Aletho News

ΑΛΗΘΩΣ

Wikileaks, causes for concern

By Maximillian Forte | August 2, 2010

Not much new support for the anti-war movement

When it comes to uncovering the brutality of American military and covert operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan, there is in fact not much that is new in these records, and not much that will compete with the revelations made in the established media that have had a very high profile. Wikileaks seems to be depending now on individuals to privately sift through thousands of records, and then to presumably publish their findings outside of newspapers, months from now, about events that happened perhaps years ago. This is great for historians, and not so great for anti-war activists who deal in the immediate, in the present. There is little here to compete with revelations of American mass killings of civilians, and disregard for human rights, as revealed by the very regime of Hamid Karzai, or by intrepid reporters such as Jerome Starkey and Michael Hastings. Whatever is found will often not have as much impact as the Rolling Stone article about General Stanley McChrystal, and his own admissions about the failures of the Marjah offensive, and of the dark side of the war that would turn off most Americans if they knew more. They can know more, but with considerable labour, and on their own, and that seems to be expecting a lot of citizens…

New support for fighting the Taleban

Julian Assange assumed his intentions were good enough that they could control the narrative that would be constructed around these records. He may learn differently. Assange told Der Spiegel that he enjoys “crushing bastards,” and he later told CNN’s Larry King that by “bastards” he meant U.S. forces in Afghanistan. The problem is that the news media have already made the question of who is a “bastard” more complicated and ambiguous, for showing the atrocities which the reports allege have been committed by the Taleban. The Guardian was first, speaking of the Taleban’s use of “improvised explosive devices” (IEDs): “the IED…not only strikes foreign troops on ground patrols and in road convoys, it is also an indiscriminate terror weapon killing and injuring thousands of civilians…. Taliban fighters appear to have been prepared to blow up large numbers of people in order to assassinate a single target, such as a high-ranking government official or police chief,” and the article says the reports show that the Taleban are responsible for the majority of civilians killed in Afghanistan. We might suspect that some elements of American public opinion will use this kind of information to renew the call for crushing the Taleban, the only group that patriotic Americans would ever call “bastards,” as if fighting the Taleban was an end in itself, one worthy of so much American blood and treasure.

Support for expanding the war to Pakistan and Iran

Is there a straight, logical line from these records to greater popular support for the anti-war movement? Clearly, there is not. Indeed, some of the first newspaper reports dedicated themselves to showing that Pakistan’s intelligence services and military cannot be counted upon as a good partner for the U.S. For some, that will mean pushing to have more American covert forces in Pakistan, thus further widening and Americanizing the war, the same way as happened in Vietnam and the region around it. Personally, the big shock for me was this article in The Guardian: “Afghanistan war logs: Iran’s covert operations in Afghanistan.” According to the article, “Iran is engaged in an extensive covert campaign to arm, finance, train and equip Taliban insurgents, Afghan warlords allied to al-Qaida and suicide bombers fighting to eject British and western forces from Afghanistan.” A connection between Iran and Al Qaeda? Was it not the suggestion of a link between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda that was used by the Bush administration to successfully capture American public support for the Iraq invasion? And now that the U.S. and the European Union have escalated sanctions against Iran to a point beyond which the next steps can only lead to war, do these records not serve to provide a service to pro-war propagandists? As I write this, the very pro-war Fox News has fixed its attention on this very aspect of the Wikileaks records.

The incomplete and fragmentary nature of the records

In my own research with these records, involving the use of American social scientists in units known as Human Terrain Teams, I have come to some important realizations. These records are only some of the records that we might have had. They are incomplete and fragmentary. Can anyone believe that the records Wikileaks obtained, almost 110,000 of them, are all the records produced by the U.S. military in a period covering six years of war? If not, then what was left out? Why were these records released, and not others? How can we make any credible claim based on these records, without knowing what has been kept from our view? What if what we do not have would somehow modify or reshape what we now claim to know?

