Secrecy, part 2

Common information flows among global governments Inside government = Supply side In the public = Demand side Push disclosure = Proactive Pull disclosure = Reactive May 25, 2019 How We Know What We Know

Feeding information to the demand side Leakers Whistleblowers WikiLeaks

Why do leakers leak? Political infighting Impact policy Slant coverage Revenge Air alternate points of view Plenty more

Whistleblower: Hero or traitor? May 25, 2019 How We Know What We Know

A delicate balance “The problem with mass surveillance is when you collect everything, you understand nothing," Snowden said. Government spying "fundamentally changes the balance of power between the citizen and the state." May 25, 2019 How We Know What We Know

Distinction between whistleblowing and leaking “A ‘leaker’ is the anonymous source for unauthorized disclosure of any information. A “whistleblower” makes a public interest disclosure, and may be either anonymous or public.” Working with Whistleblowers: A Guide for Journalists GAP: Government Accountability Project

Whistleblowers face consequences

Wikileaks Founded in 2006 by Julian Assange, Australian, hacker   “an uncensorable system for untraceable mass document leaking and public analysis” (Assange in The New Yorker July 2010); “a secretive cadre of antisecrecy vigilantes” (Keller, NYT, 2011)

Wikileaks Assange is intensely paranoid Repeated run-ins with authorities since becoming a hacker as a teenager Views illegitimate government and institutions as conspiracies that use “collaborative secrecy” Internal lines of communication must be disrupted in order to dissolve regimes

Timeline     2008 - Leaked documents on corruption in Kenya, “Climategate” emails, and others Little reaction from mainstream media 2010 Spring: Collateral Murder video – Footage originally requested by Reuters, leaked to Wikileaks; edited in one week in a hideout in Iceland Summer: Afghan War Diaries – Military dispatches on a difficult war November: "Cablegate” – 250,000 diplomatic cables from nearly every U.S. Embassy in the world  

Big Picture Impact of Wikileaks is hard to measure Media circus surrounding Assange Fighting extradition to Sweden; wanted for questioning; has been hiding in Ecuadorian Embassy in London since summer 2012 US considering options for prosecution Murky connections to Russia, Roger Stone Larger questions about the role of journalism, the importance of secrecy, the value of information Undoubtedly controversial (Terrorist or Nobel Peace Prize Winner?), but really only the beginning.

History repeats itself? In 2010, the National Archives released the full Pentagon Papers, 40 years after they were originally leaked by Daniel Ellsberg. Papers were a report commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara on the history of US involvement in Vietnam, with very negative conclusions. Why has it taken so long? Daniel Ellsberg

History repeats itself? “Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people and sending them off to distant lands to die of foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell.” —Justice Hugo Black, The New York Times Co. v United States