In the News The Man Behind WikiLeaks

The 92,000 documents on the Afghan War no longer allows us to be passive observers unaware turning away to blame Bush and Obama for our descent into barbarism. It is Hannah Arendt’s description of the banality of evil we must face in the truthful mirror. We are the reason for our plight and we must bare the burden of our passive complicity.
"The crimes of the US throughout the world have been systematic, constant, clinical, remorseless, and fully documented but nobody talks about them" - Harold Pinter

We should all be for reasonable transparency from government. What we must not have is someone - anyone - deciding when they can release a huge package of bulk intelligence. Wikileaks is not capable of understanding what is likely to damage methods and sources.

The release of the helecopter attack video was a single event issue which arguably might have justified the release of government secrets.

The release of bulk raw intelligence is a reckless act which will without doubt greatly harm our intelligence gathering capacities. The leaker in the U.S. military should do life at hard labor as an example of how serioud this is.

Re: Comment by Harold Pinter
Scott.ffolliott / July 27, 2010 3:54 PM

When I initially read your comment I thought the words to be from a representative of WikiLeaks.
Well, here here, well said and well put Mr Pinter. It is scary to think of how complacent we've become...We have 2 wars going on and no one seems to care nor question. To that I say, Wake Up! We are being governed by a corporate elite class.
Zeitgeist,the Addendum.

I believe that the release of these documents brings to light a re-evaluation of American foreign policy in Afghanistan, and the greater region. The long and negative history that many countries in the region have had with the United States, the former Soviet Union, and other western countries has impacted the minds of many generations of people in these countries. An understanding of culture and the history of this particular region needs to be studied.

I agree that war is bad, ugly, and civilians get killed, but in these various countries within the Middle East, and Central Asia, family is important. Even more so than in the United States, and in other western countries. Do not expect a family to passively except that there brother, sister, dad, or mother was killed, and they are going to be emotionally okay. I can only imagine how hard it is to fight a war like this, but their culture is different, and family and Islam is EXTREMELY important to them.

Peace, Salaam, Shalom, Namaste,
Christopher Smith
Western Michigan University
Political Science, Sociology, Anthropology.

The United States is treading water at this point. Our government is an amalgam of self-serving pantywaists who are more concerned with leaving the toilet seat down than quelling the flood of illegal immigrants, protecting our nation from terrorists, and providing us common working slobs with a sound economy where our future is less precarious.
We must bide our time until the system collapses and we are able to eat the rich and rebuild our nation so it will not merely be a playground benefiting .5% of the population.

I hope I survive this cleansing event, whatever it is, so I may reflect on it with schadenfreude.

plse when will those not informed by history learn a few basic "facts" you do not attack Moscow in winter (Napoleon & Hitler) and no one has ever conquered Aghanistan (from ghenghis khan/tamerlane to the USSR and the USA) the terrain itself is a no go.... and the people are fiercely independent
regardless if you agree with them or not.... declare victory, go home and contain, this one is a no brainer..... mahalo, chang.

Freedom of information? What are you guys talking about?

Are you suggesting we just make public all of our national secrets e.g. the names of our spies and their family members (nice job Armitage on the Valerie Plame leak...a-hole), the location, size, and strength of our forces, timing, tactics and plans of attack, the names and location of our allies including the local Afghanistan people that help us?

Wikileaks and the piece of garbage that actually leaked those documents just signed death warrants for those locals who've been helping us in Afghanistan that were identified or will be identified due to information in those leaks.

The Taliban have already said they will hunt them down and kill them...but hey...information is great and should be shared with everyone. What utopian world do you think we live in? Why don't you guys send me your social security numbers? I won't steal anything...I promise...freedom of info is great.

Don't any of you people have friends or family in the military? How can you not see this puts them at greater risk?

