1958 a young Rupert Murdoch, then owner and editor of Adelaide's The News, wrote: "In the race between secrecy and truth, it seems inevitable that truth will always win."
His observation perhaps reflected his father Keith Murdoch's expose that Australian troops were being needlessly sacrificed by incompetent British commanders on the shores of Gallipoli. The British tried to shut him up but Keith Murdoch would not be silenced and his efforts led to the termination of the disastrous Gallipoli campaign.
Nearly a century later, WikiLeaks is also fearlessly publishing facts that need to be made public.
I grew up in a Queensland country town where people spoke their minds bluntly. They distrusted big government as something that could be corrupted if not watched carefully. The dark days of corruption in the Queensland government before the Fitzgerald inquiry are testimony to what happens when the politicians gag the media from reporting the truth.
These things have stayed with me. WikiLeaks was created around these core values. The idea, conceived in Australia, was to use internet technologies in new ways to report the truth.
WikiLeaks coined a new type of journalism: scientific journalism. We work with other media outlets to bring people the news, but also to prove it is true. Scientific journalism allows you to read a news story, then to click online to see the original document it is based on. That way you can judge for yourself: Is the story true? Did the journalist report it accurately?
Democratic societies need a strong media and WikiLeaks is part of that media. The media helps keep government honest. WikiLeaks has revealed some hard truths about the Iraq and Afghan wars, and broken stories about corporate corruption.
People have said I am anti-war: for the record, I am not. Sometimes nations need to go to war, and there are just wars. But there is nothing more wrong than a government lying to its people about those wars, then asking these same citizens to put their lives and their taxes on the line for those lies. If a war is justified, then tell the truth and the people will decide whether to support it.
If you have read any of the Afghan or Iraq war logs, any of the US embassy cables or any of the stories about the things WikiLeaks has reported, consider how important it is for all media to be able to report these things freely.
WikiLeaks is not the only publisher of the US embassy cables. Other media outlets, including Britain ‘s The Guardian, The New York Times, El Pais in Spain and Der Spiegel in Germany have published the same redacted cables.
Yet it is WikiLeaks, as the co-ordinator of these other groups, that has copped the most vicious attacks and accusations from the US government and its acolytes. I have been accused of treason, even though I am an Australian, not a US, citizen. There have been dozens of serious calls in the US for me to be "taken out" by US special forces. Sarah Palin says I should be "hunted down like Osama bin Laden", a Republican bill sits before the US Senate seeking to have me declared a "transnational threat" and disposed of accordingly. An adviser to the Canadian Prime Minister's office has called on national television for me to be assassinated. An American blogger has called for my 20-year-old son, here in Australia, to be kidnapped and harmed for no other reason than to get at me.
And Australians should observe with no pride the disgraceful pandering to these sentiments by Prime Minister Gillard and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have not had a word of criticism for the other media organisations. That is because The Guardian, The New York Times and Der Spiegel are old and large, while WikiLeaks is as yet young and small.
We are the underdogs. The Gillard government is trying to shoot the messenger because it doesn't want the truth revealed, including information about its own diplomatic and political dealings.
Has there been any response from the Australian government to the numerous public threats of violence against me and other WikiLeaks personnel? One might have thought an Australian prime minister would be defending her citizens against such things, but there have only been wholly unsubstantiated claims of illegality. The Prime Minister and especially the Attorney-General are meant to carry out their duties with dignity and above the fray. Rest assured, these two mean to save their own skins. They will not.
Every time WikiLeaks publishes the truth about abuses committed by US agencies, Australian politicians chant a provably false chorus with the State Department: "You'll risk lives! National security! You'll endanger troops!" Then they say there is nothing of importance in what WikiLeaks publishes. It can't be both. Which is it?
It is neither. WikiLeaks has a four-year publishing history. During that time we have changed whole governments, but not a single person, as far as anyone is aware, has been harmed. But the US , with Australian government connivance, has killed thousands in the past few months alone.
US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates admitted in a letter to the US congress that no sensitive intelligence sources or methods had been compromised by the Afghan war logs disclosure. The Pentagon stated there was no evidence the WikiLeaks reports had led to anyone being harmed in Afghanistan. NATO in Kabul told CNN it couldn't find a single person who needed protecting. The Australian Department of Defence said the same. No Australian troops or sources have been hurt by anything we have published.
