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Cables Obtained by WikiLeaks Shine Light Into Secret Diplomatic Channels — WASHINGTON — A cache of a quarter-million confidential American diplomatic cables, most of them from the past three years, provides an unprecedented look at backroom bargaining by embassies around the world …
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Firedoglake, Bloomberg, CNN, CBS News, CBS New York, The Daily Beast, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Bark Bark Woof Woof, Gizmodo, News: News blog, Democracy in America, The Other McCain, Wake up America, Daniel W. Drezner, TechCrunch, The Reality-Based Community, JOSHUAPUNDIT, Swampland, The Mahablog, ParaPundit, The Harvard Crimson, Wizbang, Gawker, msnbc.com, Outside the Beltway, Boing Boing, FP Passport, Daily Kos, A Chequer-Board of Nights …, Associated Press, Wall Street Journal, The Wire, Top of the Ticket, Threat Level, Right Wing News, The Agonist, Politics Daily, NO QUARTER, Hullabaloo, Mediaite, The Daily Caller, Weasel Zippers, TalkLeft, The Daily Dish, Philly.com, Booman Tribune, The Staggers, BLACKFIVE and International Business Times, more at Techmeme »
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A Superpower's View of the World — 251,000 State Department documents, many of them secret embassy reports from around the world, show how the US seeks to safeguard its influence around the world. It is nothing short of a political meltdown for US foreign policy.

US cables leak sparks global diplomatic crisis — • More than 250,000 dispatches reveal US foreign strategies — • Diplomats ordered to spy on allies as well as enemies — • Saudi king urged Washington to bomb Iran — Read the full coverage of the US embassy cables

A Note to Readers: The Decision to Publish Diplomatic Documents — The articles published today and in coming days are based on thousands of United States embassy cables, the daily reports from the field intended for the eyes of senior policy makers in Washington.


Diplomatic Cables Reveal US Doubts about Turkey's Government — The leaked diplomatic cables reveal that US diplomats are skeptical about Turkey's dependability as a partner. The leadership in Ankara is depicted as divided and permeated by Islamists. — US diplomats have grave doubts about Turkey's dependability.
Discussion:
tundratabloids.com and Weasel Zippers


WikiLeaks, Secret Cables and the Downside of America's Security Mania … The embarrassing release of more than a quarter million confidential U.S. diplomatic cables Sunday by WikiLeaks is certain to spawn a hand-wringing national debate over why America cannot keep its secrets.
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Hullabaloo, Washington Post and The BRAD BLOG, more at Mediagazer »


WikiLeaks exposé: Barak warned strike on Iran was viable until end of 2010
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Guardian

Guardian editor says they gave cables to the NY Times
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MiamiHerald.com, The Nation and msnbc.com, more at Mediagazer »

US embassy cables: browse the database
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War Is A Crime .org and Mondoweiss, more at Techmeme »

Iran Fortifies Its Arsenal With the Aid of North Korea
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The Gateway Pundit, Guardian, The Daily Dish and Liberty Pundits Blog


Leslie Nielsen, Actor, Dies at 84 — Leslie Nielsen, the Canadian-born actor who in middle age tossed aside three decades of credibility in dramatic and romantic roles to make a new, far more successful career as a comic actor in films like “Airplane!” and the “Naked Gun” series, died on Sunday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He was 84.
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skippy the bush kangaroo, TBogg, Gawker and Boing Boing
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Leslie Nielsen, ‘Airplane!’ and ‘Naked Gun’ star, dies at 84 — Leslie Nielsen, who dazzled with deadpan in The Naked Gun and Airplane!, passed away on Sunday at a hospital near his home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where he was being treated for pneumonia, according to the New York Times. He was 84.
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Rumproast


Leslie Nielsen Dies at Age 84 — Leslie Nielsen in “Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad” … UPDATED — Leslie Nielsen, the actor best known for starring in such comedies as Airplane! and the Naked Gun film franchise, died Sunday of complications from pneumonia at a hospital near his home in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. He was 84.
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Pharyngula and Tuned In

