Wikileaks Informer haffi dead ? ( Wikileaks informer has to die ?)

That headline would reflect the sentiment of a section of Jamaican society that despises anyone who informs on the doings(wrong or otherwise) of another group. It also easily reflects too, the fact that some media, supporters and onlookers worldwide have all but publicly declared Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and his investigative journalism whistleblowing site dead in the water. Again, it’s not necessarily that they want him to be killed or even his site silenced by a taken down, as some do…but its probably more that they  have accepted what they believe is the eventual fate of the man and his site given the developments over the past days of CableGate.

Cablegate is what they have called the recent leaked Cables – which are top secret diplomatic communications between governments. Cablegate has unleashed a mass of information that reveals alot of government and corporate thinking and actions that could have widescale repercussions depending on which side of the fence you sit and how you interpret what’s in them. Let’s just say it has left a trailed of pissed off people and the red phones of many a world leaders are now sweaty and busy from heated conversations.

It has also led to teams of damage control experts hard at work assessing and getting ready for potential fallout. It’s messy as hell but as a former investigative journalist who has an innate belief of bridging the gap between information haves and have nots, I must confess it’s delicious to watch, even as I am asking myself, if Wikileaks had gone too far and were their intentions truly honourable.

Growing Global Support Online
Since Cablegate and the fact that hundreds of mainstream and online media around the world has been inhaling and printing many parts of the documents, wikileaks.org site has been under severe denial of service attacks in a bid to take it off the Internet completely and Paypal and Amazon has cut its ability to accept donations. Still, Wikileaks and its worldwide allies who clearly share its mission and methods of keeping governments open – have set up so far 355 mirror sites to prevent the site and its information disappearing like it never happened. It has brashly stated on the sites and via Twitter that it will not be censored.

When I personally liked the Wikileaks Facebook Page yesterday, it was at 819,000 and as of this morning their global supporting Facebook community stands at 857,000. Let’s see if Facebook deletes their page. On Twitter their following has also jumped over 20,000 people in less than 24hrs to a count as of now at just over 400,000 and the sole twitter account they are following is @tweetbackup a Service that you can only use if you’re following them. It backs up your Twitter data including tweets, followers, following list, favorites, DMs and more and is managed by @backupify a Cambridge, Massachusetts based company. Many have asked how come Twitter has not taken down their account altogether.

What’s the real agenda though?
I would give Assange and wikileaks.org the disrupter of the century award for making the world take notice on how advanced technologically we now are and how amazingly connected the world truly is, plus how all of that can be used, as any other tool, for good or ill. So without question remains what’s the real agenda of Wikileaks?

Before Cablegate, Wikileaks was  just a cute distraction championed by many because well, their corns were not yet stepped on by its leaked revelations. Previous leaked documents seem to be of the vanilla variety – corporate corruptions, deals and corrupt practices by small, yet not so powerful countries. Then Wikileaks touched the big guys and now all hell is breaking loose.
Here’s how Wikileaks describes itself on its website…“WikiLeaks is a not-for-profit media organisation. Our goal is to bring important news and information to the public. We provide an innovative, secure and anonymous way for sources to leak information to our journalists (our electronic drop box). One of our most important activities is to publish original source material alongside our news stories so readers and historians alike can see evidence of the truth. We are a young organisation that has grown very quickly, relying on a network of dedicated volunteers around the globe. Since 2007, when the organisation was officially launched, WikiLeaks has worked to report on and publish important information. We also develop and adapt technologies to support these activities.” That’s all well and good, but is the agenda as pure and honourable as it seems?

The Many Questions
Was it really unbiased in what and how it leaked its documents? Is the fact that it seems to have set itself up as a conduit for leaked documents, wouldn’t them acting as verifiers and curators of this information be skewed by their own agenda?  Is there a sinister puppetmaster behind all this with a more self serving agenda of say destabilising the United States and its allies? Cablegate and all the world’s attention begs many, many questions.

His Biggest Threat Shows his Agenda doesn’t it? He’s a Republican?

Now that he’s somewhat on the run and his life is clearly in danger he has said that if he is killed that even more sensitive documents will be released and he has also called on President of the United States Barack Obama to resign.  Authorities believe the file could include classified information about Guantanamo Bay, American airstrikes in Afghanistan that included civilian casualties, and Bank of America documents.

What are you all thinking about all of this?