Two of us, Ellsberg and Noam Chomsky, testified for Assange at his extradition hearing last year. In Ellsberg’s words then, the WikiLeaks publications that Assange is being charged for are “amongst the most important truthful revelations of hidden criminal state behavior that have been made public in U.S. history.” The American public “needed urgently to know what was being done routinely in their name, and there was no other way for them to learn it than by unauthorized disclosure.”
Maybe you should care about what your government does in foreign countries. Particularly when it is routinely murder and manipulation, as is the case with the U.S. government.
That aside, I invite you on a thought experiment:
Let’s say everyone took your advice and just let the government hide whatever it wanted because it is a “state secret”. Let’s say then the government goes ham and commits a bunch of atrocities. What would stop it from declaring them state secrets to prevent the public from knowing about them?
US involvement in those countries vs the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine are completely different.
What if I want my gov manipulating more?
I’d be totally into some manipulation in Russia, North Korea, Iran, Niger, Syria, etc.
US/Euro hegemony has been some of the most peaceful time in human history, and many people internationally have been brought out of poverty. Compare that to the most recent serious alternatives:
- the USSR caused famine for it’s own citizens and killed people who tried to leave
- China forcefully suppresses alternative perspectives, continues imperial land grabs, and has some of the worst journalist freedoms of any country
