Afghanistan war logs: Massive leak of secret files exposes truth of occupation

Originally posted by Chriswok
The cynic in me says wikileaks sit on this info for as long as they can, drumming up interest and hype before selling the information on to Newspaper.

Its great the leaks are coming out, but its a shame that even this 'freedom act' of wikileaks evolves around money. I doubt the whistleblowers see any of it.

wikileaks pays to defend wistleblowers when neccery
this is a reason why IF wiki got paid i say yay

www.bbc.co.uk...

Link the BBC, an article 22 July showing the increased number of drone attacks. A small relation to today's wikileaks.

Is it me or is the leak more focused on showing what the Taliban is doing and not the allied forces..

Its like a semi-engineered leak...you leak it through wikileaks and so that way people will beleive it to be true...so you leak them stories about the big bad taliban..

Guys relax....according to some MSM outlets there will be much more leaks about Afghanistan and the CLIMAX end of this year

these leaks are just an "ENTREE" (92000 reports ? a small entree )...main course to follow, and the top stories like a chocolate cake desert around December.

[edit on 26-7-2010 by nagabonar]

Originally posted by Birddog26
Just started reading this porst and I don't think anyone understands how the COK (Capture or Kill) list is applied or how they go about hitting these targets. The COK list is signed of by the President, Sec at DOD, Dirt CIA, gang of 8 in Congress. In target and anyone on the COK if you are a field CO you go through a number of checks that determines the identity, then through JAG officers to make sure it is legal, then through a target mitigation process to reduce collaterial damage, then final approval. From exprience I would say that less than 1 in 7 targets are hit due to known collateral damage.

And how do you know this? What "experience" do you have in the targetted drone attack business?

Perhaps you missed the recent coverage of how the CIA targets "militants" based solely on "pattern of life" analysis and their actual identities are often never known?

Pakistani officials have charged that the overwhelming majority of the victims of the CIA missile attacks are civilians, most of them women and children. They have placed the number of civilians killed at over 700 last year alone.

But of course, we cannot believe anything that Pakistani officials tell us, can we?
Obama widens drone attacks in Pakistan

This is great, finally we have got the trickle. He has done his homework good old Julian. He has given 3-4 media outlets (that aren't controlled under the D9) and has agreed in principle when the stories shouild be 'leaked' he has set up an encoded web site that will host the information. This is the start of things to come.

Watch out Blair your going to be next !

Originally posted by hillbillydudeman
THANK YOU WIKILEAKS!

I have no clue what we could do without it.

And what are you doing with it?

Originally posted by Chriswok
The cynic in me says wikileaks sit on this info for as long as they can, drumming up interest and hype before selling the information on to Newspaper.

Its great the leaks are coming out, but its a shame that even this 'freedom act' of wikileaks evolves around money. I doubt the whistleblowers see any of it.

So, you went from your cynical inner-voice telling you that Wiki is "selling" this information to Wikileaks "evolves [sic] around money." (I'm guessing that you meant "revolves")

As the Wikileaks main pages are unobtainable at the moment (no doubt to a sudden surge in interest), perhaps this article will help confirm that

- they don't sell the information

- they manage the release of information for a number of reasons none of which includes their own profit. It does include:
- validating the authenticity of the information
- protecting the source of the information
- de-personalising information e.g. credit card numbers, addresses, PINS, SSNs
- pre-release notification of affected parties
- allowing selected news agencies exclusive access to make it worth the agencies while to do some of the expensive authentication work and offset any attempts to minimise the release.

- they completely rely on donations to fund their operation and even then they're particular about who they accept donations from.

For further insight, watch this youtube video,


[edit on 26-7-2010 by JohnJasper]

[edit on 26-7-2010 by JohnJasper]

Originally posted by THE_PROFESSIONAL
Is it me or is the leak more focused on showing what the Taliban is doing and not the allied forces..

Its like a semi-engineered leak...you leak it through wikileaks and so that way people will beleive it to be true...so you leak them stories about the big bad taliban..

It's a big release and besides the headline items mentioned in the main articles, everything else that I look at seems tragic but in insufficient detail to say that anything other than the fallout of an illegal* war is happening.

(* illegal based on reams of intelligence and evidence not included in the WikiLeaks release, that is.)


I haven't seen anything yet that indicates the Taliban doing anything other than fighting the invading forces and their puppet government. So what are you basing your view on?

reply to post by JohnJasper


Not to mention that any money made out of this will go towards helping the 'hero' (in my book) Bradley Manning who without his gallant efforts, the world would not be waking up and reading about the atrocities that have taken place and kept secret for so long from the people who are force fed war propaganda bull# everyday!

