Contents of the United States diplomatic cables leak

This is a list of the most notable contents of the United States diplomatic cables leak which began on 28 November 2010 when the website of WikiLeaks — an international new media non-profit organisation that publishes submissions of otherwise unavailable documents from anonymous news sources and news leaks — started to publish classified documents of detailed correspondence — diplomatic cables — between the United States Department of State and its diplomatic missions around the world, releasing further documents every day.

By transnational organization

United Nations

Main article: Spying on United Nations leaders by United States diplomats

In July 2009, a confidential order originating from the U.S. State Department directed U.S. diplomats to spy on Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, and other top U.N. 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. The news was revealed on 28 November 2010 by the website of WikiLeaks.

About the legal issue, the U.N. had previously declared that spying on the secretary-general was illegal, as a breach of the 1946 U.N. convention. Peter Kemp, Solicitor of Australia's Supreme Court of New South Wales, and Ben Saul, an international-law professor, publicly asked Julia Gillard, Prime Minister of Australia, to complain "to the U.S. about both Secretaries of State Condoleeza Rice and Hillary Clinton being in major breach of International law ie UN Covenants, by making orders to spy on UN personnel, including the Secretary General, to include theft of their credit card details and communication passwords. Perhaps the Attorney General should investigate this clear prima facie evidence of crime (likely against Australian diplomats as well), rather than he attempts to prosecute the messenger of those crimes."

Former U.N. diplomats commented that U.N. officials already work under the assumption that they are spied on and are used to getting around it, but the surprise in this case was that it was done by other diplomats rather than intelligence agencies. This scenario therefore blurs the line between diplomats and spies.

Julian Assange, WikiLeaks's founder, claimed that not only Clinton, but "the whole chain of command who was aware of this order, and approved it, must resign if the U.S. is to be seen to be a credible nation that obeys the rule of law." When asked whether U.S. President Barack Obama was also responsible for the order and should resign, Assange added that "the order is so serious it may well have been put to the president for approval."

Philip J. Crowley, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, stated that Clinton had not drafted the directive and that the Secretary of State's name is systemically attached to the bottom of cables originating from Washington.

European Union

Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council and a principal representative of the European Union, was quoted as saying to Howard W. Gutman, U.S. Ambassador to Belgium, that the "EU no longer believes in the success of the military mission in Afghanistan". He also added "Europe is doing it [War in Afghanistan] and will go along out of deference to the United States, but not out of deference to Afghanistan".

NATO

NATO created plans to defend the Baltic states and Poland against a Russian attack. Nine British, German, U.S. and Polish divisions have been designated for combat operations in the event of a Russian attack. In 2011 NATO wants to conduct exercises for this new plan. The U.S. also offered to Poland to station special naval forces in Gdańsk and Gdynia as well as stationing F-16 fighter aircraft and C-130 Hercules transport aircraft in Poland.

By region

Other information in the tranche of cables released by WikiLeaks on 28 November 2010 and subsequent days included the following:

Global

List of infrastructure critical to U.S. national security

Perhaps the most sensitive of all releases as of 6 December was a cable from the U.S. State Department sent in February 2009 referencing the Critical Foreign Dependencies Initiative and listing installations and infrastructure worldwide that it considered critical to protect U.S. interests from terrorists. Before releasing this list WikiLeaks had deliberately removed details of names and locations, but much was still revealed. Ostensibly the list does not include any military facilities. Instead it includes key facilities that if attacked could disrupt the global supply chain and global communications, as well as goods and services important to the U.S. and its economy.

In the cable the U.S. State Department requests American diplomats to identify installations overseas "whose loss could critically impact the public health, economic security, and/or national and homeland security of the United States." The order was under the direction of the U.S. Department for Homeland Security in co-ordination with the U.S. Department of State.

These are noted excerpts from the list:

• Submarine communications cables
  • across the Pacific Ocean to New Zealand, Australia, China and other U.S. allies in Asia.
  • across the Atlantic Ocean, particularly those from the U.K. and Ireland northwards.
• Major port hubs, particularly in China, Japan and South Korea.
• Critical sea lanes, such as the Straits of Hormuz, the Panama Canal and the Straits of Malacca.
  • Notably, the Bosphorus Strait is missing from this list reflecting changes in the global strategic map.
• The Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan pipeline as well as many other strategic pipelines criss-crossing Eurasia.
  • In connection to these pipelines also Georgia, Azerbaijan and Belarus are on the list.
• Mines that produce rare earth and other much-needed metals, especially in South Africa and Australia.
  • Several underwater pipelines are listed in Japan, China and Britain.
• A long list of pharmaceutical facilities in Europe.
• Ostensibly missing are also civil nuclear power plants outside of the United States.
• Dams close to the U.S. border.

The publishing of this particular cable which had been classified secret and not for review by non-U.S. personnel, has been followed by strong criticism. U.S. State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley said the disclosure "gives a group like al-Qaeda a targeting list." Also British prime minister David Cameron stated that the list was damaging to the national security of both his country and the United States, "and elsewhere". WikiLeaks spokeswoman Kristinn Hrafnsson said with reference to the cable: "This further undermines claims made by the US Government that its embassy officials do not play an intelligence-gathering role. Part of the cable read: "Posts are not/not being asked to consult with host governments with respect to this request."

Americas

Brazil

• An American ambassador stated that Brazil remained "paranoid" over its ability to retain claims to the Amazon Rainforest and oil reserves, despite the knowledge that there are "no international threats" over them. The ambassador's rationales for Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's actions is that they "serve the practical purpose of tasking the military with developing greater capabilities" while remaining "politically popular white elephants."
• The Brazilian government refused to receive detainees from the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.
• The Brazilian government has obscured from the public an anti-terrorism cooperation with the U.S. and officially denies that Islamic militants performs in its territory. Brazilian authorities are concerned about terrorist activity in its territory, despite contrary public statements, according to a telegram, dated October 2009, sent from the U.S. Embassy in Brasília to the U.S. State Department.
• The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation was involved in the investigation of the 2005 death of Dorothy Stang — an American-born, Brazilian sister of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur order, who was murdered in Anapu, Brazil. The U.S. government feared corruption among Brazilian police would harm the investigation.

Canada

• Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) Director Jim Judd complained about Canada's courts and general public to U.S. Counselor of the State Department Eliot A. Cohen in Ottawa on 2 July 2008. He ascribed an "Alice in Wonderland" worldview to Canadians and their courts, whose judges have tied CSIS "in knots", making it ever more difficult to detect and prevent terror attacks in Canada and abroad.
• Judd commented that cherry-picked sections of the court-ordered release of a DVD of Guantanamo detainee and Canadian citizen Omar Khadr would likely show three Canadian adults interrogating a kid who breaks down in tears. He observed that the images would no doubt trigger "knee-jerk anti-Americanism" and "paroxysms of moral outrage, a Canadian specialty", as well as lead to a new round of heightened pressure on the government to press for Khadr's return to Canada. He predicted that Harper's government would nonetheless continue to resist this pressure.
• Judd is quoted as telling Cohen that Canadian spies had prior warning that an explosion at Sarpoza Prison in Kandahar, Afghanistan was being planned by the Taliban. However, Judd stated that the spies "could not get a handle on the timing". An investigation headed by Foreign Affairs Minister David Emerson, into intelligence failures leading to the prison break, claimed Canada did not suspect an attack. Former Chief of Defence Staff Rick Hillier stated in a committee hearing that "Obviously we would have liked to have known so we could have pre-empted or helped, more accurately, the Afghans pre-empt that kind of thing".
• CSIS officers have been "vigorously harassing" known Hezbollah members in Canada.
• U.S. diplomats in Ottawa wrote to Washington that the CBC pushes "insidious negative popular stereotyping" with "anti-American melodrama" in its entertainment television programs, according to documents to be released by the website WikiLeaks.

Haiti

• Brazil's Army leads MINUSTAH, a 12,000-strong peacekeeping mission in Haiti. According to cables, the Army is frustrated with the lack of an exit strategy.

Honduras

• A cable from the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, definitively characterizes the June 2009 ousting of President Manuel Zelaya as "an illegal and unconstitutional coup". The decisiveness of the cable was not reflected in Clinton's reluctance to use such terminology in public statements and the U.S. State Department's failure to cut off all aid save "democracy assistance", as required by law in the case of a coup. The cable is also seemingly at odds with relatively rapid moves by the U.S., the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank to normalize relations with Honduras.

Jamaica

• A diplomatic cable from the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, Cuba, written by Jonathan D. Farrar, Chief of Mission, documents Cuban claims that Jamaica allows drug smugglers to go about freely in Caribbean waters. According to the leaked cable, Cuban ministers complain that Jamaican coast guards "stand idly by". Furthermore, Cuban attempts to express frustration are ignored and met with "complete lack of cooperation". A subsequent British-organised meeting between the two nations ended with complaints that the Jamaican officers "just sat there and didn't say anything".

Peru

• A 2009 cable from the U.S. Embassy in Lima, Peru, states that the chief of the Peruvian Army, General Paul Da Silva, met in 2007 with fishing-industry executive Rolando Velasco possibly to coordinate drug shipments. Velasco was later arrested for trying to export 840 kg (1,852 pounds) of cocaine hidden in frozen fish. Da Silva has denied the charges, arguing that he met Velasco about a possible contract to supply calamari to the army.

United States

• The U.S. bargained with other nations on moving prisoners from the Guantanamo Bay detention camp to other countries. In one case, U.S. officials allegedly offered Slovenia a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama, if the country accepted one of the Guantanamo Bay detainees. Offers to other countries include economic incentives or a visit from Obama.
• In 2009, the U.S. manipulated — via spying, threats, and bribes — the Copenhagen global climate change summit to coerce reticent participants into supporting the treaty. The U.S. punished countries such as Ecuador and Bolivia, which were deemed "unhelpful" for not signing the Copenhagen Accord, by cutting off millions of dollars in necessary funds; while, the U.S. relieved Saudi Arabia, the world's second-biggest oil producer and one of the twenty-five-richest countries in the world, of any kind of obligation. The U.S. used funds in millions of dollars to recruit the Maldives to sign the Copenhagen Accord, after it has relentlessly took a stand against it.
• In December 2009, DynCorp, a government contractor which is funded by U.S. tax dollars, officially sponsored a Bacha bazi for entertainment in Afghanistan. Bacha bazi is considered child prostitution, where "young boys are dressed up in women's clothing, forced to dance for leering men, and then sold for sex to the highest bidder."

Venezuela

• John Caulfield, the deputy chief of mission at American embassy in Caracas had played down Hugo Chávez's plans to build nuclear reactors in Venezuela. "Although rumours that Venezuela is providing Iran with Venezuelan-produced uranium may help burnish the government's revolutionary credentials, there seems to be little basis in reality to the claims" he reported to Washington in one cable.
• A cable sent from the U.S. embassy in Brasilia on 13 November 2009 reported that Nelson Jobim, Brazil's Minister of Defence, "all but acknowledged presence of the FARC in Venezuela".
• Spanish newspaper El País released some information about the remaining Venezuelan cables, not released yet at the WikiLeaks webpage. These cables supposedly deal with issues related to Cuban intelligence in Venezuela working together with the Venezuelan government.
• A cable sent from the U.S. embassy in Caracas on 14 December 2009 explains what the embassy considers to be the situation of the Venezuelan public-health system and the government actions related to the public-health sector. This in the context of raised protests in private and public hospitals with motivation in the alleged failure of Barrio Adentro, a social-welfare program, with support of Cuban doctors, that seeks to provide comprehensive publicly funded health care, dental care, and sports training to poor and marginalized communities in Venezuela.

