ST official Cablegate thread

[mightygoose 92]

US embassy cables culprit should be executed, says Mike Huckabee

The Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee has called for whoever leaked the 250,000 US diplomatic cables to be executed.

Huckabee, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination at the last election but is one of the favourites for 2012, joined a growing number of people demanding the severest punishment possible for those behind the leak, which has prompted a global diplomatic crisis.

His fellow potential Republican nominee Sarah Palin had already called for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to be "hunted down", and an adviser to the Canadian prime minister has echoed her comments.

Huckabee said: "Whoever in our government leaked that information is guilty of treason, and I think anything less than execution is too kind a penalty."

He added, according to Politico: "They've put American lives at risk. They put relationships that will take decades to rebuild at risk. They knew full well that they were handling sensitive documents they were entrusted.

"And anyone who had access to that level of information was not only a person who understood what their rules were, but they also signed, under oath, a commitment that they would not violate. They did … Any lives they endangered, they're personally responsible for and the blood is on their hands."

Bradley Manning, a US army intelligence analyst suspected of leaking the diplomatic cables, is currently being held at a military base. He has been charged with transferring classified data and delivering national defence information to an unauthorised source. He faces a court martial and up to 52 years in prison.

The 23-year-old was arrested after boasting in instant messages and emails to a high-profile former hacker, Adrian Lamo, that he had passed the material to WikiLeaks along with a highly classified video of US forces killing unarmed civilians in Baghdad.

Kathleen McFarland, who served in the Pentagon under the Nixon, Ford and Reagan administrations, concurred with Huckabee. "It's time to up the charges," said McFarland, now a Fox News national security analyst. "Let's charge him and try him for treason. If he is found guilty, he should be executed."

It is not just the Americans who are demanding blood. Tom Flanagan, a senior adviser to the Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper, issued what has been described as a fatwa against Assange, on the Canadian TV station CBC.

"I think Assange should be assassinated, actually," he said. "I think Obama should put out a contract and maybe use a drone or something." Flanagan chuckled as he made the comment but did not retract it when questioned, adding: "I wouldn't feel unhappy if Assange does disappear."

Revelations directly relating to Canada have been few and far between so far, although there was some embarrassment for Harper in the leak of a US embassy note from one of the French president's key foreign advisers. It explained that Harper was invited to last year's D-day commemorations in Normandy only because his government was in trouble.

Assange is facing growing legal problems around the world.

The US has announced it is investigating whether he has violated its espionage laws, and his details have been added to Interpol's worldwide wanted list, based on an arrest warrant issued by Swedish prosecutors in connection with rape allegations.

On Monday, Sarah Palin wrote on Facebook: "He is an anti-American operative with blood on his hands. His past posting of classified documents revealed the identity of more than 100 Afghan sources to the Taliban. Why was he not pursued with the same urgency we pursue al-Qaida and Taliban leaders?"

this gets crazier.

[krbe 193]

Sarah Palin's concern for more than 100 Afghans is touching.

I also thought there were justice systems in Canada before the state killed someone. At least the Americans want a summary one.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Originally posted by: krbe

Sarah Palin's concern for more than 100 Afghans is touching.

I also thought there were justice systems in Canada before the state killed someone. At least the Americans want a summary one.

quote>

It has been a long time since anyone was executed in Canada.  Which execution are you referencing?  Louis Riel, perhaps?

[Ocram's Razr 964]

I just dropped my support. I no longer support either of them.

[Larks2242 251]

Originally posted by: mightygoose

 

The Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee has called for whoever leaked the 250,000 US diplomatic cables to be executed.

Huckabee, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination at the last election but is one of the favourites for 2012, joined a growing number of people demanding the severest punishment possible for those behind the leak, which has prompted a global diplomatic crisis.

Huckabee said: "Whoever in our government leaked that information is guilty of treason, and I think anything less than execution is too kind a penalty."

He added, according to Politico: "They've put American lives at risk. They put relationships that will take decades to rebuild at risk. They knew full well that they were handling sensitive documents they were entrusted.

