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Loose Canons
Let’s Have a WikiLeaks Fire Sale
Julian Assange will learn we have a right to protect our secrets.
(Page 2 of 2)
Over the past decade, America has been unwilling to defend its secrets and punish leakers. Under Bush Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, fear of media reaction prevented the investigation of some of the most damaging leaks in history, ranging from the New York Times’s publication of the NSA Terrorist Surveillance Program to the Washington Post’s publication of the CIA’s secret prisons for terrorists. The people who leaked those secrets were left unpunished by Gonzales’s Justice Department refusal to subpoena the reporters and force disclosure of their sources.
In Unrestricted Warfare, the highly controversial 2002 book by two active duty Chinese People’s Liberation Army officers, Cols. Qiao Liang and Wang Xiansui pose the difference between historical warfare and modern warfare by the juxtaposition of two concepts. First, to “fight the fight that fits one’s weapons”; second, “making the weapons to fit the fight.” They insist that the modern battlefield is everywhere, from distant nations to the streets of every city. And every computer network.
China has probably invested more time and resources to cyberwar than any nation. Its cyber attacks — espionage and disruption — on our military, intelligence and defense contractors occur every day. Liang and Xiansui note that computer hackers “…are adopting a new tactic which might be styled ‘network guerilla warfare.’” Just so.
The WikiLeaks publication of secret information is just the beginning. There will be more leakers sending more secret information to offshore websites for publication. Unless we interdict and disrupt them, WikiLeaks and its progeny will have free rein to publish any secrets that may fall into their hands, or which they can convince or pay people to give them to publish. The courts are not agencies of national defense. The military and intelligence communities are and it is through them we should act.
Our government has the obligation to act aggressively to protect our secrets. We need to, as Liang and Xiangsui wrote, make the weapons to fit the fight. That includes development, deployment, and use of every cyber weapon our computer scientists can devise to protect our secrets.
WikiLeaks should be hit with the cyber equivalent of napalm. Let’s have that fire sale. Burn, baby, burn.
About the Author
Jed Babbin served as a Deputy Undersecretary of Defense under George H.W. Bush. He is the author of several bestselling books including Inside the Asylum and In the Words of Our Enemies. You can follow him on Twitter @jedbabbin.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (202) | Leave a comment
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vtwin| 8.23.10 @ 6:35AM
“Congress shall make no law…or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press”
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”
“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States”
Here’s the list so far, is there any other parts of The United States Constitution the right is ready to trash?
Lee| 8.23.10 @ 7:21AM
He's not an American citizen, so he is not afforded any rights under the US Constitution.
But if you want to apply US law in this case, there are laws regarding prosecution for treason. The soldier who released the info should be charged under these laws (penaly is hanging under the USMJ). Assange may not be subject to hanging, but life imprisonment is a real option (as are civil suits for families of those killed as a result of his "leaking" their names).
JeffW| 8.23.10 @ 12:00PM
Lee, See people like Vtwin only want to use the parts of the Constitution that they agree with. I have yet to understand how if, as they belive, our constitution is so flawed they can at the same time want to give the rights granted by it to everyone in the world.
John| 8.23.10 @ 7:27PM
Lee and JeffW, wrong!
"Congress shall make no law" is not "citizens have the right." The First Amendment (and most but not all others) are silent on citizenship.
Don't talk smug about the Constitution like you know anything about it, because you clearly don't.
Bradscot| 8.23.10 @ 11:56PM
The argument is that these rights should be inalienable and inherent to all people not just the ones that yOu like or agree with...OR that are citizens of a certain country. Come on !$&"
jonaz| 8.24.10 @ 3:42PM
The argument is that they ARE inalienable to all people AND that gov't should be restrained from assuming powers not granted. We can't keep ours in check but we're supposed to extend the beneficial parts of citizenship to all the world's people? Neat.
Advocate4Liberty| 8.24.10 @ 12:56AM
You're right, Lee. He's not an American citizen, nor is he subject to American jurisdiction since the "crimes" did not take place in this country. While the whistleblower/hero may be subject to the UCMJ (get your terms correct), what about the real criminals: the politicians and generals who have sold out this country to the military-industrial complex and made mass murder our #1 export?
Bill Witten| 8.24.10 @ 3:57PM
Your times are coming, libs. Your destruction of this country and the ignorace and ineptitude that you drive before you like locusts are coming to an end.
Your treason is not unnoticed. You have reason to change or fear. You are enemies of the Constitution without even the intelligence to understand the basic principles of the social contract.
I will not waste my time arguing with you because you can't fix stupid.
dennis| 8.24.10 @ 7:29PM
if you were right about 1 thing it is that their time coming. there is one thing wrong. it is a war against principalities and power. they are ignorant for a lack of spiritual insight and the lust for power. it is to their own detriment. it makes me cringe at the thought of praying for them since that is what the Lord requires, we shall see these things come to a fold before too long
Tom| 8.23.10 @ 7:31AM
VTWIN,
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”
Please, do give an example of this. And do not be so silly as you the Mosque in Manhattan, because I have yet to hear anyone in Congress proposing a law against it.
Tom
Brent Hartman| 8.26.10 @ 12:05PM
Have you ever heard of the Edmunds-Tucker Act? You might also want to review Reynolds v. United States.
JimH| 8.23.10 @ 8:38AM
Situations like this do not involve the 1st amendment or any other for that matter. Julian is a reciever of stolen property and should be prosecuted as such. If what he had was a pirate copy of Disney's latest instead of Pentagon info he'd be in the slammer already.
sean| 8.23.10 @ 7:33PM
You can't prosecute him according to US law, when he is not a US citizen.
adrian oesch| 8.23.10 @ 7:36PM
difference is that pentagon belongs to every u.s. citizien, disney not.
brodie| 8.24.10 @ 5:39AM
Do remind Me, why is it that Aljazeera can't brodcast on the US continent.
The truth will out... eventually.
G.S. Patton| 8.23.10 @ 10:11AM
Dr Mr. vtwin
As an advocate of free speech and the U.S. Constitution (as you view it), I'm sure you won't have a problem with someone publishing your name, address, SS#, bank account#'s, medical records, etc on various hacker websites. Oh, but that's "private" information, correct ? Lets challenge that theory, the day you stand on the front line, and are truly exposed to life altering liabilities.
bard| 8.24.10 @ 12:19AM
um, wikileaks is not about leaking individuals PRIVATE stuff, its about leaking the stuff we should already have access to through things like the FOIA.
unfortunately the governments and corporations around the world think they are above the law and can hide the evidence of their misdeeds.
Its ally unfortunate that those criticising Wikileaks do so by repeating lies of wikileaks' enemies, rather than going to the source - wikileaks - and actually finding out what their aims and methodology is.
Wake up people, we've been lied to since JFK. Wikileaks is just press outside of the existing corrupt media,
Cheers.
kentek| 8.23.10 @ 10:33AM
The Constitution is not a suicide pact!
ha?| 8.23.10 @ 11:49PM
the constitution does not allow shooting journalists down - "those bastards..." - as little as it allows to hide the video from the public for all those years. you have a quite a problem with your military system and it will take you some time to solve it - to channel the money back where it belongs - to the education system, to senseful research (ha? solar collectors are invented already?), stuff like that. to channel it where the money belongs: to people and life instead of our death production, honey.
PSL| 8.23.10 @ 11:49AM
What part of 'and subject to the jurisdiction thereof' can't you understand? Illegal (or otherwise) aliens are not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, but of their own countries. Try to learn a little before trying to impune 'the right.'
Eric Cartman| 8.23.10 @ 11:55AM
Is it unconstitutional to hunt down weaselly aholes who use stupid blog names like vtwin and beat them senseless with a bat with a spike through it? Because I'm for trashing that one.
Albert| 8.23.10 @ 3:19PM
vtwin is a buffoon with an array of out-of-context quotes and a library of non-sequiturs. He is shamelessly unable to think intelligently and fancies his posts as "deep thought." He is unworthy of response, since he has yet to make a single valid argument or present a single independent thought on this website. Stalin called such people "useful idiots". He serves a low level purpose while others laugh behind his back.
robertV| 8.23.10 @ 7:55PM
That would be the American thing to do - keep on beating on the world until they all agree with you.
Not working very well though...
anthony| 8.23.10 @ 8:11PM
Yeah, that's the American thing to do, like beating up on Nazis and Japanese imperialists and protecting the world from commies for over fifty years. Maybe we should ease up on the islamist terrorists now, I guess then they'll leave us alone.
erik| 8.24.10 @ 2:42PM
im so tired of americans proclaiming that they're the world police and if it wasn't for them the world wouldnt be safe. and as soon as anyone starts criticizing their ideas of destroying any opposition in politics the directly reaches for their history in the second world war. the facts is that USA didnt decide to give the threatened countries any aid untill their own region was in danger. another fact is that when US troops finaly reached the shores of france the "Nazi" army was allready on the run from the red army and the majority of germanys airforce capabilities was decimated by the pilots of great britain, and i will not leave out, voluntary pilots from the US. American forces did manage to stop the japanese army from proceeding with a probable invasion on australian ground, but this was mainly because if australia would get overrun, the US, as the last standing opposition to the japanese empire, would be seriously threatened and most definately exposed to a marine or aerial attack.
and by "protecting from commies" what exactly do you mean? the korean war, which isnt exactly was a great succes, as it just lead to the country boundaries being drawn in about the same place. or do you mean the vietnam war? Which wasnt exactly a succes either.
Im saying all this to prove that your argument, mostly based on the US in the second world war, is ridicilous.
and to come to my point, your sarcastic oppinion about terrorists.
Most middle eastern based terrorist groups were established when (once again) the US intervened in local conflicts. So maybe the right way to abolish the terrorist groups isnt to put more preassure on the middle eastern region and to sort the terrorists out individually but to maybe try to handle the situation with more diplomatic relations. That way probably less people would sympathize with the organisations and so less people would join.
dedBuNNy| 8.23.10 @ 8:34PM
Hahaha... Have the skillz? What skillz? Bunch 0 n00bs... LOL!
mlu| 8.24.10 @ 7:29PM
People say things are "unconstitutional," as in "not nice." Have you even read that sacred document?
