Noam Chomsky on WikiLeaks

We should understand that one of the major reasons for government secrecy is to protect the government from its own population. In the Pentagon Papers, for example, there was one volume—the negotiations volume—which might have had a bearing on ongoing activities and Daniel Ellsberg withheld that. That came out a little bit later. If you look at the papers themselves, there are things Americans should have known that others did not want them to know. And as far as I can tell, from what I’ve seen here, pretty much the same is true. In fact, the current leaks are—what I’ve seen, at least—primarily interesting because of what they tell us about how the diplomatic service works.