Why doesn't Wikileaks just release their ''thermonuclear file''?

[yurbud]

Rather than waiting for some judicial or other harm to come Assange and others in the organization, wouldn't the best protection be releasing http://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/2011/01/what-might-be-lurking-in-wikileaks.html">the thermonuclear file, so everyone's anger is focused on the corruption in their governments and even those tasked with persecuting Wikileaks might realize they would better serve the common good by staying their hand?

If Wikileaks dropped some of their biggest bombs, it could reset our democracy and force Washington to acknowledge what and who is really driving many of our policies instead of insulting our intelligence with childish drivel about chasing terrorists with the most powerful military in the world, which if true would be like swatting at flies with a bazooka.

Wouldn't it be nice if we had real information, so we could make real choices about whether to support wars?

If we could see the internal discussions of the Wall Street bailout from both the Wall Street side and the government side?

That would be democracy. What we have now is an increasing hollow puppet show. Everyone sees that they are puppets, that the script is crappy, and we suspect whose hands are up their asses, but we don't have the definitive evidence to prove it.

Wikileaks could do that, save their own asses, give our democracy back to us, and maybe even give it to some people who never had it before. That's worth more than any game of chess they are playing now.

[StandingInLeftField]

1. I've been wondering about this.

Perhaps the Government has pointed out to certain interested parties that it might actually use some of the assets at its disposal to actually find and "neutralize" said certain persons of interest if certain "documents" were ever released. But not in the way that certain persons of Arab descent have been "pursued" and "neutralized", mind you. I mean, they'd actually do it.

[yurbud]

11. personally instead of by drone. That's a good reason not to dally because even those

assigned the job might hesitate if all the cards were on the table. Is it possible there are CIA agents who haven't had friends or relatives die in Iraq or Afghanistan, or pensions raided, or home foreclosed? The people wealthy enough not to be touched by the fruit of their own degeneracy don't typically do jobs that require getting their hands literally bloodied, and that is their weakness. They can give all the orders they want, but when the middle & working class stop following, or even just slow-walking their orders, they are toast.

[northoftheborder]

2. I think more documents have been released to various news outlets.....

......than have been published. Maybe the delay in information coming out is in those journalistic institutions.....

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

3. Let them trickle out and keep the SOBs looking over their shoulders.

[SheilaT]

4. I wonder if they really have such a file.

We've been bamboozled before by claims of secret information that would change everything, and invariably it's nothing.

[Canuckistanian]

5. The file exists already - it's just encoded

Many people already have the "insurance file", but it can't be opened without the password key sequence.

[FormerDittoHead]

16. Whoa. What are you saying? Wikileaks has COMPLETELY CHANGED THE WORLD!

Without Wikileaks, the Pentagon Papers would never have been published! :sarcasm:

Without Wikileaks, Watergate would never have happened! :sarcasm:

And more recently, without Wikileaks, the recent "http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/23/palestine-papers-expose-peace-concession">Palestinian papers" would never have been revealed! :sarcasm:

But if you're asking, amidst all of the hype (any guess as to where this is going?), the zealot crusading of bloggers and the "celebritization" of Assange, what has Wikileaks actually CHANGED???

That's actually a good question.

I somehow remember (and I have to go by memory because not a fucking word has been said about it since last year) some "massive dump" of Military intel from Afghanistan that was supposed to change everything - heads would roll! War is over! :sarcasm:

What actually changed? Let me guess - ABSO-FUCKING-LUTELY NOTHING.

Next, the publication of inner-office gossip in the State Dept gets leaked. Again, please anyone, what has CHANGED as a result?(aside from State Dept computer security, that is).

Now, as for this "nuclear" document.

I've heard of this before and again more recently, but seriously, if Assange wasn't some attention-fame seeking whore looking to hook up with groupies, if Wikileaks were actually there to help the people understand what's going on and to change things, then he wouldn't be using the (alleged) information as some form of extortion, rather, he would IMMEDIATELY release it to fulfill the stated mission of Wikileaks.

Oh, and sorry Bradley Manning, Assange is content while literally living in a fucking palace going through groupies like tissues, while paying you lip service as you waste away in Guantanamo over something which didn't change anything except your freedom.

Sucker.

