WikiLeaks Debate: Publication of Classified Information --- Dangerous or Valuable? (Wolff v. Lucas)

STEFAN WOLFF: Misguided, irresponsible, reprehensible—these are just some of the words used by critics to describe the latest set of releases on the website, WikiLeaks. But is this more than hurt pride and should we really care one way or the other?

SCOTT LUCAS: WikiLeaks is not an angel in this story. It, along with the media outlets posting its cables, is a participant in a new environment in which we can be empowered through access to information. The issue here is not a threat to national security or a threat to diplomacy, but whether we allow a the Government to re-assert unchecked and unquestioned control.

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WikiLeaks and Iran 2007: "The President is a Puppet of the Leader"

In April 2007, an MP and senior member of the Islamic Iran Participation Front offers some provocative comments on Iranian politics to the US Consulate in Dubai.

Supreme Leader Khamenei aspires to become the "emperor" of the Islamic world and is willing to sacrifice Iranian national interests for this goal. He sees President Ahmadi-Nejad as merely a puppet of the Supreme Leader, under the leader's complete control. Ahmadi-Nejad, in turn, sees more pragmatic conservatives such as [Speaker of Parliament Ali] Larijani and [Tehran Mayor Mohammad-Baqer] Qalibaf as his main rivals.

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The Latest from Iran (11 December): Using Sakineh to Denounce Activists and Lawyers

1835 GMT: Sanctions Watch. Shargh reports that the electronics firm LG, after US pressure, has left Iran for Dubai and that Samsung may follow soon.

1830 GMT: Budget Chat. Video has been posted of the meeting of the Expediency Council meeting, in the presence of Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani, on the 5th Budget Plan.

1700 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. The family of Reza Shahabi, the treasurer of the Tehran Bus Workers' Union, says he is still in prison two months after bail was posted.

The Union calims Shahabi was to be released on 11 October 11 after his family posted bail of 60 million tomans ($57,103). The family said it agreed to pay an additional surety of 100 million tomans (about $100,000).

Shahabi's brother Hassan told Radio Farda, "They say he is not going to be released for certain reasons," but no one has disclosed what those reasons are.

Shahabi has reportedly started a hunger strike.

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Egypt and the Elections: The "Strategic Blunder" of President Mubarak's Party (Hamid)

There is no transition whose beginning is not the consequences --- direct or indirect --- of important divisions within the authoritarian regime itself. Those divisions, in Egypt, are only likely to grow.

For the National Democratic to make a strategic blunder at such a crucial moment in Egypt's history suggests a regime that is nervous, unsure of itself and increasingly incoherent.

The Parliamentary elections were the first such mistake. Whether there will be more ---- and whether the opposition manages to capitalise --- will determine the course Egypt takes in the coming, critical months.

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Iran Special: Human Rights and a Political Prisoner Named Ebrahim Yazdi

Ebrahim Yazdi is Iran's oldest political prisoner, detained briefly after the June 2009 Presidential election and then again on 1 October 2010. He is reportedly in serious condition in prison, suffering from heart disease and cancer.

As we mark International Human Rights Day this week, we post an article by Barbara Slavin for AOL News and the appeal of Yazdi's family to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, sent last Sunday:

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US Saturday Special: Pardon Jim Morrison, But Don't Pardon the Counter-Culture (Haddigan)

So, good luck to Jim Morrison and fans of his music; he deserves a pardon. But if you read elsewhere that it is long-deserved recognition that a lilywhite and innocent counterculture --- who, as that sickly 1971 Coca-Cola ad says, thought they could "teach the world to sing in perfect harmony", were harshly treated --- take a pause. A counterculture of "peace and love" was never anything more --- at least after the Diggers disbanded in 1967 in disgust at the way the movement was headed --- than the invention of a privileged few.

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WikiLeaks: A Guide to EA's Coverage This Week

Analyses

1. An EA exclusive on Afghanistan: "US Embassy Protects Contractor Over Hiring of Child Prostitutes"

2. We take apart dramatic headlines to evaluate, "Does Shell Really Have a Grip on Nigeria's Government?"

2. Josh Mull carries out a reality check: "Journalism is Not an Attack, WikiLeaks is Not Warfare"

Features and Documents

1. How the release of the documents turned into a CyberWar: "Now MasterCard's A Casualty" and "Visa, MasterCard Sites Still Offline"

3. One of our favourite strange-but-true moments: "Iran: The Regime's Ninja Assassins?"

4. A look at one of the more unusual diplomatic incidents in the cables: "Europe, Ahmadinejad, and the Worst Inauguration Protest Ever"

Audio

Scott Lucas offers an introduction to WikiLeaks and the issues over the documents in an interview with BBC West Midlands.

WikiLeaks Audio: EA's Scott Lucas on BBC West Midlands

I joined BBC West Midlands Radio on Thursday to give an introduction to WikiLeaks and to consider questions such as "Are the released documents a threat to national security? Do they offer valuable information in the public interest? Or both?"

The interview starts at the 42:55 mark.

Wikileaks and Oil Special: Does Shell Really Have A Grip on Nigerian Government?

The Guardian of London featured this October 2009 cable in their WikiLeaks coverage on Thursday: "Shell's Grip on Nigerian Government Revealed".

Well, not quite.

This is a significant document but not in the black-and-white portrayal of The Guardian. Instead, it reveals how Shell has made its political moves --- including putting its own people inside Nigeria's ministries --- precisely because it cannot be sure of "control" over Nigerian policy. 

And this is also a forthright revelation of the US Government as accomplice to Shell's efforts: "The Ambassador asked what the Embassy could do to help" the oil company with the pressure on Nigeria's legislators over the Petroleum Industry Bill.

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Iran Feature: Renewed Claims That Presidential Election Was Manipulated

*From Thursday, 11 June, the Ministry of Communications cut off all links between cell phones of the polling station monitors for Mousavi and another candidate, Mehdi Karroubi, and of the headquarters of the Committee for Protecting People's Votes.

*At 4 p.m. on 12 June, five hours before voting ended, Raja News, linked to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, announced that Ahmadinejad had been reelected with 63% of the vote, the same percentage that the Ministry of Interior and the Guardian Council late on the night of 12 June and over following days.

*Mousavi's and Karroubi's monitors were barred for many hours from the Ministry of Interior building during the evening of 12 June as the counting of votes took place. By the time they were allowed to enter, state television was broadcasting "results", even though the locations where votes were supposedly cast were not showing any numbers.

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