Why is WikiLeaks And Its Creator So Controversial?
Wyatt Johnson
Why is WikiLeaks And Its Creator So Controversial?
In today's society, we all seem to have a deep fear of the government and its abuses of power, whether you are a Republican or a Democrat. However, have you ever wondered why? The release of WikiLeaks created by hacktivists (hacking for social/ethical causes) Julian Assange has been credited with uprooting the upheavals of the world's most powerful entities in the entire world, one of them being the U.S. government. WikiLeaks, although remains no longer active after having been shut down by its web servers via Amazon's services, it has remained the world's most controversial website since its creation in 2006. Why is WikiLeaks so controversial and who is the man behind its creation? Although the media portrays many images of Assange, he is anything but unique because of his guts that the world's citizens and entities either absolutely despise or admire. As I deeply love the country in which I live, who believes in freedom and justice to better the entire world, while seeing it become threatened everyday, this topic directly has my heart's desire to fight and analyze this topic fully. I personally have had friends censored and nobody knows the truth in our society anymore. WikiLeaks solved this all.
The man behind the creation of the world's most controversial website is named Julain Paul Assange, a man whose name will be forever known in history all because of the reaction of a simple website called WikiLeaks. What makes WikiLeaks known as what it is today is not even Assange's direct behavior yet he gets the worst of the tortures in a max security London prison all because of his website for anonymous whistleblowers to leak and dump classified files for the entire world to see. The leakers ranged from many jobs in the U.S. government or other government agencies around the world to expose the corruption they have outstandingly witnessed to create a true form of transparency in which the governments are meant to serve. Since WikiLeaks has been around for 16 years, the thousands of headlines and articles surrounding him will forever impact the effects of our journalists and freedom of speech rights for American Citizens and the world. So why did Julain Assange become public enemy number 1? I will answer and discuss many of the questions and use many primary sources during the timelines, events, and highlights of 16 years of war over one man and his website.
Julian Assange, a known Australian computer hacker wanted to streamline the whistleblowers' effects and thus established WikiLeaks in Sweden because it has the best laws to defend press protection and relied on the volunteer labor of whistleblowers but couldn’t be edited on the user's end, unlike Wikipedia. However, WikiLeaks started having problems when it leaked the operating standards for its base in Guantanamo base in Cuba. The U.S. briefly shutdown access to the website, however, the foreign sites remained active. Then in 2008, thousands of papers leaking information about the Scientology cult in the United States led to the threat when the group stated it was copyright infringement. However, WikiLeaks started to blow up in headlines when Chelsea Manning, a U.S. intelligence analyst leaked the enormous 250,000 diplomatic cable leak which held thousands of messages between the U.S government and foreign nations, and also the video seen around the world of an American helicopter gunner shooting innocent foreigners and two Reuters journalists in Afghanistan.
In 2010 the U.S. government had enough of the leaks and made it public that they would come after Assange and anyone who leaked classified statements such as Manning. Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison. Then a week later the website came under a denial of service attack meaning nobody could reach the website and Assange was arrested based on rape allegations by two women un the United Kingdom whom Assange said were concentual, however, they claim it was forced and traumatized. In the same week, the website's fundraising efforts were all cut as the big three, Paypal, Mastercard, and Visa all cut their online processing for WikiLeaks.
This is when the public starts to take sides either for or against him and he now has covered the headlines all over the world. His support is not being published in the news and is only portraying the negative. John Pilger who is a journalist for Truthout news states that “Last December, I stood with supporters of WikiLeaks and Julian Assange in the bitter cold outside the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Candles were lit; the faces were young and old and from all over the world.. They were in no doubt about the importance of what Assange had revealed and achieved, and the grave dangers he now faced. These public displays of warmth for Assange are common and seldom reported”(Pilger).
John's direct experience should be a warning to us all anyone who comes in the way of the world's powers and explains why Assange is so controversial because of the cooperative efforts of corporations, governments, and media targeting the one man who stands in the way of the information being hidden from the world's citizens. The support and rage felt by Assange's supporters are understandable to me the more I analyze the case and believe he should certainly not be held for charges of the highest “cybercrimes” as the elite justice system is claiming and in this case, exposes the elites of our world ironically as duly unjust.
With those above statements holding their worth for their shockingly transparent and horrific leaks, what should be of great importance in the mind of American citizens is that in
essence, we have no freedom. Although that may sound inherently rude to claim as an American with many rights and privileges others don’t have, how can it simply be taken all away for standing in the way of a government that is supposed to “defend and uphold the Constitution”?
As an audience, you are likely thinking about the people around the world who have no freedom. WikiLeaks was the next answer in the web-based communities to bring together the oppressed around the world and expose the sickening corruption that ruins people's lives. If WikiLeaks was never banned and Assange let free, as of course if innocent of the rape charges, the government and corruption could be kept in check. Although we don’t live in a perfect world, trust should go both ways. Assange is a hero to many who’ve always wondered about the corruption going on behind the scenes and for the first time in history, something could be done about it. Imagine if whistleblowers could leak the atrocities of Nazi German in WWII or when journalists were jailed during the Wilson presidency.