Ray| 8.23.10 @ 12:26PM
"The Congress shall have power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attained."
Is there any portion of the Constitution that the left is NOT willing to ignore?
Hamish| 8.23.10 @ 1:46PM
Members of the military voluntarily waive those rights while in the service of our country (can't speak publicly against the President, etc) and this yutz isn't covered by our Constitution. Also, these docs were all classified which works in conjunction with our Constitution, not against it. Release of classified docs is worthy of making big rocks into little rocks or worse. If I were to talk about classified info, even now 20 years after my service, I'd still be bound the laws that cover the release of classified docs and the Uniform Code of Military Justice, not the First Amendment.
JmsA| 8.23.10 @ 5:24PM
Given your previously evinced level of ignorance, not the least of which that statistics are part and parcel of Medicare and Social Security projections such as those posted by the government in its "Actuarial Publications" sites, I can easily understand not only your anti-American zeal, but the same insofar as defending our enemies and this administration's nonchalance in the face of such dastardly deeds.
Although the publication of this data will no doubt cost countless lives, both American and otherwise--I'd wager you'd care not one iota about it, though you wax indignant about some imaginary constitutional breach against a piece of crap enemy of this countrm, its people, and our allies in a life and death struggle.
JmsA| 8.23.10 @ 5:44PM
The above post was directed, in case anyone wonders, to vitwin.
Bruce | 8.23.10 @ 8:38PM
“Congress shall make no law…or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press”
Applies to the United States. FAIL.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”
This is germane HOW? FAIL.
“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States”
Assange was neither born here, nor is he a naturalized citizen. FAIL
Want to keep going, moron?
Uncle| 8.23.10 @ 9:36PM
There is no difference between Hitler's Nazi Germany and todays USA. Both were/are imperialistic, non-democratic, brutal, worldwide killing machines. Americans are most hated nation today, just like Germans were 1941.
Your internal and external propaganda is talking about freedom and democracy, but wherever you go, you bring nothing but brutal force, crime, terrorism and death. You are criminals who are taking other people's goods by brute force.
Finally appeared someone brave enough to show the truth to the world.
Of course, you will try to kill him. Why to break good old American tradition of killing?
Go Julian, go! The World is with you.
Chuck| 8.23.10 @ 10:37PM
When did trolls discover this site?
Please Cuckie| 8.23.10 @ 10:59PM
Please Chuckie, you got an answer which you will find after scrolling down. Could you continue the discussion there, please? No need to call every person whose reply you did not understand so far a "troll".
Scribonius Curio| 8.24.10 @ 6:27PM
What's the difference between Nazi Germany and the USA?
The Nazis had really snappy uniforms!
Ole Sarge| 8.24.10 @ 12:05AM
Hmmm, real stand up sort of american? Surrender early, surrender often, is that they correct reading, troll?
If you won't fight for your freedom, then I guess it is forfeit. Those military types whose A-s is on the line for your sorry excuse of an a-s deserve better them some wimp low life such as you. Shame we can't pick who we are defending when we are doing the nations business. On the other hand, keep it up and you friends will do you in, in time.
freudfan| 8.24.10 @ 2:54PM
Yes, America is gigantic, but a gigantic mistake.
-sigmun freud
he isnt totaly wrong, just sayin'
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 8.23.10 @ 6:35AM
Actually, your friend has a better point. There is little difference between Julian Assange and any other terrorist.
Just shoot him. The sooner the better.
joli| 8.23.10 @ 11:51AM
That leaves his associates free to do their harm via the same means. Cyber-napalm, THEN shoot him.
Bruce | 8.23.10 @ 8:45PM
Agreed - the two should not be mutually exclusive. Wikileaks should and must be taken down now. Start with a simple to do DOS attack, then hire some 16 year old super hacker to wipe his servers for good.
Then have this scumbag spend a few months looking over his shoulder before he is eliminated with extreme prejudice. The left is always harping about war crimes. I'd categorize this as war crimes - troops and innocent civilians getting killed because of this crap.
Willis| 8.23.10 @ 9:38PM
Sounds like a job for the girl with the dragon tattoo.
Mike| 8.23.10 @ 10:18PM
"I'd categorize this as war crimes - troops and innocent civilians getting killed because of this crap."
Please name one incidence of this that you can prove is a direct result of the leaked information.
Hi Bruce| 8.23.10 @ 11:22PM
:] gosh this one is wunderful... "I'd categorize this as war crimes - troops and innocent civilians getting killed because of this crap."
hm-hm. troops are killed? your country misuses their own people, instead of giving them real education chances and real, more honorable jobs - for a few oil and "hardware" interests.
http://projects.washingtonpost...../hardware/
in this war, those uneducated servers who you forced to believe in the sense of your army and the of course very "humanitarian" aims of your interest wars, get used to shooting down - like in the heli video. simply don't be afraid that much, take a look at it. take a look at the second where the reuters staff member is injured already, tries to rescue himself... then, even then, shooting on. the voices of the soldiers... "look at the bastards" - that's where you bring your own contry down.
than you simply go on with your war, with civil casualties known to the media (yeah, all those other "bastards"...)
and then, finally, you claim troops and civilians are killed because of anyone else than your own pentagon?
c'mon...
questioner| 8.24.10 @ 2:59PM
I'm just wondering, have you even taken any time to look at the wikileaks site before judging it? cmon you're better than that.
Just go on this link: http://wikileaks.org
aint that hard really.
its ok, take your time...
Mike| 8.23.10 @ 6:45AM
vtwin--while we as individuals have a right to freedom of speech, the nation has a right to protect its national security interests. Assange has revealed names and locations of Afghans who are our allies in a time of war. He has committed acts of treason/war against the US. I'm with Bill and Babbin. We should nuke his website and send a sniper after him to make him an example
Mikeochist| 8.24.10 @ 3:14PM
yes you do have the right of freedom of speech, and yes the nation has the right to protect its national security interests. But arent you confusing "the nation" with "the state"?
For who is "the nation" ?
Isnt every individual american part of "the nation"?
So a question in the nature of your argument. shouldnt these war documents have been puplished in the eye of regular americans? i get why they shouldnt have been published outside the states but i cant find any reason why it should have been published WITHIN the states.
And just one more thing, Assange is not an american citizen so he cannot be proscicuted in america for a "crime" he commited outside the american border. Unless another countrys goverment decide that he should be transferred.
And right, publishing secret documents isn't illegal as long as the one publishing them isn't the same person as the one getting the documents in the first place.
toadold| 8.23.10 @ 7:04AM
"Julian Assange an Australian" Whose organization has members and "buddies" in the US, some suspected of being in the Obama administration, will have no worries until 2011.
It would be way too embarrassing for Holder to actually uncover and prosecute the domestic member of Wikileaks, IMHO. The Wikileaks free ride is just one of a number of the Obama "aid and abet the enemy and punish the allies moves" on his part.
Jimbo| 8.23.10 @ 7:13AM
Since many Afghans are now at risk because of Wikileaks, why not have one of the tribal immams in Afghanistan declare a fatwa on Mr. Assange? This will make his life very difficult and would be a fitting punishment for his crime. Any why not place that PFC who turned traitor and gave away these secrets in front of a firing squad? This way, the next traitor may not be so brave.
incredulous| 8.23.10 @ 7:39PM
You ignorant citizen of the USA who wrote:
"Since many afgans are now at risk because of Wikileaks".
Have a look at the real issue. Many more Afghans are at risk because the US military has invaded, and kills hundreds if not thousands of innocent civilians as part of your unfortunate "collateral damage". Get out of where you don't belong, and stop meddling with the affairs of foreign nations, and a whole lot of people might just eventually stop hating you lot so much.
whoever anywhere| 8.23.10 @ 9:16PM
readers of this page may take a look at http://is.gd/euVV8 (a print newspaper link) if wishing a quotable source for this...
Chuck| 8.23.10 @ 10:35PM
Sorry Bub -- we are not interfering with the affairs of foreign nations so much as trying to get them to stop interfering with ours when they provide a sanctuary and base for attacks against us -- think twin towers. If Afghanistan as a country would have let us alone, we would not be there. Yep, the poor villagers did not allow bin Laden to set up camp, for sure -- the situation is complex -- but one thing we cannot do is let Afghanistan be used as a base to attack us. And you cannot even claim here that we were interfering there because of oil or whatever before 9/11. In fact, as I understand it, we actually helped them kick out the Soviets, right?
RobertV| 8.23.10 @ 11:33PM
Chuck seriously- Afghanistan has been at war continuously for hundreds of years. In all that time they have not once struck out at the Western world although in turn England (3x), the Soviet Union, The USA; they all happily went to war there and continuously mingled in their affairs. In the years in between there was constant influence peddling both from various Islamic countries and from the west. Yet you come on here saying something like "If Afghanistan as a country would have let us alone". Can you not see that for anyone who is not looking at this from an American perspective and that has studied history this come s off as really unfair? Go back to the beginning of this thing and look at its timeline; look at the offer the Taliban made to try to to exchange Bin Laden for some proof of his involvement. There is another side to this! I actually hate the Taliban and everything it stands for but what is happening here is not destroying the Taliban; It is making them stronger.
That is the truth that is buried in these papers; fanaticism feeds on situations like this and the more we throw at them the more they will grow.
There are lots of reasons for this and we should be discussing them; not trying to shoot the messenger because ultimately even though he may deserve it in this case, the messenger is not the problem.
I made a comment earlier in this thread about the fact that beating them until they agree with you doesn't work and got a wonderful reply back relating this to the second world war.
