World

Wikileaks.org to Screen Classified U.S. Air Strike Video Monday

by nanute | April 2, 2010 at 03:41 am

1580 views | 15 Recommendations | 3 comments

UPDATE: For a detailed discussion on release of "classified" information, see this interview from Brian Leher with John Young from Cryptome.org and Glenn Greenwald, an attorney and regular columnist at Salon.com: Wikileaks and Whistle-blowers on Vimeo

Last week, Wikileaks.org released a classified US Military report outlining the dangers posed by disclosure of information by the organization. Wikileaks claims that the US Intelligence community is orchestrating an effort to shut down the ability of the government watchdog groups efforts to disseminate sensitive and classified documents.

The sensitive nature of the information disclosed raises the difficult question of whether or not American citizens have the right to know what government action is being undertaken in our name. Back in the 60's during the height of the opposition to the Viet Nam War, Daniel Ellsberg, a government analyst with top secret clearance, disclosed the Pentagon Papers and the US Supreme Court ruled the release of the information was authorized on 1st Amendment grounds.

If the U.S. is in fact spying on the secret-sharing website Wikileaks.org, it is related to their possession of a classified video of a U.S. air strike in Afghanistan. They will screen this video Monday. What will it show?

0 See all footage | View Slideshow

Share: email story | add to any | | facebook | stumbleupon

recommend Sign In or Join to post comments

Spydermonkey

at 04:19 on April 2nd, 2010

It is interesting to read the header on Wikileaks.org for this article, I think I will paste it for your viewing pleasure :)

32 page U.S. counterintelligence investigation into WikiLeaks. ``The possibility that current employees or moles within DoD or elsewhere in the U.S. government are providing sensitive or classified information to WikiLeaks.org cannot be ruled out''. It concocts a plan to fatally marginalize the organization. Since WikiLeaks uses ``trust as a center of gravity by protecting the anonymity and identity of the insiders, leakers or whistleblowers'', the report recommends ``The identification, exposure, termination of employment, criminal prosecution, legal action against current or former insiders, leakers, or whistleblowers could potentially damage or destroy this center of gravity and deter others considering similar actions from using the WikiLeaks.org Web site''. [As two years have passed since the date of the report, with no WikiLeaks' source exposed, it appears that this plan was ineffective]. As an odd justification for the plan, the report claims that ``Several foreign countries including China, Israel, North Korea, Russia, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe have denounced or blocked access to the WikiLeaks.org website''. The report provides further justification by enumerating embarrassing stories broken by WikiLeaks

nanute

at 04:32 on April 2nd, 2010

Thanks for the comment. I suggest you listen to the interview linked in the story. John Young, from cryptome.org makes the argument that all of the information that is released by his organization and Wikileaks is in fact not classified at all. I don't know if I agree with that completely, but he does make a compelling argument, nonetheless.

gerard 2b (not verified)

at 18:27 on April 6th, 2010

"Several foreign countries including China, Israel, North Korea, Russia, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe have denounced or blocked access to the WikiLeaks.org website". That says it all right there. When the USA, a so-called mature liberal democracy, uses the opinions of dictatorships as reasons why WikiLeaks must be stopped you know the country has gone over the cliff.