Wikileaks and the sabotage of U.S. diplomacy
No American should take joy, pleasure, or satisfaction from the untold, devastating ways in which the coordinated Wikileaks document dump of hundreds of thousands of State Department cables — nearly half of which are “secret” or “classified”– has undermined U.S. diplomacy.
Here’s the left-wing Guardian of London crowing that its publication of the cables has “sparked a global diplomatic crisis.”
For those of you catching up after the holidays, Allahpundit at Hot Air has the most thorough coverage and analysis of the developing story here. Key passage on the anti-American agenda driving the leaks, the transnationalist left’s use of the “hypocrisy” card, and the cowardly, selective publication of our diplomatic communications versus other nations:
The aim, transparently, is to embarrass the target, but since that’s too petty a reason to justify so vicious a tactic, the exposure is unfailingly dressed up as some sort of high-minded attempt to make the target “live by his principles.” If you take this argument seriously, any confidential communication between government officials should be fair game for leaking so long as it somehow contradicts or questions, however glancingly, state policy. (Hypocrisy!) But of course, they’re not limiting publication to only those documents that undermine official State Department positions; as noted above in the context of Turkey’s foreign minister, a lot of this stuff will simply be bits of intelligence about various international actors and speculation about their motives. Nothing “hypocritical” about it — but mighty embarrassing. In fact, there’s nothing “hypocritical” about arguably the biggest revelation thus far, the report of North Korea shipping missiles to Iran. That sort of cooperation goes straight back to Bush’s “axis of evil” speech; theories about collaboration between the two are a staple of proliferation analyses. There’s no U.S. government “lie” that needs to be exposed there, in other words. It’s simply a case of Wikileaks trying to weaken America’s hand by revealing some of the cards that it’s holding. (emphasis added)
Two other points. One: Note that they don’t say they wouldn’t have published the documents if the crucial hypocrisy component was missing. On the contrary, in their sonorous meditation about George Washington, [the Guardian editors] suggest that they would have done so anyway even though the damage to U.S. interests would have been greatly diminished. That’s further evidence that it’s confidentiality itself that they object to, not hypocrisy, and it follows Simon Jenkins’s lead in ignoring the usual balancing act when weighing the merits of a leak between the sensitivity of the information and the public’s interest in knowing about it. Wikileaks would have you believe that confidential government communications are so inherently anti-democratic that exposing them is virtually always in the public interest, no matter what collateral damage might result. No country in the world has ever followed that standard and no country ever will. (emphasis added) Two: To the extent that they do take the hypocrisy standard seriously, does that mean that less democratic nations aren’t fair game for leaks because, hey, at least they’re living by their principles? Wikileaks’s lack of interest to date in revealing state secrets of, say, China is mighty conspicuous given that cracking Beijing’s culture of secrecy would be a far greater intel coup than publishing U.S. diplomatic cables and might even have major political repercussions for the Chinese regime. But then, China isn’t “hypocritical,” you see. And of course China also isn’t likely to tolerate damaging leaks like this the way liberal western nations are…
Many Foggy Bottom officials have proven feckless under both GOP and Democrat administrations. Hillary Clinton’s “smart power” deserved mockery, for sure. But whatever microscopic kernel of constructive criticism may have motivated the Wikileakers and their abettors is galactically outweighed by the destructive sabotage of secure diplomatic communications.
The America-haters would have us unilaterally disarm diplomatically under the guise of the “public’s right to know.” This is suicide.
Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini described the consequences for the world:
Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, on a trip to Qatar, said he did not know the content of the files to be released but warned they would “blow up the relationship of trust between states”, according to Italian news agencies.
“It will be the September 11th of world diplomacy,” he said.
Pay attention to which of our enemies, foreign and domestic, are dancing in the streets.
***
State defends itself:
At their Foggy Bottom headquarters, State has set up an internal working group that is working in shifts around the clock, “monitoring the situation and supporting our senior staff and embassies around the world,” the official said. “We follow the same process whenever a major event occurs.”
