WikiLeaks Revelations

[Daredevil]

WikiLeaks cables: US view of Kim Jong-il, Putin, Sarkozy and Berlusconi

US embassy cables reveal Washington's view of world's leading statesmen in colourful, distinctly undiplomatic language

President Dmitry Medvedev plays Robin to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's Batman, according to one Moscow embassy dispatch.

Washington's view of the world's leading statesmen emerges from the cables in a carnival of colourful and distinctly undiplomatic language.

In late 2008 the Moscow embassy wired back about the relationship between Russia's president, Dmitry Medvedev and the prime minister, Vladimir Putin, remarking that Medvedev, officially the senior partner, "plays Robin to Putin's Batman".

Kim Jong-il, the ailing dictator of North Korea fared no better, with diplomats quoting sources who described him variously as a "flabby old chap" and someone who had suffered "physical and psychological trauma" as a result of his stroke.

The Paris embassy remarked on the "thin-skinned and authoritarian personal style" of French President Nicholas Sarkozy after it reported his tendency to repeatedly rebuke his team and the French prime minister.

Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi was "feckless, vain, and ineffective as a modern European leader", according to Elizabeth Dibble, US charge d'affaires in Rome. Another report from Rome recorded the view that he was a "physically and politically weak" leader whose "frequent late nights and penchant for partying hard mean he does not get sufficient rest".

Key allies in the war on terror are not spared either. A dispatch from Kabul reports the view that the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, is "an extremely weak man who did not listen to facts but was instead easily swayed by anyone who came to report even the most bizarre stories or plots against him".

In Yemen, the power base of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, President Ali Abdullah Saleh was "dismissive, bored and impatient", during a meeting with John Brennan, Barack Obama's deputy national security adviser.

Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe, is simply branded "the crazy old man" by Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, South Africa's international relations and cooperation minister, according to a cable from Pretoria, while Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, is "just strange" according to an adviser to Sultan Qaboos of Oman.

Israel's prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu is "elegant and charming" but never keeps his promises, according to a cable from Cairo recounting a meeting with President Hosni Mubarak, who added: "I have told him so personally".

 

[The Messiah]

So much for muslim brotherhood that saudi wanted usa to bomb iran....like ive already said yanks are no saints.

saudi and pak are the soul behind terrorists and both are "allies" of usa.

 

[Daredevil]

Diplomatic Cables Reveal US Doubts about Turkey's Government

US President Barack Obama with Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the recent G-20 summit in Seoul: The diplomatic cables reveal that US diplomats have grave doubts about Turkey's dependability.

The leaked diplomatic cables reveal that US diplomats are skeptical about Turkey's dependability as a partner. The leadership in Ankara is depicted as divided and permeated by Islamists.

US diplomats have grave doubts about Turkey's dependability. Secret or confidential cables from the US Embassy in Ankara describe Islamist tendencies in the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The US diplomats' verdict on the NATO partner with the second biggest army in the alliance is devastating. The Turkish leadership is depicted as divided, and Erdogan's advisers, as well as Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, are portrayed as having little understanding of politics beyond Ankara.

The Americans are also worried about Davutoglu's alleged neo-Ottoman visions. A high-ranking government adviser warned in discussions, quoted by the US diplomats, that Davutoglu would use his Islamist influence on Erdogan, describing him as "exceptionally dangerous." According to the US document, another adviser to the ruling AKP party remarked, probably ironically, that Turkey wanted "to take back Andalusia and avenge the defeat at the siege of Vienna in 1683."

The US diplomats write that many leading figures in the AKP were members of a Muslim fraternity and that Erdogan had appointed Islamist bankers to influential positions. He gets his information almost exclusively from newspapers with close links to Islamists, they reported. The prime minister, the cables continue, has surrounded himself with an "iron ring of sycophantic (but contemptuous) advisors" and presents himself as the "Tribune of Anatolia."

 

[Daredevil]

How 250,000 US embassy cables were leaked

From a fake Lady Gaga CD to a thumb drive that is a pocket-sized bombshell – the biggest intelligence leak in history

An innocuous-looking memory stick, no longer than a couple of fingernails, came into the hands of a Guardian reporter earlier this year. The device is so small it will hang easily on a keyring. But its contents will send shockwaves through the world's chancelleries and deliver what one official described as "an epic blow" to US diplomacy.

