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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Der Speigel is catalogueing a series of interesting
articles on the latest wikileaks documents </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>and describes it as a "foreign policy meltdown" for
the US.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>If only that statement were true. One can
imagine that the otherwise</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>incomparable HC is as mad as a wet hen. It
will be interesting to see what</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>spin doctoring, crawfishing, and apologetics
will issue from the State Dept. and</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>who will rise to defend them.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial><A
href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,731583,00.html">http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,731583,00.html</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Speigel makes this wholesale
statement:</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>"The compendium of reports, most of which cover
the period from 2003 until the end of February 2010, </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>sheds light on America's at times arrogant view
of the world. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Never before have so many political revelations
embarrassed the US State Department in one fell swoop. "</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2 face=Arial><EM>"...at times arrogant"?
</EM></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>The State Department's incredible hubris is evident
in their statement-</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>"To be clear -- such disclosures put at risk our
diplomats, intelligence professionals, and people around the world who come to
the United States for assistance in promoting democracy and open government.
These documents also may include named individuals who in many cases live and
work under oppressive regimes and who are trying to create more open and free
societies. President Obama supports responsible, accountable, and open
government at home and around the world, but this reckless and dangerous
action runs counter to that goal. <BR><BR>By releasing stolen and classified
documents, Wikileaks has put at risk not only the cause of human rights but
also the lives and work of these individuals. We condemn in the strongest
terms the unauthorized disclosure of classified documents and sensitive
national security information. "</FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial><EM>"...human rights?" "...open
government" you say? </EM></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial><EM></EM></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial><EM> Heh.</EM></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>----- Original Message ----- </FONT>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>From: "C. G. Estabrook" <</FONT><A
href="mailto:galliher@illinois.edu"><FONT size=2
face=Arial>galliher@illinois.edu</FONT></A><FONT size=2
face=Arial>></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>To: "Peace-discuss" <</FONT><A
href="mailto:peace-discuss@anti-war.net"><FONT size=2
face=Arial>peace-discuss@anti-war.net</FONT></A><FONT size=2
face=Arial>></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Sent: Monday, November 29, 2010 8:55
AM</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Subject: [Peace-discuss] US government
illegalities</FONT></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><BR><FONT size=2></FONT></FONT></DIV><FONT size=2
face=Arial>> US diplomats spied on UN leadership<BR>> • Diplomats ordered
to gather intelligence on Ban Ki-moon<BR>> • Secret directives sent to more
than 30 US embassies<BR>> • Call for DNA data, computer passwords and
terrorist links<BR>> Robert Booth and Julian Borger, guardian.co.uk,<BR>>
Sunday 28 November 2010 18.14 GMT<BR>> <BR>> Washington is running a
secret intelligence campaign targeted at the leadership <BR>> of the United
Nations, including the secretary general, Ban Ki-moon and the <BR>> permanent
security council representatives from China, Russia, France and the UK.<BR>>
<BR>> A classified directive which appears to blur the line between diplomacy
and <BR>> spying was issued to US diplomats under Hillary Clinton's name in
July 2009, <BR>> demanding forensic technical details about the
communications systems used by <BR>> top UN officials, including passwords
and personal encryption keys used in <BR>> private and commercial networks
for official communications.<BR>> <BR>> It called for detailed biometric
information "on key UN officials, to include <BR>> undersecretaries, heads of
specialised agencies and their chief advisers, top <BR>> SYG [secretary
general] aides, heads of peace operations and political field <BR>> missions,
including force commanders" as well as intelligence on Ban's <BR>>
"management and decision-making style and his influence on the secretariat". A
<BR>> parallel intelligence directive sent to diplomats in the Democratic
Republic of <BR>> the Congo, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi said biometric data
included DNA, <BR>> fingerprints and iris scans.<BR>> <BR>> Washington
also wanted credit card numbers, email addresses, phone, fax and <BR>> pager
