I think most of the posturing over what Wikileaks has done in the past is really positioning over what Wikileaks may do in the future. Its important to keep that in mind when trying to understand statements and actions. The Pentagon wants the capability to stop the next leak, not the last one.

Whats holding Assange back? Money, apparently.

Need $700k for our next harm-minimization review. Pentagon won't help.Media won't-but happy to profit. What to do?

As Gawker put it, the harm-minimization review would only cost 700k if they were doing it in bath tubs filled with liquid gold. This is Assange's price for the next leak.

Realpolitik

A first glance at the material presented in the two English-language sources, The New York Times and The Guardian newspapers, reveals dramatically different approaches that each took in reporting on these leaked documents.

The importance of the focus of the public's attention should not be underestimated.

Eric Michael Johnson: Analysis of Civilian Casualties in WikiLeaks Afghan File Reveals Media Bias

I was concerned about this - its interesting to see it reported. From now on a certain percentage of conservatives in the US will permanently associate wikis with liberal commies who are trying to destroy America and will not have anything to do with them or anyone who does. This is an unfortunate consequence for four reasons:

1. It removes certain voices from the collective dialog that open wikis consist of.

2. It makes those minds even more susceptible to propaganda because they will not use objective information if it comes from wikis - particularly if it challenges their presumptions. "An iceberg the size of Manhattan?! Right. Where'd you look that up? On a wiki? Har Har"

3. It means that wikis will be avoided as a knowledge management tool even in closed contexts by these people. Imagine suggesting the use of a wiki right now for information sharing in an southern workplace dominated by fox news fans who are semi computer literate.

4. It means that some future story involving wikis - no matter how benign - will be taken as negative by a certain percentage of listeners, for no good reason.

All these costs would be acceptable if Wikileaks was a wiki - but its not...

Wikileaks isn’t one of Wales’s websites but the “wiki” part of the name confuses people. Wales told me yesterday: “It’s not a wiki and their ethos is very different from mine but that’s not a criticism necessarily.”

Wikileaks, as Wales points out, is not a wiki at all (though it is built partially on MediaWiki, the same software that powers Wikipedia) but the site, which made headlines with its recent leak of documents on the war in Afghanistan, is assumed by many to be linked to Wales in some way.

I had always assumed that wikileaks was a wiki. I've never been interested enough in the site to actually look. Frankly, I'm a bit annoyed at them for picking this name now that I know that they aren't really operating a wiki. Its obviously an attempt to capitalize on the noteriety of wikipedia and to wrap the site in the mystique of crowdsourced web content - when in fact the thing is moderated and mediawiki is merely being used as a content management system.

Jimmy Wales: people think I'm responsible for Wikileaks – Telegraph Blogs

In Merrill’s case, although the letter’s gag order “was totally clear that they were saying that I couldn’t speak to a lawyer” about it, he immediately contacted his personal attorney, and together they went to the ACLU in New York, which agreed to represent him.

“My gut feeling is I’m an American,” Merrill said, in an interview with Threat Level on Tuesday. “I always have a right to an attorney. There’s no such thing as you can’t talk to your attorney."

‘John Doe’ Who Fought FBI Spying Freed From Gag Order After 6 Years | Threat Level | Wired.com

in America, you have a smaller chance of swapping your lower income bracket for a higher one than in almost any other developed economy – even Britain on some measures. To invert the classic Horatio Alger stories, in today’s America if you are born in rags, you are likelier to stay in rags than in almost any corner of old Europe.

Lots of journalistic fluff in this article but thats it in a nutshell...

This problem matters.

FT.com / Reportage - The crisis of middle-class America

After the Internet publication of tens of thousands of leaked classified documents on the war in Afghanistan, 43% of Americans now say the United States made a mistake in sending troops there, up slightly from just before the release (38%).

In U.S., New High of 43% Call Afghanistan War a "Mistake"

The single-scope background investigation for a top-secret clearance is pretty exhaustive..

NYT indicates that Manning was pretty openly gay, emotionally frustrated and combative... Also, he was fired once from a civilian job because of personality issues, and he got two reprimands — Article 15’s, in Army-speak — for misconduct, including “assaulting an officer.”

It’s hard to imagine that even the most liberal of background clearances wouldn’t have thrown a couple of red flags up when investigating a kid like Manning.

Trying real hard to maintain the maxim that what can be explained by stupidity should never be attributed to malice.

WikiLeaks Soldier: A Complicated Kid | ATTACKERMAN

A hard core look at the issues.

YouTube - WIKILEAKS vs The Pentagon - RAP NEWS

Thiessen telegraphs Pentagon statement as threat - shit is about to go down.

Sounds like a final warning has been issued -- and that the Obama administration intends to take action to stop WikiLeaks from disclosing any further life-threatening intelligence.

PostPartisan - A final warning to WikiLeaks?

These images, by photographers of the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information, are some of the only color photographs taken of the effects of the Depression on America’s rural and small town populations. The photographs are the property of the Library of Congress and were included in a 2006 exhibit Bound for Glory: America in Color.

Captured: America in Color from 1939-1943 – Plog Photo Blog