That is another one of these constants in this whole debate; everyone keeps on throwing references to that like this situation has anything to do with that. We are the occupying nation here, at an incredible cost of lives, of monies and of good will and in the end all we are doing is making our enemy stronger. That enemy is getting stronger not weaker. That's what these papers and the facts tell us. You can shoot Assange and call anyone that says it a socialist but it doesn't change the facts. You cannot beat people into agreeing with you or bomb them into giving up their stupid ass backward religion. That is not a statement against right or left and it is not me being jelly-belly nor is it an endorsement of Islam or the Taliban. It is simply and sadly a statement of fact.
Finally: "we actually helped them kick out the Soviets, right?" Yup, even then we where interfering with them. We did that by supporting the Mujhe Hadim and the Taliban grew out of that whole situation when believe it or not they were actually to many a better alternative than the corrupt anarchy of warlords that was left after the Soviets were kicked out...
Darin| 8.23.10 @ 7:26AM
What's really sad (pathetic?) here is that Julian Assange probably thinks he is doing something good here. Using the Die Hard 4 reference, the question is if he would ever have a 'my God, I'm responsible for this" moment like the hacker Bruce Willis was tasked to pick up. This willingness to cause others to die for your ideals is not much different than the Muslim clerics who cheer suicide bombers to their deaths.
sorry but | 8.23.10 @ 9:27PM
sorry but may we please return to the topic - reminding of the begin of this affair. maybe let's take a look at the heli video, simply listen to the voice in the heli "look at the bastards down there..." and then please try to explain the world wikileaks need the feeling of being responsible for something. for sure - if you search long enough and pay enough - you'll find someone claiming to believe you, but you will have to pay this person a lot to let him claim this, even a beggar or one of the misused, chance- and futureless people you leave alone after sending them into a fight for a few people's wallets - a veteran beggar - wouldn't do this for a small sum, so: might be a problem. honestly - voluntarily... this might be a bit hard to explain. what exactly, btw., was the reason that the military was searching for this video - the showing news agency staff murdered - for such a long time... must have been quite a mess in their offices. you should in fact be happy that someone helps you out here.
returning to a serious tone - aside of those few shivering bush clowns, the people who prefer to be able to vote (knowledge and information being basis for that) are and will be happy that someone helped you out of this mess in the office.
time for a short music break
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3adw9oLBkBI
Shamus| 8.23.10 @ 7:27AM
It's not worth using covert resources in this kind of situation. The damage has already been done and there's nothing that can be done to change that except to put better security in place for next time. Americans involved in this should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, including bringing charges of treason and asking for the death penalty.
Jeff Davis| 8.23.10 @ 7:30AM
Judging by the calls for assassination and fatwas against Assange, it seems that America has its own terrorist elements. People who think we can just kill anyone who goes against us. For me, I'd like to see what's in those diplomatic cables. I'd like to know what sort of shady and anti-democratic deals our government has been making in our name. If he lives and manages to do that, Assange will have done this country a great service.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 8.23.10 @ 8:03AM
He didn't "just go against us." He revealed state secrets that will cost allies of ours their lives. In that sense, he's a terrorist. He didn't use a plane but the effects will be the same or worse. He should be shot and no one will miss him. Except other terrorists.
Bard| 8.24.10 @ 9:21AM
BS!
Have you even looked at what was leaked? My guess is NOT.
Wake up buddy, take a look for yourself, stop being brainwashed. This information was available to tens of thousands of people in theatre. We already know the taliban has its supporters within the afghan military.
I find it sad and kind of humorous in a dark way that some people are so blind to think that years old contact reports put our soldiers in more danger than say, our slaughter of the taliban...who had surrendered to us when we invaded and sent half their soldiers in a show of good faith.. in the convoy of death (google it).
The afghans already know what we did, now WE know. And that endangers the troops how? Because we want them home? *sigh*
Stephanie| 8.23.10 @ 8:19AM
Oh Jeffy, you sound like another American hater.
Do you not appreciate your freedom?
sean| 8.23.10 @ 8:02PM
Can you accept your own freedom at the expense of the freedom of others?
Try reading something like "Open veins of latin America" by Eduardo Galeano.
In reading this book, you might understand what your country has been inflicting on others. This symptom of "American hater", as you put it, is not a tall poppy syndrome, but based on a long history of aggression your nation has inflicted on the peoples of other nations. Instead of regurgitating the propaganda from your own government, why not try to take a neutral stand for a short while and educate yourself.
Dai Alanye | 8.23.10 @ 12:01PM
Had Assange been arrested while in America to physically obtain the information from his dupe he would have been subject to the laws regarding spying. In wartime, that means the death penalty.
The fact he acted electronically from a distance hardly alters the case. He's joined the terrorists and deserves appropriate punishment.
hah?| 8.23.10 @ 10:22PM
wait, this one is funny: "...He's joined the terrorists and deserves appropriate punishment...."
ah, ok sure. well, listen, there is a writer person, from germany, his name won't tell you much so I leave this needless information out. he died some years ago so you can calm down, no reason to put the writer onto your target list hanging at your toilet wall. :] - anyway, this writer person said something, like "if the government is not happy with it's citizens, why does the government not vote anoter one?"
try to understand that while trying to sell your "war against wikileaks" campaign in order to loose another voting voices in november - you are fighting against your own people. you are - since you seem to enjoy this "terrorists" term - surrounded by them. it's like trying to forbid your army people access to wikileaks. which also means trying to forbid them to read it. listen: - ever thought about the fact that if you would take this funny idea seriously, there would be quite a lot of army pips to fire now? an army of "terrorists". (btw poor country. in a really civilized country the people have a real chance to choose their careers, choose a free university (tuition-free) education and a chance to choose a real job. in your country - so far - all those - naturally curious - pips in your army who you should definitely fire asap now, wouldn't even have a real chance. how about simply starting to concentrate on the development and democratization of your own country, hm?
how about some interest and curiousity what this new ufo idea, a solar collector, might be and why developped countries like to invest in the development of this stuff?
...gosh, seriously, your country is ages behind what we call civilization. concentrate on what your own people really need. all this western movie watching won't bring you or them far. they know. pips are not that stupid as you of course would wish to make them to. they know - but how about you?
Bill King| 8.23.10 @ 7:28PM
So True Jeff so True I wonder how FOX "We Make it Up and You Fools Believe It" will cover this story
martin j smith| 8.23.10 @ 7:40AM
I a,m a very moderate gu7y but sometimes people come along and bring out in the universe real hatred for their actions. This thing is one of those people.
That said I think more fundamentally, the attitude that this thing professes is key. "I don't give a damn about anyone but my own aggrandizement and ideology." Sort of like the NYT etc.
These types must be de-legitimized very strongly and the American people--the average person--needs to understand more about this kind of person. They are traitors.
is The USA the world?| 8.23.10 @ 7:44PM
@martin j smith
"They are traitors" ?
Who, Assange? Haven't you picked up on the fact that he is not a US citizen, and therefore can not possibly be a traitor. Or haven't you figured out where the borders of your nation are yet?
Paul D| 8.23.10 @ 8:20AM
Jed,
I can only hope GEN Alexander is reading your column.
East Texas Rancher| 8.23.10 @ 9:28AM
Mr. Babin's article is quite enlightening. However, I believe one aspect of discussion is missing. Obama's bunch promised before the election there would be war crimes justice. And I believe by cleansing their hands and allowing a foreign "untouchable" citizen do their dirty work, they can go ahead with their "hang Bush and Cheney" desires. Obama is so far off course that perhaps he feels he can win the lefties again by trying Bush. I put nothing past this bunch. They are Chicago dirty.
Additionally, I am reminded of a briefing CANDIDATE Obama attended in Iraq in 2008. He was to be briefed on how the surge was turning things around. Candidate Obama entered the briefing room with his entourage and sat down. Some 30 seconds into the briefing, he stood up and announced that the war in Iraq (and the other one) was lost. Then he took his leave, entourage trailing after him. The military was stunned and stunned into silence. This news could not afford to be printed in American Press, besides which Obama newspaper would have printed that news anyway. In 2008 the Press were his cheerleaders.
Those of us whose family have fought and died for this country, and those of us whose loved ones are still fighting today for our freedoms, are seeing the curtains drawn on our American way of life. From this point on others will control us. It is indeed sad.
Blue Devil| 8.23.10 @ 8:46PM
[citation needed]
dmv| 8.23.10 @ 9:38AM
It's only terrorism when someone else does it.
davelnaf| 8.23.10 @ 9:42AM
There is a sort of sick, staid, BBC-like anti-Americanism awash in media outlets around the world that many foreign numbskulls, as well as some in the US, take as gospel. It pretends to a fastidious concern for the truth, for even-handedness and fairness. But these pursuits amount to a pure fiction when it comes to reporting on the US or anything connected to it. Assange’s Wikileaks is in this category. Considering the overwhelming bonanza of foreign human filth to be unmasked by brave hearts such as him one wonders what are his real motivations. But given as how dangerous it is to take on the world’s real filth Assange’s restraint is understandable.
There are people out there who would make life difficult for us for nothing higher-minded than the pure satisfaction that this pursuit brings them. Assange is in this category, too. No matter how much he—or his kind—does the holy humanitarian posture in public he is anything but that. The people that will be targeted by the Taliban for reprisals are grim testimony to Wikileaks being an anti-American sewer and only the most pathetic would argue to the contrary.
Too bad some Navy Seals can’t pay Assange the kind of visit he richly deserves. This is the way the world is improved—and often has been: one bullet at a time—usually in the head.
There is evidence that some diseased minds are bankrolling Assange, using him as a front for their anti-American propaganda. One hopes the truth comes out.
Brit| 8.24.10 @ 4:28AM
davelnaf| 8.23.10 @ 9:42AM
There is a sort of sick, staid, BBC-like anti-Americanism awash in media outlets around the world that many foreign numbskulls, ………..
Too bad some Navy Seals can’t pay Assange the kind of visit he richly deserves. This is the way the world is improved—and often has been: one bullet at a time—usually in the head.
Do you ever wonder why other people around the world dislike you Americans?
Deborah D | 8.24.10 @ 5:29AM
So, spying is okay as long as it's done on Americans? Is that what you're saying, Brit?
