I know the wikileaks leak of thousands of documents related to the war in Afghanistan was seen as heroic by many here. I do not share that point of view. The main reason I don't is that within those pages were the names of many Afghan informants, people who have help coalition forces disrupt and capture Taliban soldiers. Now that those names are public, there are severe consequences.
From Newsweek:
After WikiLeaks published a trove of U.S. intelligence documents—some of which listed the names and villages of Afghans who had been secretly cooperating with the American military—it didn’t take long for the Taliban to react. A spokesman for the group quickly threatened to "punish" any Afghan listed as having "collaborated" with the U.S. and the Kabul authorities against the growing Taliban insurgency. In recent days, the Taliban has demonstrated how seriously those threats should be considered. Late last week, just four days after the documents were published, death threats began arriving at the homes of key tribal elders in southern Afghanistan. And over the weekend one tribal elder, Khalifa Abdullah, who the Taliban believed had been in close contact with the Americans, was taken from his home in Monar village, in Kandahar province’s embattled Arghandab district, and executed by insurgent gunmen.
70 threatening letters have been delivered to elders in Panjwaii district. And it isn't even known whether these leders were aiding coalition forces. They were suspected, so they've been targeted. Here's an example of what is in those letters:
"We have made a decision for your death. You have five days to leave Afghan soil. If you don’t, you don’t have the right to complain."
The letter bore the signature of Abdul Rauf Khadim, a senior Taliban official and former inmate in Guantánamo Bay. He was transferred to Kabul last year and subsequently escaped.
The effects of the leaks on the citizens of Afghanistan has been striking:
The frightening combination of the Taliban spokesman’s threat, Abdullah’s death, and the spate of letters has sparked a panic among many Afghans who have worked closely with coalition forces in the past, according to a senior Taliban intelligence officer who declined to be named for security reasons. The officer said he has seen reports of Afghans rushing to U.S. and coalition bases in southern and eastern Afghanistan over the past few days, seeking protection and even asking for political asylum. (U.S. military officials would not verify this information.) The Taliban officer claimed that the group’s English-language media department continues to actively examine the WikiLeaks material and intends to draw up lists of collaborators in each province, to add to the hit lists of local insurgent commanders.
The real question is: what will be the impact of the leak going forward? Will it cause Afghans to be less cooperative? As the Taliban intelligence officer quoted previously said: "The impact of this should be good for us and a slap in the face to those who are working with America. America is not a good protector of spies."
Afghan citizens were already afraid of the ruthless action of the Taliban. In one gruesome case a few months ago, the Taliban discovered that a group of recent high-school graduates in Ghazni province had been feeding information to the Americans. The youths were arrested, and around 10 of them were hanged. And up to now, the Taliban had reason to be worried. As a result of tip-offs from Afghans, insurgents have lost scores of midlevel commanders to coalition antiterrorist operations over the past few months. Will this continue? I suppose that in some twisted way, supporters of wikileaks' actions hope it does not. If it doesn't, the job gets much harder for coalition forces. If that happens, the war becomes even more difficult, and maybe our forces leave sooner. That's one way of looking at it I suppose.
Here's how I look at it: many Afghans who wanted to rid their country of violent thugs will now be killed because their privacy was not protected as they were likely promised. And the equivalency attempted by Glen Greenwald, comparing these deaths to the deaths caused by our bombings, is simply bullshit. Both acts are wrong. And as I was taught as a child, two wrongs do not make a right. Innocent people will die due to these leaks, plain and simple. Would it have been so difficult for wikileaks to keep the names of these innocent citizens private?