What the Wikileak doc dump damaged

Didn't really expect to have so much to say about this latest Wikileak dump but at TNR, Heather Hurlburt points out a major concern that I haven't been able to articulate well:

In the last few years, there has been some progress toward classifying fewer documents and using the more rarefied classifications less frequently. This series of leaks will almost surely reverse that progress. A top-secret classification would have kept any of these documents off the shared network from which they were allegedly downloaded by a very junior soldier.

You can bet that the intelligence community will make that point—not only to justify stronger classification of new documents but also to slow the declassification of old ones. Civilian administrations at least since Clinton’s have been trying to speed up those efforts. Now they will go even more slowly, making it harder to learn the whole story of how our government analyzed an issue, treated an individual, or reacted to a crisis.

You'll of course recall that the Bush administration classified even the most innnocuous material that had been in the public record for decades. For all the media whining about lack of access, and the left's complaints about less than perfect transparency, the Obama White House never really got enough credit for declassifying documents and rolling at least some of that secrecy back.

Hard to see how this current doc dump is going to enhance that effort.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Wikileaks - What's the point? Part Two

Mark Kleiman answers the Wikileaks - Pentagon analogy that I've seen made often:

In connection with the latest WikiLeaks flap, commenter Brett Bellmore asks rhetorically, “Do you think America would be better off if the Pentagon Papers hadn’t been leaked?”

Yes! Hell, yes! Much better off.

The Pentagon Papers leak didn’t end the Vietnam War. It did ensure that no subsequent Secretary of Defense would commission a frank, independent analysis of the decision-making processes that led to war.

I don't entirely agree that the Pentagon Papers didn't at least help end the Vietnam War. They certainly weren't solely responsible and Mark is right, the price we paid for that leak was high. But still, they had a lot more import than these Wikileaks. They exposed large corruption and big lies, not the small intrigues inherent in foreign dealings both miltary and diplomatic.

And that's the problem with I'm having with the Wikileaks. So far all I can see they did is expose some of our informants in the first round and greatly damaged two years of repair work on the part of the White House in the second.

The only good I see in this so far is it did expose a serious security hole in the State Department's archiving system. Presumably they'll plug that one. So there's that...

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Wikileaks - What's the point?

I've held off talking about the latest Wikleak extravaganza, waiting to see if anything of real import was leaked. I haven't seen it yet. So far, it feels like some jerk hacked into your private email account and broadcast all the mean stuff you said about your employer, co-workers and mother during a private bitchfest with your BFF.

I have to agree with Steve Benen:

I would, however, like to know more about the motivations of the leaker (or leakers). Revealing secrets about crimes, abuses, and corruption obviously serves a larger good -- it shines a light on wrongdoing, leading (hopefully) to accountability, while creating an incentive for officials to play by the rules. Leaking diplomatic cables, however, is harder to understand -- the point seems to be to undermine American foreign policy, just for the sake of undermining American foreign policy. The role of whistleblowers has real value; dumping raw, secret diplomatic correspondence appears to be an exercise in pettiness and spite.

I'm just not seeing the greater good in releasing these either. Obama's best success as President has been in repairing our international relations after Bush virtually destroyed them. Both the previous document dump and this one, particularly, when the START treaty is being hotly contested, feels more destructive, than constructive to our foreign policy to me.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Stealing hope in Afghanistan

Phila's Friday Hope Blogging is like a sunny day after weeks of rain. This might possibily be the greatest public service on the internets and this week's post is especially good. Read it all if only to remind yourself that there are still good things that happen even with all the insanity around us lately.

I'm stealing this segment outright on the creation of Afghanistan’s first national park. Band-e-Amir is an undeveloped area "encompassing six sky-blue lakes separated by natural dams." And in a sign of the kind of foreign policy I'm looking for from my government, "key funding for the park was provided by The United States Agency for International Development (USAID)." I have to believe we'll win a whole lot more hearts and minds with this sort of outreach than we ever will with bombs.

[Graphic from here where there are a lot more shots of these beautiful lakes.]

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Gentleman's handshake

Catching up on the news after a glorious weekend off, I see the wingnut pearl clutcher of the day is over Obama's handshake with Hugo Chavez. Newt Gingrich is struck with horror at such a civilized exchange of social niceties between two world leaders. Zounds! Obama accepted a book from him too.

