Should Julian Assange of WikiLeaks Release Details of Weapons Locations and/or Nuclear Launch Codes?

In an interview with http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/politics/international_politics/secret+files+wikileaks+exposes+aposunseen+afghan+warapos/3723387">Britain's Channel 4 News, Julian Assange answered in the affirmative to a question about whether or not he would release details of weapons locations. He also said he would release the launch codes of nuclear weapons, under the right circumstances.




Watch the interview here: http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid62612474001?bctid=248232315001

For full context, http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/politics/international_politics/afghan+leak+wikileaks+julian+assange+tells+all/3723392">here's the transcript of the entire interview.


Do you agree with Julian?

(edited to add choices 4 & 5)

are we feeling exposed because we're talking about the west?

And the codes aren't "codes" like passwords; they're physical chips on a computer in a briefcase that's handcuffed to a military officer.

so far the release seems like common knowledge we all knew allready

The interviewer was throwing some "what ifs" at him to see what his limits are. Judging by the way the question was asked, by "weapons" they meant any weapons in any location.

http://wikileaks.org/

For example, he seems to be saying he might publish OLD launch codes that had already been changed.

It would be of educational value to the public if the launch codes were something stupid like 00000000 or 8675309 or "password."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/867-5309/Jenny

"Hey, why are all these lights flashing?" :P

I would answer I don't know, because I don't know what the risk is. It sounds really bad, of course, but is it? It sounds like he would release the codes and the weapon locations and then some bad person would set off a nuclear war, but is that the way it is? Would there really be such a risk?

Essentially a list of every kiddy porn site on the Internet. The kiddy porn people loved it, and the Australian government was furious, but Assange made a great point: In a free society, if your government is going to censor what you see, shouldn't you at least have the right to know what it is they're censoring? If the government is going to make a list of things you aren't allowed to view, shouldn't free citizens at least get to see the list?

As it turned out, the Australian government had added a number of minority political information sites and general news sites (including, ironically, Wikileaks) to their ban list. It was quite embarassing for them.

Even though the release led to some harm (it was basically a to-do list for pedophiles), it led to an even greater good in that it exposed the governments censorship of political and informational speech that it disagreed with.

I weigh every release against that standard. What is the potenial harm in releasing those codes? What is the benefit? Does the benefit outweigh the harm?

As to the original question...what is the benefit of releasing that information?

and tries to bring Armageddon.