The 1.6 gigabytes of text files on the memory stick ran to millions of words: the contents of more than 250,000 leaked state department cables, sent from, or to, US embassies around the world.

What will emerge in the days and weeks ahead is an unprecedented picture of secret diplomacy as conducted by the planet's sole superpower. There are 251,287 dispatches in all, from more than 250 US embassies and consulates. They reveal how the US deals with both its allies and its enemies – negotiating, pressuring and sometimes brusquely denigrating foreign leaders, all behind the firewalls of ciphers and secrecy classifications that diplomats assume to be secure. The leaked cables range up to the "SECRET NOFORN" level, which means they are meant never to be shown to non-US citizens.

As well as conventional political analyses, some of the cables contain detailed accounts of corruption by foreign regimes, as well as intelligence on undercover arms shipments, human trafficking and sanction-busting efforts by would-be nuclear states such as Iran and Libya. Some are based on interviews with local sources while others are general impressions and briefings written for top state department visitors who may be unfamiliar with local nuances.

Intended to be read by officials in Washington up to the level of the secretary of state, the cables are generally drafted by the ambassador or subordinates. Although their contents are often startling and troubling, the cables are unlikely to gratify conspiracy theorists. They do not contain evidence of assassination plots, CIA bribery or such criminal enterprises as the Iran-Contra scandal in the Reagan years, when anti-Nicaraguan guerrillas were covertly financed.

One reason may be that America's most sensitive "top secret" and above foreign intelligence files cannot be accessed from Siprnet, the defence department network involved.

The US military believes it knows where the leak originated. A soldier, Bradley Manning, 22, has been held in solitary confinement for the last seven months and is facing a court martial in the new year. The former intelligence analyst is charged with unauthorised downloads of classified material while serving on an army base outside Baghdad. He is suspected of taking copies not only of the state department archive, but also of video of an Apache helicopter crew gunning down civilians in Baghdad, and hundreds of thousands of daily war logs from military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

It was childishly easy, according to the published chatlog of a conversation Manning had with a fellow-hacker. "I would come in with music on a CD-RW labelled with something like 'Lady Gaga' "¦ erase the music "¦ then write a compressed split file. No one suspected a thing ... listened and lip-synched to Lady Gaga's Telephone while exfiltrating possibly the largest data spillage in American history." He said that he "had unprecedented access to classified networks 14 hours a day 7 days a week for 8+ months".

Manning told his correspondent Adrian Lamo, who subsequently denounced him to the authorities: "Hillary Clinton and several thousand diplomats around the world are going to have a heart attack when they wake up one morning and find an entire repository of classified foreign policy is available, in searchable format, to the public ... Everywhere there's a US post, there's a diplomatic scandal that will be revealed. Worldwide anarchy in CSV format ... It's beautiful, and horrifying."

He added: "Information should be free. It belongs in the public domain."

Manning, according to the chatlogs, says he uploaded the copies to WikiLeaks, the "freedom of information activists" as he called them, led by Australian former hacker Julian Assange.

Assange and his circle apparently decided against immediately making the cables public. Instead they embarked on staged disclosure of the other material – aimed, as they put it on their website, at "maximising political impact".

In April at a Washington press conference the group released the Apache helicopter video, titling it Collateral Murder.

The Guardian's Nick Davies brokered an agreement with Assange to hand over in advance two further sets of military field reports on Iraq and Afghanistan so professional journalists could analyse them. Published earlier this year simultaneously with the New York Times and Der Spiegel in Germany, the analyses revealed that coalition forces killed civilians in previously unreported shootings and handed over prisoners to be tortured.

The revelations shot Assange and WikiLeaks to global prominence but led to angry denunciations from the Pentagon and calls from extreme rightwingers in the US that Assange be arrested or even assassinated. This month Sweden issued an international warrant for Assange, for questioning about alleged sexual assaults. His lawyer says the allegations spring from unprotected but otherwise consensual sex with two women.

