Wiki-Leaks

Is Wiki-Leaks a good or bad thing? Well, that depends entirely on your perspective. If you hate America, you just received the greatest gift imaginable. If you love America then you want the perpetrator caught and punished. If you are neutral then you can look at the situation with an objective lens and question not the act, but the motive. You can ask questions like; why that data, why that country, why now. I mean, look, it seems this person has no problem collecting Top Secret documents. Why not steal classified files from the IRS and release all the personal data on every U.S. citizen contained in the IRS files? Why not sneak into the files of Wells Fargo bank and release all the personal data on mortgage holders. For that matter, you could steal into the computers at Haliburton and release all the files on Iraqi contracts. Why not Iran or Russia or England or North Korea? No, this was very specific and very deliberate and aimed directly at the United States of America. That goes to the heart of the debate, motive.

As incredible to me as anything could possibly be, I have heard people call this man a hero. I have heard people say that now the world will know just how corrupt and evil the American government is. The evil empire that, alone among all the nations in the world, “should” be singled out for this punishment. That it serves these devils right. Well, it doesn’t take much imagination to know who is saying these things. That would be the people around the world, and yes, right here in America, who hate the United
States and everything that its history stands for. In this case what would the motive be?

On the other hand, I have heard this person called a terrorist. That argument goes along the lines of a lesser force inflicting a greater harm to their opponent than their sheer numbers could do by force. It’s like the thing about death by a million tiny cuts. Imagine the power of a single opponent with unlimited access to every top-secret document in the United States. That person would not have to engage in direct action against its opponent (the U.S.), they would simply have to sit back in some air-conditioned suite with cocktails and companionship and inflict those tiny little cuts a little at a time. They could then laugh as the little peasants squirm and struggle for footing.

OK, so, hero or terrorist? I guess now is the time to go the dictionary. From Wikipedia for hero we get:

“A hero (heroine for females) was originally a demigod, their cult being one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion. Later, hero (male) and heroine (female) came to refer to characters who, in the face of danger and adversity or from a position of weakness, display courage and the will for self sacrifice—that is, heroism—for some greater good of all humanity. This definition originally referred to martial courage or excellence but extended to more general moral excellence.”

To be as through as possible here, I have also heard of heroes being referred to as “Champions”. Like when they are looking for someone to save them and they say,” I need someone who can champion this cause.” So, let’s take a look there also. Once again, from Wikipedia we get:

“The original meaning of the word partakes of both these senses: in the Feudal Era, knights were expected to be champions of both prowess in combat and of causes, the latter most commonly being either patriotic, romantic or religious in nature. This reaches its most literal in a trial by combat, in which each combatant champions the cause of one side of the trial.”

All right then, let’s take a look at terrorist. For this, I want to start with the act, not the person. The act, terrorism, defines the person in my mind. Let’s see if we can get anything from Wikipedia:

“Terrorism is the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion. No universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition of terrorism currently exists. Common definitions of terrorism refer only to those violent acts which are intended to create fear (terror), are perpetrated for a religious, political or ideological goal, deliberately target or disregard the safety of non-combatants (civilians), and are committed by non-government agencies.”

Ok, so the person who does those things is a terrorist. I won’t go into it here but there is an interesting piece on what makes a terrorist at; http://www.american.com/archive/2007/november-december-magazine-contents/what-makes-a-terrorist

Let’s reexamine the original question, is this person a hero or a terrorist? That brings us back to the other question, motive. Why is he doing this? Is he being paid, is he receiving some personal satisfaction, paying back some debt, vengeance.  This is where motive may us answer the question. If he is a hero, he is fighting some crusade of moral or religious right. He is fighting from a position of weakness, displaying courage and the willingness for self-sacrifice for the greater good of all humanity. If you can see this in him, then in your opinion he is a hero. If not, then is he using terror as a means of coercion? Is there some behavior or characteristic of the American psyche that he is trying to modify? Is this like Pavlov’s bell? Is this person trying to achieve some conditioned reflex on the part of the American government? If you see this, then in your opinion he is a terrorist.

If you are still teetering, we could look to see if there is any similar situation. How about from 2006:

“Veterans Affairs warns of massive privacy breach. The U.S. government warned on Monday that a database containing sensitive information about veterans and their families had been stolen, after an employee violated policy and brought the data home. The database contained the names, social security numbers and dates of birth of as many as 26.5 million veterans and their families, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, which replaced most of its home page on Monday with a warning about the leak.”

How did that make you feel?

“Valerie Plame, the Spy Who Got Shoved Out Into the Cold.”

How did that one make you feel?

OK, that brings us all the way back to perspective.  Some leaks are good, some leaks are bad. Some leakers are heroes, some leakers are terrorists.  If you hate America then this is one of the good leaks. If you hate America then this leaker is a hero. If you love America, this leak is bad and this leaker is a terrorist.