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the iraq documents shows the whole pattern of condoning torture, of reporting it when witnessed in the context of a system that assured there'd be no investigation, etc. it outlines the implications of the bush administrations (bogus) legal position on the question of torture; similarly with the rendition process; similarly with guantanomo.
there hasn't even been a chilcot commission in the united states (the state cables reveal information about the extent to which chilcot was constructed to protect american interests, btw...) no investigation of how this was possible, no attempt to tail back the expansive claims to executive impunity advanced by the bush people. nothing.
in that, i think wikileaks performed a valuable service.
on the afghanistan leaks, i think there is alot of interesting and disturbing information that should have been public from the outset--one can argue about where the line would be drawn optimally---but it's clear that the pentagon's post-vietnam strategy of total information management and a massive over-reaching of the legitimate uses of classification of information has to be pushed back. and wikileaks has demonstrated something of why and how that's the case.
the state cables are interesting, like i've been saying. they repay reading about. then there's a conversation to be had, maybe.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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