WikiLeaks Documents: White House Tries to Kill the Messenger

A U.S. soldier from 1st Platoon Bravo Troop of 1st Squadron, 71st Cavalry walks past Afghans on a three-wheel vehicle during a patrol in Dand district of Kandahar Province, July 24, 2010.

/ Getty Images

Updated 1:31 p.m. Eastern Time

In the wake of the release of 91,000 classified U.S. military records painting a dour portrait of the war in Afghanistan, the U.S. government and military are trying to put the spotlight squarely on WikiLeaks, the organization that leaked the documents.

Wikileaks, officials complained, is an antiwar group with an agenda. Founder Julian Assange, the White House pointed out to reporters, says things like "the most dangerous men are those who are in charge of war." They noted that his group did not contact the U.S. government to verify what is in the documents. (Though the New York Times and to a lesser extent the other news organizations given access to the documents one month ago did do so.) National Security Adviser Gen. James Jones said the U.S. "strongly condemns the disclosure of classified information by individuals and organizations which could put the lives of Americans and our partners at risk, and threaten our national security."

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said at his briefing Monday afternoon that the leak represents a "real and potential threat" and cast it as "a concerning development in operational security." He said it "has the potential to be very harmful to those that are in our military" as well as those working with them.

Wikileaks is certainly an important part of the story - and is without question an organization with an agenda. (Just consider the fact that the group named an explosive video it previously leaked showing the actions of a U.S. Army Apache helicopter in Baghdad "Collateral Murder.") But that fact does not change that the military records appear to be legitimate raw intelligence. While not everything in them is necessarily completely true - the sources include paid informants and Afghan intelligence officials with their own agenda - they do reflect what is being seen and heard by those actually fighting the war.

Gibbs was pressed at his briefing whether the government was trying to shift the focus from the content of the documents by criticizing WikiLeaks. In response, he called Assange "somebody that clearly has an agenda" and said of WikiLeaks: "Nobody in this government was afforded the opportunity to see what they do or don't have."

Assange said Monday morning that the U.S. government has decided to "criticize the messenger to detract from the power of the message." It has good reason to do so. It's a crucial moment for the war in Afghanistan, exactly one year before U.S. troops are supposed to start coming home. Yet instead of a positive portrait of the war effort, the American people are being shown in unprecedented detail just how hobbled coalition efforts been by questionable allies, conflicting allegiances, and a pervasive culture of corruption and violence.

Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks.org, speaks to reporters, July 26, 2010.

/ CBS

The Afghan police are described beating and harassing civilians; according to one report, when his bodyguard refuses to shoot a civilian, a police chief shoots the bodyguard instead. An orphanage that opened with great fanfare is shown to be empty, the coalition's money embezzled; the police and Army are described feuding with each other, and insurgents are shown attacking U.S. troops using vehicles supplied by the coalition to fight them.

The documents describe the Taliban's efforts to turn U.S. allies into enemies with bribes and threats and the killing of civilians through mistakes and misunderstanding (a deaf person who flees a convoy out of nervousness can't hear warnings and gets shot; five children get killed in a rocket attack that was part of a botched raid against an enemy who isn't present). Also revealed is the wider-than-known use of drones inside Afghanistan and the Taliban's use of heat-seeking missiles against U.S. aircraft, the very type of weapon that the United Sates supplied to the mujahedeen to defeat the Soviets in the 1980s. (CBS News' Lara Logan reported on the latter last year.)

And then there are the suggestions that Pakistani intelligence is helping coordinate attacks on U.S. troops, including suicide bombings - a particularly incendiary accusation in light of the billions of dollars in aid that flow to the country from U.S. coffers. (These reports, it's important to remember, reflect what members of the military are being told by parties with a variety of agendas, who may not be truthful; Pakistan has vehemently denied the allegations.)

At Left: CBS News' David Martin and Juan Zarate discuss the significance of the reports on Washington Unplugged.

The government has been quick to note that these documents only go through December 2009, before President Obama's new strategy was put in place. But the reality today could in fact be worse than it was then; casualties are the highest they've been in nearly nine years of war, the Taliban is stronger than ever, and coalition efforts to create self-sustaining governments are still understaffed and ineffective.

Officials have insisted that most of the information in the documents is old news for those who have been watching the war closely. But while that, to some extent, is true, it doesn't much matter: The documents shift discussion to the harsh realities of the war at a time that military and administration officials had once hoped Americans would be celebrating U.S. momentum against the Taliban.

Public and Congressional support for the nearly nine-year-old war was already wavering before the release, and for some the documents could be the last straw. The Obama administration will likely remain resolute, stick to its carefully-crafted strategy, and remind people that pulling out could mean a return to the environment that set the stage for the Sept. 11th attacks. But cracks are already beginning to show: Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said after the release that "however illegally these documents came to light, they raise serious questions about the reality of America's policy toward Pakistan and Afghanistan."

The White House gave itself some flexibility when it announced that it would begin bringing troops home in July of next year - President Obama was notably vague about how many troops will be leaving and insisted that plans could change based on conditions on the ground. The WikiLeaks documents are a demoralizing reminder that those conditions are not good; the question now is how the administration and Congress will respond to what will likely be further erosion of support for the war effort at home and abroad.

WikiLeaks Reveals Grim Afghan War Realities

WikiLeaks: Evidence of War Crimes in Afghan Docs

Afghan Gov't "Shocked" by Leak of War Documents

Pakistani Officials: WikiLeaks Claims "Outrageous"

Analyst: WikiLeaks Report Fuels War Debate

WikiLeaks Reveals Grim Afghan War Realities

Report: Pakistan Aiding Afghan Insurgency

Papers: Leaks Show Unreported Afghan Deaths

[agittleman1]

I see that the clerk in the mailroom is stamping everything top secret. Next he will be running the war!

