Wikileaks.org -- Tens of thousands of Afghan war docs leaked

[Azure]

And the moron retort.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has hit out at the US military, saying that it bears the ultimate responsibility for any deaths of Afghan informers in the wake of the publication by his organisation of 75,000 leaked files of American army secrets.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010...afghanistan-us

[CaptainCrunch]

What a moron, at some point he's going to get hauled in for interrogation, and he will either reveal his source and methods or take the fall for his source.

I doubt that the American's are going to mess around with this guy.

[wooohooo]

I hope the American's take this guy out covertly and replace him with a double. At least that's what movies has taught me about what the USA can do.

[HPLovecraft]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

What a moron, at some point he's going to get hauled in for interrogation, and he will either reveal his source and methods or take the fall for his source.

I doubt that the American's are going to mess around with this guy.

Making himself as high-profile as he is doing is likely the smartest thing he can do running a thing like Wikileaks, and he likely knows it. If he were some shadow nobody knew the face of, he'd be easy to shut-up. His face and name is known world-wide now. He can't just be taken out of the picture.

[CaptainCrunch]

If the American's want him, its going to be a high profile arrest, followed by a high profile trial.

If they want to, this guy is a perfect person to be used as an example..

Why would they want to quietly disappear him?

And with his statements about blaming the U.S. for any deaths, his past anti-military statements, he's not going to garner much sympathy.

And a pretty boy like him would probably be the most popular guy in Leavenworth

[HPLovecraft]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

If the American's want him, its going to be a high profile arrest, followed by a high profile trial.

If they want to, this guy is a perfect person to be used as an example..

Why would they want to quietly disappear him?

And with his statements about blaming the U.S. for any deaths, his past anti-military statements, he's not going to garner much sympathy.

And a pretty boy like him would probably be the most popular guy in Leavenworth

High-profile arrest for what, exactly? Running a website?

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by HPLovecraft

High-profile arrest for what, exactly? Running a website?

Releasing classified military documents.

I doubt that they want him as much as they want his source. So they'll take a shot at him and pressure him. And since he's not protected as a journalist, he doesn't have the same protection when it comes to protecting sources.

[HPLovecraft]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Releasing classified military documents.

I doubt that they want him as much as they want his source. So they'll take a shot at him and pressure him. And since he's not protected as a journalist, he doesn't have the same protection when it comes to protecting sources.

Except he's not a US citizen nor is he located inside the US. If you do a little research, they talked about charging him as a co-conspirator of espionage but dropped it. There's nothing much they can get him on outside of the United States for running a website.

[nickk382]

Why the hell did you mark the Coyotes logo for this topic?

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by HPLovecraft

Except he's not a US citizen nor is he located inside the US. If you do a little research, they talked about charging him as a co-conspirator of espionage but dropped it. There's nothing much they can get him on outside of the United States for running a website.

Well thats unfortunate, however the American judicial system doesn't care about that if he turns up at a courthouse.

To me the guy is a sensationalist and a dirt bag.

[Itse]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

To me the guy is a sensationalist and a dirt bag.

You know, some people just have very different opinions and views than you. Doesn't make them dirtbags.

[CaptainCrunch]

Anyone who releases documents where he leaves in names and locations of local citizens and intelligence sources who have worked with the NATO forces knowing very well that the Taliban is probably going to murder these people is a scum bag.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by Itse

You know, some people just have very different opinions and views than you. Doesn't make them dirtbags.

No, there are a lot of different people like FDW that have different opinions on the war in Afghanistan who aren't dirtbags.

But someone who intentionally releases classified military information that will put lives at risk is a scumbag and needs to be dropped in a hellhole in Afghanistan and left to rot.

Better yet, hand him over to the Taliban and let them have their way.

Absolute no sympathy. He was warned by the Times of London about revealing certain documents and he didn't listen.

[Azure]

And look what the scumbag has done now.

In the wake of strong U.S. government statements condemning WikiLeaks’ recent publishing of 77,000 Afghan War documents, the secret-spilling site has posted a mysterious encrypted file labeled “insurance.”
The huge file, posted on the Afghan War page at the WikiLeaks site, is 1.4 GB and is encrypted with AES256. The file’s size dwarfs the size of all the other files on the page combined. The file has also been posted on a torrent download site.

Cryptome, a separate secret-spilling site, has speculated that the new file added days later may have been posted as insurance in case something happens to the WikiLeaks website or to the organization’s founder, Julian Assange. In either scenario, WikiLeaks volunteers, under a prearranged agreement with Assange, could send out a password or passphrase to allow anyone who has downloaded the file to open it.
It’s not known what the file contains but it could include the balance of data that U.S. Army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning claimed to have leaked to Assange before he was arrested in May.

Read More http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/201...#ixzz0vNg4JhDF

Because no government can crack that file without needing the passcode.

