US forced to shake up embassies around the world after WikiLeaks revelations

[Turborama]

Source: The Independent (UK)

By Guy Adams and Kim Sengupta

Monday, December 06 2010

Battered by a scandal which seems to provide a fresh wave of embarrassment with each passing day, the US government is being forced to undertake a major reshuffle of the embassy staff, military personnel and intelligence operatives whose work has been laid bare by the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks.

The Obama administration was yesterday facing a crisis in its diplomatic service, amid growing evidence that the ongoing publication of a tranche of supposedly-confidential communiqués will make normal work difficult, if not dangerous, for important State Department employees across the world.

A mere 1,100 of the roughly 250,000 secret documents obtained by the website have so far been published, leading to fears that the unhelpful revelations will continue for months to come, destabilising US relations with almost all of its key allies and inflaming tensions with already-hostile governments in the Middle East and beyond. "In the short run, we're almost out of business," a senior US diplomat told the Reuters news agency, saying it could take five years to rebuild trust. "It is really, really bad. I cannot exaggerate it. In all honesty, nobody wants to talk to us ... Some people still have to, particularly (in) government but ... they are already asking us things like, 'Are you going to write about this?'"

The Pentagon, the CIA and the State Department are reported to be identifying which members of staff have been named as the authors of the most unhelpful memos to have been published by WikiLeaks. They will need to be removed from what are among America's most strategically-important postings.

Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/us-forced-to-shake-up-embassies-around-the-world-after-wikileaks-revelations-2152167.html

[snappyturtle]

1. Love it!

[Bodhi BloodWave]

15. yes, less diplomacy between countries is always a positive thing

And yes, that was meant sarcastically

[No Elephants]

17. A positive thing:

"The Pentagon, the CIA and the State Department are reported to be identifying which members of staff have been named as the authors of the most unhelpful memos to have been published by WikiLeaks."

Sounds good!

Of course, this should not have taken wikileaks. It should have been an ongoing process, but better late than never.

[Roland99]

2. End of imperialism? Or just a mere speed bump?

[Ruperto31]

7. A series of speed bumps, which may get bumpier. nt

[No Elephants]

18. "Fasten your seat belts. It's going to be a bumpy ride."

[struggle4progress]

3. This was a rather predictable outcome of a massive diplomatic cable leak, so

I think it may be reasonable to ask again whether we believe a lowly PFC was behind the leak or whether it might have been engineered by someone who deliberately intended to sabotage the President's ability to conduct foreign policy

[okieinpain]

4. a lowly pfc, that didn't think about the end results of what they

were doing.....

[Demeter]

23. Considering the Kind of Foreign Policy We've Been Getting

this can only be an improvement, slowing down the aggression...America doesn't do diplomacy! Wherever did anybody get THAT impression? Intimidation, torture, murder, yes....diplomacy? Only for corporations!

[struggle4progress]

26. That's a slur on a number of dedicated and honorable folk in our foreign service

[leveymg]

5. Not Armageddon or likely to be the end of diplomatic cover.

Can foresee a lot of reassignments and shuffling of the deck. But, business as usual will continue, I'm sure.

[pretzel4gore]

6. oh bushit.

911 was an outside job. the USA has been conquered by sissies wearing swastikas- the Revolution was for the working people, and it was crushed by endless lies by soft sissies wearing $1000 thongs. Fact: with military budget equal to rest of planet combined, the greasy pig still fears NKorea and Iran(!) who, combined, have less military spending then State of Alabama!I doubt it....
Willy Colby, former cia punk, told reporters on his deathbed that '95 perrcent' of the west's secret services budget is spent on news/info mediaand, at that time, the SService budget was over $100 billion/year! Hollywood EARNS only $8 billion/year (btw, porn earns 2 times that, at least, and that's not underground porn) ...911 cost mister pig $20 billion, JUST to arrange news coverage (and they looked silly regardless- anyone watching sept 11/01 knew it was a domestic M.I.C operation, just by the timing of 8 am EST, and by the 'who benefits?' factor)
islam is a loosely organised religion, not a nation state with vast budgets etc, and wikileaks points fingers at islam terrorism as greatest danger
Assange might be sincere, but these nazipooh creeps kill kids, for fun, so please everyone connect the dots

[russspeakeasy]

8. Nice mis -direction...Made you forget about Obama caving on

taxes, etc. for a couple of days didn't it?

[texshelters]

9. Many of those cables were not diplomatic

so a shake up looks like a good thing. Can we have a professional diplomatic corps (yes, some are) instead of a bunch of cronies getting rewarded for loyalty, regardless of their ability? I guess not.

Peace,
Tex Shelters
http://texshelters.wordpress.com/2010/12/06/investment-bubbles-and-the-stock-market-reclaiming-sunshine-from-vegetables/

[mrarundale]

10. I wonder if that was the motivation for the "leaks"

to get rid of people. If someone was going to leak stuff, would they pose for photo ops and grant interviews? Also why would people give him the stuff and not just covertly put in on the internets themselves? Especially after what happened (supposedly) to Bradley Manning. Makes no sense, (maybe cuz it's all a set up).

[whosinpower]

11. Someone said if Wikileaks was around prior to 911

The attack may have been successfully averted.

And the reason is that there was AMPLE warnings about an attack - and the ones who did the warnings were ignored.

So - spare me the faux outrage about rebuilding trust.

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[texshelters]

14. Excellent point

We used to have a muckracking mainstream media, not they just follow the lead of the government before printing anything. Luckily, we currently have alternatives to the big 4.

Peace,
Tex Shelters

[goforit]

12. OMG!!! You mean the NEW WORLD ORDER will flop?

ROFLMAO!!!!

[Azathoth]

19. *chuckle* I guess it's true. Go far enough left and you meet the right n/t

[TheLastMohican]

16. One thing people all over the world learned

You can only discuss weather and tea with US diplomats.

Boy, what shitstorm it is causing in Ukraine and Russia now with all the US NGOs uncovered and US embassy directly telling what to do and when.

[Azathoth]

20. I can't wait for the people who support this to start whining about the need for more "diplomacy"

in the runup to whatever conflict comes next.

[lunatica]

21. What's wrong with real diplomacy?

Where the US puts people in place who will actually create the types of relationships with the host countries that are based on trust, even though it may be guarded?

Diplomacy is supposed to avert wars and sooth conflict, not to be used as a tool to spy and deceive. Just thought you ought to know that.

[Azathoth]

24. Two things

First, the purely beneficial kind of diplomacy you describe is conducted every day, and it often requires secure, privileged communication.

Second, the intelligence-gathering aspects of global diplomacy are inherent and have always been part of all countries' diplomatic efforts. They're an unfortunate fact of life which is offset by the fact that everybody does it and has always done it, so the results often cancel each other out.

[lunatica]

25. So why are you waiting for the whining about diplomacy?

Your post doesn't make sense. You say that because people support Assange that means they're inherently anti diplomacy. I don't see the logic of your argument. But I do see the put down.

[mbperrin]

22. Good! We hardly need to keep on a bunch of junior high gossips engaging

in slam book activity.

What WORK has been laid bare? And why would anybody want to talk to a group who is trying to steal your personal information, criticize your wardrobe and quite simply lie to your face?

My taxes paid for every bit of this crap, and I'm entitled to know what I bought. Furthermore, if this "diplomacy" had been working, would we need to spend as much on military as the entire rest of the world combined?


http://www.globalissues.org/article/75/world-military-spending#WorldMilitarySpending