WikiLeaks strikes again -- U.S. diplomacy stripped naked

That whole thing was a distortion. He questioned the numbers given for a bunch of things, not the fact it happened.
 
How is this putting people in danger? I keep hearing that but have seen nothing to back it up.

That's the nice thing when there's 250 000 documents. Bible bashing idiot right wingers can actually claim that they danger the lives of x people who help us in the war on terror, and no one can effectively catch her on it.
 
That whole thing was a distortion. He questioned the numbers given for a bunch of things, not the fact it happened.

It changes the outlook of things when you get the numbers that wrong. There is a difference between killing a few thousand and millions.

EDIT: In my free time during work I'll read the book for myself.
 
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:lol:
 
Other good ones today include "RT @SarahPalinUSA "I can see Julian Assange from my house" #wikileaks" and "Cablegate: Boy, the last time there was a leak like this, Noah built himself a boat." :lol:
 
How is this putting people in danger? I keep hearing that but have seen nothing to back it up.

Is there any direct or physical evidence of this? No. However, it doesn't take much foresight to see how it could be dangerous. Think about it this way, would you make private information about yourself public to the world? Including medical records, bank account records, tax records, etc. Would you be worried that someone would use these against you? Why do you think identity fraud is so high?

I think it's a bit naive to think that there isn't someone out in this world using these documents to do something negative for personal merit.
 
the only reason why this guy is still alive is because it would be very obvious if he had an "accident". What he is doing is plain stupid. he IS putting lives in massive danger. there are a million reasons why documents are kept secret. this man has obtained these somehow and put the security of many nations at risk. something must be done to stop him. i know people are on his side because they think that these secrets need to be exposed but im almost 100% sure that these people have never worked in the part of the world that depends on these secrets to keep the world safe. this man is NOT a hero, he is a terrorist and needs to be stopped.
 
See what is the point of releasing information like this?

http://www.google.com/hostednews/af...ocId=CNG.8549d9b93537814e90de0a33a00a6b06.3b1

WikiLeaks releases list of global sites 'vital' to US
(AFP) ? 7 hours ago
WASHINGTON ? WikiLeaks has divulged a secret list compiled by Washington of key infrastructure sites around the world that could pose a critical danger to US security if they come under terrorist attack.
The newly released diplomatic cable is one of the most explosive yet out of many leaked by the whistle-blowing website that have heaped embarrassment on Washington and caused anger around the world.
Among other revelations, the latest WikiLeaks document dump showed Australia's then leader Kevin Rudd warning US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that force might be needed against China "if everything goes wrong".
A State Department cable from February 2009 asked US missions to update a list of infrastructure and key resources worldwide whose loss "could critically impact" the country's public health, economic life and national security.
It details undersea cables, key communications, ports, mineral resources and firms of strategic importance in countries ranging from Britain to New Zealand, via Africa, the Middle East and China.
Also listed are European manufacturers of vaccines for smallpox and rabies, an Italian maker of treatment for snake-bite venom, and a German company making treatment for plutonium poisoning.
According to the diplomatic cable, the request was designed "to strengthen national preparedness, timely response, and rapid recovery in the event of an attack, natural disaster or other emergency".
Compilation of the list would help "prevent, deter, neutralize or mitigate the effects of deliberate efforts by terrorists to destroy, incapacitate or exploit" sites deemed of "vital" importance to the United States.
Malcolm Rifkind, a former British defense and foreign secretary, lashed out at WikiLeaks for releasing the list.
"This is further evidence that they have been generally irresponsible, bordering on criminal. This is the kind of information terrorists are interested in knowing," he said, according to British media.
The release will add to the political storm engulfing WikiLeaks and its 39-year-old founder Julian Assange, who broke cover on Friday to say in an online chat that he had boosted his security after receiving death threats.
The website is already battling to secure its avenues for financial donations online, and has been hop-scotching across servers and legal jurisdictions to evade a total shutdown.
Assange's British lawyer, Mark Stephens, said Sunday that a legal pursuit of Assange in Sweden had "political motivations".
But Swedish prosecutor Marianne Ny, who is investigating allegations of rape and sexual assault against Assange, defended her prosecution in comments to AFP.
"This investigation has proceeded perfectly normally without any political pressure of any kind," said Ny, who, via Interpol, has asked police forces around the world to track Assange down.
Leading US lawmakers are calling for Assange's arrest or even execution. Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell slammed him Sunday as a "high-tech terrorist".
Among the latest revelations:
-- One cable said Saudi Arabia was the key source of funding for radical Islamist groups including Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hamas.
-- Gulf states Qatar and Kuwait are lax in pursuing locals who donated to the groups, according to the cable dated December 2009.
-- Qatar is using the Arabic TV news channel Al-Jazeera as a bargaining chip in negotiations with other countries, despite the broadcaster's insistence that it is editorially independent.
-- Clinton views Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as a "behind-the-scenes puppeteer" who chafes at his role working alongside President Dmitry Medvedev.
Another leak with the potential to infuriate China revealed details of a conversation between Rudd, when he was Australia's prime minister, and Clinton over a Washington lunch in March 2009.
Rudd called for "integrating China effectively into the international community and allowing it to demonstrate greater responsibility, all while also preparing to deploy force if everything goes wrong," the cable stated.
Rudd, a Mandarin-speaking former diplomat who is now foreign minister, said Monday that Australia had a robust relationship with China and that he had no intention of contacting Beijing over the cable.

