WikiLeaks: more than political gossip
A common perception is that the leaked US Embassy cables contain little more than diplomatic snipes and nothing of much importance. This is not the case. The revelations about US secret dealings and back-room operations are not surprising to people who follow US foreign policy closely, but WikiLeaks gives evidence of the string pulling, lies and corruption that many people already suspected. As author Antony Loewenstein wrote on his blog last week: “One can dismiss The Australian’s bragging of knowing virtually everything in the WikiLeaks cables before they were released – if only they more deeply scrutinised the effect of war policies they backed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and beyond.”
In the view of US academic Noam Chomsky, “the most dramatic revelation is the bitter hatred of democracy that is revealed both by the US government—Hillary Clinton, others—and also by the diplomatic service.”
Beyond the character assessments that amount to little more than political gossip, the City Hub has picked some of the most dramatic and damaging revelations from the leaked cables.
US ambassador to Spain tries to get US soldiers accused of war crimes off the hook
In 2003, Spanish TV cameraman José Couso and two other journalists were killed as US soldiers fired tank shells at the hotel in Baghdad where media were staying. The Spanish High Court issued an international arrest warrant against three US soldiers implicated in the killings.
Leaked US Embassy cables reveal that the US Ambassador in Madrid, Eduardo Aguirre, pressured the Spanish government to get the case against the US soldiers dropped. He wrote to US Secretary of State Condaleezza Rice that the Spanish government “has been helpful behind the scenes in getting the case appealed by the Spanish prosecutor.”
Obama pressured Spain into dropping Bush torture prosecutions
The diplomatic cables reveal that US officials tried to influence Spanish prosecutors and government officials to head off court investigations into Guantánamo Bay torture allegations and secret CIA “extraordinary rendition” flights. This involves a torture case brought by a Spanish non-governmental organisation against six senior Bush administration officials, including the former attorney general Alberto Gonzales. In its first months in office, the Obama administration sought to protect Bush administration officials facing criminal investigation overseas for their involvement in establishing policies that governed interrogations of detained terrorist suspects. A confidential April 17, 2009, cable sent from the US embassy in Madrid to the State Department details how the Obama administration, working with Republicans, leaned on Spain to derail this potential prosecution.
Oil company Shell’s slippery influence at all political levels in Nigeria
Shell’s former vice-president for sub-Saharan Africa said the oil company had “seconded people to all the relevant ministries” and therefore was informed about all important political decisions. This is no surprise to the people of Nigeria, and it re-opens questions about Shell’s involvement in the framing and execution of Nigerian anti-Shell activist Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1995.
US pharmaceutical company Pfizer used blackmail to evade a Nigerian lawsuit
Drug company Pfizer hired investigators to dig up dirt on the Nigerian attorney general last year to pressure him to drop charges against the company. Pfizer was facing a $6 billion lawsuit in Nigeria after the deaths of eleven children during trials of a new antibiotic in 1996. Pfizer’s researchers selected 200 children at an epidemic hospital in Nigeria, then gave about half of them an untested oral version of the antibiotic Trovan.
The litigation was settled privately after Pfizer let it be known – as revealed in the leaked cables – that it had damaging information on Nigeria’s attorney general.
Vatican pressured Ireland to give immunity to church officials involved in sex abuse
Ireland caved in to Vatican pressure to grant immunity to church officials in the investigation of decades of sex abuse by its clergy, newly released WikiLeaks documents have shown.
Evidence that US paid off small countries to endorse their position at Copenhagen climate talks
Founder of 350.org, an international environmental organisation, Bill Kibben told Democracy Now!
“Some of the new data coming out today makes it clear that everyone’s suspicion that the US was both bullying and buying countries into endorsing their do-little position on climate were even worse than we had realized.”
US bribed countries to take freed detainees from Guantanamo Bay
WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange described these revelations in an article in The Australian;
“The US is playing hardball to get other countries to take freed detainees from Guantanamo Bay . Barack Obama agreed to meet the Slovenian President only if Slovenia took a prisoner. Our Pacific neighbour Kiribati was offered millions of dollars to accept detainees.”
US State Department asked US diplomats to spy on Ban Ki-Moon and other top UN officials
In July 2009, a confidential cable originating from the United States Department of State ordered US diplomats to spy on Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, and other top UN officials.The intelligence information the diplomats were ordered to gather included biometric information, passwords, and personal encryption keys used in private and commercial networks for official communications.
BY LIZ CUSH
