Wikileaks Reactions from the US and around the World

Our Nation is Divided!

I was going to write an article about Wikileaks, but as I sat down to start writing I came across so may headlines from major news media to amateur bloggers from every corner of the earth, that I decided it would be literal overkill.

However, reading the enormous variety of reactions to the debacle, I found that the reactions to the leak to be as interesting as the contents of the released documents. There is no mistake; our nation is divided! 

The backlash of Wikileaks will change our country, even the world! Regardless of the contents of the documents, the reactions of our politicians and leaders will have us re-thinking and examining our views, priorities and policies. Our 1st Amendment, Freedom of the Press, and with that our personal freedoms are in danger of sanctions and limitations.

For this reason, I have decided to present to you some of these different views surrounding the implications and fallout of the biggest intelligence blunter of our time.

Without further ado, I bestow on to you the headlines and summaries representing these reactions from around the world:

Pro Wikileaks

Wikileaks are patriotic - The Examiner
http://www.examiner.com/independent-in-boston/wikileaks-are-patriotic

Wikileaks are true heroes - The Well Timed Period
http://thewelltimedperiod.blogspot.com/2010/11/pfc-bradley-manning-and-wikileaks-are.html

Wikileaks are the most important truthsayers of our time - Comment Factory
http://www.thecommentfactory.com/wikileaks-are-the-most-important-truthsayers-of-our-time-3451

Wikileaks are fucking heroes. - Godlike Productions, Forum
http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message1273876/pg1

The papers are doing their job — reporting the news. - Raw Story
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/gop-rep-wikileaks-deemed-foreign-terrorist-organization

Wikileaks are the only outlets for the truth when it comes to what really was going on in these illegal wars. Without these individuals, the american people would have continued on in utter ignorance of what was going on in iraq and afghanistan. Scarborough made a comment that these leaks are going to make other countries not want to talk or deal with the u. S, and not have their conversation end up in the new york times. Maybe if they were not involved in illegal activity or trying to topple legitimate governments, then they would have nothing to worry about. It has always been my point of view, that if you are scared to share what it is you are talking about or doing in our name, than what you are doing cannot possibly be in my, or the american peoples best interest. Fresh food that lasts from efoods direct. - Infowars
http://www.infowars.com/is-wikileaks-really-the-enemy

Wikileaks are free agents acting on a desire to crack official secrecy and broaden the horizons of public awareness. - CS Monitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2010/1129/WikiLeaks-Russians-smell-anti-Obama-conspiracy

Wikileaks are probably the greatest heroes the world has at the moment. - MSNBC Newsvine
http://msnbc.newsvine.com/_question/2010/11/28/5540508-do-you-support-the-release-of-secret-us-diplomatic-correspondence-by-wikileaks



Anti Wikileaks

Wikileaks are being manipulated by interested parties that want to either complicate our relationship with other governments or want to undermine some governments, because some of these items that are being emphasized and have surfaced are very pointed. And i wonder whether, in fact, there aren't some operations internationally, intelligence services, that are feeding stuff to wikileaks, because it is a unique opportunity to embarrass us, to embarrass our position, but also to undermine our relations with particular governments. - PBS
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/government_programs/july-dec10/weakileaks2_11-29.html

Wikileaks are unsafe - CBS News, Face the Nation
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/08/01/ftn/main6734189.shtml

Wikileaks are a bunch of terrorists... - Canada Free Press
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/30547

Wikileaks are terrorists - we need to take them out. - Ron Paul, Forum
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=270676

Wikileaks are “really bad guys” oversimplifies a complex matter. While they aren't bad guys, the road to hell was paved with good intentions, and i'm afraid they've paved the road to hell for us diplomatic efforts. In the inevitable war between transparency and state secrets, neither should be automatically subordinate to the other without sober consideration for the consequences. - politicususa.com
http://www.politicususa.com/en/julian-assange-wikileaks-bad

Wikileaks are publishing very sensitive documents that will impact our national security. In other words, a black eye to go with our president's fat lip. The question is: "how did wikileaks come by these confidential documents?" tomorrow, unless we see the wholesale purging of our intelligence community from the topmost officials to the bottom of the organizational chart, we'll know this document dump is being accomplished in collusion with the obama administration. Therefore, we are witnessing treason. Let's see what tomorrow brings. - Politico
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/45644.html

Wikileaks are dangerous and gosh knows what is going to happen. As if we didn't already have enough on our plates. - Erictric
http://erictric.com/2010/11/28/wikileaks-website-goes-down-again-secret-documents-soon-to-be-released

Wikileaks are a us/israeli propaganda sham - David Icke, Forum
http://www.davidicke.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1059468036

The larger point one might draw from this episode is that democracies like ours have a vital need for secrecy in the conduct of foreign affairs and war. And Wikileaks, which appears to be beyond the reach of our laws, is engaging in an assault on democratic governance. Our best hope of avoiding future such episodes is to do a better job of protecting secrets. Part of this involves tighter security and harsher penalties for those who leak vital secrets. Another no less important part is tackling our government's penchant for overclassification and mis-classification, which breeds disrespect for legitimate secrecy and creates a climate in which even leaks of highly sensitive information are taken as a norm. - National Review, Gabriel Schoenfeld
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MGUxMjE1ODVkZjljZmQxNjNjMWFhM2ZhMGQ5MjE0NmQ

