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Internet, I think we should have a chat over coffee

Alex Dickinson

by Alex Dickinson

09 Aug 05:50am

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Filed under: Election 2010, Internet, New Media, Relationships, Twitter, Wikileaks

30 comments

THE internet has broken my heart in the past fortnight.

We had such a great relationship. She was funny, knowledgeable, sexually adventurous. She let me hang out with my friends whenever I wanted and bought me DVDs.

It took time, but it turns out she’s one of those crazy chicks and two of her most exciting attributes - WikiLeaks and Twitter - have gone south. Honeymoon over.

The first sign of trouble was whistleblower website WikiLeaks deciding to post tens of thousands of classified US military documents online. They contained detailed operational data that named and gave the GPS co-ordinates of hundreds of Afghan informants - essentially giving the Taliban a ready-made hit list of double-agents.

Since the leak, at least one Afghan village elder has been assassinated for helping the US. Threatening letters have also been delivered to 70 tribal elders, and a US senator has called for the suspected leaker, 22-year-old army private Bradley Manning, to be sentenced to death.

I championed WikiLeaks as journalistic geniuses when they released a video earlier this year showing US soldiers recklessly gunning down civilians and journalists because, as Lisa Simpson says: “Who polices the police?’’ (Homer: “I dunno . . . Coast Guard?’‘)

But now the site has blood on its hands. Did you know WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was born in Townsville? Yup - America’s public enemy No.1 is a Queenslander (he also spent a chunk of his childhood near Roma), so the internet cheated on me with one of my own.

If I was smarter, I would now start talking about the philosophy of pure freedom of speech versus the role of considered editorial discretion.

Thankfully I’m not smarter, so you’re spared.

Then came our Twitter spat.

A few weeks ago, I got a bit excited and wrote a blog about how social media, specifically Twitter, would dominate the election campaign. There was so much promise. It was huge during the British and US elections - hell, Barack Obama used Twitter to announce Joe Biden as his running mate.

But in Australia, Twitter has been a dud. As The Australian newspaper said yesterday: ``So far both party leaders seem far more interested in interacting through the traditional means of TV and radio interviews, press conferences, shopping centre visits . . .’‘

Screw Gen Y and the 1.2 million Australians who use Twitter (Tony Abbott hasn’t tweeted since the day the election was called).

Without an influence on politics, Twitter is just another forum for celebrities to embarrass themselves.

It’s a tale of woe but I have the upper hand. (It’s called the off switch.)

We’ll see if the internet comes crawling back.

Alex Dickinson is a Courier-Mail journalist.

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30 comments

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    • Duke says:

      07:43am | 09/08/10

      So Wikileaks annoys you.  Well maybe the 7 billion other sites may be more to your liking.

      Anyone expecting twitter to have any substance re the election does not understand the forum.

      A Courier Mail ‘journalist’.

      Say no more.

      At least about the net.

      Please.

      Reply

    • TrueOz says:

      07:43am | 09/08/10

      Geez Alex, I hate the fact that the names of those spies have been exposed and lives endangered - but maybe people might think harder next time before deciding to assist an invading force in their own country. Too few people ask the question as to why the Americans ever went to Iraq (not a WMD in sight, no evidence of Taliban training centres, the list goes on…), or why they are still there. It’s websites like Wikileaks that can expose corrupt, murderous governments for what they are and show the misery they inflict upon innocent people - that’s provided imbeciles like Stephen CONroy don’t get their way and filter them out.

      Reply

    • Liz says:

      08:39am | 09/08/10

      Right on! And who evewr expected Twitter to have substance?

    • Adam Diver says:

      08:54am | 09/08/10

      You are right. Who doesnt want the taliban murdering 8 foreigh aid workers mostly nurses. I think all nurses should be killed too particularly when in a foreign country.

    • TheRealDave says:

      10:02am | 09/08/10

      WTF?!?!

      Seriously?

      I knew people had dodgy memories that seem to go ‘fuzzy’ at around the 3 year mark when they waxed lyrical about the old world charms of the hey day of the previous Liberal government ... but now you want to re-write history that less than a decade old??