Considering how we ended up (again) back in this country after, as has already been noted, knowing the history of past "ventures" into the area, I think this "act of treason" may help to open a lot of eyes as to why we are still there. Oran's Dictionary of the Law (1983) defines treason as "...[a]...citizen's actions to help a foreign government overthrow, make war against, or seriously injure the [parent nation]." Who's the foreign government here? Sorry folks, but in my "what is right, what is wrong" book, this operation, which I thought was initially to find Osama Bin Laden, has gotten out of hand. We've found ourselves on a hill of fire ants, and change of command tactics (sound familiar) just help to confirm my beliefs. I can almost hear from some of you, "how dare you tell us what's really happening to us on the other side of the world!" Don't you want to know...what's really happening? "Well, not this way" you say. Well then, what way? Some will say, "this hurts our cause, and the price will be the loss of lives." The price of war is the loss of life. If we're not doing anything wrong, we shouldn't have anything to hide. Should we? I think that trying to keep secrets these days is practically impossible anyway. History has labeled those who "speak treason" as both villans & heroes, depending on the cause, and the sooner we stop trying to "police the world", the better. I think the United Nations should be respected & revered as the "world enforcement" agency responsible for who, if anybody, involves themselves militarily outside their own borders. In closing, if these "secrets" become so damaging as to end our presence there, we probably lost focus and should have left already. Here's an idea. Let's have a question on the ballot in November as to whether we should stay in Afganistan? Right. That'll be the day. What do we know? Well, actually we know a little bit more. Anymore such treason and...and people will know the truth.

The tragedy of the Iraq/Afghan war is that our fight is about oil, not terrorism. And there will be no oil left in our planet in 50 years. Why are we killing and maiming so many humans on false pretexts. Future generations of scholars will question our ethics and our moral values. We killed 2 million Southeast asians (mostly non combatants) half a century ago and they thrive today without any help from us. Why? The tragedy of our Iraq/Afghan war is the half million American families that have suffered, are now suffering, and will continue to suffer for several additional generations after the war ends because of the impact on our soldiers and their wives and children and grandchildren. Assange is a hero, not a traitor. He should be honored, not vilfied.

The US cherry picks the law it will obey and the law it will breach. Its own domestic law, or international law it has agreed to be bound to it all doesn't really matter in the end. The US is an outlaw state. Are they the only outlaw state? Of course not. But, facts matter. The US has increasingly become the very definition of hypocrisy since 1945. The shining light on the hill? I think not.

Many people who have allied themselves with the U.S. and it's allies will be exposed by Wikileaks.
Al-Queda and the Taliban will read this info and will kill many of those people.
Their blood will be on Wikileaks' hands.

No one is saying the documents are untrue.Someone leaked secret documents and when you are " AT WAR" that is a crime by the original perpetrator not Mr Assange.
Mr Assange did break some journalistic rules by not redacting information that could help the " enemy" locate sources of intelligence. At the very least that is irresponsible!
It seems he is taking more time with the next 15,000 pages, but hopefully when they are redacted they become totally uninteresting.
I have not looked but I suspect the 75,000 pages are very repetitive and quite boring.
In a sense this is all a storm in a teacup... the principle is whether the Media should or he should be allowed to Publish "secret documents" involving a nation with whom the US and other nations are at war.
Me If he were to turn up in any ISAF country now or in the next 100 Years I would have him arrested for aiding and abetting terrorists.
Regards,
Hodgson.

Leaking classified information can lead to charges of treason. My own opinion is that this leak should result in the Congressional Medal of Honour whomever leaked this information. To highlight inhumane treatments is humane, to keep a lid on it is inhumane. Hiding abuses behind a state's veil of secrecy makes those skulking in the shadows Nazi-esque. I'm reminded of Pastor Martin Niemöller and so wish protection on the humane and a pox on the inhumane.

Mr. Juliain Assange is world class hero,we seem to always get our heros mixed up in this country.For example George Bush and Dick Chaney should be on trial for treason, murder and fraud, for their 9-11 hoax on the World public. The crimes that these people perpetrted effected the entire world and they should be brought to justice. Bravo Mr.Assange, I applaude your courage. Sincerely, Sal J. Acevedo. Rowland Heights Ca.

The blood on Wikileaks hands can not begin to compare with the blood on ours. Why are we not upset by the lies our leaders feed us, the senseless killing, the permanent bases, and the torture? Clearly we can do no wrong and even disclosures like this can't open the eyes of many and perhaps most.

Julian Assange is an easy target; maybe we can also blame him for the heartbreak of psoriasis while we're at it.

Readers such as William Springfield are deluded in their values and ideals. Secrecy in the service of crimes is not secrecy that has any real legitimacy. The U.S. has, and still is, committing war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. The initiation of war against Iraq was already a war crime from the very start! We all know the history of how that war began, but people such as Mr. Springfield seem to believe the lies his government tells him, perhaps so he doesn't have to make the effort to figure out the truth for himself. We need more people like Mr. Assange in the world. We need people to stand up to the multitude of crimes by U.S. elites and perhaps one day they might be held to account. Take a poll around the planet to see what citizens of other nations think of the U.S. government's barbarism. The delusion of American Exceptionalism is not only despicable and wrong, is will be our undoing. Pride really does come before a fall.

