Wikileaks

[BobHelm]

Well the latest round of leaks of American confidential information is out.
Here is the BBC summary of the diplomatic cables published.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11858990

Pretty tame stuff really. Stuff you write to your co-workers, boss or mates would often be embarrassing if released for the world to view. That does not make the thoughts incorrect, just embarrassing.

President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe as "the crazy old man".

is just about the most generous summary of the man that anyone could give.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is referred to as "feckless, vain, and ineffective as a modern European leader" by a US diplomat in Rome.

is also fair comment. He certainly is no statesman or diplomat.
The cries by some in the Arab world for the USA to take action against Iran shows them to be a gutless set of characters who are happy for Americans to be put in danger but have not even got the strength of character to say the Iran leadership are misguided & dangerous people.

Embarrassing & will cause some red faces for certain, but maybe all in all not a bad thing. A dose of reality for some might be good & perhaps more good than bad will emerge.

[Bandung_Dero]

Apparently the site is being 'attacked' at the moment here is an alternate if you cannot open it by normal means.

http://cablegate.wikileaks.org/

[cookie]

some wise words:

I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.
Abraham Lincoln

[nkstan]

some wise words:

I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.
Abraham Lincoln

Just as long as they are not consevatives,right?

Rising up to meet any national crisis has a different,more urgent and timely response in this day and age versus Lincolns time!And who accepts facts and facts from whom?Plus this is probably political rhetoric on Lincolns part as the people of his time were busier killing each other on a scale that has yet to be matched in US history

I wonder what purpose Wikileaks serves to the international populations?Create more animosity between peoples ,I guess by making private,public?Of course they can only do that to us,not our foes,because it means nothing what they think,say and do.We of the West must be prim,proper and carry the moral standard while they blow us up on the way to showing us all,Utopia on Earth!

[BobHelm]

I guess that the owners of Wikileaks would say it is all about openness & honesty.
It is difficult to see why much of this leaked stuff as ever deemed to be secret & potentially dangerous to anybody. That so much garbage is classified secret makes anyone with an intelligence think that far too much is routinely classified that way.

[hangsaboot]

[quote="BobHelm"]I guess that the owners of Wikileaks would say it is all about openness & honesty.

if so ,
why dont they spill the beans on chinese and , russian confidential info. ,
ALL, countries have their own err, confidential profiles on world shakers / movers .

right now USA , leaders are apeshite, about wilkileaks ,

the CIA are experts @ engineering , so called accidents .
wilki execs , you have been warned , RIP.

[BobHelm]

I guess that they don't spill the beans on the Ruskies & Chinese because they haven't got the data hangsaboot - however neither of those nations claim to have much of a record on human rights or make loud claims about the infringement of personal rights. If anyone shouts about their righteousness then some people will always like to prove that it might not be as perfect as claimed.
That you believe that the CIA would tamper with the freedom of expression of someone like Wikileaks just goes to show how low the opinions of many about 'free world' Government agencies has become...

[KHONDAHM]

Speculating, methinks the leak happened as part of Mitch McConnel's stated objective to make Obama a one-term President. It is common knowledge that when Republicans are in charge, they appoint people who ensure that there are enough moles infesting the machine to make things like this happen. I mean, c'mon...this info gets leaked by a Private First Class and that does not strike anyone as odd? The majority of info is from the past few years so that it has maximum impact on current foreign relations. The quality and level of classified material is just enough to cause problems and serious embarrassment for the Administration, but not outright jeopardize the most serious of matters. Note that the PFC who leaked did not have any overtly criminal motive. There are plenty of rightwing nuts who would happily put on a uniform and take one for the team if it means bringing down Obama and/or his legacy.

This may sound like a far-fetched conspiracy theory, but the timing and motivation of all this should raise suspicion in everyone's mind. Of all the times for such an embarrassing thing to happen, it happens on Obama's watch and is perpetrated by a PFC. One can only hope the REAL journalists get to the bottom of the matter. I have yet to see any thorough reporting about the PFC's background and past affiliations and that of the suddenly "patriotic" black hat hacker who reported him to the authorities.

A PFC stumbles across the cache of info and decides to leak it to Wikileaks. Why? Just because. Sorry, it doesn't make sense. It is odd that he would have such access. It is odd that any American, especially one patriotic enough to voluntarily enlist for military service, would not refrain from passing on the info out of civic duty or fear of treason.

Let's see how and how much they crow about this during campaigning for 2012.

[Buckeroo]

Speculating, methinks the leak happened as part of Mitch McConnel's stated objective to make Obama a one-term President.

Just because someone calls you paranoid dosen't mean they aren't out to get you. The " great right-wing conspiracy" rears it's ugly head.

[Khun Paul]

Having read in the British press about the leaks, I can only come to the conclusion that if they are as stated US Diplomatic cables etc, then there are some really sad people working for the US Government, there cables about what they think of people is based on what their knowledge of the person or just their petty assumptions based on their petty lives, they go to prestigious University in the States, work for either the so-called wonderful CIA,FBI or other such intelligent service and they have the gall to speculate on the capability of peopl around the globe, based on what the poor ineffectual politicans that they have at home .

I mean the leaks show just how insecure the USA really is, I appreciate the country is only young compared to European standards but really, they should learn to be a bit more objective .

[kjellsnell]

Thank God for Wikileaks and the Swedish gowerment where they can keep there server safe.....they show that....the big ones....arnt safe when they do bad things around the world and f......ng around whit people in the name of...........peace..... =D> =D> =D>

[Bandung_Dero]

Interesting to see on CNN this morning some of the comments 'leaked' out of China calling the North Koreans behaviour as acting like "Spoiled Brats". The Americans definitely appear to be in 'damage control' mode.

[Aardvark]

Well not every one is Worried about the Leaks......http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/wo ... rn-saudis/

[cookie]

some people really do have to get the facts right:

Why is nobody blaming the US State Department?
They are the first to blame,
and not the World Media (Wikileaks included).

The World Media did the right thing: reporting the Wikileaks documents.
In a functioning democracy, their job is not to save government from embarrassment,
The primary job of the Media is to report to the public.
This was always the job of the Media and it should stay this way.

[UdonExpat]

Wikileaks has again provided a significant service to disclosure and openness in government relations. Unfortunately, it won't cause any more openness or disclosure on the part of governments. They will simply take more steps to keep their communications private.

Most of the documents are not classified:

•15, 652 secret
•101,748 confidential
•133,887 unclassified

http://cablegate.wikileaks.org/

[tigerryan]

Khondham, don't act so surprised it just one of your emotionally weak homos that you insist must have a right to serve in the US military giving up the good because he had a bad hair day.

[rufus]

That is an offensive post Ryan. Are you afraid of homosexuals? I would guess you are you a latent homosexual yourself based on your fears.

[tigerryan]

Rufus yes I am latent but no fag. I don't beleive gays should have access to secret information for two reasons 1. Blackmail 2. Emotional fing weirdness. This PFC gave up the goods on a grand scale and he is a fag do the math

[Aardvark]

Sorry, I must have missed some thing. Where did it say the PFC was Homosexual ??

[BobHelm]

The person accused of doing it is gay - no one has found him guilty yet..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradley_Manning

Just another reason why, if your assumptions are true ryan, that 'don't ask, don't tell' is such a failed policy & should never have been in existence...