Broadband Tech > Security > Security > Wikileaks - Exposing Dark Side of Afghan War

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Re: Wikileaks - Exposing Dark Side of Afghan War

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We - with God's help - call on every Muslim who believes in God and wishes to be rewarded to comply with God's order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it.

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reply to SUMware
Here's an extended interview with Julian Assange about the Afghan War Diary. It includes discussions of the principles of Wikileaks, the legality of this particular leak, the question of whether the information could lead to harm, the fallibility of the Wikileaks project and other issues.

The interview was conducted by the British TV station Channel 4 News.

»link.brightcove.com/services/pla···32315001

»www.channel4.com/news/articles/p···/3723387

reply to SUMware

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Do we believe factual reports by US soldiers about the killing of civilians is worthless? Do we really think that hard information about the increasing strength of the Taliban should be covered up? Is it of no consequence that there is new and more obvious evidence about Pakistani and Iranian aid for the Taliban?

Sure, we could say we knew all that or, at least, suspected it. But the material provides unequivocal support for those suspicions. And that is valuable.

Wikileaks performed a public service by posting the documents on the web, as have the newspapers that spent weeks analysing that material.

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reply to visiting
Oh, here's what seems to be a transcript of the Channel 4 interview, which I hadn't seen when I posted earlier:
»www.channel4.com/news/articles/p···/3723392

Some quotes:

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There is an awful amount of material here that you couldn't have looked through personally. Could it cost lives? Is it putting people in danger publishing this?
We've gone through the material and reviewed it and looked for cases where innocent informers, ie an old man saying next door there is a Taliban, or what he believes is Taliban, so we've looked for those cases and there's a particular type of report that frequently has that - those have been withheld and also the source says they have done some work in doing this as well. So I think it's unlikely that that will happen. We've worked hard to make sure there's not a significant chance of anybody coming to harm.

But you can't guarantee it?
Any information can be abused for another purpose so we can't guarantee it. But our understanding of the material is that it's vastly more likely to save lives than cost lives.

So you've actually removed stuff from this leak?
Yes.

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Surely this a breach of the law to publish secret information?
No, that's not true. The US constitution gives robust protection to the press. The law is not what a General or CEO says it is. The law is what the Supreme Court says it will be. And so far, it has upheld the right of publishers to reveal this type of information.

So you don't think you're breaking any laws revealing this?
No.

But you have been subject to legal challenges.
Yes we have, and we've won every legal challenge. The law is not what a General trying to cover abuses says it is, or a bank CEO says, it's what the Supreme Court in the land says it is.

What will the US reaction be?
I expect they will see the extensive range of abuses and if they are intelligent, they will say 'This will not happen again, we will put in procedures to stop these abuses, to stop this".

I'm sure there are elements that will say "We will put in procedures to stop this information coming out again" - but insofar as the US administration goes down that path, rather than addressing the problems in Afghanistan, I think it will be seen as a mistake in history.

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reply to SUMware
I'd like to know when the government starts getting serious about these leaks and starts to try people on treason charges (particularly if they are military). These papers (like the Apache heli video they posted) were classified materials.

reply to SUMware
Excerpts from The Washington Post
July 26, 2010 -

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WH: No attempt to stop WikiLeaks news reports

The White House says it didn't try to stop news organizations who had access to secret U.S. military documents from publishing reports about the leaks.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs says he met with reporters from The New York Times, one of the outlets with the documents, last week. He says he sent a message through the reporters to the head of WikiLeaks asking that the online whistle-blower redact information in the documents that could harm U.S. military personnel.

Gibbs says the White House also received questions Friday from Der Spiegel, a German magazine that also had early access to the documents.

WikiLeaks posted 91,000 classified documents on Afghanistan Sunday. The organization's founder says he still has thousands more Afghan files to post.

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...the Kabul government has welcomed the leak. A spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai said the leaks highlighted the role Pakistan's intelligence service plays in destabilising Afghanistan.

And Karzai himself said the documents showed that NATO troops had fired a rocket that killed 52 "innocent" villagers in southern Afghanistan, as leaked documents laid bare the civilian toll of the US-led war.