numbers and even frequent-flyer account numbers for UN figures and <BR>>
"biographic and biometric information on UN Security Council permanent <BR>>
representatives".<BR>> <BR>> The secret "national human intelligence
collection directive" was sent to US <BR>> missions at the UN in New York,
Vienna and Rome; 33 embassies and consulates, <BR>> including those in
London, Paris and Moscow.<BR>> <BR>> The operation targeted at the UN
appears to have involved all of Washington's <BR>> main intelligence
agencies. The CIA's clandestine service, the US Secret Service <BR>> and the
FBI were included in the "reporting and collection needs" cable <BR>>
alongside the state department under the heading "collection requirements and
<BR>> tasking".<BR>> <BR>> The leak of the directive is likely to spark
questions about the legality of the <BR>> operation and about whether state
department diplomats are expected to spy. The <BR>> level of technical and
personal detail demanded about the UN top team's <BR>> communication systems
could be seen as laying the groundwork for surveillance or <BR>> hacking
operations. It requested "current technical specifications, physical <BR>>
layout and planned upgrades to telecommunications infrastructure and information
<BR>> systems, networks and technologies used by top officials and their
support <BR>> staff", as well as details on private networks used for
official communication, <BR>> "to include upgrades, security measures,
passwords, personal encryption keys and <BR>> virtual private network
versions used".<BR>> <BR>> The UN has previously asserted that bugging the
secretary general is illegal, <BR>> citing the 1946 UN convention on
privileges and immunities which states: "The <BR>> premises of the United
Nations shall be inviolable. The property and assets of <BR>> the United
Nations, wherever located and by whomsoever held, shall be immune <BR>> from
search, requisition, confiscation, expropriation and any other form of <BR>>
interference, whether by executive, administrative, judicial or legislative
action".<BR>> <BR>> The 1961 Vienna convention on diplomatic relations,
which covers the UN, also <BR>> states that "the official correspondence of
the mission shall be inviolable".<BR>> <BR>> The emergence of the
directive also risks undermining political trust between <BR>> the UN
leadership and the US, which is the former's biggest paying member, <BR>>
supplying almost a quarter of its budget – more than $3bn (£1.9bn) this
year.<BR>> <BR>> Washington wanted intelligence on the contentious issue
of the "relationship or <BR>> funding between UN personnel and/or missions
and terrorist organisations" and <BR>> links between the UN Relief and Works
Agency in the Middle East, and Hamas and <BR>> Hezbollah. It also wanted to
know about plans by UN special rapporteurs to press <BR>> for potentially
embarrassing investigations into the US treatment of detainees <BR>> in Iraq,
Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay, and "details of friction" between the <BR>>
agencies co-ordinating UN humanitarian operations, evidence of corruption inside
<BR>> UNAids, the joint UN programme on HIV, and in international health
<BR>> organisations, including the World Health Organisation (WHO). It even
called for <BR>> "biographic and biometric" information on Dr Margaret Chan,
the director general <BR>> of WHO, as well as details of her personality,
role, effectiveness, management <BR>> style and influence.<BR>> <BR>>
The UN is not the only target. The cables reveal that since 2008 the state
<BR>> department has issued at least nine directives to embassies around the
world <BR>> which set forth "a list of priorities intended to guide
participating US <BR>> government agencies as they allocate resources and
update plans to collect <BR>> information".<BR>> <BR>> They are packed
with detailed orders and while embassy staff are particularly <BR>>
encouraged to assist in compiling biographic information, the directive on the
<BR>> mineral and oil-rich Great Lakes region of Africa also requested
detailed <BR>> military intelligence, including weapons markings and plans of
army bases. A <BR>> directive on "Palestinian issues" sent to Cairo, Tel
Aviv, Jerusalem, Amman, <BR>> Damascus and Riyadh demanded the exact travel
plans and vehicles used by leading <BR>> members of Hamas and the Palestinian
Authority, without explaining why.<BR>> <BR>> In one directive that would
test the initiative, never mind moral and legal <BR>> scruples, of any
diplomat, Washington ordered staff in the DRC, Uganda, Rwanda <BR>> and
Burundi to obtain biometric information of leading figures in business, <BR>>
politics, intelligence, military, religion and in key ethnic groups.<BR>>
<BR>> Fingerprints and photographs are collected as part of embassies'
consular and <BR>> visa operations, but it is harder to see how diplomats
could justify obtaining <BR>> DNA samples and iris scans. Again in central
Africa, embassy officials were <BR>> ordered to gather details about
countries' military relations with China, Libya, <BR>> North Korea, Iran and
Russia. Washington assigned high priority to intelligence <BR>> on the
"transfer of strategic materials such as uranium", and "details of arms <BR>>
acquisitions and arms sales by government or insurgents, including negotiations,
<BR>> contracts, deliveries, terms of sale, quantity and quality of
equipment, and <BR>> price and payment terms".<BR>> <BR>> The
