Debunked: "Wikileaks is Anti-American

Debunked: "Wikileaks is Anti-American"

wlcentral.org

The Truth:

There are many ways to approach debunking this falsehood. One thing it is important to say from the outset: there is little reason to rely on allegation and rumour from American punditry, when there is already a thorough and articulate defense of Wikileaks' activities by its various spokespersons. We advise that even a cursory attempt to engage with Wikileaks' now plentiful literature on its own activities will comprehensively answer many of the worries raised by media personalities with a proven history of rhetorical mendacity. At the very least, criticisms of Wikileaks ought

(visit the link for the full news article)

Ok this site now appears down so if its ok i was going to past some of intesting bits in...
I know you are not meant to copy and past but i cudnt think of what else to do under the circumstance. If a mod closes the thread then so be it...

In my eyes of the more intersting things WL have covered in the past are:

WikiLeaks reveals Pentagon journalist murder-coverup in Iraq / army airstrike video, 5 Apr 2010

WikiLeaks to release over half a million 9/11 text pager intercepts

Climatic Research Unit emails, data, models, 1996-2009

Microsoft COFEE (Computer Online Forensics Evidence Extractor) tool and documentation, Sep 2009

British National Party membership list and other information, 15 Apr 2009

These cover a large range of topics and not just the USA. IN reference to USA a WL spokeman said:

The final point to consider is Wikileaks' spokespeople's explicit statements about the purpose of the United States releases, and their attitude towards the United States. Wikileaks upholds founding values of the United States as inspirational to its own project, and celebrates the freedom of speech tradition consistently defended by the United States Supreme Court....


Exracts from the now AWOL page....

The Falsehood:

While claiming to be an organization interested in global justice, Wikileaks is really a virulently anti-American organization.
The Explanation:

This falsehood is quite straightforward. Its propagation in the media, especially the U.S. media, has vastly increased since Sunday 29 November, on which date Wikileaks began its Cablegate releases. The falsehood normally relies on a group of subsidiary falsehoods, such as the idea that "Wikileaks won't release information on China or Russia."
The Source:

This falsehood is hard to trace to an original source, since its use has been so frequent. One can only point to prominent sources, and look at these as representative of, or causative of, the falsehood's popularity. In a now very famous post on her Facebook page, former governor of Alaska, and former vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, wrote a single short sentence which managed to include two frequent falsehoods in only ten words:

He is an anti-American operative with blood on his hands.

The substance of the allegation, though, consists in the belief that Wikileaks publishes no material on other entities. This argument has been made in the Telegraph, by George Grant.

If Assange is genuinely committed to shining light into the darkness, and exposing real corruption and human rights abuse, we must ask ourselves, where are the ‘Chinese Embassy Cables’? What has become of the ‘Iran Files’? Whither the ‘Chechnya War Logs’?...

The ... answer to this question could just as easily be, however, that Assange is not really all that interested in exposing corruption and human rights abuse at all, rather his objective is to embarrass and weaken the US and its Western allies because he hates them for what they are and what they stand for.

Following on from arguments like this, one finds the question "Why doesn't Wikileaks focus on other countries?" repeated all over the internet, with little concern over the falsehood of its premise, and little worry that it funds an inference to a new falsehood.
The Truth:

There are many ways to approach debunking this falsehood. One thing it is important to say from the outset: there is little reason to rely on allegation and rumour from American punditry, when there is already a thorough and articulate defense of Wikileaks' activities by its various spokespersons. We advise that even a cursory attempt to engage with Wikileaks' now plentiful literature on its own activities will comprehensively answer many of the worries raised by media personalities with a proven history of rhetorical mendacity. At the very least, criticisms of Wikileaks ought to address Wikileaks strong and intellectually penetrating arguments, and there has been very little attempt to do that by American news networks and mainstream publications.

* 1. How material finds its way to Wikileaks

A prominent misconception about Wikileaks is that it proactively acquires its material, and therefore must have deliberately sought material on the United States. This is false. The first thing that must be understood is that Wikileaks does not proactively acquire its leaks. Assange on the matter:

We’re totally source dependent. We get what we get. As our profile rises in a certain area, we get more in a particular area. People say, why don’t you release more leaks from the Taliban. So I say hey, help us, tell more Taliban dissidents about us.

All of Wikileaks' material has been sent to it, by insider whistleblowers, who felt that it was necessary to disclose something. Wikileaks can therefore only choose what to publish from what has already been submitted to it.