The records are not the same as “the truth”

These are records written by combatants on one side in a war. They are written by elements of the American military, with a military audience in mind, and to suit the purposes of that military. That many of the records are based on hearsay, rumours, and unsubstantiated allegations that would not survive review at higher levels of military intelligence, is also the case. The records lack context and often lack depth: short, terse bursts of information. Information is not the same thing as meaning, nor is it understanding. It is just data, and data is dead until an analyst gives it life by adding value. The worst thing that could happen would be to have great masses of people insisting that something is true because it was reported in these records. To add depth and context, one has to cross check these records, examine other records, interview the key participants, understand the larger aims and narratives. The people writing these reports are neither infallible nor objective. If few people understand this, we could end up with arguments that seem to be factually muscular, and yet are intellectually malnourished.

The lack of ethical concern, and an inadequate review process

Julian Assange of Wikileaks has now repeatedly asserted what he told Der Spiegel in an interview: that the source of the leaked records went through his “own harm-minimization process” (we do not know what that process was, nor the identity of the source). Assange added:  “We understand the importance of protecting confidential sources, and we understand why it is important to protect certain US and ISAF sources.” Suddenly, the person who declared he enjoyed crushing the bastards, is very concerned about their protection, but he says little about protecting the identities of the many Afghan sources who are named and whose locations are revealed in the records. Assange says, “we identified cases where there may be a reasonable chance of harm occurring to the innocent. Those records were identified and edited accordingly.” However, I have seen absolutely no evidence to support his claim. First of all, when someone edits an original document, you must indicate in that document something like this: “name deleted,” or “section deleted” or simply black out the text to show that portions are being kept from view. I have seen none of that. Second, the names of Afghan informants have been retained and are in full public view. This subjects them to the possibility of being executed by the Taleban, and it will be thanks to Wikileaks.

Assange has told TIME that, “Our groups—the New York Times, Der Spiegel, the Guardian and WikiLeaks — covered about 2,000 reports in detail.” That is only 2,000 of the total of almost 92,000 that were released. By his own admission, only a small fraction of the records were reviewed in detail. And who is involved in that review process? Does it include military and intelligence specialists? Does it include any of the people who were actually there, in the situations described in the records? Does it include the Afghans who were named? Does it include any Afghans at all? Assange, who has never been to Afghanistan, nor served in the military, would not have the experience and sensitivity to understand what constitutes harmful information, outside of the local context. What if the same is true of those who were responsible for the small scale review that occurred? I understand the need to protect the identity of one’s sources—indeed, that is my argument here—but not the need to protect the identities of those who supposedly assisted Wikileaks in its review process. Name them, tell us their qualifications, let us hear from them.

Why are the news media not even asking these questions?

Dependence on the mainstream news media

There has also been a lack of credibility from Assange on the issue of why Wikileaks chose to suddenly depend on the mainstream news media for the release of the records—or at least he has failed to explain the obvious in a clear manner. When Wikileaks released the now famous video footage from the viewpoint of an Apache helicopter, firing on and killing civilians in Iraq, “Collateral Murder,” it was done independent of the established media. On YouTube alone, that video has been seen in excess of 7 million times. It does not seem that Wikileaks failed to gain notice and interest, and the news media still reported on its release. So why is it that the mainstream news media, so faulted by Assange for failing to do their job in covering the reality of the Afghan war, are now the primary intermediaries for this release?

The answer would seem simple: these written records are numerous and written in a specialized language, requiring journalistic expertise to make stories out of them. A video can be viewed by anyone and immediately apprehended. Or so one would think. There is nothing straightforward about visual imagery, and it can be hotly contested.

Crowd sourcing: an ideal with little substance?

