Harm or no harm? Government can't keep story straight on Wikileaks

Surprise! Government officials are having trouble keeping their story straight on the impact of controversial cables revealed to the public via Wikileaks. The Guardian's Paul Harris writes:

It emerged in private briefings to Congress by top diplomats that the fallout from the release of thousands of private diplomatic cables from all over the globe has not been especially bad.

This is in direct opposition to the official stance of the White House and the US government which has been vocal in condemning the whistle-blowing organisation and seeking to bring its founder, Julian Assange, to trial in the US.

Moreover, the exposures most damaging to U.S. interests appear to be those that offered new information on misdeeds, lies, deaths and so forth — those that were most clearly in the public interest and most easily defensible as 'legitimate' journalism.