Cable Viewer: http://cablegate.wikileaks.org/
Wikileaks began on Sunday November 28th publishing 251,287 leaked United States embassy cables, the largest set of
confidential documents ever to be released into the public domain. The documents will give people around the world an
unprecedented insight into US Government foreign activities.
The cables, which date from 1966 up until the end of February this year, contain confidential communications between 274
embassies in countries throughout the world and the State Department in Washington DC. 15,652 of the cables are
classified Secret.
The embassy cables will be released in stages over the next few months. The subject matter of these cables is of such
importance, and the geographical spread so broad, that to do otherwise would not do this material justice.
The cables show the extent of US spying on its allies and the UN; turning a blind eye to corruption and human rights
abuse in "client states"; backroom deals with supposedly neutral countries; lobbying for US corporations; and the
measures US diplomats take to advance those who have access to them.
This document release reveals the contradictions between the US’s public persona and what it says behind closed doors –
and shows that if citizens in a democracy want their governments to reflect their wishes, they should ask to see what’s
going on behind the scenes.
Every American schoolchild is taught that George Washington – the country’s first President – could not tell a lie. If
the administrations of his successors lived up to the same principle, today’s document flood would be a mere
embarrassment. Instead, the US Government has been warning governments -- even the most corrupt -- around the world
about the coming leaks and is bracing itself for the exposures.
The full set consists of 251,287 documents, comprising 261,276,536 words (seven times the size of "The Iraq War Logs",
the world's previously largest classified information release).
The cables cover from 28th December 1966 to 28th February 2010 and originate from 274 embassies, consulates and
diplomatic missions.
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The articles published today and over coming weeks are drawn from US state department cables which were sent earlier
this year to WikiLeaks, an organisation devoted to exposing secrets of all kinds. The Guardian is one of five
publications around the world which has had prior access to the material – around 250,000 cables in all – on condition
that we observed common deadlines over the timings of release. The others are the New York Times, LeMonde, El País and
Der Spiegel. More>>
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A mammoth cache of a quarter-million confidential American diplomatic cables, most of them from the last three years,
provides an unprecedented look at bargaining by embassies, candid views of foreign leaders and assessments of threats.
The material was obtained by WikiLeaks and made available to a number of news organizations in advance. More>>
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251,000 State Department documents, many of them secret embassy reports from around the world, show how the US seeks to
safeguard its influence around the world. It is nothing short of a political meltdown for US foreign policy. More>>
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Whistleblower website WikiLeaks released a cache of classified U.S. State Department documents on Sunday that provide
candid views of foreign leaders and sensitive information on terrorism and nuclear proliferation. More>>
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This time it’s the diplomatic cables – and all the usual questions apply to the latest Wikileaks document dump, plus a
few more. While the last two releases have come from the theatres of war, much of what is revealed in the diplomatic
cables is the business-as-usual of a nation state; perhaps even the business of avoiding war... More>>
ALSO:Link - Category info on leaked NZ cables (via @norightturnnz)
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The whistle-blowing website Wikileaks has published 1490 secret diplomatic cables between New Zealand and the US. More>>
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New Zealand diplomats are readying themselves for possible embarrassment after whistleblowing website WikiLeaks released
250,000 United States State Department documents. More>>
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