This is espionage straight up. We'll deal with our American leaker, and someone, somewhere will deal with folks like Wikileaks. You have your MI 5 or 6 that do similar CIA-type things. Why is this so outrageous to you? Remember your own fictional, but glorified, James Bond? There are real-world people who do things like 007 -- they just aren't quite so flamboyent.
wbheff| 8.24.10 @ 9:34AM
Tell, "Brit," and I assume that your screen name indicates that you are British, if you think "other people around the world dislike you Americans," why is it the English flag that is called "the Butcher's Apron?"
Richard| 8.24.10 @ 5:55AM
Wow there are some nutters in the US at the moment. I love how you guys claim to be fighting totalitarianism, but laud totalitarianist attitudes as the preferred method to change things.
"This is the way the world is improved—and often has been: one bullet at a time—usually in the head."
Sounds a lot like:
"Change will come through the barrel of a gun" ~ Mao Zedong
JOE D.| 8.23.10 @ 11:34AM
Babbit is quiet right. We should have a fire sale. vtwin is a dim wit like so many socialists on his side. They trash the constitution all the time and lie about us doing the same. That is because they are constantly changing it from its true meaning and can remember what they changed it to the last time they needed to do something not allowed by it.
Joe D.| 8.23.10 @ 11:35AM
Excuse the spelling of your name Mr. Babbin. I was in a hurry.
DonDuke | 8.23.10 @ 12:17PM
Regarding the cyber attacks by the Chinese..... my son is responsible for the security of a university network. They are "hit" over 100,000 times a day and 90% are from China the others mostly from Slavic nations. This is what they do, just hit and hit and hit and eventually they find a vulnerability and get in. The havoc they can create with this type of attack is frightening..........
Ray| 8.23.10 @ 12:40PM
It always amuses me that people like vtwin reference the First Amendment when trying to justify the publication of classified materials. They don't understand that the First Amendment protects your own speech, but it doesn't give you the right to steal and publish the speech of others.
These classified documents are the "speech" of the government. They are the property of the US Government, made for them and owned by them. They are protected by the Constitution itself, just as any other "speech," any other "writings or discoveries." What gives someone the right to steal and publish someone else's speeches, someone else's writings and discoveries?
Citizen Jerry| 8.23.10 @ 12:47PM
You'd think that some of our own hackers could develop a Trojan Horse type of program that when anyone tries to "hit" our networks, they take home a program that will reduce their systems to electronic goo.
TechHead| 8.24.10 @ 3:56AM
You've been watching too many Hollywood movies, I suspect.
L.Banks| 8.23.10 @ 12:48PM
I wonder how many of our liberal friends would enjoy having their personal accounts attacked and pertinent banking and credit card information given to the world? In the case of Wikileaks they put secured, classified information on the internet endangering the lives of our soldiers, our allies and us! Our military is being attacked, our police are being attacked, our constitution is being attacked and our country and way of life is being attacked. Wiki is only a pawn in the major drama to destroy this country. What will the liberals do when the real agenda surfaces? Who will they call when another major attack occurs on our soil? Only seeing the pictures on TV of the burning sites of the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, the field where the aircraft crashed was not enough. I guess liberals just have the desire to experience this for themselves and us with them. This is not just a little matter! This is endangering all of us because our enemies are always probing our defenses and now with this crack they are encouraged. We are looking at the future destruction of our country and many people will die and not just military people. Having worked for the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security for over 30 years, we are constantly under attack, but now we are more vulnerable than we have ever been.
TechHead| 8.24.10 @ 4:01AM
Your bank account details analogy would be closer if, in your scenario, the attacker had called the bank first and offered to sanitise any credit card numbers and personal names from the list before posting it in return for help in identifying what information was personal and what wasn't, but the bank refused.
That's more or less what happened with Wikileaks. The DoD refused to help redact personal information, and then cried foul when personal information was posted.
Radioman777| 8.23.10 @ 1:04PM
Just upload gazillions of junk documents to Wikileaks, that should do it.
LiveFreeOrDie| 8.23.10 @ 1:10PM
The real problem is how this information was obtained in the first place. Once it's leaked game over, no way to get it back or stop the dissemination. Somehow punish or go after a non-citizen? From this administration? Don't hold your breath.
CM| 8.23.10 @ 2:03PM
So many patriotic comments here. I feel so warm inside. Now, as for the information this specific site provides; posting the video of a gunship in Iraq killing children and civilians and the redneck hicks being proud of their action based on their recorded voice, in my book, has been priceless. Anyone here really believe that these war criminals would "Admit" to their redneck, hick actions if it were not for the "Evidence"? So much for the so called freedom of press in this country. U.S. is fighting a war in sands of Iraq and Afghanistan while Majority here in the U.S. has its head buried in the sand. Did any of the so called news agencies , IN THE U.S., have the ball or the permission to report such crimes? No? Well, then someone has to report the truth.
Steve A| 8.23.10 @ 2:50PM
Hey CM, Surely you must be dissapointed that your man, BO, has increased the # of redneck killers slaughtering innocents in these unjust wars
Purple Lips| 8.23.10 @ 3:08PM
Ah yes, the scandal that has no evidence. We are just know there are all kinds of vids that have drunk hillbillies riding Chinooks, firing thier sawed off double barrels at innocent Iraqi women and children. And everyone just knows that Dick Cheney and George Bush still run the DOD behind the scenes. Man, the entire Pentagon is filled with Bush/Cheney spies!!
Yes, in a world where every journalist dreams wet dreams of finding THE SMOKING GUN about Iraq and Afghanistan (ie that which ties Bush, Cheney, Haliburton, and the Military Industrial Complex to 9/11, and sundry other atorcities) it is rather odd no one has found it. Oh well, you do have those voice recordings. Yeah, right. And Dan Rather had his letters, and Al Reuters thier doctored photos.
granny3| 8.23.10 @ 5:13PM
Have you ever met a redneck? I grew up with them and consider myself one of them. Loyal, generous, and kind. Many of them went on to defend our country and came back to raise good kids. Long live American rednecks!
C Bowen| 8.23.10 @ 2:25PM
Didn't the Weekly Standard run an article, 'Case Closed', a classified document leaked from Doug Feith's office? It was filled with rejected Saddam/Osama gossip and tin-foil hat theories.
Why weren't the parties arrested?
Fidel| 8.23.10 @ 3:02PM
Way to go, Assange! If you half-assed Americans would stay home and mind your own business, then maybe there wouldn't be leaks. Since you think you have to police the world, then I think you have to take your lumps. Way to go, Wikileaks! I just hope they soon release documents proving that the idiots Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Bush are war-criminals, because they certainly are. Even the one simple act of seting up secret torture prisons in Eastern European countries, are a crime, and a disgrace to the United States. It'll take American a decade to win back the respect its lost in the world, thanks to the criminals who were in office prior to Obama.
Steve A| 8.23.10 @ 3:47PM
Hey Fidel, Rest assured that your savior, BO is now in charge to restore our tattered image....as well as ramp up the killer redneck warrior totals used to police Islamic lands. It just keeps me up nights worrying what some guy with a thin moustache wearing a beret sipping tea in a cabaret in France thinks about diminished American clout. Just don't dial the rednecks again to bail your arse out next time when the the bad guys show up to spoil your siesta from reality. We may just leave the phone off the hook.
DMC| 8.23.10 @ 7:52PM
I always find it hilarious when half-witted yanks assume that they're protecting the world, when actually they're the new Nazis, invading whoever they want, to steal their resources and set up camp.
Deborah D | 8.24.10 @ 5:47AM
I always find it hilarious when half-witted Euros assume they are safe in the world as we watch French cities explode in Muslim areas and Brits allow themselves to get captured by Iranians on the open seas because they're not allowed to protect themselves. If a country or a society is not willing to protect and defend their own, then they might as well just admit defeat. We aren't willing to go there yet (althought Obama might be).
Purple Lips| 8.23.10 @ 3:10PM
The only thing this Ausange fellow has been able to accomplish is to get a dozen Afghan village leaders and informants murdered. As we speak, Taliban foot soldiers are scouring the country side in search of these "traitors to Islam". I hope he sleeps well.
DMC| 8.23.10 @ 7:54PM
Actually, nobody has been murdered since the reports were published. A few of the people named in them have been dead for years already, but hey, who needs facts when you have blind, unquestioning patriotism.
pat... what?| 8.24.10 @ 3:55AM
you call this attitude "patriotism"? to let the own country stay ages behind progress, civilization and development of other countries? to feed the military industrial complex for nothing but death products, letting own - living - people pay for that with their own education chances (country "can't afford" tuition-free university studies aha...), with their health, with their lives (in cases of soldiers not coming back from these interest 'excursions')? please don't misuse the word patriotism when you mean feeding a couple of wallets, that's all.
FeralCat| 8.23.10 @ 3:17PM
From Warriors to Dhimmis
Calling George S. Patton. Your Army is broken.
TechHead| 8.24.10 @ 4:06AM
Calling Dwight D. Eisenhower. Your worst nightmare is still true.
roosky| 8.23.10 @ 3:18PM
Hey, Fidel,
Who? Did I just contact Fidel? I was going to comment on your convoluted thinking, but now that I see who you are...nah. Adios.
Steve A| 8.23.10 @ 3:57PM
Fidel,One last thing, let me break it down for you. You mess with the USA & we put you & your regime out of business, permanently. Us rednecks, we aint 2 smart & we may not have all dem fancy words, but we sure as hell can shoot strait. Muss be all dat possum huntin.
whoever anywhere| 8.23.10 @ 8:35PM
really... well, my diagnosis was "too many western glotzing" but probably you're right. possum hunting brain vacuumosis.
Spook| 8.23.10 @ 4:49PM
vtwin is not a person. He is a made up name used by moveon.org, hufnpuf post etc. to post idiot remarks on conservative web sites. They are trying to get a reaction they can use against us.
