Wikileaks: Inside the Halls of Power
“There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known.” Whether you agree with Wikileaks for releasing a quarter of a million secret, confidential, or “for official use only” U.S. embassy cables, their availability on the web (http://cablegate.wikileaks.org/) offers unprecedented understanding for anyone who wants to know what world leaders, their foreign policy advisers, and their diplomats are really thinking, saying, and doing amongst themselves regarding poignant international issues, actors, events, decisions, and futures.
I’m much too busy to take much time out from the new book project to acquaint myself with these cables, but I’ve just spent a hour perusing a few dozen on the easy-to-manage Wikileaks site, and I can tell you that even that short peek behind the seens spoke volumes to me. (I saw nothing in the ones I’ve read that were “sensational” – they didn’t say things like: We’re going to bomb Iran on July 10, 2011.)
“There are two realities,” I have often said to people who ask me what I’m learning as I research and write the new book (the topic is wisdom-based U.S. Mideast relations). “There’s the public reality, the one created by presidential addresses, media coverage of international events, press analysis of foreign policy decisions, and the hyper-ventilating and polemics of talk radio and the Internet. Combined and ambiguous, this is the reality we are all made to hear; it seems like the only reality; it’s the one that’s supposed to be telling us ‘what’s really going on.’ But then there’s the reality I’ve discovered through the vast amount of serious research I’ve had to do before I could begin writing the new book. It’s a realty that vastly different than what we’re used to hearing. I call it the real reality, the one created by what has taken place behind the seens, created by what our leaders, policy makers, and other relevant actors others are really thinking, saying, and doing. And it’s transformed the way I look not only at the world but at our leaders and their advisers – and the news!”
For anyone whose preference is truth over illusion, the next Wikileaks documents, which are being released in stages over the new few months, will give you a crash course on the real reality.
Interesting comment on wiki leaks. My own view is that they show that generally diplomats and leaders are much more mature than the media that sensationalises them.
I think its intrusive and wiki leaks deserve to be prosecuted.
Too right, Paul. Can you imagine media-types around the negotiating table! Re prosecution… The U.S. has said it will “very aggressively” investigate these leaks, but I’ve not heard anyone yet say that what Assange did was “illegal.” Analysts have said the leaks were “uncalled-for,” or “unwarranted,” and suchlike, but not “illegal,” as far as I know. So, evidently, there will now be a fishing expedition, the point of which, in my view, will be to turn up something “illegal,” even if that something is a setup. In the long run, I expect states like the U.S. to now find ways to enact laws to make this kind of leaking illegal, to ensure immediate arrest and legal prosecution.