Leaked US cables show US used informers in NATO chief's office

Feb 11, 2011, 10:39 GMT

Oslo - Leaked diplomatic cables show that the United States has used informers in the office of the NATO Secretary General, Norwegian and Swedish newspapers reported Friday.

NATO staff under the command of both the current NATO chief, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, and his predecessor Jaap de Hoop Scheffer supplied information to authorities in the US, according to the cables released by the whistleblower website WikiLeaks.

Diplomats from every NATO state regularly update their national capitals on official developments in the organization. But the leaks show that US staff also used 'moles' to gather unofficial information from the secretary general's office.

Norway's daily Aftenposten published several of the cables on its website. One, dated 10 September 2009, referred to a letter sent by Rasmussen to the secretary general of the Russian-dominated Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).

The letter was leaked to the US mission 'by a member of the NATO International Staff (strictly protect)),' the cable read. The letter was a cordial response to an earlier message from CSTO Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha welcoming Rasmussen to his new job.

A second cable, dated August 20, 2009, referred to reactions caused by a letter Rasmussen drafted on human rights concerns in Afghanistan. The letter was intended for President Hamid Karzai.

Several NATO members wanted the letter sent after the elections in Afghanistan that year, while Rasmussen was unwilling to hold off.

The US cable concluded that it was 'unusual for a Secretary General to act on such a politically sensitive topic without clearer guidance from and transparency with Allies.'

'Rasmussen appears to feel empowered to act with a greater degree of independence than did his predecessor,' the diplomatic communique noted.

Rasmussen, a former Danish prime minister, took over as NATO chief in 2009.

Aftenposten in December said it had acquired full access to WikiLeaks' cache of some 250,000 US diplomatic cables.

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