WikiLeaks Strikes Again, and It's A Quarter-Million Confidential State Department Documents

According to New York Times, which is one of the three papers in the world that have received the WikiLeaks' leaks (the other two being The Guardian of UK and Der Spiegel of Germany),

WASHINGTON — A cache of a quarter-million confidential American diplomatic cables, most of them from the past three years, provides an unprecedented look at back-room bargaining by embassies around the world, brutally candid views of foreign leaders and frank assessments of nuclear and terrorist threats.

Some of the cables, made available to The New York Times and several other news organizations, were written as recently as late February, revealing the Obama administration’s exchanges over crises and conflicts. The material was originally obtained by WikiLeaks, an organization devoted to revealing secret documents. WikiLeaks posted the first installment of the archive on its Web site on Sunday.

What's amusing to me is the bit of information about how the State Department tried to "make a deal" with foreign countries. The "deal" offered by the US was either bribery using aid money or bribery using Obama as an "incentive":

Bargaining to empty the Guantánamo Bay prison: When American diplomats pressed other countries to resettle detainees, they became reluctant players in a State Department version of “Let’s Make a Deal.” Slovenia was told to take a prisoner if it wanted to meet with President Obama, while the island nation of Kiribati was offered incentives worth millions of dollars to take in Chinese Muslim detainees, cables from diplomats recounted. The Americans, meanwhile, suggested that accepting more prisoners would be “a low-cost way for Belgium to attain prominence in Europe.”

Neocon Senators like Claire "I love TSA love pats" McCaskill (D) and Lindsey "Let's attack Iran" Graham (R) are of course squawking again about prosecuting the leakers. I'd say let's arrest all these bungling, clueless US government officials squandering a huge wad of money and goodwill across the globe.

I wonder if Slovenia agreed... (I'm sure these girls want to meet Obama...)

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Ben Stein's New Definition of Anti-Semitism

Anyone who opposes the U.S. government's interventionist foreign policy is anti-Semitic, according to Ben Stein, who appeared in CNN's Larry King Live. He did his best to smear the word over Ron Paul, who has always opposed the U.S. government's interventionist foreign policy.

Ben Stein Says Ron Paul Uses “Anti-Semitic Arguments”
(Thomas R. Eddlem, 12/29/09 New American)

The video of the show's segment is here:

Now, if being against the U.S. government foreign policy is anti-Semitic, as Mr. Stein says, does that mean the U.S. government is ... Semitic?

(Remember also, if you are against the government's domestic policies now, you are a racist.)

Or maybe Mr. Stein doesn't know what he's talking about. The last I remember seeing him was on a video from August 2007. He was one of the merry crew ridiculing Peter Schiff's "gloomy" view that the housing bubble was about to burst and investing in the financial firms would be a disaster. He was recommending buying Merrill Lynch at $76, such a bargain for such a well-run company.

By the way, there's a Facebook page set up to demand apology from Ben Stein.

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Foreign Policy Magazine's Top 100 Global Thinkers in 2009

(Hahahahahahahahahahahaha)

1. Ben Bernanke
2. Barack Obama
4. Nouriel Roubini
5. Rajendra Pachauri (climate change propagandist)
6. Bill Clinton & Hillary Clinton
7. Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler (Sunstein is Obama's Regulatory Czar who favors "senior death discount".)
8. David Petraeus
21. Thomas Friedman

The whole list is here, for your entertainment.

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