Wikileaks

Since everybody else has weighed in on this, I feel the need to pile on. Over at Samizdata, there are multiple arguments over the finer points of international law, the applicability of the U.S. first amendment to everybody in the world. and weather Manning and Assagne actually committed crimes.

Manning stole the information, and Assagne received it and distributed it, presumably to his own benefit. In most places, even disregarding what exactly was stolen, this would land both of them in jail as thief and accessory.

The information included intelligence sources and methods, which results in sources drying up, frequently in pools of blood. Definitions vary, but in several states, actions that result in a murder render the participants accessories to murder, significantly elevating the seriousness of the charges.

My observation is that 90% of the information is stuff that anyone could reasonably conclude, which suggests that our State department, in spite of fancy trappings, isn't half as clever as they'd like us to think. Sandmonkey provides observation from the middle east and notes that the average tinpot dictator in that part of the world is more worried about the Iranians than the Israelis.

That Assagne is still alive and well tells me that nothing was revealed about the Russians that everybody didn't already know, and that the CIA is in the same league as the State department.