In a shocking new set of cables released by Julian Assange's Wikileaks organization, highly classified documents show that the NSA bugged meetings between UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon's and German Chancellor Angela Merkel (over climate change); between Israel prime minister Netanyahu and Italian prime minister Berlusconi (begging for help to deal with Obama); between key EU and Japanese trade ministers discussing their secret trade red-lines at WTO negotiations; as well as details of a private meeting between then French president Nicolas Sarkozy, Merkel and Berlusconi, exclaiming that the Italian banking system would soon "pop like a cork." Time for some more explaining Mr.President.
As Wikileaks details:
Some documents are classified TOP-SECRET / COMINT-GAMMA and are the most highly classified documents ever published by a media organization.
WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange said:
"Today we showed that UN Secretary General Ban KiMoon's private meetings over how to save the planet from climate change were bugged by a country intent on protecting its largest oil companies.
We previously published Hillary Clinton orders that US diplomats were to steal the Secretary General's DNA.
The US government has signed agreements with the UN that it will not engage in such conduct against the UN--let alone its Secretary General. It will be interesting to see the UN's reaction, because if the Secretary General can be targetted without consequence then everyone from world leader to street sweeper is at risk."
Some examples are as follows:
European NSA Intercepts
EU, Japan Study Ways to Respond to U.S. Tactics in Doha Round Talks
Date 2006
Classification TOP SECRET//COMINT//NOFORN
WikiLeaks Synopsis
NSA report on intercepted Japanese diplomatic talks reveals details on U.S. and EU participation in Japanese economy, and commitment of EU to avoid "under-the-table" deals with the U.S.
(TS//SI//NF) EU, Japan Study Ways to Respond to U.S. Tactics in Doha Round Talks
(TS//SI//NF) The EU and Japan were engaged as of early December in strategy sessions aimed at a common handling policy to deal with potential U.S. moves in the Doha Round negotiations. There was a conviction in both Brussels and Tokyo, according to Japanese reporting, that great care must be taken to avoid falling prey to U.S. moves designed to extort concessions through exaggerated initial demands. Regarding U.S. domestic supports for agriculture, for example, Japanese Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries Toshikatsu Matsuoka and EU Agriculture Commissioner Marianne Fischer-Boel recently pondered whether to jump-start the negotiations by asking the U.S. for a specific dollar figure in reduced supports. The problem for the EU, it was noted, is whether or not the proposed $17 billion mark is an acceptable point of departure, since U.S. supports at that level are judged to be in no way comparable to the breadth of market access that Brussels put on the table last July. A figure of $14 to $15 billion would be more in line with the EU's thinking, Fischer-Boel indicated. The EU also had concerns that Washington may be headed for a showdown with developing countries over special products. As for sensitive products, Fischer-Boel's deputy chef de cabinet, Klaus-Dieter Borchardt, hinted to the Japanese that the EU may be willing to go lower than its current official limit of 8 percent, possibly as low as 4 to 5 percent; however, that would be hard for Japan to accept. Borchardt also tried to allay Japanese fears that the EU might try again to enter into a bilateral, under-the-table deal with the U.S. (as had happened in Cancun in 2003), saying that Brussels had learned its lesson with respect to such back-door actions.
Unconventional
Japanese leadership
Z-3/OO/33343-06, 291712Z
United Nations Intercepts
Japan Seeks Long-Term Pact With Specific Figures on Climate Change at G-8
Date 2008Classification TOP SECRET//COMINT//NOFORN
WikiLeaks SynopsisIntercepted communication between Japanese and German diplomats reveal plans and concerns regarding the negotiations on climate change to be had at the G-8 summit in Copenhagen in 2009.
