Wikileaks has released a list of locations of strategic interest to the United States which has prompted a flood of criticism from the US and its bootlickers, like Malcolm Rifkind accusing Wikileaks from aiding terrorists:
The list is “a gift to any terrorist (group) trying to work out what are the ways in which it can damage the United States,” said Malcolm Rifkind, chairman of the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee in Britain.
“It is grossly improper and irresponsible” for Assange and his website to publish that information, he said.
Oh Rly?
Let’s look at the Dutch locations on that list, shall we?
Netherlands: Atlantic Crossing-1 (AC-1) undersea cable landing Beverwijk, Netherlands TAT-14 undersea cable landing, Katwijk, Netherlands Rotterdam Port
Two internet connection points and the Rotterdam harbour. Inconcievable that terrorists would think of these targets on their own.
More seriously, the target list here might be of strategic interest to the US, but it’s of little value to any really existing terrorists, rather than the phantom menace conjured up by State Deparment spokepersons. Yes, terrorists could more easily attack a soft target like the e.g. anti-snake venom plant in Italy that’s also mentioned than something like the Statue of Liberty, but this assumes that terrorists select their targets to cause maximum damage for minimal risk rather than for maximum publicity and, well, terror. Moreover,thinking that releasing this list is supporting terrorists because we need to hide important targets for them is the worst sort of security by obscurity. If your strategy depends on keeping that sort of basic information secret, you’ve lost already, as any sysadmin worth their salt knows already.
But then this is just outrage theatre and nobody responsible actually believes this, do they? Do they?