A constant theme of responses from governments and the foreign policy establishment to WikiLeaks’ release of US diplomatic cables has been that it is absurd to expect governments to operate with full transparency. In particular, the reasoning goes, transparency is toxic to diplomacy, where secrecy is crucial to the conduct of statecraft aimed at settling international disputes and even preventing war.
That claim can be put to the test now in relation to Egypt.
The protests against the Mubarak regime and protesters’ demands that Mubarak immediately step down have been reinvigorated in recent days, particularly by the remarkable interview conducted by Wael Ghonim after his release from detention by the regime. The United States, however, appears eager to facilitate a “transition” that will leave Vice-President Omar Suleiman in control and the apparatus of the Mubarak regime intact.
Suleiman is a torturer and murderer who has co-operated closely with the US and Israeli governments in the past. He is clearly the preferred outcome for Washington and Tel Aviv in terms of “stability”.
As the Washington court reporter, The New York Times, showed yesterday, some of the vilest regimes in the Middle East are backing the Americans and the Israelis to ensure Egyptian “democracy” does not undermine regional “stability”. Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates are all mentioned by the NYT as lobbying strongly for the Americans to relax the pressure on the Mubarak regime.
It seems leaks from diplomats are OK if they’re made to mainstream media outlets that can be relied on to co-operate closely with governments.
But this is in effect a conspiracy between Western interests and several appalling dictatorships to undermine the wholly legitimate democratic aspirations of Egyptians who have called for greater freedom in, literally, their millions.
This “diplomacy” deserves no secrecy. It deserves exposure and censure. And it directly undermines the claim that diplomats should be allowed to determine what the public knows, and when. It’s clear demonstration of why WikiLeaks is right to subject the world’s diplomats to the threat of exposure.
Well said Crikey!
One of your more potent editorials.
Probably worth firing a link to it on twitter.
Probably worth signing, at that. (an old complaint)
The extraordinary rendition program landed some people in CIA black sites – and others were turned over for torture-by-proxy to other regimes. Egypt figured large as a torture destination of choice, as did Suleiman as Egypt’s torturer-in-chief. At least one person extraordinarily rendered by the CIA to Egypt — Egyptian-born Australian citizen Mamdouh Habib — was reportedly tortured by Suleiman himself.
In October 2001, Habib was seized from a bus by Pakistani security forces. While detained in Pakistan, at the behest of American agents, he was suspended from a hook and electrocuted repeatedly. He was then turned over to the CIA, and in the process of transporting him to Egypt he endured the usual treatment: his clothes were cut off, a suppository was stuffed in his anus, he was put into a diaper – and ‘wrapped up like a spring roll’.
In Egypt, as Habib recounts in his memoir, My Story: The Tale of a Terrorist Who Wasn’t, he was repeatedly subjected to electric shocks, immersed in water up to his nostrils and beaten. His fingers were broken and he was hung from metal hooks. At one point, his interrogator slapped him so hard that his blindfold was dislodged, revealing the identity of his tormentor: Suleiman.
Frustrated that Habib was not providing useful information or confessing to involvement in terrorism, Suleiman ordered a guard to murder a shackled prisoner in front of Habib, which he did with a vicious karate kick. In April 2002, after five months in Egypt, Habib was rendered to American custody at Bagram prison in Afghanistan – and then transported to Guantanamo. On January 11, 2005, the day before he was scheduled to be charged, Dana Priest of the Washington Post published an exposé about Habib’s torture. The US government immediately announced that he would not be charged and would be repatriated to Australia.”
All of the above apparently, with the full knowledge of and complete silence from the Howard Govt. Disgraceful criminal acts.
Geez Crikey, that made me tear up. Well done.