Specifically, the cables show that U.S. diplomats in New York were asked to collect Biographic and biometric information on ranking North Korean diplomats. Separate cables disclosed on Sunday show that U.S. diplomats overseas were asked for specific reporting on officials from the Palestinian territories, Paraguay, Bulgaria, and Africa’s Great Lakes region.
The State Department officials emphasized to The Cable the distinction between diplomats who collect information as part of a wide range of duties and intelligence personnel, who have a singular and specific mission. The official also argued that other countries do the same thing and that the intelligence gathered by U.S. diplomats also benefits Washington’s allies.
“Information collection is something that diplomats of every country do every day. These areas of particular interest, they’re not just ours,” the official said. “This is information that’s of use to us, and to our allies and friends with whom we’re trying to solve regional and global challenges.”
“We’re not asking our diplomats to do anything substantially different from what they’ve been doing for eons,” the official continued. “Every diplomat and mission around the world is doing the same thing.”
***
J.E. Dyer on media glee:
A free press has often meant an adversarial press, and that in itself is not inherently bad. But an adversarial posture is justified by the constructiveness of its goals. There is a noticeably sophomoric element in the mainstream media’s cooperation with WikiLeaks: an indiscriminate enthusiasm for anything that’s being kept secret by the authorities, regardless of its objective value as information.
…The worth of the latest WikiLeaks dump is greater than zero — and greater even than its value in notifying us about Qaddafi’s voluptuous Ukrainian nurse. Its true value lies in confirming what hawks and conservatives have been saying about global security issues. China’s role in missile transfers from North Korea to Iran; Syria’s determined arming of Hezbollah; Iran’s use of Red Crescent vehicles to deliver weapons to terrorists; Obama’s strong-arming of foreign governments to accept prisoners from Guantanamo — these are things many news organizations are reporting prominently only because they have been made known through a WikiLeaks dump. In the end, WikiLeaks’s most enduring consequences may be the unintended ones.
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Part of the problem lies in the fact that the intelligence MOS’s are constantly in dire need of personnel. This is due to the lack of pay the military gets. When I was stationed in Germany I was assigned to an MI unit. Wew would constantly see a Specialist or Sergeant ETS and within a few weeks come back as an NSA employee or a contractor doing the exact same job but for six figures instead of the measley $2000 grand a month the military would give.
I see this as a considerable rebuke of Hillary Clinton.
On the downside if Kimmie feels squeezed out of the picture by China, South Korea and the US, he could easily feel justified in killing every man woman and child in Seoul.
You got to hand it to that hacker Jester who shutdown Wikileaks with a DDoS attack. Take that Julian Assmange!
This whole Wikileaks thing must be quite welcome by the Obama administration. They can now leap forward in their plans to destroy America while appearing to the drooling masses as leaders who are fighting to keep that very thing from happening.
How convenient for a president who is unpopular.
Treason is treason. Shoot the bas#urds. And by the way, how would you like the keepers of this confidential top secret information to be guarding your personal private medical records? No.freakin.way!
At least we found out what all the newly hired government employees were hired for.
Chap,
Palin, Bush…
Might as well go for the trifecta and link this to the tea party.
I have yet to read ONE THING from these leaks that is of any great surprise.
All of it so far is in the “that’s obvious” zone.
Soap,
I’ll fess to my gratuitous Palin shot, but Flyover was the one who brought Bush into this, not me. I just want him to clarify what he means because on its face it makes no sense to me.
You know I don’t get why we just don’t hack the site, fill it full of worms, or heck even just get a good ole fashioned assassin to SHOOT the people who run it as a clear message on our security, if this crap was pulled with China or Russia as soon as the missing data was noticed the founder of wiki leaks would “Mysteriously die” after falling off of the balcony of his newly moved into sky rise, attempting to catch a bag of oranges.
But yeah gotta love that “democracy” and god knows what kind of stuff it is, if its “9/11″ type stuff we may find our rear ends in a sling or maybe even full scale global war, or even sanctions or our security seat at the UN being removed.
