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| Afghanistan | ||
| Wikileaks Afghanistan: Taliban 'hunting down informants' | ||
| 2010-07-30 | ||
| In an interview with Channel 4 News, Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said they were studying and investigating the report, adding "If they are US spies, then we know how to punish them." The warning came as the US military's top officer, Admiral Mike Mullen said that Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, may already have blood on his hands following the leak of 92,000 classified documents relating to the war in Afghanistan by his website. "Mr Assange can say whatever he likes about the greater good he thinks he and his source are doing, but the truth is they might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family," he said.
* Names and addresses of Afghans cooperating with Nato forces * Precise GPS locations of Afghans * Sources and methods of gathering intelligence The US government has called in the FBI to help hunt those responsible for leaking tens of thousands of secret documents about the Afghanistan war. Robert Gates, the US Defense Secretary, warned that sources identified in the documents now risked being "targeted for retribution" by insurgents in Afghanistan. He pledged a "thorough, aggressive investigation" to identify the leakers and said that steps were being taken to restrict access to classified documents in future. Bradley Manning, a 22-year old intelligence analyst, is the prime suspect in the leak inquiry. He is currently already in custody in Kuwait after being arrested for allegedly leaking other information earlier this year. However, he was previously caught boasting that he had leaked tens of thousands of documents on the Afghan war to the Wikileaks website. The Pentagon suspects that Manning may have accomplices within the military. Earlier this week, Wikileaks published 90,000 documents -- mostly reports detailing operations by American and other allied forces in Afghanistan between 2004 and 2009. The website is threatening to publish thousands more documents. In his first comments on the massive leak, Mr Gates said that "the battlefield consequences of the release of these documents are potentially severe and dangerous for our troops, our allies and Afghan partners, and may well damage our relationships and reputation in that key part of the world." "Intelligence sources and methods, as well as military tactics, techniques and procedures will become known to our adversaries," he added. The defense secretary promised "a thorough, aggressive investigation to determine how this leak occurred, to identify the person or persons responsible, and to assess the content of the information compromised." Mr Gates promised to take steps to protect the lives of US service members as well as Afghans possibly exposed by the leaks. The massive leak jeopardised the trust vital to gathering intelligence in the "field", said Mr Gates, a former CIA director. | ||
| Posted by:tipper |
| #22 I remember the "Hollow Army". Anyone does that to the troops again, they deserve to be hunted down and strung up (lookin at you Jimmuh, and now you Obumble). |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2010-07-30 21:13 |
| #21 Someone needs to hang. Start in the Oval Orifice. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2010-07-30 17:01 |
| #20 Would it be possible to treat those named as bait? When the Taliban come for them they should be met by Marines, Delta Force, Seals, SAS etc? |
| Posted by: Aussie Mike 2010-07-30 16:46 |
| #19 As soon as they can the will defund the military and blame the Trunks the next election cycle when the Trunks are forced to build it up again. We may not have the money to build it again. They're really working on that. But they will still blame the Trunks for the inetivable defeats. |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2010-07-30 15:57 |
| #18 gorb, here's the link you asked for. Thanks, TW. This needs to be made known far and wide. This is unforgivable apathy. The D! Assange said it, so it may not be true, but it sure seems true. As soon as they can the will defund the military and blame the Trunks the next election cycle when the Trunks are forced to build it up again. |
| Posted by: gorb 2010-07-30 14:06 |
| #17 The WSJ article about Manning said he was demoted to PFC for an unrelated incident. So this might be a straight out command failure. Possibly as bad as Major Hasan. If Manning did something bad enough to get demoted, they should have pulled his TS/SCI clearance. It's a pain in the ass, but as military leaders you are expected to do the right thing. And what the fuck is he listening to Lady Gaga on duty? In this war, the Army has had three major failures due to poor company level supervision. Abu Ghraib, Major Hasan, and PFC Manning. None occurred in combat with combat soldiers. Yet all three incidents were as bad as losing a battle in this war. |
| Posted by: Penguin 2010-07-30 14:04 |
| #16 See Bambi hang Petreaus out to dry (a two-fer for the progressives). Indeed a "two-fer" for Barry. I'll bet he can hardly wait. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2010-07-30 13:44 |
