Wikileaks "Cablegate": Information Overload

The thing is (keep it between ourselves, save my blushes!), despite my years of journalistic training and experience, I don't know where to start this morning.

You probably know they say they've got 251,287 documents in total. They're publishing the documents here (although only 226 have been published at the time of writing). Five newspapers - Guardian, New York Times, El Pais, Le Monde and Der Spiegel - already have access to all of the documents.

I'm stuck. I don't know which of the revelations should be our focus today on WHYS. Frankly, any one of the following claims / disclosures would be a big talking point on its own (and as you can see from the links, different writers around the world are picking out different aspects that matter to them ...)

1. Accusations that US diplomats were ordered to spy on UN officials. One section in this cable talks about gathering "biographic and biometric information on UN Security Council permanent representatives".

2. Saudi Arabia strongly advocates a military strike on Iran. King Abdullah apparently likens such an attack to "cutting the head off the snake"; the rulers of Bahrain and Abu Dhabi are also quoted. However, Firdaus on our Facebook page notes " it merely confirms the opinions of many MidEast countries against Iran" (presumably opinions he suspected they had anyway)

3. A stand-off over nuclear fuel in Pakistan. Cables published in the New York Times report the US has been trying to removed enriched uranium from Pakistani reactors since 2007.

4. Personal comments about world leaders. You don't have to read Spanish to see that El Pais believes this to be the most interesting angle, with pictures of Gaddafi, Hu Jintao, etc at the top of the page, next to quotes about them. Putin is "an alpha-dog", according to one cable. President Ahmedinehad is described as "Hitler".

5. Yemen's President Saleh covering for the US, claiming responsibility for attacks on militants there in fact carried out by American drones. "We'll continue saying the bombs are ours, not yours," he's quoted as saying in January.

6. China's Politburo directed a hack attack on Google last year. The cables also talk about a campaign of sabotage directed against other targets, including the US government and the Dalai Lama.

7. US Drug Enforcement Agents working in the UAE found $52 million in cash on the visiting Vice President of Afghanistan. He didn't explain where the money had come from, or where it was going to.

... and many many more (take your pick!). And that's before getting into the whole area of whether or not to publish in the first place. There are various pieces describing that quandary.

On Twitter, some almost gleefully compare the Wikileaks release to the hot topic of US airline security; take @fenrir:

Dear government: as you keep telling us, if you've done nothing wrong, you've got nothing to fear

If you could help out with this, it would be appreciated ... Let me know what you think is the most important thing to focus on.

Does any of it really surprise you?! Maybe it shows the great lengths America is going to in order to keep the world safe? Maybe we go for something like the Times Of India headline:

US v Wikileaks: whose side are you on?