WikiLeaks

WikiLeaks has released another sheaf of documents from its repository of secrets. The latest collection is made up of millions of secret documents that the White House says expose the lives of many to danger and, moreover, threaten the security of the United States of America.

Regardless of the motives of those involved in the WikiLeaks operation, they have found a way to obtain and release these secret documents. What is clear now is that a large part of the material that has been released deals with the Arabs and the Middle East. Outside of the Middle East, the documents tend to deal with the countries and the rulers of Muslim countries.

The minds of the Arabs have not yet fathomed the storehouses of American secrets. Rather, an Australian man found them and revealed them to the world.

No Arab, whether individually or collectively, has tried to lay his eyes on the holes in the door to see what one of those dark, smoke-filled rooms may be hiding.

The situation that has resulted is that there is one who has presented us with a gift, and we will say it once again:

Regardless of the motives, “in the midst of the games in the centers of power inside of the United States, binding the interests and conflicts of interests, a white or red coup released secrets that would otherwise have remained hidden away from public view.”

Irrespective of the motives of those behind WikiLeaks, the secrets have appeared on the surface in the light of day. Today, the Arabs typically remain on the surface, far from the heart of world events and decision-making, but now they are still sunbathing insouciantly as though there are not millions of secret American documents lying around for them to read.

We have not heard of a single center of research in the Arab world translating the secret documents and reading what was hidden behind the walls of American power and secrecy.

And there is not a single television show that has devoted itself to taking apart these secrets and reading their significance.

Old news is all that Arabs want to read, watch and hear. The Arab satellite channels have added a number of textile mills to weave an ever-thicker web tying down Arab minds and limiting Arab perspectives. They have added so many programs that the number of television anchors is greater than the population of some Arab countries (think Qatar!). They drone on, saddened by populations of the Third World who are victims of violence from Darfur to Afghanistan, yet they have not shown any interest in the treasure trove of secrets unleashed by WikiLeaks.

Maybe there is an element of laziness, or perhaps there are other factors that are more or less complex than that. At any rate, these documents that are available courtesy of an enterprising Australian are more important than old news reported over and over again in the same stammering manner that leaves us with nothing but our faces drenched by blusterously indignant sprays of saliva.

Given all of these factors — laziness, distraction or apathy — we have not read any of these documents.

If only the companions of the yellow horse had read Sykes-Picot before they released it.