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While many will condemn WikiLeaks' release of some 400,000 U.S. military files on Iraq, these documents reveal a great deal about the war. This release of raw data shows what the military was seeing and reporting to itself.
What has been leaked?
Every time an American patrol goes out in Iraq or Afghanistan it takes notes. It gathers information. There are computers in American Humvees that can send what are the equivalent of emails back to base. These messages, usually short, are sent in addition to radio communications, which are also more or less constant. When a convoy of Humvees arrives on a scene where there has been a shooting by insurgents or a car bombing, or where an American contractor has killed Iraqi civilians, the patrol leader will get out of his vehicle and try to find out what happened. I have seen it countless times. The patrol leader will talk to people on the scene (usually to Iraqi authorities, police or military) and then send a short note to his commanders describing what he has learned. A typical note might say, "Arrived at location X, in sector Y at time Z. Iraqi Police confirm vehicles from Blackwater opened fire on civilian convoy. Three Iraqi civilians killed." The report will describe whatever the patrol discovered.
Such reports may or may not be 100 percent verified. They are snapshots. They are typically called "After Action Reports." As a matter of course, nearly all after action reports are automatically classified because they are considered "operational." Anything that relates to on-going operations is considered sensitive. These are not top-secret nuclear launch codes. This is very similar to the way NBC News works with its internal messaging system. What happened was someone (a 22-year-old private first class has been detained by the U.S. military) copied the military's internal database and released it to WikiLeaks. It would be as if a disgruntled desk assistant suddenly copied all of NBC News' notes and background material and posted them on the Web. I can imagine we would not be pleased. The private first class faces up to 52 years in prison if convicted.
What does all this show?
These scattered pieces of information reveal that the U.S. military knew exactly how bad the situation was in Iraq before things started to improve. It knew that Iraqi security forces were killing and torturing detainees. It knew Iran was deeply involved in the insurgency. It knew that American security contractors (including many still employed by the U.S. government) were killing civilians. It was gathering all this information, even as U.S. military officials were telling the world that everything was going well in Iraq. Remember, NBC News was severely criticized for calling Iraq at its worst a civil war. These leaks prove that the U.S. military knew what was happening, that it was receiving the same witness accounts we were.
Does the leak put U.S. troops at risk?
It could. The U.S. military classifies almost everything. These notes were operational and immediate. They were data points. But again, how would NBC News react? Would releasing our notes to the world impede what we do? Probably. Would it put us out of business? No. It certainly would distract us as a news organization. But most critically, would it give our competitors an advantage? Most likely. Our competitors would know what to look for. The same is true of the military. This information could be used by an intelligent computer-savvy enemy to piece together some of what the military knew, when and, in some very dangerous cases, how.
The takeaway
This is not only embarrassing for the U.S. military (how could a private first class do this?) but also raises questions. The documents paint Iraqi security forces and international security contractors in a horrible light, yet the U.S. continues to back them. Does that show hypocrisy? The leaks also make the U.S. military appear to have been hiding the truth of what was going on in Iraq from the American people, when it knew full well how bad the situation was on the ground.
Leave a Comment:
What has been leaked is the truth. A government that will lie about why it's sending its soldiers to a war won't hesitate to lie about what those soldiers are doing, or anything else for that matter.
If the perpetraitor (pun intended) of this act is indeed an American citizen, that person has committed overt TREASON against our country and that individual or individuals should go before a military tribunal and be hanged in public.
Julian Asswipe should hang with them.
We have finally had it up to here with leftism in the US (as the Nov 2 elections will prove) and it is about time.
There are consequences to one's actions and I hope these people get every bit of what they have coming to them.
If the civilian toll is 109,000, how many "hearts and minds" did we win? How many did the "butcher of Bagdad" kill? What did this war cost us in maimed and dead Americans? How much money did the US pay private contractors in Iraq? How much money did the nation spend to fund the war in total? Did we help the Shiite majority to power they will use to embolden Iran? Did Vietnam teach us nothing? What are we doing in Afghanistan? Will the world (witnessing our examples) ever follow us into conflict again (they way they did in Afghanistan)? Is Al Qieda's greatest victory serving as the catalyst that triggers Americas self destruction? How much money do we borrow from the Chinese to keep the country going? Is Osamma Bin Laden comfortable? If you want the answers to these questions don't look to Democrats, Republicans, Tea Party members, or "Liberal media" for answers, or even discussion. They're scared to death you'll even discover the questions! Think not? Then why haven't you heard them before you read this? Oh well, just have another hamburger and watch a football game with some "buds" or get a nice bottle of wine and watch "Dancing with the Stars". Wake up America, we have met the enemy and they are US!
I'll bet the majority of deaths are from IED's and suicide bombs supplied from Iran. God bless America.
Unfortunately, I trust the facts from WikiLeaks more than information from our own "free" press and our government. I'm glad someone is telling the truth.
Unfortunately, I trust the facts from WikiLeaks more than information from our own "free" press and our government. I'm glad someone is telling the truth.