Having first chosen mainstream news media for the release of the first stories based on the records, Wikileaks now turns to the wider public, sourcing opinion and analysis from the “crowd.” If Wikileaks had real faith in that process, it could have better appreciated and understood the wide range of expertise in the worldwide community of bloggers, and understood that the power to gain traction from a story can come just as much from below, as from above. Presumably Wikileaks understood this, and even cherishes this principle, which is what makes its choice of dependence on the news media strange. The crowd is not homogeneous. The crowd, just like with mainstream news media, contains sensitive specialists, and miserable propagandists. There is no escaping this. When one goes crowd sourcing, one must expect a lot of opinion that is based on poor understanding, inadequate training, selective reading, wishful thinking, and a deliberate desire to distort what the records say in order to suit certain political ends. The results will certainly be mixed, and these records will settle very little in our continuing public debates. But we should always expect surprises…including nasty ones.

Full article

Maximilian C. Forte is a professor in anthropology at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. He writes at Zero Anthropology. He can be reached at max.forte@openanthropology.org

August 2, 2010 - Posted by | Deception, Mainstream Media, Warmongering

16 Comments »

  1. I think it’s a given that Julian Assange has been ‘outed’ as a MOSSAD/CIA leaker, based on all available evidence.

    It’s rather clumsy of them to so ridiculously underestimate the ability of people to smell a rat when it’s dressed up to look like a dachshund. It’s still a rat.

    The MOSSAD and CIA must be either getting really impatient, and hence, have come to the conclusion that their ‘hidden agenda’ to try to infiltrate and destroy 9/11 Truth Organizations out there, has to be accelerated and hastened. The world, at-large, has figured out that 9/11 was an ‘inside job’ and most have seen the poorly done CIA videos of a man that is supposed to be Bin Decomposin, but clearly is not him.

    The only online SHILLS who still support Assange openly are ANTIWAR.COM (who’s own Justin Raimondo insinuated in a piece he wrote that Julian Assange is a ‘hero’ and a ‘huge asset’ to the ANTIWAR community) and of course, DEMOCRAZY.NOW, another zioturd operated front for ‘don’t you dare tie ISRAEL with 9/11 murder’ agenda and propaganda.

    It wasn’t bad enough we had GATEKEEPERS to deal with, but now we have the MOSSAD and CIA jerks actively pushing crap that is aimed at discrediting and or minimizing the truth about Israel’s indisputable role in 9/11 murder.

    if anyone has any doubt about what a SHILL is, or what COINTELPRO is, I recommend you do the research and get a clue about how these disinformation ops work.

    Julian Assange is a MOSSAD/AL-CIA-DA disinfo pump. It’s that simple. The litmus test always will be 9/11 truth, and DENIAL OF THAT always, always means COINTELPRO / SHILL all the way to the wire.

    Israel was involved in 9/11. Several thousand Israeli’s stayed home that day and weren’t harmed, due to their INTELLIGENCE SERVICE PUTTING THE WORD OUT!

    Dominic Suter is in New Jersey again, too. Maybe his nearly half a million bucks from the U.S. Treasury just ran out for his shoddy, half-assed work on timing the detonations inside Bldg-7, several hours late.

    I wonder if he brought back any of his DANCING MOSSAD AGENTS with him from Israel??

    Like

    MOSSAD AGENT IN DRAG IS ASSANGE's avatar Comment by MOSSAD AGENT IN DRAG IS ASSANGE | August 2, 2010 | Reply

    • Another reason to be wary here:

      The foundation funded progressive lefty operations couldn’t be more excited about Wikileaks. These are the usual suspects, the ones that were sure that Obama was “change you can believe in.”

      Funny that in both cases, warmongering against both Iran and Pakistan didn’t factor into the equation at all for these folks. It seems that the idea of expanding the wars to include any potential challenger to Israel simply does not fase them in the least.

      Like

      aletho's avatar Comment by aletho | August 2, 2010 | Reply

      • Unfortunately, in Amer’ka, you can be a member of CONgress and own stocks that benefit from WAR IN PERPETUITY, and there’s no conflict of interest. This is where the crux of the problem is, not so much that jack-wads like Assange can be out there spilling ‘fake’ beans, but that the system needs jack-wads like this out there doing it to foment more war, and more instability, globally.