Eastern Asia and Oceania

Australia

• Kevin Rudd, then-Prime Minister of Australia, advised Clinton to be in a position to use force against China "if everything goes wrong".
• In Washington during a 24 March 2009 meeting, Rudd described to Clinton that China was "paranoid" about Taiwan and Tibet, characterised Chinese leaders as "sub-rational and deeply emotional" in their reactions to Taiwan, and stated that the goal of his plan for an "Asia-Pacific Community" was envisaged to weaken China's authority in the region and curb its dominance in regional diplomatic institutions.
• Senator Don Farrell, a South Australian right-wing factional powerbroker, said he believes that Julia Gillard, Prime Minister of Australia since 2010, was gunning for the prime ministership a year before Rudd's personal support in the polls collapsed.
• Rudd was critical of Australia's European allies in the Afghanistan campaign, accusing them of having "no common strategy for winning the war or winning the peace" and derided the contribution of France and Germany to the fight against the Taliban as "organising folk-dancing festivals".
• A cable from October 2008 recorded Rudd telling a group of visiting U.S. congressmen that "the national security establishment in Australia was very pessimistic about the long-term prognosis for Afghanistan".
• The Australian Labor Party senator Mark Arbib was in regular contact with and acted as a 'protected' source and confidential contact for the U.S. government, providing inside information and commentary on the workings of the government and the Labor Party to officers at the U.S. Embassy, Canberra.
• Australian special representative on Afghanistan and Pakistan, Ric Smith (a former secretary of the Australian Defence Department) described the mission in Afghanistan and Afghan government presence as a "wobbly three-legged stool". In December 2009 Smith questioned what the Australian Federal Police would be able to accomplish given the "train wreck" that they had to be given to work with in the Afghan National Police.
• Australian officials who briefed the U.S. embassy hinted at clashes between officials and ministers over its "apparent lack of progress".
• A review of the first twelve months of the Rudd government in December 2008 by Robert McCallum, Jr., U.S. Ambassador to Australia:
  • Comments that Rudd's diplomatic "missteps" largely arising from his propensity to make "snap announcements without consulting other countries or within the Australian government";
  • Notes the government's "significant blunders" began when the then-foreign minister, Stephen Smith said in February 2008 that Australia would not support strategic dialogue between Australia, the U.S., Japan and India out of deference to China (David Pearl, a Treasury official on Smith's staff in 2004, told U.S. diplomats he was "very smart but intimidated both by the foreign policy issues themselves and the knowledge that PM Rudd is following them so closely"); and
  • Refers to Rudd's "control freak" tendencies and "persistent criticism from senior civil servants, journalists and parliamentarians that Rudd is a micro-manager obsessed with managing the media cycle rather than engaging in collaborative decision making".
• In November 2009, the U.S. embassy delivered another assessment that:
  • Rudd dominated foreign-policy-decision making, "leaving his foreign minister to perform mundane, ceremonial duties and relegating the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to a backwater".
  • "Other foreign diplomats, in private conversations with us, have noted how much DFAT seemed to be out of the loop," and that "The Israeli ambassador Yuval Rotem told us that senior DFAT officials are frank in asking him what Rudd is up to and admit they are out of the loop."

Burma

• Burma may be building missile and nuclear sites with the help of North Korea. A Burmese officer said he had witnessed North Korean technicians helping to construct an underground facility in foothills more than 300 miles (480 km) northwest of Rangoon.

China, People's Republic of

• A Chinese official revealed that both public opinion in China and the government are "increasingly critical" of North Korea, stating that "China's influence with the North was frequently overestimated". The Chinese mentioned that they do not "like" North Korea, but "they are a neighbor".
• A Chinese contact told the U.S. Embassy in Beijing that the Politburo of the Communist Party of China was responsible for instigating the January 2010 Google hacking incident which was part of a wider "coordinated campaign of computer sabotage carried out by government operatives, private security experts and Internet outlaws recruited by the Chinese government" targeting the U.S. and its Western allies.
• In February 2009, the U.S. Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan spoke to her Chinese counterpart, Zhang Yannian, after being notified that China had offered Kyrgyzstan $3 billion in return for the closure of Manas Air Base — an important U.S. base in Bishkek handling flights into and out of Afghanistan. She stated that during the encounter "visibly flustered, Zhang temporarily lost the ability to speak Russian and began spluttering in Chinese". He responded with his own proposal to the U.S. on dealing with the Kyrgyz to keep the base open, during which his aide remarked: "Or maybe you should give them $5 billion and buy both us and the Russians out".
• China's foreign policy has been criticized by a Western diplomat as a "newly pugnacious", despite earlier policies assuring China's rise would be a "peaceful" one. Jon Huntsman, Jr., U.S. Ambasador to China, has stated that the recent policy shift is "losing friends worldwide". Huntsman discussed a British diplomat critical of conduct by Chinese officials at the Copenhagen climate change summit, who considered the change in China's approach "shocking". He mentions that "China's more aggressive approach" has caused India to strengthen their relationship with the United States. Japanese diplomats confirmed the new "aggressive" approach, and a Moroccan diplomat commented that "China will never play the role of a global leader if it treats its trade partners so poorly". However, Huntsman reminds that this does not imply that nations will turn toward the United States in response, and that many countries are equally suspicious of the Americans as they are of the Chinese. He quotes Juliu Ole Sunkuli, who "claimed that Africa was better off thanks to China's practical, bilateral approach to development assistance and was concerned that this would be changed by 'western' interference… Sunkuli said Africans were frustrated by western insistence on capacity building, which translated, in his eyes, into conferences and seminars. They instead preferred China's focus on infrastructure and tangible projects."
• The cables state that China is engaging in cyberwarfare to bolster offensive and defensive computer network operations capabilities. Their recruits include Lin Yong, using the alias Lion, who founded the Honker Union of China, a Chinese hacker group that emerged after the U.S. bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1999 and XFocus, the hacker group that released blaster worm in August 2003.
• The U.S. embassy memo sent on 15 March 2007 stated Li Keqiang, the Vice Premier of China, told China's GDP is not reliable, especially for local GDP, to the U.S. Ambassador Clark T. Randt, Jr. Li said GDP statistics are 'for reference only.'

Tibet

• According to diplomatic cables, the Dalai Lama told Timothy J. Roemer, U.S. Ambassador to India, in 2009 that the international community should focus on climate change rather than politics in Tibet because environmental problems were more urgent. "Melting glaciers, deforestation and increasingly polluted water from mining projects were problems that 'cannot wait', but the Tibetans could wait five to 10 years for a political solution", he was reported as saying in August 2009. He is also quoted in a cable, "Tibet is a dying nation. We need America's help."

Koreas

• North Korea was behaving like a "spoiled child", according to Chinese officials, who were prepared to accept Korean reunification under South Korean leadership. They estimated they could cope with an influx of 300,000 North Korean refugees in the event of instability on the peninsula.
• U.S. and South Korea officials have discussed reunification of the two Koreas should the North ultimately collapse, according to the American ambassador to Seoul.

New Zealand

• In 2005, then-U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand, Charles Swindells, sought to have New Zealand reverse its anti-nuclear stance, which was formalised in 1987 by N.Z.'s legal prohibition on the entry into N.Z. waters of nuclear-armed or -propelled ships, and urged his colleagues in the U.S. to investigate strategies for changing the policy, including proposing a feasibility study for a free-trade agreement between N.Z. and the U.S.
• Full collaboration between the intelligence agencies of the U.S. and N.Z. — curtailed by the U.S. in the 1980s because of N.Z.'s anti-nuclear policies — were resumed in August 2009, something both governments kept secret.
• The diplomatic cables leak reveal that the N.Z. government was using its communications base at Waihopai to spy on the military of nearby Fiji leading up to the 2006 Fijian coup d'état. Information obtained was passed on to the U.S. The cable did not contain the information that was gathered, however it was evaluated as "acute".
• In preparation for a state visit of Hu Jintao, Paramount Leader of China, a 2004 diplomatic cable reports "the Clark government privately mooted that it was necessary for New Zealand to work more closely with other powers such as China and France to curtail US and Australian influence in the region".
• N.Z's anti-nuclear policy of the 1980s was partly motivated by economic considerations. A 2004 diplomatic cable reports, "officials who were in senior positions in the Lange government at the time the anti-nuclear policy was instituted that one of the considerations favouring the policy was that it would lead to New Zealand withdrawing or being pushed out of Anzus, thereby lessening the country's defence spending requirements at a time of fiscal and economic crisis".

Thailand

• In Thailand, Russian associates of alleged arms dealer Viktor Bout tried to block his extradition from Thailand to the U.S. by bribing a key witness in the case, U.S. diplomats warned in secret cables. Abhisit Vejjajiva, Prime Minister of Thailand, was insisting his government was not subject to pressure from Washington to extradite Bout.
• Officials at Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs described Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn as "very erratic" and asserted that his gambling loans had been paid off by now-exiled former Thailand Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Middle East and North Africa

Afghanistan

• According to a cable from the American Embassy in Kabul, Vice President of Afghanistan, Ahmad Zia Massoud, was found carrying $52 million in cash that he "was ultimately allowed to keep without revealing the money's origin or destination." The discovery was made in the United Arab Emirates by local authorites working with the Drug Enforcement Agency.
• Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan, was described as "paranoid" in one cable.
• A cable recounting meetings between American officials and Ahmed Wali Karzai, in September 2009 and February 2010, offered the following warning: "Note: While we must deal with AWK as the head of the Provincial Council, he is widely understood to be corrupt and a narcotics trafficker". Noting several of Karzai's statements known to be false, the cables explain that "He appears not to understand the level of our knowledge of his activities. We will need to monitor his activity closely, and deliver a recurring, transparent message to him".
• The U.S. military took fifteen percent of the €50 million the German government gave to a trust fund to build up the Afghan National Army.

Egypt

• Hosni Mubarak, President of Egypt, is likely to stay in power until he dies. The absence of free and fair elections means he will almost certainly hold the post for as long as he is willing to stand.
• Mubarak told the U.S. to find a "fair dictator" to rule Iraq. He explains, "Strengthen the Iraqi armed forces, relax your hold, and then you will have a coup. Then we will have a dictator, but a fair one."
• Mubarak expressed animosity toward Iran in private meetings, saying the Iranian leaders are "big, fat liars", and that Iran's backing of terrorism is "well-known". According to one U.S. report, Mubarak views Iran as the primary long-term challenge facing Egypt, and an Egyptian official said that Iran is running agents inside Egypt in an effort to subvert the Egyptian regime.

Iran

• The cables reveal strong Arab distrust for Iran, and encouragement from pro-U.S. Arab leaders for a military strike on the nuclear facilities in Iran. Saudi King Abdullah has repeatedly urged the U.S. to attack Iran's nuclear facilities. In one diplomatic cable, King Abdullah said it was necessary to "cut the head of the snake", in reference to Iran's nuclear program. This remains problematic, as many Arab leaders have refrained from publicly criticizing Iran, due to popular support for the country.
• Muhammad bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, urged the U.S. not to appease Tehran and said that Iranian President "[Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad is Hitler".
• King Hamad of Bahrain was quoted in 2009 as saying, "That program [the Iranian nuclear program] must be stopped. The danger of letting it go on is greater than the danger of stopping it".
• Major-General Muhammad al-Assar, assistant to Egyptian Defense Minister Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, was quoted in 2009 saying that "Egypt views Iran as a threat to the region".
• U.S. intelligence has assessed that Iran obtained from North Korea advanced missiles (derived from a Soviet design) that are more powerful than publicly admitted by the U.S. to be in Iran's possession. These missiles, designated the BM-25, have a range of up to 2,000 miles (3,200 km). However, another cable that has received less attention from mainstream press describes a meeting of U.S. and Russian officials, where the latter dismissed the former's claims, pointing out technical flaws in the evidence presented and inconsistencies in the story.
• A rift has allegedly been reported between Ahmadinejad and Islamic Revolutionary Guards commander Mohammad Ali Jafari. One incident noted was during a Supreme National Security Council meeting when Ahmadinejad stated (in regards to dealing with Opposition protests) that "'people feel suffocated,' and mused that to defuse the situation it may be necessary to allow more personal and social freedoms, including more freedom of the press" to which Jafari replied "You are wrong! (In fact) it is YOU who created this mess! And now you say give more freedom to the press?!" and slapped Ahmadinejad in the face. An uproar ensued and the SNSC meeting was called off, until Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati reconciled the two.
• There are also reports that the long-banned Tudeh Party is gaining ground with the government employees and the working-class population, and that they were reportedly the driving force behind recent strikes.
• An unidentified ally of former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani stated that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has terminal leukemia and is expected to die in months, and Rafsanjani's unwillingness to act after the disputed 2009 Iranian presidential election comes from his wish to succeed Khamenei and annul Ahmadinejad's election afterwards.
• Reports that the Iranian Red Crescent Society was alleged to be actively controlled by the government and was involved in illicit arms smuggling and intelligence gathering on behalf of Iran.
• A cable from the U.S. State Department indicated that the U.S. was pushing for co-operation from its allies to impose further sanctions on Iran in response to its nuclear program.
• Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and National Security, in communication with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, agreed to "help" on Afghan issues, including sharing information regarding potential attacks. CSIS Director Jim Judd had confided, however, that he had not "figured out what they are up to", since it is clear that the "Iranians want ISAF [(International Security Assistance Force)] to bleed...slowly".
• According to a cable sent from the U.S. embassy in Baku, Azerbaijan, in 2009, there is a "widespread rumor" that many Iranians in Baku conduct in illicit activities and that these activities are tied to Iran. These activities include sanctions-busting, money laundering, obtaining spare parts, equipment and revenue generation for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards and management of narcotics trafficking originating from Iran. The cable mentions that many Iranians residing in Baku from different backgrounds, including students, business figures, and human rights activists are involved in these activities.