The truth is that once people have the power they will always want more and will do anything to stop it from being transparent because what they fear the most has cooperated with civil outrage simply because it stands as the biggest threat to the schemes behind the scenes. A primary source written by Michael Khan sheds light upon what our own CIA is even capable of doing as hundreds of pages of a CIA manual revealed the tools and spyware they possess which could potentially be used to spy on citizens both in and outside of the U.S. Khan states “Has the CIA ever spied on you? That’s a key question swirling around the WikiLeaks document dump that allegedly details the U.S. agency's secret hacking tools. The documents themselves don't reveal much about whom the CIA might have snooped on. But the agency certainly has the power to spy on foreigners outside the U.S”(Khan).
In essence, Julian Assange brought the issue of the freedom of speech to the global scale of debate and heightened its importance by bringing it to the public spectacle. Elon Musk and Twitter have been the current battle over Freedom of Speech and is still a battle to the second of this writing as to who, what, where, when, how, why, and anything should or shouldn’t be censored in the world. The only difference is Elon Musk isn’t in jail or dead over it…yet.
In the climax of Assange's situation in 2010 when hundreds of classified documents were leaked to the media, we now know today that the CIA was not happy and under both the Obama and Trump administration planned to assassinate Assange. Author at Common Dreams Greg Mitchell commented that even in his 2011 piece were plotting against him as he states “Then there are the various threats and retreats inspired by the latest leak: the likely US prosecution of Assange, along with calls by some pundits and politicians for his execution or assassination”(Mitchell). This is ample evidence that we all should be concerned about this because it almost feels as if our freedom is an illusion and this man isn’t even a U.S. citizen and personally didn’t leak any documents.
Although decentralized and anonymous exchanges are becoming very popularized in today's society with crypto and billion-dollar online environments, governmental regulators are chasing after that too as the SEC chair Gery Gensler doesn’t seem to like the idea of Libertarianism and crypto on the internet. The ongoing battle has been contentious over centralized entities like the government and decentralized organizations like WikiLeaks (meaning no specific power hierarchy, direct ownership, and less red tape) are contending forces because they are so opposite in nature.
What I have observed over researching all of this with Assange is that this battle truly is on a global scale and is a battle between two distinct ideologies, which are Libertarianism, freedom, anonymity, and individuality against centralized bureaucracies, power, control, and manipulation. Another shocking statistic provided by the journalist Greg Mitchell states that “After the release of the Iraq logs, new tallies put the number of documented civilian casualties there at more than 100,000. The Afghanistan logs similarly showed many more civilians killed there than previously known, along with once-secret US assassination missions against insurgents”(Mitchell). This is an appalling number that sheds light on the dark truths purposefully hidden by our government. It would have been one thing if they didn’t hide it and were transparent about the fatalities but to hide it is truly wrong.
In the overview of my initial question of why both parties use Assange as a political football is because WikiLeaks uncovered the hidden corruption of both the Republicans and the Democrats. Corruption has been found under the Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations since WikiLeak's existence and is like a sharpened spear willing to puncture any lie in its path. Today, WikiLeaks is nonexistent, and Julian Assange is still sitting in his cell in a max security prison with no computer or outside communications with the knowledge that he is being tortured and extracted of any information he has and is the scapegoat of the century to anyone who decides to get in the way of powerful forces.
In the analysis above, the main points analyzed in the conclusion of our statements portray journalism as a fragile concept in our democracies and that our freedoms are always amid tyranny, corruption, and power-hungry people who collect it like trophies as a prestigious
enhancing their inflated egotistic vulnerabilities. It is up to us to stay informed in today's age upon the principles and search for truth, just as Assange did who used every opportunity he had to advance transparent journalism and incentivize honesty in our government. This topic is important for me and most Americans because of the value and years of worldwide struggles that have occurred because of the oppression of truth because of dubious contractions of the free flow of information. Although WikiLeaks is banned, Assange will never be forgotten, even as the battle for truth is still occurring today
Works Cited
Greg, Mitchell. is the author of a dozen books, and Greg Mitchell is the author of a dozen books. “Opinion: Why Wikileaks Matters.” Common Dreams, 11 May 2021, https://www.commondreams.org/views/2011/01/14/why-wikileaks-matters.
This article was written during the height of Julian Assange's creation of WikiLeaks and the many controversies surrounding the fascination and fear of it. The author initially provides the context as to why WikiLeaks is controversial and states that it’s because whistleblowers and leakers publish the most classified information to the world wide web. Greg states that WikiLeaks is mainly controversial because it exposes the most powerful entities to date which included the United States Government. The author further states the outrage many politicians and powerful figures have as some want Julian Assange to be assassinated, while Amazon and PayPal cut all ties with Julian Assange and his website, WikiLeaks. However, large percentages of the public want WikiLeaks to stay active and that it provides transparency for everyone to know about large scale corruption and atrocities it has exposed, especially in Iraq and other countries around the world. Greg ends the article with a powerful analysis and opinion on the topic. He states that the world governments and elite will crush WikiLeaks and Julian Assange of course to keep their secret and evil priorities a secret from the public.
