Wikileaks Planning To Drop 1,000,000+ Documents In Near Future.
cnn.comJulian Assange has not given much detail on what the nature of the documents will be, except to say that they will “affect every country in the world.”
If these documents are standard Wikileaks fare, they will probably include embarrassing and/or scandalous matter about large powerful institutions—world governments in particular. Moreover, the diffusion of these documents will no doubt leave some grumbling about the risks attendant to their disclosure.
There are understandable arguments in favor of such a position. Critics of Wikileaks appear to favor government secrecy on certain topics because they believe it to be a necessary predicate to good governance (e.g. keeping information about matters of national security matters classified). Thomas Jefferson, during his time as President, noted that:
[T]he Executive ought to communicate such papers as the public good would permit, and ought to refuse those, the disclosure of which would injure the public …
The fundamental flaw of this apparently reasonable position, however, is that there is no way to determine when the government is keeping information out of public hands for legitimate purposes. This is undoubtedly why many of Jefferson’s contemporaries took hardline stances in the other direction. Here is John Adams:
[The People] have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean, of the characters and conduct of their rulers. Rulers are no more than attorneys, agents, and trustees for the people; and if the cause, the interest and trust, is insidiously betrayed, or wantonly trifled away, the people have a right to revoke the authority that they themselves have deputed, and to constitute abler and better agents, attorneys, and trustees. And the preservation of the means of knowledge among the lowest ranks, is of more importance to the public than all the property of all the rich men in the country.
A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.
I was struck dumb with astonishment at the sentiments … [t]hat the executive alone shall have the right of judging what shall be kept secret, and what shall be made public, and that the representatives of a free people, are incompetent to determine on the interests of those who delegated them … .
The legitimacy of Democratic governance depends on consent of the governed. It is impossible for people to consent to acts of which they had no knowledge. And if history is any guide on the matter, government secrecy is invoked at least as often to ensure that the public remains uninformed of acts of official wretchedness carried out in their name, as it is to secure the blessings of confidentiality to sensitive information.
Such a state of affairs is intolerable in a free society. As Thomas Paine noted in the Dissertations, “In republics, such as those established in America, the sovereign power, or the power over which there is no control, and which controls all others, remains where nature placed it—in the people[.]” Government secrecy, no matter how well intentioned, subverts that control by ensuring that people cast their votes ignorant to potentially embarrassing, disagreeable, or perhaps even shocking actions which the government carries out in their name. One cannot vote against something they have knowledge of. And being ignorant of the same, a person would have little reason to. And therein, as they say, lies the problem.
“While President Obama was starting and expanding unconstitutional wars overseas, Bradley Manning, whose actions have caused exactly zero deaths, was shining light on the truth behind these wars. It's clear which individual has done more to promote peace.”
—Ron Paul: Bradley Manning Deserves Nobel Peace Prize More Than Barack Obama
Ecuador: UK has threatened to storm embassy to arrest Assange
Ecuador says a decision on the asylum request from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will come tomorrow and claims UK has threatened to storm their embassy to arrest him - NPR News.
In an angry press conference streamed live on the Internet, Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño said Britain threatened to storm their embassy in London if Assange was not handed over to police.
“Ecuador is not a British colony,” Patiño said. “The days of colonialism are over.”
on set with cumberbatch! (1.18.13)
As some of you might know, Benedict Cumberbatch is currently starring in an upcoming film about Julian Assange and Wikileaks in the movie The Man Who Sold The World.
They were shooting a scene here in little old Iceland and I naturally didn’t miss the oppurtunity of going there to see him so here is my encounter, for more information know that I live-tweeted the start of it and you can read through my timeline if you want!
there I am, seen on the livestream haha thank you arlessiar for the picture!
It’s 11.30 in the morning
I’m on my way to where the set is now, nervous as hell not knowing what to expect. When I do get there finally I find the webcam that can be found of the square and is broadcast live online, this had nothing to do with the film but has been set up for quite some time now.
Anyway, many of you were watching there and probably saw my exciting jumps and trying to stay warm dance which I apologize for haha.
We see him here and there, he’s wearing a blonde/white wig to many peoples satisfaction as it doesn’t ruin his beautiful locks! we’re quite excited at this point, there are only about 6 of us staying there now, some walk past and stop for a moment before going on their way.
above: official photo that got released!
About an hour in he’s in one of three black tents opposite us, know first that we had to move around a lot as they were shooting from different angles, but here we had perfect view into one of the little tents and he was standing there in a black winters coat drinking a cup of coffee, he looks over at us and one of the girls I was standing with waves at him so another girl and I decide to do the same and he smiles and waves back! not a little short wave, but a long cheerful wave! I just about died!
picture I got at the scene! sorry for the quality
They’re only shooting the same scene over and over, by the time it was finished I knew the line by heart and found myself mouthing them over with her. The british shoutings of ‘Rolling’ and ‘Cut’ by the director made this so real and got me even more so excited about the whole thing!
set angle 1, this is where when we were moved from the path
The cutest thing was though that between one of the takes theres a woman holding a baby about maybe a year old, possibly little younger and he goes to do a little peek-a-boo game with her which was the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life, hands down!
Now it continues on, they’re still shooting the same scenes, many takes, different angles, we see him in the crowd of people and then we talk among ourselves to keep us entertained and warm, it was freezing and we had some rain for a time being which made it worse.
There we some models that were coming on the set and went into the building they had, we didn’t really know why they were there as we didn’t really see them participate in the seen but one of the models came over to me and asked if I was part of the [model company] and where we were suppose to go, I told her know haha but it was quite hilarious as I do not in any way look or resemble a model but I suppose it was just cause we were standing quite close to the tents at this point to be out of frame.
set angle 2, now we are opposite the path, this is taken during the last shot. We are where the black tents are as mentioned before and I’d like to point out that the tent you see there is the one Ben waved at us from!
Skip to the end
Nothing much interesting happened between there and the end, I decided to stay since I met some really lovely people there to keep me company, it is now about 3pm and we’re all frozen solid but he comes over to where we’re standing and waves at us again and asks us kindly not to take photos. He was really sweet and looked generally sorry that he couldn’t let us have pictures but a job is a job and I suppose it wasn’t really up to him either.
He walks over the street and towards a truck, some girls follow and when no one went to stop them we all sort of followed suit and there he was, behind the truck..talking to us! he was again so kind, so nice and that accent! He said he was still in character, still working and so he couldn’t stop for long but it was still sweet of him to see us and I’m really happy with today!
here you can see him walking towards the truck where we talked to him after! photo credit to fakevermeer
pictures are released so I edited this post with the one I got!
Thank you for reading, thank you all for tweeting me and following me, thank you for the support in the freezing cold, for fangirling with me and most importantly for the support and understanding of the no picture.
I love this fandom
x Lilja
p.s. it might just be set pictures but please don’t take them and re-post them x
