It’s enough to make you feel sorry for Hillary Clinton:
The United States was catapulted into a worldwide diplomatic crisis today, with the leaking to the Guardian and other international media of more than 250,000 classified cables from its embassies, many sent as recently as February this year.
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.
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No, wait — there’s not one single surprise here. So let’s dig deeper into The Guardian‘s report:
• Grave fears in Washington and London over the security of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme
• Alleged links between the Russian government and organised crime.
• Devastating criticism of the UK’s military operations in Afghanistan.
• Claims of inappropriate behaviour by a member of the British royal family.
Misbehaving royals? Corrupt Russians? The big question is: Why were any of these items deemed “Secret.” None of them even qualifies as “Somewhat Juicy.”
UPDATE: Sybill gave me a heads-up on Der Spiegel’s Wikileaks coverage, which, as she puts it, is “a bit more juicy.”
Stephen, Spiegel is being a bit more “juicy”. They are updating their link at:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/topic/wikileaks/
The comments on the Guardian article are entertaining; more than a few 9/11 truthers came out of the woodwork.
My favorite came from “weewilkie” (28 Nov 6:20pm) who said: “This is going to take more than 12 stitches.”
LOL. That’s about as good as “We’re gonna need a bigger boat…”
Other observations: Every Republican in the United States is doing a happy dance right now, imagining all the lovely ammunition they’ll have for 2012. Also, you’d expect Assange to be an Obama fan. Did he realize how much he handed to the man’s opposition?
Finally; if this stuff came from the same soldier who gave Wikileaks the last batch, he should be shot. I don’t make this statement lightly, but there comes a point where a person just can’t claim an over-riding moral imperative, especially someone who has sworn an oath.
…Just checked, apparently the maximum penalty he faces is 52 years. Sounds good to me.
A part of me agrees with Casey that people should be shot for treason; but another part of me can’t help agreeing with…some blogger…who pointed out that if this was anywhere near as damaging as it’s being played to be, Julian Assange would have long ago met with an unfortunate accident.
From what I’ve heard, Assange has pissed off more than a few governments, including the Russians.
Tim, you do know that the little twerp has been globe-hopping for a while, now, living out of a suitcase, and not staying any one place for more than a couple of days, yes? He it literally running scared.
If the Russkis catch up with him, I suspect he’ll just die tired.
I’ve skimmed the Der Spiegel site, and I’m seeing things that are embarrassing but not damning — like being walked in on in the bathroom. The exposure in and of itself is embarrassing. What makes this a bit worse for Obama is that he claimed to be an angelic being who is above going to the bathroom.
And now setting the bathroom metaphor aside for all our sakes, on to Hillary. I don’t see this helping her.
While these aren’t as pedestrian as the first few rounds, I, too, am struck by how little I’ve learned. It does make the Left look incredibly silly for mocking GWB’s “Axis of Evil” language, however.