Posted on 11/30/2010 6:01:30 AM PST by rightwingintelligentsia
A U.S. diplomat must possess patience, poise, and tact. He must also be attentive to cultural differences, a good observer, and proficient in several languages. When called upon, he must use his skills as a negotiator in the national interest. And, as the latest dump of WikiLeaks tells us, if the dip works for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, he must also be prepared to spy on his fellow diplomats.
To be fair to Clinton, she isn't the first secretary of state to issue cables telling U.S. foreign service officers to spy on other diplomats. According to the leaked diplomatic cables, Condoleezza Rice likewise instructed State Department diplomats to collect such intelligence, and I wouldn't be surprised if previous secretaries of state encouraged if not instructed their diplomats to push information-collection all the way to intelligence-gathering.
But what makes Clinton's sleuthing unique is the paper trail that documents her spying-on-their-diplomats-with-our-diplomat orders, a paper trail that is now being splashed around the world on the Web and printed in top newspapers. No matter what sort of noises Clinton makes about how the disclosures are "an attack on America" and "the international community," as she did today, she's become the issue. She'll never be an effective negotiator with diplomats who refuse to forgive her exuberances, and even foreign diplomats who do forgive her will still regard her as the symbol of an overreaching United States. Diplomacy is about face, and the only way for other nations to save face will be to give them Clinton's scalp.
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
I thought all governments knew all embassies are hotbeds for spies-as-diplomats.
LOL! Wiki Leaks is Hussein. It is all designed to distract and also take out the Clintons. The corrupt media and drooling idiots who watch TV are taking it all as fact.
It is just another propaganda diversion by Hussein and his goons. Well the teleprompter has taken Hillary out of any chance in 2012.
At least half of the “diplomats” hanging around the UN are spying if not outright conspiring against us.
My thoughts exactly. Hillary was becoming too strong of a “contender” to his 2012 bid, his ratings among dems were dropping and some high percentage wanted an opponent to run against him in the primaries.
So like it or not, any damage is "owned" by Obama.
My best guess is that this is Hillary's "scr** you" gift to Obama...PAYBACK...
Have been watching Hillary and said (before the leak) that she would quit soon.
Notice that Bubba has been absolutely silent.
I agree with those who believe this was an effort to take Clinton out of the running for 2012.
However, I also believe that this was Clinton setting herself up for 2012.
If you have dirt on the diplomats and foreign leaders, you can coerce them to endorse your run for the White House....that is precisely what I believe Clinton was conspiring to do.
“Notice that Bubba has been absolutely silent.”
Bingo! It actually makes Hillary look like she has more stones than the muslim.
These people, whether male or female, are very catty, inconsiderate, and insensitive; exhibiting a verbal indiscretion so excessive only a gossip columnist would be comfortable reading their opinions.
I suppose he means that the only way for us to help other nations to save face will be for us to give them Clinton's scalp.
Which might or might not be true. You know, Barry-O may seem like an incompetent boob in lots of areas, but in political chicanery, he appears at times to be a master.
Or maybe it's Soros pulling the strings, because this appears to be over Barry's head.
BO has to go.
Nancy must go too
Shrillery must go.
The whole rotten mess of them.
Yeah, they act like a bunch of high school morons—The Leaders Club—yech!
Obama trying to remove his primary challenger?
My first thought was similar to yours, that this would free Hillary to quit the regime and run against Bambi in 2010, but with further reflection, I think this is Obama's devastating f*cking of Hillary: with new bombshell on Drudge with respect to the way she personally ordered the investigation into the Argentine President, this really makes her radioactive.
It is called “plausible deniability”.
After these leaks, we ain’t got any.
I find it interesting how the author of this article throws Hillary under the bus in all of this.
Espionage and info-gathering is as old as time.
What is the MOST curious thing in the Wikileaks thing is that Israel/MOSSAD are not touched upon.
Makes me think it’s psyops from somewhere. . .
It’s fascinating to me to observe that lefties like the Hillabeast are always deemed intelligent, whilst righties such as Reagan are deemed stupid.
History appears to be consistent in demonstrating that both assumptions were 180 degrees out.
There’s gambling in the back room!?!? I’m shocked.
No one ever wondered why nearly every major embassy had dozens of antennas and electronic listening devices?
None of these people are familiar with Venona? The Soviets ran a full blown spy program out of their embassy in DC.
Much ado about nothing.
The Obama administration made a VERY big show of ostentatiously "refudiating" the Bush administration's bias toward secrecy and vowing to declassify all sort of data.
Welcome home Gallus gallus domesticus.
How right you are! . . .a bunch of snarky high school "mean girls!"
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