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WikiLeaks: Peeks and shrieks in first cache of documents
By Chidanand Rajghatta
WASHINGTON/NEW DELHI, (Time of India): The United States asked its diplomats to spy on their counterparts at the United Nations, including Indian, Chinese and Pakistani officials. Washington was trying to coax and cadge enriched uranium from Pakistan as recently as 2009.
Saudi King Abdullah thinks President Zardari is a disaster for Pakistan. Israel's spy chief was distraught about Pakistan being overrun by extremists and thought Musharraf was the best bet for the country. Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi never goes anywhere without his Ukrainian nurse, "a voluptuous blonde" who may also be his lover.
These are just some of the vignettes to emerge from the first cache of Wikileaks' documents detailing Washington's assessment foreign leaders and situations, and its pursuit of diplomatic objectives, revelations that threaten to undermine US information gathering practices and its ties with friends, allies, and adversaries.
It is the first dribble in what is expected to be a cascade of documents that Wikileaks has said it will disclose daily over the next few weeks. Only 220 of the 215,000 cables and correspondence emerged on Sunday, leaked to select western news outlets. There was anger, outrage, and embarrassment in the US government over what was described as a reckless act, first conceived by a disgruntled US soldier. Wikileaks said its website was under attack to prevent it from disbursing dubious American methods and practices.
The US-India equation has escaped exposure and embarrassment so far. But Wikileaks has in its possession more than 3000 cables coming out of the US Embassy in New Delhi. The Radia tapes could pale before these radioactive intelligence leaks.
In a teasing insight into what could be in store, Wikileaks speaks of State Department cables dealing with deliberations regarding UNSC expansion among key groups of countries: "self-appointed frontrunners" for permanent UNSC membership Brazil, Germany, India, and Japan (the Group of Four or G-4); the Uniting for Consensus group (especially Mexico, Italy, and Pakistan) that opposes additional permanent UNSC seats; the African Group; and the EU, as well as key UN officials within the Secretariat and the UN General Assembly (UNGA) Presidency." There are also cables about "member plans for plenary meetings of the Nuclear Suppliers Group; views of the US-India Civil Nuclear Cooperation Initiative." The cables, which predate Washington's recently announced support to India's UNSC bid and the passage of the nuclear deal, have not been disclosed yet but are in the pipeline.
But even the little that has emerged so far is not pretty, especially for Washington. By far the ugliest episode is a US intelligence directive asking American diplomats around the world and at UN headquarters to provide detailed technical information, including passwords and personal encryption keys for communications networks used by UN officials. It also wants to know about potential links between UN organisations and terrorists, and any corruption in the UN.
The cable, in the form of a National HUMINT Collection Directive (NHCD), requests for "continued Department of State reporting of biographical and biometric information on key NAM/G-77/OIC Permanent Representatives, particularly China, Cuba, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, South Africa, Sudan, Uganda, Senegal, and Syria; information on their relationships with their capitals.
While none of this is particularly shocking, considering that bugging foreign missions and spying on diplomats is more the norm than exception in most countries, it is the stark nature of the directive and its disclosure that is embarrassing for Washington. Revelation about US officials' assessment of foreign leaders or exposure of their cables conveying to Washington foreign leaders' views on regional situations and individuals means many US diplomats will be persona non-grata in the near future.
For instance, one cable has the Saudi King Abdullah speak contemptuously of President Zardari. He calls Zardari the greatest obstacle to that country's progress and is quoted as saying "When the head is rotten, it affects the whole body."
One cable describes a "dangerous standoff" with Pakistan over nuclear fuel: Since 2007, the United States has mounted a highly secret effort, so far unsuccessful, to remove from a Pakistani research reactor highly enriched uranium that American officials fear could be diverted for use in an illicit nuclear device. In May 2009, Ambassador Anne W. Patterson reported that Pakistan was refusing to schedule a visit by American technical experts because, as a Pakistani official said, "if the local media got word of the fuel removal, 'they certainly would portray it as the United States taking Pakistan's nuclear weapons,' he argued.
Some of the cables highlight Israel's concern with where Pakistan is going. In one exchange, Mossad chief Meir Dagan and US counterterrorism honcho Frances Townsend share concerns about Pakistan's ability to withstand the challenge of Islamic radicals. Dagan characterizes a Pakistan ruled by radical Islamists with a nuclear arsenal at their disposal as his biggest nightmare. Al-Qaeda and other " Global Jihad" groups could not be relied upon to behave rationally once in possession of nuclear weapons, he says, as they do not care about the well being of states or their image in the media. "We have to keep (President Pervez) Musharaf in power," he is quoted as saying.