"And anyone who had access to that level of information was not only a person who understood what their rules were, but they also signed, under oath, a commitment that they would not violate. They did … Any lives they endangered, they're personally responsible for and the blood is on their hands."

quote>

He has a good point, plus he ran with Chuck Norris in 2008, i'd vote for him in 2012. He won my school election

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

People who call for killing other people should not be elected to positions of power.  Who knows who they will decide to kill next?  This Huckabee character sounds like Bob Heinlien's Prophet of the Lord in Revolt in 2100.

[Easy Bakes 253]

Chuck Norris?

[Ocram's Razr 964]

I hope that was a joke. Otherwise it is ... I once had an account called LunaC

Also, why is your reply in quotes?

I have bumped my deadline to reach 2,000 posts by the end of the year.

[astronelson 339]

Originally posted by: Larks2242

Originally posted by: astronelson

Originally posted by: Larks2242

Wikileaks should not exist, its amazing that it is allowed.quote>

It's based in Sweden (although its servers are distributed worldwide), and is thus outside US jurisdiction. It's not really amazing that the US government allows it, as they don't have a say in the matter.

quote>

We can always infiltrate Sweeden and take them out, by calling in the seals, worked in Korea.quote>

... Hang on, what?

OK, first thing, Sweden only has 2 e's. Second, SEALs is capitalised as I have capitalised it, as you are almost certainly not referring to the aquatic mammal but rather the Navy's Sea, Air, Land teams. Third, the hell it worked, have you seen Korea recently? The peninsula is still officially at war with itself. Fourth, Sweden is not your enemy. You seriously want the US to commit an act of war against Sweden? That really wouldn't go down well with the international community.

I agree with Ilikeseattle, I hope that is a joke. The alternative is depressing.

On to the most recent news article posted in this thread, it appears what the governments are doing publicly is more embarrassing than what they have been keeping secret. I do not support any assassination or execution plans, for that is not the way civilised nations should deal with their problems.

[Ocram's Razr 964]

Yes; astronelson, a moderator, agrees with me. What I do not know is why my post was deleted without notice instead of edited. It was not a double post. It even agreed with the 2 post rule (which does not apply to this thread anyway). Plus it was in my opinion that it was something Larks2242 heard on some conservative station. I never accused Larks2242 of being a lunatic. Plus everyone, even TV personalities can say crazy things without being crazy.

One of the IRC nicknames I used (I used it for a month or 2) was LunaC. The LunaC account exposed a MATY member turned Pseudo-Religious Troll. [Hide]That account (and the forum account StellaLuna) followed most of the rules (except that sock-puppets are discouraged for non-VIPs) and general etiquette. I was insulted and verbally abused on my primary account so I changed the password to a random pattern of characters from slamming my hand on the keyboard then copy pasting the string into the password and verify password fields and not saving any evidence of the password. The website does not allow password retrieval or reset so I locked myself out (closest thing to self-deletion/banning).

[Larks2242 251]

Originally posted by: Easy Bakes

Chuck Norris?

quote>

You don't know Chuck Norris, or you diden't know he was with Huckabee?

Originally posted by: A Nonny Moose

People who call for killing other people should not be elected to positions of power.  Who knows who they will decide to kill next?  This Huckabee character sounds like Bob Heinlien's Prophet of the Lord in Revolt in 2100.

quote>

Sometimes unforchunately thats the only way to end a threat, i don't know what lord in revolt is though.

Originally posted by: astronelson

 Sweden is not your enemy. You seriously want the US to commit an act of war against Sweden? That really wouldn't go down well with the international community.

quote>

I realize Sweden is not an emeny, and the issue is not with them but with the people leaking the documents this really has nothing to do with the goverment of sweden therfore i don't realize how it would start a war with them.

@ Ilikeseatle: Never heard it on the radio its just my personal opinion.

