me: wikileaks release Mark: i saw headlines about it Mark: anything particularly interesting there? me: yeah, even just from summaries released thus fat me: Highly critical private remarks about David Cameron and George Osborne's "lack of depth", made by Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England, to the US ambassador. me: A scornful analysis of UK "paranoia" over the US-UK so-called special relationship. It is suggested that "keeping HMGthe British government "off-balance" about itthe relationship might be a good idea. me: (it looks like we accomplished that one) me: The extraordinarily close relationship between Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, and Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, which is causing intense US suspicion. Cables detail allegations of "lavish gifts", lucrative energy contracts and the use by Berlusconi of a "shadowy" Russian-speaking Italian go-between. Mark: that last bit is interesting Mark: not terribly surprising, on some level me: not surprising me: here's one that will rock the world me: a profile of Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, who they say is accompanied everywhere by a "voluptuous blonde" Ukrainian nurse. Mark: why shouldn't the new-age quasi-democratic strongmen be best-buds Mark: haha Mark: beating up on qaddifi is almonst just mean-spirited Mark: it's no secret the guy is a clown me: it's also no secret he has a whole fucking all-female elite bodyguard squad, so I don't see how this even warrants a cable me: seriously, look how this is thrown in in the Guardian piece me: Other revelations include a description of a near "environmental disaster" last year over a rogue shipment of enriched uranium, technical details of secret US-Russian nuclear missile negotiations in Geneva, and a profile of Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, who they say is accompanied everywhere by a "voluptuous blonde" Ukrainian nurse. Mark: doesn't quite fit in, does it Mark: though one does have to keep in mind that there's no reason to assume there isn't misinformation just because these are internal state dept communications Mark: apparently there's stuff on iran buying north korean missiles Mark: which sounds like the kind of bullshit that was paraded about iraq back in the day me: could be, although if it were intended as disinformation, that means that to some extent the U.S. or some element thereof was aware that cables would be made public, which would raise a lot of other questions Mark: i don't mean like that Mark: it's more likely a question of the expected standard of verification Mark: some cia or state department foreign official digs up an informant with a story about iran military activities Mark: how much proof does the official demand before passing it along to washington? me: probably not much, based on what we know of the last decade Mark: that's what i'm referring to me: obviously there's a wide variance depending on which clique one's talking about me: like the CIA's Team B back in the Cold War, which vastly overestimated Soviet military capability Mark: oh, really? me: oh, by the way, if you'v never seen Nixon, I recommend it strongly Mark: ok