Copyright ? 2010 AFP. All rights reserved.

Is that not information that could be dangerous if it got into the wrong hands?
 
Is that not information that could be dangerous if it got into the wrong hands?

Secret info about key infrastructure such as ports is not that secret. For example, everyone can figure out on their own that hitting the port of LA hard enough will severely impact the American Way Of Life by cutting down the supply of cheap stuff from China.
Another example, the cable says BASF is the largest chemical complex ... in the world :jeremy ... that's no secret. It says underseas cables landing at Sylt are vital to the US - it's no secret there are underseas cables there. Googling for information on that is hard right now though, Google is spammed with Wikileaks-related info on that subject :lol: Want more cable landing points?
 
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Secret info about key infrastructure such as ports is not that secret. For example, everyone can figure out on their own that hitting the port of LA hard enough will severely impact the American Way Of Life by cutting down the supply of cheap stuff from China.

What about gas pipelines? smallpox vaccine plants? weapon caches? satellite comm sites? Trans-atlantic comm cables?
 
What about gas pipelines? smallpox vaccine plants? weapon caches? satellite comm sites? Trans-atlantic comm cables?

Knock yourself out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_natural_gas_pipelines#United_States_interstate_pipelines - I'm sure you'll find a vulnerable point from that huge list.
http://www.google.com/search?q=smallpox+vaccine+plant --> http://www.pharmaceutical-technology.com/projects/bavarian_nordic/ --> http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=55.988889,12.501111&spn=0.1,0.1&t=h&q=55.988889,12.501111 - you even get driving instructions for your pickup full of fertilizer.
Weapons caches may be harder to google, but also are guarded - better go for easier targets.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_station is a lovely starting point when planning to hit satellite networks, how about this one?
 
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Narf is right, none of this is difficult information to attain. Next we'll see a news nlurp like this: "OMG the president's 'white house' location is now known! The terrorist can now bomb it!!!!!!1one".
 
Yeah, all this talk with "providing targets for terrorists".. I just don't buy in to it, it cannot have been very difficult to find "targets" before the leaks, and yet terrorist organizations haven't taken advantage of that in the way that people are suddenly fearing now.

Fact is, all countries are vulnerable in some way or the other, and if you have terrorists that are well-organized they would have found targets to hit either way. It's not like they've just been sitting in a cave in Afghanistan going "Well, we've got all these bombs, but what the hell should we hit?". The information WikiLeaks provide on that front is hardly going to make any real difference.
 
Narf is right, none of this is difficult information to attain. Next we'll see a news nlurp like this: "OMG the president's 'white house' location is now known! The terrorist can now bomb it!!!!!!1one".
Exactly. Here we have yet another example of politicians getting people to step to their tune.