[astronelson 339]

Originally posted by: Larks2242

Originally posted by: astronelson

 Sweden is not your enemy. You seriously want the US to commit an act of war against Sweden? That really wouldn't go down well with the international community.

quote>

I realize Sweden is not an emeny, and the issue is not with them but with the people leaking the documents this really has nothing to do with the goverment of sweden therfore i don't realize how it would start a war with them.quote>

Aside from the fact you would be sending armed forces into their country? That is the definition of a military invasion.

[Larks2242 251]

For some reason the quoting thing diden't want to post the whole thing.

Originally posted by: A Nonny Moose

People who call for killing other people should not be elected to positions of power.  Who knows who they will decide to kill next?  This Huckabee character sounds like Bob Heinlien's Prophet of the Lord in Revolt in 2100.

quote>

Sometimes unforchunately thats the only way to end a threat, i don't know what lord in revolt is though. The president needs to be somewhat intimating or otherwise will look weak to the rest of the world, not that i'm for taking him out but i can see and understand his point of view.

[Larks2242 251]

Originally posted by: astronelson

Originally posted by: Larks2242

Originally posted by: astronelson

 Sweden is not your enemy. You seriously want the US to commit an act of war against Sweden? That really wouldn't go down well with the international community.

quote>

I realize Sweden is not an enemy, and the issue is not with them but with the people leaking the documents this really has nothing to do with the government of Sweden therefore i don't realize how it would start a war with them.quote>

Aside from the fact you would be sending armed forces into their country? That is the definition of a military invasion.

quote>

I said infiltrate not invade, we don't have any intent to  takeover in a sense its not about starting a war, its about securing our Documents that is property of the US.

[Ocram's Razr 964]

I see where your opinion comes from but as a teenager (because you stated your age range as10-20, unless you are 11 or 12, which is worse), you are ignorant to many political rules. The person being prosecuted in Sweden has obviously left Sweden and is believed to be in the London Metropolitan area according to BBC.

If by infiltrate, you mean send spies, that could be done covertly but if it is done overtly (mentioned to the general public by a politician)... Sending spies into an ally's territory is an act of war (that is more common than previously thought because of WikiLeaks) and doing so would just prove WikiLeaks' point so I find it a bad political idea.

[mightygoose 92]

its the american way, SEALs first; apologies later....

seems it is largely irrelevant now...

WikiLeaks vanishes from web as US company removes DNS support

WikiLeaks has been knocked off the net after the US company everydns.net which translated its domain name – wikileaks.org – to its "internet protocol" (IP) address withdrew support.

In a statement on its website, the free everydns.net service said that the "distributed denial of service" (DDOS) attacks by unknown hackers – who are trying to knock WikiLeaks off the net – meant that the leaks site was interfering with the service being provided to other users. That in turn meant that WikiLeaks had broken everydns.net's terms of service, and it cut the site off at 3am GMT on Friday (10PM EST Thursday).

DNS services translate a website name, such as guardian.co.uk, into machine-readable "IP quads" – in that case 77.91.249.30, so that http://77.91.249.30 will show the Guardian site. If the DNS fails, the site is only reachable via IP address – but WikiLeaks has not yet provided one via Twitter or other means.

Everydns.net said that the attacks – which have been going on all week, and led the site to temporarily host its services on Amazon's more resilient EC2 "cloud computing" service – "threaten the stability of the EveryDNS.net infrastructure, which enables access to almost 500,000 other websites".

WikiLeaks was given 24 hours' notice of the termination, and everydns said: "Any downtime of the wikileaks.org website has resulted from its failure to use another hosted DNS service provider."

The move comes after several days of WikiLeaks coming under a determined DDOS attack, apparently from hackers friendly to the point of view of the US government, which has disparaged the site's leaking of thousands of US diplomatic cables.

US companies have also come under intense political pressure to remove any connection to, or support for, WikiLeaks. Amazon ended its hosting of the cables on its EC2 cloud computer service earlier this week, but last night insisted in a blogpost that its decision was not due to pressure from Senator Joe Lieberman, who has called for the removal of the data – and who has influenced at least one other US company to withdraw support for WikiLeaks data.

In a blogpost late on Thursday, Amazon said reports that government inquiries prompted it to remove the data were "inaccurate".

