New WikiLeaks files 'to reveal American criticism of Mandela'
By SIMON WALTERS and CHRISTOPHER LEAKE
Last updated at 12:35 AM on 28th November 2010
Disclosures about the 92-year-old ex-South African President are among three million secret American diplomatic missives obtained by the website WikiLeaks.
Other world leaders who have clashed with the US including Afghanistan’s Hamid Karzai, Libya’s Colonel Gaddafi and Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe also come off badly in the no-holds-barred private cables to the White House from scores of US embassies.
Mr Mandela condemned George Bush over the Iraq War, suggesting the US President had ignored UN calls for restraint because the then Secretary-General Kofi Annan was black
Around 800 messages are from the US embassy in London and some reportedly feature negative and hostile comments about Gordon Brown and the Labour Government.
These are thought to relate to the Anglo-US dispute after Britain freed Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi from a Scottish jail to a hero’s welcome in Libya last year.
The cables are believed to include withering US assessments of Mr Brown’s personality and prospects of staying in power.
They may also show the low regard of the White House for Britain’s ‘special relationship’ with America. Nor does David Cameron escape from criticism.
Mr Mandela, who stepped down as President in 1999, condemned George Bush over the Iraq War, suggesting the US President had ignored the United Nations’ calls for restraint because the then Secretary-General Kofi Annan was black.
He also called Tony Blair the ‘foreign minister of the United States’ for supporting Mr Bush over Iraq.
The secret cables, due to be published online today, are believed to be from January 2006 to December 2009 – taking in the latter part of Tony Blair’s Premiership and most of Gordon Brown’s.
Defence insiders say Britain’s national security could be ‘put at risk’ by the revelations, which are understood to include details of the Iraq and Afghan wars plus inform¬ation about secret service practices and intelligence sources.
The British Government has issued a DA-Notice (defence advisory), warning newspapers that publishing the secrets could compromise national security.
WikiLeaks gained notoriety earlier this year when it released secret details of allied military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The revelations of American brutality in Iraq and Afghanistan led to its founder Julian Assange – an Australian-born computer hacker – being attacked by governments around the world. He is now wanted for alleged rape in Sweden.
Trail of damage: Bradley Manning, left, and Julian Assange
US sources say the ‘whistleblower’ for the latest leaks was most likely US Army soldier Bradley Manning, the 23-year-old American intelligence analyst arrested in Iraq in June and charged over the earlier Wiki¬Leaks disclosures.
Private First Class Manning, from Oklahoma – who was assigned to a support battalion with the US 10th Mountain Division in Iraq – is being held in custody at the Quantico Marine Barracks in Virginia, US.
He has been charged with ‘transferring classified data on to his personal computer and adding unauthorised software to a classified computer system’ and ‘communicating, transmitting and delivering national defence inform¬ation to an unauthorised source’.
Manning is believed to have gained the data by hacking into top-secret US intelligence computer systems.
Last night Mr Assange refused to comment on the latest revelations.
US intelligence is said to have known for months that WikiLeaks held the damaging secrets contained in the cables. Huge teams of diplomats have been sifting through all cable traffic for the period affected and studying the most damaging revelations.
On Friday, senior US diplomats briefed governments including the UK, Israel, Turkey, Denmark and Norway about the damaging secrets which had been contained in cables, including classified messages sent to Washington from the American embassy in London.
The US ambassador to London, Louis Susman, took the unprecedented step of going to Downing Street to brief officials on what was termed as ‘contingency planning’.
Yesterday, Italy and Canada were also briefed.
The US State Department said last night: ‘They contain sensitive information and reveal sources of information that impact our national interests and those of other countries.
‘Typical cables describe summaries of meetings, analysis of events in other countries and records of confidential conversations with officials of other governments and with members of civil society.’
Last night a source close to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told The Mail on Sunday: ‘This is enormously embarrassing to the US. The CIA have Assange under total surveillance.
‘The idea was that nothing would be news to us. But these latest documents were moved as hard copies, not electronically, so we still don’t know the extent of the leak.’
The Foreign Office said last night: ‘We would condemn any unauthorised release of this classified information just as we condemn leaks of classified material in the UK. They can damage national security, are not in the national interest and, as the US has said, may put lives at risk.’
The US Embassy in London refused to comment.
Explore more:
- People:
- Nelson Mandela,
- Tony Blair,
- George Bush,
- Gaddafi,
- David Cameron,
- Julian Assange,
- Hillary Clinton,
- Robert Mugabe,
- Gordon Brown
- Places:
- London,
- Washington,
- Canada,
- Italy,
- Denmark,
- Turkey,
- Libya,
- Israel,
- Norway,
- Afghanistan,
- Iraq,
- United Kingdom,
- America
- Organisations:
- British Government,
- White House
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1333723/New-WikiLeaks-files-reveal-American-criticism-Mandela.html#ixzz16YwgUbLP
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