WHO says the internet is boring?
While the nerdier side of this nerdy world was busy lionising the dubious charms of the new iPhone last week, one group of cyber-activists were involved in a life or death struggle against the American government. In a story out of a le Carré novel, the founder of a website called Wikileaks emerged from hiding on Friday amid claims he was the subject of a US manhunt.
His site is famous as a kind of online clearing house that publishes classified information. It has posted BNP membership lists, operating procedures for Guantanamo Bay and Sarah Palin’s private emails, which they justified by claiming she used her account to get around public records laws.
Julian Assange, a 39-year-old Australian computer hacker and journalist with the bottle-blonde, slightly dazed look of Andy Warhol, disappeared for a month, only to emerge last Friday at a conference in Brussels. He had gone to ground after a Wikileaks source, a young intelligence officer called Bradley Manning, was imprisoned incommunicado in Kuwait. Manning is said to have leaked 260,000 sensitive diplomatic cables and two videos, which he claimed are military footage of collateral damage incidents in which civilians were killed. The mass of documents expose “almost criminal political back dealings”, Manning has claimed, as well as illustrating “how the first world exploits the third”.
Manning is now locked up away from the eyes of the world and although Assange has hired three top lawyers to represent him, he says they have not yet been able to meet him. Wikileaks is expected to start releasing some of the videos and information it has on Monday, which will compound the case against Branning, who leaked it after becoming concerned about his country’s conduct. Assange has been advised to avoid travelling in America, with some reports suggesting the US has sent agents to try and find him.
The case depicts the opening skirmishes in a battle that is only just beginning. On one side, net warriors who believe in the free flow of information are set on releasing anything they can get. They are free of journalistic ethics and unwilling to bow to any call to withhold information, even if it compromises troops’ lives.
Weighing up against these online anarchists are governments like the US and China who have an interest in keeping certain information secret. Don’t forget, the penalties for crossing Washington can be harsh: ask Scottish hacker Gary McKinnon, the autistic man facing a life sentence in an American prison. America has taken steps to try and discredit Wikileaks, according to documents released by the site. But this incident will only draw attention to the site, which will prompt people with more sensitive information to come forward. This online Vietnam is just starting and there is no telling how long it could go on.
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Sunday, 27 June 2010
This battle could be an online Vietnam for America - Herald Scotland | Comment | Guest Commentary
