New WikiLeaks files ‘to reveal American criticism of Mandela’
By ANISunday, November 28, 2010
WASHINGTON - Whistleblower website ‘WikiLeaks’ would soon reveal that Nelson Mandela is among the world leaders believed to have been criticised US diplomatic files that are to be leaked.
According to the Daily Mail, disclosures about the 92-year-old ex-South African President are among three million secret American diplomatic missives obtained by WikiLeaks.
Mandela, who stepped down as President in 1999, condemned George Bush over the Iraq War, suggesting the US President had ignored the United Nations’ calls for restraint because the then Secretary-General Kofi Annan was black. He also called Tony Blair the ‘foreign minister of the United States’ for supporting Mr Bush over Iraq.
Other world leaders who have clashed with the US including Afghanistan’s Hamid Karzai, Libya’s Colonel Gaddafi and Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe also have been criticised in the no-holds-barred private cables to the White House from scores of US embassies, the paper said.
Around 800 messages are from the US embassy in London and some reportedly feature negative and hostile comments about Gordon Brown and the Labour Government.
The cables are thought to relate to the Anglo-US dispute after Britain freed Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi from a Scottish jail last year, and would also include US assessments of Brown’s personality and prospects of staying in power, the paper added.
The secret cables, due to be published online today, are believed to be from January 2006 to December 2009, taking in the latter part of Tony Blair’s Premiership and most of Gordon Brown’s.
Yesterday, the US ambassador to London Louis Susman had reportedly briefed the British Prime Minister David Cameron about the potentially embarrassing revelations by the whistleblower website ‘WikiLeaks,’ which when published within a few days could compromise Britain’s national security and also damage relationships between the allies.
Defence sources had said yesterday that British national security could be ‘put at risk’ by the release, as they are expected to contain details of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and pull-outs and revelations about secret service practices and intelligence sources. (ANI)
