I have mixed feelings on the leaks of classified and sensitive information that is now being displayed to the public. My first response was that this is treason and it is. But WikiLeaks did not commit treason. After all they really exist to expose secrets that traitors send to them. If they did not do it someone else world. It really is those that are giving classified information to WikiLeaks that are committing treason. They are committing treason even if they are compromising state secrets for what they think is the greater good. In the real world a nation cannot have national security without secrets.<\/p>\n
If a government cannot protect its state secrets it is the fault of that government. It is not the fault of someone reporting the leaks. After all, leaks comes from the government all the time and some are given out on purpose as disinformation or trial balloons. So then should government censor news sites that publish these things? If we start down that path where does government censorship of media end?<\/p>\n
I am sure if WikiLeaks did not exist the information would have been given to someone else to publish so it would have got out anyway. The sensible approach is to keep classified information from getting compromised in the first place.<\/p>\n
What kind of security should we expect from a government run by a President that smoked cocaine, hobnobbed with terrorists, was mentored by Marxists and sex perverts, and cannot even produce a valid birth certificate proving that he was born in the United States?<\/p>\n
Having had clearances myself, I remember the days that people would be denied a security clearance or have them pulled for a few bounced checks, or smoking a joint. Even today, I am sure that if Obama were not a national politician he could never get a Top Secret clearance with his known background. Yet, we not only trust him with all national secrets, we trust him with our country. I guess most now see where that has led us.<\/p>\n
So, it is any wonder that these things now happen in a world full of spoiled postmodern snot nosed kids that believe it is okay to do whatever is right in their own eyes? They do not care if the nation is embarrassed and that real people will be killed because of their irresponsible exposures. All they care about is their own idealism. And no wonder, their mentor was Obama. He promised an administration of honesty and openness but it never showed up. So they will teach this administration a lesson! Its all done for the greater good, of course.<\/p>\n
I have no sympathy for the army intelligence analyst that allegedly gave up these 251,000 leaked cables to WikiLeaks. I think he and those like him, if found guilty, should reap the firing squad, especially in a time of war.<\/p>\n
Having said that, it is obvious from these leaked cables that many of the leaders of\u00a0 governments of the world are two faced liars, and some are corrupt criminals and others are mentally ill. (I will let you read the leaks to get the specifics.)<\/p>\n
Frankly, what is said for public consumption by world politicians should not be believed because most politicians tell people the things that they want them to know, regardless of truth. In other words, the elite running the world are a bunch of liars.<\/p>\n
I do not blame our government for having these assessments from field agents and for trying to find out information from sources in the governments that we deal with. If we did not try to ascertain the real truth and the real motives of politicians and governments we would be chumps. So we should not apologize for our analysis and for our diplomats giving their assessments. World governments should realize that the U.S. does not form its foreign policy on just reports from field agents.<\/p>\n
So far, from what I read, most of the leaks were already leaked long before this leak. For example, who did not know that the Saudi King wanted us to bomb Iran even though they denied this rumor officially, and who does not know that everyone hates Iran? The same is true of many of these leaks. The truth was already known, but if the source of the truth was identified it would put them at risk.<\/p>\n
There lies the great danger in these leaks. Who now is going to trust us to keep what they say confidential? So our source of insider information in foreign nations is going to dry up. This will damage our ability to form intelligence and to conduct informed foreign policy. So the greater damage in the future is trying to form rational foreign policy when you do not have the intelligence to take the correct course of action. These things get people killed.<\/p>\n
Our government screwed this up because adequate safeguards are not in place to protect national secrets. Obviously in this electronic era it is just too easy to copy classified data. So how do you stop it? I guess you could physically search those leaving classified areas for media storage devices and not allow them to communicate anything through electronic devices but enforcing this would be a nightmare and it would severely limit productivity. So that is not going to happen.<\/p>\n
The easiest way to have security is to make sure that the people are trustworthy before you give them access to the information, but in today’s world, that would disqualify most people, so that is not going to happen either.<\/p>\n
Perhaps we have arrived at a point where some lower level secrets can no longer be kept. If that turns out to be the case then everyone just might have to start telling the public the truth (now wouldn’t that be a novel idea) and let the chips fall where they may.<\/p>\n
Obviously, there would still have to be top secret projects in national defense or we put our people at grave risk. But, keeping top secret information out of the wrong hands does not seem to be the big problem here. Top secret information is usually still limited to trusted people with a specific need to know (some politicians and spies excepted).<\/p>\n
Here is some food for thought. The planned databases on the American people and the health database will be even more vulnerable than any defense department network. Are you ready to see everything about yourself and your medical conditions appear all over the Internet? the government repeatedly has shown us that it cannot keep data secure, yet we think this tiger is going to suddenly change its spots? Electronic databases are not secure and that includes your banks. These databases are only as trustworthy as the people that have access to them (that is a scary thought).<\/p>\n
I think one big danger in Cablegate is that government will again overreact and take away more of our first amendment freedoms. These leaks are going to keep dripping out for maximum impact and so that they can keep selling this news for a long time. This probably is the biggest bonanza for the press since the days of\u00a0 Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, those in government will increasingly scream for new laws to shut down websites and the publishers involved. But, once that Pandora’s box is opened any federal judge will be able to shut down any news source or website, and it will soon become censorship by the whim of any judge for the greater good of the many.<\/p>\n
By the way, there is an Interpol warrant out for the arrest of the founder of WikiLeaks. In case you did not know, Interpol is the world police. They are free to make arrests in many nations including our own (even though it is contrary to the Constitution). Ecuador did said they would welcome him to move there.<\/p>\n