Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Julian Assange, on his leaking of the names of hundreds of Afghan civilian informants into the hands of the Taliban:

"Well, they're informants. So, if they get killed, they've got it coming to them. They deserve it."

that's rich coming from an informant.



That (alleged) quote is disputed and unproven, and came from writers openly hostile to Assange.


> In his book, co-authored with Luke Harding, WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy, Leigh claimed Assange to have said in relation to whether the names should be redacted, "Well, they're informants. So, if they get killed, they've got it coming to them. They deserve it."[63] In response to the book's publication, WikiLeaks posted on Twitter: "The Guardian book serialization contains malicious libels. We will be taking action."


If it has been leaked, then show me the name of one of the hundreds of names of Afghan informants that has been leaked.

You can't because no Afghan informant names were leaked.


The first half of your comment was alright, because a statement was made without proof. But your second then undermines it because you're making a statement without proof. All sources say "afghan informant names were leaked", but you are claiming they weren't - what is your source?

Anyway, Wikileaks was urged to hide / censor the names because it put their lives in danger: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/aug/10/afghanistan-wa.... Some were released, others containing most of the names were witheld by wikileaks and the partnered media outlets: https://www.wired.com/2011/02/wikileaks-book/, https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/701412231. Basically Wikileaks admitted fault and carelessness, and people died as a result: https://www.newsweek.com/taliban-says-it-will-target-names-e...


> people died as a result

Who died? Who was even named?



The web site you link to says information about Afghanistan was leaked, and no informant names published.


Yes it does, please read / search carefully before making an assertion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_documents_leak_o...

> [...] the detailed logs had exposed the names of Afghan informants, thereby endangering their lives.


You apparently didn't read carefully yourself. The names were never published. That the logs exposed their names to Wikileaks and other reporters is known.

If many names were published, what is one name?


1500 documents were published with thousands of bits of compromising information. They sent a request the the DOD to sanitize the documents, and the DOD basically said we don't negotiate with terrorists, so we will not attempt to mitigate.

The information included FOB locations, contact reports, and secret and classified documents. releasing these documents without properly sanitizing the information put american service men in danger.

Without a doubt, leaking classified information puts thousands of lives at risk. Julian Assage is a criminal. At some point you stop being a whistle blower and you become a terrorist releasing compromising information on troop movements, informants, supply constraints, and readiness assessments. Julian Assage is a terrorist and i'm sure he won't live very long now that he is out. He's pissed off too many dangerous people.


If you make your point in a more verbose and personable way it will be more convincing.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: