The release of these documents is not only illegal, it is completely irresponsible. the repercussions are impossible to predict. The first group of documents published by Wikileaks got people killed. A number of Afghan civilians who were helping the US with intelligence information were executed by terrorists after their names were published. As far as I am concerned this makes both Jullian Assange and PFC Bradley Manning guilty as accessories to murder.

The release of this latest group of documents will undoubtedly lead to additional deaths. Even if Wikileaks did redact names, which they have not indicated that they have any intent on doing, it will be fairly clear to people close to the events who the sources of information are. The release will severely damage US international relations as well as the relations between numerous other countries. It will also do major damage to US intelligence gathering efforts because the documents will reveal many US sources of information within foreign countries and their governments. This will likely result in these people being removed from their posts, or at least having their access to sensitive information reduced/eliminated. I would also imagine that a number of them will have mysterious "accidents" or just be outright murdered/executed.

Assange is not doing this because of some righteous motive to expose wrongdoing, he is doing for self aggrandizement and to feed his own ego. I normally would not condone murdering someone, but Assange needs to be taken out. As for PFC Manning, he leaked these documents because he was upset over a breakup with his lover and was pissed at the army for his having to be in the middle east. Again, the release was not motivated by any desire to expose wrongdoing, it was just to embarrass and get even with the army for his being deployed somewhere he did not want to be. As a US citizen, and a soldier to boot, PFC Manning should be tried for treason. After conviction he should be executed as the punishment for treason in time of war is death.

I would suggest that before anyone gets all high and mighty about the released information that you might want to actually take a look at the Guardian's site where its in a searchable database by keyword, country of origin peoples names etc.

You can search the releases here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2010/nov/28/us-embassy-cables-wikileaks

Based on what I've seen so far there is nothing more exciting except for two things, the revelations about Hillary asking for 'spy eyes' on U.N. ambassadors like that's a big surprise, but the ones that really caught my attention and that should be foremost in the minds of Iranian officials is the revelation that so many of its neighbors like Saudi Arabia find Iran's nuclear ambitions totally unacceptable to the point where they have been actively encouraging the U.S. to take military action. But then again, as exciting as that might be to many of us on the other side of the world I'm pretty sure that the Iranians have a pretty good idea where they stand with their neighbors.

Oh please and where were you when Bush/Cheney outed Valerie Plame? I believe he is doing this for the benefit of transparency. Really, you know Assange personally?? I don't believe you and you're just pumping out more propaganda which is what got us into this mess in the first place. I think the Neocons should be tried for treason. Their scorched earth policy is not good policy. You should be very concerned that Bush privitized the military, ya know.

B*llsh*t.

The U.S. government, no matter who is president at the time, needs to keep Americans in line with the delusion that we are somehow the most moral nation - the proverbial 'good guys'. Keeping the American sheeple convinced of that is what keeps them from questioning the ridiculously high spending on and the funding of an endless alphabet soup of security agencies, including the CIA, NSA, FBI, DEA, TSA, NCIS, Homeland Security; and those don't even count the actual Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and Coast Guard.

It's impossible to be guaranteed your safety, no matter how much you spend on it directly or through the government; but we are constantly manipulated into throwing money at the problem while also surrendering the very civil rights that those agencies and dollars are supposed to be protecting.

I also have a VERY hard time feeling sympathetic to the screaming and bleating that these releases endanger our national security and/or put individual lives at risk, since President Bush, Vice President Cheney and their cabal seemed to feel unconcerned about those same consequences when they outed Valerie Plame as a covert agent, for purely political revenge purposes. Especially considering that they paid no penalty for it - other than sacrificial goat Scooter Libby.

I love my country, but loving it does not require me to be delusional or in denial about who we are and how we conduct ourselves in the world. If my country conducted itself more in line with the image it likes to believe we have, then it would have far less to fear from any unauthorized release of information. In other words, if we WERE the 'good guys' we believe ourselves to be, we would have nothing from which to shrink or have fear of being revealed.

Unfortunately I somehow selected yes for supporting the release, when I could have sworn I checked no, which is my true answer to whether the information should have been released. If any American aided the Wikileak criminals in acquiring the information then they are traders to the United States. Any American involved should be sent to jail for life without parole.