WikiLeaks says it is now planning to post a selection of the cables. Meanwhile, a Guardian team of expert writers has been spending months combing through the data. Freedom of information campaigner Heather Brooke obtained a copy of the database through her own contacts and joined the Guardian team. The paper is to publish independently, but simultaneously with the New York Times and Der Spiegel, along with Le Monde in Paris and El País in Madrid. As on previous occasions the Guardian is redacting information likely to cause reprisals against vulnerable individuals.

 

[Daredevil]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/32662

5. (C) Ambassador asked about MbZ's visit the week before to Lahore to meet with Pakistani President Musharraf. MbZ chuckled and asked why the USG "always" convinced the Pakistanis to delay news of the capture of senior Al Qaeda operatives such as Abu Faraj al Libbi. MbZ went on to congratulate Washington for its decision to allow U.S. firms to bid for contracts to provide F-16s and other defense technology to Pakistan. It was important to support Musharraf as he battled the terrorists, he emphasized. While the Indians had and would continue to balk at the decision, the region needed Musharraf to stay strong. There was no alternative leader in sight, MbZ opined. Besides, he continued, the F-16 decision would not tip the military balance between India and Pakistan. Even if it had, India's strength as a stable democracy would ensure that it would not ever be in as "risky" a situation as its neighbor. MbZ then slapped his knee and said "you,ll never guess what Musharraf asked me...he asked me whether the UAE had received approval for the Predator!" (Note: the USG's inability to meet the UAE's request for an armed Predator remains a sore point for MbZ, although he has not directly raised the issue with us for some time.)

Note: Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed is MbZ

Did Musharaff wanted to copy Predator with the help of his chinese masters??

 

[AirforcePilot]

So much for muslim brotherhood that Saudi wanted USA to bomb iran....like ive already said yanks are no saints.

Saudi and pak are the soul behind terrorists and both are "allies" of usa.

This is no secret Ernesto, Saudi was willing to open up it's airspace for Israel to launch an attack on Iran. Politics is politics, dirty as hell!!

 

[LurkerBaba]

3000 Cables from Colombo, 2700 from Kathmadu (Both more than Pak) !! The US sure is upto something !

No wonder they warned India beforehand :emot159:

 

[ejazr]

Here is a good map from Guardian showing the cables. Locations, timelines and classifications.

 

[Rage]

I am so skeptical of this Wikileaks thing. I don't know why, but I get this uncanny feeling that this is supposed to be a major diversion before the storm.

I find it very hard to believe that the CIA, INR and TFI have unrestricted writing software on their computers used by analysts. And even more difficult to believe that the activities of mil. intelligence analysts are not monitored intermittently across a back room.

Even more so that the US, 'purportedly', is able to hack into Wikileaks' computers, causing a massive DDoS attack <thereby demonstrating the 'gravity' of the situation>, and is not able to trace the computer physically and have its agents, or other intermediaries, confiscate it.

What's more, political leaders are no fools. They know other leaders talk behind their backs, form impressions or caricatures of them and even make disparaging, if somewhat wanton, remarks about their foreign policy. So, what's new? There seems to have been a growing 'consensus' over the need to attack Iran, about Pakistan's fissile material and Turkey's withdrawal from the U.S. ambit. There appears to be growing 'concern' about Chinese delivery systems, now voiced openly 'suddenly' from out of previously diplomatic enclaves, and there appears to be growing concern about Britain and Germany's 'commitment' to NATO, while at the same time a manifest 'discontent' with Israel's policies towards the West Bank, in line with the USA's plan of 'engagement' within the MidEast.

 

[ejazr]

Read the documents from the source by going to the official wikileaks website

http://cablegate.wikileaks.org/

Wikileaks began on Sunday November 28th publishing 251,287 leaked United States embassy cables, the largest set of confidential documents ever to be released into the public domain. The documents will give people around the world an unprecedented insight into US Government foreign activities.

The cables, which date from 1966 up until the end of February this year, contain confidential communications between 274 embassies in countries throughout the world and the State Department in Washington DC. 15,652 of the cables are classified Secret.

The embassy cables will be released in stages over the next few months. The subject matter of these cables is of such importance, and the geographical spread so broad, that to do otherwise would not do this material justice.

The cables show the extent of US spying on its allies and the UN; turning a blind eye to corruption and human rights abuse in "client states"; backroom deals with supposedly neutral countries; lobbying for US corporations; and the measures US diplomats take to advance those who have access to them.