Before its old website was taken down, (a newer version can be consulted here) Wikileaks publicly stated it would only accept leaks of the following sort:

1. Classified, censored, or otherwise restricted material of political, diplomatic, historical or ethical significance.
2. WikiLeaks does not accept rumour, opinion, or other kinds of first hand reporting or material that is already publicly available.
3. Areas of documents leaked thus far have covered government, trade, corporate, war, killings, torture, detention, suppression of free speech and free press, diplomacy, spying, counter-intelligence, ecology, climate, nature, sciences, corruption, finances, taxes, trading, censorship and internet filtering, cults, religious organizations, abuse, violence, violations.

Wikileaks agrees, therefore, to accept material that concerns more than just the United States. The organization concerns itself with a broad range of materials.

On this point, it is also worth observing that though it may have changed policy as it grew, in the past, Wikileaks proclaimed a predominant interest in 'Third World' leaks.

Our primary interest is in exposing oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, but we also expect to be of assistance to people of all regions who wish to reveal unethical behavior in their governments and corporations. We aim for maximum political impact.

* 2. What Wikileaks has published in the past.

Another common assumption is that Wikileaks has only published material on the United States. Given the availability of Wikileaks' previous publications, this is perhaps understandable. Nevertheless, it is false. Wikileaks' publishing history in fact bears out its stated remit of pursuing materials of signifiance to the historical record. Because of DDOS attacks and corporate webhost divestment from Wikileaks, the original MediaWiki site from which Wikileaks draws its name is no longer available (originally at __._). A copy of that site still exists in Google Cache. There, a vast number of leaks is visible, relevant to a wide variety of corporate and national entities. A selection includes:

* CIA Red Cell Memorandum on United States "exporting terrorism", 2 Feb 2010
* ABC Foreign Correspondent video report on Thailand, 13 April 2010
* Loveparade 2010 Duisburg planning documents, 2007-2010
* WikiLeaks reveals Pentagon journalist murder-coverup in Iraq / army airstrike video, 5 Apr 2010
* U.S. Embassy profiles on Icelandic PM, Foreign Minister, Ambassador, 29 Mar 2010
* CIA report into shoring up Afghan war support in Western Europe, 11 Mar 2010
* U.S. Intelligence planned to destroy WikiLeaks, 18 Mar 2008
* Over 40 billion euro in 28167 claims made aganst the Kaupthing Bank, 23 Jan 2010
* BBC High Court Defence against Trafigura libel suit, 11 Sep 2009
* Icelandic Icesave offer to UK-NL, 25 Feb 2010
* Cryptome.org takedown: Microsoft Global Criminal Compliance Handbook, 24 Feb 2010
* Classified cable from US Embassy Reykjavik on Icesave dated 13 Jan 2010
Tiger Woods UK media gag order, 10 Dec 2009
* Big Pharma inside the WHO: confidential analysis of unreleased WHO Expert Working Group draft reports, 8 Dec 2009
* Draft Copenhagen climate change agreement, 8 Dec 2009
* US Transportation Security Administration: Screening Procedures Standard Operating Procedures, 1 May 2008
* Yahoo compliance guide for law enforcement, 23 Dec 2008
* Microsoft COFEE (Computer Online Forensics Evidence Extractor) tool and documentation, Sep 2009
* Rechtsanwalt Solmecke unzensierter Blogeintrag zu Abmahnanwaelten und deren Geschaeftspraktiken, 25 Nov 2009
* WikiLeaks to release over half a million 9/11 text pager intercepts
* Toll Collect Betreibervertrag, 5 Jun 2002
* Toll Collect AGES International Kooperationsvertrag, 20 Sep 2002
* Toll Collect Sachverstaendigenvertrag Dr.-Ing. Schwerhoff, 23 May 2003
* Rechtsanwalt Seibert droht WikiLeaks mit Strafverfolgung wegen Ratiopharm Ermittlungsakte, 20 Nov 2009
* Climatic Research Unit emails, data, models, 1996-2009
* Davenport Lyons and DigiProtect Actionpoints for filesharers, 14 Jan 2009
* Davenport Lyons and Kornmeier Monetary and Working Correspondence, 19 Mar 2008
* Ermittlungsakte Landespolizeidirektion Tuebingen gegen die Ratiopharm GmbH wegen Untreue und Bestechung, 12 Mar 2008
* Controversial holocaust historian David Irving emails, Nov 2009
* EU draft council decision on sharing of banking data with the US and restructuring of SWIFT, 10 Nov 2009
* Suppressed video of Thai Crown Prince and Princess at decadent dog party
* Spring Design Inc lawsuit against Barnes and Nobles, Nov 2009
* Removed paper on Internet censorship trails in Australia, NZ, UK with NetClean Whitebox, 2009
* British National Party membership list and other information, 15 Apr 2009
* UK MoD Manual of Security Volumes 1, 2 and 3 Issue 2, JSP-440, RESTRICTED, 2389 pages, 2001
* Times TOP50 work places for women, due to appear on 7 Oct 2009, looks like a fraud, internal docs, Aurora, 2007-2009
* UK Ministry of Defence continually monitors WikiLeaks: eight reports into classified UK leaks, 29 Sep 2009
* Corruption in Norway, Ghana or both? Statoil v. BioFuel and the Kroll Inc. private intelligence report, Feb 2009
* FDP Arguliner zu Aenderungen beim Kuendigungsschutz, 8 Sep 2009
Lycos Deutschland Suchmaschinen Zensurliste
* Product placement hell: Cisco "bribes" 24, CSI, House, Heroes, the Office, and more
* Yale pharmacology chair Joseph Schlessinger suppressed site exposing sexual, financial misconduct, 14 Sep 2009

