WikiLeaks: What Does It Really Mean?

The pieces of information revealed so far are not military secrets, but rather diplomatic ones that put the U.S. in an uncomfortable situation.

The information that shows up on the WikiLeaks page has created a real earthquake in the world, and WikiLeaks’ creator — an Australian reporter by the name of Assange — has incidentally been arrested in London without bail* and is wanted by the Swedish government for the crime of rape.

What Assange has accomplished is the work of a very proactive and highly intelligent person, because he has gained access to highly confidential information concerning the most powerful nation in the world.

Although the information revealed so far does not usually involve military secrets, but rather diplomatic ones, it is information that in one way or another puts the United States in an uncomfortable situation because it reveals the intimate reports of people who exercise transcendental influence in the world and in large social groups.

That someone in the State Department criticized Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, for lacking creativity, or that an Argentinian official doubts her mental capacity, or that a Libyan official has been accompanied by a voluptuous, 33-year-old blonde nurse where he works, or that many more irrelevant things occurred does not mean that these events are far-reaching elements of world politics, because they are only opinions and not proven truths. What’s more, if someone is listening in on private conversations, it can only reflect badly on those who solicit and produce such conduct.

As for the dissemination of United States reports concerning our country — allow me to disappoint you — they involve things that many have already guessed without the need of said reports. That there is distrust between the president and the party that brought him to power, and that there are fears of possible attacks on the government’s integrity from people who have been a part of a civil war which resorted to all kinds of immoral acts — murder, robbery, kidnapping, destruction of infrastructure and countless other crimes, all justified by a quest for “vindication of the people’s rights” — cannot be a crazy idea, but rather a logical and feasible possibility that would and should occur to any sane person.

The infighting between the president and his team and the party that nominated him for the position is demonstrated by facts from his first day in office. In that respect, I think that Salvadorans should not be surprised, since the only thing that has happened is that many people in many parts of the world have rendered reports to their government concerning how they see, read and interpret their countries’ rulers and economic situations. What the great northern nation should be concerned about is how and why someone was able to access so much supposedly confidential information and bring it to light through major communication outlets.

The fact that this person, and who knows how many others, was able to rise to this level of infiltration has already provoked President Obama to appoint someone to make sure that it does not happen again. The problem is definitely serious, because depending on who is working for whom and who spies on whom, the world is under a grave threat of destruction, especially now that nations like Iran and North Korea are thought to be potential possessors of nuclear weapons.

Thus, the information about human rights violations in the Iraq War given by WikiLeaks has become child’s play. Whether the WikiLeaks reports are confirmed or not is irrelevant, because espionage has been practiced since time immemorial by all governments that must, for the sake of security, know their friends and enemies. What is unusual is that the public knows what is supposed to be secret.

*Editor’s Note: Since this article was originally published, Assange was released on bail on Dec. 17, 2010.