Wikileaks

From: Manthorp10 Dec 2010 13:15
To: ALL15 of 30
In due course Julian Assange will be found guilty of a substantial offence and given a lengthy custodial sentence; maybe not for the rape charges but for something, sometime.

Two interesting consequences will flow from that action: firstly, Assange himself will be faced with the question of whether to release the key to insurance.aes256. If that document contains data previously released by Wikileaks but without anonymising redactions (as many have theorised) then he risks completely discrediting Wikileaks by clearly risking agents' and informers' lives. If it contains something new, who knows?

The second consequence is that Wikileaks will almost inevitably restructure & remarket itself on a much less individual, more democratic basis and that, I think, can only be a good thing. Assange is a very interesting, a very clever and a very principled man. But none of those characteristics necessarily make him a wise man or a good man. In some regards it would be better for Wikileaks role as an organ if free speech if he was no longer actively associated with it.
From: Peter (BOUGHTONP)10 Dec 2010 14:04
To: Manthorp 16 of 30
quote:
he risks completely discrediting Wikileaks by clearly risking agents' and informers' lives.

This bit puzzles me.

Are there actually diplomatic cables that say "Mr X Y at Z is a US informer"?

Why are there such messages? It seems the number one rule for keeping someone's identity secret is to not refer to their actually identity. That's surely why there's codenames and similar things.


(There's also the question that if these documents were apparently so readily available within the US gov, how do we know the "bad guys" hadn't already obtained them; by bribing an employee or sending in a spy or whatever?)


quote:
In some regards it would be better for Wikileaks role as an organ if free speech if he was no longer actively associated with it.

Without a crazy uh... "news magnet"(?), do you think it'd get as much attention?

Certainly it might not have reached mainstream (who's heard of Cryptome? They've been around ten years longer.)

Since drawing people's attention to this stuff is at least as important as releasing it in the first place, it needs some kind of figure-head to help stuff make the news?
From: Peter (BOUGHTONP)10 Dec 2010 14:15
To: ALL17 of 30
Heh, and on Cryptome, this is interesting:

Wikileaks should stop the redactions of names in the diplomatic cables and war files and release untampered documents.


They back up their position by offering names of suspected MI6 agents, (and probably other stuff; haven't looked much).

That list is five years old, so maybe there was a fuss at the time, but I certainly haven't read anything recently that contrasted WikiLeaks against Cryptome, and credited WL for actually doing anonymising.
From: Mikee10 Dec 2010 14:51
To: ALL18 of 30
From: Manthorp10 Dec 2010 15:11
To: Peter (BOUGHTONP) 19 of 30
Bear in mind that the 'Insurance' file documents may not be taken primarily or at all from the cable leaks. They've had stuff from scores of different sources which might include highly classified forms of communication.

And you have a point about the 'news magnet'. There is inevitably a trade-off between personality & publicity. Hopefully, if Assange is taken out of the equation, Wikileaks can ride on its notoriety for a good while, without fuelling it by any means other than supplying important content.
From: Peter (BOUGHTONP)10 Dec 2010 15:11
To: ALL20 of 30
Of course, the other option is for unhappy ex-wikileakers to break away and start OpenLeaks.

The cynic in me wonders if the new group is trustable, but then again, the more independant organisations of this type, the better... maybe?
From: koswix10 Dec 2010 15:24
To: Peter (BOUGHTONP) 21 of 30
Trustworthy, perhaps?
From: Peter (BOUGHTONP)10 Dec 2010 15:44
To: koswix 22 of 30
That's also a word one could use.
From: steve10 Dec 2010 15:53
To: Matt 23 of 30
It is indeed Sagepay. To be fair, only one order failed and my beautiful bespoke checkout system can capture Sagepay errors and alert me (and the customer via email).

Today has been fine, which is surprising as most of my orders are via Visa.

And I am sad that there is a war against me. I didn't even get to blow anything up :'S
From: ANT_THOMAS10 Dec 2010 15:58
To: steve 24 of 30
I'm guessing most stuff is Visa Debit these days since I think a lot of banks have gone to Visa from Maestro.
From: Manthorp10 Dec 2010 17:07
To: steve 25 of 30
You could blow up a balloon.
From: koswix10 Dec 2010 17:11
To: Peter (BOUGHTONP) 26 of 30

Your 'also' implies that trustable was used correctly.

 

If something is trustable it is capable of being placed in trust - like when an historic building is gifted to the National Trust for safekeeping.

 

You actually asked if the new/other organisations were capable of being put in trust [in a rather awkward and Americanised/Business Speak way], rather than what I suspect you thought you were saying, that you wondered if it was wise to place ones trust in them.

From: steve10 Dec 2010 17:13
To: Manthorp 27 of 30
I can't blow up balloons :(

Unless previous filled with nitrous oxide :$
From: CHYRON (DSMITHHFX)12 Dec 2010 16:46
To: ALL28 of 30
EDITED: 22 Dec 2012 17:20 by DSMITHHFX
From: ANT_THOMAS12 Dec 2010 18:00
To: CHYRON (DSMITHHFX) 29 of 30
Poor effort, The "FAIL" isn't even in the middle.
From: CHYRON (DSMITHHFX)12 Dec 2010 18:52
To: ANT_THOMAS 30 of 30
;-)