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Opening Arguments

Shut up, soldiers

Good for Leon:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is suggesting that a retired Navy SEAL be punished for writing a book giving an insider's account of the U.S. raid that killed terrorist leader Osama bin Laden.

Asked in a network interview if he thinks the writer should be prosecuted, Panetta replied, "I think we have to take steps to make clear to him and to the American people that we're not going to accept this kind of behavior."

Ditto for putting Bradley Manning on trial in the WikiLeaks case, and I think there should be a greater effort than has apparently been made so far to find and prosecute whoever in the White House did the leaking about the cyberattacks on Iran. We shouldn't prejudge the cases -- let the trials show what information was released, what damage it did and what laws were broken. But just bringing the cases is important to send the message that even in the everybody-tells-everbody-else-everything Information Age, national security is still vital and secrets are necessary for national security. Soldiers especially need to be held accountable for any breaches of the oaths they take. We can't afford to accept anything less than their best behavior.

 

Comments

RAG
Tue, 09/11/2012 - 2:43pm

Our Navy SEAL may have been motivated to write the book because President Obama's version of events wasn't too truthful.  The President would have done better by saying that the whole bin Laden mission is a secret and thank you for the questions.

Every operation has different circumstances to consider.  Did the SEAL truly reveal classified unformation that will hurt future missions?  Sometimes secrets are not secrets at all.  I'll stand with the SEAL until proven otherwise.

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