Hepth said:
Though Wikileaks claims to have used similar methods to get in touch with the DoD as they tried initially to go through the NYT.
Wikileaks has made a number of unsubstantiated claims. In my opinion, the organization has no credibility. On the other hand, the United States government has strong credibility, as does the Times, and they both reject Wikileaks' claim. According to the government, no effort was made to contact them prior to the release of the Afghanistan and Iraq documents, and there is no evidence suggesting otherwise. Assange can claim he is a fairy from ya-ya land. Until I've seen his wings, I'm not going to believe it.
BUT it appears that its still contested whether or not Wikileaks, through the NYT, contacted the DoD about reviewing the material.
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/08/20/wikileaks
Again, Glenn Greenwald has about as much credibility as Assange here. His argument is that the New York Times is lying because it is buddy-buddy with the Pentagon.
The New York Times. It's absurd on its face, and entirely unsubstantiated. Notice the word
opinion in the url.
Wikileaks(WL) claims to have tried to get to DoD through NYT, but its all so unclear.
How is it unclear? Wikileaks is making the claim, and offering no evidence. The claim is denied by the other parties involved (the government and the Times). It's pretty clear to me.
Because if it's truly in the best interest of the US's operatives to be able to censor what is going to be released, the US should do so?
Protocol used by the Times, the Post, and every other reputable organization when dealing with subjects like this is to turn over copies of the leaked material to the government for review and reccomendation. The government then returns its suggestions to the outlet, which obliges or ignores. Wikileaks was asking the government to give it the names of persons it wanted protected, and an explanation for why they should be protected. This is an abusrd position. Forget for a moment that the government cannot legally comply with that request - why in the hell would it??
And I don't think it would undermine any criminal case. Its akin to a hostage situation. Just because you give the kidnappers food and water during negotiations doesn't mean you approve of what they're doing. Its all about damage control, which I think the pentagon knows really isn't all that much.
Whether you think it would or not is irrelevant. To build a criminal case on the unauthorized release of classified materials, the government must show that the possessor knew that the material was classified, knew that its release could harm the United States, did not attempt to return the material to the United States (unilaterally or on request), and was not given implicit permission to retain the information.
This is why State demanded, publicly and in writing, that Assange return the data while reminding him that its release would be damaging prior to its release. Nobody thought he would; it's all part of building a solid case.
Obviously, then, cooperating with Assange in publishing the data - and voluntarily releasing additional, related classified materials to him as part of that cooperation - would do serious damage to the governments claim that the release was criminal, damaging, and unauthorized.