Jacob Ward

Crist

English 4

March 16th, 2017

Wikileaks

Many people have no idea what a wikileak could possibly be. Others for say, probably

know what they are, but don't think anything of them. Wikileaks are basically a website with a

community of hackers that leak valuable and classified information. This information in the

wrong hands could be a potential threat to some people. I believe that wikileaks shouldnt

publicize information because they can endanger lives and be beneficial for enemies of war.

Wikileaks was founded by an australian computer programmer/hacker named julian

assange. It was founded in october of 2006 with very minimal information. It started with

nothing and today it has over ten million stolen documents (Wikipedia). This information can

put people at serious risk and it needs to stop happening. People might think that they are

protected by the first amendment but the supreme court added something called incitement. That

is basically when you say something threatening and it isn't able to be protected by the first

amendment. What the founder of wikileaks has done isn't any kind of journalism, it is obstruct

and can harm innocent lives.

We have many brave soldiers fighting in the Afghanistan war. Little do a lot of people

know, not all of these men were Americans. We have Afghans over there leaking information to

the United States on the the fight with the known terrorist group Taliban. Wikileaks released
valuable information containing the names of over 100 Afghans helping us in the fight with the

taliban (Feinstein). If these leaked names were on the side of enemy lines at the time helping us

this could put their lives in danger. The taliban could pull up and assassinate some of these

people.

Another instance where Wikileaks endangers the lives of people is when they released the

information of over hundreds of thousands of turkish women. The whole point of this leak was

to expose members of the AKP. The AKP is a conservative political party in Turkey that is very

disliked and a lot of women are part of it. Turkey is one of those countries where women dont

have equal rights like men. Every year hundreds of women are murdered in Turkey or go hiding

to seek safety (Tufekci). Basically this leak endangered women because personal information

like phone numbers and addresses were leaked, along with their turkey identification cards. This

potentially and most likely got some women hurt or killed.

Based on all of this information you can get a clear understanding of what Wikileaks are

and what they are trying to do. They Violate laws and cause corruption which is the goal of the

organization. The website should be taken down by law and participants in the founding of the

website should be put on trial for breaking laws and stealing over 10 million documents.

Wikileaks should be abolished because they publicize information that can harm lives and

benefit enemies of the United States of America.

 Works Cited

., Anonymous .. "It's OK to Speak Your Mind, But Don't Hurt Anyone." Freedom of Speech Has

Lines - Lawyers.com. Lawyers.com, 09 Apr. 2015. Web. 16 Mar. 2017.

,, CNN ,. "WikiLeaks Fast Facts." CNN. Cable News Network, 8 Mar. 2017. Web. 16 Mar. 2017.

Feinstein, Dianne. "WikiLeaks Should Be Prosecuted Under the Espionage Act." Wikileaks,

edited by Tamara Thompson, Greenhaven Press, 2013. At Issue. Opposing Viewpoints in

Context,link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ3010831209/OVIC?u=scschools&xid=baafb094.

Accessed 15 Mar. 2017. Originally published as "Prosecute Assange Under the

Espionage Act," Wall Street Journal, 7 Dec. 2010.

Thiessen, Marc. "WikiLeaks Is a National Security Threat and Should Be Censored." Internet

Censorship, edited by Margaret Haerens and Lynn M. Zott, Greenhaven Press, 2014.

Opposing Viewpoints. Opposing Viewpoints in Context,

link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ3010901209/OVIC?u=scschools&xid=39fcf0cd.

Accessed

15 Mar. 2017. Originally published as "Obama Administration Is Weak in the Face of

WikiLeaks," Washington Post, 29 Nov. 2010.

Tufekci, Zeynep. "WikiLeaks Put Women in Turkey in Danger, for No Reason (UPDATE)."The

Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 25 July 2016. Web. 16 Mar. 2017.

., Wikipedia .. "WikiLeaks." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Mar. 2017. Web. 16 Mar.

2017.