JG

i heard that the head of mi-6 came out today to lambaste the wiki release. but in his overall critique he included some statements about british morality/ethics. he said something to the effect that britain would never torcher even if it meant innocent citizens would die; he said british morality and ethics could not be prostituted by such a barbaric and, quite simply, a lazy tactic.

1st, i think that the leaks will now provide verification of illegal america.n acts that will cost us possibly 10's of billions of dollars; money that we don't have. they are already occurring

well, as there are suddenly so many out there who feel our debt/deficit is more important than any other human u.s. problem or u.s. ethics/morality, let's approach this from a monetary perspective.

based on this priority-gauge in which expenses/debt trump all other problems facing us, then of course, i'm rip roaring mad that our government has acted in a way that is going to cost us billions and billions and even more billions.

as a taxpayer, i'm outraged that i (and all other individual taxpayers) will now be stuck with an unnecessary bill (ie based on the aforementioned statement by the head of mi-6, a cost britain won't have to endure)and will have to, from my wallet, pay money that i don't really have for acts of which i do not approve; lazy acts
whose barbarity is only eclipsed by their proponents lack of creativity.

i am now forced to pay for hundreds of avoidable legal suits instead of teacher's, policmen's, firemen's et alia, salaries. thanks neocons.

next time you wage a war, even if it's a legitimate one, do me a favor and let's keep the costs down and not torcher or blatantly kill innocents etc. if you can't do it for 21st century ethics, if you can't do it because your country refuses to compromise it's honor for laziness or it's morality and ethics, then for chri-- sakes, let's do it for the dollar; let's do it for our wallets.

i think it's reasonable that we simply act in ways that will not embarrass, will not produce law suits, will not reduce our standing, will not disgust us if they were known. it's not really wiki that's the problem; it's "our" behavior

I clearly remember watching time and again on the news about how the Taliban was closing schools, blowing up sacred statues, whipping men and women on the streets for being both un-bearded and uncovered. I am an avid NPR junkie and I clearly remember hearing report after report about how women had lost all rights in their country due to the Taliban, then, on day one of our going in to stop all those terrible things they were talking about, their whole outlook changed.
Now it is us who are the bad ones, the US and Russia are the Bad ones, not the Taliban. All of the sudden it is the Taliban who is the poorly treated and deserving all the press. I am sure my memory is to long for this to be printed and I have no illusion that this will actually make it onto this site, but, someone had to do something. I do not have the answers, but I guess what NPR and PBS want now is for the Taliban and their buddies in the Pakistan government to take over again, just so they can have something else to report about...

Maybe it is time for those that abandoned the constitution of the United States to depart it's
shores. For defending illegal and immoral war against an enemy that is growing because of the abuse of power that is taking place in the name
of freedom. "Freedom isn't free" is coined today,
well then how much does it cost? Much more than we can afford it seems. The countdown has begun to the downfall of our great country because of the outright abandonment of the foundational laws
in the constitution. Once moral and great our country has turned at the hands of the immoral
and untruthful. A once mighty and accountable nation is now involved in cunning, deceit, disinformation and outright lies. To those that want to change or dismiss the laws of the land,
please pack your bags and find the country that suits your needs. We that truly believe in the constitution of the United States of America want our country back from the power block that now
rides us under. This is not a Democrat or Republican issue as both parties have failed to uphold the laws and values this country was based on. Time for a big change, stand up and deliver
your worth as an American for the day is near.
Long live truth, liberty and justice for all.

So, where is the line drawn? When is it okay to publish other secret information, such as military readiness, battle plans, capabilities, known vulnerabilities? Is Assange such a person? Can a person with his hatred for authority be trusted to make the right decision regarding the need to keep important information secret?

He claims to have a cache of data from Bank of America. What if that data included all BOA account holder's account numbers? Would it be "okay" to make that data available? He's a "journalist" therefore he is free to publish what he wishes. He claims no responsibility in the results of his actions.

What will the world think if Kim Jong Un decides to invade South Korea based in information obtained by WikiLeaks? What will Assange say then? Still, he will claim no responsibility. The issues of the world are not his concern. He spills information with impunity and let's the world go to Hell. He's done his job.