Leslie Nielsen, Actor, Dies at 84 — FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Leslie Nielsen, who went from drama to inspired bumbling as a hapless doctor in “Airplane!” and the accident-prone detective Frank Drebin in “The Naked Gun” comedies, has died. He was 84. — His agent John S. Kelly …
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin, The New Republic and freerepublic.com

Wikileaks - Anti-Israel Foreign Policy Experts Got Saudi Arabia, Other Arab Countries 100% Backward On Iran Attack — By — It didn't get nearly as much play as it should have, but Obama's June 2009 meeting with Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah ended with the monarch flying into a tirade …
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Israellycool, The Atlantic Online, RubinReports, Guardian and Doug Ross
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Around the World, Distress Over Iran
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Commentary, YID With LID, Guardian, Washington Post, The Daily Dish, The Daily Beast, The Atlantic Online, msnbc.com and Israpundit

Saudi Arabia urges US attack on Iran to stop nuclear programme
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Telegraph, The Gateway Pundit, Outside the Beltway, Weasel Zippers, Mondoweiss, The Daily Dish, The Atlantic Online and Raw Story

US embassy cables: Saudi king's advice for Barack Obama
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Fox Nation and Danger Room


The FBI successfully thwarts its own Terrorist plot — (updated below) — The FBI is obviously quite pleased with itself over its arrest of a 19-year-old Somali-American, Mohamed Osman Mohamud, who — with months of encouragement, support and money from the FBI's own undercover agents …
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Fire set at mosque where terror suspect worshipped
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Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Power Line and msnbc.com

Neighbors say wannabe Christmas bomber Mohamed Mohamud embraced …
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Jihad Watch


US Diplomats Told to Spy on Other Countries at United Nations — The US State Department gave its diplomats instructions to spy on other countries' representatives at the United Nations, according to a directive signed by Hillary Clinton. Diplomats were told to collect information about e-mail accounts …
Discussion:
Balloon Juice and tundratabloids.com
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U.S. Expands Role of Diplomats in Spying
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War Is A Crime .org, more at Techmeme »

The Obsession With Liberals' Obsession With Sarah Palin — Charles Krauthammer has lambasted the mainstream (i.e. liberal) media for its obsession with Sarah Palin. — That goes double for liberal entertainers and academics, and triple for the left-blogosphere, which is nuts-in-the-head …
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NewsBusters.org blogs, The Reaction, The Other McCain and theblogprof
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How the nanny president sees himself — and us — Tweet — What's it like inside the Obama White House? A lot like what you'd guess from outside the Obama White House. — In “Revival: The Struggle for Survival Inside Obama's White House,” MSNBC analyst Richard Wolffe …
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Erick's blog, Tim Blair and Instapundit
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The Administration's “Communication Problem”
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Hullabaloo, Los Angeles Times, Paul Krugman, Grasping Reality … and Suburban Guerrilla

Presidential historian curses, calls Americans ‘lazy and obese’ — Presidential biographer Edmund Morris delivered one of the more, well, colorful lines on this week's Sunday morning shows. — On CBS's “Face the Nation,” host Bob Schieffer, anchoring an authors roundtable discussion …
Discussion:
NewsBusters.org blogs, LewRockwell.com Blog and Althouse

A Media False Alarm Over the T.S.A. — If a squadron of mad scientists surrounded by supercomputers gathered in a laboratory to try to conjure a single news topic that would blow up large, they could not touch the T.S.A. pat-down story. — It began with a Drudge Report link to a video …


Bradley Manning: The prime suspect of giving files to WikiLeaks — The prime suspect in the leaking of top secret documents to the WikiLeaks website is currently confined to a cell at a military base in Quantico, Virginia. — Bradley Manning, 23, enlisted in the US Army in 2007 and became …
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Daily Mail, Swampland, TalkLeft and The Reaction