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make it work!
― glengarry rick ross: "always be stunting" (m bison), Monday, 29 November 2010 01:48 (thirteen years ago) link
¶6. (C) Zhang asked the Ambassador whether the U.S. would negotiate to keep the Base open. The Ambassador answered that the U.S. side was evaluating its options. Zhang then offered his "personal advice," "This is all about money," he said. He understood from the Kyrgyz that they needed $150 million. The Ambassador explained that the U.S. does provide $150 million in assistance to Kyrgyzstan each year, including numerous assistance programs. Zhang suggested that the U.S. should scrap its assistance programs. "Just give them $150 million in cash" per year, and "you will have the Base forever." Very uncharacteristically, the silent young aide then jumped in: "Or maybe you should give them $5 billion and buy both us and the Russians out." The aide then withered under the Ambassador's horrified stare.
― http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ipr-wS5iBv0 (Princess TamTam), Monday, 29 November 2010 01:50 (thirteen years ago) link
holy shit that one is amazing
― Mordy, Monday, 29 November 2010 01:52 (thirteen years ago) link
WHAT WILL THE END LOOK LIKE? ¶6. (C) This is the big, unanswerable question. One thing at least is certain, Mugabe will not wake up one morning a changed man, resolved to set right all he has wrought. He will not go quietly nor without a fight. He will cling to power at all costs and the costs be damned, he deserves to rule by virtue of the liberation struggle and land reform and the people of Zimbabwe have let him down by failing to appreciate this, thus he neednQt worry about their well-being. The only scenario in which he might agree to go with a modicum of good grace is one in which he concludes that the only way to end his days a free man is by leaving State House. I judge that he is still a long way from this conclusion and will fight on for now.
― Mordy, Monday, 29 November 2010 01:54 (thirteen years ago) link
from the same:
Morgan Tsvangarai is a brave, committed man and, by and large, a democrat. He is also the only player on the scene right now with real star quality and the ability to rally the masses. But Tsvangarai is also a flawed figure, not readily open to advice, indecisive and with questionable judgment in selecting those around him. He is the indispensable element for opposition success, but possibly an albatross around t heir necks once in power. In short, he is a kind of Lech Walesa character: Zimbabwe needs him, but should not rely on his executive abilities to lead the country's recovery.
― Mordy, Monday, 29 November 2010 01:55 (thirteen years ago) link
¶5. (C) With all this in view, I'm convinced the end is not far off for the Mugabe regime. Of course, my predecessors and many other observers have all said the same thing, and yet Mugabe is still with us. I think this time could prove different, however,
― http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ipr-wS5iBv0 (Princess TamTam), Monday, 29 November 2010 02:51 (thirteen years ago) link
(13 july 2007)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/nov/28/us-embassy-cables-wikileaks
The job of the media is not to protect power from embarrassment. If American spies are breaking United Nations rules by seeking the DNA biometrics of the UN director general, he is entitled to hear of it. British voters should know what Afghan leaders thought of British troops. American (and British) taxpayers might question, too, how most of the billions of dollars going in aid to Afghanistan simply exits the country at Kabul airport.
― overtheseas aeroplanes I have flown (k3vin k.), Monday, 29 November 2010 04:44 (thirteen years ago) link
it's kind of lol mostly sad that this whole thing is gonna get preempted by leslie nielsen
― J0rdan S., Monday, 29 November 2010 04:47 (thirteen years ago) link
nah
― Two and a Half Muffins (Eazy), Monday, 29 November 2010 05:32 (thirteen years ago) link
so between this and fake taliban last week any shot of diplomacy playing a role in ending the war in afghanistan is shot right?
― balls, Monday, 29 November 2010 05:46 (thirteen years ago) link
more like kind of sad mostly lol
― 3:10 to Your Ma (Noodle Vague), Monday, 29 November 2010 07:39 (thirteen years ago) link
The Downing Street source said: “We don’t think there will be much about the Coalition Government. There might be some slightly embarrassing things about David Cameron’s time in opposition but it will be nothing compared with what was said about Brown.“The diplomatic cables were more about Labour. Brown was seen as paranoid and weak and unstable. These files are going to be embarrassing for him.”
“The diplomatic cables were more about Labour. Brown was seen as paranoid and weak and unstable. These files are going to be embarrassing for him.”
fucking hell, what a classy operation they have going at downing street
― rip whiney g weingarten 03/11 never forget (history mayne), Monday, 29 November 2010 08:29 (thirteen years ago) link
Brown was seen as paranoid and weak and unstable
... by everyone on the planet. Some revelation there.
― Tom A. (Tom B.) (Tom C.) (Tom D.), Monday, 29 November 2010 09:03 (thirteen years ago) link
• Silvio Berlusconi laughed when he was told about the cables (9.09am).
