Thursday, July 29, 2010

Wikileaks create bad picture of Afghanistan war

92,000 classified documents with sensitive info on the Afghanistan war were leaked by Wikileaks, the news site created by Julian Assange. These documents were given by Wikileaks to the Times, the Guardian, and Der Spiegel, 3 of the largest newspapers within the world. July 25 was when reports were given by the newspapers on the information received. Some examples of what was shown in the Wikileaks documents are proof of the Taliban getting stronger, civilians being hurt through the war, and Pakistan operatives taking American cash and nevertheless aiding the Taliban in killing Americans.

Wikileaks goes straight to major newspapers

The classified documents released by Wikileaks are used by desk officers within the Pentagon and troops within the field when they make operational plans and prepare briefings on the situation within the war zone. Before publishing stories that used info within the documents the New York Times and the Guardian wrote commentary saying they had taken care not to publish info that would harm national security interests. But U.S. National Security Adviser Gen. James Jones disagreed, saying:

“The United States strongly condemns the disclosure of classified info by individuals and organizations which could put the lives of Americans and our partners at risk, and threaten our national security.”

Pakistan operatives helping Taliban?

One document from Wikileaks that the Times published tells of Pakistan operatives helping Al Qaeda kill. The documents show you will find numerous Pakistani operatives that have refused to discuss matters involving those who attacked near Pakistani border, moved across the frontier, and then went to into Pakistan to be safe, although it is nevertheless hard to prove Pakistani operatives having been helping Al Qaeda.

Truth of Afghanistan war doesn’t look good

The U.S. government has made the Afghanistan war look much better than the Times, the Guardian, and Der Spiegel have made it look in their articles. Progress is stopped by corrupt government and police force in Afghanistan, an Afghan army that isn’t loyal, and a Pakistani army aiding the Taliban. Lots of people already knew this was a problem but let the Wikileaks documents confirm that. Americans are becoming more involved in the Afghanistan war as shown by the Wikileaks documents, although the public and congress are being confident otherwise.

Wikileaks looked at for spying

Wikileaks was criticized by the hacker who turned in Private Bradley Manning, who’s the soldier who allegedly handed the documents to Wikileaks. ABC News reports that Adrian Lamo said he ratted on Manning to keep the reports from becoming public. But Lamo said the sheer volume of info released by Wikileaks suggests Manning didn’t act alone. He thinks Julian Assange may have hired him as “a personal shopper for classified data.”

More on this topic

New York Times
nytimes.com/2010/07/26/world/asia/26isi.html?hp
Guardian
guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2010/jul/26/press-freedom-wikileaks
Der Spiegel
spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,708314,00.html



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