        Peace is the true enemy of these alleged TWO PARTIES, because the bottom line in the CONgress is that their unwavering support for ISRAEL literally translates into the ability for guys like Dov Zackheim to siphon off 2.3 TRILLION to Israeli banks from the Pentagon, and the tap doesn’t ever get turned off. The Military Industrial Complex just keeps raping the people of every last bit of wealth they have, so that a couple hundred (435 of them) in the CONgress can make speeches at A.I.P.A.C. about how joined at the hip with ISRAEL they all are. The Assange’s of the world and their cheerleaders, Justin Raimondo, who actually earns a paycheck being a GATEKEEPER ON THE LEFT, are just small mechanisms around the fringes of a society that has no problem pissing away every last cent of any prosperity it might have had, on things that KILL PEOPLE, mostly, MUSLIM PEOPLE.

        Some of the agenda has to do with the primacy of ISRAEL in the middle east, but being a long time follower of the coins and who gets them, it’s almost universally about the shekel grubbing and war profiteering off human misery and death more than Israel needing to be on top of the corpse heap in the region. Israel has it’s meathooks deeply embedded in the intelligence gathering community in the U.S.S.A., and turns a tidy profit on businesses that spy on people for the NSA and DIA.

        if the perpetual war’s ever were to end, CONgress would ‘vapor lock’ because they couldn’t make a profit off some kid’s transfer case coming home, where some of them even have their meat hooks in the body dressing out businesses and the transportation of dead bodies businesses.

        There’s never been a time in history where the Amer’kan public was so blatantly and serially RAPED by their government, in broad daylight, and history will bear out that globally, the Rothschilds and their spin off’s like Carlyle Group Grope, never made so much money in the history of the world, till Barry Soetoro took office and gave all of us CHANGE WE CANNOT BELIEVE IN UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!

        Like

        wars in perpetuity is what the system needs and wants, Aletho!'s avatar Comment by wars in perpetuity is what the system needs and wants, Aletho! | August 2, 2010 | Reply

        • “Israel has it’s meathooks deeply embedded in the intelligence gathering community in the U.S.S.A., and turns a tidy profit on businesses that spy on people for the NSA and DIA.”

          Imagine the opportunities to profit from access to all the communications data.

          Like

          aletho's avatar Comment by aletho | August 2, 2010 | Reply

          • back when John Poindexter started this T.I.A. garbage, it was the prototype for more Israeli intelligence posing as benevolent civil servants for national defense of the fools who pay them to spy on them all. It’s no wonder that the congress and senate are so subservient, the Israeli’s have dossiers on every one of them. Sibel Edmonds reflected that in her deposition, talked about how the F.B.I. knew that a female politician on the Senate Intelligence Subcommittee was sleeping with an Israeli lesbian MOSSAD agent, and suddenly the whole entire expose about Israeli penetration into every branch of government ‘went away’ like magic. But I digress, the cost to the nation in dollars to fund the very people in Israel who spy on all of them, is not even on the books or a known number. Let’s just say that Dov Zackheim’s 2001 ‘heist’ of 2.3 trillion to Israel, was a mere ‘drop in the proverbial bucket’ in comparison. :)

            Like

            the lion's share of the intel budget goes to Israeli firms doing this, Aletho!'s avatar Comment by the lion's share of the intel budget goes to Israeli firms doing this, Aletho! | August 2, 2010 | Reply

  2. As we become aware that this is another psyop what will the response be, or are we doomed to stand by as we lockstep into tyranny?

    When will we no longer be able to ignore the brutal advances of globalism?

    Like

    James B's avatar Comment by James B | August 2, 2010 | Reply

    • If the experience with Obama supporters is any guide we will see a protracted period of silence from those who were so excited. This will only be lifted when a new scam comes along that is different enough to sell.

      Like

      aletho's avatar Comment by aletho | August 2, 2010 | Reply

      • With the revelation of Mossad using United States money transfer site you would think that the contradiction in terms would be enough to raise some eyebrows. I mean what the hell is the point of the “Patriot Act” if we let the terrorists go? My neighbor isn’t the threat.