Israel

• Summary of U.S. Congressman Gary Ackerman's meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu from WikiLeaks cables: Netanyahu stated that a return to the 1967 borders and dividing Jerusalem was not a solution since further withdrawals would only whet the appetite of radical Islam. Ackerman asked if the Palestinians would accept peace based on the 1967 lines. Netanyahu said he would not agree to such a withdrawal since the 1967 lines were indefensible, but he added that the "right of return" was the real acid test of Arab intentions.
• Israel was ready to attack a nuclear-armed Iran, and saw 2010 as a pivotal year. The United States is supplying bunker-buster munitions explicitly for this purpose.
• In August 2007, Israeli Mossad chief Meir Dagan suggested to the U.S. to make use of local fringe groups to try and topple the Iran. WikiLeaks documents also suggest that Dagan denied plans to attack a Syrian nuclear facility, just two months before an attack actually happened.
• Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak consulted with Fatah of the Palestinian Authority and asked if they could take over control of Gaza Strip after expected Israeli victory during Operation Cast Lead, but met with refusal.
• In a conversation with Ackerman in 2007, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said Shimon Peres had admitted to him that the Oslo peace process he helped initiate was based on a mistaken premise. Netanyahu said Peres had told him the European and U.S. assistance to the Palestinian Authority had established a "bloated bureaucracy, with PA employees looking to the international community to meet their payroll".
• In the same document, Netanyahu described Kadima as a "fake party" and referred to the Second Lebanon War as "stupid" and criticized the approach of Ehud Olmert's policies towards the conflict.
• In one document from April 2007, Netanyahu, who was opposition leader at the time, describes the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as a "nice man who means well" and urges Washington to focus on toppling Hamas through an "economic squeeze" saying it would be "easier to weaken Hamas than to strengthen Abbas".
• In 2008, U.S. diplomats in the Middle East were instructed to secretly collect personal information on Palestinian leaders, and to closely monitor Israeli military and telecommunication capabilities. One U.S. State Department directive orders U.S. diplomats to report on Israeli Military tactics, techniques, and procedures dealing with conventional and unconventional counterinsurgency operations.
• According to a cable from the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv, Netanyahu supports the concept of land-swaps with the Palestinian Authority and does not want to govern the West Bank and Gaza but rather to stop attacks from being launched from there.
• Netanyahu was described by Luis G. Moreno in one cable: "Netanyahu warned that when Israel left Lebanon it created a first Iranian base, that when it left Gaza it created a second Iranian base, and if Israel "promised" a third retreat from the West Bank it would see the same results. The three options, according to Netanyahu, included withdrawing to the 1967 borders (which would "get terror, not peace"), doing nothing (which he considered "just as bad"), or "rapidly building a pyramid from the ground up". Netanyahu suggested a rapid move to develop the West Bank economically, including "unclogging" bureaucratic "bottlenecks".
• Dagan told American diplomat Frances Fragos Townsend that "nothing will be achieved" in the peace process according to a secret cable the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv sent to the State Department. During a two-hour meeting, Dagan told Townsend that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas would "likely move to Qatar and join his mysteriously wealthy son there" in the event Hamas took over the West Bank. In the same cable, Dagan was recorded accusing Saudi Foreign Minister Saud bin Faisal of playing a "very negative role" and characterized Qatar as "a real problem", accusing its leader Sheikh Hamid bin Khalifa al-Thani of "annoying everyone". He also suggested the U.S. should move its bases out of Qatar.
• In 2007, then Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzipi Livni said she "doubted that a final status agreement could be reached with Abbas, and therefore the emphasis should be on reforming Fatah so that it could beat Hamas at the polls".

Jordan

• A diplomatic cable, dated 2 April 2 2009, quotes Zeid Rifai, then-president of the Jordanian Senate, as saying, "Bomb Iran, or live with an Iranian bomb. Sanctions, carrots, incentives won't matter", in a conversation with David Hale, U.S. Ambassador to Jordan. The cable further states, "while Rifai judged a military strike would have 'catastrophic impact on the region,' he nonetheless thought preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons would pay enough dividends to make it worth the risks".

Kuwait

• Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah referring to Kuwaiti Guantanamo detainees said "You know better than I that we cannot deal with these people (the Guantanamo detainees). I can't detain them. If I take their passports, they will sue to get them back. I can talk to you into next week about building a rehabilitation center, but it won't happen. We are not Saudi Arabia; we cannot isolate these people in desert camps or somewhere on an island. We cannot compel them to stay. If they are rotten, they are rotten and the best thing to do is get rid of them. You picked them up in Afghanistan; you should drop them off in Afghanistan, in the middle of the war zone".

Libya

• A Libyan shipment of enriched uranium to Russia, brokered by the U.S., was nearly the cause of an environmental disaster in Tripoli in 2009.

Morocco

• Leaked cables from the U.S. consulate in Casablanca claim that the Moroccan Royal Family use state institutions to "coerce and solicit bribes". It is reported that decisions for the ONA Group, a Moroccan financial company, are made only by Moroccan King Mohammed VI and two associates.
• A cable from the U.S. embassy in Rabat to Washington, D.C., claimed that "corruption is prevalent at all levels of Moroccan society".

Qatar

• Qatar is using the Arabic television news channel Al-Jazeera as a bargaining chip in negotiations with other countries. It is "one of Qatar's most valuable political and diplomatic tools".
• Clinton said that Qatar along with Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait continue to fund terror.
• Meir Dagan, the chief of Israel's spy agency Mossad, warned that Qatar, poses "a real problem" as its emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, tries to please all parties in the Middle East, including Syria, Iran and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.

Saudi Arabia

• Diplomats claim that Saudi Arabian donors remain chief financiers of terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). Militants seeking donations often come during the annual hajj pilgrimage, since pilgrims often travel with large amounts of cash and the Saudis cannot refuse them entry into Saudi Arabia. Saudi donors constitute the most-significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide. In one occasion, LeT, which carried out the 2008 Mumbai attacks, used a Saudi-based front company to fund its activities. A main concern of the officials at the U.S. embassy in Riyadh is protecting Saudi oilfields from al-Qaida attacks. Three other Arab countries are listed as sources of militant money: Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
• Saudi King Abdullah has repeatedly urged the U.S. to attack Iran's nuclear facilities. In one diplomatic cable, King Abdullah said it was necessary to "cut the head of the snake", in reference to Iran's nuclear program.
• Iraqi government officials see Saudi Arabia, not Iran, as the biggest threat to the integrity and cohesion of their fledgling democratic state. Iraqi contacts think that the Saudi goal is to enhance Sunni influence, dilute Shia dominance and promote the formation of a weak and fractured Iraqi government.
• A diplomatic cable reveals that Saudis are long accustomed to having a significant role in Pakistan's affairs. A boast about the Saudi involvement in Pakistani affairs, of the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the U.S. Adel al-Jubeir (who is reportedly a close confidant of King Abdullah): "We in Saudi Arabia are not observers in Pakistan, we are participants."
• The diplomatic cables also reveal Saudi complaints over Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari's alleged corruption and incompetence but also suggest a pronounced sectarian bias on the part of the Saudis, who perceive Zardari to be a Shi'ite and therefore friendly with Iran, Saudi Arabia's nemesis. According to a U.S. diplomatic cable issued soon after Zardari's election in 2008, Pakistani diplomats complained to their American counterparts of "a sharp reduction in Saudi financial assistance." One official is quoted as saying that the Saudis are simply "waiting for the Zardari government to fall."
• Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal is quoted in a diplomatic cable saying that Nawaz Sharif is a "force for stability" and "a man who can speak across party lines even to religious extremists. Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah, who negotiated the exile deal for Sharif, had threatened to cut diplomatic ties with Pakistan if his friend Sharif was not freed. "While active support for Nawaz Sharif, it seems the Saudis, according to the cables, wouldn't object to the military's resuming control. A February 2010 "scene setter" for a visit to Riyadh by Richard Holbrooke, Washington's special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, suggests Saudi nostalgia for the government of General Pervez Musharraf, whose near-decade-long rule of Pakistan ended in 2008. "The tumultuous democratic process in Pakistan makes the Saudis nervous," says the document, "and they appear to be looking for 'another Musharraf': a strong, forceful leader they know they can trust."
• A May 2009 cable relates a discussion between Holbrooke and a Saudi minister who lauds Kayani as "a decent man" and describes the Pakistani Army — which has ruled Pakistan for long stretches of its six-decade history — as Riyadh's "winning horse" in the country. Despite the tensions with Zardari's government, military and intelligence links between Riyadh and Islamabad remain strong and close. The cables also "demonstrate that the Saudis have deep vested interests in Pakistan and an influence that is so significant that even the U.S. in some way relies on Saudi knowledge of the country."
• An April 2009 cable claims the Saudis are fearful of a "Shi'a triangle" of hostile Shi'a-led governments in Iraq, Iran and Pakistan.
• King Abdullah proposed that Guantanamo detainees could be monitored through the use of "electronic chips".
• Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal proposed to David M. Satterfield, the U.S. special adviser to Iraq, that an Arab force supported by U.S. and NATO air power could fight Hezbollah in Lebanon. He accused the U.N. troops in Lebanon of "sitting doing nothing".
• In Jeddah, despite the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (CPVPV) — the religious police of Saudi Arabia, there is an ongoing underground nightlife, which includes "the full range of worldly temptations and vices" i.e., "alcohol, drugs, sex " and "working girls" (prostitutes). Even though these parties are in complete violation of CPVPV's laws, the mutaween of CPVPV are afraid to raid these parties, since these parties are hosted by the young princes of al-Saud, the monarchic ruling house of Saudi Arabia.
• The Saudi regulatory system offers the al-Saud regime a means to manipulate the nation's media to promote its own agenda, and criticism of the al-Saud regime is not tolerated at all. All major media outlets in Saudi Arabia — newspapers, such as Al-Watan, Al-Hayat, and Asharq Al-Awsat, and free-to-view television networks, such as MBC Group and Rotana — are owned and controlled by the al-Saud regime, and accordingly self-censorship is the order of the day — which is "motivated by profit and politics". The pro-western ideologies in these newspapers and American programming — such as Friends, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Desperate Housewives, Late Night with David Letterman and Hollywood films — are seen as an antidote to extremist religious thoughts in the recruitment of terrorists, especially young teenagers, because of the demography of these programs.