But our publications have been far from unimportant. The US diplomatic cables reveal some startling facts:
The US asked its diplomats to steal personal human material and information from UN officials and human rights groups, including DNA, fingerprints, iris scans, credit card numbers, internet passwords and ID photos, in violation of international treaties. Presumably Australian UN diplomats may be targeted, too.
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia asked the US Officials in Jordan and Bahrain want Iran ‘s nuclear program stopped by any means available.
Britain's Iraq inquiry was fixed to protect "US interests".
Sweden is a covert member of NATO and US intelligence sharing is kept from parliament.
The US is playing hardball to get other countries to take freed detainees from Guantanamo Bay . Barack Obama agreed to meet the Slovenian President only if Slovenia took a prisoner. Our Pacific neighbour Kiribati was offered millions of dollars to accept detainees.
In its landmark ruling in the Pentagon Papers case, the US Supreme Court said "only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government". The swirling storm around WikiLeaks today reinforces the need to defend the right of all media to reveal the truth.
Comments
Note: Disqus 2012 is best viewed on an up to date browser. Click here for information. Instructions for how to sign up to comment can be viewed here. Our Comment Policy can be viewed here. Please follow the guidelines. Note to Readers: Spam Filter May Capture Legitimate Comments...
266 Comments so far
Show AllOur most positive thoughts go out to you.
You are a most courageous man.
We hold you in our hearts. Jessia & Family
Well said, and true for all of us who want Peace !
J.A.,
Thank you for exposing the lies and deceit.
May peace and safety be with you.
1 hour documentary on Wikileaks on swedish TV:
http://svtplay.se/v/2264028/wikirebels_the_documentary
I sent you a Christmas card with a small token of my trust in what you are doing.
Mr Assange, and those that support and work for Wikileaks. I'm an American citizen of no particular monetary worth nor privilege but, I stand ready and willing to lend whatever support I can to your efforts. I find what you are doing as being both courageous and necessary. I'm ashamed an American isn't the source of this action. We ought to be ashamed in this country and I'm personally ashamed of my country's fanatical efforts to both discredit you and Wikileaks and to threaten you with harm. My computer and myself stand by to help you in any way I can. I assume you can contact this IP if you find a way in which I can personally help. Keep up your fight, and if the pressure continues, I urge you to make public those items that you have that will bring more light to a vastly corrupt government, military industrial complex and those that would protect such entities. I am a disabled veteran and I swore a pledge to protect this country and it's constitution against it's enemies both foreign and domestic and those threats are here and need to be combated with all means necessary and available to those who believe and cherish the tenets of the American ideal.
Julian;
I'm with you. You are NOW the greatest hero of the 21st century! There WILL BE movies made about this information and your role here. Remember, they did silence some of the heroes of the 20th century; but not all. Mandela did triumph against the lies, hatred, and mechanics of a corrupt regime!
Cheers from the Fascist States of America!
Stay Strong my friend!
I seriously suggest that Wikileaks and Mr. Assange be nominated for the NOBEL PEACE PRIZE.
Our two wars in the Middle East have been fought on the basis of lies and secrecy. Exposing American lies, therefore, is the greatest possible contribution to peace.
In addition to Iraq and Afghanistan, we have the Honduras revelation. Wikileaks reveals that the US ambassador there immediately labeled the coup a coup, followed by months of the Hillary State Department refusing to call it a coup. Legally mandated sanctions to a coup, therefore, were not applied, so that the right wing usurpation could consolidate itself. This revelation alone deserves a prize. You can pick your own favorite out of the many.
A Nobel Peace Prize winner, however, can only be nominated by someone who has won the prize before. Can anyone reach here reach a Nobel Prize winner?
Thank you
Laurence
Mr Obama's acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize has rendered it meaningless, no? Or is piece just mis-spelled?
Thank you Julian Assange
Why hasn't some concerned civil libertian or free internet organization called for a demonstration at the Swedish embassy?
Contact information for the Swedish embassy in Washington:
Tel: 1-202-467-2600
Fax: 1-202-467-2699
E-mail: ambassaden.washington@foreign.ministry.se
BOYCOTT AMAZON AND PLAYPAL!
Tony Vodvarka
Please Google Contact Swedish Government and email their Prime and Justice Ministers.
