What is Behind the Publication of Wikileaks?

Wikileaks, the site that published secret documents, released another 400,000 secret records of the United States military related to the Iraq War. Document contents are, among other things, 109,032 people killed, composed of 66,081 civilians, 23,984 disturbers of peace (enemies), 15,196 Iraqi soldiers, and 3,771 coalition troops. This was the umpteenth time documents like this were revealed, and this time it was hard to get a reaction, especially from the U.S. Defense Department (Pentagon) and Washington.

The newest Wikileaks secret documents —at the site www.wikileaks.org — state saddening facts, even though they are not at all new, from the Iraq War. Civilians become the target of killings, torture and other forms of violence by security forces. These secret documents include daily reports by soldiers of the U.S. Armed Forces from January 1, 2004 until December 31, 2009, that uncover various violent actions of U.S. troops. Following that release, America, Britain and even Australia protested hard.

In the eyes of officials at the Pentagon and Washington, the manager of Wikileaks is considered to tarnish the image of those institutions because he continues to open the dark sides of the American army operations and its coalition forces in Iraq since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. A member of the Iraqi parliament stated, Wikileaks’ evidence points to the U.S. as troublesome for the people of Iraq. Even though the contents of that information are not surprising, revealing those records under the title “Iraq War Diary” points to the large extent of U.S. offenses in Iraq.

One of these incidents happened in May 2006, when a pregnant woman named Nahiba Jassim and her cousin, Saliha Hassan, were shot to death at a checkpoint in Samarra. Jassim and Hassan were in the midst of traveling in a hurry to a birthing hospital in that city. Another shocking thing from these reports is that there was no follow-up from the units of the troops that shot these civilians. The report also shows that U.S. troops were ordered to close their eyes toward the torture of civilians.

The actions of the Wikileaks manager shows how very strong the influence of online communication lines is in pushing and forcing transparency in this sector which has traditionally been hard to examine by the conventional mass media. Indeed, their effect is no longer only transparency, but rather disclosure efforts. Anyone can access and study Pentagon data about the operations of U.S. troops that up to now have still reaped criticism. Nonetheless, the presence of Wikileaks also gives rise to suspicion about the tactics of Pentagon spin doctors.

Spin doctor, or literally “spinning expert,” is a practice of political communication that tactically “spins” facts to reach an objective. For example, it is no secret if that spin team deliberately plans a demonstration antagonizing the leader in power if that strategy is advantageous to the ruler. In the case of Wikileaks, there are also many that suspect the Pentagon is involved because that release just shows the powerlessness of Baghdad to guarantee security. This strategy must be watched for so that public opinion is not dragged along by the sophistication of U.S. political communication.