DoD Study Contradicts Charges Against WikiLeaks

Voline writes "Last Summer, after WikiLeaks released 90,000 leaked internal US military documents in their Afghan War Log, Pentagon officials went on a media offensive against WikiLeaks, accusing it of having the 'blood on Its hands' of American soldiers and Afghan collaborators who are named in the documents. The charge has echoed through the mainstream media (and Internet comment threads) ever since. Now, CNN is reporting that after a thorough Pentagon review, 'WikiLeaks did not disclose any sensitive intelligence sources or methods, the Department of Defense concluded.' And, according to an unnamed NATO official, 'there has been no indication' that any Afghans who have collaborated with the NATO occupation have been harmed as a result of the leaks. Will the Pentagon's contradiction of the charges against WikiLeaks get as much play in the media as those original accusations did?"

Comments

It doesn't sell.

[AnonymousClown]

Will the Pentagon's contradiction of the charges against WikiLeaks get as much play in the media as those original accusations did?"

No.

Rational discourse doesn't sell.

Re:It doesn't sell.

[Marcika]

Also, the actual number of dead civilians is 100k I believe, not half a million. Note also that this number includes all civilians who died as a consequence of the war regardless of who directly killed them. All these 100k civilians were not shot/bombed by US troops, they may have been killed by Talibans. I'm not sure if this number includes people who died as an indirect consequence of the war, for example people who died of illness/hunger because the war may have made medication/food unavailable. If not, then the total number of civilian war casualties is higher and may in fact reach half a million.

The Wiki has a good summary: There are 100k direct violent deaths from the war that were reported in the press; the indirect deaths (from hunger/illness/war-induced anarchy) are 150k, 600k or 1,000k depending on the survey.

And it is entirely fair to pin the deaths on the US government. You are begging the question - you assume that the invasion had to take place at all. (And even apart from that, Cheney and the Pentagon promised it would be a cakewalk and that the 'liberated' Iraqis would greet them with flowers...)

NO

[amiga3D]

It'll barely get mentioned. Every smear against wikileaks gets maximum exposure but retractions are barely heard.