Thinker Right| 8.23.10 @ 4:54PM
I feel sorry for anyone put at risk by this huge "leak", but where were all you compassionate conservatives when G Bush killed off 100,000 Iraqis?
granny3| 8.23.10 @ 5:15PM
Those statistics are false - you must continue to track stories if you ever want to know the real truth. That one was proved false several year's ago. Look it up.
Thinker Right| 8.23.10 @ 5:44PM
You're right. 100,000 is the lowest of many estimates made. The real number could be six times that.
LiveFreeOrDie| 8.23.10 @ 6:47PM
600,000?? Did you drink the bong water again?
Thinker Right| 8.23.10 @ 7:10PM
The Lancet estimated 600,000. The Opinion Research Business estimate 1.2 million. These are estimates, and likely to be wrong, but they are based on real field-work and are not made-up figures. In any case, 100,000 is almost certainly a lower bound.
Have you got a better method of estimating, other than pulling numbers out of convenient orifices?
JmsA| 8.23.10 @ 5:41PM
Thinker Right,
Where were you when Saddam Hussein tortured and/or executed more than 300,000 Iraqis, and murdered tens of thousands of Kurds, Shiites, Kuwaitis, and hundreds of thousand Iranians?
The Iraqis are no longer under the heel of a murdering tyrant, and I suspect that in no small part, you cannot accept the fact that Bush, not withstanding his faults and mistakes, was the one that had the vision and conviction to lead our great military to make it happen.
By the way, I don't buy into the "compasionate" nonsense, for I believe that conservatives in their zeal to maintain and promote freedom, are more compassionate than those who in their arrogance and hidden rage pretend to be frantic defenders of the helpless, so as to have shoulders on which to stand, and in so doing climb up in the world.
Thinker Right| 8.23.10 @ 5:51PM
So you're saying that G Bush is no worse that S Hussein? Nice argument, that.
As for your 2d and 3d paragraphs, since they are hopelessly incoherent I'll just leave them as is. However, don't complain about the phrase "compasionate conservative". It was invented by Republicans.
JmsA| 8.23.10 @ 8:22PM
Right Thinker,
There's no moral equivalency here, nitwit. If Bush hadn't taken out the bad guy (I'm lowering my prose down so you can understand it), more Iraquis would still be dying. Compassionate conservative is an offshoot of the "Kinder and Gentler Nation" phrase coined by Daddy Bush-hardly a conservative. Why don't inform yourself before you continue to make an ass out of yourself? My second and third paragraphs directly rebut your weak points of contention, and the very last section of my last paragraph is directed at all of the lefties, who no doubt you worship, as they incessantly spout about freedom while actually trying to destroy it. Why don't return to HuffPo, Daily Kos, or whereever the heck you sprouted from and stop boring us.
Jon | 8.23.10 @ 9:54PM
You miss that Iraq is no safer a place than when Saddam was in power. Life there is it any better than before? Are the prisons any less full? Do they torture less? Is justice still a flexible word there? Is there any kind of law and order beyond militias in large swathes of the country? Is there a bitter ethnic conflict raging there?
Worse the US may have spent Trillions to achieve that. One would like to think that the US could have done so much better for itself and Iraq with that money without invading.
You're not yet leaving a free people there.
JmsA| 8.24.10 @ 1:01AM
Jon,
"You're not yet leaving a free people there."
Iraqis have more freedom now that they could have dreamt of while under Saddam. And everyone, except you, knows that.
David| 8.26.10 @ 9:58AM
Trying to free Iraq from the regime of Saddam Hussein was a gamble. The belief/hope was that Iraq was secular enough that if we just freed them from the grip of Saddam Hussein a strong, secular, yet Islamic nation would emerge. Strong militarily to prevent its conquest by its neighbors (Iran) and strong financially (largely through oil revenue) to insure a successful nation that brought prosperity, peace and freedom to its people. A beacon to the region. In an ideal world a free, prosperous Iraq would lead to a second revolution in Iran where the huge number of pro-western young people would unshackle themselves from the old people running their country. And with this simple gamble would could enact a subtle shift in the entire region, that every individual deserves the right to live in peace, free and with at least the opportunity for prosperity.
The hope was that the gamble would pay off immediately. That strong, peaceful Iraqi leaders would emerge and that the people would clamor to insure their own peace and prosperity. This did not happen. It may still happen or it may not, but since we (the U.S.) dismantled Iraq's ability to defend itself and its--albeit brutish-- ability to police itself we are obliged to remain in Iraq performing or assisting in performing those functions until it can. Was the war in Iraq lost? It certainly wasn't won. To win it we would have had to follow the Army's own war plans for Iraq and invaded with at least 500,000 troops. Boots on the ground. My belief is that it would be pretty hard to build and plant roadside bombs if there were two American servicemen on every street corner.
We are not yet leaving a free people there, but we are also not yet leaving. The U.S. will have forces in Iraq for years to come. Would I prefer that we did not? You bet. I can't imagine how much better my country would be without the enormous amount of money we spend on our military. We have bases and people deployed all over the world.
In addition to the cost of all that equipment, there is the cost of employing all those soldiers, airmen, sailors and marines.
We could approach foreign policy the way we used to which was essentially "to hell with the world they can't get to us anyway." We could restrict air travel to a few foreign destinations and screen every single passenger that traveled from there. But as a mature, wealthy nation that isn't responsible. We render aid to nations and people in need. Ask a resident of London in 1942 or Berlin in 1948 or Seoul today. But we are not without flaw. Ask a resident of Hiroshima from 1945 or Saigon from 1975.
We are a nation. Nations don't exist in a vacuum. We interact with other nations in the world. Sometimes that interaction is positive, sometimes it turns out negative.
Spook | 8.23.10 @ 4:54PM
Hey Steve A.
Once wrote a blog titled "The Red Neck Factor" stating why Dem.'s could never take over the us. Take a look at it at the site.
http://tellmewhy.blogtownhall.com/
GW| 8.23.10 @ 5:06PM
I agree with the retired CIA friend. What do we have a CIA for? To protect the United States. If we can't prosecute Julie, let's find some other way to accomplish justice.
Thinker Right| 8.23.10 @ 5:58PM
Are you sure about that? You don't know what the CIA actually does, do you? And if you did, you couldn't say, could you? So we don't know that the CIA is protecting the US, do we?
LiveFreeOrDie | 8.23.10 @ 6:52PM
Actually we do.
"The CIA is an independent agency responsible for providing national security intelligence to senior US policymakers."
Thinker Right| 8.23.10 @ 6:58PM
Actually, we don't. What you have quoted is their mission statement. But we have no knowledge of what they actually do. They are quite unique in this respect among the federal agencies.
GW| 8.23.10 @ 7:44PM
But they SHOULD protect the interests of the United States, regardless of what they actually do. How having classified military information being released is not against the interests of the US is something you'll have to explain to me.
Me Myself & I| 8.23.10 @ 7:46PM
How can you not know what the CIA's doing? It says right there Cocaine Import Agency, though they're busy with the opium exports from Afghanistan at the moment...
Michele San Pietro| 8.23.10 @ 6:00PM
This Assange really has a shitty face... I also think he should be shot mercilessly.
Siler Streake| 8.23.10 @ 6:32PM
Problem now is copies of the leaked documents are on potentially thousands of computers worldwide. Fire saleing Wikileaks wouldn't take them offline for long. The cyberweasels and snot-ass Eurotrash would have copies up in an hour.
Me Myself & I| 8.23.10 @ 7:50PM
Not really. It's taking us mere minutes, or even less.
charles| 8.23.10 @ 7:17PM
I like that your ex-CIA operative friend is the REAL terrorist in this situation.
Pugget| 8.23.10 @ 7:19PM
Didn't American Spectator used to be something?
Bill King| 8.23.10 @ 7:22PM
Wikileaks is providing a Service if our government is not going to tell us the truth. I'm Glad someone is BTW- Private Bradley Manning is a Hero.
Andy| 8.23.10 @ 7:24PM
The easiest way for the gov. to stop this type of docs from leaking is to make public any and all incidents when they happen, censoring, of course, personal and geographical info. Why were there only 2 or 3 news of incidents involving civilian deaths caused by the US and the documents show thousands of such cases? why do they need to keep that a secret? because all they want is to control the people, not to deliver news.
Also I am sure wikileaks is prepared to use Botnets to deliver the documents if all servers fail. YOU CAN NOT STOP BOTNETS. so the best way to do it is to tell the truth from the beginning and we would not have this problem.
paul| 8.23.10 @ 7:24PM
the article is sweet. abusive to intellect, but sweet.
whatever| 8.23.10 @ 7:28PM
"hopes these disclosures will lead to war crimes trials to punish Americans."
The only ones facing war crimes charges are the CFR-loving, warmongering elites; FINE WITH ME!
"A friend of mine, a more-or-less retired CIA paramilitary operative"
Oh, you mean the drug-trafficking CIA scum who have been bringing in their poison for the last 50 years into this country? The elites' thugs? No wonder you write this crap.
Jesus| 8.23.10 @ 7:33PM
I love looking at all you dumb crazy bastards desperately wanting to assassinate Assange.
The American Empire is coming to an end and all you can do is scream for more blood. I'm torn between wanting you to exit the genepool as quickly as possible and hoping you're still around to witness the totality of our pathetic decline.
This is where anti-intellectualism, imperial wars, and false gods get you -- atop the scrap heap of fallen nations.
SorXthan| 8.23.10 @ 7:40PM
There are are a few important things that seem to get dropped in these conversations. Moles in the current administration are probably complicit in the release of the documents. Which means wikleaks will never go away. Second, How come the Right does not grow a pair and actually confront the Obama-ites on that? I would love to see what wikileaks has, mainly because the U.S is very sloppy when it comes to information. Or at least it has appeared that way the last 10 years.
Stuart Koehl| 8.23.10 @ 7:44PM
Jeez, Babin--
I've only been saying this since, oh, Day One. But imitation is the sincerest form of punditry, isn't it? Glad you read my comments.
Heisenberg| 8.23.10 @ 7:50PM
If the purpose of classifying documents is only to save lives. Can someone please explain why this was classified?
