What Did We Learn From the Wikileaks Fiasco?

What did we learn from WikiLeaks exposing hundreds of thousands of confidential and top secret military and State Department documents over the past 8 months?

First, we learned that most of the documents are benign and that our intelligence agencies are protecting more information then it should. Think about it, if only one in a thousand top secret documents contain any pertinent intelligence information, it is easy for those important documents to be overlooked and lost. Classifying all documents and emails as confidential only creates an unnecessary chaos.

Secondly, we learned that WikiLeaks (and CEO Julian Assange) were never mentioned in any of the released top secret correspondence hence, they were never considered a national security risk.

Thirdly, we learned that too many people have access to top secret and confidential documents. It is believed that the culprit (the person who stole the information and handed it over to WikiLeaks) was a troubled first class private and he was the lone whistleblower. If a disgruntled private has access to our top national security data bases, it begs to reason that millions of individuals must also have access to this information. Yes, it is true that our 16 intelligence agencies want to be able to share information, but having millions of people with access top secret documents are just too many. This tells us that it is time to combine our national intelligence agencies and to rid these institutions of redundant roles. Our intelligence agencies need to be organized in a less complex manner to prevent potential leaks from happening again. A Washington Post article entitled “A Hidden World, Growing Beyond Control” on July 19, 2010 does a great job outlining the complexity and bureaucracy of our intelligence agencies. Remember, bigger does always mean better.

Fourth, this security leak will make us less safe because our allies will no longer trust us with critical intelligence and will therefore; refuse to share important information with our intelligence agencies.

Fifth, a couple thousand of the leaked documents may have done immense and irreparable damage to our military personnel, informants, and to the relationship with our allies.

Sixth, the American public has lost all confidence in the President, the Department of Justice (DOJ), and our intelligence agencies to protect us. WikiLeaks not only made 3 separate releases of confidential documents over the past 8 months, they broadcast ahead of time when and what will be released. Thus, during the past 8 months our President, DOJ, and intelligence agencies have failed to issue an arrest warrant for Julian Assange; they have failed to detain Assange; and they have failed to shut down his servers to prevent him from disseminating the information. If an army of over a million intelligence workers cannot capture or shut down the site of “two bit hack”, then this exudes very little confidence to not only the American people, but to our allies. This is an embarrassment and there is no other way to explain the ineptness of this administration.

Seventh, it was revealed that many leaders of Arab nations, such as Saudi Arabia, want Israel and or the United States to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities. They too fear a nuclear Iran and feel the time to act is now because talks and sanctions have failed to work.

In summary, the WikiLeaks release of top secret documents has made the United States intelligence agencies a laughingstock that cannot be trusted to work with our allies to fight rogue nations and terrorists.