Objective

Wikileaks are not likely to reshape the region's political maneuverings. But they have further agitated the ill will between. And arab capitals over iran's nuclear enrichment program and its influence on militant groups in. The release of the cables has narrowed diplomatic wiggle room. Saudi king abdullah, quoted as urging the u. To attack iran, is likely to find it tough convincing tehran that he supports regional harmony. The leaks also reveal that arab countries have a deeper reliance on washington than they care to acknowledge to their largely anti-american populations. - LA Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-wikileaks-arabs-iran-20101201,0,6095996.story

Ladies and gentlemen, WikiLeaks did not "leak" anything. I don't know who leaked it, but since there's no mention of Obama and his administration, the regime, in any of these tens of thousands of documents, I'd have to say somebody in the regime leaked 'em. But WikiLeaks did not leak 'em. They just published 'em. WikiLeaks is just a sponge, a useful idiot sitting there over in the UK and some disgruntled military guy in Afghanistan somehow has access to all of this and hands it over... Assange looks like a waif who should star in Peter Pan. - Rush Limbaugh
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_072610/content/01125108.guest.html

The truth is that we don't really know what Wikileaks is, or what the organization's ethics are, or why they've become such a stunningly good conduit of classified information. In the new asymmetrical journalism, it's not clear who is on what side or what the rules of engagement actually are. But the reason Wikileaks may have just changed the media is that we found out that it doesn't really matter. Their data is good, and that's what counts. - Atlantic, Alexis Madrigal
http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2010/07/wikileaks-may-have-just-changed-the-media-too/60377

Wikileaks are another sign that the 21st century is becoming an age in which secrets are going the way of phone books, floppy disks, and music stores. For centuries, from families to corporations, reporters, military chiefs, financial executives, lawyers, and government officials, information withheld from the public was a source of power. Changing behaviors, from innocently posting publicly visible updates on relationship status, pictures, and activities on. , to what the state department calls the irresponsible actions of assange's wikileaks, are leading to an era in which keeping secrets may soon become obsolete. Toward a taxonomy of secrets. ,” considering the primary motivations for keeping secrets and their perceived real and illusory values. The report segments secrets into categories such as those kept to prevent embarrassment, exercise control, meet external regulation and legal requirements, maintain social cohesion, and promote tradition and momentum. - Fatherhood Channel
http://fatherhoodchannel.com/2010/11/28/wikileaks-facebook-world-without-secrets-971

Wishy Washy

Wikileaks are traitors or engaging in sedition and should be punished for their release of these docs. What assange has done this past year in releasing raw intel and unvarnished truth , in quantity , straight from the sources within the halls of government and the military , is nothing short of revolutionary in charting history and exposing both war and geopolitical diplomacy for what it is. Previously ( with the exception of the pentagon papers ) this was a process that took the long slow excruciating course of " history " , and too often resulted in that history being doctored or disinformed. With wikileaks, we do not have to wait the customary 50 years to find out what was going on in the cloistered halls of the war rooms, board rooms, inner circles and oval offices. And we get the raw intel , not the refined or otherwise " sanitized" version. That the us government is running damage control with various other governments in advance of the leaks, and the fact julian assange is being ( likely ) framed on trumped up rape charges , is evidence enough to me that the governments fear the truth and fear being held accountable or even dragged into the bright sunshine so soon. Further, the trumped up claim by the us government that the latest wikileaks release puts people in harm's way is only so much bluster. The government cannot be serious about making those claims when it has so much blood on its hands, the loss of thousands of combat casualties in the senseless war in iraq, and tens of thousands of civilians and collateral damage that need never have occurred at all ---for what ? yes, maybe a few new folks are now in the crosshairs, but what about the thousands already lost and the thousands maybe saved the brutality ?. Personally , i don;t think there will be many if any damning accounts in the new release. It may turn out to be a tempest in a crock pot. Regardless, it gives and succinct view into the mechanisms of war and diplomacy. That alone makes the wikileaks worthwhile. Who can possibly be against the truth ? is that not what the us seeks to instill in our foreign involvements?---democracy based on an informed and enlightened populace ??. - MSNBC, Open Channel
http://openchannel.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/11/28/5539555-watching-the-wikileaks-release-of-diplomatic-messages

Conclusion

Julian Assange has been labeled one of the most dangerous men on earth by many people, while others call him a hero. Whether his Wikileaks will further government, policy and intelligence transparency or cause the death of soldiers, spies and diplomats remains to be seen. But what is apparent, is the wide range of reactions to the leaks, ranging from outrage to hero worship. No matter how you look at it, it is clear that we are a nation divided amongst ourselves.

I would very much like your reactions in the form of comments. Tell me what you think. Should Wikileaks be shut down? Should Julian Assange be chared with treason? 


Written By: Tom Retterbush