Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Something Wiki This Way Comes



Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is no stranger to the damage that can be done when government secrets (among other things) get blown, has declared the Wikileaks release of secret State Department documents to be "an attack on the world."

At the very least, the leaks are shaking up the diplomatic world as she, and we, knew it.

Among the seemingly endless stream of revelations is the fact that Secretary Clinton ordered US diplomats to spy on U.N. leaders (which actually strikes us as a pretty good idea), Saudi Arabia has been funding Al Qaeda (not exactly a surprise), Iran received missiles from North Korea, Russia is actively involved in cyberattacks and crime syndicates, and the world in general is even more screwed up than we thought...which would have seemed unimaginable even a few days ago.

The catastrophic consequences of the Wikileaks cybercrime can hardly be overstated, but US authorities are moving quickly to take control of the situation. Already, Janet Napolitano and the Department of Homeland Security have seized a number of music-downloading websites which have nothing to do with Wikileaks, but which are rumored to have involved the use of "computers" and so are considered both suspicious and potentially dangerous.

And Attorney General Eric Holder has issued the no-nonsense warning that individuals will be held responsible "to the extent that we can find anybody who was involved in the breaking of American law." Also, to the extent that he can find anybody, he'd like to put them on trial in New York because the whole Khalid Sheikh Mohammed thing has fallen apart and Mr. Holder still wants to go there and write it off as a business expense.

Overall, it seems that the world, which was supposed to be unified by our first "global" president, has only gotten more complicated, more confused, more aggressive, and more dangerous during these first years of "Hope" and "Change."

Which Barack Obama really should say something about but, according to Wikileaks, he's busy playing basketball.

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15 comments:

Pete(Detroit) said...

Loved the quote attributed to Sec Hillary - "some of my colleagues have said 'don't worry, it's not that bad - you should hear what's said about YOU'"...
Yeah, that makes it all right.
>sigh<

Angry Hoosier Dad said...

Did the process of becoming the Keystone Kops of international relations happen all at once under Obama or was it a slow transformation over many administrations?

Suzy said...

Very funny comic and commentary...very sad state of the world, though. When are we gonna get an adult in the White House, anyway? There's stuff to be done....

Suzy said...

PS: That pen & ink of Hillary is scary. Scarier, actually, than a photo...which is....well...scary.

Bobo said...

Anyone think maybe Mr. Global President may have ordered the leaks to further disgrace the USA in the eyes of the world?

Stilton Jarlsberg said...

Suzy- Frankly, I'm going to have to go back to the drawing board on that picture of Hillary. It even scares me.

Bobo- I doubt that Obama ordered the leaks, but believe that he allowed them when the main target was Bush and our war efforts. Think about it - the Wikileaks story (and players) were all old news, but no aggressive action was taken against them - or even threatened - until a new round of leaks made Obama's State Department look stupid and his own foreign policy initiatives inept and naive.

Mr. Obama has always seemed comfortable with the USA being disgraced; he's less happy when he's the target.

Bobo said...

Stilton - Ordered was the wrong word to use and my thoughts were more in line with being allowed. Thanks.

TheOldMan said...

LS sang (and I did during my long ago youth) "I drank enough whiskey to float a battleship around" but that's not even close enough to make that drawing palatable.

Stilton Jarlsberg said...

TheOldMan- Funny, it looked okay when I was drinking whiskey. (grin) No, no - I don't like it either, but ran out of time. And whiskey. I'll be working on another. You might not believe it, but we have standards around here!

Stilton Jarlsberg said...

Readers- 12:45 pm update; I changed out the cartoon with new art of Hillary. What do you think?

Colby_Muenster said...

You know that old saying, "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy?" I'm starting to reconsider which one, exactly, would be the best choice for dealing with the daily corn-holing we are taking from our "leaders." My whiskey bill gets higher each month, but a lobotomy? One and done...

Sigh... Only 2 years, 5 days, 10 hours...

Pete(Detroit) said...

Still looks like something you'd scrape off the inside of a baseball mitt, but yes, MUCH less scary..

Stilton Jarlsberg said...

Pete(Detroit)- The original version is still posted on RightNetwork.com. Loyal readers should download it and keep it as a rare and valuable collector's item!

Bobo said...

You could put up the most flattering drawing or photo of Hitllary and it would still scare the hell out of me. Wonder what Slick Willy drinks when she comes home?

Suzy said...

I second Pete....