Wikileaks. US government, military embarassed
Niztan Sadan
Photo: Dor Sadan
Does Israel need Wikileaks?
Op-ed: Does State of Israel need a leaks website like one that exposed Iraq torture?
Wikileaks has done it again: The US government and military are facing an embarrassing situation as result of the publication of some 400,000 classified documents, which reveal that Iraqi prisoners were subject to abuse and torture while being held in prison under America’s military administration in Iraq. The documents show that the army hid the very death of tens of thousands of civilians, and that some 15,000 may have been killed as result of Iraqi police torture. For the time being, the Pentagon is denying the charges.
Wikileaks has been in existence since 2007, and its declared aim is to expose cases of corruption and cruelty worldwide. The identity of the website’s staff is unknown, and with the exception of its editor, Australian journalist Julian Paul Assange, none of them were ever exposed. People are aware of the organization’s existence, and of its ability to keep their identities secret.
Leaking
Whistle-blowing website says secret files on Iraq war show 15,000 more civilian deaths than US says
So far, Wikileaks presented documents from 2003 that revealed abuse of Guantanamo prisoners, exposed footage of Apache helicopters killing civilians in 2008, published documents that attest to major corruption affairs, and exposed plenty of material that embarrassed both governments and organizations. As much as the Obama Administration would love to see Wikileaks’ staff tied to a missile heading to the sun, American citizens are fortunate to have Wikileaks. Why? Because without it, they would not be aware of their government’s acts, could not offer an opinion, and would continue to live lie – just like Israel’s citizens.
Plenty of information exists in the State of Israel, both above and below the surface. Once in a while, the truth emerges, and we discover that one minister or another stole millions of shekels, or that funds earmarked for weak population groups end up boosting the economic elite. There is a sense of all-encompassing corruption of the establishment in Israel, with revelations of nepotism, contempt for the law, and the lenient attitude of the legal system only being the tip of the iceberg being revealed on occasion – in many cases, because of public officials whose conscience prompted them to leak information to the outside world.
In such cases, the establishment sprung into action: The guilty parties were reprimanded, condemned by the media and public, and punished (or simply reassigned.) When dealing with affairs involving the army, it is much more difficult to get information out. The military is a body whose aim is to win a war. To that end, its structure is wholly different than the democratic system it is meant to safeguard. The stress, fear, threat of death, and joint contention with these realities create wonderful camaraderie, which has one less-wonderful dimension: The tendency to protect each other even before the law.
Maintaining our morality
Various leftist groups claim that the IDF committed horrific acts against innocent Palestinians, the guilty soldiers protect each other, and their commanders cover up the whole story. We have no way of knowing whether such stories are accurate or merely serve as anti-Israel propaganda. At the same time, all these claims may be true, and there are people who know the truth. All they need is a listening ear that would also guarantee their safety.
Wikileaks is an organization that aims to expose painful truths. It allows people who work in large companies to detail illegal acts they undertook without fearing for their jobs, and enables military officers to expose war crimes without risking their career progress. An IDF officer who exposes an immoral act usually does not do so because of anti-Israel motives. Those who hate Israel do not become officers in its army (unless we are dealing with spies, but this is a whole different story.) Those who share information about immoral acts or ones that can be characterized as war crimes do so because in their view they are more moral than the establishment.
The existence of an apolitical body that would listen to leakers, maintain their privacy zealously, and hand over the information in a balanced, fair manner to the government or to the media would do the public a great service: The public’s right to know will be upheld and moral people will remain in the army instead of being dismissed. The IDF is the world’s most moral army, without any hint of a doubt. Ensuring that moral officers stay in the ranks of the defense establishment may serve to guarantee this morality in the future.
Another positive effect of a civilian leak center is the tightening of information security procedures in the army. How many times have you been on a bus, and throughout the ride heard the two soldiers sitting next to you discussing the foolishness of the Syrian deployment, or the potency of the new missile received by their unit? Even once is too much in such cases.
And so, we can see that an organization dedicated to leaks may prove beneficial for Israeli society. On the other hand, people may try to use information they were exposed to in order to get money, blackmail their commanders, abuse their subordinates, or just to make headlines. Hence, such body would have to be professional and practical, with its main aim being to expose cases where basic human rights were undermined, rather than to undermine the State of Israel, its army, or its national interests.
The tension between the government, which will aspire to control the information presented to citizens, and leaks organizations, which will always aim to get the whole truth out, will have to reach a certain balance. Perhaps an interface of handing over reports and leaks exclusively to the State Comptroller’s Office before they are published in the media would create such balance, ensuring that the public is exposed to maximal information, and that this information does not constitute a security threat that would undermine the state.
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