AshtonBlack wrote:I'm comparing them. No-one has pointed to any part of the published documents that compromise current OpSec. They just say "it could jeopardize national security" as if that alone should shut down any conversation.
Yes, it should.
I don't need to point to any particular part of the documents. Maybe nothing harmful whatsoever is in there, who knows. That'd be swell, but that's not the point: Wikileaks doesn't understand everything they've read, no matter whatever level of scrutinizing they did before releasing these. Just off the top of my head, I can tell you that diplomatic relations between the US and Pakistan (not exactly a trivial issue!) has already taken a hit. Look again at the White House statement about this mess. You'll see the word "Pakistan" mentioned about twenty times in three paragraphs. Those are the first efforts of damage control.
But did Wikileaks think much about diplomatic consequences? Or exposing sensitive intelligence sources? Or undermining the security of Allied facilities or personnel? Not much, considering they published tens of thousands of documents. I don't even know what sensitive information could be in some of them, and that's the point - neither did Wikileaks. But some people with intentions far less benign than debating this stuff on an internet forum are pouring through those papers right now, take my word for it.
Another word for classified is "private". Suppose I could hack the personal computers of everyone here and publish every single email, word document, spreadsheet and photograph I saw fit on the internet. All there for your family, friends and coworkers to browse at their leisure. Should I be able to claim that all information should be available to the public? That's Assange's bizarre, childish ideology. Free information for everybody, and damn the consequences.
