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Comment by ErrantX | Hacker News Reader

I'm not Assange's biggest fan (r.e. how he controls Wikileaks) but some of the nonsense coming from the US establishment (and elsehwere) is appalling.

It probably even vindicates what Wikileaks stands for.

This is one of those cases where damage limitation is the sane and sensible response; they've lost those cables, we are going to see them. Deal with it. They need perspective; in the grand scheme of things it is highly unlikely to be "the end of the world". And if it uncovers corruption and naughtiness then all the better.

Hounding Assange and Wikileaks only ends up making them look guilty. Which is stupid, especially as there is nothing (so far) hugely corrupt or terrible in the leaks!

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Which makes me wonder what is in the leaks that we haven't seen yet. After all if highly placed officials are getting their panties in a twist based on what we've seen so far then they are over-reacting to put it mildly.

Time will tell. Some of the responses from politicians are beyond the pale and what bugs me more is that nobody even thinks of calling them to account over this, or so much as distancing themselves from these remarks.

There is that. On the other hand it could be that they just can't see themselves reacting to it other way, and are just too short sighted.

I feel that if anything explosive was to come then Assange would have hinted at it by now - he has done in the past.

I don't know. Before this 'dump' the rest of the press wasn't involved but this time around they are and I wonder if he asked for advice (and took it) on strategy. In a long-drawn-out media ploy if you put your most interesting stuff out first then it will fizzle out, if you draw it out and put more and more interesting material out then attention will not flag. It could be a deliberate ploy.

Politicians overreacting hardly needs an ulterior motive of super-secret documents. Just try flying in an airplane if you want an example...

It honestly wouldn't shock me that the restarted attacks on North and South Korea weren't because of Wikileaks. Or for that matter, I'd be surprised that the US isn't having setbacks on many diplomatic processes.

You think Kim Jong-Il was shocked to discover that he wasn't a towering international statesman and decided to attack S Korea because of it?

No, but he may have been surprised to find out that China supports unification.

100% FUD. There is not a single iota of evidence to support that.

Your nick serves you well.

I, too, am not shocked that the restarted attacks twixt North and South Korea are not because of Wikileaks.

I think your double-negative statement alluding to Wikileaks not being of world-changing importance has been missed by people who type faster than they can think.

"Which makes me wonder what is in the leaks that we haven't seen yet". Maybe there is nothing in those cables, but politicians must be very afraid of what could be published next... Although the irak cables were potentially far more damageable, they were not released in cooperation with major newspapers.

I wonder too about the leaks we haven't seen yet either, but at the same time, wouldn't WikiLeaks want to release the most scandalous and head-line grabbing info first? That would go a long way towards vindicating their position in the public eye.

Here is some wikileaks information about US practices in Afghanistan that is quite shocking:

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2010/12/wikileaks_te...

For those who don't click on the link, the article refers to cables in which US diplomats discuss how to quash a journalist writing about a private US military contractor procuring young boys to be sex-party favors in order to help motivate Aghan police recruits. The argument that the US diplomats discuss using in order to prevent publicity is that this reporting will "endanger lives".

Here is the cable: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/...

I think this is quite scandalous and shocking. Maybe it's just me. I don't understand why stuff like this has not received much press coverage in the US.

There are plenty examples of corruption in the cables, but most of them are about other countries, not the US. But still, some examples:

- The US spied on the UN, including credit card numbers and frequent flying numbers of its leaders.

- The US wrote Spanish new IP law.

- The US pressured Spain not investigate the killing of a Spanish journalist in Baghdad by US forces.

The leak degrades the image of the US government, but not as much as it degrades the images of almost any other government (at least so far).

I think the part where the US tried to pawn off their Guantanamo Bay prisoners in such a way that they can not challenge their YEARS of illegal detention was one of the more damning bits.

That's one set of crimes (and the rendition flights) that is going to take a long long time to wash away.

I'm not a big fan of his style either, but compared with the integrity of those accusing him I can make allowances. It takes but a few minutes to illustrate my point: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbwiXRmzKi0

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