Wikileaks Releases Half A Million Diplomatic Cables From “Year Zero” Of The Modern Era
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
Nov 28, 2016
Coming on the sixth year anniversary of the infamous “Cablegate”, when on this day in 2010 Wikileaks made global headlines when it unveiled classified cables sent to the US State Department, revealing assessments of countries and details of eavesdropping, this morning WikiLeaks released more than half a million US diplomatic cables from 1979, covering various diplomatic events and incidents such as the Iranian revolution, Osama bin Ladin’s departure of his native Saudi Arabia for Pakistan to support the Mujahideen, the siege of Mecca, Saddam Hussein becoming president of Iraq and much more.
Consisting of 531,525 cables, the latest batch is also known as “Carter Cables III.”
In a statement on the Wikileaks website, Julian Assange, rumors of whose death or disappearance seems greater exaggerated, writes that “If any year could be said to be the ‘year zero’ of our modern era, 1979 is it. In the Middle East, the Iranian revolution, the Saudi Islamic uprising and the Egypt-Israel Camp David Accords led not only to the present regional power dynamic but decisively changed the relationship between oil, militant Islam and the world.”
He adds that “in 1979 it seemed as if the blood would never stop. Dozens of countries saw assassinations, coups, revolts, bombings, political kidnappings and wars of liberation.” In addition to the middle east, other notable events to take place during the year cited by Assange include the election of Margaret Thatcher as British PM and the Three Mile Island nuclear incident.
Among the cables is information on “China officially coming in from the cold” and Deng Xiaoping’s visit to the United States in a defining strategic re-orientation by both states. Other subjects covered in the cables include the USSR invasion of Afghanistan and the Iranian hostage crisis, which saw 66 Americans taken hostage after 3,000 Iranian students raided the US embassy in Tehran.
The Rest…HERE
