Julian Assange and WikiLeaks

Julian Assange’s website, WikiLeaks made global headlines in the last few years. Assange started out by leaking documents he had acquired over the internet about banks in various European countries. Chelsea Manning, Army Private at the time stationed in Iraq joined up with Assange and delivered to him thousands of classified documents that Manning, a military intelligence analyst had access to. Manning was in contact with a former hacker named Adrian Lamo who he asked advice of, advice whether or not he should leak the documents. Manning going against Lamo’s advice of not leaking the documents caused Manning to be arrested after Lamo turned him in for the leak. This was a major blow for Wikileaks who had just lost their major source of confidential documents from the United States government. Since 9/11, the United States Government has realized that information needs to be shared among intelligence agencies in order to thwart terrorist attacks. A side effect however is that information is no longer on a need-to-know basis which made it possible for Manning to leak it all out. After receiving this confidential information, Assange began to make this information available to media outlets. Assange’s actions were morally and ethically incorrect. He should not have leaked so many classified documents especially without redacting the names of informants whose lives could have been in danger. These documents leaked by Manning to Assange were meant strictly for the eyes and ears of those who were privileged to the information, not for the front page of the New York Times. WikiLeaks and Julian Assange threatened global security as they willingly and knowingly put lives of thousands at risk by allowing the bad guys an opportunity to a...

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In the last few years, while the WikiLeaks saga has truly evolved. It recently has simmered down as Edward Snowden takes the spotlight in a new leak scandal. This time, the leaks are about the National Security Agency, an organization that provides intelligence about the world to the United States Government. Julian Assange still remains present at WikiLeaks as part of the staff and his most recent actions were assisting Edward Snowden to gain asylum to have a residence despite the fact that Assange himself is living in an embassy in London. We don’t know what the future holds but certainly Julian Assange will continue to play a key role in whistleblowing, and leaking and he may continue to expose more secrets or help those who want to expose secrets and effectively continue to cause innocent lives to be taken through the leakage of classified documents.