Vexed Bermoothes

The controversial Wikileaks website last night began publishing 251,287 leaked US embassy cables  causing diplomatic storms around the globe, as the cables reveal the US’ internal analysis of various world issues from the last few years. The cables cover from 28th December 1966 to 28th February 2010 and originate from 274 embassies, consulates, and diplomatic missions worldwide.

Wikileaks justifies the release as follows:

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.

So far they have only released 200 of the cables as a taster (and presumably to see how hard they will get slammed by the pissed off governments involved in the cables).  The fallout from this will be deep and broad.

Interestingly, 68 of the cables mention Bermuda (none of which have been released yet).  27 of them were sent by the US Consulate here. One can assume that at least some of these relate to Dr. Brown’s Uighur follies.

I am sure they will be interesting reading.