The United States government should put together some type of squad to snatch the owner of Wikileaks and whom they know are involved in this horror show. This is the first time I've been thinking about the patriot act and why some of it's less appealing tactics may or should be used to deal with the Wikileak situation.

Well finally someone has said it. Yes, Bush and Cheney are traitors (um, not traders dear) to the US.

Clear and present danger to GLOBAL security. Assassination by any involved party should not be overlooked. Wipe the offices off the maps. Heavy handed understood, but Mr Assange has declared he has no intentions of stopping this irresponsibility that has the potential for global unrest.

However it is not treason as he is not a citizen of the USA. But he should now be considered an enemy combatant in this new realm of information warfare.

Wow, global unrest all on the shoulders of Assange huh? Really? He has that much power? Yeah, right.

Correct... sort of. The power is in the documents which where released not Mr Assange.

Yah sorta like he's not legislating foreign policy right?

I doubt that anyone here today has read 'the Hangman's song'

The reason this batch came out was in punch back for the rape charges.

The fools who stand by the state secrets act should just wait until the dust settles.

See first how honorable the Us and the so called allies are dealing with each other.

If you believe The American Government was granted Carte Blanche under the Constitution to behave like a whore for the industrial complex, make war under spurious reasons, kidnap citizens, have constitution free zones, Ect,Ect Ect. Show me that place where this Carte Blanche is at and I too will support State secrets.

Until then remember...Secrets breed conspiracies & conspiracies breed secrets.

Until we enforce all laws equally, the rule of law is broken. Bush and Cheney both knew we were breaking the Geneva Convention when we tortured enemy combatants. If you want people to respect our laws, then our leaders must be tried for breaking them. For all those that say we should try these people for treason, then we must also try Scooter Libby for treason for leaking the name of the CIA agent.

Here, here! Cheney/Bush/Rumsfeld and possibly Clinton and Obama (if he's listening to Henry Kissinger) should, at least, be investigated. American foreign policy sucks.

Yes, it is treason on the part of the individual that is releasing the documents to Wikileaks but since they are not US citizents I am afraid that we can do nothing, that is, until the world awakens to the damage being done. Those that are US citizens should be tried and if found guilty of treason should be stripped of their citizenship and given 24 hours to leave the country that I love or be placed in long term, secluded (solitary) detention.

So how long have you personally known Manning and when did he confide this to you or are you just another caustic rumor starter who makes up incidents to try to validate your opinion and spread incorrect information

Julian Assange will have blood on his hands.

You couldn't be more wrong, for several reasons. Wikileaks isn't based in the US, first of all. Secondly, even if it was, treason doesn't merely mean "doing things that annoy the government". Third, wikileaks asked the US government for help redacting things that would endanger lives. No such help was provided. Fourth, the right of the public to know what our government is doing trumps or government's urge to withhold information about what it is doing in our names. Fifth, the US government has no right to arbitrarily inflict atrocities upon the rest of the world then cover them up. The people running wikileaks are probably the greatest heroes the world has at the moment.

Whatstheworldabout......Bush and Cheney have been doing what every president since FDR has been doing. Our former presidents were no more ethical. They just didn't have a media that was capable (or interested) in bringing them down. So when you start throwing stones about traitors, you had better lump in FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, JFK, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagen, Bush Sr., Clinton as well as G.W. Bush AND Obama. They have all played the same game. And none of them were honest, open, or warm and fuzzy about it. Not to mention you had also better lump in every other country in the world into this "traitor" category. Are you so naive that you really believe every other country is on the up and up EXCEPT the U.S.? You definitely need to wake up and smell the coffee. These men were not traitors, they were protectors of our country. Through any means, fair or foul. That is how the game is played and the rest of the world does the same. The REAL traitors are the media and those leaking this information.

