Wikileaks Causing More Harm Than Good

Douchbag Of The Year

As the Andrew Bruss of Andrewbruss.com, I would like to publically disapprove of Wikileaks with extreme prejudice. While founder Julian Assange is right that American’s have the right to know what their government is up to, American’s do not have the right to know what top secret actions our government is taking. That's why they call them secret.

The Freedom Of Information Act provides Americans with unheard of access to government records, fiscal expenditures, and meeting minutes. But when the subject pertains to national security, the Supreme Court has ruled time and time again that American civilians are not entitled to classified information. Whether we’re talking about battlefield records or diplomatic communiqué’s, some things must remain secret from the American public in order to serve them best. You can disagree with this statement, but that doesn’t chance the statements legality.

But what to make of the content? While a great deal of the information that’s surfaced through the latest round of leaks is embarrassing, not much is surprising.

-       Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has been lobbying two presidents to strike Iran’s nuclear program.

-       Yemen’s President has been telling the Parliament that U.S. bombings against Al Quada forces were in fact Yemeni bombings.

-       Secretary Of State Hillary Clinton has continued a decades old program of utilizing U.S. embassies as de facto CIA bases.

-       Russian intelligence agencies have been relying on organized crime syndicates for operational assistance.

-       Iran smuggled weapons into Lebanon with the assistance of the Red Crescent

-       Russian officials consider Soviet-born Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman “one of them.”        

Nothing declassified in the latest round of Wikileaks is too surprising. It’s what happens next that is of grave concern. World leaders from every international hot spot have had private, even embarrassing conversations with U.S. diplomats leaked. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was called “risk-adverse and uncreative,” and the gatekeepers of Mecca and Medina have been ousted as wanting to bomb Iran even more than the Israeli “Zionist regime” they hate so much.

The end result of these leaks will be an unprecedented distrust of U.S. diplomats. In a time where the first African-American president is working to use his overseas popularity to achieve a laundry list of progressive diplomatic initiatives, no good can come of these leaks. The only person who stands to benefit is Assange himself, and something tells me his days of flaunting the worlds only superpower are numbered.