As soon as Wikileaks posted the 91,000 reports they call the “Afghan War Diary” online, some people immediately compared them to the “Pentagon Papers.” Daniel Elsberg’s 1971 leak of a top-secret Defense Department Vietnam War study revealed 20 years of presidential-administration deception about American involvement in Southeast Asia. The Afghan War Diary is a reprehensible and damaging revelation of secret intelligence sources and methods that places the lives of U.S. warriors and Afghani informants at greater risk, but the Afghanistan war’s “Pentagon Papers” it’s not. (more)
Filed under: Military, National Security, Afghan War Diary, Afghani informants, anti-war activism, Army Field Manual, Bradley Manning, collateral damage, Daniel Elsberg, droness, First Amendment rights, intelligence officer, intelligence sources and methods, Inter-Services Intelligence, NATA forces, New York Times, north vietnamese army, Pakistan, Pentagon Papers, special forces, Stanley McChrystal, top secret, Viet Cong, Vietnam, Wikileaks
Another oped column I recommend everyone read is http://dailycaller.com/2010/08/01/wikileaks-release-of-war-documents-is-an-act-of-political-warfare/
If there were an ‘according to Hoyle’ rule book on fighting the enemy, Wikileaks in essence, tipped our hand to give the enemy a full peek at our cards and violated so many Hoyle rules it would stop the game–in the Wild West…you would have been shot. So, if such a treasonous action would have resulted in any other administration in the history of the US, arrest and trial would have taken place. And I still hold a thin hope out that the Obama administration would arrest and try Wikileaks founder and the soldier that revealed a history of actions taken that had worked against the enemy until now. They have indeed as Ed says, paraphrasing: put our soldiers and those we trusted for inside info at risk of their lives. Its not over yet.
Tony Blankley’s perspective on this issue is also worth reading.
http://townhall.com/columnists/TonyBlankley/2010/08/04/wiki_espionage
I’m reposting the following as a reminder to all US government personnel who might read my column or this blog post.
“Regarding WIKILEAKS, the following applies…
The below guidance has been issued by the HQMC Special Security Officer (SSO) to all USMC SSOs, but equally applies to everyone. Please take a moment to read this.
The CMC SSO has been determined that an amplification of BANIF 020-10 is necessary.
As previously stated:
“There have been rumors that the information found on the WIKILEAKS website is no longer classified since it now resides in the public domain. This is NOT true! Executive Order 13526, Section 1.1(4)(c) states “Classified Information shall not be declassified automatically as a result of any unauthorized disclosure of identical or similar information.”
“Despite the circumstances surrounding WIKILEAKS, we must continue to protect similar or identical information commensurate with the level of classification assigned per SECNAV M-5510.36, until the information is assessed by the appropriate OCAs.”
USMC Personnel (Marines/Civilians/Contractors) are hereby cautioned and directed to NOT access the WIKILEAKS website from a personally owned, publically owned or US Government computer system. By willingly accessing the WIKILEAKS website for the purpose of viewing the posted classified material – these actions constitute the unauthorized processing, disclosure, viewing, and downloading of classified information onto an UNAUTHORIZED computer system not approved to store classified information. Meaning they have WILLINGLY committed a SECURITY VIOLATION.
Not only are these actions illegal, but they provide the justification for local security officials to immediately remove, suspend “FOR CAUSE” all security clearances and accesses. Commanders may press for Article 15 or 32 charges, and USMC personnel could face a financial hardship as civilian and contractor personnel will be placed on “Administrative Leave” pending the outcome of the NCIS investigation.
Do not ask friends to access the website from their home computer. The above negative actions will wreak havoc on a CI Poly when the question comes up regarding unauthorized disclosure, espionage, misuse of government information system or having committed a security violation. In a best case scenario, the case will be referred to NCIS and the personnel will lose their computer for however long NCIS requires. By the time the case is adjudicated, the USMC personnel will most likely lose the assignment for which her/she had to take the poly in the first place. Again, civilian and contractor personnel will be placed on “administrative leave” pending the outcome of the NCIS investigation.
USMC personnel need to view, process, and/or store classified or potentially classified information only on machines cleared for processing information at the appropriate security level.
Please pass this information to ALL HANDS: The Director of DIA has stated that he wants all personnel requesting a JWICS accounts to undergo a CI POLY. This means – at some point in the near future EVERYONE will be required to undergo a CI POLY. If they purposely accessed the “WIKILEAKS” website to view classified info – they have willingly placed classified information on an open network not authorized to view classified information and have willingly committed a security violation. In most cases they will fail the CI POLY.
Timothy P. Wagner
Special Security Officer
Marine Corps Systems Command
2200 Lester Street
Quantico, VA 22134-6050
(703) 784-3001 DSN 278-3001
Secure FAX (703) 784-3115
BB (571) 263-3851
JWICS: qnwagtp@usmc.ic.gov“
The Pentagon threatens to compel Wikileaks to return leaked documents. This could get interesting
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/terrorism-security/2010/0806/Pentagon-threatens-to-compel-WikiLeaks-to-hand-over-Afghan-war-data