Retraction

So yeah, all those things I said about the United States having no excuse to complain about Wikileaks due to its excessive executive secrecy?

Never mind.

There is a public interest being served in providing information on illegal activities that should be brought to light, but for the most part this doesn't pass the sniff test. Yemen's government covering up our drone attacks? Arguable. That the U.S. government thinks German President Angela Merkel is "rarely creative?" Hardly.

This will only make statesmanship much more difficult, dependent as it is on candidness without fear of it being broadcast to the world. In this respect Julian Assange is no better than James O'Keefe. Yes, there's irony in turning the tables on a government that denies its citizens privacy, but a laugh is about the only thing it's good for if it doesn't accomplish anything useful.