      What do you mean there were no Taliban training camps? Of course there were, and still are. The Taliban after all were running the country so they were bound to train a few people don’t you think?. Even now we are brassing up various Talibunny training camps. Unless of course you forgot it was Al Queda that had the training camps (unless you are claiming they don’t exist now as well??) who were in cahoots with the Taliban and who went went inn after 9/11 (unless that didn’t happen either??) or you just plain didn’t know the difference (my bet - any takers??). Nor was WMD ever uttered in reference to Afghanistan - you are getting your wars mixed up, bit like the clowns who cry that Rudd is/was a warmonger because he promised to pull out the troops….and didn’t realsie that Iraq was a different place and war to Afghanistan.

      Getting basic facts correct about a subject is usually a good thing. Otherwise you get written off as a clueless nonce who just cuts and pastes internet conspiracy rants.

    • Richard says:

      10:06am | 09/08/10

      @TrueOz but everyone knows why we went into Afghanistan: because it was a repressive fundamentalist regime famous for blowing up sacred millennium-old buddhist statues, actively preventing the education of all women and collaborating with extremist islamic terrorists.

      If you think we should just cut and run from Afghanistan now that the going is tough, take a look at the august 9 issue of Time magazine about Aisha, (the girl who had her nose and ears sliced off by the Taliban for trying to flee from her abusive in-laws) to understand why we must see this through, and why moderates in Afghanistan must “assist an invading force in their own country”.

    • James1 says:

      02:32pm | 09/08/10

      I suppose, if that is reason enough to invade a country, you will be front and center for the invasion of Saudi Arabia, Richard?  I imagine given your depth of feeling you would want to be in the first wave to hit the beaches…

    • Moby says:

      06:02pm | 09/08/10

      @Richard…..notwithstanding that the Afghan president asked NATO to come in and help with the Taliban, and the Aust government then supplied troops to NATO…....cant compare Iraq and Afghanistan sorry

    • Brian says:

      06:03pm | 09/08/10

      Uh, TheRealDave, he wasn’t talking about Afghanistan. Try reading his post, you know the one which specifically includes references to Iraq, but none to Afghanistan?

    • TheRealDave says:

      06:32pm | 09/08/10

      @Brian, I guess you missed the bit where he said ‘Taliban Training camps’ then?

    • Brian says:

      07:09pm | 09/08/10

      Nope, I didn’t miss it. He was referring to the fact there were none in Iraq, and that no WMD’s were found in Iraq. Still wasn’t referring to Afghanistan.

    • thatmosis says:

      07:59am | 09/08/10

      The owner or creator of Wikileaks should be tried for treason and shot, or shot and then tried for treason. Creeps like this arent needed when it affects the lives of our soldiers overseas. People who support him are no better and also have blood on their hands. There are no words to adequately describe this moron and his band of moronic supporters nut to say I wish they were in the firing line and then see how thier narrow little minds would change.

      Reply

    • TrueOz says:

      08:53am | 09/08/10

      I know where the “narrow little mind” is located thatmosis - and it’s not with the creator and supporters of Wikileaks. The word “moronic” also pops to mind…

    • John A Neve says:

      09:56am | 09/08/10

      Thatmosis,
      You obviously don’t like the truth!!! You’d rather believe political fairy tales, you know, the ones where we do no wrong and those in masks do only evil.

      As to soldiers lives, that is what the army is all about. I support Wiileaks and my conscience is clean as in my view our troops should never have been in either Iraq or Afghanistan.

    • TheRealDave says:

      03:25pm | 09/08/10

      @John ‘As to soldiers lives, that is what the army is all about” and that speaks volumes as to what you believe and say.

      “I support Wiileaks and my conscience is clean as in my view our troops should never have been in either Iraq or Afghanistan’ So what you are saying is that you support wiki leaks publishing whatever they feel like even if Australian soldiers are killed because of it, because they shouldn’t have been there in the first place?

      John, 40 years ago they were spitting on soldiers and abusing them in public. Nowadays they are publishing military secrets which could get them killed. I despise both kinds.

      Protest loudly to the government. Hold rallies and despise the government. That’s your democratic right - provided to you off the backs of soldiers, you’re welcome by the way, but I would draw the line at openly cheering on the release of classified information that will make their jobs harder and more dangerous - all because you want to ‘stick it to the man’.

    • Muttley says:

      03:54pm | 09/08/10

      TheRealDave, well said. Extremely well said. The apologists for this disgarceful act arent much better than the creator of this site that decided to add military info. They just dont get it.

    • Moby says:

      06:05pm | 09/08/10

      @JAN…..again, Afghanistan asked NATO to come in and help with the Taliban conflict, and Aust provided troops to NATO…......the guys that have joined the armed forces know the risks….....not that I want any of them to die, but its something that is always in the back of your mind while you are serving.

