The Wacky Wiki Leaks
The media hype over the latest batch of smorgasbord-style Wiki leaks is indeed a feeding frenzy of almost Faustian proportions. Both mundane musings and sensitive undiplomatic quotes are now available online and also on the main pages of major newspapers, like the New York Times. If the day after Thanksgiving is Black Friday, then Mr. Julian Assange has just provided the world with a Black Sunday to boot. But somehow I see more than a minimum of black humor in what libertarian-minded folk might see as a silver lining. Thus far in my casual reading of several diplomatic cables I find nothing I did not already know or suspect. Is there any sane person who does not think that diplomats would spy for their country, no matter what that country? Does anyone other than those who are only glued to Fox News believe that world leaders say what they really think in public and hold no negative views of other world leaders? And, who is silly enough in this day and age to think that any communication marked “secret” will remain so?
The mantra of the news organizations is that people have a right to know how their government works, even if publishing off-the-record remarks (especially of leaders we consider allies) damages the ability of our government to work. If I was Hosni Mubarak or King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, my biggest concern would not be that the world now knows what I think of the leader in Iran or Iraq, but how the one remaining superpower is unable to keep secret things secret. The damage from these leaks is less what is being said than the mere fact it can so easily be leaked.
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