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>This is true. However Assande and Wikileaks have put over a hundred peoples lives directly in danger through their leaks as well as potentially thousands more.

>This is true. However Assande and Wikileaks have put over a hundred peoples lives directly in danger through their leaks as well as potentially thousands more. Some examples of this would be great.

zaphar 16y ago
Read the article one intelligence officer and hundreds of Afghani informants have been revealed to the world including the folks who want them dead. Before the leak their potential killers didn't know who they were now they do. Assande has no intention of not revealing more information of the same sort in the future.
- mcantelon 16y ago
  There are no specifics mentioned and the article the AEI member links to doesn't have much in the way of specifics either. If the US military is concerned about those involved in the death trade having their identities revealed they would do well to make Wikileak's public role redundant and tell the truth about their actions.
  - elblanco 16y ago
    Who exactly do you think the "informants" are? So say I'm a dirt poor farmer in Afghanistan. I spent most of my time being terrorized by the Taliban (say for example, they burned my sister alive after they found out I taught her how to read). Now the NATO forces arrive, kick those assholes out, along the way they shell my barn and accidentally kill my brother. I'm pissed off, but on the balance, I know the NATO forces feel bad about my brother and they at least tried to get him some medical care (which is pretty different from the Taliban's response to my sister's last gurgling breath which was to drag her behind a truck and hang her burnt body in the middle of the village as a warning to everybody). So when SGT Smith asks me, "do you know where any Taliban are around here?" I tell him. Because someday NATO will be gone and I can finally get around to growing something in the piss poor soil of my farm and get on with my life. While the Taliban hunted us ragged when they were in charge. Now I find out that my name and coordinates to my village were released into the wild and the local Taliban commander found out about it. I and my family are running for our lives and all some thoughtless jerk on a message board can say about it is that it serves me right.
    - Ardit20 16y ago
      What he still has a family? - I say this lightly because it clearly is fiction. Firstly, the Taliban must be very busy if all they do is go around burning little children who learn how to read. Also, this breadwinner must be quite relieved that his son was killed in a nicer way. Seeing as the Taliban took the trouble to burn his daughter just for reading, I suppose they would consider the father to be their friend, because, well they only burned his daughter. Of course in no way would they think that he hates them to the gut and would happily go along to the guys who kill people in a nice way. I am sorry, there is a serious point there, but do try and make it.
      - elblanco 16y ago
        Have you ever read anything about conditions inside Afghanistan under the Taliban? I mean this as a serious question because by your response you seem absolutely ignorant.
        Ardit20 16y ago
        Common, they not in the business of burning people for - - - reading! You know they have a war to fight and that probably keeps them very busy. Also, by freaking burning a person is a sure way to make enemy of the entire village, so they better go and find some other village. And I think they probably depend to a great extent on the goodwill of the village which probably shelters them and does not hand them over to the soldiers. By burning someone for - reading - is a sure way to vanish that good will and turn it into hate. Now, burning someone as some sort of revenge or punishment for perhaps being and informer might make sense.
        plinkplonk 16y ago
        "They not in the business of burning people for - - - reading!" Maybe not. But they hang 7 year olds to send a message to his family. http://abcnews.go.com/WN/Afghanistan/bloody-taliban-revenge-hangs-boy-attacks-wedding/story?id=10879315 http://abcnews.go.com/WN/Afghanistan/bloody-taliban-revenge-... That America is fighting a foolish and unwinnable war and instigating a witch hunt for Assange doesn't mean the Taliban aren't sadistic psychopaths.
rick888 16y ago
"I hate to put people on the spot with "well, what would YOU do." But Daniel's post implies that there is some wise oversight that can expose just the right secrets, without exposing the dangerous ones. I don't think that's realistic, unless he has some particular scheme in mind. I think the choice is between total control and some degree of anarchy, and I would take as much anarchy as I could get on that spectrum." How about not including names? They obviously knew it was an issue because they attempted to contact the government to have some of the names removed. Instead of doing the right thing and removing all names, they released them all with this "any deaths are worth the information" attitude.

