Japanese Foreign Minister Calls WikiLeaks Disclosure “a Monstrosity” [ #cablegate ]

Just a few small updates about the ongoing WikiLeaks Cablegate scandal:

According to CNN, Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara has denounced WikiLeak’s cable release as “a monstrosity and a criminal act.” One can assume he is not looking forward to the stress that will come when WikiLeaks gets around to releasing the thousands of Tokyo embassy cables that it has on file.

The Mainichi notes that a Chinese official expressed concerns to U.S. ambassador in June 2009 that Japan’s “obsession with the (North Korean) abduction issue reminded him of a Chinese expression for an individual who was too weak to make something work, yet strong enough to destroy it.”

The WSJ has a blog post about how some other Korea-related cables mentioned Japan. It doesn’t contain much that anyone would consider particularly new or surprising: China doesn’t want Japan to have a seat on the UN Security Council, South Korea thinks Japan is weary about a reunified Korea, etc.

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Rob A

Pro Tip: People usually condemn acts that directly hurt them or their group.

If you didn’t have anything to hide, you shouldn’t be worried. If you did, you should be ready for whatever you have coming.

Embarassing to the government? Sure. Good for society and the world? Hell yes! Harmful to innocent people? Not even a little.
vonskippy

I remember back in the 90′s when I worried about my communication getting spied on, then I learned how to encrypt everything and haven’t been worried since. Amazing how stupid the average government worker/office/team/etc is.

http://tepido.org/ LB

Exncryption only works if… the material is not downloaded by someone who has the encryption key and then released in unencrypted format. As happened in this case: 3 MILLION people had the key, and one of those people decided to be a “hero”.

Hage Oyaji

So far I find Hitlary Clinton´s orders to spy and get biometric data from UN officials to be quit severe, other than that not really something mind blowing, yet from Secret US Embassy Cables. But it´s good to see that governments around the world are crapping in their pants. Looking forward to being educated on what the real deal is between the US, Japan, Okinawa relationship together with the relation ship DPJ has with LDP, Korea etc.
Fat Tony

Clinton didn’t issue those orders. She passed on inter-agency instructions. It’s unlikely any diplomats were involved in collecting credit-card and frequent flyer mile numbers.

I suspect the Tokyo files won’t reveal anything we don’t already know. This is what they will probably say:

1. Hatoyama is a flake.
2. Ozawa and Sengoku are mercurial
3. Maehara is America’s man in the DPJ (that’s why he’s pissed about the leak).
4. In February 2009, when it looked like Aso was about to call an election, concluding the base agreement was Washington’s top priority in Japan
5. There will be some debate on how to use threats like NKorea and China to U.S. advantage, either by deepening U.S.-Japan military cooperation or loosening the restrictions on selling U.S. weapons to Japan.

If we are really lucky they will mention that Abe Shinzo is a complete retard, but it is best to keep stringing him along to get what the U.S. wants.
Snapple

I don’t know. I find this leak to be ridiculous. I supported wikileaks before because it had the possibility to be beneficial to Government transparency and could help keep governments responsible but now it just seems like it demoted itself to gossip rap.

“OMG WHAT DID PAKISTAN SAY ABOUT THE U.S.?! U.S. AND RUSSIA SECRETLY GOING OUT!? ENGLAND SAYS IT’S IN LOVE BUT DOESN’T KNOW IF IT CAN ACCEPT BRAZIL’S PLAYBOY WAYS!”

Why is it important exactly to know that a random English royal was rude? Are you kidding me? Not everything that you don’t say out loud means that you’re corrupt and hiding things. You might think your best friend’s girlfriend is ugly but if you said it to her face you’d be an ass. No one needs to know. Caring about whether you cheated with her > you think she’s fugly. Isn’t it more important to know whether illegal behavior is going on then what some Chinese official says about Japan in terms of attitude? Wikileaks is ridiculous now. It seems ridiculous that so many people think that they are entitled to know everything when they’re only getting glimpses of the situation? I doubt your average joe who is so eager to find out about all secret government dealings is going to devote his life to understanding and guiding the situation. If you are only getting a portion of the picture why is it important for you to expose every little detail?

Fat Tony

Well, the UN thing is quite important, as it implies that somebody is spying even if it is not the State Department.
Hage Oyaji

Some of the leaks is reminding me of a reality show soap opera. In a way, I prefer that than some of the horrid war crimes. If there were only these soap operas gossips then that would be very welcomed, unfortunately that is not the case.
DM

I agree with you. WikiLeaks should’ve released only evidence of actual wrong-doings instead of this “information wants to be free” thing.

If you are a whistle-blower, you don’t release all the documents you were ever trusted to handle. You expose the specific corruption that you are supposed to be exposing.

Japanese Foreign Minister Calls WikiLeaks Disclosure “a Monstrosity” [ #cablegate ]

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