One of the documents, declared classified under Reason 1.4 (national security) is a cable from the US Embassy in Rangoon, Myanmar, and centers entirely on the operations of the Myanmar National Football League (MNL).

The document contains no information that couldn’t have been readily obtained through a google search, and suggests that the MNL operates largely the same as a fledgling soccer league in any other nation does.

Indeed, the only unique information in the document is the bizarre speculations from officials that the league is some plot by the Burmese junta to stifle dissent, and comments that show an almost laughable misunderstanding among officials of how a professional sports league works.

It may well be embarrassing that officials didn’t understand why anyone would own or sponsor such a team even as they received information showing the league’s attendence soaring and the sponsors (mostly companies selling things like beer and bottled water) seeing major increases in sales, but is it really a matter of national security for the US?

Opposition figures have recently been pointing to buildings and fences near the Myanmar capital city of Naypyidaw as evidence that the Myanmar junta has some sort of nuclear weapons program. Analysts say they are nowhere near acquiring such a weapon, but that it was possible that they might have a route to having one in the future.

Clinton’s comments came at the Southeast Asia regional talks in Vietnam, and she urged the various nations of the region to commit to pressing the secretive junta on the hypothetical program.

The US Senate also announced today that it was renewing sanctions against Myanmar, citing human rights violations. The measure comes one week after a similar vote by the House of Representatives.

“The UN resolution lays out a regime that has a very clear set of steps,” Flournoy noted, “I want to be very clear … This is not a resolution that sponsors, that authorizes use of force for interdiction.” She added that all options remain on the table for dealing with North Korea, but that the US would abide by the resolution.

The new UN resolution, imposed earlier this month, demands nations to require docking North Korean ships to submit to searches, but provides little recourse in the event that nation refuses. The freighter, which the US has accused of carrying “proliferation materials,” is suspected of heading to Myanmar, which would be unlikely to submit to such a search given its own status in the international community.

At the time of the resolution, which the White House touted as a “strong and united international response,” many analysts had noted that the provisions were ultimately unenforceable. It seems that in its pursuit of the ship based on its suspicions, the US has ultimately proved that analysis accurate.