― (+) (+ +), Monday, 29 November 2010 12:23 (thirteen years ago) link
(this fucking guy)
So did I though. Although probably not in the same way or for the same reasons.
― specifically, the word talking (Ned Trifle II), Monday, 29 November 2010 12:27 (thirteen years ago) link
William Hague likes to have sex with men lol.
Volumptuous blonde lol.
Iran oh shit, even Saudi Arabia is scared. World gonna 'splode.
lol.
― wheezy f baby (a hoy hoy), Monday, 29 November 2010 13:14 (thirteen years ago) link
Great bit of essential info in the Graun this morning, of shocking exclusive news that Silvio Beezy likes to party. Wikileaks is important.
― wheezy f baby (a hoy hoy), Monday, 29 November 2010 13:15 (thirteen years ago) link
Actually, the Saudis pressuring on Iran comes as no surprise to those of us who've noted a Saudi prince owns seven per cent of News International, and thus Fox.
― Exotic Flavors of the Midwest, available in corn, bacon, or beef (suzy), Monday, 29 November 2010 13:26 (thirteen years ago) link
aren't there like 500 saudi princes?
i think saudi pressure on iran probably has more to do with saudi arabia being worried about iran than it does with NI
― caek, Monday, 29 November 2010 13:33 (thirteen years ago) link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Waleed_bin_Talal
― Exotic Flavors of the Midwest, available in corn, bacon, or beef (suzy), Monday, 29 November 2010 13:42 (thirteen years ago) link
think saudi arabia h8s iran because they are the main regional players and well there ya go #thomas_hobbes
― rip whiney g weingarten 03/11 never forget (history mayne), Monday, 29 November 2010 13:47 (thirteen years ago) link
nah pretty sure it has something to do with news international
― caek, Monday, 29 November 2010 13:53 (thirteen years ago) link
I didn't say that - but al-Q's *are* high on a particularly harsh strain of Wahhabism exported from Saudi Arabia and they *are* undermining all these countries' ability to govern and trade. Rich Saudis finance them! I find the whole thing very manipulative.
― Exotic Flavors of the Midwest, available in corn, bacon, or beef (suzy), Monday, 29 November 2010 13:58 (thirteen years ago) link
as i say, they are both regional players with fingers in many unpleasant pies. iran funds, you know, hezbollah, hamas...
― rip whiney g weingarten 03/11 never forget (history mayne), Monday, 29 November 2010 13:59 (thirteen years ago) link
while i love good conspiracy, isnt p much every country in the middle east freaked out about a nuclear iran? i dont think im being a 'drumbeat to war' here
― lotta diamonds ... but prolly more display names (deej), Monday, 29 November 2010 15:39 (thirteen years ago) link
+ natural shiite/sunni conflict undergirding it all
― lotta diamonds ... but prolly more display names (deej), Monday, 29 November 2010 15:42 (thirteen years ago) link
ehh idk about that
wouldn't over do it
regional big dicks always hate each other -- now *that's* nature
― rip whiney g weingarten 03/11 never forget (history mayne), Monday, 29 November 2010 15:42 (thirteen years ago) link
today's times implies otherwise
― lotta diamonds ... but prolly more display names (deej), Monday, 29 November 2010 15:45 (thirteen years ago) link
3 Charitable activities 3.1 World Trade Center attacks
― specifically, the word talking (Ned Trifle II), Monday, 29 November 2010 15:47 (thirteen years ago) link
You've got to be cruel to be kind.
'Rude' Prince Andrew shocks US ambassador
Very weak stuff I think. Esp. for the lead story.
― specifically, the word talking (Ned Trifle II), Monday, 29 November 2010 18:48 (thirteen years ago) link
all in the perception i guess
new yorker grandee George Packer:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2010/11/the-right-to-secrecy.html
On the whole, the trove makes American diplomacy look pretty good. Obama’s Iran strategy of engagement-leading-to-isolation is shown to have succeeded. Bush—contrary to the impression left on every page of his new memoir—had enough self-awareness about the disaster in Iraq to put the brakes on military action against Iran. And American diplomats are capable of writing blunt, vivid, even amusing assessments of world leaders. Berlusconi is feckless, Sarkozy thin-skinned, Mugabe a megalomaniac: the accounts seem spot-on. The faceless corps of tight-lipped American embassy officials turn out to be an alert and discerning bunch.
professional insane person David Goldman ("Spengler"):
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LK30Ak02.html
American career diplomats have been telling their masters in the Obama administration that every theater of American policy is in full-blown rout, forwarding to Washington the growing alarm of foreign leaders. In April 2008, for example, Saudi Arabia's envoy to the US Adel al-Jubeir told General David Petraeus that King Abdullah wanted the US "to cut off the head of the [Iranian] snake" and "recalled the king's frequent exhortations to the US to attack Iran and so put an end to its nuclear weapons program".
