December 10, 2010
from
Guardian Website
|
Reaction across the globe to the leaked
US embassy cables has ranged from anger and bitterness to extreme
indifference |
Pakistani WikiLeaks
flag burning Pakistani demonstrators burn a US flag
in support of
WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange
during a rally in Multan.
Photograph: Mohammad
Malik/AFP/Getty Images
South America
Brazil
President Lula says he is to register his protest at Assange's
arrest on his blog.
"This chap was only publishing something
he read," he said. "And if he read it, it is because somebody wrote
it. The guilty one is not the publisher, it is the person who wrote
[these things]. Blame the person who wrote this nonsense because
there would be no scandal if they hadn't."
Many leaks relate to the security situation
in Rio de Janeiro. A 2009 cable warned that pre-Olympic attempts to
expel drug traffickers from some of the city's most violent favelas
could resemble "the battles in Fallujah more than a conventional urban
police operation".
Argentina
In Argentina the Wikileaks revelations have focused on apparent US
concern about a new invasion of the Falklands islands and over president
Cristina Kirchner mental health.
In one cable
Hillary Clinton mused over whether
the current occupant of the Casa Rosada was "taking any medications."
"How do Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's
emotions affect her decision-making and how does she calm down when
distressed?" one cable asked diplomats in the Argentine capital.
The English-language Buenos Aires Herald,
however, pointed out that,
"the snickering about the President's
mental health comes at a time [when] she is perceived by much of the
public, including those who oppose her, as having shown tremendous
strength immediately after her husband's death."
Venezuela
Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez, has called on Hillary Clinton to
resign in the wake of,
"all of this spying and delinquency in
the State Department".
"Look at how they treat the leaders of
powerful countries," Chavez told state TV channel Telesur,
describing the cables as proof of the "dirty war of Yankee embassies
in the whole world".
"Look how they are mistreating this great friend of ours, Vladimir
Putin. What a lack of respect!"
Ecuador and Bolivia
The Ecuadorian government has been Wikileaks' most vocal supporter in
the region, offering the under-fire Julian Assange residency "without
any conditions".
Bolivia has also expressed its irritation at
its portrayal in the US diplomatic cables. The country's vice-president,
Alvaro Garcia Linera, this week posted Bolivia-focused Wikileaks
cables, in full, on his official website in response to what he called
"insults" and "third rate espionage".
US authorities have been lampooned by much of the Bolivian press.
Juan José Toro Montoya, a columnist for the Cochabamba newspaper
Los Tiempos newspaper described the accusations against Wikileaks'
founder as "laughable".
"Julian Assange may be under arrest but
he has been transformed into a hero and will go down in history as
being the first human being to massively reveal the dirty-tricks of
government," he wrote yesterday.
Middle East
Iran
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed the Wikileaks revelations
as "psychological warfare."
Iran's foreign ministry spokesman thundered:
"The enemies of the Islamic world are
pursuing a project of Iranophobia and disunity. This project only
protects the interests of the Zionist regime and its supporters."
Still, the documents will reinforce the
regime's world view by underlining the huge effort being made by the US
to contain Iran by applying pressure for UN sanctions over its nuclear
program or stopping arms deliveries to groups like Hamas and Hizbullah.
It will be harder to maintain the pretence
of good relations with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states because of
exposure of their fear of Tehran. Iran remains defiant and is not as
isolated as Washington would like. It is influential in Iraq and has
good relations with Turkey. It is clear that Barack Obama's efforts to
reach out to it have failed, with some arguing he was never serious
about engagement.
The status quo looks volatile and
threatening.
Israel
Israel has been largely untroubled by because US views on key Middle
Eastern issues especially on Iran, Syria and Lebanon, are so close to
its own.
"Israel is not the centre of
international attention," said Binyamin Netanyahu. "Normally,
there's a gap between what is said publicly and what is said
privately, but in this case, the gap is not large."
The most significant revelation was that
Israel believes that beyond a certain point attacking Iran would cause
too much "collateral damage."
Israel can be seen maintaining discreet
contact with Gulf states and have an intriguing intelligence link to
Saudi Arabia. It suits Israel that the Palestinian issue and Jewish
settlements in the occupied territories do not feature prominently.
The Palestinian Authority denied suggestions
it acquiesced in Israel's war on Hamas in Gaza.
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia's only public comment on the revelations was to say "they
do not concern us" despite the sensational exposure of comments made by
King Abdullah about attacking Iran "to cut off the head of the snake."
It will be unhappy about US complaints that
it remains a source of funding for the Taliban and other extremists. It
may be pleased its counter-terrorist efforts against al-Qaida, at home
and in neighboring Yemen, have been given positive exposure.
There is little evidence of US pressure over
human rights and democracy.
Lebanon
Ever volatile Lebanon has been shaken by documents showing close links
between the pro-western government and the US.
The most damaging revelation described its
defense minister offering advice on how Israel could defeat Hezbollah if
a new war erupted. But Elias Murr complained that the cables were
"inaccurate" and taken out of context. Tensions are already high because
of expectations Hizbullah members will be indicted for the 2005 murder
of Rafiq al-Hariri.
Al-Akhbar, a leftist and pro-Hizbullah paper
that has published leaks of the leaks about the Arab world, has come
under cyber attack.
Syria
Syria has not responded officially to disclosures that it is the subject
of intense US efforts to stop deliveries of weapons to Hezbollah.
Syrians say they are struck by the absence of embarrassing information
about Israel.
Sami Moubayed, an influential
commentator, wrote:
"Perhaps WikiLeaks will one day tell us,
for example, what the Israelis are hiding about the pre-Bush era."
Damascus insists it only supports resistance
to Israel and blames it for ramping up regional tensions. Ample evidence
of American strategy to weaken the alliance between Damascus and Tehran,
but there is no sign that it has worked.
Yemen
Yemen's government has faced embarrassing questions in parliament about
evidence ministers lied about US air strikes against al-Qaida targets.
Cables revealed President Ali Abdullah Saleh
is worried about being painted as an American pawn and restricts
counter-terrorist cooperation even as Washington presses for more
determined action. Opposition MP Mansur al Zindani complained of a
"powerful blow to parliament and the public."
There are fears the revelations could help
al-Qaida win new recruits in the Arab world's poorest country.
Libya
Muammar Gaddafi praised WikiLeaks for exposing US "hypocrisy."
The whistleblowing website has "proved
America is not what it has led allies and friends to believe it to be."
There was no comment on threats against Britain if the Lockerbie bomber,
Abdel-Basset al-Megrahi, died in prison in Scotland.
Egypt
Revelations about Egypt - some leaked to the independent newspaper al-Masry
al-Youm - have been dismissed by Cairo as containing "nothing new."
But they include evidence of its fears about
Sudan breaking up, President Mubarak's profound hostility to Iran, Hamas
and Hezbollah, and bleak US assessments of future prospects for
democracy, including the prediction that Mubarak, now 82, will stand for
yet another term next year.
The recent parliamentary elections, widely
dismissed as a charade, tend to confirm US views.
Tunisia
President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali will be furious at cables
describing high-level corruption, a sclerotic regime, and deep hatred of
his wife and her family.
Deeply unflattering reports from the US
ambassador in Tunis make no bones about the state of the small Maghreb
country, widely considered one of the most repressive in North Africa.
No surprise that Tunisia blocked the website
of Beirut's al-Akhbar, which published some of the documents.
Turkey
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan reacted furiously to US
diplomatic cables that suggested he was a corrupt closet Islamist. As
Turkey heads for elections next year, secular Republican opponents may
try to exploit his evident discomfort.
The cables highlighted three principal issues.
Erdogan's personal probity - he was reported
to have eight secret Swiss bank accounts; the supposed Islamist agenda
of the ruling AKP party; and Turkey's perceived drift away from the
western alliance and closer embrace of countries such as Syria and Iran.
Erdogan's response was both to dismiss the cables as tittle-tattle, and
to conjure conspiracy theories.
"The un-serious cables of American
diplomats, formed from gossip, magazines, allegations and slander
are spreading worldwide via the internet," Erdogan said.
"Are there disclosures of state secrets,
or is there another aim?" he asked. "… Is it carrying out a veiled,
dark propaganda? Are there efforts to affect, manipulate relations
between certain countries?"
Europe
Russia
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin gave the sharpest response to the
WikiLeaks cables in which he was portrayed as Batman to Dmitry
Medvedev's Robin.
"Slander", he called it.
