France has not done enough to integrate its ethnic and religious minorities and needs to give Muslims a place in mainstream society, U.S. diplomats said in leaked cables published on Wednesday by a French newspaper.
"France not only has a problem with integration or immigration; it also needs to act to give Muslims a sense of French identity," the U.S. embassy in Paris said in a secret diplomatic cable to Washington dated Aug. 17, 2005.
The comments foreshadowed a wave of violent clashes in December that year between youths, many of them second-generation immigrants, and police in the gritty suburban housing projects that ring major French cities.
Television footage of burning cars and rioting youths was beamed around the world, casting a spotlight on tension between the French government and descendants of immigrant groups, many of whom belonged to France's 5-million-strong Muslim community.
"The real problem is the failure of white Christian France to view its dark-skinned and Muslim compatriots as citizens in their own right," the U.S. embassy told Washington in a cable dated Nov. 9, 2005. Craig Stapleton was U.S. ambassador to France under the administration of President George W. Bush.
A succession of WikiLeaks releases has exposed the inner workings of U.S. diplomacy and revealed at times frank views of foreign leaders, prompting charges of irresponsibility from countries including France.
The cables published by Le Monde date back to mid-2005 and cover the presidencies of both Mr Bush and Barack Obama, but there is little variation in U.S. attitudes toward France and its policies on immigrants and minorities.
"French institutions appear insufficiently flexible for a population that is growing more diverse," said a cable from Jan. 2010. Charles Rivkin is currently U.S. ambassador to France.
President Nicolas Sarkozy pledged to smooth relations with descendants of immigrants when he came to power in 2007. He renamed the immigration ministry to add the words "national identity" and encouraged debate on what it meant to be French.
His efforts did not hold up. In the wake of controversy over his expulsion of Roma migrants last summer, the immigration ministry was absorbed into the interior ministry and Sarkozy said efforts to promote national identity had been "misunderstood".
U.S. diplomats said in the cables that France would suffer if it failed to build closer ties with minorities.
"We believe that if France, over the long term, does not succeed in improving prospects for its minorities and give them true political representation, it could become weaker, more divided and perhaps inclined toward crises ... and a less effective ally as a result," said the cable from Jan. 2010.
WikiLeaks: Swedish government 'hid' anti-terror operations with America from Parliament
0 comentarii Publicat de Mr. Miaghy la 02:01The Swedish government asked American officials to keep intelligence-gathering “informal” to help avoid Parliamentary scrutiny, American diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks show.
The secret cables, seen by The Daily Telegraph, disclose how Swedish officials wanted discussions about anti-terrorism operations kept from public scrutiny.
They describe how officials from the Swedish Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Foreign Affairs had a “strong degree of satisfaction with current informal information sharing arrangements” with the American government.
Making the arrangement formal would result in the need for it to be disclosed to Parliament, they said.
They disclose officials’ fear that intense Swedish Parliamentary scrutiny could place “a wide range of law enforcement and anti-terrorism” operations in jeopardy.
Under the heading “teams visits to discuss terrorist screening information exchange with Sweden”, they show Dr Anna-Karin Svensson, Director of the Division for Police Issues, saying the Swedish government would strike controversy if its intelligence methods were disclosed.
The cable claimed that the "current Swedish political climate makes any formal terrorist screening information agreement highly difficult". Swedish citizens are said to place high value on the country’s neutrality.
"The MOJ team expressed their appreciation for the flexibility of the U.S. side in regards to memorialising any agreement," said the cable.
"They expressed a strong degree of satisfaction with current informal information sharing arrangements with the U.S., and wondered whether the putative advantages of an HSPD-6 agreement for Sweden would be offset by the risk that these existing informal channels, which cover a wide range of law enforcement and anti-terrorism co-operation, would be scrutinised more intensely by Parliament and perhaps jeopardised.
"Dr. Svensson reiterated MFA concerns about the current political atmosphere in Sweden."
It continued: "She believed that, given Swedish constitutional requirements to present matters of national concern to Parliament and in light of the ongoing controversy over Sweden's recently passed surveillance law, it would be politically impossible for the Minister of Justice to avoid presenting any formal data sharing agreement with the United States to Parliament for review.
"In her opinion, the effect of this public spotlight could also place other existing informal information sharing arrangements at jeopardy."
The publication of the new cables, sent to Washington from the American embassy in Stockholm in 2008, came after Julian Assange, the Wikileaks founder, was granted bail on Tuesday over sexual assault claims in Sweden.
Despite a judge ordering his release with strict conditions and £200,000 guarantee from high profile supporters, the Swedish authorities appealed, meaning the 39 year-old remains behind bars.
Wikileaks claimed the new cables, which discuss terrorist screening programs, added weight to suggestions that Sweden and America were engaged in “back room deals”.
Mark Stephens, Mr Assange’s lawyer, has claimed his client was facing a “show trial” and his case was politically motivated. The Swedish government denies the claims.
Kristinn Hrafnsson, a Wikileaks spokesman, said that the website was “concerned about political influence on the prosecution of Julian Assange”.
