Cyprus-Forum.com

[boomerang]

Julian Assange answers your questions


JAnthony
Julian.
I am a former British diplomat. In the course of my former duties I helped to coordinate multilateral action against a brutal regime in the Balkans, impose sanctions on a renegade state threatening ethnic cleansing, and negotiate a debt relief programme for an impoverished nation. None of this would have been possible without the security and secrecy of diplomatic correspondence, and the protection of that correspondence from publication under the laws of the UK and many other liberal and democratic states. An embassy which cannot securely offer advice or pass messages back to London is an embassy which cannot operate. Diplomacy cannot operate without discretion and the
protection of sources. This applies to the UK and the UN as much as the US.
In publishing this massive volume of correspondence, Wikileaks is not highlighting specific cases of wrongdoing but undermining the entire process of diplomacy. If you can publish US cables then you can publish UK telegrams and UN emails.
My question to you is: why should we not hold you personally responsible when next an international crisis goes unresolved because diplomats cannot function.

Julian Assange:
If you trim the vast editorial letter to the singular question actually asked, I would be happy to give it my attention.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2010/dec/03/julian-assange-wikileaks

one of the best replies...

[AWE]

Cop out answer.

[EricSeans]

Cop out answer.

Your time in northern Cyprus has coloured your views of democracy, maybe?

[Pax]

Julian Assange answers your questions


JAnthony
Julian.
I am a former British diplomat. In the course of my former duties I helped to coordinate multilateral action against a brutal regime in the Balkans, impose sanctions on a renegade state threatening ethnic cleansing, and negotiate a debt relief programme for an impoverished nation. None of this would have been possible without the security and secrecy of diplomatic correspondence, and the protection of that correspondence from publication under the laws of the UK and many other liberal and democratic states. An embassy which cannot securely offer advice or pass messages back to London is an embassy which cannot operate. Diplomacy cannot operate without discretion and the
protection of sources. This applies to the UK and the UN as much as the US.
In publishing this massive volume of correspondence, Wikileaks is not highlighting specific cases of wrongdoing but undermining the entire process of diplomacy. If you can publish US cables then you can publish UK telegrams and UN emails.
My question to you is: why should we not hold you personally responsible when next an international crisis goes unresolved because diplomats cannot function.

Julian Assange:
If you trim the vast editorial letter to the singular question actually asked, I would be happy to give it my attention.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2010/dec/03/julian-assange-wikileaks

one of the best replies...

Translated into ordinary speak that ex-diplomat's question reads as "now you've blown the whistle and caught us lying to our electorate/citizens and bad-mouthing our friends, we won't be able to blame everyone else in future for the crises we got you into."

More power to Wikileaks everywhere. Click here for list of wikileaks' sites and mirrors :

http://www.twitlonger.com/show/79s9r1

[AWE]

Cop out answer.

Your time in northern Cyprus has coloured your views of democracy, maybe?

China not NC - never lived in NC but did in the ROC pre-74.

[AWE]

but back to the question at hand.

Should he not be held accountable for his actions if those actions cause damage? After all newspaper editors, journalists and politicians in democracies generally are, but he refusing to answer the question would indicate that he feels he does not have to meet the same standards of accountability as he would hold others to.

I am all for wikileaks but if he wants to hold the moral high ground he has to exceed that standards he demands of others or it looks like hypocrisy.

[repulsewarrior]

...this "scandal" will be used to tighten control over the news that is "acceptable".

conspiracists (correct spelling?) have a cause to call this the 9/11 of our free speech...

[repulsewarrior]

...somewhere in the South Pacific he will plead Guilty, to be freed.