These men are not the protectors of our country. These men protect only their own interests and as you have pointed out, they are not the first. The problem is much like a stream and pebbles. While one pebble may not dam the stream, many pebbles placed there over time can. More and more of these leaks are going to demonstrate that the US is guilty of all the inhumanities they attribute to other nations in efforts to justify our invasions of their soil. Every day we try to topple the governments of other countries, but then cry when the knife has been turned back on us. We cried that Hussein used women and children as human shields but then used the opposite view to jerk the heart strings of our nation when the Federal Govt building in OKC was destroyed. We blasted the media with the deaths of the children in the daycare center held within that building. I understand the placement of that daycare center made life convenient for govt employees, but really, what place do children have in a building that is a very logical target? Since government has been manipulating and lying to all peoples since the beginning of time, it has a great deal more experience making fools of all of us than anyone of us has exposing their lies. You have to wonder...when the idea for the daycare came about, why didn't anyone question placing children there? OR DID THEY?!? Governments AROUND the world have learned how to motivate people through propoganda.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely and I really do not know that there has ever been a more absolutely powerful government on the face of this planet. You can bring up empires, dynasties, etc. but how many of those had the power to completely wipe countries off the face the map with the push of a button. Better still, how many actually carried it out. WE DID.....Does nobody see the hypocrisy---we invaded Iraq because of WEAPONS of MASS DESTRUCTION, right? Which country is guilty of unleashing the most dramatic WMD's? WE ARE!!!

Treason is a term that really needs to be looked at more closely. In the past few years, we have seen many of our freedoms go out the window in exchange for a FALSE SENSE of security. Our Constitution has become toilet paper to our elected officials. If the systematic erosion and decimation of our Constitution is not treason, what is? That is far more dangerous to the livelihood of Americans than the release of documents exposing the slick underbelly of our officials.

And if, as you point out, that's the way it is, the way it always has been, isn't it the purest form of patriotism to ferret out government for its injustices, change the government, or replace it. I think if you read the words of our forefathers you'll find that not only is it our right to speak out against it, it is our RESPONSIBILTY as AMERICANS to CHANGE IT.

Who put more American lives in peril? Wikileaks because it exposed the US government? OR the US government for sending our sons and daughters to die in wars on foreign soil as invaders, not defenders?

This is wrong. Apparently some foreigner released the information. How in the world did he obtain it? That is a big problem.

The argument that this release hurts our security or puts people are risks is pure hogwash, an excuse drummed up by the powers-that-be to rally support for their nonsensical cause.

The government lies to, cheats and steals from its own citizens and manipulates information to control the popular opinion. Its no different than the media in communist China and the media in Nazi-era Germany. Here we have what's called Freedom of the Press and the 1st Ammendment, its written into our very way of life & now I hear all these so-called patriots of the USA spitting on free speech rights and saying government transparency is bad?

Hippocrites.

The goverment deserves a dose of its own medicine. Maybe once people realize how much dirty laundry the government actually has they will not sit so silently comfortable anymore in their McMansions.

"I love my country, but loving it does not require me to be delusional or in denial about who we are and how we conduct ourselves in the world." That about sums it up BlackHillsLaura,I couldn't agree with you more.

It would, perhaps, constitute treason if the people responsible for Wikileaks were, in fact, Americans, which they are not.

It amazes me all the supposed liberals (I'm not forgetting the conservatives who support wikileaks, I'll deal with them later) who are okay with the damage that this latest round of leaks will cause and the fact that it will end up costing innocent people their lives!! The very folks who claim to be concerned about civilian casualties during U.S. Military actions are perfectly fine if Islamic Jihadists cause them.

Please point to the exact law that Assange broke.

Look at the facts:

1. Wikileaks did not take anything, it was given to them.
2. News agencies around the nation do the exact same thing daily, taking information from sources and reporting on it.
3. The information was *not* top secret. It was only considered 'sensitive'.
4. No one has ever been harmed from any Wikileaks reporting.
5. Assange is not a US citizen, therefore not subject to our laws.
6. In 1971 the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of the New York Times over the release of the Pentagon Papers about the Vietnam War in the case NYT v US. The judge went as far to say the founding fathers intended the first amendment to help keep the executive branch in check and that can only be accomplished by an "informed public". This is our only protection against corruption in our own government.
7. According to the constitution this is a government of the people, by the people and for the people. It belongs to "we the people of the United States"
8. Wikileaks offered to let the US review the documents and offer feedback about what should not be posted. The US refused.
9. If the documents were so sensitive, then why did anyone have access to them except the very top level members of our government? Why did an intelligence analyst have access to them?
10. Why in the world would you EVER write down names of informants that are at risk if discovered?

