U.S. "Grateful" for Karzai's WikiLeaks Handling

Afghan President Hamid Karzai took the high road after being criticized in the deluge of sensitive State Department documents released by WikiLeaks, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday.

And for that, Gates said, he is very grateful.

CBSNews.com Special Report: WikiLeaks
WikiLeaks CableGate Update Blog

Standing next to Karzai during a news conference, Gates said Karzai and other allies "have responded to this, in my view, in an extraordinarily statesmanlike way. I'm deeply grateful, and frankly I think the American government will not forget this kind of statesmanlike response."

One American diplomatic memo divulged by WikiLeaks quotes the U.S. ambassador to Kabul describing Karzai as a "paranoid and weak individual." Another memo said that Karzai had freed dangerous detainees and drug dealers from prison because of their connections to influential Afghan figures.

Afghan Minister: WikiLeaks Hurt U.S.-Afghan Ties
Cables: Bribery and Graft Common in Afghanistan
CBSNews.com Special Report: Afghanistan

Questions about the document dump dogged Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on her recent foreign trip. Before the release, U.S. officials were forced to make calls to foreign leaders to warn them and then apologized.

While Gates has said the leak of more than a quarter million documents was embarrassing, he has insisted that they will not have a lasting effect on U.S. diplomacy.

"At the end of the day," he said, "nations and leaders make decisions based on their interests."

For his part, Karzai joked about the matter. Asked about his country's need for military equipment, he started to answer and then turned to Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander in Afghanistan, to ask whether what he was about to reveal was a secret.

"Not anymore," joked Gates, with a laugh.

To which Karzai quipped, "You shouldn't share things like that with presidents, you know we are WikiLeaks."

[jnostromo]

The enitre privacy and security of everyone in the world is at risk not simply because of wikileaks but because of the technology we so readily rely upon...The warnings of the great science fiction writers of our times are starting to come true....Man is becoming impotent and obsolete

[TheBackDoorman]

Karzi is mentally unstable crook. A puppet of the Oil Baron's puppet master George Bush. All connected to gangster's, thief's and maybe even to the real terrorist that sit in safety as we destroy the innocennts homes searching for imaginary weapons and terrorist who are elsewhere.

George Bush led us like the recovering addict he was. Mentally unstable, a man of low values with corruption a part of his life. Rent the movie, Fahrenheit 911 and you will see proof of this. Unbeleivable but true.

Our country is in two unnecessary self defeating destroy and rebuild un-winable DigiNet Age Vietnam's that have accomplished nothing but more terrorism recruitment from the family member's we kill wrongly now.

We all want the terrorist in chains but just not in the weak minded demented evil way George Bush, Dick Cheney and Ronald Rumsfield Chose. Since when did our flag fly for torture, civilian persecution, schock and awe and invasions?

Our General's have spent 750,000,000,000 every year for ten years to only make more terrorist. Only a recovering addict would hunt terrotist with armies. That's like hunting deer with tanks.

Every move Bush made only made the innocent suffer and the terrorist a 1,000 time stronger. Sad to say but true. You don't hunt terrorist with armies. you hunt terrorist with special forces, backed up with our air power. The recovering addict didn't see it that way. He saw imaginary weapons in his demented mind. He saw a religious war, and persecuted and blamed everyone but the real terrorist for 911.

Two DigiNet Age Vietnams at the cost up to today of $6,000,000,000,000.
Yet you vote these tyrant's back in office. Our flag is stained with hte innocents blood as the real terrorist sit in hiding enjoying our self defeating leadership.

I though Obama was a honest man, who would change the world, yet he walks in Bush's footsteps with no change at all. He now say's 2012, 2020, 2100 we might have some of our troops home.

North Korea is about ready to start a third Vietnam because it's the perfect time with our total force out struggling in the two other DigiNet Age Vietnams.

A draft of our young teen's is near. Mark my words. Your teenage boy's and girl's in highschool now will be forced to enlist in the army in order to satisfiy our General's call for 500,000 more troops to fight the 2 million troops of North Korea. That's factual.

During Vietnam they drafted teens like me a week after graduating high school to six weeks of training and then a day later in the Vietnames jungle killing or be killed.

One thing I say, is all children must get a draft number. Durning Vietnam the rich had many deferments for their children. The Korean war comings' draft should have no exemptions. OBama's little girls will be eligilbe soon and must get a draft ball too, as all of the elites children should. The elite's children lives are no more valuable than the poor people of our country. Demand a fair draft.

The Soviet Union with all of it's power couldn't defeat the Taliban and they were right next door. We have to ship and commute 12,500 miles for every soldier, bullet or any supplies at a very heavy cost. The worst thing is the fool's are only creating more terrorist.

