Tanzania’s connection in
leaked US secrets
By The Citizen Reporter and Agencies
Dar es Salaam. The Australian man at the centre of the worldwide storm over leaked top secret United States’ diplomatic cables posted on the Internet has stayed in Tanzania in the past.Government authorities said yesterday that they were on the alert over an International Police (Interpol) arrest warrant issued against Mr Julian Assange, as his return to the country could not be ruled out. Mr Assange is the brains behind the whistle blowing website ‘WikiLeaks’, which has lately put the US in an awkward position by publishing top-secret information.
The Australian is believed to be in hiding, most probably in the United Kingdom, where he was last seen, after Interpol circulated a warrant for his arrest over alleged sex crimes in Sweden.
Swedish prosecutors yesterday upped the pressure for Mr Assange’s arrest. They drew up a second European arrest warrant after the first one was rejected on a legal technicality.
The 39-year-old computer wizard says he is now a hunted man, and believes the push to have him arrested over the alleged sex crimes was linked to WikiLeaks bombardment of the Internet with over 250,000 sensitive secret papers authored by US diplomats around the world.
The diplomatic cables that continue to be deciphered, have caused deep embarrassment to several world leaders and forced the US to apologise to some of its allies whose alleged weakness have been exposed in the dossier.
The unfolding saga is being watched closely in Tanzania and Kenya, but with little information about the former having come out in the documents that detail what US diplomats felt or said about their hosts during the period when they compiled the information.
World leaders who have so far been exposed by WikiLeaks, include former Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi, the French leader, Mr Nicholas Sarkozy, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Balusconi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
With the US’s image bloodied by the revelations, Mr Assange, who is now being viewed both as a hero and villain, has a formidable potential foe, and analysts said he could be looking for a hiding place.
The 39-year-old computer wizard says he is now a hunted man, and believes the push to have him arrested over the alleged sex crimes was linked to WikiLeaks bombardment of the Internet with over 250,000 sensitive secret papers authored by US diplomats around the world.
The diplomatic cables that continue to be deciphered, have caused deep embarrassment to several world leaders and forced the US to apologise to some of its allies whose alleged weakness have been exposed in the dossier.
The unfolding saga is being watched closely in Tanzania and Kenya, but with little information about the former having come out in the documents that detail what US diplomats felt or said about their hosts during the period when they compiled the information.
World leaders who have so far been exposed by WikiLeaks, include former Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi, the French leader, Mr Nicholas Sarkozy, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Balusconi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
With the US’s image bloodied by the revelations, Mr Assange, who is now being viewed both as a hero and villain, has a formidable potential foe, and analysts said he could be looking for a hiding place.
According to his profile on the search engine, Wikipedia, the Australian computer expert developed a liking for and briefly lived in Tanzania and Kenya, and visited a few other countries. No further information was available on when he last visited Tanzania, where he stayed and what he did during his stay. He has, however, lived most of his time in the UK.
Mr Assange claims to have influenced the Kenyan presidential election of 2007, by exposing corruption at the highest levels. Three years ago, Wikileaks disclosed a report by the international risk assessment group Kroll, alleging massive corruption on the part of relatives and associates of former President Daniel arap Moi.
Mr Assange claims to have influenced the Kenyan presidential election of 2007, by exposing corruption at the highest levels. Three years ago, Wikileaks disclosed a report by the international risk assessment group Kroll, alleging massive corruption on the part of relatives and associates of former President Daniel arap Moi.
The government of President Mwai Kibaki had commissioned the Kroll analysis soon after it came to power following the 2002 elections. It was completed in 2004 and published by Wikileaks in 2007.
Wikileaks founder Assange subsequently claimed that the website's action influenced the 2007 election results. He said in a commentary published last year that none of the politicians named in the Kroll report were re-elected.
On Thursday in Dar es Salaam, the deputy minister for Home Affairs, Mr Khamis Kagasheki, said: “We are part of the international community and once an alert is issued we must comply.”
On Thursday in Dar es Salaam, the deputy minister for Home Affairs, Mr Khamis Kagasheki, said: “We are part of the international community and once an alert is issued we must comply.”
He was alluding to the possibility of Tanzania arresting Mr Assange should he decide to return to the country the moment.
“I have been in touch with our Immigration people to inquire about this matter and they are alert just in case something like that happens. We will not want to be caught off guard,” said Mr Kagasheki, who served as a diplomat for a long time before venturing into politics.
Unlike the US embassy in Nairobi, which has issued an apology to the Kenya government after some of the leaked documents, which described the country as “a swamp of corruption”, its Dar es Salaam counterpart has been silent.
However, the Dar embassy was yesterday said to be preparing to host selected journalists in a telephone conference with top US State Department officials next week to discuss the saga. Tanzania will thus be among 20 other African countries to take part in the conference call.
Four American ambassadors have done their call of duty in Dar es Salaam in between the period covering some of the leaked documents. They include the current Ambassador, Mr Alfonso Lenhardt (2009), Mr Mark Andrew Green (2007-2009), Mr Michael Retzer (2005-2007), Mr Robert Royall (2001-2003) and the Rev Charles Richard Stith (1998-2001).
Mr Assange has announced that his next target will be the private sector and an American bank. He said the documents include the secret files of BP and other energy companies, pharmaceuticals and “industrial espionage.” The Australia appears to have gone underground after Interpol issued an arrest warrant for him over rape, while the US is reportedly considering leveling espionage charges.
“I have been in touch with our Immigration people to inquire about this matter and they are alert just in case something like that happens. We will not want to be caught off guard,” said Mr Kagasheki, who served as a diplomat for a long time before venturing into politics.
Unlike the US embassy in Nairobi, which has issued an apology to the Kenya government after some of the leaked documents, which described the country as “a swamp of corruption”, its Dar es Salaam counterpart has been silent.
However, the Dar embassy was yesterday said to be preparing to host selected journalists in a telephone conference with top US State Department officials next week to discuss the saga. Tanzania will thus be among 20 other African countries to take part in the conference call.
Four American ambassadors have done their call of duty in Dar es Salaam in between the period covering some of the leaked documents. They include the current Ambassador, Mr Alfonso Lenhardt (2009), Mr Mark Andrew Green (2007-2009), Mr Michael Retzer (2005-2007), Mr Robert Royall (2001-2003) and the Rev Charles Richard Stith (1998-2001).
Mr Assange has announced that his next target will be the private sector and an American bank. He said the documents include the secret files of BP and other energy companies, pharmaceuticals and “industrial espionage.” The Australia appears to have gone underground after Interpol issued an arrest warrant for him over rape, while the US is reportedly considering leveling espionage charges.
Within a year, the Wikileak’s database grew to 1.2 million documents and now, as many as 10,000 flood in daily. Thanks to Mr Assange’s army of online dissidents, one can study the design of the Nagasaki atomic bomb or a report on how Britain acquired its nuclear weapons capability.
With a budget of £175,000 (Sh22 million) a year, the site relies on donations and free legal support.“When governments stop torturing and killing people, and when corporations stop abusing the legal
system, then perhaps it will be time to ask if free-speech activists are accountable.”
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