mhaze- "This isn't a freedom of the press issue. It is an issue with regards to the rights of governments to keep sensitive information secret. Every government on the planet does it and every government on the planet jealously protects its right to keep those secrets. "

Kudos mhaze.

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Dear Fester,

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If I were the director of the CIA the first thing I would do when I got news of the security breach would be to send out an urgent message to all the spy and informant networks to go into immediate blackout mode and lie low until further notice.

I dare imagine that you would do likewise if you were the director.

That’s why, as you say : “ there are missing persons, so you don't know their fate”.

They are “missing” because they are in hiding, Fester. That’s the ABC of the profession. These people are not amateurs. They are professional secret intelligence agents who are fully aware of the risks of their profession. They pride themselves on being the best in the world.

And that’s why the number one consequence that has been identified is :

• Disruption of the US spy and informant networks

The networks are disrupted because they have gone into blackout mode to stay safe.

Of course, Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange were aware that their actions could result in people suffering harm, just as the management of the CIA knew it as soon as they heard of the security breach. But don’t forget that Chelsea Manning was, herself, a US Army intelligence agent based in Iraq who knew perfectly well how the system works.

She knew that as soon as the alarm bells rang all hell would break loose and the network would immediately go into blackout mode.

Don’t worry, Fester, no one was killed, no one got hurt and there was no damage. The management of the CIA knows that but they are furious that there’s been a catastrophic security breach of the systems under their responsibility and that their secret intelligence networks are in complete disarray and forced into blackout mode.

The only death and damage of which we are certain and of which we should be concerned are those suffered by the innocent civil victims of the US and UK military strikes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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I agree with Banjo Patterson,
I think the intelligence networks would've immediately moved to protect any compromised asset.
Straight to a CIA safe house and then out of the country if necessary.

With these peoples identities released, it then means they lose that intelligence asset and go blind.
It probably resulted in many ongoing operations being undermined or destroyed entirely, and in some cases it probably takes years putting all these intelligence assets in place.
This would've no doubt infuriated the CIA who have probably never been attacked on that kind of level before.
- And these people don't have rules or limits.
Of course they would've wanted to assassinate him.
Why wouldn't they, they do whatever they want (including wetwork) already.

Hi Banjo,

I was wrong about Scott Rush. He is still in an Indonesian prison. Still, the Bali Nine incident showed that Australian law enforcement officers can lawfully put Australian citizens at risk of execution by communicating with foreign law enforcement organisations. No involvement of the courts seems to be a requirement.

We differ in opinion on the the fate of the missing persons, but the fact that they went missing would suggest that they were put at risk of suffering harm.

I guess what matters is what the judges make of things. The unknown is whether the United States has evidence that people were killed as a result of Mr Shipton's actions. I have no idea of the legal consequences, but I very much doubt that putting people at risk of harm would be described as journalism, let alone causing people to be killed.