Shooting the messenger

In July, Wikileaks released over 70,000 classified documents on the war in Afghanistan putting themselves, and in particular Julian Assange, the face of Wikileaks, in the firing line of the US government. Both the US and UK governments were quick to condemn the release of the Afghan war logs and say that the lives of troops and people who had collaborated with them were at risk. This has since been shown to be yet another piece of propaganda as three months on, the Pentagon were forced to admit that not a single person has been harmed by the release of the logs. In the lead up to July, Wikileaks had contacted the US government to request their help in redacting sensitive information - the US government refused to cooperate and of course initially denied that Wikileaks had contacted them until documents surfaced proving Wikileaks had contacted the US State Department via an intermediary.

The release of Afghan war logs turned Wikileaks and Julian Assange into the US government's bête noir  and so began numerous attempts to shut them down. Pressure was exerted on the British registered website that Wikileaks used for online donations and they succumbed to that pressure. A Swedish prosecutor decided to impugn Julian Assange's character by issuing a rape warrant which was cancelled 24 hours later. Last week, Wikileaks was subjected to an online attack that in their words "could have only been carried out by a highly skilled hacker", something that had been proposed by various persons within and without the US government. Fortunately, Wikileaks don't just have a Plan B, but a Plan C and a Plan D and their leak of the 400,000 classified documents on the Iraq war went ahead.

What is indisputable, is the accuracy and veracity of the documents so why is the US government hell bent on shooting the messenger instead of addressing the realities these documents reveal? With the Afghan war logs, the source, according to the US government, is Private Bradley Manning, but thus far the US government has not fingered anyone for the leak of the Iraq war logs - why?

At a press conference in London last Saturday on the Iraq war logs, Julian Assange noted that the first casualty of war is the truth and Wikileaks intent to redress that - the release of the logs shines a spotlight on seven years of propaganda peddled by the US and UK governments. Sitting alongside Julian Assange was Daniel Ellsberg whose courage about 40 years ago, in leaking the Pentagon Papers, served to make the US public aware of what was really going on during the Vietnam War and helped turn the tide of public opinion firmly against the war. During the press conference Daniel Ellsberg presented Julian Assange and Wikileaks with the 2010 Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence Award which the latter fittingly accepted on behalf of their sources.