This source will be a valuable aid in the analysis of WikiLeaks and its controversy because it serves as a primary source to gauge the reactions of the public of when this actually happened. This article provides key information that I will use to further the depth of the WikiLeaks controversy by using primary examples of why WikiLeaks became such an ordeal. The example I will specifically use is the sample list of controversial topics the public learned about that the author provides as of 2011 during the climax of the whistleblowers document floods.
Hamilton, Andrew. “Wikileaks, Assange and Freedom of Speech.” Eureka Street, 28 Jan. 2021, https://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article/wikileaks--assange-and-freedom-of-speech.
Hamilton starts his analysis after the aftermath and fall of Julian Assange is that nobody is going to help him. Former President Trump did not grant him a pardon, and a British judge did not uphold Assange's appeal for extradition. The author enforces the seriousness and intensity behind this topic stating that Assange can’t even take his own life and he is so valuable that he is in a max security prison and not even allowed to have any contacts or internet access. Hamilton then states his opinion that as to grow in a society, the pursuit for truth is extremely important and that we must have honesty and transparency in all levels of life. He further states large entities over thousands of years have always tried to hide information from the public. As he begins finalizing the article, he states that the pursuit for truth must be organic from the communities in which we are connected with and that it must not be impeded by brute power to impede our search.
I am going to use this article as an aftermath reference to WikiLeaks and society ten years later because it provides a more settled and neutral reflection as to the important events during the major controversies and hype of WikiLeaks. The article is a great secondary source because I will use Hamilton's analysis of world governments not helping Assange as the final emphasis that there is nobody that people can do to stop the attack and restrictions of WikiLeaks. The article's purpose also helps with my analysis article because it is more of an aftermath summary of WikiLeaks and what the public thinks about the years of tyranny that resulted from just WikiLeaks existence.
Kan, Michael. “WikiLeaks Dump Brings CIA Spying Powers into the Spotlight.” Computerworld, IDG News Service, 13 Mar. 2017, https://www.computerworld.com/article/3180167/wikileaks-dump-brings-cia-spying-powers-into-the-spotlight.html.
This article does a more deep analysis into the effects of WikiLeaks by providing specific examples of how the world's powerful entities have been exposed. The author, Michael Kan, initializes the concern that our own CIA in the free U.S. spies on us and that the WikiLeak “dumps” which is when whistleblowers unload thousands of classified files is shedding light on the corrupt abuses of power our government executes over its citizens. The article starts out by asking the audience if the CIA spies on us and then immediately claims that it certainly does because the documents revealed on WikiLeaks revealed all of the CIA’s hacking tools and that it can even spy on you outside the country. However, the author states if you aren’t plotting against the U.S. government that they won't waste their time on you as they have too much to handle with real threats. However, the fact that the documents were released surprised some of the public on our governments capabilities with the complete transparency on the web. The author ends the article with a statement that the CIA has now lost control over the technologies capabilities because of the leak and is upset with the dumbs of classified information.
I will be able to use the findings and insights of the author in this paper to further the point that our government does have very powerful capabilities that many of its citizens are not aware of. This will help me highlight the statement in my paper that emphasizes the fact that if our citizens didn’t know about the CIA’s spying powers before WikiLeaks, then they likely never would have known if they would have been spied on. Although the chances are unlikely, I want it to highlight that it’s just the tip of the iceberg of things we don’t know about our own government through the lack of transparency.
Pilger, John. “WikiLeaks Is a Rare Truth-Teller. Smearing Julian Assange Is Shameful.” New Statesman, 10 June 2021, https://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/2013/02/wikileaks-rare-truth-teller-smearing-julian-assange-shameful.
This article sheds to light the enemies of Assange and the groups who shame him for publicity and their own self gain. John Pilgher states one such journalist is named Jemimah Khan who has lambasted Assange because he refused to appear on a documentary she was going to correct. Assange, known for his rightfully prudent behavior refused the interview as he was afraid it would be impossible for it to stay neutral and didn’t want his words used against him. The author has no disrespect towards Jemimah and said she does outstanding work in humanitarian journalism but that attacking Assange won’t help the humanitarian cause because of what WikiLeaks has exposed. The author says that the divide among the public is widening and he is not sure what will become of him in the coming months. He finalizes his editorial excerpt saying that WikiLeaks has been the only way transparent journalism can occur, whether Julian Assange is in the picture or not.
I will use this editorial to enhance my questions in the introduction in regards to how controversial figures can rise as enemies and heroes so fast because of exposure, public interest, opposing viewpoints etc. This article serves as a statement to the public during the division that you should choose your side wisely and will be beneficial to describe in my paper as to why not only tensions were high, but division was created due to it.