For Your Eyes Only: Henry Kissinger's Dirty Laundry, Courtesy of Wikileaks
collection covers US involvements in, and diplomatic or intelligence reporting on, every country on earth. It is the single most significant body of geopolitical material ever published.
From 2011-2014, Daniel Honan was the Managing Editor at Big Think. Prior to Big Think, Daniel was Vice President of Production for Plum TV, a niche cable network he helped launch in 2002. The production team he oversaw won over two dozen Emmy awards. Daniel has created numerous shows and documentaries for television, and his film credits include Stealing the Fire, a documentary on the black market for nuclear weapons technology.
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Julian Assange had a lot of time on his hands while being holed up at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. So the Wikileaks founder did what he does best: he prepared classified material for release.
"With nothing to do but work on WikiLeaks material," as his mother put it, Assange spent his time data-mining and preparing the release of 1.7 million intelligence reports and classified communications. The first batch of documents to be released is from 1973 to 1976, the period in which Henry Kissinger served as U.S. Secretary of State and National Security Adviser.
This period includes the beginnings of the dirty war in Argentina, the 1973 coup d'etat in Chile and other highly controversial aspects of U.S. Cold War policy. Revelations from this period may not only be potentially damaging to Kissinger but also Pope Francis, who was at the time a leader of Argentina's Jesuit order that either tacitly supported, turned a blind eye toward or remained publicly silent about atrocities committed by the military. Thousands who were suspected of "subversion" were rounded up and subsequently "disappeared."
These files are being called the Public Library of U.S. Diplomacy (PLUS D). The site boasts this is the "single most significant body of geopolitical material ever published."
Why “I’m not racist” is only half the story
How white defensiveness derails progress on racial issues
- How white fragility blocks the prospect of racial equality
- Why white guilt is a roadblock to equality
- If you're not racist, why is racism still America's biggest problem?
Study: how to give up your cake and eat it too
A new study shows how reciprocal generosity can benefit you.
- Researchers studied what people do when distributing items of unequal value.
- You may be more likely to get the item you want if you let the other person decide.
- Reciprocal generosity can let you "give up your cake and eat it too".
Why is Le Guin's hand-drawn map not as famous as her book?
Like Stevenson, Tolkien and other creators of fantasy worlds, Ursula K. Le Guin was a cartographer as well as a writer
- Stevenson, Tolkien and Le Guin have all made maps to 'illustrate' their stories.
- Despite the iconic status of Le Guin's 1969 novel The Left Hand of Darkness, her hand-drawn map of planet Gethen is quite unknown.
- The map focuses on Karhide and Orgoryen, the two main nations on the frozen planet and the locus of the action in Left Hand.
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