But to top it off I seen some stuff that a PFC already charged with leaking data to them is under suspect of leaking this data at well, question… WHAT IN THE BLUE HELL IS A PRIVATE FIRST CLASS doing with CLASSIFIED MATERIALS! Thats like a Million dollar Company handing the new bell boy the pay roll, is our goverment and military that stupid now? I have no faith in the US goverment or the Military to carry out any sort of operations now, and given the nature of many of our covert programs we may find our superpower status going down the toilet thanks to back lash and the international Market.
This is fantastic. Breitbart is reporting that Ecuador has offered Assange sanctuary.
Arrest him now!!!
I learned at a very young age, one can always be fired, as the old adage goes “if there is a will, there is way.”
heh rightisright the sooner the better, but the only thing that replaces bureacrats is more of the same..
(Word is that Obama is not pleased)
Obowmao (channeling Marvin Martian): “I’m not angry, just terribly, terribly hurt.
!”
“K-9, do you suppose all earth creatures behave like that-a-way? Oh, dear, now I spose I’ll have to use force.”
I use to wonder why it was said “Army Intelligence was an oxymoron”, now I know…maybe it’s more a question of security than intelligence.
I’ll say! Yikes!
Well how stupid was consolidating all the classified information into one database. Spies would die for just a few documents, now the entire shebang is in one spot for all to see, eventually.
There is some good things about a government being compartmentalized, even though it is not very efficient.
A half way decent systems architect however could tell you that nobody should have had access to everything. You can design the system such that only those with a need to know can get access. But instead they left the raw information in file form with open access to anybody with a clearance.
Once again it shows the incompetency of government.
The good news that Hillary and Barrack can do far less damage internationally because their information sources have just been cut off. Nobody will disclose anything knowing that it will be posted on Wiki-leaks or some other site.
Measley 2 grand. I was make $97 per month in the Army as a Spec 4.
Apparently he’s feeling better now now that Sarah came out and said what he wanted to say.
Wait, now he’s claiming he did say those things but the media misreported who actually said it.
Go shoot some hoops sir.
So what exactly is an appropriate rank to be given a security clearance at then. Hell for that matter, what do you expect the Intelligence MOS PFC, PV2 and PVT to do until they reach the magic rank that assures that they will not be stupid?
There are many a tale in the MI world during the cold war in which officers, Senior Non-Com’s and Non-Com’s were discovered to be passing classified documents to the Soviets (My dad headed up Counter Intel in the mid to late 70′s in Germany and handled many of the sting operations to catch these bastards).
On the other hand here is a tale from 2005 that I know of from Fort Lewis. There was a Specialist in the MI that upon returning from Iraq bought a brand new Dodge Viper. Everyone figured he must have used a reenlistment bonus to pay the down payment and used the rest of his check to pay for the car note and insurance.
Then he went out and bought a new wardrobe. This started to raise some eyebrows.
The final straw was when he went out and bought a brand new house with cash. Counter Intel agents brought him in for questioning figuring they had caught a stupid spy in the MI with a top secret security clearance.
What it turns out had happened was the young specialist had a very rich grandfather who died and left everything to his sole surviving grandson. The guy inherited somewhere around 100 milion overnight.
When asked why he never told anyone he said there was two reasons. First, he figured if everyone new he was rich he would suddenly have a bunch of new “friends”.
Secondly, he feared that if the Army found out that he had a lot of money they would force him out of the Army (there are rumors that the Army would not let a rich guy stay cause they would do what they want and collect a paycheck).
So here we have a young kid that loves his country and wanted to continue to serve so he witheld information that he was rich. This kid still serves in the MI to this day. Morale of the story, don’t judge a soldier by their age or rank, judge them by their actions.
The faux handwringing from the NYT’s on this leak makes me want to hurl.
I wish Nixon were still in office. Assange would have had an unfortuante accident.
P.S. Chap I did not bring Bush into this. I only pointed out the double standards of the NYT’s. It coulod have been Reagan, Ford or Bush 41.
Better question is how did a PFC have the need to know. That trumps any access level.