* 3. How Wikileaks prioritizes its publications

The third point to consider is that 2010 has been a year of "megaleaks" with an emphasis on the United States. Why is this, if Wikileaks is not deliberately targeting the United States?

In an interview with Andy Greenberg, for Forbes, Julian Assange explains this quite reasonably.

Greenberg:To start, is it true you’re sitting on trove of unpublished documents?

Assange:Sure. That’s usually the case. As we’ve gotten more successful, there’s a gap between the speed of our publishing pipeline and the speed of our receiving submissions pipeline. Our pipeline of leaks has been increasing exponentially as our profile rises, and our ability to publish is increasing linearly...

Greenberg:You’ve been focused on the U.S. military mostly in the last year. Does that mean you have private sector-focused leaks in the works?

Assange:Yes. If you think about it, we have a publishing pipeline that’s increasing linearly, and an exponential number of leaks, so we’re in a position where we have to prioritize our resources so that the biggest impact stuff gets released first.

Greenberg:When will WikiLeaks return to its older model of more frequent leaks of smaller amounts of material?

Assange:If you look at the average number of documents we’re releasing, we’re vastly exceeding what we did last year. These are huge datasets. So it’s actually very efficient for us to do that. If you look at the number of packages, the number of packages has decreased. But if you look at the average number of documents, that’s tremendously increased.

Greenberg:So will you return to the model of higher number of targets and sources?

Assange:Yes. Though I do actually think…[pauses] These big package releases. There should be a cute name for them.

Greenberg:Megaleaks?

Assange:Megaleaks. That’s good. These megaleaks…They’re an important phenomenon, and they’re only going to increase. When there’s a tremendous dataset, covering a whole period of history or affecting a whole group of people, that’s worth specializing on and doing a unique production for each one, which is what we’ve done.

* 4. Wikileaks' Publicly-stated Intentions

The final point to consider is Wikileaks' spokespeople's explicit statements about the purpose of the United States releases, and their attitude towards the United States. Wikileaks upholds founding values of the United States as inspirational to its own project, and celebrates the freedom of speech tradition consistently defended by the United States Supreme Court:

wlcentral.org
(visit the link for the full news article)

The term 'anti-American' is moronic, uneducated and belongs to the war-mongering fools who bandied this phrase around after 9/11 - with the 'you're either with us or against us' mentality.

If anybody dared to call me 'anti-american' to my face, they'd get a slap.

The problem lies with these idiots suddenly feeling confused as the illusion of a pretty America is shattered, and these patriotic types just can't realise that the US is involved in some terrible activities and are not the 'good guys' like they are taught at school.

I hate the US's approach at many things, so that makes me 'anti-American'

I am far from "anti-American", I was born into a family rich in military service and served as well myself.

That said, does this mean I blindly follow and agree with everything my government does?

Not A Chance.

The price of freedom is vigilance, against enemies both foreign and domestic, some of whom are in our own government. Perhaps most are simply mis-guided, but a threat to our freedom is still a threat, even if authored with the best intentions.

If so many Washington big-wigs are up in arms about wikileaks, and crapping pink-twinkies all over Washington and Langley, then I can't think that this is a bad thing at all.

Ever notice when you turn on the lights, the roaches scatter and hide?

In the words of Tom Clancys' Marko Ramius: "A little revolution now and then is a healthy thing, don't you think?"

Great thread, keep up the good work and keep us strong

It's the same as the lable "anti semetic" that they try and stick on anyone who DARES to criticise.

