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The US embassy cables
US embassy cables leak sparks global diplomacy crisis
More than 250,000 dispatches reveal US foreign strategies
Diplomats ordered to spy on allies as well as enemies
Hillary Clinton leads frantic 'damage limitation'
* David Leigh
* guardian.co.uk, Sunday 28 November 2010 17.50 GMT
US embassy in London The release of more than 250,000 US embassy cables reveals
previously secret information on American intelligence gathering, and political
and military strategy. Photograph: Rex Features
The United States was catapulted into a worldwide diplomatic crisis today, with
the leaking to the Guardian and other international media of more than 250,000
classified cables from its embassies, many sent as recently as February this
year.
At the start of a series of daily extracts from the US embassy cables - many of
which are designated "secret" the Guardian can disclose that Arab leaders are
privately urging an air strike on Iran and that US officials have been
instructed to spy on the UN's leadership.
These two revelations alone would be likely to reverberate around the world.
But the secret dispatches which were obtained by WikiLeaks, the whistlebowers'
website, also reveal Washington's evaluation of many other highly sensitive
international issues.
These include a major shift in relations between China and North Korea,
Pakistan's growing instability and details of clandestine US efforts to combat
al-Qaida in Yemen.
Among scores of other disclosures that are likely to cause uproar, the cables
detail:
Grave fears in Washington and London over the security of Pakistan's nuclear
weapons programme
 Alleged links between the Russian government and organised crime.
 Devastating criticism of the UK's military operations in Afghanistan.
 Claims of inappropriate behaviour by a member of the British royal
family.
The US has particularly intimate dealings with Britain, and some of the
dispatches from the London embassy in Grosvenor Square will make uncomfortable
reading in Whitehall and Westminster. They range from serious political
criticisms of David Cameron to requests for specific intelligence about
individual MPs.
The cache of cables contains specific allegations of corruption and against
foreign leaders, as well as harsh criticism by US embassy staff of their host
governments, from tiny islands in the Caribbean to China and Russia.
The material includes a reference to Vladimir Putin as an "alpha-dog", Hamid
Karzai as being "driven by paranoia" and Angela Merkel allegedly "avoids risk
and is rarely creative". There is also a comparison between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
and Adolf Hitler.
The cables name countries involved in financing terror groups, and describe a
near "environmental disaster" last year over a rogue shipment of enriched
uranium. They disclose technical details of secret US-Russian nuclear missile
negotiations in Geneva, and include a profile of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi,
who they say is accompanied everywhere by a "voluptuous blonde" Ukrainian nurse.
The cables cover secretary of state Hillary Clinton's activities under the
Obama administration, as well as thousands of files from the George Bush
presidency. Clinton personally led frantic damage limitation this weekend as
Washington prepared foreign governments for the revelations. She contacted
leaders in Germany, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf, France and Afghanistan.
US ambassadors in other capitals were instructed to brief their hosts in
advance of the release of unflattering pen-portraits or nakedly frank accounts
of transactions with the US which they had thought would be kept quiet.
Washington now faces a difficult task in convincing contacts around the world
that any future conversations will remain confidential.
"We are all bracing for what may be coming and condemn WikiLeaks for the
release of classified material," state department spokesman PJ Crowley said.
"It will place lives and interests at risk. It is irresponsible."
The state department's legal adviser has written to Wikileaks founder Julian
Assange and his London lawyer, warning that the cables were obtained illegally
and that publication would place at risk "the lives of countless innocent
individuals
ongoing military operations
and cooperation between countries".
The electronic archive of embassy dispatches from around the world was
allegedly downloaded by a US soldier earlier this year and passed to WikiLeaks.
Assange made them available to the Guardian and four other newspapers: the New
York Times, Der Spiegel in Germany, Le Monde in France and El País in Spain.
All five plan to publish extracts from the most significant cables, but have
decided neither to "dump" the entire dataset into the public domain, nor to
publish names that would endanger innocent individuals. WikiLeaks says that,
contrary to the state department's fears, it also initially intends to post
only limited cable extracts, and to redact identities.
