After gaining more insight on the topic surrounding WikiLeaks, I realized the power that classified documents harness. Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden could be considered vigilantes by revealing harsh truths about governments with the refuge of foreign security and state of the art technology.
In Kenya, Julian Assange's efforts to expose secrets on the presidential candidate resulted in chaos throughout the country, but also gave Kenyan people truthful insight on who they could've elected. This shows the severity that secrets possess, especially ones of political nature that concern humanity.
Chelsea Manning aided Assange in passing footage along to WikiLeaks of several airstrikes inflicted upon Iraqi soldiers by the U.S. military, and many classified army reports. Manning was charged on 22 counts and discharged from the military.
According to wikipedia.com, Edward Snowden leaked information about telephone and internet surveillance that was passed between The U.S. and Europe to WikiLeaks, and he, like Assange and Manning, was charged with espionage.
While it causes controversy concerning national confidentiality, Assange, Manning, and Snowden are not the hidden information that hangs above the world on a string, but simply the medium through which these truths pass. In my opinion, they are brave individuals who had the courage to personally jeopardize their careers for the sake of exposing such sensitive, and secretive, information. What they did should not be considered a violation of the freedom of speech, and that should be remembered because it serves as the basis of our liberated country. Their revelations are profoundly influential and informative, and I believe people of the world deserve to know the truth about the governments who are ruling them.
I agree with you- they aren't spies, but rather heroes. The American public (and other countries) have the right to know if their governments are doing "back-ally" communication and military strikes. Though, I also believe that "leakers" should be careful with what they post- if the information could be used to harm someone (not someone's reputation or career, but their physical or mental being, then perhaps it shouldn't posted.
ReplyDeleteI agree that they were brave in releasing this sensitive information. Also, that they must have felt really strongly about it considering they were willing to risk their lives as they knew it to post it. However, I think that they should think beyond simply exposing the truth and consider whether this imformation is safe to post. I agree with what Laura said above- "if the information could be used to harm someone..physical or mental being, then perhaps it shouldn't be posted." No one seems to have been harmed, but they could have been and that's why this is such a sensitive and controversial topic.
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