Honestly, it would depend on what kind of analyst he was. If he was analyzing humint then it makes sense that he would have access to the state department documents as they humint analysts are trained to analyze profiles based on the information provided in images and in first hand accounts (i.e. state department cables discussing what a diplomat has seen, heard, or observed in their coutnerparts).
If anything, it sounds like they need to work more on better monitoring systems on their computers. You would think that a download of more than a million documents would set off alarms.
They also need to assign that PFC to finding and disarming IED’s for the duration of the war on terror…..assuming the little darling doesn’t blow himself up.
And the hypocrisy of the Times was in refusing to publish the climateGate email. But of course chap would not see this a media bias.
Nah, he might just help the enemy plant the IED’s instead.
What faux handwringing? They were quite clear they felt they had every right to report on the substance of the leaks. And in any case, that does not amount to hypocrisy.
Yes, you did and no you didn’t. What double standard? They published such leaks under the Obama administration. Are you claiming they wouldn’t have under a Republican? Because that is the only way they could be accused of a double standard here. Not exactly sure how this helps you liberal bias narrative.
I see you have been eating up the latest right wing blog memes like a good little monkey. Never mind that the NYT did report on the issue and provided direct links to the emails in question. We’ll stick with the fact that that was not what Flyover was insinuating at all. He was claiming the treatment of these leaks would have been different, and less favorable, under a Republican admin. Which is pretty unbelievable considering that the NYT went ahead and published whatever it wanted.
Let’s clear the air, here. Everyone in the world-diplomatic community knows everyone else is spying on them. It ain’t news, folks. It’s not only known, it’s expected. So, let’s ask the real question …. who is this “release” for? It sure ain’t to clue in our enemies. They already know we’re tracking them. It sure ain’t for our ‘allies’; they already know that we’re tracking them, too. And we know everyone out there is 24/7 working on taking us down. That ain’t news. It’s the way it is. So, who is this Assange-leaked material supposed to inform and impress? Seriously, ask yourself that.
Because every government in the world, and every multi-national business, and every global financial concern and every power-center already knows all this stuff. You and me are the ones who are kept in the dark. I assure you that what you imagine ‘secrets’ to be are already well known facts to our enemies who employ millions of people to know these things by expensing hundreds of billions to get the data.
You’re the one who doesn’t know these secrets. It is the citizen population of the United States who don’t know what even our enemies know. Our enemies know virtually everything; our allies certainly do. So, let me ask it again …. WHO is this data dump for? What is it meant to accomplish?
And if it’s meant t sway the Voting Citizen here …. damn; nothing seems to make that work. 1/3 of the nation is going to vote Democrat. 1/3 of the nation is going to vote Republican. And 1/3 of the vote is going to bought or stolen or suppressed by the Left. So, swaying US voters is a non-starter.
Who the heck is this for?
I think Assange himself said what it is for. Something to the effect of:
Wahhhh! Lying Corrupt Murderous Leadership! I wanna skewer you! Waahh!
He sounds like he’s got a chip on his shoulder and a personal vendetta against the US. He probably doesn’t care if people die due to his revelations. He knows some will. He has decided that his mission is more important than their lives. Real nice guy. Superstar, thats what I are.
Where is his Al Qaeda haji-leaks? Maybe his spy in Pakistan just lost his head and forgot to donkey express the thumb drive. His thumbs were sent instead.
They think they will be in a new Proletariat in some world communist state. Good luck.
Selling other’s confidential communications to sell a newspaper and elevate your ego at the cost of others.
Yes, try “leaking” China’s, Russia’s, Iran’s or N. Korea’s confidential communications.
How do you spell hypocrite ? Coward? limpleaks.
BlackFlag55 said:
I have been thinking about this and I think there are 2 answers to this. One, just the total anarchy this has caused and the presumed distrust between diplomats this could have caused. Hell, they don’t trust anyone but themselves anyway so that’s a wash. Second, deflection and/or misdirection. Especially the media, look how they are focused on just this and basically nothing else. In addition, I am still waiting for someone or some group in this government of ours to start calling for stricter Internet controls, which in the end I believe this is the end result. And if you look into this butt weasels funding – it came from a Soros front group.
