14 replies to this topic

[duke_Qa]

So here it is, on top of everything else happening this week... Well beyond Korea not much happened but still.

BBC

* Iran attempting to adapt North Korean rockets for use as long-range missiles
* Corruption within the Afghan government, with concerns heightened when a senior official was found to be carrying more than $50m in cash on a foreign trip
* Bargaining to empty the Guantanamo Bay prison camp - including Slovenian diplomats being told to take in a freed prisoner if they wanted to secure a meeting with President Barack Obama
* Germany being warned in 2007 not to enforce arrest warrants for US Central Intelligence Agency officers involved in an operation in which an innocent German citizen with the same name as a suspected militant was abducted and held in Afghanistan
* US officials being instructed to spy on the UN's leadership by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
* The very close relationship between Russian PM Vladimir Putin and his Italian counterpart Silvio Berlusconi
* Alleged links between the Russian government and organised crime
* Yemen's president talking to then US Mid-East commander General David Petraeus about attacks on Yemeni al-Qaeda bases and saying: "We'll continue saying the bombs are ours, not yours"
* Faltering US attempts to prevent Syria from supplying arms to Hezbollah in Lebanon

What I've enjoyed the most so far was the character-definitions of the different leaders around the world. Ahmadinedad as Hitler, Sarkozy as the emperor without clothes, fun summaries that probably are pretty spot on.

Edited by duke_Qa, 28 November 2010 - 11:03 PM.

[Soul]

Some juicy stuff here, like this one.

They include reports of some Arab leaders - including Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah - urging the US to attack Iran and end its nuclear weapons programme.

[duke_Qa]

As of yet I've not really heard of any big things beyond the Iranian missiles from NK. After that you got stuff which is pretty apparent but still interesting, like no democracy in Russia, oligarchy, organized crime organized by the government. And the discussions between SK and the US about planning a re-integration of NK in case it collapses.

[Hostile]

I'm surprised the US didn't knock the wiki server offline. DOS attack or something.

[Vortigern]

Or use Obama's internet shutdown button, that says he can immediately knock any transmission system off the air.

I am so very glad Wikileaks exists. Hopefully sooner or later governments will start revealing these things of their own volition in the hope that'll be better than being Wikileaked at a potentially very inconvenient time.

[Puppeteer]

Britain is curiously conspicuous by its absence, don't you think?

[Vortigern]

That's because Wikileaks didn't realise they only had to look on the seats of British trains for our national secrets.

[Soul]

I'm surprised the US didn't knock the wiki server offline. DOS attack or something.

Wikileaks has been hit by repeated DDOS attacks for a while now.

Edited by Soul, 29 November 2010 - 05:30 PM.

[Ash]

All because the US government doesn't like having its dirty laundry aired.

Why does everything have to be so secretive anyway? The US government couldn't lie straight in bed, it seems - is there anything at all that it's told something vaguely resembling the truth about?

[duke_Qa]

Politics doesn't really work if every single thing you say would be used against you by the media. and intra-political communication works poorly if you had to write it in PC terms all the time. The ugly truth is very important to the politician but very ugly(which means sexy) for the media

Take for example the recent news that a Chinese diplomat has said(to American diplomat) that NK is acting like a spoiled brat and that China is considering leaving them in the cold. What happens when this comes out in the media? it probably will be feverishly denied by the Chinese and whatever hope you have of it happening will evaporate.

I guess we all would be friendless if we didn't know when to keep our mouths shut...

[MT]

Looking at the past and present I don't think we are moving any closer to government transparency. The Status Quo is the best case scenario, the worst is a gradual degradation to a police state.

[Ash]

Take for example the recent news that a Chinese diplomat has said(to American diplomat) that NK is acting like a spoiled brat and that China is considering leaving them in the cold. What happens when this comes out in the media? it probably will be feverishly denied by the Chinese and whatever hope you have of it happening will evaporate.

If I'm honest, I don't understand why China hasn't, or wouldn't, do this anway. North Korea is too belligerent as a little shitpile - and too big a drain on the Chinese economy for exactly zero gain - to be of any real diplomatic or political benefit to China. Why deny it? It'd score China major points on the international stage and it'd give the DPRK a real kick up the arse to behave themselves.

[duke_Qa]

Well it might look like a black-hole for us westerners, but China might have different opinions. Firstly it is a perfect distraction to keep the democracy-movements off China's tail. That's usually worth a few thousand lives for governments. But if the chance of NK going ballistic rises any more, I dunno if it would be in the best interest of China to defend or cut them off.

Defending them keeps the NKs stable and probably maintains status quo and a "friendly" NK. Although it makes them unpopular with western nations, it is probably not enough to cause havoc. If they on the other hand cut them off, they got a dying nation with nothing but military forces and nukes, and I dunno if the borders between China and NK are as well defended as the SK borders. Also, a spoiled brat not getting its candy might lash out, killing hundreds of thousands of Chinese if they nuked the right spot(although I doubt the NKs have the transportation means for it, it might happen).

Or we could wish for the best possible situation, NK collapses peacefully because China said no, the world gives aid to a withering nation for disarmament. Biggest military operation in this case would be the localization and neutralization of the nukes before they got sold off to the highest bidder by corrupt and greedy NK generals.

edit: yes, here we have some journalist getting paid for my prophecies
link

The latest secret diplomatic documents to be published by Wikileaks seem to suggest that the Chinese leadership is prepared to abandoned its ally, North Korea.

"If it were true, then probably these leaks have scuppered that," Mike Magan, a former adviser to President Bush, told the programme, although he said that he thought the move was unlikely.

But former foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind said the leak may have signalled "the beginnings of a shift" on Chinese policy towards North Korea.

"This premature revelation will have put that back by years... China will be very, very angry," he said.

Edited by duke_Qa, 30 November 2010 - 06:03 PM.

[Námo]

[Allathar]

I'd say add some oil and gasoline. Makes for a neat explosion while the goverment goes down.