So, wikileaks, then

[Anton Gramscescu]

Is this the most boring world exclusive ever?

Shock! Arab countries are almost as scared shitless of Iran having the bomb as Israel is.

Shock! American diplomats agree with everyone else in the entire world in their assessment of Berlusconi as a buffoon.

Shock! American spies keep tabs on other countries' diplomats.

I just can't get excited about this. It's like someone publishing the Mean Girls' Burn Book.

[JVL]

So, wikileaks, then

Agreed. The German news channels were full of it this morning but I don't see what the big surprise is.

So the US ambassador thinks that some prominent German politicans are unpredictable, vain and incompetent. Tell me something I didn't know already.

[ursus arctos]

So, wikileaks, then

The only thing that has surprised me so far was the extent to which the current State Department enlisted "real" diplomats (not spooks operating under diplomatic cover) in trying to get dirt on UN officials.

That was a line that just wasn't crossed in the old days, and I'm genuinely surprised that it hadn't been leaked before by a old school career officer who wouldn't go along with the game.

For those catching up, I thought this roundup from TPM was quite good.

[ursus arctos]

So, wikileaks, then

This is weird, even for the Likudniks.

But the cable shed light on the thinking of high Israeli officials about why Israel cannot, as many US analysts have suggested, just live with an Iranian bomb if one is achieved. They believe that such a development would create a psychological nervousness in the Israeli public that would likely doom it as a Jewish state.

What is being implicitly referred to is the expectation that if the Middle East turns even more dangerous for Israelis, such that they lose their status as the sole nuclear regional superpower, then Israeli Jews may well simply emigrate in large numbers. Over time, this development would ensure that Palestinian-Israelis, now over 20% of the population, become a plurality and even a majority.

[Brandenburger Toro]

So, wikileaks, then

Hmmm.

Do the leaks change the Iran calculus?

[Anton Gramscescu]

So, wikileaks, then

Urs, that point is also made at some length in the September issue of the Atlantic.

Toro - quite possibly. It's interesting to see how quickly Ahmadinejad popped up to claim that the cables are fakes (apparently the whole wikileaks thing is a CIA plant aimed at Iran).

[Amor de Cosmos]

So, wikileaks, then

What do you mean by the "old days" ursus? According to old company hands like Graham Greene, — and my great-uncle Bob — "information gathering" seems to have been routine for diplomats in the 20s and 30s. Is that not true?

[ursus arctos]

So, wikileaks, then

That's true, but I was thinking of myself as old, and talking about the general rules of engagement during the Cold War (particularly after the Cuban Missile Crisis).

Gramsci, not a surprise that Goldberg demanded an extra large glass of Kool Aid, which he downed in one gulp.

[Anton Gramscescu]

So, wikileaks, then

I'm not sure I could identify anything else Goldberg has written, so I couldn't say.

[ursus arctos]

So, wikileaks, then

For once, you can consider yourself lucky.

[Brandenburger Toro]

So, wikileaks, then

He did yeoman's work "establishing" the Iraq-Al Qaeda link by "finding" and "interviewing" "witnesses" who "told" him "about" "it".

[Incandenza]

So, wikileaks, then

There was a time when Wikileaks was just expected to put up classified information. There was no expectation that they would embarrass the US government or find shocking information, etc. Assange and the media have built up Wikileaks as this dragon-slayer, when in the past their leaks were of all sorts of things. That, and their success with the war logs have led people to say "so what?" when they release something that isn't earth-shattering, which is too bad, I think.

[ursus arctos]

So, wikileaks, then

Though one can't discount their own contribution to the hype machine, especially over the course of the last week.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

So, wikileaks, then

Am I the only one who thinks that Arab rulers' comments along the lines of "cut the head off the snake" might not actually relate to Iran developing weapons at all, but to the idea of the possiblilty of allowing nuclear power to become established where ownership of oil is, currently, equivalent to being a living god?

[Incandenza]

So, wikileaks, then

ursus arctos wrote:

Though one can't discount their own contribution to the hype machine, especially over the course of the last week.

Exactly. I mentioned Assange as hyping what they are doing.

[ursus arctos]

So, wikileaks, then

Rogin, yes you are.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

So, wikileaks, then

When I was on a course as a young fella, a couple of guys from the iranian embassy came in to talk to us, and they were telling us about iran's desire to develop a peaceful nuclear programme. I asked them that since their country, was basically a raft floating on a sea of hydrocarbons, why did they need such a pointlessly expensive, dangerous and unnecessary means of producing energy. Their answer was less than convincing.

[Vicarious Thrillseeker]

So, wikileaks, then

Speaking as a currently serving diplomat in the Middle East, I reckon it's a riveting read. It's not the information per se that's the fun bit - we all know that the major security concern in the region is Iran, and the Queen's visit was a thinly-veiled cover for a whole shedload of joint military activity. It's all the personal stuff that's the meat in the sandwich - sheikhs' opinions of other world leaders' character flaws. Marvellous, indiscreet stuff.

[NHH]

So, wikileaks, then

Doug Henwood makes the point that whilst little of this is news to anyone who reads the news, the key point is that most of this was known to anyone who read the news, and the news - editorialising aside - pretty much covers these points of view. The conspiraloon truthers will find nothing of note here, hence they're attacking Assange as a 12-foot lizard patsy CIA stooge.

Over at the LRB blog, Bernard Porter makes some good points.

[Sam]

So, wikileaks, then

The best thing about this from an Argentine perspective is that the CIA reportedly sent numerous cables to the American ambassador in Buenos Aires enquiring as to his opinion of the mental health of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the Argentine president.

This was reported today in La Nación in a very 'frankly, it's what we've all been thinking for some time,' sort of manner.

[sw2borshch]

So, wikileaks, then

Isn't this a valuable step towards bringing about the first of Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points - "Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private international understandings of any kind but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view."?

Source - bog standard wiki.

[E10 Rifle]

So, wikileaks, then

It has pointed out in other papers - admittedly to the suspected backdrop of grapes souring - that Wikileaks' pre-arranged leak policy with selected venerable newspapers somewhat contradicts their open-access ethos. But that said, it is undoubtedly an interesting moment for journalism, more so than it is for foreign policy, about which few of the revelations are remarkable.

And I sense that some people are forgetting that what's being revealed here isn't The Truth About World Affairs but the US diplomatic class's view of said truth. Two very different beasts, as Robert Fisk, among others, points out.

[ursus arctos]

So, wikileaks, then

E10, you mean Wikileaks, not Wikipedia. An important difference that is lost on many (not you, of course).

In the meantime, Bill Kristol wants the US to assassinate Assange.

Why can't we act forcefully against WikiLeaks? Why can't we use our various assets to harass, snatch or neutralize Julian Assange and his collaborators, wherever they are?

[WOM]

So, wikileaks, then

There's already a warrant out on him for sexual assault, which, I suspect is how they'll trip him up (a la Al Capone for tax evasion).

Thomas Dolby writes about having an odd dinner with him after one of the TED conferences. He says he kept waiting to see a red laser dot suddenly appear in the centre of his chest or forehead. Apparently Assange leaves parties quickly, usually through a back door.

[ursus arctos]

So, wikileaks, then

Though in an interesting twist of fate, I'm pretty sure that the US can't enforce the Swedish warrant because of Kristol and his fellow travelers' scorched earth campaign against the International Criminal Court and transnational arrest warrants.