Leaked files open Pandora's box for world only superpower

By Alex Kiprotich

As Kenya waits with bated breath to know what the US diplomats in Nairobi have been reporting to Washington in secrecy, details on what has put egg on the face of the world’s only superpower are emerging.

Painstakingly wading through the WikiLeaks files, The Standard On Sunday gives you a precursor to the report that is sending shivers down the spine of leaders.

The confidential memos cabled to Washington between 1996 and early this year will turn out as an embarrassment to the superpower while giving the ordinary people a rare insight on what goes on in the corridors of power…

Given what has been said of other world leaders, some of them bossom friends of the superpower, the Kenyan environment during the period provided fodder for the US diplomats to scale greater, if dubious, heights in their modus operandi.

Superpower underbelly

The WikiLeaks exposÈ of US diplomats’ assessment of world leaders reveals the superpower’s vulnerable side. In files so far made available, there is apparent contradiction between the United States public persona and what it says behind closed doors.

The US administration’s reaction — calling the heads of state and governments in advance to forewarn them of the leaks and in some instances apologise — clearly shows that it would have been easier for Uncle Sam to face any other threat than a war that is more interpretative, contentious and borderless.

In the WikiLeaks cables already released, the assessments of the US diplomats on their host countries and leaders are quite frank, raw — if rather frivolous — and others hilarious.

In the world of US secrecy, it seems, there is no distinction between enemies and allies in as far as words are concerned as all descriptions converge at some point regardless of the public perceptions.

Take for instance the case of Britain, the staunch US ally, whose leaders are known to kowtow to US demands. In spite of this, its top leaders are shone in very bad light by the US diplomats. UK Prime Minister David Cameron is, for example, depicted as ‘fake’ and ‘lightweight’, his Finance Secretary George Osborne seen as ‘lacking in gravitas’ partly due to his ‘high-pitched vocal delivery’ while Deputy Premier Nick Clegg is seen as ‘smooth’. Former PM Gordon Brown was dismissed as an abysmal leader who lurched from political disaster to disaster.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is assessed as an emperor without clothes due to his obsession with appearing big. Sarkozy, the most pro-US French President since World War II, is according to US diplomats self-absorbed, thin-skinned and an erratic character that tyrannises his ministers and staff.

He is also portrayed as undiplomatic, hyperactive, and sometimes uncouth and in need of careful handling despite his being a brilliant political tactician.

Detailed American assessments of the German Chancellor and her coalition governments, first with the Social Democrats and then the liberal FDP after September 2009, portray a leader who only stands out because of the low quality of other European heads of government.

Russia, which was in a cold war with the US upto the 1990s, is accused of engaging mafia bosses to carry out criminal operations such as arms trafficking.

The Kremlin’s spy agencies are depicted as having such a close relationship with top organised criminals that Russia has become a "virtual mafia state".

The cables claimed the gangsters enjoyed secret support and protection of the state and in effect worked to complement its structures.

On corruption, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is alleged to have secret "illicit" assets hidden outside his country.

The Cables linked Putin’s wealth to a "secretive Swiss-based oil-trading firm" called Gunvor.

The US diplomats described Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in unflattering terms — as feckless, vain and ineffective as a modern European leader — while Afghan President Hamid Karzai is described as an extremely weak man who does not listen to facts but is instead easily swayed by anyone who comes to report even the most bizarre of stories or plots against him.

And although the American government prides itself as a champion of the war on corruption, leaked documents revealed double standards — it condones it when it is favourable to its allies.

For instance, a cable from its Kabul Embassy reported that when in 2009, Afghan Vice-President Ahmed Zia Massoud visited the United Arab Emirates, he was discovered to be carrying $52 million in cash. After consultations, he was allowed to keep the money without disclosing its source or destination.