Hundreds of Afghan lives have been put at risk by the leaking of 90,000 intelligence documents to WikiLeaks because the files identify informants working with NATO forces.
In just two hours of searching the WikiLeaks archive, The Times of London found the names of dozens of Afghans credited with providing detailed intelligence to U.S. forces. Their villages are given for identification and also, in many cases, their fathers’ names.
U.S. officers recorded detailed logs of the information fed to them by named local informants, particularly tribal elders.
Julian Assange, the Australian founder of WikiLeaks, claimed on Monday that all the documents released through his organisation had been checked for named informants and that 15,000 such documents had been held back.
The Afghan Government has reacted with horror to the volume of information contained in the files.
[More]
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House Approves Money for Wars, but Rift Deepens
Updates:
1:07 pm EDT, July 28th, 2010 — Will Afghan leaks put lives of operatives at risk?
1:10 pm EDT, July 28th, 2010 — WikiLeaks says Afghan document source unknown
1:13 pm EDT, July 28th, 2010 — Bombshell claim that friendly fire killed Canadian soldiers unravels
Another murdering swine that does it in the name of peace and when confronted with the results of their traitorous actions, the pat answer of “I didn’t know this would happen” is given.
Fire his scummy ass into prison, preferably in Afghanistan where the families of those that he effectively murdered get a change to “speak” to him.
So when is leaking disclosing Government malfeasance, justified even if illegal,, and when does it cross over into ideologically motivated leaking of information that actually endangers national security and the lives of people who acted as our allies and expected and deserved our protection ?
If secret and top secret is fully justified by national security and information is leaked what happened to the crime of treason if done by a citizen or spying when done by a foreign person ?
If the ” leaker ” is interfering by helping the enemy doesn’t he become an ally of the enemy and a legitimate target to be hunted down and shot as an enemy combatant or captured and tried and executed ? Or at the very least captured and interned as any enemy combatant until the war ends i.e. prisoner of war ?
Don’t know the answers in law or in the laws of War but just asking if lethal force could be justified against the leaker(s) or at the very least aggressive pursuit to capture and jail ?
I know how you feel, Pat. I just checked the Wikileaks site and it’s still available. Why that would be I don’t know considering the lives at risk. It should have been taken offline immediately along with his netname. Could this be another screwup by the Obama team?
Wikileaks is nowhere near the USA and Obama or any other American party has no jurisdiction over it. Otherwise, they’d have shut that site down a long time ago (read some of the other leaks)
RE: #4 — I’m far from certain you are correct, Cy. To the best of my knowledge the US still controls the net although I also note the UN is working hard to change that, so far with no success. I think they can shut him down. It’s just a matter of political will.
O/T but FYI for visitors. Acting on Cy’s advice and after much thought Sphere is now present on my “news/blog” site. You’ll see it at the bottom of every entry.
I’ve also joined Twitter (search jacksnewswatch on Twitter to join me) because as Cy notes it can be extremely valuable if I want to point to a news item that I feel very important. No idle chit-chat here but the reach is astounding.
Both new apps are trial for now.
I’ll decide after a few days whether I want to keep them.
The U.S. can shut down the net but they aren’t going to do it to stop one site.
That is changing naturally, btw. China and Europe could easily create their own subnet and keep it afloat. It would be surprising to see the world still on one “internet” 50 years from now.
Yay re: Twitter. Are you going to include your tweets on the side of this side?
Re: #7 — “Are you going to include your tweets on the side of this side?”
Not certain what you mean but I just sent mail. Pick up when you have time.
Update: Thinking more on your comment I’m not suggesting the US shut down the net. Just one “pain in the ass” site. How difficult can that be?
I’m taking the info., that the names of the people and their families have been published by Wiki and if that is the case, these people and their families will be either slaughtered or they will be in protective C.
Is there no responsibility for this act? If the Taliban were exposed by him, they’d just hunt him down and kill him, without question.