If “everything” were already known to allies and enemies alike, why would enemies and allies have secrets in the first place?
Do you have knowledge?
Do you have the answer that eludes the rest of us?
Sure sounds like a “Nothing to see here, folks; move along….”, “No big deal” – type of excuse of this act.
I am shocked,…shocked, I tell you….
Did not mean any offense by the post above…just stating the impression – which might have been wrong – I got from reading #132.
Grab Julian Assange and execute him by hanging in public as an example that we’re serious about killing our enemies as well as remove ALL doubt that he’s one of them.
For example he’s helped the Taliban directly so he’s no different than them. I now picture him holding the saw cutting off hands and feet, holding the gun executing/beating/raping Afghan women or holding the pen signing the order to deny little girls an education. Basically he helped take away the individual freedom that our soldiers have sacrificed their lives trying to afford the Afghan people – the very same freedom he himself enjoys but clearly does not deserve.
Well to answer what rank, it is true that Merit is what should be judged on, and if an young non/enlisted man shows promise in his posting then promote him to another, those with no promise keep them down low and where no damage can be done. As to what ranks need to see it, only the most trusted should see the data and formulate it, those like Mr Manning should well, at best pushing papers, at worst sweeping floors. And then the Data should only be in the hands of the higher up political masters, and Military Generals, who then decide who sees it. Such secracy is not known many of America’s best generals never informed the troops of what they were doing, General Grant and Patton were foremost among these.
However I find it worrying the letters on China’s reactions with North Korea, it may push us into war, given how some many countries are jumping on it, but then if you read the document its clear its an even split, however with a potential ChinaLeaks site coming up we may have troubles. The Current administration is from a more nationalistic sect, wants a strong Army, etc, reminds me of a 1950′s US if it gets what it wants, sure we may have a stronger assertive China with them, but they wish to allow religion (for they think it makes better moral character)they have to an extent done this, do away with the one child policy (they also have made strides hear depending on the area, noteablly shanghi which threw out the one child policy), end Mao-ist idustrial systems, they also want to deal with the Korean problem by taking it themselves, and want close relations with the US, its more of a Nationalist goverment not founded on racial policies as much as cultural. Now minus some hard spots I find them MUCH better than the Mao-ist old guard, better for the Chinese people, and just Maybe the US. (the Democractic faction doesn’t have a snow balls chance in hell. The Chinese Army has already proven its self ready to turn its weapons on them, numerous times now)
However should this Chinaleaks happen or we go to war with the NKers then well the Old Maoist guard will rebound and China will be in dire straights which is dire straights for us as well. All the progress made by the nationalist side the primer belongs to will be gone. And though China may be communist and our relations uneasy, those anyone here remember the relations we had with the old guard in the 50′s and 60′s? When China OPENLY and publicly wanted our blood, when China’s one goal wasn’t to become a super power, or an economic giant, BUT to bring death, destruction, and ruin to the west, no matter the cost to China.
We would do better not to have them in power, and so would the whole world, so Wiki’s impact on the world to “make corruption known” May just turn the clock back on international relations to the point things look like WW2. And a sensationalist Media isn’t helping a damn thing. This holy crusade of theres may push what was trying to be a more modern nation (dispite what you think on political matters)into the dark age’s of Mao, the US cut off, and pretty much
Every middle Eastern nation BACK at each others throats when peace was slowly FINALLY coming to be with most of the region and Isreal. Our flat footed president isn’t helping matters either, and Hillary’s speachs at best have only had a “we’ll work with you but not trust you” remarks for the most.
In short with all of the crap the media is pulling, the people swallowing today looks more and more like 1915, right before the great war. People now are too ignorant to seek out the truth, NNorth Korea’s food problem? A MYTH now, thanks to the NK Army that has been solved with the use of massive pig farms and the like, as well as farming by private none state ran farms, much as the USSR did in the 80′s, they still eat less than us, but at least its not tree bark. Or China being communist heathens, if we kept preassure off of them and provided support for the nationalist side it would pay off with political capitial and military support possiblly, remember China was in the late cold war our Ally, and distrust the Russians greatly, in recent time the US casting them off has them siding with the lesser of two evils.
