Old Enough to Buy Watches

All thanks go out to Julian Assange — for whom we wish complete freedom — for he has given us the juicy details of U.S. foreign policy around the world and especially in our area. At the same time, the Arab revolutions will give us great information about the scandals of some regimes and political powers of the new millennium.

The previously published documents on WikiLeaks are but a drop in the ocean of new information now that our friend has decided to publish all the documents in his possession (around 250,000) without any redactions. This will give the world great insight into American politics and gossip, both political and non-political, and about its dealings with many countries of the world.

Who breathed a sigh of relief when the first storm blew over without anyone losing their head? Now, there is not a single country whose scandals cannot be made public. The people will see what has been hidden from them: attitudes and correspondences, statements and machinations.

There are tens of thousands of documents concerning the politics, security and economies of our region, especially the main capital cities. No one will survive this storm. The Internet will be rich with material for several months, especially if there are active efforts to translate and publish the texts without modification or alteration.

Names and facts and figures will be available. Diplomats in U.S. embassies will not be able to avoid it. They will not be able to say that meetings were not held or certain things were not said. However, other justifications will be used to deny the truth.

If the first round of publications caused so much fuss, then this next round will have a much larger impact. It will give the “Arab street” material to wreak havoc on our countries’ policies and bring misery to our politicians.

In Iraq, we will see amazing details of what happened before and after the occupation with these tens of thousands of documents. We will see all forms of gossip among the politicians. We will see the scene without any frills. We will see how the Sunni and Shiite political forces incited each other. We will see the scene crowded with scandals, both surprising and disgusting.

On the Palestinian front, we will know much about what happened behind the scenes. This time there will be names and facts. We will know the truth about the Palestinian and Israeli positions, including details on their policies. However, not many surprises are expected here. [WikiLeaks] has already given us solid evidence to prove many wrong — as was the case when the ruling elite denied information on documents detailing various negotiations. But then when their abuses were read to them on Al-Jazeera, they confessed!

Around the Gulf region, this issue will be more interesting than many people expect in terms of the details. Across the Arab scene, we have seen many shameful positions and denial of the documents’ existence when the evidence was not available. With the evidence now here, the policy of denial will no longer work; although it will most likely continue.

We will learn a lot about the different regimes and leaders inciting each other. We will see elements of governments and politicians, intellectuals, dissidents and opponents naked in the public eye. We will see what visitors to embassies say to those in charge. We will see what is said behind closed doors, what no one dares say out in the open. Generally, the scene will be closer to entertainment than to anything else. Perhaps with the expanse of information writers will be able to write without straining themselves daily to find topics to write about.

This is a scene of great magnificence. Indeed, we are grateful to Assange and his friends who have made available to us this expanse of entertainment and information. There will be entertainment as well as bitter political reality in the aftermath. There is a possibility that there will be condemnation of those who call on their communities to respond, those who analyze what is happening and have faith in the old Arab saying, “If you find an animal, you’ll be led to the herd; but if you follow it’s trail, then you’ll be following its path.”

We expect to access Internet sites. Respectable and not so respectable news sites will translate and publish the seized documents; the nature of what is published will depend on location and policy. Each will pick what they want from the published material. But the reader will not be stuck with only one site. He will move along to many others, gathering more and more details as he does.

We do not know how each country will deal with Assange or how people will deal with the new information. However, it is sure that no one will be able to deprive the people of information.

This is the chance to dissipate boredom. It is the chance to discover political misfortunes. The chance for the Arab street to realize that there is no choice but to change. A real change, not just “patchwork” change, which has been tried time and time again to no avail.