[msanthrope]

22. And you, sir, have won this thread. n/t

[Luminous Animal]

25. It isn't the information that changes things it what people do with the information to change things

Apparently, after the release of the Afghanistan logs and Iraq war logs, U.S. people prefer to yawn in the face of our blatant criminality and massive campaign of destruction.

[el_bryanto]

6. A few possibilities

Difficult to speculate to much, since we don't know what's in the file. But it might not actually save Wikileaks, but be dangerous enough that the Government would have to take further and more drastic steps to shut them down.

Alternatively, it might be the sort of information that could really shatter this country, and not in a good way.

Bryant

[KansDem]

8. "...information that could really shatter this country, and not in a good way."

So...you have a problem with that?

[el_bryanto]

10. Yes I do. I am an American; I don't want to see it shattered n/t

[yurbud]

12. I would leave out any defense tech and deployment stuff, but let loose all the political

business, and foreign policy stuff that doesn't expose stuff that benefits the common good like work on arms reduction--though even their I suspect we'd see why the US is worried about Iran and it has little to do with our security or even that of Israel, and everything to do with not having a regional player who would be impervious to military blackmail.

[Better Believe It]

7. Releasing a quarter of a million files that WikiLeaks hasn't looked at would be stupid.

I'm sure that WikiLeaks journalists want to carefully look at all the information in the files to determine what is most relevant and important and to time their release.

It's what I would do.

Democratic Underground, the Nation, The Progressive or most other progressive websites would proceed in the same fashion if they had unredacted complete copies of 250,000 documents.

That's an incredible amount of material that needs to be read and reviewed by WikiLeaks journalists.

They've just scratched the surface.

And in case anyone hasn't noticed WikiLeaks has had a few other matters that need attention.

Government's are trying to shut WikiLeaks down and imprison Assange!

I'm sure that requires some time and attention on their part and slows down the review and release of government documents.

Be patient.

[damntexdem]

9. Wikileaks should continue to vet its stuff before releasing it.

It has been acting responsibly and should continue to do so.

[justiceischeap]

13. I'm guessing it's a bit of an insurance policy. (eom)

[27inCali]

14. People need to be slowly acclimated to the idea...

of exactly how badly they have been lied to and how badly their media has been propagandized and how bat-shit insane some of the conspiracies out there are.

I expect the thermonuclear file to contain lots of secret society stuff, pictures of McChrystal and Kissinger wearing Knights of Malta outfits etc. Proof of massive conspiracies that would rock Democracies around the world. It might not be a good thing if the whole truth came out at once. Some people might just dismiss it outright for being too radically far removed from the version of reality that they have been buying into.

[yurbud]

15. cognitive dissonance--it served the Bush people well. When the evidence that the perps of 9/11

were actually the http://professorsmartass.blogspot.com/2008/03/foia-doc-shows-911commission-lied-about.html">Saudis, and Bush covered it up, kissed them on the lips, and proceeded like their guilt was never even a thought, 99% of people complied and looked the other way.

[divine_truine]

17. MAKE THOSE CORRUPT SOBs SQUIRM IN THEIR SEATS!

...although i am impatient with wikileaks opening the floodgates, i think it's better the info leaks out slowly, similar to chinese water torture! the events that have happened recently in tunisia ( & the cowardly 'first' couple trying to steal 1.5 tons of gold before fleeing the country) should be a wake-up call to other democracies i mean kleptocracies that they are indeed next on the chopping block! We are just barely seeing the first glimpses of the tip of the iceberg...

[yurbud]

18. I just hope they don't have a way to stop the trickle

[bemildred]

19. Other: there is a saying in chess that the threat is stronger than the move.

Once the contents are known, the threat is gone, no more "insurance".

[KittyWampus]

20. I don't believe they have one.

[BlueIris]

21. Assange is a cowardly poser.

Mr. Sweden Is the Saudi Arabia of Feminism won't release the alleged money files because he's obviously incapable of dealing with the consequences.

[yurbud]

23. great ad hominem. So his personal life trumps the value of what he has that could lead to real

instead of kibuki democracy driven by propaganda and lies?

[AlienGirl]

24. Maybe it's a bluff. The file exists--in that there's a big-ass encrypted file--but maybe...

Maybe the file is just gibberish, or a highly-encrypted copy of Moby Dick. If it works better as a potential threat than it would as a real weapon, there's no incentive to deploy it.

Tucker