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Coll.....5_Apr_2010
Lou| 8.23.10 @ 7:51PM
It was appalling to identify those covertly working in Afghanistan for the US and thereby put them in danger. However, it seems to me more likely a case of incompetence and/or laziness (Wikileaks offered the Pentagon to check for necessary redactions before publication - why they thought the Pentagon should, I don't know). But intentional? Was that Wikileaks' actual aim - to blow the cover of people and put them in jeopardy? I don't think so - it makes no sense - the aim was something else.
For instance, disclosing how many troops the enemy have available to fight is not treason - the Taliban already know. Telling the US public what their troops are up against, however, is something they should know.
To intentionally disclose the identities of those working undercover for the US for no other reason than to put them in jeopardy/enact revenge, is indeed treacherous.
The outing of Valerie Plame springs to mind. Who was responsible for that?
Al| 8.23.10 @ 8:45PM
They asked the pentagon to censor the documents as that is what the DoD has historically done when other confidential documents have been leaked. Wikileaks actually did some censoring of their own in an effort to reduce harm to others, but they could only guess at what would cause issues.
Anthony| 8.23.10 @ 7:51PM
Awww, Osama bin Babbin wants to assassinate Assange. I've got news for you, you are no better than Bin Laden.
Solstate| 8.23.10 @ 7:53PM
"Fire sale"! Good grief, you Americans just can't handle criticism, can you! I think it was your own much-lauded founding fathers that said you need separation of powers to guarantee freedom. Put more simply, you let the spooks and the military do what they want in secret and pretty soon they'll be coming after you.
lefty| 8.23.10 @ 7:53PM
This article is actually very hilarious. I did not laugh or anything but there was just so much bs - it was kinda funny.
The real comedy is in these comments, though.
You guys are spouting so much bullshit it's just unbelievable.
"We must kill him, we are proud rednecks!"
"Arr! He be a terrorist. We have shoot him! Yargh!"
Just keep 'em comin' boys. :D
James| 8.23.10 @ 7:53PM
Julian Assange is my hero!
wbheff| 8.24.10 @ 9:42AM
Well, the first three letters of Julian's last name say it all.
Chris| 8.23.10 @ 7:55PM
the government is screwed either way its a lose-lose situation with this.
It's obama that wanted transparency in the government was it not? he now has it.
Cbow| 8.23.10 @ 8:03PM
I'm disappointed in this country. In this country the same people who scourn police for killing innocent citizens are now encouraging the US military to kill innocent civilians abroad. Instead of focusing on the fact that our tax dollars are funding Pakistan who in turn are funding the Taliban, who are killing US troops and Afghan civilians, we would rather assassinate some internet joe shmoe for having a website. Then to continue on saying that Pfc Manning should be killed for treason when he hasn't even been charged in the connection to the AFD. I'm very disappointed that the sheep in this country continue to go 'Baaah'.
whoever anywhere| 8.23.10 @ 8:10PM
you're crazy, did anyone tell you already? "WikiLeaks should be hit with the cyber equivalent of napalm." yes, this is exactly the voice of culture, democracy and freedom you pretend to offer the citizens of cour country and - of course - the citizens of countrys where you want to export this your "civilization" to.
see. we understand you cons clowns try to get some voices in next november, but to be honest - with talking on like that there are quite good chances that you loose more of these chances every day. the pentagon person who started this cyber war against wikileaks end of july already promised to pack his box. are there more of those bush pips going crazy around? how many?
see. with the exception of you there - other pips on this globe have realised long ago that
a) wikileaks is NOT a page concentrating on america related documents only
b) that the country you want your readers try to believe in as being in a shadowy way interested - have their own discussions how to deal with the page and with the risk of leaks ( :] yes, world is leaking and will go on with this. and china, too, is a huge country where it's simply not easy to mute every human being around).
we really understand that there are people there, from the last administration, shivering and peeing into their pants when thinking just the name "Den Haag". it will be simply maybe hard, quite hard, to try to explain the world that this fear of those bush überbleibsel is the interest of american citizens fed up with being betrayed, misused, their money stolen (paid-studies only, no free real tuition-fees-free education choice, no real unemployment securities, social security shortages expected...) for the wallets of a persons interested in a "showdown".
http://projects.washingtonpost...../hardware/
ps feel invited to a page i recently found online:
http://wp.me/psdI6-O3
Gorka Molero| 8.23.10 @ 8:13PM
Why does everyone seem to care so much about the lives the leak supposedly costed and not much about the lives the war actually costed?
Why does everyone seem to care about the information uncovered by the leak and not about the lies or white lies the US Military has been laying on all of us? Including all of you, well-spoken right wingers...
Why does nobody here seem to see the purpose and actual significance of the leak and its publication is not to harm the US Military or the forces and interests behind it, but instead to prevent a militar organization -whose original purpose is not to attack foreign countries to rob them of their resources -actual resources, political, civil or intellectual aswell-, but to monopolize sources of violence in a nation and defend it against actual threats- from going far beyond its purpose and serve tendentious thinking paths costing thousands (tens, hundreds of) of lives?
All this seemed pretty obvious to me from the start, not the start of the leak, but the actual acting line Wikileaks has followed the time it's been active. This might be their biggest movement, but it still follows their purpose and the consequences will never be bigger or harsher than the actual causes of the conflict.
Any stupid/careless/cruel/ action is bound to be uncovered sometime in an age when the powerful don't control the ways of information and communication.
It has always happened otherwise, as the winners would get to rewrite history and hide the facts, like the russians did, but i guess this is the time to change that, isn't it?
Or do you think that people anywhere don't have the right to know what's going on if someone decides to tell? That is the way media should work, and the way all of you have received the information that has shaped your opinion about anything. Wouldn't you want it to be raw, truthful, real information? Are you actually saying raw information should be hidden or hardly or slightly changed to favor the interests of anyone? So that when it reaches the next guy it is wrong/untrue information? Is that not actually a contradiction?
On top of this all, why the h*** would you want to shoot Julian Assange?
Someone please give an honest answer
carlos| 8.23.10 @ 8:14PM
guys the is ridiculous since when telling the truth has became a sin or federal offense. the only crime that i see here is that the us troops went to invade Iraq and Afganistan illegally. I have all the brainwashe id this comment area can regurgitate that. i wonder why people is still protectig a state which is oil thirsty and blood thirsty
Erik| 8.23.10 @ 8:17PM
Is it unconstitutional to classify documents that show illegal activity by the U.S. military? Is it unconstitutional for a concerned U.S. citizen to release them to the public, even through Wikileaks? Is it unconstitutional for the U.S. military to unnecessarily slaughter hundreds of thousands of civilians, U.S. or otherwise?
GT | 8.23.10 @ 8:24PM
Hoo boy howdy... look at all the CRAZY. it's like a page from FreeRepublic.
KILL HIM!!! TWO MINUTES' HATE!!!.
While the jackbooted armed sociopaths of the US Death Machine slaughter Iraqis and Afghans (in order to free them, doncha know), the whipkissers drool and harden up at the thought of the 'spooks' (who have failed EVERY SINGLE TEST of the last half century: from the Russian bomb to the Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, North Korean, Israeli, and French... to the whole 'Team B' fiasco, to the Bay of Pigs and the 'Domino Effect').
Y'all have been HAD. You bin TOOK. You bin PLAYED, PWNED and Bitched-up.
Your government told you a bunch of lies, and y'all swallowed like a $10 hooker.
And Wikileaks (and other, darker nets) have exploited the fact that 99% of your fabled 'intel' commnity are low-paid dimwits who are seethign and disgruntled most of their lives. Professional suckers at the tax tit like this 'Babbler' see theirgravy train leaving for deadsville, and so they flail around trying to kill their way out of it.
I'm enjoying the beJeebus out of this spectacle - the IMPOTENCE of the US is funny to watch.
Everybody talking about assassination should be mocked, because the US intelligence agencies have been briefed on (and sent excerpts of) insurance.aes256 - among other things contains thousands of names of clandestine 'sources' for agencies of 87 countries - go ahead, Babbler and ask the DIA if it verified the file segment it was sent. If a single hair on any WL ally is harmed, the US, UK, Frane, Germany and six dozen other coutnries will have their intel assets more compromised than GWB's cornhole during his days as a cheerleader at Andover.
Cheerio
GT
Oh - one last thign. The US Constitution doesnt' GRANT rights, you morons. Rights simply EXIST; the Constitution provides a framework to try to prevent the US goverment from INFRINGING against them. Dullards.
welp| 8.23.10 @ 8:25PM
Does the author have any idea how computers actually work? Beyond the fact that "fire sale" was invented completely by Die Hard 4, and that you don't even use the phrase correctly as it was defined by the movie, a DDOS attack on Wikileaks systems would achieve absolutely nothing. The site content is backed up on thousands of servers run by volunteers throughout the world. It would be like cutting off the Hydra's head, only for four more to grow back.
ebob| 8.23.10 @ 8:42PM
American democracy is sick. Wikileaks is the cure. Remember American patriots - capitalism is NOT democracy.
brindo| 8.23.10 @ 8:43PM
Interesting to see that such intellectual giants as Bruce Willis are quoted to support the conservative argument.
I've got another one for you,
"Yippee-Kay-Ay, Motherfuckers"
A| 8.23.10 @ 9:03PM
A "Fire Sale"...yeah, haha, someones been watching too many movies!!!
Titan| 8.23.10 @ 9:04PM
This post is so naieve and childish it is absurd. The writer blithely assumes that there is some massive cadre of pro american hackers that are willing to assault the only informational source that attacks a government that hunts them. Or, assumes that there is a cyber warfare unit in the CIA that is actually competent.
The US military is a defunct useless piece of trash that couldn't save it'self in this new era if it tried. They are forced to contract people to fight for them, think for them and also; hack for them.
This post exemplifies all of this in it's addiction to ignorance. Some how assuming that since we live in the united states that we MUST have the best of everything. Well. We don't.
