Diplomats and government officials around the world lamented Monday the massive leak of U.S. diplomatic cables, and many predicted it would undercut their ability to deal with the United States on sensitive issues.

Kenya's government spokesman said Tuesday that a U.S. characterization of the country as a "swamp" of corruption in reports of leaked diplomatic memos is "malicious" if true.

Tourism is as much a political terrain as a cultural practice. It has been promoted as a route to economic development for poor nations and wielded as an instrument of political leverage between nations--as the U.S. embargo against travel to Cuba or the recent easing of tourist-visa requirements between Russia and Brazil demonstrate.

As Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton landed here Tuesday for a security summit, she faced the prospect of encountering people who might not be very happy with some of the State Department cables disclosed this week by WikiLeaks.

More revelations certainly await as the world combs through the more than 250,000 US diplomatic cables released Sunday by WikiLeaks, but already it is clear that the US is facing a monumental embarrassment and has vital questions to resolve about its trustworthiness and data security.

Confidential cables by American diplomats in the region, revealed by WikiLeaks, expose weak and fearful Arab leaders who are dependent on US protection against real and imagined fears over Iran's potential possession of nuclear arms and its influence in the Arab world.

For all the State Department's understandable security concern about the recent disclosure of classified telegrams from its embassies by WikiLeaks, there are elements in this exposé that can actually improve how Americans and the rest of the world view US diplomacy and, most important, the United States itself.

If WikiLeaks's latest data dump is the equivalent of distributing photocopies of America's Burn Book, would that make Hillary Clinton the Regina George of international relations?