The problem with these kinds of things is that the document might be watermarked to obviate who leaked it. It follows the same vein as "spying on allies" which -- until recently -- was tin-foil-hat conspiracy territory.
The political fallout will not be minimal, and it will not be kept secret.
It follows the same vein as "spying on allies" which -- until recently -- was tin-foil-hat conspiracy territory.
Not at all. Nations have been spying on their allies since there have been nations and spies. Anyone "shocked" by those revelations is either putting on a show or rather naive.
I doubt it. We had plans about how to invade Canada prior to WWII.
People freaked out when they first heard about that, but it had nothing to do with Canada in particular, and everything to do with the Department of War having plans for effectively everybody that had any major military capability that could theoretically harm the U.S., just like Batman has plans to defeat every other superhero in the Justice League (just in case...).
Until the days of unilateral world government (when nations won't have to act in their own best interest), allies should evaluate each other, at least at a high level. That doesn't have to mean sinister things though. Just ask Batman.
Sorry to be pedantic here, but I don't think that "obviate" is at all what you meant here. Judging from the context, it seems you believe the definition is "to make obvious", but it actually has nothing to do with that.
> spying on allies" which -- until recently -- was tin-foil-hat conspiracy territory.
What? Nations have been spying on each other, including allies, since the invention of spying.
> The political fallout will not be minimal
The fallout will be so minimal as to be non-existent. Nations already know allies spy on them, it's not in any way surprising.
It also doesn't really bother them. They have to protect against all spying, if an ally can, so can an enemy. So finding out an ally spied really just means an enemy did too - so it's actually useful information.
The Collateral Murder video was most likely watermarked. I think the low quality of the video is because the quality had to be degraded so the watermarks can't be seen/scanned.
The political fallout will not be minimal, and it will not be kept secret.