“The new revelations contained in the Swedish cables … shed some light on the ferocity of the Swedish prosecutorial process in this case,” he said.
“The prosecutor has said there is ‘no condition’ for bail that will satisfy them.”
Communication and Information Technology Minister Tifatul Sembiring had assigned a team to collect diplomatic documents leaked by whistleblowing website WikiLeaks related to Indonesia. And the results of the study would be submitted to theCoordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Djoko Suyanto.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said the Indonesian government was cooperating with the US Embassy in Jakarta and the Indonesian Embassy inWashington to monitor the leaked documents.
Wikileaks and Indonesia (novinite.com)
According to a secret memo issued by the U.S. State Department. The memo was created on February 18, 2009 and berkatagori secret, which eventually leaked on page WikiLeaks on December 5, 2010.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said the Indonesian government was cooperating with the US Embassy in Jakarta and the Indonesian Embassy inWashington to monitor the leaked documents.
Wikileaks and Indonesia (novinite.com)
Wikileaks and Indonesia Diplomatic Documents
Mines and Tin factories near the Straits of Malacca, Indonesia, is considered vital to the interests of the United States (U.S.). In addition, Washington also marks a number of resources and other strategic locations in the foreign country noteworthy for the interests of America.According to a secret memo issued by the U.S. State Department. The memo was created on February 18, 2009 and berkatagori secret, which eventually leaked on page WikiLeaks on December 5, 2010.
Secret diplomatic wires from the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta who leaked WikiLeaks will increasingly bright. WikiLeaks reveals, there is a terrorism-related wire issued 4 days before the bombing at the JW Marriott on July 17, 2009.
If the U.S. Embassy has issued a diplomatic wire about terrorism, 4 days before the JW Marriott exploded, the U.S. already knows what is it mean there will be a terrorist attack? It was only to be answered if the document was released entirely by WikiLeaks.
WikiLeaks is currently in the spotlight due to release a wire Cablegate or U.S. diplomatic scandal. There are 251,287 documents, including the 3059 document from the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta and 167 documents from the U.S. consulate general in Surabaya. Document to be leaked from the U.S. representative in Indonesia, starting from the Soeharto government on November 19, 1990 to SBY government on February 27, 2010.
Ecuador: WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Can Have A Home Here
0 comentarii Publicat de Mr. Miaghy la 02:18QUITO, Ecuador — If WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange needs a home, Ecuador's deputy foreign minister says this Andean nation is happy to provide one.
The 39-year-old Australian, who has incensed and embarrassed Washington with the release by his online whistle-blowing organization of hundreds of sensitive diplomatic cables, had sought residency and a work permit in Sweden.
But after the release by WikiLeaks beginning in late July of thousands of sensitive documents from the Iraq and Afghan wars, a Swedish court ordered him detained for questioning on sexual assault allegations – claims Assange denies and calls part of a smear campaign.Assange, who keeps his whereabouts secret and moves around a lot, could also face legal complications at home. Australia's attorney general said Monday that it was studying whether he'd broken any laws there.
In contrast to the potential hostility from U.S. allies, leftist-run Ecuador provided Assange with an invitation Monday.
Deputy Foreign Minister Kintto Lucas said in audio posted online by the EcuadorInmediato news site that "we are open to giving him residence in Ecuador, without any kind of trouble and without any kind of conditions."
"We think it would be important not only to converse with him but to listen to him," Lucas added, saying Ecuador wanted to invite Assange to "freely expound" and see what it's like in "friendly countries."
He praised people like Assange "who are constantly investigating and trying to get light out of the dark corners of (state) information"
Lucas said Ecuador's government was "very concerned" by revelations that U.S. diplomats have been involved in spying in the first of the more than 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables and directives that WikiLeaks has begun to release.
WikLeaks says it has 1,621 cables that originated in the U.S. Embassy in Quito. Their contents have not yet been disclosed.
Ecuador expelled two U.S. diplomats in early 2009, accusing one of directing CIA operations in Ecuador and another of interferring in police affairs.
The government continues close counternarcotics cooperation with the United States, but a year ago President Rafael Correa, a U.S.-educated economist, refused to renew the lease on what had been Washington's only base for counternarcotics flights in South America, the Manta airfield.
He said that if Washington would grant Ecuador an air base in Florida, he'd be happy to host U.S. flight operations.
India lobbied the US against imposing sanctions on Iran for trying to develop nuclear weapons while it expressed concern over the emergence of Bangladesh and the Gulf countries as terrorist-funding routes into India, according to a latest batch of US diplomatic cables leaked by whilstleblower site WikiLeaks.
The two countries also explored the possibility of an Indian troop deployment in Afghanistan to prevent the country falling again to Pakistan-based elements, the documents revealed.
