Well, Wikileaks’ Cablegate pretty much sucks for the U.S.

At the start of a series of daily extracts from the US embassy cables – many of which are designated ‘secret’ – the Guardian can disclose 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.
A sentence at the start of the Guardian’s package on Wikileaks’ “Cablegate” • Which kind of says it all. The U.S. is going to have a lot of fun cleaning up this mess. Also worth reading: The New York Times’ package. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

I would hope that those who are responsible for this would, at some point in time, think about the responsibility that they have for lives that they’re exposing and the potential that’s there and stop leaking this information.
Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen • Saying WITH EMPHASIS that if Wikileaks releases the diplomatic cables it has, it could endanger lives. Other government officials, including ambassadors, are complaining loudly too. The question, of course, is whether these cables, which are expected to be released today, will be nearly as damaging as they suggest. It’s pretty likely they will be – some of the stuff revealed in the Iraq and Afghan War leaks was a bit retready. This could be new ground. Or not. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

WikiLeaks are an absolutely awful impediment to my business, which is to be able to have discussions in confidence with people. I do not understand the motivation for releasing these documents. They will not help; they will simply hurt our ability to do our work here.
U.S. Ambassador to Iraq James Jeffrey • Loudly voicing his frustration with Wikileaks, which plans to release thousands of diplomatic cables in the next few days. Let’s just say that the U.S. is gearing up for the worst-case scenario, which involves them having to explain to its allies why it’s privately talking crap about them and revealing things that were told to them in confidence. source

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144 alleged abuse victims are currently suing the diocese over the allegations
10k the number of pages of documents the diocese released under court pressure
2k the number of pages lawyers for the accusers say the church is hiding source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

I think anything that suggests that basic rules of war, conflict and engagement have been broken or that torture has been in any way condoned are extremely serious and need to be looked at.
British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg • Suggesting that the British government needs to investigate the torture claims brought forth by Wikileaks’ massive Iraq War data dump. Just yesterday, the country’s Ministry of Defense, which condemned the group for releasing the data. Clegg, on the other hand, has a very refreshing response to the whole thing: “We can bemoan how these leaks occurred, but I think the nature of the allegations made are extraordinarily serious.” If only more world leaders would take that approach to Wikileaks. source

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What do we really learn from the Wikileaks monster-doc-dump? I think the actual answer is: not much that we didn’t already know. But it’s extremely depressing – and rivetingly explicit – confirmation of what anyone with eyes and ears could have told you for years.
Mega-blogger Andrew Sullivan • Describing the nature of what’s inside the Wikileaks data dump. (We couldn’t have said it better.) The Atlantic Wire has a pretty succinct report of what the data shows. Sullivan, meanwhile, says that the data shows how politically treacherous all of this is for the U.S.: “A president who withdraws and then presides over a terror attack will be vulnerable to cheap political attacks of the Palinite variety.” Is he right? Should we take a more minimalist approach to the war, as Joe Biden is pushing? source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 8 Comments • Permalink

Is Faisal Shahzad a weird amalgamation of terrorism and the financial crisis? The Times Square suspect, who admitted to being a lone wolf today (whether or not you believe that is another question), was a financial analyst who lost his job during the financial crisis. He was also Pakistani-born and had a family who was forced to move back to the country after they lost their home. In the midst of that drama, he somehow became radicalized. Here’s some info on the dude you probably didn’t know.

two number of kids he has; his family (including his wife) now live in Pakistan
11 number of years he had been floating between the U.S. and Pakistan
$273k original value of the
home his family lost to
foreclosure last year

» His education: Shahzad, like many immigrants, first came to the U.S. on a student visa in 1998, and followed it through with a computer science degree from the University of Bridgeport in 2000 and, later, an MBA in 2005.
» His career: From 2006 until June of last year, he was working as a financial analyst for the Affinion Group, which has a shady business history, according to Wikipedia. It’s not clear whether he quit or was fired. Neighbors claimed that he worked on Wall Street.
» His financial state: He owed too much money on his Shelton, Conn. house, so he told the broker to let the bank take it, and told him he was moving back to Pakistan. He had been living in his new apartment in Bridgeport for just a couple of months. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Nov 2010 13:39