Saturday, December 04, 2010

Wikileaks

As much as I don't like the both cynical and naive reasoning that those in charge of Wikileaks give for publishing the U.S. State Department cables, I'm coming to the conclusion that their doing so is not such a bad thing. There's fascinating information coming out: about our relations with quite a variety of countries, about how Iran is seen by Arab countries, about how the Chinese government in all probability has sponsored many hackers' attacks against U.S. government targets, etc. The release of the cables is clearly embarrassing for the U.S. government (and may make diplomacy harder), but to my eyes the cables reveal the government doing a lot of things right.

And I'm increasingly disturbed by the vindictive attacks on Assange (again, as much as I don't like him), including calls for his assassination.

If you're interested in perusing the cables that have been published thus far, they are currently available at: Cable Viewer.

3 comments:

  1. Rebecca, there's a mountain of material and if you notice the Iranian President isn't too happy with it, neither are the Saudis. Maybe there's a lesson there ? :)

    Assange is being attacked for showing up politicians and bureaucrats.

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  2. Yes, I know - which is one reason why I'm thinking this isn't such a bad thing. I imagine the Chinese aren't so happy either.

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  3. Well, the 9/11 Truther lot are annoyed as well, you know *who* they blame it all on? Mossad!

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