Newt is sure this is going to destroy our world standing as the powerhouse of the planet. I suppose he would have liked it better if Obama slapped Chavez in the face instead and threw the book on the floor and pissed on it. Then maybe Chavez would have called Obama the Great Devil and thus cemented our status as swaggering thugs which was established by our previous president.

Meanwhile, the AP has a handwringing piece on all the admissions that Obama has made to the world so far, taking some responsibility for how his precedessors screwed things up for everybody. Surely Armaggedon is nigh, because Obama admitted we're not infallible.

It seems to me that the media is so used to Orwellian doublespeak they just don't know how to handle a president who tells the unvarnished truth once in a while.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Clean sweep at State

This should go a long way towards repairing our foreign relations. President-elect Obama notified all Bush appointed ambassadors that they're going to be out of a job come Jan. 20th. I suppose it's possible that some of them might have been good people who were merely hamstrung by directives from the White House but on a symbolic level, I can't think of a better way for Obama to signal that our foreign policy is about to undergo a complete turnaround.

[More posts daily at The Newshoggers and The Detroit News.]

Shunned

I'm predicting this will be the most linked to video of the day.



You can almost hear the collective sigh of relief that they don't have to be polite to him anymore.

On a related note, this is almost as sad. What if John McCain came back to work and no one noticed? That's pretty much what happened. He's lucky that it looks like Gov. Janet Napolitano will be tapped to head DHS. If she had mounted a 2010 challenge for his Senate seat, the numbers didn't look very promising.

Forget the shoulder massage

It looks like Bush is going straight for the surreptitious ass grab with Merkel this time around. And what's with the guy holding his nose behind him. Do you think Bush just let loose with a beer fart or is it just the stink of day old booze oozing from his pores?

Meanwhile, did I miss the GOP memo that announced
winking is the new wank? What is it with these people? The starbursts in Rich Lowry's pants notwithstanding, I thought the debate wink was the singlemost embarrassing and undignified political moment I ever saw in my life. Now it seems to have become the new GOP high sign.

And surely nothing says serious contender better than a bridesmaid outfit and a wrist corsage. Maybe she should have hung onto that stylist for just a little longer. [Photo credit]

[More posts daily at The Detroit News.]

You want lox with that Mr. President?

By Libby

This may offer a clue on why Bush prefers bombs to banter. In order to conduct diplomatic talks, you have to have some command of language.

Personal relationships were also on Mr. Bush’s mind as he arrived here in Jerusalem, just days after the May 10 wedding of his daughter, Jenna. His Israeli hosts were well aware of the nuptials; many greeted the president with the traditional Jewish offer of congratulations, “Mazel tov,” which means, “Good luck.”

But Mr. Bush had clearly not brushed up on his Hebrew. Before he left the White House, two Israeli journalists opened an interview by congratulating him — in English.

“Thank you,” Mr. Bush said. “It was — as my Jewish friends tell me, there was mazel tov.”

This is the man that claims he going to broker a peace agreement before he leaves office? One might think with those lofty goals he would have bothered to learn the meaning of the most common Hebrew phrase on the planet.

How many days is it again? My backwards Bush clock stopped working at 666. [via]

[cross-posted to The Reaction]

Bush plans diplomatic disaster tour

By Libby

This has got to be the most idiotic idea ever to emanate from the White House. I suspect Bush may have thought it up himself.

President George W. Bush's diplomatic passport will acquire a slew of new country stamps during his final year in office as he tries to rebuild the U.S.'s international standing and create a foreign-policy legacy beyond Iraq.

The president plans trips to the Middle East, Africa, Asia and South America, which would make 2008 his busiest year abroad. While his major domestic initiatives may get stalled by a Democratic majority in Congress and the gridlock caused by election-year politics, he still has an opportunity to exert his influence overseas.

``When it comes to foreign policy, he's not a lame duck; he can do a lot,'' said Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, who served as director of policy planning at the State Department until June 2003.

