what to make of wikileaks

I've been a tad behind on world events and am just catching up to the uproar about WikiLeaks and its publication of American diplomatic cables.

Oh, where to begin.

Should someone assassinate Julian Assange, WL's editor-in-chief, as suggested by that standard bearer of ethics, G. Gordon Liddy? I love how there is zero outrage over illegal killings in Kenya, questionable Guantanamo Bay procedures or toxic waste dumping in Africa (issues all documented by WikiLeaks) but people want to publicly flog Assange.

Then there's the other side. Isn't Assange threatening our national security and diplomatic relations by publicly leaking unclassified cables? Perhaps, but our enemies had their beef w/ us long before WikiLeaks ever launched.

The most ludicrous claim has been that Assange is guilty of treason, since he's Australian. Sorry mate!

Where to land on this issue?

I would say that the debate is not about whether Julian Assange is irresponsible; we have to assume he is, although perhaps not as irresponsible as those individuals who tortured war prisoners at Abu Gharaib. Shouldn't the debate focus more on the the issue of journalism and what makes for investigative journalism in this age of the Internet? I read an interview with Assange and he mentions that WikiLeaks has released more classified documents than the rest of the world press combined. Isn't that a sad comment, when we look to journalists to raise issues and uncover things that are suppressed by governments, banks, corporations?

Very curious to see how this plays out...