Pentagon Demands Return of Leaked Afghanistan Documents

Multiple news agencies are reporting that the Pentagon has demanded the return of WikiLeaks' collection of secret documents relating to the war in Afghanistan. Defense Department spokesman Geoff Morrell said, "The only acceptable course is for WikiLeaks to take steps immediately to return all versions of all of these documents to the US government and permanently delete them from its website, computers and records." According to the BBC, Morrell also "acknowledged the already-leaked documents' viral spread across the internet made it unlikely they could ever be quashed," but hopes to prevent the dissemination of a further 15,000 documents WikiLeaks is reportedly in the process of redacting. "We're looking to have a conversation about how to get these perilous documents off the website as soon as possible, return them to their rightful owners and expunge them from their records." WikiLeaks, predictably, shows no sign of cooperating.

Comments

Too late

[houghi]

It is already out in the open. You can't put the genie back in the bottle. Or "Things that have been seen can not be unseen."

Red Flag

[Anonymous Coward]

Government is the only business which holds the special right to employ coercion (meaning physical force or threat thereof) against you in order to achieve its goals. Secrets have absolutely no place in such a relationship.

Am I saying I wouldn't put an ounce of trust in such an entity no matter how loud they scream "we need secrets"? You're damn right I am.

I see a little problem here

[tibit]

Here we go again with people thinking that the paper paradigm applies to the digital world.

How on Earth do you return digital documents? Do you scrape the oxide layer off the hard drives, put it in a little vial, mark it with volume mount point(s) and put it into an envelope addressed to Pentagon? Oh, yes, I know, you first print out the directory listing (like we used to do with the floppies), tape it to the vial, then scrape, fill the vial and ship.

As for the further documents -- they better watch out, because WikiLeaks may just give up and publish all of the unredacted stuff just to preserve it.

As for WikiLeaks somehow "embarrassing" the U.S. military: waitaminuzel here. Did WikiLeaks compel the military to do all the embarrassing stuff? No? Then well, maybe it was better the taxpayers knew what their money is spent on, huh?

Re:I see a little problem here

[kilfarsnar]

If the pentagon manages to get the originals back, they might just save Cheney, Powell, Rice, Bush, Wolfowitz, etc. from a public hanging.

That'd be a shame.

They're damaging to our government

[AnonymousClown]

FTFA:

The documents leaked so far illustrate the frustration of U.S. forces in fighting the protracted Afghan conflict and revived debate over the war's uncertain progress.

These documents are showing that the US' operation aren't doing too well. WikiLeaks is holding back stuff that may endanger people's lives.

This is all about the Pentagon and the Government trying hide their incompetence and stupidity. It's also to trying to keep information out of our hands to keep the support for the wars from it's continual slide down.

We're in another Viet Nam type era.

Re:It's time

[Zocalo]

I don't think that's the way it is going to have been set up. Far more likely it's going to be an automatic disclosure of the decryption process from a source independent of Wikileaks should Julian Assange or any other key members fail to check in some how at regular intervals. That way if they should be detained or "meet with an unfortunate accident" the contents of the assurance file go public.

Quite frankly, I think the US military and government are pointing their fingers in the wrong direction here. The people that are really at fault here are those who have still not managed to put adequate controls on the access and export of sensitive data; one of the task given to the DHS, IIRC. Quite simply put, I doubt that there is any reason why a single person should have been able to access all those documents in the first place, let alone be in a position to take copies and pass them on too WikiLeaks and the media. It's not like Gary McKinnon hasn't given them enough egg on their faces about poor security procedures already, is it...?

WikiLeaks has been around for years.

[AnonymousClown]

Seriously? The guys been in the paper constantly the last few months and has given countless interviews. My mother knows his name. Oh, and he looks like Bill Maher but slightly gayer and more strung out.

Yes, Seriously. I guess everyone missed my point.

WikiLeaks has been around for years and it has only been in the last couple of months that he's come out of the woodwork to defend what they have done.

Before this episode, one would would have to look kind of hard to get his name and his photo wasn't the easiest thing to find - I tried a couple of years ago when WikiLeaks first started making waves.

That isn't a media whore.

Re:WikiLeaks has been around for years.

[Seumas]

If the government was after me and I felt I might risk being picked up and "disappeared", I might suddenly decide to become a "fame whore", too. Get my name and face out there in every fucking place imaginable.

Re:They will make them comply

[Anonymous Coward]

I think I'm gonna go ahead and pin it on the guy that started it, if it's okay with you. Or even if it's not.

Osama Bin Laden?

I blame Bush for good reason.

[AnonymousClown]

In 2002 when I still had TV, right before the ramp up, ex-Soviet commanders were commenting that they've been there, done that, and got the T-Shirt.

They knew what we were in for.

When you see photos of Afghanistan and see all that rubble, guess who did that? The Russians bombed them back into the Stone Age and they still couldn't get them under control - and if you consider that the Soviets didn't give a rat's ass about PR, I'm sure they didn't pull any punches like we do (read: the didn't give a shit about civilian casualties)

Bush KNEW this would be folly if they didn't have an adequate plan but Nooooooo, he went in there shoot'in up the place with no plan.

So yes, I'll blame Bush - he deserves it.

WikiLeaks... shows no sign of cooperating.

[countertrolling]

I should hope not. Too bad the authorities have convinced the public to condemn the messenger instead of the message... Very sad state of affairs we have here.

Re:They will make them comply

[Scrameustache]

It's not the US Military that drives the decisions of the US Government. It's the military contractors that drive the decisions of the US Government.

Military-industrial-congress complex: The same people go through a revolving door and alternate between military, government and private enterprise. Perfect example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Rumsfeld

You see, term limits only mean that the people in power have a rotation. They go from being in control of the government to running newspapers and contractors when the other team is in government and then they come back to power with a new frontman.

The people behind Nixon were the same people behind Reagan, and Bush1, and Bush2. You can look at group pictures and litterally see these same people standing behind the frontman.

Re:They will make them comply

[commodore64_love]

>>>Choosing the lesser of two evils sometimes means you're left with a really evil choice.

The third choice is for the CIA to stop trying to project power beyond the US border. They should not be interfering with foreign affairs, anymore than we would want the EU to assassinate a Governor (Schwarzenegger for example) and install somebody the EU likes better.