Since WikiLeaks proprietor Julian Assange, who has been disseminating sensitive US State Department documents to the International press, was arrested in Britain on the thinnest pretext, a Wikibattle, has started to rage.
In response US government pressure - denied of course - Mastercard, Visa and Paypal were falling over themselves to comply with this 'alleged' order to desist from dealing with Wilileaks, shutting down its ability to receive funds.
This is how such things were dealt with by the 'old school' world governments, and despite the obvious communications paradigm shift, they have been unable to assimilate fast enough. Such muzzling of information was - and apparently still is - considered par for the course. Perhaps the US State Department was not paying attention when Iran attempted a similar black-out of information earlier this year.
The old formula, a few whispered words of threat, some less than legal moves to 'contain' the leak and a little 'spin' (read lies) to their populations and - Voila! Everything back to normal.
Of course, that didn't happen. A popular tide of rage, lead by electronic revolutionaries - or hackers, if you hold them in contempt - expressed their dissatisfaction by launching "Operation Payback", which attacked, and in some cases crashed, the Swedish prosecutors website, a Swiss bank that had kicked Wikileaks off its account, Mastercard, Visa, Amazon and PayPal tgether with a host of clueless politicians. These have found their websites either under siege or brought down.
US State Department, Swedish judicial system, British judicial system. All swayed by an aged cadre of complicit heavy-handed back-door diplomats who are desperately attempting to save their skin, and with every under-cover move they make, find themselves powerless to stem the incriminating state department files that proliferate ever faster over the internet, protected by heavy encryption and poised to release their damning information.
The arrogance - and ignorance - of these powers-that-be are increasingly in deep dudu.
With no attempt at due process of law, the institutions that sucked up to their puppeteers and did their bidding together with the governmental administrators that have spearheaded this travesty are slowly beginning to pay the bitter price for their duplicity, because - as has now been demonstrated - their under-cover maneuverings are not, and never will again, be secure.
Incredible as it may seem, the nature of the internet befuddles national governments. They demonstrate time and again that they have no clue of the consequences that inevitably follow in the path of ill thought out and shameful actions.
And this is amazing, because for an ever increasing number of people, there could never be a more clear-cut, black & white separation of sides: The hidden lies, the money, the power aligned against revelations of truth. We are watching the struggle between subterfuge and transparency, and this time, the good guys are going to win.
Compounding their mistakes, The US State Department will probably attempt to have Wikileaks branded as a terrorist organization, which will only pour oil on an already furious fire that will ultimately consume the individuals involved in this shameful cover-up.
Why will the national old school spin-doctors fail?
Because many of the techies and code monkeys, (under)paid by the very institutions and corporations they are hired or employed to protect have no loyalty towards them, a behavior brought about by ever lower wages, fewer benefits, less job security. Some are simply hired guns, laborers not beholden to their masters at all. In their off-time, a LOT of these folks switch on their PC's and proceed to bite the hand that feeds them. They fly to aid Operation Payback, they help Wilileaks. And they do this because they know who the good guys are and who the bad guys are.
If you have seen "Fight Club", you will know what I mean. There is simply NO WAY the institutions can insulatee themselves from practicing the dark arts of deception any more.
Although a badly worded opinion poll professes to demonstrate that the American people are in majority against Wikileaks, one might also observe that the scales of battle are already tipping in the favor of the rebels and that even the old-fashioned media machine is starting to sense which way the wind is blowing - and beginning to smell blood.
Could it be we are seeing the emergence of a world in which duplicity will become increasingly more dangerous for those who practice it? Time will tell.