WikiLeaks serves the global community by keeping governments in check

[Joanne98]

Nihilist and criminal labels aside, WikiLeaks has done a lot of good. In 2007, WikiLeaks published the Kroll Report, a secret report detailing extensive government corruption by the richest man in Kenya, Daniel arap Moi. The news came out shortly before the Kenyan national election and received intense airtime on Kenyan TV. According to a Kenyan intelligence report, the leak shifted the vote by 10 percent, changing the result of the election.

In 2009, WikiLeaks published documents showing suspicious loans carried out by the Kaupthing Bank just before the Icelandic financial crisis. Public uproar over the banking procedures that WikiLeaks exposed galvanized Iceland into enacting the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative. The proposal, unanimously passed by the Icelandic parliament, strengthened free speech protections, turned Iceland into an “international transparency haven,” and established the Icelandic Prize for Freedom of Expression.

In 2010, WikiLeaks released the “Collateral Murder” Baghdad airstrike video. In the video, an American helicopter crew, mistaking a camera for an RPG, kills two Reuters journalists along with other armed and unarmed men. Soon after, three unarmed men rush out of a van to help a wounded survivor and are promptly killed by the Americans. Finally, a few armed men enter a building. The Americans destroy the building with missiles, killing both armed and unarmed people. In its report, the American military labeled everyone killed, except for the Reuters journalists, as insurgents. The video clarifies what the U.S. military means by “insurgent,” putting the war in a different light from a humanitarian perspective. And from a strategic perspective, is killing Iraqi civilians with overwhelming military force an effective way to establish a peaceful, democratic Iraqi state?

WikiLeaks helped expose the looting of Kenya, the corruption of a banking system and sloppy killings committed by the U.S. military. WikiLeaks should be lauded for using truth to pressure these institutions to re-evaluate themselves. Thinking that the U.S. military does not need outside scrutiny to effectively serve the public is as foolish as thinking that the MIT administration can by itself design a good undergraduate dining plan. The entrenched bureaucracy that generates military decisions can fail spectacularly, with history providing examples ranging from the Vietnam War to the often irrational Soviet military build-up. Leaking information that changes how one evaluates a war is free press doing its job. Transparency matters.

http://tech.mit.edu/V130/N58/wikileaks_cp.html

[stray cat]

1. Has it really?

[alittlelark]

2. Yeah, it has.

[glinda]

3. Yes it has. Thank you for this post.