[Proculation]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/no ... acy-crisis

$1:

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'


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."

[Newsbot]

Title: U.S. appeals to WikiLeaks to halt document release
Category: Political
Posted By: wildrosegirl
Date: 2010-11-28 07:39:00

[Curtman]

Wikileaks 'hacked ahead of secret US document release'

$1:

Whistle-blowing website Wikileaks says it has come under attack from a computer-hacking operation, ahead of a release of secret US documents.

"We are currently under a mass distributed denial of service attack," it said on its Twitter feed earlier.

[Curtman]

Wikileaks release of embassy cables reveals US concerns

$1:

They include reports of some Arab leaders - including Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah - urging the US to attack Iran and end its nuclear weapons programme.

Other concerns include the security of Pakistani nuclear material that could be used to make an atomic weapon.

The widespread use of hacking by the Chinese government is also reported.

The leaked US embassy cables also reportedly include accounts of:

- Iran attempting to adapt North Korean rockets for use as long-range missiles

- Corruption within the Afghan government, with concerns heightened when a senior official was found to be carrying more than $50m in cash on a foreign trip

- Bargaining to empty the Guantanamo Bay prison camp - including Slovenian diplomats being told to take in a freed prisoner if they wanted to secure a meeting with President Barack Obama

- US officials being instructed to spy on the UN's leadership
The very close relationship between Russian PM Vladimir Putin and his Italian counterpart Silvio Berlusconi

- Alleged links between the Russian government and organised crime

- Criticism of UK politicians including Prime Minister David Cameron
Faltering US attempts to prevent Syria from supplying arms to Hezbollah in Lebanon

[desertdude]

Tru Dat ! Connection times out. I tried to log in an hour ago and thought it could be a DOS attack.

[Curtman]

desertdude desertdude:

Tru Dat ! Connection times out. I tried to log in an hour ago and thought it could be a DOS attack.

Try this mirror:

http://www.wikileaks.se/

EDIT: It looks like the latest leak hasn't propagated there yet though.

The leak seems to be online now:

Secret US Embassy Cables

Cables by origin:

[CommanderSock]

Wiki Leaks is amazing. Kudos to them for exposing and embarrassing almost every government on this planet.

Unfortunately they will suffer for it.

They have Arab leaders openly calling for the bombing of Iran. Yes. Let the truth be told. America is stupid to play into their hands.

Thank you Wiki Leaks.

[Public_Domain]

[BartSimpson]

I got an email from a friend who is still in the service and the tweak on this issue is that the kid who admits sending the documents to Wikileaks, PFC Bradley Manning, is gay. The tweak is that the Pentagon has long stood opposed to gays in the military because they constitute a disproportionate security threat. Manning's timing in this issue does not at all help the cause of gays openly serving in the military and, frankly, is a justification for a crack down on gays in the military.

[desertdude]

Was reading some of the leaks, very interesting I must say !

[Zipperfish]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

I got an email from a friend who is still in the service and the tweak on this issue is that the kid who admits sending the documents to Wikileaks, PFC Bradley Manning, is gay. The tweak is that the Pentagon has long stood opposed to gays in the military because they constitute a disproportionate security threat. Manning's timing in this issue does not at all help the cause of gays openly serving in the military and, frankly, is a justification for a crack down on gays in the military.

If the rumour proves untrue and it turns out he's straight, should there be a crackdown on straights in the military?

[BartSimpson]

Zipperfish Zipperfish:

If the rumour proves untrue and it turns out he's straight, should there be a crackdown on straights in the military?

Wiki is saying it is so. Given their biases I'm inclined to accept this as uncontested.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradley_Manning

$1:

Ginger Thompson said in a New York Times article that in Wales "classmates made fun of him for being gay"[8], that former neighbors in Oklahoma described the young Manning as "opinionated beyond his years about politics, religion, and even about keeping religion out of politics."[8], and that in the Army, Manning's "social life was defined by the need to conceal his sexuality under 'don't ask, don't tell' "[8] Thompson said that sometime in 2008, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Manning became "part of a social circle that included politically motivated computer hackers and his boyfriend, a self-described drag queen.

[Zipperfish]

..oh, and can we stop adding the word "gate" to every scandal. It's getting a bit long in the tooth, that one.

[BartSimpson]

Zipperfish Zipperfish:

..oh, and can we stop adding the word "gate" to every scandal. It's getting a bit long in the tooth, that one.

I was going to give it up right after Zipperfishgate, if you don't mind.

[Zipperfish]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

Wiki is saying it is so. Given their biases I'm inclined to accept this as uncontested.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradley_Manning

$1:

Ginger Thompson said in a New York Times article that in Wales "classmates made fun of him for being gay"[8], that former neighbors in Oklahoma described the young Manning as "opinionated beyond his years about politics, religion, and even about keeping religion out of politics."[8], and that in the Army, Manning's "social life was defined by the need to conceal his sexuality under 'don't ask, don't tell' "[8] Thompson said that sometime in 2008, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Manning became "part of a social circle that included politically motivated computer hackers and his boyfriend, a self-described drag queen.

OK the straights are off the hook...this time!