Japan Seeks Long-Term Pact With Specific Figures on Climate Change at G-8 (TS//SI//NF)
(TS//SI//NF) Japan, preparing for its role as chairman of the Group-of-8 (G-8) summit at Lake Toya early in July, has given notice that it intends to strive for a long-term commitment on climate change with specific figures, while Germany believes that the crucial issue at the summit is whether the U.S. will accept going beyond Heiligendamm (the site of last year's G-8 summit) language in the framework of the G-8 if the emerging countries do not accept numerical targets at the Major Economies Meeting (MEM). (According to press reports, leaders from 16 countries, including the members of the G-8 plus China, India, Brazil, Australia, Indonesia, South Korea, South Africa, and Mexico, plan to discuss climate change on the margins of the G-8 summit in Japan.) Masaharu Kono, Japan's G-8 sherpa, emphasized Tokyo's position in an exchange with his German counterpart, Bernd Pfaffenback, on 17 June, while Pfaffenback provided his country's take on the issues to be addressed at Lake Toya. The German also noted that, in response to a U.S. request, his country would likely give up its demand for a 25- to 45-percent mid-term carbon dioxide reduction at the MEM. In addition, he does not believe that the emerging economies are willing to go beyond the Bali language at present, his feeling being that they prefer instead to wait until next year's G-8 summit in Copenhagen, because they do not wish to give up things now that they might be prepared to give up later. It is also Pfaffenback's position that a failure of the emerging economies to accept a long-term goal with numbers, even in brackets, would pose difficulties for the G-8 and possibly lead to a clash at the summit itself if there is no fallback position.
UnconventionalGerman leadership, Japanese diplomaticZ-3/OO/4860-08, 191611Z
Italy Intercepts:
Italy Would Help Israel Mend Relations With U.S.
Date 2010Classification TOP SECRET//COMINT//ORCON/REL TO USA, FVEY
WikiLeaks SynopsisIntercepted communication between Italian PM Berlusconi and Israeli PM Netanyahu show that Berlusconi promised to assist helping Israel in mending damaged relationship with the U.S.
Italy Would Help Israel Mend Relations With U.S. (TS//SI//OC/REL TO USA, FVEY)
(TS//SI//OC/REL TO USA, FVEY) Israel has reached out to Europe, including Italy, for help in smoothing out the current rift in its relations with the United States, according to Italian diplomatic reporting of 13 March. Speaking with Italian Prime Minister (PM) Silvio Berlusconi, Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu insisted that the trigger for the dispute--Israel's decision to build 1,600 homes in contested East Jerusalem--was totally in keeping with national policy dating back to the administration of Golda Meir, and blamed this mishandling on a government official with poor political sensitivity. The objective now, Netanyahu said, is to keep the Palestinians from using this issue as a pretext to block a resumption of talks or to advance unrealistic claims that could risk sinking the peace negotiations altogether. Continuing, he asserted that the tension has only been heightened by the absence of direct contact between himself and the U.S. President. In response, Berlusconi promised to put Italy at Israel's disposal in helping mend the latter's ties with Washington. Other Israeli officials, meanwhile, believed that this tiff goes far beyond merely the question of the construction plans, marking instead the lowest point in U.S.-Israeli relations in memory.
SCS, Unconventional
Italian leadership
3/79/37-10, 161635Z; 3/OO/506688-10, 171833Z
* * *
European Leaders Hold Berlusconi Accountable on Italian Financial Situation
Date 2011Classification TOP SECRET//COMINT//NOFORN
WikiLeaks SynopsisIntercepted communication of Berlusconi's personal advisor on international relations, Valentino Valentini, describes concerns on the Italian financial crisis expressed by French President Sarkozy and German Chancellor Merkel to the Italian Prime Minister, and show that they pressured Berlusconi to take action.
European Leaders Hold Berlusconi Accountable on Italian Financial Situation (TS//SI//NF)
(TS//SI//NF) A 22 October meeting attended by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and Italian Prime Minister (PM) Silvio Berlusconi was later described by the Italian's personal adviser on international relations, Valentino Valentini, as tense and very harsh toward the Rome government. Merkel and Sarkozy, evidently brooking no excuses with respect to Italy's current predicament, pressured the PM to announce strong, concrete palliatives and then to implement them in order to show that his government is serious about its debt problem. Sarkozy was said to have told Berlusconi that while the latter's claims about the solidity of the Italian banking system may be true in theory, financial institutions there could soon "pop" like the cork in a champagne bottle, that "words are no longer enough," and that Berlusconi must now "make decisions." Also on the 24th, Valentini indicated that EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy had urged Italy to undertake policies aimed at reducing the impression within the EU that the country is weighed down with an enormous debt at a moment in time when it also is struggling with low productivity and showing little dynamism. In Van Rompuy's opinion, Spain is the model that Italy should now be seeking to emulate.
UnconventionalItalian leadershipZ-3/OO/550156-11, 251344Z
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