Meanwhile, on Sunday evening, WCVB runs a clip from their Washington bureau about the latest release of diplomatic documents, except that the clip doesn't reveal any of the content. Instead, everyone involved, from Julian Assange of Wikileaks.org to the newspapers that published the content of the memos to us, the prurient consumers.
And, Finland shouts from the cold north, "Hey, we've got secrets, too."
PFC Bradley Manning, the alleged distributor of the secret documents, is living out the dream of Arlo Guthrie's Last Guy, someone so otherwise anonymous that no one in the intelligence community bothered to check on his activities until he started bragging about them.
We're left with a familiar collision of first amendment rights against the very real need for some government activities to be secret. Just as many wish for a journalist's privilege to keep sources secret, so, too, do diplomats need privileged communications where the parties can speak candidly and sometimes crassly while they try to work through difficult problems.
All of which is rendered moot because, in these days of modern times, publishers can easily be outside American jurisdiction. Sure, the New York Times published many of findings and will no doubt publish more. The initial release, however, came via Germany's Der Speigel, U.K. Guardian, and other non-U.S. outlets. There will certainly be efforts to prosecute someone in American courts, but the long arm of the law can't contain all of the Internet.
One final note, from the U.K.'s Daily Mail, putting all of this into proper perspective in yesterday's home page.
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