Posted on 08/25/2010 3:13:14 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued
So far, there's nothing really new or shocking about what we've learned in the "Afghan papers." The war's not going as well as we'd like it to go. Officials have discussed negotiating with the Taliban. Civilians have been caught in the crossfire. Some in Pakistan are helping the Taliban. We're searching for an end game. Unless you are hiding in a bunker waiting out that "Y2K bug calamity," you already know all of this.
Yet within these documents are thousands of names of Afghan civilians who have cooperated with NATO forces. And, according to Philip Shenon's article "WikiLeaks' Cry for Help," published in The Daily Beast on August 3, 2010, the Taliban is drawing up a hit list from these documents.
Perhaps aware that he's lost the high moral ground, Assange is offering a host of excuses. He claims that posting these names was "unintentional." His supporters claimed that they didn't have enough time to go through all 76,000 documents before they posted them. Clearly, the rush to fame and fortune was first on his mind in getting the documents online, while concerns about who it might get killed didn't receive a second thought.
Assange claims he's engaged in a "harm minimization" when it comes to listing names, which sounds like the military euphemisms he condemns. It probably means the Afghan informant gets a thirty second head start before the Taliban opens fire.
The Shenon article cites an interview Assange gave when he claimed that some of the names were warlords and criminals who deserved it. "But that is what happens in war, that spies or traitors are investigated," Assange said in the interview. It's a bit like leaking a mafia or drug gang informant's name, and then justifying that person's murder by saying he's a criminal so it's okay.
(Excerpt) Read more at southernpoliticalreport.com ...
Assange needs to hang from the nearest tree.
I believe the word scum is appropriate.
My observations:
- After reading five of the ‘leaks’...I’d rate four as being totally unclassified (or should have been). The fifth might have contained one key item worth classifying but otherwise, this isn’t much of a treasure chest to brag about.
- The WikiLeaks crowd have a two-shot shotgun at best. In six weeks...the episode will be mostly forgotten.
- The key player, this Army private? I’m wagering enough charges to settle on more than 300 potential years in prison (if the Army were to play this correctly). He will probably never walk freely...ever again. Adding to the mess, he has to now think about survival in a military prison where he will be target #1.
- Assange? Our chief of WikiLeaks? The charges of this past weekend on rape for him...have been tossed but the cops admit molestation is actively being pursued. Assange says it’s a CIA case...then he says that he only has lusty relations with full consent from his partners (he wanted you to know this fact). It takes three seconds to figure out that he’s a bondage freak and the two naive Swedish gals didn’t grasp what he meant when he asked if they gave ‘consent’. The Swedish legal system is challenged over this because he really went beyond anything they typically handle there, and he’s a star with the Pirate Party of Sweden (figure five percent of the population supports them).
- As for stopping the war? Everything is on a schedule, and frankly...their Wiki-game doesn’t change much of anything.
- Finally, a comment for the Pentagon. If you were exceptionally bright...you’d copyright every single intelligence report like newspaper journalists do and have a shocker of a civil case on top of the secrecy case. There’s nothing to prevent such reports from being copyrighted and it’d probably shock Wiki-Leaks in the future when they were pursued via any country on copyright charges.
Thanks for posting this.
not eligible for a pardon from Baraq?
“Assange needs to hang from the nearest tree.”
One big problem: he’s not American and can’t be tried for treason.
He’s stepped into the arena. He’s fair game. Take him out.
No thanks. What's to stop Obama and the 'Rats from copyrighting their speeches and policies?
“But that is what happens in war, that spies or traitors are investigated,” Assange said in the interview.”
“Spies and traitors” is Assange’s code word for anti-Taliban Afghans. Wait until the Taliban figures out that Assange thinks he’s God.
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