As I’m sure most PW readers know, the latest release of classified documents form WikiLeaks hit the media November 28. This time, it’s diplomatic cables rather than military documents, with 243 cables out of 251,287 out so far. The rest will be made available over the weeks and months to come. Eric and I are trying to nail down the exact time of yesterday’s leak. As best as I can determine, the leak was planned for 4:30 ET but the WikiLeaks website was shut down for a bit; the NY Times blog The Lede states Wikileaks was accessible by 5:17 ET. If any readers have more precise information for the time of the leak, please let us know!
Given what Eric has written recently about international geopolitics being the dominant theme of the cluster of planets and points in Sagittarius, it should be an interesting chart to suss out. No doubt the Chiron-Neptune conjunction has a hand in this shedding of light and I’ll be curious to see what aspects Mercury is making, given that the story is all about communication and technology.
In the meantime, here are a couple of tidbits from the coverage at Democracy Now! today:
“Among the findings: Arab leaders are urging the United States to attack Iran; Washington and Yemen agreed to cover up the use of U.S. warplanes to bomb Yemen; the United States is using its embassies around the world as part of a global spy network and asking diplomats to gather intelligence; and much more. We host a roundtable discussion with Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg; Greg Mitchell, who writes the Media Fix blog at The Nation; Carne Ross, a British diplomat for 15 years who resigned before the Iraq war; and As’ad AbuKhalil, a professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus.”
AS’AD ABUKHALIL: What is very striking about all these documents on the Middle East is that the Arab people are not going to be surprised that much. They all along have known that they are ruled by a bunch of liars and deceivers who go to extra lengths to appease and please the United States. What is going to be particularly revealing are the details that show the lengths to which these rulers go in order to please the United States. And we find that they are not capable of making independent decisions. Whatever the instincts of the United States are, those rulers go along with them and, in fact, they seem to compete with one another. For example, in showing how much they are hostile towards Iran.