Israeli ex-soldier faces prison over leaks

[Mr. Invisible]

An Israeli court has sentenced a former soldier to four and a half years in prison for leaking classified military documents to a newspaper, which later reported allegations of a policy to assassinate Palestinian fighters.

A three-judge panel handed Anat Kamm a 54-month sentence and an additional 18-month suspended term on Sunday, with judges writing in the court document that they had found "the motive behind taking the documents was mainly ideological".

Kamm, 24, copied more than 2,000 military documents from army computers between 2005 and 2007, when she served as a junior clerk in the office of the Israeli commander responsible for the illegally occupied West Bank. About 700 were classified.

The rest of the article can be read here (Israeli ex-soldier faces prison over leaks - Middle East - Al Jazeera English)


Thoughts?
Comments?


Personally, I think that she did the right thing as it seems that the assassination of wanted Palestinians was against Israeli laws. It seems that what she was trying to do was just to make sure that the law was followed.


​

 

[ido_]

An Israeli court has sentenced a former soldier to four and a half years in prison for leaking classified military documents to a newspaper, which later reported allegations of a policy to assassinate Palestinian fighters.

A three-judge panel handed Anat Kamm a 54-month sentence and an additional 18-month suspended term on Sunday, with judges writing in the court document that they had found "the motive behind taking the documents was mainly ideological".

Kamm, 24, copied more than 2,000 military documents from army computers between 2005 and 2007, when she served as a junior clerk in the office of the Israeli commander responsible for the illegally occupied West Bank. About 700 were classified.

The rest of the article can be read here (Israeli ex-soldier faces prison over leaks - Middle East - Al Jazeera English)


Thoughts?
Comments?


Personally, I think that she did the right thing as it seems that the assassination of wanted Palestinians was against Israeli laws. It seems that what she was trying to do was just to make sure that the law was followed.


​

Why do you seek info on an Israeli affair in Al-Jazeera is beyond me...

On topic -> There was a documentry on the affair on channel 10 few months ago. Mainly sort of a video journal shot by Anat Kam herself, the impression I got was that her actions weren't motivated by ideological ideas. She was looking to get attention and to try to impress Haaretz journalist Uri Blau as she was aiming to become a news reporter. Basically, a little girl who didn't understand the mess she got herself into.

Nevertheless I have no problem with her being sentenced to 3 years in prison ( you have to reduce one third for "good behavour" 4.5x(2/3)=3 ), even idiots should pay for their actions if they are as severe as these.

 

[Mr. Invisible]

Why do you seek info on an Israeli affair in Al-Jazeera is beyond me...

On topic -> There was a documentry on the affair on channel 10 few months ago. Mainly sort of a video journal shot by Anat Kam herself, the impression I got was that her actions weren't motivated by ideological ideas. She was looking to get attention and to try to impress Haaretz journalist Uri Blau as she was aiming to become a news reporter. Basically, a little girl who didn't understand the mess she got herself into.

Nevertheless I have no problem with her being sentenced to 3 years in prison ( you have to reduce one third for "good behavour" 4.5x(2/3)=3 ), even idiots should pay for their actions if they are as severe as these.

Oh! Didn't know this. I am not saying that she shouldn't be punished, all I was saying in the OP was that I don't think she did it with bad intentions in mind.

 

[ido_]

Oh! Didn't know this. I am not saying that she shouldn't be punished, all I was saying in the OP was that I don't think she did it with bad intentions in mind.

I don't think that she did either, as I wrote before, I think she is more dumb than harmfull...

BTW, the maximum penalty for her crime is 14 years in prison.

 

[jamesrage]

An Israeli court has sentenced a former soldier to four and a half years in prison for leaking classified military documents to a newspaper, which later reported allegations of a policy to assassinate Palestinian fighters.

A three-judge panel handed Anat Kamm a 54-month sentence and an additional 18-month suspended term on Sunday, with judges writing in the court document that they had found "the motive behind taking the documents was mainly ideological".

Kamm, 24, copied more than 2,000 military documents from army computers between 2005 and 2007, when she served as a junior clerk in the office of the Israeli commander responsible for the illegally occupied West Bank. About 700 were classified.

The rest of the article can be read here (Israeli ex-soldier faces prison over leaks - Middle East - Al Jazeera English)


Thoughts?
Comments?


Personally, I think that she did the right thing as it seems that the assassination of wanted Palestinians was against Israeli laws. It seems that what she was trying to do was just to make sure that the law was followed.


​

I think the punishment is light.

 

[samsmart]

Thoughts?
Comments?

I found this the most interesting part of the article.

Her case has sparked debate in Israel on the limits of press freedom in a nation where most men and women are subject to compulsory military conscription at 18, and go on to serve in the reserves, and many become privy to classified information.

In summing up Kamm's sentence, the judges appeared to point at her case as a lesson to other soldiers.

"The military establishment is built on the service of young, motivated people who fill complicated and secret roles," they wrote.

"If the army cannot trust the soldiers serving in various units and exposed to sensitive issues, then it cannot function
as a regular army."

It's interesting in that the Israeli government demands full obedience from its soldiers, but then all of the nation's citizens are considered soldiers.

 

[ido_]

I found this the most interesting part of the article.



It's interesting in that the Israeli government demands full obedience from its soldiers, but then all of the nation's citizens are considered soldiers.

Are you saying that the IDF has more than 7 million soldiers ?

 

[samsmart]

Are you saying that the IDF has more than 7 million soldiers ?

In effect, yes, since every Israeli citizen who finishes their conscription are considered to be in the Israeli reserves.

And this development could go either way.

On one hand, it seems to increase the "militarization" of Israel. That is Israel will always consider military issues to be primary over other issues. This could grant the military undue control over their nation's political apparatus so that military options will inherently be deemed better than other options. That fallacy of "if all you have is a hammer, then every problem looks like a nail" may apply to them.

On the other hand, because every citizen is considered either a soldier or reserve, it may lead to more democratization of the military. After all, it's difficult to keep military secrets if the entire populace is a part of the military. Therefore, the issue may be more with releasing military secrets to foreigners than to releasing military secrets to their own public.

Perhaps some Israeli citizens could shed a bit of light on this particular subject.

 

[ido_]

In effect, yes, since every Israeli citizen who finishes their conscription are considered to be in the Israeli reserves.

And this development could go either way.

On one hand, it seems to increase the "militarization" of Israel. That is Israel will always consider military issues to be primary over other issues. This could grant the military undue control over their nation's political apparatus so that military options will inherently be deemed better than other options. That fallacy of "if all you have is a hammer, then every problem looks like a nail" may apply to them.

On the other hand, because every citizen is considered either a soldier or reserve, it may lead to more democratization of the military. After all, it's difficult to keep military secrets if the entire populace is a part of the military. Therefore, the issue may be more with releasing military secrets to foreigners than to releasing military secrets to their own public.

Perhaps some Israeli citizens could shed a bit of light on this particular subject.

Even if you are counting reserve soldiers who are civilians and not soldiers for at least 330 days in a year, the IDF has (according to this: Israel Defense Forces - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) 752K soldiers which is just above 10% of the population of Israel.

So your statement that this demand is from all citizens is far from correct.

 

[samsmart]

Even if you are counting reserve soldiers who are civilians and not soldiers for at least 330 days in a year, the IDF has (according to this: Israel Defense Forces - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) 752K soldiers which is just above 10% of the population of Israel.

So your statement that this demand is from all citizens is far from correct.

Oh, I know that. My comment wasn't on how things are now - rather, I'm curious to how this aspect of Israeli culture will develop in the future.