Recent developments are bringing to light the increasing power behind the computer for not only governments but individual citizens as well. Wikileaks is showing how “some guy” from Australia can cripple the worlds diplomacy game and essentially change the way politics are done, or at least aspire to do such. These leaks certainly are the result of storing data in computers which make for easy replication and dissemination. I would think they would have some widespread affect on global politics. Often we hear the word “transparency” getting tossed around as if that is what government officials portray to the media at times, but here we get a decent glimpse of some real transparency and find the political world writhing to some extents. I’m sure this writhing is due to not only their interaction globally but with the view the average citizen has upon their actions. Of course downplaying this will occur, it is a method to retain the power.
Meanwhile we have a rogue “ex military operative” who occasionally takes down “jihadist” websites for the sake of his own patriotism for the United States and has also recently turned his sites to the wikileaks website. He is brazen enough to post all of his hackings on to his twitter account
(twitter.com/th3j35t3r). He was successful in taking down the website temporarily at least, however it was already too late as the major media outlets already had the information and was spreading it at a faster rate than Wiki-links could do. Yet here we have the new front lines of cyber war, in which anyone can partake for any reason as long as you are knowledgeable enough to not get caught (or perhaps in th3j35t3r’s case, be silently backed by u.s. authorities who will not attempt to catch him since he his helping them out)
On a more intriguing scale we see that the United States and Israel in the past few years have authorized covert action in the case of Iran. 2 years later Stuxnet was developed and spread, targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities. Iran has not admitted directly to the attack but could have perhaps alluded to it through vague generalities. The virus or malware being the first of its kind is able to control machinery, is thought to be have funded by a state, as the intelligence required would mean the best would have been recruited from varying fields to including industrial control system specialists (who surely make a great living as is) as well as various computer coding geniuses. Iran has admitted to some centrifuges being damaged from an “attack” and it seems this Stuxnet “malware” was specifically designed to do something like this. Meanwhile this is an illegal operation in any nation if ever exposed, which is exactly what “covert” actions could imply. The program is able to fall into the hands of any hacker now, and the data is possibly able to be replicated for other things (though not easily - of course if one is driven to do such a thing - the degree of difficulty may not be a factor).
Not only do we have these instances but for the entire population a plethora of academic data that in the past only the “elites” had access to is available to anyone willing to “Google” whatever they wish to learn about. The rabbit hole is deep in this vast sea of knowledge the internet is based on, some things while not true one may need to take precautions, but nonetheless the gap between the “elites” and the “have nots” has been essentially reduced, exposing for the “have nots” and elites just how close they really are or are not. The veil has been lifted by the computer exposing things to a more accurate degree if one is willing to analyze all the data presented to them on any matter, with a healthy dose of skepticism and caution of course.
We see nations are nearly completely out of control giving those who would have no power previously the power to change everything. It is interesting times we live in indeed. I for one am happy to see the cutthroat tactics of politics displayed for all to see, perhaps that would persuade some decent interaction? Of course power being the key to corrupt, those in power perhaps can see that power is held by all. Perhaps a homeless guy who can sneak into a library and get on the internet for an hour?
Governments need secrecy huh? Perhaps they don’t, perhaps it would be much better if everything was out in the wide open. You now why? Because it sure the hell isn’t working now, we got a world full of hate out there. Lets expose the a-holes for who they really are~ VIVA LA REVOLUCION
"I am entirely persuaded that the agitations of the public mind
advance its powers, and that at every vibration between the points of liberty and despotism, something will be gained for the former. As men become better informed, their rule…rs must respect them the
more." --Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Cooper, 1802.
Is that a testable hypothesis? Can you tell what would have happened if things had been different than the way they were? Perhaps it is working now. Perhaps it works brilliantly.
“Secrets don’t make friends”
There are plenty of reasons why nations don’t trust each other, everything is highly secretive.
A majority of people do not trust their government and of course why should they?
Increasing transparency increases power to the citizens. Increasing transparency decreases power of rulers to assemble support for unjust wars. Imagine if all the land had all intents and thoughts worked out. The level of deceit and manipulation out of the facade of national security and secrecy are ways to obtain and keep power for the ruling players. Exposing politicians, diplomats and whomever for who they truly are is beneficial to freedom; The more citizens are aware of the inner workings of their government the more we can assess the situation intelligently. The average every day citizen doesn’t understand a damn thing because they don’t know a damn thing because it is a complex jumbled three ring sideshow circus with smoke and mirrors and what have you. If millions of people being killed, starvation billions of dollars going to god knows what while we spend billions more to kill even more off all while masking what is truly the methods and reasons that may be used, and this is brilliant?
In such a manner that many people are ignorant and ill-informed – filled with lies, propaganda, and hate – and the fact that our “rulers” and service providers do not respect us in the least. I experience massive disrespect every day just because my service providers have a corner of the market and don’t have to worry about my business. They force me to pay much more for the service than its worth, and when I try to talk to them about fairness, they just won’t discuss it or negotiate. This is true across the board now with a major health insurance provider aligned with a major drugstore, with my cable tv, internet, and phone provider, and with a major bank. And this is all true because the government officials supposedly elected to represent the real people who make up their constituencies, do not represent us, the people, at all, but rather those conglomerate corporations that take over markets and don’t care about their customers’ satisfaction, just their money.
It changes the rules of the game. Information can be empowering if freely available, but control of the information (or poisoning the information) empowers the state to identify dissidents, control the debate and disrupt resistance.
I am with President Ahmedinejad of Iran about this “leak”. He called it a release and not a leak.
If the US released the information, most of what is claimed (all the sources are US government agents even if appearing to “quote” others) would have carried little credibility. However, a “leak” gives them a credibility that they don’t otherwise have. Since it is a “leak”, the foreigners “quoted” cannot even disclaim their involvement!
Assange has also been explicit about not knowing the source of the leaks. How would he, not to mention you, know they were NOT planted by Israeli agents?
I don’t start believing something merely because the source appears reliable. I am not impressed by information for whose veracity no one vouches.
Can Assange vouch for the veracity of the information contained in the “leaks”? He can only vouch that it is accurate reproduction of what someone else passed him. How do we know if this someone else is reliable?
We don’t even know if the contents are true in the sense that they were actually recorded communication between different US government agents.
For a country other than the US to “leak” such content, they should either have access to all such communications or should be able to accessfully manufacture content such that it passes of as authentic. If another country has either of these capabilities to the desired degree, it should probably be not considered a separate country for all practical purposes. May be it is simply one country posing as two