[Azure]

WASHINGTON — The top U.S. military officer says the Pentagon is trying to protect Afghans who may be at risk from Taliban retaliation following the publication of tens of thousands of secret war documents.

Adm. Mike Mullen, who's chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says the U.S. is duty-bound to try to shield informants who were named in the documents.
Taliban spokesmen have said that their organization will use the material to try to hunt down people who've been cooperating with what the Taliban considers a foreign invader.

The website WikiLeaks posted nearly 77,000 secret documents a week ago, leading to wide condemnation from U.S. officials.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...12pZwD9HAR7HG1

[Itse]

Originally Posted by Azure

No, there are a lot of different people like FDW that have different opinions on the war in Afghanistan who aren't dirtbags.

But someone who intentionally releases classified military information that will put lives at risk is a scumbag...

Or, he truly believes that by releasing that stuff he's trying/helping to turn the popular opinion against the war, thus shortening it and saving many lives (and a lot of everybodys money) as a result. Possibly he is aware that the decision is not without problems, but he thinks they are worth it. Or he feels he's simply seen and heard too much BS which isn't talked about and as a result more people are killed than should be.

I don't know any more than you do, but it's pretty easy to figure out that there are valid standpoints from which the persons responsible could feel morally obligated to do this.

I really feel that there's a double standard here. If Afghan civilians get killed due to a questionable decision made by politicians who (I think most will agree with this) thought about their personal political future in the process, that's just s*** happening, unavoidable collateral damage.

But if soldiers and their informants get killed due to a questionable decision by individuals who actually might have to face up to some personal backlash and actually have very little to gain, that's scumbaggery.

From a moral standpoint, I don't think that logic holds water.

I'm not really saying this was such a great idea, but I'd be very surprised if they didn't truly try to do what they thought was right. I think it's easy to call them deluded fools (luckily I don't feel the need to have any kind of an opinion about them), but calling them scumbags IMO shows you're getting too emotional to think straight.

In any case, people are certainly once again talking about Afghanistan. For the rest, it's really hard to say. There's just lots and lots of stuff there, and it's too early to know what turns up when people really start digging through it, comparing what they find with other info available, making stats and figures and generally factchecking and turning data into information.

[Azure]

Oh, I can see how it would make sense to release documents showing that the US is being played by Pakistan. I have already said I don't really see the problem with that.

But intentionally, which wikileaks did, releasing documents that contain the names of informants serves only one purpose. Putting those lives at risk.

And I sincerely doubt he did it because he wants the war to end. We all want the war to end. But most of us have at least some morals, that we wouldn't intentionally go out and put innocent people at the risk of a Taliban hit squad.

Again, no problem with information about Pakistan, where Bin Laden will be hiding, or the fact that the Brits saved 900 Afghan lives. Which is quite funny considering nobody is reporting it.

But once you start revealing names, I think that crosses the line.

Makes it even worse that he was warned. And even worse that he released the names, and then turns around and says the US should protect those people he helped put a death warrant on.

Thats like an arsonist saying the firefighters should just run into a burning building and save the family whose house he just lit on fire.

[Azure]

Some more information about the documents from the Wikipedia page.

Pretty interesting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_Logs

Evidence that Iran provided extensive assistance to the Taliban was also revealed. Coming from sources such as Afghan spies and paid informants, Iranian involvement in Afghanistan steadily widened from 2004 to today and constituted armaments, money, and physical deployment of anti-NATO militants.

The documents, wrote journalist Jeff Stein of the Washington Post, stated that Hezb-e-Islami party leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Amin al-Haq, a financial advisor to Osama Bin Ladin, both flew to North Korea on November 19, 2005, and purchased remote controlled rockets to be used against American and coalition aircraft. Stein cautioned that he has found no corroborating reports of North Korean involvement in Taliban armaments dealing.[18]

[CaptainCrunch]

To me, what he did was no different then a foreign spy cultivating sources and setting up a spy ring. Maybe we can exchange this guy to the Taliban.

I have more problems with the source at the moment, but I do find that publishing the names of the information sources that are still in country is a particularly scum bag action.

And posting a file with a known encryption scheme is a dangerous act.

I've reviewed through the document, and I also think that in a lot of ways this is a intelligence bonaza for foreign governments as it gives the capabilities, tactics, and juicy information on how U.S special forces group operate.

[HPLovecraft]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

To me, what he did was no different then a foreign spy cultivating sources and setting up a spy ring. Maybe we can exchange this guy to the Taliban.

I have more problems with the source at the moment, but I do find that publishing the names of the information sources that are still in country is a particularly scum bag action.

And posting a file with a known encryption scheme is a dangerous act.

I've reviewed through the document, and I also think that in a lot of ways this is a intelligence bonaza for foreign governments as it gives the capabilities, tactics, and juicy information on how U.S special forces group operate.

Mind linking us to have a few of the documents that you've reviewed that reveal the tactics, capabilities, and SF secrets of the US? Just curious to see them.