I have been following the debacle with Wikileaks pretty closely since it broke and I am amazed at how foolish and clueless so many commenter's are about what all of this means for the Afghan people and not just our soldiers.  The fact is that these self described openness crusaders have exposed hundreds of our partners who are trying to make a better country for themselves to the threat of death.  I have witnessed the results of exposing local partners to the enemy and the blood that flows because of it.

In 2004 my interpreter in Iraq was a beheaded brutally on video by Al-Qaeda after his name was found on the phone of another interpreter from his company.  He left two daughters and a widow due to poor operational security.  Then, just three years ago my dearest Iraqi partner , an incredibly brave Sunni sheik, was hit by an IED and lost both his legs after years of attempts by AQI.  In today's wired world, revealing the names, and even the vaguely identifying information of locals exposes them to murder and intimidation by our enemies.

The UN reported today that Afghan civilian deaths have sharply spiked at the hands of the insurgents in the past year.  Even as casualties due to NATO combat action have fallen more civilians are dying at the hands of Al-Qaeda and Taliban terrorists.  See the AP story here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_afghanistan;_ylt=AkWAFx5DQS7JJ_7aMdK52pKs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTJmNWwzZDUwBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwODEwL2FzX2FmZ2hhbmlzdGFuBGNwb3MDMgRwb3MDNgRzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3J5BHNsawN1bmFmZ2hhbmNpdmk

We face an enemy who is relentless in murdering the Afghan people if only to intimidate them into not cooperating with the elected government of their country.  They have announced in no uncertain terms that they are scrubbing the thousands of reports released by Wikileaks to find collaborators and reports are already coming in that informants are being murdered.

Yet you see people like Michael Moore and Wikileaks founder Julian Assange calling alleged leaker Bradley Manning a hero on TV as activists call for his release.  Assange and Manning are murderers.  They are cold blooded fools who sit comfortably in the dark while soldiers and civilians risk their lives to make a better world and actually risk their lives and not just their freedom.

Just this morning five human - rights groups called on Wikileaks to not release information that is endangering the lives of innocent Afghan's. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703428604575419580947722558.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsTop  Julian Assange doesn't care.  His response was a pathetic whine about not having enough people to do the scrubbing and asking for the groups to help. 

No, Julian the answer is for you to stop releasing secret documents that don't reveal war crimes but only cause people to be murdered for your egotistical drive for more press coverage.

The United States government must act swiftly and ruthlessly in stopping this information flow and the murders that result.  The clock is ticking and innocent people are hiding in fear as our government issues press releases and empty threats.   I have seen personally what happens when brave people stand up for their country and are betrayed by foolish partners who don't understand the risks.  Its time we stopped this atrocity from occurring and stopped acting like this is just a freedom of information issue. It's truly collateral murder and the blood is on Wikileaks hands and all of their co-conspirators.