CrossTalk: Wikibacklash -with former M15 Spy and British Diplomat

[avaistheone1]

Run time: 24:10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSRMasdyfak   Posted on YouTube: December 06, 2010 By YouTube Member: RussiaToday Views on YouTube: 3421   Posted on DU: December 08, 2010 By DU Member: avaistheone1 Views on DU: 317

 
Illuminating program on wikileaks from a former MI5 spy's view, as well as from a diplomat's standpoint.

[JDPriestly]

1. Excellent discussion

I am amazed that Lieberman does not seem to realize that Wikileaks is a news site. It is making the information public.

If whoever got this information wanted to help someone spy on our country, they would surreptitiously hand the information to some specific enemy state either to achieve a political goal or for money.

And the even more troubling fact that Lieberman is missing is that, in fact, this information may already have been handed over to foreign countries by individuals or entities other than whoever gave it to Wikileaks. Seems it wasn't that hard to obtain.

If the person or people who gave this to Wikileaks could get a hold of it, then very possibly some other person with a more dangerous purpose in mind, could get a hold of it.

Someone could have sold this to a third country over a period of many years. After all, it dates back to 1966. That's pretty bad.

The real problem is not Wikileaks. The problem is that Wikileaks may be publishing information that someone else may have handed over to a foreign country and maybe even sold or given this information to more countries than our government is willing to admit.

I don't think I am expressing this very well. But as long as Wikileaks is letting us all know what information it has and is publishing, it is not as damaging as it would be if someone were selling or giving this to another country in secret.

If a foreign country has this information and the US does not know it, then that foreign country has a lot of power over the US. Wikileaks has destroyed the secrecy. That means that the US will be able to deal with the damage. If the US knows the information is out there and generally available, it can act accordingly.

But when and if some country gets this information and we don't know it, then we have a real espionage problem. This is a problem of whistleblowing and publication of secrets, not espionage. This information was secret. Now everybody can read it. This is not a matter of another country getting our secrets surreptitiously and using it to wield power over us in that they have more information than we think they have.

I'm not saying that the person or people who originally obtained access or took this information from our government could not, if they are subject to our law, be punished under our espionage laws. I don't know.

Assange is probably not subject to much of any of our laws. I suspect that he has resigned himself to accept whatever fate he meets over this. So, he will probably never give up his sources.

And of course there is no international law that protects the secrets of the US as far as I know. Can't imagine that there is. It would not make sense for other countries to agree to protect our secrets much as we might want them to.

But the US should thank its lucky stars that it now knows that its current method of dealing with this kind of information is not secure. To have continued in ignorance of this danger would have been horrible in the event of a war with a major power.

And I pray that event never occurs.