Of course there's an understanding that intelligence agencies are all ultimately looking at everything, but there's a degree of cooperation. Even in the current state of affairs Russian and American intel agencies work together on anti-terrorism stuff.

However, if the other group is clearly actively against you, then it's harder to work with them. It's safe to say at this point, given the evidence out ther, that WikiLeaks does work with an objective of embarassing American interests.

I think it's a contrarian media organization. I recall when the conservatives were all "kill this guy" during the Bush administration, now they they think he's the rescuer of Western Civilization.

If you have any belief in 'checks and balances' as an anti-corruption mechanism then this is a positive.

Who could regulate the 4th Estate, the academies? Not the government, they would be accused of corruption or despotism. Enter WL.

Think about it: who is 'the establishment'. It can't be the President/White House can it, not when the majority of pundits, journalists and intellectuals were against him.

I doubt it needs pointing out that the reason WikiLeaks exists is because many (most, all?) organs of "public " service are anything but.

http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/08/17/wikileaks-turned-down-le...

I recall another case when Wikileaks itself advertised a Russia leak and then never released anything.