By Steve Hynd
U.S. Sate Dept. officials are frantically doing the rounds of allies, trying to warn them of what to expect when Wikileaks dumps up to 3 million diplomatic documents on the web and turns over copies to media outlets. Ambassadors have beaten paths to leaders' doors in the UK, Italy, France, Scandanavian nations, Canada, Australia and others to tell them of potentially embarassing revelations contained in the reports. The British government has even issued a "D-Notice" - a gag order to the British press - warning that publishing the secrets could compromise national security.
Among the expected revelations: tales of corruption in Russia, Afghanistan and other nations; Turkish support for Al Qaeda in Iraq...and U.S. support for the Kurdish PKK terrorist group in Turkey; secret discussions on the return of the Lockerbie bomber to Libya and cables concerning US-Israeli relations.
The BBC's Washington correspondent writes:
Like Pentagon officials before them, state department spokesmen are warning Wikileaks that the disclosure of classified cables could prove harmful, both to American interests and to individuals. But they clearly expect that warning to fall on deaf ears.
Hence, the round of somewhat cringey diplomacy, as the US warns foreign governments of what American officials have said privately about them. The question is: will the revelations be merely embarrassing or something much worse, in terms of concrete disclosures about policy and US sources, possibly from within foreign governments?
Maybe we'll even find out how those Glock pistols Petraeus lost in Iraq ended up in the hands of Kurdish terrorists in Turkey.
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