Syria

• Syria increased arms shipments to Hezbollah despite its claims that new shipments had ceased.
• A Syrian foreign minister was alleged to have fallen for a "tabloid-like story" regarding the death of Princess Diana. An American ambassador stated that this displayed the Syrian government's "'stark ignorance' of the outside world".
• Omar Suleiman, Chief of the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate, stated that Syria "desperately" wants the halt of the investigation about the assassination of Rafic Hariri, Prime Minister of Lebanon, in 2005. Syria is suspected of involvment in fore-mentioned bombing and in the 2005 killings of anti-Syrian figures in neighbouring Lebanon.

Tunisia

• According to Robert Godec, U.S. Ambassador to Tunisia, Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, President of Tunisia, and his government have "lost touch with the Tunisian people." Furthermore, they "tolerate no advice of criticism whether domestic or international." Godec also reports that Tunisians have an intense dislike for Leïla Ben Ali, the First Lady of Tunisia.
• The Canadian Ambassador to Tunisia, Bruno Picard, is reported in released documents to have insisted that Tunisia tortures prisoners who are suspected of terrorism and that he had first-hand evidence. The claim was made at a meeting about returning Tunisian prisoners to their home country from the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Tunisia has insisted it does not practice torture, however Picard claimed this was "bullshit". Following the claims the U.S. Embassy held a meeting with the Canadian, British, French, German and Italian ambassadors to suggest they avoid accepting any Tunisian former prisoners from Guantanamo.

Turkey

• Turkey did not invite India for a meeting on Afghanistan to appease Pakistan, reflecting Islamabad's insistence at every international forum that India be kept out of any meeting on Afghanistan.
• Anders Fogh Rasmussen, former Prime Minister of Denmark, during a meeting with Turkish foreign ministry undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu, promised to shut down the controversial Denmark-based Kurdish television station Roj TV, to prevent Turkish obstruction to his appointment as Secretary General of NATO.
• Turkey complained to British diplomats that Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, wanted to ruin Turkey's chances to join the European Union by filming a documentary revealing the plight of disabled children in Turkey. The U.K. foreign secretary responded by saying that "as a private citizen, her activities could not 'be controlled'".
• Turkish military officials have pressured the U.S. for Predator B drones, to use against the Kurdistan Workers Party in Iraq. Because of American concerns over a potential rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Turkey, the "State Department has warned that the purchasing process promises to be 'long and complex.'"
• Ilham Aliyev, President of Azerbaijan, is no fan of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Prime Minister of Turkey, and the ruling Justice and Development Party despite both countries maintaining fraternal relations publicly. Aliyev criticised Turkish foreign policy by calling it "naïve". He also revealed that he had sold gas to Russia in order to impede Turkey's ability to "create a gas distribution hub".
• Wikileaks revealed that Turkish authorities allowed money and weapons to pass across Turkey's border with Iraq, en route to Al Qaeda terrorists in Iraq. The cable says: "Large amounts of water have arrived from Turkey, large waves will hit Baghdad in a few hours. Some people are widening the irrigation canals." This message is believed to refer to the arrival of weapons from Turkey, that were intended for terror and warfare in Baghdad. WikiLeaks documents show that ammunition seized in a terrorist's apartment in Iraq in 2009 bore the markings "made in Turkey".
• Pope Benedict XVI wanted Muslim Turkey kept out of E.U. The Pope is responsible for the Vatican's growing hostility towards Turkey joining the E.U., previously secret cables sent from the U.S. embassy to the Holy See in Rome claim. The U.S. diplomat noted that the Pope "clearly understands that allowing a Muslim country into the E.U. would further weaken his case for Europe's Christian foundations".

United Arab Emirates

• Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Zayed of the United Arab Emirates, referred to as MBZ in the cables, urged the U.S. not to appease Iran and said, "Ahmadinejad is Hitler".
• Muhammad bin Zayed supported the U.S.'s decision to sell F-16 aircraft to Pakistan to strengthen the Musharraf government, saying the sale would not alter the balance of strength between India and Pakistan.
• Diplomats in the U.A.E. revealed that Muhammad bin Zayed, Abdullah II of Jordan and the U.K.'s Prince Andrew, Duke of York, are "close friends" that "frequently hunt — in Morocco and Tanzania".
• U.A.E. military officials have pressured the U.S. for Predator B drones, to be used in countering Iran. As Iran is known to be developing its own drones, a U.A.E. general stated "That's why we need it first...give me Predator B".
• Muhammad bin Zayed believes that an Israeli strike will not be successful in stopping Iran's nuclear programme, and therefore a new plan is required. He also believes that Israel will strike Iran, causing Iran to launch missile attacks including hits on the U.A.E. and to unleash attacks worldwide. In his view, the map of the Middle East would change.
• Muhammad bin Zayed apparently runs the U.A.E. While he is officially only the Crown Prince of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and his only federal title is Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, he is said to be the key decision maker on national security issues. He was observed to be unlike his elder half-brother President Khalifa, who is reported to be a distant and uncharismatic personage. "MBZ" has authority in all matters except for final decisions on oil policy and major state expenditures.
• MBZ described a nuclear-armed Iran as absolutely untenable. He believes that "all hell will break loose" if Iran attains the bomb, with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey developing their own nuclear weapons capability and Iran instigating Sunni-Shia conflict.
• MBZ said Iran is surrounding Israel driven by ideological conviction and will threaten Israel's existence should it go nuclear. At the same time, he described Iran's ambitions as reflecting a desire to restore Persia's great-power status, rather than driven by religious convictions.
• MBZ suggested that the key to containing Iran revolves around progress on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. He argued that it will be essential to bring Arab public opinion in line with the leadership in any conflict with Iran and that roughly eighty percent of the public is amenable to persuasion. To win them over, the U.S. would have to quickly bring about a two state solution over the objections of the Netanyahu government. He suggested working with moderate Palestinians that support the road map, and forget about the others as there is no time to waste.
• U.A.E. security officials believed that India along with Iran had supported the Pakistani Taliban and Pushtun separatists. The U.A.E. security officials also believe that the Taliban may draw support from the sizeable Pashtun population resident in the U.A.E..

Yemen

• Ali Abdullah Saleh, President of Yemen, said if the U.S. attacks Al-Qaida bases in Yemen, he will tell the people of Yemen that it was the Yemeni military that has carried out the attacks rather than the U.S. He asserted that "we'll continue saying the bombs are ours, not yours" in a meeting with General David Petraeus, then head of United States Central Command. Yemen's Deputy Prime Minister for Defense and Security Affairs, Rashad Mohammed al-Alimi, also joked about lying to Yemen's Parliament on U.S. involvement of bombings.

Africa

Eritrea

• Ronald K. McMullen, U.S. Ambassador to Eritrea, describes Asmara, Eritrea's capital, as an ill-kept, run-down former Italian colonial outpost where night-time electricity cuts contribute to a sinister, cowed atmosphere reminiscent of an Evelyn Waugh novel.

Kenya

• "Kenya could descend into violence worse than the 2008 post-election crisis unless rampant corruption in the ruling elite is tackled", reported Michael Ranneberger, U.S. Ambassador to Kenya.
• The People's Republic of China was providing military and intelligence support to Kenya with the help of a corrupt official.

Nigeria

• The Shell Oil Company claimed it had inserted staff into all the main ministries of the Nigerian government, giving it access to every movement of politicians. Ann Pickard, then Shell's vice-president for sub-Saharan Africa boasted that the Nigerian government had "forgotten" about the extent of Shell's infiltration and was unaware of how much the company knew about its deliberations.

Uganda

• The revealed embassy cables suggests that the U.S. told Uganda to let it know when the army was going to commit war crimes using American intelligence, but did not try to dissuade it from doing so. The U.S. assists the Ugandan government in fighting against the rebel movement, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), providing information and $4.4 million (£2.8 million) worth of military hardware each year.

Zimbabwe

• In 2007 a group of exiled businessmen proposed plans for a bloodless coup to remove Robert Mugabe. The idea was to get Mugabe to shift power to a "technocratic" prime minister and continue to be president with limited power until 2010.

South Asia

Bangladesh

• • U.S. officials wanted leaders of both major political parties to participate in elections in 2008. The cable referring to US embassy study said majority people of Bangladesh were in favour of immediate polls and any attempt to foil it would not go down well with the masses. http://bdnews24.com/details.php?cid=43&id=181922&hb=1
  • U.S. officials wanted to place Bangladesh peacekeepers under surveillance due to suspicions that Bangladesh was trying to gain influence in Africa through UN peacekeeping assignments. One wire by the US embassy stressed that Bangladeshi peacekeepers to the UN missions needed to be put under surveillance. It indicates suspicion that Bangladesh's interest in peacekeeping in Africa has more to do with building influence in Africa than goodwill to the UN. http://bdnews24.com/details.php?cid=43&id=181885&hb=3
  • U.S. officials seemed worried about rising numbers of Muslims in Britain and were collecting data about this. The fast-growing Muslim population in the UK, including Bangladeshis, apparently raised a few eyebrows in the US, claims a cable obtained by bdnews24.com from secret-spilling whistleblower WikiLeaks. It noted that the UK Muslim population has jumped in seven years from 1.6 million to 2 million. http://bdnews24.com/details.php?id=181919&cid=43
  • The military's spy agency, the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), supported extremist outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, Bangladesh (HUJI-B) forming a new political party, exposes the Wikileaks documents. According to the cables sent by the US embassy in Dhaka, DGFI made the attempt to float Islamic Democratic Party http://www.bdnews24.com/details.php?id=181886&cid=43
  • In a section 'What do the cables mean?' Bdnews24 Emeritus Editor 'Aladin' said that the cables portray a one-sided relationship between a perpetually vigilant America preoccupied with geo-strategic self interest and a Bangladesh unappetisingly at odds with wider society. The cable reveal pre-occupation with American geo-strategic self interest. The US diplomatic cables, replete with their accounts of vigilance against putative threats, build up an unappetising profile of Bangladeshi civil society. The cables paint a picture of a punctilious, micro-managing diplomacy which does not appear to leave much room for empathy with the indigenous context it operates in conveying the sense of a Bangladesh and its diaspora perpetually at odds with the mores of wider civil society http://www.bdnews24.com/details.php?id=181923&cid=43

India

• U.S. officials had obtained evidence from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on widespread torture and systematic abuse of detainees in Kashmir by Indian police and security forces. ICRC staff had made 177 visits to detention centers in Jammu and Kashmir between 2002 and 2004, meeting with 1,491 detainees. Out of these, 1,296 were private interviews. In 852 cases, detainees reported what ICRC referred to as IT (ill-treatment): 171 persons were beaten, the remaining 681 subjected to one or more of six forms of torture:
  • electric shock (498 cases)
  • suspension from ceiling (381)
  • "roller" — a round metal object put on the thighs of sitting person, which prison personnel then sit on, crushing muscles (294)
  • stretching — legs split 180 degrees (181)
  • water torture — various forms (234)
  • sexual assault (302)

Numbers add up to more than 681, as many detainees were subjected to more than one form of IT. All the branches of the security forces uses these forms of IT and torture. The abuse always takes place in the presence of officers and detainees were rarely militants (because militants are routinely killed), but persons connected to or believed to have information about the insurgency. But still, the situation in Kashmir was "much better" as security forces no longer roused entire villages in the middle of the night and detained inhabitants indiscriminately, and there was "more openness from medical doctors and the police. There were some 300 detention centres ten years ago, but there are now "a lot fewer". ICRC, however, had never gained access to the "Cargo Building", the most-notorious detention centre, in Srinagar. The abuse continued, because "security forces need promotions", while for militants, "the insurgency has become a business". ICRC concluded that India "condones torture" and that the torture victims were civilians.

