Wikileaks and the release of 90,000 pages of classified documents

[Exterminator]

Regardless of anyone's personal feelings about the wars or how they're being conducted, this is absolute bullshit.  Any service member who is found to have had any part in this gross violation of protocol and his/her security clearance should be court martialed for treason and executed if found guilty.

Additionally, wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, should be labeled as a terrorist and hunted down just like the rest of them.  If you provide information to our enemies, that is aiding and abetting, no two ways about it.

[Palehorse]

You'll get no argument from me on every point you made! 

We open the door to this kind of crap when we fail to follow through in our investigations and then by failing to impose the maximum punishment for such terrorist supporting activities. These jackasses need to have the hammer dropped on their heads.

The crime is betraying one's country, esp. by attempting to overthrow/undermine the government, and it is called high treason! 

[Henry Hawk]

I agree...whole heartedly..

[Y]

Well here I go pizzin' everyone off again.   



My boys, I suggest you are all wrong on this issue of government secrecy.

1)  We are NOT at war - hopefully I no longer need to elaborate on the 'whys', 'wherefores', and 'hows' of that.

2)  A government ...of the people, for the people, and by the people... cannot function in secrecy.  In other words, a democratic representative republic cannot function for the good of its' citizens if information is kept from the electorate. 

3)  If the government wants to claim 'war' information in order to use secrecy, they must follow the path laid out in the Constitution and then prove the information must, and only, of necessity be kept secret - and only for the duration of that necessity.

[LOsborne]

I am a little surprised to find myself agreeing whole-heartedly with Y, after reading the summary and the July 26 release.

http://wardiary.wikileaks.org/

Here is one paragraph that made a believer of me.

The reports come from US Army with the exception most Special Forces activities. The reports do not generally cover top-secret operations or European and other ISAF Forces operations. However when a combined operation involving regular Army units occurs, details of Army partners are often revealed. For example a number of bloody operations carried out by Task Force 373, a secret US Special Forces assassination unit, are exposed in the Diary -- including a raid that lead to the death of seven children.

Remember the Pentagon Papers? How long would we have stayed in Southeast Asia if they hadn't been made public?

Before getting all righteous and patriotic, we must first ask ourselves why these reports were secret. Public relations seem to play a much bigger role than public safety.

[Palehorse]

1. Placing our men and women in uniform into harms way is in and of itself an act of war is it not? Military operations presently under way are undertaken by these men and women with the understanding that all necessary measures will be taken to protect their lives by those with their hands upon the reins of leadership. Clearly this is not the case when an individual breeches their duty to maintain the chain of secrecy and protect the integrity of the operation. THAT is treasonous.

2. Historically the expectations being utilized as a yardstick with which to measure the performance, or lack thereof, of the individual(s) responsible for the distribution of this "secret" information, has been understood and acknowledged as vital to the national security and protection of our armed forces. If information surrounding security or military operations around the world were required to be made publicly available for review, so too will the enemies of the state be able to view them, and counterman their intended goals.

3. Agreed. However, exposing those who swore an oath to protect and defend the constitution and these United States of America, to potential harm above and beyond that to which they are already exposed, as a means with which to leverage a point, is in itself treasonous!

It is actions akin to those being undertaken by wikileaks, that led to the social shunning of military servicemen returning from the Nam. Given society's present thirst for a "witch burning", how do you think they will react toward our men and women returning today if the press is allowed to emotionalize and selectively edit? (Ms Sherrod is a prime example of what the media is capable of).

When we start losing ground and lives in Afghanistan in an accelerated manner, you will understand why they should have been kept secret.

[Mr442]

Loose lips, sink ships.

Still holds true today.  There needs to be a balance of what is, and is not made public.  We may have a "right" to know everything, but sometimes for the good of the greater cause, some things need to be kept secret.