A Peek Into Wikileaks' United States Diplomatic Cables Leak

Wikileaks' disclosure of over 250,000 classified documents detailing correspondence between U.S. embassies around the world has been released. About an hour prior to the planned release of the documents on 28 November, Wikileaks announced it was undergoing a massive distributed denial-of-service attack, but vowed to still leak the cables and documents via prominent media outlets including El País, Le Monde, Der Spiegel, The Guardian, and The New York TimesThe New York Times.

Some information included are the following:

Middle East issues

• Strong Arab distrust for Iran referring to them as “evil”, as well as encouragement for a military strike on the nuclear facilities in Iran.
• Iran alledgedy is in possession of missile derived from a Russian design and obtained from North Korea that are more powerful than any weapon publicly admitted to be in Iran's possession. These missiles, designated the BM-25, have a range of up to 2,000 miles (3,200 km).
• Claims that the Iranian Red Crescent is actively controlled by the government and are involved in illicit arms smuggling and intelligence gathering on behalf of Iran.
• Israel was ready to attack a nuclear-armed Iran.
• Grave fears in Washington and London over the security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme.
• Increased Syrian arms shipments to Hezbollah despite their claims that new shipments have ceased.
• Devastating criticism of the UK's military operations in Afghanistan.
• Analyses of numerous leaders, including comparing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler, calling Vladimir PutinVladimir Putin an "alpha-dog", Hamid KarzaiHamid Karzai as being "driven by paranoia" andAngela Merkel as someone who "avoids risk and is rarely creative".
• According to a cable from the American Embassy in Kabul, Vice President of Afghanistan, Ahmad Zia Massoud, was found carrying $52 million in cash that he “was ultimately allowed to keep without revealing the money’s origin or destination.” The discovery was made in the United Arab Emirates by local authorites working with the Drug Enforcement Agency.
• Saudi donors remain chief financiers of militant groups like Al Qaida.

Issues related to China

• A Chinese contact told the American Embassy in Beijing that the Chinese government was responsible for instigating the January 2010 Google hacking incident.
• Chinese government operatives have waged a coordinated campaign of computer sabotage targeting the United States and its allies.

Other issues

• Special intelligence campaigns were run to spy on the leadership of the United Nations including secretary general Ban Ki-moonBan Ki-moon and the permanent security council representatives from China, Russia, France and the UK, as well as many other countries.
• Alleged links between the Russian government and organised crime.
• Claims of inappropriate behaviour by a member of the British Royal Family.
• The United States apparently used bargaining to move prisoners from the Guantanamo Bay detention camp to other countries. In one case, if Slovenia did not take one of the prisoners, President Obama would not agree to meet with Slovenian officials. Other offers include economic incentives or even a visit from President Obama.

The Guardian released its coverage of the leaked cables in numerous articles, including an interactive database, on 28 November. Der Spiegel also released its preliminary report, with extended coverage promised on 29 November. Its cover for November 29th was also leaked. El País released its report on November 28th as well. The New York Times is covering the story in a nine-part series spanning nine days, with the first story published on November 28th.