U.S. officials privately say WikiLeaks damage limited

[derby378]

Source: Reuters

Internal U.S. government reviews have determined that a mass leak of diplomatic cables caused only limited damage to U.S. interests abroad, despite the Obama administration's public statements to the contrary.

A congressional official briefed on the reviews said the administration felt compelled to say publicly that the revelations had seriously damaged American interests in order to bolster legal efforts to shut down the WikiLeaks website and bring charges against the leakers.

"I think they just want to present the toughest front they can muster," the official said.

But State Department officials have privately told Congress they expect overall damage to U.S. foreign policy to be containable, said the official, one of two congressional aides familiar with the briefings who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE70H6TO20110118

[Demeter]

1. If You Don't Count the Loss of Face

which I don't. Those false faces are best revealed to the public.

[forty6]

2. I agree, there's really little damage that comes about from revealing..

the truth. As long as we are not giving out coordinates for our soldiers sitting in harm's way, or something as dramatic as that, the facts about our lousy diplomacy, secret deals, protection of corporations, etc. SHOULD be revealed for the world to evaluate.

[defendandprotect]

3. Not the case with Cheney, Scooter Libby and Plame, however --

[nyy1998]

4. In most of those elaks, there wasn't anything that the media haven't already reported on

There are some interesting and impactful leaks, such as the Tunisia leaks, and the Rahul Gandhi leaks, but most of them were mostly old news.


Well, Gaddafi's Ukranian Nurse was mind-blowing:silly:

[crikkett]

7. US suspects that China successfully executed teleportation

...that quantum entanglement experiments were successful.

[LiberalFighter]

5. If they use Eric Holder to prosecute, WikiLeaks is safe.

[Bragi]

6. Hello DU anti-transparency hawks, any thoughts? /nt