• Rahul Gandhi — son of Sonia Gandhi, President of the Indian National Congress (INC), India's ruling party — in a conversation with Timothy J. Roemer, U.S. Ambassador to India, said that he believes Hindu extremists pose a greater threat to his country than Muslim militants. Gandhi referred specifically to more-polarizing figures in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) such as Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat. Also responding to the ambassador's query about the activities in the region by Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the Pakistan-based Islamist terrorist organization, Gandhi said there was evidence of some support for the group among certain elements in India's indigenous Muslim community.
• Various diplomatic cables from the U.S. Embassy in India shows an evolving U.S. view of Rahul Gandhi. In late 2007, U.S. diplomats described him, "widely viewed as an empty suit and will have to prove wrong those who dismiss him as a lightweight. To do so he will have to demonstrate determination, depth, savvy and stamina. He will need to get his hands dirty in the untidy and ruthless business that is Indian politics." Later, cables talk of Gandhi's political inexperience and repeated gaffes. They also repeat cutting criticism from political analysts and journalists. However as Gandhi warmed to the U.S., the U.S. warmed to him. In November 2009, after a meeting with the U.S. ambassador, another cable to Washington described Gandhi as "an elusive contact in the past" but now "clearly interested in reaching out to the USG" (U.S. government). A cable from February 2010 describes him as "increasingly sure-footed".
• India's "fiercely independent foreign-policy stance, its traditional go-it-alone strategy toward its security, and its domestic political sensitivities over the sentiments of its large Muslim population, have all contributed to India's caution in working with us on a joint counter-terrorism strategy. While India has been very keen to receive information and technology from us to further its counter-terrorism efforts, it provides little in return."
• The INC tried to use the conspiracy theories behind 2008 Mumbai attacks, targeting its main political rival, the BJP, to gain support of the Indian Muslim community for the 2009 Indian general election, the INC cynically pulled back from its original dismissal and lent credence to the conspiracy. The cable alleged, "The entire episode demonstrates that the Congress Party will readily stoop to the old caste/religious-based politics if it feels it is in its interest.
• Acting coordinator for counter-terrorism, Frank Urbancic, described India's police and security forces as "overworked and hampered by bad police practices, including the wide-spread use of torture in interrogations, rampant corruption, poor training, and a general inability to conduct solid forensic investigations."
• A U.S. State Department cable called India a "self-appointed frontrunner for permanent UNSC seat". However, despite the criticisms, the U.S. remains supportive of India's bid for a seat in the U.N., along with that of Japan, Brazil and Germany.
• The U.S. State Department solicited "biographical and biometric information on key NAM/G-77/OIC Permanent Representatives, particularly India, China".
• The U.S. conducted its own secret analysis of India's military contingency plans, which are codenamed Cold Start. India has said that if sufficiently provoked, it would mount a rapid invasion of Pakistan. The U.S. said in a cable that it doubted the Indian Army was capable of doing so: "It is the collective judgment of the mission that India would likely encounter very mixed results. Indian forces could have significant problems consolidating initial gains due to logistical difficulties and slow reinforcement". However, Roemer warned that for India to launch the Cold Start doctrine, would be to "roll the nuclear dice". It could trigger the world's first use of nuclear weapons since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Indian leaders no doubt realize that, although Cold Start is designed to punish Pakistan in a limited manner without triggering a nuclear response, the Indians cannot be sure whether Pakistani leaders will in fact refrain from such a response". To counter the Indian doctrine, U.S. diplomats in Islamabad were told Pakistan was working on producing smaller, tactical nuclear weapons such as nuclear artillery that could be used on the battlefield against Indian troops.
• Shiv Shankar Menon, the current Indian national security advisor said, though "the Tibetan movement has the sympathy of the Indian public, and India has been a generally supportive home to tens of thousands of Tibetans, including the Dalai Lama, for nearly 50 years, the tacit agreement that Tibetans are welcome in India as long as they don't cause problems is being challenged".
• Bahrain's King Hamad holds a positive view of India and urged the U.S. to use India's help in Afghanistan. He considers India as a postive force in the region.
• Seven months after the 2008 Mumbai attacks, LeT had plans to assassinate Modi.
• Indian Maoists are "not dependent on support from outside India" and are moving towards a more unified command system. The US cable reproduced by the media said: "In some respects more so than the GOI (Government of India) -- are concerned that Naxal terrorism, which covers a broad region of Eastern, Central, and Southern India, is growing in sophistication and lethality and will be a significant long-term challenge." "Unlike terrorists in Kashmir, these Naxalite groups are not dependent on support from outside India; the GOI and independent experts assess that Naxals purchase some weapons from Nepalese Maoists, but (per the GOI) `the relationship is commercial, not ideological'." The cable pointed out that the Maoists, such as those in the Communist Party of India-Maoist, "are moving toward a more unified command system than the plethora of small jihadi groups that co-exist alongside LeT (Lashkar-e-Taiba) and JeM (Jaish-e-Mohammed)."It said that while jihadis are expanding their area of operations to conduct attacks, particularly in cities, "Naxals are expanding the area of (rural) territory they effectively control (i.e. collect taxes, adjudicate disputes, etc.)".

Pakistan

• Grave fears in the U.S. and the U.K. over the security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme. Since 2007, the U.S. has mounted a highly secret effort, so far unsuccessful, to remove from a Pakistani research reactor highly enriched uranium that American officials fear could be diverted for use in an illicit nuclear device. In the words of U.S. ambassador to Pakistan Anne W. Patterson, Pakistan had refused visits from American experts, while an official told her "If the local media got word of the fuel removal, they would certainly portray it as the United States taking Pakistan's nuclear weapons".
• In July 2009, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces and de facto defence chief, said Zardari was "dirty but not dangerous" and that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was "dangerous but not dirty -- this is Pakistan".
• Saudi King Abdullah called President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan the greatest obstacle to the country's progress. "When the head is rotten", he said, "it affects the whole body".
• The Saudi Government is concerned about Pakistan's political fragility, and has worked hard through its embassy in Islamabad, to bring the Pakistani factions together. Saudi relations with Pakistan have been strained because the Saudis do not trust Zardari and see him and other leading Pakistani politicians as corrupt.
• A new rail link between Pakistan and Iran would be delayed for the time being, owing to poor conditions, low freight-carrying capacity and unrest from Baloch insurgents in the Balochistan region of both countries. Likewise, a natural gas pipeline agreement was also not expected to be fruitful because "the Pakistanis don't have the money to pay for either the pipeline, or the gas".
• According to the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel was concerned for the well-being of former president Pervez Musharraf and wanted him to stay in power in 2007. The director of Mossad, Meir Dagan, remarked: "...he is facing a serious problem with the militants. Pakistan's nuclear capability could end up in the hands of an Islamic regime".
• Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak described Pakistan as his "private nightmare". He said that a potential Islamic extremist threat in Pakistan could wake up the world "with everything changed". Barak also dismissed the idea of using force on Iran as backfiring upon moderate Muslims in Pakistan, saying that while the two countries were interconnected, such a causal chain could not be established.
• In February 2010, a Turkish expert on South Asian Affairs, Engin Soysal, told U.S. Undersecretary for Political Affairs William J. Burns that the Pakistani military was unhappy with Zardari, though it was not leaning to intervene. Soysal added that the "senior officers' patience may not be infinite", and that "Zardari needs to increase the democratic legitimacy of parliament".
• Jasmine Zerinini, a French specialist on Afghanistan-Pakistan affairs, said that Pakistan Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani had "learnt his lesson from Musharraf" by staying behind the scenes and not interceding in the country's political situation. At the same time, Zerinini claimed that Kayani was manipulating the government into preventing policy change on Pakistan's war-ridden tribal belt and he had a role in provoking controversy surrounding the contentious Kerry-Lugar bill. She also added that the West had not adequately targeted Pakistan's military to take on the Afghan Taliban hiding in Pakistan, saying militant leaders had been allowed to create networks funded by Gulf donors which were difficult to be defeated.
• The cables reveal that U.S. Vice President Biden told British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in March 2009 that Mr. Zardari had told him he feared an army coup and that the "ISI director and Kayani will take me out".
• In a conversation with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he found it "astonishing" that President Zardari was still in power in 2010 and that the Pakistani military's operations against militants along the Afghan border had been striking. Kouchner concurred and added that political and military changes in Pakistan were "nothing short of a miracle". Gates and Kouchner also discussed the improving image of the Pakistan Army after its "aggressive campaign against the insurgency".
• Fearing attempts on his life, Zardari told ambassador Anne W. Patterson that in the event he were to be assassinated, he had instructed his son Bilawal Zardari Bhutto (who along with Zardari is the co-Chairman of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party) to appoint his sister Faryal Talpur as President and he had informed the United Arab Emirates of his intent to allow the family to continue living there.
• In November 2007, Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman, a politician and leader of the Islamist party Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, invited Patterson to a dinner in which he sought her support in becoming Prime Minister and expressed a desire to visit America. According to Rehman's personal aide, "All important parties in Pakistan had to get the approval" of the U.S. Referring to Rehman, Patterson mentioned "He has made it clear that....his still significant number of votes are up for sale". The cables also highlighted the contradictions of other prominent figures. Amin Fahim, a Bhutto follower hoping to run for Prime Minister, led an Islamic religious party "while enjoying an occasional bloody mary".
• According to a document from October 2009, head of Pakistan's intelligence agency Ahmad Shuja Pasha provided intelligence on potential terrorist attacks in India to Israel. According to the cable, "He had been in direct touch with the Israelis on possible threats against Israeli targets in India".
• Kayani is described in American interactions as "direct, frank, and thoughtful" and has "fond memories" of time spent on a military training course in the U.S. He also "smokes heavily and can be difficult to understand as he tends to mumble". ISI chief Ahmad Shuja Pasha was said to be "usually more emotional" than Kayani.
• In February 2009, Zardari's spokesperson Farahnaz Ispahani said the president was "very unhappy" with the way Prime Minister Gillani had "gone off the reservation" (in relation to Gillani's talks with Shahbaz Sharif that the government would not try to remove the Sharifs from power in Punjab). In 2008, Zardari also commented on Amin Fahim, saying he "had spent most of the [ election ] campaign in Dubai (with his latest 22 year-old wife) and was simply too lazy to be prime minister".
• In 2008, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani personally consented American drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas along the Afghan border to combat the Taliban. When Interior Minister Rehman Malik recommended the U.S. to hold back "alleged Predator attacks until after the Bajaur operation", Gillani dismissed the remarks and was heard saying: "I don't care if they do it as long as they get the right people. We'll protest in the National Assembly and then ignore it".
• According to the WikiLeaks cable, in a briefing given by Ahmad Shuja Pasha to the parliamentarians it was also told that India, UAE and Russia were involved in the insurgency in Balochistan. Pasha said India has established nine training camps along the Afghan border, where they are training members of the Baloch Liberation Army. He also claimed "India and the UAE (reportedly due to opposition to construction of the Gwadar port) were funding and arming the Baloch. Pasha also claimed that the Russian government was directly involved in funding/training/supporting the insurgency.
• There are revelations that small teams of elite U.S. special forces may have been dispatched in the tribal belt to help coordinate the Pakistani military's operations. One record indicates that up to 16 U.S. soldiers had been deployed to help Pakistani troops in 2009. Their role is primarily training-oriented and to provide "intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance" support – ISR in military jargon – "general operational advice" and set up live satellite feed from presumably CIA-operated American drones flying overhead.

