WikiLeaks Publishes Diplomatic Communications

[Palehorse]

A mammoth cache of a quarter-million confidential American diplomatic cables, most of them from the last three years, provides an unprecedented look at bargaining by embassies, candid views of foreign leaders and assessments of threats. The material was obtained by WikiLeaks and made available to a number of news organizations in advance.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/world/statessecrets.html

The stupidity of this latest action undertaken by the WikiLeaks leadership group is ponderous!

I've just spent the hour and a half reading some of the "cables" the NYT chose to publish, and even with their own selected redactions I find them deeply disturbing and unacceptable! Publishing of this information is exposing the diplomatic employees of this country to unnecessary risk and danger, and is inflicting potential damage to US diplomacy that will far exceed the damage achieved by former POTUS Bush!

I cannot believe that a lowly intelligence employee would have access to such information, or be capable of exploiting a weakness in the software or system the USG uses to gather and store this information. There has to be a much larger maggot skulking around in the trash heap, and s/he and/or they must be identified and the leak remediated before anything more can be exposed.

I cannot help but be suspicious of the fact that there may be an effort underway to use these types of leaks as a means to discredit the current administration and its diplomatic initiatives.

Of particular note, some of you ought to read the following "cable" surrounding the security contingent of  Libyan Leader Muammar al-Qadhafi:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/28/world/20101128-cables-viewer.html?hp#report/cables-09TRIPOLI771

After reading it you really need to understand a few things; 1) Just what it takes surrounding the protection of a head of state when traveling out of the country, 2) Just how eccentric is al-Qadafi and is the world really ever going to be safe with an individual like this at the helm? 3) The level of information gathered surrounding such individuals in the world is now going to be severely impaired due to incidents like this one. Are you happy about it?

[The Troll]

  They sure are out to hurt America.  I think these people need to see the inside of a cage with steel bars for a long, long time.  I wonder how funny they would think that would be.  Jail the Bastards.

[Anne]

They are trying to harm the United States of America, not just the current admin.

[Palehorse]

They are trying to harm the United States of America, not just the current admin.

And you'd know this how????

Do you possess some insider information from an insurgents super secret membership club of which you are a member in good standing, or are you just speculating?

I qualified the portion of my statement you seem to be responding to as a suspicion, not factual. However you seem to be stating a fact. Can you support that statement or is it just puffery?

These initiatives are damaging to the USA and that much is clear, or should be, to anyone who reads the released documentation; however the motivation(s) for such are not clear and certainly are open to interpretation. UNless you happen to be in possession of information that would provide clarity and validate the reason(s) they are being released. . .

[Henry Hawk]

why else would they do what they did, if they didn't want to harm America?

[Palehorse]

why else would they do what they did, if they didn't want to harm America?

I am not questioning whether or not these initiatives are undertaken as a means to damage America, but rather to what end?

It is no state secret that the current administration is, and has made, international diplomacy a high priority. American diplomats are performing the work that they are expected to do in order to help repair the damages inflicted upon the reputation of this nation by the previous administrations penchant for heavy handed acts of attrition. To open the channels of diplomacy and to utilize the levers presented as a means toward achievement of diplomatic solutions for the worlds challenges, (of which there are presently a plethora of), is a centerpiece for the new initiatives of the nations policy on international diplomacy. To that end, President Obama and Sec of State Hillary Clinton have achieved great strides in rebuilding international relationships with our Global neighbors. Such things cannot be achieved without the type of confidential communications these individuals at wikileaks have made public.

The question then becomes who is supplying wikileaks with this access to said information and why?

When I take a big picture view of this whole thing, it becomes very challenging not to suspect that the insurgency initiatives being undertaken by political leadership toward the current administration, have sunk to an all time historic low!

Surely these individuals, whomever they are, would not put the national security of this nation at very high risk, as well as the lives of the individuals and families of this nations diplomatic corp at risk, in order to discredit the current administration!  Sadly, I have very little hope that this is NOT the case! It has become that bad. . . 

Due to this latest batch of wikileaks document releases, I now expect that many countries around the globe will begin initiating severe restrictions upon our diplomatic corp personnel, expulsions may very well take place, and in some cases perhaps even incarceration and execution as spies! Each one of us knows all too well the capability of some foreign leadership to utilize such an incident to inflict further pain upon this nation. (And by proxy upon the present administration).

