UPDATE: Julian Assange Says WikiLeaks Will Work With Tech Companies
WikiLeaks took what may be a dangerous turn Thursday during a press conference at which its co-founder, Julian Assange, announced that his organization would be working directly with tech companies by sharing data it gleaned from the latest CIA leak.
“[The tech firms] want more information about what has been going on with this program. I want to announce today that after considering what we think is the best way to proceed, and hearing these calls from some of the manufacturers, we have decided to work with them, to give them some exclusive access to the additional technical details we have, so that fixes can be developed and pushed out so that people can be secured.”
Assange uses the term “people” universally, some of whom do not have the best interests of the United States or Americans anywhere in the world in their best interests. He alleges the CIA cyberweapons will be used against civilians around the world, and that they should all be protected.
However, by “disarming” the CIA tactics, as he put it, Assange and WikiLeaks could be effectively putting millions of Americans at risk.
If the CIA has been spying on American citizens in violation of the law, is it a risk worth pursuing for greater freedom? Regardless of the answer, today’s press conference moved WikiLeaks away from its stated mission as a journalistic endeavor and made it a decidedly activist organization.
How will that impact the way that the U.S. government and other foreign governments respond to its document dumps in the future? Likewise, how might this impact Assange’s political asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he has been holed up for more than four years?
Those are questions that may not be answered for some time. But in the meantime, it is yet another reminder of the need for Christians to be praying for their nation. {eoa}