I love my country just as much as the next patriotic American. I love it so much that I support Assange's help keeping our government honest. This is our government that we paid for and they work for us, not the other way around.

A lot of funny posts in here. People are really ideological. Sometimes that isn't a good thing. Most peoples ideology is based on propaganda put out by those who profit from peoples willingness to be easily convinced.

treason:

–noun
1.
the offense of acting to overthrow one's government or to harm or kill its sovereign.

2.
a violation of allegiance to one's sovereign or to one's state.

3.
the betrayal of a trust or confidence; breach of faith; treachery.

Assange is not american. It is not possible in any way shape or form for him to have engaged in treason.

Nor has he broken any us law.

Tony, you have any darn clue of what is called national interests? You're going to blame who when our 'partners' fighting terrorism desert us because of those papers? Set us free? To the expense of putting our troops and personnel abroad in jeopardy?

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act" George Orwell

We don't have the right to see secret diplomatic traffic. Our leaders need candid, often unflattering, information from our embassies on which to base their decisions. How open do you think that our diplomats and their foreign contacts will be in the future, knowing that their private comments will be made public?

This was actually discussed by our first congress. They determined that our diplomacy must have their secrets if they are to succeed diplomatically. In other words, bringing about a treaty with another nation is tricky business. They wanted to see Washington's private correspondence on a matter of diplomacy and then backed-off - trading knowledge of the diplomatic process for the end result - the treaty itself - which they could vote on.

The entire state secrets case (Reynolds 1953) is based on a lie. Know your facts first. The privilege was given by the supreme court based on a secret that never existed. Check the archives. The supreme court never even looked at what the secret was that was alleged when they ruled on this. The CIA has done real well with all of their work over the last 60 years...I kid. Read real books instead of watching news shows, you might learn something.

good one captain.Hey injustice for all, tony has a good idea. you should be sayn "Bring the troops and personnel home" if your so scared for them. our partners fighting the boogey man are as f'd up as we are. are you sayn we should not be free at the expense of our troops? that's whut their for, so we have that illiusion. if the war is guna set us free, well then halleluja, praise the lord of war only! may his good dead be done on the backs of the poor. can i get an amen!

by the way this so called leak should be happening to banks and corporations alike............probably first, or is that against national interest too?

The entire state secrets case (Reynolds 1953) is based on a lie. Know your facts first.

I was thinking more along the lines of the 64th and 75th Federalist Papers on conducting diplomacy - mainly secrecy and superior sources of information as necessary for the Office of the Presidency.

The 10th paper is interesting. Because it talks about majority faction and rule thereby. 'Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm.'

Do you like the CIA? Do you want the CIA to be disband? The CIA does just what these two guys did thousands of times a day. They use assets to gain information and leak disinformation all the time. So someone is betraying someone all the time. The only difference is these two guys leaked the information to anyone willing to read it. This is no big deal when China can hack the network of the Internet and gather billions of times more information that was leaked here. Yes some of it was encrypted, but all encryption can be broke in time.

Tony, since when did the diplomatic corps or for that matter the Secretary of State (spelled loser of Democratic nomination) become elected officials? The folks you are referring to are all political appointees.

Don-2662404 Yeah Don and as political appointees they should not politicize the office. However, the republicans took care of that by outing Valerie Plame. Our family friend who was the US ambassador to France and was an ex-FBI special agent was very disgusted with the foggy bottom. In the end our joke was F**k Cheney....yeah F**k him. That's what happens when you politicize your agencies.

