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Wikileaks > Secretary General of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen

Mon Nov 29, 2010 3:01 PM EST
world-news, terrorism, turkey, nato, wikileaks, denmark, freedom-of-speech, pkk, anders-fogh-rasmussen
By Benno Hansen
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Anders Fogh Rasmussen, former prime minister of Denmark and head responsible for his nation joining the 'Coalition of the Willing' now Secretary General of NATO is mentioned in the latest leaks on Wikileaks.org.

Judge for yourself from deep within the file '2010/02/10ANKARA302.html':

Date Classification Origin
2010-02-25 11:11 CONFIDENTIAL Embassy Ankara

[...]

BILATERAL EUROPEAN RELATIONS, NATO
----------------------------------
¶17. (C) Burns inquired about Turkey's bilateral relations with Europe. Sinirlioglu briefly recapped Turkey's unhappiness with Sarkozy. He described his country's relationship with Austria as infected by the latter's ethnic prejudice. He complained Belgium and Denmark are reluctant to suppress terrorist PKK-affiliated organizations active in their countries. Tacan Ildem added that, as part of the 2009 POTUS-brokered deal that had overcome Turkish objections to the appointment of Anders Fogh Rasmussen as NATO Secretary General, Denmark had promised to clarify its legal requirements prerequiste to acceding to Turkey's request for the closure of Roj TV, a PKK mouthpiece. This still needed to be done, Ildem said.

¶18. (C) Picking up from Ildem, Sinirlioglu recalled the ANKARA 00000302 005 OF 005 POTUS-brokered deal had included an understanding that a qualified Turk would be considered for Assistant Secretary General. Instead, he said, a German of uncompelling merit was selected. "We suspect a deal between Rasmussen and Merkel." Ildem complained high-level positions should be part of NATO reform: "We missed an opportunity with the selection of the Assistant Secretary General." Sinirlioglu added: "We let Rasmussen have Secretary General, because we trusted you."

Remember the Muhammad Cartoon Crisis? At that time Anders Fogh Rasmussen was firm in telling the Arab world how it was impossible for him to censor the cartoons - in which he was right since he was prime minister in a democracy. But how does this compute with his apparent promise to Turkey that he'd help them shut down Kurdish freedom of speech!?

Very strange. But it worked. Turkey supported him and he is now NATO chief.

Read, for example, Denmark: Kurdish TV Station Accused of Supporting Terrorism:

Roj TV, a Kurdish-language satellite television station based in Denmark has been accused of supporting terrorism by the Danish attorney-general. It may lose its broadcasting license once the case goes to trial. [...] The Danish Radio and Television Board granted Roj TV a license in 2004. Since then, the board has twice determined that the broadcasts did not violate any Danish rules. In Denmark, freedom of speech is valued highly. Many politicians and bloggers have argued that closing the station would be wrong.

While this one might not be the biggest revelation in Wikileaks - indeed some might even have been suspecting exactly something like this to have happened behind closed doors - isn't the thin red line from Cartoons over Turkey and Coalition of the Willing to NATO a bit unnerving?

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  • Public Discussion (17)
Benno Hansen

While I'm at it: Iraqi torture known to Danish Ministry:

Danish officials continued to hand over detainees to Iraqi authorities until 2005, despite reports of torture in the country’s prisons dating back to 2003.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen was prime minister of Denmark until April 2009. He also denied asylum to Iraqis who had served as interpreters with the Danish forces.

  • 2 votes
Reply#1 - Mon Nov 29, 2010 3:58 PM EST
analog ninja

yep, nice call benno. isnt wiki leaks fun!

  • 3 votes
Reply#2 - Mon Nov 29, 2010 6:25 PM EST
krishna-167929

. isnt wiki leaks fun!

Well-- apparently President Obama doesn't think so:

Obama ‘Not Pleased’

President Barack Obama learned of the leak of the documents last week and was “not pleased with this information becoming public,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said. While calling the leak a “crime,” Gibbs said he didn’t believe it “impacts our ability to conduct foreign policy.”

