Tuesday, November 30, 2010

what of sri lanka in wikileak's latest doc dump? who will they embarrass in sl?

[this post will be updated at bottom with new items as they are published in wikileaks until i write another post on the same subject. ]

so far wikileaks has published only 278 (243 yesterdays and rest today) out of the 251,287 documents it acquired without authorization from american state department.

they have resulted in severe embarrassment to usa, once again exposing the big disconnect between what americans (from obama down) say and what they do. as usual it appears that american state is run by arrogant hypocrites who care nothing for ethics and morality when they want to dominate others and force them to act in american interest; war, war crimes, crimes, assassination, spying, corruption, deception, etc., etc.. all seem to be fair. what's new? [one has to be a fool not to have realized this already. there are few such fools in sri lanka including in sl blogosphere.]

usa is doing exactly what all other dominant countries have done from beginning of history;
"the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must" - thucydides
hubristic amercans' ultimate fate will be the same too.


sri lanka docs
however what of documents about sri lanka? what do they reveal about american diplomats' view of our country.

the few media outlets that were given pre release access to the documents by wikileaks have not reported on content of any mainly sri lanka related document (as far as i can see).

there is a mention of sri lanka in one document [new link from new wikileak site] that is already notorious for revealing that hillary clinton, u.s. secretary of state, ordered american diplomats at united nations to spy on other un diplomats and gather data including biometric data, "internet and intranet "handles", internet e-mail addresses, web site identification-urls; credit card account numbers; frequent flyer account numbers ....".

in addition to all that illegal stuff, state department wanted info on various things about lots of countries including with regard to sri lanka,

Views and intentions of UNSC, UN human rights entities, and members regarding Sri Lankan government policies on human rights and humanitarian assistance; UN views about appointing a Special Envoy for Sri Lanka.
this was in july 31,2009. of course no envoy was appointed (nor was one needed).

however there are other sri lankan documents in the leak. lots of them.

3,325 in fact.

here (click to enlarge) is the info-graphic in spiegel online (one of the media that got pre-access), as you can see sri lanka has a relatively big dot over it in the map, corresponding to no of documents to be leaked. time line indicate the date of origin of those documents; color the level of secrecy.

leaks also indicate that u.s embassy in sri lanka has been busy. as the following graphic from wikileaks website indicate colombo embassy is the 11th biggest originator of these documents.


it will be interesting to know whether all docs originating from
colombo concern sri lanka. esp given certain conspiracy theories that went round when voice of america installed a broadcasting facility here.

anyway we will wait for the publication of documents

who will be embarrassed?
i have a feeling (and i may be wrong ) that those who will be most embarrassed in sri lanka when these 'cables' come to light in full, will be certain opposition figures. given their pronounced tendency to lick western ass, i wont be surprised if they opened their mouths way too much when err.... talking to american diplomats. several blabber mouthed pro americans (esp in arab countries) have already been embarrassed from the few released documents. also most of the docs seems to cover the so called ceasefire period when opposition was in power. there is also sarath fonseka's alleged contacts with americans in 2009 and during election.

in contrast, we already know that present sl government leaders are not given to ass lick west, so no favorites with usa. americans expressing their resulting prejudices will not surprise anyone. revelations will only make it more difficult for individual american diplomats who wrote them to have a working relationship here.

on the other hand, if it is revealed that those american diplomats have been intelligent enough to look past their prejudices and narrow world view to understand sri lankan reality and mindset, and recommended engagement with sri lanka, there will corresponding benefits to all.

another group that may be embarrassed are non american western diplomats and their sl tools, the ngos. to give them credit, americans were never much in to interfering in sri lanka's effort to defeat terrorist tamil tiger murderers, but other western countries were. these documents may report on actions of those others during and after the ceasefire.

whatever they contain, they will be interesting to read. cheers to wikileaks!


updates on 11/30/2010

another doc on sri lanka [new link from new wikileak site] reports on a discussion americans had with with amitav banerji, director, political affairs division of commonwealth secretariat on 06/11/2009.
(C) Banerji said that the human rights situation in Sri Lanka during and after the recent military offensive had been raised “informally and off the record” by the UK during the last CMAG meeting, forcing a difficult conversation with the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister, as Sri Lanka is currently a member of CMAG. Banerji said the Commonwealth continues to watch the situation in Sri Lanka and noted that Sri Lanka’s offer to host the next Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) had been turned down over concerns about lending international credibility to the Government’s actions.
no new revelations there; local media contemporaneously reported pretty much everything there.

btw who cares about the commonwealth? only thing it seems to do is parade the hopelessly vulgar british royals and hold games. (btw at 2010 edition of commonwealth games sri lankan president was the guest of honor at closing ceremony). idea that such a rickety old skeleton of genocidal british empire can lend any kind of credibility can only be entertained by westerners and their paid slaves with mental clocks stopped in 1930s, if not 1800s.

updates on 12/01/2010
nothing so far. altogether 471 out of 251,287 documents released. only 2 (referred above) on sri lanka out of 3,225.


updates on 12/02/2010
two leaks on sri lanka
separate posts on them were published in this blog
wikileaks on sri lanka update - david miliband interfered in sri lanka to get uk tamil votes .
update: wikileaks on sri lanka - american ambassador's report on 01/15/2010 on alleged war crimes accountability

my twitter - http://twitter.com/sittingnut
this blog's twitter - http://twitter.com/llibertarian