        Using Wiki was ingenious. Perhaps he was suckered but it looks like he was a participant.

        Like

        James B's avatar Comment by James B | August 2, 2010 | Reply

      • the depths of gullibility on the part of the SHEEPLE knows no bounds, Aletho. At this juncture in time, one could package buckets of shit, spray painted gold, label it ‘gold bullion’ and the people here would be buying it. the slick propaganda and message of HOPE that the barry soetoro ‘george soros’ turds put out, sure did get swallowed, hook, line, and sinker!

        I warned a lot of people; “oh, how you are fools, this fraud is going to make you all very very sorry..”

        even today, you can still occasionally see those bumper stickers on cars. The ‘W’ crap has more or less disappeared now, but these fraudulent puppet’s stickers are all over the place. and even more astonishingly, the idiots who drive those cars think this bastard puppet is doing a better job. yeah, a better job at hastening the destruction of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights perhaps. Repackaged shit is still shit, Aletho! It’s the only item on the corrupt and co-opted menu these days, that re-packaged bull shit, symbolized perfectly by the new puppet’s initials.

        Like

        yes's avatar Comment by yes | August 2, 2010 | Reply

  3. […] more: Wikileaks, causes for concern « Aletho News Share and […]

    Like

    Pingback by Wikileaks, causes for concern « Aletho News | The Daily Conservative | August 2, 2010 | Reply

  4. Got to give some credit to Julian Assange ,he has done a dent to the war party. Like the article said–media took advantage of the leaks. Even if a big story of USA terror activity was leaked,the all koshermedia–mums is the word. If it is factualy reported–like a flash of light timing–puf and never continued– but instaed Tiger Woods/Mel Gibson/O.J –never ending saga.
    Doesn’t matter what is leaked, if the major media will set on it–folks won’t rise up and go after bad government.Even if it is a obvious lie–like 19 box cutter Arabs did 9/11. Media keeps harping that Iran has nukes and 80% of americans believe it. Why does the media do this? Because alot of their revenue comes from election advertising and secondly– if it interests zionists industries and Israel protection/hollowcaust. That’s all that matters :^)

    Like

    geo1671's avatar Comment by geo1671 | August 2, 2010 | Reply

  5. Antiwar.com features Doug Bandow, an MSM shill fired from Business Week for taking Jack Abramoff bribes- defended by Justin Raimondo. Antiwar is a CATO product, pro-NWO etc.
    Most of its writers are Israeli dual nationals and it never confronts Israel too closely or 911 Truth. That is enough of a litmus test for me. Assange would fit right in with such gatekeepers as he too, maligned 911 Truthers.

    Like

    wrong criteria's avatar Comment by wrong criteria | August 2, 2010 | Reply

    • Needless to say, when a site such as ANTIWAR.COM takes out a post within hours, that mentions ISRAEL in a bad light, you have to know what they’re truly all about. Same goes for Huffington Post, and Dinocrapic Underground, and 911Blogger.com. Each of these, in their own SHILL right, has earned the reputation of being of GATEKEEPER ILK and protectors of the fundamental progeny of mass murder and global war profiteering, by name of ISRAEL.

      Unfortunately, far too few people recognize the SHILL SITES, such as CATO stink tank, and other’s, as exactly who and what they are. The LITMUS TEST will always, least for now, be 9/11 Truth, and when someone or some site maligns the bona-fide TRUTH that is that Israel and U.S. Government personnel, as well as members of NORAD’s chain of command, made 9/11 happen with AL-CIA-DA coordination and planning, then you know you’re dealing with a COINTELPRO organization, a Cass Sunstein funded, Israeli controlled, wholly zionist to it’s core, gang of mass murderers and thugs who’s sole purpose in life is the OBFUSCATION OF THE TRUTH about what happened on 9/11.

      Alex Jones fits this category, by the way. Initially looking like a good ‘anti NWO’ site, there can be no doubt in anyone’s mind that Alex Jones is another Julian Assange, only nastier, and much more dangerously connected to Israel.