(LINK)

  • 2 votes
#2.1 - Mon Nov 29, 2010 6:53 PM EST
Reply
EricCantor

How many al-quaeda websites has denmark taken down when asked to by the US? Then consider that the PKK are even worse than al-qaeda. Their reluctance to shut down a propaganda mouthpiece for a terrorist organization and the writer's defense of a terrorist organization (that kills Muslims so it's ok for him) and his defense of nonsensical slander against the world's second largest religion shows what nonsense this "freedom of speech" argument is and the real christian fundamentalist douchebagerry that dwells deep in the recesses of the danish mindset. Perhaps the drug trafficking operation of the PKK (the only terrorist organization I know of that engages in child molestation and rushes into schoolhouses to murder children) supplies a drug addiction of the writer.

    Reply#3 - Tue Nov 30, 2010 11:44 AM EST
    Benno Hansen

    Excuse me? "The writer" - is that me?

    the PKK are even worse than al-qaeda

    Excuse me? Are you serious? I don't even want to go into the discussion because it's not really for me to judge if they are 'terrorists', 'freedom fighters' or 'worse than al-qaeda'.

    • 2 votes
    #3.1 - Tue Nov 30, 2010 12:44 PM EST
    EricCantor

    Are you serious? I'm shocked that you even have to ask and it shows what a la-la land you are living in over there in denmark. 1. They've murdered more people than al-qaeda has. 2. Never has a terrorist group depended on coercion of civilians and subjugation of a peasant class as them. Their leadership consists of feudal overlords who have peasant children bred to either become members in the PKK or serve as sexual slaves for them. In Southeastern Anatolia, entire villages have been wiped out for refusing to submit such tribute to the PKK. Schoolhouses have been attacked, teachers are murdered, and civilians are threatened to not send their children to public schools (insuring they remain uneducated and poor and therefore having no alternative but to join the terrorist organization). By the way this is a terrorist organization where, according to their internal polling, the majority of it's members adhere to fundamentalist christianity and zoroastrianism but of course in the la-la land you are living in such people people can never do wrong can they? Or if the evil they are doing is against Muslims or Turks, it's ok and should be supported/encouraged? You still haven't replied to why it's OK for denmark to close websites for terrorists organizations outraged at US occupations in iraq and afghanistan, countries thousands of miles away from them, while denmark defends and supports the same for a more nefarious organization that threatens Turkiye's centuries old borders. That you even consider putting them in the class as freedom fighters while hypocritically defending militaristic oppression of Muslim ethnic groups throughout the world shows how hopeless the danish mindset and public opinion is and possible grounds for expulsion from NATO. Thank you you, denmark, your unavowed support of the PKK has made this possible. http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1998966,00.html

      #3.2 - Tue Nov 30, 2010 1:52 PM EST
      krishna-167929

      Then consider that the PKK are even worse than al-qaeda.

      Is that just something you made up on the spur of the moment-- or do you have an actual source for that?

      (btw EricCantor-- I'm just curious, here-- are you, by any chance, a Turk? :-)

      • 3 votes
      #3.3 - Wed Dec 1, 2010 1:49 PM EST
      EricCantor

      They have killed more people. Their methods are more despicable. They are largely drug trafficers and child molestors. That you would deny that they are makes one question your sanity. I'm sorry it hurts you to find out that their are christian terrorists and that they are among the worst on the planet.

        #3.4 - Wed Dec 15, 2010 3:38 PM EST
        Reply
        EricCantor

        "Manouchehr Zonoozi recently told Berlingske Tidende that financial assistance flows to Roj TV from the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The former director said he witnessed 16 million euros being transferred to the station from the PKK. Berlingske Tidende also published photos of top officials from Roj TV on a secret visit to PKK training camps. In the photos, Zonoozi is seen side-by-side with Murat Karayılan, the leader of the PKK.