Amazon said:

    "[Amazon Web Services] does not pre-screen its customers, but it does have terms of service that must be followed. WikiLeaks was not following them. There were several parts they were violating. For example, our terms of service state that "you represent and warrant that you own or otherwise control all of the rights to the content… that use of the content you supply does not violate this policy and will not cause injury to any person or entity". It's clear that WikiLeaks doesn't own or otherwise control all the rights to this classified content. Further, it is not credible that the extraordinary volume of 250,000 classified documents that WikiLeaks is publishing could have been carefully redacted in such a way as to ensure that they weren't putting innocent people in jeopardy."

It noted that:

    "When companies or people go about securing and storing large quantities of data that isn't rightfully theirs, and publishing this data without ensuring it won't injure others, it's a violation of our terms of service, and folks need to go operate elsewhere."

But as commentators have pointed out, that stance is contradicted by the fact that Amazon has previously hosted the "war logs" from WikiLeaks which contained data about the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Connecting to WikiLeaks is presently not possible until it gets a new DNS service. WikiLeaks itself said on Twitter that the ending of DNS services was allegedly due to "claimed mass attacks" and called for further donations to "keep us strong".

Current Wikileaks address http://46.59.1.2/

it also seems according to Scotland Yard via the Daily Mail that Assange is to be arrested today.

[sneakeypete 16]

Originally posted by: astronelson

SEALs is capitalised as I have capitalised it, as you are almost certainly not referring to the aquatic mammal

quote>

Well, the Navy does have Seals, though im not sure how they'd actually manage to assassinate the guy, unless he went diving or somesuch.

Originally posted by: Larks2242

Sometimes unforchunately thats the only way to end a threat, i don't know what lord in revolt is though.quote>

There is absolutly, completely, positivly no reason why you need to kill him. Think about it. if you were able to kill him, you'd just as easily be able to arrest him, he's not some Jason Bourne super spy afterall, (Edit; unless you plan on dropping a tactical nuke on londom to kill him...). If he's arrested, he will be able to do about as much as he can dead.

[mightygoose 92]

http://213.251.145.96/ -Wikileaks moves to Switzerland.

and Uh oh....

Assange Case: Evidence Destroyed Over and Over Again

 

Buy It Try It

One of the women who filed charges against Julian Assange is Anna Ardin. She stood in the elections to the community council for the social democrats and she is a public person who should be examined. So I'll publish her name.

Anna Ardin is christian, feminist, social democrat, animal rights activist, and opponent of abortion on the left political scene. She's previously been in charge of equality issues for the student union of Uppsala University -

a job she won an award for

. Today she works for the

Brotherhood Movement

and 'burns for peace and justice... for a just, open society of solidarity'. On her own blog she describes herself:

'A political scientist, communicator, entrepreneur, and freelance writer with special knowledge within faith and politics, gender equality issues, feminism, and Latin America.'

On Saturday 14 August at 14:00

she wrote the following on her Twitter account.

'Julian wants to go to a crayfish party, anyone have a couple of available seats tonight or tomorrow? #fb'

Early on the morning of Sunday 15 August (02:00)

she writes again at Twitter.

'Sitting outdoors at 02:00 and hardly freezing with the world's coolest smartest people, it's amazing! #fb'

When Anna Ardin files a police complaint against Julian Assange on 20 August these tweets are removed. Why? As far as I can tell, it's not common for victims of crime to delete blogs, clean up their cellphones, and try to get witnesses to attest to things that aren't true. Why is it so important to remove these particular tweets?

If you know that the 'reported molestation' takes place on the night towards 14 August, then it all becomes easier to understand. The tweets actually indicate that Anna really liked Julian and that there had been no molestation 24 hours earlier. You can't divine in the tweets that Anna Ardin thinks Julian has a 'warped view of womanhood and can't take no for an answer'. The tweets are more an attempt by Ardin to shine in the brilliance of Julian Assange. Why else would she publish them on the Internet? The tweets don't match Anna's story given to the police on 20 August. So she simply deletes them.

