[LINK] Wikileaks article - overview

[David Boxall]

On 4/05/2011 8:55 AM, Jan Whitaker wrote:
> Given that this is Information Week and Privacy Awareness Week, this
> is a related article putting Wikileaks in context.
> http://www.theage.com.au/national/wikileaks-telling-it-like-it-is-20110503-1e6ob.html
> ...
Thanks for that Jan.

 From the article:
> ... it is likely that at least one journalist, The Washington Post's David Finkel, saw the raw vision of a US Apache helicopter shooting more than a dozen people, including two journalists, in Iraq in 2007. That vision later became WikiLeaks' ''Collateral Murder'' video. Why, then, did Finkel report only from the perspective of the US soldiers? What did Assange see that Finkel missed? Has the mainstream media become so embedded that it can no longer see the story?
>...
> Most of these interludes between politicians and journalists have no shelf life, but then there are some that just won't go away. December 2, 2010, is a case in point for Julia Gillard. That was the day the Prime Minister had a quick-fire radio interview with 4BC's Gary Hardgrave, during which she was asked about WikiLeaks. Here is what Gillard had to say: ''I absolutely condemn the placement of this information on the WikiLeaks website. It's a grossly irresponsible thing to do, and an illegal thing to do.''
>
> In hindsight, that interview was Gillard's Bill Henson moment. Like Kevin Rudd's attack on the noted photographer over the depiction of a partially nude teenager, Gillard had seriously overreached. In striving for a good sound bite, she had branded WikiLeaks an illegal operation. Given her position and the fact that WikiLeaks is, in fact, a media outlet, those words amounted to an attack on the freedom of the Australian press from the Prime Minister.
>
> In The Most Dangerous Man in the World, what investigative journalist Andrew Fowler presents is at least circumstantial evidence that elements of the Australian government have colluded with US authorities over WikiLeaks. He writes: ''I have been reliably told that ASIO played an active part in the investigation into Assange, trawling through his life and activities in Australia. But what must be just as worrying for him, and has also never been revealed before, is the fact that the inquiry also included officers from ASIS, Australia's overseas intelligence agency, which has strong ties to the US.''
>
> If what Fowler says is true, ASIO and ASIS are in dangerous waters. Assange is a journalist who has done nothing more than what any investigative journalist would have done - namely, find a story that someone didn't want told, and tell it. As such, he deserves the protection of Australia's intelligence agencies, not a witch-hunt.
>...

In the case of David Hicks, John Howard gave cause to question the value 
of Australian citizenship when we're up against the US. Is Julia 
Gillard's behaviour over Julian Assange any better?

Can any of the major parties be trusted, when the interests of an 
Australian citizen differ from those of our great and powerful "friends"?

-- 
David Boxall                         | "Cheer up" they said.
                                     | "Things could be worse."
http://david.boxall.id.au            | So I cheered up and,
                                     | Sure enough, things got worse.
                                     |              --Murphy's musing