Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
Afghanistan WikiLeaks Made Possible by Lady Gaga
By
John Del Signore
Published Jul 26, 2010
Modified Jul 26, 2010
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
By
John Del Signore
Published Jul 26, 2010
Modified Jul 26, 2010
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Last night WikiLeaks dumped 91,000 classified U.S. military documents detailing our current Quagmire in the Graveyard of Empires. Most of the documents, which were reviewed in advance by the Times, are low-level field reports detailing the daily grind in Afghanistan, where officers, unsurprisingly, complain of "poorly equipped Afghan forces and corrupt Afghan government officials." Other documents suggest that Pakistan's spy service, ISI, is helping Afghan insurgents attack U.S. forces.
This is hardly news, and one U.S. official tells the Washington Post, "There is not a lot new here for those who have been following developments closely." But this being 2010, there is, thankfully, a Lady Gaga angle to make this newsy.
It seems the private who allegedly downloaded the huge trove of secret data from military computers in Iraq exploited a loophole that permitted the use of compact disks on secure computers. External hard drive ports were disabled, but Pfc. Bradley E. Manning allegedly spent six months downloading documents onto a CD that he disguised in a Lady Gaga CD case. The Times reports, "He was able to avoid detection not because he kept a poker face, they said, but apparently because he hummed and lip-synched to Lady Gaga songs to make it appear that he was using the classified computer’s CD player to listen to music." Whether you think Manning's a patriot or a traitor, surely we can all agree that he was willing to sacrifice for his cause.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange—who was supposed to attend a hacker conference at the Hotel Pennsylvania earlier this month but backed out after federal agents were spotted there—tells CNN, "It is the total history of the Afghan war from 2004 to 2010, with some important exceptions—U.S. Special Forces, CIA activity, and most of the activity of other non-U.S. groups."
A spokesperson for the Afghan government issued a statement saying, "There should be serious action taken against the ISI, who has a direct connection with the terrorists. These reports show that the U.S. was already aware of the ISI connection with the al Qaeda terrorist network. The United States is overdue on the ISI issue and now the United States should answer."
"The key thing to bear in mind is that the administration is not naive about Pakistan," an Obama administration official insists to the Washington Post. "The problem with the Pakistanis is that the more you threaten them, the more they become entrenched and don't see a path forward with you." Pakistan receives more than $1 billion a year from Washington for its "help" in "combating" the militants.
Tagged
afghanistan
bradley manning
isi
julian assange
lady gaga
Pakistan
wikileaks
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Inside Luigi Mangione's legal strategy before his federal guilty plea
Newly unsealed transcripts and court filings reveal how his lawyers weighed a mental health defense — and the risk it could have posed to his federal case.
By
Samantha Max
Published Oct 20, 2026 at 12:37 p.m. ET
NYC proposes crackdown down on AI customer service chatbots
Customers would have to be provided the option of speaking with a human.
By
Arya Sundaram
News
NYC proposes crackdown down on AI customer service chatbots
Customers would have to be provided the option of speaking with a human.
By
Arya Sundaram
Early Addition: There's a new hot duck, this time in Queens
By
James Ramsay
NYPD hate crime unit investigates smashed windows, ‘Pal Action’ graffiti at UES Capital One
By
Ryan Kost
A reliably Republican part of NJ, until ICE came to town
By
Mike Hayes
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .