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Bill Clinton Talks About WikiLeaks, Instability and Inequality at Dreamforce Conference

by Amar Toor on December 9, 2010 at 12:50 PM

bill clinton
Former President Bill Clinton gave a keynote address at the Dreamforce conference yesterday, during which he discussed global and domestic economic inequalities, technology, and, of course, WikiLeaks.

Clinton described the whistleblowing organization's recent leak of diplomatic cables as unfortunate, but didn't go quite as far in condemning the site as his wife recently did. Instead, the former president focused on those who have lost, or will soon lose their jobs as a result. "What you do not see is how many people were exposed," he pointed out, adding that informants were now at particularly high risk, and that many diplomatic careers were likely ruined. He also feared that other diplomats and world leaders may now hesitate to engage in future talks with the U.S. for fear of another leak.

His brief comments on WikiLeaks, however, were made within the more global scope of his speech, which revolved around some of the major instabilities facing today's world. The rest of the address focused on issues like the growing disparity between the world's rich and poor, the state of America's system of education, and the U.S. economy.

Nevertheless, Clinton cited technology as a new, potent weapon that today's problem solvers can use to mitigate some of tomorrow's biggest issues. "You can be a risk-taker in answering the 'how' question," he said. "You are all sitting in these chairs because you are in the tomorrow business."

Tags: Bill Clinton, BillClinton, diplomacy, Dreamforce, inequality, politics, security, speech, top, Web, Wikileaks

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