It is a citizen duty to counter the oppressive potential of powerful states with appropriate CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE.
Powerful people in powerful states are jealous of their prerogatives. Most of the angst over the leaks is about maintaining control. For the people, who must cope with abuses of power, any weapon that aims to frustrate the abuse and minimize harm to private citizens is justified and necessary, the sensitivities of powerful people not withstanding.
Wiki-leaks is a product of too many secrets, secrets without merit as such. Were the documents being disclosed riddled with information endangering sources and relationships, because the rest were already in the public domain, very few people would support Wikileaks. But that is a Wikileaks in a different universe. In this, it provides an important public service of challenging power.
If we the people could not get information that is deemed secret, we could never be sure that in-power sources of information have told the truth. Leaks per se are needed to help us calibrate the truthfulness of our government, and Wikileaks in particular has shown us just how much unnecessary secrecy there has been.
In the United States, this is not a right-left issue. People with roots in the left and the right worry about over-bearing government. This is a concern around which Libertarians and Progressives might easily find consensus.
THIS SORT OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE IS NECESSARY FOR DEMOCRACY AND A WORLD SAFE FROM THE ABUSE OF POWER BY GREAT STATES.
Will the accused leaker Manning be martyred for this cause?