We should all raise our glasses to Bradley Manning - God knows what he is going through at this moment in time.

[edit on 26-7-2010 by franspeakfree]

nice job wikileaks!

How did I mis this news yesterday?? I only learned about it when it was a headline in our local news this morning.
Wikileaks was not known amoung the general public before today. I hope with this leak that all changes and when they come out with more leaks in the future, the entire world will learn about it when the msm picks it up. Because be honest, most of the world only beliefs it when it's on the tv news!


edit to ask:
did anyone download the wikileaks site dump yet? It keeps disconnecting the server when I try...

[edit on 26/7/2010 by GypsK]

What fascinates me is that a few weeks ago people were wondering whether Wikileaks either had this information (that the whistleblower had been caught before the data was passed on) or that Wikileaks may get caught/stopped before they leaked the information. Clearly, on both counts the US gov/allies were unable to intervene and control the situation.

Now they have shown they apparently have the data and a route to publish, it will be interesting to see whether there is indeed more diplomatically sensitive material to emerge?

reply to post by curioustype


Oh I think there are more
If I ran such a site, I would not give all the information I have at once, just so the interest doesn't fade away.
I say expect more explosive revelations from WL

Originally posted by MemoryShock

• How the coalition is increasingly using deadly Reaper drones to hunt and kill Taliban targets by remote control from a base in Nevada.

Orchestrated war to field test new technologies?

I think that is a viable possibility...

Yeah, we sure didn't have enough opportunity in Iraq.

wikileaks is so amazing thats is hard to believe that what we get is what it is

about these files: Assange said that it represents the whole war! all reports by soldiers of every single person dead in the conflict, off course, that were archived by the soldiers

so ... its good content

reply to post by Peruvianmonk


none of this is anything new or exciting really... All UAVs are flown from Nellis AFB in Nevada, the Taliban has had SAM capabilities for a long time, and finally someone talks about them killing civilians and not us....

reply to post by pavil




Hey Mr Afgani, protecting your land and your family, watching day by day as our coalitions invasion of your sovreign country actually causes more radicalisation than it prevents....here take a cowards shot from above from one of our drones...have a nice day.

Its a pity your country is so strategically important and resource rich to the Neo cons otherwise we would have left you well alone.

Say hi to Osama for us will ya? I hope he was happy with the dialisis we provided for him.

Turn the tables for a moment would you? Some guy has been deemed a terrorist, who allegedly has links with your country, you are all then labeled terrorists for defending your land...on a monkeys say so.

I just had the morning news on in the background while I was on the computer, and I heard them say 1 line about this then quickly jump into other much 'urgent' matters... damn MSM needs to get on the right side of the fight. It would change the world as we know it.

//Edit: I kept the news on in the background (I like comparing the things that pop out at me to what I find out when I research the topic on my own) and they did a little snippet about Wikileaks.

What they said was pretty disturbing - they ended the small segment with a quote from I believe Obama (may be wrong, wasn't paying full attention) which was something along the lines of "Wikileaks is a nation security issue" etc etc...

Why that is so disturbing to me (as it should be for you all) is because we all know that they will kill terrorists or at the very least capture them and keep them in captivity while torturing them. Julian Assange better watch his back even more than he has been now, sooner or later the US will try to capture him and bring him to trial, or have a mock trial and charge him with treason and he will never be seen again... I hope this does not happen, but our government will do whatever it takes to keep their secrets hidden.

[edit on 26/7/2010 by highlyoriginal]

reply to post by Reign02


Yes people like us have been aware of this kind of thing for a while. But when reported on the news to 'regular' folk it may turn even more of the public in the U.S., U.K., and others involved in the conflict against it.

As Mr Aftergood puts it.

Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation for American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy, told the Post. They [the public] want greater clarity and greater candor than they have gotten up to this point. Wikileaks, in this case, has filled a void left by the Pentagon.

www.guardian.co.uk...

For me the Guardian Newspaper in Britian is a pretty left wing. Not quite as much as the Independent but if there is ever a reason to crictise the Foreign Policy of the West they will not shy away from doing so.

Just had a newsflash on Sky news that Julian Assange is to give a press conference at 12 noon; should be interesting to see. The news reporter has just said that the Pentagon are claiming that these leaks are embarrassing.

Some of these stories are of French/US troops firing on civilian buses with children on board.

I'm all for the whole thing being exposed for what it really is, but this isn't going to do relations any good IMO.. though I doubt that they ever will be..