92,000 classified documents with sensitive info on the Afghanistan war were leaked by Wikileaks, the news website created by Julian Assange. These documents were given by Wikileaks to the Times, the Guardian, and Der Spiegel, 3 of the largest newspapers in the world. Reports were given out by all three newspapers on July 25. Now we know that there are Pakistan operatives that betray the U.S. by taking their cash but still helping the Taliban kill Americans, numerous civilians are being hurt through the war, and the Taliban is, in fact, getting stronger, because of these Wikileaks documents.
Newspapers receive Wikileaks documents
Wikileaks documents were had details in them that is used to create war strategy by desk officers and troops in the field. Before publishing stories that used information in the documents the New York Times and also the Guardian wrote commentary saying they had taken care not to publish info 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 info by individuals and organizations which could put the lives of Americans and our partners at risk, and threaten our national security.”
Taliban strengthens with Pakistan help?
Al Qaeda, according to Wikileaks documents published by the times, have help from Pakistani intelligence in planning some of their 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
In a series of articles, the Times, the Guardian and Der Spiegel articles paint a picture of the Afghanistan war that is much worse than the spin put out by the U.S. government. Progress has stopped in the war because the Pakistani army is helping the Taliban, the government and police force in Afghanistan are corrupt, and also the Afghanistan army hasn’t been loyal. Many people just needed these documents from Wikileaks to show them everything they already knew. Americans are becoming more involved within the Afghanistan war as shown by the Wikileaks documents, although the public and congress are being confident otherwise.
Wikileaks looked at for spying
A former hacker who turned in Private Bradley Manning, the soldier suspected of handing military secrets to Wikileaks, harshly criticized Wikileaks for releasing the documents. Adrian Lamo wanted to stop the reports from getting to the public so he turned in Manning, reports ABC News. Because of the amount of info that was actually released, Lamo suspects Manning had others involved with him. Lamo thinks that Manning was hired along with others by Julian Assange as “a personal shopper for classified data.”
Further reading
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