This document release reveals the contradictions between the US's public persona and what it says behind closed doors â€" and shows that if citizens in a democracy want their governments to reflect their wishes, they should ask to see whats going on behind the scenes.

Every American schoolchild is taught that George Washington" the country's first President" could not tell a lie. If the administrations of his successors lived up to the same principle, todays document flood would be a mere embarrassment. Instead, the US Government has been warning governments -- even the most corrupt -- around the world about the coming leaks and is bracing itself for the exposures.

The full set consists of 251,287 documents, comprising 261,276,536 words (seven times the size of "The Iraq War Logs", the world's previously largest classified information release).

The cables cover from 28th December 1966 to 28th February 2010 and originate from 274 embassies, consulates and diplomatic missions.
How to explore the data

Search for events that you remember that happened for example in your country. You can browse by date or search for an origin near you.

Pick out interesting events and tell others about them. Use twitter, reddit, mail whatever suits your audience best.

For twitter or other social networking services please use the #cablegate or unique reference ID (e.g. #66BUENOSAIRES2481) as hash tags.
Key figures:

15, 652 secret
101,748 confidential
133,887 unclassified

Iraq most discussed country 15,365 (Cables coming from Iraq 6,677)
Ankara, Turkey had most cables coming from it 7,918
From Secretary of State office - 8,017


According to the US State Departments labeling system, the most frequent subjects discussed are:

External political relations 145,451
Internal government affairs 122,896
Human rights 55,211
Economic Conditions 49,044
Terrorists and terrorism 28,801
UN security council 6,532

 

[hit&run]

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10690786

It also cited a cable from the US Embassy in Beijing that included allegations from a Chinese contact that China's Politburo directed a cyber intrusion into Google's computer systems as part of a "co-ordinated campaign of computer sabotage carried out by government operatives, private security experts and internet outlaws."

 

[Daredevil]

Capture of Mullah Baradar
-------------------------

6. (S//Rel NATO, ISAF) SCR asked AWK his views on the recent capture in Pakistan of Taliban leader Mullah Baradar. AWK said Pakistan detained Baradar and other Taliban leaders because they were prepared to discuss reintegration with the Karzai government. Senior Taliban fighters in Pakistan may be prepared to reintegrate, he said, but are forced by the Pakistan Government to continue to fight. AWK said some Afghan Taliban commanders cannot return to Afghanistan because they are on the Joint Priority Effects List (JPEL) and are told by the Pakistanis they must continue to fight or will be turned over to the coalition. It is important to remove such fighters from the JPEL for reintegration to work, he argued, adding that he has been working on the reconciliation issue with the Saudis for two-three years. AWK offered a meeting with SCR and his older brother and former Member of Parliament for Kandahar Kayyum Karzai in the next few weeks to discuss ongoing reintegration discussions with the Saudis.

AWK -Ahmed Wali Karzai
SCR - Senior Civilian Representative

http://cablegate.wikileaks.org/cable/2010/02/10KABUL693.html

 

[Daredevil]

Britain fears Islamic fury over WikiLeaks, says report

The British government has warned that its citizens in Pakistan, Iraq, Iran and other parts of the Muslim world could be targeted in a violent backlash over "anti-Islamic" views expressed in diplomatic documents being leaked this week, media reports said on Sunday.
The whistle-blower website WikiLeaks is to release almost 3 million documents on the internet, including thousands of sensitive diplomatic cables sent to Washington from the American embassy in London, The Sunday Times reported.It said the British government has warned that its citizens in Pakistan, Iraq, Iran and other parts of the Muslim world could be targeted in a violent backlash over "anti-Islamic" views expressed in diplomatic documents.

 

[Daredevil]

Turkey did not invite India on Afghan meet to appease Pak

India was deliberately kept out of the Turkey-sponsored meeting on Afghanistan earlier this year to address the "sensitivities" of Pakistan, according to WikiLeaks cable. Reflecting Islamabad's insistence at every international fora that New Delhi be kept out of any meeting on Afghanistan, a top Turkish diplomat told US officials early this year that India was kept out to address the concerns of Pakistan, WikiLeaks said.

