If Der Spiegel’s take on WikiLeaks’ document dump were to permeate down into the public’s grey matter, I might count the leaks as a good thing.
On the whole, the cables from the Middle East expose the superpower’s weaknesses. Washington has always viewed it as vital to its survival to secure its share of energy reserves, but the world power is often quickly reduced to becoming a plaything of diverse interests. And it is drawn into the animosities between Arabs and Israelis, Shiites and Sunnis, between Islamists and secularists, between despots and kings. Often enough, the lesson of the documents that have now been obtained, is that the Arab leaders use their friends in Washington to expand their own positions of power.
But, the press will get this whole thing cleaned up soon, once they’re done sensationalizing the embarrassment its done to America’s reputation and standing in the world. It’s doubtful that the public will learn anything lasting that changes how our politicians pull our strings. Unfortunately, I have to view these leaks as more damaging than helpful. They undermine our diplomatic efforts more than anything else, and I would prefer our diplomatic efforts be strengthened.
I enjoy the fly-on-the-wall aspects of the leaks, and I personally am grateful to have valuable information to help inform my worldview. But I think leaks of this type shouldn’t be done in some wholesale manner. They should be aimed at educating the public about specific areas where they are being misled. This dump was not selective. It wasn’t done to serve the public, although the public can benefit from some of the information. It appears to have been a clear effort to embarrass the United States and complicate our relations with allies and foes alike.
I can’t characterize this as a whistleblower situation, even if there are examples in such a large sample that would merit that designation if divulged by themselves. Do we need the world to know stuff like this?
Another reports that the wife of Azerbaijan leader Ilham Aliyev has had so much plastic surgery that it is possible to confuse her for one of her daughters from a distance, but that she can barely still move her face.
Did the President tell the American public that the First Lady of Azerbaijan could move her face? Where’s the whistleblowing element to this release? And don’t think it doesn’t matter.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emissaries also learn of a special “Iran observer” in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku who reports on a dispute that played out during a meeting of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. An enraged Revolutionary Guard Chief of Staff Mohammed Ali Jafari allegedly got into a heated argument with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and slapped him in the face because the generally conservative president had, surprisingly, advocated freedom of the press.
I don’t think Der Spiegel is in a position to know if that disclosure provided enough information to Iran for them to close down our “Iran observer” in Baku. And who knows whether or not our access to that source could be diminished simply because the president doesn’t like to see his wife insulted in print. Less strange things happen in foreign relations all the time. If we’re going to put stress on our foreign relationships and test our spies’ tradecraft, we ought to have something of equal or greater value to the American public to offset that. This release wasn’t discriminating in that regard, and I share the official outrage about how this was done.
