Debate Well Done.... Is Rare

       Yesterday (4/20/11) C-Span showed a debate in London on the question: Do Whistleblowers Make
the World A Safer Place?  It featured Julian Assange (Wikileaks), Aljazeera's new head of a similar service
and a third "Pro" speaker versus someone from the US Defense Security Agency and an MI-5 guy. The Anti-Whistleblower side had essentially nothing to say on the question and ceded about 3/4 of the time to the other side. It was an excellent debate with lots of fireworks and self-expression.

        The "security guys" tried to emphasize that elections the free press and the rule of law were the public's recourse against harmful, criminal or excessive secrecy. This was countered by probably the best example of the night: The story of the soldier who was handed the DVD's of the Abu Ghreib pictures and had to decide
what to do with them. He did "the right thing" and turned them over to his superiors. As a "snitch" in an army sense he soon had to be hustled home to keep his "mates" from killing him. At home he required an armed guard for months or years because Pennsylvanians didn't much care for a guy who would expose military wrongdoing in Iraq. Of course the Army did it's best to both protect him AND cover-up the scandal.

         This leads me to the Bradley Manning case. He also "did the right thing" with a video showing a helicopter gunship team mowing down innocent civilians in Baghdad. For his trouble he was harassed
and threatened. But if you ask the question: Did Bradley Manning's actions make the world a safer place
there is a lot of evidence that it did. (for Iraqi civilians)  Wikileaks in 2007 published the US Army
secret rules of engagement in Iraq. It showed that US forces were allowed to enter Iran. Iran thought that was a big deal. A couple months later the rules had been changed in that regard and the Neo Con  push
for war with Iran was stymied. Did that make the world a safer place? Probably.

          It is rare that the secret war makers venture into an open debate about their record of lying us into
secret wars for secret purposes but April 20th was a great example of that rare thing. Thanks C-Span!