Can you find protection on the bottom of a clear lake?

Is it possible to have both a transparent government and national security? As the US government is preparing for yet another release of classified documents by WikiLeaks, a website devoted to whistle-blowing, the big question is, can we have both.

There are several reasons to warrant classified information, with today’s technology of instant communication pretty much anywhere around the globe, protecting information is more important than ever. Names of CIA operatives, informants, military positions and weapons, are these things that we can afford to have the whole world know about? Of course not! Our CIA operatives would be targets, informants would disappear, and the enemy would know our capabilities and location, none of which are good things.

WikiLeaks is planning on leaking about 400,000 classified documents on the US-Iraq war. What can possibly be gained be releasing these documents? That the government lies to its’ people? We all know that already, just look at our politicians, willing to tell their constituents whatever it is they want to hear to get elected. It would show the government’s plans, the information they had, and how they were struggling. How is any of that useful to the American public? So we can look back on a President that’s no longer in office and say, “See, I told you he was terrible.”? The only people that would gain any useful information are the people we are fighting against.

There is no valid reason to de-classify documents about on ongoing war. Wars of the past, sure, history buffs would love it and it gives citizens who care a valuable insight to how the government is run. Not that people don’t want to know that information about current wars, but it’s much more important to protect security information in current combat. People push for the government to be more transparent, sometimes without thinking about what the consequences of such actions are. Whether for or against the Iraqi war, surely no one wants our soldiers to die, leaking information can, and does, lead to deaths.

It’s not possible to have your cake and eat it to in the world of information security. Think of the US Government as a company, and the citizens of the US as the employees. Does the CEO tell everyone in the company what their secrets are, what companies they are going after to acquire, what new technologies they are researching? Of course not, they tell the employees that need to know, so as not to give information to the wrong group of people that can then use it to harm the company. (And for those that will attest that the government is the employee and the citizens are the bosses, do we, as employees, tell our bosses about every aspect of our jobs, even when errors are made?)

The need for secrecy is there. The government can’t go around waving its’ plans around to everyone, or its’ weaknesses. As much as citizens want their government to be transparent and open, classified documents are necessary for the security and safety of us all.