“But in what category do we put the revelation that President Ali Abdullah Saleh took the responsibility for strikes on Al Qaeda strongholds in Yemen even when it was the United States who had carried out the attacks? And how will making that public affect our skittish allies in that country, or others? Sometimes simple embarrassment does have far-reaching policy implications.

“The arrogance of WikiLeaks is breathtaking.”

The Yemeni government should feel skittish. It is allowing itself to be bought off in exchange for allowing the US free reign over its skies using armed predator drones to blow Yemenis and even US citizens to smithereens. (See here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2439305.stm). I might also mention the fact that no serious person honestly thought the Yemenis themselves were conducting such operations. It was the worst kept secret in the Mid East behind Israel’s nukes.

And what “arrogance” is WikiLeaks displaying? They received official government documents–some confidential or classified, and some not–and posted them for all to see. Sometimes I feel like I’m part of a microscopic minority that truly believes the public has a right to know how our government is acting in our name and using our tax dollars. This WOULD NOT include the right to know, say, troop movements in Afghanistan–and there’s none of that in WIkiLeaks–but rather the mechanics of military and diplomatic bureaucracy. And if there’s a leak showing that US helicopter pilots gunned down journalists and other civilians in Iraq (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1263822/WikiLeaks-video-Reuters-journalists-civilians-gunned-US-pilots.html), well, we have a right know that too. Or if the the government understated the number of dead Iraqi civilians during the war (http://www.alternet.org/world/148622/wikileaks_docs_underestimate_iraqi_dead/), we should know that also.

So excuse me if I don’t toe the Obama administration’s line about the need for secrecy and confidentiality. The mainstream media’s reaction to this whole affair shows just how servile it is to the Establishment.

I highly recommend Glenn Greenwald’s take on these disclosures and their critics:

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/index.html

Here are three quick thoughts:

(1) What does this say about racial profiling? One of the worst national security incidents in our history, and the culprit was a young white male with blue eyes, fair complexion, and an all-American name.

(2) Does this finally help quash any of the ridiculous conspiracy theories about our government? As Richard “Against All Enemies” Clarke quipped, “We’re neither competent enough or good enough at keeping secrets to pull that stuff off.”

(3) Could this be a harbinger of changes to come with the way we view privacy? Manning’s generation is the first to completely “come up” on the Internet, with all juvenile mishaps there for anyone to view forever. Will society eventually migrate towards a decreased or nearly eliminated concept of privacy in ALL realms?