92,000 classified documents with sensitive info on the Afghanistan war were leaked by Wikileaks, the news site created by Julian Assange. 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 3 newspapers on July 25. Now we know that there have been Pakistan operatives that betray the U.S. by taking their cash but still helping the Taliban kill Americans, many civilians are being hurt through the war, and that the Taliban is, in fact, getting stronger, because of these Wikileaks documents. Article source – Wikileaks documents paint a grim picture of the Afghanistan war by Personal Money Store.
Wikileaks goes straight to major newspapers
The classified documents released by Wikileaks are used by desk officers in the Pentagon and troops within the field when they make operational plans and prepare briefings on the situation in the war zone. Before publishing stories that used details within the documents the New York Times and also 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 info by individuals and organizations which could put the lives of Americans and our partners at risk, and threaten our national security.”
Pakistan intelligence aiding Taliban insurgency?
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 there are 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 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 people just needed these documents from Wikileaks to show them anything 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 suspected of espionage
Wikileaks was criticized by the hacker who turned in Private Bradley Manning, who’s the soldier who allegedly handed the documents to Wikileaks. 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
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