Am I alone in thinking wikileaks is a GOOD thing?

[Modbert]

This is not "transparency", this is theft. There were proper channels the young man could have gone to...to properly filter this sort of information if he thought there was wrong doing. In fact..our government has "whistleblower" laws to protect people who do this.

What happened here was a violation of trust. When you are in an industry that deals with sensitive information, the onus is to use the utmost judgement and care with how that gets handled.

That all went out the window here.

Officials may be overstating the danger from WikiLeaks | McClatchy

But despite similar warnings ahead of the previous two massive releases of classified U.S. intelligence reports by the website, U.S. officials concede that they have no evidence to date that the documents led to anyone's death.

Before Sunday's release, news organizations given access to the documents and WikiLeaks took the greatest care to date to ensure no one would be put in danger. In statements accompanying stories about the documents, several newspapers said they voluntarily withheld information and that they cooperated with the State Department and the Obama administration to ensure nothing released could endanger lives or national security.

The newspapers "established lists in common of people to protect, notably in countries ruled by dictators, controlled by criminals or at war," according to an account by Le Monde, a French newspaper that was among the five news organizations that were given access to the documents. "All the identities of people the journalists believed would be threatened were redacted," the newspaper said in what would be an unprecedented act of self censorship by journalists toward government documents.

Unlike the release earlier this year of intelligence documents about the war in Afghanistan, when WikiLeaks posted on its website unredacted documents that included the names of Afghan informants, WikiLeaks agreed this time not to release more than 250,000 documents because they hadn't been vetted by the U.S. government.

The newspapers said WikiLeaks had agreed to release only the documents used in preparation for articles that appeared in the five publications, which in addition to Le Monde and The New York Times included Great Britain's Guardian, Germany's Der Spiegel and Spain's El Pais.

"Together, the five newspapers have carefully edited the raw text used to remove all names and indices whose disclosure could pose risks to individuals," Le Monde said.

 

[Modbert]

If it's secret is it wrong by default?

That's not what I said and we both know it.

 

[Modbert]

There's absolutely no way you can say that wikileaks does anything useful other than place American lives as well as national pride in danger. It is the media world's job to play as a watchdog for American politics, however providing information which places America in a vulnerable state is treason. Anyone who honestly thinks that the public knows everything that takes place in the government and world is simply ignorant.

So if the U.S was committing war crimes, anyone who releases such information should be tried and killed under treason? Good to know where you fall.

 

[ThePatriot]

If the US was committing war crimes then the releasing of that information would be the report of illegal activity, and such situations which have occurred with US soldiers in iraq have assigned blame and punishment to the proper people. Releasing information which places the lives of people who fight for your freedom IS TREASON.

 

[Synthaholic]

I find what they do really damaging. If the information is legitimate it should be released to the proper Authority, and investigated. There is no excuse for releasing Classified Information.

I'm just starting to read this thread so I apologize if someone has mentioned it, but NONE of these documents were Classified or Top Secret. There were Secret, and NOFORN, meaning 'no foreign' eyes can see them.

 

[Modbert]

If the US was committing war crimes then the releasing of that information would be the report of illegal activity, and such situations which have occurred with US soldiers in iraq have assigned blame and punishment to the proper people. Releasing information which places the lives of people who fight for your freedom IS TREASON.

Again, if someone had information that U.S soldiers were committing war crimes against Iraqi citizens (not saying they are), you'd want that person tried for treason using your logic.

Also, Julian couldn't be tried with treason as he's not American. Get that fact straight.

 

[Jeremy]

I still think wikileaks sucks. Sorry.

 

[ThePatriot]

I understand that he is not American and I should have clarified, I do not want the man tried for treason. I simply believe the site has treasonous undertones, which could very well be taken down for this reason. I also said that a soldier being reported for a war crime is the reporting of an illegal action which is perfectly logical.

 

[Queen]

It's not as bad as the VP's office leaking the name of a CIA spy but it's bad.

The US Army guy who stole the documents and gave them to wikileaks should be tried for treason.

 

[Synthaholic]

Aren't you blame shifting there, Sallow? Intense? The US Government should SAFEGUARD such information. They should be much more careful who gets access.

We shoot the messenger now? It's hardly wikileaks fault that the information was obtained.

Never heard these complaints about the Pentagon Papers, for example.

The U.S. government's lapses don't justify releasing information which compromises the country's intelligence gathering efforts.

I doubt Ernie Pyle would approve.

As soon as you find any such on the wikileaks site, please let me know. I have tried very hard to find names, and other details that have been widely reported, on the site. It's simply not there.

I'll wait.

Meanwhile, understand that it's the GOVERNMENT who failed to secure this information, therefore it's the GOVERNMENT who did any "compromising."

It's not there because wikileaks has been talking/negotiating with the government, and newspapers, since the Spring, when they they released the first round of mostly DoD leaks.

This is not new, and the government was not blindsided by this in the least.

 

[Queen]

I find what they do really damaging. If the information is legitimate it should be released to the proper Authority, and investigated. There is no excuse for releasing Classified Information.

I'm just starting to read this thread so I apologize if someone has mentioned it, but NONE of these documents were Classified or Top Secret. There were Secret, and NOFORN, meaning 'no foreign' eyes can see them.

Some of them WERE classified.

WikiLeaks founder could be charged under Espionage Act

 

[loosecannon]

I find what they do really damaging. If the information is legitimate it should be released to the proper Authority, and investigated. There is no excuse for releasing Classified Information.

