The Department of Justice may bring charges against WikiLeaks for releasing Afghanistan war documents
By now everybody knows the story about the classified documents that WikiLeaks posted on their website last month. Until today I have not posted anything about this issue, but with the news today that the Army, the Department of Justice, and the FBI are investigating and may be pursuing criminal charges against the founder of WikiLeaks–Julian Assange–I feel it is time to comment on this issue.
Putting aside the fact that during the Bush administration the left admired and defended such whistleblowers as performing an admirable service for the American people, I have to say that I agree with this decision. The left is now coming to their senses–even if it is only to protect one of their own in Barack Obama–on the issue of whistleblowers, and for their finally seeing the light and admitting that what they once called whistleblowing they now consider an issue of national defense, I have to give them credit.
I can’t even begin to put into words how strongly I feel about anybody that would leak information to the public that would endanger not only our heroes in the field but also those allies who have been providing a brave service to our country while at the same time understanding the fact that they are putting their lives on the line to defend America. It is sad to think that they were betrayed by someone solely for the purpose of that person making a name for himself. But that is what appears to have happened here.
It is the view of the Department of Defense that WikiLeaks obtained this material in circumstances that constitute a violation of United States law, and that as long as WikiLeaks holds this material, the violation of the law is ongoing,” Defense Department General Counsel Jeh Charles Johnson wrote in a letter this week to a WikiLeaks lawyer
Defenders of WikiLeaks are claiming that this lawsuit would set a bad precedent:
If WikiLeaks thought it would make the last move and the government would not respond, they may be mistaken,” said Mr. Aftergood. “But it would be a terrible new precedent if these legal options were actually employed against a publisher, even a disreputable one. Once such measures were used against WikiLeaks, it would only be a matter of time until they are used against other media outlets and individuals
I see this as a good precedent, if an entity publishes documents that may endanger our troops and our allies while our nation is at war than they should be held accountable for putting our troops in even more danger than they are already in. The same is true for those individuals that provide the secret documents, probably even more so, because they were entrusted with secrets and broke that bond of trust.
The problem here is that the founder of WikiLeaks is not an American, and does not live in America–so how can the Obama regime claim that they have jurisdiction in this case?
Going after WikiLeaks or Mr. Assange personally would be complicated. Not only is Mr. Assange not an American, but “I don’t know WikiLeaks has a presence in the United States except for a website,” Mr. Matusheski said.
Pursuing charges against Julian Assange may be impossible, but that does not excuse him for his reckless decision. But there may be one person who should be held at even a higher standard than Julian Assange–after all, Julian Assange was only publishing information that was handed to him–and that person may be Pfc. Bradley Manning, who allegedly provided WikiLeaks with the documents in the first place.
The DOJ is looking into the possibility that Bradley Manning was pressured by WikiLeaks to provide them with the documents. Regardless of whether Bradley Manning was pressured by WikiLeaks or not is of no consequence; if Pfc. Bradley Manning provided WikiLeaks with these documents than he is not the much heralded whistleblower that the left used to consider in the highest regard, he is a traitor and a criminal and needs to be prosecuted as such.
People in charge of sensitive United States documents cannot feel as if they are free to release those documents to the press in order to pursue an ideological vision–they need to know that they will be held accountable for abusing the trust that was handed to them. And while this behavior was something that was heralded as necessary by the left when George W Bush was in office, the truth is that there is no justification for such behavior no matter who is the president. Our troops deserve better and I hope that all of those who had anything to do with these documents being leaked, and those responsible for publishing them are held accountable for their irresponsible and deplorable acts of incredible selfishness and short-sightedness.
No matter what your stance on the Afghanistan war is you have to agree that releasing and publishing documents that put our troops in more danger is not acceptable under any circumstances. This crosses the line and all of those who had anything to do with it should be prosecuted to the utmost extent of the law.
America's Watchtower 
I couldn’t agree more, Steve. There is no excuse for something like this to happen. No matter how much anyone may agree with the mission of our troops in Iraq or Afghanistan, they are still doing what they were trained to do. Releasing these documents to “expose” what our government is doing, at the expense of the troops, is completely unforgivable.