Ask them not to pervert their Justice system as has Spain, Germany and Britain under USA pressure to halt prosecutions of USA War Criminals.
Kudos to Britain for thus far protecting Assange, London must now hold more neocon assassins than Bagdad.
Assange will be damaged (not killed) if professional USA agents are allowed access( an interview or even clandestine acess) to him (germ, chem, rad).
Should we email Britain also? Perhaps the USA British embassy.
If the New York Times does not print Mr. Assange's letter, then they should be picketed.
If you want peace of mind and happiness, then have faith.
If you want the truth, then seek it.
Interpol is a corrupt actor in this weighty drama for, for the first time in history they refused a warrant, this being a Spanish warrant for the murderers of two PhotoJournalist in the tank attack on the Palestine Hotel Bagdad.
According to commentator "Read Between the Lines" ( who reads Latin American News) the charges Assange faces have a $710 fine attached and do not mention anything sexual, regardless
Interpol refuses a Spanish warrant for murder but red tags a controversal suspicious Swedish warrant.
"If you want the truth, then seek it." - But be prepared to witness the death of your ego/personality and to be assailed by those that lust after lies.
The real tragedy is that any written words of "proof" are required to acknowledge the truth that is plain.
We need not examine words, just actions of our representative government. That's all the truth we need. Why aren't actions enough to show truth?
We never needed someone to bring us the truth, we already have it.
Happiness and truth are not mutually exclusive...
Thank you Julian Assange. Best wishes to you.
Today the biggest threat to the personal safety of Julian Assange is not the US government, but anybody who is ready to make use of extreme violence to provoke the release of the content of the file known as "insurance.aes256".
This is why I believe that Western governments could attempt to confine Mr Assange to home arrest, to keep him out of harm's way.
This is a very good point you make. At this point, Wikileaks is releasing data at a snail's pace. News agencies are arranging the data and purportedly redacting names where appropriate, and the US government and MIC were invited to redact names in the war documents. It seems WL is giving the gift of the possibility for damage control and taking a piece of insurance that the box is not opened all at once with no such controls.
Julian, you revealed yet again the disdain of the elites for the populations they are supposed to serve. Take care!
Hmmm
The old "The truth shall set you free" baloney. Baloney? Well you see, the problem with the Wiki leaks is 2-fold. First is the problem regarding the timing. Second is the problem of content.
For years now various fascist governments including the US, Great Briton, Isreal, Chine, Russia etc have been trying to put the Genie back in the bottle. That Genie being freedom of expression, and freedom to disseminate information unfetted by the heavy hand of the "government". And just as these "government" efforts to shut off parts of the internet (you know the ones that tell the truth) along comes Wiki releasing all sorts of "truths". But not just any truths mind you, but "classified" truths. Never mind that most of the info that is being categorized as "classified" really isn't. Never mind that the rest just happens to be "information" that DIRECTLY supports the governments position on....gee wiz just about everything. This is especially true with regard to Israel. In fact they are falling all over themselves with all the back slapping. Never mind that these "leaks" just happen to be timed to support the governments efforts on censoring the internet.
So lets get a little more specific. Who has benefited? Every government in the world who is trying to censor the internet (all of them-don't kid yourself) But which country has received far and away the most benefits? Which country has not seen had a single critical peice of information of its genocide, rape, murder, and other crimes against humanity mentioned? not one single thing. Amazingly these US "comminques" are supposed to be legit, but not one mention of US citizens murdered by Israel in international waters. Not one mention of the massive nuclear weapons program that Israel not only maintains, but is continuing to expand? Not one mention of the occupation (in directly violation of international law and dozens of UN sanctions) Not one mention of the various Israeli spies caught by the US actively spying on the US in the last 3 years-yes people they are caught on a regular basis)
So what is the gist of the "leaks" First: the internet is unsecure and must be censored/monitored, even deactivated in some cases to protect "us" (them). Second BOMB IRAN!, IRAN is the BOGYMAN! BOMB IRAN? did I say that already? Good grief people how can anyone be so blind. These "leaks" actually came straight from Tel Aviv. And with permission of the US. Israel companies have the contracts to maintain ALL of the US's communication systems. Thats right people Israeli companies with direct ties to the Mossad control the "security" of the United States intelligence community communications systems. Means, motive and opportunity, who benifits. The facts are right out in plain sight. Maybe that is way the public keeps missing them.
