Huge exposure of military secrets goes online

A massive leak of 90,000 US military documents on the Afghanistan war has surfaced at Wikileaks, the whistleblower web site. The result: a unique collaboration by the New York Times, the Guardian and Der Spiegel in collating and publishing reports on the huge trove of intelligence.

Just a week ago, the Washington Post began a big series, to be followed by a TV documentary, exposing the growth of the huge and secret intelligence establishment in the US.

The Afghan leak is the biggest expos of intelligence secrets since analyst Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971 to the NYTs Neil Sheehan. That leak had enormous repercussions on the Nixon administration and for press freedom. The NYT, and later the Washington Post, went ahead and published reports on the leaked papers, disregarding government claims that these were a threat to national security (the US was deeply engaged in the Vietnam War at the time).

No prior restraint

An attempt by the US government to gag the press was rejected by the US Supreme Court on June 30, which upheld and expanded First Amendment rights. The Nixon administrations attempt at prior restraint was rejected by a 6-3 decision.

Prior restraint by licensing (what Malaysians have to endure) is prohibited by the First Amendment. Another form of prior restraint lies in injunctions which governments use to impose press gags on the basis of national security.

It is something to reflect on as the Malaysian government, or rather Umno using the Federal Government, imposes gags, prior restraint by guidance and advice and by force of arms.

The Afghan leaks, at the 39th anniversary of the Pentagon Papers, comes as the Washington Post began publishing Top Secret Amercia the result of a two-year investigation by a team of reporters led by defe! nce spec ialists Dana Priest and William Arkin. It covers the huge growth of the US intelligence establishment, the multiplicity of agencies and a huge building boom to house all of them. A searchable database of the agencies, companies and locations is included at the website.

Wikileaks founder talks about the Afghan secrets

Story behind biggest leak in intelligence history From US military computers to a cafe in Brussels, how thousands of classified papers found their way to online activists
The Guardians Afghanistan War Logs