What is the least surprising headline to read? Other than “Crime rockets in Dem-run cities.”
I’d say it is anything containing the words: “US Intelligence Leak”.
Think back over the past thirteen years ago and try to think which other country has had more of its secrets leaked out than this one.
Has there yet been a time when swathes of secrets from America’s rivals and enemies have been exposed for the world to see?
Has there been a Wikileaks from the Chinese Communist Party?
Have we seen vast caches of secrets from the Kremlin? No, and no again.
Turn to America´s friends and allies. Have the UK, Canada, Australia or New Zealand been responsible for the largest classified data breaches in recent history?
Again, no. That singular distinction goes to this country. And it is a distinction which the US intelligence community should once again explain, but will fail to.
In recent weeks it is top secret classified documents from the Pentagon that have made their way around the world.
We know that the US is the source of the leaks because no one other country would have access to all of the information revealed.
The documents mainly relate to the war in Ukraine. But they include details about the US government’s diplomatic dealings with, among other countries, Egypt and South Korea.
They are profoundly damaging.
Not least because the leaks are of such use to the Russians.
They detail not only the diplomatic tug-of-war going on behind the scenes around arming the Russians and Ukrainians.
They also detail such things such as the Ukrainian army’s plans for a spring counter-offensive.
How could such a massive and damaging data leak have occurred? How could America be such an unreliable ally?
In part because in recent years this has kept happening and many Americans have not just become used to it but actually revel in it.
It is thirteen years since Julian Assange leaked massive quantities of information about American operations in Afghanistan for all the world to see.
The Wikileaks scandal saw Assange pursued by the US authorities.
But it also saw him celebrated.
As one of the few people to have debated Assange face-to-face I never had any doubt about what a ratbag he is.
But back then, in 2010, he was the hero and toast of the anti-war left.
A few years later, and because Wikileaks was the receiver and disseminator of the 2016 DNC leaks, portions of the American right suddenly took Assange up as a hero.
Both sides in turn were duped.
I asked Assange years ago when his sinister and secretive organization might get around to leaking the Russian government’s secrets.
I’m still waiting for an answer.
In the meantime Assange continues to be heralded as a hero.
Following The Post’s latest coverage on the US intelligence leaks scandal
- Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira, 21, arrested in US intel leaks
- No one should be shocked by the intelligence leak — Americans have gleefully made it a pattern
- Accused US intel leaker seen quietly reading on patio before law enforcement stormed home
- Photos, time stamps: Clues that could have given away accused military leaker
Today people of right and left refer to him as a “journalist”, in spite of the fact that he has never been any such thing.
The kindest explanation of Assange is that he is an naive data-dump for information which damages America.
And remember how the person closest to his leak was treated?
The man who fed Assange the original Wikileaks dump was a low-grade private in the US military: Bradley Manning.
He was charged and imprisoned.
But in prison Bradley decided he was actually “Chelsea” and a simpering America was so moved by this transition story that “Chelsea” got her prison sentence commuted by kind President Obama.
What a message to send out.
Then ten years ago it was the turn of Edward Snowden – a mere contractor – to steal and dump vast amounts of US government secrets on the world.
Once again Snowden posed as an innocent truth teller.
Though once again it was interesting whose secrets didn’t come out.
The Snowden leaks did a vast amount to damage this country’s intelligence operations.
The data dump was enormous and completely unedited. Personally I felt no surprise at all as I watched Snowden attempt to gain sanctuary first from the Chinese Communist Party and then from Vladimir Putin.
Again people on the right and left in America praised Snowden as some kind of hero. There used to be another name for people who leaked secrets to our enemies and then went to live under their protection. “Traitors” – that was it.
Incidentally, we haven’t heard much from Mr Snowden since his “protector” invaded Ukraine.
I guess free speech isn’t as grand in Russia as it is in America. Who could have guessed?
But the most interesting thing about the Snowden leak is that it was a leak from a totally junior figure at the NSA.
The information Snowden had access to was accessible to unbelievably low-level figures like him.
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As it had been to Manning. Tens of thousands of people had access to the information.
At some point you have to wonder – can such things can really be called “secret”?
Yesterday a 21-year old at the Massachusetts Air National Guard base on Cape Cod was arrested over the latest mass leak.
Jack Teixeira was reportedly a tech support officer at the base. So once again an unbelievably large amount of top-secret information has passed the desk of an unbelievably junior figure.
And once again America has shown itself to be the leaky ship – the weak link – in the Western security chain.
Our intelligence agencies have vast budgets. They investigate private citizens and sitting presidents with impunity.
But they cannot do the one thing they’re meant to do: keep secrets.
But there is also a wider societal failure here.
I predict that Teixeira will become a national hero to one political side or other in the US, depending on whose politics his leaks most assist.
Some people will hate him. But Jack Texeira should fear not.
Even if he does go to jail he can always say that he would like to be called Jacqueline from now on and all will be forgiven.
He´ll be out in no time.
Once again the rest of the world knows everything about America. I just wish we knew how much they must be laughing at us.