        Karen Hækkerup, legal spokeswoman for the Social Democrats, accused the Danish police of ignoring Zonoozi’s offers to give testimony against Roj TV. Berlingske Tidende quoted the former director as saying that he told police several times that he wanted to testify against Roj TV. “But they [the police] ignored my calls. I am tired of waiting. I cannot stand the lies about Roj TV,” Zonoozi stated.

        Zonoozi: PKK harbors 3,000 child fighters

        Berlingske Tidende also reported on Monday that Zonoozi had provided photographs of child terrorists trained by the PKK to the daily.

        According to Berlingske Tidende, the PKK is thought to harbor around 3,000 young terrorists. “The youngest child I saw at the PKK training camps was 8 or 9 years old. He was being trained there. They were taught the life story of Abdullah Öcalan [the jailed leader of the terrorist organization]. They were also taught how to use weapons and explosives,” the daily quoted Zonoozi as saying."

        http://www.todayszaman.com/news-211164-roj-tv-pkk-revelations-spark-concern-in-denmark.html

        "“I served as the Roj TV director for 10 years. I would be the first to be imprisoned [for links to a terrorist organization]. I am not telling all this for personal interests. I continue to receive death threats. I told police several times that I’d like to testify against Roj TV. But they ignored my calls. I am tired of waiting. I cannot stand the lies about Roj TV,” Zonoozi stated.

        The former director also said he established a publishing house in Denmark to have the voice of Kurds heard in the country, but lost confidence in the “real administrators” of Roj TV.

        “I did not know about the links between Roj TV and the PKK when I starting serving as the station’s director. But I started witnessing financial aid flowing to the station from the PKK between 2005 and 2006. The station’s bank account showed that the aid was really substantial. At the beginning, I thought it was financial aid coming from ordinary Kurds and it had nothing to do with the PKK. But when I visited a PKK training camp in Arbil, I learned that the aid was coming from the PKK. I should not have been so unwise to believe that 16 million euros would come from the Kurdish public,” Zonoozi remarked.

        Asked about the PKK’s impact on Roj TV broadcasts, Zonoozi said many correspondents at the station are trained at PKK camps.

        “There are correspondents at PKK training camps, and they are in direct contact with the organization’s high-level figures. They are trained there. If you visit Roj TV studios in Belgium, you would see many workers whose legs and arms were amputated after clashes,” he added."

        http://www.todayszaman.com/news-211090-100-former-roj-tv-director-admits-receiving-funding-from-terrorist-pkk.html

        THANK YOU DENMARK FOR INSURING THERE ARE MORE CHILD SOLDIERS AND MOLESTED CHILDREN IN THE WORLD.

          Reply#4 - Tue Nov 30, 2010 2:03 PM EST
          Benno Hansen

          I'm not saying there can't be links between some journalsts and some PKK fighters. I am saying even peoples who have illegal resistance groups within them still deserves freedom of speech and that Anders Fogh Rasmussen supported this officially but apparently dropped his support for the Kurd freedom of speech secretly when he needed Turkey's vote. Whether or not PKK is an organization using terrorism is irrelevant in that context.