    • Colin says:

      08:25am | 09/08/10

      Forces on all sides of this war have killed more innocent civilians than Wikileaks’ leaks ever will.  The argument that we should cover up the murder and corruption of these people, including and particularly our own, for the reason of securing them to do more of the same is imbecilic.

      Reply

    • Steve says:

      10:26am | 09/08/10

      So by your logic. It’s OK for everyone to kill a few people, so long as it’s never more than the forces of all sides?
      Really? You’re OK with that?

    • TheRealDave says:

      11:15am | 09/08/10

      When you say ‘forces’ do you mean Taliban considering that near *80% of all civilian deaths in Afghanistan have been killed by them?

      *according to UN reports

    • Steve says:

      10:03am | 09/08/10

      Listen,
      Wikileaks on the whole. Not a bad idea. Especially considering mass genocides in African countries by governments of countries no-one really cares about.
      What wikileaks have done about the Iraq and Afghan war disgusts me. They claim to be non-siding and to give you the whole picture to make up your decision. But they don’t. They really don’t. The helicopter incident when then the Reuters Journo and his mate were killed.
      Hands up you knows the context? Nothing? Ok, let me tell you.

      You are in a convoy, it comes under assault with small arms fire and RPG’s… Your mate in the front truck just died. Don’t know how many more. You’re Captain immediately calls in air-support in the way of Helo’s, after a firefight of 10 minutes, who knows how many more dead, your life is on the line, the Helo’s turn up looking for the radicals that are killing you.
      Meanwhile, a Reuters Journo thinks, that sticking with a group of terrorists, while an attack is going on, is gonna be great news. Unfortunately, he’s carrying around what looks like a AK-47, his mate, is carrying a tripod holder or whatever, very cylindrical looking—RPG anyone?
      Tell me, you’re mates just died, 200 metres away, you see people acting suspicious, if you don’t think that in that video they ‘looked suspicious’ crouching around corner etc etc, then mate. You haven’t been around long enough to weigh into the debate.
      You are the helo pilot. You will fire.
      If you don’t. You are jeopardizing the lives of your mates.

      You say no reason to go to Iraq, it was simple. Removal of Saddam, no-one ever said anything about Taliban. Where is your news coming from?

      Another situation,
      You have a family in Afghanistan, US forces come in. They have given you water, bridges, electricity, stable food supply, no need for worry about getting your family hacked and killed just because.
      You agree with what the Americans and Coalition are doing. You trust them.
      Taliban patrol walks into town - guys without guns - talks to the families, comes to this one and asks them.. Where are the yanks? How many? What backup do they have? etc etc.
      You say to them - none, dont know, why would I know?
      Americans attack a Taliban camp, Taliban blame the town for cheating them. They come back, they look at your wife, start doing god knows what. Then your kids. Then you. Thats it.

      Assange, without even knowing it no doubt - maybe with out caring? - has let this happen. On a scale unknown. He will continue to do it again.
      Try him on an international court.

      Things are given a S, and TS + / - clearance for a reason. They protect lives. Don’t mess with it.

      Also, I have had friends over there. This happens.
      War, is never a nice thing, no-one said it was. It is not Hollywood. Everything you know about war, throw it away. The Hurt Locker.. Starts to come close.. Black Hawk Down.. kinda close aswell. If these don’t jolt you, then check your pulse.

      All that is necessary for evil to succeed, is for good men to do nothing.

      Reply

    • TheRealDave says:

      10:23am | 09/08/10

      The trouble with posting details of military ‘secrets’ to the world is that operations in Afghanistan are ongoing. To you Mr and Mrs Average punter, some of it is tedious, uninteresting, boring, makes no sense, full of acronyms, abbreviations etc but to trained Intelligence operators and the people we are fighting its a gold mine of info. I’m not talking about names or who’s working with who etc I’m not talking about locations of coalition troops - 5 minutes on Google and Google Earth will tell you that.

      The issue is with giving away how our troops operate, what they carry, how they choose to vary movements, how they have identified the enemy or exploited weaknesses and loopholes. Giving that stuff away alerts the enemy as to how we take them out and shows them where to tighten up security, how to react to what we do etc. So while you can sit back and say ‘the information doesn’t name anyone and doesn’t kill anyone’, well, yes it does actually.

