A massive document dump – more than
250,000 U.S diplomatic cables made public by WikiLeaks – sent shock waves
around the globe as the Obama administration coped with the fallout of
revelations ranging from stunning to salacious as its policies and methods of
dealing with friends and foes were embarrassingly laid bare.
The trove reveals candid
assessments of foreign leaders, secret details of the global anti-terrorist campaign
and embarrassing details of American diplomats gathering sordid details of the
sex lives of foreign leaders.
Among the revelations in the secret
diplomatic messages: America’s close Arab allies have urged it to strike Iran –
by bombing nuclear sites and decapitating the ruling Islamic theocracy; cyber warriors
from China’s communist politburo have attacked U.S. government computer networks.
“Cut off the head of the
snake,” King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia said, referring to Tehran, a call to
arms he has repeatedly made to both the Bush and Obama administrations. It was
a bellicose call, one echoed by Egyptian and other Arab leaders who regard the
rising Iranian power across the gulf as an “existential threat.”
Also revealed: North Korea has
provided Iran with ex-Soviet missiles capable of lofting nuclear-warheads
thousands of kilometres; Yemen has promised to cover for U.S. missile strikes
on its territory by claiming they are its own bombing missions.
“We’ll continue saying the
bombs are ours, not yours,” Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh is reported
to have said.
Meanwhile, Israel has warned that
Iran was only months away from a nuclear weapon – an assessment disputed by the
U.S. intelligence community. Defence Secretary Robert Gates apparently believes
that even a massive attack on Tehran’s nuclear sites would only delay the regime’s
acquisition of a nuclear arsenal. Air strikes “would only delay Iranian plans
by one to three years, while unifying the Iranian people to be forever embittered
against the attacker,” a diplomatic cable quotes Mr. Gates as telling his
French counterpart.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton apparently ordered a covert spying campaign – blurring the role
of diplomats – against UN leaders including Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Among the juicy – if hardly
surprising – details are diplomatic messages that report on unspecified
“inappropriate behaviour” by a member of the British Royal Family; a reference
to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as “an alpha dog” and suggestions
that Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai is “driven by paranoia.”
Other messages compared Iran’s
controversial and unpredictable President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Hitler and
suggest that Libyan Leader Moammar Gadhafi likes the company of his buxom
Ukrainian nurse.
There are also blunt – and harshly
critical – assessments of some of America’s fighting allies in Afghanistan,
notably the British forces who were heavily engaged in Helmand province until
Mr. Obama sent tens of thousands of U.S. troops to southern Afghanistan.
Another previously undisclosed U.S.
effort – now apparently stalled – was an attempt to extract weapons-grade
uranium from Pakistan. Less surprising are diplomatic cables that report Saudis
remain among the primary supporters of Islamic jihadist groups, including
al-Qaeda.
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