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

Good call by Wikileaks to release these documents through popular news sources too. Takes the tinfoil hat element out of it for alot of people I would imagine. For example those who wouldn't even consider visiting the actual Wikileaks website.

The defence of putting our guys in danger by releasing the documents is ridiculous, they are soldiers. It's not like our civilians are out there, it's not our kids getting killed by misfire accidents and warning shots.

These soldiers are trained killers and this is their job to be in harms way so us poor little civilians don't have to be. At least that's the excuse used anytime someone questions military action in the region.

If I may plug my own thread OP? It focuses on the use of drone strikes and the growing detachment between military operations and the individuals controlling the drones.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

I'll add a link for this thread in my OP. Cheers

To add couldn't edit OP so put it as post on second page.

[edit on 26-7-2010 by Big Raging Loner]

reply to post by Peruvianmonk


interesting info.
thanks for posting.

How a secret "black" unit of special forces hunts down Taliban leaders for "kill or capture" without trial.

This bullet in particular is not new. This unit was created during the bush administration and was actually announced on tv by bush himself. The unit's name when announced was Squad 13.

A couple of interesting snippets:

www.guardian.co.uk...

While there are those saying the information contained here comes as no surprise to them:

11.16am: Siamak Heraqi, a spokesman for the Afghan government, is reported as saying: "The Afghan government is shocked with the report that has opened the reality of the Afghan war."

Also:

11.15am: Security minister Lady Neville-Jones, former chair of the UK's joint intelligence committee, said the leak had implications for the security of government data.

"I think that every government has to be extremely aware of the vulnerability of its systems," she told BBC Breakfast.

"We don't know how they got that material - it may be a combination of leaking of documents, but also one strongly suspects they have hacked into systems as well.

Surely if the former chair of the UK's joint intelligence committee has such strong suspicions an official investigation would not be out of the question. I wonder what the conclusion might be.

Julian Assange conference at 12.00 I think Sky news are showing it live.

To add smashthesystem beat me to it. Gave you a star matey!

I'll be watching!

[edit on 26-7-2010 by Big Raging Loner]

reply to post by EspyderMan

We are at war with the Taliban. They are now considered insurgents or guerilla's. We don't have the right to just kill them if they surrender, under international law, they must be accorded the treatment of a P.O.W.

Are you sure about that? I thought that under the new Obama/Eric Holder paradigm, they were supposed to Mirandize those guys, and treat them like a participant in our criminal justice system?

Great tool on the Guardian website. It plots attacks on Civilians, Afghan troops, Taliban and Coalition troops on a Google map through a moving timeline.

From 2009 onwards you can see the spike in civilian deaths both in the amount and how many died in each incident. Afghan troops also suffer alot of casulties throughout the whole period,

www.guardian.co.uk...

Here is the link to all the info - wardiary....__._/

BBC has interview at 12 lunchtime - can watch online

hope this helps!

www.guardian.co.uk...

11.52am: The Frontline Club in London is hosting a press conference with the Wikileaks founder Julian Assange at 12pm BST (7am ET, 1pm CET). It will be streamed live here. We will embed the stream when it goes live.

Direct stream link: www.ustream.tv...

for those in Europe, BBC World is doing a whole report on it right now on tv and going life to the press conference in just a few

I think the most newsworthy piece of information, that comes from this, is, who in Pakistan is still funding the Taliban. I hope this will put some more pressure on the Paki government to reduce their double-dealings and clean up their BS. If this leak was indeed "controlled", this would be the single real reason I could see to do that - hitting the Pakis toes, without harming diplomatic standing.

The other reasons, that were given in this thread so far aren't very convincing. Demonizing Bush? People with an active memory don't really have to be reminded, that Bush really completely blew up everything he touched, and those other guys, who already blame Obama for the TARP-bailout, both wars and the economic depression aren't influenced in their opinion whatever might be known publicly, as they will simply ignore any facts, they dont like, anyway.
Protecting Obama? Afaik the reports show a rather bleak picture of the progress of the campaign, so I don't see, how this could be helpful to the White House agenda. You dont want your bad news just before important elections, when you are incumbent.

