Saturday, December 11, 2010

Leaking logic?

Different people see things differently. There is a good New York Times article by Steven Erlanger, Europeans criticize fierce US response to leaks

A few random thoughts.

I find it puzzling that those who claim that the Wikileaks founder Jullian Assange should be prosecuted for espionage type crimes do not make the same claim about the journalists who publish the documents Wikileaks provides them.

Trivia: Assange studied physics at University of Melbourne.

You should always assume that any email you write will eventually become public. This is a point I have made several times on my work blog.

Personal integrity of leaders (in any sphere) is crucial. Moral failures will be exploited by your opponents.

I liked the irony and double standards pointed out by the excellent (and chilling) article by John Haughton in the Guardian:

On 21 January, secretary of state Hillary Clinton made a landmark speech about internet freedom, in Washington DC, which many people welcomed and most interpreted as a rebuke to China for its alleged cyberattack on Google. "Information has never been so free," declared Clinton. "Even in authoritarian countries, information networks are helping people discover new facts and making governments more accountable."
She went on to relate how, during his visit to China in November 2009, Barack Obama had "defended the right of people to freely access information, and said that the more freely information flows the stronger societies become. He spoke about how access to information helps citizens to hold their governments accountable, generates new ideas, and encourages creativity." Given what we now know, that Clinton speech reads like a satirical masterpiece.

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