By JIM SCIUTTO and LEE FERRAN
Nov. 29, 2010
From unflattering, flippant remarks about foreign leaders to deadly serious security concerns, the massive publication of U.S. diplomatic correspondence by Wikileaks could have one collective and potentially disastrous effect, according to policy officials: the loss of trust in the U.S. government.
"I think the greatest harm ... is the loss of trust that other governments will have in dealing with the United States of America," Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., who sits on the House Intelligence Committee, told "Good Morning America" today. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange "is putting into danger our foreign policy and perhaps the lives of certain Americans around the world."
Officials in the Obama administration echoed Hoekstra's worries, citing one correspondence in particular that revealed what appeared to be an attempt by Yemeni leaders to mislead their own people -- potentially damaging U.S. relations with a country that has proved a dangerous front in the war on terror.
More than 250,000 documents, some of which were posted online by The New York Times, the U.K.'s Guardian and France's Le Monde Sunday, cover more than 40 years in American diplomacy and are expected to be posted online in full on the Wikileaks website over the next few days, Wikileaks said.
"Every American schoolchild is taught that George Washington could not tell a lie," Assange said today. "This document release reveals the contradictions between the U.S.'s public persona, and what it says behind closed doors."
Some of those behind-closed-doors comments were personal slights against foreign leaders. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is mockingly referred to as the "alpha dog" and the Batman to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's Robin. French President Nicolas Sarkozy is called "the emperor with no clothes," and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, a "flabby old chap."
Monday, November 29, 2010
Pakistan defends nuclear stance revealed by WikiLeaks
ISLAMABAD |
(Reuters) - Pakistan on Monday defended its decision to deny the United States access to a nuclear research reactor after leaked diplomatic cables revealed a U.S. attempt to remove enriched uranium from the facility.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit told Reuters that the nuclear reactor in question had been provided by the United States in the 1960s. The Americans, he said, wanted the fuel back because they said it was their property.
"We said no, because it's now our property and we will not return it," Basit said. "This only shows that Pakistan is very sensitive about its nuclear program and would not allow any direct or indirect foreign intrusion."
The United States has been secretly trying to convince Pakistan to allow it to remove the uranium because of fears the nuclear material might be stolen or diverted for use in a nuclear device, the New York Times reported in its coverage of the WikiLeaks release of U.S. embassy cables.
But Pakistan has refused visits from American experts, according to a May 2009 report by former U.S. Ambassador Anne W. Patterson, because "If the local media got word of the fuel removal, 'they would certainly portray it as the United States taking Pakistan's nuclear weapons,'" a Pakistani official told her.
Pakistan's nuclear program has been under suspicion since 2004 in part because of leading scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan's illegal smuggling ring stretching to Iran, North Korea and Libya.
The revelation is part of a massive dump of more than 250,000 diplomatic cables by the Website WikiLeaks and given to five newspapers: The New York Times, the Guardian in London, Le Monde, Der Spiegel and El Pais.
The cables provide candid and at times critical views of foreign leaders as well as sensitive information on terrorism and nuclear proliferation filed by U.S. diplomats, according to The New York Times.
Some 220 cables were posted by WikiLeaks on a dedicated page, cablegate.wikileaks.org.
In addition to Washington's concerns over Pakistan's nuclear material, other cables regarding Pakistan revealed:
* Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah speaking scathingly about President Asif Ali Zardari, calling him the greatest obstacle to that country's progress. "When the head is rotten," it quoted the him as saying, ?it affects the whole body."
Zardari's office responded by saying the president regards the king as an "elder brother." "The so-called leaks are no more than an attempt to create misperceptions between two important and brotherly Muslim countries," his spokesman Farhatullah Babar told Reuters.
* In July 2009, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces and de facto defense chief, said Zardari was "dirty but not dangerous." Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was "dangerous but not dirty -- this is Pakistan." He said Sharif, who heads the main opposition party to Zardari, could not be trusted to honor his promises.
* A rail link between Iran and Pakistan would be delayed for the foreseeable future because of unrest from Baluch militants in both countries. "The current rail connection, running between Quetta, Pakistan and Zahedan, Iran is in poor condition and has low freight-carrying capacity. Moreover, according to reports it has recently been repeatedly subject to rocket attacks and other disruption by Baluchi tribes."
* Likewise, a natural gas pipeline agreement between Iran and Pakistan, signed with great fanfare earlier this year, is unlikely to bear fruit anytime soon because "the Pakistanis don't have the money to pay for either the pipeline, or the gas."
Sunday, November 28, 2010
US in touch with Pakistan on WikiLeaks
WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is reaching out to world leaders, including President Asif Ali Zardari, as part of a damage-control exercise ahead of an imminent release of millions of secret diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks.
US officials warned that the most sensitive of these documents were instructions from Washington to 297 US diplomatic missions about negotiations on issues such as the START treaty or about next steps in Afghanistan.
In Pakistan, Secretary Clinton is calling both President Zardari and the country’s military leaders as the expected leaks concern both.
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