See also the author's earlier articulate, intelligent, and naturally controversial defense of Wikileaks, which depends on the crucial distinction between the (m

See also the author's earlier articulate, intelligent, and naturally controversial defense of Wikileaks, which depends on the crucial distinction between the (more or less) permanent state apparatus (whose agents are unelected and whose actions are often secret) and the temporary government power, vested in the US in elected representatives, which imperfectly harnesses it. It ends with this: "Of course, those jealously protective of the privileges of unaccountable state power will tell us that people will die if we can read their email, but so what? Different people, maybe more people, will die if we can't." http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2010/11/overseeing_state_secrecy http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2010/11/ov...