      By knowing what we do and how we operate the enemy can react to that and anticipate what we will do next, just as we do to them. That gets soldiers killed. Let’s have an example. Let’s say an After Action Report on an IED strike was published. In it it details how an Australian Bushmaster was struck by an IED. The Section Commander on site writes his report stating that after the strike the section in the back secure the scene by pushing out a defensive perimeter 30m around the vehicle and awaited the Reaction Force and recovery vehicle. They call for air backup just in case. Air support arrives overhead in 15 minutes and the ground RF team and Recovery vehicle arrive in 2 hours. All troops are recovered and vehicle is towed back to base. Innocuous enough, no names, sounds boring. Now, some moron releases this on the net. A trained intelligence operator finds this and hands on the information to a Taliban Commander in Tarin Kowt - because that’s were the Australians operate as everyone knows. Two weeks later another Bushmaster is hit by an IED. The troops roll out and go into an all-round defence then BOOM! Anti-personnel IED and two soldiers are killed. Where is the IED?? 30m from the vehicle. So 2 Australian soldiers are dead because someone thought the world needed to know the ‘truth’ of what was going on in Afghanistan.

      I use this example since this is near what happened to my little brother in Iraq. The enemy observed his Bushmaster being hit and studied how our Digs reacted. The next IED they sprung that’s what they did, set up mines where they observed troops going to to secure the scene. Releasing this info gives a wealth of info the enemy could never possibly get their hands on in any other way either by observation or during battles and DOES put soldiers’ lives at risk. Championing the release of such information IS cheering on and supporting the deaths of fellow Australian citizens – our soldiers. Even if you disagree with what the democratically elected government of this country does in our name, even if you are not a fan of the ADF – supporting the killing and maiming of our own soldiers, whether it be overtly by marching in the street, spitting on them etc or by championing the release of information that can lead to their deaths or make their jobs ever harder and more dangerous is the ultimate ‘dog act’ in this country.

      Reply

    • Lee says:

      12:02pm | 09/08/10

      Dave and Steve, I agree with you – to a point - the overarching issue remains; this information is classified for a reason, and that reason is operational security. As soon as that information is pushed into the public domain - and becomes declassified - all of the attached security concerns are no longer preserved by that security.

      But, you’re both misdirecting your attack and haven’t even mentioned the true whistleblower. I assume elements within the allied forces actively provided this information. You’re beef is probably with people WITHIN.

      As you all know, Wikileaks is simply a conduit. Assange is not a military employee, he didn’t get these docs straight off classified systems. I doubt he’s some super geek either, burning the midnight oil ‘hacking into the pentagon’. It’s also safe to say he didn’t just happen across a CD full of secrets.

      Before you pull the trigger on Assange for treason or whatever, think about those with access to this information who decided to leak. What as their motivation?

      A last point; while it’s best that operational information remain out of reach of the enemy, you’ve got to query just how valuable some of this really is. It might be all groundbreaking news to the masses like us in our lounge rooms, but Id wager that most of the info is pretty well known for insurgents. Remember, the afghan war has continued for 8 years now.

      Dave, you point this out best - the enemy OBSERVED the Bushmaster being hit and studied how our Digs reacted. – doesn’t sound like the insurgents needed a leaked intelligence report to carry out their business; sounds like they drew upon traditional asymmetric warfare tactics used by insurgents throughout the years.

      Personally, I think the immediate concerns are at the detail level - ‘naming of names’. While insurgents might have a good grab on tactics used by allied forces, I bet they didn’t have knowledge of human source names, or the like.

      Also, best of luck to your brother and his fellow Aussies - they’re out there doing it tough and for that I support them.

      Reply

    • TheRealDave says:

      02:55pm | 09/08/10

      @Lee, I hear what you are saying. My example was just that, a rather simple example. The enemy gains information from a variety of sources. We try to hide as much information as possible so that our soldiers can get the job done as quickly, effectively and as safely as possible (both for our soldiers, for the civilians and believe it or not for the enemy as well).

      People don’t seem to understand - thee enemy does in fact have highly educated intelligence officers using state of the art gear gleaning information from any source it can. Not all the Taliban/Al Queda are living in caves up in the mountains or in mud compounds out in the wilds of Afghanistan or Pakistan. They have full access to the western media’s 24/7 news, indepth analysis, military commentators, high speed internet links and full web access etc The second these 80 000 odd pages hit the net battalions of them were hitting it gleaning it for useful nuggets of info. These are highly skilled men, trained in analysis just like our INT blokes are. They know what’s drivel and what seemingly innocuous report is a hidden gem. Information they would never have been able to receive on the field or through observation.