>This is true. However Assande and Wikileaks have put over a hundred peoples lives directly in danger through their leaks as well as potentially thousands more. Some examples of this would be great.

zaphar 16y ago

Read the article one intelligence officer and hundreds of Afghani informants have been revealed to the world including the folks who want them dead. Before the leak their potential killers didn't know who they were now they do. Assande has no intention of not revealing more information of the same sort in the future.

mcantelon 16y ago
There are no specifics mentioned and the article the AEI member links to doesn't have much in the way of specifics either. If the US military is concerned about those involved in the death trade having their identities revealed they would do well to make Wikileak's public role redundant and tell the truth about their actions.
- elblanco 16y ago
  Who exactly do you think the "informants" are? So say I'm a dirt poor farmer in Afghanistan. I spent most of my time being terrorized by the Taliban (say for example, they burned my sister alive after they found out I taught her how to read). Now the NATO forces arrive, kick those assholes out, along the way they shell my barn and accidentally kill my brother. I'm pissed off, but on the balance, I know the NATO forces feel bad about my brother and they at least tried to get him some medical care (which is pretty different from the Taliban's response to my sister's last gurgling breath which was to drag her behind a truck and hang her burnt body in the middle of the village as a warning to everybody). So when SGT Smith asks me, "do you know where any Taliban are around here?" I tell him. Because someday NATO will be gone and I can finally get around to growing something in the piss poor soil of my farm and get on with my life. While the Taliban hunted us ragged when they were in charge. Now I find out that my name and coordinates to my village were released into the wild and the local Taliban commander found out about it. I and my family are running for our lives and all some thoughtless jerk on a message board can say about it is that it serves me right.
  - Ardit20 16y ago
    What he still has a family? - I say this lightly because it clearly is fiction. Firstly, the Taliban must be very busy if all they do is go around burning little children who learn how to read. Also, this breadwinner must be quite relieved that his son was killed in a nicer way. Seeing as the Taliban took the trouble to burn his daughter just for reading, I suppose they would consider the father to be their friend, because, well they only burned his daughter. Of course in no way would they think that he hates them to the gut and would happily go along to the guys who kill people in a nice way. I am sorry, there is a serious point there, but do try and make it.
    - elblanco 16y ago
      Have you ever read anything about conditions inside Afghanistan under the Taliban? I mean this as a serious question because by your response you seem absolutely ignorant.
      - Ardit20 16y ago
        Common, they not in the business of burning people for - - - reading! You know they have a war to fight and that probably keeps them very busy. Also, by freaking burning a person is a sure way to make enemy of the entire village, so they better go and find some other village. And I think they probably depend to a great extent on the goodwill of the village which probably shelters them and does not hand them over to the soldiers. By burning someone for - reading - is a sure way to vanish that good will and turn it into hate. Now, burning someone as some sort of revenge or punishment for perhaps being and informer might make sense.
        plinkplonk 16y ago
        "They not in the business of burning people for - - - reading!" Maybe not. But they hang 7 year olds to send a message to his family. http://abcnews.go.com/WN/Afghanistan/bloody-taliban-revenge-hangs-boy-attacks-wedding/story?id=10879315 http://abcnews.go.com/WN/Afghanistan/bloody-taliban-revenge-... That America is fighting a foolish and unwinnable war and instigating a witch hunt for Assange doesn't mean the Taliban aren't sadistic psychopaths.

rick888 16y ago

"I hate to put people on the spot with "well, what would YOU do." But Daniel's post implies that there is some wise oversight that can expose just the right secrets, without exposing the dangerous ones. I don't think that's realistic, unless he has some particular scheme in mind. I think the choice is between total control and some degree of anarchy, and I would take as much anarchy as I could get on that spectrum." How about not including names? They obviously knew it was an issue because they attempted to contact the government to have some of the names removed. Instead of doing the right thing and removing all names, they released them all with this "any deaths are worth the information" attitude.