`Clinton asked US diplomats to spy on Indians over UNSC seat`

Washington, Nov 29 (PTI) Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton described India as a "self-appointed front-runner" for
a permanent UNSC seat and directed US envoys to seek minute
details about Indian diplomats stationed at the United Nations
headquarters, according to classified documents released by
WikiLeaks Monday.
In a potentially damaging disclosure, the whistle-blower
website released a "secret" cable issued by Clinton on July
31, 2009, as part of its massive leak of a quarter million
classified documents of the American government.
The cable posted by The New York Times gave directions to
US diplomats to collect information on key issues like reform
of the UN Security Council and Indo-US civilian nuclear deal
and pass it on to the intelligence agencies, including on
foreign associates' credit card and frequent-flier numbers
that could be used to track a person's movements.
It asked US diplomats to ascertain deliberations
regarding the UNSC expansion among key groups of countries
like "self-appointed front-runners" for permanent UNSC seats
-- India, Brazil, Germany and Japan (Group of Four or G-4);
Uniting for Consensus group -- especially Mexico, Italy and
Pakistan -- that opposes additional permanent UNSC seats;
African Group; and European Union, as well as key UN officials
within the Secretariat and the UN General Assembly (UNGA)
Presidency.
It also sought biographical and biometric information on
key NAM/G-77/OIC (Organisation of Islamic Countries)
permanent representatives, particularly China, Cuba, Egypt,
India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, South Africa, Sudan,
Uganda, Senegal and Syria; and information on their
relationships with their capitals.
The cable also wanted to know about members' plans for
plenary meetings of the Nuclear Suppliers Group; views on the
US-India civil nuclear cooperation initiative; besides
members' views on the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
(CTBT); prospects for country ratifications and entry into
force.
The New York Times said the leaked cable gave a laundry
list of instructions for how State Department employees can
fulfil the demands of a "National Humint Collection
Directive" in specific countries. Humint being the spy-world
jargon for human intelligence collection.
One cable asks officers overseas to gather information
about "office and organisational titles; names, position
titles and other information on business cards; numbers of
telephones, cellphones, pagers and faxes," as well as
"internet and intranet handles, internet e-mail addresses, web
site identification-URLs; credit card account numbers;
frequent-flier account numbers; work schedules, and other
relevant biographical information," it said.