Bending the rules to uphold the rules

Wappingers Fall, NY — In case you’re not a news addict like me, Wikileaks (no relation to Wikipedia, other than the desire to disseminate information) is a self-described nonprofit media organization that somehow gets access to and publishes confidential, classified, internal information online – a modern-day whistleblower.

As a student of international relations and political science, Wikileaks’ most recent release of classified ‘diplomatic cables’ is both fascinating and disheartening. I am utterly fascinated by the revelations of the ins and outs of the diplomatic world. Naturally, countries put their own national interests first, but it’s interesting to see where and how national interests align. Yemen, for example, has an agreement to publicly take responsibility for US military strikes against suspected terrorist hotspots within Yemen. This agreement allows the US to secretly fight al Qaeda and makes the Yemeni government look competent and proactive in the eyes of its citizens.

I’m disheartened by the uproar over this particular Wikileaks ‘dump.’

Earlier this year, Wikileaks revealed that the civilian death tolls in both Afghanistan and Iraq are significantly higher than reported – with hundreds of civilian deaths having been covered up. Wikileaks’ first major release came in April 2010. The leak was a video from 2007 called ‘Collateral Murder.’ This particular incident could have been written off as a consequence of war, but the subsequent releases of Afghanistan and Iraq war logs reveal the prevalence of deadly mistakes.

Columbia University students (and government employees) have been advised to avoid reading and/or commenting on Wikileaks because it may damage their chances of landing government jobs; citing inability to handle confidential information. I hope this blog post doesn’t damage my prospects of working for the State Department or the UN one day, but I’m not sure how different it is from the news media which reports the Wikileaks cables while criticizing the legality of the organization’s operation. The critical issue is legality: exposing a crime through illegal means. At the same time, I believe that mass murder should not go unpunished.

Julian Assange, founder of the WikiLeaks website, holds up a copy of The Guardian newspaper as he speaks to reporters in front of a Don McCullin Vietnam war photograph at The Front Line Club in London. - Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

I personally find it worrying that governments are decrying the releases and not denying the validity of the content of the leaks. I also think that Wikileaks does the necessary job of exposing the nature of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. We now have proof that the Afghan government is plagued by corruption, and evidence of indescribable horrors committed by multiple sides in Iraq. I’d like to hold informed opinions on foreign policy decisions, but it’s difficult when we are fed conflicting reports. International relations may be damaged by this scandal but I’m more comfortable with that than civilian carnage.

In addition to internet hosting issues and hacking, Wikileaks has now been cut off from Paypal, an online donation site, because Paypal has classified Wikileaks under organizations that take part in illegal activities. The founder of Wikileaks (Julian Assange), however, warned that its next big release will target a major US bank.

I wonder if more people will support Wikileaks’ cause if the documents are tangible proof of corporations and banks screwing average people over. In any case, there’s already online talk about a Wikileaks movie (who doesn’t love a good spy story?)  I love Ryan Gosling, and I think he’d do an excellent Julian Assange!

Full disclaimer: I haven’t actually tried accessing Wikileaks itself. Only a handful of newspapers around the world decide to publish them and I trust they are simply reporting facts.

- chocolateandfruit