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The Most Recent Set of Wikileaks
Nov. 30th, 2010 09:00 pmYou're getting a political post because, along with the heating being out, our water is being temperamental too. Those who would like to avoid such content may wish to avoid the rest of this.
On someone else's comments on the matter (no names being mentioned), someone else said that the only reason this is occuring is because of the free press etc, and you'd never see it in Russia/Iran/China, and that therefore we ought to crack down on Wikileaks. ( I don't quite understand the person's logic. )
And then there's the fact that most of what has been released is not news.
Prince Andrew being a twonk is most definitely not news.
That Silvio Berlusconi is widely regarded as a fool is not news.
That Vladimir Putin likes to be top dog and that poor President Medvedev gets the worst of it. Also not news.
And so on. The interesting thing about this is that the various outlying embassies felt this needed saying. I suppose you want general feelings confirmed by your person on the ground, but still.
What is interesting is the things that are being kept quieter, the extent of the spying on UN personel. I'd be surprised if they didn't know they were being spied upon, but stealing biometric data is going a bit far.
Then there's threatening Germany if it stands up for itself (re: the kidnap of one of its citizens after a case of mistaken identity), because this "He reminded Nikel of the repercussions to U.S.-Italian bilateral relations in the wake of a similar move by Italian authorities last year." is a threat, no matter how much you dress it up. Actually, Angie-Baby comes out of this surprisingly well. Anyone who the American government disses quite that much, while the person remains on the right side of the democratic process, must be doing something right.
All in all, most of the cables make it sound like high level politics is exactly like Yes, Minister, something not helped by revelations like this - "Slovenia is offered the chance to meet President Barack Obama if it takes a prisoner, while Kiribati, in the South Pacific, is offered millions of dollars of incentives. Brussels is told taking prisoners could be "a low-cost way for Belgium to attain prominence in Europe".
The US Department of State is basically pulling a rather advanced form of 'if you put out, I'll take you to the prom'.
It's all a bit grubby.
Also, before anyone says anything, I'm aware the two countries I claim any kind of allegience to are not exactly on the side of the angels, especially given that one is run by the rich for the rich and the other is occasionally run by neo-Nazis.
On someone else's comments on the matter (no names being mentioned), someone else said that the only reason this is occuring is because of the free press etc, and you'd never see it in Russia/Iran/China, and that therefore we ought to crack down on Wikileaks. ( I don't quite understand the person's logic. )
And then there's the fact that most of what has been released is not news.
Prince Andrew being a twonk is most definitely not news.
That Silvio Berlusconi is widely regarded as a fool is not news.
That Vladimir Putin likes to be top dog and that poor President Medvedev gets the worst of it. Also not news.
And so on. The interesting thing about this is that the various outlying embassies felt this needed saying. I suppose you want general feelings confirmed by your person on the ground, but still.
What is interesting is the things that are being kept quieter, the extent of the spying on UN personel. I'd be surprised if they didn't know they were being spied upon, but stealing biometric data is going a bit far.
Then there's threatening Germany if it stands up for itself (re: the kidnap of one of its citizens after a case of mistaken identity), because this "He reminded Nikel of the repercussions to U.S.-Italian bilateral relations in the wake of a similar move by Italian authorities last year." is a threat, no matter how much you dress it up. Actually, Angie-Baby comes out of this surprisingly well. Anyone who the American government disses quite that much, while the person remains on the right side of the democratic process, must be doing something right.
All in all, most of the cables make it sound like high level politics is exactly like Yes, Minister, something not helped by revelations like this - "Slovenia is offered the chance to meet President Barack Obama if it takes a prisoner, while Kiribati, in the South Pacific, is offered millions of dollars of incentives. Brussels is told taking prisoners could be "a low-cost way for Belgium to attain prominence in Europe".
The US Department of State is basically pulling a rather advanced form of 'if you put out, I'll take you to the prom'.
It's all a bit grubby.
Also, before anyone says anything, I'm aware the two countries I claim any kind of allegience to are not exactly on the side of the angels, especially given that one is run by the rich for the rich and the other is occasionally run by neo-Nazis.
