Either because of an early exposure to All The President's Men, an over-intense admiration of the Pentagon Papers, or a lack of faith in governmental honesty, I really, really like WikiLeaks. Their server, however, is currently down, so I can't use any direct quotes apart from whatever I remember of the Russian and North Korea cables I was reading on Wednesday. More on the cables later. New York Times had them all sent to them, so I have decent summaries anyhow. Julian Assange, the mastermind, has reportedly been seeking extra assistance from Sweden, where he's been seeking refuge, even though Swedish police accused him (probably wrongly) of rape. INTERPOL wants him, the US wants him for treason (read: HE IS FROM AUSTRALIA. My god.) Assange is egocentric and abrasive, fearlessly tossing aside societal codes and giddily tossing about the information he gets so freely.
Apparently, of the 251,287 diplomatic cables (note: these are, basically, reports about not-secret-but-not-revealed-to-the-public treaties and such) released, only about 11,000 were marked as secret, and none were top-secret; no one's been harmed, no real diplomatic indecency has occurred, and the world's governments -- particularly the US, much to the chagrin of Secretary-of-State Clinton, going totally against the Hillary she'd been, the Hillary who liked the Pentagon Papers -- just look as shameful and nasty and embarrassed as they really are. I don't pity them, nor do I reproach them. If I was in international politics, I'd cover up my semi-dirty-but-not-really dealings, too. I'd also feel terrible about it. I guess, if really interested, the American populace could demand to view this information, but I'm fairly certain that no politician would really allow this all to go public. So, a large-scale journalistic showcase like this, with all the excitement of any other kind of heist, is really what's necessary.
When the war information came out (leaked by Pfc. Bradley Manning on a CD marked "Lady Gaga" -- he wasn't really the best info-leaker ever), WikiLeaks became a household name. Their upcoming revelation on bank fraud should be a blockbuster. But a lot of people have trouble embracing the leak of the diplomatic cables. I do not. It's like watching a history book play out in real life...it's finding out what actually happens in diplomacy...it's honest, it's exciting, it's a freaking Bourne movie. Some highlights from the cables include:
-A standoff with Pakistan concerning nuclear fuel, going on since 2007
-Talk of a unified Korea
-Negotiations to empty the prison at Guantanamo
-Corruptions in Afghanistan's presidency
-China's government-sponsored hacking of Google (ha! knew it!)
-Close ties between Russia and Italy (like...they give each other presents?)
-US failure to stop Syria from delivering arms to Hezbollah
-Human rights violation in Germany
The Times got the information, all of it, and have decided not to publish any of the secret or nonforn or "please protect" documents. The information is, therefore, public-but-not. And the cables are so detailed, with accounts of conversations between generals and foreign leaders. And there's the thing about the Libyan leader and his, um, nurse. It's pretty good stuff. There is talk of Assange being tried for some sort of espionage, and this saddens me: people should be lapping this up, basking in the wealth of information at our fingertips! We're political equals with world leaders! I mean, not really, but at least we can now imagine that, and have the proper information to justify our pipe dreams (if you daydream about international diplomacy).
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