> It's also more likely to impose responsibility in such cloaked goings-on, as the actions may be revealed later.

Call me a cynic, but I think that what will happen in the short term is that people (US diplomats in this case) will continue to behave in the exact same way, only now they won't trust the diplomatic 'cable' system to communicate and will temporarily revert to more old school practices (person to person or encrypted voice communications).

I'm not sure that's even likely. I think business and the cable system continue as always. The leak only occurred, from what we know, due to the actions of Manning. That's one person, out of the estimated 3 Million who have access to Secret classified cables. The punishment pursued against him, and the screening FSOs go through, make future leaks, I think not so certain.

Future leakers may be smart enough not to seek validation from individuals whom the government already has it in for.

Wow that sentence sucked. I hope you get my drift.

So what you're saying is: if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear?

I've heard that before...

For businesses / governments? Yes. They are not people. They have very few of the rights people have.

They actually have quite a few that people don't have.

Those two points don't contradict each other.