| HN Mirror

I've tried to keep my mouth shut as I believe I am probably the only dissenting opinion that reads HN.

I work in Intel. My name appears on several FISA orders issued in the last 10 years. My rewards for doing my part to keep the USA free, may land me behind a desk as an analyst the rest of my life. On Dec 2, I was pulled out of my assignment and returned to the States. I had 35 minutes notice to pack two suitcases - no contact with friends, no ability to communicate - ghosted.

I've lived a good life, I've done my job, I don't agree with everything my employer has done, but, my belief is that it was all done for the greater good. If I didn't believe that, I would have quit years ago. I don't make a rockstar programming salary though I do have good benefits. Does that make up for the money I could make? Maybe.

You know what I was offered? A desk or a new identity, relocation benefits and early retirement because of the possibility that my name could be released.

Do I agree with Wikileaks? I believe there should be some accountability for things the government has done. I believe Wikileaks should follow through on their promise for Bradley Manning's defense, though, I think what he did was reprehensible. I hope the money he made was worth it even though I doubt he'll ever see it. Maybe that 11 digit number will hold some solace for him that he was that close to the money.

While I may not agree with what you are saying, I'll fight to the death to protect your rights to say it. I get extremely irritated when I see the US Flag being burned in protest, but I wouldn't have you arrested for it, and would fight to protect you should the police try to arrest you.

Freedom of Speech is a right that we have. Taking classified documents and handing them to someone to have them released doesn't fall under Freedom of Speech nor does it really fall under the Shield Law.

There are things that were kept from the public that I believe should be kept private. Releasing the cables will do nothing but embarrass the USA with the dealings that they have to do on a daily basis to keep other countries happy -- and it cost me my job. Is it important to know what concessions were made with one country to get inspectors in to view another country's nuclear reactors? The bulk of the 250k cables is just backdoor dealings with other countries.

If you applied for a job with two tech companies and the recruiters from each talked with each other and opted to trade you for someone they wanted more, even if you were happy with either one, do you really want to know that you were worth less than the other person?

The DDOS attacks really do nothing. Paypal would have released the funds eventually, even though the account probably pointed to the Swiss bank account that was shut down. Visa/MC probably did get pressured but made a business decision to shut down a proxy company where you don't even know what percentage made it to Assange. Will the DDOS make Visa/MC turn on the merchant account? Doubtful. Will it make it harder for small businesses to get merchant accounts? Probably. Companies that take any donations will probably need more tax forms, etc. If they aren't selling a verifiable service or product, I think the rules just got tougher. Posting the 2000 credit card numbers during their protest surely didn't help their cause.

Who will step forward and start a new payment system with the safety and security of the existing systems that won't terminate organizations that are political dynamite? Summer YC 11 perhaps?

What did the DDOS do? In my opinion, it will bring the very thing that no one wants... government regulation. The days of the anonymous internet are coming to a close. For a group of people that don't want laws controlling what they can and cannot do on the Internet, they have certainly pushed things in the wrong direction.

Will you sleep better at night once these cables are released? What if countries we made backdoor deals with decide to embargo the USA or worse, we decide to stop supplying Foreign Aid? What if that action leads to the USA reducing immigration or leads to more stringent borders? What if a regional conflict takes place because two countries we dealt with decided they didn't like the terms of the deal they accepted for peace? What if one country got shortchanged in a deal and now feels regret and decides to take action? What if that country decides to disallow US Citizens to leave the country and holds them as Political prisoners because they didn't like the deal they got? And this guy was there building a hydroelectric dam, or an irrigation system to help a country and is now held until the US meets that country's demands.

Why haven't the four newspapers that have complete copies been DDOSed for not releasing more cables? Why hasn't Assange released the password to his insurance file now that he's been detained and held without bail?

Sure some of my examples are on the edge of being realistic, but, none are a huge stretch from what could happen.