National Security

Air Force Launches Dud at WikiLeaks

By Mark Thompson | @MarkThompson_DC | December 15, 2010 | +

In military terms, “fire for effect” means putting iron on target. That’s what makes the Air Force’s decision to ban its personnel from websites posting Wikileaks’ classified documents so strange: all it does is highlight Air Force impotence, because curious airmen can scroll through the documents on their home computers, just like anyone else. In other words, the Air Force isn’t firing for effect, but firing to make a point.

After the initial data dump, the Air Force issued guidance warning its people to steer clear of classified WikiLeaks material last summer. “The information posted needs to be reviewed by the appropriate Original Classification Authorities (OCAs) to: determine if it’s classified, conduct damage assessments, and make a determination regarding continued classification,” a statement from Air Force Secretary Michael Donley’s office said. “Despite circumstances surrounding the WikiLeaks, all Air Force personnel must continue to protect similar or identical information commensurate with the level of classification assigned until the information is assessed by the appropriate OCAs.” (Don’t hold your breath.)

What’s even stranger is that the Air Force is the only service cutting off access to the New York Times and some 25 other media outlets, including the British newspaper The Guardian, the German magazine Der Spiegel, the Spanish newspaper El País and the French newspaper Le Monde. The other services say existing warnings to their personnel not to read any classified material released by WikiLeaks are sufficient. Kind of makes you wonder why the Air Force doesn’t.

Related Topics: Air force, wikileaks, National Security

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  • http://ericychan.wordpress.com ericychan

    Uh, Mr Thompson, did you fact-check this? I’m USAF and I have full access to NYT, the Guardian, etc…

    We -do- get the warning not to access Wikileaks, but that’s about it.

  • michaelfury

    “Doctors in Iraq’s war-ravaged enclave of Falluja are dealing with up to 15 times as many chronic deformities in infants and a spike in early life cancers that may be linked to toxic materials left over from the fighting.

    The extraordinary rise in birth defects has crystallised over recent months as specialists working in Falluja’s over-stretched health system have started compiling detailed clinical records of all babies born.

    Neurologists and obstetricians in the city interviewed by the Guardian say the rise in birth defects – which include a baby born with two heads, babies with multiple tumours, and others with nervous system problems – are unprecedented and at present unexplainable.”

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/13/falluja-cancer-children-birth-defects

    http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2010/11/11/circle-ix/

  • http://ericychan.wordpress.com ericychan

    oops, never mind, guess I was wrong…

  • bobell

    I work for a military service other than the Air Force. I got the same warning.
    .
    From a strictly legal point of view,classified information doesn’t cease to be classified simply because anyone in the world can access it with a couple of mouse clicks. So it follows logically that people without a “need to know” (the official term for what justifies granting someone access to classified information) should not see that classified information. If the Govt could figure out some way to forbid everyone in the world from checking out classified information on WikiLeaks, they would. As it is, the best they can do is stop their employees. And since there’s no easy way to tell whether a given item on WikiLeaks is classified or not, the only safe thing to do is forbid all access.
    .
    There are those who may conclude from this that it is possible to follow a sequence of logical steps to an absurd conclusion. I prefer not to draw any conclusions. I report, you decide.

  • mikew67

    Nowhere to be found in all the talk of government spending; Defense. Now over $750 billion per year. No problem?

    Lift up the rock to find more slush funds, overspending and fraud, than even in Medicare.

    – Balkingpoints / www

  • http://erieangel.wordpress.com erieangel

    The problem with telling a portion of the world’s population they are not permitted to view these documents that everybody else has been viewing and commenting on is that it could lead to the “slippery slope” of cencorship across the board.
    .
    In fact, incoming freshman from FL; that “Mr.-I-have-a-higher-clerance-than-the-president” has already spoken about the need to censor the media. What next? Government block of any website they don’t like? MY place of employment blocks a lot of sites on their system, but I would expect to feel infringed upon if I couldn’t visit whatever sites I wanted from my home.
    .
    As for the classified documents themselves. Gates, Clinton and others in the know have all stated these documents haven’t put anybody or this country at risk. Which leads me to the opinion that the government simply classifies nearly everything as par for the course. Are the documents an embarrassment? Yes. Dangerous? Not at all.

  • stuartzechman

    They hate us for our freedoms.

  • 11charlie

    “In other words, the Air Force isn’t firing for effect, but firing to make a point.”
    .
    In the Army, we would have classified it as a “dud round”.

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