I am not going to comment on the substance or subject matter of what the whole Wikileads project has put out there. No, that is done and others will comment and clean up - what is important to me is the next step.
This isn't complicated, and the path remains the same as I have outlined before. We need to understand the basics and respond in an effective manner - simply, boldly, and without hesitation.
First of all, the soldier as the source should be given to the military to take care of. The Army needs its best prosecution team on him and should punish him as much as possible in a very public way. Make an example of him. He is and will be drenched in blood. No quarter or mercy should be given to him. Whatever the max is; make is so.
What to do to the Wikileaks IT infrastructure, US and foreign individuals involved - well - the Justice Department will have to figure it out. They all have blood on their hands - but what we can do inside the rule of law is a fuzzy area. Better to go hard and lose on appeal than to go weak and encourage others to leak as well - but that is just me.
What does the military do next? Well, we need to be honest with ourselves. NIPRNET, SIPRNET, and TS-SCI systems and higher are only as good as the people who are sitting in front of them. Most thumb drives and CD-R/RW abilities have been disabled, but that only stops amateurs and are easy to get turned back on - ask any Flag Aide. Information compartmentalization and file use monitoring software are hopefully steps already taken long ago, along with a thorough IT forensics of what that guy did and who allowed such slack procedures that enabled him.
That is a start. Oh, as you may have noticed, I didn't use any names here. The reason is simple; these people are not doing this for some grand reason, no - they are narcissists. They want to hear their name and have it heard. They crave some feeling of power and attention. Nuff said.
Howdy Morning Defense readers!
1 hour ago