Afghani President Hamid Karzai warned the US that Pakistan was forcing Taliban militants to keep fighting rather than accept his peace offers. Pakistani government officials, other cables warn, might sell nuclear material to terrorists.
The initial reports suggest that the US State Department has massive evidence that Obama's approach - "engaging" Iran and coddling Pakistan - has failed catastrophically. The crisis in diplomatic relations heralded by the press headlines is not so much a diplomatic problem - America's friends and allies in Western and Central Asia have been shouting themselves hoarse for two years - but a crisis of American credibility.
― first as tragedy, then as favre (goole), Monday, 29 November 2010 22:18 (thirteen years ago) link
id go w/ the nyers assessment on the whole: this dump has not really made the US look bad
― rip whiney g weingarten 03/11 never forget (history mayne), Tuesday, 30 November 2010 00:23 (thirteen years ago) link
imho it's made Wikileaks look pretty bad (like, what was the point of making diplomatic docs public again? I fail to see the political angle)
― "smokin' hot" albeit in a "Nickelback on iPod" sort of way (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 30 November 2010 00:27 (thirteen years ago) link
like this isn't stuff that's exposing abuses of power or coverups or lies really, its just y'know diplomats bein diplomats.
― "smokin' hot" albeit in a "Nickelback on iPod" sort of way (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 30 November 2010 00:28 (thirteen years ago) link
anyway how long before Assange goes to jail
*wrings hands* ffs a political point needn't be made - and that's not the goal, as far as i've gathered - like alfred said if these are indeed trivial it just goes to show how ridiculous this secrecy fetish is. and when it exists as a matter of policy it's anti-democratic
― overtheseas aeroplanes I have flown (k3vin k.), Tuesday, 30 November 2010 00:43 (thirteen years ago) link
eh I can see the virtue of confidentiality for diplomats - sometimes you don't want to have to show your hand to whoever you're negotiating with. is there something inherently morally wrong with that? I don't really think so.
― "smokin' hot" albeit in a "Nickelback on iPod" sort of way (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 30 November 2010 00:47 (thirteen years ago) link
Look, I'm totally in the Moynihan camp -- the US' fetish for secrecy is abhorrent -- but these latest releases, I don't know, undermine the gravity of the previous ones?
― look at it, pwn3d, made u look at my peen/vadge (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 30 November 2010 00:51 (thirteen years ago) link
of course they "don't want to" show their hands, but that's not wikileaks' problem. as a voter i'm not entitled to know what my government is up to? i'm just supposed to get all my news from what robert gibbs tells me? that's not how a demcracy should work imo xp
― overtheseas aeroplanes I have flown (k3vin k.), Tuesday, 30 November 2010 00:54 (thirteen years ago) link
insofar as their release makes Assange look like a petty, embittered crank without much concern for how foreign policy actually functions, I would say yeah.
xp
― "smokin' hot" albeit in a "Nickelback on iPod" sort of way (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 30 November 2010 00:56 (thirteen years ago) link
xxp only if you think about everything like a rock critic
― overtheseas aeroplanes I have flown (k3vin k.), Tuesday, 30 November 2010 00:57 (thirteen years ago) link
of course they "don't want to" show their hands, but that's not wikileaks' problem. as a voter i'm not entitled to know what my government is up to? i'm just supposed to get all my news from what robert gibbs tells me? that's not how a demcracy should work imo
dude I don't want to know EVERYTHING the government knows. What would I gain from having access to the daily threat matrix, for example? Or other people's tax returns? Or these diplomatic communiques, which are largely inconsequential and of little interest?
and it IS kind of Assange's problem, he's responsible for his actions, and directly responsible for any fallout as well.
― "smokin' hot" albeit in a "Nickelback on iPod" sort of way (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 30 November 2010 00:59 (thirteen years ago) link
as a voter i'm not entitled to know what my government is up to?
also I dunno if you've noticed but these leaks are going to people who AREN'T voters
it's one thing for an American citizen to be able to satisfy their curiosity about our diplomatic relations, it's another thing for foreign countries to be able to satisfy that same curiosity, which has entirely different motivations.
― "smokin' hot" albeit in a "Nickelback on iPod" sort of way (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 30 November 2010 01:00 (thirteen years ago) link
terrorists, right xp
― overtheseas aeroplanes I have flown (k3vin k.), Tuesday, 30 November 2010 01:01 (thirteen years ago) link
The stuff published by The NYT today was, like I wrote yesterday, entertaining but not worth the chatter. Assange has no judgment.
― look at it, pwn3d, made u look at my peen/vadge (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 30 November 2010 01:01 (thirteen years ago) link
He wants to leak the stuff? Fine. But has he no advisers -- gifted lawyers and journalists who can say, "OK, this action by the American government is worth leaking"?
― look at it, pwn3d, made u look at my peen/vadge (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 30 November 2010 01:02 (thirteen years ago) link