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Iraq
Torture, rape, and murder in Iraq: Wikileaks
2010-10-23
Many hate Wikileaks, thinking it harms the war effort. I like wikileaks because freedom of speech enables us to know what is really going on and fix mistakes. if this is the shambolic mess that Iraq is in, perhaps it is best we leave. we got rid of Saddam, an awful dictator, but if this is what is left behind, we need to face it, correct the problem and move forward in the right way. Really - clean up our act. Not just pretend to.
We're going to agree to disagree on this one.
Documents were leaked simultaneously to the New York Times, the Guardian, Al Jazeera, and Der Spiegel. (Did I miss anyone?) If we're going to look at this, and I think we must, to see how much we already knew from open sources that comes as such a shock to the journalists involved. I'm looking forward to the ones detailing finds of WMD -- the bunkers full of huge barrels labelled insecticide, f'r instance, something like half a century's worth... and insecticide being so very little different from the traditional nerve gas formulations as to be usable for the same purpose.
Graphic accounts of torture, civilian killings and Iran's hand in the Iraq war are detailed in hundreds of thousands of US military documents made public on the whistleblower website WikiLeaks.

Across nearly 400,000 pages of secret military field reports spanning five years, the largest military leak in history, a grim picture emerges of years of blood and suffering following the 2003 US invasion to oust Saddam Hussein.
Posted by:anon1

#10  Since he's all into disclosure, I think Assange's next leak should be of his checkbook. Let's see if Bawney or the SEIU shows up.

Matt, I'd also include this Nazi collaborator and international financial criminal on your list of potential Assange sugar daddies. I have to confess I never thought of Wikileaks maybe having such a direct political connection to the midterms - but it definitely makes sense and if anything makes my original scenario even more possible.
Posted by: RIcky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo)   2010-10-23 12:27  

#9  It's interesting that Assange chooses to release these documents right before the mid-terms. And not just any mid-terms, but mid-terms in which a number of veterans are running.

Since he's all into disclosure, I think Assange's next leak should be of his checkbook. Let's see if Bawney or the SEIU shows up.
Posted by: Matt   2010-10-23 11:32  

#8  It's our fault. We should somehow, as soon as we arrived, magicked the Iraqis into happy little Hansels and Gretels, holding hands as they covered themselves up with leaves in the woods.*

*Completely ignoring the beginning of the tale that explained how they ended up in the woods, or the next bit which explained why they were clinging together under the leaves instead of safe and warm at home in their little beds under the eaves of the family hut.
Posted by: trailing wife   2010-10-23 10:27  

#7  Extraordinary rendition was developed during the Clinton administration, years before Iraq Part II. That is foreign nationals were turned over to their foreign governments for 'questioning'. Why would anyone be surprised?
Posted by: Procopius2k   2010-10-23 02:47  

#6  Old Spook
Wikipedia is NOT affiliated with Wikileaks
Posted by: European Conservative   2010-10-23 01:53  

#5  I'm sure Al-Q had thousands of such 'incidents' reported in the hopes of another abu-graib. I wonder of any of the 'reports' happen to include the conclusions of the investigations....
Posted by: CrazyFool   2010-10-23 01:13  

#4  The "leakers" in the US military should face courts martial for treason.

Wikipedia folks should be hunted to exhaustion - go after their funding, homes, families and livelihood for aiding and abetting.
Posted by: OldSpook   2010-10-23 00:53  

#3  Wikileaks has an agenda, and will twist reality to fit that agenda. Zero cred.
Posted by: Rex Mundi   2010-10-23 00:40  

#2  Most of these leaks are about Iraqis abusing & killing other Iraqis, which was the status quo before the war started. Unless the US attempts to run Iraq top to bottom, this is not within our power to 'correct.'
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418   2010-10-23 00:39  

#1  The Guardian said WikiLeaks is thought to have obtained the electronic archive from the "same dissident US army intelligence analyst" who leaked 90,000 logs about the war in Afghanistan this year.

Bat puckey, methinks. There were probably multiple "dissident US army intelligence analysts" floating around the Five Sided Puzzle Palace during G-Dub's tenure, but you sure as hell didn't see 400,000 pages of classified documents winding up published in every fifth-column leftist "news" rag in the Western world. I have trouble seeing how this leak and the last one could have happened without the active involvement of traitorous scumbags officials from the Obama administration.

I'll qualify my statement by saying that I'm just an ex-enlisted squid, not an intel type. But I know there are Burg regulars who CAN make informed comments based on their professional experience in such matters...what do you think, folks?
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo)   2010-10-23 00:35  

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