WikiLeaks cables are dispatches from a beleaguered America in imperial retreat | Neal Ascherson | Comment is free | The Observer There's more to the WikiLeaks dispatches than leaks. Look behind them, at the writers, and you see the loyal rearguard of America: an imperial power in retreat. There was a tradition in our Foreign Office that a retiring ambassador could blow off steam. In a final, exuberant telegram to Whitehall, he could say exactly what he thought of the country he was leaving, and of the folly of the Foreign Office in ignoring his advice.The best telegrams were treasured by young diplomats. But they began to leak into the press. And a few years ago this privilege was suppressed. Now the WikiLeaks eruption has smothered the world with the secret thoughts of the state department's ambassadors. These diplomats who didn't want us to know their thoughts are not mere cogs in an imperial machine. The test of an ambassador is telling truth to those who wield the power – having the guts to tell the department that its plan is a delusion. Not all the dispatch-writers are that sound. Perhaps not.
Gates on Leaks, Wiki and Otherwise Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has regularly denounced Wikileaks in recent months for its extensive disclosures, and as a former director of central intelligence he places high value on secrets. But at a Pentagon briefing on Tuesday, Mr. Gates, who plans to retire next year, responded to a question about Wikileaks’ disclosure of 250,000 diplomatic cables by meandering down a different path. Here is some of what he said: “Let me just offer some perspective as somebody who’s been at this a long time. “Now, I’ve heard the impact of these releases on our foreign policy described as a meltdown, as a game-changer, and so on. “So other nations will continue to deal with us. “Is this embarrassing?
The moral standards of WikiLeaks critics - Glenn Greenwald The WikiLeaks disclosure has revealed not only numerous government secrets, but also the driving mentality of major factions in our political and media class. Simply put, there are few countries in the world with citizenries and especially media outlets more devoted to serving, protecting and venerating government authorities than the U.S. Indeed, I don’t quite recall any entity producing as much bipartisan contempt across the American political spectrum as WikiLeaks has: as usual, for authoritarian minds, those who expose secrets are far more hated than those in power who commit heinous acts using secrecy as their principal weapon. The way in which so many political commentators so routinely and casually call for the eradication of human beings without a shred of due process is nothing short of demented. Those who demand that the U.S. WOLF BLITZER, HOST: Brooke, thanks very much. In sum, I seriously question the judgment of anyone who — in the face of the orgies of secrecy the U.S.
Obama and GOPers Worked Together to Kill Bush Torture Probe Zuma/<a href=" Morse</a> Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily. In its first months in office, the Obama administration sought to protect Bush administration officials facing criminal investigation overseas for their involvement in establishing policies the that governed interrogations of detained terrorist suspects. The previous month, a Spanish human rights group called the Association for the Dignity of Spanish Prisoners had requested that Spain’s National Court indict six former Bush officials for, as the cable describes it, “creating a legal framework that allegedly permitted torture.” Soon after the request was made, the US embassy in Madrid began tracking the matter. Two weeks later, Sen. On April 15, Sen. Still, this did not end the matter.
Wikileaks - Vicepresidencia del Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia WikiLeaks: Texas Company Helped Pimp Little Boys To Stoned Afghan Cops Another international conflict, another horrific taxpayer-funded sex scandal for DynCorp, the private security contractor tasked with training the Afghan police. While the company is officially based in the DC area, most of its business is managed on a satellite campus at Alliance Airport north of Fort Worth. And if one of the diplomatic cables from the WikiLeaks archive is to be believed, boy howdy, are their doings in Afghanistan shady. The Afghanistan cable (dated June 24, 2009) discusses a meeting between Afghan Interior Minister Hanif Atmar and US assistant ambassador Joseph Mussomeli. Many of DynCorp's employees are ex-Green Berets and veterans of other elite units, and the company was commissioned by the US government to provide training for the Afghani police. And in Kunduz province, according to the leaked cable, that money was flowing to drug dealers and pimps. Since this is Afghanistan, you probably already knew this wasn't a kegger. The UK Guardian picks up the tale:
U.S. has warm words for ex-Guantanamo detainee WASHINGTON — A U.S. consular official in Luxembourg gave a former Guantanamo detainee warm praise earlier this year in a cable to Washington made public Monday by the website WikiLeaks. The cable, written Jan. 15, recounted the visit to Luxembourg of Moazzam Begg, a British citizen who was arrested in Pakistan in 2002 and was held until 2005 by the Americans in Afghanistan and Guantanamo as a suspected member of al Qaida. His story, including allegations that U.S. soldiers beat him in Afghanistan, was recounted in the 2007 Academy Award winning documentary "Taxi to the Dark Side." After his release, Begg began pushing for European countries to accept Guantanamo detainees, and was in Luxembourg to press his case, including a meeting Jan. 14 with the country's foreign minister. His visit was monitored with interest by a U.S. consular officer, who attended an Amnesty International-sponsored screening of the film, where Begg also spoke. "Mr. Read the cable
Govt Response to Wikileaks Said to Cause More Damage The U.S. Government insists that the classification markings on many of the leaked documents being published by Wikileaks and other organizations are still in force, even though the documents are effectively in the public domain, and it has directed federal employees and contractors not to access or read the records outside of a classified network. But by strictly adhering to the letter of security policy and elevating security above mission performance, some say the government may be causing additional damage. “At DHS we are getting regular messages [warning not to access classified records from Wikileaks],” one Department of Homeland Security official told us in an email message. “It has even been suggested that if it is discovered that we have accessed a classified Wikileaks cable on our personal computers, that will be a security violation. So, my grandmother would be allowed to access the cables, but not me.
WikiLeaks Cables: Pfizer Targeted Nigerian Attorney General to Undermine Suit over Fatal Drug Tests This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form. JUAN GONZALEZ: As the world continues to focus on [Julian Assange’s] case, we’ll focus on the content of the thousands of State Department cables that WikiLeaks is continuing to publish. AMY GOODMAN: In 1996, Pfizer’s researchers selected 200 children at an epidemic hospital in Nigeria for an experimental drug trial. The details of the case were first exposed in 2000 in an investigative series in the Washington Post. JUAN GONZALEZ: A State Department cable from 2009 details a meeting between Pfizer’s country manager, Enrico Liggeri, and U.S. officials in Abuja. AMY GOODMAN: Joe Stephens is a staff writer for the Washington Post. And we’re joined here in studio by Musikilu Mojeed, a Nigerian journalist who has worked on this story for the NEXT newspaper in Lagos. We welcome you both to Democracy Now! JOE STEPHENS: Well, this goes back 14 years. After our stories, there was an official federal investigation in Nigeria. [break]
The US is after our integrity A lot can change in five years. In December 2005, the Guardian opened its pages for me to respond to a leak - the Bush-Blair memo in which both leaders discussed the possibility of bombing Al Jazeera's Qatar HQ, where more than 1,000 people work. While those who leaked the memo were imprisoned, its detailed contents were never disclosed. I was not surprised. The Arab world, the region in which we are located, continues to see its share of bloodshed and war. This week our independence was once again called into question. Journalists across the world picked up the story, and while some were careful to place it in context, many uncritically took the claims as fact. The region where we are situated is host to some of the most repressive governments in the world, where freedom of expression is silenced, journalists languish in prisons and independent civil institutions are rare. Wadah Khanfar is the director-general of the Al Jazeera Network. This article first appeared in the Guardian.