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8/8/2019 Wikileaks: Latest News

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Peek into WikiLeaks: US tactics under scrutiny

WASHINGTON: 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.

Some Arab countries want the US to attack Iran to stop it from going nuclear. 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 countries, leaders and situations, and its pursuit of diplomatic

objectives aimed at preserving its global hegemony. The sensational disclosures now 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. Some experts say as the full cache is leaked gradually

over the next few months, it could result in a meltdown of US foreign policy.

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 (see separate story). WikiLeaks said its website

was under attack to prevent it from disbursing what it said were 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, which mostly consist of confidential and secret cables

between the State Department in Washington and US embassies abroad.



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. 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 they are in the pipeline. Washington has

alerted New Delhi to the leak and has made apologetic noises already.

But even the little that has emerged does not show the US is good light. By far the ugliest episode is a US

intelligence directive asking American diplomats around the world and at UN headquarters to providedetailed 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 organizations 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.

Washington is running for cover, embarrassed by the suggestion in the cables that its diplomats are

asked to double as spies. "Diplomats collect information that shapes our policies Diplomats for all

nations do the same," State Department spokesman, P J Crowley tweeted defensively on Sunday as the

US braced for a blowback. "Contrary to some WikiLeaks' reporting, our diplomats are diplomats. They

are not intelligence assets."

But the damage is done. While none of this is particularly shocking, considering that bugging foreignmissions and spying on diplomats is more the norm than exception among major powers, it is the stark

nature of the directive and its disclosure that is embarrassing for Washington.



Disclosures of 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

across the world will be persona non-grata in the near future.

Read more: Peek into WikiLeaks: US tactics under scrutiny - The Times of India

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/Peek-into-WikiLeaks-US-tactics-under-

scrutiny/articleshow/7008562.cms#ixzz16j3rs3Zv

US vs WikiLeaks: Whose side are you on?

WASHINGTON: The mother of all leaks has engendered the mother of all debates.

The US government says by putting in public domain about 250,000 documents, nearly half of

them classified and secret, WikiLeaks is putting at risk lives of innocent individuals, endangering

ongoing military and counterterrorism operations and jeopardizing ties between countries who

are partners, allies and stakeholders in confronting common challenges.

WikiLeaks says the release of the documents "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."

The cables, WikiLeaks maintains, "show the extent of US spying on its allies and the UN;

turning a blind eye to corruption and human rights abuse in "client states"; backroom deals with

supposedly neutral countries; lobbying for US corporations; and the measures US diplomats

take to advance those who have access to them."

In sometimes angry and bitter correspondence, the two sides slugged it out in the days and

hours before WikiLeaks ignored pressures and threats to go ahead with the publication through

select print media, causing worldwide convulsions that may reverberate for weeks and months

to come.

Amid mounting pressure from Washington to back down from publishing a trove of documents

leaked to it by a disgruntled and anarchy-loving US soldier, WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian

Assange wrote to the US ambassador in London Louis Susman on 26 November, asking

"the United States Government to privately nominate any specific instances (record numbers or

names) where it considers the publication of information would put individual persons at

significant risk of harm."



Washington's snippy response came the very next day from Harold Hongju Koh, Legal Adviser

to the State Department. Ignoring Assange's request for citing cases of risk and endangerment,

Koh told him that "Despite your stated desire to protect those lives, you have done the opposite

and endangered the lives of countless individuals."

"You have undermined your stated objective by disseminating this material widely, withoutredaction, and without regard to the security and sanctity of the lives your actions endanger," he

said, adding, "We will not engage in a negotiation regarding the further release or dissemination

of illegally obtained US. Government classified materials."

Assange's response: "Either there is a risk or there is not. You have chosen to respond in a

manner which leads me to conclude that the supposed risks are entirely fanciful and you are

instead concerned to suppress evidence of human rights abuse and other criminal behaviour."

The deadlock resulted in Administration officials, from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton down,

scrambling to get in touch with their counterparts across the world to assure them of

Washington's sensitivity to the situation even as WikiLeaks parceled out the trove of information

to the New York Times, The Guardian and Der Spiegel.

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 UnitedStates, 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 has been unsparing in its critique of US practices. In a preamble to its expose, it

taunted the United States, saying, "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, it said, "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."

The embassy cables, it warned, will be released in stages over the next few months, adding.

"The subject matter of these cables is of such importance, and the geographical spread so

broad, that to do otherwise would not do this material justice."

