[AndyJackson]

Folks will recall Rees-Mogg as the co-author of Blood in the Streets, which sounded an early warning about the collapse of the international financial system. He was only wrong in not understanding the lengths to which central banks would go to perpetuate an unsustainable system.

He offers a very thoughtful perspective on this issue, one which I happen to disagree with personally. The other side of this argument is well stated by Stratfor analyst Scott Stewart in WikiLeaks and the Wacky World of Classified Information

Furthermore, the internet is not the reason this information was widely leaked. Government intelligence IT systems enabled the assembly of large volumes of data, allowing someone to burn a CD with all of this. Once one CD is burned its copying and distribution is, literally, child's play.

Where I do agree with him, strongly, and here is where Manning and Assange really deserve to be brought up short, is invasion of privacy issues. I don't think public officials should be immune for scrutiny of their public statements and actions, and I disagree with Rees Mogg about whether the net effect will be harmful or beneficial. Government intelligence about private matters should be altogether off limits.

[ikka]

What people miss, is that governments spy on each other all the time. That a Private in the US military would have access to this info, means that it would be quite easy for a foreign govt that really wanted the info, to get it.

Thus the Wikileaks is not about other govts finding out what we are doing; it is that the people (not the elites) are considered by the elites to have absolutely no right to this information, and in fact the elites consider it right and proper that the rest of us be kept entirely in the dark.

My view, anyways...

[huldah1776]

You know, it is so easy to encrypt, that this leak really does seem to be a set up.

[BenLurkin]

“Governments will fight back with new regulations”

Isn’t that the ultimate goal of WIkileaks?

[A CA Guy]

Facilitating espionage by putting it onto the Internet is and should be illegal.
That gay soldier who took the information (supposedly - but don't ask and don't tell) and the wikileaks people should all be in our Federal Prison awaiting either jail time or execution.

This is not an Internet issue, it is an espionage issue.

[cripplecreek]

Military, diplomatic, banking, insurance.

Funny how they all seem to be the usual Obama targets.

[khnyny]

IMHO, this whole incident could be used as the reason du jour to crack down on the evvvviillll internet. Censorship. How convenient.

[Nachum]

What I smell here is a new crisis! Obama will demand control! Communists want to control your medicine, your travel, what you eat, who you marry, and all your information.

It’s a national security issue! It’s for your safety. We must have gate keepers, to protect us from the dangers of men like Assange. Save us Obama!

[GOPJ]

It is interesting that the newspapers that have been most closely involved in the transmission of the WikiLeaks files have been high-minded newspapers of the Left, such as The Guardian and the New York Times.

If someone on the right had leaked this information the MSM would have labeled that person a terrorist, and Homeland Security would have already moved in... It's a leftist, so there's lots of posturing.