At a meeting with the US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, William Burns; Rauf Engin Soysal who then was the Turkey's Deputy Under-Secretary for Bilateral Political Affairs responsible for the Middle East, South Asia and Africa; said Turkey had not invited India to the Afghan neighbours summit in deference to Pak sensitivities.

 

[Daredevil]

 

[Rahul92]

Wikileaks cables: key issues

The controversial whistle-blowing site Wikileaks has released a cache of 250,000 secret messages sent by US diplomatic staff.

So far, Wikileaks has published on its site 220 of 251,287 of what it describes as US "cables"; it has given the files in full to five media groups, including the New York Times and Guardian newspapers.

Below are some of the key issues the documents reveal.

Iran attack

Several Arab leaders and their representatives are quoted as urging the US to carry out an attack on Iran to bring an end to its suspected nuclear weapons programme.




The Saudi ambassador to Washington, Adel al-Jubeir, recalled King Abdullah's "frequent exhortations" to the US to attack Iran in order to bring an end to its nuclear programme.

In a report of a 2008 meeting with US General David Petraeus, Mr al-Jubeir said the king wanted the US to "to cut the head off the snake".

King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa of Bahrain is reported to have told the US to stop Iran "by whatever means necessary", while the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammad bin Zayed, told the US he believed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was "going to take us to war".

Spying on UN

A cable to US diplomats issued under US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's name tells them to collect "biographic and biometric" information - including iris scans, DNA samples and fingerprints - of key officials at the UN. They are also ordered to find credit card details, e-mail addresses and passwords and encryption keys used for computer networks and in official communications.

The officials covered include "undersecretaries, heads of specialised agencies and their chief advisers, top SYG [secretary general] aides, heads of peace operations and political field missions, including force commanders".

At least nine similar directives covering various countries are included in the Wikileaks release, both under the name of Mrs Clinton and her predecessor, Condoleezza Rice.
Pakistan stand-off

Cables reported in the New York Times show US concern over radioactive material in nuclear power stations in Pakistan, with fears it could be used in terror attacks. They reveal the US has been attempting to remove highly enriched uranium from a research reactor in Pakistan since 2007.

In a May 2009 cable, US ambassador Anne W Patterson says Pakistan had refused a visit from US experts. She quotes a Pakistan officials as saying removing the fuel would be seen in Pakistan "as the United States taking Pakistan's nuclear weapons".
China hacking

There is concern over the alleged growing use of large scale computer hacking by the Chinese government.

Cables reported in the New York Times claim that a network of hackers and private security experts has been employed by China since 2002 and that it has hacked into US government and business computers, those of Western allies and the Dalai Lama.

The cables quote a "Chinese contact" telling the US embassy in Beijing that the Chinese government had been behind the hacking of Google's computer systems in the country in January.
Korea plans

US and South Korean officials have discussed plans for a united Korea, should North Korea collapse.

The US ambassador to Seoul said South Korea would consider offering commercial incentives to China to "help salve" Beijing's "concerns about living with a reunified Korea".
Guantanamo

The cables appear to reveal discussions between various countries on whether they would take prisoners released from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.

Slovenia is offered the chance to meet President Barack Obama if it takes a prisoner, while Kiribati, in the South Pacific, is offered millions of dollars of incentives. Brussels is told taking prisoners could be "a low-cost way for Belgium to attain prominence in Europe".
World leaders

Various world leaders are covered by the documents - showing the diplomats' less than flattering views of them.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is referred to as "feckless, vain, and ineffective as a modern European leader" by a US diplomat in Rome.

In 2008, the Moscow embassy describes Russian President Dmitry Medvedev as playing "Robin to (Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's) Batman".

The cables also comment on the extremely close relationship between Mr Berlusconi and Mr Putin.

North Korea's Kim Jong-il is a "flabby old chap" suffering from trauma from a stroke, while Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is referred to as "Hitler".

South Africa's international relations and cooperation minister refers to President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe as "the crazy old man".


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11858990

 

[Rahul92]

I wonder what are the code names for India

 

[SHASH2K2]

 

[SHASH2K2]

Where does India figure in Wikileaks Cablegate​

New Delhi: Whistleblower website WikiLeaks has started to release 251,287 leaked United States embassy cables. The first set of 226 documents posted on the WikiLeaks website on November 28 included at least 22 documents with an India connection.

