Regarding the Wikileaks document dump: In the third document dump by Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, over 250,000 state department documents, including sensitive diplomatic correspondence, were put up for grabs over the Web yesterday. Many state secrets will be revealed in the coming days as reporters pour over the information. Already from the documents, we know that Saudi Arabia has been badgering the US to destroy Iran's nuclear depots, that Pres. Clinton ordered diplomats to spy on other countries at the UN, and that Iran transported weapons to Hezbollah in ambulances. Certainly more outrageous behavior and correspondence among diplomats will be revealed in the coming weeks. But at whom should the outrage be directed?
Julian Assange, while loathsome, probably fancies himself a journalist and as such, couldn't resist exposing that which is kept secret. What self-respecting journalist could?
Nor can we blame the NYT, Drudge, or any other news outlet for republishing this information. It is the job of reporters to try to get this information just as it's the job of the government to keep it hidden. The blame lies equally with Pvt. Bradley Manning, the state department employee who is currently in custody under suspicion of being the mole, and with the lax system that allowed a private in the Army singular access to this much intelligence. That said, Julian Assange should have practiced a little more journalistic responsibility and redacted those documents that contained information that identified people who may be put at risk for their lives by this release. He did not and their blood will be on his hands.
4 comments:
Regarding the NYT, this is what they wrote a year ago in refusing to publish the "climategate" documents, "The documents appear to have been acquired illegally and contain all manner of private information and statements that were never intended for the public eye, so they won't be posted here."
I'm not saying that crimes weren't committed here. Certainly the one who leaked them should be doing an air dance at the end of a rope at Leavenworth at some point. Furthermore, if Assange had wanted to be a responsible journalist, he should have redacted or omitted any document that endangered anybody currently operating in the field.
The duplicity of the NYT regarding Climategate notwithstanding, most journalists who come into possession of information like this can't seriously be expected to return it to it's rightful owner as if it were a lost wallet. The primary fault for me lies with the government's document security protocol that allowed this kid to pilfer this much intelligence in the first place.
Lastly, I think it's a good thing that we now know that the Saudi's have always wanted us to attack Iran and destroy it's nuclear program and that during Hezbollah's recent war with Israel, Iran smuggled weapons to Hezbollah in ambulances.
I think that if our current crop of journalists fell into a time warp to June 1944 and came into the information that invasion across the Pas de Calais was a deception and Normandy the real target, they would have trampled each other to publish it. If we can't seriously expect responsibility from this crowd, that's a shame.
Regarding Assange, or whatever the idiot's name is, and his anti-American leak site, I surely hope some serious hacking efforts are going on with real secrecy. When he publishes some Chinese or Russian secrets and disappears, I'll have a little more respect for him.
Regarding Pvt Bradley Manning, life in Leavenworth sounds about right.
I think Watergate was the watershed moment for anything-goes journalism. Prior to that, not most, some journalist would at least look the other way if a politician committed an otherwise harmless indescretion and most would not intentionally harm the US or her allies like this. Ever since Nixon was brought down by the press, there's been blood in the water for journalists seeking fame and Pulitzers. That can be healthy for a republic or it can be damaging. There's a fine line there.
Obviously other countries have similar diplomatic secrets and are just glad to not have them public. I doubt it'll cast a serious, long-term chill on diplomacy.
They're all snickering at us so it is embarrassing for a while. Let's hope that's all it is.
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