Do you feel safer now than in 2001? Are you prepared for your pure teenager going merryily along, to send him to the cold hard mountains of North Korea. The worst thing in Bush's fools Vietnams will make us a weak foe against Korea. Even worse than that China will allow the war to go on with hundred's of thousands of our boys and girls killed and when we start to win they will demand a armistice again.

I'm going to write a book on the truth of George Bush and his DigiNet Age Vietnams. The true history for people read a thousand years from now. WikiLeaks has given me a lot of thoughts.

President Obama I advise you as a man of wisdom, to bring our armies home now. Stop hunting the terrorist with armies. Change the strategy. Hunt only terrorist. Leave the Taliban alone. Pull our armies out and use our airforce to destroy any base or traing camp. very easy. Armies aren't the way. Special force's, the CIA, Drones and intellegence,(which so far none has been shown) will put the real terrorist in chains.

A wise man would recruit the Pakistani's, and the rest of the Arab world to hunt terrorist. A wise man would speak to the United Nations with the logic of world safety and world peace by laying out the foundation that is needed.

All the recovering addict did was destroy the democratic foundation of the world. He left our flag flying with the darkness of torture and invasions. It's not too late for you to change the world Mr. Obama. Be the man you were before you won. The only change I've scene is in you.

[jnostromo]

The war on terror is a joke..The UN is impotent and the very arab nations we hold closely as "allies" are in fact part of the problem...The greatest threat to this country is from the doemstic terrorists living among us..(gangs, ceo's , corporations)...Then again this country is a mere shadow of what it once was because the american public has become dumbed down, and zombified.

[bjo1109]

There is a fine line between freedome (of information, press, speech, etc) and invasion of privacy. I believe WikiLeaks has crossed that line. I don't care about anything documents that are merely embarrassing for the US. However, I do care about documents that endanger our national security, our financial security, or the lives of any American citizens around the world. WikiLeaks has gone too far. For WikiLeaks, it is not about freedom of information. Assange himself said that his goal was to break the US: to bring down a major US bank and Wall Street, and basically bring the US itself to its knees. That sounds like terrorism to me. And threatening to release a doomsday "insurance" file if anything happens to him---this sounds like blackmail to me. So, in his own words, he is a cyber-terrorist trying to harm the US. All of you people bleating about freedom of information should listen to what your "hero" is saying. He doesn't care about freedom of information; he leaves that to all of you misguided people who would rather have the US become a third-world nation than use common sense. There is always a balancing act between freedoms and the right to defend yourself and your country. In this case, I believe we need to defend ourselves--or there won't be any country left. What do you think will happen to your freedoms then? Common sense, people!

[1stwolf]

WikiLeaks is only new to you; Americans have always known they were being lied to. Don't forget we have to put up with this government the cooperations and these two unending wars that were justly and/or unjustly started by Republicans/Democrats.

[wyodutch]

I wonder if Karzai wiped his arse before Gates inserted his nose.

[nor-one]

How much did you have to pay the drug czar for his statement Casey???

[Rajah88]

The MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL MAFIA have marched America*s sons and daughters to slaughter to defend corruption and opressive religion, bankrupted our nation but claims WikiLeaks to be the villian!

The MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL MAFIA has marched America*s sons and daughters to slaughter to defend corruption and oppressive religion, bankrupted our nation but claims WikiLeaks to be the villain!

When the MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL MAFIA has bled America dry, your money is worthless and you are living in third world conditions, you will wish you had paid attention to WIKILEAKS* warnings.

America and the world can handle TRUTH.

Consider, however, the state of humanity trained from birth to believe lies.

World governments are lying to us, bleeding humanity of money, opportunity and life to the benefit of a few like the duplicitous Saudi *Royalty*, our REAL enemies, President Karzai and his heroin kingpin brother, Pakistani generals, other governmental elite and military thugs of the world.

Julian Assange has exposed SOME of those lies, not just American lies but lies of world governments. It is time WE THE PEOPLE learned the truth.

People can deal with truth and reality but no one can deal with lies.

Julian Assange and WikiLeaks have given the world a gift.

DO NOT WASTE IT.

[wyodutch]

Is Gates a bozo or what?
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Karzai's vice-president get's caught with $52,000,000 (That's fifty-two MILLION U.S. dollars) as he's landing in Dubai. The little creep doesn't even have to explain where the money came from. Now Gates is kissing Karzai's patoot as a way of blaming WikiLeaks for the whole sordid incident.
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America needs WikiLeaks a heck of a lot more than it needs politicians like Gates or "allies" like Karzai.