13 março 2003

ECO-TERROR
Leaky battleships: 'The whole government leaks - from the White House, State, Defence, and even the CIA and FBI - like a broken water main…'
So wrote an American journalist in October 2002, as yet another leak about US foreign policy made its way from the White House (this time) to the media. According to the UK Observer, in the run-up to the clash with Iraq, officials at the Pentagon, the State Department and the UK Ministry of Defence have been leaking 'liberally', secretly revealing everything from invasion strategies to troop numbers to postwar plans.
At the same time, some in the American and British elites who are concerned about the coming conflict have been leaking info that they think undermines the case for war. [...]
In earlier times of war, states kept sensitive information about their plans and ambitions to themselves. And internal concerns about a conflict and its consequences would have been expressed privately, if at all. Now, in the words of one US commentator, we can 'read all about it' - 'how many troops are going to do what to Iraq', and who supports it and who doesn't - in our morning papers. What's going on?