In another exchange, Israel's President Ehud Barak describes Pakistan as his "private nightmare," suggesting the world might wake up one morning "with everything changed" following a potential Islamic extremist takeover. When asked if the use of force on Iran might backfire with moderate Muslims in Pakistan, thereby exacerbating the situation, Barak acknowledges Iran and Pakistan are interconnected, but disagreed with a causal chain.
While many of the cables deal with policy issues, there are some voyeuristic despatches too. A secret cable from the US Embassy in Tripoli dated September 29 says Libyan leader Gadhafi "relies heavily on his long-time Ukrainian nurse, Galyna Kolotnytska," described as a voluptuous blonde. "Some embassy contacts have claimed that Gadhafi and the 38 year-old Kolotnytska have a romantic relationship," it said, adding, "While he did not comment on such rumors, a Ukrainian political officer recently confirmed that the Ukrainian nurses 'travel everywhere with the Leader.'"
The Obama administration and Wikileaks are already engaged in a public relations battle over the disclosures. Administration officials, from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton down, are frantically in touch with their counterparts across the world to assure them of Washington's sensitivity to the situation. The primary concern in Washington is that many of the US internal deliberations and assessment will be taken as policy. There are also fears that US diplomats, including ambassadors, CIA station chiefs and political counselors, will lose access to sources and trust of their foreign counterparts.
Washington's new ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter led the effort to salvage US credibility, writing in an Op-ed in a Pakistani newspaper that "people of good faith recognise that diplomats' internal reports do not represent a government's official foreign policy. In the United States, they are one element out of many that shape our policies, which are ultimately set by the president and the secretary of state."
But Wikileaks was unsparing in its critique of US practices. In a preamble to its expose, it said "this document release reveals the contradictions between the US's public persona and what it says behind closed doors - and shows that if citizens in a democracy want their governments to reflect their wishes, they should ask to see what's going on behind the scenes."
"Every American schoolchild is taught that George Washington - the country's first President - could not tell a lie. If the administrations of his successors lived up to the same principle, today's document flood would be a mere embarrassment. Instead, the US Government has been warning governments - even the most corrupt - around the world about the coming leaks and is bracing itself for the exposures," it said.
By Chidanand Rajghatta
WASHINGTON/NEW DELHI, (Time of India): The United States asked its diplomats to spy on their counterparts at the United Nations, including Indian, Chinese and Pakistani officials. Washington was trying to coax and cadge enriched uranium from Pakistan as recently as 2009.
Saudi King Abdullah thinks President Zardari is a disaster for Pakistan. Israel's spy chief was distraught about Pakistan being overrun by extremists and thought Musharraf was the best bet for the country. Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi never goes anywhere without his Ukrainian nurse, "a voluptuous blonde" who may also be his lover.
These are just some of the vignettes to emerge from the first cache of Wikileaks' documents detailing Washington's assessment foreign leaders and situations, and its pursuit of diplomatic objectives, revelations that threaten to undermine US information gathering practices and its ties with friends, allies, and adversaries.
It is the first dribble in what is expected to be a cascade of documents that Wikileaks has said it will disclose daily over the next few weeks. Only 220 of the 215,000 cables and correspondence emerged on Sunday, leaked to select western news outlets. There was anger, outrage, and embarrassment in the US government over what was described as a reckless act, first conceived by a disgruntled US soldier. Wikileaks said its website was under attack to prevent it from disbursing dubious American methods and practices.
The US-India equation has escaped exposure and embarrassment so far. But Wikileaks has in its possession more than 3000 cables coming out of the US Embassy in New Delhi. The Radia tapes could pale before these radioactive intelligence leaks.
In a teasing insight into what could be in store, Wikileaks speaks of State Department cables dealing with deliberations regarding UNSC expansion among key groups of countries: "self-appointed frontrunners" for permanent UNSC membership Brazil, Germany, India, and Japan (the Group of Four or G-4); the Uniting for Consensus group (especially Mexico, Italy, and Pakistan) that opposes additional permanent UNSC seats; the African Group; and the EU, as well as key UN officials within the Secretariat and the UN General Assembly (UNGA) Presidency." There are also cables about "member plans for plenary meetings of the Nuclear Suppliers Group; views of the US-India Civil Nuclear Cooperation Initiative." The cables, which predate Washington's recently announced support to India's UNSC bid and the passage of the nuclear deal, have not been disclosed yet but are in the pipeline.