I, for one. am glad that WikiLeaks is telling the truth. Neither our so-called free press nor our government representatives seem compelled to do so. Truth is not treason.
Leaking CLASSIFIED MILITARY DOCUMENTS is a SERIOUS CRIME. It is punishable by LONG FEDERAL prison sentences, if not death. If the perpetrator is an American citizen it IS absolutely treason. The punishment for treason against the United States is death by hanging or by firing squad.
First of all it is called freedom of the press. If you want to live where there is no freedom of speech or of the press, buy your ticket to China, you'll be much happier there.
Second of all, he cannot be tried for treason, because he is not an American citizen. He is Australian.
Our government security was found to be severely lacking...and you're going to blame this guy? The American military PFC is now in a Military prison..yes..he can be tried for treason. I think the question should really be, How did a PFC get this info to begin with? That is just about the lowest rank other than E-2 in the Army!! No way could this guy have access to this type of stuff!...sounds like he could be the scapegoat for someone much higher up that was responsible for the leak of all this info, and is getting away with it.
Among other things, these documents show is that Blackwater is still doing their dirty deeds. A group of mercenaries being paid a hell of a lot, and trained by our government and paid for by our taxes...lovely, eh? Thank the Bush Administration for this...since this was initiated by Bush / Cheney.
There are so many men commenting on this board that should definitely have their testosterone levels checked. The right wing drivel is so completely inane.
Instead of just regurgitating the talking points of Limbaugh and Jeff Beck....maybe you should realize that the great majority of people are neither left nor right...we are in the middle somewhere. We will typically gravitate to the candidate that doesn't come across as a raving lunatic.
It helps to remember (when reading some of the comments) that they allow computers in prisons and mental institutions nowadays. That fact usually helps put some comments in perspective.
Thankfully someone is giving us the real deal. The government won't give it to you - only what THEY want you to know.
This is why the US government doesn't want Secrets to be released early, because the Criminals are still in office and still serving the military. Usually Military Declassification comes 40 years after the fact, long enough after so those responsible are safe from prosecution (i.e. Old Age).
Support Whistle-blowers, for without their bravery Thugs in the Highest places of Government, Business, and Military will continue to commit vile crimes and cover it up!
Vote independent! Vote Against both Democrats and Republicans, for they are both dancing marionettes to the same Special Interest Groups (Lobbyists are immoral)
Wiki leaks is still beating the dead horse. The Iraq war is over. Someone leak them a memo.
Iran and Iraq would be invading each other and the middle east if we sat idly by doing nothing. For all the tear jercking we're still selling 60 billion in F15''s and F16 fighter jest to Saudi Arabia. The Arabian Suni's chose to be our allies and they are chosing wisely. Now we have more manufacturing jobs building planes. Beter us than the China or Russia. Apologizing doesn't build civilizations. "Peace through strength".
The Saudi royal family recently made 250 billion off our stock market. Looks like they took out more than the will put in. How about "strength through peace." That makes a lot more sense unless we want a very long dark age on earth."
I have been firmly against the war in Iraq since Nov. 2000. But what these people are doing is dead wrong. not only are they putting Coalition lives at increased risk they are putting hundreds of Iraqi informers, policemen, and soldiers lives at risk as well. Had they waited until US led forces leave Iraq in July and blocked out the names of the informers I wouldn't mind so much, but what they are doing is every bit as much murder as what the privatized security forces are committing. What they are doing amounts to terrorism and I would have no problem whatsoever with sending the private and the wikileaks people down to Gitmo for a nice long vacation.
Releasing the names of civilian informants is no different than cutting off their heads. Freedom of the press or not, Wikileaks is facilitating the murder of civilians.
If blackwater is an American outfit we better get rid of them before someone hires they against Americans. How can we sit idely by and watch our country hire mercinary killers? If a man is a killer for hire is there anything he are his supporters wan't do?
The loss of liberty in the West is a two-fold crime. The elites have taken our liberties by force, fraud, and propaganda, and the people have consented to this seizure. This is an offense against mankind, and is likewise an offense against God, who created us free, in His image.
Well said John.
I think the World intelegence agencies should go after wlikileaks and eliminate him and his cohorts . As far as I'm concerned they are supporting the terrorists by publishing classified information.
War is hell and inhumain things happen in war. No one is exempt from it. These are cold hard facts people seem to forget or don't want to hear. After WWII, the Korean War Even Vietnam. Do you not think that attocities didn't happen. How many South Vietnameze were killed or sent to reeducation camps after the north took over the south.
The fact is that these type of things will happen because man has not learned to live in peace with his neighbor and never will
LEFTIST: Should we give up trying to be civilized. It may take thousands of years, but I belive man will learn to live in peace. Truth is stronger than lies and love is stronger than hate. This world may look dark but I believe the goodness in Gods creation including a great spiritual kindom is all for us. If we disregard our fellow man ,what kind of life do we have anyway?
