POWIP Piece of Work In Progress

Wikileaks “outs” hundreds of Afghan informants

Via the publication of the 92,000 some classified intelligence reports.  And I don't mean forcing them to come out of the rhetorical closet either!

It turns out that the same reports that people keep saying reveal nothig new, provide no big surprise to Americans who've been keeping up with the news from the AF-Pak theater, or as Cap'n Ed keeps quipping, read Long War Journal, actually do contain some fresh revelations; the names of hundreds of people who are either cooperating with, or acting as informants for, US forces!

Hundreds of Afghan civilians who worked as informants for the U.S. military have been put at risk by WikiLeaks' publication of more than 90,000 classified intelligence reports which name and in many cases locate the individuals, The Times newspaper reported Wednesday.

The article says, in spite of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's claim that sensitive information had been removed from the leaked documents, that reporters scanning the reports for just a couple hours found hundreds of Afghan names mentioned as aiding the U.S.-led war effort.

One specific example cited by the paper is a report on an interview conducted by military officers of a potential Taliban defector. The militant is named, along with his father and the village in which they live.

"The leaks certainly have put in real risk and danger the lives and integrity of many Afghans," a senior official at the Afghan foreign ministry told The Times on condition of anonymity. "The U.S. is both morally and legally responsible for any harm that the leaks might cause to the individuals, particularly those who have been named. It will further limit the U.S./international access to the uncensored views of Afghans."

One former intelligence official told the paper that the Taliban could launch revenge attacks on "traitors" in the coming days.  [emphasis-ed.]

Well, this is sure going to make it hard to recruit people to take the places of those "outed", eh?  Not only because their names might be printed in a newspaper somewhere, rendering them ineffective anyway, but because of, er, peer pressure; you know, the fact that they'll probably be effin' killled!  That's some reward for sticking their necks out to help US forces, especially when the Taliban already thinks it can outwait us until next summer when Obama will begin ordering the troop withdraws in order to fight a more important battle; with the Rethugs! during campaign 2012...

But, Mr. Obama is not the focus of my anger today, especially after reading this story.  No, that is reserved for Bradley Manning, the "inside" source for the leaks; just what the heck was he thinking anyway?  Clearly this is treason.  He violated his oath, and needs to spend the rest of his days at Fort Leavenworth where the other inmates can constantly "remind him" of the especially loathesome nature of this traitorous act. YMMV.

My very special, white hot, OUTRAGE! though is reserved for that asshat Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks.  Because, as Cap'n Ed points out, although Manning provided the information, Assange is the one who chose to publish it.  And his cheap publicity stunt will effectively become a death sentance for Afghan collaborators.  This piece of sh*t will have the blood of any and all victims of Taliban reprisals on his hands, as well as of the US troops killed in the future due to the local's reluctance to  step forward and cooperate.

Of course, this weasel is worried about his own skin:

Julian Assange, the Australian founder of Wikileaks, has said he has been warned by "inside sources in the White House" not to return to the US as he could be arrested.

Yeah...Inside the White House.  If this putz wasn't such a weasel, I might be able to get a little h8te going over that statement.  Too bad "the company" doesn't specialize in "wet work" anymore.  Maybe they can get a contractor to do the job.  Or maybe, just hack his site and put up a post declaring a new Mohhamed cartoon drawing contest...

That would surely get results.

Rocketman