By Lt. Col. Arthur MacFadden

The recent WikiLeaks saga in the news has gone from bad to worse with possibly more to come. It’s troubling that someone who was trusted would download these secret documents and distribute them to the media and that someone would print them without first considering the damage caused.

Lots can be gleaned from the documents made available to expert eyes. Our enemies and rivals have been scouring these documents to find how our special forces operate, our communication methods, tactics, and other useful information that can help them against us now and in the future. Disclosed information may compromise our diplomatic efforts and our forces in the field. Calling these documents innocent and a matter of freedom of speech isn’t seeing the big picture presented.

One hopes the Department of Defense will close whatever loophole that enabled the individual or individuals to download and walk off with this information and hold them accountable.

There’s a balance between what is secret and the public’s right to know. Freedom of speech doesn’t give cover to those who would compromise our security in the name of transparency. The fact remains these documents were obtained illegally and expose sensitive information that may compromise future diplomatic missions and our security.