LikeLike
So true Larry, this is not an issue about whether you agree with the policy of the United States or not, but rather an issue of safety for our troops. And to do something that would endanger their lives is unforgivable!
LikeLike
What do you mean actually the peosrn responsible ? The military has to prove that in a court, just like civilians do.It seems to be pretty obvious he’s the peosrn behind the leak, based on the details that I’ve read in Wired in the past. Don’t forget that this Manning guy actively sought someone out and talked about what he had done voluntarily, which is what lead to him being caught in the first place.I have zero sympathy for the guy, peosrnally. He’s basically a spy and needs to be treated as such.And it’s a credit to Julian Assange’s intelligence that he elected not to release details about the CIA and US military special operations in Afghanistan that Manning provided him with. That’s probably the only reason Assange hasn’t been hauled into prison yet.
LikeLike
re: “Regardless of whether Bradley Manning was pressured by WikiLeaks or not is of no consequence; if Pfc. Bradley Manning provided WikiLeaks with these documents than he is not the much heralded whistleblower that the left used to consider in the highest regard, he is a traitor and a criminal and needs to be prosecuted as such.”
True, that.
When I joined the Air Force in 1969 and was given a security clearance, we were shown a training film about a true story involving an Air Force sergeant attached to NATO in Germany in the ’60s. I have since seen this story reported elsewhere.
This sergeant was approached by the KGB to secure official documents for them. They offered him a lot of money for them… I can’t remember how much, but it was a fortune in the ’60s… and the sergeant decided to take them up on it. So he packed a folder with supply inventories, inter-office memos, and a few other non-classified documents, gave it to the Russians, and congratulated himself for so cleverly cheating them.
A couple of years later, he was in Leavenworth. Why? Because the Air Force searched madly until they discovered who had given the KGB that “harmless” package.
You see, before then, KGB document forgeries had been the joke of international espionage community. They actually tried to pass off documents referring to such things “…our imperialist plots…” as genuine US documents. They had the entire spy industry reading their stuff for pure entertainment, rolling on the floor.
However, from the non-classified documents our sergeant had passed over to them, they learned how to phrase US military documents, learned the military vernacular, routing code systems, the names of real officers (and signatures!) inside NATO, and even which model of Olivetti typerwriter to use, and which ribbon type (from the supply inventories). From then on, KGB forgeries were almost impossible to distinguish from real US documents. Only a very specific policy in how US identifies classifed documents kept foreign governments off our backs.
And that was when the Russians started getting a serious leg-up during the Cold War. In fact, a set of forged documents that were released to La Monde in Paris, making the claim that the US was using Europe as a buffer zone between the USSR and the US (expressed as if that were the one and only reason for NATO), were responsible for much of the still-existing French hostility toward the US. The government of France understood that the documents were forgeries, but they were not able to convince La Monde or the “intellectual” left there. With several turnovers of government in France and the US since then, the fact that those documents WERE forgeries has pretty much been lost to the French. Even the fact that the Russians came foreward with the fact that those docs were forgeries after the USSR fell hasn’t made a dent.
So it doesn’t matter what actually is or is not in a set of military documents. You do NOT air them in public. For ANY reason. Not even your supply inventory.
You can never tell what will be useful to a waiting enemy.
LikeLike
First, thank you for your service!
That was an interesting story that I hadn’t heard before. He might have thought he was pulling one over on the Russians but the Russians had the last laugh. They knew more than he did and that is an excellent example of why NOTHING should ever be made public that could endanger our troops or our country.
Thanks for sharing that!
LikeLike
As for Obama wanting to prosecute the Wikileaks guy, I had the same reaction I had when Sen. Boxer wanted to do a Senate investigation of the guy who leaked the Climategate records.
I couldn’t figure out how an unknown leaker who was probably in Britain, who raided a British computer, and posted the results on a Russian web site came under the jurisdiction of the US Senate.
Since that Senate investigation never came to fruition, I supposed someone somewhere ‘splained it to her.
But the sheer idiocy of the demand struck me as… well, idiocy.
LikeLike
I agree, I don’t think there is any way that this can fall into the jurisdiction of the United States, but then again, these were secret US documents so maybe there is a way he can be prosecuted. I am not holding my breath however.
LikeLike