The age of the internet has heralded in a fragile element to the process of diplomacy. Voluntary board member of Wikileaks Julian Assange is the front of house spokesman for the company that releases leaked internet documents belonging to governments. The agency has released sensitive documents which are getting the headlines and feeding the world press. So far this has been at the major expense of the US administration. 'There are no fewer than 251,287 cables from more than 250 US embassies around the world, obtained by Wikileaks.' The Guardian 29/11/2010
This is a factor in the development of Diplomacy which is acutely sensitive. One can be sure that character assassinations in print are quite normal in diplomatic circles but what is new is the escaping of this information in a flawed security system that is meant to protect politicians, diplomats and government agents. It covers documents covering the sensitive subject of Iran's nuclear programme and what strategy should be employed to deal with the crisis. Israel saying they want to knock out the Iranians nuclear plant and the Saudi Arabians wanting the same approach.
After all I have experienced identity theft myself. In this instance the raison d'etre of the diplomatic establishment itself is being 'stolen' with the aid of mischievous elements or weak security. It is unfortunate when subversive elements get hold of it to aid the pricking of the delicate levels of diplomacy. In this instance we are reading information that relates to America's allies, puppets and enemies. It would be interesting to be the fly on the land line listening in to the apologetic diplomats.
'The leaked cables range up to the "SECRET NOFORN" level, which means they are meant never to be shown to non-US citizens.' The Guardian 29/11/2010
These original documents were leaked by a young soldier called Bradley Manning who is quoted in todays Guardian as saying:
"Hillary Clinton and several thousand diplomats around the world are going to have a heart attack when they wake up one morning and find an entire repository of classified foreign policy is available, in searchable format, to the public ... Everywhere there's a US post, there's a diplomatic scandal that will be revealed. Worldwide anarchy in CSV format ... It's beautiful, and horrifying."
He added: "Information should be free. It belongs in the public domain."It was said to be easy.
"I would come in with music on a CD-RW labelled with something like 'Lady Gaga' … erase the music … then write a compressed split file. No one suspected a thing ... [I] listened and lip-synched to Lady Gaga's Telephone while exfiltrating possibly the largest data spillage in American history."
I wonder which track he erased to do this! But seriously how can security services be so lax as to put peoples lives, ie agents and spies. at risk by being so incompetent with such important information.
The consequences for security and its ability to shield diplomats are serious. The content is revelatory and great material for a student of diplomacy. The New Diplomacy is having its skin pulled inside out in the process rather like a rabbit being skinned.
http://gu.com/p/2ye3m
ReplyDeleteThe age of the internet has heralded in a fragile element to the process of diplomacy. Voluntary board member of Wikileaks Julian Assange is the front of house spokesman for the company that releases leaked internet documents belonging to governments. The agency has released sensitive documents which are getting the headlines and feeding the world press. So far this has been at the major expense of the US administration. 'There are no fewer than 251,287 cables from more than 250 US embassies around the world, obtained by Wikileaks.' The Guardian 29/11/2010
This is a factor in the development of Diplomacy which is acutely sensitive. One can be sure that character assassinations in print are quite normal in diplomatic circles but what is new is the escaping of this information in a flawed security system that is meant to protect politicians, diplomats and government agents. It covers documents covering the sensitive subject of Iran's nuclear programme and what strategy should be employed to deal with the crisis. Israel saying they want to knock out the Iranians nuclear plant and the Saudi Arabians wanting the same approach.
After all I have experienced identity theft myself. In this instance the raison d'etre of the diplomatic establishment itself is being 'stolen' with the aid of mischievous elements or weak security. It is unfortunate when subversive elements get hold of it to aid the pricking of the delicate levels of diplomacy. In this instance we are reading information that relates to America's allies, puppets and enemies. It would be interesting to be the fly on the land line listening in to the apologetic diplomats.
'The leaked cables range up to the "SECRET NOFORN" level, which means they are meant never to be shown to non-US citizens.' The Guardian 29/11/2010
These original documents were leaked by a young soldier called Bradley Manning who is quoted in todays Guardian as saying:
"Hillary Clinton and several thousand diplomats around the world are going to have a heart attack when they wake up one morning and find an entire repository of classified foreign policy is available, in searchable format, to the public ... Everywhere there's a US post, there's a diplomatic scandal that will be revealed. Worldwide anarchy in CSV format ... It's beautiful, and horrifying."
He added: "Information should be free. It belongs in the public domain."
It was said to be easy.
"I would come in with music on a CD-RW labelled with something like 'Lady Gaga' … erase the music … then write a compressed split file. No one suspected a thing ... [I] listened and lip-synched to Lady Gaga's Telephone while exfiltrating possibly the largest data spillage in American history."
I wonder which track he erased to do this! But seriously how can security services be so lax as to put peoples lives, ie agents and spies. at risk by being so incompetent with such important information.
The consequences for security and its ability to shield diplomats are serious. The content is revelatory and great material for a student of diplomacy. The New Diplomacy is having its skin pulled inside out in the process rather like a rabbit being skinned.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe above piece has been re-installed as it was meant to have been. The changed title is Wikileaks: Diplomacy gets skinned
ReplyDelete