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.
American intelligence and law-enforcement agencies, outraged by their inability to stop WikiLeaks and its release this week of hundreds of thousands of sensitive U.S. diplomatic cables, are convinced that the whistleblowing website is about to come up against an adversary that will stop at nothing to shut it down: the Russian government.
National-security officials say that the National Security Agency, the U.S. government’s eavesdropping agency, has already picked up tell-tale electronic evidence that WikiLeaks is under close surveillance by the Russian FSB, that country’s domestic spy network, out of fear in Moscow that WikiLeaks is prepared to release damaging personal information about Kremlin leaders.
“We may not have been able to stop WikiLeaks so far, and it’s been frustrating,” a U.S. law-enforcement official tells The Daily Beast. “The Russians play by different rules.” He said that if WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, follow through on threats to post highly embarrassing information about the Russian government and what is assumed to be massive corruption among its leaders, “the Russians will be ruthless in stopping WikiLeaks.”
A U.S. military official said the U.S. assumed that WikiLeaks had access to sources who could supply the site with detailed, damaging information about Russian leaders; those sources would likely include wealthy Russian expatriates who have had the resources over the years to conduct far-ranging private investigations of graft among Kremlin leaders, including their movement of assets outside Russia.
• Ellen Knickmeyer: Angry Iranian and Arab Leaders React to WikiLeaks
• Peter Beinart: Why the WikiLeaks Drama Is OverblownAnatol Lieven, a professor at King’s College in London who specializes in Russian and military affairs, said he believed the Russians would be ready to consider aggressive cyberwarfare techniques to shut down WikiLeaks and its website, as well as violence and other threats against Russians who were believed to be informants. (American officials have said they have no direct evidence to suggest that Russia was behind the cyberattack that has shut down the WikiLeaks website since Sunday.)
• Peter Beinart: Why the WikiLeaks Drama Is OverblownAnatol Lieven, a professor at King’s College in London who specializes in Russian and military affairs, said he believed the Russians would be ready to consider aggressive cyberwarfare techniques to shut down WikiLeaks and its website, as well as violence and other threats against Russians who were believed to be informants. (American officials have said they have no direct evidence to suggest that Russia was behind the cyberattack that has shut down the WikiLeaks website since Sunday.)
“We may not have been able to stop WikiLeaks so far, and it’s been frustrating,” says a U.S. law-enforcement official. “The Russians play by different rules.”
• 9 Most Shocking WikiLeaks Secrets“I doubt that they would consider assassination against Westerners who are involved in WikiLeaks, but as for informants in Russia, they would be in very serious danger,” he said.
The London-based Russian billionaire and newspaper magnate Alexander Lebedev suggested that a government raid on the Moscow headquarters of his National Reserve Bank this month may have been a response to recent contacts between his Moscow newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, and WikiLeaks.
ROME, DECEMBER 8 - Cables published by Wikileaks have revealed that the American ambassador in Tunis, in dispatches dated June 2008 and July 2009, wrote that "corruption is growing" in Tunisia and that the family of President Ben Ali is ''often defined a quasi-mafia, the word Family is enough to understand who is being talked about''.
In the chapter on "Democracy and human rights", it is noted that ''France and Italy avoid putting pressure on the Tunis government'' The cables from the US ambassador in Tunis, Robert F. Godec, are dated June 23 2008 and July 17 2009.
In the first cable, Godec says of the country that ''although small-time corruption is widespread, it is the excesses of the President's family that outrage Tunisians''. He then quotes the 2007 report by Transparency International, in which Tunisia is mentioned as suffering ''worsening corruption''.
''All in the family'' is the title of the chapter on the country's President. ''It is often cited as the nexus of Tunisian corruption and often defined a quasi-mafia, the word Family is enough to understand who is being talked about,'' says the American ambassador, who goes on to explain the ''Family's'' economic links, in which Ben Ali's wife ''causes the greatest anger''. ''Corruption here is the elephant in the room, nobody can say it publicly, but everyone knows that this is the problem''.
The second dispatch, dated July 2009, follows the same line. ''The problem: a sclerotic regime and growing corruption'' is the heading of a paragraph of analysis by the American diplomat.
In the section entitled ''How to develop democracy and human rights'', meanwhile, the new directives of the Obama administration's policy are laid out, ''a more pragmatic approach, difficult face-to-face meetings but less public criticism''. The ambassador also says that greater commitment is needed ''to persuade European partners to intensify their efforts to accelerate reforms from the Tunis government. While some European countries (the United Kingdom and Germany) agree with us, key countries such as France and Italy have avoided putting pressure on Tunis. We should make efforts to ensure that they do so''.
