Former US Ambassador to Malta Douglas Kmiec has defended the US Embassy and his own conduct as ambassador in the wake of the local controversies caused by Wikileaks’ publication of its secret US diplomatic cables.
“Assuming the Malta-related cables exist, it is now clear to all that what the US Embassy stood for privately in meetings with government officials and other national leaders is identical to the positions it took in public,” Prof. Kmiec told The Sunday Times, stressing he was not confirming the existence or authenticity of the cables.
A stream of cables sent by the US Embassy in Malta made local headlines in recent days, causing some local commentators to question whether the embassy was working to undermine Malta’s constitutional neutrality clause.
The controversy arose from cables showing the embassy’s supposed lobbying of both the government and the opposition to support closer co-operation with Nato, notably by contributing to civilian stabilisation efforts in Afghanistan and reactivating Malta’s membership of Nato’s Partnership for Peace programme.
Prof. Kmiec said lobbying for civilian support in Afghanistan “was hardly secret, since I made the identical request for civilian training assistance consistent with your constitution at a news conference at my home as I did in private meeting”.
Prof. Kmiec also referred to revelations about his first meeting with Labour leader Joseph Muscat and foreign affairs spokesman George Vella in November 2009, when he allegedly reported that the meeting raised questions about the security of Dr Muscat’s position as leader, as he had ceded “the lead in this discussion of Malta’s national security policy to old-line Labour politician Vella”.
“I did not want the claimed comment about Drs Vella and Muscat to mislead,” Prof. Kmiec stressed yesterday.
“Over my tenure, I found the men and women in the PL as well as the PN uniformly capable, intelligent and responsive.”
In an apparent reference to the cable in which Prof. Kmiec’s predecessor, Molly Bordanaro reported, that Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi had lamented a limited talent pool from which to select ministers, Prof. Kmiec added: “I would personally find it difficult to choose among the wealth of talent presented to you. You don’t need a former American Ambassador to tell you of your blessings in the leadership department, but trust me, you are.”
Prof. Kmiec also addressed the manner in which the cables have been reported, saying that when “cables are transferred from confidential file to news headline, sometimes the tone of cables sounds more like demand than request”.
“If it seems that way to you as well, it may be because if those are real cables, we were writing to ourselves – or at least we thought we were – and succinct, time-saving shorthand is employed.”
The former ambassador also took aim at Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who has been roundly criticised since Wikileaks published its full unredacted archive of more than 250,000 US diplomatic cables online last week, potentially exposing individuals named in the documents to danger in countries suffering from insecurity.
“In some cases, if the cables being disclosed are genuine, they are endangering the lives of people of goodwill who have brought forward information about nuclear proliferation, terrorism, the drug trade and human slavery, among other international crimes.
“Call these informants if you like, I see them as men and woman of courage. Their lives should not be jeopardised because Mr Assange thinks himself a hero of transparency. He is no hero; he is the architect of the end of candour and diplomacy,” Prof. Kmiec said.
See also
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110902/local/ambassador-found-labour-comments-on-pfp-troublesome.382961