The cables published today reveal how the US uses its embassies as part of a
global espionage network, with diplomats tasked to obtain not just information
from the people they meet, but personal details, such as frequent flyer
numbers, credit card details and even DNA material.
Classified "human intelligence directives" issued in the name of Hillary
Clinton or her predecessor, Condoleeza Rice, instruct officials to gather
information on military installations, weapons markings, vehicle details of
political leaders as well as iris scans, fingerprints and DNA.
The most controversial target was the leadership of the United Nations. That
directive requested the specification of telecoms and IT systems used by top UN
officials and their staff and details of "private VIP networks used for
official communication, to include upgrades, security measures, passwords,
personal encryption keys".
When the Guardian put this allegation to Crowley, the state department
spokesman said: "Let me assure you: our diplomats are just that, diplomats.
They do not engage in intelligence activities. They represent our country
around the world, maintain open and transparent contact with other governments
as well as public and private figures, and report home. That's what diplomats
have done for hundreds of years."
The dispatches also shed light on older diplomatic issues. One cable, for
example, reveals, that Nelson Mandela was "furious" when a top adviser stopped
him meeting Margaret Thatcher shortly after his release from prison to explain
why the ANC objected to her policy of "constructive engagement" with the
apartheid regime. "We understand Mandela was keen for a Thatcher meeting but
that [appointments secretary Zwelakhe] Sisulu argued successfully against it,"
according to the cable. It continues: "Mandela has on several occasions
expressed his eagerness for an early meeting with Thatcher to express the ANC's
objections to her policy. We were consequently surprised when the meeting
didn't materialise on his mid-April visit to London and suspected that ANC
hardliners had nixed Mandela's plans."
The US embassy cables are marked "Sipdis" secret internet protocol
distribution. They were compiled as part of a programme under which selected
dispatches, considered moderately secret but suitable for sharing with other
agencies, would be automatically loaded on to secure embassy websites, and
linked with the military's Siprnet internet system.
They are classified at various levels up to "SECRET NOFORN" [no foreigners].
More than 11,000 are marked secret, while around 9,000 of the cables are marked
noforn. The embassies which sent most cables were Ankara, Baghdad, Amman,
Kuwait and Tokyo.
More than 3 million US government personnel and soldiers, many extremely
junior, are cleared to have potential access to this material, even though the
cables contain the identities of foreign informants, often sensitive contacts
in dictatorial regimes. Some are marked "protect" or "strictly protect".
Last spring, 22-year-old intelligence analyst Bradley Manning was charged with
leaking many of these cables, along with a gun-camera video of an Apache
helicopter crew mistakenly killing two Reuters news agency employees in Baghdad
in 2007, which was subsequently posted by WikiLeaks. Manning is facing a court
martial.
In July and October WikiLeaks also published thousands of leaked military
reports from Afghanistan and Iraq. These were made available for analysis
beforehand to the Guardian, along with Der Spiegel and the New York Times.
A former hacker, Adrian Lamo, who reported Manning to the US authorities, said
the soldier had told him in chat messages that the cables revealed "how the
first world exploits the third, in detail".
He also said, according to Lamo, that Clinton "and several thousand diplomats
around the world are going to have a heart attack when they wake up one morning
and find an entire repository of classified foreign policy is available in
searchable format to the public
everywhere there's a US post
there's a
diplomatic scandal that will be revealed".
Asked why such sensitive material was posted on a network accessible to
thousands of government employees, the state department spokesman told the
Guardian: "The 9/11 attacks and their aftermath revealed gaps in
intra-governmental information sharing. Since the attacks of 9/11, the US
government has taken significant steps to facilitate information sharing. These
efforts were focused on giving diplomatic, military, law enforcement and
intelligence specialists quicker and easier access to more data to more
effectively do their jobs."
He added: "We have been taking aggressive action in recent weeks and months to
enhance the security of our systems and to prevent the leak of information."
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