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WAR OF IDEAS
Has the U.S. Reached Peak Car?
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KILLER APPS
Cyberspies Are Using PRISM for Spearphishing
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PASSPORT
Remembering Michael Hastings
Posted By Peter Feaver
Monday, November 29, 2010 - 12:00 PM
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The latest dump of classified information stolen from the U.S. government is extraordinarily damaging to U.S. national security, but not in the way that WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, apparently intended. (If the summer leak was a gusher what does that make this latest round, a tsunami?)
Assange is a garden-variety anti-American who believes that the United States is a malevolent actor which engages in all sorts of shameful secret activities that, if revealed, would discredit all aspects of American power. Prior to earlier dumps of classified material, Assange claimed that the secret files would document massive war crimes by the United States. They did not.
Based on the depictions of the cables in the media (the New York Times coverage begins here, the Guardian coverage begins here, and Der Spiegel's coverage begins here, it appears the same thing is true for this latest batch. The media apparently found no instances of shameful behavior -- I am assuming that if they had done so, they would have led with those stories. Instead, the cables document that American diplomats have been doing what they are supposed to be doing: collecting information, reporting their opinions and insights back to headquarters, and trying to build international cooperation in pursuit of core American foreign-policy goals.
The cables document that diplomats often relay information that would be, well, undiplomatic to say publicly. Diplomats often get foreign interlocutors to be more candid when they believe their discussions will remain confidential. Diplomats also opine on a range of topics -- the limitations of current lines of U.S. policy or the weaknesses of allies -- that would compromise an administration's effectiveness if shared with a general audience, but not because the views were dishonorable, or indicated that the United States was engaged in reprehensible behavior.
Assange's damage to the United States is not in what he discovered about the past, but rather in the peril he has placed our diplomats, our friends and partners, and our policies in the future. The massive security breach has made every bilateral relationship more difficult and likely lowered the quality of diplomatic reporting. Will our interlocutors be as candid now that they have seen what happens? Ironically, Assange's attack on our diplomats has meant that our statecraft may be more dependent on cruder instruments of state power, especially brute force. (Elsewhere on FP, Dan Drezner reads the situation just as I do and notes one further likely result: an uptick in intelligence failures as the bureaucracy responds by stove piping information to prevent future espionage of this sort.)
If WikiLeaks had uncovered evidence of gross misdeeds, I suppose reasonable people could debate the balance of interests the dump might have served. Outlandish claims to the contrary notwithstanding, the leaks have done nothing of the sort. Instead, they have damaged the United States and in doing so achieved no higher purpose than the damage they have done. To fervent anti-Americans, weakening the United States is an end unto itself.
In wartime, we should expect enemies to seek to damage us in this way. How will President Obama respond to an enemy attack of this sort?
NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images
Dr. Feaver rebuts Mr. Assange's July assertion (which Feaver misrepresents as claiming that the reported incidents were necessarily war crimes) by citing... a Weekly Standard opinion piece!!
Game, set & match, Dr. Feaver!!
Dr. Feaver's claim that Mr. Assange is 'only' interested in discrediting the US betrays ignorance of previous leaks that served to discredit Iceland, Kenya, Peru, the UK, Germany, Iran, the Cayman Islands & Ivory Coast, with embarassments to Russia promised, and thus cannot be reconciled with Occam's Razor.
Dan Drezner does indeed discuss the risk of increased intelligence comparmentalization in the future. Please note that this is not the same as stovepiping, which Wikipedia defines as presenting intelligence without proper context, and which reached its pinnacle of fame in the case of former VP Cheney, who wanted raw WMD intelligence and was not interested in context that subject-matter experts in the intelligence community could provide. A subconscious effort to rehabilitate Mr. Cheney? Let's hope it is only subconscious.
Finally, if I may be permitted to raise a distinct issue, this blog has been silent about the prospect that Republicans in the Senate will fail to confirm the New START Treaty. Is this not a matter of US foreign policy worth the attention of the Shadow Government?
In the movie "A Few Good Men" all Julian Assange did today by this release is weaken a county. He endangered American lives, he made it more difficult to work with our allies, and he made it more difficult to get anything done on the vital national security problems we face. If one members of our armed forces gets killed because of these leaks, then Mr. Assange has blood on his hands.
Horrible and pathetic post. Besides since when US is at war with Sweden ?
Assange is a garden-variety anti-American who believes that the United States is a malevolent actor
let's see, since WWII we have, courtesy of the United States:
-2 nuclear weapons dropped on a civilian population
-agent orange
-white phosphorus used in an urban area
-unprovoked invasions
-Abu Ghraib
-Guantanamo Bay
-waterboarding
-support for atrocities in East Timor
-democratically elected government in Chile removed with help from US to make way for Pinochet
-Vietnam
-secret bombing campaigns in Laos and Cambodia
etc.
If any other nation other than that who believes it gets to rule the world and done one or two of the above, it would be considered a rogue state, maybe even part of an "axis of evil".
True, many countries all over the world commit atrocities, but none coming close to the global scope of America's crimes.
Hello Julian Assange!
urbanmojo: um, are you really that stupid? So, what you're saying is that the U.S. is more "malevolent" than Russia? Venezuela, Iran, North Korea, China, Saudi Arabia? This is what you just stated. I just wanted to make sure you understood. Oh, and that long list of 'bad' things we have done...I could create just as long a list for ANY country in the world, certainly any powerful country in the HISTORY of the world as well. So, we make mistakes, we do things that arent morally right sometimes...welcome to reality, no one is perfect, every country does. Maybe if you could get us to stop needing oil, precious metals, labor, food, electronics, security etc then we could only do nice things, and only work with nice people. Wow, what a world that would be. seriously though, welcome to reality, the world is Grey, get over it. I know, I know...the truth hurts.