Proof That Anna Ardin Is Hiding the Truth

In the beginning of September, I note that Anna Ardin has two identical 'miniblogs' - one at Twitter and the other at Bloggy.se. It looks as if Anna Ardin's tweets are posted to both blogs at the same time. The tweets that are deleted from Twitter are still visible at annaardin.bloggy.se. Anna missed the fact that she has to delete on each and every blog. Bad luck.

To see if Anna Ardin is really trying to hide her Twitter tweets, I post a comment to Sara Gunnerud's article

WikiLeaks Heroes Can Also Do Stupid Things

. The article is published at the Rebella blog, a social democratic feminist blog where Anna Ardin contributes and runs the website. In my comment I mention the deleted Twitter tweets. After five days, on 13 September, my comment is reviewed and removed directly. I then post a new comment where I mention that one can read the deleted Tweets at annaardin.bloggy.se. My comment is removed directly. A few hours later the entire Bloggy.se site is taken offline. When Bloggy.se reopens at 04:00 in the morning of 14 September, the tweets deleted from Twitter are also deleted from annaardin.bloggy.se.

But it's not as easy to remove things from the Internet as Anna Ardin thinks. Google takes snapshots of how web pages look - so called caches. If you search for

the cached page for annaardin.bloggy.se

you can see what it looked like on 19 August. (If the cache disappears,

click here

.) Then you can compare the page with how

annaardin.bloggy.se

and

twitter.com/annaardin

look.

As we can see, Anna Ardin is doing all she can to hide her tweets. Tweets that indicate Julian Assange is actually innocent of at least the charge of 'molestation' that he's been accused of. It looks like Anna Ardin is doing all she can to get Julian Assange convicted. By deleting and denying acquitting circumstances, she's perhaps making herself guilty of false accusation.

Penal Code Chapter 15, 7 §

A person who, otherwise than in 6 §, with prosecutors, police or other authority falsely testifies of a criminal act, provides compromising circumstances, or denies acquitting or mitigating circumstances, shall be found guilty, if authority review such a case, of false accusation to imprisonment not exceeding two years or, if the crime is petty, to a fine or imprisonment not exceeding six months.

The Assange case gets really creepy if we take everything that's happened into account. Anyone wanting to read more can see

this article

and

this article

. Julian lives in Anna Ardin's flat from 11 August until 19-20 August. During this time Julian and Anna have sex. Around 18-19 August Anna gets a call from a woman wanting to speak to Julian. When Anna realises that Julian's also had consensual sex with this woman, something happens. The two women who are both christians and are connected to the Brotherhood Movement and were at the seminar at the Brotherhood Movement realise immediately that Julian doesn't have any long term serious intentions with them. They decide after discussing the matter to file complaints against Julian Assange for sexual molestation.

It might seem strange that a christian social democrat feminist would avail herself of legislation to get revenge on a man who is 'unfaithful'. When you read about

Anna Ardin's post about revenge

, it's no longer strange. It's completely natural. Anna Ardin has for a long time wondered how she can exact revenge on a man who dumps her, is unfaithful. When the other woman turns up, she has the opportunity to do something about her ideas. Anna Ardin plans it all well. She gets another woman to make the actual rape accusation. A case of 'revenge by proxy'. And then she gets help from Claes Borgström who's done all he can to try to get Julian Assange put on trial, frenetically cheered on by the feminist blogs.

But the truth wins out in the end. Anna's perfect

7-Step Programme for Legal Revenge

failed. One deletion too few. And the Google cache. Too bad, Anna. The ways of the Lord are truly mysterious.

I'm very surprised that christian feminist 'equality' women can so idolise a WikiLeaks hero that they do all in their power to get him into bed as soon as they have the chance. And then, when they realise he's not as interested in them as they are in him, go to the police and accuse him of rape. This demonstrates an extreme contempt for the women who are real victims of violence and sexual crimes. Their behaviour is unconscionable.