[weratwar]

we are at war people...there will be casualtys in a war...innocent and civilian. Now I am all for the procecution of war criminals during and afer wars but what I dont advocate is 100 percent disclosure to the genral public. Now what this may show all of us is that as a so called civilized nation we need to form a war time panel to review war logs and info to hold our govement and its armys accountable for criminal actions but what wiki leaks did is just plain irresponceable and a rush to plublicity im sure to wiki is more important then our war efforts...its treason he should be tried as such.

[eiddam]

It's sad to know millions have died in the passed 9 years because of hate, revenge and the greed for oil and power to control. Remember it was a Bush who built up the Taliban with weapons, and had them on the payroll for his agenda, and another Bush who stirred them up because they refused to obey orders. The lies to invade countries, and along with Israel threatened Iran to Nuke Iran and tried everything to provoke a war. Israel has put the pressure on Obama to place sanctions, so then Israel with their stockpipe of Nukes can destroy another country out of greed.How soon will Israel put us on their list??? One day it will be proven who really was behind 9/11.

[almyt5]

This is old new 2004 give me a break, who didn't know this? This all of a sudden leak...please political slam thats all it is..play right into it. We knew this when Bush was still sitting. If you didn't your ignorant. This will just fuel the Republican fire for votes. You all know this is tru. I didn't hear you screaming when you all knew Bush lied only to start the war. you kissed his backside then. you whinning fools.

[generey]

Although this info may be "interesting" to many, it is still classified material & if Private Bradley Manning was indeed involved in "stealing" the papers & releasing or transfering them then he needs to be imprisoned for life, if not executed. That is treason & jeopardizes the safety / lives of American troops. There is no excuse.

[random_radar]

One man's treason is another man's patriotism. I personally would give Manning the congressional medal of honor and put a different set of criminals to death.

Blind nationalism leads to holocausts.

[TomColt]

@random_radar - Yes, you are right. in this case a man's treason is certainly Al Qaida's patriotism, but wars are not so theoretical - you need to decide which side of the fence you're on. We will try the traitor for his crime and send him to prison for many year while the soldiers in the field continue to keep AQ busy on the other side of the globe. And if you try to convince anyone that he was a noble whistle-blower, you logic is defeated before you begin. He released 250,000 classified documents. He hadn't even read all the documents he decided to give to Wikileaks.

[GunsInTheSky]

by Shocktribe July 26, 2010 4:44 PM EDT
The Taliban killed civilians indiscriminately and ruled the Afghan people through sheer terror. As usual, you America haters remain silent about the mass murder by the enemy, and complicit in their actions by your propaganda.
----

Poor assumptions.

And I'm sure your mamma taught you two wrongs don't make a right.

Let's see if we can keep it low-info:
Taliban bad for killing Afghan citizens in the pursuit of their truths.
American bad for killing Afghan citizens in the pursuit of their truths.
Understand?

[choiceshaveconsequences]

Two wrongs may not make a right, but three lefts will. If I "understand" your position, a Self Appointed Organization committed to ruling a group of people against those people's free will, and deliberately dedicated to the deaths of those Afghanistan people who fail to adhere to that self-anointed supremacy is "the same as" a Freely and Duly Elected Government that inadvertently, accidentally and remorsefully takes the lives of any of those citizens while attempting to free them from the tyrannical rule of the despot terrorizing them. I reject the "low-info" notion that we flatten our values and consider salt and pepper the same simply because they are both labelled condiments. Besides, all salt is not the same and neither is all pepper. Comprehend?

[TomColt]

So, you're think you can convince us that you're okay with the religious extremism, the heroin trade and terrorism. BS. You just want to sit back comfortably and pass judgment while courageous men and women keep you safe.

[kenhamlett]

The age of the documents limits their viability today but it is strange that secret documents should ever surface unless officially declassified.
Could it be another Republican stunt to influence the elections. The only reason I think of this is that it is such a lame stunt that it fits in with all of the prior silliness they have initiated. We shall have to wait and see if they can find the perpetrator and if the documents are as important as we are led to believe. I just hope it does not interfere with the effort to win the war and get our people home.

[Shocktribe]

You just couldn't help but try to make this a political issue, huh? You're not silly, just plain sad.

[TomColt]

It really depends. If names are released that allow people to be killed for having worked with the US/NATO forces, then it won't matter that the documents were several years old. Second, if it is used to stir up hatred in other countries, that will result in more killings of Americans, some completely indiscriminate.

[Shocktribe]

The White house is doing the right thing. This zero is treading in dangerous territory he probably doesn't even understand. These classified documents that he's made public are not infallible, but rather unsorted, unproved data, that the military and secret service then investigate. Much of this data is pure garbage, just raw info from many sources. Julian here should be considered a spy by the international community, and his American and British visas should be revoked, at the very least. I'll bet he wouldn't do this to countries that don't give a thought about human rights. If he spilled about Russia or Iran, he'd probably disappear.

[imthaid]

Oh he must be an anti war american hater to want the truth to get out, right? LOL. Why would he contact the government. Obviously, someone within the government contacted him to post the papers.

[albertoVO55]

The insider is Private Bradley Manning. He wasn't alone.

[starving1968-3]

by memphispiano July 26, 2010 2:45 PM EDT
You obviously have had your head in the sand for the past 9 years. Our biggest problem in America is our own citizens who think that just staying home is going to solve all our problems. Afghanistan was the biggest training place for Al Qeada. We can just pick up our toys, come home and face them on our soil again like we did on 9-11. Wake up, bud...we aren't doing this for Afghanistan; we're doing it for us!






If we stayed home in the first place, and didn't meddle with Israel, Egypt, the Afghan / Russian war, etc, etc, then we wouldn't have been targeted and attacked on 9/11.