Posted on 07/29/2010 6:18:05 PM PDT by jazusamo
Word is out that the Wikileaks classified-document dump contains reports naming Afghans who have been cooperating with Coalition forces. This is the kind of information that can get people killed. It also raises the data release to a new level of criminality.
The Washington Times Editorial Board reviewed the reports in question on the day of their release but chose not to write about them because of the potential damage that revealing the information could do to the war effort as well as to cooperative Afghans. These secret reports have the greatest possibility of causing deadly consequences, which under the American legal tradition is why those who leaked them should be held accountable.
First Amendment protections for the press are necessary but not unlimited. The Supreme Court has recognized that in extraordinary cases, especially in time of war, limits may be placed on what may legally be published. "The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent," Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote in 1919 in Schenck v. U.S. "When a nation is at war, many things that might be said in time of peace are such a hindrance to its effort that their utterance will not be endured so long as men fight, and that no Court could regard them as protected by any constitutional right."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Our own President did nothing to stop these reports from being published. That is criminal. Then they try to give them the big ho-hum. We won’t have any allies or sources left in Afghanistan at this rate. Why would anyone trust us?
Ironic isn’t it. These so called journalists scream to the rafters how they have a right to publish military secrets because “the public has a right to know”, but they were plotting how to circle the wagons to keep the Jeremiah Wright story from coming out during the presidential campaign. Guess the public’s right to know doesn’t include facts about their pres__ent.
I couldn't agree more! Especially since a heads up was sent to the WH and whomever reviewed it did nothing.
It's a sad day when the WH abides a criminal element.
Yep, the the public doesn’t have a right to know secret material when lives are at stake, and it sounds like many Afghan lives will be at stake as well as our own peoples lives in the military.
Other than busting the nuts of Manning, is the government going to bust the nuts of those responsible for publishing the materials at WikiLeaks? =.=
Leftist journalists are simply at war with the US. They didn’t accidently endanger the war effort. Everything they do and say are deliberate acts of treason and sedition.
The media hates you and they hate your family. They want us all dead dead dead.
If only the government could but I believe they’ll skate.
I also think if its found out that people in the Obama Administration had a chance to stop the leaks and didn't then their should be treason charges brought against all those involved.
However IF the wikileaks people were not told directly by Law Enforcement or the Government that they should not release these documents then I feel they are not legally at fault. However if they were told not to and went ahead and did it then I say try 'em for treason also!
I agree with your entire post.
If Manning is guilty of releasing the video and releasing the docs he deserves to be executed. I don’t think our system of justice has the stones to do it, very sad but that’s life now.
If they find the bastards that did this, they need to be hung (and I don’t mean like Cleavon Little).
I admire the restraint of the US commanders during the sea landing in Somolia some years back, who kept the soldiers coming ashore from mowing down the media who were shining lights on them.
This is similiar to when the NY Slimes published the antics of Lyndee England!
We were on the way to really gaining the respect from the Iraqi’s while toppling Saddam statues. For the most part, the Iraqis, whether Sunni, Sheite, or Kurd were behind us for toppling the regime.
Then the pictures from the prision of Lyndee leading them by a leash, human prank pyramiads like college pledging, all came to make the Iraqis think that we’re mocking them and their religion.
Suddenly, the tide turned against the US, all because Englund, and Karpinski were featured in worldwide newspapers.
Thousands more of our brave died because of these published photos.
So it will be in Afganistan, and Pakistan.
Firing squads for all involved, including Wickileaks!
British troops are endangered by Wikileaks along with other NATO forces and Afghan friendlies. Would it be consistent with freedom of information laws if the phone number, address, and whereabouts of Julian Assange were made public? Just curious.
What did 0bama know, and when did he know it?
Probably not. Assange is not a US citizen and is beyond your power. Even if he was foolish enough to enter American soil, treason charges would not stick since he is not a US citizen. I'm sure that something could be fudged to get him but it would boost his credibility and further erode that of the US.
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