{"id":1105,"date":"2010-12-04T22:09:39","date_gmt":"2010-12-04T22:09:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com.108-166-28-151.mdgnetworks.com\/wordpress\/?p=1105"},"modified":"2013-03-05T22:10:31","modified_gmt":"2013-03-05T22:10:31","slug":"the-confused-morality-of-wikileaks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-confused-morality-of-wikileaks\/","title":{"rendered":"The Confused Morality of WikiLeaks"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n

NRO’s\u00a0The Corner<\/em><\/p>\n

The latest WikiLeaks trove raises once more the following two issues \u2014 the circumstances of the release of classified documents and their contents. We won\u2019t know the full extent of the diplomatic archives for days, but so far the particulars seem as embarrassing as they are underwhelming.<\/p>\n

We are told that the Obama administration by hook or crook wanted to close Guantanamo, that occasionally US diplomats spy, that Pakistan is unstable, that Saudi Arabia is duplicitous in wanting America to bell the Iranian nuclear cat while their elites subsidize al Qaeda, that we are planning for the eventuality of North Korea\u2019s fall, that China conspires against Google, that Libya\u2019s Gaddafi had a hot blonde \u201cnurse\u201d with him, that the US military was critical of the Brits, that the Royal Family is sometimes naughty, and all number of other things we would expect diplomatic missions to hear, gossip, editorialize, and intrigue about \u2014 and which usually find their way into the mainstream press sooner or later.<\/p>\n

The danger of releasing these confidential diplomatic cables, then, is probably not their content per se but the destruction of the trust and reputations of many American diplomats who on future occasions, in far more critical contexts, will lament the loss of their access, friendships and credibility.<\/p>\n

Second, the how, why, and when of the leak of over 250,000 diplomatic communications raises fundamental, worrisome, and even ironic issues. For instance, how in the world does one Pfc. Bradley Manning, the alleged twenty-something Army leaker, become an \u201cintelligence analyst\u201d (e.g., how long does one have to be in the army, what sort of education is requisite, and what prior skills must be demonstrable) with access to the private correspondence of the top echelon of the American diplomatic corps? That the young private Manning was even near a computer with such confidential material is insane.<\/p>\n

Under Bush, press discussion of leaks focused on their embarrassing contents (after all, it was supposedly a higher calling that made brave whistle-blowers release confidential communications emanating from the Bush-Cheney right-wing nexus). In contrast, the press now seems more interested in responses of \u201cHow dare they\u201d to the WikiLeaks methodology \u2014 as in, how could one be allowed to break laws and leak things from the Obamian State Department, if doing so might harm liberal diplomats, human-rights activists, etc., and embarrass a progressive government?<\/p>\n

So, should we laugh or cry that State Department legal eagle Harold Koh is now using the powers of his new office (quite rightly) to remind leakers of the harm that they do to the operations of the US government? The Bush-era author of \u201cCan the President Be Torturer in Chief?<\/a>\u201d is now writing briefs explaining why the Obama administration\u2019s use of judge\/jury\/executioner Predator drones against\u00a0suspected<\/em>\u00a0terrorists (and anyone who goes up in smoke in their vicinity) is sanctioned by US law. (I\u2019d prefer to be waterboarded at Guantanamo by live questioning inquisitors than blown up by a no-questions-asked robot in Waziristan.)<\/p>\n

Finally, Julian Assange is worse than a fraud, he is an abject hypocrite. He unilaterally establishes supposed moral guidelines that determine the nature of his disclosures, but provides no proof that the enemies of, say, exposed Afghan and Iraqi civilian informants will not seek deadly retribution. And, of course, Assange would not wish to see published the private email, telephone transcripts, and internal discussions of the WikiLeaks board, though these would give us the necessary \u201ccontext\u201d to form opinions about the motivations and methodology of such leaks. Much less would Assange like someone to leak the complete confidential judicial proceedings against him by the Swedish government, which has now issued a warrant for his arrest on sexual coercion and molestation charges. In short, once Assange destroys the protocols of confidentiality, there is no such refuge for anyone \u2014 himself especially.<\/p>\n

