Julian Assange, the guy who founded WikiLeaks and is responsible for dumping hundreds of thousands of classified diplomatic documents on the Internet, is, according to David Brooks of the New York Times, “an old-fashioned anarchist who believes that all ruling institutions are corrupt and public pronouncements are lies.” Brooks went on to say that revealing secrets comes easily to Assange because, “ … if the hidden world is suspect, that everything should be revealed.” As WikiLeaks proclaimed as a forward to its release of the classified documents, “ … they expose the corruption, hypocrisy and venality of U.S. diplomats.”
They do nothing of the sort, of course. What they do show is (1) Assange’s monumental indifference to the well-being of the people of the United States of America and (2) the abject failure of our country’s ability to keep secret documents secret.
What Assange and his organization did was a capital crime and should be prosecuted as such. The guy should be slapped behind bars and kept there. Few acts of espionage in our nation’s history have been as damaging.
That said, what he was able to do, any competent intelligence officer from any nation could have accomplished. The information came from a government website available to an estimated 2 million government employees, in and out of the military. When that many people have easy assess to electronic transmissions to and from Washington and U.S. diplomatic posts around the globe it is ludicrous to suggest that security is possible.
ISRAELI PRIME minister Benjamin Netanyahu hit the nail on the head when he told a group of journalists that the revelations will make it harder for American diplomats to be honest in their assessments of political situations abroad and will inspire more caution among foreign leaders when they are dealing with U.S. officials.
“Diplomacy is built on secrecy. Journalism is built on revelations. And the result of what happened with WikiLeaks, in my view, is that it will be harder for you to do your work and it will be harder for us to do our work,” Netanyahu said.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the publication of the documents an attack on U.S. diplomacy and an attack on world diplomacy.
MUCH OF THE DAMAGE done was the embarrassment caused by publicizing criticisms made of foreign leaders by diplomats and officials in other countries. None of us would give our friends and neighbors the power to read our minds, or have all of the comments we have made to others about them revealed in e-mails to them and, simultaneously, to the world at large. And by the same logic, diplomats need to have the freedom to put their candid thoughts — which may very often be exaggerations of their considered opinions — in their dispatches to the home desk.
Sec. Clinton and America’s ambassadors will do what they can to mollify those embarrassed, angered and alienated by Assange’s treason. They will succeed in most cases because the need of our nation and its counterparts around the world to work together supercedes what hurt was done by an irresponsible lout.
But the most important remedial job is here at home. Ways to keep U.S. diplomatic and military communications secure must be found promptly. Severe punishment for Assange and his cohorts would be an important part of that remedy.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