NOTHING TO LEAK
Our darling Empire has colony Israel generating state sponsored terror as a smokescreen to maintain dominance over Middle-East oil, while your comment has things reversed. For surely, Israel does not control our Empire, the most wealthy power combine of men the world has ever known.
Many ways are there to keep all the corruption in Israel hidden from the public. For if diplomatic cables are forbidden in Israel, if all communication to and from Israel is done by a top secret communication system hidden deep in the military, then WikiLeaks may have nothing to leak.
I've been thinking roughly along these lines too. At the very least the US government (and others) can use these events as an excuse to control the internet. I also think that, had they really wanted to stop Assange, one way or another, they could have done so, but as the cables so far have been relatively harmless, if embarrassing, they might have decided that a little embarrassment will be a bargain if it offers an excuse to get a stanglehold on the net. (All supposition of course).
1) These are diplomatic cables, some are marked "secret", but they are not the super classified stuff of spy novels.
2) There ARE a couple dozen from the Tel Aviv embassy.
3) Of the 250,000 in the trove, less than 1000 have been released so far.
I think it's a little early to be going off the deep end. But I understand the temptation....
http://213.251.145.96/
You're sounding very much like a rube.
If these leaks were sponsered by isreal why would Joe "Zionist" Lieberman pressure Amazon to stop disseminating them?
Could not the lack of mention of isreal be innocently from the lack of leaked cables from the USA isreal embassy?
The cables are not from every embassy in the world, are they?
Perhaps the zionists merely have installed better security.
I am tempted to consider the allegation that these leaks are an isreali plot as pychops.
I too have trouble beleiving that the military would allow so easily access to a 250,000 diplomatic cables dump to a 22 year old junior analyst (if manning is indeed the source). Maybe they needed to let a little damaging information get out (like the UN spying case) to make the leak seem more legitimate and authentic. A little damage goes a long way toward closing down the net more and attacking people like Assange? Im not saying this is what happened, but it does seem convenient.
Kinda like 9/11 happens, when the elites were starting to panic at seeing popular demonstrations everywhere around the world getting bigger and bigger (Montreal 1998, Seattle 1999, Prague 2000, Quebec city april 2001, Genoa july 01). No proof but seems hugely convenient to start putting the clamp down on democracy.
Its all speculation of course
"I too have trouble beleiving that the military would allow so easily access to a 250,000 diplomatic cables dump to a 22 year old junior analyst (if manning is indeed the source)."
Don't forget, these people couldn't protect their own nation the entire morning of 9-11. They're ruthless, criminally insane and evil--but they're incredibly stupid too.
"Don't forget, these people couldn't protect their own nation the entire morning of 9-11. They're ruthless, criminally insane and evil--but they're incredibly stupid too."
Perfect! And it's beginning to explain obama too
This morning on radio "Counter Spin".
The missile issue was examined and a thorough reading of the cables reveals that Russia doubts the missiles exist and if they do exists doubts Korea has tested them.
Furthermore a major USA armanant magazine spokesperson said 14 missile of this sort would only be a threat if Iran produced many more, ( which they have the right to do).
This all flies in the face of an Zionist plant of info.
57% of the Arab public believe a Nuclear Armed Iran would be beneficial to the Middle East.
Thank you for another of your insightful comments and posts, which are always thoughtful. And while content is always valued over presentation, for what it's worth, some of your loyal readers are hankering for the proper spelling of Israel.
(There is another candidate for the spellchecker in the post above that we won't mention.)
thanks and regards
If anyone's CIA it's "ddearborn".
It does stink of disinfo and Nazism doesn't it?
I don't have any strong opinions on this, but to play devil's advocate:
Perhaps what Lieberman is doing is not so much about protecting Israel's interests as it is simply about clamping down on the internet, and more broadly on freedom of information. This could just be the first step, and now that the precedent has been set in pressuring Amazon and PayPal to drop WikiLeaks, we will see what comes next.
That said, I think it is absurd to think that WikiLeaks is any sort of govt psy-op. If anything, it is being utilized to a certain degree by elements in the intelligence community to advance an agenda, both geopolitical and domestic (war abroad, fascism at home). The way that this is all playing out seems to advance both of those neocon agendas, which means that it is either coincidentally fortuitous, or a pre-conceived conspiracy that is being executed before our very eyes.
