WikiLeaks: let no good deed go unpunished

Of course it had to end this way. No big bully country could allow anyone to publish its dirty secrets. So the US is putting the screws on WikiLeaks in every way it can. PayPal just announced that is will not enable contributions to WikiLeaks. Amazon had previously announced that it had pulled WikiLeaks off its servers -- possibly at the request of our good friend Joe Lieberman (you remember him: the former VP candidate who supported John McCain for president last election).

Although I know no particular facts about the sex charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, I am predisposed to believe that the U.S. government and the U.S. corporate world couldn't be happier that Sweden has decided to go to InterPol to track him down. (Readers of the Swedish "Millenium Trilogy" shouldn't be surprised that Sweden is playing the heavy in this case.) Under the circumstances, we should consider Assange innocent until proven guilty. I have heard that no formal charges have even been made against him; this seems incredible, but so are lots of things that turn out to be true. In any case, I am inclined to root for anyone that Bank of America, the Republicans, and Joe Lieberman don't like.

Also, of course, it is not clear what real harm to the U.S. has resulted from the various installments of WikiLeaks. The U.S. needs some serious ventilation of its secrecy. This is the same secrecy that shrouded the war in Vietnam (and Laos and Cambodia), the support for murderous dictators in South and Central America, and the phony war in Iraq.

Anyway, there will be more serious blogging when the sequence of holidays (Thanksgiving, Channukah, Christmas and New Years) is over.

Enjoy, and root that WikiLeaks will continue its good deeds.