While the initial batch of documents released do not include anything that can be called explosive from the Indian perspective, experts believe that subsequent releases may contain elements that can potentially impact Indo-US relations.

The 2.5 lakh documents, including 15,652 cables classified Secret, date back from December 1966 to February 2010 and contain confidential communications between 274 US embassies around the world and the US Department of State.

Where does India figure in Wikileaks Cablegate

List of India-related documents from the first batch of 226 documents released by WikiLeaks

(India-specific portions highlighted in bold)

- To avoid hurting Pakistan, Turkey didn't invite India

- Bahrain's King Hamad on India's role in Afghanistan

- UN Security Council expansion and India

- Indo-Pak relations and Musharraf

- Pakistan's obsession with India

- India critical of sanctions on Iran

- Saudi Arabia expanding relations with India

- 'Little to fear about India having nuclear weapons'

- Iran could follow India's path in going nuclear

- Differing opinions of US and India

- India benefitting from international security

- Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty and India

- Nuclear facility safeguards in India

- Israel-India strategic partnership

- Non-proliferation and India

- Indo-US trade relations and foreign aid

- Sanctions and German business interests in India

- Some Indian-origin people supplying equipment to Iran

- Germany on US-EU position towards India

- Israeli relations with India

- Reliance Industries oil and gas exploration

- US-Indian economic cooperation and Indo-Pak relations

 

[SHASH2K2]

Wikileaks Cablegate: Bahrain's King Hamad on India's role in Afghanistan​

Classified By: Ambassador Adam Ereli, reasons 1.4(b) and (d).

¶1. (C) SUMMARY: In an hour-long meeting on November 1 with

CENTCOM Commander General Petraeus, Bahrain's King Hamad said

Arab states need to do more to engage Iraq, discussed

Afghanistan and the positive role India could play, urged

action to stop Iran's nuclear program, and reviewed regional

plans for the peaceful use of nuclear energy. END SUMMARY.

2.(C) IRAQ: King Hamad fully endorsed General Petraeus's

point that increased Arab engagement and influence would help

frustrate Iranian designs in Iraq. He added that the Arabs

need Egyptian and Saudi leadership in this matter and that he

had tried to make this point to the Saudi government, but

with little effect.

3.(C) AFGHANISTAN: General Petraeus praised Bahrain's

commitment of a police company for internal security at FOB

Leatherneck. King Hamad confirmed that he would personally

see the force off at the airport on December 16. This date

will be the 10th anniversary of the King's assuming the

throne, and General Petraeus said that U.S. air assets would

be available on the 16th to transport the company to

Afghanistan. King Hamad inquired about the extent of India's

involvement in Afghanistan and noted that Bahrain saw India

as very positive force in the region. "It's a new era," he

said. "They can be of great help."

4.(C) IRAN: King Hamad pointed to Iran as the source of much

of the trouble in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He argued

forcefully for taking action to terminate their nuclear

program, by whatever means necessary. "That program must be

stopped," he said. "The danger of letting it go on is greater

than the danger of stopping it." King Hamad added that in

light of these regional developments, Bahrain was working to

strengthen GCC coordination and its relations with allies and

international organizations. He specifically mentioned NATO

and confirmed that Bahrain had agreed to the Alliance's

request to use Isa Airbase for AWACS missions, although the

detail on numbers and timing have yet to be discussed.

5.(S/NF) BAHRAIN AIR SHOW AND NUCLEAR ENERGY: King Hamad

asked General Petraeus for his help in encouraging U.S.

aircraft manufacturers to participate in the inaugural

Bahrain Air Show, scheduled for January 2010. He said that

France was pushing the Rafale and would be there in force,

although he agreed with Petraeus that the French fighter was

yesterday's technology. Warming to the subject of French

commercial diplomacy and referring to President Sarkozy, King

Hamad said, "The UAE will give him a hard time soon," over

France's proposed deal for nuclear reactors. "They're not

happy with the project he's offered them." King Hamad also

mentioned that Bahrain was studying options for using nuclear

power to generate electricity. He said he had asked the

Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Interior and Public Works to

present him recommendations and invited the Ambassador to

discuss with them possible U.S. involvement. Post will do so.