I'm just starting to read this thread so I apologize if someone has mentioned it, but NONE of these documents were Classified or Top Secret. There were Secret, and NOFORN, meaning 'no foreign' eyes can see them.

Some of them WERE classified.

WikiLeaks founder could be charged under Espionage Act

But Assange is not a US citizen and is therefore immune from prosecution under the espionage act of 1917.

And "Classified" is actually one of the lowest categories of secrecy. And all internal government documents require a classification. Being "classified" is hardly state secrets material. It is more like "should we shred this or call the press?".

 

[Synthaholic]

you're not alone, Maurader. I wish there was a more formal way to screen these before release, but that would of course destroy the whole idea.

Given this unfettered release or no release at all, I'll certainly take the unfettered release. More transparency = better governance.

They were screened before release. All the news agencies that got advanced copies coordinated with the DOD and the WH via the NYT and agreed to redactions. Wiki itself participated in these redactions as well as imposing their own before advanced copies were forwarded.

The leaks were sanitized by the US government before release.

An we have a winner!

Thread over.

 

[Midnight Marauder]

Thus far, NO damage has been shown from the first wikileaks event, nor this one. No deaths attributed directly to any of it. It's alarmist and overstated. It was then, it is now.

To buy into the "endangering the troops" mantra, doesn't one automatically then buy into the whole "gitmo (or insert anything else) is a recruiting tool for terrorists" pablum?

The troops ARE in danger. They are in harm's way. All the time. 24/7/365.

 

[Si modo]

The government needs to be better about this. Security is too much in one place and obviously not enough elsewhere.

Bradley Manning and his accomplices (just look at the idiot; he had help) should be shot.

 

[Midnight Marauder]

The government needs to be better about this. Security is too much in one place and obviously not enough elsewhere.

Bradley Manning and his accomplices (just look at the idiot; he had help) should be shot.

Actually, the only help he had was lax security in a sensitive area.

We have to have full body scans and pat-downs and getting felt up just to get on a plane to go see Aunt Bee in Mayberry, but this dude is able to walk into his job at a secure area with fucking CD-RW disks on him, and flash drives on him, and more importantly, WALK OUT with these items. It's silly.

There was no hacking, no cracking, no special skills needed at all to do what he did. He just copied files he had access to, and distributed them.

 

[Si modo]

The government needs to be better about this. Security is too much in one place and obviously not enough elsewhere.

Bradley Manning and his accomplices (just look at the idiot; he had help) should be shot.

Actually, the only help he had was lax security in a sensitive area.

We have to have full body scans and pat-downs and getting felt up just to get on a plane to go see Aunt Bee in Mayberry, but this dude is able to walk into his job at a secure area with fucking CD-RW disks on him, and flash drives on him, and more importantly, WALK OUT with these items. It's silly.

There was no hacking, no cracking, no special skills needed at all to do what he did. He just copied files he had access to, and distributed them.

Yup. But, I don't even think he's bright enough for that.

The decisions on what is classified and the level that it is classified often make no sense, even if one is in a position to know why. The government can't even be trusted to protect itself (or us) often. Security classification has been a clusterfuck for way too long. Politics got involved and it isn't sensible any longer.

Manning still needs to be shot. It's wartime.

 

[Midnight Marauder]

The government needs to be better about this. Security is too much in one place and obviously not enough elsewhere.

Bradley Manning and his accomplices (just look at the idiot; he had help) should be shot.

Actually, the only help he had was lax security in a sensitive area.

We have to have full body scans and pat-downs and getting felt up just to get on a plane to go see Aunt Bee in Mayberry, but this dude is able to walk into his job at a secure area with fucking CD-RW disks on him, and flash drives on him, and more importantly, WALK OUT with these items. It's silly.

There was no hacking, no cracking, no special skills needed at all to do what he did. He just copied files he had access to, and distributed them.

Yup. But, I don't even think he's bright enough for that.

The decisions on what is classified and the level that it is classified often make no sense, even if one is in a position to know why. The government can't even be trusted to protect itself (or us) often. Security classification has been a clusterfuck for way too long. Politics got involved and it isn't sensible any longer.

Manning still needs to be shot. It's wartime.

Imagine.... With the new health scare law, all of our info will be available to nimrods such as the goober who copied these files.

And there's this possible near-future to consider:

Obama: This.... Ommmm, Wikileaks thing.... Proves what we have been saying about umm... Net fairness and neutrality and how uhh.... We need to control what goes out there on the internet. Let me just be clear -- There's alot of, ummm, misinformation out there and alot of, ummm, dangerous things out there that put us in danger. Therefore I am uhhhh, asking congress to help with ahhhh, national security by passing the ommmmm, net neutrality act and ahhhh, extending it to talk radio and cable TV and ahhhh, get some of this misinformation and ahhh, dangerous things that put us in danger ummmm... regulated.

 

[teapartysamurai]

Does anyone have a link to the actual document dump?

I have been reading and reading, but I have yet to get my arms around what was actually released.

 

[Midnight Marauder]

Does anyone have a link to the actual document dump?

I have been reading and reading, but I have yet to get my arms around what was actually released.

It appears the wikileaks site is either undergoing a DDoS attack, or just has too much traffic lately.

Here's a article that sums up some of the stuff released:

The 10 most important WikiLeaks revelations - WikiLeaks - Salon.com