E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS“A cache of a quarter-million confidential American diplomatic cables, most of them from the past three years, provides an unprecedented look at back-room bargaining by embassies around the world, brutally candid views of foreign leaders and frank assessments of nuclear and terrorist threats,” the New York Times writes. “Some of the cables, made available to The New York Times and several other news organizations, were written as recently as late February, revealing the Obama administration’s exchanges over crises and conflicts. The material was originally obtained by WikiLeaks, an organization devoted to revealing secret documents. WikiLeaks posted 220 cables, some redacted to protect diplomatic sources, in the first installment of the archive on its Web site on Sunday.”
More: “The disclosure of the cables is sending shudders through the diplomatic establishment, and could strain relations with some countries, influencing international affairs in ways that are impossible to predict.”
“The White House says WikiLeaks' decision to release classified U.S. diplomatic files endangers U.S. diplomats, intelligence agents and democratic activists who seek America's help,” the AP adds.
The New York Post’s cover: “Wik-ed.”
But McClatchy says, “Before Sunday's release, news organizations given access to the documents and WikiLeaks took the greatest care to date to ensure no one would be put in danger. In statements accompanying stories about the documents, several newspapers said they voluntarily withheld information and that they cooperated with the State Department and the Obama administration to ensure nothing released could endanger lives or national security.”
Here’s the photo of President Obama icing his lip after needing 12 stitches from an errant elbow during a basketball game over the weekend. The elbow thrower: Rey Decerega, director of programs for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute.” Obama was back out on the court Sunday playing with his daughters. And he was sideline at a Howard University game Sunday.
“Laurence H. Tribe, a renowned constitutional scholar and outspoken champion of liberal causes, spent four decades teaching students who occupy some of the most powerful posts in Washington — Barack Obama among them,” the Boston Globe reports. “His own foray into government service, however, has been short-lived and, according to some supporters, too low-key. Tribe, 69, is unexpectedly returning to Harvard Law School after a nine-month stint in the administration of his former research assistant. Tribe said the recurrence of a benign brain tumor, which causes facial seizures, is the sole reason for his return to Massachusetts, where he will be treated at Massachusetts General Hospital and then resume teaching next fall. His speedy exit from Washington and his low-profile post there, however, surprised colleagues.”
Leave a Comment:
WikiLeaks? What about Valerie Plame's exposure as a secret agent, whose work centered around keeping US safe from nuclear threats? Libby, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove. etc. Maybe there's some worry due to their greedy a*$e$, receiving increasing international disapproval of their war mongering all over the globe coming out once cables are released.
Or what about the neocon, GW Bush's recess appointee as US ambassador to the United Nations, creepy Hitler look a like who really looks like Hitler on crack (especially with that mustache) John Bolt-on? Bolton was using NSA intercepts of Secretary of State Colin Powell's conversations in order to undermine his policies
because of Colin Powell's battle to block Bolton 's nominee to the UN as unsuitable.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/apr/28/usa.comment
I find it hilarious that all of these US "journalist's" keep saying over and over this morning that most of this Wikileak information they already knew. It's funny that they all "knew this and yet they and their bosses chose not to tell the American public about it. Remember the good old days before the Reagan administration when the News Media used to actually do real journalism and report real news to lowly Americans? I also find it obnoxious when ex-CIA officials and others claim that these documents will put our boys in harms way. As an ex-Naval Officer I can't help but think that if Wikileaks was around in 2002 and had dumped documents then maybe the US public would have had some factual data that WSD's didn't exist to counteract all of the propaganda that was being fed to us by the mainstream media as well as the government when the media should have been doing real journalism to prove the truth. Other media from other governments did just that. American Independent Media did just that but American Corporate Media failed us and for the most part haven't changed at all. With the exception of evening time MSNBC, American Corporate Media has failed this country miserably and should feel responsible for the necessity of sites like Wikileaks. Since we cannot rely upon corporations to right their own course the only way to solve a problem like leaking wholesale groups of documents to websites like Wikileaks will be for the Obama Administration to re-institute the Fairness Clause into the FCC regulations at a minimum but probably reversing all of Reagans de-regulations of the News Media will be the only long term solution.
Actually, I do remember the 'good old days' of journalism prior to the Reagan Administration. I remember Walter and David and Chet and a number of other media personalities who reported 'facts' as they and their networks saw them. I remember the reporting of a quick victory Korea and the crisis in Lebanon. I also remember the Cold War and Vietnam. The reporting, then as now, was dictated by political agenda and money. The more sensational the reporting the greater the viewing audience. Pandering on the news did not start with Reagan; I believe you can go back to the start of the nation to read text that was extremely slanted. As an 'ex-Naval Officer', you believe that Wikileaks would have better served the US with intelligence releases with respect to WMD. 1) As an officer/member of the military (your claim), you took an oath....would you have released this information (Wikileaks) 2) Who determines the release of 'factual' information (Fairness Clause) that can due harm to the US? 3) We are years past the Reagan Administration, when will you become forward looking instead of blaming the past? 4) I do NOT find the statement that you are an ex-Naval Officer credible.
"The elbow thrower: Rey Decerega, director of programs for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute"
That's what happens when you don't address immigration issues fast enough. B-)
The Oblaba's ship seems to be not only creaking but leaking heavily. The political waters are very rough for the Annointed One after such a shell lacking.
I believe that the most important aspect of the WikiLeaks disclosure is the necessity for the return of compartmentalized intelligence. If, as has been suggested, one lowly PFC can copy and release the enormous amounts of classified intelligence information to outside agencies, then the entire intelligence gathering operations of the US have become suspect. Access to classified information must return to specific 'need to know' guidelines. I understand that some information must be shared among the agencies, but only at the highest levels. The greatest embarrassment to the US should be that someone so low in rank had access to so much information; NOT that the US is actively spying on other nations or that our 'friends' provide aid and comfort to our enemies.
Something is not adding up. If these dcouments are indeed "Classified" then how the hell are they available to this guy running Wikileaks? Somehow this Classified information has gotten to this guy. What needs to be investigated is how the hell this guy is getting this information!
Rob, Just the same way the Dems get their dirt on those they don't like. I think you know how.