Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Quotable: Secretary Gates on WikiLeaks

Via Small War Journal (SWJ) Blog -

Although today’s press briefing and Q&A with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen concentrated on the release of the DOD working group’s study on the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, the SECDEF's response to a Wikileaks question should be disseminated as widely as possible and hopefully someone in the press will pick it up and write about it (a journalist forwarded an excerpt to a e-mail list I belong to) – see the bolded portion below – the emphasis is mine. I would say no better words could have been spoken on this issue.

Every PAO [Public Affairs Officer] should have this in talking points – if queried, repeat the SECDDEF's words.


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http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/11/pentagon-boss-is-not-sweating-wikileaks/

It’s not that Gates didn’t find the forced transparency annoying. He dug up a John Adams quote: "How can a government go on, publishing all of their negotiations with foreign nations, I know not."

But from his perspective, WikiLeaks won’t significantly disrupt U.S. foreign policy, because it doesn’t have the power to change basic geopolitical calculations.

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