What’s the least surprising headline to read? Aside from “Crime Rockets in Democratic Cities.”
I’d say it’s anything that features the words “U.S. Intelligence Leak”.
Recall the last thirteen years ago and take a look at to think wherein other country more secrets have been revealed than on this one.
Was there a time when the world saw the secrets of America’s rivals and enemies?
Is there a Wikileaks from the Chinese Communist Party?
Have we seen the huge caches of secrets from the Kremlin? No and again no.
Turn to America’s friends and allies. Have the UK, Canada, Australia or Latest Zealand been liable for the largest classified data breaches in recent history?
Again, no. This special honor belongs to this country. And it’s a distinction that the US intelligence community should make clear again, but won’t.
Top secret Pentagon documents have been circulating around the world in recent weeks.
We all know that the source of the leaks is the United States, because no other country would have access to all the information disclosed.
Documents mainly concern the war in Ukraine. Nonetheless, they contain details of the U.S. government’s diplomatic relations with Egypt and South Korea, amongst others.
They’re deeply harmful.
Not only because leaks are so useful for Russians.
![Wikileaks founder Julian Assange](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-133202051.jpg?w=683)
They describe not only the diplomatic tug-of-war happening behind the scenes around arming the Russians and Ukrainians.
Additionally they detail things like the Ukrainian army’s plans for a spring counter-offensive.
How could such a massive and damaging data leak occur? How can America be such an unreliable ally?
Partly because it’s been happening lately and lots of Americans haven’t only gotten used to it, but actually relish it.
Thirteen years have passed since Julian Assange revealed to the whole world huge amounts of details about US operations in Afghanistan.
The Wikileaks scandal led to Assange being prosecuted by US authorities.
But it was also celebrated.
As one of the few individuals who debated Assange face to face, I used to be never in any doubt what a scoundrel he was.
But then, in 2010, he was the hero and toast of the anti-war left.
A couple of years later, and since Wikileaks was the recipient and disseminator of the 2016 DNC leaks, parts of the American right suddenly hailed Assange as a hero.
Either side were deceived in turn.
Years ago, I asked Assange when his sinister and secretive organization might go about divulging Russian government secrets.
I’m still waiting for a response.
Meanwhile, Assange continues to be hailed as a hero.
Following The Post’s latest article on the US intelligence leak scandal
Today, right-wing and left-wingers call him a “journalist”, although he was never one.
Assange’s kindest explanation is that he’s a naive data collector for information that harms America.
And remember how the person closest to his leak was treated?
The person who fed Assange the original Wikileaks dump was a low rank private in the US military: Bradley Manning.
He was charged and imprisoned.
But in prison, Bradley decided it was really “Chelsea”, and applauding America was so moved by this story of transition that “Chelsea” was toned down by the benevolent President Obama.
What a message to send.
![Edward Snowden](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/CHINA-HONGKONG-EDWARD-SNOWDEN.jpg?w=1024)
Ten years ago, it was Edward Snowden’s turn – a mere contractor – to steal and expose massive amounts of US government secrets to the world.
Once more, Snowden pretended to be an innocent truth teller.
Although once more it was interesting whose secrets didn’t come out.
The Snowden leaks have done tremendous damage to the country’s intelligence operations.
The info dump was huge and completely unedited. Personally, I felt no surprise as I watched Snowden seek refuge first with the Chinese Communist Party after which with Vladimir Putin.
Again, people on the right and left in America praised Snowden as some kind of hero. Once upon a time, the individuals who revealed secrets to our enemies lived under their protection. “Traitors” – that was it.
![Jack Teixeira](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/nyp-grab-82-1-2.jpg?w=1024)
By the way, we’ve not heard much from Snowden since his “protector” invaded Ukraine.
It seems to me that freedom of speech just isn’t as great in Russia as it is in America. Who could have guessed?
But the most interesting thing about the Snowden leak is that it was leaked by a completely younger person at the NSA.
The knowledge Snowden had access to was available to incredibly short personalities like himself.
Similar to Manning. Tens of hundreds of people had access to the information.
In some unspecified time in the future you will have to wonder – can such things really be called a “secret”?
Yesterday, a 21-12 months-old man from the Massachusetts Air National Guard base on Cape Cod was arrested in reference to the latest massive spill.
Jack Teixeira was reportedly a technical support officer at the base. So, once more, an incredibly great amount of top-secret information has passed through the desk of an incredibly younger person.
And once more, America has proven to be the leaking ship – the weak link – in the Western security chain.
Our intelligence agencies have huge budgets. They investigate private residents and incumbent presidents with impunity.
But they can not do the one thing they’re meant to do: keep secrets.
But there’s also a broader social failure here.
I predict Teixeira will change into a national hero for one political party or the other in the US, depending on which policy his leaks help the most.
Some people will hate him. But Jack Texeira should not be afraid.
Even when he leads to prison, he can all the time say that any further he would love to be called Jacqueline and all will be forgiven.
She’ll be out soon.
Once more, the rest of the world knows the whole lot about America. I just wish I knew how much they need to laugh at us.