Wikileaks Blog Round-Up

It’s going to take me awhile to get caught up, this morning, after a busy, and light blogging weekend. From what I’ve been gathering, there are a few bombshells in the Wikileaks diplomatic document dump, some  embarrassments for the administration, and lots of non-surprises. The big winner from the leaks so far, is Israel, who it turns out, is less keen on bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities than most Arab states. The big loser is American diplomacy because trust between states has been shattered by our inability to keep state secrets. As Rick Moran noted, this “diplomatic controversy” may cause ‘another country to hesitate in assisting us in anti-terror operations directly, and immediately affects the national security of the United States. How willing will Yemen now be in allowing us to operate in that country now that it has been revealed we were doing so under the radar?’

From Hot Air, we have:

Wikileaks servers under DOS attack ahead of diplomatic document dump; Update: Times reveals documents; Update: Hillary ordered spying at the UN; Update: Iran obtains advanced missiles from North Korea? Update: Wikileaks posts intro to documents

Yes, it really was this easy to get to diplomatic cables

Gateway Pundit has been all over this story:

Top Republican Wants Wikileaks Declared a Terrrorist Organization

Polish News: Wikileaks Reveals Obama Traded Away Missile Shield For Russian Support on Iran

More Smart Diplomacy: US Called Russian Leaders Medvedev & Putin- “Batman & Robin” in Leaked Documents

Wikileaks Leaker Bradley Manning Smuggled Info Out on CD-RW Labeled ‘Lady Gaga’ (See his list of highlights from the 250,000 dispatches leaked to the media).

Rick Moran, The American Thinker: Pious and hypocritical; media malpractice and Wikileaks:

Who elected the New York Times to decide what constitutes a blow to national security and what is just a “diplomatic controversy?”
Pious, hypocritical, arrogant fools.

and Incredible damage from Wikileaks doc dump:

Catastrophic is not too strong a word.

Legal Insurrection: Wikileaks Completes Obama’s Transformation Into Jimmy Carter:

Have we lost our minds?  Wikileaks is about hurting us, bringing us down, damaging our relations with others, rendering us impotent.  This is not about open government policy, as if Wikileaks went a bit too far on its class project.

Julian Assange should have been indicted by now, and if the law did not allow more punitive measures in this circumstance, then the law should have been changed after the first document dump.  Assange is an enemy of our country and should be treated as such.

Instead, we’re writing letters and lecturing on accountable and open government.

Why have the Obama administration’s reactions to the leaks been…. so weak? The Dept. of Homeland Security can can seize the domains of file sharing sites, but they can’t do anything to stop this?

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Michelle Malkin: Wikileaks and the sabotage of U.S. diplomacy

Many Foggy Bottom officials have proven feckless under both GOP and Democrat administrations. Hillary Clinton’s “smart power” deserved mockery, for sure. But whatever microscopic kernel of constructive criticism may have motivated the Wikileakers and their abettors is galactically outweighed by the destructive sabotage of secure diplomatic communications.

The America-haters would have us unilaterally disarm diplomatically under the guise of the “public’s right to know.” This is suicide.

An Italian foreign minister called the document dump, “the September 11th of world diplomacy”.

Scott, at Powerline, rips the NYTs for their hypocrisy : The Times then and now:

The New York Times is participating in the dissemination of the stolen State Department cables that have been made available to it in one way or another via WikiLeaks. My friend Steve Hayward recalls that only last year the New York Times ostentatiously declined to publish or post any of the Climategate emails because they had been illegally obtained. Surely readers will recall Times reporter Andrew Revkin’s inspiring statement of principle: “The documents appear to have been acquired illegally and contain all manner of private information and statements that were never intended for the public eye, so they won’t be posted here.”

The Daily Caller: Leaked cables reveal U.S. diplomats’ fears about Iran’s drug trafficking

“According to widespread rumor, many Iranians in Baku are involved full- or part-time in Iranian regime-related profit making, sanctions-busting, money laundering, and similar activities,” reads a March 2009 cable from the American embassy in Azerbaijan, the country on Iran’s northern border. “Some are also said to be significant actors in obtaining spare parts and equipment for the Revolutionary Guard, raising revenues and managing money for it and/or regime figures, or managing Iran-origin narcotics trafficking.”

The cable then goes on to describe a handful of alleged Iranians working for the Iranian government in Baku, including Sabir Shaheen, “a well known mafia-like figure from Iranian Azerbaijan who reportedly acts as a ‘liaison’ between the Iranian and Russian/Azerbaijani narcotics traffickers.”

Thank God Holder is on the case. It should be wrapped up by tomorrow morning: Active U.S. criminal probe into WikiLeaks release

“To the extent that we can find anybody who was involved in the breaking of American law and who has put at risk the assets and the people that I have described, they will be held responsible, they will be held accountable,” Holder said.

Operative words: “To the extent”.

Ace: Three Million People Have Access To Data Manning Leaked?

Newsbusters: George Stephanopoulos Spins Wikileaks Release of Documents as ‘Important Information for the Public to Have’

Backyard Conservative, Ann Leary at Potluck: Sticky Wiki Morality

WSJ: Hoekstra on Wikileaks: ‘Across the Board Neglect’

Via Lucianne, Politico: Sarah Palin blasts Obama administration for WikiLeaks ‘fiasco’

Marc Thiessen: Obama administration is weak in the face of WikiLeaks

What action did the Obama administration take to prevent the impending release of such volatile information? State Department legal adviser Harold Koh sent a strongly worded letter urging WikiLeaks to cease publishing classified materials. I’m sure that made Assange think twice.

Is the Obama administration going to do anything – anything at all – to stop these serial disclosures of our nation’s most closely guarded secrets? Just this past week, the federal government took decisive action to shut down more than 70 Web sites that were disseminating pirated music and movies. Hollywood is safe, but WikiLeaks is free to disseminate classified documents without consequence.

With this latest release, Assange may now have illegally disclosed more classified information than anyone in American history. He is in likely violation of the Espionage Act and arguably is providing material support for terrorism. But unlike leakers who came before him, Assange has done more than release information; he has created a virtual system for the ongoing collection and dissemination of America’s secrets. The very existence of WikiLeaks is a threat to national security. Unless something is done, WikiLeaks will only grow more brazen – and our unwillingness to stop it will embolden others to reveal classified information using the unlawful medium Assange has built.

Bread Upon The Waters: Wikileaks: You Can’t Fix Stupid:

These things will happen when you entrust U.S. secrets to nervous children, particularly those with bones to pick with the U.S. military and with “society at large.” Bradley Manning’s anger with his nation and his nation’s military centered around his desire for “transgender equality.”Last August, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway was reported to have “expressed his fear” that the effort to repeal “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” would “distract from the military’s mission of protecting the nation.” It looks like Bradley Manning was among the distracted. 

Worse, far worse, and more dangerous, in my opinion, are the “distracted” leaders in America’s political and military structures, who are easily led by whatever politically correct demand marches down the pike, whether it be gay marriage, Muslim extra-sensitivities, new home mortgages for credit risks, citizenship for the “undocumented,” or any other feel-good “cause.”

James Robbins, Washington Times: Wikileaks and Obama’s Bow

Oh my!

Maetenloch at Ace of Spades HQ: Wikileaks Revelation: Obama’s Middle East Experts Don’t Really Understand Middle East, Arabs

Doug Ross notes more of the left’s gut-wrenching hypocrisy: Where’s Scooter Libby When You Need Him?

Runner-up headline: Shock, Outrage as Analyst Valerie Plame Outed by WikiLeaks

Linked by Michelle Malkin, thanks!

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