Maybe the lack of evidence of a Zionist conspiracy means there is no zionist conspiracy.
Just sayin'.
It is rather interesting, to say the least, that these latest leaks come at the same time as the Department of Homeland Security seizing 70 websites engaged in file-sharing activities, and at the same time that the net neutrality fight comes to a head. It also coincides with the new TSA x-ray/groping policies being implemented, FBI assaults on legitimate peace and justice organizations, and new FBI sting (i.e. entrapment) operations unveiling heinous terrorist plots against the American way of life. It seems to me that all of this is conditioning us for further and further encroachments into our privacy, and clamping down on dissent.
The response to the latest megaleak also seems suspiciously coordinated, with the hysterical overreactions all taking the same outlandish, over the top tone: we must shut down this website, we must designate wikileaks a foreign terrorist organization, we must assassinate Julian Assange, and by the way, all government employees are forbidden to visit wikileaks.org until we can figure out how to eliminate this "transnational threat to US national security". And then of course the unprecedented step of employing Interpol to persecute an individual on the flimsiest of unsubstantiated allegations, which seem to boil down to having consensual sex without a condom.
I mean, this is fucking crazy. I don't know what is going on here, but I long ago stopped believing that these sorts of things all happen by accident. It looks like it is all part of a plan, not that WikiLeaks is in on it, but the bastards in DC certainly seem to be coordinating their actions, preparing us all for the next step in our descent into totalitarianism. The iron fist of fascism is about to fall down hard.
Since the USA is experiencing hyper-Fascism, anything that happened on anyday would be simultaneous with a Gov. crackdown.
Was Thanksgiving part of a TSA Groping conspiracy? No it was a tactically expedient time to implement it.
Just as the WLs are a tatically expedient time to implement new crackdowns.
That this is a zionist plot smells of USA psychops.
That's a good point.
DC: You raise many compelling points. Thank you.
GLENN: As for CIA/psy-ops, I think we just have some CD regulars who blame Jews and/or Israel for EVERYTHING. There are legitimate grievances, and no doubt mutual interests between the MIC and the right-wing leaders of Israel; however, to use that as rationale for EVERY negative news event shows that prejudice clouds reasoning in this fierce pack.
MY DEAR FRIEND THEY WENT A LOT FUHRER THAN THAT.
THEY'VE BEEN INSIDE PEOPLES HOME TORTURED THEM ON DAILY BASIS DOWNTOWN IN THE HEARTS OF THE CITADELS OF "DEMOCRACY" NERVE GAS & MICROWAVE FAR MORE INTRUSIVE & FAR MORE PAIN THAN CAMERAS OR SCANNER.
WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF CORRUPTED ELEMENTS WITHIN THIS AUTHORITARIAN REGIME.
WHAT THEY HAVE APPLIED TO THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES THE HAVE STARTED TO APPLY TO U & I.
WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF DICTATORSHIP.
No Terror No Torture Just Truth.
one of the early leaks via wikileaks involved
how Mossad and Israeli / jewish entities, governmental and corporate, were dominating the global intelligence industry, including in the US,
selling their software, their hardware, their data, their human resources, their global network, their ideas, and their agenda, to the world,
profiteering from the security regimes, from wars, from weapons trafficking, from global NGO programs, etc.
now just watch the shills for the zionist criminals come and scream "anti-semitism" below.
OpEdNews reports that the Shoe and the Underwear ( with no Passport) faux bombers, as did the 9/11 crew, all went through the Airport Security operated by the same israeli Airport Security Company.
link?
OpEdNews.com
Know the truth and the truth shall set you free. Thank you.
"Know the truth and the truth shall set you free" Yes, spiritually speaking. But in this case it can get you killed.
I hope Asange is prepared spiritually for that because it certainly may happen; when it does I hope some serious truth emerges.
sirios333
Precisely, telling the truth about Rome and the puppet government they set up in Israel is what got Jesus killed.
I'm sufficiently exercised over the war on Wikileaks and Mr Assange that I actually signed up for facebook so I could help spread the word.
Google "They thought They Were Free" for a true and chilling account of how the Germans were, step-by-step, suckered by the Nazis as Hitler's regime took control of civil society. It demonstrates what can be accomplished one tiny step at a time.