WikiLeaks' Afghan Documents and Me | Mother Jones
The intimation by Assange (and the media outlets he cherry-picked to preview the data) is that these are the Pentagon Papers of the Afghan war. […] But in truth, there’s not much there there. […]
[M]ost of what you see on WikiLeaks are military SIGACTS (significant activity reports). These are theoretically accessible by anyone in Iraq, Afghanistan, or the Tampa, Florida-based US Central Command—soldiers and contractors—who have access to the military’s most basic intranet for sensitive data, the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNet). Literally thousands of people in hundreds of locations could read them, and any one of them could be the source for WikiLeaks’ data. […]
By and large, like most of the stunts pulled by Assange, this one’s long on light and short on heat, nothing we didn’t already know if you were paying attention to our wars. For the best color commentary on this document dump, check out the very succinct analysis of Abu Muqawama at the Center for a New American Security. He pretty much says it all.
July 26, 2010, 3:05pm
