"The 9/11 of world diplomacy," was how Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini described the devastating effects of the massive leak of U.S. State Department classified and sensitive diplomatic messages to and from its embassies around the world.

"The development is no less than a political meltdown for American foreign policy," said the Germany's Der Spiegel, one of five newspapers given access to the embassy dispatches by WikiLeaks, the villainous outfit bent on inflicting as much damage on this country as possible. The other newspapers: The New York Times, the Guardian in England, Le Monde in France and El Pais in Spain.

"Never before in history has a superpower lost control of such vast amounts of such sensitive information," Der Spiegel said. "Never before has the trust America's partners have in the country been as badly shaken.... American representatives abroad may find it difficult in the future to find informants who are as willing to talk openly as they might have been in the past, now that reams of supposedly confidential conversations have been made public."

The conservative German newspaper Die Welt wrote: "WikiLeaks has now destroyed the freedom of the confidential diplomatic conversation."

The Guardian said: "The cables published today reveal how the U.S. uses its embassies as part of a global espionage network, with diplomats tasked to obtain not just information from the people they meet, but personal details, such as frequent flyer numbers, credit card details and even DNA material."

The London-based newspaper said, "Classified 'human intelligence directives' issued in the name of (U.S. Secretary of State) Hillary Clinton or her predecessor, Condoleezza Rice, instruct officials to gather information on military installations, weapons markings, vehicle details." Top U.N. officials were targeted with a directive requesting details of "private VIP networks used for official communication, to include upgrades, security measures, passwords, personal encryption keys."

Pravda, the Russian newspaper, called some of the documents "jokes" but said others "deserve serious attention. For example, the reports from U.S. embassies on their participation in promotions of the Russian opposition and gathering information about the stability of the ruling regime."

Pravda made an obvious point: "The question is how such a volume of documents was left unprotected, and why no heads are rolling in the States." But the writer closed with an only-in-Russia note: "We cannot rule out the fact that this is a deliberate leak made by the United States, whose goal is to cause fights among different countries, including Russia."

The New York Times in its report said some of the newly released materials posted by the newspaper "have been redacted to address security concerns." And: "WikiLeaks has so far posted on its website only the cables that have been reviewed by and in some cases redacted by the Times and the other news organizations; so far the rest of the trove of cables remain unpublished."

So not to worry. Just leave it to the New York Times, the Guardian, Der Spiegel and the other newspapers to address security concerns.

dmckee9613@aol.com