At the start of a series of daily extracts from the US embassy cables - many of which are designated ‘secret’ – the Guardian can disclose that Arab leaders are privately urging an air strike on Iran and that US officials have been instructed to spy on the UN’s leadership.A sentence at the start of the Guardian’s package on Wikileaks’ “Cablegate” • Which kind of says it all. The U.S. is going to have a lot of fun cleaning up this mess. Also worth reading: The New York Times’ package. source (via • follow)
Tonight promises to be Wikileaks’ largest data dump ever. U.S. diplomats have been publicly deriding the organization for days and saying that the release of thousands of diplomatic cables could lead to deaths. Meanwhile, they’re the target of a DDOS attack. More than the Iraq and Afghan War documents, this could prove to be one of the greatest gifts Wikileaks has offered up (besides the weirdly Hollywood story of Julian Assange, who Bill Maher was born to play). Or not. What do you think will come of tonight’s leak?
I would hope that those who are responsible for this would, at some point in time, think about the responsibility that they have for lives that they’re exposing and the potential that’s there and stop leaking this information.Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen • Saying WITH EMPHASIS that if Wikileaks releases the diplomatic cables it has, it could endanger lives. Other government officials, including ambassadors, are complaining loudly too. The question, of course, is whether these cables, which are expected to be released today, will be nearly as damaging as they suggest. It’s pretty likely they will be – some of the stuff revealed in the Iraq and Afghan War leaks was a bit retready. This could be new ground. Or not. source (via • follow)
WikiLeaks are an absolutely awful impediment to my business, which is to be able to have discussions in confidence with people. I do not understand the motivation for releasing these documents. They will not help; they will simply hurt our ability to do our work here.U.S. Ambassador to Iraq James Jeffrey • Loudly voicing his frustration with Wikileaks, which plans to release thousands of diplomatic cables in the next few days. Let’s just say that the U.S. is gearing up for the worst-case scenario, which involves them having to explain to its allies why it’s privately talking crap about them and revealing things that were told to them in confidence. source (via • follow)
I think anything that suggests that basic rules of war, conflict and engagement have been broken or that torture has been in any way condoned are extremely serious and need to be looked at.British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg • Suggesting that the British government needs to investigate the torture claims brought forth by Wikileaks’ massive Iraq War data dump. Just yesterday, the country’s Ministry of Defense, which condemned the group for releasing the data. Clegg, on the other hand, has a very refreshing response to the whole thing: “We can bemoan how these leaks occurred, but I think the nature of the allegations made are extraordinarily serious.” If only more world leaders would take that approach to Wikileaks. source (via)
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