“The imposition of sanctions punishes ordinary people, who then turn their anger outward.. We are cautious about adhering to a broad attack on Iran,” India’s national security adviser MK Narayanan told senators Russ Feingold and Bob Casey, according to a cable sent from the New Delhi embassy to the secretary of state in 2008. The issue of the alleged Iranian nuclear weapons programme had been a sore point in diplomatic relations between the two, with considerable speculation in international and domestic circles about whether the Manmohan Singh government had secretly capitulated to the US efforts to bring on economic sanctions against Iran, a traditional Indian ally.
Contrary to fears, however, Narayanan came across as trying hard to disabuse the Americans of their notion that Iran was yet another hot-bed of Islamist terrorism.
According to the cable, Narayanan told the senators that Shia clergy are more “sophisticated and erudite” than their Sunni counterparts and sanctions on Iran will only worsen the US’s case. Pointing to the self-flagellation ritual performed during Muharram, Narayanan said the Iranian psyche had “a tremendous capacity” to absorb punishment. “Self-flagellation comes to them naturally,” he is quoted as saying, while trying to discourage the senators from advocating sanctions.
Another cable reveals India’s deep-seated fears of a US ‘abandonment’ of Pakistan and the “deep trouble” that it will cause to India itself.
In a chat with US counter-terrorism official Virginia Palmer, former Indian high commissioner to Pakistan, G Parthasarathy and other officials are portrayed as being extremely worried about any US scaling down in Afghanistan. They, however, were all for the US exit from Iraq.
“The cost of losing Afghanistan is too great for India,” Parthasarathy is quoted as saying. When asked if India would consider putting troops on the ground in northern Afghanistan, Parthasarathy responded that it would depend on “how it’s politically played,” acknowledging that the idea has some strategic value, the cable went on
North Korea attempted to reach out to the United States through Mongolia in 2009, suggesting that the Mongolians host disarmament talks between Washington and Pyongyang, American diplomats reported in a document obtained by the website WikiLeaks.
A Mongolian diplomat passed that information to the U.S. Embassy in Ulaan Baatar after an August 2009 meeting with Kim Yong Il, North Korea's vice foreign minister, a leaked embassy cable recounts. "There are no eternal enemies in this world," the Mongolian official quoted Kim as saying.
"VFM Kim said the DPRK is spending too much on weapons rather than on its children, but that the current reality dictates that they cannot get away from weapons for now," the cable states, using shorthand for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "Kim said the DPRK is not a threat and was only interested in self-protection."
The document is among the vast cache that the website WikiLeaks began releasing Sunday to widespread condemnation from the United States and its allies.
The Mongolian diplomat who recounted the meeting described it as "notable" since the North Koreans "did not read from a prepared script, they were not aggressive and made no criticism of the United States, and they criticized China and Russia 'three or four times' for supporting recent U.N. resolutions aimed at the DPRK," the cable states.
The North Koreans repeated their insistence that they would not return to the six-party regional talks aimed at convincing Pyongyang against dismantling its nuclear weapons program, according to the document. As they had in the past, they indicated that they wanted to discuss disarmament and the normalization of relations with Washington in one-on-one talks, which an embassy official suggested could be held in Mongolia, according to the Mongolian diplomat.
The cable quotes Kim as saying that former President Clinton's visit to North Korea "has greatly improved the prospects for such talks." Clinton had gone to Pyongyang a week earlier to retrieve two American journalists held on charges of entering the country illegally.
While the world awaits the big document dump from Wikileaks, some of those leaks have already been pre-leaking. One of the most explosive of those has been that the U.S. secretly aided Turkey's longtime foe the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and conversely, that Turkey had aided al Qaeda in Iraq. If true, this would obviously put some serious strain on an alreadystrained relationship.
Hurriyet has been doing some good reporting from the Turkish side of this story and finds that, of course, all parties involved are denying that report:
“Turkey has never given support to any terrorist organization. Fighting against terror is our priority and we don’t make differentiations between terrorist organizations. Turkey has launched many operations against al-Qaeda,” a Turkish Foreign Ministry official told the Daily News.Asked about the allegations that the U.S. helped the outlawed PKK, the same official said, “Turkey and the U.S. are carrying out an efficient cooperation in the fight against the PKK.”
And from the U.S. side:
Deborah Guido, spokeswoman for the U.S. embassy in Ankara, told the Daily News that the U.S. government’s policy “has never been nor will ever be in support of the PKK. Anything that implies otherwise is nonsense.”Recalling that the United States considers the PKK a terrorist organization, Guido said: “Since 2007, our military cooperation with the Turkish government in fighting the PKK has shown results. The U.S. Treasury Department has also named top PKK figures as ‘drug kingpins’ in issuing further sanctions against the PKK.”
The story goes on to quote several analysts about what the revelation could mean. Most don't believe that the news is true, and point out that there could be other explanations. For example, the U.S. has worked closely with Iraqi Kurds, who have a difficult relationship, but a relationship nonetheless, with the PKK. And surely some U.S. intelligence agencies have some contact with the PKK, but that is not the same as support.
But until the documents themselves leak -- this weekend? -- for everyone to peruse, there's nothing to do but speculate.
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