Anonymous Declares "Infowar" on Wikileaks Opponents

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

Anonymous do realise that they're supporting a rapist?

Oh actually, they probably don't care. Since when should the well-being of people matter over anarchy directed to the governments.

 

[TheScarecrow]

As someone who fully supports Assange I'm glad that Anon have stepped up to help him out.

 

[Actual]

I'm amazed how the unabashed proliferation of a nation's sensitive info is no longer defined as 'treason'.

Treason is "a violation of allegiance to one's sovereign or to one's state."

As Assange is Australian he has made no allegiance to the U.S.

Even if he were American I would argue that if a state is defined by the people, he has done those people a service by exposing the abuses of those in power who claim to be trust-worthy.

I can fix all of this, just give me 5 minutes alone with that piss ant, Assange.

Yes, unprovoked violence against a man who's committed no crime and bravely put himself on the line to do his job of being a journalist. Guy's a hero.

But thank god there's people like you who don't know what's actually going on who can fix the problem with mindless violence.

 

[Lord Honk]

Yay, more stuff that I can't wait to be over. Anon seems a bit late to the party IMHO, an attack on the mastercard site has already commenced xD

The whole situation made me realize how very much easier life was when discrepancies where simply solved by the occasional duel, war or exemplary execution...

 

[TheScarecrow]

Anonymous do realise that they're supporting a rapist?

Rape allegations are lies. The woman who claimed that she was raped is connected to the CIA.

 

[Thedayrecker]

I say protect the man. No one has been hurt by throwing a bit of transparency down on government acts, all it has done is embarrass diplomats and foreign dignitaries. SO? That's not treason. That's just an extension of "If you can't say anything nice, don't put it in a diplomatic cable that may come back and bite you in your priviledged ass!"

And when I say no one has been hurt by this, I mean secret operatives being exposed and the like. Public embarrassment is not physical harm. If our people in dangerous areas had actually been hurt due to the leaks, then it would be on every news channel, BUT THEY HAVEN'T. He's not outting the CIA department head in charge of preventing nukes getting into hostile countries here guys, ok, that was the Bush administration. All Assange did with this leak is let the world see what our diplomats really think of them.....fine by me.

Treason my ass, all it is is a distraction for the mass media. If we are on the kick of labeling people as dangerous terrorists and hunting them down for being hostile to America, how is that search for Osama doing? Nearly 10 years hasn't it been? Fucking bunch of losers.

Just thought I'd point out he's not American, so they can't charge him with treason.

Treason is betraying your own country.

 

[Piction Froject]

I am neutral with anonymous's ways of doing things but am completely behind them 96% of the time.

 

[mr_rubino]

Anonymous do realise that they're supporting a rapist?

Oh actually, they probably don't care. Since when should the well-being of people matter over anarchy directed to the governments.

Yyyyyyyyeah, hate to break it to ya, but most of the world is clued in that it's a clumsy smear-job. But I can see how "being" a rapist has any relation to the leaking of confidential information.

 

[Giest4life]

Not sure how much actual change Anon will bring about, but I can't help but cheer these guys on.

 

[Therumancer]

oh god this stupid argument again
i hate how this very serious problem is not being solved because afew people think its facist to stop confidential leaks to the entire world that could mean companies go bankrupt, goverments collapse, riots etc. who cares about ONE moment of facisim.

.......stupid new age hippies

Well it's not really all that facist, it's just goverment security. People have to really stretch the definition to argue that this is some kind of massively facist move, especially seeing as it's been going on in every nation that has ever existed since the dawn of time in one form or another.

If people this is a big deal, I'd imagine how a lot of them would react if the US ever really went to war again and had Martial Law declared like during "World War II" with all of the controls that puts into place.

To some extent I might support Wikileaks if they were say just outing a few instances of goverment corruption (Senator Joe-Bob has been selling secrets to the Chinese in exchange for sex with young boys!). In this case along with anything that can be seen that way it's outing legitimate goverment operations (allowing for perspective, the enemy always sees it differantly). Some of the stuff revealed here falls under the legitimate grounds of national security. Even a lot of the "bad" stuff is pretty much "duuuuuh" type material that basically shows that the guys who are supposed to be ruthlessly protecting the country and being ruthless. OMG, Americans (or other countries) promoting American interests (*GASP*) it's so evil!!!!

It's a mixed bag, not everything Wikileaks has put out there is really a bad thing to expose. They have however stepped beyond even the line of "whistleblowing" on a lot of this.

Change some of the specific details, and I might back Anonymous' attitude, but here even I can't say this is a legitimate free speech issue, as much as I really would like to.

 

[Therumancer]

Anonymous do realise that they're supporting a rapist?

Oh actually, they probably don't care. Since when should the well-being of people matter over anarchy directed to the governments.

To my knowlege (I might have missed something) he was never convicted. I do tend to agree that this aspect of things is BS, even if I do think the exposure of classified goverment information is a big deal (as I said in other posts).

Ironically it seems that the Operation Payback site is down going by that link, I tried to see what Anonymous was actually posting and got a message that my account (like I ever had one) was banned for "Furfaggotry". Seems like something that was put up as a generic "Anon-like" response of whatever.

 

[Danny Ocean]

I'm sorry but to hell with this rapist. His alleged sexual-assault crime aside, the man has exposed HIGHLY classified material on the damn internet. No, I don't mean historical documents concerning the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. Those documents are history are fully protected by the First Amendment's Freedom of the Press, look up the Pentagon Papers for a similar case involving the Vietnam War and government leaks.