directives, signed simply "Clinton" or "Rice", referring to the current and
<BR>> former secretaries of state, Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice, form
a <BR>> central plank of America's intelligence effort and reveal how
Washington is <BR>> using its 11,500-strong foreign service to glean highly
sensitive information on <BR>> both allies and enemies.<BR>> <BR>> They
are compliant with the National Intelligence Priorities Framework, which is
<BR>> approved by the president, and issued by James Clapper, the director of
national <BR>> intelligence who oversees the CIA, the Defence Intelligence
Agency, FBI and 13 <BR>> other intelligence agencies.<BR>> <BR>>
Washington circulated to its Middle Eastern embassies a request for what was
<BR>> effectively a counter-intelligence operation against Mukhabarat, the
Palestinian <BR>> Authority's secret service, and Istikhbarat, its military
intelligence.<BR>> <BR>> The directive asked for an assessment of the
foreign agencies' "signals <BR>> intercept capabilities and targets,
decryption capabilities, intercept sites and <BR>> collection hardware, and
intercept operation successes" and information of their <BR>> "efforts to
illicitly collect classified, sensitive, commercial proprietary or <BR>>
protected technology information from US companies or government
agencies".<BR>> <BR>> Missions in Israel, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia and
Egypt were asked to gather <BR>> biometric information "on key Palestinian
Authority and Hamas leaders and <BR>> representatives, to include the young
guard inside Gaza, the West Bank", as well <BR>> as evidence of collusion
between the PA security forces and terror groups.<BR>> <BR>> Taken
together, the directives provide a vivid snapshot of America's perception
<BR>> of foreign threats which are often dazzlingly interconnected.
Paraguayan drug <BR>> traffickers were suspected of supporting Hezbollah and
al-Qaida, while Latin <BR>> American cocaine barons were linked to criminal
networks in the desert states of <BR>> west Africa, who were in turn linked
to Islamist terrorists in the Middle East <BR>> and Asia.<BR>> <BR>>
High on the list of requests in an April 2009 directive covering the Saharan
<BR>> west African countries, including Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania,
Niger <BR>> and Senegal, was information about the activities of fighters
returning from <BR>> Iraq and Afghanistan. Information was wanted on
"indications that international <BR>> terrorist groups are seeking to take
advantage of political, ethnic, tribal or <BR>> religious conflict".<BR>>
<BR>> Diplomats were told to find out about the links between drug
traffickers in the <BR>> region to Latin American cocaine cartels, as well as
terrorist or insurgent <BR>> groups' income derived from the drugs
trade.<BR>> <BR>> Sometimes the directives appear linked to forthcoming
diplomatic obligations of <BR>> the secretary of state. In a cable to the
embassy in Sofia last June, five <BR>> months before Clinton hosted
Bulgaria's foreign minister in Washington, the <BR>> first request was about
government corruption and the links between organised <BR>> crime groups and
"government and foreign entities, drug and human trafficking, <BR>> credit
card fraud, and computer-related crimes, including child pornography".<BR>>
<BR>> Washington also wanted to know about "corruption among senior
officials, <BR>> including off-budget financial flows in support of senior
leaders … details <BR>> about defence industry, including plans and efforts
to co-operate with foreign <BR>> nations and actors. Weapon system
development programmes, firms and facilities. <BR>> Types, production rates,
and factory markings of major weapon systems".<BR>> <BR>> Top tips for
dealing with defectors and turncoats<BR>> <BR>> One cable offered a
detailed and practical guide for embassies on how to handle <BR>> possible
defectors, known as "walk-ins", who turned up at embassies offering to <BR>>
switch sides. It called for them to be treated with considerable care because
<BR>> they "may be sources of invaluable intelligence".<BR>> <BR>>
"Walk-ins may exhibit nervous or anxious behaviour, particularly because access
<BR>> controls and host nation security forces around many of our diplomatic
posts <BR>> make it difficult for walk-ins to approach our facilities
discreetly," it <BR>> warned. "All briefings should also stress the
importance of not drawing <BR>> attention to the walk-in or alerting host
nation security personnel."<BR>> <BR>> Embassy staff should immediately
copy the person's identification papers or <BR>> passport, in case they got
cold feet and ran off, it said. A walk-in who <BR>> possessed any object that
appeared potentially dangerous should be denied access <BR>> even if the item
was presented "as evidence of some intelligence he offers, eg, <BR>> red
mercury [a possibly bogus chemical which has been claimed to be a component
<BR>> of nuclear weapons] presented as proof of plutonium
enrichment". <BR>> <BR>> </FONT><A
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/28/us-embassy-cables-spying-un"><FONT
size=2
face=Arial>http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/28/us-embassy-cables-spying-un</FONT></A><BR><FONT
size=2 face=Arial>> _______________________________________________<BR>>
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