Over the weekend, the Internet and mainstream press went berserk over the release of nearly 250,000 confidential state department cable and diplomatic directives by the infamous whistle-blowing website, WikiLeaks.
Many papers, including the New York Times, The Guardian UK and the German-paper Der Spiegel, have turned their online editions into interactive archives for the few hundred cables that have been released thus far. With over 250,000 cables to reviews, media outlets are saying that it may take days, if not weeks, before they are all published.
Needless to say, disposal of this information has made Julian Assange, WikiLeaks co-founder, public enemy number one. At least one member of Congress has declared the group a ‘foreign terrorist organization.’ Even presidential hopeful Sarah Palin has labeled Assange an “anti-American operative with blood on his hands.”
Fearing how this incident could damage the nation’s image, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been making the rounds to various world leaders to reaffirm the U.S.’ commitment to “diplomatic relations.”
Yesterday, Clinton went to the national airwaves to strongly condemn the release of the cables. She described it as not just an attack on America’s foreign policy interest, but also an attack on the international community.
So, with WikiLeak’s latest information release, are we as a country less safe than what we previously were?
According to Der Speigel, about half of the documents are unclassified, 40.5 percent are “confidential” and six percent (15,652 documents) are classified as “secret.” There are no “top secret” documents in the cache.
However, there is another unclassified category-gossip, which includes the salacious details of the budding “bromance” between Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Italian President Silvio Berlusconi. It also includes Libyan President Mumammar al-Qadhafi’s apparent fondness for a “voluptuous Ukrainian blonde.”
Though these exchanges are very unflattering chitchat, it is almost similar to getting caught talking about someone behind their backs—more embarrassing than dangerous. Clinton has said that our allies understand that backbiting is a part of the game, telling her, “well, don’t worry about it; you should see what we say about you.”
However, there is some good information that has come out of the gossip. For example, now we know that North Korea is selling Iran 12 long-range missiles with enough range to reach Russia and parts of Western Europe. We also know about countries such as Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, secretly urging the U.S. to bomb Iran.
Of course, none of this is actual “news” considering that the U.S. has been very vocal about concerns over Iran’s increased arms cache. However, the information is insightful because it reveals how other countries use the U.S. an international attack dog, while evading responsibility for any involvement.
Perhaps the cable leaks might allow America to gracefully bow out of a third costly war which we are in no position to afford and probably have no business being involved with anyways.
In essence, the cable leaks may inspire American taxpayers and legislators to ask questions about why a certain Afghan leader was able to exit the country, carrying $52 million of our hard earned cash in his man-purse at a time when many Americans are struggling to feed their families.
As far as national security is concerned, I can certainly understand how these leaks might raise the level of anxiety about potentially loosing innocent lives here in the U.S. and around the globe. But, I fail to see how the leaks could cause any more bloodshed than what has already occurred in Iraq and Afghanistan, or how it can affect the number of terrorist attacks already happening within our border.
Perhaps if we had a Wikileaks prior to start of the Iraq War in 2003, we would have had a better understanding of the evidence, or lack thereof, that lead the Bush administration to declare that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. And we might have raised questions as to why one of our biggest allies in the Middle East appears to be the home base for chief financiers of Sunni militant groups like Al Qaeda.
A little more transparency could have gone a long way in explaining the need for the Patriot Acts I & II, wiretapping, email snooping, terror watch list (which does not seem to be monitoring actual ‘terrorist’), and why we are getting felt up at airports.
Secrecy does not always work in the best interest of the people. Besides, if secrecy were truly important, wouldn’t the state department have done its due-diligence to ensure that all concerns were addressed, prior to the leak?
Yesterday, Assange announced plans for WikiLeaks to release information on an undisclosed but major American bank in the new year. Who said there was no Santa?
Charing Ball is the author of the blog People, Places & Things.