If you're a groupie at heart, why not just try to keep quiet about it? It's nothing you should spread on the net or go to the police to talk about. As things look now, Anna Ardin's carefully planned character assassination and revenge on Julian Assange amounts to nothing more than a suicide bomb on her foot. A bit unlucky for Anna that Google cache keeps track of things like an Internet god. If you're going to delete, then delete good and proper.

All that remains is to see what the preliminary investigation leads to. According to the prosecutors:

'The investigation is well advanced and only a small number of investigative procedures remain to be taken before a decision.'

If the prosecutors conclude that this is a case of false accusation, then hundreds of thousands of men who claim most rape complaints are false will win their argument. This will unfortunately also lead to making it much more difficult to get justice for real victims. That would be a catastrophe.

But something good will come out of this story. We are going to learn that just because you're christian, feminist, social democrat, animal rights activist, and opponent of abortion, it doesn't mean you believe in equal rights for women and men.

Göran Rudling, born in 1951, is the editor of

Samtycke Nu/Consensus Now

, a site promoting sexual self-determination that uses the motto 'it is a human right to decide for oneself when and with whom we are going to have sex'. Rudling is a frequent contributor to

Newsmill

where he writes about the need to introduce democratic laws that are based on sexual activities needing to be consensual to not be considered criminal.

 

Sensational news: extraordinary Internet detective work by Göran Rudling. From 30 September 2010.

[mrbygger 1]

Hey

If you send the Seals into Sweden, to "take out" anyone withouth the consent of the Swedish government, you tend to provoce what is elsewhere known as a act of war..  But of course Sweden wil never go to war with US, rather it wil make a hell at UN and other international body's and it wil be a time when the diplomatic contacts between Sweden and US wil be on a all time low.

The best idea wold be to let the Swedish government, do what is in their interest, and let the law of the land be respected. Even if you do not like it.. To send in the Seals or other military groups wil be counter productive to what you really want. If US was to kill Assage it wil not stop the leake, and it wil not stop groups like wikileak and other organizations to prove their point. It wil rather just prove for everyone with half a brain, that Assage was right, and the work of Wikileak et all was worth it.

From a government point of wiew, the world was far more easy before the invention of internet.. From everyone elses, the world are far more open now, than it was before the invention of internet (Im old enough to rembember that news was old news when it was news, today you can get news, when it is fresh news)

MrBygger

[krbe 193]

Originally posted by: Larks2242

I said infiltrate not invade, we don't have any intent to  takeover in a sense its not about starting a war, its about securing our Documents that is property of the US.quote>

It would still be an act of war against a effectively allied country. Doesn't sound smart at all. Should China infiltrate the US every time it feels a need to secure some of its property?

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

The stupidity of the debate over using a covert force to eliminate Assange is beyond belief.  It is juvenile, perhaps even sophomoric.  You've been watching too many "Black Ops" TV shows.

Wake up, folks.  It won't happen, even if Dubya were still in the White House, they would never dare to do something so unbelievably stupid.

The WikiLeaks operation is a gad fly.  Every civilization needs them, which is why court jesters used to do well in absolute monarchies, but they knew when to be silent.

There is more uproar in the media and, I am sure, in government offices, than the revelations so far warrant.  Nothing world shaking has been revealed, nor is it likely to be.

Apparently the protagonist of all this has now moved to Switzerland, a traditionally neutral state.  Laying hands on him there would be like getting a Zurich banker to give up the identity of one of his accounts.  The chances are slim to none.

We again come to the magic question: Cui bono?  (Who benefits?).  Clearly the beneficiaries of all this are the tabloid press and the sensationalist media outlets.  If we all stop flapping about and start flapping the mouths of the kings with our inflated bladders, maybe this will die down to a dull roar.  Far too many "officials" have said far too much on this.

[Ocram's Razr 964]

About bankers, the USA required that Swiss banks offer information as transparently to the US government when asked as transparently as US banks do. That does not say much, though...

[Meg 368]

Originally posted by: A Nonny Moose

People who call for killing other people should not be elected to positions of power.  Who knows who they will decide to kill next?  This Huckabee character sounds like Bob Heinlien's Prophet of the Lord in Revolt in 2100.quote>

Just call him Nehemiah Scudder.

