Firstly; it is well known for any “Public Servant” knows that there are a level of “legitimate” deviation, and provocation of civic regulations in order to deliver the needful jobs..!! Don’t rise your eyebrows, because it will only tell you have no idea how governments work or how public interests are maintained..!! Bylaws and regulations were always set, not as penal system, but as framework of how activities are done to meet community culture, benefits and survival. As a humane product, they are always upgradeable and updateable to respond to timely and culturally changes on the way of living. Thus, it is inevitable to infrequently break such regulations within controlled and agreeable limits under the supervision of governing bodies and “Senators’ watch”. Such deviations are often not critical to the system of government or public administration, nor legitimizing any criminal activities, unlawfulness or misconduct.
Secondly; The talk on “Privacy” becomes the trend of the 21st century.. It consumes and keep some people busy; while the true beneficiary of its hypocrisies are very few, not more than 7% of world population..Kindly refer to Bell Syndrome..!! Lawyers, Journalists, Politicians, Corporate Businessmen, Senior Executives, Relaxed Citizens and Retirees.. are who care about revealing the secrets of governments and institutions.. With no offense; same as many housewives would care about gossips on celebrities and new trends of beautification.. Even the Cyber Privacy, which worries some people, it is not such influential on our lives considering how many have that critical secrets; personal, financial or operational.. The same happened when few of Facebook members (8% of world population) had erased their private e-mail addresses, contact numbers, academic references, employers and even citizenship, following that recent row on Privacy..!!
Civilian Deaths, Bribed Officials, Cross-Conspired Intelligences, Frustrated Soldiers, Confused Planners, etc., so what..? War was never a cheap endeavor in history.. and will never be in the future as well.. War and Conflicts are part of our humane legacies that hardly to be replaced.. It is not Utopia, but living-exercises..
Such leaks would benefit no one, because political strategies will not change (maybe delayed or re-named).. Such leaks is not in the interest of anyone, and the chatting-about people will move into new chat topic after a while..!!
Afghan War Diary, 2004-2010
Wikileaks 25th July 2010
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Afghan_War_Diary,_2004-2010
WikiLeaks has released a document set called the Afghan War Diary, an extraordinary compendium of over 91,000 reports covering the war in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2010. The reports, while written by soldiers and intelligence officers, and mainly describing lethal military actions involving the United States military, also include intelligence information, reports of meetings with political figures, and related details. The document collection is available on a dedicated webpage (http://wardiary.wikileaks.org/)
Attorney General Holder Says U.S. Probing Leaks of Afghanistan Documents
Bloomberg Jul 28, 2010 By Mahmoud Kassem
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-28/attorney-general-holder-says-u-s-probing-leaks-of-afghanistan-documents.html
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said the Justice Department was investigating the source of the leaking of secret U.S. military reports on Afghanistan to the WikiLeaks website. “The Justice Department is working with the Department of Defense with regard to an investigation concerning who the source of those leaks might be,” said Holder, who spoke at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo today. “Whether there will be any criminal charges brought depends on how the investigation goes.”
Transcript: Wikileaks Afghanistan docs 'alarming'
CNET News July 26, 2010 by Privacy Inc Declan McCullagh
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20011696-281.html
The White House on Monday condemned Wikileaks' decision to release more than 75,000 secret military reports from Afghanistan, calling the move "alarming" and saying there is an investigation into how the documents were obtained. Wikileaks gave the documents in advance to The New York Times, Germany's Der Spiegel, and the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper, which independently confirmed their authenticity. The Guardian called the disclosure a "devastating portrait of the failing war in Afghanistan," saying it reveals how the United States-led coalition has killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents, Taliban attacks have risen, and NATO commanders worry that neighboring Pakistan and Iran are aiding the insurgency.
Pentagon: Leaked Afghan reports are not top-secret
CNN By the CNN Wire Staff July 28, 2010
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/web/07/27/afghanistan.wikileaks.secrets/index.html#fbid=B4fKym6Wk_e
U.S. officials from the president down tried Tuesday to downplay the leak of tens of thousands of documents about the war in Afghanistan, a disclosure experts are calling the biggest leak since the Pentagon Papers about Vietnam.Pentagon officials have not found anything top-secret among the documents, a Defense Department spokesman said. "From what we have seen so far, the documents are at the 'secret' level," Col. David Lapan said. That's not a very high level of classification.
WikiLeaks files will complicate war
By Patrick M. Cronin, Special to CNN July 27, 2010
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/07/26/cronin.wikileaks.war/index.html#fbid=B4fKym6Wk_e
The mother lode of ground-level raw intelligence from the Afghan war disseminated by WikiLeaks may ultimately bring about some good. In the short term, however, it will almost surely further undermine the U.S.-led search for stability. Sifting through some of the 92,000 records is likely to strike an informed reader that there is nothing here that fundamentally alters his judgment about the war so much as it provides a level of granularity often missing from daily news reports. Indeed, almost every issue has been previously reported in major news outlets, albeit with perhaps less authority than is permitted by these electronic records. News reports have been quick to pounce on the apparent double game played by the shadowy S Wing of Pakistan's Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, which controls clandestine operatives outside of Pakistan.
Adil - they say corruption is the last bastion against dictatorship - I never used to believe this until I "grew up" and realized what it meant. Im all for these leaks in the interest of the world knowing exactly what is going on!
ReplyDeleteMaliha Raza Khan
Yes, we all, as educated elite, are for the truth exposure.. I dislike the term leak, as it deviates the whole thing to be a mysterious, policing or espionage thing.. My issue that only few who cares, and very few who will use the leaked info for something useful.. It is a fine demise between working around the regulations and joining a circle of corruption.. Working around is legitimate and part of all professional frameworks, while corruption is criminal.. Despite the excessive corruption in Italy, India, Malaysia, Russia, Mexico, China and Nigeria; millions are increasingly getting better lives.. Forget about those fake slogans, and focus on actual delivery.. Let's spare our efforts for what truly make a difference; as the world will never be limited to Saints and Angels..!!
ReplyDeleteIbrahim Musa http://fora.tv/2010/04/18/Logan_Symposium_The_New_Initiatives#
ReplyDeleteThe principle role of Journalism is to help controlling the government and executive powers, by monitoring their processing and actions. This lead to the appealing tactics to espionage or spying on executives in order to expose the provocation of regulations or extreme use of legitimate powers. The thin deference between my words and yours is only about the criteria and limits of involvement. Either we accept an acceptable marginal deviations from regulations to get the job done, believing on two parallel codes: one for executive about their conduction (why do not hear about massive misconduct in the UK?) and another for Senators who oversee the executives (with privileges of rank, title and pay..!) Then, it is the role of Journalism to support both being good in what were entrusted for.. My issue is against the assumption that the world can be a Heaven of Angels, as the conflict between right vs. wrong is our unprovoked legacy.. Should not we forget this and waste time and resources to make actions looks smart charming sexy and fair..!! Simply it will never be so..
ReplyDeleteDear Ibrahim.. As academic fellow, I need to attract your attention to the chronic conflict between philosophical and operational endeavors. This is where research work focus and changing world begins.. The critical challenges are not defining and fighting provocation of regulations and standards, but to stand clean from the inevitable personal gains, as campaigners.. Non-Profit Journalism, Doctors, Engineers, Accountant, Lawyers, etc., are forms of resisting and fighting the enemies within the good cause itself.. Interesting..?
ReplyDelete