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>spawned by Manning's blind cable releases. Genuinely curious, do you have any good sources that explain how the cable releases triggered this set of events? I

>spawned by Manning's blind cable releases. Genuinely curious, do you have any good sources that explain how the cable releases triggered this set of events? I understand that Manning/Assange have jeopardized some US intelligence efforts (and lives), but not aware of any greater fallout beyond a handful of compromised operations and deaths (no small feat, but smaller than ISIL).

_jal 8y ago
I'm going to have to see some more flesh on those bones, too. This is a curiously strong claim about bright-line causality in a very large, very messy series of events with many actors.
- sonnyblarney 8y ago
  The leaks 'lit' the Arab Spring which had a lot of momentum, and ISIL is an artifact of the Arab Spring. Obviously conditions were there. The later is not in much dispute, the former just not more widely known. https://psmag.com/news/tunisian-activist-describes-mannings-leaks-helped-topple-dictator-65243 https://psmag.com/news/tunisian-activist-describes-mannings-... https://medium.com/@ifikra/chelsea-manning-and-the-arab-spring-1907fec77df1 https://medium.com/@ifikra/chelsea-manning-and-the-arab-spri... http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/article/wikihistory-did-leaks-inspire-arab-spring http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/article/wikihistory-did-l...
  - dajohnson89 8y ago
    I thought that ISIL is more an artifact of the power vacuum brought about by the 2nd US invasion of Iraq. Admittedly, I'm not an expert in these matters, but wasn't the void in Iraq a factor in ISIS's uprising?
sonnyblarney 8y ago
The Manning leaks helped spawn the Arab Spring for a set of upside down reasons. Manning had no understanding of what he was doing, nor could anyone expect the outcome. Moroever, the leaks did not show the Americans 'being evil' to the world, in fact, just the opposite: the leaks showed thousands of professional diplomats doing their mundane jobs in a difficult and complicated world. Given how many cables were leaked, and that nothing explosive came out of that making the Americans look particularly evil is a real testament to the professionalism of the American diplomatic corps. What the cables did however - was demonstrate to regular Arabs how deeply corrupt their own leaders were. Basically, they saw the Americans trying to appease, nudge, console, 'do the best they could' with some corrupt folks. I'm sorry to not have direct sources, it was years ago when I was abroad, paying attention to all of this. Edit: I added a couple of sources below, it's not a conspiratorial view.
- stale2002 8y ago
  Oh, that's pretty cool then. At least it informed people about how bad their leaders were.

_jal 8y ago

I'm going to have to see some more flesh on those bones, too. This is a curiously strong claim about bright-line causality in a very large, very messy series of events with many actors.

sonnyblarney 8y ago
The leaks 'lit' the Arab Spring which had a lot of momentum, and ISIL is an artifact of the Arab Spring. Obviously conditions were there. The later is not in much dispute, the former just not more widely known. https://psmag.com/news/tunisian-activist-describes-mannings-leaks-helped-topple-dictator-65243 https://psmag.com/news/tunisian-activist-describes-mannings-... https://medium.com/@ifikra/chelsea-manning-and-the-arab-spring-1907fec77df1 https://medium.com/@ifikra/chelsea-manning-and-the-arab-spri... http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/article/wikihistory-did-leaks-inspire-arab-spring http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/article/wikihistory-did-l...
- dajohnson89 8y ago
  I thought that ISIL is more an artifact of the power vacuum brought about by the 2nd US invasion of Iraq. Admittedly, I'm not an expert in these matters, but wasn't the void in Iraq a factor in ISIS's uprising?

sonnyblarney 8y ago

The Manning leaks helped spawn the Arab Spring for a set of upside down reasons. Manning had no understanding of what he was doing, nor could anyone expect the outcome. Moroever, the leaks did not show the Americans 'being evil' to the world, in fact, just the opposite: the leaks showed thousands of professional diplomats doing their mundane jobs in a difficult and complicated world. Given how many cables were leaked, and that nothing explosive came out of that making the Americans look particularly evil is a real testament to the professionalism of the American diplomatic corps. What the cables did however - was demonstrate to regular Arabs how deeply corrupt their own leaders were. Basically, they saw the Americans trying to appease, nudge, console, 'do the best they could' with some corrupt folks. I'm sorry to not have direct sources, it was years ago when I was abroad, paying attention to all of this. Edit: I added a couple of sources below, it's not a conspiratorial view.

stale2002 8y ago
Oh, that's pretty cool then. At least it informed people about how bad their leaders were.