The embassy cables portray Russia as a
corrupt kleptocracy where politicians and criminals were inextricably
linked. Medvedev has said that the cables "show a full measure of
cynicism" in US foreign policy making. But he suggested the leaks would
not damage relations between Moscow and Washington.
Sergei Lavrov, the foreign minister,
claimed to be surprised that "some petty thieves running around the
Internet" are causing such a sensation.
In reality, the cables have caused lasting
damage in Russia, playing to the deep mistrust of US intentions that
imbues Kremlin policy making.
Poland
The cables revealed a battle of wits and mutual dissembling between
Warsaw and Washington over US military aid to Poland, missile defense,
and attitudes towards Russia. While the Poles welcomed secret NATO plans
for the defense of the three Baltic states, they worried the new plan
would dilute Nato security guarantees for Poland.
The disclosures appear to be sparking a sober re-assessment in Warsaw of
the closeness of the relationship with Washington.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk sounded bitter and disenchanted on
Tuesday after the Guardian published material on Poland.
"We have a really serious problem," he
said. "Not with image, as some countries do, and not reputation,
like the US does. It's a problem of being stripped of illusions
about the nature of relations between countries, including such
close allies as Poland and the US."
Italy
La Repubblica, one of Italy's best-selling dailies, on Wednesday carried
the first in a series of articles examining the relationship between
Silvio Berlusconi and Russia's prime minister, Vladimir Putin, in
the light of claims reported by the US state department cables that the
Italian leader was profiting from gas deals between their two countries.
Newspapers and other media have given extensive coverage to the
WikiLeaks disclosures. Berlusconi, who has denied any financial interest
in Italy's energy dealings, was also embarrassed by a cable that quoted
him as referring to Russia's president, Dmitry Medvedev as an
"apprentice". He insisted he never said it.
But in a country where the prime minister cannot be forced to answer to
parliament and where attention is now focussed mainly on two
parliamentary censure motions that could topple the Berlusconi
administration next week, the political fall-out has been limited.
Pierluigi Bersani, the leader of
Italy's biggest opposition group, the Democratic party, said the cables
showed that,
"the prime minister, with his behaviour
and political decisions, harms the reputation of Italy in the
world."
But, for the most part, opposition
politicians have heeded a warning from Berlusconi's foreign minister,
Franco Frattini, not to exploit the cables for political purposes.
Austria
The cables show a rather withering US contempt for Austria and its
leading politicians, with US diplomats complaining that Washington has
little leverage in Vienna because the government there is barely
interested in developing relations with the US.
The social democratic chancellor, Werner
Faymann, is described as a leader with scant interest in foreign
affairs. The foreign minister, Michael Spindelegger, is
preoccupied with promoting Austrian business. And Austria,
constitutionally neutral and not in NATO, is criticized for resisting US
pressure to send forces to Afghanistan.
Norbert Darabos, the defense minister, described the US criticism
as "inexplicable", and said Austria would not increase its contribution
to Afghanistan beyond the five policemen it has sent.
A leading Austrian Greens MP, Peter Pilz, proposed that the
country should grant Julian Assange political asylum.
Kazakhstan
US cables described the peccadilloes of the Kazakh elite, including the
40-horse stable of Nursultan Nazarbayev, the president, a private
Elton John concert for a top politician and an extraordinary midnight
dance by the prime minister at a nightclub called Chocolat.
Hillary Clinton, the US secretary
of state, was at pains to privately apologize to several world leaders
who were pilloried in the disclosures.
Turkmenistan
In perhaps the baldest character assassination of any world leader in
the WikiLeaks cables, a US diplomat reported to Washington that
president Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov of Turkmenistan is seen as
"vain, fastidious, vindictive, a micro-manager," a "practiced liar" and
"not a very bright guy".
In keeping with the country's insular
regime, the charge provoked little reaction.
Georgia
Disclosures about the Caucasus state were a mixed bag.
As the New York Times noted, they showed US
diplomats' catastrophic failure to recognize that Mikhail Saakashvili,
the president, was planning to attack the breakaway enclave of South
Ossetia in 2008. But they also concluded that before the conflict Russia
had been "aggressively playing a high-stakes covert game" in an attempt
to provoke Georgia into retaliation.
Giga Bokeria, secretary of Georgia's
national security council, toed Washington's line in his assessment of
the WikiLeaks releases.