In other cables, American and Canadian diplomats report ''mistreatment and torture'' of detainees in the country's prisons, particularly those accused of terrorism, in some cases at the hands of Interior Ministry officials. (ANSAmed).
LONDON — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said on Friday that there were some references to UFOs in "yet-to-be-published" confidential files obtained from the U.S. government.
In an online chat hosted by the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper, he also said that no one has been harmed by his organization's release of troves of secret documents.
"WikiLeaks has a four-year publishing history. During that time there has been no credible allegation, even by organizations like the Pentagon, that even a single person has come to harm as a result of our activities," Assange said in response to a reader's question. "This is despite much-attempted manipulation and spin trying to lead people to a counter-factual conclusion. We do not expect any change in this regard."
Assange said he and colleagues were aware of death threats following the publication of diplomatic cables on their website.
"The threats against our lives are a matter of public record, however, we are taking the appropriate precautions to the degree that we are able when dealing with a superpower," Assange was quoted as saying.
Answering questions online, Assange also said that anyone making threats against his life should be charged with incitement to murder.
Asked if he has ever been forwarded documents dealing with UFOs or extraterrestrials, Assange responded, "Many weirdos e-mail us about UFOs or how they discovered that they were the anti-Christ whilst talking with their ex-wife at a garden party over a pot plant. However, as yet they have not satisfied two of our publishing rules: 1) that the documents not be self-authored; 2) that they be original.
"However, it is worth noting that in yet-to-be-published parts of the Cablegate archive, there are indeed references to UFOs."
Britain's Guardian is one of a number of newspapers around the world with early access to diplomatic cables seen by WikiLeaks.
The whereabouts of Assange, a 39-year-old Australian, are unknown, but some reports have said he is believed to be in southern England.
Swedish authorities said on Friday that information missing from a European arrest warrant they had issued against Assange for alleged sex crimes had been handed to British authorities.
"We sent it. They asked for complementary information and now they have it," Swedish Prosecution Authority spokeswoman Karin Rosander said.
Bjorn Hurtig, Assange's attorney in Sweden, told Dutch TV that the WikiliLeaks founder would fight extradition if arrested.
Hurtig repeated Assange's denials of a sexual crime in Sweden and said any evidence against him was "very very weak."
"One woman says it's rape another woman says its a sexual offense," Hurtig said. "I will not say if he says he has had sex with them. I will tell you he denies rape he denies sexual offenses he denies having committed any sort of crime against these women or against any other person."
Crippling Web traffic In his reponses on the Guardian's online question-and-answer session, Assange described Pfc. Bradley Manning, who was detained in connection with the leaked documents, as an "unparalleled hero" — if it was he who leaked the cables to WikiLeaks, he said.
The Q&A session with was crippled at first by heavy traffic but it was not immediately clear if The Guardian newspaper website was under a denial of service attack.
The Guardian said on one of its Twitter feeds that readers should be patient because the website is under heavy visitor loads.
Assange has not made a public appearance in nearly a month, although he has spoken to journalists over the Internet.
Swedish authorities have issued a Europe-wide warrant for his arrest, while WikiLeaks has been forced to switch to a Swiss domain name after its American domain name provider withdrew service. Its sites have also been hit by denial of service attacks.
'History will win' "The Cable Gate archive has been spread, along with significant material from the US and other countries to over 100,000 people in encrypted form. If something happens to us, the key parts will be released automatically," Assange wrote in response to a question about the way material is distributed.
"Further, the Cable Gate archives is in the hands of multiple news organizations. History will win. The world will be elevated to a better place. Will we survive? That depends on you."
Assange also addressed the attention he has been getting while the rest of his organization has remained largely anonymous.
"In the end, someone must be responsible to the public and only a leadership that is willing to be publicly courageous can genuinely suggest that sources take risks for the greater good," he said.
"In that process, I have become the lightning rod. I get undue attacks on every aspect of my life, but then I also get undue credit as some kind of balancing force."
A 2008 diplomatic cable from the US Embassy in Cairo leaked by WikiLeaks on Friday shows another side to the United States' relationship with Egypt in recent years. The cable outlines how the State Department helped an Egyptian pro-democracy activist attend a "Youth Movements Summit" in New York and how the unnamed activist presented an "unwritten plan for democratic transition in 2011."
While the United States has received criticism for its support of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's regime in the face of anti-government protests, the newly released cable indicates that the US was also supporting his detractors. It notes State Department efforts to apply pressure on Egypt in order to have dissidents released from custody.
