by Tom Parsons

Created on: December 01, 2010   Last Updated: December 05, 2010

If you were to meet me for the first time, you might make a mental note about the meeting. Later, you might even write down your impressions of me. "Nose too big," you might write, or "tended to look down on me," or "the most wonderful person I have ever met." Okay, so you probably wouldn't write that last one. But if your notes on our meeting should suddenly appear on the Internet for anyone in the world to read, you would rightly be offended. You own those notes, and no one has the right to publish them without your permission.

There is no way that the Internet publishing of thousands of private government documents can be justified. It serves no useful or noble purpose, it does not, as some argue, ensure transparency of government, and it does not assist in efforts to control terrorism, threats of war, or international sensitivities.

The documents in question are all private documents, the property of the United States government in some cases, but often simply the private documents of individuals who serve the government. They are private notes, interoffice memos and records intended to aid representatives of the government in fulfilling their obligations. To make these documents public without the permission of the owners is stealing. It is a crime of a very serious nature, even if the documents did not reveal information that should remain private.

These particular documents, of course, are of an extremely sensitive nature, since they involve the highest levels of inter-government relationships. Making them public interferes with ongoing international negotiations and makes the already tough job of keeping the world safe that much more difficult.

WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, is not a public servant; he is an international criminal guilty of espionage, theft, and, according to Sweden where he has lived until recently, rape. Interpol has issued a red alert for him, making international travel difficult for this man now wanted by most of Europe and the western world as well. At the time of this writing, Assange's whereabouts are unknown.

Publishing these sensitive documents put many people in several countries in embarrassing and sometimes life-threatening situations. It has endangered American troops, already in harms way, and jeopardized their missions to stabilize tensions and conflicts.

Just as you have a right to privacy in what comments you may write to yourself about your meeting with me, so do our public officials have the right to privacy concerning information they record for their own use. While it is true that they should exercise prudence in what they write since there is always the possibility of leaks, nevertheless, those who violate the privacy of those who serve us must be pursued and convicted as the criminals they are.

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