Assange’s intentions
Sir: Your leading article (‘In praise of secrecy’, 4 December) notes that the latest round of WikiLeaks disclosures has ‘sent a worrying chill through diplomatic circles’, and made it more difficult for nations to co-operate. Quite so. But this is, as computer programmers sometimes say, a feature, not a bug. WikiLeaks’s founder Julian Assange is the author of a paper entitled ‘State and Terrorist Conspiracies’, in which he identifies such easy informal communications, behind the backs of democratic electorates, as a key means through which authoritarian policies can be enacted. Charles Stross, the science-fiction writer whose blog drew my attention to the essay, declares that Assange is ‘defending our democracies (despite their owners’ wishes)’. I would not go so far. But I would be very cautious about assuming Assange to be naive, rather than, say, ruthless.
Thomas Furber,
Greenwich
Labour of love
Sir: As someone who had a tricky labour two weeks ago, I found Carol Sarler’s piece about pain and pregnancy (‘Hard Labour’, 4 December) very comforting.
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