While the United States has received criticism for its support of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's regime in the face of anti-government protests, the newly released cable indicates that the US was also supporting his detractors. It notes State Department efforts to apply pressure on Egypt in order to have dissidents released from custody.
The cable also described meetings that the Egyptian activist held with US members of congress. Among those he met with in 2008 were Representative Edward Royce and current chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. The pro-democracy activist told embassy officials that one of the congressmen even invited him to speak at a congressional hearing scheduled for early 2009 regarding "religious and political freedom in Egypt."
Perhaps most relevant to current events in Egypt was an aspect of the plan for "a transition to a parliamentary democracy" before the scheduled 2011 [Egyptian] presidential elections." He claims that a range of opposition groups, "including the Wafd, Nasserite, Karama and Tagammu parties, and the Muslim Brotherhood, Kifaya, and Revolutionary Socialist movements" all supported the unwritten plan. Furthermore, he says that the opposition groups were interested in "receiving support from the army and the police for a transitional government."
The US attitudes expressed in the diplomatic document are skeptical and cautious; plans are described as uncorroborated and "highly unrealistic." The diplomat who authored the report noted that the activist's goals are at odds with mainstream "opposition politicians and activists."
Another detail contained in the cable is an account of how the activist attempted to convince his contacts in Washington to blackmail Egyptian government officials. He described his hopes that the United States government might threaten to reveal information about GOE (Government of Egypt) officials' alleged 'illegal' off-shore bank accounts." He adds that "Mubarak derives his legitimacy from US support, and therefore charged the US with 'being responsible' for Mubarak's 'crimes.'"
In the views he expressed in the leaked document, NGOs working on political and economic reform live in a "'fantasy world,' not recognizing that Mubarak -- 'the head of the snake' -- must step aside to enable democracy to take root."
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle (C) speaks during ceremony marking National Day of Mourning in the Reichstag in Berlin, November 14, 2010.
Credit: Reuters/Thomas Peter
(Reuters) - U.S. diplomats describe German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle as arrogant, vain and critical of America, documents released on Sunday by whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks showed.
The reports were part of a bundle of over 250,000 U.S. State Department documents obtained by WikiLeaks and distributed to media in the United States and Europe, and which have revealed sensitive information and candid views of foreign leaders.
The documents, published in Germany by news weekly Der Spiegel, included 1,719 diplomatic cables from the U.S. Embassy in Berlin -- which showed diplomats giving frank assessments of high-ranking politicians including Chancellor Angela Merkel.
"She avoids risk and is seldom creative," one U.S. diplomat cited by Der Spiegel wrote of the Chancellor, who was referred to as 'Teflon Merkel' in some reports.
"The Americans consider the chancellor to view international diplomacy above all from the perspective of how she can profit from it domestically," the Spiegel report added.
While the reports are candid toward Merkel, they underline overwhelmingly how U.S. diplomats find it easier to work with her than with Westerwelle, who received the harshest criticism.
He is described as having an "exuberant personality" that sometimes leads to conflict with Merkel, but little foreign policy experience and an ambivalent view toward the U.S.
"There was a consensus among desk officers -- driven, perhaps, by political bias -- that Westerwelle was arrogant and too fixated on maintaining his 'cult of personality'," said a report written before Westerwelle became foreign minister.
PARTY STRATEGY
Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, Germany's most popular politician, was seen in a better light: "a close and well-known friend of the USA" who did not hesitate to give the embassy insight about internal German politics.
The reports said Guttenberg told U.S. Ambassador Philip Murphy that Westerwelle, not the opposition Social Democrats, was the real barrier to an increase in German troop strength in Afghanistan sought by Washington.
Murphy is quoted as welcoming information from a "young, up-and-coming party loyalist," from Westerwelle's Free Democrats (FDP) who gave the embassy detailed reports on party strategy.
"Excited with his role as FDP negotiations note-taker, he seemed happy to share his observations and insights and read to us directly from his notes," Murphy was quoted as writing.
The release of the documents prompted Murphy to write letters to several German newspapers to say his embassy work was normal, and that he did not regret it even if it may make waves.
"It's hard to say what effect it will have, but it will at the very least be uncomfortable -- for my government, for those mentioned in the reports, and for me personally as American Ambassador to Germany," he wrote in Bild am Sonntag.
