WikiLeaks embarrasses world govts with 250,000 leaked cables

Even as the United States dispatched a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to the Yellow Sea to let North Korea know what awaited it in case of further misadventures with South Korea, its diplomats were scrambling around the world to stave off fallout from a crisis caused by whistle-blower website WikiLeaks.

The whistle-blower released some 250,000 classified cables sent from US embassies across the globe to several newspapers on Sunday revealing intimate details of behind-the-scene diplomacy indulged in by the powers-that-be around the globe.

The classified documents were released to The New York Times, the Guardian newspaper in London, Germany's Der Spiegel magazine, El Pais of Spain and France's Le Monde. The list of recipients was the same as the last two occasions, when it released communications related to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars to these publishers before publishing them online.

The five news agencies that received the leaked cables have since published certain parts of the documents without identifying many of those named in the documents, citing fears that such a move could endanger innocent individuals.

Amongst the most interesting titbits would certainly be those related to request made by several Arab nations to the United States to launch airstrikes on Iran's nuclear facilities before that Islamic Shia-majority nation acquired the n-bomb.

An interesting portrait of world leaders emerges from these leaked documents with cables from the US embassy in Moscow alleging links between the Russian government and organized crime and also describing prime minister Vladimir Putin as an "Alpha-dog." Cables from Germany charge chancellor Angela Merkel of avoiding "risks" and being "rarely creative."