Mixed feelings about Wikileaks

By now, the subject of Wikileaks has become a phenomenon discussed in many of the world capitals, and certainly a subject of the current news cycle. Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, is being sought both under Intepol and American warrants. What is his crime? Well, it depends to whom you talk? Of course, Sweden only ostensibly wants him on a charge of criminal sexual conduct. However, the sudden timing of the charges appears quite suspicious to many. Meanwhile, the USA is not even admitting that they have a warrant for Mr. Assange, however, various leaks from government sources have pointed to the existence of a secret sealed espionage indictment. In passing, the many leaks point out a gorilla sized bit of hypocrisy that has existed in the USA political structure for many decades. If a highly placed Congressman or the President or other suitably highly placed source leaks secret information for political purposes, it is not espionage. If any other person leaks secret information it is a crime. (The one exception was the Valerie Plane affair, but even that was political theater.)

Because of the type of information that is being leaked, there is a strong ongoing debate as to whether Mr. Assange should be praised or sentenced to life in prison. The cartoon above is by Chuck Asay. I chose him because he is a known conservative editorialist. On the other side, figures such as Jon Steward of The Daily Show have expressed similar viewpoints to the one pictured above. That viewpoint is to praise Mr. Assange and be in favor of the light that is being brought to the Byzantine world of international diplomacy. But, there are also many among conservatives, moderates, and liberals who are convinced that the leaks will not only destroy vital international relationships, but also put individual people in danger. I must admit that I have a little trouble with that argument, because it is the argument that is used every time that someone wants to get some information from the government that is potentially embarrassing or that shows the government in either a bad light or even a criminal light. So, yes, I do side more with the Asays and Stewards in this particular case.

But, what troubles me is a whole set of questions that no one is willing to ask publicly. Mr. Assange is not known to be a foreign agent. In fact, no country is accusing him of being a foreign agent, particularly since the leaks appear to be harming just about every country that is. In fact, if most of the information is leaked to him, then he may not even be guilty of espionage, but only of revealing secrets, a much lesser charge, and one that was successfully defended in court by the leakers of the Pentagon Papers.

You see, most of the news reports have concentrated on the embarrassing diplomatic leaks and tiptoed around the more serious ones, the ones which were sent in by active military personnel who are horrified by the way things are being handled in various of our battle areas. These are the more serious leaks. They are not leaks by spies. They are not leaks by people seeking to embarrass us. They are leaks by good men and women who are unable to get their chain of command to listen to their reports of violations of our Rules of Engagement. They are leaks by good men and women who watch cover-ups while they themselves are putting themselves in harms way in service to our country. These are the leaks that should trouble us even more. When good American soldiers, sailors, air force personnel, and marines feel that they have no other outlet than to leak material to a foreign national in hopes that its publication will lead to changes, and to the prosecution of the guilty, then we need to sit up and take notice.

Frankly, on the diplomatic leaks, I am with Chuck Asay. Let the various governments be embarrassed! Maybe, as he puts it, this will bring some changes to foreign diplomacy, though I doubt it.

But, on the other leaks, the ones that the governments are saying endanger our security, I am concerned lest the shouting of “security, security” keep us from noticing that there are some terrible things happening that need serious corrective action. Frankly, part of the reason that some of our people end up with Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome is that they see some of these cover-ups of terrible things and end up with a moral conflict between what they believe to be true, what they see being done, and the fact that they are forced to keep their silences because no authority will be willing to listen to them. That is why they leak some of this information to Wikileaks. Actually, to some extent the same is true even of the silly diplomatic cables. The leaks point to a system in which corrective action is almost impossible and in which the only outlet some of the diplomats and soldiers have is to leak in the hopes that this will lead to corrective action.

The leak of the Pentagon Papers led to some good corrective action, which obviously only lasted for a while. We can only hope that the Wikileaks release will do the same thing. Sadly, just like the Pentagon Papers, the first response seems to be to scream, shout, run around in circles, and point fingers at Mr. Assange for saying that we have some very serious problems. BTW, Mr. Assange is no innocent himself. He admits that he does not like the USA. But, then, innocents are hard to find in this saga.