URBANMOJO the true humanitarian. You just took every single case you mentioned out of context and put them all together to make U.S. look evil. You tried at least.
wow, I've got some nice followers there
Some of them argue that America does nothing but great thing for the world. Another one says that others are much worse than America... All very sweet.
1. If America was that great, why on Earth are you so freaked out by US documents surfacing? You should be thankful for the help in spreading information! If you have something to hide... then you'd better lay low.
2. America, as the only superpower in the world claims to be the policeman, interfering in all corners of the world. How could you expect anybody to accept your leadership if they don't know what you're doing? US should be ten times more transparent than any country in the world. You have launched countless wars during this century, some justified, some not. Now it's the chance to come clean.
"document that American diplomats have been doing what they are supposed to be doing"
-like helping Yemen cover up for America's drone strikes?
"but rather in the peril he has placed our diplomats, our friends and partners, and our policies in the future."
-please provide a scenario or example, this is a baseless assertion
"Assange's attack on our diplomats has meant that our statecraft may be more dependent on cruder instruments of state power, especially brute force"
-another baseless assertion. This is pure speculation--surely this leak doesn't stop world leaders from negotiating. Name somebody who has been harmed by a Wikileaks leak so far.
"like helping Yemen cover up for America's drone strikes?"
uh, yes, thats exactly what they are supposed to be doing actually. Yemen invited us into their country, and wants us to help stop their insurgent problem. So they authorize the drones, and need us to keep it quiet so the Yemeni population still thinks that their government is capable and not in danger of failing. What dont you get about that? Its completely legal.
"please provide a scenario or example, this is a baseless assertion"
baseless...do you have no imagination whatsoever? So let me get this straight...you dont think that our allies knowing what we think about them personally, and that we cant apparently keep secret conversations we have with them secret, is going to affect our foreign policy? You dont get that? go slam your head in a car door. No one is going to want to share anything important with us. Diplomatic relationships, which are often based on mutual respect and personal trust, have been damaged here, no doubt.
" Name somebody who has been harmed by a Wikileaks leak so far"
that would be interesting to find out for sure. I would imagine that they have created some more jihadis for sure. Given that they stirred up tonnes of flase hype aobut war crimes and secret kill squads, although not true, just saying such things in public is enough to satisfy most people. Most people wont investigate the truthfulness of the claims, they will just believe what they hear. Especially if those people are muslim, living in pakistan and Iraq, and such claims simply confirm what they already hear from their friendly neighborhood al-qaeda recruiter.
@HURRICANWARNING: "I would imagine that they have created some more jihadis for sure"
Oh please. America's interventionist policies in the Middle East and blind subservience to Israel have done far more to create jihadis than Wikileaks ever will.
Now im not going to say I know jack about jack here, but in my OPINION... which I formed after being around state department personnel for quite a long time, at various posts... the stuff your likely to find in "secret" cables and communiques... etc... is not very interesting nor is it particularily secret. Most people who work through these communication formats are just average bastards doing what their boss tells em to do and thats just basic diplomatic info-hording functions like every other diplomatic corps in the world does. 2+ million americans with secret clearances and Assange seems to expect that his "secret" Amercian files are going to be choc-full with future invasion plans and plots to overthrow other countries and such... 50% of government employees are incompetent (which is a good % considering more than 50% of the world is incompetent... i probably am, who cares) and the stuff they send around is unlikely to be that juicy since anybody who is anybody will surely know that idiots will have access to these cables. secret doesnt mean anything anymore i suppose, if it ever did...
The Wikileaks leak seems completely harmless. It seems like that Wikileaks has acted like the average tabloid newspaper and hyped something at most mildly embarrassing.
The Neocons (with their fear of everything) plays to the hype in order to further their own domestic and international ends.
Domestic in requiring Obama to "do something" (which he basically can't), International as in furthering their agenda of Internet warfare against "the enemies of liberty and democracy".
Much screaming for little wool said the woman who cut the pig ;)
The Wikiliquer docu drama, unlike the Pentagon Papers in the 1970s, shows that Great Satan's private communication with foreign leaders by and large reflects the same sentiments offered by American officials in public.
There is no grand conspiracy, no grand hypocrisy to uncover and expose. The big hypocrisies here are not being perpetrated by Americans; they are being perpetrated by foreign governments - the non-democratic ones.
And another funintended consequence is that all 3 leaks prove the neocons were 100% psychic and totally correct on nearly every meme they advanced.
If Assange is damaging the US....
...then why are you posting links to classified documents? Don't you know that's in violation of Espionage Act?
You claim- "Assange claimed that the secret files would document massive war crimes by the United States. They did not. "
The Guardian: "US authorities failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse, torture, rape and even murder by Iraqi police and soldiers." We also authorized an Apache to kill insurgents who were trying to surrender, and reports saying "US troops killed almost 700 civilians for coming too close to checkpoints, including pregnant women and the mentally ill"
"The media apparently found no instances of shameful behavior" Apparently, plotting to stealing credit card info, passwords, DNA and biometric data from diplomats isn't shameful.
Shadow Government is a blog about U.S. foreign policy under the Obama administration, written by experienced policy makers from the loyal opposition and curated by Peter D. Feaver and William Inboden.
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