Leaks

Leaks (part of this word was left out intentionally) are a non-profit media organization whose main objective is to reveal secret information to the public worldwide. Recently, more than 400,000 military logs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars from between 2004 and 2009 were revealed, reflecting on many negative aspects of both wars, but especially the Iraq war. The secret reports revealed death counts of Iraqi civilians, tortures in prisons and brutalities in Iraqi detention camps. Furthermore, the numbers of dead civilians whose corpses were left on Baghdad’s streets runs in the thousands. All of these atrocities were committed during the war and were not revealed to the American public. This reflects only a few aspects of the war’s negative consequences on the Iraqi population.

In one of the public press the Secretary of Defense Mr. D. Rumsfeld was asked about the number of Iraqi deaths, his response was “We don’t keep records of civilian deaths during war.” From the beginning, the Iraq war was based on lies and deceptions and those who were directly responsible for the deaths of more than 1.25 million Iraqis are free and have not been investigated for their crimes.

Leaks also revealed more than 250,000 secret diplomatic dispatches reflecting on U.S. foreign strategy and communication with heads of states and senior government officials in many countries worldwide. References were made to the heads of states in the Gulf region, where Arab leaders privately urged the U.S. government to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia called on the U.S. government to “cut off the head of this snake”. He was referring to the Iranian Prime Minister Ahmadinejad.

Other Gulf political leaders in Bahrain, UAE, Kuwait and Jordan made similar remarks about the future nuclear threat of Iran to the region. It is unfortunate that such remarks made by some Arab political leaders played a role in strengthening the credibility of the U.S. and Israeli governments, who have been campaigning to stop Iran’s nuclear activities. It should be noted that Arab population at large does not share the views of their political leaders. The Zogby polling which was conducted about Arab views of Iran asked “Which country poses a threat to you?”. 88% said Israel, 77% said the U.S. and only 10% said Iran.
Another diplomatic secret revealed by Leaks concerning a dispatch sent by Elias il-Murr, the Lebanese defense minister, to Israel advising them on how to defeat Hezbollah and avoid the mistakes they committed during their invasion of Lebanon in 2006. In order for Israel to win in the next round, they determined they should avoid bombing Christian areas and infrastructure and focus on Shiaa-concentrated areas. Mr. il-Murr should be prosecuted for such a suggestion, which he made to the U.S. and Israel. It is an act of treason.

Leaks also revealed secret logs and dispatches about the war in Yemen, terrorism, the secret communication between the Gulf Arab states and the Israeli government. Furthermore, it revealed the fact that Egypt follows American dictates, which in my opinion provides al-Qaeda with ammunition to pursue its terrorist activities.
The Leaks secret military and diplomatic dispatches reflect on what has taken place behind closed doors in societies in the Western world, especially the U.S. government who has committed atrocities under the banner of democracy since the end of World War II. The revelation of the Leaks reports is good for democracy.