DarrkPhoenix: The value in releasing that document is certainly quite debatable, although it should be noted that pretty much every location in that document could already be located by a simple Google search, and if any of those facilities actually get attacked as a result of the leak I'll eat my hat (well, I'll buy a hat, then eat it). There was also definitely a lot of added drama around the collateral murder video, although it should be noted that a key goal of Wikileaks is not to simply release information, but to make sure that information gets the attention they think it deserves, and making a big show of the releases and drumming up controversy works remarkably well towards that goal. Quite a few other sites, such as Cryptome, have been releasing leaked documents similar to what Wikileaks has released in the past, yet how many of these sites have you heard of? How many of their releases have gotten any coverage in the mainstream press? Unfortunate as it is, most people aren't willing to go out of their way to look up information that may go against their view of their society and government, regardless of how damning that information is. Yet throw in some drama and controversy and those same people can't get enough of it. I'd much prefer it if simply releasing documents with no editorializing or drama was sufficient- just the documents, just the facts. Yet it's hard to argue with the effectiveness of Wikileaks tactics in getting the public to take notice of what they're releasing.
I understand that they feel that they need to get publicity but still... it's depressing that to get publicity they need to be incredibly biased. I guess that's life though. =\
chautemoc: Me either. Dunno if you saw it, but he was confronted about that on The Colbert Report (god bless that man), and he just said "we do whatever we have to to get the most attention." It's disgusting to me he's all high and mighty..what's the use if you're corrupt, too?
I didn't watch it. Yeah, it would be nice if we could get someone without a political agenda. Unfortunately, that seems almost impossible. I definitely believe that those sites would have been found with a google search and doubt they will be a target of a terrorist attack, but if they would have been found... what's the purpose of releasing them? It's not exposing any corruption. I think most (reasonable [although that's a debatable term]) people will agree that there was no point in releasing that document.
It's a bit sad because I really
want to appreciate what wikileaks is doing, but they are constantly doing things that I not only don't agree with, but think are absolutely detrimental to the world.