"It is very cynical when one, under the
guise of a martyr, fights against the greatest democracy [the US]
using such prohibited methods," he said of Julian Assange, in
televised comments.
Kyrgyzstan
Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital, was the setting for Prince Andrew's
infamous rant about geographically-challenged Americans and snooping,
"(expletive) journalists, especially
from the National Guardian."
At a meeting with the prince, Tatiana
Gfoeller, the US ambassador to Bishkek, decided he was a victim of
"neuralgic patriotism" whose behaviour "verged on the rude".
Kyrgyzstan's leadership has been silent on
that sharp assessment, while local media have been more interested in
claims that China offered the country a $3bn (£1.9bn) aid package if it
would close the Manas airbase, which the US uses to supply its troops in
Afghanistan.
Moldova
According to the WikiLeaks documents, Moldova's then president,
Vladimir Voronin, offered a $10m (£6.4m) bribe to a rival in 2009 in
a desperate attempt to keep his communist government in power.
A leading member of Voronin's party, Mark
Tkachuk, told reporters the claims were "fairy tales" and "low-life
gossip".
Africa
Kenya
It took just a few leaked words to create an outcry from the Kenyan
government.
In a teaser of what the cables from Nairobi
would reveal, Der Spiegel said last week that US officials believed the
country was a "swamp of corruption" - hardly a heretic view on the
streets of Nairobi.
Government spokesman Alfred Mutua immediately
called a news conference to say the government was "surprised and
shocked".
"If what is reported is true, it is
totally malicious, and a total misrepresentation of our country and
our leaders," he said (below video).
He went on to say that foreign countries
funding youth empowerment schemes in Kenya - a barely veiled reference
to the US - were in fact trying to overthrow the government. The US
ambassador to Nairobi, Michael Ranneberger, described Mutua's
claims as "utterly ridiculous".
The prime minister told parliament he
welcomed the Wikileaks revelations.
"We now know what some of our friends
think about us… it is helpful."
After the revelations on Thursday that the
US ambassador believed rampant corruption could lead in renewed violence
in the country, Kibaki's office released a statement defending his
record.
"We wish to state that President
Kibaki's record on reforms through out his career speaks for itself.
," it said.
Uganda
The authorities in Uganda were also riled. In response to claims that
President Yoweri Museveni feared his plane being shot down on the
orders of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, the Ugandan foreign minister
Sam Kutesa issued a statement yesterday (Thursday).
"While it is true that we hold
discussions with the US government on regional and internationals
issues, the contents of the alleged cables are grossly inaccurate
and illogical. For example, if the Ugandan president perceived the
threat to fly the international airspace, the solution would be for
him to stay at home. Other leaders in the world have done so in the
past."
But Museveni's spokesman Tamale Mirundi
confirmed that other leaked cables referring to the president's concern
about Sudan supporting the Lord's Resistance Army rebels a few years
ago, and Eritrea being a regional threat, were in fact accurate.
Eritrea
Despite its president being described by US officials as an "unhinged
dictator", there was no reaction from Eritrea to the leaked cables.
There is also no free press in Eritrea.
Nigeria
Royal Dutch Shell said it was "absolutely untrue" that it had
infiltrated every Nigerian ministry affecting its operations there. The
company offered no further comment.
Zimbabwe
In an opinion piece in the state-run Herald newspaper, Reason
Wafawarova focused on how the cables showed that Mugabe had defied
US expectations of his demise from power.
He also delighted in description of
opposition leader and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai as a "flawed
figure".
South Asia
Pakistan
The rich store of WikiLeaks revelations about Pakistan have monopolized
headlines and the political agenda for over ten days.
But some stories are considered too hot to
touch. While cables exposing the foibles of Pakistan's civilian leaders
triggered a media feeding frenzy, the press largely ignored revelations
that cast the powerful military in a bad light, including its alleged
support for Islamist extremist groups such as the Taliban.
That left politicians struggling to bat off
embarrassing allegations, such as the bearded religious firebrand seen
cosying up to the American ambassador, President Asif Zardari's
obsession with his death, or prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani's secret
support for CIA drone strikes.
"Don't trust WikiLeaks," Gilani told
reporters in Kabul at the weekend, attempting to brush off the
revelations as "the observations of junior diplomats".
Beside him President Hamid Karzai, also
tarred in the dispatches, nodded solemnly.
