As 2011 draws to a close, the issue of Wikileaks disclosures remains to be resolved – a breach of trust to some, the right to know to others.
However, if one examines the record, it’s pretty hard to see much of a threat to American (or intentional) security, in the disclosures by Wikileaks that has embarrassed allied governments.
In some ways, Wikileaks’ founder, Julian Assange, who is fighting extradition from Britain to Sweden on accusations of rape and sexual assault, has performed a considerable service by revealing “leaked” analyses of what’s going on in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The most graphic revelations seem to be that high command has covered up or sanitized certain unpleasant facts – more or less confirming what many journalists have suspected, speculated, and written about.
Wikileaks has probed extrajudicial killings in Kenya, abuses at Guantanamo Bay, dumping of toxic waste off Africa, the release of diplomatic cables that embarrass governments. And so on.
New Gingrich has called Assange “an information terrorist …an enemy combatant.”
Amnesty International and others regard Assange admiringly.
