Freedom of speech.....yeah right

So we are in Day 1 of the Wikileaks site's official shutdown attempts, and I must say that I am EXTREMELY pissed about the situation.

If you don't know what's been happening, then I would like to say 2 things to you:

1. Welcome to Planet Earth, it's nice here, just be careful what you say....
2. It's time you got filled in on the situation:

So Wikileaks has been around for a long time leaking "classified" information about governments and other institutions that Mr Assange an co obtained from who knows where.
Naturally, a lot top ranking government officials and other so called "powerful" people are really embarrassed to see what they thought was their confidential communications splashed all over the interwebs.

I especially liked the ones about our International Relations Minister calling Robert Mugabe a crazy old man. HAHAHAHA! Genius. If only they had the balls to say those types of things to the world...
But instead, they hide behind the quiet diplomacy and smile sweetly in his company. It's disgusting, it's false, and it's SO typically political.

Now, when the worst of the leaks is out, and there are a lot of red faces internationally, the website comes under Denial of Service attacks.
If you don't know what that is, here is a brief description:
Let's say you visit Google.com. Your browser connects to a Google server and downloads the content for you to see. Then, 30 or 40 of you in the same geographical location do the same, and all of you follow the same process.
Effectively, a Denial of Service attack replicates that type of action, multiplied by millions of those hits per minute or per second. It's easily done if you have access to a botnet, which is a vast array of computers at your fingertips with which you can utilise for these types of things.

So, let me ask 2 questions here. Who has access to a botnet? Typically hackers and shady underworld types who have access to the Black Cloud. Don't know what that is? Read this:

http://linuxers.org/article/guess-who-owns-largest-cloud-planet-cyber-criminals

Or large governments with massive IT budgets and the know how to get this done.

Now, I ask you, who do YOU think would gain from running a Denial of Service attack on Wikileaks? Do you think there is even the slightest chance this has anything to do with people who are already anti-government, not bloody likely.
I will leave the rest of the logic to you...

So what is my point? What issues do I have with this incident which makes me angry enough to write a blog about it? It's the age old freedom of speech deal.
America, the land of the free, the people who practically coined the phrase of Freedom of Speech, are the ones that (in my own opinion) are perpetrating this type of censorship. And you can call it what you like, sugar coat it, whatever, in essence it's blatant censorship of the worst kind.

Who the hell do they think they are by deciding what the people of the world can and can't know? Are we friggin children? Why are we all spoon fed candy coated bullshit, and led to a reality that is so far flung from the truth? What's next? Santa really DOES exist? The Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, etc...what other bullshit do you want the world's public (and I mention the world here because of exposure through the internet to the goings on in every country) to digest?

This to me is very simply the same as the proposed Media Tribunal here in South Africa. The ANC feel that they know what's best for us, they are the leaders and we are all just blind sheep who don't need to know the truth.

My persepctive on Wikileaks and the SA Media Tribunal is the same, and that is:
If the truth is so terrible, so bad that it's not fit for public consumption, why did it happen in the first place?
If you have nothing to hide, then what's the problem. And if you have something to hide, then the public, the taxpayers who pay your salary have EVERY right to know what the HELL you are doing behind closed doors. The concept of a transparent government should not be an alien one.
We are paying for services, just as we do with electricity (sorry, bad example), Mobile Phone companies, restaraunts, etc. We pay, therefore we have a RIGHT to know.

The fact that the Wikileaks incident was dealt with in this manner and that it is so blatantly obvious who is behind the attempts to bring the site down is completely shocking to me.
There will be a million excuses about the demise, a million cover-ups and statements made by service providers and big business all shouting down from their ivory towers about how morally wrong this is, but we all know where the pressure comes from.

Clearly there is a LOT more to hide within the Government and Corporate walls of the countries around the world. This we all suspect, as we have from the start, but what Wikileaks has done is expose it, and bring down what I call the "bullshit barrier" that stops people from trying to ignore something so that it supposedly goes away.
I want to know more. I want more accountability and transparency. I want to know what they are REALLY thinking. I feel I have a right, but they don't, and we will continue to get lulled, like infants back into the colourful world they have painted for us.

I hope and pray that 100 more Wikileaks type sites are set up and this continues to be a thorn in the sides of business and government forever. But, I fear that this is simply a hope, and as long as we have governments, the great propaganda machines will continue running and painting bullshit over the reality, so that it's easier for us mere mortals to digest.


I mean, who are we to argue?

Take care of yourself

Brian