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12 Aug 2010 22:16

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World: Wikileaks, damn the man, is going to release more documents

  • 15,000 the number of Afghan War documents Wikileaks plans to release next; they’re halfway through right now
  • no human-rights groups aren’t very happy with Wikileaks right now (particularly Reporters Without Borders) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink

10 Aug 2010 09:47

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World: The Afghan War got much deadlier between January and June

  • 31% increase in civilian deaths in just six months source
  • » Why the dramatic increase? Blame the intensifying insurgency. Seventy-six percent of the casualties were caused by “antigovernment elements” such as the Taliban, a number up by 53 percent from January to June 2009.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

08 Aug 2010 22:47

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U.S.: Wikileaks: Bradley Manning has a lot of friends on the outside

Bradley Manning has tons of supporters, and all of them look like nerds and conspiracy theorists. We mean that in the nicest way possible. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Aug 2010 12:14

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World: In Afghanistan, 6 Americans among victims in medical team shooting

  • This tragedy negatively impacts our ability to continue serving the Afghan people. We hope it will not stop our work that benefits over a quarter of a million Afghans each year.
  • A message on International Assistance Mission’s Web site • Regarding the deaths of at least ten of its medical staffers in northeastern Afghanistan. The deaths, mostly of Americans, were apparently brutal – each were individually shot in what was called a robbery. Two Afghans on the team survived. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Jul 2010 11:40

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World: This month the deadliest ever for U.S. troops in Afghanistan

  • 63 U.S. soldiers died this month, topping June’s record source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Jul 2010 09:53

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Politics: Obama: The Wikileaks documents are sensitive … but not really

  • I’m concerned about the disclosure of sensitive information from the battlefield that could potentially jeopardize individuals or operations. … The fact is these documents don’t reveal any issues that haven’t already informed our public debate about Afghanistan.
  • President Barack Obama • Saying one thing but immediately contradicting himself. If this data was so sensitive, how come it doesn’t reveal an issues that haven’t already informed our public debate? Security experts suggest that the documents don’t create an immediate threat, but note that the tendency is dangerous. Tying this into last week’s “Top Secret America” thang that the Post did, it’s possible that the government’s tendency to overclassify documents hit here too. But this sort of doublespeak simply doesn’t get us anywhere. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Jul 2010 20:52

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U.S.: Nice try, Wikleaks: Congress passes war spending bill anyway

  • $37 billion in spending is about to hit the Afghan War source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

26 Jul 2010 10:37

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Politics: Andrew Sullivan: Wikileaks proves how tough Afghan War’s end will be

  • What do we really learn from the Wikileaks monster-doc-dump? I think the actual answer is: not much that we didn’t already know. But it’s extremely depressing – and rivetingly explicit – confirmation of what anyone with eyes and ears could have told you for years.
  • Mega-blogger Andrew Sullivan • Describing the nature of what’s inside the Wikileaks data dump. (We couldn’t have said it better.) The Atlantic Wire has a pretty succinct report of what the data shows. Sullivan, meanwhile, says that the data shows how politically treacherous all of this is for the U.S.: “A president who withdraws and then presides over a terror attack will be vulnerable to cheap political attacks of the Palinite variety.” Is he right? Should we take a more minimalist approach to the war, as Joe Biden is pushing? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 8 Comments • Permalink

26 Jul 2010 10:28

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World: Afghanistan and The White House: How do THEY feel about Wikileaks?

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

25 Jul 2010 20:48

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Politics: Why did Wikileaks contact the press before its big Afghan War leak?

  • Short answer: It gains little traction otherwise. NYU superhuman being Jay Rosen pointed this fact out on Twitter tonight. Last year, Wikileaks guy Julian Assange put it like this: “You’d think the bigger and more important the document is, the more likely it will be reported on but that’s absolutely not true. It’s about supply and demand. Zero supply equals high demand, it has value. As soon as we release the material, the supply goes to infinity, so the perceived value goes to zero.” So in other words, if they just put it up without talking to the press first, nobody would see it. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 3 Comments • Permalink
 
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