Forget about lame duck. The man is just a plain lamebrain. I can't think of anything worse than our preznit-wit plying his dis-plomacy from one end of the globe to the other. In seven years he hasn't managed to make it through a single state visit without commiting a major social gaffe. Face it, he's a arrogant bastard and nobody likes him. They only entertain him because they have to. I can't think of a better way for him ruin our international relations and leave the White House as an worldwide laughingstock.

Of course, on the bright side, everyone knows he's theorectically going to leave office in a year. After eight years of dealing with our hapless Blunderer-in-Chief, any new president is going to be seen as an improvement.

[cross-posted to The Reaction]

Inside North Korea

By Libby

Long time reader Lester has made it a mission to keep me informed on the latest right wing publications and often drops the odd link into comments. I don't have a lot to say about this one, except that it's a fascinating travelogue on North Korea by Peter Hitchens. It's longish, but here's one graf to tempt to you click in.

You can gaze on the gargantuan housing estates, made up of scores of apartment blocks, a great festival of concrete outdoing even Soviet Moscow in its gigantism. You may admire the Juche Tower, which symbolizes North Korea’s supposed self-reliance. The tower is a column three feet taller than the Washington Monument, weirdly topped by a great simulated red flame, like a much larger version of the World War I Memorial in Kansas City, but only when there is enough power to keep it aglow. That is not always. Voltage is a problem in Pyongyang. The streetlamps are never switched on, and there is a strange interval between sundown and total darkness, before the lights start to come on in the windows of all the apartments. There is also a wonderful quiet, since Pyongyang has hardly any motor traffic by day and even less at night. Human voices can be heard from astonishing distances, as if you were in a tranquil lakeside resort rather than in the center of a grandiose metropolis. The electric current in homes and offices seems suspiciously feeble and shuts down abruptly when the government thinks bedtime has arrived. The authorities also have views on when you ought to wake up. A siren rouses the sluggards at 7 each morning, though light sleepers will already have been alerted to the approach of the working day by ghostly plinking, plonking music drifting from loudspeakers at 5 and 6 o’clock. The sensation of living in an enormous institution, part boarding school, part concentration camp, is greatly enhanced by the sound of these mass alarms.

Much more like that at the link.

Hitchens came away from his trip inside the forbidden territory thinking that we should pity North Korea more than fear it. He doubts that the boasts of nuclear capability are credible. As compellingly as he makes his case, I'm not sure I share that view. It seems just as likely to me that they could be pouring all their resources into such a program at the expense of their own people but either way, it's well worth reading for the inside glimpse of the last relic of pure "Marxism-Leninism" left on the planet.

Another problem in Pakistan

By Libby

I haven't written about the mess in Pakistan much but this item is likely to slip under the radar. We so own this mess, just as much as we do Iraq or Afghanistan. Our tax dollars financed it.

In fact, however, a considerable amount of the money the U.S. gives to Pakistan is administered not through U.S. agencies or joint U.S.-Pakistani programs. Instead, the U.S. gives Musharraf's government about $200 million annually and his military $100 million monthly in the form of direct cash transfers. Once that money leaves the U.S. Treasury, Musharraf can do with it whatever he wants. He needs only promise in a secret annual meeting that he'll use it to invest in the Pakistani people. And whatever happens as the result of Rice's review, few Pakistan watchers expect the cash transfers to end.

Meaning this cozy little payola scheme won't escape the notice of the rest of the world although most Americans are likely to remain clueless.

Meanwhile, via Avedon I see the Taliban are staging their own coup in the border provinces. This doesn't strike me as a good thing.

Hughes exit a bad sign

By Libby

This makes me very nervous. Karen Hughes, most recently in charge of improving our image abroad, is the latest in a long string of Bush loyalists to jump from the sinking ship of State. This is no small defection. Hughes, even more so than Dan Bartlett, has been a stalwart BFF to the Commander Guy for all these long years and the last one I would think might desert him in his hour of need. Granted she has an impossible and thankless job but I can only read this as a signal that she believes he is about to do something so crazy, like bomb Iran, that even she is unwilling to take the flack.

All I can say at the moment is, if Condi jumps next -- you can consider it a fait accompli. My advice is to make sure your passport is current and book your rooms in exile far in advance to beat the rush.

