Changing the dynamics of world secrecy...

I like the idea of the WikiLeaks website changing the dynamics of world secrecy. I hope it continues to provide transparency concerning governments.

In the past, all that journalists had to praise for opening governmental secrets on a national level was the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and we all felt good when some 20- or 30-year-old secret, usually shameful, finally came to light about what the government, including its agencies such as the FBI and CIA, had done. Now, with WikiLeaks, that has changed. The release of secrets is pretty immediate. No decades to wait. No lingering darkness to accommodate the cobwebs of history.

While the government, through many presidents, tends to whine about national security being breached, I haven't seen much evidence that past revelations have done harm. There are people who say the release of documents endangers lives. Well, where is the evidence of that? It is a big claim, easy to inflate. But where is the proof?

It has been entertaining to watch the American TV networks handle the WikiLeaks story. Their reporters will say that WikiLeaks did the leaking--it's their fault--and then will go ahead and tell everyone listening about what was leaked. If the TV networks don't like the process of the leak, why don't they refrain from providing the information about what was leaked in the first place? U.S. journalists can blame WikiLeaks and then have their cake and eat it, too. The news is then reported. U.S. journalists also would probably have reported everything that WikiLeaks provided if they'd been first to have the source. That's how the profession works.

The New York Times printed the leaked history of the Vietnam War called the Pentagon Papers, despite the Nixon Administration's attempt at prior restraint. The U.S. Supreme Court settled the issue, with a verdict that favored the New York Times. Then Woodward and Bernstein used a source of leaks known as Deep Throat who happened to turn out to be the second highest official in the FBI. Though the Washington Post editors demanded that additional sources be found for verification of what Deep Throat said, the source was still a crucial part of the Watergate scandal story. Without him, who knows if the Watergate scandal story would have ever seen the light of day.

Julian Assange, the Australian founder of WikiLeaks, is currently entangled in a scandal relating to alleged sex crimes in Sweden. He says it is a smear campaign. Regardless of whether that aspect of the WikiLeaks story is true or fabricated, one man surely doesn't keep the website going. Nor does it mean that the mission of the website isn't worthy of support. The website is currently under attack by hackers, probably from governments around the world and likely from even the U.S. government. This is one time when I don't want nationalism to trump globalism. I want nationalism to bring forth better and more open government. If WikiLeaks helps in that regard, that's good.

So, calm down, government. Don't have a cow, Attorney General Holder. Take a breath, Republican and Democratic senators. And then go about the business of making government something we citizens can have respect for and pride in for being good, open, smart, wise, competent, honorable, and an example of the integrity we want and expect.