Sri Lanka

• According to a diplomatic cable sent in May 2009 by Richard Mills, a political officer at the U.S. Embassy, London, David Miliband, the U.K.'s Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, directed much of his attention on the final stages of Sri Lankan Civil War (1983–2009) to win votes of Tamils in the U.K. Mills — writing about Tim Waite, a U.K. Foreign Office team leader on Sri Lanka — says "[Waite] said that with UK elections on the horizon and many Tamils living in Labour constituencies with slim majorities, the government is paying particular attention to Sri Lanka, with Miliband recently remarking to Waite that he was spending 60 per cent of his time at the moment on Sri Lanka".
• Diplomatic cables from the U.S. Embassy in Colombo show an evolving view of the human-rights situation in Sri Lanka.
  • In a cable dated 18 May 2007, exactly two years before the Sri Lankan government victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Robert O. Blake, Jr., United States Ambassador to Sri Lanka, wrote, "Paramilitaries such as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)-breakaway Karuna group" (Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP)) "and Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) have helped the Government of Sri Lanka (GSL) to fight the LTTE, to kidnap suspected LTTE collaborators, and to give the GSL a measure of deniability. The GSL, which denies any links to paramilitary groups, has recently touted its efforts to improve its human rights record".
  • In a diplomatic cable dated 12 June 2007, Blake points out the human-rights violations by the LTTE. The cable reports on a meeting that "PolOff" had with a "private organization that provides assistance to refugees" (name of organization is redacted in the copy of the cable leaked). The organization "described the LTTE's 'one person per family' forced conscription program". The organization "stated that the Tigers require at least one person between the ages of 18 and 35 per family to fight for the LTTE." The cable reports the organization "noted the average age of LTTE 'recruits' is 17 years old." The use of the Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) by the LTTE to extract money from INGOs was also discussed in the cables as such, the organization "told us the LTTE had ordered INGOs to provide all project funding through local NGOs, which are managed collectively by the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO). For example, [the organization] receives money in its bank account from its headquarters or from international donors, then deposits the money into a separate bank account operated by a local NGO. The local NGO's director is always a member of TRO, as are many other members of the local NGO staff. The TRO representative withdraws the money from the local NGO's account, provides a cut to the LTTE, and distributes the rest to accomplish the particular project".
  • A diplomatic cable dated 22 January 2010, seven months after the military defeat of the LTTE, reports "There has been a dramatic improvement in the treatment of IDPs" (Sri Lankan IDP camps) "and their living conditions over the past several months." It describes considerable enhancements of the treatment of IDPs and their living conditions over the time elapsed. "Numbers of disappearances had also experienced a steady and significant decline across the country since the end of the war." "Child soldiers affiliated with the TMVP had also reduced significantly over the past year, with just five reportedly remaining at the end of 2009".
• Verifying the accountability for alleged crimes in the final stages of the Sri Lankan Civil War "has been the most difficult issue in our bilateral agenda", stated Patricia A. Butenis, U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka. "There are no examples we know of a regime undertaking wholesale investigations of its own troops or senior officials for war crimes while that regime or government remained in power." The diplomatic cable also revealed that "most Tamils in Sri Lanka appear to think it is both unrealistic and counter-productive to push the issue too aggressively", quoting several Tamil politicians including Rajavarothiam Sampanthan, leader of the Tamil National Alliance.

Europe

Albania

• After accepting five Uighur detainees from Guantánamo Bay in 2006, Sali Berisha offered to take three to six detainees extra. American diplomats portrayed his offer as "gracious, but probably extravagant... as always, the Albanians are willing to go the extra mile to assist with one of our key foreign policy priorities".

Armenia

• The 2010 diplomatic cable leaks revealed U.S. anger against Armenia for shipping arms to Iran. In late 2008, U.S. diplomats came to the conclusion that in 2003, when Serzh Sargsyan was the Defense Minister of Armenia, the Armenian government had purchased anti-tank rockets (RPG-22)and PK machine guns from Bulgaria and supplied them to Iran. These weapons were subsequently sent by Iran to insurgents in Iraq and were used in attacks there, killing one American soldier and wounding ten. The diplomatic cables contain angry letters from Condoleeza Rice, U.S. Secretary of State, and John Negroponte, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State to Sargsyan, by-then-President of Armenia. The allegation was initially denied by Sargsyan but after U.S. diplomats presented the Armenian side with substantial evidence and pressed the country to introduce stricter export controls, Sargsyan "reversed the mantra he has repeated for the last four months" and agreed, despite Armenia National Security Service Chairman Gorik Hakobyan's attempts to lay the blame on Bulgarians. U.S troops continue to find military equipment from the Sargsyan deal at the hands of insurgents during their raids. For instance, U.S. military personnel discovered an arms cache in Baghdad on 15 February 2008 which belonged to Hezbollah Brigades — an Iranian-backed Iraqi militant group. Among mostly Iran-manufactured weapons were six Bulgarian RPG-22 anti-tank weapons, production lot and serial numbers of which indicated they were produced by the Bulgarian firm which sold the weapons to Armenia.

Austria

• U.S. diplomats criticised the Austrian government — and especially Austria Chancellor Werner Faymann, and minister of defence Norbert Darabos — for the lack of interest in foreign policy. Foreign minister Michael Spindelegger is criticised for only caring about the expansion of the Austrian economy. Further contacts between Austrian banks and Iran and North Korea are criticised.

Azerbaijan

• Azerbaijan is described as a country "run in a similar manner to the feudalism found in Europe in the Middle Ages" where well-connected families are the political elite and control certain sectors of the economy as well as certain geographic areas. This political elite uses the government's mechanisms to "keep out foreign competitors." Among the well-connected families are First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva's family, the Pashayevs, whose members hold powerful positions in government and academia. The Pashayevs also operate extensively in Baku's construction and real-estate market, own several banks, an insurance company and Azerbaijan's only Bentley automobile dealership as well as having large investments in the financial and telecommunications sectors. In a subsequent cable, the Heydarovs are described as the second most powerful commercial family in Azerbaijan, controlling "a business empire in Azerbaijan ranging from fruit juice production to real estate development." Minister of Emergency Situations Kamaladdin Heydarov is described as the most powerful member of the family, having amassed his wealth during his tenure as the Chairman of the State Customs Committee.

Baltic countries

• The three Baltic countries, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, have been added to Poland as countries to be defended from Russia. Such plans by the U.S. and NATO were revealed by the leak of a confidential cable from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in January 2010 that allegedly stated that this expansion of pre-existing contingency plans, known as Operation Eagle Guardian, had been approved by NATO allies. This would specifically involve American, British, German and Polish NATO divisions. The cable also warned against public discussion of the military plans for fears of unneeded increase of NATO-Russia tensions. According to Russian foreign-ministry sources they were "perplexed" to learn of these plans.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

• The French government pushed for the closure of the Office of the High Representative despite conditions not being met, in opposition to the U.S.
• U.S. and Turkish officials pressured Haris Silajdžić, a former member of the presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to ease his rhetoric and desist from using the word "genocide" in relation to Serbs.
• Milorad Dodik, then prime minister of the Republika Srpska entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina, supported the Ahtisaari plan for the independence of Kosovo.

Croatia

• A cable written by the U.S. Ambassador to Croatia Ralph Frank in November 2003 reveals the American interest in obtaining the S-300 surface-to-air missile system from Croatia. The Croatian government acquired the system in 1995, before the Operation Storm, but it was incomplete and was never operative. According to other sources, including the court testimony of arms dealer Zvonko Zubak, the system was indeed shipped to the U.S. in 2004.

Denmark

• Former Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, during a meeting with Turkish foreign ministry undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu, promised to shut down the controversial Denmark-based Kurdish TV-station Roj TV, in order to prevent Turkish obstruction to his appointment as Secretary General of NATO.

Georgia

• U.S. dispatches had apparently reported as early as 2007 that Russia had provided Grad missiles and other arms to the Georgian separatist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and had engaged in a large variety of covert activities aimed at destabilizing Georgia, before the 2008 war.
• It is implied in the cables that Georgia ignored Armenian offers for discussion on the situation and humanitarian measures during the 2008 war, causing many Armenian diplomats to feel offended. Eduard Nalbandyan, the Foreign Minister of Armenia, noted that if Armenian and Georgian ties weaken, there could be problems in the future with Javakhk Armenians.
• The U.S. had consistently viewed only the Georgian account of events as legitimate regarding Georgia's conflict with Russia.

Germany

• A number of cables from the U.S. embassy in Berlin reveal the U.S. concern on Germany's position in the SWIFT-, TFTP- and the bilateral U.S.-Germany data sharing agreement. A revealing cable from December 2009 (09BERLIN1528) describes how German Minister of the Interior Thomas de Maizière overruled Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger and abstained from voting at the November 30 Committee of Permanent Representatives vote in Brussels on an interim U.S.-EU agreement to continue the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (TFTP).
• U.S. embassy personnel were very critical of German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle. American diplomats have criticized his effectiveness, stating that "he's no Genscher". An embassy cable sent from Berlin on 22 September 2009 describes Westerwelle as having an "exuberant personality" and calling him an "enigma" who "remains sceptical about the US".
• American officials warned Germany in 2007 not to enforce arrest warrants for CIA officers involved in a bungled operation in which Khalid El-Masri, an innocent German citizen with the same name as a suspected militant, was mistakenly kidnapped and held for months in Afghanistan.
• It is revealed that the U.S. had an informant in the coalition talks between the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Free Democratic Party (FDP) for Cabinet Merkel II. Following the leak, FDP chairman Westerwelle's chief of staff Helmut Metzner admitted that he gave regular information to the U.S. embassy.

Ireland

• A 2006 memo on Ireland featured when on 1 December 2010 it was revealed that American diplomats discussed the Irish government's attempts to oppose American military use of Shannon Airport before Ireland's 2007 general election. After this release Amnesty International asked the Irish government to tighten its legislation to control the use of Irish airspace by the Americans. Colm O'Gorman, the organisation's executive director in Ireland, observed that concerns expressed by Irish citizens over the misuse of the airport by the Americans was "a problem to be managed rather than something to be taken seriously".
• According to a 2006 diplomatic cable sent from the U.S. embassy in Ireland, "the Irish Government has informally begun to place constraints on US military transits" at Shannon Airport. The Irish government attempted to limit the transfer of weapons from the U.S. to Israel via the Shannon Airport. James C. Kenny, U.S. Ambassador to Ireland at the time, said Irish officials were warned that the U.S. would use other airports if the policy continued.
• The Vatican stated that another leak of a February 2010 cable was "an act of extreme seriousness". The leak revealed that the Vatican had not replied to questions from the Commission that compiled the 2009 Murphy Report on the Sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic archdiocese of Dublin because it felt that such questions should be forwarded only through diplomatic channels. The Murphy Commission had written to Pope Benedict XVI as head of the Roman Catholic Church, and not as a Head of State, and the lack of any reply indicated to it that the Church was continuing to hide relevant facts behind the sovereignty of the Vatican City. The Vatican commented that: "..naturally these reports reflect the perceptions and opinions of the people who wrote them, and cannot be considered as expressions of the Holy See itself, nor as exact quotations of the words of its officials", though the cable now seems to have been an accurate report.
• A cable sent from Dublin suggested that the Irish Government had "rock solid evidence" that Gerry Adams was a member of the IRA miltary command structure, and Bertie Ahern believes Adams had advance knowledge of the 2004 Northern Bank robbery; claims that Mr Adams has continually denied.

Italy

• American officials voiced concerns over Silvio Berlusconi's relationship with Vladimir Putin, "including 'lavish gifts,' lucrative energy contracts and a 'shadowy' Russian-speaking Italian go-between". Diplomats consider him "to be the mouthpiece of Putin" in Europe.
• The Georgian ambassador in Rome has told American officials that Georgia believes Putin has promised Berlusconi a percentage of profits from any pipelines developed by Gazprom in coordination with Eni S.p.A..
• Berlusconi is alleged to have not supported Kosovo's independence because of his affinity towards Russia.
• Berlusconi's foreign policy is seen as chaotic, meddling with critical themes and "complicating international efforts" in matters such as Iranian nuclear crisis, relationship with Russia and G8 policies

Netherlands

• Although considered an open secret, it has been established by WikiLeaks that the U.S. has nuclear weapons based in the Royal Netherlands Air Force's Volkel Air Base, Netherlands.
• The Port of Rotterdam and the coastal towns of Beverwijk and Katwijk are seen as part of many critical points in a logistic chain. In Beverwijk, the Atlantic Crossing cable number 1 (AC-1), a cable that transports speech and data traffic between the U.S., the U.K., the Netherlands and Germany, meets shore, while in Katwijk the TransAtlantic Telephone cable number 14 (TAT-14), meets shore. The latter is mostly vital for data and internet traffic.

