Biggest Whistle..

Julian Assange is at it again. Assange, of WikiLeaks fame, is known for "opening governments" by leaking classified documents or documentaries. As of recent, his primary target has been the Iraq war and bringing out its apparent injustices.

Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks

During July of this year, Wikileaks released 70,000 files concerning the Afghan war. It was one of, if not THE, largest leaks of all time. As one might imagine, the U.S. government was non too pleased. The Pentagon is now bracing for another publication. This one containing a grand total of 400,000 documents. In response to the possible leak,     "the US military has assembled a 120-member team to prepare for the expected publication" (BBC). WikiLeaks claims that any and all names have  been removed from the documents to protect those within them.

The government, somewhat understandably, does not want these documents to be released and is doing whatever it can to prevent them from being brought to the light. They have blocked any revenue from ads coming in for the site. It is possible that government agencies have started a smear campaign against Assange. For instance, Assange is under investigation for an alleged sex crime that he claims that he did not do, and claims that the allegations are a part of this very same smear campaign. But what does the government have to hide? When can we "justify the government in silencing private speakers who seek to express contrary views" (Gey)? The correct answer should be never. If nothing wrong is happening, then why hide the truths?


Gey, S. (2010). Why Should the First Amendment Protect Government Speech When the Government Has Nothing To Say?. Iowa Law Review, 95(4), 1259-1314. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database.


Pentagon Braces for New Iraq War Wikileaks Publication. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11562494.

Keep Your Enemies Closer..

Back to that good ol' subject of war.

The ongoing war between the Israelis and Palestinians is by far the most well known, unfortunately, throughout the world. It's also known for the multitude of atrocities that have occurred on both sides. Both sides have participated in heinous acts, especially against children, intentionally or not. Hell, just searching for 'Israel' and 'children' (or any image regarding this conflict) on Google for morally appropriate pictures shows how horrible it is.  Both sides, as well, have not always appropriately punished those that had caused unjust harm. Their justice systems, if you can call them that, have been rather lenient when dealing with their respective soldiers.

In 2009, Israeli soldiers seized an apartment in Tel al-Hawa, a suburb of Gaza City, where they rounded up all of its residents. Searching through the building, soldiers discovered two bags in a bathroom. And being the geniuses that they are, two Israeli sergeants decided that it would be best to not open the bags before checking for possible traps. So, what do they do? They grab a child, against his will, of course, and tell him to inspect the bags. Nothing was in the first bag, but the boy was unable to open the second so the soldiers shot the bag and the boy was returned physically unharmed. And this, by the way, is only ONE event out of many that led to the indictment of "several officers and soldiers". Now, there are a hundred things wrong with this.  There was nothing in the bags, luckily for the boy's sake, and the brave little soldiers were put on trial and were convicted and punished with prison time.

War crimes are present on both sides. We, they, someone, needs to make sure that the appropriate actions are taken at the end of this.. thing. Whenever, if, that will ever be.

Read the article HERE.

Bronner, E. (2010). Israeli Soldiers Convicted of Using Boy as Shield. Retrieved from
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/04/world/middleeast/04mideast.html?_r=2&hpw.

Rane, H. (2009). Jihad, competing norms and the Israel-Palestine impasse. Australian Journal of International Affairs, 63(1), 41-63. doi:10.1080/10357710802666125.