Anyone who chooses to take these secret, confidential, and "eyes only" communications and utilize them as a tool with which to beat the current administration down, is clearly delusional and suffering from tunnel vision.  But they'll try I have no doubt. . .

(CNN) -- Federal authorities have opened a criminal investigation into WikiLeaks' disclosure of a trove of classified U.S. documents, the Justice Department said Monday as the release of hundreds of thousands of papers left diplomats worldwide scrambling to respond.
"It is not saber-rattling," Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters in response to a question. "To the extent that we can find anybody who was involved in the breaking of American law, they will be held responsible."
Holder's announcement came as the Office of Management and Budget ordered federal agencies that handle classified information to establish a "security assessment team" to review their handling of procedures to keep classified information from improper disclosure.
The teams, to be composed of counterintelligence, security and information assurance experts, are to evaluate each agency's handling of classified information "to ensure that users do not have broader access than is necessary to do their jobs effectively, as well as implementation of restrictions on usage of, and removable media capabilities from, classified government computer networks."
U.S. Army Pfc. Bradley Manning is a prime suspect in previous leaks. Before October's release of information on Iraq, Manning was being held in Quantico, Virginia, charged with leaking video of an Iraq airstrike to WikiLeaks as well as removing classified information from military computers.
Among the initial revelations in the papers are allegations that:
-- Saudi King Abdullah urged the United States to attack Iran to halt its nuclear program, warning that if Tehran were to go nuclear, other countries in the region would, too.
-- The United States keeps bombers ready to strike al Qaeda targets in Yemen if "actionable intelligence becomes available."
WikiLeaks: Public has 'right to know' Ahmadinejad: Leaked info not valuable New leaks in 'public's interest' What is WikiLeaks?
-- The U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe predicted in July 2007 that President Robert Mugabe would soon be out of power, saying, "The End is Nigh." Mugabe remains president, although he is now in a power-sharing agreement with the former opposition.
The leaked papers also include what seems to be an order from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to American diplomats to engage in intelligence-gathering.
In the order, Clinton directs her envoys at embassies around the world to collect information ranging from basic biographical data on diplomats to their frequent flyer and credit card numbers, and even "biometric information on ranking North Korean diplomats."
Typical biometric information can include fingerprints, signatures and iris recognition data.
The cable, signed 'CLINTON,' is classified S/NF -- or "Secret/No Foreign" -- and was sent to 33 U.S. embassies and the U.N. mission offices in New York, Vienna and Rome.
"Is it a natural part of diplomatic activity to have diplomats collecting biometric data?" WikiLeaks spokesman Hrafnsson asked Monday, calling it "a contravention of how diplomats are supposed to conduct business."
The State Department denied that its diplomats were spies.
"Contrary to some Wikileaks' reporting, our diplomats are diplomats. They are not intelligence assets," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said on Twitter.
He downplayed the cable's significance by writing in a separate tweet: "Diplomats collect information that shapes our policies and actions. Diplomats for all nations do the same thing."
At the United Nations, U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice would neither confirm not deny the authenticity of the cable. "I'm not going to get into commenting on classified material or alleged classified material," she said.
Hrafnsson denied that Sunday's release of papers harms United States security.
"I don't believe anything in these cables are national security concerns," he said.
"If we are talking about strained relations or embarrassment, that does not fall into national security concerns," he said with a shrug.
"Secret" is not the highest level of classification, Hrafnsson pointed out. WikiLeaks has no top-secret documents, he said, adding that more than half are unclassified.
The British Foreign Office on Monday condemned the release of any classified documents.
"They can damage national security, are not in the national interest and, as the U.S. [has] said, may put lives at risk," the office said in a statement.
A spokesman for Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari weighed in with a statement about documents mentioning Zardari and Saudi King Abdullah, saying the "so-called leaks are no more than an attempt to create misperceptions between two important and brotherly Muslim countries."
The office of Afghan President Hamid Karzai downplayed the significance of the revelations.
"The things that have been said about President Karzai are not new. They've been alleged in the media in the past, and we are not surprised," a spokesman for Karzai said.
The New York Times and four European newspapers that had received the documents in advance began publishing excerpts Sunday.
Many of them detail conversations on sensitive issues between American officials and leaders in the Middle East, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Topics in the documents include pressure from U.S. allies in the Middle East for decisive action to neutralize Iran's nuclear program, conversations about military action against al Qaeda militants in Yemen, and Washington's efforts to have highly enriched uranium removed from a Pakistani research reactor.
"The cables show the U.S. spying on its allies and the U.N.; turning a blind eye to corruption and human-rights abuse in 'client states'; backroom deals with supposedly neutral countries; and lobbying for U.S. corporations," the site's editor-in-chief and spokesman, Julian Assange, said Sunday in a statement.
"I was surprised at [the] extent of the spying," WikiLeaks' Kristinn Hrafnsson said.
Over the coming weeks or months, WikiLeaks will release 251,288 cables written by U.S. diplomats between 1966 and February 2010, Hrafnsson said.
The secrets-busting website, which began publishing the trove of confidential U.S. government papers on Sunday, didn't expect the papers to reveal as much espionage as they apparently do, a spokesman said Monday.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/11/29/wikileaks/index.html?hpt=T1