Our children are stupider, our schools are worse, our economy is failing, our goods are considered trash, our military is floundering our news is a joke, our rights are dissapearing from parties on the left and right and as a fast jibe, our hackers aren't as good either. The greatest hackers of our time have come from europe so to claim that we should "have a fire sale" on wikileaks.
Is the most stupid, ill thought out notion that anyone could have made on the internet.
Hello world| 8.23.10 @ 9:23PM
It's unanimous, Jed Babbin is a douchebag!
OZ| 8.23.10 @ 9:35PM
Hear hear!
Roy| 8.23.10 @ 9:39PM
The American Empire is falling. Everyone's about had it with your imperialistic adventures, and all the hatred that spews from this comments and the calls for putting bullets into people's heads will be answered: Americans will die. And they damn well deserve it.
Roy please calm down| 8.23.10 @ 9:49PM
Roy, plese calm down. The fact that the article itself of course does sound like a cheap western movie copy is not a reason to fall to their rubbish language and thinking level. It would be enough if they would finally begin to understand that these few pips of the former administration trying to rescue themselves from Dan Haag greeting them at the horizon is chance- and pointless. Yes, they in fact make the impression of a gang of middle age survivors, so therefore it's logic that computers are a mystery for them. Yes, they are used to their black and white western movie world inside of their own brains which they mix with the reality outside. No reason to let them affect you with their brain vaccumosis.
Don O| 8.23.10 @ 9:46PM
Jack in kids, the times over for merely hacking the gibson, its time for a FIRE SALE.
lol. Journalists and computers are funny.
Don O| 8.23.10 @ 9:51PM
"Why does everyone seem to care so much about the lives the leak supposedly costed"
Or an even more uncomfortable question. How many lives does exposing the leakers save?
Put your citizenship aside for a second (I know, its hard) and think about that one from the perspective of a village thats been bombed to hell and back by B52s. You'd REALLY like to know who the snitch is that keeps getting yall killed, because damn, getting bombed and shot aint fun.
And remember boys and girls, neither Assange nor Wikileaks is American, so expecting its loyalties to default to the US is hopelessly naive and frankly morally impaired.
Don O| 8.23.10 @ 9:51PM
"Why does everyone seem to care so much about the lives the leak supposedly costed"
Or an even more uncomfortable question. How many lives does exposing the leakers save?
Put your citizenship aside for a second (I know, its hard) and think about that one from the perspective of a village thats been bombed to hell and back by B52s. You'd REALLY like to know who the snitch is that keeps getting yall killed, because damn, getting bombed and shot aint fun.
And remember boys and girls, neither Assange nor Wikileaks is American, so expecting its loyalties to default to the US is hopelessly naive and frankly morally impaired.
na, "journalists"...| 8.23.10 @ 10:05PM
Don, please. Not long ago one of the first pips going crazy - (sure, also logical - it was the speechwriter for bush) - tried to present himself as a "journalist". in a newspaper. well, usually people with some insight into this profession know how to differenciate between a PR person (a pure cheap public relation stuff writing pip. the speechwriter was and is nothing else - producing cheap - in this case, rhetorical - PR contents for his texas babe boss. stuff which one person once answered with a shoe. if all the laughter of those years when people at other continents had to listen to this bs would be turned to shows, bushy would be buried under a mount everest of pumps, nike's, slippers and and and and) and journalism. a journalistic content simply needs a bit more, there are some skills needed for this, quite some. skills people like speechwriter or the writer of this funny article above will dream of until the rest of their days. please do not offend the profession by calling PR pips and psychopatical outpourings "journalism".
please don't do. this profession has it's ethics. serious journalism as a profession, if done correctly, did not deserve to be insulted like this.
Chuck| 8.23.10 @ 10:26PM
Typical liberal mindset – thinking he has the moral authority to steal our secrets, and tell us how to run our lives. He’s out to save the world – what arrogance. Who made him the god-king? You know, we have elected leaders to manage our affairs. Who does he think he is to crash our party?
dear chuck| 8.23.10 @ 10:40PM
first. "...to steal our secrets, ..." sorry to inform you, but in a democracy a war crime is not a secret. full stop.
second. re "tell us how to run our lives" - nah, c'mon, chuckie, no one does. you're absolutely free to stay in middle age, no one forces you to look at the calender. as long as you don't try to convince others of your time disorientation.
"Who made him the god-king?" well, your country sais: we have a god, our own, isn't it? who made you god-king to simply ignore one of the basic orders of this book. right to live, chuckie, is basis in the book. claim what you want, the trial to circumvene this "legally" is nothing but middle age mindset and a crime, a murder, regardless of how "legal" you want to sell this to the pips used to your strange thinking. so what was your question again?
John | 8.23.10 @ 10:53PM
Here's what nitwits like Jed Babbin don't get: information is free. You can't stop it. There's a whole world of anonymous Julian Assange's out there. You've read too many Tom Clancy novels Jed. Maybe it's your age and you don't "get" the internets. There's no way to do a "cyber attack" on information. We're not taking about a radar system here, we're talking about the free flow of information. Duh.
J.A.| 8.23.10 @ 11:00PM
It's good to know that American Fascism is alive and well! Jed you'll love this page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_book_burnings
no thankyou| 8.23.10 @ 11:02PM
Jed Babbin, why doesn't it surprise me that you are advocating murder?
Sam H| 8.23.10 @ 11:19PM
Sean,
Any other third-world, eternal victims, first-year grad student and Howard Zinn inspired insipid twaddle that you want to inflict upon this audience?
No? You are done? Good, please sit down and shut up.
Galeano? Are you serious? What's next...Chomsky?
Did your parents have any children that lived?
Oh, before I forget...let us just take Mr. Assange out, be done with it and save lives in the process.
Sam H| 8.23.10 @ 11:19PM
Sean,
Any other third-world, eternal victims, first-year grad student and Howard Zinn inspired insipid twaddle that you want to inflict upon this audience?
No? You are done? Good, please sit down and shut up.
Galeano? Are you serious? What's next...Chomsky?
Did your parents have any children that lived?
Oh, before I forget...let us just take Mr. Assange out, be done with it and save lives in the process.
Hello Sam H| 8.23.10 @ 11:31PM
sorry to be forced to fall down to your language level, but please coul you sort your thoughts and try to post your comment in a readable, ligibile form making sense?
thank you.
ah and "Oh, before I forget...let us just take Mr. Assange out, be done with it and save lives in the process."
like... yours? so much involed in the war crimes in question that you shiver, too? let us please reassure you, Den Haag is NOT in US. take a look at the map and you will for sure admit that might be in fact the case. it is NOT in the US and we are in fact talking about 21st century.
there is no reason to fear death penalty, ok? so calm down, stick to the topic please and p.l.e.a.s.e. for heaven's sake try to wake those brain segments up which seem to be in a coma. even comments can be posted in a shape, form and style so you don't have to be ashamed of them tomorrow.
Richard Soper| 8.23.10 @ 11:37PM
Yes, lets burn the ONLY website that isnt intimidated by the United States... The fault lies in the hands of the person who LEAKED the info. Assange is simply doing what he thinks is right. We shouldnt let the American government, or american military get away with these things(fire sale or what was released in the afghan docs). Its preposterous.
aha the fault lies in...| 8.23.10 @ 11:43PM
"The fault lies in the hands of the person who LEAKED the info."
aha the fault lies in. the fact that a news agency was waiting for this video while military having quite some problems to find it for all those years - the fault for THIS lies where again, please?
the fault for the "look at the bastard" quotation of a shooter - where again, this fault, please?
bob| 8.24.10 @ 12:54AM
lame typical pro military pro establishment garbage. its people like this who write articles like this who bring america down.
Advocate4Liberty| 8.24.10 @ 12:58AM
I had recently considered a subscription to the American Conservative magazine, then I come across trash like this. Thanks for helping me to keep my money going where it should: to antiwar.com!
Henriette| 8.24.10 @ 1:07AM
It would be funny if it wasn't so pathetic, and sick: The ones who sent our troops to die in foreign wars (Pentagon and Pals) are saying that *Assange* has blood on his hands? How is it logical that they are so ticked off about the possibility of names being leaked? They've facilitated more death and destruction by their existence than Wikileaks could ever match.
Talk about double standards.
Yosemeti Sam| 8.24.10 @ 1:21AM
Just send a Ninja after that piss.
_Flin_| 8.24.10 @ 1:40AM
So because someone published things you don't like you promote acts of war or cyberterrorism against friendly and allied nations? And where are those afghan names in the documents? Haven't seen any of them.
What has become of the former land of the free? Really sad to watch.
Alexsander Troutnoodler| 8.24.10 @ 1:49AM
See, stuff like this is why Wikileaks put up the Insurance File. Oh, and to have your "fire sale", you'd have to take down Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, Reddit, Digg, Google and...heh heh heh! Slashdot. I wish you and your retired "CIA" guy all the best of luck with that? I can assure you, it will be hilarious to watch.
Jeanophilia| 8.24.10 @ 2:36AM
In light of the horrors we've inherited globally under the Bush administration is anyone seriously surprised by Mr. Bobbin's absurdly Draconian sentiments?
Eesh already.
Jeanophilia| 8.24.10 @ 2:41AM
Oops - in my haste to comment on the absurdity of this article I failed to spell it's author's name correctly.
My apologies, Mr. Babbin.
Alberto G| 8.24.10 @ 2:56AM
This entire piece is completely flawed since the author has no knowledge whatsoever of the opportunistic nature of cyberwarfare and assumes that the task of defeating the defenses of a well distributed array of servers is a trivial one. It is not: cyberwarfare is opportunistic, it exploits flaws and weaknesses for which countermeasures and backup plans and servers are probably already in place. A cyberattack would probably hinder wikileaks operations for a day, but no longer.
Someone with a better knowledge of computer security and social engineering would have discarded the idea rather quickly: just as in Iraq and Afghanistan, America's enemies aren't well identified since Wikileaks is seen as monolithic, when it is not.