The only way this leak would put lives in danger is if it drives us back to the compartmentalized way we handled intelligence before 9/11. Which seems to be the course we're now on. Bureaucrats in the intelligence community are trying to keep that from happening, but they can't do much when we've got a bunch of politicians going, "Assange is a terrorist! War on Wikileaks! Security! Enemy combatant! Kill!" It's as though people are programmed to respond to these words or something.
 
Narf is right, none of this is difficult information to attain. Next we'll see a news nlurp like this: "OMG the president's 'white house' location is now known! The terrorist can now bomb it!!!!!!1one".

Remember the cabbie who bought some Royal's car with sat nav? :jeremy: I believe some people already know where Windsor Castle is...




Also, while this might give baddies new ideas, 9/11 has shown they are capable of innovation without our help.
 
well, how much of this not only tells the location but also tells you whats stored there? does it not also give details of these locations? thats the issue here. we all know where Cheyenne Mountain is, we just dont know whats inside. also, we have hords of areas where we store important agricultural stuff in secret incase the shit hits the fan one day, we dont need that info released
 
I'm part disgusted equally amused by the right wingers hate that want to sentence Assange to death with idiotic motives like that he's "anti-american". I with my naive mind believed that was allowed, even in America. It Palin had her way, there wouldnt have been many people left in 2008 methinks.

On this subject, I must admit I am curious what the encrypted 1,4 Gb insurance file I have on my harddrive since many months back actually contain... Here's some further speculation, from the Evil Network of Distorted Information no less.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/1...se-massive-insurance-file-shut/#ixzz17GRkiO8I
 
well, how much of this not only tells the location but also tells you whats stored there? does it not also give details of these locations? thats the issue here. we all know where Cheyenne Mountain is, we just dont know whats inside. also, we have hords of areas where we store important agricultural stuff in secret incase the shit hits the fan one day, we dont need that info released

I believe this is the cable in question. Here's the part on Germany:

TAT-14 undersea cable landing, Nodren, Germany.
Atlantic Crossing-1 (AC-1) undersea cable landing Sylt, Germany
BASF Ludwigshafen: World's largest integrated chemical complex
Siemens Erlangen: Essentially irreplaceable production of key chemicals
Siemens, GE, Hydroelectric Dam Turbines and Generators
Draeger Safety AG & Co., Luebeck, Germany: Critical to gas detection capability
Junghans Fienwerktechnik (sic! Should be "Fein..." lots of typos in here) Schramberg, Germany: Critical to the production of mortars
TDW-Gasellschaft Wirksysteme, Schroebenhausen, Germany: Critical to the production of the Patriot Advanced Capability Lethality Enhancement Assembly
Siemens, Large Electric Power Transformers 230 - 500 kV
Siemens, GE Electrical Power Generators and Components
Druzhba Oil Pipeline
Sanofi Aventis Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Lantus Injection (insulin)
Heyl Chemish-pharmazeutische Fabrik GmbH: Radiogardase (Prussian blue)
Hameln Pharmaceuticals, Hameln, Germany: Pentetate Calcium Trisodium (Ca DTPA) and Pentetate Zinc Trisodium (Zn DTPA) for contamination with plutonium, americium, and curium
IDT Biologika GmbH, Dessau Rossiau, Germany: BN Small Pox Vaccine.
Biotest AG, Dreiech, Germany: Supplier for TANGO (impacts automated blood typing ability)
CSL Behring GmbH, Marburg, Germany: Antihemophilic factor/von Willebrand factor
Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics GmbH, Marburg, Germany: Rabies virus vaccine
Vetter Pharma Fertigung GmbH & Co KG, Ravensburg, Germany
Rho(D) IGIV Port of Hamburg

That's just a list of important facilities. Nothing secret in there, everything could be collected using google. For example, how to make the location of the Port of Hamburg secret? Hide its oil piers? Make incoming ships invisible? Hell, you can use AIS to check which ship is arriving when and plan your attack accordingly. No need for these cables.
 
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