Read more: US vs WikiLeaks: Whose side are you on? - The Times of



India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/US-vs-WikiLeaks-Whose-side-are-you-

on/articleshow/7010095.cms#ixzz16j4HS5Xi

US tries to contain damage from leaked cables

WASHINGTON: The release of more than 250,000 classified State Department documents forced the

Obama administration into damage control, trying to contain fallout from unflattering assessments of

world leaders and revelations about backstage US diplomacy.

The publication of the secret cables on Sunday amplified widespread global alarm about Iran's nuclear

ambitions and unveiled occasional US pressure tactics aimed at hot spots in Afghanistan, Pakistan and

North Korea. The leaks also disclosed bluntly candid impressions from both diplomats and other world

leaders about America's allies and foes.

In the wake of the massive document dump by online whistleblower Wikileaks and numerous media

reports detailing their contents, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was expected to address the

diplomatic repercussions on Monday. Clinton could deal with the impact first hand after she leaves

Washington on a four-nation tour of Central Asia and the Middle East - a region that figures prominently in

the leaked documents.

The cables unearthed new revelations about long-simmering nuclear trouble spots, detailing US, Israeli

and Arab world fears of Iran's growing nuclear program, American concerns about Pakistan's atomic

arsenal and US discussions about a united Korean peninsula as a long-term solution to North Korean

aggression.

None of the disclosures appeared particularly explosive, but their publication could become problems for

the officials concerned and for any secret initiatives they had preferred to keep quiet. The massive

release of material intended for diplomatic eyes only is sure to ruffle feathers in foreign capitals, a

certainty that already prompted US diplomats to scramble in recent days to shore up relations with key

allies in advance of the leaks.

At Clinton's first stop in Astana, Kazakhstan, she will be attending a summit of officials from the

Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a diplomatic grouping that includes many officials

from countries cited in the leaked cables.

The documents published by The New York Times, France's Le Monde, Britain's Guardian newspaper,

German magazine Der Spiegel and others laid out the behind-the-scenes conduct of Washington'sinternational relations, shrouded in public by platitudes, smiles and handshakes at photo sessions among

senior officials.

The White House immediately condemned the release of the WikiLeaks documents, saying ``such

disclosures put at risk our diplomats, intelligence professionals and people around the world who come to

the United States for assistance in promoting democracy and open government.''



US officials may also have to mend fences after revelations that they gathered personal information on

other diplomats. The leaks cited American memos encouraging US diplomats at the United Nations to

collect detailed data about the UN secretary general, his team and foreign diplomats - going beyond what

is considered the normal run of information-gathering expected in diplomatic circles.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley played down the diplomatic spying allegations. ``Our

diplomats are just that, diplomats,'' he said. ``They collect information that shapes our policies and

actions. This is what diplomats, from our country and other countries, have done for hundreds of years.''

The White House noted that ``by its very nature, field reporting to Washington is candid and often

incomplete information. It is not an expression of policy, nor does it always shape final policy decisions.''

``Nevertheless, these cables could compromise private discussions with foreign governments and

opposition leaders, and when the substance of private conversations is printed on the front pages of

newspapers across the world, it can deeply impact not only US foreign policy interests, but those of our

allies and friends around the world,'' the White House said.

On its website, The New York Times said ``the documents serve an important public interest, illuminatingthe goals, successes, compromises and frustrations of American diplomacy in a way that other accounts

cannot match.''

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange claimed the administration was trying to cover up alleged evidence of

serious ``human rights abuse and other criminal behavior'' by the US government . WikiLeaks posted the

documents just hours after it claimed its website had been hit by a cyberattack that made the site

inaccessible for much of the day.

But extracts of the more than 250,000 cables posted online by news outlets that had been given advance

copies of the documents showed deep US concerns about Iranian and North Korean nuclear programs

along with fears about regime collapse in Pyongyang.

The Guardian said some cables showed King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia repeatedly urging the United

States to attack Iran to destroy its nuclear program. The newspaper also said officials in Jordan and

Bahrain have openly called for Iran's nuclear program to be stopped by any means and that leaders of

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt referred to Iran ``as 'evil,' an 'existential threat' and a

power that 'is going to take us to war,''' The Guardian said.

Those documents may prove the trickiest because even though the concerns of the Gulf Arab states are

known, their leaders rarely offer such stark appraisals in public.

ETC. ETC. ETC««..

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