Originally posted by: mightygoose

WikiLeaks has been knocked off the net after the US company everydns.net which translated its domain name – wikileaks.org – to its "internet protocol" (IP) address withdrew support.quote>

Is this plugging a security leak or is it censorship?

This is getting creepy.

[Rymac91 15]

Wikileaks has a few other domain names which now redirect straight to their IP address http://213.251.145.96/

It seems Wikileaks still has quite a few mirror servers, which explains the multiple IP addresses floating around now.

I wouldn't call what everydns did censorship when the issues of one client begin to effect multiple clients of your service.

I still don't understand why the cable leak has been getting so much more aggression than the more serious prior leaks...but I would guess that the involvement with the media may have something to do with it.

[mightygoose 92]

well he has only released like a 600 so far.... of 250,000..... the press have the stories from those 600....

they have been releasing about 80 a day but that will go up in early 2011 apparently.

in other news PAYPAL have withdrawn donation support.

this next bit makes me feel sick as a UK resident.

WikiLeaks cables: Conservatives promised to run 'pro-American regime'

Conservative party politicians lined up before the general election to promise that they would run a "pro-American regime" and buy more arms from the US if they came to power this year, the leaked American embassy cables show.

Despite British leaders' supportive stance, the dispatches also reveal – in what some will see as humiliating detail – how US diplomats in London are amused by what they call Britain's "paranoid" fears about the so-called special relationship.

One said the anxious British attitude "would often be humorous if it were not so corrosive" and that it was tempting to take advantage of this neurosis to "make London more willing to respond favourably when pressed for assistance". The UK was said to offer "unparalleled" help in promoting America's aims.

The incoming Conservatives appear to have made some wide-ranging offers of political co-operation with the US. The cables detail a series of private meetings with Tory frontbenchers, many of whom are now in the cabinet.

Liam Fox, now the defence secretary, promised to buy American military equipment, while the current foreign secretary, William Hague, offered the ambassador a "pro-American" government. Hague also said the entire Conservative leadership were, like him, "staunchly Atlanticist" and "children of Thatcher".

Fox met the US ambassador, Louis Susman, a year ago. In a 10 December 2009 cable marked "confidential", Susman recorded: "Liam Fox affirmed his desire to work closely with the US if the Conservative party wins power … adding that 'we (Conservatives) intend to follow a much more pro-American profile in procurement'." He reportedly went on: "Increasing US-UK 'interoperability is the key' since the US and UK will continue to fight together in the future" and "expressed confidence regarding US leadership in Afghanistan and optimism about the way forward".

The frontbencher admitted that there was an opposed faction within Tory ranks. "Fox asserted that some within the Conservative party are less enthusiastic, asserting that 'we're supposed to be partners with, not supplicants to, the United States'. Fox said he rebuffed these assertions, and he welcomed the ambassador's reassurance that senior US leaders value the UK as an equal partner."

Hague pledged his own loyalty in an earlier meeting with the US deputy chief of mission, Richard LeBaron. A confidential cable marked "no foreigners" from 1 April 2008 records: "The deputy chief of mission asked Hague whether the relationship between the UK and the US was 'still special'. Hague said he, David Cameron and George Osborne were 'children of Thatcher' and staunch Atlanticists … For his part, said Hague, he has a sister who is American, spends his own vacations in America and, like many similar to him, considers America the 'other country to turn to'.

"Asking his senior adviser her views, [Arminka] Helic (who is Bosnian), said: 'America is the essential country.'

"Hague said whoever enters 10 Downing Street as prime minister soon learns of the essential nature of the relationship with America. He went on: 'We want a pro-American regime. We need it. The world needs it.' "

These enthusiastic approaches came against a backdrop of what American officials termed British "paranoia" following the arrival of Barack Obama as an unknown presidential quantity.

In a lengthy classified dispatch in February 2009 headed "The British ask, is our special relationship still special in Washington?" LeBaron wrote: "More than one HMG senior official asked embassy officers whether President Obama meant to send a signal in his inaugural address about US-UK relations by quoting Washington during the revolutionary war [against Britain], while the removal of the Churchill bust from the Oval office consumed much UK newsprint."