So, both in the case of an assassination attempt or cyberwarfare, a miserable failure can be predicted even when successful.
It's no wonder, at this point, that Iraq and Afghanistan are a mess. That's what happens when you apply conventional logic to something that can't be fought as a conventional war.
William | 8.24.10 @ 2:59AM
All this frothing at the mouth about Wikileaks is about protecting and covering up wrongdoing. Never forget that unpalatable truth. That's why you're so irrationaly angry about it that you write such nonsense.
Noah C.| 8.24.10 @ 3:26AM
That's a wonderful article. I laughed heartily when the author used the definiton "Fire Sale", traditionally used for the sale of damaged goods, then realised he was trying to describe a Distributed Denial of Service attack, possibly the most unskilled and least effective attack on the planet.
America does not have an army of hackers in any way capable of taking on the cypherpunks and CCC and other people who have coalesced under the umbrella of Wikileaks.
rodger ramjet| 8.24.10 @ 5:06AM
It is my opinion that our leaders have led our nation into a very dangerous quagmire, one of abject arrogance and ignorance, a very bad combination indeed! Arrogance in the sense of believing that our nation can do no evil, that we can make no mistakes, since our nation has quite obviously received the a priori blessing of God allowing us to do anything and everything we as a nation “feel led” to do. And, of course, such a myth has been compounded by the rather farcical assumption that our president is a man of God. And, of course, ignorance in that the people of our nation have, no doubt, allowed themselves to become quite “under-educated,” our belief in God tends to restrict honest and rational thought, we have endeared freedom to the point that it has severely inhibited our ability to comprehend our moral responsibility to others, and we have become so terribly ethnocentric that we are nearly incapable of understanding that people around the world have a right to choose what is best for them. From the land of the free to the land of the dumbed down american.
D.W. Major | 8.24.10 @ 6:38AM
The dumbing down of mankind started with J.P Morgan when he trough his Occult network denied Nikola Tesla the fruit of his work.
America isn't the land of the Free, it is the land of the FREEMASONS.
America is and Occult Dictatorship just like Nazi Germany was for all the Nazis were in fact FREEMASONS.
And they suppress invention after invention and make war after war until only they are left alive.
Freemasons are the enemy of Mankind.
All life is Free.
All energy is Free.
All Transportation is Free.
The proof is on this website.
www.zeroemissiontransportation.webs.com
Salomon Rothschild Hitler| 8.24.10 @ 6:30AM
Is America turning into a new Nazi Germany?
Julian Assange is a Hero in providing transparency into Freemason hijacked Governments that do not serve the people anymore.
It is people like him that bring democracy back to the roots of a civilization that suffers from Freemasonry Secrecy and Judeo - Christian Fascism.
One should think that we as a Human Race should learn from History and the fact that War is never a solution but it is a disease.
And those who use democracy to install Wars are Viruses.
Henry Kissinger, Ronald Reagan, Bush, Obama, and Arnold Schwarzenhitler that are the enemies of Mankind.
Julian Assange is a Hero.
A true Hero of Mankind that shall be protected against Freemason (CIA) lies and smear!!!
anomylous| 8.24.10 @ 9:37AM
really? you're quoting die hard 4 and fire sale? a fire sale is a particular combination of attacks meant to destroy a country, you can't 'fire sale' wikileaks. not just because there's the lack of infrastructure (which is what a fire sale targets) but because they've already taken it into account. you attack them, in any manner, and they leak the whole bundle and then some. so even if they found some magic way to 'cyber napalm' (really?) wikileaks all that would accomplish would be trashing their servers and setting off the insurance backlash. next time write about something you actually understand.
waterheron| 8.24.10 @ 9:51AM
Assange is not a hero, and Jed is not a terroist. Nor is the solution "burn baby burn." There has been enough killing and enough bombing in the last ten years. America has a great deal to offer the world if America rethinks its intelligence relations. suggest you read the ex-intelligence professor at Princeton University: Manfred Halpern . You known, Jed, you must do your homework!!! The song "Burn Baby Burn" is British songwriter It came out in the UK. It was originally called "This Is Slow Suicide", then simply "Slow Suicide", but was changed at the last minute to "Burn Baby Burn" to avoid radio censorship. The song is a bout suicide not that of destroying the other in this case Julians wikileaks empire. Read the words. The words say " something inside has died --slow suicide." Ironically or not you have chosen words that imply your own self destruction. Look it up. From my reading of this if you advocate and advanced this solution you will not be addressing the real issues and it will only cause more harm to all --the soul of America. As the Song says: Tumbling like the leaves/We are spiralling on the breeze/Almost to the point of no return/Everything will burn baby burn. Reminds me of.. Apocalypse Now
Dont advocate this path.. America deserves better!
Alberto G| 8.24.10 @ 12:18PM
There are different precedents for the Burn Baby Burn sentence: first, the painting by Matta (1965), second, the pacifist, ironic, "overtly antiamerican" song Burn by Bruce Cockburn (1974), then Disco Inferno.
I consider amusing Babbin's choice of words, but given the validity of his commentary it comes at no surprise.
waterheron| 8.24.10 @ 7:07PM
Thank you for pointing this out Alberto.
1965... your right the painter Matta is from Chili and the abstract work was created in response to the Vietnam War and the Watts riots in Los Angeles; the phrase "Burn, Baby, Burn" was chanted at the riots!
Yes on Bruce Cockburn and Disco Inferno. Yet Alberto G--there is another precedent: William Leo "Bill" Epton Jr was "the first person convicted of criminal anarchy for uttering the three words "burn baby burn."
lsam| 8.24.10 @ 10:49AM
Jeb was the Under - secretary of Defense yet takes his ideas from Hollywood movies? There's no such thing as a "Fire Sale" you moron. It is called a Distributed Denial of Service attack. Currently at least one of the main wikileaks servers is housed in the Pirate Party offices in the Swedish Parliament building. Yes, let's cyberattack the Swedish Parliament - sounds like a real wise idea. Additionally, Wikileaks has built redundancy into it's system. People all over the world will mirror the site, especially if it comes under attack. Many hackers tend to be internationalists as well. The reprisals would probably not be worth it. All of what I have said has probably been considered by U.S. defense forces , which is why the Jeb's ideas, largely formed by Hollywood movies rather than real life, have not been implemented. This guy was Under secretary of Defense? Explains a lot.
Alberto G| 8.24.10 @ 1:51PM
Although I consider your comment substantially correct, the wikileaks.org dns records actually point (at the moment) to PRQ, covered also in Wikipedia, and not to something belonging to a company directly connected to the Swedish Parliament. Not that switching dns records is particularly difficult, anyway.
For the technically impaired (such as the author of this piece) it should be noted that the wikileaks.org dns records has a very unusual short TTL that would reduce - in case of a server switch - wikileaks.org unavailability to something more than 10 minutes.
An attack to the dns provider would probably disrupt a lot of other services based in the US, and since the dns provider itself is in the US it would likely be considered a property damage within US.
A smart job. Not impossible to circumvent, but then good luck with lawyers both in the US and worldwide, Mr Babbin. Next time, think about shooting a bullet containing people to the moon. At least Jules Verne had a good reason for his naiveté. You don't.
Michele San Pietro| 8.24.10 @ 5:43PM
America is not an empire, and she's not coming to an end. America haters have been repeating the same crap for 50 years.
Marylou| 8.24.10 @ 7:28PM
I like this. Sort of like guys in the pen taking out the pedophiles and others who are the worst among us. They fall off the edges of the earth into a deep vat and no one knows how or when. Justice. Sweet. Yet, I like to leave it in God's hands.
Kurt| 8.25.10 @ 10:05AM
"And act we must. So what should be done to prevent Assange from publishing them?"
He is just a spokes person.
ChristianK| 8.25.10 @ 8:18PM
Starting a cyber war against the western hacker community could end ugly.
Those guys defended Estonia when NATO bureaucrat hadn't a functioning cyber defense.
Maybe you can keep Wikileaks down for the same 30 days that the Russian hackers got Estonia down.
You will however motivate a bunch of guys to hack into the US government and release the information they find.
After a few months the US would fold in the cyber war. Either because it's bureaucrats have simple less expertise than the other side or because the war isn't worth the cost.
nemcc| 8.25.10 @ 11:46PM
I laughed when I read some of the comments regarding the 1st amendment and its prohibitions regarding laws abridging free speech. If the 1st amendment indeed prohibited all US actions abridging speech throughout the world as the comments seem to indicate, then it would follow that taking out an enemy command and control center during war is a violation of the 1st amendment. Preventing reconnaissance platforms from transmitting data back to base would likewise be a violation. And hell, if we carried it that far, then shooting any enemy soldier, would have to be a violation as it is "abridging" his speech and preventing him from practicing the religion of his choice.
Wikileaks, by releasing that data and damaging national security (the definition applied to all classified documents), could easily be said to have attacked the United States. To me, that makes the perpetrators legitimate targets. Albeit, we don't have the cojones to actually do anything. Ergo, the attacks will continue.
laughing journalist| 8.26.10 @ 11:42AM
...don't worry, this late bushfanclubisms here will find their way to where they belong... http://www.sueddeutsche.de/pol.....1.360145-3
@nemcc| 8.26.10 @ 11:50AM
hi nemcc, sorry to inform you. but thinking the country - it's citizens - will let you play the orweillian way longer - might proof itself quite ridiculous. in fact, your country is misusing money which belongs to it's citizens for a long, long time. in fact, you are aggressively attacking other countries, forgetting what a civilized nation is, for years after years.
but this is your problem. exactly this - to give the misused money back to where it belongs (education of your own country's citizens, social security, investment in progressive technologies which are a bit more needed than your missile interests and and and...) - this all is your own internal problem.
countries around you may quite probably NOT allow you to export your definition of ongoing war to their homes just in order to legalize you own war crime and ongoing missile interest, no way, man.
"And hell, ...", a war crime is a war crime. y.o.u. can try to close your eyes from this. Pips around you - a bit more than your private fanclub - will not. They did not and will not. Try to realize this.