Founder of WikiLeaks denies "blood on hands"

Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has rejected U.S. claims that he has blood on his hands after releasing 90,000 leaked classified documents on the Afghan war. Julian Assange said that there were no evidence that any infomants had died as a result of the leaks. He then accused the Pentagon of trying to distract attention from the thousands of lives being lost in the war.

The White House has appealed to Wikileaks not to publish another 15,000 documents it is thought to hold, and the U.S. denied Mr Assange's assertion that he had asked the US government to help vet the documents to protect lives.

In an interview with the BBC, he directly addressed comments made by Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, who sharply criticised WikiLeaks. "One must consider why the Pentagon is focusing on the hypothetical blood that it says might be on our hands - although there is no evidence of that - compared to the 20,000 lives that have been lost in Afghanistan that are documented and exposed by our material."

Despite the appeal made by the White House to WikiLeaks, Mr Assange has pledged to continue the release of documents. 

I personally feel that Mr Assange should not continue to publish the documents as it will only continue to serve as a tool for the enemy. Publishing those documents only compromises the lives of the people involved. The damage done so far is irreparable, as "once a document published it is essentially impossible to censor,", according to WikiLeaks. So, instead of publishing the remaining documents, they should be either be deleted or remain unpublished.

Sources:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10825183
http://thenextweb.com/files/2010/01/Wikileaks_3_1.jpg 
http://www.wikileaks.com/wiki/WikiLeaks:About

Leaked documents on Wikileaks compromise infomants' and soldiers' lives

WikiLeaks is a "multi-jurisdictional public service designed to protect whistleblowers, journalists and activists who have sensitive materials to communicate to the public". Since July 2007, they have "worked across the globe to obtain, publish and defend such materials", and, also, "to fight in the legal and political spheres for the broader principles on which our work is based: the integrity of our common historical record and the rights of all peoples to create new history".

Recently, WikiLeaks published tens of thousands of secret documents about the Afghan War.  During a Pentagon press meeting on Thursday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen could barely contain their anger on Thursday at WikiLeaks.

Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, went so far as to say that the transparency activists “might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier” or an Afghan partner, with his voice elevating slightly.

They described WikiLeaks’s huge disclosure as having consequences on the battlefield and beyond. The leak exposed sources and methods for US intelligence agencies and allowed US adversaries to learn about military tactics and procedures, said Gates, clearly angry over the episode. Gates vowed the Pentagon will "aggressively investigate" and prosecute those behind the leak and had asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation to help in the probe.

I feel that whoever leaked the documents to WikiLeaks was extremely irresponsible as it endangered the lives of soldiers, Afghan civilians and infomants. In the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military has worked to ensure soldiers deployed on the front line had the latest intelligence, entrusting troops with sensitive information. Misusing this infomation is a severe breach of trust by the soldier, and is morally wrong.

Sources:

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/cna/cgi-bin/search/search_7days.pl?status=&search=wikileaks&id=1072357

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/07/top-military-officer-wikileaks-has-blood-on-its-hands/#more-28883
http://www.wikileaks.com/wiki/WikiLeaks:About

HCI's gateway to be dismantled soon and re-erected in 2014

Due to the recent construction of the Tan Kah Kee station (Downtown Line), which sits in the HCI campus, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and Hwa Chong Institution (HCI) have been in a discussion about the two iconic gateways HCI has. This is because extensive tunnelling right below the gateways and major construction works will be conducted, and this would cause a problem in keeping the gateways. However, after approximately a year of discussions, the LTA and HCI have a found a way not just to preserve HCI's pair of 31-year-old granite gateways, but to also keep them exactly where they stand now.

The 10m tall gateways will have to be dismantled for approximately 4 years and will be re-erected when the Tan Kah Kee MRT station is ready by the end of 2014. Re-installing the gateways will be done in two stages: The top part, the arch comprising the emerald-green tiles, will first be removed and then be mounted on temporary pillars about 20m from they will finally be. The metal gates below will also be dismantled. In late 2014, when the station is ready, these gates will be re-erected.

About 15,000 square metres of the school's campus will be affected by the building of the underground train tunnel. The LTA will bear the cost of reconstructing the gates, four basketball courts, replanting of trees and renting of alternative sports venues so the school's sports activites can carry on.

Being a HCI student myself, I feel that the dismantling and re-erecting of the gateways is to the benefit of the students in HCI as the gateways is part of the school's heritage. The gateways are also what many HCI students remember of the school so this would help the students remember HCI in the future.