          • 2 votes
          #4.1 - Tue Nov 30, 2010 2:12 PM EST
          EricCantor

          But what of self-cencorship with regards to cartoons offering much-needed criticism of christianity in the same Danish newspaper? Any criticism of the absurd argument proposed by the original cartoon including how in slandering the second largest religion in the world that has been around for 1400 years (funny it never occured to the cartoonist that this Islamophobic paranoia business only started within the last 60 years (or 30 years depending on your point of view): wonder why?) it distracts from the actual causes of terrorism including the Israel-Palestine dilemma and US militarism. How many al-quaeda militants have been extradited in denmark? How many US detention centers or related operations have been run in denmark? How many websites critical of US foreign policy have shut down? This proves the "freedom of speech" argument is nonsense. In reality, it's pick and choose. Also whose "freedom of speech" are you referring to because it is certainly not that of the kurds. Why is an illiterate, brainwashed, AK-47-toting slave representative of the kurdish people but former prime ministers and presidents of Turkiye who were ethnic kurds or part-kurdish are not including Ismet Inonu and Bulent Ecevit, both of whom came down hard on separatist terrrorism? Turkish generals were astonished that former Turkish leader Turgut Ozal, who was half-Kurdish, suggested that they militarily take back Mosul from Iraq, which had been Turkish territory for centuries, to maintain a foothhold that would insure the PKK had no sanctuary. The reality is if that if the words "America" and "American" replaced "Turk" and "Turkish" and "Arabic" and "Arab" or "Muslim" replaced "Kurd" and Kurdish" in everything Roj TV said and wrote, then Roj TV would have been closed in a heartbeat. Rasmussen never cared about "freedom of speech". All he was interested was in whatever worked to kill as many Muslims as possible.

            #4.2 - Tue Nov 30, 2010 3:02 PM EST
            EricCantor

            Furthermore, in the sources I provided, which directly quote the danish media, the former station director outright states that it is run by terrorists, not journalists.

            "Asked about the PKK’s impact on Roj TV broadcasts, Zonoozi said many correspondents at the station are trained at PKK camps.

            “There are correspondents at PKK training camps, and they are in direct contact with the organization’s high-level figures. They are trained there. If you visit Roj TV studios in Belgium, you would see many workers whose legs and arms were amputated after clashes,” he added.""

              #4.3 - Tue Nov 30, 2010 3:09 PM EST
              Benno Hansen

              As for the Muhammad Cartoons and Jyllands-Posten self-censoring crude jokes on Christianity: true and I agree it's a double standard.

              • 1 vote
              #4.4 - Tue Nov 30, 2010 4:00 PM EST
              krishna-167929

              this Islamophobic paranoia business only started within the last 60 years (or 30 years depending on your point of view):

              So you are saying, then, that the Crusades were not "anti-Muslim"? WTF???

              (That the Crusaders did not feel even the slightest tinge of "this Islamophobic paranoia business"?)

              Or: do you feel that the Crusades actually happened "within the last 60 years (or 30 years depending on your point of view)"?

              (P.S: Where can I get some of that stuff that you are smoking? :-)

              • 2 votes
              #4.5 - Wed Dec 1, 2010 1:54 PM EST
              EricCantor

              krishna, you have an incredibly simplistic understanding of history. Of course there was Islamophobia in the past. The crusades were a bunch of white guys, who had recently been converted to from their native religions (which were much more amicable by the way) to a cult known as christianity, who went on to murder people and rob land hundreds of miles away from them on land they had no businuess being anywhere near. Thankfully, they were eventually defeated. Eventually, european christianity eventually underwent reformations and toned down the crazy. My point is that Abraham Lincoln and FDR weren't worried about al-qaueda, nor were Americans in the 1950s, although infantile minds such as yourself seem to think they should have been. You need to ask yourself what has been going on within the last sixty nears that has brought this gradual escalation to the point where you feel it is your duty to demonize a people whose who faith is 1400 years old and number more than one-fifth of the people in the wold.

              Furthermore, your comment implies that you think the crusades were justified. The question is then is what are YOU smoking?

                #4.6 - Wed Dec 15, 2010 3:53 PM EST
                Reply
                EricCantor

                They have killed more people.  Their methods are more despicable.  They are largely drug trafficers and child molestors.  That you would deny that they are makes one question your sanity.  I'm sorry it hurts you to find out that their are christian terrorists and that they are among the worst on the planet.

                  Reply#5 - Wed Dec 15, 2010 3:37 PM EST
                  EricCantor

                  The last comment was a reply to an earlier comment.

                    Reply#6 - Wed Dec 15, 2010 3:38 PM EST
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