Archive for 2010/12/29

Putting the Record Straight on the Lamo-Manning Chat Logs

Posted: 2010/12/29 in Education / Awareness, Privacy / Data Protection

At stake are the chat logs.

We have already published substantial excerpts from the logs, but critics continue to challenge us to reveal all, ostensibly to fact-check some statements that Lamo has made in the press summarizing portions of the logs from memory (his computer hard drive was confiscated, and he no longer has has a copy).

Our position has been and remains that the logs include sensitive personal information with no bearing on Wikileaks, and it would serve no purpose to publish them at this time.

That doesn’t mean we’ll never publish them, but before taking an irrevocable action that could harm an individual’s privacy, we have to weigh that person’s privacy interest against news value and relevance.

More: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/12/greenwald/

versus:

But now that I’ve written critically about Wired, I’m suddenly converted into a dishonest, ethics-free, unreliable hack.  That’s par for the course.  That’s why so few people in this profession are willing to criticize other media outlets.  Journalists react as poorly as anyone to public criticism; it doesn’t make you popular to do it; it can terminate career opportunities and relationships; it’s certain your credibility will be publicly impugned.  But journalists need scrutiny and accountability as much as anyone — especially when, as here, they are shaping public perceptions about a vital story while withholding important information — and I’d vastly prefer to be the one to provide it even it means that the targets of the criticism don’t like it and lash out.

Ultimately, what determines one’s credibility is not the names you get called or the number of people who get angry when you criticize them.  What matters is whether the things you say are well-supported and accurate, to correct them if they’re not, and to subject yourself to the same accountability and transparency you demand of others.

More: http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/29/wired_response_1/

Previously:

Wired said to have Bradley Manning’s chat logs. Doesn’t want to publish them all
http://vrritti.com/2010/12/27/wired-said-to-have-bradley-mannings-chat-logs-doesnt-want-to-publish-them-all/

How WikiLeaks Just Set Back Democracy in Zimbabwe. Any damage to democratic reforms from WikiLeaks likely comes not from malice but naivety

Posted: 2010/12/29 in Education / Awareness, Public Policy

Zimbabwe’s Mugabe-appointed attorney general announced he was investigating the Prime Minister on treason charges based exclusively on the contents of the leaked cable. While it’s unlikely Tsvangirai could be convicted on the contents of the cable alone, the political damage has already been done. The cable provides Mugabe the opportunity to portray Tsvangirai as an agent of foreign governments working against the people of Zimbabwe. Furthermore, it could provide Mugabe with the pretense to abandon the coalition government that allowed Tsvangirai to become prime minister in 2009.

It’s difficult to see this as anything but a major setback for democracy in Zimbabwe. Even if Tsvangirai is not charged with treason, the opponents to democratic reforms have won a significant victory. First, popular support for Tsvangirai and the MDC will suffer due to Mugabe’s inevitable smear campaign, including the attorney general’s “investigation.” Second, the Prime Minister might be forced to take positions in opposition to the international community to avoid accusation of being a foreign corroborator. Third, Zimbabwe’s fragile coalition government could collapse completely. Whatever happens, democratic reforms in Zimbabwe are far less likely now than before the leak.

Assange is probably not best described, as Vice President Joe Biden recently put it, a “high-tech terrorist.” Rather, he, his organization, and their activist supporters believe that they can promote democracy by making an enemy of secrecy itself. What we’re seeing in Zimbabwe, however, is that those methods won’t necessarily be without significant collateral damage.

More: http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2010/12/how-wikileaks-just-set-back-democracy-in-zimbabwe/68598

What is a diplomat? A diplomat is an honest man sent abroad to lie for his country

Posted: 2010/12/29 in Education / Awareness, Public Policy

What bothers me is not that our officials sometimes tell lies for the greater benefit of the country. As a reporter in troubled places, I have sometimes had to tell lies. To enter Burma and China, I said I was a tourist. Had I said I was a reporter, I could not have gone and could not have written articles about the problems and the lives of the people I met there.

When meeting with Islamist extremists in Rabat and Lahore, one does not say that you believe they are deranged killers who should be stamped out. Instead, you lie and ask for their views. Same goes for meeting with Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, Sikh separatists in India or American Nazis in Idaho.

It’s not the lying but the controlled hectoring of weaker nations on behalf of a value system we ourselves do not live up to. That’s what bugs me — and what the whole world now sees exposed by the State Department cables.

More: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-diplomacy-20101228,0,6104149.story