Julian Assange created the news website, Wikileaks, which lately just let 92,000 classified documents with Afghanistan was information in them be released to the public. In what is being called one of the biggest stories in recent years, Wikileaks gave the classified documents to the New York Times within the U.S., The Guardian in Britain and Der Spiegel in Germany. Reports were given out by all three newspapers on July 25. 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 still aiding the Taliban in killing Americans.
Wikileaks documents given to leading newspapers
Officers in the Pentagon and troops in the field make plans depending off of the documents released by Wikileaks. 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 details that would harm national security interests. Gen. James Jones, the U.S. National Security Advisor, explains:
“The United States strongly condemns the disclosure of classified information by individuals and organizations which could put the lives of Americans and our partners at risk, and threaten our national security.”
Pakistan intelligence helps Taliban kill?
Of the numerous stories within the New York Times based on the Wikileaks documents, one reports about documents describing how Pakistani intelligence works with Al Qaeda to plan attacks. The documents show you will find many 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 still hard to prove Pakistani operatives having been helping Al Qaeda.
Afghanistan truth worse
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. Any progress is limited by a corrupt Afghan government and police force, a disloyal Afghan army and an uncooperative Pakistani military that is aiding and abetting the Taliban insurgency. Many individuals already knew this was a problem but let the Wikileaks documents confirm that. But the Wikileaks documents bare the truth about the Afghanistan war as Congress and the public are increasingly disillusioned about America’s deepening involvement.
Wikileaks suspected of espionage
A previous hacker who turned in Private Bradley Manning, the soldier suspected of handing military secrets to Wikileaks, harshly criticized Wikileaks for releasing the documents. ABC News reports that Adrian Lamo said he ratted on Manning to keep the reports from becoming public. Lamo thinks Manning had help considering all the information released. Lamo thinks that Manning was hired along with others by Julian Assange as “a personal shopper for classified data.”
Find more details on this subject
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
