It really should come as no surprise that international diplomacy is glorified horse trade, we get some, you get some.

But what's extremely worrying in these cables is that there's no apparent upside for Sweden. Why is the government of Sweden caving in and pushing legislation requested by the US? What's in it for us?

Because Swedish diplomacy has been about being a neutral-looking lackey for the most threatening powers for a long time. That includes letting the Nazis use our railroads...

Oh... we did so much more than just let the Nazis use our railroads. War-profiteering is the word not used by Swedish media and politicians because it's such a dirty word.

Hold your horses.

The cable does not in any way indicate that the US actively did anything. Remember folks, cables are internal communications between embassies and their governments.

What the cable does say is it pleads for Sweden not to be put on the 2009 Special 301 Watch List - this list is prepared by the USTR, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_301_Report

So what does it really say then? It simply says that the Swedish government (called GOS (means "cuddle" in Swedish) in the paper) have actually taken actions against Internet piracy.

So in essence, this cable really only says that Sweden should not be treated differently from say Norway in world-trade contexts such as WTO or NAFTA.

RICK FALKVINGE IS THE LEADER OF THE PIRATE PARTY. HE IS BIASED.

Paragraph 2 of the cable starts with this:

"This cable reviews the progress Sweden has made on the Special 301 Initiative Action plan which we presented to the GOS at the conclusion of the Special 301 review 2008 (Ref B)."

Basically, the government of Sweden did almost everything the US government told it to do, to avoid being put on the scary-sounding watch-list.

Mirror: http://www.piratpartiet.se/cables-us-driving-swedish-data-re...