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Since the emergence of the WikiLeaks in late November, I have argued that their damage would be overstated. American diplomats have had to deal for many decades with "leaks", sometimes from officials in the Administration. While WikiLeaks was potentially on a bigger scale --- less than 1% of the 250,000 documents have been released --- redactions in the cables (although there have been a few notable errors in letting names through) have limited any repercussions.
This, of course, would not stop the US Government from proclaiming loudly that there have been grave consequences. "Embarrassment" is not the same as "damage", and there is plenty of that in the released cables, which show --- unsurprisingly --- that the private pursuit of US foreign policy differs from its public presentation. The priority for the Government would be to ensure that a document release on this scale does not happen again.
Now I have gotten support from an unexpected source.
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