In setting up WikiLeaks, Julian Assange wanted to bring to light secret agreements between countries. That he succeeded is clear from the number of companies and governments who have tried to shut him down

Will the WikiLeaks disclosures prompt diplomatic moves to avoid war, as in 1962, or prepare for it? Some leaks, it seems, are more troublesome than others. When Germany s military authorities produced a fictitious Serbian plan, Operation Horseshoe, to justify the war in Kosovo, or when The New York Times passed on the Pentagon s little white lies about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the White House did not call for sanctions

Democracy involves constant struggles for the principle of publicity and against the secretive policies of various autocrats and oligarchs. Public opinion requires that citizens can form a reasoning public and have access to all relevant information.