WikiLeaks Reportedly Outs 100s of Afghan Informants

[guerilla]

I've got mad respect for you Guerilla but I think your perception of what could have been accomplished had there been dissent to Nazism suffers from selection bias.

It was rhetoric and for the purposes of demonstration. I wasn't trying to make a point based on historical evidence, but frame the characters differently, since Afghans are seen as both extremists and victims depending on how convenient it is to the discussion. Jews are generally seen as victims exclusively, and not as extremists, hence the simplification.

The dissent could have (and probably did to some extent) existed but the dissenters were shipped off and executed.

Isn't that exactly what people are suggesting should (or "might" in a just world) be done to Assange?




Anyway, I am back to work. STS is a huge timesink. Interesting discussion but it won't amount to change. Change comes from action.

Pimp your SEO game, sign up for DFB, make monies, rescue Afghan women from Burkas, fund your own private army, donate to Pelosi or Romney, give the world free health care, whatever.....

 

[MikeT3]

So if a Jew was collaborating with the Nazis to round up other Jews you think he has a right to privacy?


I don't understand how what he did is more wrong than invading a country or overthrowing a government. Fine, if you believe he deserves to go to jail for exposing secrets, but then what do you think should be done to the people who actually kill, or order others to kill?

I'm not judging anyone, I am just trying to figure out people's value scales here.

Kinda shocked you would draw that comparison.
If an undercover cop were helping to bust a meth lab that gave free samples to kids would you think he doesn't have a right to privacy?

Apples and Oranges.

 

[jordanj77]

I think WikiLeaks has released some good things in the past, but this is just fucked up. Why the fuck would you release this shit without taking out the names of these people / their families / their locations...fucking moronic.

 

[mattfca]

I would say more during times of war than any other, freedom of the press (speech whatever) is necessary.

Can you imagine how many lives might have been saved if there was active and vociferous dissent under the Nazis?

People are crying about some informants. If someone invaded your country and your neighbor worked with occupiers by passing them information, you wouldn't call him an informant, you would call him a collaborator, or possibly a traitor.

Really?
Say these informants have information on a terror attack in your home town... Would you want them known and all previous intel ruined?

What you are saying is journalistic "everyone can handle the truth" bullshit. You will be the first to cry when when a suicide bomber destroys an urban bus, but hack at the people who stop that from happening in the first place.

 

[guerilla]

What you are saying is journalistic "everyone can handle the truth" bullshit.

No, what I am saying is that the price of liberty is some measure of safety. If you want safety and will trade liberty, you will end up with neither. That's not just rhetoric, that is a fact. Without freedom, security is meaningless.

You will be the first to cry when when a suicide bomber destroys an urban bus, but hack at the people who stop that from happening in the first place.

Instead of attacking me personally, it may be more fruitful for you to resolve your own ethical dilemmas and logical inconsistencies.

/unsubbed

 

[Unarmed Gunman]

Snitches get stitches. So goes for the informants, and so goes for Manning. The Taliban will exact revenge on the informants, and the US Army will take care of Manning.

 

[Ar Scion]

Unleash the informants on Manning. Let them make him "leak".

 

[mattfca]

without security, freedom is not possible.

and im not attacking you im attacking anyone who thinks things like these should be public domain.

 

[subigo]

Jesus people, the name of the site is WIKI LEAKS for crying out loud. How DARE they leak something.

That's kind of what they do.

If you are really that pissed, at least blame the right people... you know, the one(s) who leak the information.

 

[habeeb]

without security, freedom is not possible.

On the other hand, there is no freedom when you are silenced under the guise of "security."

That being said, because the names of the informants themselves weren't necessary to add clarity to the documents, they definitely should've been redacted.

 

[uplinked]

/unsubbed

 

[dennyray]

Clearly the internet needs heavier regulation.

worst idea ever, I hope you're kidding.

 

[MikeT3]

Clearly the internet needs heavier regulation.

worst idea ever, I hope you're kidding.

this calls for the cyber police!

 

[kblessinggr]

So they have a suspect for who released the documents.

Official: Pentagon focusing on 'main suspect' in Afghanistan leak - CNN.com

Private First Class Bradley Manning

Though if this whole bit were not so publicized, I bet you he would have received death if found guilty of treason. But with it being in the media and all, he'll probably get several years at Leavenworth if guilty.

 

[erisch]

It's funny how you guys think of Taliban as a united enemy capable of almost anything. It's not a network of extremists you're dealing with, it's a sub-culture of extremism. They do not have the logistics to carry out the simplest of operations, let alone go through 91,000 documents looking for an informant in their little area. Their currency is goats for crying out loud! Either way, the freedom or security question seems rather fitting here. The military needs to be held directly accountable to the public and a civilian government.

 

[justo_tx]

It's funny how you guys think of Taliban as a united enemy capable of almost anything. It's not a network of extremists you're dealing with, it's a sub-culture of extremism. They do not have the logistics to carry out the simplest of operations, let alone go through 91,000 documents looking for an informant in their little area.

Parts of the pakistani government and intelligence service is their logistical support. You don't give the Taliban and its supporters enough credit.

 

[SteveGG]

An amusing aside is that this 'army intelligence' guy, Bradley Manning, passed the secret documents to the hacker while using an email address with the name 'BradAss87'... so how difficult was it for them to find an Intel soldier serving in Afghanistan with the name Brad who was born in 1987?

Another bit of proof that 'military intelligence' is an oxymoron.

 

[Dulce]

I would say more during times of war than any other, freedom of the press (speech whatever) is necessary.

Can you imagine how many lives might have been saved if there was active and vociferous dissent under the Nazis?

People are crying about some informants. If someone invaded your country and your neighbor worked with occupiers by passing them information, you wouldn't call him an informant, you would call him a collaborator, or possibly a traitor.

Alot of you people have a very naive view of the situation on the ground. The so-called "Taliban" is really now just a collection of several hundred drug lords of various and often competing interests who send deluded islamic brainwashed zealots into villages to slit peoples throats for things like paying their taxes or sending their kids to the newly built American school. The militants might have some grand "jihad" aspirations between butt raping little boys and beating the shit out of people, but they are only sent out as a bargaining chip to protect poppy fields and product smuggling routes into pakistan. That's the way it goes, and everyone plays both sides, just politics.

There are variety of reasons informants come forth: the money, playing politics, etc. But I would say about 85% of the informants I've seen came forth simply because they were tired of being fucked with and simply wanted to be the left fuck alone.

 

[flysarescary]

bradley should be executed for treason, jullian should be killed for aiding a terrorist organization

 

[Sharksfan]

bradley should be executed for treason, jullian should be killed for aiding a terrorist organization

I do not think that word means what you think it means.