Wikileaks and things

Wikileaks has in combination with social networking media sites such as facebook and twitter and satellite TV channels such as Al Jazeera changed  the way the Arab Street gain and exchange information. This citizens empowerment has helped in the mobilization  of the Arab youth  in successfully overthrowing two repressive regimes and have laid the foundation for the fall of many more.

It was with great sadness that we see autocratic regimes turn their weapons on their own.
Libya, Bahrain, Yemen , Saudi Arabia and Syria have made this fundamental mistake and therefore have lost legitimacy in their right to rule.
The world is changing and in this modern age of instant information the way a government interacts with it's citizens has been transformed . Regimes that are unable to adapt and have to use force or torture have no role to play in our future.
As we look at their guilt and inevitable downfall we have to have a thought for a young American soldier, Bradley Manning.
He is being held in solitary confinement at the Quantico base in Virginia awaiting trial on nearly two dozen charges, including aiding the enemy. That enemy is the truth.
The 23-year-old former intelligence analyst is accused of handing over confidential US military and government documents to the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks.
His treatment by the Department of Defense is inexcusable . As inexcusable as the arbitrary detentions that fuel the Arab Spring or the  self-immolation of Mohammad Bouazzi the Tunisian street vendor whose actions brought about by humiliation and despair became the catalyst for the revolutions that are sweeping the Middle East.
Whatever the motivations of such sites as Wikileaks and others it is true to say they have put dictators on notice all over the world that the days of lying and double dealing with the knowledge that you won't be found out are over.
That I pray will auger in a new era. The Hague awaits those who continue to ignore this new reality.