Re: Last I checked....
And just so noone's confused, I didnt say it was MORALLY right to shoot him. Its not morally right to kill anyone that isnt directly trying to harm you or innocents.
It can be argued he did exactly that by leaking Classified Military information in my case, as Im in the US Army, but noone's been hurt, just embarassed. Which some of the Polichickens need to be to be quite honest with you.
I disagree with disclosure of Classified Material but some of the effects have been positive ones. Tunisia especially. Noone's directly died that we know of. I wish they would have redacted names, but from what I understand, they're doing that now. Im no apologist for Assange, and definitely not for PFC Manning (though I strongly doubt the Diplomatic Cables came from him, the Armed Forces are almost always not privy to what State's doing). Ive worked in very sensitive compartments, and Ive never seen a diplomatic cable once. And no, not even on Wikileaks. If I view one of those cables, I WILL be caught. and I WILL be facing a court martial. I have no need to know about the US Department of State's activities.
Anyway, my main point is that its just common practice among Intelligence professionals to kill people who break and disclose information like he did. You screw up and you die. Your own people might pull the trigger on you even.
Granted, this guy is a self-important, self-aggrandizing amateur of the highest order, but the same rules apply to him as they do to someone like the fictional James Bond or the equally fictional Michael Weston from USA Network's "Burn Notice". If you get caught or burned, you don't live to tell the tale. Even in the Military. I remember my first Military ID had a big blank in the Geneva Conventions Category Section. In other words, if I got caught, I was legally a spy and even in countries obeying the Conventions, I would be shot completely legally. They don't even bother training us for escape and evasion, only survival and resistance because they know we're dead. They tell us straight up we wont survive being captured by any enemy, so we'd may as well fight until they kill us.
My last ID, a Common Access Card, had an X in the Conventions Category section, which means "eXempted" instead, but it means the same thing.
For the naive ones among you, in case you haven't noticed since the Cold War, the idea of "morality" doesn't exist in the world of intelligence collection. If you open your neighbor's mail, is it morally right? No, it isnt.
But thats basically what our job is. I dont believe its morally right, and when I face my maker (please keep the Atheist comments to yourselves please, its my personal belief. I believe in science just as much as my religion), I will freely admit that I sinned, but because of people like me, alot of people who would otherwise be dead are alive, ignorant and happy. Which is payment enough for me.
You may ask how can I sleep at night? By knowing that Ive saved lives by making sure horrible things that the general public will never know about didn't happen.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