[Anne]

And you'd know this how????

Do you possess some insider information from an insurgents super secret membership club of which you are a member in good standing, or are you just speculating?

I qualified the portion of my statement you seem to be responding to as a suspicion, not factual. However you seem to be stating a fact. Can you support that statement or is it just puffery?

These initiatives are damaging to the USA and that much is clear, or should be, to anyone who reads the released documentation; however the motivation(s) for such are not clear and certainly are open to interpretation. UNless you happen to be in possession of information that would provide clarity and validate the reason(s) they are being released. . .

If these were the first leaks and only contained documents from this administration, you might have a point. But if I remember correctly the releases of classified documents began when Mr. Bush was president, were those released solely for the reason to attack then President Bush or to harm America in general? It is one way or the other, take your pick.

[Palehorse]

If these were the first leaks and only contained documents from this administration, you might have a point. But if I remember correctly the releases of classified documents began when Mr. Bush was president, were those released solely for the reason to attack then President Bush or to harm America in general? It is one way or the other, take your pick.

So then, your "point" was indeed conjecture.

Yes, the documents I saw that were released went back to 1996, but by the receivers own statements the majority of them were from within the last 2 to 3 years. . . And I refuse to go to the wikileaks site to view all of them, and instead chose to limit my viewing to those contained within the NYT web site. . .

My reasons for limiting what I read from within the plethora of documents released are my own; but suffice to say it is a lucid decision to limit my exposure to information that was not intended to be read or seen by the general public. The media will do a more than sufficient job in utilizing the information to promote their own theories. I'd rather have the truth, and the truth is I was never intended to read those documents.

[Palehorse]

(CNN) -- Interpol, at the request of a Swedish court looking into alleged sex crimes from earlier this year, has put WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on its most-wanted list.
The Stockholm Criminal Court two weeks ago issued an international arrest warrant for Assange on probable cause, saying he is suspected of rape, sexual molestation and illegal use of force in August incidents.
Sweden asked Interpol, the international police organization, to post a "Red Notice" after a judge approved a motion to bring him into custody.
The "Red Notice" is not an international arrest warrant. It an advisory and request, issued to 188 member countries "to assist the national police forces in identifying or locating those persons with a view to their arrest and extradition," according to Interpol.
The Swedish court ordered Assange, 39, formally arrested in his absence, which requires Swedish authorities anywhere in the world to detain Assange if they come across him. Sweden's director of prosecutions, Marianne Ny, had requested the arrest-in-absence.
"The background is that he has to be heard in this investigation and we haven't been able to get a hold of him to question him," Ny said at the time.
Assange faces five counts that appear related to two incidents, according to the request Ny filed with the court.. . .

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/11/30/sweden.interpol.assange/index.html?hpt=T1

Now there's a surprise! NOT! 

[Sandy Eggo]

"In a free society, we are supposed to know the truth," he wrote. "In a society where truth becomes treason, we are in big trouble."

- Ron Paul

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/ron-paul-what-wikileaks/

[Palehorse]

- Ron Paul

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/ron-paul-what-wikileaks/

That jackass is such a nazi! 

[Exterminator]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/12/06/wikileaks/index.html?hpt=T1

[Locutus]

Although their primary domain has been under a barrage of DDOS attacks, they are being mirrored nicely somewhere in Canada with apparently no issues.  For anyone who has never seen their site, it's available here.

http://wikileaks.ca

[Henry Hawk]

and it now does not work....

[Locutus]

It worked for me.  You just have to give it a second. 

Of course, if you're at work, you may have to wait until you get home.  Could be blocked by a firewall or something.