Excellent stuff. Watch the bastards squirm. This follows a denial of service attack on Wikileaks, incidentally.
Yep, as I suspected, those in charge and in real power (not always the same thing) are just as stupid, prejudiced, ignorant and selfish as you're average bunch of retards drinking in a townie pub on a Saturday night...
It was explained in one of the articles i read before.. Essentially after sept11 the US govt realised none of its agencies worked together very well, sometimes they occasionally fought against each other. To counter this the US classified some documents as kind of 'secret but shareable' to better allow agencies to work together and share info. All this info came out of that pool.
On the one hand, shame on Wikileaks for exposing servicemen to additional danger. On the other hand, kudos to Wikileaks for stripping the facade off FedGov and humiliating them before the American people. Someone should pants those assclowns regularly and turn their hubris into wide-eyed slack-jawed red-faced dog shame.
While I enjoy watching the Obama squirm, I take no pleasure in this and if there was anything I could do to take the site down and get its operators shipped off to a Caribbean resort for funfilled waterboarding and other sports I'd be up for it.
The private who leaked this information is putting out troops at risk. He needs court martials, convicted, and shot. The CIA needs to deal with the guy responsible for the Wikileaks site and anyone he shares the information with with extreme prejudice. I've got no love for Obama, but this is getting into national security here and something needs done.
Who didn't know that diplomatic personnel were spies? Every country plays this game from day one and it really went to the next level during the Cold War. The UK does the same to us. Anyone that believes otherwise is merely naive beyond reason. Hell, remember the fiasco in the '60's when the US built a new embassy in Moscow? Our sapper teams found thousands of bugs in the building during construction.
Freedom of speech is a wonderful thing, right up to and past the point of collaboration and treason. There isn't anything strong enough that can be done to Mr. Manning. I suspect he'll end up at the greybar hotel in Kansas beore it's all said and done though.
Spoiler alert.....she's GERMAN! But if a directive is issued outlining the exact procedures on being creative, she will comply.
My problem with the leaks (besides the leaks themselves) is that people are taking them out of context. Government officials need to communicate up and down the line frankly and openly with each other in order for proper decisions to be made. If Merkel is not creative and avoids risk, Putin is a alpha-dog, if China is changing it's stance towards another country then the leaders of this country (as crappy as they may or may not be) need to know that. If the people in the field become afraid to communicate openly with their superiors all the way up the chain to Washington DC because of possible leaks then that makes it that much more difficult for the right actions to be taken.
Hey when the Swiss start flying planes into our buildings and killing thousands of Americans then will start blowing up their white asses too.
While these leaks may very well damage our national interests, I am somewhat amused by the facts that have come forward without being slathered by a layer of political bullshit. In that since, I suppose I don't mind too much. The scummy little vermin who violated his oath by releasing them, however, should be made an example: I'm thinking a 40-year stay in Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas would be appropriate.
Either the US government and the Obama Administration are some of the stupidest people to have graced our government by not being able to plug these leaks, or these leaks are being made on purpose for some reason we are not aware of.
Not knowing the head of wikileaks but feeling that I can guess as to his character... What else has he got up his sleeve? This can't possibly be all else he'd be practically admitting he didn't have any further power. He's all about the fame/notoriety of having inside information and knows that no one's really going to do anything about it. I'm betting he's going to continue dribbling this stuff out for a long time to come. The affected countries have to be looking more seriously into his financing than anything else. He's paying his sources for the info and there's always some greedy scum who messes up.
The first part is a given. The second part is up for grabs. This could happen to any President really.
Quite a spectacle. My general feeling is this is sauce for the gander, of the "if you haven't done anything wrong, you have nothing to be afraid of" variety.
And in this case you're wrong. The people in the field need to be able to freely communicate what they see, hear, and think up the chain of command all the way to the President's desk. And the people from the President on down need to be able to communicate freely in return with the field people. These things aren't for public consumption because they are the thoughts of individuals and not government policy. Sure we know Putin has basically destroyed Democracy in Russia but we don't say it to his face. We work with the Pakistani government regarding securing their nukes but our leaders need to know from the field people that the Pakistan government is being stupid on some issues. But we don't need Pakistan to know that. This cables are a severe breach for the country. They create several diplomatic binds which will hamper the United States. It also creates diplomatic binds for other countries who are mentioned in those cables. And for what? Because some dip-shit private in the US Army was upset over Don't Ask Don't Tell and some rapist in Europe thinks he's waging a one man war against the United States of America.
That's an even bigger potential disaster. North Korea is already run by paranoid maniacs but I bet the Chinese never told them to their face that they are no longer a useful or reliable ally or that they are a spoiled child or that China wouldn't mind seeing a unified Korea under South Korean control. Now anything could happen in that country.