Wikileaks leak embarresses a lot of countries

[hippifried]

So far, I'm not seeing this so called "danger" from wikileaks. Governments always snivel when their confidentials get leaked, & the "news" services are just pissed because they all got the stuff at the same time & none of them could take credit for a scoop. You know damn well that they're all digging through everything to see if they can piece something together that nobody else has reported yet. It's just scandalous crap so far. I think this is all just a test. Wait till the banks & brokers start getting the same treatment.

As for Julian Assange: He's just the public face. Interpol has no jurisdiction or power to arrest him for anything. If the Brits decide to take him into custody, it'll just be this rape charge in Sweden. The timing of the rape charge is a bit suspect. We'll see. But I don't think wikileaks will collapse either way. It's not a one man operation, & if the Swedes trumped this up, it'll just piss the rest of them off & make Sweden a target.

I find it all quite interesting, & I can't help but wonder why all the "free press" people & news services aren't coming to his defense.

[Ben]

Interesting YT vid about Julian Assange....

[PomonaCA]

So far, I'm not seeing this so called "danger" from wikileaks. Governments always snivel when their confidentials get leaked, & the "news" services are just pissed because they all got the stuff at the same time & none of them could take credit for a scoop. You know damn well that they're all digging through everything to see if they can piece something together that nobody else has reported yet. It's just scandalous crap so far. I think this is all just a test. Wait till the banks & brokers start getting the same treatment.

As for Julian Assange: He's just the public face. Interpol has no jurisdiction or power to arrest him for anything. If the Brits decide to take him into custody, it'll just be this rape charge in Sweden. The timing of the rape charge is a bit suspect. We'll see. But I don't think wikileaks will collapse either way. It's not a one man operation, & if the Swedes trumped this up, it'll just piss the rest of them off & make Sweden a target.

I find it all quite interesting, & I can't help but wonder why all the "free press" people & news services aren't coming to his defense.

Ridiculous, yet typical skepticism from the talking parrot.

[hippifried]

Ridiculous, yet typical skepticism from the talking parrot.

Parrots aren't skeptics. Ever. But of course you already knew that, what with you being incapable of formulating an independant thought & all.

[thx1138]

If one has no shame how does he/she feel embarrassment? Heads of state are mostly all mass murderers. Their opinion of one another pales in comparison.

[Amsterdamage]

meh, usually you (Ben) and i are totally in sync and on the same page, but i think i'll have to agree with u on this one, hippie. i'm not impressed by wikileaks either. have any of you actually read these so called 'top secret' docs? i mean come on, it's merely just memos from meetings etc. sure it's classified stuff but no where near 'top secret'. plus, the documents edited, assange let that slip in an interview last week. the REALLY juicy stuff isn't in there, that's been taken out. just like a couple of months back when they came out with stuff about afghanistan, remember, a couple of 'collateral damage' vids, which is hardly anything new in a war, is it.

the fact that everybody (government, mainstream media) spends so much attention to this, screams to me that this is a distraction and/or a highly exaggerated story.
still, it is an highly entertaining one!

[hippifried]

There was nothing that was actually classified top secret. This over the top response tells me that it's not just the US government that's scared. I hope they start going after some of these financials.

[Ben]

Monday, Nov 29, 2010 08:10 ET WikiLeaks: U.S. bombs Yemen in secret

Diplomatic cables reveal the U.S. has been launching strikes in Yemen, but attacks are claimed by local government

By Justin Elliott
AP
Gen. David Petraeus

One of the most interesting items in the trove of diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks confirms that the Obama Administration has secretly launched missile attacks on suspected terrorists in Yemen, strikes that have reportedly killed dozens of civilians. The government of Yemen takes responsibility for the attacks.
The January 2010 cable describes a meeting between Gen. David Petraeus and President Saleh of Yemen, in which they discuss U.S. airstrikes.
Here's the key section (emphasis ours):

President Obama has approved providing U.S. intelligence in support of ROYG [Republic of Yemen government] ground operations against AQAP targets, General Petraeus informed Saleh. Saleh reacted coolly, however, to the General's proposal to place USG [U.S. government] personnel inside the area of operations armed with real-time, direct feed intelligence from U.S. ISR [intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance] platforms overhead. "You cannot enter the operations area and you must stay in the joint operations center," Saleh responded. Any U.S. casualties in strikes against AQAP would harm future efforts, Saleh asserted. Saleh did not have any objection, however, to General Petraeus' proposal to move away from the use of cruise missiles and instead have U.S. fixed-wing bombers circle outside Yemeni territory, "out of sight," and engage AQAP [Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula] targets when actionable intelligence became available. Saleh lamented the use of cruise missiles that are "not very accurate" and welcomed the use of aircraft-deployed precision-guided bombs instead. "We'll continue saying the bombs are ours, not yours," Saleh said, prompting Deputy Prime Minister Alimi to joke that he had just "lied" by telling Parliament that the bombs in Arhab, Abyan, and Shebwa were American-made but deployed by the ROYG.

The three strikes mentioned at the end there each occurred in December 2009, the month before the cable was written. The Dec. 17 Abyan attack killed 55 people, 41 one of whom were civilians, including 21 children Amnesty International later reported. Amnesty had also suspected that a U.S. cruise missile was used in the attack because of images of debris found at the scene. This new cable seems to bear out that suspicion.
The Dec. 17 attack in the city of Arhab occurred the same day, though it's not clear who was killed.
And finally, here is a contemporaneous report that mentions the Dec. 24 Shebwa attack. Here (.pdf) is the official Yemeni statement on that attack, which falsely claims rseponsibility. The Yemeni government said the strike targeted a meeting of Al Qaeda leaders, including the American-born Anwar Al-Awlaki. But he turned out either not to have been there, or not to have been killed. And again, it's not clear whether any civilians were killed in the attack, which the government claimed killed 30 people.
There has been speculation that the Wikileaks revelation will spark a backlash against Saleh, but as of yet nothing has been reported.

• Justin Elliott is a Salon reporter.

[russtafa]

The west should turn Julian over to the Saudis and the problem is over.No big deal

[Ben]

Quoting Glenn Greenwald: "... the only member of Congress who has thus far stood up and defended WikiLeaks and opposed prosecutions is . . . the universally disparaged GOP Rep. Ron Paul."