Brianna MederWikiLeaks

The largest classified military leak in history shook the American public on Friday October 22nd. The classified leak contained 391,832 reports dating from January 1st 2004 to December 31st 2009. The reports called “The Iraq War Logs” were written by the United States Army soldiers, which documented the war and the occupation in Iraq. These documents are the first real glimpse into the United States government and what has really been happening at war.

Launched in 2006 and run by The Sunshine Press, WikiLeaks an international organization has released documents like these, more than once. WikiLeaks posted a video in which Iraqi civilians were shown being killed by U.S. forces back in 2007. They are famous for publishing unavailable information and documents from anonymous sources and leaks to be shown to the American public. Two weeks ago the largest leak in history was put up on Wikileaks.org for anyone to view and comment on.

This leak contradicts the publics view on what was apparently happening overseas. Back in 2004 the image of the US military took a severe hit when pictures emerged showing abuse from our troops to several inmates at Abu Gharaib prison. After months of court hearings, 11 soldiers were found guilty and were handed sentences up to 10 years in prison. Since that incident we as the public were promised mistreatment of prisoners’ and civilians would not be tolerated during the war.

This leak now gives us the real image and real incidents to understand what actually was going on. Documents dated after 2004 show that the abuse didn’t stop after the trial of the 11 soldiers. Numerous reports detail detainee abuse, civilian deaths, and torture.

Most of the abuse was reported by the medical evidence that was written down that “describe prisoners shackled, blindfolded and hung by wrists or ankles, and subjected to whipping, punching, kicking or electric shocks.”

Other incidents highlighted in the documents show that US forces allegedly killed 700 civilians at Iraq checkpoints. These documents have shown crimes against humanity by the US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some people find these leaks as a possible way for Al-Qaeda to get an upper hand and know what we are doing and where we are. Others think it’s a good idea because America needs to know what is really happening, and some are urging Washington to probe these possible crimes. These documents have lead to a serious investigation into the crimes and it will be The United States responsibility. The logs show that the US military turned their head to evidence of abuse and torture of civilians by the Iraqi authorities.

Julian Asange the WikiLeaks founder says “this disclosure is about the truth.” Over 300 individuals who could have been at risk because of the leak have been removed, and all that is left is the truth.

Asange told CNN “these documents reveal six years of the Iraq war at a ground level detail—the troops on the ground, their reports, what they were seeing, what they were saying and what they were doing.”

Since the beginning of the war the American public hasn’t been informed and let in because of the government secrecy that clouded everything. We have been told we were helping, things were getting better, and we weren’t killing anyone who didn’t deserve it, but really we’ve been lied to.

WikiLeaks has brought to light the US government secrets and war efforts full blown. Breaking up the public image of the war, and summing up these documents findings, WikiLeak founder speaks the truth on what’s really shown and that is “were talking about a five times greater kill rate in Iraq, really comparative bloodbath compared to Afghanistan.”