I'm still on the fence about WikiLeaks. Assange gives me a bad vibe - and the handling of the "Collateral Murder" video was hamfisted and strictly unprofessional. As you said, the propagandist air bothers me greatly.
There's leaking the truth, and then there's the deliberate omission of one truth for another in order to advance an agenda (in this case, the complete omission of the after-action report that states without a doubt that the insurgents in the video were armed, and a RPG was present in the group).
The mass leak of Iraq War documents recently is much more balanced (if only by law of large numbers), and has done some to assuage my concerns about WikiLeaks' responsibility as an organization. Nonetheless, I cannot help but shake the feeling that WikiLeaks is acting in its own interest as opposed to ours, and with an egotist like Assange in charge, I'm not sure how responsible we can trust them to be.
There's leaking the truth, and then there's the deliberate omission of one truth for another in order to advance an agenda (in this case, the complete omission of the after-action report that states without a doubt that the insurgents in the video were armed, and a RPG was present in the group).
The mass leak of Iraq War documents recently is much more balanced (if only by law of large numbers), and has done some to assuage my concerns about WikiLeaks' responsibility as an organization. Nonetheless, I cannot help but shake the feeling that WikiLeaks is acting in its own interest as opposed to ours, and with an egotist like Assange in charge, I'm not sure how responsible we can trust them to be.