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reply to SUMware
if they have not the US needs to release 1 million pages of distorted information accidentally on net by leaving server open ( or hell secured server ) this inturn would turn this into a complete cluster suck..
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calling a illegal alien undocumented is like calling a drug dealer a undocumented pharmacist

reply to SUMware

said by »edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiap···v199aYvB :

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World powers react to WikiLeaks' documents

(CNN) -- Here are reactions to the posting on WikiLeaks.org of tens of thousands of leaked U.S. military and diplomatic reports on the war in Afghanistan:

Afghanistan:

"The Afghan government is shocked with the report that has opened the reality of the Afghan war," said Siamak Herawi, a government spokesman.
Herawi focused on the allegation that Pakistan was secretly supporting al Qaeda and asserted that Washington needs to deal with the Pakistani intelligence agency, known as the ISI.
"There should be serious action taken against the ISI, who has a direct connection with the terrorists," he said. "These reports show that the U.S. was already aware of the ISI connection with the al Qaeda terrorist network. The United States is overdue on the ISI issue, and now the United States should answer."

Pakistan:

In a statement, Pakistan's foreign office said Monday that the documents are "misplaced, skewed and contrary to the factual position on the ground."
"The people of Pakistan and its security forces, including the ISI, have rendered enormous sacrifices against militancy and terrorism. Our contributions have been acknowledged by the international community, in particular by the United States. As underlined by the U.S. national security adviser in his statement on Wikileaks yesterday, the ongoing counterterrorism cooperation between Pakistan and the [United States] will continue with a view to defeating our common enemies."
Lt. Gen. Hamid Gul, the former head of Pakistan's intelligence service who is mentioned numerous times in the WikiLeaks documents, called the accusations that Pakistan was secretly supporting al Qaeda lies.
Qamar Zaman Kaira, Pakistan's federal information minister, said allegations against the ISI are "baseless."
Video: Pakistan rejects allegations Video: Website posts Afghan war accounts Video: Consequences of leaked papers? Video: Leaks 'just scratched the surface'

"If someone has any evidence, it should be brought to us, and we will take action," he said. "The Pakistani military, especially the ISI, has sacrificed more than any other forces in the war on terrorism."
A spokesman for Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Farahnaz Ispahani, said the "unsubstantiated leaks" based on uncorroborated "one-sided reports ... will not deter the Pakistani government's commitment to the eradication of terrorism, peace with our neighbors and stability in the region."
Husain Haqqani, Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, issued a statement Sunday saying the reports "do not reflect the current onground realities."
Rather, they "reflect nothing more than single source comments and rumors, which abound on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and are often proved wrong after deeper examination," Haqqani's statement said.
"Pakistan's government under the democratically elected leadership of President Zardari and Prime Minister [Yousuf Raza] Gilani is following a clearly laid out strategy of fighting and marginalizing terrorists, and our military and intelligence services are effectively executing that policy," the statement said.

United States:

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs called the documents' release "a breach of federal law" and said that an investigation into the source of the leak was initiated before late last week.
But, he told reporters, "I don't think that what is being reported hasn't in many ways been publicly discussed -- whether by you or by representatives of the U.S. government -- for quite some time."
Asked about the leak, he said, "There is no doubt that this is a concerning development in operational security."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday that the release would not affect a $33 billion war supplemental vote, to be held this week. "A lot of it predates the president's new policy," she said.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, who is co-sponsoring a bill that would direct President Obama to remove U.S. forces from Pakistan, said the documents "provide a fuller picture of what we have long known about Afghanistan: The war is going badly."
He added, "It is not the leak of documents that endangers the lives of American troops and our allies, it is the belief that occupying Afghanistan will make us safer. Congress must say no to war funding, bring our troops home and invest in the American recovery."
Sen. Kit Bond, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called the release of the documents "shocking."
"The damage to our national security caused by leaks like this won't stop until we see more perpetrators in orange jumpsuits," the Missouri Republican said in a statement.
The senator stressed that the leak underscores the need to start taking more seriously the threat to national security that leaks cause. Bond pointed out that this is not a new problem: The bipartisan September 11 Commission found that national security was threatened by widespread leaks of classified information. This point was emphasized by former CIA Director Michael Hayden, who testified before Congress that because of leaks, the U.s. effectively has applied "Darwinian Theory" to terrorists: catching only the dumb ones.
National Security Adviser Gen. James Jones issued a statement Sunday condemning the documents' release.
"These irresponsible leaks will not impact our ongoing commitment to deepen our partnerships with Afghanistan and Pakistan; to defeat our common enemies; and to support the aspirations of the Afghan and Pakistani people," the statement said.
The Department of Defense will not comment on them until the Pentagon has had a chance to look at them, a department official said.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, issued a statement Sunday saying that the documents -- regardless of how they came to light -- "raise serious questions about the reality of America's policy toward Pakistan and Afghanistan."
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton, D-Missouri, issued a statement saying: "I am extremely concerned about the manner in which these documents were leaked and with the recklessness of WikiLeaks in posting them. Our nation's secrets are classified for a reason, and the release of classified documents could put our national security -- and the lives of our men and women in combat -- at serious risk.
"These leaked documents, while troubling, appear to support what I was asserting for years: The war in Afghanistan was not going well, and we needed a real strategy for success. For nearly a decade under the previous administration, our brave war fighters were under-resourced and lacked the direction of a clear strategy. Under the new counterinsurgency strategy implemented earlier this year, we now have the pieces in place to turn things around. These leaked reports pre-date our new strategy in Afghanistan and should not be used as a measure of success or a determining factor in our continued mission there.
"Additionally, some of these documents implicate Pakistan in aiding the Taliban and fueling the insurgency in Afghanistan. It is critical that we not use outdated reports to paint a picture of the cooperation of Pakistan in our efforts in Afghanistan. Since these reports were issued, Pakistan has significantly stepped up its fight against the Taliban, including efforts that led to the capture of the highest ranking member of the Taliban since the start of the war. The Pakistani military has also been in combat for more than a year against its country's own Taliban, which is aligned with al Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban attacking American forces and our NATO allies. While we still have concerns about Pakistan's efforts against the Afghan Taliban, there is no doubt that there have been significant improvements in its overall effort."

