"Infowar," Wikileaks & Payback

Cyberlibertarian John Perry Barlow debates bigfoot diplomat John Negroponte on Wikileaks.

By Tom Ashbrook

Wikilieaks founder Julian Assange has been released on bail in London. But he’ll hardly be free: ankle bracelet; daily check-in; passport surrendered. He can’t leave the U.K.

It’s another move in what John Perry Barlow, cyberlibertarian and founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, has famously called the world’s “first serious infowar."

Stolen data. Data dumps. Web site attacks and counter-attacks. Huge stakes, hardball tactics, and a very real battle over information. Barlow, who has rallied the cybertroops, says there's about to be a "fairly radical" escalation on those fronts.

But on the other side, of course, there are the interests of nation states.

John Negroponte, former U.S. Director of National Intelligence, says the government must win this battle. He says that there have been "casualties" already; that America needs friends more than ever; and that there's no such thing as a public right to "instant" transparency.

We hear the high-level "infowar" debate.

Guests in this segment:

John Perry Barlow, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Net freedom activist.

John Negroponte, longtime U.S. diplomat who served under President George W. Bush as Director of National Intelligence, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Deputy Secretary of State, and Ambassador to Iraq. He is currently a lecturer at Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs and a consultant with the international risk analysis firm McLarty Associates.

Fred Cate, director at the Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research at Indiana University, where he is also a professor at the Maurer School of Law.

Related: Hear On Point's shows on "Cyber Threats, Google  & the NSA" and "Unmasking 'Ghostnet.'"