The wikileaks leaks, though clearly harmful to America’s national security, have nevertheless revealed some welcome information on vexing topics.

One non-surprise background item was the how Washington was not as clueless as it has appeared regarding the Mexico meltdown into anarchy in the government’s failing drug war. Perhaps the arrogant Presidente Calderon would not have gotten so much gushing applause from the Democrats in Congress for criticizing Arizona’s crackdown on immigration anarchy had the real facts been known at the time of his visit last spring.

US has lost faith in Mexico’s ability to win drugs war, WikiLeaks cables show, Guardian UK, December 2, 2010

The US has lost confidence in the Mexican army’s ability to win the country’s drugs war, branding it slow, clumsy and no match for “sophisticated” narco-traffickers.

Classified diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks also reveal a growing sense of alarm within Mexico’s government that time is running out in the battle against organised crime and that it could “lose” entire regions.

The memos detail blunders in the fight against drug cartels and a desperate search for a new strategy to save President Felipe Calderón’s administration from a bloodsoaked fiasco.

Another mystery solved is Scotland’s release of the Libyan jihadist who was convicted of the Lockerbie bombing because he was supposedly about to die from cancer and was promoted by the Scots as an act of “compassion.” It looked like a big lie at the time and wikileaks has shown the depth of weaselhood from our friends the British. The killer Al-Megrahi had murdered 270 people and the UK let him go because of some fears about loss of trade with Libya. No wonder the jihadists think the West is hopelessly stuck on money, with no other values.

WikiLeaks: Britain feared Colonel Gaddafi could ‘cut us off at the knees’ unless Lockerbie bomber was freed, Daily Telegraph, December 7, 2010

Sir Vincent Fean, the UK’s ambassador to Tripoli at the time, also warned that continuing to hold Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi in a prison in Scotland could have “disastrous implications for British interests in Libya”.

Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, 57, was jailed in 2001 for the atrocity which claimed 270 lives in 1988. He was freed on compassionate grounds in August 2009.

The warnings were contained in secret communiqués sent from US embassy staff in Tripoli in August 2009, and produced in Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine.

One cable said: “The British ambassador expressed relief that Megrahi likely would be returned to Libya under the compassionate release program.

“He noted that a refusal of Megrahi’s request could have had disastrous implications for British interests in Libya.”

Then the cable appeared to quote the ambassador saying: “They could have cut us off at the knees, just like the Swiss.”

The warning is thought to refer to Col Gaddafi’s call in 2008 for a jihad against the Switzerland when police arrested his son Hannibal and daughter in law Aline Skaf.

The couple were released and charges relating to an altercation with their servants dropped.

However Libya responded by withdrawing billions of dollars from Swiss banks, cutting off oil supplies, denying visas and recalling diplomats.

At the time of the release of Al-Megrahi in August 2009, Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, insisted that the UK Government had played no role in the release.

Now if we could just get more information about Area 51…