WikiLeaks Analysis

Very interesting and thought provoking analysis, http://w3thepeople.blogspot.com/ by Ms. Ghassemian. I agree with some aspects of the review and have questions about others. For one, Ghassemian is right on target on pouring scorn on the US Governments notice to Federal employees and contractors not to read Wikileaks documents. The notice was out of touch with reality as the employees could easily read the documents in the New York Times, Guardian and a few other newspapers. Besides, Federal employees should be able to read any material in the public domain without let or hindrance.  The author gives the impression that a cyber attack or hacking, “…bravo to Julian Assange for at least giving a heads up of how easy it is to get cyber attacks”. Actually the information obtained by Assange is thought to have come from Army Pfc Bradley Manning who had the required clearance to access classified material, so the information was not obtained through a cyber attack, but through old fashioned insider leaks.

In another matter, the author gives credit to the current administration for not attacking Iran even though the Arab governments were pushing for such an attack. This type of thinking is naïve at best, as the reasons the US has not yet attacked Iran is based on its own strategic calculations, and if and when the time comes to attack Iran, the US will not hesitate to do so. A good example of such calculations was the attack on Iraq. All the Arab countries pleaded with the Bush administration not to invade Iraq in 2003, but the US went ahead anyway and did it. Most information security experts are agreed that the US should have done a better job of protecting its classified information. Indications are that US policy is being revised with fewer people having access to classified information on a more limited need to know basis.