Continually Updated WikiLeaks State Department Document Dumps

NOTE: Still reading the database...will continue to update posts throughout day.

Sometimes even the "leakers" get leaked. Earlier today, a German Twitter user bought a copy of Der Spiegel (cover above)a German news magazine outlining the anticipated document dump from WikiLeak after it was placed on newsstands too early. Badische Bahnhof Basel!" wrote Freelancer_09. "We'll see what it says...... :)" He and another user, sa7yr, have been tweeting excerpts since early this AM

The "official" released was scheduled by Wikileaks this afternoon at around 4:30 pm EST in at the same time as embargoed articles from The New York Times, the Guardian and Der Spiegel.Because of the Twitter leaks some of the official sources have begun to publish their stories early.

The revelations so far show Saudi money supporting terror, US planning for "one Korea" Syria's arming of terrorists right after promising Obama that he wouldn't, Obama's threatening of other countries to make them take Guantanamo Bay prisoners and the Arab nations hatred and fear of Iran, just to name a few.

Leaked state department cables catalogue a litany of complaints from the Saudis and smaller Gulf states, as well as Egypt, Jordan and others, on issues from Tehran's nuclear ambitions, to its involvement in Iraq and support for Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Palestinian Hamas.

One diplomatic cable from the US Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, about a meeting between Saudi King Abullah and US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and US General David Patraeus in April 2008.

According to the leaked document, part of the conversation between King Abdullah and the US officials touched on Saudi attitudes towards Iran, its influence in Iraq and the need to increase pressure on the Islamic Republic.

The cable quotes former Saudi Ambassador to the US Adel al-Jubeir recalling, "the King's frequent exhortations to the US to attack Iran and so put an end to its nuclear weapons program. 'He told you to cut off the head of the snake,' he recalled to the Charge, adding that working with the US to roll back Iranian influence in Iraq is a strategic priority for the King and his government." 

During a meeting on Dec. 27, 2005 with the commander of the United States Central Command, Gen. John P. Abizaid, military leaders from the United Arab Emirates “all agreed with Abizaid that Iran’s new President Ahmadinejad seemed unbalanced, crazy even,” one cable reports. A few months later, the Emirates’ defense chief, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed of Abu Dhabi, told General Abizaid that the United States needed to take action against Iran “this year or next.”

The NY Times published a summary of some of the most damaging cables.

• A dangerous standoff with Pakistan over nuclear fuel: Since 2007, the United States has mounted a highly secret effort, so far unsuccessful, to remove from a Pakistani research reactor highly enriched uranium that American officials fear could be diverted for use in an illicit nuclear device.

• Iran has obtained a cache of advanced missiles, based on a Russian design, that are much more powerful than anything Washington has publicly conceded that Tehran has in its arsenal, diplomatic cables show. Iran obtained 19 of the missiles from North Korea, according to a cable dated Feb. 24 of this year. The cable is a detailed, highly classified account of a meeting between top Russian officials and an American delegation led by Vann H. Van Diepen, an official with the State Department’s nonproliferation division who, as a national intelligence officer several years ago, played a crucial role in the 2007 assessment of Iran’s nuclear capacity.  

•  Gaming out an eventual collapse of North Korea: American and South Korean officials have discussed the prospects for a unified Korea, should the North’s economic troubles and political transition lead the state to implode. The South Koreans even considered commercial inducements to China, according to the American ambassador to Seoul. S

• Bargaining to empty the Guantánamo Bay prison: When American diplomats pressed other countries to resettle detainees, they became reluctant players in a State Department version of “Let’s Make a Deal.” Slovenia was told to take a prisoner if it wanted to meet with President Obama, while the island nation of Kiribati was offered incentives worth millions of dollars to take in a group of detainees, cables from diplomats recounted. The Americans, meanwhile, suggested that accepting more prisoners would be “a low-cost way for Belgium to attain prominence in Europe.”

• A global computer hacking effort: China’s Politburo directed the intrusion into Google’s computer systems in that country, a Chinese contact told the American Embassy in Beijing in January, one cable reported. The Google hacking was part of a coordinated campaign of computer sabotage carried out by government operatives, private security experts and Internet outlaws recruited by the Chinese government. They have broken into American government computers and those of Western allies, the Dalai Lama and American businesses since 2002, cables said.

• Saudi donors remain the chief financiers of Sunni militant groups like Al Qaeda, and the tiny Persian Gulf state of Qatar, a generous host to the American military for years, was the “worst in the region” in counterterrorism efforts, according to a State Department cable last December. Qatar’s security service was “hesitant to act against known terrorists out of concern for appearing to be aligned with the U.S. and provoking reprisals,” the cable said.

• Cables describe the United States’ failing struggle to prevent Syria from supplying arms to Hezbollah in Lebanon, which has amassed a huge stockpile since its 2006 war with Israel. One week after President Bashar al-Assad promised a top State Department official that he would not send “new” arms to Hezbollah, the United States complained that it had information that Syria was providing increasingly sophisticated weapons to the group

• Suspicions of corruption in the Afghan government: When Afghanistan’s vice president visited the United Arab Emirates last year, local authorities working with the Drug Enforcement Administration discovered that he was carrying $52 million in cash. With wry understatement, a cable from the American Embassy in Kabul called the money “a significant amount” that the official, Ahmed Zia Massoud, “was ultimately allowed to keep without revealing the money’s origin or destination.” (Mr. Massoud denies taking any money out of Afghanistan.) 

