Since 2007, Wikileaks has been the subject of political rhetoric, water cooler debate, and journalistic scrutiny. In 2013, documentarian Alex Gibey (Taxi to the Dark Side, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room) put his lens on the organization - and leaking in general - through the film We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks. With a topic that's already spawned countless think pieces and trolling comments, the question becomes: apart from memorializing these highly-publicized events, what new information or perspective does this documentary offer?
We Steal Secrets doesn't escape the usual "Assange is evil/hypocritical" or "Assange is a martyr" Wikileaks angles, but it does find a focus around the faces behind the organization's 2010 leaks: Julian Assange (Wikileaks head/former hacker) and Bradley Manning (a US Army intelligence analyst who leaked documents related to US diplomacy and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan). Interspersed with commentary about competing ideologies and journalistic standards is the story of two people who have been branded as martyrs or traitors. Assange and Manning's lives are dissected, with friends, associates, former allies, and alleged victims contributing their interpretations of the leakers. Interestingly, the documentary's most powerful material comes from stories by those who played a role in their downfalls. An ex-hacker who turned Manning in (after befriending him and promising confidentiality) highlights Manning's tortured psyche and humanity. An interview with one of the women who alleges that Assange sexually assaulted her changes the context of Assange's crime from CIA conspiracy to personal degradation and the marginalization of a woman's suffering. These interviewees define the leakers as fallible humans, pulling them out of sensational headlines and into (a somewhat) real life. Gibney does an admirable job attempting to flesh out these lives and how their personalities contributed to leaking activities, but the film's attitude towards the leakers comes down to a comment made by ex-Wikileaks employee Daniel Domscheit-Berg. "..... We see Julian as the saviour, as some noble guru, as some new hero or some new pop star or whatever that's going to change all of it. The credit is undue - everybody celebrating Julian as a whistleblower - he is not - Bradley Manning might have been a whistleblower. And if he was, he is the courageous guy." While Gibney temporarily ignores simple condemnation or praise, he ultimately passes judgment and removes a bit of these characters' complexity.
One item excluded from discussion is a cost-benefit analysis of secrecy. Gibney, while objecting to some of Wikileaks methods and Assange's alleged crimes, never seems to question the organization's apparent goal of rendering secrecy obsolete. Many subjects don't question the idea that total transparency would improve the world. Examining the case of diplomacy (in which Manning leaked State Department communiques), however, seems to suggest scenarios where the costs of leaking outweigh the benefits of public knowledge. Some of the revelations - such as further details regarding the al-Masri case - were deeply important to our understanding of the various human rights abuses under the Bush administration. Others garnered headlines but did little more than 1. confirm what many would expect the State Department and foreign officials to privately believe and 2. create an incident that may have made international diplomacy more difficult. Revealing information about crimes, human rights violations, and abuses of power is indeed important, but lack of curation might simply reveal tabloid level government secrets and hinder future analysts in providing their honest assessment. As a soldier fighting a difficult war, Manning's frustrations at Pakistan and US foreign policy were entirely understandable. But, the idea of transparency for transparency's sake that Assange's data dump method (at least for the Manning leaks case that Gibney examines) seems to endorse could have negative - but well-publicized - consequences. There's an interesting debate to be had about the downsides and merits of secrecy (and what amount of information a government should share with its citizens), but the documentary fails to raise the issue.
Wikileaks - as a rebuttal to many of Gibney's and interviewee's claims - have posted an annotated script online.
Crew & Cast
Written & Directed by Alex Gibney
Cinematography - Maryse Alberti
Edited by Andy Grieve
Produced by Alex Gibney, Marc Shmuger, Alexis Bloom