Before we turn into WikiFreaks...

For all their juicy disclosures, the leaked memos are not 'the truth' with a capital T.

Gulraiz Khan December 04, 2010
Excuse me, while I jump on the bandwagon and hail the unprecedented revelation of global espionage. The revelation of a quarter of a million classified diplomatic cables of the United States is no mean feat.

Ordinarily, a quarter of a million journalists would have made their careers if they were fortunate enough to gain access to each of those documents individually. But must we be blinded by the incredulity of such an event to the point that we forget to question what the revelations really are?

For all their juicy and gripping disclosures, the leaked memos are not the truth with a capital T.

The documents are correspondences of American diplomats posted at embassies across the world. Therefore, at best, they provide an interesting insight into American foreign policy and how these individual diplomats perceived the world around them. Unless you lend omniscience to these individuals, some of the memos and their revelations are as close to being the truth as our conspiracy theories.

As for the who said what against whom, it is nothing more than glorified gossip, once you account for the occasional errors that are bound to have occurred during translations.

That does not mean that all of it is false. The diplomats were not imbeciles. However, individually, and as nation states, we will accept those revelations as true that conform to our own narratives and discard the rest as conspiracies. Invariably, when the dust settles, we will trudge along on our usual paths.

However, for historians and academics, the memos will continue to serve as a treasure trove – one they will examine, critique and then use to conjecture fresh perspectives on our age.

I will reserve any sweeping alterations to my worldview until then.
WRITTEN BY:
Gulraiz Khan A sub-editor on the business desk of The Express Tribune who is interested in visual journalism and hopes to turn newspapers in to works of art
The views expressed by the writer and the reader comments do not necassarily reflect the views and policies of the Express Tribune.

COMMENTS (4)

hunain kapadia | 13 years ago | Reply Agreed. They hardly reveal anything that jumps out as brand new information. Most of the leaks just confirm what conspiracy theorists and anti-US people have been talking about for a long time. However, it does portray the power of Wikileaks itself and its potential to cause major damage if/when it desires. With this kind of media frenzy that they caused, they can spread distrust and demur in even the most well knit organizations.
S. Ali Raza | 13 years ago | Reply Disagree! Very soon you will be changing your opinion. Please also follow the reaction of the world and casualties of Wikileaks starting from yesterday. This is real stuff, that endorses the stories journalists have been hiding as "off-the-record". The next few months, the media will not be able to ignore the wikileaks.
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