Or most harmfully, the US is still the most powerful nation on earth. Half our ffood is imported, (namely from China who some think still can’t feed its own people, when its national production thanks to privatization is up by 75%) 50% of our military factory assets belong to overseas nations, one of which is Islamic, we no longer can build tanks, the M1 tanks we hhave now aare refurbished jobs, nevermidn the Navy’s obsession with fast ships built purely for attack, or current issues in the USAF. I fear for the path that aussie fool has opend, and I fear we all are too willing to jump feet first into it…
That’s not true. A lot of this stuff really was secret but now it’s operable information for our enemies thanks to him and whoever handed it to him. He’s nothing but a new version of Jane Fonda.
What country do you think you are talking about. America is the country that can’t even waterboard the mastermind of the mass murder of Americans on 9/11 in order to get intelligence on other plans to mass murder us. America is the country that elects leaders like Pelosi who throw our people under the bus.
Americans who waterboarded KSM and saved thousands of Americans had their names and faces, and the names and faces of their families, handed over to al qaeda, so they will live in fear the rest of their lives.
That is what America really is.
Is America better than the rest of the world? Maybe so. But so what? Despicable is still despicable, and these voters are absolutely despicable.
Awww… the conservatives showing their true colors: arrest and / or execute somebody who has done something that they strongly disagree with despite the fact that he hasn’t committed any crime. Even if he was a US citizen operating within the US, there would be nothing to charge him with. He received and published classified information. Journalists do this all the time. Sometimes with good results, sometimes with bad. And please spare me the sub-moronic arguments that one needs some special designation as a journalist in order to be one.
Hey Michelle, what ever happened to “sunlight is the best disinfectant?” I guess it doesn’t apply to the big government that you’re so infatuated with.
The cables are only damaging if the government has something to hide. And frankly, outside of tactically significant battlefield information, I don’t think our government should be hiding anything from its citizens.
All of you violent idiots calling for Assanges head: Are you really willing to gut the most important feature of the Bill of Rights over this? How exactly would you craft a law to prevent this that wouldn’t be horribly abused by the government? Essentially, what you’re demanding is that we turn into Britain, where the government tells the press what it can and can’t publish.
Erik,
No one here has a problem with transparency with regard to information that isn’t obviously damaging to our country’s ability to wage war against the kind of subhuman monsters we are now fighting.
You know …. things like George W. Bush’s college transcripts and birth certificate, or records about his trips to enemy nations when he was a civilian and stuff like that. Why should Bush be able to hide that kind of stuff??
We are all glad the objective media doesn’t let Bush get away with hiding stuff like that.
We even like transparency wrt things like the true nature of Bush’s relationships with his terrorist professor friends and his crazy, America hating minister and mentor of 20 years.
And we like transparency wrt legislation that is going to permanently and fundamentally change our relationship with our government.
We just have a tiny problem with an open America hater who purposefully gets courageous people who are helping us murdered by the most foul enemy we have ever had to fight. Stuff like that.
There is this “reality” thing you crackpot leftists always have trouble facing, such that you can’t tell the difference between one kind of ‘transparency’ and the other.
Eric,
Now why ya gotta go forcing me to agree with the posters here.
Setting aside Roland’s unnecessary attacks on Obama, he is ultimately right. Transparency does not mean that there is not a time or a place for secrecy. If you can’t see the difference between exposing the hypocrisy and “sausage making” of our political process and revealing sensitive information and communications between allies (and often reluctant ones) that are meant to be held in confidence then…I’m sorry. You are an idiot.
One could argue that the Iraq/Afghanistan leaks a few months ago were at least elucidating in the same way the Pentagon Papers were two generations ago on as much as they exposed some uncomfortable truths about the cost of war. These latest leaks, though, are petty and vindictive and serve no higher purpose other than to embarass and damage for the sake of embarassment and damage.