Afghanistan WikiLeaks Made Possible by Lady Gaga

Last night WikiLeaks dumped 91,000 classified U.S. military documents detailing our current Quagmire in the Graveyard of Empires. Most of the documents, which were reviewed in advance by the Times, are low-level field reports detailing the daily grind in Afghanistan, where officers, unsurprisingly, complain of "poorly equipped Afghan forces and corrupt Afghan government officials." Other documents suggest that Pakistan's spy service, ISI, is helping Afghan insurgents attack U.S. forces.

This is hardly news, and one U.S. official tells the Washington Post, "There is not a lot new here for those who have been following developments closely." But this being 2010, there is, thankfully, a Lady Gaga angle to make this newsy.

It seems the private who allegedly downloaded the huge trove of secret data from military computers in Iraq exploited a loophole that permitted the use of compact disks on secure computers. External hard drive ports were disabled, but Pfc. Bradley E. Manning allegedly spent six months downloading documents onto a CD that he disguised in a Lady Gaga CD case. The Times reports, "He was able to avoid detection not because he kept a poker face, they said, but apparently because he hummed and lip-synched to Lady Gaga songs to make it appear that he was using the classified computer’s CD player to listen to music." Whether you think Manning's a patriot or a traitor, surely we can all agree that he was willing to sacrifice for his cause.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange—who was supposed to attend a hacker conference at the Hotel Pennsylvania earlier this month but backed out after federal agents were spotted there—tells CNN, "It is the total history of the Afghan war from 2004 to 2010, with some important exceptions—U.S. Special Forces, CIA activity, and most of the activity of other non-U.S. groups."

A spokesperson for the Afghan government issued a statement saying, "There should be serious action taken against the ISI, who has a direct connection with the terrorists. These reports show that the U.S. was already aware of the ISI connection with the al Qaeda terrorist network. The United States is overdue on the ISI issue and now the United States should answer."

"The key thing to bear in mind is that the administration is not naive about Pakistan," an Obama administration official insists to the Washington Post. "The problem with the Pakistanis is that the more you threaten them, the more they become entrenched and don't see a path forward with you." Pakistan receives more than $1 billion a year from Washington for its "help" in "combating" the militants.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By John Del Signore in News on July 26, 2010 10:52 AM

Comments [rss]

Rob T Firefly

Correction: Assange didn't back out of the hacker conference "after federal agents were spotted there." He had already cancelled his plans to travel to the United States for the event, and a substitute speaker was arranged to take Assange's place.

Sulayman

I don't see why the article puts Pakistan's "help" in "combating" the militants in quotes. Pakistan actually IS doing a lot to fight the Taliban, especially since they are killing thousands of Pakistanis and the public hates them. Yes there are some allegations of corrupt officials in the military, but the country is doing the best it can to stop the murderers.

SignofHope

wowza are my fellow gothamist readers really this moronic? yikes NY.

Greenpoint60

I admire the Pakistanis, they are smart. Pakistan knows that the US will loose the war and that they will be living next door to the Tally-Bam. You can bet your bottom dollar that Washington is looking to make a face saving negotiated withdrawal a la Vietnam. No doubt, the helicopters will be extracting the embassy personnel in 2014. George Bush landed us in a deep pile of shit. Good Morning Vietnam

Greenpoint60

Lets wait and see if Washington will block the Wikileaks site in the future. Knowing their mentality, I believe that will be the case.

Spirit of 76

Not going to happen. The Internet is impossible to police. Just ask the MPAA and the RIAA. Once something makes it to the Net, there are many ways it can keep propagating, including Usenet, dozens of peer-to-peer systems and email. Many servers are outside US jurisdiction and can't be shut down by the Feds. If they try to block those, anonymous proxy servers can get you around the firewall. Even the Great Firewall of China can be and has been bypassed by Chinese who want more information than from state-sanctioned sources. You have to keep the genie from getting out of the bottle, not try to stomp him once he's out.

Greenpoint60

Lets see what happens, the powers that be a real pissed off

yincrash

what exactly do you mean by 'block'? like tell all ISPs in the US to block it? that seems highly unlikely.

angry_pickle

Traitor.

I wonder if we could even have won WW2 if attention whores were constantly leaking secrets, the media constantly reporting on every little stumble or civilian killed, and politicians using each news for political gain. Do you think morale was high during the Normandy Invasion? That took weeks to complete and many mistakes were made.

korper

Also, morale probably would have sunk during WWII if our involvement dragged on for a decade with no clear progress toward toppling the Nazis. Not to mention if we'd then invaded, say, Iraq a couple years later to nab the Nazis who were allegedly hiding there....

Greenpoint60

The Germans knew we were coming, it was no secret. They infiltrated the French resistance and knew the invasion was coming on June 6th. The intelligence was not shared with the troops at the front were not alerted.

yincrash

the problem is that this is a mistake that keeps happening repeatedly because no one is being held accountable. we cannot continue funding terrorism.