Wikileaks

Website wikileaks.org has been posting confidential memos from the US government. These include notes from its diplomatic missions around the world, and contain some pretty embarrassing comments. US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has vowed to track down and prosecute those who have leaked the documents, which is the proper thing to do. I was quite intrigued by the reaction from governments around the world to the leaks, which appear to be more one of embarrassment, rather than anger. It is like having your love letters posted on the Internet with a big huge arrow pointing towards the website involved.

I reached this conclusion because the reaction from the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmedinajad. He is an implacable enemy of America but also a shrewd politician. He described the leaks as orchestrated by the US government (a statement for home consumption), adding that he would disregard them completely. The latter bit is quite significant. Ahmedinajad knows very well that the American government is severely embarrassed by these leaks, and they had in fact no direct part in their release. It is something that could potentially happen to every government in the world (and they all know it); further more, the leaked documents just puts on public display what the diplomatic community knows secretly about each other.

I have no time for Mahmoud Ahmedinajad's policies, but I make an exception in this instance: ignore the Wikileaks story. It is a lot of hot air, and the only significant impact is to warn governments to tighten up on their security protocols for documentation.