Bradley Manning
“Hillary Clinton and several thousand diplomats around the world are going to have a heart attack when they wake up one morning and find an entire repository of classified foreign policy is available, in searchable format, to the public,” … “Everywhere there’s a US post, there’s a diplomatic scandal that will be revealed.” These are quotes from Bradley Manning, the source behind the WikiLeaks document scandal that exposed embassy mail from around the world.
I thought it was amusing when I read that the Chinese were censoring the Internet after searching their names and discovering people were saying hurtful things about the Chinese leaders. Another amusing disclosure was that the Saudis are the main source of funding for Al‐Qa’eda. No big revelation to anyone. What was not clearly revealed is that the revelations are just beginning. It appears that when the data is fully released, it will be the largest spy operation ever against the U.S. ‐‐ revealing to enemies and friends alike an unending data stream containing the government’s thoughts, feelings, intentions, capabilities, and strategies.
As Manning sits in his cell ‐‐ in solitary confinement ‐‐ he will have to ponder the comment he made to Julian Assange when he delivered the records ‐‐ “No one suspected a thing.” An Army private who openly flaunted all of the rules had this degree of access to sensitive records. Very sad that only Manning’s head is going to roll.
As with every catastrophe, it requires a series of failures ‐‐ not just one ‐‐ this is no different.
