In 2010, the whistleblowing website Wikileaks began releasing the first of series of 250,000 diplomatic cables sent from US embassies around the world to the government in Washington. Later that year, as Wikileaks fell out with its original media partners – The Guardian, Le Monde and The New York Times among others – it abandoned its original policy of releasing a few cables, often heavily edited to protect thousands of sources around the world, at a time, and released the remaining 200,000 in one single tranche. They cover the whole field of human political, social and economic activity, and there are many to interest those working and study international logistics.
Given the size the cache, bringing Loadstar readers the relevant cables is an ongoing task. Is Wikileaks a critical business tool? Probably not, but there are some fascinating stories hidden within the mountains of pages.