US brief Palestinian Authority on Wikileaks cache

[freepalestine]

US briefed Palestinians on Wikileaks cache
Published today (updated) 28/11/2010 20:24


President Abbas shakes hands with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
prior to a meeting in Ramallah. [MaanImages/Thaer Ganaim, Pool]



By George Hale

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The United States has informed the Palestinian government in Ramallah that some of the hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables set for release by the whistle-blowing group Wikileaks will deal with US-Palestinian relations.

Washington's message, delivered by phone to the Office of the President a few days in advance of the scheduled release, was quick and to the point: Don't overreact.

"They aren't making a big deal out of it, and they hope we won't either," a senior Palestinian official, speaking on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, told Ma'an. "But when they're telling us, 'Don't overreact,' that basically translates as, 'There's something you're not going to like.'"

According to the message from the US, some of the leaked cables will confirm assumptions about America's support for Israel over the Palestinians in the peace process. They will also articulate Washington's stance against the inter-Palestinian reconciliation talks, the PA has been told.

The US has in recent days briefed other allies like Australia, Britain, Canada, Israel and Turkey, according to officials in those countries, ahead of the massive distribution of material expected late Sunday.

But as far as the Palestinians are concerned, the expected disclosure will confirm more US policies than it exposes, the source said. "It's already known that the Americans are against reconciliation. It's known that they love [Fatah strongman] Muhammad Dahlan. And it's known that they, frankly, love Israel."

The Israelis were also keeping a low profile hours ahead of the release. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel, a close US ally, would not be "the center of international attention."

Israel was not warned by the Americans about any specific sensitive materials, he said.

"In our contacts with the Americans, as you know we have constant contacts with them, there was no specific details about what was to be revealed regarding us," Netanyahu told reporters.

WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange said earlier Sunday that Washington had "contacted the governments of almost every nation on earth to brief them about what some of these embarrassing revelations will do.

"They're in a rather unusual difficult position where it is not sure precisely what is going to be revealed. So it has been treading this rather thin line on briefing its allies on what it thinks we are going to reveal."


AFP contributed to this report.


http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=336864

[Leonid Brozhnev]

They've been briefing practically everyone on these cables have they not? There must be a lot of stuff in there that will make practically everyone flip their shit then. Good times.

[Sasha]

i already seen that the PA suplied the US with intel on resistance groups and individual members of those groups (hamas etc)
no big shocker but nice to see it proven.

[bots]

Leaks aside, every time I see a picture of that Assange weasel I want to punch him in the throat.

[Sasha]

cant find the earlyer report i saw but this is an start:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-e...cuments/176247

[Rafiq]

This may be positive, if the PA gets pissed off at the US, they could break relations with them, and with them secular, they could play a major role in leading the Palestinian liberation.

[Rafiq]

New at what?

[Rafiq]

Isn't Secularism.... Something we support?

[freepalestine]

you wrote this

This may be positive, if the PA gets pissed off at the US, they could break relations with them, and with them secular, they could play a major role in leading the Palestinian liberation.

wondered what that meant-the part in bold.

[Rafiq]

"With them secular" as in the Palestinian authority is secular

[freepalestine]

Germany urged US to threaten Israel with UN vote
Published yesterday (updated) 01/12/2010 20:36

TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma'an) -- Two weeks before Israel froze most settlement construction in November 2009, a senior German official urged the US to threaten Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with diplomatic pressure.

German National Security Adviser Christoph Heusgen suggested that if Netanyahu did not agree to a moratorium, Washington could withdraw its support for blocking a vote on Richard Goldstone's UN fact-finding mission report at the UN Security Council, US diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks say.

Heusgen met with US Assistant Secretary of State Philip Gordon and Amb. to Germany Philip Murphy on 10 November 2009 to discuss the matter, according to a line in one of the cables first reported by the Israeli daily Haaretz. The German official is quoted in the telegram as saying that Germany believes that Netanyahu needed "to do more" to bring the Palestinians to the negotiating table, the Haaretz report noted.

"With Palestinians in East Jerusalem getting notices from Israeli authorities that their houses will be destroyed, it would be 'suicide' for President Abbas to move under the current circumstances. Heusgen said he could not fathom why Netanyahu did not understand this," the cable says.

"He suggested pressuring Netanyahu by linking favorable UNSC treatment of the Goldstone Report to Israel committing to a complete stop in settlement activity."

The American officials were surprised by the proposal and said that such linkage would be counterproductive "but agreed that it was worth pointing out to the Israelis that their policy on settlements was making it difficult for their friends to hold the line in the UNSC." Heusgen said this certainly would be an issue when Netanyahu and "half of his cabinet" visited Berlin in November 2009 for bilateral talks.