Wikilinks.org allowed three news organizations a month to preview the Afghan war documents they obtained before the Guardian, The New York Times and Washington Post ran their own versions. But now you can see the original documents yourself on the Wikilinks.org special webpage. You probably want to have a look. For one thing all three newspapers heavily censored the documents they received after being briefed by the government.
We got a taste earlier in the month of what such voluntary censorship can do. The Washington Post series on the new secrecy establishment turned out to be bland dumb down that was nether specific enough or complete enough to give the reader a sense of how dangerous a corporate/government alliance spying on everyone can be. For example under nuclear contractors, many major ones working for the government were actually not even on the Post list.
The reality is major newspapers often give into government pressure to censor themselves. To have a brave group of people willing to risk themselves to unmask a bankrupt war policy by revealing documents which demonstrate how purported allies we have invested hundreds of billions in betray our own fighting men and women is a public service.
There also is another connection to the Wikileaks.org papers and the new American spying establishment. With the massive increase in security clearances – public and private – the chances for such leaks are greatly increased.
