US Mercs Involved In Child Prostitution In Afghanistan

[Mikey]

#1 - the very definition of a judgement call - which is what this conversation calls for on either side - is that it is the speakers judgement based on the facts currently available. So, yes - that's exactly what I'm doing. Does Julian Assange love his mother? Yes, probably. Does he kick puppies and knock down elderly people in the street? No, probably not. Am I giving my judgement call, based on what I see at the moment? Of course I am, as are you, as is everyone else involved in this discussion.

#2 - your argument about unwittingly doing harm while being well-intentioned doesn't hold water. We can all see the consequences of his actions; moreover, those consequences were entirely predictable - in fact, it could argued that the current consequences were the only outcome possible, and therefore, were the intentioned outcome.

#3 - I've heard plenty of talk about his "cause," his "good fight," or whatever you want to call it. Please define for me what specific cause he's advocating or pursuing.

[Teaos]

Well your number 3 point... pretty much ever post I have done in this thread. The gross over classification of documents and the ease at which said documents can be accessed due to so many people having easy access to them.

[Captain Seafort]

The gross over classification of documents and the ease at which said documents can be accessed due to so many people having easy access to them.

Or the documents were all classified correctly and the US government has stupidly lax rules regarding who gets access to them.

[Mikey]

So you're saying that his cause celebre is... "I can get my mitts on classified documents." Hardly seems a cause of itself, more like a means to say, "Look at what I can do!"

If only someone had mentioned something like that...

[Coalition]

In relation to the mercs, would it be simpler for the mercs to hire several young women from countries with low cost of living, and tell them they are being hired for sex? Essentially during their half to 1-year contract, they will be expected to provide sex to whoever goes into their room? Get the right location, and the paycheck can be pretty low, allowing more women to be hired. Keep the 'visitation' rates low so the women don't get tired, and maybe give them regular jobs as well (secretary, laundry, cooking, etc).

Give part of the paycheck to the family as some sort of proof (or pretty much just buying her from the parents) that the mercs will treat her nicely, so the family can trust them.

The women (and their families) get a quick infusion of cash, the men get to 'relax'. You'd need a doctor on hand to make sure no diseases pop up.


It'd be a similar stunt for a company wanting to expand into another country. They'd send their experienced (but single) people (guys) to the country to help set up the location. Most of the employees would be young (single) women hired from that country. The exchange rate would allow a pay savings due to lower cost of living, and the guys would have a 3:1 ratio of F:M at the office. How many of us would take a pay cut of 50% to live in a country with 1/10 the cost of living, and having dozens of young women walking around all day at the office, trying to show off? Proper seating arrangements can be done so the men working there never see each other, only the women.

[Tyyr]

Except that this is a traditional Afghan thing, not just simple prostitution and they guys involved were interested in little boys, now women.

[Teaos]

IN regards to it all being needed to be classified, out of the thousands of documents in the leak it is estimated this then 5% are truely dangerous, or where at the point at which the were originally made, another 10% somewhat sensitive and the other 85% utter BS that had no reason to be classified. Now I am doing those number from memory from the TIME article I read so they might be slightly off but generally the point was there was a lot of trash in there that was only classified becasue the person writting it could.

[Tyyr]

So? I mean honestly, so? If it's inane BS then who cares if it's classified or not?

[Mikey]

Right - the fact that some, or even most, of the stuff is harmless doesn't in any way mitigate the rest.

[Tyyr]

Another thing, they classify entire groups of documents for good reason.

1) No one has to make a judgment call. No one has to shift through every cable and determine which need to be classified and which ones are fine for public domain. They simply all get classified as a matter of procedure.
2) Sometimes intelligence agencies can learn a great deal by what you choose not to classify. For instance if every cable from your trip around the mid-east is released for public domain except that nothing at all is released about your chats with the Saudi's then people can deduce something important was talked about, and gee, didn't Iran just start rattling the saber right before you got in town? If everything is classified there's nothing to learn as every conversation from discussions about Kim Jong Il's taste in women to the Saudi's begging us to bomb Iran back to the stone age is protected.
3) It speeds things up. If it's all classified you can move things along quicker because there's no shuffling with this being classified and that not and this being able to be sent to some people and that not.

There are entirely valid reasons for classifying entire groups of documents whether every single document needs it or not.