Quote:
Originally Posted by Panthro
I found it rather interesting that Hilary Clinton said a while back that Chinese citizens would be able to get around restrictions on information in their country because of how liberating the internet is.
Now though, she dislikes such freedom of information because it is embarrassing to the USA.
Personally, I'm glad these cables have been released. It gives a real insight into how government works, and confirms many things we have long suspected.
We should not fear the terrorists, and we should not run our countries' governments in secret in fear of terrorism.
It is also important to remember that it was an American with proper access to such files (of which apparently 3 million people could access!) who leaked them, Wikileaks is just the method by which they were distributed.
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There is a difference between freedom of information and freedom of speech. That information was classified for a reason and the man that illegally distributed it (yes, the American) is going to spend the rest of his life in prison (or worse) for it.
Ask the families of the 2,975 people killed on 9/11 if we should fear terrorism. There was a big stink in the U.S. a few years back about the Patriot Act and the liberties it gave the government in collecting information about criminals and potential terrorists. Now, since the world has had a real taste of the dangers we face from radical terrorism, nobody really complains about what methods are being used. They just want to be safe.
Yes, some of the things being released in the cables are slimy. However, I have no problem with the need to keep intelligence and sensitive information that has to do with our safety a secret since there is no way of keeping it from falling into the wrong hands any other way.