You cannot un-invent WikiLeaks
We are strongly of the view that things should be published. Where you are open things will not be WikiLeaked. Whatever view you take about WikiLeaks -- right or wrong -- it means that things will now get out. It has changed things. Government and authorities need to factor it in. Be more proactive, publishing more stuff, because quite a lot of this is only exciting because we did not know it. You cannot un-invent WikiLeaks. It is part of the phenomenon of the online, empowered citizen. These are facts that are not going to go away, and government and authorities need to wise up. One response is that they will clam up and not write anything down, which is nonsense, you cannot run an organisation that way. The other is to be even more open. The best form of defence is transparency.
The secrets in Israel's archives
The Israeli government has extended the period for releasing classified documents from 50 to 70 years. The move is the government's response to Israeli journalists who have been seeking through courts to gain access to documents that should already be declassified. The documents in question relate, among other events, to the 1948 war, which established Israel, and the 1956 Suez crisis. The state’s chief archivist says many of the documents "are not fit for public viewing" and raise doubts about Israel's "adherence to international law." Had Germany's archives remained secret for 70 years, we would only have documentary proof of Nazi war crimes until 1940. Those responsible would be largely unknown to the general public, and Simon Wiesenthal would have spent his days idly by until his death in 2005. http://aljazeera.com/news/articles/39/The-secrets-in-Israels-archives.html
Latvian cyberactivist Neo arrested
Ilmārs Poikāns, researcher at the University of Latvia's Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science has confessed to being "Neo" who accessed and enabled the publication of the tax records of Latvia's political and business elite. State Police Chief said Neo's so-called People's Army of the 4th Awakening was likely fictitious and Poikāns acted alone, communicating via social networking sites about how to access the data. The State Revenue Service said 120 people illegally downloaded documents from the service's electronic declaration system and that the "hole" existed from the end of 2007 until 4 February 2010, when it was discovered and closed. Some 7.4 million documents, equaling 120 GB of data, were downloaded from the site, including income statements and tax declarations of public officials, bureaucrats, and business. The data shows that top executives of the municipal companies received huge monthly salaries and enormous bonuses went out the door all while regular employees took wage reductions in light of budget cuts. Now, parts of Latvian society that lauded "Neo" as a hero are standing in defense of Poikāns' actions. There was a brief protest in front of the Cabinet of Ministers building Thursday in support of Poikāns.
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