WIKILEAKS...WHEN LOOSE LIPS HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO SINK GUNSHIPS
The damage caused by a massive amount of intelligence leaks about the war in Afghanistan shows a minimal amount of actual intelligence by the whistle-blower.
More than 91,000 documents were made available via Wiki-Leaks, and thousands more are under review by the website.
The fingers appear to point to a young military security analyst who felt a moral obligation to feed the highly sensitive information to the internet public forum.
A former Army intelligence analyst named Bradley Manning has been detained for his alleged involvement in this situation. He may well become a 21st century Daniel Ellsberg for his actions. Ellsberg released confidential information about US military policy in Viet Nam during his career as a military analyst for the RAND Corporation.
Ellsberg was eventually acquitted of all charges after a bungled break-in by many of the same guys involved in the Watergate scandal compromised the entire investigation by the US government.
Information about the Wiki-Leaks episode seems to indicate that Manning felt that he had a moral obligation to release the documents. Unfortunately, wars never follow an exact set of rigid guidelines that determine the rules of engagement.
Throw in a region where it is very difficult to sort out friends and enemies and you have a big problem. So the overall policy of the Middle East is governed by levels of mistrust in an area where NATO forces are not exactly tourists for the locals. They are either evil infidel invaders or the good guys- depending upon the time of day.
So now the Wiki-Leaks people feel that it is their duty to provide sensitive information about the ebb and flow of a blood-soaked conflict with more sides than an octagon to anybody that can type in their name on Google Search.
The end result will likely damage the relationships between the US and its partners in the region as they attempt to sort out a tangled mess of alliances and treachery in the Afghanistan war.
It sounds like the basic message simply echoed the conclusions that were already held by anybody with an inkling of knowledge about the region.
Mistakes are a part of every war, truth is an inevitable casualty, and look for a knife in the back from many sources on a foreign battle front.
Jim Sutherland @mystarcollectorcar.com
COMMENTS
DUANE:"Excellent piece sir"
DENNIS:"The guy behind "wikileaks" has an anti war agenda and if you don't put him in context with this, you lose the whole point of this disclosure. Does the American public have a right to know why we're fighting and what we are fighting for and who are so called allies are?, Yes. Just don't lose sight of the fact that these "leaks" are "cherry picked" in exactly the same way as the information the military want's you to know is".
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