How Incompetence is Hidden Behind a Wall of Secrecy

Pfc. Bradley Manning

The release of a quarter of a million electronic documents downloaded by a lowly Private First Class in Iraq, is another glaring example of how incompetent the US government is when it comes to national security. Although most Americans think that Central Intelligence Agency, State Department, and other national security state apparatus institutions are well-oiled machines, the truth could not be further from reality. As Chalmers Johnson would have almost assuredly observed, the fact that a lowly private can have access to sensitive information that is only intended to be viewed by senior policy officials, is further proof at how national security state apparatus institutions and especially the Central Intelligence Agency, hide their incompetence behind a wall of secrecy.

The young Army Pfc. suspected of stealing the diplomatic memos, many of them classified, and feeding them to WikiLeaks may have defeated Pentagon security systems using little more than a Lady Gaga CD and a portable computer memory stick.

Instead of the US government and apologists for the national security state apparatus in the main stream media attacking WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for releasing the State Department documents, the U.S. press should be asking the more important questions such as, what does the American government want biometric data of UN senior officials for, and why are Saudi donors still the chief financiers of Sunni militant groups like Al Qaeda. In addition to these questions, media outlets and Op-Ed columnists should be asking why the tiny Persian Gulf state of Qatar, a generous host to the American military for years, was the “worst in the region” in counterterrorism efforts. According to a State Department cable last December, Qatar’s security service was “hesitant to act against known terrorists out of concern for appearing to be aligned with the U.S. and provoking reprisals”.

Even though the tiny Gulf nation is home to three major U.S. military bases and received over $ 110 million dollars in 2000 for two of those bases, the autocratic leadership of Qatar has no problem taking U.S. money. In addition to the al-Udeid Air Force Base, the United States taxpayer also supports Camp as-Sayliyah located on the outskirts of Doha and Camp Snoopy, located at Doha International Airport.

The failure of the Qatar government to be more involved in fighting the global war on terrorism started by George W. Bush and continued by Barack Obama is particularly disturbing in an era of trillion dollar deficits. Demonstrating how the Obama administration is no different than the Bush administration and how the elements of militarism transcend both political parties in Washington DC, in addition to freezing federal worker pay for the next two years, Congress should also close the three military bases in Qatar.

Like the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in 2004 and the recent story of US Soldiers keeping body parts in Afghanistan as war trophy’s, the recent press story of the US government lashing out at the founder of WikiLeaks encourages the U.S. media to focus on the actions of low ranking soldiers, and diverts attention away from the higher-level policy makers.

As anthropologist Laura Nader noted in her 1969 essay entitled, “Up the Anthropologist”, the study of social systems is often directed downwards, at those less powerful in a society rather than those in power. By focusing on the low-level actions of individual soldiers, the media hinders the American public from beginning to question the more substantive constitutional and moral implications of a country in perpetual state of war.

According to a recent Associated Press article:

A senior Defense Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the criminal case against Manning is pending, said he was unaware of any firings or other discipline over the security conditions at Manning's post in Iraq.

In an era of high unemployment and over 15 million Americans out of work, it is outrageous that no one inside the national security state apparatus has been fired over the actions of young Pfc. Bradley Manning.