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In reply to the discussion: Julian Assange bids to sue Julia Gillard for defamation over WikiLeaks comments [View all]JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)possible. This is not about Assange or Wikileaks or even the necessity of secrecy when it comes to information that truly should be classified. This may be about establishing government control over the press when it comes to certain kinds of information and reporting. In fact, that is what I think it is. And that is why I defend Assange and Wikileaks on DU.
There has been throughout our history a struggle between the paranoid types who don't want Americans to have access to certain ideas or information and those like me who think that a pretty broad spectrum of information has to be available to voters if our democratic, representative government is to work.
We need to know when our military and government act irrationally or wrongly, when the violate human rights, when they cross the line of decency. It is our job as voters to keep that kind of conduct in check. And we cannot do that if we don't have open, free and full information about what is going on.
The situation in Benghazi was completely different. The information that has been disclosed has to do with the quality and quantity of our security and defenses in certain kinds of locations in the world. That is a matter of national security because it permits potential enemies to gauge what our future actions will be. The Republicans have been using it to gain political points for their side. That is irresponsible and unpatriotic.
That our troops wantonly kill innocent people or journalists whether the killing is reckless or intentional or really just mistaken is something we voters need to know. We don't need to know and shouldn't tell our enemies just how we are allocating our limited foreign service security forces.