Heads and Tails of Wikileaks
Wikileaks is a venture website that started to put classified correspondences of the US Department of State on 28 November 2010 (www.wikileaks.com suspended, a mirror site is wikileaks.info). The website also sent a bulk of such correspondences by email to 5 major media outlets: The New York Times, The Guardian, Der Spiegel, Le Monde, and El Pais.
Wikileaks has sent 250,000 Dept of State documents to the mass media, but only 1300 of them have been made public so far. On the first day (28 November) the Wikileaks site hosted 220 documents, which were precisely the same contents as the five media companies published. What and when to publish – Wikileaks had clearly made a cartel agreement with the Five. Since then, Wikileaks has put 30 to 70 new documents online per day.
Of the 250,000 dossiers, 240,000 are the genuine documents that 274 US diplomatic representations have reported back to Washington. Another 8,000 are the instructions which were sent back to the field offices.
WikiLeaks Diplomatic Cables - A Superpower's View of the World (Der Spiegel)
Some indicate that Wikileaks possesses 3 million classified US documents. Wikileaks started to reveal 400,000 Iraq-related dossiers as early as in October. It further twitted that it would divulge further 3 million documents. This has not yet been materialised.
WikiLeaks threat sparks massive review of diplomatic documents (CNN)
WikiLeaks to publish secret US files (Press TV)
Much Ado
Whether is being 250,000 or 3 million, those are awfully large number of classified documents. This is why the Wikileaks incident is called ‘the history’s most scandalous leak’ or 9-11 of diplomacy.
Is the Internet 9/11 Under Way? (Beforeitsnews.com)
US Congress has named Wikileak’s representative Julian Assange the internet’s Osama Bin Laden, who threatens US security. He was arrested in England upon request by Sweden for a rather obscure charge that he committed indecent sexual acts. While he has been released on bail thanks to the volunteer donations, he fears assassination attempts, and he may be eventually extradited to the US. Hawkish congressmen insist that Assange poses a threat to the US thus the nature of the charge is not important. There is a gross similarity to the argument 10 years ago, that Bin Laden was a bad guy so must be killed regardless of whether he was directly involved in the 9-11 or not.
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange refused bail (BBC)
Are the Wikileaks documents so subversive? Most of them had been already reported by the mass media before the Leak. When we look at the Middle East section, we find things such as “Saudi royals considered Iran more threatening than Israel thus asked the US to air-strike Iran”, or “Hezbollah in Lebanon had been supported by Iran, who installed optic fibre network to fight against Israel”. Isreal should be happy, that the world knows it now. For classified documents, they seem to have a certain direction of propaganda. I wonder what Wikileaks is really leaking.
WikiLeaks Disclose Complicated U.S. Strategy By William Pfaff (Truth Dig)
The real story of Wikileaks has clearly not yet been told. by F. William Engdahl (Global Search Canada)
While Wikileaks documents often favour Israel and attack Iran, Tehran claimed that Wikileaks was not leaks that were against Washington’s will but instead a coordinated leakage orchestrated by the US intelligence. Iran also doubts the authenticity of the dossiers. In essence, they are saying that it’s far more marketable to leak documents than by official press conference, such that it was an effective and new propaganda method.
Wikileaks secret documents are US plot against Iran, claims leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (Daily Record)
Should we simply reject what the Axis of Evil says? Let me trace how the dossiers had been leaked. In June 2010, Wired magazine reported that an US Army officer called Bradley Manning of information bureau had used SIPRNet (US military information network) to copy 260,000 classified diplomatic correspondences and handed them over to Wikileaks.
State Department Anxious About Possible Leak of Cables to Wikileaks (Wired)
Wikileaks stated that it was incorrect. But Wired’s claim is very possible. SIPRNet is configured to allow access for 300 million low-ranking soldiers and officers with low clearance status to certain level of classified documents, in order to provide for information-hungry members of the military. So we are talking about classified documents that 300 million public servants can read. Documents on SIPRNet are therefore not important ones – top-secret classes are not hosted there.
United States diplomatic cables leak (Wikipedia)
It is rather possible that the system encourages those officials and soldiers to be exposed to propaganda, under the disguise of ‘classified documents’. This is what Wikileaks is really leaking. Iran correctly pointed that out.
What is the role of mass media here? Were they given a role of stirring things up by sensationally reporting “3 million leaks!”? Salon magazine criticised that Time magazine had wrongly reported ‘thousands of leaked secret documents’ when it was only 1300 docs. Time didn’t formally apologise, but instead enlarged the exaggeration.
The media's authoritarianism and WikiLeaks (Salon)
Zbigniew Brzezinski, who is a foreign policy advisor to President Obama, suspects that Wikileaks had been infiltrated by intelligence agents from various countries. Wikileaks, henceforth, is not an organisation that strives for great freedom of speech but a tool for international relations. Wikileaks is staffed by volunteers – easy prey for professional spies.
Zbigniew Brzezinski: Who is Really Leaking to Wikileaks? (Economic Policy Journal)
Brzezinski’s conspiracy theory is the complete opposite of Iran’s, that anti-US nations had sent their agents to Wikileaks to collect US representations speaking ill of political leaders of allied countries. Thereby, the West’s alliance will be weakened.
