The 'New Pentagon Papers'

I will be surprised if the Wikileaks on the Afghan war become as impactful as the Pentagon Papers did. Nevertheless, you could have expected Democracy Now! to take note. Check out Amy Goodman's round table with the following guests:

Stephen Grey, independent journalist based in London. He has been reporting from Afghanistan for the past few years. He is author of Operation Snakebite: The Explosive True Story of an Afghan Desert Siege. He recently interviewed Julian Assange for Channel 4.

Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers whistleblower.

Rick Rowley, independent journalist with Big Noise Films He just returned from a six-week trip to Afghanistan, where he was embedded with a Marine division in Marjah.

Matthew Hoh, former Marine Corps captain in Iraq and former State Department official in Afghanistan. He is the first-known US official to resign in protest over the Afghan war.

Gareth Porter, investigative historian and journalist specializing in US national security policy.

I already knew that Julian Assange, the Australian who owns Wikileaks, had agreed to withhold certain documents that might actually endanger American troops, but I learned from this program that the Times has been going over the documents with the Obama government for some time, redacting names and other specifics that might actually be harmful to troops, troop movement and such. In other words, whatever is being reported is being cleared by the government first. Therefore, there can be no claim of treason - anything that is being made public must simply be owned up to. And what is being made public is very damning - not things we didn't already know or at least suspect, but proof of it.

And right on cue:

"The damage to our national security caused by leaks like this won't stop until we see more perpetrators in orange jump suits," [Missouri Senator and senior Republican on the Intelligence Committee Kit] Bond said in a statement.

  Raw Story

That's right. Kill the messenger. Criminalize the whistleblower, protect the criminals.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.