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Sweden’s foreign minister Carl Bildt is not happy about WikiLeaks' unleash of US cables detailing a wide array of potentially explosive diplomatic episodes. He warns it will hurt global diplomatic environment, something that is not in Swedish interest.

“The intention behind this publication cannot have been anything other than to damage American diplomacy, although the effect with really be to damage diplomacy in general”, he wrote on his blog.

Over 800 secret American documents about relations with Sweden have been released by WikiLeaks, according to Swedish tabloid Expressen.

It goes without saying, Carl Bildt argue, that we need diplomacy. Sometime has to be classified. He also points out that the cables are the work of individual diplomats and are not official statements.

'We need confidential communication channels between different governments at critical moments, in order to tackle crises or different situations,' Bildt told Swedish Radio.

'If it is not possible to do that, it results in 'megaphone diplomacy' and from experience we know that can lead to more conflicts and more problems,' he added.

WikiLeaks on Sunday unleashed a torrent of US cables detailing a wide array of potentially explosive diplomatic episodes, from a tense nuclear standoff with Pakistan to Saudi Arabia's king repeatedly suggesting bombing Iran, the New York Times reported.

The cables describe the bazaar-like bargaining over the repatriation of Guantanamo Bay detainees, a Chinese government bid to hack into Google, and quote Saudi King Abdullah as saying the United States should strike Iran to halt its nuclear program, telling it to "cut off the head of the snake."

Carl Bildt said US diplomats had contacted Sweden ahead of to the WikiLeaks publication but had not offered specific details other than that the release was 'harmful'.

The magazine Foreign Policy has ranked Carl Bildt among the world’s most important thinkers “for telling Europe what it doesn't want to hear”.

Last Updated (Monday, 29 November 2010 20:02)

 

Comments 

 
#3 Bryon 2010-11-29 23:35
"Now, in many respects, information has never been so free. There are more ways to spread more ideas to more people than at any moment in history. And even in authoritarian countries, information networks are helping people discover new facts and making governments more accountable. . . . As in the dictatorships of the past, governments are targeting independent thinkers who use these tools." --Hillary Clinton

HILLARY CLINTON'S SPEECH ABOUT INTERNET FREEDOM: JANUARY 21, 2010
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#2 Nick 2010-11-29 13:14
Bildt says aim of leaks is to "damage american diplomacy".

The intention behind them is to bring greater transparency to international powers. One of the cables reveals the US Gov were monitoring Anna Lindh for her opposition to the "War on terror". They also monitored Palme in the same way and he ended up dead. Lindh is also now dead. I think the public, especially the Swedish public, have a right to know which of their politicians are being monitored by the US.
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#1 Peppard 2010-11-29 11:06
I hope Wikileaks will reveal how corrupted is Sweden and his prosecutors and all of those things people are not allowed to know.
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