Wikileaks founder Julian Assange sees modern governance as a conspiracy by those with power that goes against the interests and desires of the governed, and that Wikileaks exists in order to undermine the ability of governments to communicate secretly and to diminish the power of authoritarian states. Doing this, he believes, will force openness and lead to more progressive forms of government - or at least, less repressive ones. It's clear that we are entering a new era where the questionable actions of governments and corporate authorities are being exposed by cyber-activists. It's obvious that this phenomenon is not going away, despite threats from governments around the globe and even the suggestion, from U.S. Republican Huckaby, that Assange should be assassinated. We the people are feeling more and more empowered. Here is a quick look at some of the continuing controversy around Wikileaks and Assange.

- An organization of hackers/cyber-activists called 'Anonymous', aligned with Wikileaks, this week shut down websites of the Zimbabwean government to protest a lawsuit by Grace Mugabe, wife of President Robert Mugabe, against the Standard newspaper for carrying a leaked US diplomatic cable saying she was involved in illegal trading of diamonds. Anonymous declared in a statement on their website that, "We are targeting Mugabe and his regime in ZANU-PF who have outlawed the free press and threaten to sue anyone publishing Wikileaks." This is the same group that had recently blocked web portals of American-based Paypal, Visa and MasterCard after they refused to accept and handle donations that were being made to Wikileaks. See a video here: cyberwar

- In a recent interview, Assange alleged that many senior Arab leaders have close ties to the United States' CIA spy agency and that several Arab countries had set up torture centres to which Washington could send suspects for questioning.

- A recent release from WikiLeaks was causing scandal by alleging that French President Nicolas Sarkozy had in the past received financial support from former Gabonese president Omar Bongo. The released documents said that money had been paid to several French political parties, with some of it used to support Sarkozy.

- Many governments have been embarrassed by leaked documents, including Iran, Italy, the U.S., Afganistan, etc. Canada has also been affected by some leaks. Canadian authorities were complaining that the Afganistan regime is corrupt and wondering why Canadians are still there fighting for them.

- Leaked documents revealed that some American authorities are miffed by the CBC, feeling that they depict Americans in a bad light.

- It's been revealed that illegal wiretaps had been used by former police chief, and recently elected Conservative, Julian Fantino. This is in regards to a dispute with Mohawks who had formed a blockade back in 2007 to protest land-claim issues.

- Meanwhile, Bradley Manning, the American soldier who released a large volume of documents related to American atrocities in Iraq, remains in solitary confinement in an American prison.

- For more info on these and other articles, click here:  WikiLeaks Info

- For those of us who felt that the Obama administration was going to stand for increased accountability and transparency, Assange has a different message. He claims that there has been more suppression of media sources under Obama than in all the previous administrations put together. See that video here: Assange video

- Wikileaks is preparing to release documents that will shed light on some dubious practices of a major American bank. This new leak is thought by some to be the most explosive yet. See a video about this here: Wikileaks vs the Banksters  Some people such as researcher/whistleblowers, David Icke and Dr. Leonard Horowitz, claim that Assange is really a CIA operative and that the dissent created by Wikileaks will create a climate that will facillitate the establishment of a New World Order of global governance and domination. It's so difficult to know what to think nowadays - there's always so many takes on any particular issue. That's why I prefer to lean toward the view that is more positive.