It's like deja-vu all over again. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, as Daniel Ellsburg did during the Vietnam War, has focused the the world's attention on the propaganda and outright lies used by all sides in Afghanistan. The best detailed coverage i've found is the Afghanistan The War Logs at The Gaurdian. But each of the 3 newspapers who had access to the info for the past 3 weeks-The new York Times-Der Spiegel-The Gaurdian-have taken different approaches to the exhaustive amount of material.In a SPIEGEL interview Assange discusses his decision to publish the Afghanistan war logs. My favorite exchange being:
SPIEGEL: You could have started a company in Silicon Valley and lived in a home in Palo Alto with a swimming pool. Why did you decide to do the WikiLeaks project instead?
Assange: We all only live once. So we are obligated to make good use of the time that we have, and to do something that is meaningful and satisfying. This is something that I find meaningful and satisfying. That is my temperament. I enjoy creating systems on a grand scale, and I enjoy helping people who are vulnerable. And I enjoy crushing bastards. So it is enjoyable work.
Julian Assange is clearly been infected by the 'want less' meme [wether he know it or not]. i'll be very interested to see/hear him on Larry King tonight [6pm and 9pm PST]. Larry King's interviews, are often very revealing due to Larry's soft pitch questions directed at how his guests 'feel' about a topic rather than most interviewers who try to totally focus on what the guest 'knows' about it. i've watched Larry over the decades allow his guests to complete their thoughts and not cut them off in midsentence, i've also seen Larry not let powerful world leaders and others avade the point of his questions. He'll laugh his charming laugh, but then he'll ask the question again until they answer. Tonight's interview with Assange should be a hum-dinger.
