James Bamford is a writer and documentary producer specializing in intelligence and national security issues. His most recent book, his third on the National Security Agency, is "The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret N.S.A.: From 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America."

Early on the morning of Dec. 17, 2009, a U.S. Navy warship launched a deadly cluster bomb attack on a small village in Southern Yemen killing 21 children and 20 innocent women and men, all from two families.

Spies at least had the courtesy to keep the secrets to themselves, rather than distribute them to the world’s media giants.

Dozens more were seriously injured. Another attack took place on Christmas Eve. Although the targets were senior Al Qaeda members, the missiles were far off target. Then, to hide U.S. involvement from the American public, and the Yemeni public, the Obama administration agreed to an elaborate series of deceptions with Yemeni President Saleh. They included a well-publicized “congratulations” call to Saleh from President Obama and a promise by Saleh that “We’ll continue saying the bombs are ours, not yours,” all of which was recently exposed by WikiLeaks.



Deception begets deception. When a president launches a secret war, killing innocent civilians, in a country far away from any battlefield, and then attempts to cover it up, he is courting disaster. Such deceptions may be used as justifications by others to strike back, as may have been the case with U.S. Army Private Bradley Manning, who has been charged with disclosing diplomatic cables that ended up on WikiLeaks.

A generation ago, government employees with Communist sympathies worried security officials. Today, after years of torture reports, black sites, Abu Ghraib, and a war founded on deception, it is the possibility that more employees might act out from a sense of moral outrage that concerns officials.

There may be more employees out there willing to leak, they fear, and how do you weed them out? Spies at least had the courtesy to keep the secrets to themselves, rather than distribute them to the world’s media giants. In a sense, WikiLeaks is forcing the U.S. government into the confessional, with the door wide open. And confession, though difficult and embarrassing, can sometimes cleanse the soul.