      Like

      the ROOT CAUSES of the MALAISE in the U.S.S.A. is ISRAELI INFILTRATION AND INFLUENCE's avatar Comment by the ROOT CAUSES of the MALAISE in the U.S.S.A. is ISRAELI INFILTRATION AND INFLUENCE | August 2, 2010 | Reply

    • In today’s Amerika, how long do you think a bona-fide, ‘real’ protester would last in a major U.S. city, with a bullhorn in his hand, spewing anti-government vitriol and bullshit? Ten seconds, a minute? Two minutes?? Any good guesses??

      If you go to propagandaplanet or Jew Tube, and download any of the stuff that A.J. has done, where he’s in a city street venue, bullhorn in hand, watch it real closely. Ever notice the police pretty much stay way back and leave him alone?

      There’s something very very very wrong with that picture, people! In most U.S. Cities, you can be shot to death from across the street by a cop, while in your car, without really proving to be much of a threat to anyone. How do you think A.J. gets the ‘pass’ to waltz around, virtually unimpeded?? How do you think he gets away with Glenn Beck type death threats on the phone with Jeff Rense??

      You have to have a pretty good protection scheme going for you, aka; “U.S. Federal HANDS OFF” protection, to get away with this kind of shit. Rust Limpdong, Glenn Beck, A.J., and any of the others out there that in a ‘real world’ setting would have their website or F.C.C. license pulled, if they weren’t so protected and connected.

      Anytime you see UBER PATRIOT shit, lots of amerikan flags, and shitloads of references to biblical crap, you know you’re probably in a SHILL SITE.

      Sadly, and oh so unfairly, a lot of money is being made on the web with sites that foment hatred and bitterness and really ugly rhetoric pointed at the ‘puppet’ who’s no more in charge of the U.S.S.A. than any of you who are reading this are…you know you’re dealing with a SHILL SITE. Making grandiose videos about the ‘puppet’, is, and always has been, a very good diversionary tactic.

      As much as I blame Barry Soetoro for having nothing in his nut sack, or between his ears, truly, I really see very little productive gain attacking him personally, when the guys who are really running the show reside in London and Tel Aviv. It takes the eye off the real ball. It makes the real oppression and the real global mass murdering fade into the distant rear view mirror view when you’re focused on a puppet that has no more control of anything, as a puppet, than Jerry Mahoney’s marionette did while it was on his lap. Puppets make good pinata’s, but they’re not the best target for the vitriol and the hate.

      the people who are much more deserving of it are the Israeli’s, and their bankrollers, the ROTHSCHILDS, aka ‘the illuminati’ that control it all and set up the SHILLS, like ANTIWAR.COM, and have George Soros backing, and predominantly are zionist jews with dual citizenship, as one other person pointed out about them. Those are the REAL TARGETS to focus on, not the ignoramus puppet who relies too heavily on a teleprompter, just like the prior puppet and jackass used to.

      Like

      THINK ABOUT IT FOR JUST A SECOND..'s avatar Comment by THINK ABOUT IT FOR JUST A SECOND.. | August 3, 2010 | Reply

      • Uh oh….it’s DA JOOOOOOOOS!! They’re everywhere. They control the banks, the media, and your erectile dysfunction. Aside from Obama having an empty nutsack, he’s a Dhimmi/ Marxist empty suit with a lot of charcater flaws and malfeasants for friends. His Keynesian domestic policy and kowtowing foreign policy are epic failures. How’s that change working out for ya?

        Like

        sfcmac's avatar Comment by sfcmac | October 25, 2011 | Reply

  6. […] Wikileaks, causes for concern « Aletho News. August 3rd, 2010 | Category: Uncategorized | Comments are closed | […]

    Like

    Pingback by The Progressive Mind » Wikileaks, causes for concern « Aletho News | August 3, 2010 | Reply


Leave a reply to sfcmac Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

« Previous | Next »