Below article to appear in Project Censored (www.projectcensored.org).

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2010 was the year that marked the beginning of the largest leak of classified documents in U.S. history. The information contained within the material known as the Collateral Murder video, the Afghan War Diary, the Iraq War Logs, and the U.S. Diplomatic Cables (which includes the Guantanamo Files) collectively covers an astonishing breadth of issues. The leaks allegedly come from a single source — the US army private Bradley Manning, but nearly one-half of all New York Times editions published so far in 2011 have cited one or more of these documents.

The leaks enable ordinary citizens to better understand the inter-working of international diplomacy and our government’s aggressive military policies. The documents include such details as the true number and cause of civilian casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the processes by which the U.S. State Department negotiates with foreign governments over economic policies and human rights abuses.

Altogether, they paint a picture of a world in which national economic self-interest consistently takes priority over any other publicly stated ideals, and even democratically-elected governments deliberately mislead their citizens with regularity. U.S. officials are not necessarily more or less guilty of this than those from other nations. However, the documents also disclose that the U.S. State Department habitually interferes with the executive and judicial processes of other countries to protect U.S.-corporate interests and U.S. government officials who have run afoul of international law — made possible no doubt by the enormity of our international bargaining power.

A 24-country Reuters News poll published in April found that of people who knew of Wikileaks, overall 79% supported the organization’s mission to make public secret government and corporate documents. In making their case against the organization’s actions, high-ranking government officials, including President Obama, have suggested that the leaks pose a threat to national security, an argument often-repeated by major news sources.

The extent to which national security is actually endangered by any of the leaks has been called into question by a number of prominent experts. In December, 2010, the House of Representatives convened a Judicial Committee Hearing on the Espionage Act and the Legal and Constitutional Issues Raised by Wikileaks. The purpose of the hearing was to determine whether it should be illegal to distribute classified material after the material had been leaked, thus making it possible to prosecute Wikileaks. The committee experts deemed such an act unconstitutional, and furthermore, agreed that documents are often classified unnecessarily. One committee member, Ralph Nader, stated that “The suppression of information has led to far more loss of life, jeopardization of American security, and all the other consequences now being attributed to WikiLeaks and Julian Assange,” using the build-up to the Iraq War –which was based on faulty pretenses– as an example.

Thus far no evidence has been provided of anyone being killed as a direct result of the leaks. It seems that in the post-9/11 world, a ‘threat to national security’ may be invoked much like the specter of communism during the Cold War. Lacking a distinct source (or sources) and difficult to quantify, yet demanding immediate action, these ideas have been used to build support for a variety of otherwise controversial policies throughout both Republican and Democratic Administrations.

While the suppression of information under the Bush Administration is now widely acknowledged, the mainstream media has in general failed to comprehend or convey the continuation of this pattern under the Obama Administration. For example, the current administration has so far used the obscure and harsh Espionage Act of 1917 to prosecute 5 individuals who released classified documents -previously only 2 people had been prosecuted under the law since the year of its adoption.

Alleged Wikileaks source Bradley Manning is the first person in U.S. history to be charged with “Aiding the enemy” for making information public. Furthermore, he was held in solitary confinement for the first 10 months of his detention. In April, the U.N. Rapporteur on Torture issued a reprimand, stating that the United States repeatedly denied his requests for an official meeting with Manning– required protocol for his office.

U.S. voters have never had as much insight or control with regards to U.S. foreign policies as they have with domestic policies. However, it is also true that the U.S. Executive Branch has never had as much power relative to Congress as it does today, made clear when President Obama casually bypassed the War Powers Act of 1973 to invade Libya. A new groundswell of organizations like Wikileaks offer new means by which citizens can better understand their own governments’ actions, thus enabling more democratic control. In an online chat attributed to Bradley Manning by the FBI, before his arrest, he stated “I want people to know the truth, no matter who they are… because without information, you cannot make informed decisions as a public.” The question Americans need to ask themselves now is: if those acting with these ideals are our ‘enemies,’ what type of nation does that make us?

Sources:

Caitlin Dickson, “Nearly Half of New York Times 2011 Issues Rely on Wikileaks,” The Atlantic Wire, April 25, 2011, http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2011/04/over-half-2011s-new-york-times-issues-use-wikileaks/37009/

“Espionage Act and the Legal and Constitutional Issues Raised by Wikileaks,” Committee on the Judiciary House of Representatives, December 16, 2010, http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/printers/111th/111-160_63081.PDF

Jay Kernis, “Daniel Ellsberg: All the Crimes Richard Nixon Committed Against Me are Now Legal,” CNN, June 7, 2011, http://inthearena.blogs.cnn.com/2011/06/07/daniel-ellsberg-all-the-crimes-richard-nixon-committed-against-me-are-now-legal/

“Merged Manning-Lamo Chat Logs,” Firedoglake, http://firedoglake.com/merged-manning-lamo-chat-logs/.
Michelle Nichols, “Wikileaks Assange is not a criminal –global poll,” Reuters, April 26, 2011, http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/26/usa-wikileaks-assange-idUSN2629178720110426.

Rania Khalek, “5 WikiLeaks Hits of 2011 That Are Turning the World on Its Head — And That the Media Are Ignoring,” Alternet, June 7, 2011, http://www.alternet.org/world/151232/5_wikileaks_hits_of_2011_that_are_turning_the_world_on_its_head_–_and_that_the_media_are_ignoring/.

Sibel Edmonds and Coleen Rowley, “Rescind President Obama’s ‘Transparency Award’ now,” Guardian, June 14, 2011, http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jun/14/rescind-barack-obama-obama-transparency-award.