Fourteen Defining Characteristics Of Fascism
1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
4. Supremacy of the Military
5. Rampant Sexism
6. Controlled Mass Media
7. Obsession with National Security
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined
9. Corporate Power is Protected
10. Labor Power is Suppressed
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
14. Fraudulent Elections
Our troops are foreigners, fighting house to house in urban areas. There is collatoral damage from our efforts. But our troops do not have orders to intentionally explode bombs in cafes, schools, marketplaces, military and police stations. We do not seek out unarmed civilians, and when our troops kill Iraqis, they are tried in a military court. If our news reporters are correct sectarian violence intentionally causes the overwhelming number of casualities in Iraq. The troops in Vietnam wrote after action reports in detail, and the army wrote studies on "lessons learned". The purpose of these reports is to help our troops to carry out their missions more effectively. Unintentional casualties by "foreigners" puts our troops in peril, and they risk their lives. Our troops "need to know" what lessons have been learned, US civilians have only to know our troops violations of policy. Conspiracy theories are false, and demand for publishing detailed reports will only inform and empower our enemies and intentional murderers of Iraqi civilians. Typically, such reports can be released in 25-30 years after the war is over.
Upon the collapse of the Soviet Union, Soviet foreign spokesman Gennadi Gerasimov warned the United States, "We have done the most terrible thing to you that we could possibly have done. We have deprived you of an enemy."
The state no longer enjoyed an overbearing threat with which to distract the masses while it grew in size.
Unfortunately, this situation did not last long. Indeed, the past decade witnessed the development of an overwhelming American fear of terrorism. Americans have apathetically allowed the repression of their freedoms in the name of some greater cause (a cause, ironically, justified as a mission to preserve American freedoms)
While support of American imperialism, otherwise termed "counter terrorism," has recently waned, the government is now reinforcing its legitimacy by once again intervening on behalf of the common man against the capitalist system. By this means the United States' bureaucracy continues to grow virtually unhampered, and individual freedom has necessarily decreased.
Our government's authority is based on the notion that only the state can protect the American people from the vices of greed and opposing ideologies. The state thrives off the creation of a false dichotomy between stateless ruin and state-induced prosperity. The actual relationship is quite clear, however: the state itself is actually the people's greatest threat.
Unsurprisingly, the two wars in the Middle East have taken their toll on the people's trust in the state. Support for continued interventionism abroad continues to wane, as it becomes clear that neither of the wars has much to do with global terrorism or the protection of American freedoms.
The government thrives on creating these false dichotomies: war or invasion, militant anticommunism or a global communist revolution, war or terrorism, economic interventionism or economic misery. It offers the masses two choices, utopia or hell. The one, it claims, can only be provided by the state, while the other is the product of an unprotected and anarchic society. These illogical fears have tended to win over reason, and the government continues to grow unchecked...
JON: Your first sentence speaks volumes. "Our troops are foreigners, fighting house to house in urban areas." In other words they are killing people in their own meighborhoods and in their own homes. Now, add the fact thats these people have never done anything to us and were no threat to us in any way. Dosen't that make this a shameful situation that should never have been done?
Dear Ficionado.
Or maybe we should call you Fictionado. Anti-semetic and anti-Jewish remarks. Gee, what a @!$%#head. Want @!$%#? Go to Iraq or Afganistan. Oh, but I'm sure you've yet to leave your mother's basement. As for hypocrite? What was Leonard's statement? Why shoot the guard leaking the news, when it's the commander that is doing the killing? All I can say about you is enjoy the Muslims. When they stop your freedom of speech,well, one good thing will come out of it, we won't have to listen to your crap.
zippy,
Nice party line.
So, let's see, when our military and government are shown to be liars, start wars for corporate gain, torture, murder anybody they choose, and in general, tend to exceed the sleeziness of any country, and Wikileaks reveals the truth, Wikileaks is deemed a traitor?! The White House and military scumbags that misled, lied and murdered are now heros?
I don't think you use the logical part of your brain too much.
Well Said Russ Roberts
This is all so discouraging. All these dirty lil secrets and horrific events covered up. A damn PFC has access to a way to put many in harm's way (may you rot in prison). What it does though, on a much greater scale, is sew distrust. Who the hell do we vote for that has the best interests of us and our country at heart??? You can't blame the Dems or just the GOP, hell they're all in the same cesspool doing the same thing. Integrity and honesty are a thing of the past with "representative government" if it was ever there to start with.
If we are a democracy worthy of the name not only will we acknowledge the necessity of these documents being released and the importance of transparency for democracy to exist, but also we will step up to the plate and investigate whatever allegations are in potential violation of US and international law. For out military leaders to simply make the usual knee-jerk comments about the document leaks (which I suspect sound like the usual knee-jerk comments released by any other government caught with their pants down) is embarassing at the least, and criminal at best if they seek to avoid legal responsibility for their actions. The Obama administration should stop trying to be Bush Lite and open serious legal inquiries into these allegations. I am very patriotic, believe in the rule of law, and would expect nothing less from my country.