The diplomacy of error

By Libby

Cernig picked up on a disturbing story this morning. This what happens when you have a terrorist watch list with 750,000 names on it. You detain the British International Development Minister twice within a year's time because he happens to be a Muslim. Worse yet, he was on his way home after attending a series of meetings on tackling terrorism at the invitation of the DHS in the first place.

Which is exactly what happened to him last year in New York. Following that episode, "Mr Malik received numerous apologies and assurances from the US authorities."

Just astounding.

State Dept institutes draft

By Libby

Some may think that's too strong a word for this new policy for the diplomatic corps but if you don't have the right to refuse a post, then I don't know what else you call it but an involuntary draft. Up to fifty people may be forced to take postings to the new Baghdad Embassy.

It reminds me of the old Russian jokes about being sent to Siberia. The new joke will be about being banished to Baghdad.

Ahmadilooniness

By Libby

I read this and I have to ask, are we sure that Fred Thompson isn't really Michelle Malkin in drag?

"It's an insult to the America people and the civilized world," Mr. Thompson said. "He should not be allowed within miles of Ground Zero. In fact he shouldn't be allowed in the United States of America."

I mean has anyone seen the two of them in the same room together, because it sure sounds like something our relentlessly malicious Ms. Malkin would say. Meanwhile, Josh Marshall has the appropriate response.

A president with some dignity and sense of the greatness of his country would say, good he should go there. Maybe he'll learn something about us and our loss.

That was my first thought. The laying of the wreath thing was rather over the top but outside of the impossible security considerations, so what if he wants to visit the site like every other tourist in NYC. As if his using the site for an political photo-op is any more insulting to the dead than when Bush or Rudy do it?

If we were truly striving for peace in the Middle East, Bush would be graciously taking him there himself to demonstrate he isn't afraid of the little loudmouth. It would be the diplomatic thing to do. In fact it would be the ballsy thing to do. That is if you were trying to acheive peace instead of trying to drum up a cause for war.

It's useful to remember that the hijackers were Saudis, not Iranians and Bush has entertained the Saudi royal family more than once in the intervening six years. Bin Laden is Saudi. Bush's utter lack of statesmanship with Iran makes him look the cowardly boor and leaves Ahmadinejad looking almost reasonable in comparison.

Why the wingnuts would want to amplify that impression and why our presidential candidates on both sides of the fence would want to imitate wingnuttia outrage at the expense of a reasoned response, is beyond me. These people need to get out of the beltway more. I think the Kristol meth is rotting their brains.

Cowboy diplomacy creates crowd Down Under

By Libby

Building on Fogg's post our Braggart in Chief didn't swagger into the SE Asia conference alone to boast his prowess. Like any bully worth his salt, he brought his posse with him. All 700 of them, which included 250 Secret Service agents and 350 beltway bureaucrats. What do you want to bet the manifest also included a hairdresser? Heck, he probably brings a maid and a butler too.

It took three jumbo jets and two "gargantuan C17 Globemaster III air transports" to carry the passengers and all the acroutements, including Marine One and a Black Hawk surveillance helicopter for backup, two backup Air Force One jumbo jets just for him and a fleet of cars.

How crazy is that? Royalty doesn't arrive with such an ostentatious display, nor do any other world leaders to my knowledge. I mean does anybody need 250 personal security guards to walk the streets of Australia? They're even bringing their own bullets. It's insulting in a way to the host. It implies he doesn't trust their security. Not to mention that he changed his plans at the last minute to arrive late and is leaving the conference early. And why bring all the advisors? It's not like he's going to listen to any of them.

This is the way he treats our allies. Small wonder we have so few real friends left. On the bright side, it occurs to me that if we survive to the end of his regime, the next president will have it easier on the diplomacy side with our allies at least. We could elect Attila the Hun and it couldn't fail to feel like an improvement.

[cross-posted to The Reaction]

Defective

"It's about your child and it's about your pet and it's about food on the table,"

said Representative Rick Larsen, a Democrat from Washington State.

"You can't get more personal than that for Americans, and so it does need to be addressed."

Larson and Representative Mark Kirk (R-IL) are in China this week as co-chairs of the U.S.-China Working Group. Kirk, who had been pushing hard for more trade with China, recently introduced a bill in congress that would increase fines for defective Chinese products by one hundred times.