Justice,

You can't talk sense and practicality to liberals who think they know everything and feel superior to "everyone else" who doesn't think like they do. When the day comes that OUR government openly and unmistakable acts to forsake the security of the American people, then and ONLY then will I think this sort of activity is the right thing to do.

roscoe > When the day comes that OUR government openly and unmistakable acts to forsake the security of the American people, then and ONLY then will I think this sort of activity is the right thing to do.< you mean like starting an illegal war, not scrambling fighter jets during 911,trying to sell US. ship yard docks to dubai,bank and lending institutes bailouts, making corporations like individuals, laws passed in the middle of the night as write in attachments to bills,etc.,etc.,etc.,etc.,etc.,on and on,and on.

the futher you move into darkness and shadow the less trust-worthy you will be. You will lose your identity. You will lose the favor of GOD. Why would anyone trust lies and deceit, the dark side? Truly your character lacks enlightenment.

Come on, Roscoe. Don't you see that our leaders have done a very skillful job pitting us against one another? Don't you see how distracted this makes us to the REAL issues at hand? If we are going to survive as a free country we *must* learn to get along with each other and work through due process to change that which we do have the power to change.

My neighbor is not my enemy. My enemy is the person that steals from me openly and convinces me that it's for my own good.

I said "No" to the poll, but I don't support any lies. I do, however, believe that releasing classified information is going to be detrimental to our safety at large. Do you think this is happening in other countries that may do us harm? Do you believe North Korea or Iran are being entirely truthful to us? For that matter, do you believe other countries that don't pose an immediate threat to us are being truthful? No, they are not. If everyone was honest, we wouldn't need diplomacy, which is just a fancy way of lying better than the other guy and getting them to believe it. I don't feel WikiLeaks has the right to release classified information and put the lives of others in peril. Does the name Valerie Plame ring a bell?

you sir are a naive idiot

I believe Curious-23T is onto something. Yes, we need some secrets, but if the USA really was generally taking the moral high ground then we would not be nearly as concerned over these leaks. Those of you that disagree with this, do you ever question the reasons we are at war in Iraq and Afghanistan? Really, why are we there? Did you know that at least 66,000 Iraqis civilians have been killed by US and ally forces since the start of the occupation? When we will start to value the lives in other nations equal to our own?

"Do you think this is happening in other countries that may do us harm? Do you believe North Korea or Iran are being entirely truthful to us? For that matter, do you believe other countries that don't pose an immediate threat to us are being truthful?"

Shouldn't we hold ourselves to a higher standard of morality than North Korea or Iran? Do you really think that just because North Korea and Iran deal in secrecy and shadows, we should too? That is extremely disappointing if so. The United States should prove it is worthy of being the world's only superpower by being responsible and open with everyone.

By definition, only U.S. citizens can be charged with treason by the U.S. government. Assange, not being a citizen...well, you figure it out.

If the U.S. Government was acting morally, I would say you are right. But it isn't. Our government is in Iraq without justification, It's treating us, the citizens, as enemies of the state. They are illegally restricting our rights to travel freely with Nude Scanners & the TSA; warrantless wiretaps and no-knock home invasions are not something citizens of a free country should be forced to endure. Even as recently as 1990 people were confident that if a citizen heard "Your papers, please", they HAD to be somewhere besides the U.S.

Add in the gradually erosion of gun rights, Guantanamo bay and it's "Enemy Combatants", waterboarding, Echelon, etc, etc.. The Government and the people are no longer on the same side, & wikileaks is doing something to shine light into some very dark places.

What about all the newspapers in the US? They do the same thing every single day. Would you have the CEO of the New York Times charged with treason and hanged?

Jakrabt_Oxford MS - I don't think it was the newspapers that convened Congress to go to war. Once again the Republicans have done very well in controlling the message and a whole FOX brand is a perfect example. I've seen and heard more lies on FOX then any other news org. O'Reilly acftually said that Foley was a Dem, they can't even report accurately and I resent Roger Ailes calling NPR nazis'. He's crossing a line and he's making lots of money obfuscating and undermining the 4th estate that now, no one trusts!! He and his ilk have successfully politized our news now. Funny you should pick the New York Times and not the Wall Street Journal.

By definition, it isn't treason since they have no particular allegiance to the US.

If it was really endangering Americans, don't you think the talking heads would have specific examples to cite instead of just making inane statements about how dangerous the Pentagon says it is? Besides, even if everything they say and more is true, it is still much less dangerous than starting two unnecessary wars while making the rest of the world hate us.

So Iraq was supporting terrorism, Had something to do with 9/11, and had WMD as well I suppose? It's not a need to "everything" it's a need to know something!!

