This By You is News, Julian?
At last, the leaks are dribbling, and the Guardian has a preview. (The Wikileaks site itself is under a denial-of-service attack. Congratulations to someone out there.)
Brace yourselves. "Among scores of other disclosures that are likely to cause uproar," the cables detail:
• Grave fears in Washington and London over the security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme (No! Have we gone mad?)
• Alleged links between the Russian government and organised crime. (Say it ain't so!)
• Claims of inappropriate behaviour by a member of the British royal family. (It's Watergate ten times over!)
"The material," continues the report, "includes a reference to Vladimir Putin as an 'alpha-dog,' (Gentle Vlad?), Hamid Karzai as being 'driven by paranoia,' (Sweet, trusting Hamid?) and Angela Merkel allegedly 'avoids risk and is rarely creative'" (The Chancellor of Germany, of all people?) "There is also a comparison between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Adolf Hitler." (No! I cannot believe anyone in my government could say or think such a thing! Why?)
"The Guardian can disclose," it says--actually, I could have disclosed it with no help from Wikileaks, but whatever--"that Arab leaders are privately urging an air strike on Iran and that US officials have been instructed to spy on the UN's leadership. These two revelations alone would be likely to reverberate around the world."
According to another piece in the Guardian, "The cables also expose frank, even rude, remarks about Iranian leaders, their trustworthiness and tactics at international meetings." Get me my smelling salts, I am scandalized!
And the biggest bombshell of all: It even seems many other countries don't trust Iran.
The whole world's turned upside down. This is going to change everything.
- Comment (22)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (3)
- Pages:
- 1
- 2
- Pages:
- 1
- 2
Comments :
Jul '10
Re: This By You is News, Julian?
Surely you mean the Onion, not the Guardian. I look forward to your correction.
Sep '10
Re: This By You is News, Julian?
They also broke the news that Steve Hackett is about to leave Genesis.
Nov '10
Re: This By You is News, Julian?
This sounds like something Rita Skeeter would write in the Daily Prophet.
Wait a second: Steve Hackett is leaving Genesis?
Sep '10
Re: This By You is News, Julian?
Ken Owsley: This sounds like something Rita Skeeter would write in the Daily Prophet.
Wait a second: Steve Hackett is leaving Genesis? · Nov 28 at 12:48pm
Tis true, and here's a Facebook page that proves it.
May '10
Re: This By You is News, Julian?
Ho hum, WikiLeaks timing is way off.
The US Government is fresh out of strongly worded denunciations and expressions of outrage due to the situation in Korea and it being a holiday weekend. We'll have to wait until the wordsmiths get back in tomorrow for the full torrent of scathing diplomatic memos to be unleashed.
It will be interesting to see what happens when Julian Assange leaks Russian or Chinese secrets.
Aug '10
Re: This By You is News, Julian?
Whoa !
I'm buying all the ____________I can get my hands on !
Nov '10
Re: This By You is News, Julian?
Pseudodionysius
Ken Owsley: This sounds like something Rita Skeeter would write in the Daily Prophet.
Wait a second: Steve Hackett is leaving Genesis? · Nov 28 at 12:48pm
Tis true, and here's a Facebook page that proves it. · Nov 28 at 12:50pm
One might argue that Genesis left Steve Hackett. Phil Collin's leadership of the band was both the best and the worst thing to happen to them. Sort of like Bill Clinton, he lead them in a direction that was popular, though not particularly good. As far as I'm concerned the self titled album was the last truly Genesis album they cut. Invisible Touch had a couple of tracks that had that sound. We Can't Dance had one track that sort of had that sound. To this day my favorite Genesis album is the second to last album with Steve Hackett, Trick of the Tail. Though purists might want to burn me at the stake, I can't really listen to any Peter Gabriel Genesis. So basically, for me, Genesis began when Phil Collins began the transition from Prog Rock to Pop Rock, and ended when he finished the transition.
Oct '10
Re: This By You is News, Julian?
I wonder why DHS can shut down websites pirating tacky music but they can't shut down wikileaks. Or is there something I'm not getting here?
Nov '10
Re: This By You is News, Julian?
Your point is well-made, Claire. Nevertheless, Julian Assange is, by all accounts, an arrogant, self-righteous, paranoid nitwit who likes to invite hostile attention (in order to justify his paranoia, I suppose). And, in matters of national security, he is potentially quite dangerous.
If Mr. Assange starts diddling around with those guys, his biography will be a short one.
But I am more interested in the person who stole the documents — Pfc. Bradley Manning. What were his motives?
Sep '10
Re: This By You is News, Julian?
"The cables also expose frank, even rude, remarks about Iranian leaders, their trustworthiness and tactics at international meetings."
The overly-cynical in me automatically assumes this is in reference to someone other than the Obama administration.
Sep '10
Re: This By You is News, Julian?
"The cables also expose frank, even rude, remarks about Iranian leaders, their trustworthiness and tactics at international meetings."
The overly-cynical in me automatically assumes these statements did not come from the Obama administration.
Oct '10
Re: This By You is News, Julian?
I keep wondering if one of the low-level political cronies "rewarded" by near-cabinet-level positions is behind these leaks. Some of them are ideological enough, though I'm not sure they're brave enough to cross Obama by doing so (and I have a hard time seeing Obama himself sign off on this).
Re: This By You is News, Julian?
With all due respect, Ken, you're mad. Mad, I tell you! Collins didn't start to lead Genesis until Hackett's departure, and even in the first post-Hackett album you can hear Rutherford and Banks trying to keep the long-form prog the centerpiece of the band's style.
That said, Assange would never expose the secrets of Russia or China. To the dedicated anti-American, there's only one country that matters; a weakened America means a more just world. Diminish us, and our baleful influence will cease to distort the actions of other governments. I think they believe this with the same certainty that Hackett believed he could have a hugely successful solo career.
Oct '10
Re: This By You is News, Julian?
I suspect it's a mixture of anti-Americanism and a healthy dose of survival instinct, James.
Assange wouldn't have survived the last document dump on Wikileaks if he had been targeting Putin's Russia. Recent Russian history is replete with all sorts of assassinations of people who caused fewer problems for the Russians than Assange has caused for us.
May '10
Re: This By You is News, Julian?
I'll second that. Only a true pipsqueak steals material like this and thinks he's broken ground. Unless there's higher quality stuff out there, this airhead bought himself a long vacation in Leavenworth to give us a blinding glimpse of the obvious.
Oct '10
Re: This By You is News, Julian?
i'm willing to waterboard bradley manning to find out who his accomplices were or who was his Obama State dept or DOD source for these materials.
May '10
Re: This By You is News, Julian?
If I'm not mistaken...on page 214,193 they also leak the contents of Al Capone's vault.
May '10
Re: This By You is News, Julian?
I'll be happy when wikileaks publishes inside memos from a NYT editor telling someone to suppress a negative story about Obama. Or perhaps a Bill Ayers memo about how he fudged references to socialism in chapter 3 of Dreams, "just in case."
Sep '10
Re: This By You is News, Julian?
I think they believe this with the same certainty that Hackett believed he could have a hugely successful solo career.
I think I feel a new Member Feed post coming up.
Jul '10
Re: This By You is News, Julian?
He probably won't. The risk/reward equation isn't very favorable - there's no bien-pensant adulation in tangling with the Russians or Chinese, and a great many, ah, terminal downsides.