China has been cracking down on toy manufacturers, according to China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and to a degree that will likely never be seen in the US where unscrupulous or careless business practices do not earn the death penalty and sometimes result in government appointments. I don't think anyone at Mattel will go to jail.

It's been less than a week since a defective Boeing 737 owned by China Airlines blew up on the tarmac in Okinawa. You can't get more personal than that for the Chinese, I would imagine; considering the discomfort and inconvenience of being burned alive. I'm sure that before long, some heads will roll at Boeing so that China does not have to embargo any more dangerous and shoddy American goods as they do with American beef, or begin to demand massive fines of the US Government for what Boeing does and so that some Lou Dobbs equivalent at the Xinhua News agency doesn't become apoplectic about The Americans trying to kill them all.

Capt. Fogg

Iraqis Need To Speak English

Over at ABC News, The Blotter, there is an entry about the shortage of Arabic speakers and readers in the new embassy in Baghdad.

Of the 1,000 U.S. employees at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, only 10 have a working knowledge of Arabic, according to the State Department.

That is still a slight improvement from last year when, according to the Iraq Study Group, six people in the embassy spoke Arabic.

In this administration, that wouldn't be important. You certainly wouldn't want any Arabists around. What they want is true believers. Where do the 1000 employees stand on abortion, or taxes?

When incompetency is the watchword for this administration, why would you expect them to have competent people with knowledge of Arabic and Arabs in Baghdad. It just wouldn't make sense.

Here is how the ambassador in Baghdad put it:

Ryan C. Crocker, the new U.S. ambassador to Iraq, bluntly told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in a cable dated May 31 that the embassy in Baghdad -- the largest and most expensive U.S. embassy -- lacks enough well-qualified staff members and that its security rules are too restrictive for Foreign Service officers to do their jobs.

"Simply put, we cannot do the nation's most important work if we do not have the Department's best people," Crocker said in the memo.

The effort put into staffing the embassy in Baghdad is like the effort put into everything else in Iraq, inadequate.

Jim Martin

Thanks to The Moderate Voice for the link.

Big Daddy diplomacy

By Libby

You know until we invaded Iraq, I've mostly avoided talking about the Middle East, particularly Arab-Israeli politics, for most of life. I've never been able to make sense of how it works. For instance, I just don't get this.

The Bush administration has given Israel permission to discuss the future of the Golan Heights, security arrangements and Israeli-Syrian peace accords if it agrees to talks with Syria.

However, Washington has stipulated that Israel must not agree to any negotiations, even indirectly, on the United States' position, or on the future of Lebanon.

Furthermore, Israel must not make promises to Syria regarding U.S. policy. According to the new position, Washington will deal directly with Syria on these matters.

Why the hell should a soverign country need our permission to engage in its own diplomacy and why would they be negotiate on our behalf in the first place? We both have our own state departments and while we certainly share common interests, we hardly have the exact same set of concerns.

Not that this administration doesn't appear to need some help. Washington claims it will deal directly, but about what?

Syria's role in terrorism, the presence of terrorist organizations in Damascus and its involvement in smuggling weapons to Hezbollah and the Palestinian territories are currently issues which the U.S. is not discussing with Damascus.

Iran and its military connection with Syria is also not a topic that is open to discussion at present.

What does that leave to discuss? The weather? Shopping? Maybe the dinner menu? And of course our heavy handed edicts go both ways.

During a recent visit to Israel, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice responded forcefully when the issue of Assad's call for a resumption of negotiations with Israel was raised.

"It is best that you avoid even exploring this possibility," she said.

Am I the only one who's reminded of the politics of grammar school when you couldn't be Sally's friend if you wanted to be Jane's friend too, because Jane was mad at Sally? There was always that one manipulative, bossy kid in the group that instigated trouble but as I recall everyone got along fine when she was absent from school. How different is that really from these absurd machinations?

Rice intends to invite Syria as well as Palestinian representatives and Israel to an international summit on the Arab-Israeli conflict, according to a plan being drafted by the U.S. State Department.

If this occurs, the American position regarding possible talks between Israel and Syria will no longer be relevant.

The real question is why is it relevant in the first place? It seems to me the international community could go a long towards resolving the current turmoil by simply telling the White House to take a flying leap and ask America to call them when they get some grown-ups back in office.