Text applies to any seeker of truth above personal interests.
Julian Assange *
In 1958, a young Rupert Murdoch, owner and editor of The News in Adelaide, Australia, wrote: "In the race between secrecy and the truth, it seems inevitable that the truth always win. "
His remark reflected perhaps the revelation made by his father, Keith Murdoch, Australian soldiers were slaughtered by incompetent British commanders need on the shores of Gallipoli. The British tried to silence him, but did not give Keith Murdoch, and his efforts led to the termination the disastrous Gallipoli campaign.
Almost a century later, Wikileaks also made public without fear that it is necessary to disclose.
I grew up in rural Queensland, where people said what they felt unfettered. Trust the government as an entity that could be corrupted if not watched carefully. The dark days of corruption in the government of Queensland, before the investigation of Tony Fitzgerald, the late 1980's, attest to what happens when politicians prevent the media spread the truth.
These memories have stayed in my mind. Wikileaks was created around these core values. The idea, conceived in Australia, was to use Internet technologies in new ways to tell the truth. Wikileaks
coined a new kind of journalism, science journalism. We work with other media to bring news to people, but also to prove they are true. Science journalism to read a note and then give a click on line to see the original document in which it is based. In this way one can judge for yourself: the note is true? "The journalist reported it accurately?
Democratic societies need strong media and Wikileaks is part of the media.
media help maintain the integrity of government. Wikileaks has revealed some harsh truths about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and has released news about the corruption of big corporations.
Some people say I'm an opponent of the war: I'm not. Sometimes nations need to go to war, and there are just wars. But nothing is more unjust than a government that lies to the public about these wars, and then asks those same citizens who give their lives and their taxes to support those lies. If a war is justified, then it must tell the truth, and the people will decide if the supports.
If you've read any of the publications of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq any of the cables from the embassies of the United States or any press release on Wikileaks has revealed that, consider how important it is that all media can report freely about it.
Wikileaks is not the only public U.S. embassy cables. Other media such as The Guardian, The New York Times, El Pais in Spain and Der Spiegel in Germany have published the same cables.
However, Wikileaks, as coordinator of these other groups, which concentrated the most violent attacks and accusations by Washington and its acolytes. I have been accused of treason, although I am a citizen of Australia, the United States. In
United States has made dozens of calls in earnest for that special forces me "settled." Sarah Palin says I should be "hunted like Osama Bin Laden" in the Senate is a Republican initiative to declare that I "international threat" and therefore available to me. An adviser to the office of Canadian Prime Minister has called on national television to kill me. An American blogger has claimed that kidnap and hurt my 20 year old son here in Australia, for no other reason than to hurt me.
And Australians should see no shame alcahueteo proud of these feelings that make the Prime Minister of his country, Julia Gillard, and U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, without uttering a word of criticism toward other media organizations. That's because The Guardian, The New York Times and Der Spiegel are old and large, as Wikileaks is young and small.
We are the underdogs. Gillard's government tries to kill the messenger because you do not want to reveal the truth, which includes information about their own political and diplomatic dealings.
Have there been any Australian government's response to the numerous public threats of violence against me and other members of Wikileaks? One would have thought that an Australian prime minister defend citizens of those things, but only allegations of illegality has been devoid of any foundation. The prime minister, and especially the Attorney General are required to perform their duties with dignity and above the skirmish. Believe me, what those two want is to save his skin. Not succeed. Whenever
Wikileaks publishes the truth about abuses by U.S. agencies, Australian politicians sing along with the State Department a chorus of demonstrable falsehood: "They put lives at risk! National Security! They endanger the troops! "Then they say that there is nothing important in Wikileaks publishes. Both things can not be true at once. What is true?
Neither. Wikileaks published documents for four years. In that time we changed entire governments, but not a single person, as far as you know, has been damaged. In contrast, the United States, with the connivance of the Australian government, has killed thousands in just the past few months.
In a letter to U.S. Congress, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates acknowledged that no single source or method of intelligence have been put at risk by disclosure of documents about Afghanistan. The Pentagon said there was no evidence that would lead to Wikileaks reports that someone was damaged in Afghanistan. NATO in Kabul told CNN that he could not find a single person who needs protection. The Australian Defense Department said the same. No soldier, no source of Australia have been harmed by anything we have published.
However, from there to our publications are not important is a great distance. American diplomatic cables revealed some alarming facts:
United States asked its diplomats to steal personal material and information UN officials and human rights groups: DNA, fingerprints, iris scans, credit card numbers, Internet passwords and photo identification, in violation of international treaties. It is also assumed that Australian diplomats have been targeted.
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia asked U.S. officials in Jordan and Bahrain to halt the Iranian nuclear program by whatever means possible.
British research on Iraq was manipulated to protect "U.S. interests."
undercover Sweden is a member of NATO and shares intelligence with the United States without reporting to parliament. U.S. Pushes
rudely to other countries to avail themselves of detainees released from Guantanamo prison camp. Barack Obama only agreed to meet with Slovenian President if the government gave shelter to a prisoner. Our neighbor to the Pacific, Kiribati, received an offer of millions of dollars if accepted detainees.
In its landmark ruling on the Pentagon Papers, the Supreme Court of the United States warned: "Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government." The storm around Wikileaks reinforces the need to defend the right of all media to reveal the truth.
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