The subversive homepage Wikileaks scored last night its biggest coup this far: The website’s organizers obtained at least 92.ooo classified, secret military documents on the war in Afghanistan and put them online. This flood of information draws a quite different picture of the conflict – and reveals the true nature of the war. The documents, covering the whole operation from its beginnings in 2004 until December 2009, include for instance facts and figures regarding civilian casualties caused by NATO troops and corroborate the assertion that the Pakistani as well as Iranian secret services are supporting insurgents, i.e. the Taliban. Wikileaks forwarded the material to the Guardian, The New York Times, and the German Spiegel. Thus, the growing influence of the Internet on traditional mass media seems to prove true once more; this very important example consolidates the WWW as a source of unique information for professionals in journalism – and challenges governmental hegemony on information control. However, the whole issue needs a critical examination as benefits and disadvantages have to be measured.
Update: Julian Assange of Wikileaks on the Afghanistan War Logs (Guardian/youtube)
To get all information, click the link above or here.
Furthermore, here’s an impression of the broad media response to the information leak – almost all major newspapers and broadcasters worldwide reacted instantly to the incident:
Guardian: “Massive leak of secret files exposes the real war in Afghanistan”
Washington Post: “Leaked files lay bare war in Afghanistan”
The Times: “Afghanistan files leak lifts lid on realities of war”
BBC: “US condemns Wikileaks revelations”
Al-Jazeera:”US condemns leaked Afghan ‘secrets'”
Tagesschau: “75.000 Afghanistan-Geheimakten im Netz”
Spiegel: “Die Afghanistan-Protokolle”
Süddeutsche Zeitung: “Geheime Afghanistan-Protokolle offengelegt”
Le Monde: “Afghanistan: des rapports secrets explosifs publiés”
El Mundo: “La verdad sobre la Guerra de Afganistán, desvelada en una filtración histórica”
However, various important newspapers have not covered the story, yet – at least on their official homepages. Among those publications are for instance the German FAZ and TAZ, China Daily, Japan Times, Jerusalem Post.
Dennis Nguyen 