Wikileaks: US pressured Spain over CIA rendition and Guantánamo torture
0 comentarii Publicat de Mr. Miaghy la 01:26
US officials tried to influence Spanish prosecutors and government officials to head off court investigations into Guantánamo Bay tortureallegations, secret CIA "extraordinary rendition" flights and the killing of a Spanish journalist by US troops in Iraq, according to secret US diplomatic cables.
Among their biggest worries were investigations pursued by the magistrate Baltasar Garzón, who US officials described as having "an anti-American streak".
"We are certainly under no illusions about the individual with whom we are dealing," they said after he opened an investigation into torture at Guantánamo Bay prison camp. "Judge Garzon has been a storied and controversial figure in recent Spanish history, whose ambition and pursuit of the spotlight may be without rival."
The revelations contained in the leaked documents will be embarrassing to Spanish prosecutors who shared information on cases they were involved in, and whose identities the Americans wanted protected.
They included the attorney general, Candido Conde-Pumpido, national court chief prosecutor, Javier Zaragoza, and fellow prosecutor Vicente González Mota, responsible for the CIA flights affair.
Zaragoza is revealed as a valuable source who accuses Garzón of opening some human rights cases in order to "drum up more speaking fees". He proved to be an ally as the US tried to stem a flood of investigations at Spain's national court – one of the world's most vigorous courts in exercising international jurisdiction over human rights crimes.
A major worry was a torture case brought by a Spanish non-governmental organisation against six senior Bush administration officials, including the former attorney general Alberto Gonzales.
Senator Mel Martinez, a former Republican party chairman, and the US embassy's charge d'affaires visited the Spanish foreign ministry to warn the investigation would have consequences. "Martinez and the charge underscored that the prosecutions would ... have an enormous impact on the bilateral relationship," the officials reported.
Officials in Madrid discussed with Zaragoza ways in which a US investigation into the same allegations might be opened in order to force the Spanish court to close its own case. "Zaragoza has also told us that if a proceeding regarding this matter were underway in the US, that would effectively bar proceedings in Spain. We intend to further explore this option with him informally," they said.
Garzón, who opened a separate torture investigation, was deemed to put self-promotion first. "We suspect Garzón will wring all the publicity he can from the case unless and until he is forced to give it up," said the officials.
"Zaragoza said he had challenged Garzón directly and personally on this latest case, asking if he was trying to drum up more speaking fees," they reported.
They noted that Garzón was already in hot water over his investigation into human rights crimes committed under Spain's former dictator General Francisco Franco. As a result Garzón now looks set to be removed from his job by supreme court judges next year.
"Zaragoza doubts Garzón will risk a second such complaint," they said.
But US officials worried he would go down fighting. "It is hard for us to see why the publicity-loving Garzón would shut off his headline-generating machine unless forced to do so," they reported. "We also fear Garzón – far from being deterred by threats of disciplinary action – may welcome the chance for martyrdom, knowing the case will attract worldwide attention."
When another Spanish magistrate began investigating the alleged use of a Spanish airport for secret CIA flights carrying terror suspects, officials noted that US policy was to deal with these cases in closed-door conversations with governments.
They were especially alarmed when magistrates and prosecutors in both Spain and Germany began comparing notes. "This co-ordination among independent investigators will complicate our efforts to manage this case at a discreet government-to-government level," they warned.
Officials noted, however, that their own government had not explicitly denied the allegations. "Our ability to beat down this story is constrained by the fact that we do not ourselves know, factually, what might have transpired five or six years ago as the battles in Afghanistan and Iraq began yielding large numbers of potentially dangerous terrorist detainees and unlawful combatants," they observed.
"Baring (sic) a categorical statement from the US government that no detainees passed through Spain – and we understand that might be undesirable from a policy standpoint even if factually correct – nothing but time is going to make this go away," they said.
González Mota, who was handling the CIA flights, was a valuable source. "The prosecutors do not intend to request information on this case from the embassy or from the US government in general," US officials said after a conversation with him.
When another Spanish magistrate issued arrest warrants for three US soldiers involved in the death of Spanish television cameraman José Couso in Baghdad, senior ministers in Spain's socialist government moved to stop the investigation. Couso was killed in April 2003 alongside Reuters cameraman Taras Protsyuk when a tank opened fire on a hotel known to accommodate journalists.
"Top ministers moved quickly to let us know that the government is working to resolve this situation," the officials reported, naming the deputy prime minister, María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, foreign minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, and justice minister, Juan Fernando López Aguilar.
"The [Spanish] government must act carefully as it tries to influence Spain's fiercely independent judiciary," they noted. " In order to avoid aggravating the situation, Spanish government leaders must publicly show their respect for the independent workings of the courts."
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