More underreported WikiLeaks revelations

Julian Assange

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
As the world’s media shift their attention to the consequences of the WikiLeaks revelations for its founder Julian Assange, as well as the reactions of American officials, the leaked diplomatic cables keep coming in, almost on an hourly basis. Some of the least noticed revelations include a 2009 dispatch from a US diplomat in Tel Aviv, which appears to confirm the close secret relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, despite the fact that these two countries have no official diplomatic connections. Another diplomatic cable reveals that Iranian intelligence officials approached their Canadian counterparts in 2008 and offered to share with them “information on potential attacks in Afghanistan”. Perhaps not surprisingly, the Canadians reacted guardedly, with Canadian Security Intelligence Service Director Jim Judd stating that his agency had “not figured out what they [the Iranians] are up to”. A cable sent in 2006 from the US embassy in Venezuela expressed the view that Cuban intelligence had a prominent role in the Venezuelan government’s security arrangements, and that Cuban operatives in Caracas “have direct access to [Venezuelan President Hugo] Chávez”. Finally, a report sent this year from the US embassy in Seoul, South Korea, reveals that a significant number of senior North Korean officials have defected to South Korea in recent times, but that the South Korean government has chosen not to publicize the defections. Meanwhile, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is the subject of a US criminal investigation and is wanted by Interpol, has been offered political asylum by the government of Ecuador.