Democrats could have stopped WikiLeaks when it was only harming America
By Marc Thiessen July 28, 2016 | 6:07am
Modal Trigger Democrats could have stopped WikiLeaks when it was only harming America
Barack Obama Photo: Getty Images
Over at the CIA and the National Security Agency headquarters, they must be really enjoying watching Democrats in Philadelphia squirm over WikiLeaks’s exposure of tens of thousands of internal Democratic Party e-mails.
There’s a word for what’s happening in the intelligence community:
Blowback.
Throughout the entirety of the Obama administration, nothing was done as WikiLeaks damaged our national security with its serial leaks of highly classified intelligence documents.
When in 2010 WikiLeaks released more than 76,000 secret intelligence documents — exposing “the identities of at least 100 Afghans who were informing on the Taliban, including the names of their villages, family members, the Taliban commanders on whom they were informing, and even GPS coordinates where they could be found,” as I wrote in The Washington Post — nothing was done.
When in 2011 WikiLeaks released a trove of classified documents it dubbed the “Gitmo Files” — including secret details about the CIA’s enhanced-interrogation program — nothing was done.
When that same year WikiLeaks unleashed what founder Julian Assange called a “thermonuclear device” — its full, unredacted archive of more than a quarter-million secret US diplomatic cables — nothing was done.
When in 2014 WikiLeaks released classified CIA documents exposing how CIA operatives maintain cover while traveling through airports, nothing was done.
When in 2015 WikiLeaks released documents revealing that the US government was spying on its allies, including listening in on the phone calls of three French presidents, nothing was done.
When in 2016 WikiLeaks published secret details of EU military operations to intercept refugee boats traveling to Europe from the regions along the Libyan coast infested with ISIS terrorists, nothing was done.
When in 2016 WikiLeaks exposed top-secret documents describing NSA intercepts of foreign-government communications — including a private climate-change strategy meeting between UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin — nothing was done.
But WikiLeaks has finally crossed a “red line” (pun intended) by going after an organization Democrats actually care about — the Democratic National Committee.
WikiLeaks has released tens of thousands of e-mails showing that, while presenting itself as an impartial arbiter during the primaries, the DNC was, in fact, working overtime on Hillary Clinton’s behalf to undermine Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. The convention in Philadelphia has been roiled by the revelations, which caused Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) to step down as chair.
Democrats have no one to blame but themselves for this debacle. The Obama administration could’ve indicted Assange and his fellow WikiLeaks staffers and made clear that the United States will not tolerate any country — particularly NATO allies — providing them with a haven.
It could’ve sought their extradition and — if the countries where they were hiding refused to cooperate — used existing Justice Department authorities to arrest them anywhere in the world, with or without those countries’ consent.
They could’ve used the assets of US Cyber Command to carry out cyberattacks on WikiLeaks servers to disrupt its ability to disseminate classified information that puts lives at risk.
But it appears that the administration has done none of these things. To this day, WikiLeaks’ entire archive of stolen classified documents remains available on its Web site for anyone to read.
Now Democrats are paying the price for Obama’s inaction. And WikiLeaks promises there is more to come. In an interview with CNN this week, Assange said he might soon release “a lot more material.” That should have Democrats terrified.
Apparently, exposing intelligence sources and methods has not mattered enough for the Obama administration to do something about WikiLeaks. Maybe saving Hillary Clinton from further embarrassment, or worse, will finally spur it to action.
© 2016, The Washington Post