'The United States Is Behind This Deliberate WikiLeaks’ (Der Spiegel)
If Brzezinski’s worry proves to be true, this would mean that countries such as Iran, Venezuela or China have acquired intelligence capability on par with that of Anglo-American-Israeli bureaus.
Do Not See It
Since the Wikileaks scandal, the US government ordered that no federal employees or temporary contractors must access to Wikileaks-hosted information, including regular TV news programmes that may talk about the scandal. Unless the government lifts the classification, it says it’s illegal to view the documents anyhow. The government, although not an order, instructed universities and schools that Wikileaks ought to be avoided because it served no educational value.
Don't Look, Don't Read: Government Warns Its Workers Away From WikiLeaks Documents (New York Times)
State Dept Warning Students Not to Read, Share WikiLeaks (Antiwar.com)
Is the government experimenting with an Orwellian society? Are they saying that we shouldn’t pay attention to world affairs but should read trivial local matters? Excess propaganda damages popular trust on the mass media.
War on Terror since 2001 has angered people in Europe and the Middle East. If Assange is to appear before a US court, it will damage the confidence of the US judicial system. If he is to be found guilty, freedom of speech as a principle itself becomes guilty. America doesn’t have a strong case against him.
The U.S.'s Weak Legal Case Against WikiLeaks (Time)
US authority has detained terror suspects from Afghanistan in Guantanamo or Kabul because it was aware that the judiciary would not be able to find them guilty. They had to be tried in the undisclosed military court (which was also unsuccessful). It is possible that the US authority would semi-permanently detain Assange in a Guantanamonesque ‘judiciary black hole’ to avoid real court hearings. UN Commission on Human Rights and even Russia’s Putin have warned the US not to violate Assange’s basic rights. An interesting changeover of good and evil of human rights, indeed.
Growing International Criticism of US Moves Against WikiLeaks (Antiwar.com)
The leaks of Wikileaks deteriorate America’s relationship with the rest of the world. One leaked dossier clearly states that State Secretary Clinton had instructed US representations to secretly intercept credit card numbers, air mileage details, DNA and iris information of political leaders across the globe, including the UN leaders. Obama says the document was forged. If it was true, he would have to sack at least 20 senior officials of the Department of State. He cannot accept the authenticity.
Hillary Clinton Ordered Diplomats to Steal UN Officials' Credit Card Numbers (Antiwar.com)
UN Secretariat is dissatisfied. Russia was angered at the leaked documents about deploying US missile defence systems to Poland and the Baltics. China was annoyed to have been reported that it would abandon North Korea and let Seoul unify the peninsula. Erdogan roared that he had no secret Swiss bank account, saying “Israel is behind this”. Israel, which wished to improve ties with Turkey, was effectively put on hold. Iran says US owes accountability to the world. It seems a fair request.
'US should explain diplomats conduct’ (Press TV)
China to dump North Korea, really? (Asia Times)
Senior Turkey official says Israel behind WikiLeaks release (Haaretz)
Since 2005, the White House attempted to regain the military loss in Iraq and Afghanistan by diplomacy. The ‘assertive diplomacy’ prescribed by the neocon was embraced wholeheartedly. Obama continued this strategy. Yet the actual operationalisation of this approach was, after all, stealing credit cards and DNA data, and put foreign leaders under military surveillance. Worse, the US agents in Italy were found to have appropriated the stolen credit cards to enjoy wild parties.
The secret history of US diplomacy revealed by WikiLeaks (Antiwar.com)
The End of Diplomacy
It is significant that the Leaks have deteriorated the relationships between the US and its allies. A number of French and Italian leaders had been ridiculed. A senior German diplomat and a major Australian politician were revealed to have been agents who contributed to US embassies.
German FM's Chief of Staff Sacked for Being US Informant (Antiwar.com)
WikiLeaks outs Mark Arbib as US informant (The Australian)
Many more informants must be experiencing bed of roses at the forthcoming Wikileaks dossiers.
In general, the Wikileaks affair will discourage world’s executives to pass over sensitive information to their US contacts. The perceived risk has become significantly larger for them. The epoch that the world’s informants strived to attract US’s favour is ended. And interestingly, this coincided with the end of the dollar supremacy and America’s declining military hegemony. Alongside the economy (the dollar standard) and military power, diplomacy used to be one of the three pillars of Pax Americana. Now, all the pillars are collapsing.
WikiLeaks: Demystifying `Diplomacy’ (Antiwar.com)
In an attempt to save credibility, the US Dept of State is trying to shuffle senior officials based in embassies. But this would mean non-specialists be assigned to the field offices – it is unlikely that this practice will succeed.
US Eyes Embassy Shake-Ups in Wake of WikiLeaks Shaming (Antiwar.com)
The system of diplomacy is changing. Modern diplomacy was formulated by Britain after the Napoleonic Wars, in its bid to maintain the checks and balance in the European continent. Intelligence was the power source of the British hegemony. Espionage, the mass media and propaganda were all developed in this context. US inherited this system from Britain after the WWII. The Wikileaks scandal, however, has revealed that diplomats are too engaged in spy activities than what seemed acceptable to most populace. The established mass media seems to be collaborating with this paradigm. The Leaks made it very easy for normal people to see how the indirect governance and control system by the powerful works. Yet, the US traditionally had its preference to multilateralism (see before the hegemony handover of 1945). In the end, Wikileaks may serve well to the long-term interests of the United States.
