Peter Beinart’s take on the latest wikileaks stash seems about right to me: no significant surprises, no great scandals (apart from the fact that the leak was not prevented in the first place), all very interesting in a voyeuristic sort of way–but how, he asks, are diplomats supposed to do their job if they are denied confidential communication with HQ? As Timothy Garton Ash says:

There is a public interest in understanding how the world works and what is done in our name. There is a public interest in the confidential conduct of foreign policy. The two public interests conflict.

Yes, but whose job is it to resolve this conflict? Do we really want to put Julian Assange in charge? The New York Times, the Guardian and the other wikileaks collaborators say they have taken care to ensure that nobody has been put at risk by the selections they have published–but they have certainly not condemned Assange’s activities, and indeed that would be an awkward thing for them to do, given their role in facilitating them.

Continue reading “The missing wikileaks debate”