The real source of embarrassment of the leaks (ESPECIALLY the state department ones) is how much these services are basically at the beck and call of the elite, and how all the dirty shit that is done for those power brokers then blows back on us.

Most of the time that blowback is the gradual, steady erosion of America's soft power, ideals, and "good guy image"

Sometimes it is planes crashing into skyscrapers.