Does The Truth Hurt?

         As a citizen of the USA I believe that we are entitled to know everything that goes on.  This country is supposed to be for the people but a lot of things go on that never make it back to the public.  The US government officials believe that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is trying to corrupt people’s minds and even took it as far as to call him a high tech terrorist.  I do not feel that the government has the right keep secrets from people, because as a country we can only make decisions based on what we know thus if we are not properly informed our decisions are tainted.  In this new day and age technology is instant information the issue is that the government wants to regulate it, I feel as though if the government had nothing to hide us knowing everything would not be an issue.

People that are against Wikileaks are government officials that want information to stay private.  People who are against wikileaks would argue that Assange is stealing classified information and is a threat to the US army.  The US attorney general also has said that they are looking into pressing charges against Assange but refused to comment further. Government officials are against Assange although he is only exercising his right to freedom of speech.  People feel as though Assange and wikileaks is a threat to everyone’s security. 

Wikileaks is essential to us progressing as a people.  Freedom of speech is a part of our rights that we were born with, but it seems as though government officials are trying to limit what we can say or post online more and more.  Assange is breaking down the barrier between the government and its citizens and that is a good thing.  We should know what is going on to make fair decisions for example voting how we can’t pick fairly if we don’t have the facts.  The problem with the government is that they want you to know what they think that you should know instead of telling us the truth.   

Gellman, Barton. "Person of the Year 2010." Time. Time, 15 Dec. 2010. Web. 24 Feb. 2012. <http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2036683_2037118_2037146-3,00.html>.

“  Last July, it turns out, as controversy erupted over its release of the Afghanistan war logs, WikiLeaks had posted, without explanation, a 1.4-gigabyte encrypted file called "insurance.aes256." Some 100,000 people around the world have downloaded it.”

“significant material from the U.S. and other countries." He added, "If something happens to us, the key parts will be released automatically."

Norman, Joshua. "Julian Assange's Lawyers Fear U.S. Spy Charges." CBSNews. CBS Interactive, 10 Dec. 2010. Web. 24 Feb. 2012. <http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503543_162-20025289-503543.html>.

“U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters earlier this week the Justice Department was "looking into" charges against WikiLeaks and Assange. He has provided no further public comment since then.”