On 2010-12-02, RBnDFW wrote:
On 12/1/2010 7:36 PM, Ignoramus24652 wrote:
I am reading various diplomatic cables released recently. Naturally, I
tried to read about what I know at least something, so I picked cables
from the Moscow embassy.
http://cablegate.wikileaks.org/cable...MOSCOW272.html
Several random thoughts come to mind.
1. I am surprised that these cables were classified norofn and
confidential, instead of secret.
2. Most cables are lively, well thought out, some are outright funny
(like the Caucasus wedding cable).
3. In my own eyes, they do not damage the reputation of the United
States and do not create an impression of the US being an evil back
room manipulator. The most damaging impression for me is lack of any
deep and original insights, I was hoping to see something truly new.
4. A clear impression is that the US is specifically not able to pull
the strings in Russia (which is an allegation of Russian conspiracy
theorists).
5. The allegedly sensational accusations, like that Putin stole
billions of dollars through Gunvor and other companies, are likely
true, but not groundbreaking.
Like the authors of the cables, I also think of the Russian government
on all levels as a mafia of somewhat patriotically minded thieves. I
am personally VERY happy at being able to live in the United States
and make a decent living by relatively honest means.
Perhaps the Russian government officials are simply annoyed at the
known accusations being given credence by the US embassy. The
accusations are well known.
6. I see the theft of hundreds of thousands of confidential cables, as
an IT and computer security disaster of shocking magnitude. Even if I
buy an argument that the documents were means for interdepartmental
sharing, and such, it is unbelievable to not have an alarm about
someone downloading everything. Many IT and administrative heads
specifically need to roll for this disaster.
Ann Coulter has a pretty good commentary today on the guy that did the leak.
http://www.anncoulter.com/
Brad Manning was the guy who released Iraq documents. He stole and
leaked the documents because he wanted to be famous, not so much
because he was gay. Many people of all orientations want to be
famous.
I am not, yet, aware of who released the diplomatic cables.
Remember a story about "ten Russian spies" from this summer? They were
betrayed by a Moscow based Russian intelligence director Scherbakov
This guy defected to the US with personal files (of the paper
variety), of his spies, whom he betrayed.
So, the FBI interrogated those spies and asked, please confess to
your spying, and they would, naturally, refuse. Then the FBI would get
their defected boss right into the interrogation room, and he would
bring their personal file to really prove that they were completely
screwed.
This incident seriously ****ed off at least one of the spies,
"Juan Lazaro" (Mikhail Vasenkov), he said that he does not want to
live in Russia after this.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101111/...ssia_usa_spies
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