Rarely have the sparring neighbors agreed so
easily. Coverage of army chief General Ashfaq Kayani focused on
revelations that he threatened to oust Zardari last year but held back
because he "distrusted" opposition contender Nawaz Sharif. The army
issued a statement that Kayani "holds all political leaders in esteem".
But most reporters shied away from US
intelligence assessments that the army under Kayani continues to support
the Taliban and Mumbai attackers Lashkar-e-Taiba. "ISI extols the
virtues of some Taliban elements" read one small headline that provided
no other details; otherwise loquacious television anchors were largely
silent on the matter.
One exception was the new Express Tribune
paper.
"It has always been an open secret that
the military acts as puppet master," said an editorial "Only now do
we have confirmation of just how tenuous the hold of democracy in
the country really is."
Pakistani conspiracy theorists insisted the
cables had been deliberately leaked as part of a Washington plot to
discredit the Muslim world; the Saudi ambassador described them as "a
rapist's propaganda".
But for most Pakistanis, the cables simply confirmed how much influence
the US wields over their military and civilian leaders. Several
headlines referred to the "WikiLeaks shame"; former diplomat Asif Ezdi
said they proved Pakistan had become "the world's biggest banana
republic".
The judiciary, meanwhile, liked the cables.
Dismissing an attempt to block their
publication, High Court judge Sheikh Azmat Saeed, said that WikiLeaks,
"may cause trouble for some
personalities" but would be "good for the progress of the nation in
the long run."
Afghanistan
In Afghanistan the Wikileaks disclosure have been a source of endless
fascination for the general public, with the country's journalists
devoting hours of airtime to pouring over the cables.
Among pundits debate has raged about the
meaning of the revelations, and even whether they can be believed with
some incredulous commentators refusing to accept that the world's most
powerful country could ever lose so much confidential information. Some
have even suggested it was a put up job by the Americans themselves.
But so far there have been no major political casualties, despite the
deeply critical remarks of Hamid Karzai made by his own senior
ministers and the US ambassador.
The Afghan president has publicly thrown his support behind Omar
Zakhiwal, his finance minister who was quoted in cables describing
his boss as "extremely weak man". But a cabinet reshuffle is expected
after the new parliament is inaugurated.
Also thought to be vulnerable is Karl Eikenberry, the US
ambassador who wrote at times despairing notes back to Washington about
Karzai.
The Afghan and US governments have insisted their relationship remains
strong but former US ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad has
publicly said Eikenberry's position is untenable.
Many believe there is now no chance that he will extend his soon to
expire two year term, if he wanted to.
India
In India the reaction to WikiLeaks was initially muted or positive,
though the revelations were covered by all sectors of the press,
including the local language media.
"The first lot of WikiLeaks documents
paints a flattering picture of India as a reliable, trusted and
respected power in a world that worries itself sick about
neighbouring Pakistan," the Times of India newspaper said.
Coverage focused on revelations from
Pakistan and particularly about Islamabad's security services'
relationship with local Islamic extremists.
India's external affairs ministry refused to
comment on the leak other than to stress its continuing "candid"
dialogue with the United States.
As the week has passed criticism, both of
Western countries and of the leak, has built up, particularly as police
in the UK moved to arrest the Wikileaks founder.
"The way these governments have been
going after Assange and his group raises the question whether what
is commonly called the free world is really free," said the
Mumbai-based newspaper Daily News Analysis. Others attacked those
behind the leak.
"There is a strong feeling that the
sense of responsibility lacks," union law minister Veerappa Moily
told The Guardian yesterday (Wednesday).
"This just creates mutual
misunderstanding. The trust is endangered by such leaks and that is
a very unhealthy trend."
Shashi Tharoor, former minister of state for
external affairs, called the leaks "unethical and wrong".
"The confidentiality of government
communications is the lifeblood of diplomatic comfort," Tharoor told
a local reporter. "You do not effectively run a government if your
own diplomats cannot report to their own capitals in utter candour."
Other commentators however called for an
Indian version of the leak, arguing that the Indian bureaucracy was one
of the most opaque in the world and could only benefit from public
scrutiny. ends
Bangladesh
Julian Assange and WikiLeaks have been on the front page of most
newspapers in Bangladesh over the last week.
The story has been of particular interest to
the country's many students who thronged street tea stalls in Dhaka, the
capital, to discuss,
"how WikiLeaks has shaken the US
administration by revealing its confidential cables", according to
one local journalist.
