Bill Keller, ormai ex direttore del NYT e editorialista di lusso della testata USA, va ancora all’assalto di Julian Assange. E – a parte l’acrimonia personale, visto che i due non si sono mai amati molti (eufemismo) – dice parecchie cose condivisibili. Come per esempio il fatto che – esaurito l’effetto dei cables e dei log USA divulgati da WikiLeaks che pure continuano a dare spunti ai giornalisti investigativi in giro per il mondo – ora come ora è più difficile di sempre convincere un whistle blower a fidarsi di una qualunque organizzazione (giornalistica o no) che lo aiuti a divulgare i suoi segreti. Anche perché è più difficile riuscire a fare uscire ‘sti benedetti documenti e si rischia molto di più.
Steven Aftergood, who monitors secrecy issues for the Federation of American Scientists, said that since WikiLeaks the government has elevated the “insider threat” as a priority, and tightened access to classified material. Nudged by an irate Congress, the intelligence agencies are at work on an electronic auditing program that would make illicit transfer of secrets much more difficult and make tracking the leaker much easier. “A lot of attention has been focused on WikiLeaks and its colorful proprietors,” Aftergood told me. “But the real action, it turns out, is not at the publisher level; it’s at the source level. And there aren’t a lot of sources as prolific or as reckless as Bradley Manning allegedly was.” For good reason. The Obama administration has been much more aggressive than its predecessors in pursuing and punishing leakers. [...] It is this administration’s sixth criminal case against an official for confiding to the media, more than all previous presidents combined. The message is chilling for those entrusted with keeping legitimate secrets and for whistleblowers or officials who want the public to understand how our national security is or is not protected. Here’s the paradox the documentaries have overlooked so far: The most palpable legacy of the WikiLeaks campaign for transparency is that the U.S. government is more secretive than ever.
New York Times