But even the little that has emerged so far is not pretty, especially for Washington. By far the ugliest episode is a US intelligence directive asking American diplomats around the world and at UN headquarters to provide detailed technical information, including passwords and personal encryption keys for communications networks used by UN officials. It also wants to know about potential links between UN organisations and terrorists, and any corruption in the UN.
The cable, in the form of a National HUMINT Collection Directive (NHCD), requests for "continued Department of State reporting of biographical and biometric information on key NAM/G-77/OIC Permanent Representatives, particularly China, Cuba, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, South Africa, Sudan, Uganda, Senegal, and Syria; information on their relationships with their capitals.
While none of this is particularly shocking, considering that bugging foreign missions and spying on diplomats is more the norm than exception in most countries, it is the stark nature of the directive and its disclosure that is embarrassing for Washington. Revelation about US officials' assessment of foreign leaders or exposure of their cables conveying to Washington foreign leaders' views on regional situations and individuals means many US diplomats will be persona non-grata in the near future.
For instance, one cable has the Saudi King Abdullah speak contemptuously of President Zardari. He calls Zardari the greatest obstacle to that country's progress and is quoted as saying "When the head is rotten, it affects the whole body."
One cable describes a "dangerous standoff" with Pakistan over nuclear fuel: Since 2007, the United States has mounted a highly secret effort, so far unsuccessful, to remove from a Pakistani research reactor highly enriched uranium that American officials fear could be diverted for use in an illicit nuclear device. In May 2009, Ambassador Anne W. Patterson reported that Pakistan was refusing to schedule a visit by American technical experts because, as a Pakistani official said, "if the local media got word of the fuel removal, 'they certainly would portray it as the United States taking Pakistan's nuclear weapons,' he argued.
Some of the cables highlight Israel's concern with where Pakistan is going. In one exchange, Mossad chief Meir Dagan and US counterterrorism honcho Frances Townsend share concerns about Pakistan's ability to withstand the challenge of Islamic radicals. Dagan characterizes a Pakistan ruled by radical Islamists with a nuclear arsenal at their disposal as his biggest nightmare. Al-Qaeda and other " Global Jihad" groups could not be relied upon to behave rationally once in possession of nuclear weapons, he says, as they do not care about the well being of states or their image in the media. "We have to keep (President Pervez) Musharaf in power," he is quoted as saying.
In another exchange, Israel's President Ehud Barak describes Pakistan as his "private nightmare," suggesting the world might wake up one morning "with everything changed" following a potential Islamic extremist takeover. When asked if the use of force on Iran might backfire with moderate Muslims in Pakistan, thereby exacerbating the situation, Barak acknowledges Iran and Pakistan are interconnected, but disagreed with a causal chain.
While many of the cables deal with policy issues, there are some voyeuristic despatches too. A secret cable from the US Embassy in Tripoli dated September 29 says Libyan leader Gadhafi "relies heavily on his long-time Ukrainian nurse, Galyna Kolotnytska," described as a voluptuous blonde. "Some embassy contacts have claimed that Gadhafi and the 38 year-old Kolotnytska have a romantic relationship," it said, adding, "While he did not comment on such rumors, a Ukrainian political officer recently confirmed that the Ukrainian nurses 'travel everywhere with the Leader.'"
The Obama administration and Wikileaks are already engaged in a public relations battle over the disclosures. Administration officials, from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton down, are frantically in touch with their counterparts across the world to assure them of Washington's sensitivity to the situation. The primary concern in Washington is that many of the US internal deliberations and assessment will be taken as policy. There are also fears that US diplomats, including ambassadors, CIA station chiefs and political counselors, will lose access to sources and trust of their foreign counterparts.
Washington's new ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter led the effort to salvage US credibility, writing in an Op-ed in a Pakistani newspaper that "people of good faith recognise that diplomats' internal reports do not represent a government's official foreign policy. In the United States, they are one element out of many that shape our policies, which are ultimately set by the president and the secretary of state."
But Wikileaks was unsparing in its critique of US practices. In a preamble to its expose, it said "this document release reveals the contradictions between the US's public persona and what it says behind closed doors - and shows that if citizens in a democracy want their governments to reflect their wishes, they should ask to see what's going on behind the scenes."
"Every American schoolchild is taught that George Washington - the country's first President - could not tell a lie. If the administrations of his successors lived up to the same principle, today's document flood would be a mere embarrassment. Instead, the US Government has been warning governments - even the most corrupt - around the world about the coming leaks and is bracing itself for the exposures," it said.