The Price of Truth

Every child idealizes the idea of one day becoming a hero, saving the world from a great crisis.  Stopping the bad guys.  Up until Wikileaks, many people were confused on who those, "bad guys" really were - because in a way, it was all simply political.  It meshed within the backdrop of our everyday lives as the horrors of bad deeds were explained away as "good", "moral" and "the right thing".  Now, we know that most of the human population would not consciously choose to kill as many people that these leaders have.  Now, we know that the reasons to defend their actions were lies.  The illusion that the general public had some power is completely destroyed.  Julian Assange could have been any of us.  The people harmed by the governments Wikileaks exposed, could have been any of us.  The illusion of Justice, the illusion of political decision, fair participation in the economy has been demystified.  Most of the world is plugged in on the internet, learning at a much faster speed, acknowledging, understanding and awakening to the fact that distraction, diversion just does not work any more.

Too many innocent people have died.  Too many people have been tortured.  Too many people have starved and we all know why.  The imprisonment of Julian Assange is a symbolic precipice, that governments around the world must take great care in how they involve themselves right now.  Which stance they choose to take, which decisions they make and how they will or will not face up to the true crimes that have been committed.  Whilst Julian Assange is in prison for charges that have never been substantiated, George Bush walks free.  B.W(Before Wikileaks), the public reaction might have laughed at the notion of George Bush being tried for war crimes.  Now, its very serious.  Its not just about George Bush, but all the players in these wars.

One might want to ask, how much has the pursuit of Julian Assange costed?  How much of United States taxpayers dollars gone into trying to destroy Wikileaks?  How much money has gone into trying to censor the internet?  Alone, if we consider the average pay for an intelligence officer is $70,000 per year, multiply that by  120 and we have an estimate of 8.4 million dollars.  One might want to add that to the cost for legal services to find a way to prosecute Assange under the Espionage act, yet that money could have gone towards something better.  Perhaps attempting to house its 2.5 million that are currently homeless could have been a better cause.    Yet, instead Julian Assange has become the target of an insane frivolous pursuit:

US vs WIkileaks: The Words They used

Words to describe Wikileaks releases are:

1.  "Illegal"
Leaks from both the Iraq, Afghanistan war diaries demonstrated how United States repeatedly broke the treaty on convention against torture.  UN chief investigator Manfred Nowak, called upon the United States government to investigate war crimes after the Iraq release.

Iraq war logs: UN calls on Obama to investigate human rights abuses.  Read more here.

The latest embassy cables show that United States were spying on the UN which is currently being investigated.


2.  "..puts peoples lives in danger"
The United States government has either directly threatened or taken no legal action against its citizens on murdering Julian Assange and his family.  In the afghan documents, Amnesty pointed out that the United States had no consideration of the civilians lives in Afghanistan:

3. "...threatens US national security"
As pointed out by the Australian Lawyers for Human Rights President Stephen Keim, the threat posed to Wikileaks and its members is a threat to the freedom of speech.

To really understand not only is Wikileaks not a threat, but a protection to every nations security, one has to really delve into understanding what "National Security" means.

Interests of a country is naturally democracy and within the concepts of a democracy, every country must have freedom of expression without intimidation. Thus, United States government action against Wikileaks and all other media outlets is a threat to every nations security.  These are after all why citizens agreed to supporting the establishment of such in the first place as it was never mean to be securing government interests, but of their people.

4. "..to solve shared problems"
Recent leaks on the Copenhagen Accord reveal how United States government monopolized global action on climate change by paying off developing countries to accept agreements that were obviously not in the interests of the planet.  The fact remains, despite slight inaccuracies that global warming is occurring, that its getting worse and that we only have a few years to solve the problem before it gets to a stage beyond the capacity of human beings.  The prediction of a runaway greenhouse effect remains consistent, despite the efforts of polluting companies to hire "experts" to state otherwise.  Some experts have stated that if action is not taken, this will effect our children.  It is no wonder that United States is the only developed country in the world that has not signed the convention on the rights of the child.




5. "An attack on the international community"
In one of the cable leaks, United States recommended nuclear weapons for Pakistan to defeat India, despite security scholoars raising concerns over the years of state sponsored terrorism.  In July last year, the president of Pakistan publicly admitted to supporting and nurturing terrorist groups.  The same terrorist groups that United States government have publicly stated their dedication on eradicating.

False Confidence: What United States Is Hiding From Itself

     Many American security scholars were happy to write about human rights abuses by those who are not American or their allies.  During the "War on Terror", few wrote against Americas actions and those who did were treated with suspicion that they may be supporting terrorism.  Wikileaks is one of those organisations.  The problem is the fact that Wikileaks has provided clear cut evidence that supports years of  war crimes yet to be addressed.  These crimes are not being addressed because the diversion is at the messenger.  Allegations without substance are made against Wikileaks as an organisation or its founder, Julian Assange.  Delaying the spotlight resting upon American shoulders, is nothing but old fashioned propaganda.
Fortunately, with nearly everyone on this planet being an internet user, most are smart enough to know when they are being lied to.   Wikileaks and the support of some media outlets has assisted in giving the population an opportunity to decide whether Wikileaks is what the United States government has painted them as.

Propaganda against Wikileaks in comparison to Cold War propaganda.

The problem is that many countries in alliance of United States have been shielded from knowing what is happening to the civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Deaths are more often assumed to be a mistake rather than a deliberate act of hatred.  This was until earlier this year when the Iraq video "shook the world" into a new understanding.  It was the precipice that we were being lied to.  We were being lied to about the amount of civilian deaths, the conduct we believe our soldiers are upheld to and the accountability within government.  For those never touched by government corruption or knew it existed, were suddenly awoken to this.  Those who thought that America were not as bad as other countries in upholding human rights, suddenly realized that  it was only because America was monopolizing the UN.  Not only that, they were collecting data on the general secretary, Ban ki Moon.  So invasive was the espionage, it was described in some news commentary as "frightening".  Yet Hilary Clinton and other US government commentators have described the leaks as "an invasion of privacy".

There is yet more to be said as US continues its diversion from their actions.  Three major leaks have demonstrated criminal behavior, the same word they used to describe Wikileaks founder.  Yet these statements tend to fall at the wayside as the facts from the leaks as bare and raw data stand alone beyond the propaganda United States has utilised.  For most the reactions seem to leave more questions and one of the most burning:

When is the United States going to be charged for war crimes?