Much of the coverage of the latest Wikileaks release has noted a silver lining for the embarrassed State Department: abundant evidence that U.S. diplomats are insightful and informed observers of other countries, and in some cases even excellent writers.
But some diplomatic correspondence simultaneously published by an Italian newspaper reveals that foreign service officers can be as fallible as the rest of us, including journalists.
Turns out that U.S. embassy officials, handicapping the 2005 conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI, practically ruled out the election of the ultimate victor, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. Among the candidates portrayed as more promising in the cable to Washington was Colombian Cardinal Dario Castrillón Hoyos, subsequently the source of great embarrassment to the Vatican for his management of the Williamson affair and his support for a bishop who shielded a pedophile priest from the civil authorities.
Italian journalist Andrea Tornielli, a well-connected Vatican specialist, has observed with undisguised amusement that the diplomats’ predictions seem to have been based largely on the writings of American journalists.
(Contrary to many news reports, including that linked to above, these documents were NOT part of the Wikileaks trove, but were obtained by La Stampa using the less glamorous method of a FOIA request. However, the Italian newspaper, capitalizing on its lucky timing, ran a headline that suggested otherwise.)