• Yemen Takes Credit for US Airstrikes :"We'll continue saying the bombs are ours, not yours," Yemen President Saleh told General Petraeus, prompting Deputy Prime Minister Alimi to joke that he had just "lied" by telling Parliament that the bombs in Arhab, Abyan, and Shebwa were American-made but deployed by the ROYG.

Israel And The Middle East:

Something long suspected but always denied the leaks show how the "Red Crescent" is used as a terrorist tool

An Iranian with detailed knowledge of the country's Red Crescent - the Islamic version of the Red Cross - says the government is using it as a cover for its agents in Iran, Lebanon and elsewhere around the Middle East, and to smuggle weapons. This is a serious allegation, in breach of Red Crescent's strict neutrality.

The liberal Israeli Paper Ha'aretz is highlighting the documents relating to discussions about Iran's nuclear capabilities and that it will soon be too late to stop Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon.

In one cable, dated June 2009, quoted Defense Minister Ehud Barak as telling visiting American officials that a strike on Iran's nuclear facilities was viable until the end of 2010, but after that "any military solution would result in unacceptable collateral damage."

"He also expressed concern that should Iran develop nuclear capabilities, other rogue states and/or terrorist groups would not be far behind," the U.S. diplomat said.

The cable also quoted Barak as describing the Iranian leadership "chess, not backgammon players," with the U.S. diplomat quoting the defense minister saying would "attempt to avoid any hook to hang accusations on, and look to Pakistan and North Korea as models to emulate in terms of acquiring nuclear weapons while defying the international community." Another cable, from later 2009, the U.S.-Israel Joint Political Military Group, Mossad representatives said Iran was using repeated attempts to resolve the nuclear issue through diplomacy to "play for time" and evade sanctions, "while pursuing its strategic objective to obtain a military nuclear capability

According to Mossad:  Mossad Director Meir Dagan told a top American diplomat in the summer of 2007, according to a secret cable sent by the US embassy in Tel Aviv to the State Department.

• Dagan told Townsend that IDF operations against Hamas in the West Bank were preventing the terror group from taking over the Fatah-controlled territory. If Hamas took over in the West Bank, Dagan said that PA President Mahmoud Abbas would likely move to Qatar and join his "mysteriously wealthy" son there.

• Dagan specifically accused Saudi Foreign Minister Saud bin Faysal of playing a "very negative role” and characterized Qatar as "a real problem," accusing the leader Sheikh Hamid of "annoying everyone." He then told Townsend that in his view, the US should pull its bases out of the country. The US Central Command (CENTCOM) is based in Qatar.

"I think you should remove your bases from there...seriously," said Dagan. "They have confidence only because of the US presence," Dagan predicted adding that al-Jazeera could be the next cause of war in the Middle East since Arab leaders specifically in Saudi Arabia hold Sheikh Hamid personally responsible for the cable station’s so-called provocations.

• Dagan said $6 billion had been invested in PA since 1994 "What did it accomplish, other than adding a few more people to the Fortune 500?

• Dagan was particularly harsh with Moroccan King Mohammed who he said had little interest in governing his country. He urged the US to keep Pakistani president at the time Pervez Musharaf in office, citing a Pakistan ruled by radical Islamists with a nuclear arsenal at their disposal as his biggest nightmare.    

THE Really Weird Stuff.

The Saudi King suggested to that we implant tracking devices into the Gitmo prisoners

"I've just thought of something," the King added, and proposed implanting detainees with an electronic chip containing information about them and allowing their movements to be tracked with Bluetooth.

Initial reports  covering the "Twitter release" indicated that the documents seemed to contain more childish name-calling than actual state secrets. 

The documents quoted in the leaked article include nicknames for a number of world leaders. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is referred to as "Hitler," French President Nicolas Sarkozy as a "naked emperor," the German Chancellor is called Angela "Teflon" Merkel and Afghan President Hamid Karzai is "driven by paranoia." Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is an "Alpha Male," while President Dmitry Medvedev is "afraid, hesitant."

The documents also say that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il suffers from epilepsy, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddhafi's full-time nurse is a "hot blond," and Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi loves "wild parties."

"The US sees the world as a conflict between two superpowers," the documents say. "The European Union plays a secondary role."

The article also quotes the State Department as saying that US President Barack Obama "prefers to look East rather than West," and "has no feelings for Europe." No major surprise there either.

When the original data was released on Twitter it seemed more likely fodder for magazines such as US and People than an actual release of documents that could cost lives and damage national security. Now that initial samples of the entire document dump are coming out, it is very likely that these docs will do as promised cost lives and damage national security.


But the real damage of this document dump is what it will do to American foreign policy. The United States looks like a bumbling fool in the eyes of the world. The Wikileaks people funnel documents to the press at will, for the sole purpose of damaging U.S. relations with other countries, our war efforts, and our intelligence capability.  These leaks are an attack on the US and we do almost nothing about it.

Whether or not someone gets killed because of these Wikileaks disclosures, the damage to our country is severe, as allies and sources among enemies will stop cooperating with us for fear of exposure, our diplomats will be hesitant to speak openly with headquarters, and our intelligence on al-Qaeda and others will be compromised.

We are the laughingstock of the world, we look impotent. The United States is supposedly a  superpower whose only response to the Wikileaks disclosure is pathetically,  a sternly worded letter.

Its almost as if we are using the movie Team America as our guide.