John Kerry on the WikiLeaks Afghanistan leak, Daily Kos, July 26, 2010, by Joan McCarter, used with permission, quoted verbatim:

John Kerry released this statement on the Wikileaks document release:

Statement By Chairman Kerry On Leaked Documents On Afghanistan And Pakistan

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) released the following statement this evening in response to the New York Times story on the leak of classified documents concerning Afghanistan and Pakistan:

“However illegally these documents came to light, they raise serious questions about the reality of America’s policy toward Pakistan and Afghanistan. Those policies are at a critical stage and these documents may very well underscore the stakes and make the calibrations needed to get the policy right more urgent.”

This statement, as Clemon points out at the link, is in stark contrast to the White House reaction, and coming from a Senator with the stature that Kerry has on issues of war, indicates that this could be the beginning of an important discussion about, as he puts it, “the reality of America’s policy toward Pakistan and Afghanistan.” The country needs and deserves a serious policy discussion on this war. Hopefully Kerry intends to start one.

TUESDAY UPDATE: See U.S. Hunts For Leaker Of Afghan War Documents, Reuters on The New York Times, July 26, 2010, by Reuters, excerpt quoted verbatim:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Pentagon said on Monday it was launching a manhunt to find whoever leaked tens of thousands of classified documents on the war in Afghanistan, one of the largest security breaches in U.S. military history.

U.S. defense officials said the person behind the release of some 91,000 classified documents appeared to have “secret” clearance and access to sensitive documents on the Afghan war.

More leaks were possible, officials acknowledged.

“We will do what is necessary to try to determine who is responsible for the leaking of this information,” Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said.

“Until we know who’s responsible, you have to hold out the possibility that there could be more information that has yet to be disclosed. And that’s obviously a concern.”

TUESDAY UPDATE: See Dennis Kucinich Announces Two Important House Votes, Kucinich.us: Cleveland, Ohio (July 26, 2010) – Congressman Dennis Kucinich announces that he and Congressman Ron Paul are joining in a cause focused at compelling the removal of U.S. military forces from Pakistan. Later this week, Congressman Kucinich will also support ending the War in Afghanistan by cutting off funding for the war.

See WikiLeaks Data Seem to Show Pakistan Helped Attack American Troops, ABC World News, July 26, 2010, by Nick Schifrin, excerpt quoted verbatim:

Documents Accuse ISI, Pakistan’s Intelligence Service, Of Aiding Insurgency; Senior ISI Official Dismisses Leaks

Perhaps the single most damming collection of data in a massive trove of secret documents from Afghanistan released by the website WikiLeaks is some 180 files that seem to show Pakistan’s premiere intelligence service, the ISI, helping the Afghan insurgency attack American troops.

See WikiLeaks Bombshell on Afghan War: What You Need to Know, AlterNet, July 26, 2010, by Greg Mitchell, excerpt quoted verbatim:

On Sunday, WikiLeaks not released more than 90,000 docs that paint of damning picture of the failing war effort in Afghanistan. Here’s a guide.

Despite advance claims of secret documents coming soon, it still felt like this bombshell arrived almost out of nowhere Sunday afternoon: WikiLeaks not only released more than 90,000 docs related to the United States and the war in Afghanistan, but the New York Times played it for all it was worth (as it turns out, quite a lot). In fact, the Times, The Guardian in London and Der Spiegel had been studying the documents and preparing for this for weeks.The Times highlighted it as “The War Logs” — Pentagon Papers, anyone? — with the subhed, “A six-year archive of classified military documents offers an unvarnished and grim picture of the Afghan war.” It also raises questions about the media coverage of the war to date.

See Afghanistan war logs: whose side is Pakistan on?, The Guardian, July 26, 2010, by Guardian.co.uk, excerpt quoted verbatim:

The storm of controversy raised by the accounts of alleged collusion between Pakistani intelligence and the Taliban in the war logs has resurrected one of the most vexed questions of the nine-year Afghan war: whose side is Pakistan on?

The reports have galvanised the opinions of some Americans who view the Pakistani military, which runs the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, as a double-dealing entity that accepts $1bn a year in US funding while quietly helping Afghan insurgents.

Although the quality of evidence against the ISI in the logs is low – and the spy agency has rejected it as “malicious and unsubstantiated” – experts say there is strong evidence to suggest collusion elsewhere.

See WikiLeaks and AfPak: What “Everyone” Knows, The Atlantic, July 26, 2010, by James Fallows, excerpt quoted verbatim:

1) “Everyone” knows this already. People who have been very close to this story say that little of the information is “new,” in a fundamental sense. See the Atlantic Wire’s summary here, Mother Jones here and here, and (splenetically and amusingly) Andrew Exum here. Fine.

2) But not everyone actually did. Notwithstanding #1, information that may be old news to insiders may seem a revelation to the broader public. Whether from George W. Bush or Barack Obama, presidential speeches about Afghanistan have not emphasized the mixed loyalties of the Pakistani security services, the frustrations of dealing with tribal leaders and corrupt officials, the extent of civilian casualties, and other items that, according to insiders, “everyone” already knows. At this stage it’s impossible to say whether a vast, somewhat hard-to-digest compilation of raw reports, released in the middle of summer, will mean that “everyone” in a broader sense comes to share this insider perspective.

3) And that’s the possible similarity to the Pentagon Papers. Afghanistan is different from Vietnam, Barack Obama is different from Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, the raw battlefield intel from WikiLeaks is different from the inside policy memos of the Pentagon Papers, and so on. But the basic similarity of the cases involves the question of what “everyone” knows. By 1971, anyone who had been really following the Vietnam war already “knew,” or could guess, much of what was in the Pentagon Papers. The Papers mattered because of (a) the confirmation that the government had known about the problems for a very long time, and (b) the spreading of that understanding to the broader public. If the WikiLeaks documents, coming during what is already the deadliest month ever for U.S. troops in Afghanistan, really do mark a shift in mainstream opinion about the war, it will be because everyone [general public, press, and politicians] will now recognize what “everyone” [insiders] already knew.

Comment by Evans Liberal Politics Owner Paul Evans: On the Dylan Ratigan show today on MSNBC, Dylan was suggesting that there is certainly an “openness” (shall we say) towards welcoming conservative opposition against continuing to cooperate with Pakistan as we are. Michael Steele’s recent comments that we should rethink the extent of our involvement with Afghanistan (and Pakistan) are a case in point. Even a Republican Party opposing to any extent our continued involvement in Afghanistan and with Pakistan (out of purely partisan considerations) would spur liberals and progressives within the Democratic Party to rethink their lockstep support of the President’s wrongheaded policy. Afghanistan-Pakistan is eventually going to wind down in a similar way to that of Vietnam. The only question is, how many more years of terrible conflict, and how much grievous loss of American treasure and lives will have to be suffered before we ACTUALLY negotiate with the Taliban, or will we have to suffer being actually expelled with horrendous casualties. Or will the war just wind on in it’s terrible course for years before America comes to its senses.

See Pakistani Spy Agency Denounces Leaked US Intelligence Reports, The Huffington Post, July 26, 2010, by Munir Ahmed.

See WH: No attempt to stop WikiLeaks news reports, Antiwar Newswire, July 26, 2010, by AP News Staff.

See Pentagon scrambles to assess Wikileaks damage (AP), A Minute News, July 26, 2010, by AP News Staff.

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