| #15 gorb, here's the link you asked for. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2010-07-30 12:52 |
| #14 Barry thinks his budget and spending priorities will move this country down the north European social-democratic path-- make us into a big version of Denmark or Sweden. In reality, he's making this country resemble Mexico or Greece. |
| Posted by: lex 2010-07-30 12:45 |
| #13 The Democrats want to spend all that money on health care (and themselves), so defense spending has to go, and you can't gut defense while you're in a war. So they have to wind the war down without taking the blame Bingo. The conservative approach to budget priorities was "starve the beast": slash taxes, and non-defense discretionary spending will have to be cut. Barry's approach to budget priorities is also "starve the beast": raise the debt and the level of debt service to the max, and defense spending will have to be cut if the country's to avoid default. |
| Posted by: lex 2010-07-30 12:43 |
| #12 White House: Don't post more secret war papers Interviewed today on NBC's "Today" show, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the release of another 15,000 documents reportedly still held by WikiLeaks would do more damage. Gibbs says the White House "can do nothing but implore the person who has the documents not to post any more." Gibbs' statement is utter BS and nonsense. 'can do nothing' = 'doesn't want to do anything' The Wikileakers are engaged in acts of war against NATO & the legitimate government of Afghanistan. Termination with extreme prejudice is one of several options. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2010-07-30 12:38 |
| #11 And, by the way, the Washington Compost is just as bad with its‘Top Secret America’ Investigation No Tell Intel Friday, July 23, 2010 By Col. Oliver North |
| Posted by: Willy 2010-07-30 12:15 |
| #10 We can use all the words uttered by a man suffering from copropraxia to describe Assange, it won't change anything. Looking for "alleged" leakers of over 90.000 classified documents might prove just as useless. What about thorough, aggressive steps to stop the leaks? |
| Posted by: Willy 2010-07-30 11:37 |
| #9 What would W have done? W wouldn't have been offered the option. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2010-07-30 11:11 |
| #8 Were the Vlad's docs, ASSange would already be slowly digesting a nice dose of Polonium. Were they Israeli, he would have had a coronary incident in his hotel room. Personally, I think we should tell the ISI they have a green light to save face on this turd. |
| Posted by: No I am The Other Beldar 2010-07-30 10:56 |
| #7 The White House supposedly did not respond to a request from Mr. Assange to scrub the documents of identifying information. I hadn't heard that one. Anybody got a link? If so, the WH has blood on its hands and contributed to revealing sources and methods, too. One more brick in the wall of making this an unwinnable war. Afghans aren't going to trust us again. I just cannot for the life of me not imagine why this administration hasn't formally and publicly sicced the FBI on these a-holes in order to shut them up. Thorough and Aggressive Investigation, indeed. Ooh, scary! This is special-ops material if I've ever seen any. Would this be grounds for impeachment? Assange will not lose two seconds of sleep over this. Is he still going to release that second round of documents? thats a count of involuntary manslaughter for everyone killed in this release I'd call it accessory to murder. And if this administration sat on this information, they should be charged, too. What would W have done? |
| Posted by: gorb 2010-07-30 10:50 |
| #6 I hope this little $hit is happy with his celebrity. f*ckwit. He wants his 15 minutes of fame and doesn't give a $hit that people might get killed because of his fun and games. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2010-07-30 10:28 |
| #5 They told the White House they had Classified information. The White House ignored that. |
| Posted by: George Threger2924 2010-07-30 10:25 |
| #4 Firing Squad. During a time of war, the logical solution. Accountability from the oval office as well. |
| Posted by: George Threger2924 2010-07-30 10:23 |
| #3 Assange will not lose two seconds of sleep over this. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2010-07-30 09:48 |
| #2 Thats just great. THIS administration and that asshat little girl Assange think it is cool to reveal this information because they want to meddle in the affairs of MEN. The US government has the ability to control what is released. The information is not a problem, but the names inside of it are - thats a count of involuntary manslaughter for everyone killed in this release. you get horns. |
| Posted by: newc 2010-07-30 09:40 |
| #1 I think the proper payback would be to start the rumor on jihadi websites that Wikileaks regularly published how to defile and destroy Korans, makes fun of Mohammed, calls Islam a dying, pagan religion, and calls Muslims cannibal homosexuals and eaters of pork, illustrated with nude pictures of their moms. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-07-30 09:33 |