Its no secret that the United States government has concealed many things from the American public. One of the first activists to properly expose the United States to the world was Australian hacktivist Julian Assange.

Julian Assange is the founder of the secret sharing website Wikileaks. Not only is Julian Assange one of the most important people in the world right now, but Wikileaks is one of the most important websites.

Wikileaks first made its appearance on the world’s radar by publishing a video named “Collateral Murder”, which showed the murder of a group of unarmed Iraqi citizens in Baghdad by a US Army helicopter. The video was allegedly sent to Wikileaks by Private Bradley Manning. Manning decided that he would be the one to speak out against the murders.

Private Bradley Manning has been in prison without charge for well over 700 days.

The next things to get Wikileaks in trouble were the cables they received documenting the atrocities committed by the American army in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Wikileaks has also created a database documenting the treatment of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay. This prison has been notoriously known as one of the worst tourture prsons in recent history, other than Abu Ghraib. Or at least, that’s what everyone thought.

Wikileaks also uncovered the hundreds of other torture prisons that America has secretly kept in other countries such as Yemen.

Wikileaks and Yemen have also had their past. Recently, Wikileaks published a report on the “Secret War” that America has been waging in Yemen against “terror”. The US has been using drones to try and weed out terrorists in the region.

Casualities of the strikes in Yemen remain unclear, however several strikes have been reported to kill almost no one but civilians in the area. One victim of the attacks is Abdulrahman Al-Awlaki, a teenage boy who was killed along with his family in a drone strike gone wrong in Yemen. He remains a symbol of the US’s poor judgment in the region.

Julian Assange is reportedly barricaded in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, England. IF he were to leave he would be arrested by the UK police and most likely be extradited to the US where he would face treason charges.

What this all comes down to is how far you are willing to defend free speech. Does free speech stop when it exposes wrongdoing in your OWN government? Or should the people of the world be allowed to speak the truth?

Do you have a right to know the truth?