And why should Assange limit himself largely to Europe and the United States? As he jets about the secure Western world disclosing to free presses the secrets of Western military and diplomatic services, he might ponder whether he would like to move on to a new career working with Iranian, Russian, Chinese, Syrian, and Hezbollah dissidents who could help him expose the far more lethal and dangerous covert activities of their authoritarian governments.<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a92010 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Victor Davis Hanson NRO’s\u00a0The Corner The latest WikiLeaks trove raises once more the following two issues \u2014 the circumstances of the release of classified documents and their contents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[470],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-hP","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1157,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wikileaks-selective-mortality\/","url_meta":{"origin":1105,"position":0},"title":"WikiLeaks’ Selective Mortality","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 29, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online There has never been anything quite like WikiLeaks in American military history. We are engaged in a great experiment to see whether the U.S. military can still persist in a conflict when it knows that any and all of its private communications can\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "October 2010"","block_context":{"text":"October 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/october-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1032,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/julian-assanges-egoleaks\/","url_meta":{"origin":1105,"position":1},"title":"Julian Assange’s EgoLeaks","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 15, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Julian Assange, the public face of WikiLeaks, is, among many things, cowardly. Courageousness would involve meeting with Iranian dissidents, Russian journalists, Pakistani Christians, or Chinese human-rights activists \u2014 and then releasing any confidential information that they might have about the torment institutionalized by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "December 2010"","block_context":{"text":"December 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/december-2012\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9576,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/has-clinton-topped-nixon\/","url_meta":{"origin":1105,"position":2},"title":"Has Clinton topped Nixon?","author":"Megan Ring","date":"November 3, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"By Victor Davis Hanson\/\/ Town Hall | Another day, another Hillary Clinton bombshell disclosure. This time the scandal comes from disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner's laptop computer, bringing more suggestions of Clinton's sloppy attitude about U.S. intelligence law. Meanwhile, seemingly every day WikiLeaks produces more evidence of the Clinton Foundation\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Nixon"","block_context":{"text":"Nixon","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/nixon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9493,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-tenth-life-of-donald-trump\/","url_meta":{"origin":1105,"position":3},"title":"The Tenth Life of Donald Trump","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 11, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 by Victor Davis Hanson\/\/ National Review Online By seizing control of Sunday night\u2019s debate, he steadied his faltering candidacy \u2014 a bit. The Sunday debate recalibrated the moribund Trump candidacy. It will not end this week. The stampede and groupthink calls for his resignation will ease. Trump might have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Trump"","block_context":{"text":"Trump","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/trump\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9665,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/assessing-the-obama-legacy-against-his-own-mileposts\/","url_meta":{"origin":1105,"position":4},"title":"Assessing the Obama Legacy\u2014Against His Own Mileposts","author":"Megan Ring","date":"December 9, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review The president\u2019s stated priorities have not turned out well. In his 2016 State of the Union address, President Obama summarized his achievements. That same night, the White House issued a press release touting Obama\u2019s accomplishments. Now that he will be leaving, how well\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "International Relations"","block_context":{"text":"International Relations","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/geopolitics\/international-relations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9688,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-trump-nail-in-the-media-coffin\/","url_meta":{"origin":1105,"position":5},"title":"The Trump Nail in the Media Coffin","author":"Megan Ring","date":"January 4, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"By Victor Davis Hanson\/\/ Town Hall | President-elect Donald Trump probably will not often communicate with the nation via traditional press conferences. Nor will Trump likely field many questions from New York\/Washington journalists.What we know as \"the media\" never imagined a Trump victory. It has become unhinged at the reality\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Trump"","block_context":{"text":"Trump","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/trump\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Trump Nail in the Media Coffin","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/media.townhall.com\/townhall\/reu\/ha\/2016\/356\/8ea9ea18-4f78-4127-92a8-b6fa0321f3dc.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1105"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1105"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1106,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1105\/revisions\/1106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}