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El País, Spain

WikiLeaks: The Assault on 'Big Brother' Begins

 

"Big Brother, constantly on the advance in the U.S and Europe, has analogues elsewhere that are much worse and more faithful to the totalitarian Cold War model inspired by George Orwell. We refer to countries like China, where audiovisual and cybernetic hyper-control of citizens is combined with military and police controls."

 

 

Translated By Florizul Acosta-Perez

 

December 2, 2010

 

Spain - El País - Original Article (Spanish)

Founder, spokesperson and editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks Julian Assange: Still somewhat of a mysterious figure, the native Australian may be one of the heralds of a brave new world.  

AL-JAZEERA VIDEO: U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley responds to spy charges outline in WikiLeaks disclosure, Dec. 1, 00:08:43RealVideo

What a blow little David WikiLeaks has issued to the forehead of Big Brother - who knows and controls everything! It's understood that the U.S. government has tried to minimize the damage. It also follows that friendly governments as well as some media have been unable to access the documentary torrent provided by Julian Assange's organization. But the more news that emerge about this mine of information, the more difficult it will be to hide the public interest in its contents, as well as the dents and damage that the revelation of such carefully-guarded secrets can cause.

 

From the outset, we note that U.S diplomacy comes out of this damaged, as former CIA agent Robert Baer explained yesterday in the pages of The Financial Times. Baer focused his assessment of the damage on the special channels of communication that many heads of state, particularly in Arab countries, establish with the president of the United States, who is normally a person foreign leaders can trust.

 

Assange has pressed the reset bottom, and now in this arena, Washington will have to start from scratch. If anyone in this country understands such things, it is Javier Solana. [Solana is the E.U.'s high representative for common foreign and security policy]. He has said that this leak will force diplomats to change their work habits and methods - something that will also affect many citizens, businessmen, reporters, judges and politicians, all of whom must adopt a new culture of caution in their contacts with diplomats from all nations. Solana's observation is that out of this affair, comes an implicit criticism of methods that don't correspond to the times. And this isn't just about an erroneous use of communications; nor is it about failed safeguards on the part of a superpower that deigns to give lessons on future cyber war. This is about a decaying and inappropriate style of doing business still used by some diplomats in this new globalized, multi-polar world.

 

For the moment, the simultaneous publication of the first round of cables from the WikiLeaks archive has forced the State Department to mobilize all of its resources to cushion the impact and prepare for additional revelations. This is the fourth blast aimed at the U.S., in a bombing campaign that has been increasing in intensity: the first was the video of collateral murder, with voices and images from a U.S. military helicopter strafing a group of civilians in Iraq [watch below]; the second and third were 90,000 and 400,000 documents from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, respectively.

 

 

SEE ALSO ON THIS:

El País, Spain: Cables Expose Nuance of U.S. Displeasure with Spain Government

El País, Spain: Thanks to WikiLeaks' Disclosure, Classical Diplomacy is Dead

Guardian, U.K.: Saudi Arabia Urges U.S. Attack on Iran

Hurriyet, Turkey: Erdogan Needs 'Anger Management' Over U.S. Cables

Saudi Gazette, Saudi Arabia: WikiLeaks Reveals 'Feeling, Flawed' Human Beings

Frontier Post, Pakistan: WikiLeaks Reveals 'America's Dark Face' to the World

The Nation: WikiLeaks' Release: An Invaluable Exposure of American Hypocrisy

Buenos Aires Herald, Argentina: Without Hypocrisy, Global Ties Would Be Chaos

Kayhan, Iran: WikiLeaks Release a 'U.S. Plot to Sow Discord'

El Universal, Mexico: WikiLeaks and Mexico's Battle Against Drug Trafficking

Toronto Star, Canada: WikiLeaks Dump Reveals Seamy Side of Diplomacy

Guardian, U.K.: WikiLeaks Cables, Day 3: Summary of Today's Key Points

Guardian, U.K.: Leaked Cables Reveal China is 'Ready to Abandon' North Korea

Hurriyet, Turkey: American Cables Prove Turkish Claims on Missile Defense False

The Nation, Pakistan: WikiLeaks: An Invaluable Exposure of American Hypocrisy

Kayhan, Iran: WikiLeaks Revelations a 'U.S. Intelligence Operation': Ahmadinejad

Novosti, Russia: 'Russia Will be Guided by Actions, Not Leaked Secrets'

Guardian, U.K.: Job of Media is Not to Protect Powerful from Embarrassment

ANSA, Italy: WikiLeaks: 'No Wild Parties' Says Berlusconi

 

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Informed of the magnitude of the fourth blast a few days in advance, embassies and consulates around the world staged a rear-guard action through their contacts at all levels and with friends and partners affected by the revelations. But once the spigot was opened and the news flowing, there were two contradictory reactions: one to minimize and the other to threaten. But the most important reaction, which will be discreet and even unknown to the wider public, will be to repair the damage to the diplomatic vehicle. There is yet a bigger political breakdown that will be even more difficult to repair, which has to do with the global power shift and the future of the American superpower.

 

The international credibility and prestige that the U.S. had recovered thanks to Obama - and that was some of the most precious political capital of his presidency - is slipping away in full view of everyone, via the open channel of WikiLeaks.

 

Cultivated during the Cold War and amplified under President Bush, the worst stereotypes are clearly on display with this informative leak, which reveals the mentality, forms of pressure and even the embarrassing expressions of arrogance by some U.S. diplomats. It also exposes the deferential attitude of their counterparts from various countries, including Spain.

Posted by WORLDMEETS.US

 

Big Brother, constantly on the advance in the U.S and Europe, has analogues elsewhere that are much worse and more faithful to the totalitarian Cold War model inspired by George Orwell, creator of the literary character. We refer to countries like China, where audiovisual and cybernetic hyper-control of citizens is combined with military and police controls that are the tradition for dictatorships. That such a leak hasn't reached this even-more sinister and totalitarian version of Big Brother is not to discredit the revelations about the U.S. Nor does it mean that such disclosures won't someday reach China. Technology and globalization will contribute to this, and hopefully soon. So will, no doubt, new powers - or emerging non-state counter-powers that arise out of global and technological civil society, of which WikiLeaks is only the first and most spectacular example. 

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[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US December 4, 11:18pm]

 

 







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