It all starts with a leak...

Generally speaking, my apathy knows no bounds, but just occasionally I am shaken out of my docility by something exciting. The Wikileaks vs Governments skirmish seems to have done just that.

I haven't read the leaked documents in anything like enough detail to state with any degree of certainty whether or not they do indeed, as Wikileaks's legion of critics suggest, endanger the lives of those people named or detailed within them (although Julian Assange has claimed that, to his or anyone's knowledge, there have been no deaths whatsoever as a result of the leaks). The libertarian within me quite likes the spotlight the leaks have shone on the activities of governments (and particularly the US) around the world, though. From what I have seen, a fair proportion of the activity detailed in the cables is, at the very least, embarrassing and, at the worst, pretty appalling.

As I say, though, without really taking a view on whether the leaks are a good thing or not, I am still fascinated and horrified in equal measure by the reaction of governments around the world to Wikileaks and its enigmatic Editor in Chief, Mr Assange. With Assange's arrest on rape charges this morning, and the string of organisations (including high profile private companies like Visa, Mastercard and PayPal) pulling various plugs on Wikileaks, it certainly looks like a concerted campaign is being waged by world governments against the organisation. In Wikileaks's corner is a group of "hacktivists", known collectively as Anonymous, who are carrying out cyber-attacks on the organisations that would put and end to Wikileaks's activities.

I can't help but think that the genie is already out of the bottle, though. Even if the powers that be succeed in muzzling Assange and Wikileaks, the technology that enabled the interception of the previously-secure diplomatic cables, and that makes it possible to spread the information contained within those cables far and wide, already exists.

Wikileaks may have made foreign policy as we know it (or don't, as it seems) unviable. That is, at the least, a fascinating development and one that deserves closer study than this nincompoop is usually capable of.

Update - Tango down. Anonymous knocks out Mastercard's website. Lovely stuff.

Update II - Can I just dismiss a particularly absurd notion that seems to be doing the rounds at the moment?

Repeat after me: just because Julian Assange is in favour of government leaks, doesn’t mean he’s a hypocrite for wanting to keep his own affairs a secret.

At the risk of putting words in his mouth, he’s not in favour of total transparency, for everyone, all the time. He’s in favour of transparency from public, not private, institutions. Governments, then. Not individuals. Not companies, either.

That’s the difference between, to go all American for a sec, liberals and libertarians. The former is concerned with the behavior of, well, everyone. The latter is concerned with governments, full-stop.

I’ve no idea whether Assange considers himself a liberal, a libertarian, or whatever. His ideas are perfectly consistent, though. Hypocrite, at least on this, is he none.