This is Funny, but Sad

Here is the content of a posting on BoingBoing by Xeni Jardin. You need to go read the original to get all the links. This is the kind of crazy idiotic government behaviour that drove me crazy as a kid. They have arrested a kid who got tired of being a tool for evil and they are "hot on the trail" of the guy who posted the truth on the Internet. The US military wants to squelch the truth so they can continue to pretend that "the mission" in Iraq is noble, pure, and good. It is a cesspit:

Report: Pentagon launches "manhunt" for Wikileaks founder. Founder: "Yoo-hoo, I'm in Vegas!"

by Xeni Jardin

In the Daily Beast today, Philip Shenon reports the Pentagon has launched a "manhunt" for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who has... just announced he'll be in Vegas tonight. Huh?

The Defense Department is upset at Wikileaks and Assange for publishing a number of secret and sensitive documents, and the "Collateral Murder" video. The big fear now, according to reports, is that Assange has access to up to 260,000 classified State Department cables leaked by 22-year-old Army intelligence specialist Bradley Manning (now jailed in Kuwait after being outed by hacker Adrian Lamo). From The Daily Beast:

The cables, which date back over several years, went out over interagency computer networks available to the Army and contained information related to American diplomatic and intelligence efforts in the war zones in Afghanistan and Iraq, the diplomat said. American officials would not discuss the methods being used to find Assange, nor would they say if they had information to suggest where he is now. "We'd like to know where he is; we'd like his cooperation in this," one U.S. official said of Assange.
Unless this tweet from Wikileaks (presumably Assange himself) is a diversion, if there is a manhunt... they won't have to look far.

Vegas, eh? Then again, maybe he'll be Skypeing in from overseas. The whole thing is feeling awfully Spy Vs. Spy. Like an '80s movie, Wargames-ish, with brilliant but dense hackers sniping at each other from behind DOS terminals and changing the world with shell scripts while the U.S. Military lumbers behind them, bellowing, "ASSSANNNNNNNNGE!" It should be said that at this time, I have no way of verifying the reported "Pentagon manhunt" for Assange, nor do we know where Assange is, nor do we know much about the reportedly-hotly-sought 260,000 "diplomatic cables." The "manhunt" could be one guy with a dot-gov email, not a vast, coordinated effort with all phasers set to kill. But again, we don't know. Yet.

Related: Wired News reports more on the contents of the chat sessions between Manning and Lamo, who turned over Manning to the government.

There's some really key stuff in the transcripts—one incident in particular, about being asked to "[evaluate] the arrest of 15 Iraqis rounded up by the Iraqi Federal Police for printing 'anti Iraq' literature"—all of which sheds light on why the 22-year-old may have been motivated to do what he is alleged to have done (and why he may have been compelled to unload his troubles to a stranger, Lamo, who then outed him to authorities).

The Iraqi federal police wouldn't cooperate with U.S. forces, so I was instructed to investigate the matter, find out who the 'bad guys' were, and how significant this was for the FPs," he wrote. But when Manning had the literature translated, he discovered it was a scholarly critique of Iraq Prime Minister Al-Maliki titled Where Did the Money Go?, he wrote. The document was nothing more than a "benign political critique ... following the corruption trail within the PM's cabinet.

"I immediately took that information and ran to the [U.S. Army] officer to explain what was going on. He didn't want to hear any of it. He told me to shut up and explain how we could assist the FPs in finding MORE detainees."

Everything started slipping after that. I saw things differently. I had always questioned the [way] things worked, and investigated to find the truth. But that was a point where I was a part of something. I was actively involved in something that I was completely against.

( * Military censor Rob Beschizza contributed to the hedging and intemperate tone of this piece, as did an unnamed remote source. )

I can understand why the US wants the contents of the diplomatic cables back. I can even understand jailing Bradley Manning for stealing them. But what outrages me is the stomping on Wikileaks for publishing the cover-up of a military massacre that the US government is unwilling to "own up" to. This kind of lying only makes matters worse because people end up believing nothing said by the US military if they can't be honest about their mistakes. The first step to integrity is to admit the mistake and take steps to correct it. Bureaucracies like the US military (and BP in the Gulf oil leak) are unable and unwilling to tell the truth, take their lumps, and seriously change their behaviour to prevent future screw-ups.

Update 2010jun12: Here is a comment on this matter from the journalist Thomas E. Ricks on his blog The Best Defense. I've bolded the key bit:

I am a bit surprised to find myself thinking that if this soldier really did what he is accused of doing -- just throwing classified information onto the internet randomly -= than he should go off and do time.

Why surprised? Because I was the recipient of tons of leaks over the years as a reporter. Most were not potentially dangerous, and much of it was way overclassified. And when I did have stuff that could endanger troops and other people, my editors had a procedure in place to discuss it with officialdom before going to press. They didn't give the government the power to censor, but they did give them a serious chance to make their case.

I believe in the First Amendment, close to absolutely. Newspapers should be allowed to pretty much publish whatever they want. I believe that does our country far more good than harm. Yet I also believe in military discipline. People should do their jobs and keep their words-reporters and soldiers alike. Yes, that sometimes puts people at odds, but the founding fathers, in their wisdom, gave us an adversarial system, designed to check and balance power.

But then, I am a rule of law guy. Prosecuting this soldier is the right thing to do -- but even more so would be going after all those who tortured people in our name. In fact, let's go after the torturers first, because they have done far more damage to our country and values. If the government has some free time left over after dealing with that stain, then sure, go after this kid.