You Can't Handle the Truth: A College Junior's Ramblings on WikiLeaks

Amanda Hagley
ah725510@ohio.edu

What do I think?

You can't handle the truth! That's what I sometimes think of individuals who criticize whistle-blowers and information leakers.  Although I will recognize the fact that certain information being publicly released can lead to conflicts involving national security and our country's safety, I'm conflicted because I also believe that our nation's citizens have the right to know about certain information and the things that our government is doing behind our backs.

Let's put it like this, everyone's seen the movie Mean Girls right?  Of course you have, it's pretty much a classic at this point.  At one point in the movie Regina George, popular queen bee, releases pages of the Burn Book to the entire school. This burn book was basically just a bunch of crude comments about other students at the school.  Although these girls may have believed that the hateful comments they wrote were not all true, it still created havoc throughout the entire school.  Okay, so maybe this isn't the most appropriate example because half of what was written was just petty high school drama, but you can see the comparison, right?

The question we have to ask ourselves is "What does the public really need to know, and whose responsibility is it to decide this in the name of protecting a nation?"

The Populars.

So where are these leaks coming from?  Why are they even taken into account?  I'll be honest and say that I had to do some research on this popular site called WikiLeaks that I kept hearing about prior to composing this blog.  Although I understood the basic idea, I couldn't honestly say that I was knowledgeable about how the whole thing actually functioned.

Here's a run down of how it works:

WikiLeaks is a non-profit organization that publishes secret and leaked information provided by completely anonymous sources. If you need more information than that you can check out Wikipedia's page on the topic if it so fancies you.  There have been several big cases of government information leaked through WikiLeaks including the popular news stories covering individuals like Bradley E. Manning and Edward Snowden, both of who are facing serious legal repercussions for their actions of releasing government information.

So were these men right in their actions of alerting the public of seemingly private government action? Although it may come as a shock, I don't know that I have a solid opinion on this topic for you.

Manning Left. Snowden Right.
Photo Courtesy of Media.Wired.It   

The Final Say.

The questions we have to take into account when deciding whether or not to publish released confidential information is whether or not the positives will really outweigh the negatives.  Maybe it's controversial that the government has been reading our emails, but are you willing to give up your sense of national security in order to find out about this occurrence and to maintain that right to privacy?

Was it necessary for Manning to release half a million government reports to the public at the expense of a possible threat to the country?  Maybe and maybe not.  I guess what it all comes down to is what you hold to be your highest concern:  the truth or your country's well-being.