No Place To Hide

"Global outrage over digital photographs published in newspapers of American soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners is the latest example of how technology, in the hands of ordinary folk, creates a kind of information tsunami that shakes up the powerful and the mighty. The sheer convenience and speed of taking photos with an idiot-proof digital camera or a camera phone, and then sharing them via the Internet with the rest of the world, has given a new meaning to the word "transparency". With a press of a button and the click of a computer mouse, dark corners are now brightly illuminated. Just a month ago, it was impossible to imagine the leader of the most powerful nation on earth going on television to apologise for the atrocities carried out by the most powerful, high-tech military machinery in history. This is the latest of several episodes in modern history where information technology (IT) has helped trigger revolutions and topple tyrants....With a press of a button and the click of a computer mouse, dark corners are now brightly illuminated. There is, literally, no place to hide."