WikiLeaks Publication Becomes a Diplomatic Disaster

WikiLeaks has caused a diplomatic mess of the highest order. The leaked documents contain little that politicians around the world will find flattering. German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle comes off especially badly. The leak will be a test of German-American relations.

Confidential and classified U.S. State Department reports made public by WikiLeaks contain very few flattering American opinions of German and other foreign politicians.

They describe Chancellor Angela Merkel as “rarely creative” and averse to risk-taking. Bavarian Christian Socialist Union head Horst Seehofer is described as “unpredictable” and Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle as “aggressive.” These revelations appeared in der Spiegel magazine’s latest edition.

The magazine had originally intended to make its report public late Saturday night, but copies of the text had already been “twittered” to the Internet by that time. At several railway stations, the magazine had already appeared, with the cover story entitled “America’s View of the World.” Governments around the world had already prepared themselves for the publication and Germany had also received advance warning from the United States.

Foreign Minister Westerwelle came in for the heaviest criticism. Just prior to German elections in September 2009, U.S. Ambassador to Germany Philip Murphy described Westerwelle saying, “If he is directly confronted, above all by political difficulties, he will become aggressive and will fall back on the opinions of other people.” Murphy described him as “a wild card with an exuberant personality” whose need for admiration will lead him into disputes over competency with Chancellor Merkel.

According to the der Spiegel report, American diplomats also had very little positive to say about Merkel herself. Prior to a meeting with President Obama in April 2009, confidential diplomatic reports described her as “methodical, rational and pragmatic.” Under pressure she is “persistent, but avoids risk and is rarely creative.”

The American dossiers reported Merkel was “known for her reluctance to engage in aggressive political debate. She prefers to stay in the background until it is clear where the balance of power lies and then tries to turn the debate in the direction she favors.” Because of her slipperiness, she is referred to as Angela “Teflon” Merkel in many U.S. reports.

According to der Spiegel, Americans consider Bavaria’s Prime Minister and CSU chief Seehofer to be a populist and widely seen as clueless in foreign affairs. When he met with Ambassador Murphy he didn’t even know how many U.S. troops were stationed in Bavaria.

U.S. diplomats were even more critical of former Baden-Württemberg Prime Minister Günther Oettinger, who left that position to become European Commissioner for Energy in Brussels. U.S. reports said the Christian Democratic Union made the change “to rid the party of an unpopular lame duck who was occupying a politically important party position.”

Longtime Minister of the Interior Wolfgang Schäuble was considered by U.S. diplomats to be an ally and his transfer to Economics Minister was seen by the Americans with regret. They also complained that his replacement, Thomas de Maizière, had less experience in anti-terrorism and displayed less enthusiasm for the job than had Schäubele. Ambassador Murphy described his first meeting with de Maizière as “strange.” His diplomatic message bore the title “The New German Minister of the Interior Will Face a Steep Learning Curve,” according to der Spiegel.

Minister of Defense Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg is considered “a close and well-known friend of the USA.” Minister of Justice Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, on the other hand, has earned the reputation of being an opponent whose views run counter to American interests, such as in the matter of data privacy.

The New York Times describes the files as “an unprecedented look at back-room bargaining by embassies around the world, brutally candid views of foreign leaders and frank assessments of nuclear and terrorist threats.” According to a Spiegel magazine article scheduled to be published on Monday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai is described as having a “weak personality” and given to “paranoia and conspiracy theories.”

But the reports also put extremely difficult political processes, such as with Iran, into the spotlight. Israel as well as Arab allies of the United States have pressured the United States to attack Iran militarily. According to the British Guardian newspaper, Israel’s defense minister Ehud Barak announced in June 2009 that an “18-month window of opportunity” existed during which military action targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities would be best undertaken. U.S. sources described Israel’s insistence on a military solution to the Iran problem as becoming stronger than ever.

After the 18-month window closed, a military strike would entail unacceptable collateral damage. In respect to Iran, Saudi King Abdullah said he wanted the United States to “behead the snake.” Other states such as Bahrain and Egypt also made similar remarks regarding Iranian policies. An annotated version of Abdullah’s statement made by U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates reports him as saying if they failed to find a diplomatic solution to Iran’s nuclear program the result would be either a proliferation of nuclear weapons or an Israeli military strike against Iran, or possibly both.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is regarded very skeptically because of his intention to lead Turkey into an Islamic future. Egypt President Hosni Mubarak considered the Iraq war begun by George W. Bush to be dangerous nonsense and Bush himself as incorrigible. Saudi Arabia — actually a close ally of the United States — is regarded, according to a New York Times report, as one of the main financiers of terrorist groups like al-Qaida. The tiny Persian Gulf Emirate Qatar, where many U.S. troops are stationed, is regarded by U.S. diplomats as the worst ally in the region in the war on terror.

The New York Times says, “nearly a decade after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the dark shadow of terrorism still dominates the United States’ relations with the world.” The dispatches show how the Obama administration still grapples to find trustworthy partners in Pakistan for the fight against al-Qaida.

The State Department has also requested information as to whether Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is making private deals with Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. U.S. diplomats have described Berlusconi as “appearing increasingly to be Putin’s mouthpiece in Europe.” They characterize the Russian Prime Minister as the “alpha male” and Russia’s Dmitri Medvedev as “colorless” and “hesitant.”

The documents also address Beijing’s growing self-confidence. According to the U.S. diplomats, China projects an image characterized by “muscularity, triumphalism and arrogance.” The hacker attack against the Google search engine was choreographed by a combination of government functionaries, private security experts and “internet bandits” all hired by the Beijing government.

But the documents also contain a great deal of nonsense and reports based on hearsay. Libyan revolutionary leader Muammar al-Gaddafi supposedly doesn’t travel anywhere without a busty Ukrainian nurse. Medvedev’s wife Svetlana, meanwhile, supposedly keeps a “blacklist” of government figures she thinks aren’t loyal enough to her husband.

According to Spiegel magazine, 90 percent of the documents originated since 2005. Only six percent of them are classified “secret,” while 40 percent are stamped “confidential.” Most of them came from the embassy in Ankara followed by the U.S. mission in Baghdad.

According to information from Javier Moreno, editor-in-chief of the Spanish newspaper El Pais, the document arrived at all media outlets with instructions to protect named sources at all costs. For that reason, several passages were not made public. The New York Times says the dispatches contain confidential sources from foreign parliamentarians and officials to human rights activists and on to journalists. Their names have not been made public.

On Saturday, the State Department sent a letter to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange asking that plans for the announced document dump be aborted. The letter written by lawyer Harold Hongju Koh advised that publicizing the classified documents would “endanger the lives of countless people.”