The targeted killings and the collateral damage from drone strikes had been open secrets so far, I guess with this reports, the overall picture becomes somewhat more comprehensive, but its nothing, that could really influence careers or policy or strategy decisions. Just the old gritty facts once more into the news cycle.

I'm glad to see this released before they use their internet kill switch.
Second line.

reply to post by GypsK


Yeah, in fact here's a recent thread showing Julian Assanges interview which is Live right now.

Julian Assange live on BBC..

My first ever post after a long time lurking... have been following the anticipated leak of this info (dis info?) and it has finally made me sign up.

Is anyone really surprised at any of this? Have been watching some Russia Today this morning, and a bloke on there summed it up pretty well, saying that anyone who did a little reading or research would be know this stuff already. It just further proves to me the extent to which our government(s? Is there just one already?) will withhold the truth from us.

I made an awful pun (dis info) in my first paragraph - anyone else notice the regularity with which Iran is mentioned? Plenty of talk of Taliban getting taken to Iran for treatment, money getting smuggled into Afghanistan from Iran etc - is this the prejudice of the analysts or disinformation to spin this thing in the favour of TPTB?

Finally, this made me laugh on the BBC website - unsurprisingly they are telling the world how the leaks threaten national security! because national security really means the security of our dear leaders to lie to us.

One of the leaked documents refers to an alleged meeting between insurgents and the former Pakistani intelligence chief, Lt Gen Hamid Gul.

He dismissed the Wikileaks material as "pure fiction which is being sold as intelligence".

"It's not intelligence," Lt Gen Gul told the BBC. "It may have a financial angle to it but more than that it is not hardcore (intelligence). I'm an old veteran. I know. This is not intelligence."

hahaha.



Peace/Love/Unity

I hoped for better secrets.

I was hoping for something more along the lines of "we are going to stay here for the trillions of dollars of minerals" or "we created Al Queda" or "our illegal war in Iraq and Afghanistan is to secure oilfields and strategically place ourselves in the position to attack Iran so we can install a central bank."

Guess I had my sights aimed too high.

[edit on 26-7-2010 by againuntodust]

BBC just cut off Assange as he was talking about the cover-up of civilian deaths at all levels of the US military, especially at the bottom, and so any policy to record civilian deaths in Afghanistan by Obama or a general was useless.

The BBC then went on to summarize his comments by saying that this release could endanger lives of soldiers without bothering to mention anything else in any detail.

I thought it was the public who pay for the TV licence, not the corrupt governments!!! Stupid gutless and cowardly BBC scared of the truth! :flame

[edit on 26-7-2010 by john124]

reply to post by againuntodust


The leaked documents were "secret" but not "top secret". We'd probably need a General as the whisleblower to get hold of those.

No doubt that the state (people? slave?) funded BBC is making sure that this comes across as a threat to our troops and national security.

Pretty wrong that they can be as biased as this, and so few people will notice. Pure mind control. Or attempted mind control at least!

Just to note as seventytwo mentioned here the conference is still ongoing and available here bbc.co.uk

I have been watching this stream so am unaware of the BBC TV coverage. If there is concerns over the issue ask them.

[edit on 26/7/10 by JAK]

WhiteHouse Response

www.guardian.co.uk...

Not sure if its posted already.

Originally posted by john124
BBC just cut off Assange as he was talking about the cover-up of civilian deaths at all levels of the US military, especially at the bottom, and so any policy to record civilian deaths in Afghanistan by Obama or a general was useless.

The BBC then went on to summarize his comments by saying that this release could endanger lives of soldiers without bothering to mention anything else in any detail.

I thought it was the public who pay for the TV licence, not the corrupt governments!!! Stupid gutless and cowardly BBC scared of the truth!

:flame

[edit on 26-7-2010 by john124]

The CBC (Canadian State Media) has done the very same thing that you have described, the moment he began talking about how many civilian deaths were being misreported they cut away and began to summarize that the leaks are dangerous to our troops.