http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7kFC6KSNVc
For a quick background, MasterCard is responsible for a complete banking blockade of Wikileaks, which under international law should be illegal since they are not defined as a terrorist/drug/etc illegal operation.... at least not officially.
As mentioned before, I have mixed feelings about Wikileaks.
On the one hand, in many parts of the world and yes even in the US the press is constrained by or in bed with government (such as holding onto the leak about the illegal wire taps of the Bush administration by promise until AFTER the election for an entire year), and there are operations out there that would NOT sit well with the people if known and its good to bring that to light as a force against authoritarianism around the globe. Wikileaks has leaked info about human rights violations of the Chinese communist government, the Australian government's planned use of child pornography as a guise to censor legitimate websites, blunders like US funded militias in Iraq working for Al Qaeda, exposed the Guantanamo imprisonment of a 15 year old known innocent rape victim due to possible knowledge of terrorist activity from the experience, the coverup of the Reuters journalist inadvertently killed by US forces in Baghdad, and more.
On the other hand, they are hypocrites trying to sue their own employees that leak Wikileaks info, appear to be more profit driven in their enterprise than merely desiring freedom-of-information, and they have total disregard for the possible ramifications for the most part for their leaks and some are top secret for valid reasons the people agree with. For example, Wikileaks released a list of Afghan informants for the US, putting their lives in jeopardy and amounting to a massive setback to the operation which is downright treasonous. But perhaps that is a matter of perspective, as I would feel differently for example if Wikileaks produced a list of names of informants for China in the United States, which would certainly hurt the Chinese and anger the Chinese government and likely be considered treason as well, but is great news for the US.
Thoughts?
For a quick background, MasterCard is responsible for a complete banking blockade of Wikileaks, which under international law should be illegal since they are not defined as a terrorist/drug/etc illegal operation.... at least not officially.
As mentioned before, I have mixed feelings about Wikileaks.
On the one hand, in many parts of the world and yes even in the US the press is constrained by or in bed with government (such as holding onto the leak about the illegal wire taps of the Bush administration by promise until AFTER the election for an entire year), and there are operations out there that would NOT sit well with the people if known and its good to bring that to light as a force against authoritarianism around the globe. Wikileaks has leaked info about human rights violations of the Chinese communist government, the Australian government's planned use of child pornography as a guise to censor legitimate websites, blunders like US funded militias in Iraq working for Al Qaeda, exposed the Guantanamo imprisonment of a 15 year old known innocent rape victim due to possible knowledge of terrorist activity from the experience, the coverup of the Reuters journalist inadvertently killed by US forces in Baghdad, and more.
On the other hand, they are hypocrites trying to sue their own employees that leak Wikileaks info, appear to be more profit driven in their enterprise than merely desiring freedom-of-information, and they have total disregard for the possible ramifications for the most part for their leaks and some are top secret for valid reasons the people agree with. For example, Wikileaks released a list of Afghan informants for the US, putting their lives in jeopardy and amounting to a massive setback to the operation which is downright treasonous. But perhaps that is a matter of perspective, as I would feel differently for example if Wikileaks produced a list of names of informants for China in the United States, which would certainly hurt the Chinese and anger the Chinese government and likely be considered treason as well, but is great news for the US.
Thoughts?