Poland

• The diplomatic cables reveal the U.S. army Patriot missiles, deployed in north-eastern Poland in early 2010, were neither operational nor armed with missiles and their value was purely symbolic. The Polish government however believed that the U.S. Patriot battery had boosted Polish air defences. The February 2009 cable from Victor Ashe, the U.S. ambassador in Warsaw, to Washington reveales that the Poles have not been told that the battery would rotate without actual missiles and that the Polish officials expectations were naive.

Romania

• Former European Commissioner for External Relations Chris Patten was quoted saying in 2004 that Croatia was probably far more prepared for E.U. membership than either Bulgaria or Romania, adding that Romania, in particular, was a "feral nation".
• The U.S. Embassy in Paris informs about a talk between Pierre Moscovici and Victoria Nuland, U.S. Ambassador to NATO. The 2006 cable reads that Moscovici said that Romania and Bulgaria will join the EU in 2007 but the joining will be accompanied by heated debates.
• A 2007 cable presents a discussion among American and French diplomats. One of the French diplomats comment that Russians could argue that American military bases in Bulgaria and Romania are destined not only for trainings but also for new implementations. The comment is not explained nor commented.
• A 2009 cable presents information for FBI director Robert Mueller reading that France is a destination of prostitute victims and Romania appears as a supplier of prostitutes
• On 5 February 2009 Hillary Clinton meets French Foreign Affairs Bernard Kouchner and talks include a mention that Romania and Poland were completely cut off from the energy policy.

Russia

• A diplomatic cable reports on alleged links between the Russian government and organised crime. Russia was labelled as a Mafia state.
• Dmitry Medvedev, President of Russia, often acts under the influence of Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister of Russia, and "plays Robin to Putin's Batman".
• Diplomats were highly sceptical of Putin's claim that he knew nothing about Alexander Litvinenko's poisoning.
• U.S. dispatches had apparently reported as early as 2007 that Russia had provided Grad missiles and other arms to the Georgian separatist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and had engaged in a large variety of covert activities aimed at destabilizing Georgia before the 2008 South Ossetia war.
• Russian leaders, in response to the Holodomor, sent a letter by Medvedev to "[Azerbaijan's President] Ilham Aliyev telling him that if Azerbaijan supported the designation of the Bolshevik artificial famine in Ukraine as "genocide" at the U.N., "then you can forget about seeing [the break-away republic of] Nagorno-Karabakh ever again."
• Serbian government officials have privately told American diplomats in Belgrade that Russia may be withholding vital information about the whereabouts of the fugitive Bosnian Serb general and genocide suspect, Ratko Mladić.
• At the April 4, 2008, NATO-Russia Council Summit in Bucharest, Romania, Putin "implicitly challenged" the territorial integrity of Ukraine.

Chechnya

• Reports that Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechnyan leader, "showered" his friends at a wedding with gold.
• Reports from an unnamed, non-Chechen source in Moscow that the Kremlin-appointed Chechen leadership was "lacking experts to develop programs for economic recovery, is simply demanding and disposing of cash from the central government."
• Chris Patten, the former European Commissioner for External Relations, apparently said of Putin, "He seems a completely reasonable man when discussing the Middle East or energy policy, but when the conversation shifts to Chechnya or Islamic extremism, Putin's eyes turn to those of a killer."

Dagestan

• Reports on the lavish lifestyle of the Dagestani elites.
• Concerns about increasing levels of Islamic fundamentalism.

Serbia and Kosovo

• In 2009, French diplomat Jean-David Levitte said that EULEX Kosovo has diplomatic issues with the Kosovo government and public, and that Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremić, "makes promises that he never keeps". He also criticised Jeremić for inaction in encouraging "Serb return or participation in the Kosovo government".
• The U.S. had sent a team of U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation experts in fugitive recovery to Belgrade to help the manhunt for Mladić and assess the Serbian operations.
• The Guardian suggested that cables regarding Serbia awaiting publication could refer to reasons why Ratko Mladić — the former Chief of Staff of the Army of Republika Srpska (Bosnian Serb Army) during the Bosnian War (1992–1995) who is now a fugitive and allegedly committed war crimes against Bosniaks and Croats — has not yet been arrested.

Slovenia

• According to the cables, the U.S. State Department ordered diplomats to spy on their Slovenian counterparts, with directives such as gaining their credit-card numbers and phone books. American diplomats were also ordered to research Slovenian international relations, including various agreements and projects connected to Russia. The U.S. also wanted to gain information on subjects such as money laundering and organised crime, as well as information on locations of various chemical factories, secret underground military bases, evacuation plans of hospitals and buildings of the goverment and Slovenia's commitment to the War in Afghanistan.

Spain

• U.S. officials tried to pressure Spain into dropping court investigations into the CIA's extraordinary rendition, torture at Guantanamo Bay, and the 2003 killing of José Couso, a Spanish journalist, in Iraq by American troops. Moreover, politicians such as the former Deputy Prime Minister María Teresa Fernández de la Vega and the former Minister of Foreign Affairs Miguel Ángel Moratinos, the Attorney General Cándido Conde-Pumpido and Audiencia Nacional judge Javier Gómez Bermúdez, among others, also collaborated with U.S. officials in the above cases and in forcing the downfall of Audiencia Nacional judge Baltasar Garzón.
• Former KGB and FSB agent and Putin critic Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned in London in 2006, tipped off Spanish authorities on several organised crime bosses with links to Spain.

Sweden

• According to Swedish television SVT, a yet-to-be-released cable from the U.S. Embassy in Stockholm reveals that Swedish authorities have secretly cooperated with the U.S. government handing over information about Swedish citizens, who might be associated with terrorism. According to the report the Swedish authorities knew about American surveillance of Swedish citizens but were hiding it from the public. Michael M. Wood, U.S. Ambassador to Sweden, writes in the leaked cable that this cooperation would not pass a parliamentary hearing, and that it could be unconstitutional. Nevertheless, he recommended to stick with the secret practice. The Sweden Minister for Justice claims she has no knowledge of this type of cooperation.
• The U.S. government was very concerned about file-sharing-related issues in Sweden. The U.S. Embassy actively worked with the Swedish authorities to reduce file-sharing-related threats, including The Pirate Bay, a Swedish website, which was raided in 2006 following U.S. pressure. The diplomatic cables reveal how the U.S. pressured Sweden, despite the Swedish prosecutors' claim that there had been no political interference.

Ukraine

• At the 4 April 2008, NATO-Russia Council Summit in Bucharest, Romania, Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, "implicitly challenged" the territorial integrity of Ukraine.
• In an 8 December 2008 meeting with William B. Taylor, Jr., U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Ukrainian billionaire Dmytro Firtash told of needing permission from alleged Russian crime boss Semyon Mogilevich to do business in Ukraine during the lawless 1990s; Firtash has denied the remarks. Allegedly, Gazprom, a Russian natural-gas extraction company, had asked Mogilevich to oversee natural-gas deliveries from Russia to Ukraine via gas intermediary RosUkrEnergo. All parties deny connections with Mogilevich. Firtash also claimed to be friends with Viktor Yushchenko, President of Ukraine.
• Other cables said Firtash and Mogilevich were linked through ostensible offshore company vehicles either by joint ownership through former spouses or through Firtash heading companies in which Mogilevich's former spouse was the shareholder. It was also suspected that Raiffeisen Bank, an Austrian-based bank, was a front to legitimize RosUkrEnergo.
• The U.S. is fighting a constant battle to stop the flow of arms from Ukraine and other Eastern European countries to terrorist in the Middle East and Southern Sudan.
• According to a former Party of Regions lawmaker Yulia Tymoshenko, former Prime Minister of Ukraine, seventy percent of government spending was allocated without tenders. Tymoshenko's Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc (BYuT) and Party of Regions have been long-time political rivals.

United Kingdom

• U.K. Foreign Office officials misled the public over Diego Garcia, and privately admitted no regret over the eviction of the Chagos islanders (Chagossians).
• U.K. Foreign Office officials concealed from Parliament a loophole in the ban on use and storage of cluster bombs, allowing the U.S. to store the munitions on U.K. territory
• The U.K. Ministry of Defence's director general for security policy told Ellen Tauscher, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs, that the U.K. government had "put measures in place to protect your interests during the UK inquiry into the causes of the Iraq war".
• Prince Andrew, Duke of York, was noted as saying "The Americans don't understand geography. Never have. In the UK, we have the best geography teachers in the world!"
• U.K. Secretary of State David Miliband directed much of his attention to the final stages of Sri Lankan Civil War in order to win the votes of Tamils in the UK.
• The U.S. dismissed U.K. concerns about the use of RAF Akrotiri to stage U-2 spy plane flights.
• The British government secretly supported the early release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who was convicted of carrying out the Lockerbie bombing.. At the time, the British Government did not publicly support or oppose the decision. Following the 2010 U.K. general election but prior to the cables leak, the new British government stated that the release, authorised by the Scottish government, was "a mistake" which it regretted.

Vatican City

• Relations between the U.K. and the Vatican "were facing their worst crisis in 150 years" because of Pope Benedict XVI's invitation to convert followers of the Church of England who opposed female priests.
• According to Pietro Parolin, the Pope's voice is behind the Vatican's growing hostility towards Turkey joining the European Union because he believed that allowing a Muslim country into the EU would further weaken his case for Europe's Christian foundations. When he was still a Cardinal in 2004, the Pope had spoken out against a Muslim state joining the EU when the Vatican had then held a neutral opinion on the question, and was the leading voice behind the Holy See's unsuccessful drive to secure a reference to Europe's "Christian roots" in the EU constitution. But by 2006 when Parolin was working for Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, he stated: "Neither the pope nor the Vatican have endorsed Turkey's EU membership per se... rather, the Holy See has been consistently open to accession, emphasizing only that Turkey needs to fulfil the EU's Copenhagen criteria to take its place in Europe."
• U.S. diplomats believed the Pope was instrumental in securing the release of 15 British sailors captured and held by Iran in 2007.
• Vatican officials were offended when their fellow priests were summoned from Rome to testify before an Irish commission investigating the 2009 Murphy report. The cable revealed that U.S. diplomats believed that Vatican officials felt that Irish opposition politicians wanted to make political gains from the investigation. Ultimately the Vatican officials were granted immunity by the Irish government.
• Vatican communication technology within the Pope's inner circle is not up to modern standards, as evident by several communication mishaps during Benedict's papacy. Few Vatican officials have e-mail accounts, and only one has a Blackberry. "Most of the top ranks of the Vatican, all men, generally in their seventies, do not understand modern media and new information technologies" reported Julieta Valls Noyes, the Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See.

Central Asia

Tajikistan

• According to cables, US interests in Tajikstan include: "a stable state on Afghanistan’s northern border, support for our military efforts in Afghanistan, and for Tajikistan to be a stabilizing influence and contributor to economic development in the region." Further, "Tajikistan gives unrestricted over flight rights, and quickly agreed to NDN ground transit".

• "Tajikistan must overcome multiple political and economic problems which stymie its own development: poverty, bad relations with Uzbekistan, intense corruption, Soviet-era economic structures and planning, an undemocratic political system, chronic food insecurity, and dependence on migrant labor in Russia." according to cables.

Uzbekistan

• The cables paint a picture of Uzbekistan as a country ruled by those with close connections with the President. According to cables, Gulnora Karimova, the President's first daughter, is said to own a wide variety of businesses in Uzbekistan, which were the result of unfair takeovers, and is believed to be "the single most hated person in the country". Also, one cable describes the President's youngest daughter, Lola Karimova, to be frequenting a nightclub called Barkhan on a near nightly basis, and the cable quotes: "Barkhan ownership is obviously well connected, as it’s the only place in town that flaunts selling non-Uzbekistan produced hard alcohol, which is against the law."