      I do feel like I am repeating myself, I think mainly because I get frustrated when people just throw out ‘oh it wasn’t important info anyway’...or ‘the military are just trying to cover up war crimes’ and other guff. No and No. I wish more people did have a military background at times or enough of a brain (not directed at you but in general) just to sit and think what the consequences of releasing this information can mean to the Digger on the ground in Afghanistan - and that’s who we need to be supporting and looking out for 24/7 - because they do it for us already, whether or not you accept it, appreciate it or give a crap about it.

    • E says:

      03:38pm | 09/08/10

      Ahh just for the record…

      We went into Iraq because the story was they had biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction, and the UN weapons inspectors werent finding them… turns out there were no WMD.
      We went into Afghanistan because the Taliban were supposedly hiding, and refused to turn over, a person known as Osama Bin Laden, who has been implicated by the USA in the 911 Terror Attacks. He has not been found.

      Reply

    • AnotherDave says:

      04:33pm | 09/08/10

      @TheRealDave

      And everybody else please take note.

      TheRealDave, thank you being the an intelligent and informed voice in the above debate. I hope everybody reading the feedback to Alex Dickinson’s article take the time to read your posts.

      Before making reference to the ‘corrupt, murderous governments’ of Australia and the United States, people should should first take a look at the recent history of a country like Iraq to give true meaning to that accusation. I hope the Democracy we enjoy in our nation will one day exist in the countries where our soldiers currently serve. This is after all the overarching ambition here: To provide Iraq and Afghanistan with an opportunity to become self governing democratic countries. The fact that the lives of millions of people in these countries will be changed long term for the better is undeniable. More to the point- If this was to be achieved the security benefits provided from the stability of these countries is the real ‘incentive’ or ‘benefit’ for countries like Australia and The United States. Simply, stability in the region is a positive outcome on all fronts.

      The many conspiracy theories purporting the presence of military forces in Iraq in Afghanistan for reasons other than this, particularly those claiming an American interest in Oil, are quite misguided.

      There was an excellent two part series on 4 Corners a few weeks ago that followed Australia Infantry soldiers in Afghanistan.

      The first part of this series is here.

      http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2010/s2943068.htm

      Watch both parts. It’s an excellent objective look at what our soldiers are doing in Afghanistan, why they are there, and holistically why this is important. I believe it also corrects any misconception about the professionalism of our soldiers, showing them to be intelligent and humane in fulfilling their role.

      Reply

    • TheRealDave says:

      06:40pm | 09/08/10

      @AnotherDave - apart from having a cool name I agree wholeheartedly. Thats 4 Corners doco by Chris Master sis the best piece of Australian reporting I have seen done yet on the Australian Soldiers role in Afghanistan. I also urge everyone to watch it, even if you despise our Diggers and think they are knuckle dragging murderers who couldn’t get a job in decent employment wink

      I watched quite a lot of US based and British based doco’s on Afghanistan and Iraq over the years (the Brit ones are absolutely brilliant - try and find Ross Kemps 2 series, Ben Andersons Taking on the Taliban and Jack: A Soldiers Story, and Chris Terrils 55 Year Old Commando - I think you can find them in parts on Youtube if you can’t get them from ‘other means’) but I was severely disappointed we weren’t getting anything about our Digs. Until Chris Masters report.

    • Randolph says:

      07:51am | 10/08/10

      I find the spite and vitriol that the ‘old’ media have towards Wikileaks a very sad thing. Notice how there’s been very little analysis of the leaked documents, and more of a self-righteous anti-Assange rant by these empires (at least in Australia). Is it because *they* didn’t get the story? Do they feel threatened by the internet and the ability for people to get their news from other sources? Perhaps by not doing any investigative journalism they get front row seats at political events, where they get to do the bidding of the politicians by just paraphrasing the media releases (ie, spin)?

      No wonder ‘old media’ is losing business. They don’t do anything to earn respect.

      [To head off the ensuing “well why be on news.com.au” questions: I like to see what the tabloids are ‘reporting’. I don’t ever take it as being actual news with in depth explanations or understanding.]

      Reply

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      08:56am | 21/10/12

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