Anis Pervez, an associate professor
at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh, said he had discussed the
leaks in his classroom lecture on media ethics.
"Every state has sovereignty and
sometimes some information can create tension. Then again, there is
a dilemma over how much information one should reveal to the public
just because he or she has it," he said.
One particularly cable alleging that the
Islamic extremist group Lashkar-e-Toiba had established sleeper cells in
Bangladesh hit headlines.
"The information divulged on the
WikiLeaks is creating an odd situation for many countries. We have
not yet checked the documents found regarding Bangladesh," said
Yafeash Osman, state minister for science and technology, said.
Nepal
In Nepal there has therefore been some disappointment that most of the
2,600 documents that were sent from the US Embassy in Kathmandu have not
yet to be released.
The leaks sparked frantic efforts by Nepali
politicians as well as journalists to find out what revelations about
the Himalayan nation could be expected with journalists offices in
Kathmandu bombarded by calls from politicians and leaderships seeking
tips on what might be coming.
As elsewhere released cables have been
scoured for elements of local interest. Documents suggesting that Maoist
rebels had received Indian funding provoked an inevitably strongly
worded reaction from Nepal's Maoist party.
Other cables touching on the relations
between regional giants China and India have also been minutely
scrutinized.
Sri Lanka
In Sri Lanka, the leaks provoked
a political and media storm as many focused on the island nation's
controversial and bloody recent history.
While one effectively accused President
Mahinda Rajapaksa of being complicit in war crimes - a charge he
denies - another described a diplomatic campaign by British former
foreign secretary David Miliband to champion aid and human rights
during the Sri Lankan humanitarian crisis last year as largely driven by
domestic political calculations.
Media reactions have varied. Newspapers
loyal to the government have covered the various allegations made in the
cables but have particularly focused on material that is embarrassing to
the US or the UK The campaigning Sunday Leader however published a call
to journalistic arms: "As media acquired books, the powerful enacted
bans. As media developed newspapers, the powerful found ways to seal
them in courts or seduce them with access and wealth.
Through all this one force, however, is
constant. You can't keep a good story down. You can't stop the thirst
for justice, you can only mask it for a while. This is a lesson that
WikiLeaks is teaching the world, and we hope that it will reach Sri
Lankan ears."
Asia Pacific
China
China has been tight-lipped. It has also been increasingly keen to stop
others from having their say, deleting articles and discussions about
the cables. It called the contents of the diplomatic memos "absurd" but
has otherwise refused to comment on the information they contain, such
as reports of official frustration with North Korea and a source's claim
that a senior official was behind the attack on Google.
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said yesterday that Beijing
hoped the emergence of the cables would not affect relations with
Washington.
Censorship has not stopped some people from reading about the cables on
overseas websites.
"Reading [about] China and Google, I
want to say: WikiLeaks rocks!" one wrote on a microblog service of
the popular portal Sina earlier this week.
Another argued:
"What Wikileaks says about China must be
a slander from the US. What do you think? The US government hates
Wikileaks too? It must be a conspiracy."
China Digital Times, which monitors
censorship, believes the Central Propaganda Bureau issued an order
telling websites not to issue further reports on the cables, although
some have reported on Julian Assange's arrest.
Australia
The role of Assange, the country's prodigal son, has generated the most
coverage and debate.
Referring to him as the 'Ned Kelly of the digital
age', Bryce Lowry said:
"Assange is a cyber bushranger: a
renegade taunter of authority and inspiration to many who marvel at
his daring to challenge the status quo."
Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the
publication of the cables is illegal, and Assange's actions are "grossly
irresponsible".
She has made it clear the Australian
government will offer him no support although the Australian consulate
in the UK has offered him access to their services.
The cables themselves reveal an unflattering view of former prime
minister - now foreign minister - Kevin Rudd. He was an abrasive,
impulsive ''control freak'' who presided over a series of foreign policy
blunders.
Another cable referenced how Rudd angered
the US by detailing a private conversation he had with Bush which
included the moment he was,
"stunned to hear Bush say, 'What's the
G20?'"
Rudd retaliated this week.
"Mr Assange is not himself responsible
for the unauthorized release of 250,000 documents from the US
diplomatic communications network.
"The Americans are responsible for
that," he said.