WikileaKs Afghan Diary, More Provocative than Rolling Stone

Sulaiman Basir, FB

As if the U.S. and NATO forces weren’t being haunted enough by Afghanistan, WikiLeaks.org disclosed an estimate  91,731 classified documents pertaining to the conflict in Afghanistan Sunday. These documents reveal the true horror and statistics of the war.

Of course all major news sources  are running the story while at the same time condemning WikiLeaks and the whistle blowing source. It’s not clear if this condemnation is patriotism or jealousy for once again not having the top story. If NYT, Washington Post, FOX, CNN and BBC have to secure their funding by pitching half truths then its up to independent sources to inform the world.

The Afghan War Dairy are raw and contradicts the myths of Allied force progression  and civility that is routinely inoculated in the news.  There are many reports of Black Ops activities and widespread use of deployed drones for target killings.

The logs describe the efforts of a secret commando unit, Task Force 373, (TF 373) with its “joint prioritized effects list” of hundreds of senior targets, and its efforts to assassinate the enemy. Contrary to the impression that governments seek to promote, these operations are often unsuccessful and sometimes result in the killing of friendly forces and civilians.

One of the leaked logs, for example, describes an incident on the night of 11 June 2007, as a joint night operation at night between Coalition Forces and Afghan Security forces hunted a Taliban commander called Qarl Ur-Rahmanin, in a valley near Jalalabad. The log describes how Task Force 373′s efforts led to the death of seven friendly Afghan police officers, and in effect lead to local resentment to Allied forces.

A number of targets are killed on the spot and are never brought in. The United Nations is claimed to have condemned these extrajudicial killings; however, no true enforcement or investigations have taken place.

Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks.org, is standing by the validity and importance of the reports. He explained the weight of the obscure reports to CNN, “all of these people being killed in the small events that we haven’t heard about that numerically eclipse the big casualty events. It’s the boy killed by a shell that missed a target”.

The reports expose some double dealing by Pakistan which has been playing on both sides of the field. Although that may be news for those just seeing the reports, in Think Tank circles this behavior has been known.

WikiLeaks has exposed the depravities of modern conflicts before. The site gained international attention in April when it posted a 2007 video that showed an U.S. helicopter attack in Iraq killing a dozen civilians, including two unarmed Reuters journalists.  The event was claimed by the military to be engaging armed insurgents. Anyone who witnessed the video would have trouble affirming that claim.

Assange has defended WikiLeaks by pointing out the nonpartisan way it exposes international conflicts, stating that WikiLeaks “describe[s] the abuses by both sides in this war, and that’s how people can understand what’s really going on and if they choose to support it or not”. (CNN)

In a phone interview, Assange told the New York Times, “It shows not only the severe incidents but the general squalor of war, from the death of individual children to major operations that kill hundreds”.

“We believe that transparency in government activities leads to reduced corruption, better government and stronger democracies”, is declared on the WikiLeaks website.

After vetting and  posting sensitive information WikiLeaks protects their First Amendment rights by building a legal staff around each new exposure.

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