1. He's not a rapist yet, don't be so foolish. He's been accused.

You're a rapist. There. Now you're the same as him. How does it feel to be a rapist? Recognise the difference between accusation and charge.

2. These allegations come in really weird circumstances, don't you think? Plus Mastercard admitted they were bowing to pressure from the government. It is almost certainly not chance that these, most likely false, allegations turned up now.

3. Just because something is highly classified doesn't mean we shouldn't know about it.

4. All the stuff so far is startlingly obvious.

However, what is NOT PROTECTED is divulging secrets that pose a national security threat. Like say the locations of HIGHLY IMPORTANT sites according to Homeland Security. If I was a terrorist (be it for Al-Qaeda, Neo-Nazi, IRA, etc.) then a list like that is essentially a travel log of where to commit the most horrific result. That's not freedom of the press, that's putting people's lives in danger. So please do not act all surprised when you see politicians in my country calling for his head, he's not some righteous savior...he's a fucking asshole

If you were a terrorist you'd already know these things. The heads of these groups aren't stupid. If there's a pipeline, it's probably important; blow it up. If it's big, it's important and so is a target. Hell, I wasn't at all surprised by the targets on the list, and most of them are quite obvious-- ports, factories, supply lines-- all the first port of call for someone wanting to economically damage someone else.

Plus, with modern mapping and local knowledge, it's dead easy to find these places. They withheld location specifics either way.

 

[mr_rubino]

Why is the world mad at Julian? The rape charges are clearly a smear campaign. Don't get mad at the person telling you who the man behind the curtain is, get mad at the man behind the curtain. Governments will use this as an excuse to put major sanctions on websites.

CUZ HE SHARED DOCUMENTS THAT... made some diplomats cry. And this will get people killed, or something. Just go with it. You don't really need a reason to hate/know what this guy is doing; just swallow the line you're fed and you won't have to justify yourself.

He's a rapist and an opportunist because... he is. This has something to do with the truth of his allegations. (Don't you love watching a clumsy character assassination in action? "Quick! Throw everything you got at him. This will discredit the documents that just happen to be on our letterhead.")

 

[Verlander]

I'm sorry but to hell with this rapist. His alleged sexual-assault crime aside, the man has exposed HIGHLY classified material on the damn internet. No, I don't mean historical documents concerning the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. Those documents are history are fully protected by the First Amendment's Freedom of the Press, look up the Pentagon Papers for a similar case involving the Vietnam War and government leaks. I know the man is Australian, but I'm going to judge him by the American legal system.

However, what is NOT PROTECTED is divulging secrets that pose a national security threat. Like say the locations of HIGHLY IMPORTANT sites according to Homeland Security. If I was a terrorist (be it for Al-Qaeda, Neo-Nazi, IRA, etc.) then a list like that is essentially a travel log of where to commit the most horrific result. That's not freedom of the press, that's putting people's lives in danger. So please do not act all surprised when you see politicians in my country calling for his head, he's not some righteous savior...he's a fucking asshole

This. Also, whoever said that people need to know, or even have a right to know everything that goes on?

Why does Anonymous receive so many headlines? All they do is irritate people. That's what they do. They don't attack websites, they irritate them, generally making life tricky for those trying to use the sites, rather than the people hosting the sites. I honestly don't see why these bored kids are considered newsworthy on THIS site, which as far as I can tell, has nothing to do with Anonymous

 

[Verlander]

Double post, due to having to sign the code of conduct thing, sorry

 

[Alex Ford]

I'm amazed how the unabashed proliferation of a nation's sensitive info is no longer defined as 'treason'.

Treason against who?
He is not a US citizen, and Australia can't seem to find anything in their legal system they can use to charge him with.

 

[Siberian Relic]

Treason is "a violation of allegiance to one's sovereign or to one's state."

As Assange is Australian he has made no allegiance to the U.S.

Even if he were American I would argue that if a state is defined by the people, he has done those people a service by exposing the abuses of those in power who claim to be trust-worthy.

My obvious lack of properly used semantics aside, you really think it's going to solve said problem? You don't like or trust your parents, so in retaliation you have someone handout flyers with the exact dimensions of their keys and the codes for their home security system?

 

[IckleMissMayhem]

This is some pretty serious political activism, and it's going to carry some pretty serious consequences.

Like, {snip} "anonymous not nearly as anonymous as they thought when they were arrested" kind of serious.

Yup. Assuming that they're not too busy squabbling over Assange and who gets to put him in jail first (not just "refused bail", either). My guess is the US' horrendous butthurt will win out, and he never makes it to a Swedish jail (we don't have a "special relationship" with Sweden, do we?!). Only time will tell. Serves him right though, he must have known this would happen sooner or later...

whoever said that people need to know, or even have a right to know everything that goes on?

QFT. I'm also throwing it out there that maybe the vast majority of people probably don't want to know. Either that, or are better off, or happier, not knowing every single thing our Governments and their agencies do, say, or put into action...

Going a little bit off-topic here, but it's the same sort of thing as the row over the "secret" evidence into the 7/7 bombings in London. What are average people going to do, say, think if it does in fact turn out that the UK government knew what those bombers were planning?

Some things are better off staying secret.

 

[Prince Regent]

Assange is a hero.

Anonymous is just an attention freak.

 

[Pontifex]

All Wikileaks did was publish the information; they were not responsible for the leak themselves. According to US law, while leaking classified information is illegal, publishing it is not. Therefore, Wikileaks did not break American laws.