WikiLeaks' International Man of Mystery 116
AcidAUS writes "The founder of WikiLeaks lives a secret life in the shadow of those who blow the whistle. Here's a detailed profile of the Australian founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, by Australian newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald."
Re:Looks like the discrediting is well begun (Score:5, Informative)
Jayzuz. PR firms feed the journalists with pre-researched, pre-angled cases. The journalist checks a few of the facts, rewrites the prose a bit/writes the prose. And the desk approves. Everybody does this: Government, big tobacco, Toyota, UNICEF. Everybody. There's no need to control the media when the productivity expectations of the journalists ensures they are toothless and more than happy to regurgitate your propaganda.
Re:Looks like the discrediting is well begun (Score:5, Informative)
Now, set the founder up for more publicity, implicitly encouraging violence upon him.
Assange brings publicity on himself. He is the media friendly face of Wikileaks. He won the 2009 Amnesty International Media Award and he has been a guest speaker at various international conferences. He chose to be interviewed on Al Jazeera, which is watched by 50-100 million households. I'm not suggesting that he actively seeks publicity for himself, but he does choose to seek it on behalf of Wikileaks, in order to further the Wikileaks mission.
It's a chilling effect on anyone who might be initially inclined to provide information to Wikileaks under their cover of anonymity.
Assange chose not to be anonymous so the analogy does not apply. Read his Wikipedia biography [wikipedia.org] for more information. There is no evidence that this will have any effect on anonymous leakers. The people opposed to Wikileaks have various options at this point:
Re:It's a warzone. (Score:2, Informative)
If you release a lion into field full of sheep and it kills sheep, yes the lion is responsible. But it's your fault too. Killing stuff is just what lions do.
I'm sure there are already people clamoring for the heads of the lions involved in that attack.
But to me it's the real Heads that should roll. The ones who unleashed the lions.
Re:Looks like the discrediting is well begun (Score:5, Informative)
Just to be clear they presented the data in both an edited and unedited version [collateralmurder.com]. I would agree with you if wikileaks had released only the edited version, but the fact that they released the full video right next to the edited one, puts them several levels above something like National Enquirer IMO. It also puts them at a higher standard than most of the current US mainstream media which is usually very light on references and heavy on granting anonymity even when it's not needed.
Did the edited video go overboard with the picture of the son in the edited video? Yes, probably. But in general I think wikileaks does a good job of providing unbiased information and filling a big gap left by most of the media.
KILL AUTHO WAS GIVEN BEFORE RPG (Score:3, Informative)
As @wikileaks keeps repeating on twitter, the authotisation to kill was given before any mention of an RPG. IIRC they only mentioned that they are "armed", which they admittedly are, since the amongst the victims were the bodyguards of the journalists. Unsurprisingly, bodyguards bear weapons in Iraq, and this was known since 2007
Re:The apache video is polarising (Score:4, Informative)
Frankly No.
I also saw the video. From the resolution of the images I can honestly say that the they did look like they where armed and when the camera man was ducking around the the corner with his camera he did look like a shooter setting up an ambush.
Other looked like they where caring weapons and the video cometary did say that they where caring AK-47s.
In that situation with that data I can see how the crew could open fire.
The van was not an Ambulance and was not marked with the Red Crescent or Cross.
If you can not see how they could decide to shoot then yes you are not being reasonable.
Yes I can understand how this error was made.
I happened to be visiting family in Northern Ireland in the 80s during the troubles.
I was with some other teens when a bomb went off a few blocks down. I didn't run fast enough and was knocked down by a British solder because I just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I was shortly let go but I understand how errors can happen even when I was the target of that error. I was lucky that I wasn't hurt too bad but yes I could have been dead for no other reason than I just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
That is what happens in insurgent fights like Northern Ireland back then or Iraq now.