SLOPPY security at an American military base in Iraq in 2009 allowed a lowly soldier to set off a diplomatic thunderstorm. Bradley Manning, a junior intelligence analyst, downloaded a database of American government files onto a CD (labelled “Lady Gaga” to avoid suspicion) and uploaded them to WikiLeaks, a website devoted to exposing official wrongdoing.
The results were explosive and the price was heavy. The hundreds of thousands of leaked documents included a video of a shocking American airstrike on innocent Iraqis, carelessly mistaken for terrorists. A caustic ambassadorial cable describing the sybaritic lifestyle of the Tunisian presidential family may have sparked the Arab Spring.
In truth, though, the leaked cables mostly exposed nothing more than mild hypocrisy and buried literary talents. But they also endangered diplomats’ sources. In some countries—China and Zimbabwe, for example—candid discussions with American officials are regarded as tantamount to treason; there and elsewhere retribution duly followed. So too did costly and secret State Department efforts to protect, where possible, people who had mistakenly trusted...Continue reading
Source: United States http://ift.tt/2iNUuOA
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