Yes that may be but we are getting into more "they don't need to know" and And so how many have read all the documents to come to your conclusion one way or the other...I haven't but I suspect most of that info was already common knowledge in the diplomatic and intelligence circles And if you speak of treason, just charge Karl Rove with the same he outed a US citizen but where was the outrage there (of course, I might add, everyone in D.C. aleady knew that she was an operative so I guess that made it ok for him to make it public ) Most of us could come to same conclusions if we spent more time on current events and able to be held beyond the 15 second attention span most of us have. You cant be emotional and logical at the same time...it doesnt work. Remember folks, Hitler got elected during some of the worst economic times he didn't need a military .. the people voted him in...he fed thema bunch of lies they bought it as the truth.....

Correct, ineedmychange. He promised them hope and change. Chilling isn't it?

How about the '50s? 1953 to be precise.

Try the 1930s with the Somozas in Nicaragua... talk about creating a Frankenstein's monster.

You are correct. The American politicians must be taught a lesson.

Just remember - What goes around, comes around

Many evil deeds are commited by the US worldwide, and no punishment is meted!

see had we learned from the Somozas or Operation Ajax, we'd have not been stupid enough to do what we did in southeast Asia but well.

dont you mean the pentagon or justice department.....you do know the justice dept is SEPARATE from the white house, dont you?

Yeah, just like nothing was done by the past administration to VP Cheney for his outing of Valerie Plame. Don't you remember Dubya promising to identify and punish those responsible, even if they were part of his administration. And then they led their goat, Scooter Libby, to the sacrificial altar and then pretended not to see who had always held his leash and directed his actions.

Mike2010 Yeah that is why they never prosecuted Karl Rove Huh Isn't the attorney general of the US nominated by the President? Is that why it is SEPARATE from the White House?

I think most Americans are tired of the political machine, and most of the nonsense that we are told in order to make us think that we are supporting nobel causes or humanitarian efforts around the world with our tax dollars. We have millions of senior citizens and young children right here in America who need our help thru our tax dollars. It always makes me madder than hell when I see a AMERICAN senior citizen or child lose or have S.S. benefits reduced, left to struggle and survive with less or no help, and then I read in the media that we sent X amount (millions ) of tax payers money to X( insert your preference) country to pacify a dictator and keep him on a leash, help support some rinky-dink country in their own little war, or support some tree hugging green effort in (where ever)!! It is disgusting that we send so much money to (again, you name it ) at the expense of true natural born American citizens who have worked hard during their life time to help build this country. It's damn well time that the American people were told the truth, about how this country is doing business with other countries, regardless of the method. We sure are NOT going to get the truth from our own government. Just more lies and cover ups, and illegitimate reasons to screw our own citizens and help other leeching and money sucking countries and causes around the world.

Well said ELH602027

Amen, ELH!

Only thing I might add is that if we could get rid of a lot of the corruption we might be able to AFFORD humanitarian projects around the world for NOBLE reasons instead of CORRUPT ones!

Have any evidence, or just a conspiracy theory based on a massively distorted world-view?

Fear mongering. Quite possibly a Faux Newsy-ite.

I want to know what is all on the new CA driver's license; anyone know Supposed to be a lot of stuff to keep from forgery but I suspect it will be our new ID TAG Instead of tatooing your arm you will have it all invisible on your driver's license. Scary Stuff, Huh!!!

The less the counterfeiters know the safer your identity: Maybe?

You think? I wonder too Are they going to tell us what is on there? All I know it involves "much more extensive paper work for the DMV " What does that mean? I have my concerns where all this is leading a decade or 2 down the road.

We harm ourselves.

Karma doesn't work like that and if it did you would be in trouble, wishing bad karma, is bad karma

A Traitor is a traitor, no matter where they hail from.

All right, then. By that logic, our troops back in WWII were traitors to Germany and Japan.

You can only be a traitor if you betray your own country. That's how treason works.

No... but you certainly are a terrorist. Is it fun ro risk the lives of innocent people in the name of journalism?

Do you think that only the US government will get affected by the release of these documents? Yeah think again dimwit!!!