The Times had written, allegedly quoting British embassy sources in Washington, about the distress caused by the removal of the bust, lent to George Bush by Tony Blair from the UK government art collection, in happier times. It was headlined: "Churchill bust casts shadow over special relationship".

LeBaron noted dryly: "This period of excessive UK speculation about the relationship is more paranoid than usual … This over-reading would often be humorous, if it were not so corrosive."

He advised against taking advantage of British neuroses and said the UK remained highly useful to the US because of its "unparalleled" help in promoting America's aims. "Though tempting to argue that keeping HMG off balance about its current standing with us might make London more willing to respond favourably when pressed for assistance, in the long run it is not in US interests to have the UK public concluding the relationship is weakening, on either side.

"The UK's commitment of resources – financial, military, diplomatic – in support of US global priorities remains unparalleled; a UK public confident that the USG values those contributions and our relationship, matters to US national security."

Britain's willingness to invest in expensive weaponry is a key part of the so-called special relationship. The UK's annual military budget is running at £37bn a year.

Fox's reference to more procurement from the US shows his zest for heavy spending on two future big-ticket items – the joint strike fighter [JSF], and the £20bn replacement for the Trident nuclear weapons system. The largely US-built JSF will be formidably expensive, and the original scheme was for Britain to buy up to 138 of them at £150m each, to go on giant aircraft carriers.

Fox is having an uphill fight: the recent defence review promised only to buy a cheaper version, and to cut the numbers of planes. Some are urging the purchase of US-made drones instead: the Ministry of Defence recently announced the purchase of 100 small Desert Hawk III drones and five extra Reaper killer drones. Other US purchases may be in the pipeline. Frustratingly perhaps for Fox, decisions on the Trident replacement scheme, which will rely on submarine-launched ballistic missiles leased from the US, have been delayed until after the next election.

the only reason the US mock is because they know its true & they benefit.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Yawn.

Later:  This headline gave me a belly laugh.

[mightygoose 92]

Obama should resign if approved UN spying: WikiLeaks founder

"The whole chain of command who was aware of this order, and approved it, must resign if the US is to be seen to be a credible nation that obeys the rule of law. The order is so serious it may well have been put to the president for approval," Julian Assange told Spanish daily El Pais.

"Obama must answer what he knew about this illegal order and when. If he refuses to answer or there is evidence he approved of these actions, he must resign," he added during an Internet chat interview published online.

WikiLeaks threw US diplomacy into chaos when it started releasing more than 250,000 classified State Department cables on November 28, creating an international firestorm as American diplomats' private assessments of foreign leaders and politics have been publicly aired.

According to one of the documents, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asked for UN personnel's telephones, emails, credit card details and frequent flier numbers.

The United States and other governments said the release of the documents broke their laws.

Assange gave the interview to El Pais on Saturday from an undisclosed location. The 39-year-old Australian is believed to be in Britain, and a report said he could be arrested this week.

MADRID — President President Barack Obama should resign if it can be shown that he approved spying by US diplomatic figures on UN officials, the founder of WikiLeaks said in an interview published Sunday.

[Easy Bakes 253]

Originally posted by: mightygoose

MADRID — President President Barack Obama should resign if it can be shown that he approved spying by US diplomatic figures on UN officials, the founder of WikiLeaks said in an interview published Sunday quote>

But isn't that standard procedure? Embassies were chock full of spy activity but  everyone knew that they were there.So you going to make the president resign because he knows we have spies?

 

[Ocram's Razr 964]

The whole (over)reaction to these cable leaks is lunacy! It, however, is extremely entertaining to hear all these loony remarks.

[ravishekhawat 0]

It's all very disgusting. Freedom...................justice? West is no better than China.

People openly calling for assassination................condom malfunction termed as rape.......................and interpol red alert for that (aren't u laughing)................website sabotage...................serivice providers kneeling to the government.......................what next?

someone please explain.