As the founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, appears before a United States (US) court today with the likelihood of being freed in a reported plea deal following a 14-year legal battle, The Gleaner reflects on developments in Jamaica some 13 years ago after it obtained information from the non-profit whistle-blower entity revealing information contained in US secret cables on local politicians.
Wikileaks published thousands of confidential documents belonging to the US government in 2010, some of which included dozens of secret cables from the American Embassy in Kingston.
The Gleaner in 2011 partnered with Wikileaks to provide Jamaicans with information from the secret cables.
The diplomatic cables at the time touched on various issues of Jamaican life and reflected the views and opinions of US Embassy officials based on conversations, documents and formal briefings.
LEAKS PUBLISHED AROUND THE WORLD
The documents on Jamaica were part of 251,287 embassy cables leaked in 2010 which WikiLeaks acquired and which were published around the world.
It was a period when local political figures who often interacted with US officials were reportedly having sleepless nights not knowing if they would feature in any of the Gleaner articles.
In a retrospective glance at some of the issues that were highlighted in Gleaner articles in 2011, the US Embassy in Kingston labelled the then Bruce Golding administration as two-faced and suggested that the former prime minister was less than honest on at least two occasions when he first responded to questions in Parliament about the extradition request for then Tivoli Gardens strongman Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke, who was later convicted of drug offences in the US.
A secret diplomatic cable from the embassy claimed that hours after Golding’s fiery December 8, 2009 responses in Parliament about the extradition request for the strongman, a high-ranking Cabinet member was on the phone apologising for the comments.
The embassy also claimed that Golding overstated the case when he told Parliament that Washington and Kingston had agreed not to publicly discuss the issue and that his memory was faulty when he told the House about when he was first briefed on the matter.
In a confidential cable dated December 10, 2009, the embassy in Kingston told Washington that the Cabinet minister told then US Chargé d’Affaires (CDA) Isiah Parnell that Golding had been put in an uncomfortable position by Opposition Spokesman on National Security Dr Peter Phillips.
While quoting extensively from the heated debate in Parliament, the US Embassy argued that: “The imbroglio illustrates both the GOJ’s paralysis over the issue as the Golding administration flails for new legal points on which to delay a decision, as well as the PNP’s (People’s National Party) determination to use the issue as a means of attacking the JLP’s (Jamaica Labour Party) moral authority to govern.”
ACCUSED OF HARASSMENT
In his first public comment on the US diplomatic cables acquired by Wikileaks, Bruce Golding blasted this newspaper, claiming the media entity was harassing his Government.
Golding made the comments during his keynote address at the opening ceremony of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Area Council Four Regional Office at the Montego Freeport Shopping Centre in Montego Bay, St James.
“We have suffered from so many detractors and distractions. We have scored a few goals on ourselves. We have had people who’ve moved the goalpost on us from time to time. There is a sustained effort being made by the power brokers of North Street to harass the Government,” he declared.
On May 22, 2011, The Gleaner reported that the nine-month long face-off between Kingston and Washington over the extradition request for now convicted drug lord Coke triggered speculation within the US government that garrison dons and criminals might have captured the Golding administration.
A secret diplomatic cable from the US Embassy, located in Liguanea, St Andrew, described as “troubling” the Jamaican Government’s “recalcitrance in granting US extradition requests, suggesting a lack of seriousness in addressing Jamaica’s crime problems, or even the possibility that garrison dons and criminal elements have captured the GOJ (Government of Jamaica)”.
On May 27, 2011, The Gleaner reported that a high-ranking member of the then Opposition PNP had attracted the attention of three of Jamaica’s major international partners who suspected that he might be involved in illegal or corrupt activities.
The politician had long been on the radar of security agencies in the US, Canada and the United Kingdom (UK), which warned the then new PNP President Portia Simpson Miller about his possible influence on her administration after her victory in the 2006 leadership race.
In fact, the three partners had expressed great concern about the character of this politician and some of the other persons who backed Simpson Miller’s campaign to lead the PNP. Diplomatic cables acquired by The Gleaner through WikiLeaks showed that the US, Canada and the UK conveyed to Simpson Miller their unease.
They warned that persons with criminal ties could seek to align themselves with her administration after the victory that propelled her into the role of Jamaica’s first female prime minister.
On June 5, 2011, The Gleaner headline declared ‘No criminal links’.
The article stated that Phillip Paulwell, who US Embassy officials once described as a “politician with a past”, and one they did not want to see in the 2006 Portia Simpson Miller Cabinet, had again denied any links to criminals and criminality.
Paulwell downplayed the significance of the cables, arguing that while they might have reflected sentiments at the time they were written, he believed the views no longer held.
He noted that the diplomatic cables, which questioned his character, were dated 2006 and 2007.
“I suspect that the viewpoint of the US would have changed substantially by now based on my own relationship with them,” Paulwell said as he reacted to the cables released by Wikileaks.
See related story on page A10.
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Publish date : 2024-06-26 01:12:18
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