You can be against US policies without being against US people - sadly, some people just don't get, OR use it as a strawman to try and discredit others.

There's plenty of it about, in all arena's and unfortunately, people have bought into it.

I have been very critical of my own country's involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan - does that make me anti - my own country?

No, just able to see past the bullplop and propaganda.

There's nothing wrong with patriotism - it's blind patriotism that's the problem.

That and lying, attacking other sovereign nations to steal their resources and generally being a bully on a worldwide scale.

The US is heading for a fall - sadly it's the nice, normal people that will suffer, not the ones who created the mess in the first place.

But isn't that always the way...

Should someone play the world's smallest violin for those who don't want to know what the world's mafia headpins is up to and put a stop to it. Its a duty you know, to reign in your government. And its the right thing to do, including curtail those true powers behind the elected ones, cause they really have no power. Citizens need to police the system.

Originally posted by Unity_99
Should someone play the world's smallest violin for those who don't want to know what the world's mafia headpins is up to and put a stop to it. Its a duty you know, to reign in your government. And its the right thing to do, including curtail those true powers behind the elected ones, cause they really have no power. Citizens need to police the system.

They DO need to police the system, but in the US, the system is so heavily weighted in favour of TPTB that it's nearly impossible to do.

This is exacerbated by rigging electoral rolls, and by marginalising any kind of liberal thinking (by labelling it "communist" ) and by basically brainwashing people into believing that the government has their best interests at heart, when all it really is, is the rich further enriching themselves at the expense of the many.

The "American Dream" never really existed - it was a propaganda tool used to further enslave the masses, as they slaved away making the Uber rich even richer.

The perception is that America is about GREED, and although in many cases this may be true, there are many, many Americans who are starting to rail against the system which not only badly lets them down, but also encourages the type of economic imperialism we see so much of.

It's all too easy to slate ANYTHING that is critical of the US as "anti America" but the truth is, that's a cop out by people who really should know better.

Originally posted by budski
It's the same as the lable "anti semetic" that they try and stick on anyone who DARES to criticise.

You can be against US policies without being against US people - sadly, some people just don't get, OR use it as a strawman to try and discredit others.

There's plenty of it about, in all arena's and unfortunately, people have bought into it.

I have been very critical of my own country's involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan - does that make me anti - my own country?

No, just able to see past the bullplop and propaganda.

There's nothing wrong with patriotism - it's blind patriotism that's the problem.

That and lying, attacking other sovereign nations to steal their resources and generally being a bully on a worldwide scale.

The US is heading for a fall - sadly it's the nice, normal people that will suffer, not the ones who created the mess in the first place.

But isn't that always the way...

In fact, your post made me think that it is actually the people who are criticising the wars which they believe to be wrong, and government corruption which they see, who care about their country and are PRO-American.

Those who see these things and say and do nothing are actually anti-American. It is every American's duty to hold the Government accountable and ensure that they do not abuse their authority.

As ever, the Government (ab)uses words to turn things on their head.

Originally posted by purplemer

Debunked: "Wikileaks is Anti-American"

wlcentral.org

The Truth:

There are many ways to approach debunking this falsehood. One thing it is important to say from the outset: there is little reason to rely on allegation and rumour from American punditry, when there is already a thorough and articulate defense of Wikileaks' activities by its various spokespersons. We advise that even a cursory attempt to engage with Wikileaks' now plentiful literature on its own activities will comprehensively answer many of the worries raised by media personalities with a proven history of rhetorical mendacity. At the very least, criticisms of Wikileaks ought

(visit the link for the full news article)

edit on 5-12-2010 by purplemer because: (no reason given)

edit on 5-12-2010 by purplemer because: (no reason given)

Thanks for another excellent thread!

second

reply to post by wcitizen


Very true - however the warmongering meatheads would have you believe that it is those opposed to war who are the "traitors"

It's a major problem, and one which many have bought into.

Take for instance, the hatred for the Iranian president, and all those who accuse them of extremism - and yet when Bush said "god told him to" invade Iraq, not a word was said.

These extreme right wingers are balancing at a point that is the height of hypocrisy, and yet they see nothing wrong with it.

The mentality of these people beggars belief.

Originally posted by budski
reply to post by wcitizen

 

Very true - however the warmongering meatheads would have you believe that it is those opposed to war who are the "traitors"

It's a major problem, and one which many have bought into.

Take for instance, the hatred for the Iranian president, and all those who accuse them of extremism - and yet when Bush said "god told him to" invade Iraq, not a word was said.

