Our generation suffers a disconcerting and existential lack of a tangible common cause. Gone are our parent's days of Vietnam and civil rights, and gone are the days of our grandparents fighting Nazism in the Second World War. What remains is a feeling I imagine many of you have felt while perusing any mainstream or internet news outlet a vague and spectral sensation that somewhere, in some way, something is going horribly wrong.
Two indefinite and ill-defined wars, corrupt banking practices and the constant interference of special interests in the political process all combine to form a seemingly insurmountable barrier to a free, transparent and open society. Our generation is faced with the awareness that events beyond our control are occurring without our direct approval, and our common cause must be to fight against these forms of corruption. But without knowledge of exactly what is happening in the more nefarious dealings of our government and large organizations, in what way can we rebel and work as our parents and grandparents did to ensure a more just society for our children?
There exists an organization dedicated to providing us with the information needed to fight classified memos, secret organizational handbooks and buried business transactions and it is in trouble. Since December 2006, WikiLeaks.org, a small nonprofit web site dedicated to exposing corrupt and unjust practices, has been accepting and posting anonymous submissions from whistle-blowers in government and business across the world. In its short lifetime, WikiLeaks has published leaks as infamous as the Guantanamo Bay procedural manual, documents on Swiss bank Julius Baer's tax fraud, internet censorship lists for several countries, the 2008 Peruvian oil scandal as well as thousands of other documents aimed at exposing corruption and unjust practices. But recently, WikiLeaks seems to be striking a little too close to home.
A newly published Central Intelligence Agency leak subtitled "Why Counting on Apathy Might Not Be Enough" details a strategy to sway European public opinion on the war in Afghanistan. Describing such strategies as using Afghan women in France and fear tactics in Germany to gain sympathy for the war, the report reveals the low regard in which the CIA holds our foreign allies and our own citizens "Public Apathy Enables Leaders to Ignore Voters" stated one heading. Even more recently, WikiLeaks announced that they intended to release a video next week documenting the deaths of civilians and journalists in a U.S. airstrike. This, it seems, may have been a step too far in the eyes of the U.S. government.
On March 23, WikiLeaks's Twitter account published a disturbing revelation: "WikiLeaks is currently under an aggressive U.S. and Icelandic surveillance operation." In the succeeding hours, Tweets such as "Two under State Dep diplomatic cover followed our editor from Iceland" and "One related person was detained for 22 hours" appeared on the page, outlining what would appear to be something out of a mediocre action novel. Though it may be hard to believe that the US government would track a members of a non-profit dedicated to exposing corruptness and injustice, the government already had a contingency plan to do so. A March 2008 report, posted by WikiLeaks and confirmed by an Army representative, assessed the organization as a security threat and gave recommendations on how to undermine the site and its purpose. Because WikiLeaks relies on trust and anonymity, the report recommended the "identification, exposure, termination of employment, criminal prosecution and legal action against current or former insiders, leakers or whistleblowers," as these actions could help discourage whistleblowers from submitting documents.
WikiLeaks needs the support of students and citizens worldwide to continue with what has been protected as free speech under the First Amendment. We need to be aware of resources like WikiLeaks and the dangers of losing them in the fight against oppressive governments and organizations. If we, as a generation, want to fight for an open and just society, we need to work hard to go outside of the mainstream news media to find alternative sources of information that can enlighten our perception of world events. We need to utilize and protect web sites like WikiLeaks. We need to question. Look it up yourself, see what you think.
