GLENN GREENWALD vs FRAN TOWNSEND WIKILEAKS DEBATE. The war on WikiLeaks and why it matters - Glenn Greenwald. A newly leaked CIA report prepared earlier this month (.pdf) analyzes how the U.S. Government can best manipulate public opinion in Germany and France — in order to ensure that those countries continue to fight in Afghanistan. The Report celebrates the fact that the governments of those two nations continue to fight the war in defiance of overwhelming public opinion which opposes it — so much for all the recent veneration of “consent of the governed” — and it notes that this is possible due to lack of interest among their citizenry: “Public Apathy Enables Leaders to Ignore Voters,” proclaims the title of one section.
But the Report also cites the “fall of the Dutch Government over its troop commitment to Afghanistan” and worries that — particularly if the “bloody summer in Afghanistan” that many predict takes place — what happened to the Dutch will spread as a result of the “fragility of European support” for the war. That WikiLeaks is being targeted by the U.S. Al Jazeera Top 10 Of The Year. Confusion over mising Nigeria schoolgirls#link# diplomat kidnapped in Libyan capital#link# expels UN official over arms report#link# holds biggest day of voting#link# of Abu Hamza begins in New York#link# cuts sensitive nuclear stockpile#link# highlights of Arab press headlines#link# says no Russian troops in east Ukraine#link# refugees struggle in urban Jordan#link# plea for release of Al Jazeera staff#link# Senegal president's son awaits ruling#link# Denied: Palestinians decry detention#link# apologises for S Korea ferry disaster#link# soldiers killed in attack on army base#link# cast votes in presidential poll#link#