These extreme right wingers are balancing at a point that is the height of hypocrisy, and yet they see nothing wrong with it.

The mentality of these people beggars belief.

Yep, I agree with every word in your post. What they are in fact doing is creating the mindset where criticising THEM for anything is absolutely unacceptable.
second

reply to post by wcitizen


Whilst at the same time, creating a victim mentality - when all that really happened was the past came back to haunt them.

Karma is a bitch.

reply to post by purplemer


Purplemer, thank you for bringing this article to my attention, and to the attention of the membership. No doubt this thread will be used by those of us who are sick of hearing " Wikileaks is anti american, and assange might as well be a terrorist blah blah blah " BS thats been thrown around since WL started getting large amounts of attention. We really needed some solid statement to this affect, and it shows great attention and respect for thier readership on the part of wikileaks, that they have gone to the trouble to lay out the basic argument against the accusations that have been thrown at them.
If governments ran thier public relations more like Wikileaks does, I think they might get somewhere !
But in any case, it IS nice to have it all there in easily checkable black and white, and members might do well to put this in a permanent tab so that they can refer to it quickly when they hear the clarion call of the idiot followers of bloody war.

Apart from the Anti-American theme, it is the rash of "Wikileaks is disinfo" threads that have appeared in forums all over the internet, (even though they were fatally flawed in the premise) with the release of the embassy cables. Some managed to combine that with how harmful or not the release of those cables could be. If any harm has been done, it is to diplomacy in general, and it is from the point of view that these dim/plomats engage in low grade tittle-tattle of foreign leaders and opposite numbers as perceived by these dim/plomats in a painful "them and us" scenario. In any case both Anti-American, and disinfo ideas can only be considered insincere, in the hope of capturing hearts and minds, (I don't think so), what Wikileaks has done so far, is to show that our political institutions have become an anachronism in the way business is done, and everybody knows it.

All wiki leaks is: a front in which to distract the sheep from the real issues at hand. So that your eyes and ears make the mind believe, "This is news!"

There isn't any news in wiki leaks, never will be. The same old distraction in a new way.

Slight of hand....

Anti-American whatever, pay attention to this stuff and you have fallen for the psy-ops once again.

Might as well sit in front of the TV all day and consider that reality.

Good day.

Originally posted by budski
reply to post by wcitizen

 

Whilst at the same time, creating a victim mentality - when all that really happened was the past came back to haunt them.

Karma is a bitch.

Exactly, yes, playing the victim card - and worse, maybe actually believing it!

second

Because you know, it's only other countries's crap that stinks.

The xenophobic hypocrites who’ve been jumping on the bandwagon just because of “Nobama”, putting their own political twist are going to have their own hypocrisy soon blowing up in their faces. And those who putted too much faith in him will also have a rude awakening.Maybe if the U.S. government wasn’t implicated in so many demagoguery maybe there wouldn’t be anything damaging to reveal. But you better expect other politicians of foreign countries to get busted also if Mr. Assange is out for “transparency”. Maybe all this Wikileaks adventure is going to teach us once in for all that “Evil” does not just reside in government.

Originally posted by theability
All wiki leaks is: a front in which to distract the sheep from the real issues at hand. So that your eyes and ears make the mind believe, "This is news!"

There isn't any news in wiki leaks, never will be. The same old distraction in a new way.

Slight of hand....

Anti-American whatever, pay attention to this stuff and you have fallen for the psy-ops once again.

Might as well sit in front of the TV all day and consider that reality.

Good day.

So... The news we are served every day is the real news an wikileaks are fake news?

Hmmm, good to have people here who cleares up the disinfo problem I was having before

Originally posted by Exv8densez
Because you know, it's only other countries's crap that stinks.

The xenophobic hypocrites who’ve been jumping on the bandwagon just because of “Nobama”, putting their own political twist are going to have their own hypocrisy soon blowing up in their faces. And those who putted too much faith in him will also have a rude awakening.Maybe if the U.S. government wasn’t implicated in so many demagoguery maybe there wouldn’t be anything damaging to reveal. But you better expect other politicians of foreign countries to get busted also if Mr. Assange is out for “transparency”. Maybe all this Wikileaks adventure is going to teach us once in for all that “Evil” does not just reside in government.

I think everyone but you must have realised by now that all governments are corrupt, but it's quite natural to go after USA as it is portrayed as they are the ones exporting democracy and freedom.

Nobody is going to be surprised China or Iran is abusing human rights and manipulating the press, but USA, that's another story-