By company

• Mastercard/Visa: U.S. diplomats lobbied Russian politicians for U.S. credit card companies Mastercard and Visa. A law proposal currently undergoing discussion in the Russian State Duma proposes a National Payment Card System (NPCS) to collect all credit card fees for domestic transactions. This would result in a revenue loss for Visa and Mastercard.
• Royal Dutch Shell: Ann Pickard, then Shell's vice-president for sub-Saharan Africa, claimed that they had "seconded people to all the relevant ministries" and therefore was informed about all important political decisions.
• Pfizer: Drug company Pfizer hired private investigators to find evidence against the Nigerian attorney general Michael Aondoakaa to pressure him into dropping charges against the company. Pfitzer was sued in Nigeria because of claims that a new antibiotic has harmed children.

Diplomatic analysis of individual leaders

Harsh criticism by U.S. embassy staff of their host governments:

Afghanistan

• Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan, was called "paranoid" by diplomats. The diplomats stated that he is considered "an extremely weak man who did not listen to facts but was instead easily swayed by anyone who came to report even the most bizarre stories or plots against him".

Albania

• Sali Berisha, Prime Minister of Albania, was called "To pro american as needed" by the diplomats. After his offer to take more Gitmo prisoners American diplomats portrayed his offer as "gracious, but probably extravagant". "As always, the Albanians are willing to go the extra mile to assist with one of our key foreign policy priorities", a cable said.

Argentina

• Cristina Kirchner and Néstor Kirchner, current and former Presidents of Argentina, respectively, are described as "paranoid regarding power" and showing "ineptitude for foreign policy". Also it asks for information on the mental state and health of the current president of Argentina.

Armenia

• Serge Sargsyan, President of Armenia, was noted in the letters from U.S. administration to Sargsyan condemning the Armenian arms shipments to Iran which killed American soldiers and his unreasonable denials of transfer or weapons.

Australia

• Kevin Rudd, former Prime Minister of Australia, was described as "generally competent". Other text described him as a "control freak" and "a micro-manager obsessed with managing the media cycle rather than engaging in collaborative decision making". Diplomats also criticized Rudd's foreign-policy record.

Austria

• Werner Faymann, Chancellor of Austria, was criticised for a lack of interest in foreign politics.

Azerbaijan

• Ilham Aliyev, President of Azerbaijan, was a cross between fictional mafia bosses Michael Corleone and Sonny Corleone from the mob film The Godfather (1972), being a "pragmatist" when it comes to foreign policy but "increasingly authoritarian" on domestic policy.
• Mehriban Aliyeva, Aliyev's wife, according to U.S. embassy dispatches, was said to have "so much plastic surgery that it is possible to confuse her for one of her daughters from a distance, but that she can barely still move her face". U.S. diplomats also describe Aliyeva as "poorly informed about political issues" despite being a Member of Parliament.

Bangladesh

• Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia's participation in 2008 elections was not after all opposed by US officials according to analysis of cables by online newspaper Bdnews24 http://bdnews24.com/details.php?cid=43&id=181922&hb=1

• 'US wanted both leaders in polls' according to a headline in Bdnews24 the Bangladesh news agency. In Bangladesh at the fag end of the caretaker government, the people wanted both Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina to run the 2008 general elections, a 'Wikileaked' US cable reveals. A October-November dossier of the US embassy in Dhaka said, "Most of the people in Bangladesh are in favour of Awami League leader Sheikh Hasina and BNP leader Khaleda Zia taking part in the upcoming general elections". It had been widely believed that the then interim government, at the instigation of different foreign embassies and the so-called civil society, came up with the 'Minus-Two' theory to shunt the two leaders out of politics. The cable referring to US embassy study said majority people of Bangladesh were in favour of immediate polls and any attempt to foil it would not go down well with the masses. This according to analysis of documents by Bangladeh news source Bdnews24 http://www.bdnews24.com/details.php?id=181922&cid=43

Brazil

• Brazil's Foreign Ministry was described as an "opponent" with an "anti-American slant".
• Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim confirmed an earlier rumor that the President of Bolivia, Evo Morales, is suffering from a serious sinus tumor.

Egypt

• Hosni Mubarak, President of Egypt, was described by the U.S embassy in Cairo as "a tried and true realist, innately cautious and conservative, and has little time for idealistic goals".

Eritrea

• Isaias Afwerki, President of Eritrea, was described by the U.S. Ambassador to Eritrea as a cruel "unhinged dictator" whose regime was "one bullet away from implosion". "This man is a lunatic," described the Djiboutian foreign minister, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf. A defected bodyguard remarked that Isaias was a recluse who spent his days painting and tinkering with gadgets and carpentry work. He appeared to make decisions in isolation with no discussion with his advisers. It was difficult to tell how Isaias would react each day and his moods changed constantly.

France

• Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France, was described by U.S. diplomatic officials as "thin-skinned", "authoritarian" and an "emperor with no clothes".

Germany

• Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, is called Angela "Teflon" Merkel. The diplomats stated that "when cornered, Merkel can be tenacious but is risk averse and rarely creative".

Haiti

• Cables from the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince paint an exhaustive portrait of Rene Preval, President of Haiti. Preval is described as fearful of exile, passive, indifferent to his advisors, and at the same time prone to micro-management. There is "special intelligence" on his medical regimen and he is rumored to be drinking heavily. And he is skeptical of a U.N.-commissioned report being touted by the international community as a development template for Haiti.

Iran

• Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran, was criticised by many Arab leaders. Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Zayed urged the U.S. not to appease Tehran and said, "Ahmadinejad is Hitler".
• Previously unreleased documents actually showed strong disapproval with the methods of the former Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi in the years leading up to the 1979 Iranian Revolution, who is labeled as a "sensitive totalitarian" who "lacks understanding" and "how he plans to achieve his goals remain unclear" (in regards to establishing the Rastakhiz Party under a one-party system), which strongly contrasts with the official American position on him at the time. He was said to have "extreme Sensitivity to criticism and strong desire to receive overt evidence of public support". The former Prime Minister Amir Abbas Hoveida is labeled as the Shah's "Chief Dancer" whose "court is merely a facade", while the Security apparatus SAVAK, is called "poorly organized" (despite being founded by the CIA and Mossad) and "going as far as Isfahan to round up the innocent with the guilty".

Iraq

• Nouri al-Maliki, Prime Minister of Iraq, was labeled a "liar" by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, "saying he would never support him".

Israel

• Benjamin Netanyahu is "elegant and charming", according to a cable apparently penned by an official at the U.S. embassy in Egypt, "but never keeps his promises".

Italy

• Silvio Berlusconi, Prime Minister of Italy, was defined by the U.S. Embassy in Rome as "feckless, vain, and ineffective as a modern European leader". U.S. diplomatic officials also said that because of his constant partying he is never well rested.

Libya

• Muammar al-Qadhafi, the de facto leader of Libya, allegedly has a fear of flying over water and he no longer relies on his all-female bodyguard force, only taking one to the U.N. during 2010. Gene Cretz, U.S. Ambassador to Libya, noted that that Qadhafi never travels without his "voluptuous blonde" Ukrainian nurse, with whom some claim he is romantically linked. When her visa was not approved in time for Qadhafi's trip to the U.N., he had her privately flown to him afterward. The nurse is identified as Galyna Kolotnytska.

Netherlands

• In a diplomatic cable, dated 6 July 2009, Jan Peter Balkenende, Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 2002 to 2010, is described as a "cunning politician", although "at first, he was dismissed as a lightweight "Harry Potter" look-alike, but he has consistently and skillfully delivered Cabinet support for U.S. policy objectives while balancing fragile parliamentary majorities." It is also said that his last cabinet was "held together more by fear of early elections than any unity of vision."
• In that same diplomatic cable, Geert Wilders, Member of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands, is called a "golden-pompadoured maverick", who is "no friend of the U.S.: he opposes Dutch military involvement in Afghanistan; he believes development assistance is money wasted; he opposes NATO missions outside "allied" territory; he is against most EU initiatives; and, most troubling, he forments fear and hatred of immigrants.", also saying that his "anti-Islam, nationalist Freedom Party remains a thorn in the coalition's side."

New Zealand

• John Key, current Prime Minister of New Zealand, was described by former American Ambassador to New Zealand, Charles Swindells, as having a "personal pro-American outlook".
• Helen Clark, Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008, was described as a controlling manager by former American Ambassador to New Zealand, Charles Swindells.

North Korea

• Kim Jong-il, leader of North Korea, was portrayed to diplomats by a source as a "'flabby old chap' and someone who had suffered 'physical and psychological trauma' as a result of his stroke". Chinese diplomats consider Kim irascible and unpredictable, mentioning they do not "like" North Korea, but "they are a neighbour". Kim has a reputation among Chinese diplomats as being "quite a good drinker".

Pakistan

• Asif Ali Zardari, President of Pakistan, was called "dirty but not dangerous" by Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, in contrast to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif who was described as "dangerous but not dirty -- this is Pakistan". Saudi King Abdullah was critical of Zardari, stating that "when the head is rotten... it affects the whole body".

People's Republic of China

• Hu Jintao, President of the People's Republic of China, was described by Japanese prime minister Taro Aso as "confident and relaxed" during their meeting. This is in contrast to Premier Wen Jiabao, who was "very tired and seemed under a lot of pressure", attributed to the financial crisis.

Russia

• Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister of Russia, wields less power than his "alpha dog" image in the media portrays. He is alleged to bribe Kremlin figures, or else many of his edicts are not implemented. American diplomats have raised concerns over personal corruption, calling Putin's Russia a "mafia state". The Swiss oil-trading company Gunvor is "rumored to be one of Putin's sources of undisclosed wealth", allegedly "bringing its owners billions of dollars in profit". Diplomats have also discussed Putin's very close relationship with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and "the pair enjoyed such a close relationship that they shared a 'direct line'". It is suspected that Berlusconi personal relationship with Putin influenced the sale of part of Russian state-owned Gazprom's oil subsidiary Gazpromneft to Italian Eni. At the April 4, 2008, NATO-Russia Council Summit in Bucharest, Romania Putin "implicitly challenged" the territorial integrity of Ukraine.
• Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, was described as "pale" and "indecisive", playing "Robin to Putin's Batman".

Saudi Arabia

• King Abdullah was stated by diplomats as "'tending to express himself tersely' because of his lifelong struggle with a 'speech impediment', but added that he is a 'wry and forthright interlocutor.'"

Sweden

• Carl Bildt, Swedish minister of foreign affairs, was described as a "Medium size dog with big dog attitude".

Tunisia

• Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisian president, was described as "deserving credit for continuing the progressive policies of President Bourguiba," however "he and his regime have lost touch with the Tunisian people." It is said the Tunisian leader doesn't accept domestic or international criticism.

Turkey

• Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish prime minister, was described as a "perfectionist workaholic who sincerely cares for the well-being of those around him". He was also described by U.S. diplomats as having "little understanding of politics beyond Ankara" and as surrounding himself with an "iron ring of sycophantic (but contemptuous) advisors". He is said to be "isolated", and that his MPs and Ministers feel "fearful of Erdogan's wrath". Diplomats state that "he relies on his charisma, instincts, and the filterings of advisors who pull conspiracy theories off the web or are lost in neo-Ottoman Islamist fantasies". Erdogan responded strongly to the claims, threatening a lawsuit. He rejects the allegations of having "eight secret accounts in Swiss banks", stating that the people responsible for the 'slander' will "be crushed under these claims, will be finished and will disappear".

Turkmenistan

• Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, President of Turkmenistan, was described as "vain, fastidious, vindictive, a micro-manager, and a bit of an Ahal Teke 'nationalist.'" The American diplomat also commented that Berdymukhammedov has a Russian mistress.

Ukraine

• Viktor Yushchenko, President of Ukraine, was described as discredited among the population because of his weakness of leadership; continuous conflicts with Yulia Tymoshenko, Prime Minister of Ukraine; needless hostility regarding Ukraine's relations with Russia; and his NATO ambitions.

Zimbabwe

• Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe, was described as the devil. The cable said that Mugabe was cleverer and more ruthless than any other Zimbabwean politician.
• Morgan Tsvangirai, Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, was described as flawed, indecisive and lacking executive experience.