He believes the Americans wish to be seen as a stabilizing force the region cannot afford to do without, saying;
"These documents are not authentic. The national interests of the United States and its allies are behind this. They see the world through their eyes, pursue their own goals, and draw the conclusions that suit their purposes." Adding;
"America wants to portray itself as the leader of the world, as master of the destinies of nations. It wants to play off the regimes in the region against one another. It wants the world to believe that we are divided. It wants to legitimize its presence and influence in the region."
Glenn Greenwald,
speaking on Democracy Now! summed the situation up on a third theme, noting the threat posed to journalism, and the concept, design, fundamental purpose and promise of the Internet itself.
Greenwald reminds: Assange is being hounded by an authoritarian media court, who has tried and convicted the man who has had no criminal charge filed against him, and yet languishes in an English prison, waiting, it seems, for the Americans to invent a crime he can be carted off and sentenced for.
Between believing Assange and Wikileaks are what they say, and millions do, as hundreds of websites are acting as "mirrors" to maintain a web presence even while unprecedented State and corporate powers collude to target and shut down a perfectly legal operation for perfectly political reasons, and the psyop postulate, the government "solutions" to the Wikileaks dilemma may be the important story missed.
Nothing new in China, Burma, and Iran, but it is a novel moment for Western Democracies, where freedom of speech, assembly, and thought are the now thinning fig leafed laurel the enlightened new world uses to justify its "assistance" to the foreign and benighted lands of Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, and perhaps soon Iran. And it's a watershed moment for the nascent Internet.
If any still doubt the power the development and deployment of the internet, and its extension gizmos and gadgets making the information diet an ultimately movable feast, or remain skeptical of the revolutionary prospects this communication explosion represents, witness the worried warriors of the global status quo. Watch them
sew up Wikileaks, denying access to commerce and communication, arresting free speech, while allowing death threats go unprosecuted; spinning spurious charges to annul habeas corpus, just long enough to custom craft laws for prejudicial execution.
There's more at work here than either
Messrs. Duff or Mashai concede.
The G20 held last summer in Toronto
instructed Canadians, and the internet audience, of the state of things in Canada, vis a vis free speech, challenging authority, and the price to be exacted in pain and humiliation for even the most timid demonstration of disagreement with the ruling order; whether "legal" or not. A continuous effort by business to monopolize the Internet's stream of vital information, and an ever demanding securitized state are knocking together against the free foundation of the now essential cyber infrastructure.
It could be the first shots of the first world cyber war, a fight between the state/corporate alliance and the millions of points of screens lighting home offices, bedrooms, and commuting laptops; a territorial struggle for cyber space.
This is bigger than Julian Assange's alleged negligence to properly suit up for sex. And, it's bigger than Wikileaks, despite the soul-killing scope of its revelations of our society's disgusting and rapid descent - didn't we suspect as much anyway? What' s happening here, whether by accident or design, is the first attempt to corral the wild west internet once and forever.
Esfandiar Rahim Mashai is cautious about the Wikileaks, saying;
"I have no doubt that a US government plan is behind this disclosure. When someone wants to suggest something, they include fake information with real information so as to create a certain impression. That's why each country has to analyze the documents that relate to it, which is what our experts in Tehran are doing now." [...] "We are only examining them to figure out the Americans' tricks."
While we wait for the release of the Iranian government investigation, watching what the governments of the West do, in concert with their corporate partners, and being ready to fight tricksters at home, could be the one and only battle, the first and last defense of a free and democratic internet; and, the future that freedom promises.
As the Julian Assange/Wikileaks saga grows daily, (he now held without bail in an English gaol,while America's attorney general Eric Holder dredges the depths of American jurisprudence in search of an excuse to lay hands on the whistleblower organization's founder) and luminary journalists like John Pilger call for full support of Assange, there are still questions about the nature and provenance of recently released diplomatic cables, the order in which they have been released, press parsing and administration cherry-picking of them, and an as yet murky understanding of just at whose expense are the leaks revealed, and for whom is it a benefit?
