In December of 2006, www.wikileaks.org, an international non-profit website meant to leak confidential government documents into the hands of the people, was launched. However, WikiLeaks gained international fame after the “cablegate” controversy, which surrounded the leaking of confidential papers from international diplomats and governments, angering people across the world after reacting to intolerant and harmful words by foreign leaders and politicians. However, WikiLeaks has been criticized by governments and political pundits throughout the world even though it is only enhancing free speech and democracy.
Many opponents of WikiLeaks claim that the United States government, as well as governments abroad, should have privacy. Senior Evan Brewster Pye emphasized that “sometimes it’s good for the government to have secrets.” However, the U.S. government is a republic which Lincoln said was “of the people, by the people, [and] for the people” in his famous Gettysburg Address, yet the people are not given access to document by the government which is supposedly theirs (www.law.yale.edu).
The international community, enraged by WikiLeaks, is even filing lawsuits against leakers. Private First Class Bradley Manning, a former United States Army intelligence analyst infamous for leaking vital military information on WikiLeaks, has been placed in a facility in Quantico, Virginia until July and may possibly have a law suit for murder filed against him if the government can prove that his leak caused a death.
Even the employees and executives of WikiLeaks are becoming under increasingly intense scrutiny and pressure to close down WikiLeaks. Julian Assange, former computer hacker and the founder of WikiLeaks, has received law suits against him from numerous world governments and has even been charged with sexual assault by the Swedish government, without a great deal of evidence (www.washingtonpost.com). Mr. Mesaro, a social-studies substitute teacher, said that “[Bradley Manning] wasn’t even the guy who published [the cables]”. Yet, enraged government officials are concocting schemes to take down WikiLeaks.
WikiLeaks was accused by a writer of New York’s Journal News for “[replacing] ‘treason‘ with the Freedom of Information Act?” (www.lohud.com). However, there is nothing treasonous about government transparency. Freshman amateur political pundit Alexander Bowman said that “[WikiLeaks] allows the freedom of information.” World governments must be transparent for the sake of global cooperation and to avoid a disenfranchisement of the people.