Tales From The Beijing Embassy

This about Science & Technology, tagged , , , was written by for on December 8, 2010 .7 Comments

Four cables from Cathay, courtesy of this excellent Cable Search tool. The first cable (Cable 1) is one of the last dispatches of Ambassador to the PRC Clark T. Randt, a long, analytical piece from January 2009. But it’s also perhaps the least interesting of the four.  This is because it is only a rehashing of […]

I’d Sooner See The World Burn Than Compromise With Rogue Scientists

This about Science & Technology, tagged , , was written by for on December 7, 2010 .3 Comments

Or at least that’s what seems to be going around in the mind of Condoleezza Rice, if this cable (Cable 1) from September 2008 is anything to go by. After successfully persuading countries like Brazil to let the American scientist Christopher Field run unopposed for an important position in a Working Group of the Intergovernmental Panel […]

Orientalism Overload

This about Geopolitics, tagged , , , , was written by for on December 6, 2010 .8 Comments

This might well be my favorite cable so far – perhaps even better than the Caucasus wedding – courtesy of US ambassador to Iran Bruce Laingen in August 1979. Now maybe US diplomats are culturally West-centric and insular today, but they’ve got nothing on their predecessors. “Perhaps the single dominant aspect of the Persian psyche is […]

Chechnya, A Once And Future War?

This about Geopolitics, tagged , , , , , was written by for on December 5, 2010 .7 Comments

Truly, if Willian Burns were to issue an anthology of his Moscow cables during his 2005-2008 ambassadorship, I’d seriously consider buying it. Just consider this cable from May 2006, on Chechnya’s “Once and Future War”, a nuanced US view of that conflict and the cynicism and corruption it engendered amongst all its parties. What struck […]

Russia Arming The Rest, And US Views On This

This about Geopolitics, tagged , , , , , was written by for on December 5, 2010 .18 Comments

Another Wikileaks cable – a secret one, not merely confidential – from our Caucasus ethnologist and bestest bud at the State Department, William Burns. Dated October 2007, it describes America’s perception of Russia’s global arms trade and emphasizes its concerns that many of its partners are “rogue” or “anti-American” states like Syria, Iran and Venezuela. However, […]

Cable Intermezzo: A Caucasus Wedding

This about Society, tagged , , , , was written by for on December 3, 2010 .5 Comments

One of the most endearing and surprising cables came from William Burns, US Ambassador to Russia from 2005 to 2008: a beautifully written account of a Daghestani wedding scene that might as well have come from a latter-day Prisoner of the Caucasus. The US diplomatic corps has hardly distinguished itself with the acuity of its […]

New York Times Manipulation Of The (Alleged) North Korean Missile Sales To Iran Cable

This about Media, tagged , , , , , was written by for on December 3, 2010 .5 Comments

It’s sad, but not unexpected, to see the usual motley of neocons, freepers and general creeps crawling about the interwebs, baying for Assange’s blood and calling for him to be disappeared into the Nacht und Nebel. But it is absolutely tragic that, misled by the MSM and dulled by their own cynicism, so many people […]