Comments on: WikiLeaks: What, really, is the problem?

By: Lana Nasser

Lana Nasser — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 10:04:21 +0000

Thank you for the above article, Alan, and I’m sorry that my post is not related it, but I wanted to take this opportunity to ask if you could please offer us your insights on/analysis of the Hezbollah – UN Tribunal affair that is behind the current crisis in Lebanon. Many of us need an honest and unbiased analysis of the situation as there are so many contradictory theories about what is actually going on circulating everywhere (in Arab and Western media). Thank you!

By: Laurent

Laurent — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 18:00:23 +0000

When I search for it I only find it in a dictionary and nowhere else: DEMOCRACY.

By: Jack Lomax

Jack Lomax — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 07:30:41 +0000

Some of these leaked cables are startling indeed. One has Kevin Rudd at that time Prime Minister of Australia telling Hilary Clinton that he thought as a primary strategy China should be encouraged to become as one with the west. But if that failed force should then be used. This is the (then) Prime Minster of a country whose trade largely depends on China telling America that starting the Third World War would be a good idea in certain circumstances with the US bringing China (and maybe Russia) into line with a battery of nuclear weapons which he obviously thought those weapons would be more effective than the nuclear weapons launched by China and Russia in return. Albert Einstein said he was unsure just what deadly weapons the the third world war would be fought with but was certain that the fourth world war would have to be fought with sticks and stones.We are surely governed by madmen and psychopaths.

By: Yani

Yani — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 10:57:20 +0000

There is the direct impact of the documents but perhaps more importantly the indirect impact.

1. The Australian Federal Government has proved they are more interested in pandering to the US than in standing up for a citizen and this will have major impacts in Australian politics.

2. It has proved beyond measure that as world citizens we need to ensure that the internet is not corrupted. The ‘it’s ok Jack’ is now a gloves off battle to ensure internet freedom or it will become that battle in the coming months.

Start with those two points and you can build out from there in the coming months. Forget the content for a moment and consider the flow chart of response and counter response.

By: Cllr David Durant

Cllr David Durant — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 09:36:40 +0000

As ever its a question of interpretation. The WikiLeaks showing Arab support for an attack on Iran, is cited by the neocons as proof that an attack on Iran is justified.

But equally its proof that an attack on Iran is unnecessary, because it confirms what Iran already knows, that no one in the region wants them to get WMDs.

And that’s why they have said they have no plans to get them and that it is against their muslim faith to do so, because they know getting them would weaken their security, alarm their neighbours and invite an attack.

However ironically by citing Arab support for an attack on Iran, the neocons have exposed the zionist claim that ‘all the muslims’ (Israel’s neighbours) are united against Israel, when in fact there are many inter-arab, inter- muslim and inter-ethnic disputes in the middle-east.

Regarding WikiLeaks. Everyone should know in abundance that war and politics is a dirty business. That’s why the WikiLeaks are mostly embarrassing rather than damaging – although open to manipulation from the media and intelligence agencies.

The best way to ensure transparency is by building democratic systems that allow elected politicians to speak publicly on the record in Parliament.

By: Germán

Germán — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 09:14:33 +0000

The fact that media manipulated the information leaked does not discard in any way the possibility that some of them could have been forgery.

Nothing in this analysis answers the question as to why was Wikileaks permitted to release in such scheduled manner information which was supposedly threatening US national security and which everybody knew was doing so.

When someone is threatening national security of the US, they are simply censored before going on air. Just ask Middle Eastern media outlets censored by the US Congress at the beginning of this year.