I'm not saying that WikiLeaks hasn't had utility before. I'm saying that what it is doing with *these* documents is not in that same vein.
Although some of the "top 10" you linked to show one of the main problems with WikiLeaks' bulk-disclosure method: the law of unintended consequences.
The "Climategate" scandal wound up being much ado about nothing, but it certainly gave the right-wingers something to screech about and boost their fundraising.
The BNP, while a reprehensible bunch, are entitled to their privacy as much as anyone else. And thanks to WikiLeaks, their paranoid delusions about the "establishment" trying to persecute them are now partially true, which bolsters their case when they try to recruit disaffected white youths.
The Palin thing, while good for a laugh, had the same sort of unintended consequence: folks on the Right got that much more riled up about "dirty librul tricks" and fundraising for the McCain/Palin camp spiked in the wake.
In this case, the unintended consequences are much more serious. Diplomatic relations have been damaged, but more worrisome is that confidence in confidentiality itself has been damaged. It's the same argument that's made against intrusive anti-immigrant measures like forcing police to check immigration status of any Hispanic who contacts them or having doctors verify immigration status. If you do, then they'll stop going to the police or the hospitals, and you'll wind up with ticking time bombs of disease and crime.
In this case, consider this scenario: Jordan and Syria have good relations. Jordan and the US have good relations. Syria and the US do not. Jordan discovers a Syrian plot aimed at undermining US interests. Jordan wishes to alert the US to this, but only as long as the Syrians do not find out that the Jordanians were involved. Only now, Jordan is worried that any communiques could be leaked so they don't tell us.
And when you start threatening to release things like a full list of strategic sites, it's no longer about "exposing dirty secrets", it's a full-on attack against US national security. I was ambivalent about the WikiLeaks releases until Assange started threatening to pull out a "doomsday" key code.
Am I for censorship on the Internet? No. Am I for national governments having a right to state secrets? Absolutely. While the US does tend to overclassify material a bit, they're a lot more transparent than some countries I could list. And there is a lot of material that's classified for very good reasons. I work with data of that sort on a daily basis. If some of it were compromised and stuck out there on the net, good people would likely die in very brutal, painful ways. For me, this is not an academic or philosophical discussion. It is a very real threat.
Glyphglyph: You have my apologies as well. I was probably out of line with my comments about Assange, but in what interviews and comments I've seen from him, he strikes me as arrogant and pompous.