Britain:

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said: "I have not seen those [reports] in detail, but they should not be damaging the international efforts. We saw last week in Afghanistan the huge progress that is being made and the phenomenal challenges that are still in front of us in Afghanistan. But the fact that a good deal of progress is being made in building up the capacity of the Afghan state and Afghanistan working together with so many nations in the world. I hope any leaks will not poison that atmosphere, and I do not think they will."
WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange said the documents are "legitimate," but he added that it is important not to take their contents at face value.
"We publish CIA reports all the time that are legitimate CIA reports. That doesn't mean the CIA is telling the truth," he said.
"Similarly, with this material, there is reporting from military units of various kinds, in Afghanistan, U.S. embassies across the world, about matters relevant to Afghanistan. ... Those are legitimate reports," he said. "It doesn't mean the contents are true."
CNN's Brianna Keilar contributed to this report.

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reply to fatness
Neah I leave all highly intelligent reports to fox news

reply to SUMware
It's "OK to be a traitor".
That's what i hear.....

»watch.ctv.ca/news/news/latest/wa···ip329212

reply to SUMware
"And in other news tonight, Wikileaks editor Julian Assange, as many of you know blew the whistle on US-Afgan operations, died in a mysterious car accident earlier today. Officials didn't speculate on the cause of the accident but an investigation is still ongoing, sources say."

If it were me, I'd think twice about making such a "name" for myself. I'd hate to have TF 373 come after me...
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"I have measured out my life with coffee spoons..." - T.S Eliot
"I have often regretted my speech, never my silence." - Publilius Syrus
Ma blog: »www.johndball.com

reply to SUMware
Quote from KodiacZiller

"What a brilliant man you are, with excellent sentence structure and grammar! We need more people like you making decisions for us all. You have such a firm grasp on reality and a sophisticated understanding of international issues."

Thank you

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Quote from Jameson

"I don't give a shit if it had nothing to do with Iraq in the first place."

What ??? Works both ways then !

"The fact or the matter is that terrorists linked to the cell that fucked with our country are located in Iraq."

Facts ? Prove it then.

"I remember 9/11 and the weeks following very well."

So do i, watched it live on TV. Found it VERY strange that THREE tall buildings dropped symetrically at free fall speed, and one of them wasn't even hit by a plane ?

"Everyone was so gung-ho to "kill those sons of bitches" and called for action to be taken."

Everyone ?

"Well guess what, we did."

And look where it's got you !

"Keep your stupid political bull shit out of here."

The whole thing is politics, what did you think it was ?

God HELP America.

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"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday that the release would not affect a $33 billion war supplemental vote, to be held this week."

She needs a slap.

Oh look another $33 billion of your tax $ about to be spent with companies/people connected with the REAL modus operandi !

"A lot of it predates the president's new policy," she said."

Yes Bush/Cheney and co have a lot to answer for too.

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Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, "It is not the leak of documents that endangers the lives of American troops and our allies, it is the belief that occupying Afghanistan will make us safer. Congress must say no to war funding, bring our troops home and invest in the American recovery."

He needs a clap.

American recovery, well you can hope for one, but you ain't seen nothing yet. And don't forget about what the bankers/fed etc have done with your tax $.

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